5 Attitude Era wrestlers who would have been perfect fits for AEW

#2. Bret Hart

Bret Hart meant it when he said: "The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be." Like Kurt Angle, Hart brought a unique wrestling style to WWE in a time when skill was in short supply. Let's face it, Hulk Hogan was all quotes and personality, with very little wrestling skills to back it up. During an era when personality was the primary factor behind a wrestler's push, Hart came along and challenged the norm. He was fast, he was agile, and he was different.

Unfortunately, Hart seemed plagued by constant issues in the WWE and, later, in WCW. His initial push against Yokozuna, which led to the main event of Wrestlemania IX, somehow ended with Hulk Hogan winning the WWE Championship with little explanation, which left some fans and even wrestlers with a sour taste in their mouths. In the late '90s, backstage politics and a bitter real-life feud with Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon ended with Hart leaving the company arguably when he was at his best. In WCW, the company failed to utilize Hart as the first-class performer he was, shuffling him through odd booking decisions. Eventually, Hart's career would come to a grinding halt when he was forced into a premature retirement in the wake of a serious injury. If AEW had been around when Hart left WWE, he would have found a welcome home in Tony Khan's company. Likely too, Khan would've booked the Hitman as the world-class talent he was.

#1. Shawn Michaels

Like his longtime rival Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels was a wrestler who just seemed like someone different on WWE's roster. He had huge personality, dazzling in-ring talent, and the amazing mic skills Vince McMahon looked for in his world champions. As both a babyface and the heel leader of D-Generation X, HBK was an intense and unique performer who audiences either loathed or loved.

Perhaps the most incredible thing about Michaels is how well he managed to perform even as he got older. Like the Undertaker or Kurt Angle, Michaels' 2000s face run saw him deliver some of the finest matches of his career. But it's the 1990s era Michaels that would fit most ideally among All Elite Wrestling. Just imagine the 1997 Michaels-led DX going up against Jon Moxley, for example. Having Michaels at the height of his career in AEW--when he was still the smug, effortlessly cool Heartbreak Kid--is a unique hypothetical that, sadly, fans could only ever dream about.