10 Favourite Modern Wrestlers

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Zardnaar

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This list is my favorite modern wrestlers. Modern being they are still active and can perform at a decent level. Generally if they were active in the 90's or earlier they won't be on this list (with 1 exception).

Generally I like a wrestler because of their character work and in ring skills, I don';t care how they are booked due to things like internal politics.

AJ Styles
Just to good in the ring.

Alexa
To entertaining with her facial expressions.

Kevin Owens
Gets dealt crap and spins it into gold.

Sami Zane
Heel turn saved him

Chris Jericho
You're a stupid idiot, unlike most 90's wrestlers can still perform at a high level. Always entertaining the man of 1004 holds.

Braun Strowman
Every now and then I buy into a WWE push. Braun may not be the best in ring technician but he is usually entertaining.

Seth Rollins
The most interesting one in the shield, can usually put on a great match.

Elias
Entertaining and good at getting old school heat although I think the audience likes him.



Rusev
Its Rusev day. Gets shitty booking.

The Miz
Best talker apart from Jericho in the modern WWE



Adam Cole
Same as Alistar Black. Adam Cole baybay.

No women but its mostly due to crappy booking. This list a year ago probably would have had Becky Lynch and Sasha in it but yeah. Bailey has been ruined along with perhaps Asuka, Charlotte is boring as a babyface and most of them are boring and/or meh or very green. Bianca Belair is interesting in NXT thoguh.
 
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The Sheik

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No particular order.

Alexa Bliss

Great Storyteller, fantastic mic worker, which doesn't come around often in the women's division. Most attractive women they've ever had in WWE.. She seems very sweet in real life and comes across as a very believable bitch on TV.

AJ Styles

Great in the ring, he can bring anyone to a solid match, overall seems like a very likable dude.

Seth Rollins

Amazing in the ring, this year he's the been the best in-ring talent they have, he should be in the World Title picture soon.

Elias

Just keep insulting the crowd the way he does and he'll continue to be entertaining.

Braun Strowman

His feud with Roman Reigns really helped get him over, flipping over trucks, ambulances and tearing down the set. How can you not love shit like that?

Brock Lesnar

Brings legitimacy to WWE, whoever Brock works with has to play by his rules. Very believable who doesn't come across as a phony, like most of the roster.

Kevin Owens

The most entertaining guy on the roster, he can be booked like shit and turn anything into gold.

Sami Zayn

Same as Kevin Owens, this guy was very boring as a babyface, but a heel turn really rejuvenated his career.

Daniel Bryan

Same exact reason as AJ Styles. Great in-ring talent who's very relatable.

Randy Orton

One of my favorites of all time, mainly due to his character work and heel persona back in the day, but lately he's very boring.. I just threw him in here because i can only think of nine.
 
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Zardnaar

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No particular order.

Alexa Bliss

Great Storyteller, fantastic mic worker, which doesn't come around often in the women's division. Most attractive women they've ever had in WWE.. She seems very sweet in real life and comes across as a very believable bitch on TV.

AJ Styles

Great in the ring, he can bring anyone to a solid match, overall seems like a very likable dude.

Seth Rollins

Amazing in the ring, this year he's the been the best in-ring talent they have, he should be in the World Title picture soon.

Elias

Just keep insulting the crowd the way he does and he'll continue to be entertaining.

Braun Strowman

His feud with Roman Reigns really helped get him over, flipping over trucks, ambulances and tearing down the set. How can you not love shit like that?

Brock Lesnar

Brings legitimacy to WWE, whoever Brock works with has to play by his rules. Very believable who doesn't come across as a phony, like most of the roster.

Kevin Owens

The most entertaining guy on the roster, he can be booked like shit and turn anything into gold.

Sami Zayn

Same as Kevin Owens, this guy was very boring as a babyface, but a heel turn really rejuvenated his career.

Daniel Bryan

Same exact reason as AJ Styles. Great in-ring talent who's very relatable.

Randy Orton

One of my favorites of all time, mainly due to his character work and heel persona back in the day, but lately he's very boring.. I just threw him in here because i can only think of nine.

i find Orton boring and have only been wathicn for 2 years ol.

Kinda forgot about Alexa yeah she would be my pick for the women. She is good enough in the ring and is to entertaining much like Elias.

I think the crowds like Elias and Alexa, Miz to a lesser extent he is to good at winding them up.

I'll update my list throw in Kevin, Sami and Alexa.
 

Jay-Ashley

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  1. Asuka. I watched her over in Japan and I am just a huge fan.
  2. Kairi Sane. Same as Asuka
  3. Dakota Kai. I watched her in the Indy scene and soon became a fan of her.
  4. Ricochet. I just love watching this guy wrestle and was a fan of his in the Indies.
  5. Adam Cole. Same as Ricochet
  6. AJ Styles. I was a fan of his in TNA, NJPW, and now WWE.
  7. Samoa Joe. I enjoyed his work in the Indies, TNA, and hopefully WWE
  8. Seth Rollins. The guy is just a great talent.
  9. Ember Moon. Same as Dakota.
  10. Johnny Gargano. The best example of a Face, great wrestler, and fan of his in the Indies.
(Honorable mentions are Hideo Itami, Tomasso Ciampa, Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, and Matt Hardy)
 
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Zardnaar

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  1. Asuka. I watched her over in Japan and I am just a huge fan.
  2. Kairi Sane. Same as Asuka
  3. Dakota Kai. I watched her in the Indy scene and soon became a fan of her.
  4. Ricochet. I just love watching this guy wrestle and was a fan of his in the Indies.
  5. Adam Cole. Same as Ricochet
  6. AJ Styles. I was a fan of his in TNA, NJPW, and now WWE.
  7. Samoa Joe. I enjoyed his work in the Indies, TNA, and hopefully WWE
  8. Seth Rollins. The guy is just a great talent.
  9. Hideo Itami. Though WWE has somewhat wasted this guy, I am still a fan of his.
  10. Johnny Gargano. The best example of a Face, great wrestler, and fan of his in the Indies.
(Honorable mentions are The Miz, Tomasso Ciampa, Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, and Matt Hardy)
Tomassi Ciampa has done brilliant heel work. They actually hate him and not in a Alex/Miz/Elias love to hate way.
 

Jay-Ashley

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Tomassi Ciampa has done brilliant heel work. They actually hate him and not in a Alex/Miz/Elias love to hate way.
Ciampa is the best heel in WWE hands down, and like you said fans actually hate him, and in the love to hate way like you mentioned.
 

Zardnaar

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Ciampa is the best heel in WWE hands down, and like you said fans actually hate him, and in the love to hate way like you mentioned.

Love to hate by that I eman the fans basically like them but will boo anyway. They buy into them enough to boo but not really to hate as such.

The boos for Ciampa have an edge to them that Miz/Alexa/Elias do not get. They actually hate him in an old school 80's way. If you can do that brilliant work. Loving NXT atm each takeover is great and the weekly show is can't miss for me and I like it more than even the AE.

Ciampa that bastard. Not a Gargano fan but once again he is very very good at being a babyface probably one of the best so he is good at his job.

They well all get wrecked on the main roster. Gargano is to small, without that betrayal angle Ciama is just another dude on the roster.
 

Jay-Ashley

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Love to hate by that I eman the fans basically like them but will boo anyway. They buy into them enough to boo but not really to hate as such.

The boos for Ciampa have an edge to them that Miz/Alexa/Elias do not get. They actually hate him in an old school 80's way. If you can do that brilliant work.
Oh, I got what you were saying about the love to hate.

Agreed, man.
 

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As of this moment:

Christ Jericho, AJ Styles, Asuka, Seth Rollins, Charlotte, Big E, Naomi, Shinsuke, Ember Moon, Braun Strowman.
 
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Mustafar Reginald

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Ten of them? Look, there are plenty of talented wrestlers I enjoy and like to some extent but at this point I'm teetering at the edge of stopping watching for a variety reason so to name ten I care enough about to actual consider a favorite is going to be tough. Especially since this is in the WWE section so I'm going to restrict this to WWE competitors so no Chris Jericho. He was at the Greatest Royal Rumble yes, but I'm kinda over the List shtick at this point and he do much of interest so technically he would be but I'm not listing him.

Wrestlers That Keep me Watching. I'll Generally Check Out The Youtube Version of Their Segments Every Week.

I. Asuka. I love her. Asuka is absolutely one of the best wrestlers on the roster, and in my opinion, the most interesting. Everything about Asuka is amazing, take her entrance for example (which imo is the best entrance in WWE today outside of maybe Finn Balor), not only do I really like the song but I love how grandiose it feels. Featuring additional apparel during an entrance that is not featured in a match is a great way to help make the entrance more distinctive, and Asuka brings that will both her uchikake kimono (I think it's an open uchikake styled kimono anyway) and her mask. And not only that but the ending of her entrance, the taunt on the top turnbuckle where she removes her mask and brings it too her lips (example: my avatar) already feels like an iconic set-piece to me. It's a similar vein of Triple H's water spit, Taker's hat remove scary eyes, Kane's pyro turnbuckle, in terms of entrance construction anyway, in terms of iconic entrances pieces those aren't getting topped. But she's utilizes the same idea of giving a memorable conclusion utilizing a character motif/prop either introduced in their entrance or not. Asuka's mask is used in the same way as Taker's hat and supernatural traits, Kane's fire motif and supernatural traits, and Triple H's love/hate relationship with water.

I also love her mannerisms during the entrance, not only is the slow weird dance moves a pretty decent way of attracting attention to her but I love the contrast between that and the fast paced brutality of her in-ring style. But back to her mannerisms, I love them. They are a persistent quality throughout all her matches, she embodies her character extremely well and along with her wrestling ability on a technical level, she also presents a lot of personality in her matches. I was going to say almost nobody in WWE embodies their character as well as Asuka but it's more like most wrestlers in WWE don't have a character as lively as Asuka to portray. I also like how Asuka uses mannerisms to help set the tone for her matches. One of her spots features her rolling around an opponent avoiding their attack and then dancing her heart out, as a way to mock them. If you watch the Sasha Banks match from Raw back you'll see she does that exact set-up but doesn't follow it up with the dance, and that happens within the first few minutes. To the average consumer it probably didn't mean much but to someone who typically watches stuff from craft perspective as well and might be a little obsessed with one of the competitors, this really helped elevate the match, effectively setting the tone that this was a bigger deal. And Asuka stills shows her murderous glee for lack of a better phrase in this match, she doesn't remove that aspect of her character but she only does it in moments of dominance. When Sasha knocked outside and Asuka's still in or when Asuka has her in a rest-hold, she's clearly treating Sasha on a different level than Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, hell even Alexa Bliss, and that managed to the match so much better, and in my opinion, made Sasha look better than she had in like all of 2017. Very few wrestlers are change their movesets and approach up like Asuka does in a way that helps better communicate to the audience the difference in severity of the competition.

Like I said, I think she's the most interesting wrestling on the roster because of stuff like this. And I could go on and talk about Asuka some more but I have nine more of these wrestlers to write about and no, I'm not spending the rest of my night doing this. I'll just say this, if Carmella pins Asuka clean, I will never forgive you. There's a lot of stuff I'll never forgive you for, but this might top everything except Zack Ryder.

II. AJ Styles. Everybody has AJ Styles on their list. Everyone who will post in this thread after me will have AJ Styles on their list. The only reason not to put AJ Styles on your list is because he's so frequent it's boring, or to try and invalidate my point. If Asuka's the most interesting wrestler, Styles is the best wrestler. And that kinda makes him boring to talk about, I don't know what to say about him. His hair is absolutely phenomenal? Point blank, Styles is every bit as talented as everyone on the internet says he is, and can get a good match out of everyone.

III. Daniel Bryan. I've said this before, or I thought about saying it but decided it wasn't worth it, but I'll say it again, Daniel Bryan is like inspiration in human form. I know it's been almost two months since he was clear but I can't tell you how happy I am that he's wrestling again. Yes, even after that Big Cass feud. Which to be frank, went exactly how I thought it should. Including Bryan absolutely murdering Cass on SDL. Daniel Bryan also hasn't missed a step, I only watched the Greatest Royal Rumble in hopes that he'd go the whole distance, and while he didn't he was great in what time he got, and that match with AJ Styles on Smackdown Live after Mania was better just about everything at Mania, in my opinion.

IV. Kairi Sane. Admittedly Kairi Sane is slipping a bit for me because most of the time I forgot NXT is on and thankfully she's not on every week or I couldn't count her for this. While I don't care for a Lacey Evans feud, I'm still a fan of Kairi Sane. I became a huge fan of Kairi Sane when I first saw her compete in the Mae Young Classic and no wrestler has ever made a better first impression on me. I feel like I marked for all her moves and had trouble sleeping afterwards because my heart was still pounding. She still has the best Elbow Drop of all-time as her finisher, and she carries a lot of charm to her matches. One of my favorite 'spots' of all-time is when during the Mae Young Classic Bianca blew a kiss to Kairi, and she caught it, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it.

Wrestlers I Really Enjoy at The Moment But Really Can't be Bothered to Keep up With All Their Segments Though When I do I'm Usually Sports-Entertained.

V. Seth Rollins. Dude's on absolute fire from what I can tell, everything I've seen from him in the last few months are career defining. All the matches I've seen from him are excellent, The Miz one at Backlash in particular (helped that the rest of the PPV was basically a dumpster fire), and his face promos have improved a great deal I think, he's developed a far stronger groove. Maybe it has to do with a better crowd reaction, cause every since the Gauntlet at least, crowd's been red hot for him to, again from what I seen. I think the whole Brock Lesnar/Roman Reigns thing makes it hard for me to care about the Raw division a bit. I hope Rollins is heading to the Universal Title picture, and I hope he wins it.

Wrestlers That Should've Been in the Category Above But Bad Booking Has Made it Difficult for me To Care. I Still Want to Though, and Have Hope Things Will Change.

VI. Shinsuke Nakamura. Also known as the reason Styles will only have four kids. Being someone who majorly avoids NXT, for no other reason then I don't want to keep up with another wrestling show, and hasn't really watched the indies, for the same reason really, Shinsuke Nakamura was never someone who worked for me. I found his run on the main roster the definition of lackluster and underwhelming, and when he won the Royal Rumble I was glad everyone was getting their dream match but also upset that AJ Styles was likely dropping the title to him. Of course, WrestleMania 34 was a Middle Finger to obvious outcomes so Styles retained, and Shinsuke turned heel in great fashion. And finally, Shinsuke clicked with me. From that sly wink in that promo with Renee, to his way of dodging explaining himself by blatantly lying, to the new entrance music and his borderline obsession with cracking Styles' nuts. I actually really liked this angle, there wasn't a ton of variation but just enough for me (the best being Shinsuke attacking Karl Anderson while Styles watched, to dick hurt to help), and I really like the idea of revolving the build around a singular spot since that means they can incorporate into the matches. The Greatest Royal Rumble's finish did mean the match wasn't going to be something I was interested in re-visiting but it did build to a logical conclusion for the story and made the low-blow an integral part of the story. Then Backlash happened and yeah, they kept the low-blows as integral story elements unfortunately, we got a double low-blow draw finish. Shinsuke needed to win there, and while the draw certainly alleviates the damage done personally to him (in comparison to Styles outright beating him), I've personally found it hard to care about the feud anymore, and Shinsuke's heel run has started to sour on me. He was my favorite thing going on for awhile there but WWE didn't pull the trigger and now I'm suffering from blue balls. Fitting in a way for Shinsuke.

VII. Charlotte Flair. I know she'll face Ronda at Mania. I know she'll be fine. I know the clean lost to Carmella was at least done in a manner that tried to present it as luck (like, Charlotte buckled on landing and Carmella took quick advantage of that, which is different than Carmella beat Charlotte on her own ability alone) but man, dude, dudettee, girlfriend, Charlotte went from ending Asuka's streak to feeling like an after-thought. Granted I know she's in the Women's Money in the Bank but honestly, I find it hard to care about the build to any of those matches. It's just been qualification matches with no interactions between the participants (on SDL, Raw's been better in this regard).

Wrestlers I Believe Are Probably Still Really Entertaining But my Consistent Loss of Passion Prevents me From Keeping Tabs With Them. Also, There's a lot of Wrestlers That Could Fit in This Category, I'm Just Going to Go Off the Top of my Head.

VIII. & IX. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. I don't really pay attention to anything on Raw at the moment but last I did it was for these two (also Rollins & Ember Moon, whom just because I gave a shout-out here, will not be my tenth despite that originally being the plan, Ember Moon is great though). KO & Sami are two of the best talkers (along with Miz [who's also an honorable mention like Moon] and Bliss [who is not an honorable mention]) in the company, usually really entertaining and never feel like that constricted by the WWE writing team. They're also top notch wrestlers. From what I understand about what they're doing now, Kevin Owens is in the MITB match and Sami Zayn is feuding with Bobby Lashley because Lashley wore a similar hat to Zayn in an interview about his sisters?

X. Samoa Joe. Speaking of best talkers, Joe's been fantastic on the mic since returning, really liked that promo he did on Big Cass. He's one of the most believable bad-ass destroyers on the roster, the most believable on SDL unless I'm forgetting somebody, and the idea of a feud with Styles has me pretty excited.

Generally I like a wrestler because of their character work and in ring skills, I don';t care how they are booked

No women but its mostly due to crappy booking.

Getting mixed signals from you, mate.
 
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Jay-Ashley

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Ten of them? Look, there are plenty of talented wrestlers I enjoy and like to some extent but at this point I'm teetering at the edge of stopping watching for a variety reason so to name ten I care enough about to actual consider a favorite is going to be tough. Especially since this is in the WWE section so I'm going to restrict this to WWE competitors so no Chris Jericho. He was at the Greatest Royal Rumble yes, but I'm kinda over the List shtick at this point and he do much of interest so technically he would be but I'm not listing him.

Wrestlers That Keep me Watching. I'll Generally Check Out The Youtube Version of Their Segments Every Week.

I. Asuka. I love her. Asuka is absolutely one of the best wrestlers on the roster, and in my opinion, the most interesting. Everything about Asuka is amazing, take her entrance for example (which imo is the best entrance in WWE today outside of maybe Finn Balor), not only do I really like the song but I love how grandiose it feels. Featuring additional apparel during an entrance that is not featured in a match is a great way to help make the entrance more distinctive, and Asuka brings that will both her uchikake kimono (I think it's an open uchikake styled kimono anyway) and her mask. And not only that but the ending of her entrance, the taunt on the top turnbuckle where she removes her mask and brings it too her lips (example: my avatar) already feels like an iconic set-piece to me. It's a similar vein of Triple H's water spit, Taker's hat remove scary eyes, Kane's pyro turnbuckle, in terms of entrance construction anyway, in terms of iconic entrances pieces those aren't getting topped. But she's utilizes the same idea of giving a memorable conclusion utilizing a character motif/prop either introduced in their entrance or not. Asuka's mask is used in the same way as Taker's hat and supernatural traits, Kane's fire motif and supernatural traits, and Triple H's love/hate relationship with water.

I also love her mannerisms during the entrance, not only is the slow weird dance moves a pretty decent way of attracting attention to her but I love the contrast between that and the fast paced brutality of her in-ring style. But back to her mannerisms, I love them. They are a persistent quality throughout all her matches, she embodies her character extremely well and along with her wrestling ability on a technical level, she also presents a lot of personality in her matches. I was going to say almost nobody in WWE embodies their character as well as Asuka but it's more like most wrestlers in WWE don't have a character as lively as Asuka to portray. I also like how Asuka uses mannerisms to help set the tone for her matches. One of her spots features her rolling around an opponent avoiding their attack and then dancing her heart out, as a way to mock them. If you watch the Sasha Banks match from Raw back you'll see she does that exact set-up but doesn't follow it up with the dance, and that happens within the first few minutes. To the average consumer it probably didn't mean much but to someone who typically watches stuff from craft perspective as well and might be a little obsessed with one of the competitors, this really helped elevate the match, effectively setting the tone that this was a bigger deal. And Asuka stills shows her murderous glee for lack of a better phrase in this match, she doesn't remove that aspect of her character but she only does it in moments of dominance. When Sasha knocked outside and Asuka's still in or when Asuka has her in a rest-hold, she's clearly treating Sasha on a different level than Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, hell even Alexa Bliss, and that managed to the match so much better, and in my opinion, made Sasha look better than she had in like all of 2017. Very few wrestlers are change their movesets and approach up like Asuka does in a way that helps better communicate to the audience the difference in severity of the competition.

Like I said, I think she's the most interesting wrestling on the roster because of stuff like this. And I could go on and talk about Asuka some more but I have nine more of these wrestlers to write about and no, I'm not spending the rest of my night doing this. I'll just say this, if Carmella pins Asuka clean, I will never forgive you. There's a lot of stuff I'll never forgive you for, but this might top everything except Zack Ryder.

II. AJ Styles. Everybody has AJ Styles on their list. Everyone who will post in this thread after me will have AJ Styles on their list. The only reason not to put AJ Styles on your list is because he's so frequent it's boring, or to try and invalidate my point. If Asuka's the most interesting wrestler, Styles is the best wrestler. And that kinda makes him boring to talk about, I don't know what to say about him. His hair is absolutely phenomenal? Point blank, Styles is every bit as talented as everyone on the internet says he is, and can get a good match out of everyone.

III. Daniel Bryan. I've said this before, or I thought about saying it but decided it wasn't worth it, but I'll say it again, Daniel Bryan is like inspiration in human form. I know it's been almost two months since he was clear but I can't tell you how happy I am that he's wrestling again. Yes, even after that Big Cass feud. Which to be frank, went exactly how I thought it should. Including Bryan absolutely murdering Cass on SDL. Daniel Bryan also hasn't missed a step, I only watched the Greatest Royal Rumble in hopes that he'd go the whole distance, and while he didn't he was great in what time he got, and that match with AJ Styles on Smackdown Live after Mania was better just about everything at Mania, in my opinion.

IV. Kairi Sane. Admittedly Kairi Sane is slipping a bit for me because most of the time I forgot NXT is on and thankfully she's not on every week or I couldn't count her for this. While I don't care for a Lacey Evans feud, I'm still a fan of Kairi Sane. I became a huge fan of Kairi Sane when I first saw her compete in the Mae Young Classic and no wrestler has ever made a better first impression on me. I feel like I marked for all her moves and had trouble sleeping afterwards because my heart was still pounding. She still has the best Elbow Drop of all-time as her finisher, and she carries a lot of charm to her matches. One of my favorite 'spots' of all-time is when during the Mae Young Classic Bianca blew a kiss to Kairi, and she caught it, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it.

Wrestlers I Really Enjoy at The Moment But Really Can't be Bothered to Keep up With All Their Segments Though When I do I'm Usually Sports-Entertained.

V. Seth Rollins. Dude's on absolute fire from what I can tell, everything I've seen from him in the last few months are career defining. All the matches I've seen from him are excellent, The Miz one at Backlash in particular (helped that the rest of the PPV was basically a dumpster fire), and his face promos have improved a great deal I think, he's developed a far stronger groove. Maybe it has to do with a better crowd reaction, cause every since the Gauntlet at least, crowd's been red hot for him to, again from what I seen. I think the whole Brock Lesnar/Roman Reigns thing makes it hard for me to care about the Raw division a bit. I hope Rollins is heading to the Universal Title picture, and I hope he wins it.

Wrestlers That Should've Been in the Category Above But Bad Booking Has Made it Difficult for me To Care. I Still Want to Though, and Have Hope Things Will Change.

VI. Shinsuke Nakamura. Also known as the reason Styles will only have four kids. Being someone who majorly avoids NXT, for no other reason then I don't want to keep up with another wrestling show, and hasn't really watched the indies, for the same reason really, Shinsuke Nakamura was never someone who worked for me. I found his run on the main roster the definition of lackluster and underwhelming, and when he won the Royal Rumble I was glad everyone was getting their dream match but also upset that AJ Styles was likely dropping the title to him. Of course, WrestleMania 34 was a Middle Finger to obvious outcomes so Styles retained, and Shinsuke turned heel in great fashion. And finally, Shinsuke clicked with me. From that sly wink in that promo with Renee, to his way of dodging explaining himself by blatantly lying, to the new entrance music and his borderline obsession with cracking Styles' nuts. I actually really liked this angle, there wasn't a ton of variation but just enough for me (the best being Shinsuke attacking Karl Anderson while Styles watched, to dick hurt to help), and I really like the idea of revolving the build around a singular spot since that means they can incorporate into the matches. The Greatest Royal Rumble's finish did mean the match wasn't going to be something I was interested in re-visiting but it did build to a logical conclusion for the story and made the low-blow an integral part of the story. Then Backlash happened and yeah, they kept the low-blows as integral story elements unfortunately, we got a double low-blow draw finish. Shinsuke needed to win there, and while the draw certainly alleviates the damage done personally to him (in comparison to Styles outright beating him), I've personally found it hard to care about the feud anymore, and Shinsuke's heel run has started to sour on me. He was my favorite thing going on for awhile there but WWE didn't pull the trigger and now I'm suffering from blue balls. Fitting in a way for Shinsuke.

VII. Charlotte Flair. I know she'll face Ronda at Mania. I know she'll be fine. I know the clean lost to Carmella was at least done in a manner that tried to present it as luck (like, Charlotte buckled on landing and Carmella took quick advantage of that, which is different than Carmella beat Charlotte on her own ability alone) but man, dude, dudettee, girlfriend, Charlotte went from ending Asuka's streak to feeling like an after-thought. Granted I know she's in the Women's Money in the Bank but honestly, I find it hard to care about the build to any of those matches. It's just been qualification matches with no interactions between the participants (on SDL, Raw's been better in this regard).

Wrestlers I Believe Are Probably Still Really Entertaining But my Consistent Loss of Passion Prevents me From Keeping Tabs With Them. Also, There's a lot of Wrestlers That Could Fit in This Category, I'm Just Going to Go Off the Top of my Head.

VIII. & IX. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. I don't really pay attention to anything on Raw at the moment but last I did it was for these two (also Rollins & Ember Moon, whom just because I gave a shout-out here, will not be my tenth despite that originally being the plan, Ember Moon is great though). KO & Sami are two of the best talkers (along with Miz [who's also an honorable mention like Moon] and Bliss [who is not an honorable mention]) in the company, usually really entertaining and never feel like that constricted by the WWE writing team. They're also top notch wrestlers. From what I understand about what they're doing now, Kevin Owens is in the MITB match and Sami Zayn is feuding with Bobby Lashley because Lashley wore a similar hat to Zayn in an interview about his sisters?

X. Samoa Joe. Speaking of best talkers, Joe's been fantastic on the mic since returning, really liked that promo he did on Big Cass. He's one of the most believable bad-ass destroyers on the roster, the most believable on SDL unless I'm forgetting somebody, and the idea of a feud with Styles has me pretty excited.





Getting mixed signals from you, mate.
You just can't write simple responses, can you? Not that I have a problem with it or anything, just wondering.
 

MildlyUpsetGerbil

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10-6 are names that I just enjoyed watching and isn't very deep. 5-1 are people that got me actively invested in the product and made me care more than most wrestlers. A big part of the influence in placing these performers is how I felt towards wrestling when watching the product, so guys that might be "better" today that weren't around whenever I was in more of a "mark phase" will probably be lower than you expect. That's what happens whenever these people make me feel more than just "wow, this is a fun match". I'm sticking only with guys that were active since I started watching wrestling, which was in Fall 2013.

10. John Cena. He made for some great television during his US title reign. Sadly the open challenge idea has been overused to the point where it doesn't feel special anymore, but when Cena did it? Man, it was thrilling. Very frequently it was the highlight of the night to see who'd get to face off against Cena and whether or not they'd be able to beat him.

9. AJ Styles. To be honest, the only matches of his I've seen besides one of his Ring of Honor matches against CM Punk are the ones he's had in WWE. I knew he was great for a long time, but I just never cared enough to dig up matches he's had whenever his opponents were just indy scrubs that didn't seem special to me. He's consistently one of the best performers on the WWE roster and is a treat to see in action.

8. Ryback. I resisted him at first, but warmed up to him while he was teaming with Curtis Axel. I still remember a great tag team title match they had with the Usos on RAW that was easily the highlight of their team. I believe that Ryback and Big Show had the potential to have some great IC title matches in 2014 and were robbed by poor booking and too little time for their matches. When those two men got together they had chemistry in the ring.

7. Daniel Bryan. 2013-2014. I doubt I need to elaborate.

6. Seth Rollins, particularly as a heel when being chased by Ambrose. He's a fantastic villain, and it really showed during his reign. I feel that he really elevated the guys he worked with in terms of getting people to care. He even got a good feud out of Kane despite how watered down Kane was at that time, and the two had a good match to boot.

5. The Miz. The only guy that's on this list from my post-obsessed with the product period. The Miz we see now isn't the same Miz that faced Cena at 'Mania. When he talks, I listen. He oozes character and has only gotten better with age. Compare Miz vs. Ziggler in the "Battle of Cleveland" to Miz vs. Ziggler from 2016's No Mercy event. The amount of improvement he made as an in-ring performer is incredible. He's really came a long way since I first started watching him.

4. Sami Zayn. Hands down my favorite guy to be on the NXT roster. His rise to the title was like Daniel Bryan's if Daniel Bryan's was the result of long-term planning rather than WWE's hands being forced by its fans.

3. Dolph Ziggler. I get it, he's just kinda 'there' right now, but in 2014 and 2015, he was the guy I wanted to see climb the ladder the most. 2014's Survivor Series main event where he made the comeback remains amazing. It was filled with so much more emotion than Reigns' comeback against the Rhodes Brothers and Usos back in 2013. Dolph's actions led directly to the elimination of Rusev, so Ziggler ties Reigns' record for eliminations regardless of WWE's nonsensical refusal to acknowledge it. Then again, they'd probably just have Reigns run through a full team of five just to take Ziggler's record away, so I guess it doesn't matter.

2. Bayley. My first Bayley match was her Divas Championship bout against AJ Lee, and to be honest, I was only watching since I liked AJ at the time. I was very hostile to Bayley and just wanted to see her lose since she looked goofy, but her character also struck me as adorable and I got won over by her at the end of the match. I became a very annoying Bayley fan some time later whenever she was the odd woman out among the horsewomen and kept losing while the other three got big Takeover match after big Takeover match. I completely bought into her underdog status and felt so happy whenever she won the title off Sasha at Brooklyn. The storytelling was too perfect. Bayley's NXT story appealed to me pretty much the same way Sami's did, but I was a bigger fan of Bayley than Sami and loved her character more than his, so she's ranked higher.

1. CM Punk. The first pro wrestling match I ever saw was CM Punk vs. John Cena from Money in the Bank in 2011. That beautiful match and video package made me a wrestling fan. His wrestling and his character work are second only to the Undertaker, and even then it's a tough call. Personally, I consider Undertaker the better all around performer and best of all time, but Punk will forever be my favorite and occupy a closer place to my heart than 'Taker. I think it's the same sort of feeling that kids that watched Stone Cold or Hulk Hogan felt at their age.
 

jminter2698

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1) Samoa Joe
2 ) Daniel Bryan
3 ) AJ Styles
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) Asuka
6) Bayley (my personal favorite)
7) Alexa Bliss
8) Braun Strowman
9) The Miz
10) Seth Rollins
 
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