Here's who is eligible.
1. WWE/AEW/Impact rosters. So, not Will Ospreay (who would be my top overall pick and I wouldn't need to think about it for more than 3 seconds) or Jay White or Zach Sabre or Dragon Lee or even Takeshita, while they've all had matches in 2022 with these promotions, they're not official roster members. That does mean Sasha Banks, who is currently listed as suspended, for example.
2. Wrestlers 35 and under. I decided a way to make sense of this was an age restriction, 40 was the initial cut - but when you nudge it back to 35 it really draws a huge chunk of top guys away and that was appealing for these purposes. I'm trying to factor in age, longterm health, thinking about this board as setting up a long term project and not "here's who I want to see on a wrestling card today" If your thought is "where is Obvious Workrate Guy X" he's probably older than 35.
3. Initially, my thought was 30 slots for AEW, 20 for WWE, 10 for Impact, I wound up cutting Impact in half and giving all of those slots to AEW, I wasn't going to move beyond those ceilings/floors, if there's a misstep here its I don't sufficiently watch NXTUK, a better list shifts the last 5 AEW names over to NXTUK, feel free to do that.
4. I'm not really doing a settled 1-60 ranking, I'm going to do this in tiers. Let's do quartiles. The wrestlers are not really ranked in those tiers, I'll take a swing at doing at ordering, but honestly, if you draft the 11th wrestler in tier 1 5th overall, I'm not really complaining. Except for Ospreay, who is clearly first, but not eligible.
5. This isn't just a workrate list; sometimes I just talk about workrate as it's the thing I most value, but I'm considering all the qualities I might value in a wrestler were I booking a territory. I don't know if Paige VanZant will ever have a good wrestling match, but given her level of name recognition, she's one of the 35 AEW wrestlers to make this list, really as a lottery ticket. Balancing multiple factors here, all the ones you'd assume, I weigh work more heavily than most, but I'm not a single issue voter.
6. My last cut was Logan Paul.
TIER ONE
1. Adam Cole (33-AEW)
2. Pac (35-AEW)
3. Ricochet (33-WWE)
4. Fenix (31-AEW)
5. Walter (34-WWE)
6. Sasha Banks (30-WWE)
7. MJF (26-AEW)
8. Kyle O'Reilly (35-AEW)
9. Becky Lynch (35-WWE)
10. Adam Page (31-AEW)
11. Shane Strickland (31-AEW)
12. Sammy Guevara (29-AEW)
13. Bron Breakker (24-WWE)
14. Pete Dunne (28-WWE)
15. Cedric Alexander (32-WWE)
TIER TWO
1. Daniel Garcia (23-AEW)
2. Tyler Bate (25-WWE)
3. A-Kid (25-WWE)
4. Hook (23-AEW)
5. Apollo Crews (34-WWE)
6. Andrade (32-AEW)
7. Ilja Dragunov (28-WWE)
8. Josh Alexander (35-Impact)
9. Darby Allin (29-AEW)
10. Dante Martin (21-AEW)
11. Wardlow (34-AEW)
12. Mike Bailey (32-Impact)
13. Powerhouse Hobbs (31-AEW)
14. Ricky Starks (32-AEW)
15. Io Shirai (32-WWE)
TIER THREE
1. Rhea Ripley (25-WWE)
2. Ronda Rousey (35-WWE)
3. Bianca Belair (33-WWE)
4. Britt Baker (31-AEW)
5. Jungle Boy (25-AEW)
6. Montez Ford (32-WWE)
7. Jordan Devlin (32-WWE)
8. Lee Moriarity (27-AEW)
9. Wheeler Yuta (25-AEW)
10. Toni Storm (26-AEW)
11. Jonathan Gresham (34-AEW)
12. Buddy Matthews (33-AEW)
13. Cash Wheeler (35-AEW)
14. Ortiz (31-AEW)
15. Santana (31-AEW)
TIER FOUR:
1. Gable Steveson (22-WWE)
2. Carmelo Hayes (27-WWE)
3. Cameron Grimes (28-WWE)
4. Rush (33-AEW)
5. Chris Bey (26-Impact)
6. Ace Austin (25-Impact)
7. Trey Miguel (27-Impact)
8. Paige VanZant (28-AEW)
9. Brody King (35-AEW)
10. Trent Beretta (35-AEW)
11. John Silver (31-AEW)
12. Ethan Page (32-AEW)
13. Max Castor (32-AEW)
14. Riho (25-AEW)
15. Jade Cargill (30-AEW)
