Miro debuted in AEW on September 9, 2020. In his near two year run with the company, he’s went on to compete in main events, win the TNT championship, reinvent himself and even sport new looks. But, Miro has also been on the bad side of some injuries that have put him on the shelf for a significant amount of time. Now, obviously, the injuries are no fault of AEW’s. But, when we take a look at his transition from being massively misused in WWE, which we could talk about for ages, to his now AEW run, it begs the question, has AEW underutilized Miro? Lets take a deeper look.
The Best Man
Miro walked out live on AEW Dynamite on September 9, 2020, being revealed as Kip Sabian’s “Best Man”, which would eventually lead to Kip & Penelope’s wedding where Miro was indeed the best man. The wedding led to a feud between Miro & Kip vs The Best Friends. Miro won 9 singles & tag team matches combined leading up to the big feud blow off match where Miro & Kip took on Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor, it what was billed as a “Arcade Anarchy Match”. The ringside area was filled with with games and arcade machines that could be used as weapons. In the end, Chuck and Orange got the victory. This, in many fans eyes, was a mistake. Miro was the new, nearly undefeated monster, until now. He lost to Chuck and Orange. This is in no way a slight at Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor, no, this is the fault of AEW for slightly damaging Miro’s hot streak, or did they? Miro went on to turn on Kip Sabian and get back into his winning ways. Was Miro losing the tag match a bad idea? Yes. Did it truly derail him? No, not really. Because once we thought this could be a slippery down hill slope for Miro, it wasn’t.
God’s Favorite Champion
Miro was slightly away after his Arcade Anarchy match, which happened in March of 2021, but made his return in May of that same year to challenge Darby Allin for the TNT title. And he won. Between the Arcade Anarchy & the Title win, Miro had only 2 matches, both on AEW Dark. But now, Miro came back and won the Championship. This is where we look back and think about how maybe Miro definitely should’ve won that big blow-off tag match to really keep his momentum going, instead of winning a title basically off of a big loss. But, it also could be argued that the loss was helpful to get Miro away from Kip Sabian and go on a singles tear. Either way, Miro came off of a big loss and became champion. Strange, but we’ll take it. Miro went on to successfully defend his championship eight times from May to September. He defeated the likes of Evil Uno, Lance Archer, Lee Johnson, Eddie Kingston and more before losing the TNT Title on the September 29, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite to Sammy Guevara. Eight championship defenses is great, but should Miro have lost again while he was back on another hot streak? I don’t think so. Overall I think his championship reign was very successful but the sudden defeat left a sour taste in many mouths that was very hard to clean out. Miro lost his championship, and things seemingly continued to get worse.
Redeemer’s Redemption?
Miro lost his TNT Championship but set his sights on a new prize. In very strange set of circumstances, Jon Moxley was on a leave of absence and Miro, who had been away for nearly a month in a half after his Title loss, came in to replace Moxley in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament, where he defeated Orange Cassidy first. He then went on to the finals at AEW Full Gear 2021 against Bryan Danielson, where he lost. Bryan advanced to get a championship match and Miro stepped away again. Miro though, was taped up during the Full Gear match, clearly showing he was injured and that was confirmed since after that match, we didn’t see Miro again for seven months. He returned as a surprise on the June 1, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite when he defeated Johnny Elite in a mere six minutes. Miro was back now, and the redeemer was reaping his saviors soul. His TNT title was gone, he didn’t qualify for the World Title, but a new Championship arose and God’s favorite champion wants it. Miro entered yet another tournament qualifier match where he defeated Ethan Page and advanced to the Finals of the brand new All Atlantic Championship match. As of this writing, the All Atlantic Championship Match is scheduled for AEW X NJPW’s Forbidden Door Pay-Per-View, which has not happened yet. But after losing the TNT Championship and his shot at the World Championship, this could be Miro’s last chance at redemption.
Verdict:
We’ve looked over Miro’s short, but packed career in AEW thus far and now the question is, is AEW underutilizing Miro? My answer is… undecided. Have they Underutilized Miro up to this point, yes. But, is there still time to correct this? Also yes. Miro was on a tear with the TNT title and had one of the best reigns to date. They did Miro a good service as TNT Champion, but the abrupt ending didn’t do him any favors. Then, he lost his chance at the World Championship, failing to launch Miro as a permanent fixture into the main event scene. As of now he feels very much like he’s just floating in the middle, but redemption is right at AEW’s fingertips. Miro has yet another shot at gold in AEW, and letting Miro win the All Atlantic Championship and go on a tear with it, having actual proper feuds with a lengthy championship run that doesn’t end abruptly, could be the thing that launches Miro into main eventer stardom. Miro fully being underutilized remains to be seen, but AEW’s Forbidden Door could quite possibly be do or die for Miro in AEW.
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