#kris and yuki | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wrestlingwiththoughts · 3 months ago

Text

30 Most Intriguing Wrestlers Under 30 Years Old - 2025 Edition

As I've noted before, many prominent professional wrestling companies seem to be going through a youth movement at the moment. This emphasis on presenting new talent and getting viewers invested in their development is a great way to attract and retain viewers, and it's just exciting to me to think about who the next wave will be. (Future potential can be more interesting than present action because the mysteries of possibility allow imaginations to run wild.)

While I was not and am not a participant in the Voices of Wrestling 30 Under 30 project, I was intrigued enough by the concept of identifying the 30 most intriguing wrestlers under 30 years old in the world. I do not pretend that I am intimately familiar with all of these wrestlers, but I can say that I've seen at least one match featuring each of the wrestlers I've named below.

So, we can assume whom I have slighted is someone I have not seen or someone for whom I just do not care. For example:

Other caveats to note:

You won't find any WWE or WWE ID wrestlers on my list. I find the company abhorrent and refuse to acknowledge its existence.

I could not verify two wrestlers' ages, so I am leaving them off of the list: Super Machine J and Zozaya. If I could verify their ages, they would bump Nick Wayne and MAO from the list.

I don't have it in me to write a blurb for every wrestler, but I'll try to write one where the spirits have moved me to do so.

This is in no way definitive, nor is it finalized for me. It is, however, my list for now. You will have your own list, and we will likely have some similarities and differences.

I encourage you to make your own list. See where you put these names!

In considering placement, I tried to balance their age (and how much potential they have in their 20s) against what they've accomplished already.

I'm grouping the 30 wrestlers in tiers.

Tier One: The Young and the Restless

30. Nick Wayne (19 years old) - it's unbelievable that he's only 19, which means he still has a long way to grow to make the most of his potential. He hasn't been given much to do so far in the Tony Khan Universe of Wrestling Companies (ROH and AEW), but he showed what he could do in his teens in the indies, and I thought he was pretty good in the match against Hook that they taped for the final AEW Rampage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in 2024.

29. Kosei Fujita (22 years old) - I was impressed by his performance against El Desperado in February, and he feels like the future of the junior heavyweight division in NJPW.

28. AZM (22 years old) - AZM's been wrestling since she was 11 years old, so it's no wonder that it feels like she's been around forever. However, even though she's a veteran at 21, she still has tremendous upside. She was a key component to the tag match from Sareee-ISM Chapter IV that felt like a hidden gem in Sareee's tremendous 2024.

27. Bozilla (21 years old) - BOZILLA IS...very young and still fairly raw. Sareee got a great match out of her in October 2024, so you can discount the performance slightly, but the charisma and personality are undeniable.

26. Mochizuki Jr. (22 years old) - The match against his father was just that impressive, and I feel it with him more than I do with some of the other members of the Dragongate young guard. (Kota Minoura and Yuki Yoshioka, I'm looking at you.)

25. Leon Slater (20 years old) - I'll have more to say about Leon Slater in an upcoming series.

Tier Two: Staring the 30s in the Face

24. MAO (28 years old)

23. Yuki Ueno (29 years old) - DDT is not a company I follow regularly, so I only know of MAO and Ueno through the matches that float up to the top of discourse. They're good wrestlers, but I'm not their biggest advocates.

22. Adam Priest (29 years old) - One of the shining stars of the American independent wrestling scene and, in particular, its highest profile company, Deadlock Pro Wrestling. He broke through with DPW last year, so I'm including him in his last year of eligibility.

21. Yuma Aoyagi (29 years old) - As a smaller company, AJPW needs to always have an eye toward building the next generation of stars. After surviving on the backs of Kento Miyahara, SUWAMA, Shuji Ishikawa, and Joe Doering, AJPW fostered its next set of potential stars, starting with Yuma Aoyagi. His current persona isn't really my speed, but he's just one change away from becoming a wrestler closer to my preferences.

Tier Three: Wanna Be Startin' Something?

20. Daniel Garcia (26 years old) - I sometimes think I am much lower on Garcia's ceiling than others. I think he's a fine wrestler, but I don't see the same sky high potential that others insist is there. AEW is currently giving him an opportunity to shine by pairing him with Adam Cole in a feud for the TNT championship, but I don't get a great sense of Garcia's character even in this feud. Is it possible that AEW's already missed its window with Garcia?

19. Hologram (26 years old) - On the flip side of Garcia, we have Hologram, who will be a focus of the company. The former Aramis is capable of great stunts in the ring, and he has a lot of physical charisma. I hope he starts to put the elements together in the ring; we saw in the 2 out of 3 falls match with the Beast Mortos that he can excel in the ring, but we also saw in the tag match with Komander against Blake Christian and Lee Johnson that the control isn't always there. Hologram needs to be consistently picture perfect to maximize his potential.

18. Luke Jacobs (24 years old) - The slugging star of the British independent scene, Jacobs was at one point the main champion of both (a greatly diminished from its heyday) PROGRESS and Revolution Pro. (He's still the PROGRESS World Champion at this moment.) His match against 1 Called Manders at GCW's You Wouldn't Understand last year saved the night for me.

17. Ryohei Oiwa (26 years old) - I was certainly tempted to flip Oiwa's spot in this list with Kaito Kiyomiya's, but I couldn't justify it to myself since Oiwa is currently an understudy in Zack Sabre Jr.'s faction in NJPW. Nonetheless, I want to see more of Oiwa whereas I'm not sure that Kiyomiya has much more to show me after their match last year.

16. Utami Hayashishita (26 years old) - Undoubtedly the focus of Marigold after Giulia departed, the pressure will be on Hayashishita to return on Rossy Ogawa's investment in her. While she wasn't the focus of Marigold's first main event, she has been a secondary character of focus while Sareee stabilized the company as its champion, and I suspect that we'll see more of Hayashishita in this space soon.

15. Miu Watanabe (25 years old) - I became a believer in Watanabe last year after diving into her championship reign. I thought she was a believable, credible, charismatic champion who showed definite growth from her title win to the two successful defenses that we checked out. I was also disappointed when she lost the title to Mizuki, who is not as convincing to me, and she seems to be floundering in TJPW since. However, I think the potential is there, and I am hopeful that TJPW will call her up to be the focal point of the company again soon.

14. Jacky Kamei (25 year old) - The formerly funky Jacky Kamei always seems to be in the thick of it when you see discussions of the best of Dragongate, but he has yet to be the focus of the company. However, he's such a compelling good guy that I think he just needs to be given a chance.

Tier Four: The Lucha Section

13. Komander (26 years old) - When he first debuted in AEW, I was just wowed by Komander's balance and high flying. However, he's developed as a wrestler, and his matches are now more than just waiting for him to run the ropes and dive. He might never become the complete wrestler who can wrestle and talk that the American wrestling audience needs, but that doesn't mean he's not a great wrestler with tremendous potential.

12. Atlantis Jr. (26 years old)

11. Mascara Dorada (23 years old) - Do you want the scion of a wrestling family in Atlantis Jr., or do you want the younger luchador who was so impressive that he dropped the "2.0" and became the primary Mascara Dorada? Do you want the steadier wrestler who seems to have it all together, or do you want the one who is capable of spectacular feats in the ring?

Tier Five: The Top Ten

10. Kris Statlander (29 years old) - Is it just me, or is Statlander underrated and seemingly forgotten about in the discussions of the state of American women's wrestling? In her last year of eligibility, I wanted to highlight that Statlander is very, very good, as one could witness in the matches she had with Mercedes Mone in 2024.

9. Kaito Kiyomiya (28 years old) - Just because I don't find him particularly appealing doesn't mean that we have to put aside the fact that he is Pro Wrestling NOAH's best chance to build a generational star, one who could bear the weight of the company on his shoulders for years. Kiyomiya's skill and opportunity in NOAH outrank my personal vibes about how fake his character and presentation feel.

8. MJF (29 years old) - I hated the Brochachos, and MJF played a large role in driving me away from AEW. Nonetheless, he seems to have found his footing as a despicable villain again, and he is probably a cornerstone for AEW for years to come and someone I'll have to make my peace with if I want to continue to watch AEW.

7. Kyle Fletcher (26 years old) - Even AEW has to continue to build new heroes and villains, and AEW has invested wisely in elevating Fletcher as a key villain for years to come.

6. Toni Storm (29 years old) - I still find the Timeless Toni character unnecessarily exaggerated, but I'll have to concede that some things are just not for me. Nevertheless, I couldn't deny her prominence and importance to AEW and to American women's wrestling right now.

5. Gabe Kidd (27 years old) - All that praise about Kidd's performance against Kenny Omega must mean something. And even though the story that Kidd and Omega told in their match didn't work for me, it's hard to deny the intensity and athleticism that Kidd brought to the match. Kidd's other high profile matches, such as the bruising matches against Tomohiro Ishii and Yota Tsuji, are much more my speed and the evidence for Kidd's high placement.

4. Shun Skywalker (28 years old) - Consistently the best part of Dragongate (at least when they're in Japan), Skywalker is the straw that stirs the drink in that company. He plays an evil, petty little troll so well, and he can back it up in the ring.

3. Yuma Anzai (25 years old) - The other one (and I'd argue, more successful) of AJPW's youth movement projects, Anzai followed his successful reign as the Triple Crown Champion with his run as half of the All Asia Tag Team Champion. His future is bright, and the question becomes does he stay the big fish in the small pond.

2. Konosuke Takeshita (29 years old) - Simply one of the best wrestlers in the world. If I were to start a wrestling company today, I'd pick him first to be my foundation.

1. Sareee (29 years old) - I think I've spent enough words talking about how great Sareee is.

7 notes · View notes