AEW: Five Wrestlers Most in Need of a Heel/Face Turn
4) Cody Rhodes
This is about as far from a “hot take” as one can get, but that doesn’t keep it from being true. Cody Rhodes would benefit greatly from a complete and unquestionable heel turn.
Cody has been very vocal in saying that he has no intention of turning heel and there is no reason to not believe him.
But at some point, a competitor like Cody Rhodes has to take a step back and assess his situation, and think about what is best for both his character and the promotion.
Cody and AEW have tried everything to keep him a babyface. AEW has tried to get Cody cheers by having unlikable people such as Dan Lambert berate him and by trying to create sympathy for him by having Rhodes perform dangerous flaming table spots in his hometown.
Nothing has worked.
Cody has been off of television since regaining the TNT Title on the Holiday Bash episode of Rampage but is scheduled to make an appearance this week on Dynamite.
One can only imagine the chorus of boos that he will face when he comes out to address the crowd with the TNT Title draped over his shoulder.
It is clear that right now there is nothing Cody Rhodes can do to get back in the good graces of the fans. So it is time to embrace all the fantastic opportunities that becoming a full-on heel would present to him.
3) Jamie Hayter
Jamie Hayter has been serving as the muscle for the AEW Women’s Champion, Britt Baker for the past few months and has done a great job of ensuring that Baker remains champion.
However, more and more recently there seems to be some growing friction between Hayter and Baker that could come to a head at any given point.
And looking at the women’s division the time is now for Hayter to break away from Baker, becoming a babyface and stepping up as the next challenger for the AEW Women’s Title.
The reason the timing is perfect right now is that Baker has run through almost every viable challenge for her title, excluding Thunder Rosa. My belief is that Thunder Rosa will be the one to take the title off of Brit Baker, but with Thunder Rosa tied up with Mercedes Martinez at the moment, Baker will need a new challenger in the meantime.
As it sits now Britt Baker has already turned away Riho, Tay Conti, Ruby Soho, Kris Statlander, Red Velvet, Nyla Rose, Anna Jay, and Abadon during this run. In addition, Jade Cargill will be busy defending her newly won TBS Title and Hikaru Shida has recently traveled back to Japan. So all signs point to Hayter as the obvious choice to keep Baker busy until Baker and Thunder Rosa can meet, most likely at Revolution.
Hayter will be a long shot to dethrone Baker, but a possible face turn for Hayter also sets up fun future matchups for her with the likes of Nyla Rose, Jade Cargill, and others.