AEW Full Gear: It’s Miro Time

If you have been tuning in to All Elite Wrestling for the second half of 2021 (if you haven’t been, then shame on you), you will be familiar with the reemergence of Miro. We all know who Miro is: the popular, Bulgarian “raging bull” professional wrestler with the potential to become an all-time great monster heel. In the WWE, he was a master of the “Evil Foreigner” gimmick trope – memorable for entering WrestleMania 31 on a tank. Once this gimmick had run its course, the then-Rusev was placed into a number of different roles and positions on the roster and he made it work every single time. Much to the WWE’s apparent chagrin, “Rusev Day” became one of the hottest acts in the entire company. The man behind these characters, Miroslav Barnyashev, has the rare quality of being able to constantly reinvent himself and make it work every single time.

That was until Miro’s “Best Man” gimmick. The video gaming, best man heavy/heater of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford. Whereas we now know that this gimmick was designed to slowly reintroduce a talent so poorly mishandled by his former employers, it was very polarizing among the AEW audience. However, it will now be remembered as the gimmick which led to Miro becoming the best version of himself: the pious, almost Templar-like “God’s Favorite Champion”; a vengeful, brutish monster on a warpath of destruction, all in the name of his God (and his wife, CJ Perry) and his TNT Championship, now held by Sammy Guevara. Whereas the loss to Guevara has led to him becoming God’s forsaken champion, a big future win might rekindle the relationship between God and Miro. At AEW Full Gear, Miro has an opportunity to overcome one of the greater champions of the 21st century in Bryan Danielson and go on to challenge the winner of the Kenny Omega and Adam Page feud, which has captivated audiences for the past two years.

The tournament has been redeemed. @bryandanielson will be too.

— Miro (@ToBeMiro) November 4, 2021

Why Miro Should Win at AEW Full Gear

Whenever someone comes up against Bryan Danielson, you must assume they are the underdog. Whereas Bryan’s diminutive size might make you think that he is the underdog, you would be foolish to believe so. Bryan is an all-time great – his name value, his ring work and his storied career puts him alongside Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels as one of the finest professional wrestlers to ever lace up a pair of boots. In AEW, he has so far been booked to represent those facts; he is clearly billed as every bit the legendary performer he so obviously is and is presented as such to an audience who clearly holds him in the highest of esteem. Therefore, even Miro is an underdog when opposing Danielson. However, this does not mean Miro should lose – on the contrary, he has every reason to win. Miro brings a flavor of legitimacy to AEW; a bigger worker, whose moves look brutal (his submission finishing move is one of the best looking maneuvers in pro wrestling today) and his overall presence makes you believe that this downright brutish man can quite easily end someone’s life with his bare hands. In addition to this, he is someone dedicated to his craft – his being able to seamlessly transition from character to character whilst getting over each and every time is a rare gift only the likes of Chris Jericho and very few others possess.

Miro’s lack of world championship opportunities throughout his career, also, is criminal – he has never held world championship gold in either major promotion he has worked for. Meanwhile, Danielson is a multi-time world champion with nothing left to prove. Whereas winning another world championship would just be another page in his storied career, for Miro, it would be a whole new chapter. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the likely winner of the Omega and Page bout is presumed to be Page; a man who has worked tirelessly to become the top tier babyface that he is today – the undisputed face of AEW. To pit a babyface Bryan against a fresh champion in Page has the potential to backfire – you do not want to divide audiences when you are attempting to establish a star. With Miro being an irredeemable, almost evil heel, he is the perfect first opponent for a championship bearing Adam Page and for this reason, we believe that Miro should win against Danielson. Should Danielson win, there is enough faith in AEW’s creative to get it right – but it is Miro’s time. His God is calling for the AEW World Championship and at Full Gear, he should be one step closer to achieving that feat.

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling

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