Miro is a man fractured on the inside. He wanders now along the AEW landscape, incomplete, inconsolable, a crownless king.
It feels intrusive to watch a man in this state of being, colored by darkness and rage, but how can we look away? Miro’s pain, his grumbling up at God above, is straight-up fascinating.
The Redeemer spent the summer fending off challengers as the AEW TNT champ. Miro clobbered Brian Pillman Jr. He twice trounced Fuego Del Sol. He outlasted Eddie Kingston and Lance Archer. His wins were decisive, his offense overwhelming.
It felt as if were witnessing an unbeatable force, that perhaps Miro’s reign might stretch on for eons, in a way fulfilling a proclamation he made back in 2016 when he was still Rusev: that his name would be on the United States Championship for seven years.
This dominant and dynamic wrestler was the Miro/Rusev fans had been waiting to see. He had found the ideal role for himself—monstrous, unrelenting champion.
Then came the dethroning. Sammy Guevara blasted Miro with a 630 senton to win the TNT Championship from him on Dynamite in Rochester, New York. A title the Bulgarian powerhouse held for 140 days now belonged to the young high-flyer from Houston.
A 500-pound question now hung in the air. Where would Miro go from here? Without that title in his possession driving his narrative, would he get lost in the midcard? He certainly wouldn’t be the first wrestler to lose his share of the spotlight once he was no longer champ.
But the early signs point to Miro’s story remaining a prominent and compelling one.
The TNT Championship is now a phantom limb that The Redeemer aches for. The absence of that trophy has sent Miro careening toward an unlikely showdown with God.
Miro has not moved on. He has not accepted defeat and his non-championship status with any sort of grace. And we are the better for it. Rather than view the loss to Guevara as a misstep on his part, Miro viewed it as a sign from God, a sign that he was no longer in God’s favor and that he had somehow angered the Lord.
On the October 16 edition of Dynamite, Miro grumbled a speech directed at the lord he believed had been watching over him.
“Have I displeased you?” he said. “Have I not bowed enough, kneeled enough? Have I not given your name enough praise?”
We saw Miro here reaching out, desperate, lost, suddenly alone and forsaken in his mind. His anguish is mighty convincing. He refers to the championship as “her” and longs for her, forlorn, head bowed, eyes closed.
Sorrow, though, is not an easy emotion to build off in wrestling. It’s the anger that is emerging from that sadness that will drive Miro into his next chapter.
“I will snap necks under my feet until the next one I redeem is me and the next one to forgive is you,” he told God. “You will make me your champion, or you will make me your enemy.”
Whoa. In a business with so many cookie-cutter trash-talking sessions, Miro’s promo snatches your attention. Not only is it powerfully delivered and filled with vivid lines, the target of all of it being God gives it an added weight.
Miro wasn’t done confronting the almighty. In a recent promo, The Redeemer called him arrogant. Miro warned God that all the carnage he would soon unleash would be his fault.
“All the violence that is going to come through from me is now a reflection on you,” Miro explained. “A powder of bones will follow me to her. And I will hold you with blood on my hands and horror in my eyes.”
The other AEW wrestlers are collateral damage. The real feud is with God himself. That’s an inventive route to take and one that is already bringing out Miro’s best.
No, Miro will not be able to thrust kick our Lord in the neck, but this promises to lead to intriguing places. AEW can book Miro against anybody and keep this story going. Just let the man take out his issues with God on the men in the ring.
He now has a clear motivation that could carry him for months. He will be a ferocious, unfeeling beast with chances to deliver more haunting promos. He doesn’t need the title. He doesn’t even need an earthly rival.
With his vitriol aimed at the heavens, Miro will be must-watch.
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