AEW’s lack of male heels - what would you do?

[RedTwoster]

Not that long ago, AEW was absolutely packed with top male heels. You had Christian Cage, Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, Okada, Takeshita, The Bucks, Chris Jericho (yes…I know) and MJF. 

Now they’re in a situation where they’ve ended up putting their main title on - at best - a lukewarm heel because they have so few, with even less on the horizon given that Mox and Takeshita are likely to turn soon.

If you were Tony Khan, how would you handle that problem? Would you turn anyone, and if so, who? Would you elevate some lower card heels to a higher level? Would you ditch some titles to free people up, or split up some tag teams? 

Maybe you’d do something completely different - but how would you suggest AEW solve the problem of a lack of heels in its men’s division?

[organizedkaos]

Plan a short storyline where a main eventer turns heel. Avoid doing the following...

• Plan a long storyline where a main eventer turns heel over 6 months
• Plan a storyline where a main eventer turns heel in a week

For bonus points try and consider the character of the person you are turning heel and how they would work as a heel. Try and avoid just having them say "this is a shithole town". Try and avoid adding 25 jobbers to a stable because that one time Wardlow beat up all the security and it was cool so now we have to do it again and again and again. 

Maybe.. even.. if you can possibly manage it.. don't put the heel in a stable just so the face challenger has 3-5 matches you can do before the PPV where they beat everyone else in the stable.

Alternative, plan a short storyline where a midcard heel gets traction.  If you possibly can swing it, give them more than one win on Collision as to establish them. 

 

Facetiousness aside it feels like it's a matter of just planning wheels within wheels. 

• Do the Kyle Fletcher programme. Whilst you're doing the Kyle Fletcher programme have some promos where Samoa Joe talks about how he's not just a trios wrestler. Have him beat some people
• Have KF insist that C2 is his opportunity to get truly ready for another world title shot. Every time he wins point out he's getting better and still angling to avenge his loss against Hangman
• Whilst you're doing Samoa Joe programme (first half, send it with one match) keep the Hobbs match. After it have Hobbs discuss how he was this close etc etc. Have Hobbs beat a bunch of legitimate people. Have Hobbs claim he was closer than Samoa Joe at beating Hangman
• Throw the trios titles in the bin
• Hobbs main event title match.
• Swerve/Hangman short programme where they're both faces but it gets a bit ugly.
• Meanwhile, turn Brodie King. Destroy Bandido. Build momentum.
• Brodie King vs. Hangman. You can also do Bandido vs. Hangman first to annoy Brodie
• By now Pac should be the ace of the Deathriders. Do Hangman/Pac.
• By now Takeshita should've have taken Okada's titles. Make sure you've built Okada up a bit. Do Hangman/Okada
• Do Fletcher/Hangman again
• I guess MJF/Hangman 2 if we have to
• Is Rush better? Push him for a few months getting bigger wins. Do Rush/Hangman
• Bobby Lashley wants one last singles run. He beats up beloved people. Talks about how he beat Swerve. Do Lashley/Hangman

I dunno. I'm now just going down the roster page picking out anyone who feels like they could vaguely be a main event heel. I'm not even saying these are good ideas. It's just picking out people who are or could be a legit challenger and thinking of how you get them to feel like a big threat to the title. Whilst Fletcher is actively building to his match Samoa Joe is beating people to gain credibility. Whilst Joe is actively building his match, Hobbs is beating people etc...

Surely the point is a bunch of ongoing storylines should end in a person in that storyline gunning for the world title using the momentum they've built.  When one storyline ends it either pushes someone into main event match (Pac/Deathriders) or if they loose it starts a series of "regain momentum" matches that gets them to main event (Okada after Takeshita beats him)

It's always so weird in wrestling when people go "well they got stuck, there's no main event heels". I dunno mate, it's a fake sport, maybe write one?

 

2nd EDIT: Brodie KING not Lee  I don't think they need to resort to necromancy as to get a new main event heel

Edited December 19, 2025 by organizedkaos
Exile - Kiss You All Over (U-Bend Edit)

[BomberPat]

Part of the problem is that they rushed Samoa Joe's programme with Hangman, and stripped away too much of what gave Joe credibility in favour of making him another heel boss of a stable, which just feels like Death Riders 2.0, and Hangman saying that Joe is as bad as the Death Riders on their worst day just doesn't ring true; a better line to take would be that Joe took the easy way out and became what he used to fight against, but then we're still in the problem of it being Joe taking the belt without enough build, backed up by people that nobody really buys as main event level back-up.

MJF isn't the answer. He's shown time and time again that he has terrible instincts, and drags other people down to that level. He's frustrating because he can be so much better, but it's been so long since he was better than I never feel I can give him the benefit of the doubt, and actively dread his segments as they're often the worst part of the TV.

The "easy" answer is give yourself a few months to build up any given midcarder until they're a viable main eventer, but it's rarely that simple. I think they could have afforded a longer run for Hangman as babyface champion without having too much in the way of heels to feud with him; a face/face programme with Swerve is a new dynamic (though I understand why they would the next step in their story to be them being more on the same page, and that's an easier story to tell without either of them having the belt - my answer to that would have been to just hold off on that story for a little longer then), and there were potential babyface programmes to be had with Mark Briscoe, Darby Allin, Kenny Omega, even Jeff Jarrett, after his "one last title run this year" story was abandoned.

The problem is that the viable heels who do exist are otherwise occupied, and that's a problem largely of AEW's own making, but also affected by the amount of injury lay-ups that hit all at once. Okada should be a top level heel, but he needs to lose to Takeshita more than he needs to be winning main event matches. PAC and Claudio could be heated up to be title contenders, and with a little more work so could Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta, but the Death Riders had such a stranglehold on the World Title picture for so long that they shouldn't be anywhere near it now, and are clearly working towards a break-up/civil war anyway. Ricochet could easily be a viable contender and main event prospect at this point, but they just put a new belt on him after having him bogged down in the Hurt Syndicate's business for way too long. The Hurt Syndicate, likewise, could have been in the World Title picture, but there are likely all sorts of reasons why they're not, and now Lashley's hurt anyway so it's a moot point. 

There's no shortage of talent, the pieces just aren't in the right place, and neither of the partner companies are hot enough to lean on them for an easy fix - maybe there's a world in which they could bring in EVIL, David Finlay or Gabe Kidd for a brief programme, but nobody's buying them as a top level threat, nor is anyone in CMLL in that spot either.

[FLips]

AEW's lack of heels is both a direct and indirect issue stemming from some of their main issues overall.

1. Too many stables. When you're in a stable, generally unless you are in-fighting with another member of the stable, e.g Okada and Takeshita, then there is only one main heel in that group. This means when it comes to the top belt, even if you have a stable of 5 or 6 top guys, only one of them is usually the world title challenger. Once you're done with them, you can't build up another person from that stable to be the top guy because doing that leads to the aforementioned in-fighting.

2. AEW is a monopoly. Their roster is too big and they waste too many people. ROH may as well be Dark Elevation, they signed the big names from NJPW and AAA or whichever lucha fed they bought up. While they relied on it too much sometimes, AEW's first few years were main event feuds that usually began with the debut of someone new. There are very little people left to debut and the roster is so big the people they do have are sat in catering or farting on in the mid card. Athena for example has been the ROH Women's Champion since 2022 but it means absolutely nothing. 3 years on top as a division's biggest heel champion and it means sod all. One of the few appearances she made on AEW TV she got a shot not based on her merits but by winning a battle royale and then she lost her title shot. I know we're talking about male heels but the point should still stand.

3. They don't know how to book a title loss. OK there's obviously big exceptions to this, such as Hangman, but you can't do a year-long story after everyone loses a belt. Generally though AEW are great at the long build but then everyone involved fades into nothing afterwards. This goes for face and heel too, they cool people down way too quickly after a title win or loss and they're fantastic at booking the chase but not the reign or the aftermath unless they're doing it as part of a year long slow burn.

They need to look at the Attitude Era (I know I know) for examples on quick turnaround face/heel turns and keeping a product constantly fresh and moving forward. Your top heel should only be a heel for a year, two years maximum unless they're a lifer. They should then rotate with the midcard heels or the faces turning heel and rinse and repeat that. Look at the prime years of 97-01, every major star went back and forth between heel and face and it kept the main event scene constantly moving. Look at Roman Reign's recent run to see how badly the product nosedives after you have one long storyline that you refuse to divert from and don't build anyone up in the meantime.

[RedTwoster]

59 minutes ago, organizedkaos said:

It's always so weird in wrestling when people go "well they got stuck, there's no main event heels". I dunno mate, it's a fake sport, maybe write one?

 

Don’t get me wrong - I completely agree with this and think they could have run a few babyface programmes while they took steps to build up a few new heels.

For me, Hangman’s successor as champ was obvious - you keep Hangman occupied with interesting baby face programmes until Okada dropped the Unified (not the Continental) belt to Takeshita, then you make Okada your world champion - revisiting the Takeshita feud for the big belt somewhere down the line.

If they’d not introduced the stupid National title, they could have done Page/Ricochet; then there was Page/Darby, Page/Kingston and Page/Claudio, Page/PAC, Page/OC - plenty of interesting stories they could have run. Page/Jarrett would have been interesting, as would pitting Page against The Bucks, Bandido or Brodie King. Anything would have been more interesting than Joe at the moment.

[organizedkaos]

Yeah I was even trying to think within the idea that Osprey and Swerve getting injured means you have to pivot a bit. However they've said they knew they were going with Joe for a while (obv that's possibly a lie). So why not have Joe do something singles wrestlery in the month between Kyle making the challenge and having the match?

They've done this before. Throwaway challengers (hi Lance Archer) are given the briefest of pushes (ofter squash matches against jobbers) to reheat them. You could just do a bit more of that. Make it feel vaguely plausible that they're being pushed as to take the world title. You don't have to make them feel like Hangman going into All In but you can add some doubt by pushing them for a while before hand. Make the fans wonder if you're building them as a legit title holder. If the fans get squirmy cos Lance Archer is a bit old and can't put on bangers? Great, you've got a bad guy the fans don't want to win...

[LaGoosh]

I don't think they have a huge problem with lack of heels. The heels they have are just mostly not being booked effectively right now. 

Okada & Fletcher (and the rest of the Don Callis Family) - these two needs to be the main booking focus of 2026 and the top heels of the company. Okada is already there and needs to be World Champion in 2026. Fletcher needs to be ready for a top spot by the end of the year. A bit more time and effort put into giving the rest of the Don Callis Family character and personality would also help things loads.

Deathriders - once they kill off Moxley they all need a big push. Claudio in particular is so close to breaking the main event ceiling if he can just find that extra gear (I'm not sure if he can though). Yuta is doing great work as a little goblin and I'd push him and Garcia pretty hard as a tag team.

Ricochet - looked on the verge of breaking through this year after the brutal and brilliant stretcher win over Briscoe but then they did nothing much with him all year afterwards. He's a great true heel and he could easily be a main eventer with a sustained push behind him.

MJF - his heel act is tired and if he's sticking around needs to be turned back babyface asap before he tanks the entire show.

Powerhouse Hobbs - The Opps isn't really doing much for him anymore. He's a guy who they keep stop/starting with and he shines every time but he always goes back to getting lost in the shuffle. He needs to be a 2026 booking project and be ready for a top heel spot by the end of 2026.

Samoa Joe - I'm not against a heel Samoa Joe, I just don't want to see it as World Champion in 2025. He's a perfect mid card foil for up and coming babyfaces.

FTR - doing great work as heels and can keep that going for ages.

RUSH - currently injured and often unreliable personality wise but he's an incredibly easy guy to heat up because he's fantastic at what he does. Ditch the pointless shitty LFI anchor and push him as an upper mid-card maniac heel.

Big Bill - the only genuine giant in the company and they put him with the smallest guy on the entire roster in a tag team. Waste of time! Bill is a good worker, can talk, looks the part - push the fucking guy as the giant he is rather than a scrub tag team guy.

Anthony Bowens - this guy looked like a natural babyface but it turns out as a singles he's also a natural heel. His current story with Max Caster is one of my favourites (except it keeps stopping and starting every other week). He's really leaning into being a heel and gets the right reactions. Should always have a story on the go that he can sink his teeth into.

As for people they could turn heel I can't think of many but JetSpeed might be a good choice. Great babyfaces but Mike Bailey has an incredible punch face and vocal delivery that would work great as a heel and Kevin Knight's confidence could easily be switched to arrogance and cockiness. Then you've got new guys like Ace Austin doing pretty much nothing but have nice matches - turn guys like that heel and give them something to get stuck into.

[Merzbow]

Nick Jackson, heel world champion. 

As long as it's not a run steeped in Elite Lore as I think that's really had it's time at this point there's a good chance either Buck can have a great singles run. Maybe they don't want to and that's a shame, there's not even been a hint of it happening over the years has there?

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Perhaps at the 4-way you turn either Hangman or Swerve. It'll be a huge shock and generate almighty heat straight off.

 

Bring back Will Ospreay as a heel too, in a similar vein to Hogan joining the NWO in terms of coming out to stop a beat down but actually joins in, then you've created 2 top heels straight off as I think its easier to build up faces than heels. Send out someone like Brodie King and/or Bandido and put them into the main event picture and all of a sudden you have 2 heels and 2 top faces that can easily carry off main events and over those few months of the intertwining storylines you can build others around them without creating stables which AEW certainly can do without any more of! 

[LaGoosh]

42 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

Perhaps at the 4-way you turn either Hangman or Swerve. It'll be a huge shock and generate almighty heat straight off.

 

Bring back Will Ospreay as a heel too

Hangman was literally just a heel earlier this year. He's the most popular guy on the roster. It makes no sense for his character arc at all.

Swerve just returned from injury. Everyone loves him. He's also a difficult character to turn heel now because he's kind of a heel anyway.

And bringing back immensely popular Ospreay from injury as a heel is, no offence, very dumb.

[The King of Old School]

Yeah I think the top 3 faces should be Opsreay, Swerve and Hangman going forward, for me anyone else turning heel is fair game.