November 20, 20186 yr comment_5871932 No one whose surname begins with O. Its Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar and LA Park, all of them feel important in a way most of today’s geeks don’t.
November 20, 20186 yr comment_5871963 My wrestler of the year is Kenny Omega . Omega is the IWGP champ and end the Rainmaker's historic run. Omega is the top wrestler in the world's top wrestling promotion.
November 20, 20186 yr comment_5871975 I guess Zeus should get a nod here as he had his career best year.
November 21, 20186 yr comment_5872052 It's interesting to me how much my tastes seem to differ from others. In example, WALTER, ZSJ & Ospreay aren't even on my radar, let alone at the top of my list. In fact, I've never seen a ZSJ or WALTER match that I've liked. I actually stopped watching matches from them because after watching about five pimped matches I was like "...I don't get it." I literally at this point go out of my way to avoid their matches, much like The Young Bucks. So there's definitely a big disconnect there with me. There are wrestlers that came around like that often for me; highly praised online that I don't get a lot of enjoyment from. Used to be Prince Devitt & Kevin Steen. I do like Fenix & Pentagon but Fenix lives & dies by how many spots he blows (kind of like Sabu of old) and Pentagon is just going through the motions right now for me. That being said, the top wrestlers this year for me are Okada, Omega & Gargano. Probably with Gargano at number one.
November 21, 20186 yr comment_5872056 Ospreay and Omega are nowhere near my radar but different strokes for different folks.
November 21, 20186 yr comment_5872058 I see little connective tissue between Prince Devitt and WALTER and think that's an odd comparison. WALTER is the front-runner and it will take a stellar December from Fuminori Abe, David Starr, or Timothy Thatcher to make up the gap. He has a formula but the formula flat out works. No matter the promotion, no matter the opponent, he slots them in and it is grand. David Starr continues to be the most versitile wrestler out there. He had a BritShoot match against ZSJ that was rad and has had deathmatches against Joey Janela. Plus every match of his seems to be him putting in a good effort which is nice to see. Thatcher is mostly WALTER's second but when he gets to go off on his own, it owns. He's the same grappler we've known but in settings that seem to care about him. If you are interested in submitting a list of your top wrestlers of 2018 though I will promote the http://wdkwrestling.freeforums.net/
November 21, 20186 yr comment_5872059 The guys this year I've felt compelled to go out of my way to see and consistently enjoyed are Hiroshi Tanahashi, Minoru Suzuki, WALTER, LA Park, and ZSJ, in roughly that order. Shayna Baszler is probably my favorite worker who has yet to have a truly great match. I'm kind of torn on Ronda. One the one hand, she's overdelivered every time she's been in the ring, and even if she practices her big matches beforehand, nothing she does feels choreographed or cooperative. On the other hand, she's barely into double digits in matches worked. I want to see how she does when she has to work week-in and week-out.
November 21, 20186 yr comment_5872063 Yeah, Minoru Suzuki is another one on the cusp, who I wish had stronger matches this year but it's hard to deny the Goto match from WK, the Tanahashi match, the Okada downpour match and the latest Ishii match.
November 26, 20186 yr comment_5872228 Maybe I've got a weakness for mouth guard wearing wrestlers, but I've got Shayna Baszler and Pete Dunne battling for the top spot. Both have kept knocking out good match after good match all year, working a convincing level of stiffness without letting their matches go into overkill (we'll ignore Wargames for Pete). They're the two wrestlers I'll go out of my way to see.
November 27, 20186 yr comment_5872309 For pure consistent quality I'd have to go with either Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima or WALTER. Guys like ZSJ would be in my top 3 if he was way more consistent with his matches. Founds his G1 really disappointing, and some of his indie work hasn't been great outside of the Walter matches.
November 27, 20186 yr comment_5872310 Probably his performances so far in the RWTL would tip Jun Akiyama into the top spot. Arguably 22 years after he first could have been considered a Wrestler of the Year Contender
December 24, 20186 yr comment_5873829 Personally, my pick is Shingo Takagi. He's been all over the place in 2018- awesome showing at the AJ Champion Carnival, PWG BOLA, and now is part of NJ and LIJ. For a guy that was being hyped a decade ago and then kinda faded unless you were watching DG, its sweet to see his resurgence this year.
December 28, 20186 yr comment_5874051 Hands down its Becky Lynch. Also Ronda Rousey who's been ridiculously good.
December 31, 20186 yr comment_5874214 WALTER and Ronda have been pretty good. The old folks like Jun Akiyama, Negro Casas and Aja Kong have also been impressive.
January 3, 20196 yr comment_5874455 On 12/31/2018 at 1:16 AM, Microstatistics said: WALTER and Ronda have been pretty good. The old folks like Jun Akiyama, Negro Casas and Aja Kong have also been impressive. I think I only saw two Casas matches this year but the old man has still got it. Thought Jun had a great year as well with the CC run and the Real World Tag League match with Sekimoto against Yoshiken.
January 3, 20196 yr comment_5874492 For the past few years, I've created my WOTY/Most Outstanding list w/ the matches I've rated ***1/2+ that year. The top-10, with that in mind, ended up being this, for me, in 2018: 1) Zack Sabre Jr. 2) WALTER 3) Daniel Bryan 4) Timothy Thatcher 5) Minoru Suzuki 6) Tomohiro Ishii 7) David Starr 8) Hiroshi Tanahashi 9) Kenny Omega 10) AJ Styles
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