WC's Best Workers Of the Late 2010s

**King Steventon** · 12-04-2018, 05:02 PM

Sup WC,

I had this idea that I thought would be pretty cool and Ed gave me blessings to give it a shot.

Setting the scene:

The year is 2018, almost 2019, the entire wrestling industry had gone through a massive transformation over the past several years. WWE has an entire new generation of workers, with veterans like Cena, HHH, and Undertaker only working in their new "Supershow" format. NXT has become it's entirely own entity and been so successful they are creating new brands such as NXT UK. Outisde of WWE, ROH has by all accounts overtaken Impact in terms of business thanks to the NJPW relationship, and the entire indy wrestling scene has benefited from technological advancements. Pretty much everyone has their own streaming service - never before has indy wrestling been so easily accessible. Outside the states you have the British wrestling boom, and New Japan gaining a cult following in the West. All of this, and not to mention the boom in popularity of women's wrestling.

Never before have wrestling fans had such access to such a wide range of content, promotions, matches, and wrestlers out there. We are spoilt for choice and have to picky on what promotions and wrestlers we choose to watch.

But, we are WC, and we make lists about wrestling, dammit.

The idea for this project is one long discussion on WHO ARE THE BEST WRESTLERS OF THE MODERN ERA!

Every wrestler someone thinks is worth voting for has to get their own thread, in which we discuss and debate that worker and if they are worthy. At the end of the time period, we do a balloted poll, and the results revealed in a countdown. If your favourite worker doesn't have his own thread, then tough titties, you can't vote for him. You have to create the thread and pitch your case for why Baron Corbin is the 10th best worker in the world.

I will launch this properly at the end of the year once the Yearly Awards are done and, with Ed's blessing, this will get its own sub-forum if the idea takes off.

In short, it will work as:

- Ed creates sub-forum and pays me my commission for the idea
- You create threads for wrestlers you think belong in the discussion - I am thinking total ballot size of Top 30-50 - so if someone makes your Top 30-50, you make them a thread
- You pitch your case and discuss with the rest of the participants
- At the end of the period - I am thinking we cover 2015 - 2020 - we run the ballots

SO my question at this point is- who's in?

Ed · 12-04-2018, 05:27 PM

I'm in (obviously). These are the kind of discussions I love having/reading and will give this my full support.

**Baldrick** · 12-04-2018, 06:15 PM

Yeah i'll get involved in this, especially as it's a kind of ongoing project

**Tennessee Nicky** · 12-04-2018, 06:34 PM

This sounds fun.

**Shock** · 12-05-2018, 01:29 AM

Definitely in

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Ed · 12-05-2018, 03:55 AM

Steve when you say 2015-2020 do you mean ending December 31st 2019 or 2020 as the cut off? Hopefully you mean 2019 so it's 5 full years not 6.

The more I think about it, the more things I notice about how that period of time has seen so many changes. CM Punk stopped wrestling and for a few years Bryan was gone too. The guys we always wished would bet on themselves and leave TNA in AJ Styles and Joe did finally leave and made it to WWE. Lucha Underground became a thing which led to the rise in Mexican stars like Fenix and Pentagon being the top names on the indies which has now seeped through to Bandido and Flamita.

Originally Posted by Shock

Definitely in

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30 Days of Kota Ibushi coming up

**Shock** · 12-05-2018, 04:12 AM

I could live with 30 days of Ibushi.

I don't think there's a standout in WWE for this except AJ who I would imagine is the early favourite (more accessible content and the WWE bias will be a factor).

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**MC 16** · 12-05-2018, 04:47 AM

I'm definitely in. Can't wait to justify some random wrestler that no one else will know

**The Living Loocha Legend** · 12-05-2018, 06:32 AM

When it comes to 2015-2020 there has to be Styles, Pentagon Jr. and WALTER on it.

I would say Rollins is also a good candidate.

Ed · 12-05-2018, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by Shock

I could live with 30 days of Ibushi.

I don't think there's a standout in WWE for this except AJ who I would imagine is the early favourite (more accessible content and the WWE bias will be a factor).

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Off the top of my head there wouldn't be a long list of people I suspect have stronger cases than AJ, but would fall short of my #1.

Since he finally got his shot in the 2013 G1, I think Tomohiro Ishii has been the most consistently great wrestler out there.

**King Steventon** · 12-05-2018, 08:33 AM

Typing in my phone so excuse the spelling

i am still playing catch up on the scene but already have some pretty strong opinions on the names mentioned already in this thread. Let’s see if those opinions stick or if I can be sold on on them.

I was thinking time frame of 2016-Maybe mid 2020. Feels cleaner to me, 2015 still has remnants of the last generation, and by the end of next year will feel long ago. Or is 2020 too far away? Maybe do a poll end of 2019 and then another end of 2020 and see how opinions change? I am open minded but think it should start from 2016 onwards.

I will Almost certainly be the one talking about how much i dislike the new japan roster

**Shock** · 12-05-2018, 11:00 AM

I would go from Jan 1st 2015 till December 31st 2019. Bang on 5 years, and leaves us all of 2019 plus some change to debate.

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**King Steventon** · 12-05-2018, 02:37 PM

I feel like 2015 changes things a bit, look at how much was different that year was to now. Someone like WALTER was still pretty underground, women's revolution hadn't happened, HHH and Cena still working semi-regular, etc. Maybe we just do a 4 year period 2016 - 2019?

What do others think?

**Baldrick** · 12-05-2018, 02:39 PM

2015 until end of 2019 sounds about right. 2020 starts a new phase then.

**King Steventon** · 12-05-2018, 03:01 PM

Questions to get you thinking in the meantime:

Which Shield alumni goes highest?

Which New Japan worker goes highest?

Does anyone from ROH make the cut?

How much does US exposure help luchadors who work the indys?

Who have had the best runs on the WWE B-brands (NXT and 205)?

Which tag team workers go high?

**Shock** · 12-05-2018, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by King Steventon

Questions to get you thinking in the meantime:

Which Shield alumni goes highest?

Which New Japan worker goes highest?

Does anyone from ROH make the cut?

How much does US exposure help luchadors who work the indys?

Who have had the best runs on the WWE B-brands (NXT and 205)?

Which tag team workers go high?

Roman, easily. Roman was at one point one of the best wrestlers in WWE, and was pretty damn consistent at that. Neither Rollins or Ambrose can say that.

Okada, I'd guess

Lol

Not sure

Johnny Gargano, despite a poor 2018, rules this.

I think Cesaro deserves a lot of love for basically taking over as the best TV worker in WWE.

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Ed · 12-05-2018, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by King Steventon

I feel like 2015 changes things a bit, look at how much was different that year was to now. Someone like WALTER was still pretty underground, women's revolution hadn't happened, HHH and Cena still working semi-regular, etc. Maybe we just do a 4 year period 2016 - 2019?

What do others think?

You say women's revolution hadn't happened, but to cut out 2015 cuts out the great womens takeover matches which is when fans started to take them seriously.

Originally Posted by King Steventon

Questions to get you thinking in the meantime:

Which Shield alumni goes highest?

Roman fairly easily and that's with him probably not wrestling again in 2019.

Seth's best year in the timeframe we're looking at is this year and that's not going to be good enough. Ambrose I thought was really good in 2016 but other than that he's just been a midcard act really. Reigns has high end stuff with Brock, AJ, Bryan as well as the best matches of Braun's career

Which New Japan worker goes highest?

Probably Ishii because the highest has to be someone Zero, you and I all rate reasonably well and I can see us all being critical over Okada which hurts his chances (maybe Nicky too). Any other forum, Okada would be the top guy.

Does anyone from ROH make the cut?

I can see me placing Jonathan Gresham on my ballot. He's been excellent this year and a fringe top 10 guy in the world, and next year he'll get more opportunities because the elite will be gone and he's already picking up more bookings in Europe. I can see me doing a dive into his previous years in beyond, wXw etc to see where he would land.

How much does US exposure help luchadors who work the indys?

Without US exposure probably only Zero and yourself would list a luchador. With Lucha Underground's help it's not only led to Pentgaon and Fenix getting regular bookings on the indies, but led to fans being more accepting of the style, more inclined to check out a random match from CMLL. I still don't see many making it in however.

Who have had the best runs on the WWE B-brands (NXT and 205)?

NXT - Johnny Gargano, Asuka, Aleister Black, Roddy Strong, Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate
205 Live - Ali and Buddy, but that's only been this year. Last year Neville was good, but didn't touch this year's consistency.

Which tag team workers go high?

The Usos, The New Day, Cesaro w/two different partners. Again, on another forum the Bucks would be a good bet, but too many here don't like them.

**King Steventon** · 12-05-2018, 04:09 PM

would have expected Rollins to be seen as a higher placer, maybe I read the room wrong.

Ed · 12-05-2018, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by King Steventon

would have expected Rollins to be seen as a higher placer, maybe I read the room wrong.

Seth's just come out of a never ending series of matches with Dolph and now is in a dopey feud with Dean, his stock is significantly lower than it was mania time.

Looking at multiple years, you can overlook the run of bad main events in 2018 or the mania duds with past it talent Roman had to work (although that would stop him going super high on lists)

**Jim** · 12-05-2018, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by King Steventon

I feel like 2015 changes things a bit, look at how much was different that year was to now. Someone like WALTER was still pretty underground, women's revolution hadn't happened, HHH and Cena still working semi-regular, etc. Maybe we just do a 4 year period 2016 - 2019?

What do others think?

Your mention of Triple H actually had me curious since I don't remember him wrestling much in 2015. As it turns out, he wrestled one match only in 2015. That's the least amount of matches in a year he's ever had. You really have to go all the way back to 2009 to find Hunter's last full time year that lasted the entire duration of a year (As opposed to 2010 where he was a full timer until the end of April).