You Know What, Wrestling Thread? You're On The List! - Part 232

[DarthSkywalker]

Are Joe, Rollins, Owens and Zayn not arguably top 5 in the world considering their standing in the WWE? Right now in the WWE I'd go:

1. Styles
2. Joe
3. Nakamura
4. Owens
5. Rollins

And of course if a certain someone really does comeback, he'd probably be straight back to #1.

 

[famicommander]

did anyone post this yet?

From a Matt Hardy Tweet:

Just combed MeekMahan's grounds...but nada. He'd benefit from acquiring Senor from Decay. #SenorBenjaminSearchParty

He's officially the funniest thing in wrestling right now.

 

[Lantern Venom]

"You're faaard!"

 

[famicommander]

Are Joe, Rollins, Owens and Zayn not arguably top 5 in the world considering their standing in the WWE? Right now in the WWE I'd go:

1. Styles
2. Joe
3. Nakamura
4. Owens
5. Rollins

And of course if a certain someone really does comeback, he'd probably be straight back to #1.

Their standing in WWE is irrelevant to their level of in-ring ability. That's what I was talking about.

If I had to name the ten best wrestlers in the world, I'd say
AJ Styles (WWE)
Kazuchika Okada (NJPW)
Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT)
Roderick Strong (WWE)
Jay Lethal (ROH)
Eddie Edwards (TNA)
Bobby Roode (NXT)
Dalton Castle (ROH)
Adam Cole (ROH)
Go Shiozaki (Pro Wrestling Noah)

By company

WWE/NXT:
AJ Styles
Shinsuke Nakamura
Roderick Strong
Bobby Roode
Finn Balor AKA Prince Devitt
Kevin Owens AKA Kevin Steen
Seth Rollins AKA Tyler Black
Hideo Itami AKA KENTA Kobayashi
Andrade Almas AKA La Sombra
Samoa Joe

ROH:
Jay Lethal
Dalton Castle
Adam Cole
Jay Briscoe
Kyle O'Reilly
Christopher Daniels
ACH
Frankie Kazarian
Mark Briscoe
Silas Young

NJPW:
Kazuchika Okada
Tetsuya Naito
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Hirooki Goto
KUSHIDA
Katsuyori Shibata
Kenny Omega
Tomoaki Honma
Tomohiro Ishii
Jushin Thunder Liger

TNA:
Eddie Edwards
Davey Richards
James Storm
Ethan Carter III
Drew Galloway
Andrew Everett
Trevor Lee
DJ Z
Eli Drake
Bobby Lashley

Lucha Underground:
Prince Puma AKA Ricochet (WWE bound but still)
Pentagon Dark
Rey Mysterio Jr
Mil Muertes AKA Ricky Banderas
Fenix
Cage
King Cuerno
Johnny Mundo AKA John Morrison
Texano
The Mack

Pro Wrestling Noah:
Go Shiozaki
Naomichi Marufuji
Katsuhika Nakajima
Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Davey Boy Smith Jr AKA Harry Smith AKA David Hart Smith
Jonah Rock
Taiji Ishimori
Atsushi Kotoge
Taichi Ishikari
Yoshinari Ogawa

I don't watch enough CMLL, AAA, AJPW, or Dragon's Gate to say

 

[Loki882]

Tanahashi has to be Top 10 as well I think.

 

[famicommander]

Tanahashi has to be Top 10 as well I think.

Tanahashi is incredible but he's almost 40 and has been wrestling hurt all year. Part of the reason they started teaming him with Michael Elgin is because they wanted to protect him in tag matches.

5-6 years ago Tanahashi was arguably top 3, maybe even the best. But he's just barely on the downslope of his career. He's probably still got 4-5 great years in him.

Which all just makes AJ Styles that much more amazing, considering he's also 39.

Speaking of, WWE needs to pull the trigger on some older guys while they can still go. Nakamura is 36, Roode is 39, Samoa Joe is 37, Itami is 35. They waited far too long to bring Balor (35) to the main roster and he was hurt almost immediately after he got there.

 

[TX85]

I really really hope that tonight marked a new push for The Club in the way that they should be. They came out serious, in a no nonsense mood, quickly cut to the point and finally won a match.

 

[Mani-Man]

Tanahashi is incredible but he's almost 40 and has been wrestling hurt all year. Part of the reason they started teaming him with Michael Elgin is because they wanted to protect him in tag matches.

5-6 years ago Tanahashi was arguably top 3, maybe even the best. But he's just barely on the downslope of his career. He's probably still got 4-5 great years in him.

Which all just makes AJ Styles that much more amazing, considering he's also 39.

Speaking of, WWE needs to pull the trigger on some older guys while they can still go. Nakamura is 36, Roode is 39, Samoa Joe is 37, Itami is 35. They waited far too long to bring Balor (35) to the main roster and he was hurt almost immediately after he got there.

Pretty much, Tanahashi was the Ace of NJPW for a reason.
But he isnt in the shape he once was, taking a break for some months and letting his body rest...could give him a second wind.
In his prime, Tanahashi was easily in the top 3.

Its kind of scary to see how "old" all those awesome guys are.
The WWE really needs to push them fast and as strong as possible.
They can deliver, so let them.
Make them the top guys in the wwe, even if its just for 4-5 years.

A lot of the problems come from the stressfull schedule the wwe simply wont change.
Its not just a "problem" for the "older" guys, but the younger wrestlers feel it too.
You cant send them into the ring 4-5 times a week, have them travel constantly etc and demand that they are in top shape 24/7...that is impossible and damages wrestler who otherwise could pull of 4-5 star matches left and right.

 

[chamber-music]

Okay, I have to say it finally, Sasha talks weird. Where the heck in Mass. is she from with that accent?

She moved around growing up because their family had to find schools and hospitals for her disabled brother. She lived in Fairfield, California and Minnesota before her family finally settled in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

[WereCoyote]

Not a fan of Bayley taking the pin...

Considering Sasha rolled completely through and had her shoulders on the mat also I thought they were gonna go with the double pin, and either say Dana Brooke won as the only person not pinned, or have a Triple Threat with Bayley, Sasha, and Charlotte.

 

[chamber-music]

Bo Dallas has taken up poetry.

The New Day has yet to run out of ideas on how to sneak penis jokes into every Raw promo.

Jinder Mahal won a match. Somewhere Bray Wyatt is wondering who's ass he has to kiss to win a match.

Jericho hit him with his iPhone 6s+. It's probably bent now.

If he used a Nokia 3310 then Sami would be dead

Which all just makes AJ Styles that much more amazing, considering he's also 39.

Speaking of, WWE needs to pull the trigger on some older guys while they can still go. Nakamura is 36, Roode is 39, Samoa Joe is 37, Itami is 35. They waited far too long to bring Balor (35) to the main roster and he was hurt almost immediately after he got there.

I think all those guys will be on the main roster by the end of the year.

Itami only got back from a long injury.

Joe just got a title reign and Nakamura is getting him. Roode just signed and debuted last month.

They like to keep some big names in NXT for a little while so the brand stays hot. If they sent all the top talent straight to the main roster then it would severely weaken NXT.

 

[Loki882]

If WWE doesn't acknowledge that both Sasha and Bayley's shoulders were on the mat there (either via a triple threat title match at CoC, or a one on one #1 contenders match next week), then wow would that be a screwup.

It was really blatant.

 

[Loki882]

Bo Dallas has taken up poetry.

The New Day has yet to run out of ideas on how to sneak penis jokes into every Raw promo.

Jinder Mahal won a match. Somewhere Bray Wyatt is wondering who's ass he has to kiss to win a match.

If he used a Nokia 3310 then Sami would be dead


I think all those guys will be on the main roster by the end of the year.

Itami only got back from a long injury.

Joe just got a title reign and Nakamura is getting him. Roode just signed and debuted last month.

They like to keep some big names in NXT for a little while so the brand stays hot. If they sent all the top talent straight to the main roster then it would severely weaken NXT.

That's just it though, it's shouldn't be all about protecting NXT. First of all, NXT is allegedly supposed to be a developmental brand. And second if it's a "third brand" then it's certainly not an equal one. They don't have a national/world-wide TV deal like Raw and SDL do, they have one hour as opposed to 2 or 3, they wrestle in front of far smaller crowds overall, and a lot of their roster gets paid less than those on the main roster.

When you have performers who are in their mid to late-30's, who have a decade+ or more of traveling all over the world and putting a bunch of wear and tear on their bodies, you don't have the luxury of waiting several more years to finally pull the trigger on them while they are stuck in NXT putting yet more wear and tear on their bodies. These are not young guys who are just starting out, the clock is ticking on them (and they were really smart to bring AJ right to the main roster for this reason). Heck most people would argue that Bayley should have been called up long before she was, and she's nowhere near as old as they are.

Look at Finn Balor, he's 35 and has had a long career. He spent like TWO YEARS down in NXT (which was way too long) and then once he finally makes it to the main roster, he gets injured almost immediately and is going to be out for like half a year. We could have gotten potentially like a year and a half of Balor on Raw before his injury, if he would have gotten injured at all, because they wasted so much time with him down there. I don't want to see that happen with Joe, or Roode, or Nakamura, of Asuka, etc.

These people deserve an opportunity to perform on the biggest stages, and if that means that NXT needs to try some new stuff in order to compensate, then so be it imo.

 

[chamber-music]

Triple H sees NXT as a third brand. He has said it himself on multiple occasions. When it comes to bring guys to the main roster Vince still probably has final say over who goes up.

Many wrestlers have said what you did before the WWE doesn't matter to them in certain regards. What matters is how you are when you get to the WWE.

I think NXT is being used as a proving ground for certain wrestlers from the indies and overseas. Nakamura, Itami, Cien and Asuka are probably originally on NXT to see how American audiences respond to them. For the Indie guys it is probably so that they adjust to working in WWE's style. We have seen behind the scenes footage of Triple H telling Finn Balor about camera angles and how his entrance works on camera. Some guys who worked smaller of different promotions are not used to that sort of thinking. NXT has a smaller audience so it is easier to try them out down there and see how it goes as apposed to the main roster.

The NXT roster does do anywhere near as much touring or house shows as the main roster does. They tape their shows in advance. The amount of bumps they are taking is not as many as they would be taking on the main roster which has a busier schedule.

 

[Broseph44]

I go back on my night shift at work tonight. Means I'll have to catch Smackdown later tonight on my DVR bleh.

 

[X Knight]

surprised Reigns didn't get the win last night. figured they would have tried to shoehorn him into the Owens/Rollins match.

 

[LOBO3315a]

Dang! I had to give a friend a ride home from work yesterday and missed the last half of RAW. Plus I won the Wrestling Thread Title!

So This is what being like AJ Styles must feel like....

 

[Pink Ranger]

Dang! I had to give a friend a ride home from work yesterday and missed the last half of RAW. Plus I won the Wrestling Thread Title!

So This is what being like AJ Styles must feel like....

You won a title without really showing up. You're Hulk Hogan in the 1990s.

 

[LOBO3315a]

You won a title without really showing up. You're Hulk Hogan in the 1990s.

Brother!

 

[TX85]

I'm fine with Heath Slater and Rhyno winning the tag titles, given the story but who are they going to feud with and how good can it get? I'm expecting American Alpha vs heel Usos to be a much better tag feud and maybe even the best out of both main rosters(in terms of tag teaming)

 

[WereCoyote]

If WWE doesn't acknowledge that both Sasha and Bayley's shoulders were on the mat there (either via a triple threat title match at CoC, or a one on one #1 contenders match next week), then wow would that be a screwup.

It was really blatant.

It was so obvious I thought they had to be doing it intentionally. I was shocked when they just started playing Sasha's music.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I'm fine with Heath Slater and Rhyno winning the tag titles, given the story but who are they going to feud with and how good can it get? I'm expecting American Alpha vs heel Usos to be a much better tag feud and maybe even the best out of both main rosters(in terms of tag teaming)

Slyno vs. the Vaudevillains would be a very entertaining program that would allow Slyno at least one successful title defense before they lose to a clearly superior team like Alpha or the Usos.

 

[chamber-music]

I think beauty and the man beast vs the ascension could be a funny feud. The ascensions reaction to finn's demon debut on nxt was funny. The two of them being straight men to heath and rhyno's oddball antics could be hilarious.

 

[Loki882]

It was so obvious I thought they had to be doing it intentionally. I was shocked when they just started playing Sasha's music.

Well if the idea is that the ref simply missed it then fine. But it needs to be addressed next week either way.

 

[Mani-Man]

I actually think the pin was simply that way because sasha had too much momentum and rolled over farther then expected.

It could turn into a story, but i think it was unintentionaly.