I think he would do better in WWE tbh. He fits better there and could be in the upper midcard. TK doesn't move people up. He pegs you and then that's it largely.
I don't feel like that's fair to say, given the brief history of the company and the brevity of many people's runs there so far.
Andrade and Malakai are examples of guys that many thought would flourish more in AEW but didn't, but you also have to acknowledge that they have both only been around for approximately a year, neither have been able to be consistently booked for various reasons, they came in amongst a huge wave of new hires (which tbf is a problem created by AEW management) and they could both hardly be elevated any more than they were without contending for/winning the world title and there's no shortage of world title caliber guys there as it is. Also, it's been the AEW way to save certain big matches so I can understand not wanting to put either in the world title picture until you're actually ready to pull the trigger possibly.
Plenty of acts, such as The Acclaimed, Orange Cassidy, Wardlow, Ricky Starks, Scorpio Sky, Eddie Kingston, Miro and Will Hobbs have been pretty significantly upgraded from where they started, and there are many others like John Silver, Fuego and Lance Archer who have been temporarily elevated when they caught a wave of momentum.
Unfortunately some people have been caught in between various people's hot runs and new signings, and that's caused them to stall or not meet expectations. That's why I'm fine with seeing a good few departures in the future, as it will hopefully clear the clutter and allow for more focused booking.
