The Phantom Rant: Miro & Wardlow Are Wasted Talent

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. It’s another week and the wrestling God’s have decided that I must talk about AEW once again. Honestly I did not know what to write about this week. I didn’t want to come off as an AEW basher. I genuinely like AEW as a promotion. It’s just they could be so much better as a company. And then today I got a notification from the official NODQ Facebook group on a breaking story. I quickly clicked on the link to the main page here at NODQ and read the headline and it was one I figured was coming for a while now. Frankly I’m surprised it took this long.

MIRO has requested his release from AEW.

It has been well over nine months since he was last in an AEW ring. Miro has been pretty hit and miss in AEW. He starts and stops. His run as TNT Champion was great. But that was over two years ago. I, like many fans thought he was poised to be AEW Champion at some point but that never happened. So what exactly happened to Miro in AEW? Well there are rumors of the old creative differences that seem to be the most persistent. Miro, it is rumored did not want to do certain things. The last thing that was again rumored was a him pitching a feud with Jon Moxley (which could have been great), but it was a rumor only and nothing ever came of it. Of course those are just rumors, so who knows.

Miro is an example of wasted talent. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be on television every week kicking some ass. He was over with the crowds. People loved chanting GAME OVER when it came time for him to finish someone off. AEW has many examples of wasted talent. Tony Khan signs someone, uses them for a while and when someone new comes along…they get pushed the wayside because creative has nothing for them. Now granted this is not strictly a AEW thing. This happens in every company. Someone new comes in and in turn someone gets pushed aside.

But Miro is not the only one. There are others who are wasted talent in AEW. One of the biggest ones who is missing is Wardlow. Wardlow by all accounts is the biggest piece of wasted talent in AEW history. Someday when the book is written about AEW, there will be a chapter on Wardlow about how much Tony Khan missed the ball on this guy. Wardlow originally was the muscle for MJF and as most muscle guys do, he eventually turned on MJF and gained his freedom from being MJF’s contracted bodyguard. It was a great moment when Wardlow demolished MJF at a PPV. I honestly thought a new star was born that night. But much like Miro, Wardlow from that point on was hit and miss…start and stop. He got a second chance at being the muscle, this time for The Undisputed Kingdom. But that group was doomed from the start when Adam Cole broke his ankle by jumping off the ramp. Cole is supposed to still be the leader of the group today, but his ankle must be like Cowboy Bob Orton’s arm because it’s still not healed. Give credit to Rodrick Strong, Mike Bennett and Matt Taven for keeping the Undisputed Kingdom alive.

Wardlow did some spots with The Undisputed Kingdom where he would ensure one of them would retain their title’s. But after a while he just up and disappeared. No explanation, no nothing. Well, I think he had a slight tear of his meniscus…but nothing that would keep him gone for this long. By all accounts he is healthy now. He’s just sitting around with nothing to do because creative has nothing for him. How creative has nothing for him, I don’t know. At the very least if there’s nothing for him in AEW, they have this little company called ROH he could be in. There is a lot they could be doing with him right now but for whatever reason they choose not to.

Wardlow and Miro are just two examples of guys with wasted talent. What makes me laugh is the report that just came out about how AEW wants to make a major money play for Kevin Owens when his contract is up with the WWE. For arguments sake, lets assume that Tony Khan backs up a brinks truck to Kevin’s house and Kevin signs with AEW. Okay that’s great. Now aside from the fantasy booked matches Khan probably has for him. What else are you going to do with him? That should be the question asked when signing anyone. Okay it’s great we have him for these matches. But then what? Now, I don’t expect him to sign with AEW. He has it really good in the WWE and I can’t see him throwing that away even if there was a huge pile of money to be made from AEW.

I honestly believe Tony Khan thinks he is always one star away from the company having “that guy”. Let me sign this guy. Let me sign this one and that one. WCW had the same theory. Let me sign this guy so the WWF can’t have them. Then you get the guy and do nothing with him after a while. Also I haven’t even begun to focus on the women’s division of AEW. God knows that is an entire column in of itself. My point is for a company that has “the greatest wrestling roster ever” according to Tony Khan himself on Busted Open Radio, perhaps you should use what you have first instead of looking for new pieces to an all ready crowded puzzle.

On that note I am done for this week. As always thanks for taking the time to read this and feel free to leave any comments down below, on twitter or you can email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com.