WWE's Stephanie Vaquer or AEW's Kyle Fletcher — who shined brightest in a year of wrestling ascension? Uncrowned's year-end vote couldn't have been tighter.
If you were sticking strictly to the official record, 2025 might look like a year of misses for Kyle Fletcher. For all his best efforts, “The Protostar” often came up short, at least on paper. He was a semifinalist in the Owen Hart Cup. He lost to “Hangman” Adam Page in his first-ever world title shot. And he missed out on getting his much-anticipated match with Adam Cole for the TNT Championship, after the latter was sidelined with a serious injury.
Of course, any professional wrestling fan knows win-loss records alone don’t always tell the full story — and that’s certainly the case for Fletcher, who racked up an impressive run of four first-place nominations across our expert panel to ascend as Uncrowned's Breakthrough Wrestler of 2025.
What did the young Aussie do to make such an impact on our writers? Let’s start with his exceptional feud with his one-time mentor Will Ospreay, which led to one of the most wince-inducing (in a good way) cage matches in years back in March at AEW Revolution.
Then there were his stellar outings against Dustin Rhodes and Mark Briscoe, both of which made the TNT Championship feel more important than ever. Those matches succeeded in making the case for Fletcher as a worthy main-eventer — something he accomplished shortly afterward at this year's All Out event.
Fletcher may not have succeeded in capturing the AEW World Championship in 2025, but you suspect it won’t be long before he gets his way — particularly if he manages to win this year’s Continental Classic at Worlds End 2025 this Saturday, as has been rumored.
2. Stephanie Vaquer
It’s been a while since we’ve seen WWE give a real monster push to a new signing — though we can all probably agree Stephanie Vaquer was a solid candidate for such an honor.
Given the dizzying pace of her elevation, it’s hard to believe Vaquer was not only still in NXT at the beginning of the year, but had yet to win a single title. By the time she was promoted to the main roster in April, the Chilean superstar had not only won both NXT women’s titles but delivered one of the feuds of the year against Giulia.
In the second half of the year, Vaquer went on to eclipse those achievements, triumphing in the battle royal at Evolution to bag herself a future world title shot. After some delay, a superb match with Iyo Sky followed at Wrestlepalooza, with Vaquer leaving Indianapolis holding her biggest prize yet.
3. Oba Femi
When Oba Femi emerged as the Iron Survivor back in December 2024, he looked like an absolute lock to be the next NXT Champion — with the only question being how long it would take for Shawn Michaels to pull the trigger in 2025.
In the end, it took just seven days, with Oba Femi triumphing in a pulverizing main event at New Year’s Evil against Trick Williams. From that point on, the former college shot-putter seemed to be on a quest to redefine dominance, obliterating not just his NXT peers but a few stars from the WWE main roster too (including a certain Austin Theory).
The 27-year-old may have stumbled briefly when faced with NXT standout Ricky Saints, but he rectified the situation quickly, winning back his title to earn one of the biggest opportunities of the year: A much-celebrated showdown with world champion Cody Rhodes on the John Cena retirement show undercard.
4. Je’Von Evans
After a memorable 2024 outing with Randy Orton in St. Louis, “The Young OG” just managed to secure a place in last year’s shortlist for Breakthrough Wrestler. One year later, he gets a podium-place finish, with nominations across the board.
He’s certainly enjoyed one hell of a sophomore year in NXT, becoming one of the most popular performers on Tuesday nights — and a fixture on the bigger shows. At just 21 years old, he’s already made a handful of WWE main roster appearances, including a match at John Cena’s send-off event.
At the same time, though, the year did end with one controversy — with Evans becoming this year’s Iron Survivor (thus following in the footsteps of former champs like Oba Femi and Trick Williams) only to fall short in his eventual title shot.
5. Bandido
Penta who? No sooner does Tony Khan’s promotion lose two of its most recognizable luchadors to WWE, they end up unleashing a new high-flying masked star whose move-set verges on the superhuman.
Longstanding AEW fans will have known Bandido for a few years already, particularly if they follow Ring of Honor. But the Mexican performer’s real breakthrough moment came at this year’s All In event, as he used the Casino Gauntlet match to deliver the equivalent of a real-time highlights package.
Since then, Bandido’s stock has surged further, with him and Brody King forming one of the best odd-couple tag teams since the days of RKO. Their 90-day run as tag champions was a highlight of the year.
Uncrowned's voting breakdown for Breakthrough Wrestler of 2025:
Honorable mentions
Roxanne Perez
Dominik Mysterio
Lyra Valkyria
Konosuke Takeshita
Category: General Sports
