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#6 Dustin Rhodes a.k.a Goldust (Doesn't own)
Dustin Rhodes is probably enjoying a career resurgence few expected. At 51 years, he's still showing he can work with the best in the ring. His match with Cody Rhodes at Double or Nothing in 2019 was one of the best pro wrestling matches of the year and possibly exceeded anything he did in his WWE career.
That's not taking anything away from the Goldust character he portrayed for several years in WWE. Goldust was a 3-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, 3-time WWE World Tag Team Champion, and a 9-time WWE Hardcore Champion. Moreover, it was to Rhodes' credit that he could evolve his character from a bizarre androgynous individual to a quirky weirdo that was palpable to modern audiences.
When Goldust left WWE, he said goodbye to the Goldust characted and embraced the Dustin Rhodes name, which started his career in WCW. He does own the rights to that name. AEW will most likely be where Rhodes ends his in-ring wrestling career and helps the young stars of AEW move forward as a coach.
#5 Billy Gunn (Doesn't Own -- Sort of)
If there is one man who considered one of his generation's better talents, it is Billy Gunn. The WWE Hall of Famer was part of the most successful tag teams during the Attitude Era. Alongside Road Dogg Jesse James as The New Age Outlaws, Billy Gunn won the WWE World Tag Team Titles five times.
He was a 11-Time WWE Tag Team Champion, a 1-Time WWE Intercontinental Champion, and a 2-Time WWE Hardcore Champion. His time with DX was also well served, though he did say that the group became better after he and Road Dogg joined. He said:
"But, I think, when Shawn (Michaels) went away... DX did not get good until me and Brian (Road Dogg) got on there, till we were in it. Now you have five people and it's a whole different dynamic. Now you have everybody and anybody who could do everything and anything. And everybody played their part so good, and as a unit we were unstoppable."
Since coming to AEW, Billy Gunn has been both an in-ring performer and a backstage coach helping the younger talents. He's in a tag team with his real-life son, Austin Gunn, as The Gunn Club.
With that said, there's a little confusion over the use of his WWE name. Initially, when Billy Gunn first performed on AEW Dynamite, it was under his Billy Gunn. It was thought that it was because he owned the rights to the name. On a recent episode of AEW Dynamite, he was being billed as Billy.
Dave Meltzer noted that he couldn't use the 'Gunn' part of the name as WWE lawyers got on him. On the other hand, WrestlingNews.co reported that Billy Gunn does seem to have the rights for merchandising purposes, but not as an in-ring performer.
In short, it seems that AEW fans will be seeing 'Billy' for a while, but that might change over time.
