Revisiting AEW's "Four Pillars" five years later

AEW’s emergence in 2019 offered an opportunity to provide something new for the United States pro wrestling scene. Obviously, known stars like Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley would hook in a large audience, but AEW had the potential to be the home for new stars, ones who probably would never get an opportunity in WWE. Enter MJF, Darby Allin, Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara, a.k.a. AEW’s “Four Pillars.”

That was how MJF referred to himself among those names in 2021 on Dynamite. Comparing yourself and three other wrestlers to AJPW’s “Four Pillars of Heaven,” who are considered a few of the best wrestlers of all time, was ambitious. It was something that Tony Khan didn’t outright embrace, but there was a t-shirt, and it was part of the build to their four-way match at Double or Nothing 2023. It also has continued to age poorly for five years since that promo.

I do want to commend AEW for the attempt behind the idea. During the early days of the promotion, AEW had a reputation for being the home for former WWE guys. Let’s remember that 2021 was the year CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole debuted.

So, telling your audience, “Hey, these guys have zero influence from WWE’s system and are the future of the promotion,” isn’t the worst idea. I detest a lot about WWE, but one thing I can respect is their ability to market their stars to their fans. When you watch a WWE show, it doesn’t take you long to figure out which wrestlers have the company’s full support and which ones they couldn't care less about.

The problem with crowning a “Four Pillars” became clear a couple of years later when Swerve Strickland, Hangman Adam Page, Will Ospreay and Toni Storm became huge stars for AEW. Also, once you tell fans, “Hey, this guy is gonna be the face of the company one day,” the expectations for that one guy heighten, and it’s either sink or swim when they’re put in a major role.

That takes me to my rankings of AEW’s Four Pillars from worst to best.

Guevara had a lot of star potential entering AEW. He worked a bunch on the indies and had solid spotlights at PWG, specifically his PWG title match against WALTER. He was part of The Inner Circle and big programs with Chris Jericho.

However, it was that alignment with Jericho that seemed to hinder his progress. It overshadowed his TNT Title reigns, which were fine, and the decline of Jericho’s reinventions, like the Jericho Appreciation Society, mirrored Guevara’s stagnation as a wrestler.

Guevara was athletic and could pull off insane feats on ladders. His lone five-star match is a ladder match against Cody Rhodes for the TNT Title in 2022. However, his promo work didn’t match his in-ring ability, and incidents off-camera soured him with the audience.

There was the 2020 suspension over a terrible “joke” about wanting to “go rape” Mercedes Mone in 2016. The sides talked things out in private, but his return to feud with Matt Hardy was overshadowed by Hardy’s head injury suffered during their Broken Rules match at All Out.

Another strike for the audience was when Guevara broke up with his then-girlfriend Pam Nizio, whom he had publicly proposed to in front of the AEW audience. People can do whatever they want in their personal lives, but parasocial relationships are real. So, when Guevara broke off an engagement with someone who had been featured in his vlogs with another wrestler, it created a weird heel dynamic for Guevara and Tay Melo. AEW tried to capitalize on this on TV during 2022, but nothing worked out, and all their segments came off as awkward. To put the cherry on top of 2022, Guevara reportedly got into a backstage fight with Andrade.

Guevara was suspended in 2024 for not following concussion protocol during his match with Jeff Hardy, and now, he’s banished to Ring of Honor as part of La Facción Ingobernable with Rush. Yes, he challenged Darby for the AEW World Championship recently, but it hardly was one of Darby’s memorable title defenses. Yes, that’s a high bar, but much like the majority of Sammy’s AEW career, he’s yet to achieve the high expectations set for him.

Sammy turns 33 on July 28, but Perry has the edge since he turns 29 on June 16. However, like Guevara, Perry feels he has a long road ahead to becoming a legit main-event guy. Also, like Guevara, things outside the ring had a terrible effect on his career. Perry got into a backstage scuffle with CM Punk at All In 2023, which created horrible PR for AEW. Punk got fired, Perry was suspended and AEW made the horrible decision to show footage of the altercation.

What might have been worse was the “Scapegoat.” He brought this to New Japan, and it did not make House of Torture matches any more watchable. Perry is a decent worker, but losing the National Title to Mark Davis highlighted how many people AEW could and should be pushing ahead of Perry, whose in-ring work has been decent. He’s been involved in two five-star matches: a 2021 falls-count-anywhere trios match, teaming with Christian Cage and Luchasaurus against Adam Cole and the Young Bucks, and an anything goes ten-man, teaming with the Rascalz and the Bucks against the Demand and FTR from this year.

Of course, Luchasaurus is nursing an injury, and it feels like the Jurassic Express run will continue when he returns. Though a “run” really should be as a high-profile team that eats losses to up-and-coming teams.

From this point on, we’re looking at AEW’s top success stories. Darby is in the middle of an incredible title reign, telling an effective underdog story that legitimizes a wrestler as a top star. Little could I ever imagine that the guy wrestling Joey Janela at EVOLVE 109 for the WWN Title in Melrose, Mass., would ever be the top guy in a major promotion, but here we are.

Yes, Darby was aided by the tag team with Sting. Yes, his crazy stunts help create viral moments, but all that kind of underrates his in-ring ability. Darby knows exactly what his character is and how to convey it. Kevin Knight is a great talent, but pairing him with Darby made his win at the Continental Classic even better. Want to make a wrestler look dangerous? Pair him with Darby. That German Superplex spot in the Konosuke Takeshita spot still is one of the craziest things I’ve seen on weekly wrestling TV.

Darby is 33, and he’s admitted he doesn’t plan on having a long wrestling career, but in any list of AEW originals, Darby is near the top.

If there’s someone who you can argue should be at the top of that list, it’s hard not to pick MJF. Unlike Darby, you definitely could imagine big things for MJF, who I was introduced to as Maxwell Jacob Feinstein in Chaotic Wrestling.

There’s not much else I can say that no one else knows. MJF is just as great an in-ring worker as he is a talker. If he doesn’t become a three-time AEW World Champion at Double or Nothing this year, he’ll eventually be. I did think it was interesting that fans noted that MJF is the only member of the Four Pillars not to have won the TNT Championship, which seems like something Tony Khan is also aware of.

A deserved negative in MFJ’s AEW career is his tag team and feud with Adam Cole. It was a mix of the worst things to take from WWE — stupid skits and #storytelling — along with Cole’s injury.

Another interesting aspect of MJF’s AEW career is the mixed results of his faction involvement. He was briefly part of the Nightmare Family and Inner Circle. His involvement primarily was to turn on Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho, respectively. He led the Pinnacle, but they really only existed just to feud with the Inner Circle. Last year, he joined the Hurt Syndicate, but there was never a payoff to that story.

It’s hard to give MJF complete blame for those blemishes. Tony Khan and others involved in those stories certainly share blame, but we’ve seen that MJF is talented enough to overcome the negatives.

Despite the lack of success and the naivety of the Four Pillars idea, I will always commend AEW for at least trying something outside of the box. AEW is at its worst when it decides to remain stagnant or adopt the worst ideas from a bygone era. Part of AEW’s rejuvenation in the public eye is them trying different things that feel fresh. AEW maintains a consistent audience and a strong relationship with its media partner, so it should continue to push new stars rather than waste time on baggage like Malakai Black.

Thank you for reading all the way through to the end! I typically like to recommend a K-pop song, but I can’t share just one since two of my favorite groups, NMIXX and ITZY, made comebacks this month, so here’s what I’ve loved from their mini-albums. Enjoy!