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saw this thread before i went to bed and knew 100% i'd have to sleep on this. also because i would've been up like 3 more hours writing everything out, so here's some word vomit. 1. Daniel Bryan Has to be number 1 for me purely because he's the only guy (other than Punk) who got me interested in WWE's product. Course, now I don't watch the weekly product anymore outside of the PPVs, but Bryan announcing his return to wrestling was easily #1 moment of the 2010s for me, even if he got stuck in a boring Mania match and a so-so Cass feud. My potential all-time favorite wrestler came back and that's all that mattered. No one in WWE compares to him in the ring and on the mic for me. I wouldn't call him the best promo in traditional terms, but he just has something no one else on the roster has imo. His feud with Kofi, while I think it didn't live up 100% to its maximum potential, was still the best thing WWE has done in recent times and it was a feud where I was so excited to see Kofi win, but at the same time, if Daniel retained, I would've been just as fine honestly. Plus he's had the best match with Lesnar since Punk. 2. Tetsuya Naito I am a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Clippers, so naturally I was drawn to Naito always being within arm's reach of becoming the top guy or getting a huge win only to fail and everything just comes tumbling down. I love believing so much in Naito only for him to lose and for me to actually get crushed, that's a type of feeling I don't get with wrestling anymore outside of Naito, and just makes me love this loser even more. His character work when LiJ started blowing up was untouchable and I'd never really seen someone just willingly toss a belt around and stomp on it and it was just loving awesome. He's not quite that same level anymore, but he's still really loving awesome. Every time Naito goes on a run, I'll tell myself that if he loses, it'll be the last time I get so invested, and yet here I am, after being crushed in the G1, now investing into the aspect that he could leave WK as a double champ. 3. Kazuchika Okada Kinda weird putting the guy I consider to be the best wrestler in the world at #3, but here's Okada!!! The only less than stellar big match I've seen Okada have was against Jericho and even then, it wasn't awful, but just not up to Okada's standards. It blows my mind that we've potentially got 10 more years of this dude at minimum.When it's all said and done, I imagine Bryan Danielson will be my #1 all-time, but with Okada probably still performing at a high level for ten years, anything is possible and nothing makes me more excited to see Okada take on the next batch of incredible wrestlers. 4. Tomohiro Ishii It is actually impossible for this man to have a bad match and it kills me that he'll probably never get a IWGP title reign, so I hope he can at least be given a IWGP IC title reign. He takes guys who I think are just okay or slightly above average and then goes and has a 4*+ match with them. He feels like the type of wrestler who everyone says AJ Styles currently is. He's a 40+ year old dude who is actually incapable of having a bad match and I've yet to see him slow down. I jokingly say Ishii could pull a 4 star match out of me, but honestly I don't even think it's a joke, Ishii is just that drat good. 5. Will Ospreay Okada, Ishii, and Ospreay are pretty much my top 3 for in-ring performance in New Japan with Ibushi just at #4 or tied with Shingo. Bad Twitter aside, I've been a fan of Ospreay's ever since I first saw him in PROGRESS and it's been a really rewarding journey to watch him go from being the guy who goes from spot-to-spot flippy wrestler to becoming an incredibly polished overall wrestler. I feel like everything people criticized him for as an in-ring performer, he's actually gone and fixed it. He still does a lot of high impact moves, but they just don't feel as dangerous for him anymore. Or maybe I'm just convincing myself of that because I really want Ospreay to have a long career. 6. Jay White BREATHE WITH DA SWITCHBLADE. From the moment he re-debuted vs. Tanahashi, I was hooked. I remember people being disappointed in the match and while I do agree it wasn't anything special, I just knew White would prove everyone wrong. I just watched him slowly get better with each match and now he's the #1 heel in New Japan. Second to Naito in character work for me and might even top him in that field in due time. He pulls off the heel shenanigans without it being too bleh and also backs that up by being a great performer. Also a real big fan of his moveset, that sleeper suplex of his is a beaut. 7. Shingo Takagi So I originally had Shingo at 10, but as I thought about him some more, I just decided to move the homie up because wow he's had a bonker year. I'll admit that I'm a bit bummed out that he's already transitioned up to heavyweight because I would've loved to have seen him in one more BOSJ. His run was rivaled by only Ospreay in this year's. His match with SHO was a 5* in my books then he killed it with Dragon Lee, Scurll, Gresham, Ishimori, and then would have a 5* with Ospreay then the homeboy shows up in the G1 to have great matches vs. Moxley, White, Taichi, Cobb, Goto, and two 5* matches with Naito and Ishii. 8. SANADA Similar to Jay White, I've just been on the SANADA train for so long. Has to be those good looks. drat him. He was a dude who I could tell was super talented, but I was always worried that his perceived lack of fire would hold him back from really doing anything, plus his freelance status scares me with the WWE rumors. BUT now SANADA has grown up from little handsome greaser boi to dressing like a swashbuckling pirate king. I love watching a SANADA match because I know he's going to take his time and it'll be slow, but man, I'm hooked in for the entire ride. Only real gripe I've got against SANADA is I wish he'd make the Skull End look a bit tighter, but I imagine being locked in an actual dragon sleeper for any amount of time would suck a lot. Really pulling for a New Japan Cup win next year for the boy. 9. Kota Ibushi Mannnnnnnnn I love me some Kota Ibushi and I'm so happy he's getting his big opportunity to shine at the Dome (unless that handsome dummy loses the contract). Similar to Ospreay, I like that Ibushi has kind of toned down his moveset, but then he'll go and do a dive where he'll gently caress up his ankle then seconds later bounce on his neck fifteen times in a row, so maybe not that similar at all. But he's got more of a heavyweight moveset, so that's cool. I love that he uses Nakamura's Boma Ye as a side note. I know his match vs. Naito is a disgusting mess, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was a spectacular match and I was looking forward to them crossing paths again at the G1 Climax finale. Like Naito, Ibushi's shown no real interest in playing it safe, so I can only imagine what sickening bump he'll try and take at the Tokyo Dome. 10. Nick Gage This spot could've gone to a ton of different people, but I'm gonna give it to MDK all fuckin' day. Nick Gage went from a dude who I just took as your run-of-the-mill boring deathmatch wrestler, but caught a few of his matches this year during Mania week and I've completely come around on my opinion of him. Dude's loving good at what he does. He has to be one of the more versatile wrestlers out there in regard that he can do a match with just about anyone. Not on the Ishii level where it's all fantastic, but this year alone he's had decent-to-great matches with Shinjiro Otani, Orange Cassidy, Effy, Tony Deppen, Joey Janela, Mance Warner, G-Raver and is in a stupidly fun tag team with Thomas Santell, who is in every way the complete opposite of Gage's character. Plus he had a Christmas themed deathmatch with one of my all-time favs in UltraMantis Black. I really would've loved to have seen Gage compete in the GCW Japan shows, but alas, impossible I imagine. Quick honorable mentions go toooooooo Tony Deppen Kris Statlander Jon Moxley Kenny Omega Dakota Kai (whenever she's healed up and ready to go again) G-Raver
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Sep 7, 2019 01:06
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Low Desert Punk posted:it's sort of interesting that Gargano has only been on two lists. i feel like having the Ciampa/Gargano feud drag out for so long might have cooled him off a lot more than I realized. if it was this time last year, I think he would be a good bit higher in the rankings. i'd agree with that and i'd add that as someone who almost put Gargano on my list, the only thing that held me back was just that i feel like you don't see him actually wrestle enough. the TakeOver matches are always good to excellent, but then the TV cycles come around and guys like Gargano and Cole maybe have a match or two. for me it was just hard to not rank guys who have had good to excellent matches a whole lot more than Gargano. i think Gargano is an excellent wrestler and i'm grateful he isn't overexposed to death like WWE loves to do with guys, but idk, i feel like i've seen him in street clothes way more than in his wrestling gear this year.
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Sep 10, 2019 07:09
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