AEW: Who should win the men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament?

Over the next several weeks we will see the qualifying and early-round matches of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament play out on AEW Dynamite and Rampage.

The finals of the tournament on both the men’s and women’s sides are scheduled to take place on May 29th at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view.

These kinds of tournaments are always fun because they give us matchups outside of existing storylines and in some cases matchups we would probably never see otherwise.  For example, this week’s AEW Dynamite’s qualifier match on the men’s side is Dax Harwood taking on his tag team partner, Cash Wheeler.

The outcome of an established tournament such as the King of the Ring should be to establish a new star.

But since this is the first-ever Owen Hart Foundation Tournament it also makes sense to have an established superstar win it, to give it added credibility, a la Cody Rhodes with the TNT Title.

So that begs the question:

Who should win the men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament?

This tournament should be a lot of fun because we don’t know who is going to be in it.  Only three of the presumably eight spots have been filled, with those spots going to Samoa Joe, Kyle O’Reilly, and Adam Cole.  We also know that one member of FTR will be earning the fourth spot this upcoming Wednesday when Harwood and Wheeler go one-on-one for the honor.

There are a number of sentimental choices that could be potential winners of the tournament.

Chris Jericho and Christain Cage both spent some time training with the Harts, and are both Canadian, and either one of them would bring instant credibility and prestige to winning this tournament, not to mention meaning a lot to both Jericho and Cage.

Then you also have Brian Pillman, Jr. Pillman’s father trained with the Harts and also was a part of the Hart Foundation for a time in WWE. Pillman would definitely be a sentimental choice to win it all should he qualify for the tournament and AEW could use this tournament as a way to start to build Pillman, Jr’s star.

AEW could also reintroduce a star that has been missing from the scene for a while.  Both Miro and PAC would be perfect in this role.  Having either of these intense competitors come back as a surprise entrant into the tournament and win the whole thing would have them come out white-hot on the other side heading into the summer.

But the way the promotion should handle this tournament is by reestablishing a top talent that has taken a number of losses recently.

AEW could definitely do this with both Andrade El Idolo and Jay Lethal.  Both of these men have had incredible matches in the promotion during their short time in AEW, but have suffered far more high-profile losses than wins.

Winning the inaugural Owen Hart Foundation Tournament would do wonders for both Andrade’s and Lethal’s momentum and would make fans forget all about the losses they had accumulated prior.

But the man that should win this tournament is Adam Cole.

There has been a lot of talk about how Adam Cole has been used in AEW, especially after his loss in the unsanctioned, lights-out match to Orange Cassidy.

And while all that talk has been very overblown, Cole is coming off of two straight losses to AEW World Champion, Adam Page, and it is imperative that AEW find a way to keep one of its biggest stars near the top of the card heading into Double or Nothing.

Cole was able to defeat NJPW legend, Tomohiro Ishii, on Friday’s AEW Rampage to qualify for the tournament and a successful run through the upcoming tourney would accomplish just that.

It allows Cole to start to work his way back toward the top of the rankings with a series of big wins over some of the best talent in AEW, ultimately taking down someone like a Samoa Joe or Darby Allin in the finals.

It also keeps him occupied while we wait for the return of Kenny Omega and the much-anticipated program that those two stars are certain to have once Omega is healed and cleared to compete.

There really are a number of ways AEW could book this tournament to be entertaining and achieve the desired result.  But the most effective choice would be for Adam Cole to be the one to defeat all comers in the first-ever men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament.