Mox was first but more surprising to me was the tie between Rollins and Okada. A lot of people thought Okada had an unbelievable year but Rollins was right there with him
Rollins being higher than Osprey kinda lessens the seriousness of said article
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Will Ospreay is the so obvious wrestler of the year with his run in every tournament and blow away matches
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Will Ospreay is far above and anybody else is such a distant second.
Not an Ospreay fanboy but Moxley at number one? Really? Kofi was pretty shit after WrestleMania and made a joke of the belt, Rollins has only been good since his heel turn and Omega has been pointless for most of the year after a good match to end his disappointing title run at the beginning of the year.
I really wish the distinction between pro wrestler and gymnast was more widely acknowledged. Pro wrestling is a skill whereby two individuals who are working together give the illusion of being in a real fight. They do not clearly cooperate by standing around waiting for their opponent(s) to land some silly dive that logically delivers very little impact and risks themselves being injured more than their opponent or doing flips around each other.
I guess what I’m saying is whilst Will Osprey is an incredible athlete, I think he is a god-awful pro wrestler.
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By this definition, how many “pro wrestlers” are working today? Basically every match in WWE has a guy standing around like a goon waiting to catch a dive or conveniently ”popping up” in a daze from a move that should knock them out in order to feed into the next sequence.
EDIT: Also, every Spanish Fly I’ve ever seen.
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That’s a very Jim Cornette point of view. I think that wrestling has different forms and each wrestler can bring something different. I wouldn’t want a PPV full of Ricochet vs Ospreay types of matches nor would I want a PPV filled with story telling. I think Will Ospreay is the best at the type of wrestling he does.
It’s the same in music, you can have rock, rap, electro, etc… As Mark Henry said in his HOF speech, diversity is the key.
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I largely agree, I will say that there are too many spot wrestlers who are not good at making things look believable. Osprey is good at making his moves look fluid. I do think though that his style needs the right opponent to set things up believably. Sometimes in that style you have guys literally running into position to be hit by fancy moves and it breaks believability.
Not many! And my new thread addresses your other valid observations!
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It is and I accept that is my preference. I’d also confidently argue the current style is one of the key reasons wrestling tv audiences are so low. Wrestling has never had so many athletic performers (I use that word deliberately) as it does now so if that’s what the viewing audience wanted it wouldn’t be struggling to attract numbers.
JC is not wrong.
The Young Bucks never have a match that makes any sense. It’s just nonsense super kicks and nonsensical flying moves. No one would ever fight like that
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Well I can’t disagree with you there, I don’t like the Bucks.
Miz and Kofi are the wrestlers of the decade.
I had high hopes for AEW but it has lost me already. I have considered trying NJPW as seemingly every UK and US promotion isn’t what I like when it comes to pro wrestling (the main reason I subscribe to the WWE Network every so often is to watch old Georgia Championship Wrestling/JCP/NWA/WCW/Mid South/etc. stuff) but it doesn’t fill me with confidence that performers like Kenny Olivier and Will Ospreay hsve been/are in the main picture there.
I don’t necessarily have an issue with the Ospreay/Ricochet style or have much of an issue with it not looking believable. There is a limit to how much I think is acceptable though. The Ospreay v. Ricochet matches look dumb for the most part, especially when they mirror moves for a while, do a flip and then both do a superman pose at the same time. The lack of logical story telling and the lack of selling in these types of matches can become ridiculous as well. In the ring, AJ Styles, Andrade, Sami Zayn and Daniel Bryan have a better all round game than wrestlers like Ospreay or Ricochet. Put Ospreay or Ricochet in a mask and they’re Sin Cara.
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I wouldn’t confuse NJPW with AEW. NJOw is closer to NXT - mort matches are believable and hardly any goofball comedy spots
Kenny Olivier has been the most dispointing wrestler of the year after the Tanahashi match.
He’s also the alleged brains behind the worst booked division known in wrestling - the AEW women’s division.
He’s as bad at booking as Britt Baker is as wrestling. Which I thought would be hard to top since pretty much no one is worse than her
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Kenny Olivier…calm down Cornette.
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