2019 has been a huge and historic year for professional wrestling.
The debut of AEW has increased the competition on the scene, fans witnessed the first-ever women’s WrestleMania main event and the rise of new stars has promised a bright future for the industry.
Looking at some of those young fresh faces dominating their respective rosters today just who has had a truly incredible 2019 and of the bunch just who can we expect to have an even bigger 2020?
Riho
At just 22 years old, Riho makes for a surprising veteran within the wrestling world. Skilled, experienced and a huge future ahead of herself, Riho has been one of the biggest breakout stars of the year.
Debuting for AEW she was one of the first women to grace the All Elite stage and while she wasn’t a big international star and incredibly popular amongst wrestling fans, she was an instant hit and with time grew to become one of the most beloved stars on the AEW roster.
Her small stature hasn’t held her back at all and she has overcome the bigger names she has stepped in the ring with, taken part in memorable action and has made history by becoming the first-ever AEW Women’s champion.
To go from barely known within the industry to one of the biggest breakout stars of the year, Riho has more than earned her place on this list.
Humberto Carrillo
Another name who really did go from having a relatively small fan base to becoming a breakout star of the year is RAW’s, Humberto Carrillo.
Humberto’s push came out of nowhere, but he has taken every opportunity he has been given and made sure to make an impact along the way. Sharing the ring with the likes of AJ Styles, Andrade, Seth Rollins and Ricochet amongst many he has worked with some of the biggest and best names on the RAW roster today and taken part in fantastic bouts that have shown the young star to be an amazing talent with bags of potential.
While he hasn’t seen championship success yet, Humberto has stood with the best of the best and considering he wasn’t even apart of the main roster at the start of the year, it’s pretty awesome to see just how far he has come in such a short space of time.
Darby Allin
The rise of AEW saw the rise of several young faces looking to make an impact and take the spotlight; in the process of that Darby Allin became one of those names to do exactly that and win over fans massively.
Working his first AEW match up against Cody Rhodes on PPV, he made sure everyone knew his name come the end of the night.
In one of AEW’s best matches to date and a true highlight of the year, he pushed the veteran Rhodes to his limits while showing fans the character that is Darby Allin. He has worked incredibly memorable bouts against the likes of Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, and Jimmy Havoc and while his hardcore style of wrestling has been on show he has also shown everyone that he is a brilliant wrestler. 2020 could just be an even bigger year for this young talent.
Private Party
In terms of the tag team division, there really has been no team to burst into the spotlight quite like Private Party.
The two young names have been surprising breakout stars of the year and it’s clear they have plenty coming up in their future. Arriving in AEW full of character and charisma but a lack of a following; they soon won over fans with their personality and entertaining antics in the ring.
It was a huge win over The Young Bucks that put these guys into the spotlight and got everyone talking. They became surprise top contenders within the AEW tag team division. Since they have competed in some of the best tag team bouts in All Elite, they have challenged for the titles and have been growing in popularity by the week.
It’s very likely that in 2020, we could see Private Party as tag team champs.
Rhea Ripley
When we look at Rhea Ripley from her first appearance in the Mae Young Classic to where she is now, it’s pretty crazy to see just how far she has come.
From a fresh young babyface to one of the most consistent talents in the WWE today, the young Australian star has climbed the ladder big time!
Working the first half of the year as a heel, she dominated NXT UK reigning as the first NXT UK Women’s Champion and competing against the likes of Toni Storm and Piper Niven.
The second half of the year, Ripley went on to work as a babyface over in NXT where she targeted the women’s champion Shayna Baszler and, in the process, became one of the most over names on the roster today.
2019 has also seen Ripley make history competing in the first-ever women’s War Games as well as picking up the win there; on the same weekend she was the NXT Women’s team captain heading into Survivor Series where she picked up the win for her team. During the build to this PPV, she defeated the likes of Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks; not to mention working a brilliant singles match against the man, Becky Lynch.
Now, Ripley evidently has an incredible future ahead of her but to achieve what she is achieving right now at such a young age is simply incredible!
It’s pretty amazing to see all these names above are not only under thirty but are taking the spotlight and making themselves the leading roles today.
They are the names of the future but are making now their moment too and with such an incredible year behind them, twenty-twenty looks to be even bigger for each and every star we have spoken about today.