Ranking The Elite of AEW

August 29th, 2020

The Elite have in many ways been a groundbreaking group over the past four years. In that short time they have transcended any individual wrestling organization and helped to launched their own. The membership has remained mostly consistent over the years, but who is the best of the group?

#5 Adam “Hangman” Page * - This list isn’t a popularity contest. If it were, Hangman would certainly be towards the top and not in the cellar. In the stats I’ve looked over he never got to the number one spot on any of them. One metric that stands out is the Offense per Hour. Page delivers both the least offense per hour, while taking the most from his opponents. He also ranks last amongst the Elite for overall match offense (40%). Career Win: 68%

*On the August 27th edition of Dynamite, Page was kicked out of the Elite after intentionally costing the Young Bucks a match. He is being included on this list for historical reference.

#4 Cody – The number of fouls that Cody has committed really cost him a higher ranking on this list. In considering what makes someone Elite I don’t consider rule breaking, harassing, or intimidation to be very “Elite” qualities. Cody ran away with such behavior more than doubling 2nd place (Cody had 27 instances to Omega’s 13). On the positive side, Cody does hold the top spot for taking the least amount of offense from his opponents. Career Win: 76%

#3/2 The Young Bucks - The Young Bucks took the top spot in a pair of categories, both total match offense (60%) and offense per hour given. Surprisingly, the Young Bucks committed the least fouls among the Elite, despite their tendency to spit on opponents. It should be noted that the Young Bucks are the only members of the Elite to never hold AEW championships. For those of you who demand a split ranking we will put Matt over Nick due to Matt being the older brother. Career Win: 65%

#1 Kenny Omega – Known in NJPW as the “Best Bout Machine”, Omega proves that he is the top of the Elite. Omega ranked at least in the top three of every category that I looked at. He was first place in both reversals and overall career winning percentage. The quality of being able to perform successful reversals shows that Omega is able to think creatively when approaching a match. He is also able to work with a variety of different opponents bringing out something new in both them and his own performance. Career Win: 77%