Billy Gunn Asks AEW Wrestlers To Focus More On Their Characters Instead Of Moves

AEW Dynamite debuted back in October 2019 and since then has worked hard to provide an alternate product to what fans see in WWE. For the most part, they have succeeded, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

There is no doubt that AEW has a very deep and diverse roster of talented in-ring performers from all over the world, incorporating various styles of pro wrestling. The company continues to sign more and more talents that serve their purpose.

One of the major criticism that AEW talents face right now is their overreliance on performing highly athletic moves instead of actually developing their characters.

While speaking on Busted Open Radio, pro wrestling veteran Billy Gunn talked about the current state of the AEW roster. Gunn stated that he wants AEW talents to focus more on their characters instead of performing high impact moves all the time.

“Back down on half of the stuff that they do,” is what Billy wants them to do. That, for me, is the biggest thing. There’s a time and a place to crack out all of your stuff. But I feel that they’re so young, they do not realize that their bodies are not going to be able to take this. So, they literally go out there, and it’s not that they’re working hard. They feel like if they don’t do all their stuff, they’re not working hard. That’s not the case.

If I am with an extra and I have four minutes on our YouTube show, I don’t have to do a 450, and a Spanish Fly, and everything in my arsenal every single time I am out there. I feel they don’t know how to go, ‘okay, I want to do this and this. So, let me workaround to get to this, so I get the most out of that move.’ But it’s just move after move, after move, after flip, after dive. They don’t structure matches like a psychologist would structure stuff.

I think one of the things is they’re not letting the people get emotionally invested in them and letting them absorb what their personalities are. Because they just go, go, go, go, go, and the hardest thing for people to teach is don’t do anything and get the most out of it, and then selling. It’s just go, go, go and the people never have time to catch up. They think just because the people are making noise, they’re over. That’s it, ‘I am it. Did you hear the people?’

Yeah but, they don’t know you, they’re just popping on the move stuff because they can’t do it. It’s just a reaction to something you’re doing and it’s forgotten about the next time somebody walks out of the tunnel. So I think a lot of it is not letting people into what their character, or who they are.”

Many fans would certainly agree with a lot of what Billy Gunn said, as the veteran is well aware of what works and what does not inside the squared circle. We will have to wait and see whether any talents will heed his advice or not.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes