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Starr: Who Are AEW’s Actual “Four Pillars?”

The self-proclaimed AEW Four Pillars discussion has made its rounds amongst the wrestling media. However, are they AEW’s real Four Pillars?

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The self-proclaimed AEW Four Pillars discussion has made its rounds amongst the wrestling media. However, are they AEW’s real Four Pillars?

Multiple sources have weighed in on MJF’s “four pillar” promo from the 9/29/21 edition of AEW Dynamite.  During they early stages of his promo, MJF labeled the following four individuals as the standard-bearers and foundations of All Elite Wrestling: Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and MJF, himself.  As stated in his promo, these four have carried the torch of AEW’s company since its early inception and have continued to carry that torch as the company has grown in popularity and has gained more recognition to the public.

What makes this story rather intriguing is the manner in which Tony Khan responded to MJF’s promo on a recent podcast episode with Brandon Walker on Barstool Sports.  From MJF’s point of view, the general label of AEW’s Four Pillar athletes seems to reflect that of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s critically-acclaimed Four Pillars of Heaven that set the standard for the best overall in-ring wrestling product throughout the 1990s.  Those four wrestlers consist of: Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Mitsuharu Misawa.  This original discussion of the “four pillars” idea revolves around the consensus that these four men were the best “in-ring workers” throughout All Japan in the 90s, having garnered more five-star ratings according to the Dave Meltzer Star Rating System than any group of wrestlers in history.  And while a subjective star rating scale seems murky when trying to define what constitutes as a company’s “top megastars,” there are a couple of key issues that come into play when comparing All Japan Pro Wrestling’s “Four Pillars” with All Elite Wrestling’s “Four Pillars.”

The first issue comes from the fact Tony Khan neither accepted, nor refuted, MJF’s statement of AEW’s Four Pillars.  Rather, he seemed to treat it as a subjective idealism with the recognition that MJF merely comprised an opinionated list as to whom he perceives as AEW’s four future guys.  However, Tony acknowledges, “There’s more than four pillars… we talked about Orange Cassidy, Dr. Britt Baker– we can talk about until we’re blue in the face.  Ricky Starks and Hangman Page.”  As the President of a major wrestling organization, acknowledging your top talent should be a crucial element of driving home the idea as to why people should pay money to see your product.  While Tony Khan recognizes Jungle Boy, Guevara, Allin, and MJF as the “building blocks of the company,” that does not necessarily translate to the vision of them collectively representing the future of the company.

The second issue with MJF’s definition of AEW’s Four Pillars is that it generally reflects the preconceived notion that Jungle Boy, Guevara, Allin, and MJF are all on an equal playing field of main event star caliber.  And while there certainly will be room for growth as these four men mature and develop as talents, the only thing that these four men have in common at the moment is a relative ring skill.  Excluding MJF from the picture as the one standout that seems to exemplify all the tools when it comes to being a major superstar in the industry, Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevara lack a lot of the “five-tool elements” that are commonly expected of top of the card, main event performers.  Discounting “ring ability,” their promo skills are mediocre at best.  Their levels of charisma vary according to their characters, but they do not currently emanate anything closely resembling a young Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock (whereas, a guy like Ricky Starks does).  Their “looks/physiques” are generally good, but detract by their lack of height and body mass.  And most importantly, with the exception of Guevara, there has not been much exploration with their versatility as characters.  Can all four men effectively flip between roles of babyface/heel?  Are they able to diversify their personalities?  Are they able to diversify their ring style to accommodate those character roles?  Even with a guy like Sammy Guevara (who has played both sides of the aisle since his debut with the company), he has not truly shown a variation in his ring style appropriate to his work as a heel and babyface.

A final issue with this assertion of AEW’s current Four Pillars is that, on a pointblank analysis of these four men on paper, how do these men all standout and differ from one another?  A successful wrestling company should be able to culminate and craft a roster of broad skills, looks, and ability in order to garner attention from casual, mainstream markets.  AEW has a large talent pool of young athletes, many of whom come in different shapes, sizes, and skills; a brief overview of this alleged Four Pillar system for AEW lacks two of these three key marketing tactics.  Again, excluding MJF from the picture– who by the way, is not a relatively “big guy” by his own right, Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevara are all very small and frail, weigh well under 200 lbs., and wrestle very similar styles.  And while it may seem unfair to judge these men’s physiques by today’s wrestling standards, when AEW has younger men under contract that exude charisma and potential like Powerhouse Hobbs, Ethan Page, Wardlow, and even “Hangman” Adam Page, why would these men not be included as part of AEW’s Four Pillars?  Why would they not diversify their alleged Four Pillar system by including someone that exudes main event level charisma, someone that works a different style, and someone that brings something different to the table?  This is not to offend Jungle Boy, Allin, Guevara, or MJF, but if the only precedent that is being set for AEW’s future generation consists of similar looking wrestlers that wrestle similar looking styles and lack many of the other tools of what it takes to be a “top guy” in the business, there is a major dilemma at hand.

Of course, the benefit for individuals like Jungle Boy, Guevara, and Allin is that they are young and can take the time to work and master the elements they are missing in that key tool system.  That said, there also has to be a recognition that, perhaps, there are other guys that may be better suited to fill those roles.  The self-proclaimed AEW Four Pillars, as per MJF, may hold water in the eyes of the modern wrestling audience, but it may be putting the cart before the horse to acknowledge all of these men as the “be all/end all” of AEW’s future generation.

Sources:

The Fabulous Rougeau’s . (2012, July 11). 5 tool wrestler. WrestleZone Forums. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://forums.wrestlezone.com/threads/5-tool-wrestler.221501/.

Mutter, E. (2021, October 15). Tony Khan responds to MJF listing the “four pillars” in AEW. Wrestling Inc. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2021/10/tony-khan-says-there-are-more-than-just-four-pillars-in-aew/.

Podgorski, A. (2017, July 26). All Japan’s four pillars of heaven set the standard. Slam Wrestling. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2017/07/26/all-japans-four-pillars-of-heaven-set-the-standard/.

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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


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All Shows On Demand


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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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