AEW wrapped up 2020, its first full year of existence on a very high note. The promotion’s inaugural Winter is Coming show included a number of surprises, including the heel turn of Kenny Omega.
A couple of months later, the Young Bucks followed suit, turning on Jon Moxley in a six-man tag team match and becoming full-fledged heels for the first time in AEW.
Omega and the Young Bucks would both spend the majority of 2021 having fantastic matches and playing their roles of the heel to a tee, reinvigorating their characters and striking a nerve with fans in a way that few in AEW had done before.
Heading into 2022, AEW is riding a wave of momentum after bringing in a wave of new talent in 2021. But the downside to that is there is less spotlight to go around and to truly maximize their potential some of the AEW talents will need to be open to a change of pace with their characters. These are the five performers that would most benefit from that change.
Who are the 5 AEW stars that would most benefit from a heel/face turn?
5) Santana & Ortiz
Now that the Lucha Bros have had a run as the AEW Tag Team Champions, Santana & Ortiz is the team that owns the distinction of the most talented tag team in the promotion to not hold the titles.
To say that Santana and Ortiz have been poorly booked in AEW is short-sighted. The talented duo has taken part in an amazing parking lot street fight, both the Stadium Stampede matches and the Blood and Guts match as well.
As a part of the Inner Circle, the duo has been kept near the top of the card, but always as part of a group dynamic.
And while Santana & Ortiz have been in a lot of big-time matches, the majority of the time they have been cast as secondary players.
With Sammy Guevara starting to find his own footing in the singles scene and Chris Jericho struggling to keep up in the ring with the younger talent, the time seems right to disband the Inner Circle by having Santana & Ortiz leave the Inner Circle in a violent manner and have the popular duo focus on themselves for the first time in AEW.
And with the uber-popular Jurassic Express recently winning the AEW Tag Team Championships, a freshly focused and vicious Proud & Powerful, that is fueled by their bad attitudes and a desire to do whatever it takes to win is the perfect team to dethrone Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus when the time comes.
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.
2) Christian Cage
The man whose motto is “Out Work Everyone” hasn’t been seen working many meaningful matches on a regular basis since Full Gear.
Instead, Christian Cage has been seen more often playing the role of mentor and cheerleader for the newly crowned AEW Tag Team Champions, Jurassic Express, than he is winning any relative singles matches.
Maybe AEW is just trying to pace Cage, but the man is not getting any younger and he proved upon his arrival to AEW that he is still capable of putting on great singles matches.
So the time has come for Christian to break away from Jurassic Express and start to set his sights back onto singles titles in AEW. And all sorts of interesting matches await heel Christian in AEW.
Matches against Eddie Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Darby Allin, CM Punk, Adam Page, Orange Cassidy, and others would all be pay-per-view worth events.
Jurassic Express is very over and has benefitted greatly from having Christian Cage in their corner. But it is time to let Christian use some of what he has left in the tank and add himself to the list of future challengers for both Adam Page and Cody Rhodes.
1) Darby Allin
Darby Allin has enjoyed some great success since joining AEW. Allin was the third ever person to win the TNT Title. He has also headlined Dynamites in AEW World Title matches against Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley. Not to mention that Darby has been paired with Sting upon Sting’s arrival in AEW, and he was also victorious in the only coffin match in AEW history over Ethan Page.
That being said, Darby has had very limited success in singles matches in big spots.
His only pay-per-view caliber singles win was when Allin defeated Cody Rhodes for the TNT Tile at Full Gear 2020. Since then Allin has lost pay-per-view singles matches to CM Punk and MJF and only seems to be victorious on the big stages when he teams with Sting.
The turn to a heel would be much easier for Darby than it would be for most. Allin is already more of a tweener, an antihero that the crowd started to take to because of his fearless style in the ring.
The turn would also be easy because all Darby would have to do is attack his mentor, one of the most over wrestlers of all time, Sting, and it would garner instant heat for him.
Allin could simply blame Sting for his inability to pick up singles wins on the big stage and that could set up what could be one of the darkest and best cinematic matches of all-time between the two, where a true passing of the guard could take place and propel Darby Allin on a productive heel run.
Darby has already shown a distinct ability to be extremely creative and get loud reactions from crowds. It is time his character gets a refresh and to see just where Allin’s creativity can take him as a full-fledged heel.