Hi Scott
In the modern era (say since AEW was formed), who are the guys you think would have made perfectly fine World Champions – really good, even – but for whatever reason were never given the chance and the opportunity's probably gone now?
PAC is one that stands out for me. Full-blown evil heel PAC is a joy to watch as a character, and he's certainly no slouch in the ring. With the other members of Death Triangle backing him up, he'd have been a great short-term heel champion for a summer or so, I think.
If Miro had started out with the Redeemer gimmick rather than the (imo) wasteful gamer one, I think he could easily have been in the mix there too with the right programme.
Over at WWE, it's hard to think of a better storyline than the current Reigns one, but if they'd kept separate top belts rather than unifying, I think Xavier Woods would have been a nice short-run champ with the potential to step up further from it with a second longer reign, but again the longer it goes, the harder it is to see him in that position.
How about you? Thoughts?
I don't see Xavier in that position, sorry. Big E had the believable size and moveset and charisma, but Woods just screams midcard to me.
Miro though, yeah, the Redeemer is where they should have started with him. Being Kip Sabian's heavy for months nearly killed him off right away.
I think there was a point where they could have done something with Baszler that was akin to her NXT push, but the pandemic seemingly killed her off and they never went back to her again.
I'd also advocate for John Morrison, who unfortunately kind of wasted most of his prime drawing years if you want to think about it from the perspective of “He should have been World champion.” By the time he got back to the promotion he was slotted as Miz's wacky sidekick again. I really thought he could have been a Drew McIntyre where he came back as a basically new character with a fresh start, but unfortunately it was the exact opposite.