June 12, 20205 yr comment_5919973 Hey @El Dragon, where the hell have you been, dude? I was worried you'd caught the COVID or something! Good to see you posting again.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5919974 1 hour ago, C.S. said: Daniel Bryan by a mile. AJ's WWE run has been good but overrated and filled with more misses than hits. Plus, he's a flat-earther. Yeah before I even clicked on this thread, I thought "well, it has to be Daniel Bryan with maybe AJ Styles a distant second" and that seems to be the general consensus here too. I love AJ but I used to think he was capable of having a good match with anybody, until his interminable series with Kevin Owens that seemed to be endless and produced exactly zero good matches. Since then, I've found Styles to be hit and miss. With Bryan, I find he can usually get a good match out of pretty much anybody. I can't honestly think of a match or angle he's been involved in that I thought was a total misfire, and several have actually over-delivered. Hell, he carried Big Cass to a watchable match for gawd's sake. If that's not a major accomplishment, I don't know what is. I don't hold anybody's personal beliefs or behavior against them when judging them purely as a worker, provided they haven't committed a felony, so AJ gets a pass from me for his beliefs. If social media has taught us anything, it's that (much as suspected) 99% of Pro Wrestlers are either mindless corporate sycophants, or idiots. Or in many cases...both.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5919979 24 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said: Hey @El Dragon, where the hell have you been, dude? I was worried you'd caught the COVID or something! Good to see you posting again. Oh, didn't realize would even notice I haven't posted much. Just been focusing on work, have been kind of out of wrestling for a while.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5919980 26 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said: If social media has taught us anything, it's that (much as suspected) 99% of Pro Wrestlers are either mindless corporate sycophants, or idiots. You're right about that. Expecting a pro wrestler to be anything other than an overgrown man-child with very simplistic and/or backward views of the world is probably asking too much. Only wrestlers who have gotten outside the bubble - like Foley, Rock, and Batista - have evolved past that.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5919995 My gut says Bryan but I wouldn't want to close the door on Tanahashi prematurely. I haven't seen as much of him from the first decade as I have of Bryan, but its possible he's got more than enough there to make a case.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920001 9 hours ago, The Thread Killer said: I can't honestly think of a match or angle he's been involved in that I thought was a total misfire Miz.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920012 1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said: Miz. Which Miz part? I liked there most recent feud, even though it was the only face Miz stuff that was bearable. And while the Kane feud was the shits, he also got a legitimately entertaining tag team out of Kane.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920016 13 hours ago, El Dragon said: Another name I'd give a shout to being a super Darkhorse, though obviously not a winner in this contest, is Eddie Kingston, who has remained one of the few guys I will seek out there work for almost 15 years now. I was just about to chime in with Kingston as a personal pick. I can't think of a time where he hasn't brought something great to a match and he's one of the most underrated sellers (not bumper) of all time.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920023 2 hours ago, El Dragon said: Which Miz part? I liked there most recent feud, even though it was the only face Miz stuff that was bearable. The 2018 feud that killed Bryan's heat to the point where they had to turn him heel to salvage him.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920026 Wait the one where Bryan wanted to punch Miz in the face? I remember the crowd was very much into the build for that match
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920028 Yeah, we are listing the almost Memphis style Bryan/Miz March as bad now? That match ruled.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920031 I thought the Summerslam match was a huge disappointment with a largely dead crowd. Certainly not as good as the match the two had in 2010 at Night of Champions. And then Brie and Maryse got involved and things went completely off the rails.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920033 31 minutes ago, FMKK said: It didn't get over though Are we really judging quality by what a modern crowd thinks of a match on if it’s bad now? Cause I’d rather self lobotomize with a hatchet then watch an Adam Cole epic and people love those.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920036 3 hours ago, Stiva said: I was just about to chime in with Kingston as a personal pick. I can't think of a time where he hasn't brought something great to a match and he's one of the most underrated sellers (not bumper) of all time. We have an Eddie Kingston Complete and Accurate over at Segunda Caida, if folks are looking for Eddie recs. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/09/complete-and-accurate-eddie-kingston.html
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920038 I want to toss Dick Togo's name out there. I'm definitely in the "Danielson is obviously #1" camp, but I think the 12 or so years of Togo we got might be good enough for a top 10 spot on the list.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920040 I similar vain to Togo who is a good shout, Meiko Satomura would have to be in the top 10 running too, right?
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920044 2 hours ago, NintendoLogic said: I thought the Summerslam match was a huge disappointment with a largely dead crowd. Certainly not as good as the match the two had in 2010 at Night of Champions. And then Brie and Maryse got involved and things went completely off the rails. I loved the SummerSlam match. Easily the best match on the card. Nothing else came close. People just didn't like it because it was a smartly worked wrestling match with both wrestlers expertly telling an in-ring story through their bodies and bumps - not a flashy "movez" fest.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920045 If nothing else, it's clear that Bryan is probably the greatest "make chicken salad out of chicken shit" worker of the last 20 years and maybe of all time. The amount of times he's been given a lump to work with and ended up having a decent-to-great match with them is mind boggling. Just like everyone in New Japan has their best match with Okada, everyone in WWE's best match is usually vs Bryan.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920046 10 minutes ago, C.S. said: I loved the SummerSlam match. Easily the best match on the card. Nothing else came close. People just didn't like it because it was a smartly worked wrestling match with both wrestlers expertly telling an in-ring story through their bodies and bumps - not a flashy "movez" fest. Too bad Mauro wasn't on commentary to help fans appreciate the match's brilliance.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920048 I'll jump on the bandwagon and put in another vote for Daniel Bryan. The only other name I can think of would be Okada.
June 12, 20205 yr comment_5920050 3 hours ago, El Dragon said: Are we really judging quality by what a modern crowd thinks of a match on if it’s bad now? Cause I’d rather self lobotomize with a hatchet then watch an Adam Cole epic and people love those. Like it or not, the job is to get over with the audience who pay to watch the show, not with PWO. I think Adam Cole is the shits as well, to be clear. But the fact that Bryan was turned so quickly after his mega return is a clear sign that that run was a failure. Anyway, my answer to the question is Danielson or Tanahashi like everybody else. Danielson probably had the better 00s and Tana the better 10s but both have enough of a resume in both decades to make them better contenders than Okada and Omega. Some other outside candidates are Cena, AJ Styles, maybe some of the late 00s indy guys who have gone to WWE like Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and I also think Kota Ibushi, who has been around for longer than people sometimes remember and had his first great match in like 2006 iirc.
June 13, 20205 yr comment_5920051 22 minutes ago, FMKK said: Like it or not, the job is to get over with the audience who pay to watch the show, not with PWO. I think Adam Cole is the shits as well, to be clear. But the fact that Bryan was turned so quickly after his mega return is a clear sign that that run was a failure. Anyway, my answer to the question is Danielson or Tanahashi like everybody else. Danielson probably had the better 00s and Tana the better 10s but both have enough of a resume in both decades to make them better contenders than Okada and Omega. Some other outside candidates are Cena, AJ Styles, maybe some of the late 00s indy guys who have gone to WWE like Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and I also think Kota Ibushi, who has been around for longer than people sometimes remember and had his first great match in like 2006 iirc. Or it's a sign he asked to turn heel repeatedly, which he did. He's stated as such. He was still popular, he just wanted to turn heel.
June 13, 20205 yr comment_5920053 1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said: Too bad Mauro wasn't on commentary to help fans appreciate the match's brilliance. That is a shame indeed, but you can't have everything.
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