It's here...

1. What do you anticipate being the best match on the show?

2. Buy or sell: John Cena should turn heel Sunday.

3. Is Dolph Ziggler going to cash in? If so, on whom?

4. Would you end The Streak this Sunday, and if not, then when, if ever?

5. What percentage of a chance do you give a match other than Cena/Rock to close the show? (Note: don't trust leaked scripts)

Rest in peace, good sir Photo Credit: The Atlantic Wire

Roger Ebert died yesterday, a day after announcing his cancer had come back. I don't know what Ebert thought about professional wrestling, but I do know he had a passion. That passion was film. Sometimes, people settle into a job because they're good at it, or because they need it, but it's rare to find a person in the public eye who loves the subject matter as much as Ebert loved watching, dissecting, writing about, and promoting movies.

What does that have to do with wrestling though? Well, as much as Ebert was a polarizing figure, his work still provides a shining example to anyone who picks writing - whether analytical, creative, or journalistic - as their chosen field or hobby, even now after he's no longer around to produce it. Whether you, like he, are a film critic, a sportswriter, or even a wrestling writer, you should love the subject about which you write. If you do love it, let it show through. Don't be afraid to put your biases on the table for everyone to see. Don't kid yourself either. Only robots can be 100% objective. The biggest crime any writer can commit is by pretending they don't have preferences.

It's easy to be cynical about wrestling, especially mainstream/corporate wrestling, because the people in charge of most companies, especially Vince McMahon, give fans so many reasons to be cynical. Just because John Cena doesn't appeal to you and I doesn't mean there isn't inherent beauty in the process, or that there aren't companies out there who get it right more than they get it wrong. It also doesn't mean that just because you love something doesn't mean you should never talk bad about them. Ebert was known for scathing reviews when he didn't like a film. However, isn't the reaction when someone or something you love disappoints you to lash out?

So yeah, I think we could all stand to take a cue from Ebert. Whether you agree with his opinions or not is irrelevant. The man embodied the paradigm of writing and criticism in the arts. The world lost a titan yesterday. The best way to mourn him is to carry on his legacy. It's something that I hope that I've conveyed throughout my tenure as a writer, whether here at The Wrestling Blog, or elsewhere.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

WWE Championship Match
The Rock (c) vs. John Cena

How: The Rock won the WWE Championship from CM Punk at the Royal Rumble. John Cena won the Royal Rumble match, and he chose Rock as his Mania target.

The Story: A long time ago, in a galaxy far... wait, no, that's not it.

Once upon a time, The Rock was a WWF superstar of the highest order. His natural charisma made it easy for fans either to boo him or cheer him, depending on how he wanted to be perceived. When you're that natural a talent, you get too big for the wrestling industry, so he started taking movie roles. Those movie roles got bigger and more numerous to the point where nine years ago, he had his final match as a regular, WWE superstar, at WrestleMania XX with Mick Foley against Evolution.

In the time since then, a new hero had emerged from the fray, one who wore jorts, affected Eminem more than Bruno Sammartino, and preached about hustle, loyalty, and respect. John Cena inherited the role of franchise from men like The Rock and his rival/contemporary "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. While he had dalliances with movies, none of them were as remotely successful as Rock's lowest-drawing role. However, he did assume the position of top WWE guy better than anyone had since Rocky left. Better than Triple H, better than He Who Shall Not Be Named, better than Big Dave Batista, better than Randy Orton, better than Edge, better than The Undertaker, better than Eddie Guerrero (although who knows if he lived whether that would have remained the case), better than anyone.

Still, there was a massive chip on Cena's shoulder. No matter how well he seemed to do, there was always the question that dogged him. Why couldn't he be as "good" as the guys from the Attitude Era? Why can't he be The Rock? Those questions made him break eventually, as he trashed Rocky in interviews, asking why he didn't stick around, that if he loved WWE so much, why did he leave? The Rock remained silent to those criticisms, making us think he was above them. But on February 14, 2011, he revealed that he wasn't exactly no-selling the criticisms. He came back to be revealed as the host for WrestleMania XXVII, and as soon as he took to the mic, he started laying into Cena for his wardrobe, his mannerisms, and his insinuations that The Rock held the WWE in anything resembling contempt.

It prompted Cena to fire back during the build to that Mania, even though the partner on his dance card was The Miz. Poor, poor Mike Mizanin, an afterthought in his own main event. As that match started out, it looked like the only outside factor would be Alex Riley, but they brawled to the outside, both getting counted out, leaving an apparent retention for The Miz of his WWE Championship. However, Rock wouldn't have that, so as the official host of WrestleMania, he restarted the match, gave Cena the Rock Bottom, and made sure Miz left with the title in tow. This incensed Cena enough to lay the challenge down to The Rock for WrestleMania XXVIII a whole year in advance. Rock accepted, signing on to become an active WWE superstar for the first time in eight years.

Before their Mania match happened, Cena ran afoul of Miz again, this time while he was in cahoots with R-Truth to rain death, destruction, and general anarchy on WWE. Cena needed help to take out those two "threats," ones he had no trouble dispatching by himself at various points on the timeline, so he called in a favor to The Rock to be his tag partner at Survivor Series. Questions as to whether they could coexist swirled beforehand, but they had no problems dispatching The Awesome Truth in the main event match. After the match though, Rocky sent a salvo to Cena by Rock Bottoming him.

The build towards their first Mania match was ignited with that moment, with Cena starting to call Rock out for only showing up sometimes, relying on "satellite" appearances, and when he did show up, calling him out on reading scripts written on his hand. Rock's responses were more homophobic and misogynist comments thrown Cena's way. Then, the match happened, and Cena had things under control for a good bit of the match, before letting his hubris get the best of him. He tried to mock Rock by hitting him with his own People's Elbow, but before he could drop it, Rock sprung up, hit him with the Rock Bottom, and claimed victory.

For The Rock, his journey in WWE was set upon a familiar path. He promised to win the WWE Championship, a feat which he did against CM Punk at the Royal Rumble this past year, ending the former Champ's epic 434 day title reign. For Cena, a different road was taken. He was without the WWE Championship since losing it back to Alberto del Rio at Hell in a Cell '11. Despite the fact that he had numerous opportunities at Punk, he couldn't come away with the win. He also got divorced in real life, something that in character he blamed on the loss to The Rock. IT was a loss that stuck with him, as he revealed, so much so that he had to get another shot at him.

So he won the Royal Rumble.

It was a bit of blind faith on his part, since Rock didn't win the title until after Cena's Rumble win, but maybe Cena knew. Either way, it set up one more collision between the two titans in the industry. Their lead up to the match this year was less predicated on macho posturing and more on whether Cena had it in him to beat Rocky. While Cena had shown a facade of respect, last week's RAW saw his true inner feelings bubble out, that Cena in fact beat himself in that match. The Rock only responded to it with the same bravado, but one has to wonder if it will only light a fire under him that we haven't seen...

Analysis: Last year's match was watchable at the time. I haven't gone back and rewatched it, but others have and said it plays a lot better both with age and outside the trappings of a Mania where at least two other matches surpassed it, be it in technical mechanics or in emotional crescendo. This year, some things have changed, while others haven't. Rock has seemingly gotten his sea legs underneath of him, something that he didn't have going into the match last year. While he still seems to have the cardio of Fatty McGee, he at least has a better idea of pacing and ring positioning. Both of those CM Punk matches were pretty good, and when it comes down to it, it's not insane to suggest that Cena and Punk are equals in the ring. Then again, does transitive property always work in wrestling?

Still, there are some pitfalls surrounding the match. The undercard is really strong this year, and there's a chance that the crowd could be super into Lesnar/Triple H as well as Punk/Taker. What would that mean for viewing of a second Rock/Cena match? I can't pretend to know for sure, but I do think there are similar pitfalls from last year with Jericho/Punk and Trips/Taker sucking some of the soul from that match. However, there is one big question with this match that could be the invariable trump card.

What if John Cena turns heel?

This has been the white whale for meta-fans such as myself for years now. They seem to be strongly hinting at it. I mean, the closing segment from RAW in Philly had so much bad guy intention embedded in the DNA of it that I'm shocked that Cena didn't slip in a "you people" right then and there. People have suggested it was similar to Austin's promo before WrestleMania X-7, and WWE loves recycling tropes. I also feel compelled to make the case that John Cena may have already turned heel. When he tried to drop the People's Elbow on Rock last year, he turned. Good guy Cena isn't usually concerned with that kind of hubris, is he? Well, dropping the pallet of chairs on RED BELLY at TLC '10 might have proven otherwise, but there was a justified storyline reason for that for people who like their heels to be lawful evil.

But since losing to The Rock via hubris, with the exception of the Brock Lesnar mini-feud, was there any one where he was in the right completely? Maybe he was justified with Big Johnny Laurinaitis, but at the same time, that should have ended when he defeated Lesnar. The CM Punk feud was based on Cena reinforcing every negative thing Punk had been saying about him since the original pipe bomb promo. The Dolph Ziggler feud morphed into Cena not wanting to share the spotlight with a guy who was on the up-and-coming, even if he was provoked by Vickie Guerrero, who ended up being dumped by Ziggler anyway.

It almost feels like WWE has been a referendum on John Cena, the Franchise, the last 10 years. I wonder if that referendum is going to come to an end with him turning heel and letting someone else try to fell him to take their place beside him in the pantheon. I don't know. I also don't know if WWE even has the intestinal fortitude to turn their biggest fulltime star into a villain. This could all just be speculation in futility. However, I feel like I am invested in the main event this year to a point where I haven't been since Cena wrestled Shawn Michaels six years ago (and then, the only shows I watched during the year were the Rumble, Mania, and SummerSlam!). I'd say at least for me, WWE accomplished its mission this year.

Who Should Win: As much as I want to say Rocky should win to set up an epic Cena heel turn that would shake the foundation of WWE to its core, I'm not sure that ship will ever sail unless Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, or some other heretofore unknown to me wrestler busts out and becomes the man that Cena has been for the last decade. Cena should win here, even if it sets up ONCE IN A LIFETIME 3: NOW WE'RE TROLLING YOU OPENLY next year.

Who Will Win: Cena. I mean, he can't have ANOTHER awful year again, can he?

WrestleMania is happening this weekend, but if you think that's the only important show going on, well, hello, welcome first-time reader of The Wrestling Blog. Thank you for choosing my site to read, and please, consider Mania not as a monolith for WWE, but as a tentpole for the entire industry. The way Mania weekend has morphed into a wrestling festival, as documented by Rich Thomas and K. Sawyer Paul on this week's International Object podcast, is one of the best developments in wrestling history. Not only are there wrestling events happening within the vicinity of Mania, mostly concentrated at WrestleCon, but there are events happening in other areas of the country, whether they be before Mania or, in Anarchy Championship Wrestling's case, in opposition to Mania. Either way, if you want live wrestling this weekend, you're going to get live wrestling this weekend.

First thing's first, WrestleCon. This event is comprised of six different promotions pooling together (DGUSA/EVOLVE, Chikara, SHIMMER, CZW, Kaiju Big Battel, $5 Wrestling) and putting on one, synergistic festival over the next three days. Tonight, EVOLVE, CZW, and Kaiju play. Tomorrow, SHIMMER, Chikara, DGUSA, and $5 Wrestling have events. Sunday, DGUSA has a final appetizer before Mania comes on. Also at this event, which happens at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ, will be tons and tons of wrestler appearances, vendors, merch tables... it's one giant convention, as the name suggests. Appearing at the show other than the indie wrestlers scheduled to be there are Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Jushin Liger, Bobby Heenan, Mickie James, Brian Kendrick, Paul London, Terri Runnells, Kurt Angle, Rob van Dam, Jimmy Snuka, Kevin Nash, Lex Luger, George "The Animal" Steele, Lita, Maria Kanellis, Nick Dinsmore, One Man Gang, Molly Holly, Superstar Graham, Tito Santana, Tommy Dreamer, Mr. Fuji, Rocky Johnson, Beth Phoenix, and a whole shitload more of wrestling's finest past and present icons will all be there speaking, signing autographs, and perhaps selling stuff. Even if all you do is go for the appearances, you're going to have your fill and then some.

But the shows are the main thing. Each of them are jam-packed to the gills with important developments, title defenses, dream matches, and special appearances. EVOLVE kicks things off at 4 PM local time with their inaugural Championship tournament. Eight men - Sami Callihan, Ricochet, AR Fox, Chuck Taylor, Jigsaw, Rich Swann, Samuray del Sol, and Jon Davis - will compete in a uniquely-set up tourney to crown the first ever EVOLVE Champion. I can see six of those eight guys winning; Callihan is heavily rumored to be WWE-bound, and Jigsaw probably needs a bit more seasoning in Gabe-land to be a strong contender for that title. Otherwise, it's wide open. Also on that show, the Young Bucks battle the Super Smash Bros., and Johnny Gargano teams with Brian Kendrick to take on Orange Cassidy and Drew Gulak. This show is available on iPPV.

Next on the docket is CZW's event for the weekend, which will kick off at 8 PM local time. It's headlined by a huge World Championship match, Masada defending against Japanese death match legend Jun Kasai. Also on the show, Kendrick will do battle with Callihan in a veritable dream match. My pick for perhaps the most insane tilt of the weekend? Well, look no further than their Aerial Assault match, which is going to put AR Fox, Shane Strickland, Lucky 13, Shane Hollister, Rich Swann, and the Chiva Kid in the same ring at the same time. If that match doesn't produce fireworks, no match will.

Tonight's festivities will be concluded with Kaiju Big Battel, which is also available on iPPV. It's something everyone should experience at least once, but if you want to watch this, you're going to have to be up late. It starts at 11 PM local time. I don't know the wisdom about watching a show that will contain Tucor so close before bedtime, but hey, if you're bold enough, then you already were going to attend/order this show anyway.

Saturday's festivities kick off at 12 PM with the historic SHIMMER card, the first to happen in the Northeast, and only the second to happen outside the confines of the Berwyn Eagles Club. This show will be headlined by the bloodiest of SHIMMER blood feuds, with Saraya Knight defending the SHIMMER Championship against Cheerleader Melissa in a steel cage. Knight has done a good job ducking Melissa after accosting her before the show at Vol. 48 and defeating her for the title. There's nowhere to hide now. Also, Serena Deeb and Madison Eagles will be making their grand returns to SHIMMER after the injuries that almost ended their careers have finally healed completely. Even more interesting, the Kiwi sensation Evie will be venturing north of the Equator and making her American debut. This event is also on iPPV.

At 4PM local time, Chikara will present their offering for the weekend, The Shoulder of Pallas. I consider this event to have a triple main event myself. First, the nominal main pits Eddie Kingston against Hallowicked for the War King's Grand Championship. Via mandate of Wink Vavasseur, all Chikara events are to have a Grand Championship defense. Will Kingston be able to survive the first in his gauntlet against a fellow season 1 original? The second main is a signpost on the epic dissolution of the Osirian Portal. Amasis finally makes his return to Chikara, overcoming injuries that were supposed to have ended his career, as he seeks retribution against Ophidian. In the third main event, Mike Quackenbush teams up with a mystery partner against Jigsaw and The Shard. There have been many possible names floated as Quack's partner here as he himself seeks retribution against his former student. Could it be Colt Cabana? Shayne Storm? 17? JUSHIN LIGER? We'll just have to wait and see.

DGUSA puts on their first show of the weekend at 8 PM with Open the Ultimate Gate 2013. The show sees the Stateside return of Shingo Takagi, who will be going for Johnny Gargano's Open the Freedom Gate Championship. Also on the show, Uhaa Nation makes long-awaited return to DGUSA at the event where he got hurt the year before slipping on a Sami Callihan-caused beer puddle. His opponent? Sami Callihan. That should be a certified hoss fight, and if you don't think Callihan's a hoss, you've never seen him wrestle. Also, the Young Bucks get a shot at CIMA and AR Fox's Open the United Gate Championships. This event is also on iPPV.

$5 Wrestling gets the closing spot on Saturday night, 11 PM local. Colt Cabana and Marty DeRosa will be calling the action as always, and of course, the FREIGHT TRAIN will be there. I heard he might be challenging Kevin Steen, but that's only a rumor.

Finally, Sunday at 1 PM, DGUSA provides the final appetizer for Mania with their Mercury Rising 2013 event. Here is where their traditional Mania weekend six-man tag match will occur, and it will feature CIMA, EITA, and CIMA's Secret Weapon (whomever that is) against Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, and Ricochet. That oughtta be eye-popping if anything else. Shingo's match on this card will be against the always-entertaining, super-awesome Akira Tozawa, and there'll be a massive seven-person Fray match where ladders are legal. In this match: Christina von Eerie, Uhaa Nation, Facade, Samuray del Sol, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Facade. Of course, it's on iPPV.

WrestleCon is far from the only event happening this weekend. Ring of Honor will be doing their traditional Mania weekend shows. The first of which is tonight, the Supercard of Honor. Jay Briscoe will headline the event getting his traditional ROH World Championship shot against Kevin Steen in a match that should be one of the most epic and fun brawls of the weekend. Karl Anderson comes over from Japan to take on Roderick Strong. The Tag Titles are up for grabs as Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish defend against the reunited American Wolves, and yes, ACH will be there live. The event is sold out, but you can still watch it on iPPV. The TV tapings are the next night at the Manhattan Center, and as far as I know, tickets are still available. ACH will get his shot at the Television Championship against whomever comes out of the title match from the previous night. Also, Anderson will be sticking around to take on Michael Elgin.

Pro Wrestling Syndicate held their first event last night, which included a match between the Briscoe Brothers and the Rock 'n Roll Express. For the love of God, won't someone post that match on YouTube? They have another show tonight at the SportsPlex in Metuchen, NJ. Doors open at 5:30 PM local time for some autograph signings. On the show tonight for them will feature New Jack's last match ever (heh) when he takes on Necro Butcher. Wear protective clothing when that match comes on. Also, Jushin Liger battles John Morrison, Nova and Chris Chetti reunite for one night only to face off against Hurricane Helms and Starman, and the Rock 'n Rolls appear again. It won't be against the Briscoes again, but man, at least we have one match between those two teams.

Tomorrow night in Boonton, NJ at the Elks Lodge, Indy Gurlz will be presenting some women's wrestling action, bell time 7:30 PM local. Mercedes Martinez and Kyoko Inoue will be headlining this show. Also, Sumie Sakai takes on LuFisto, Kalamity battles Mia Yim, and Leva Bates will wrestle Jessica James.

There are plenty of shows happening outside of New Jersey/New York as well. In Alabama, Pro South Wrestling will run tonight at the Pro South Arena in Piedmont, AL, doors opening at 5:30 PM. Their show features Ace Haven, Najasism, and plenty more. In Rossville, GA, Empire Pro Wrestling presents their big event of the year, Tooth and Nail 2, Saturday at 7 PM local time at the Empire Arena. The big main event is a six man tag between the two rival factions on top, the Devil's Rejects and the Illuminati. Also appearing on the show will be Shaun Tempers and Cyrus the Destroyer.

Finally, ACW will be running Peace, Love, and Anarchy at the Mohawk on Sunday at 6PM local time. Yes, that's in direct opposition to WrestleMania, but they don't care. They did it last year too. This year's lineup is one that might be worth skipping Mania for. The marquee match so far features the Hooligans pinballing their way down into Austin to take on Jaykus Plisken and James Claxton in what should be an incredibly high-energy tag match. The Hooligans are awesome, and they're a perfect fit for ACW. Also on the show, Bolt Brady defends his U-30 Championship against Barrett Brown, and there will be appearances by Evan Gelistico, Matthew Palmer, Scot Summers, Jessica James, the Submission Squad, Darin Childs, Jack Jameson, and the Business.

This weekend is loaded with wrestling. LOADED. Do yourself a favor and partake in at least some of it if you can. If you're not in Jersey, Georgia, Alabama, or Austin, then at least check out Pro Wrestling Events to see if there's an event near you. Support indie wrestling!

I love this stuff, and I'm not afraid to admit it Photo Credit: WWE.com

Every Day Should Be Saturday: RASSLIN' IS REAL

Yes, that's a link to the best college football blog in the world, Every Day Should Be Saturday. Yes, it's written by me. I submitted a guest post about wrestling and why I love it, write about it, and am proud to be a wrestling fan, posted in honor of WrestleMania weekend.

We're getting down to the nitty-gritty here. The next level down from the top echelon, if you will.

Cole wrenching Kyle O'Reilly's arm Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

20. Adam Cole
Points: 2199
Ballots: 27
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Alex Torres, Pablo Alva, Typical ROH Fan)
Last Year's Placement: 80th Place

TH: I had always liked Adam Cole from the first time I saw him in the pre-show to Dragon Gate USA's second ever show in Philadelphia (third overall), when he and Kyle O'Reilly had a dark match. But then he went and told El Generico to suck his dick in the beginning of their first round match at the Battle of Los Angeles, and I got the hype fully. There was something to him as a whitebread babyface guy that ROH had tapped into in the early part of 2012, of course. His match with Roderick Strong made him in Philly, and he was by far the best guy in the 10th Anniversary Show tag main event. Even in his initial PWG shows, where he was just tasked with going out and doing crazy tag shit with the Super Smash Bros. and the Young Bucks, he was pretty good.

But that Battle of Los Angeles unlocked a wholly different side that apparently he was quite good at showing in CZW. Dick heel Adam Cole is one of the five best characters in any form in any promotion in America. Oh man, whether he's shunted off to WWE or stays on the indies to further make it his own, this guy has nowhere to go but up.

Cewsh: Ring of Honor has begun to rise again as a promotion to watch, but in 2012 there were only just inklings that that was what might come, as the company was far from compelling throughout much of the year. But despite that, Adam Cole managed to push his way through and grab the attention of people who didn’t even watch ROH anymore, (myself included.) With his gutsy, hybrid in ring style, and his terrific Television title reign, Adam Cole put himself on the map big time in 2012. And he’s only going to get better.

Eamon Paton: One of the reasons Adam Cole is so great is that he exhibits a great deal of versatility. He is the douchey, self-centered heel in companies like PWG and CZW (Cole beings one of the few reasons you should follow CZW) as well as the charming, resilient babyface in places like Ring Of Honor. Wrapped up in all of that is a very skilled pro wrestler that has put on consistently great matches all throughout the year, making him one to look out for in 2013.

Alex Torres: We knew Cole was a good wrestler, but PWG showed the world what CZW fans knew all along (and ROH seems to miss), and that's that Adam Cole is one of the best heels in wrestling. Stay fat, Kevin.

Typical ROH Fan: Break out year. Best babyface in ROH. Best heel in PWG. So many awesome matches. Even in the few CZW showings I've seen, he is pretty great there and the highlight of those shows. 2012 was the year of Adam Win Win. (Favorite 2012 match: vs. Kyle O'Reilly at ROH Best In The World)

Rollins looks on Photo Credit: WWE.com

19. Seth Rollins
Points: 2224
Ballots: 31
Highest Vote: 7th Place (Paolo Chikiamco, David Shoemaker)
Last Year's Placement: 70th Place

TH: Seth Rollins has come a long way since being Tyler Black, that gangly and awkward dude with the skunk hair, festooned in Hot Topic-inspired gear in ROH who could only entertain in the ring when in there with Nigel McGuinness or Bryan Danielson. He was great as Ryback's personal punching bag in the TLC six man tag, but it would have taken more than just one match for him to get on my ballot. He actually built up a solid resume in FCW in matches that popped up on YouTube, including a fun little sprint vs. Rick Victor and a sprightly live lumberjack match against Damien Sandow.

Daniels delivering the uranage to AJ Styles on the chair Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

18. Christopher Daniels
Points: 2296
Ballots: 24
Highest Vote: 4th Place (George Murphy)
Last Year's Placement: 38th Place

TH: I enjoyed Daniels a lot out of the ring last year, but I didn't really realize how good he was in it until I reflected back upon his year. Most of it was spent around AJ Styles, but that is the rare matchup where it doesn't matter how many times it happens, it ends up to be at the very least solid when it does happen. He also gets bonus points from me for working in Gangnam Style as a crowd taunt. What can I say, I like quickly-antiquated pop culture references.

Eamon Paton: Christopher Daniels has provided me with so many laughs and giggles on TNA Impact throughout 2012 that he has to be put on this list. I think he’s one of those stars that you never expect to gain a major championship, and you don’t expect to win all the time, but you know he is going to entertain you everytime he is on the screen. That is something that not a lot of people have, and it is what put Daniels on my list for the top in 2012.

John Rosenberger: Another guy I was late on adopting. I never really got TNA until this year. Part of this is due to Danielle Matheson’s Impact tweets, which turned in to her wonderfully written Best and Worst columns. My other entrée was the incredible work that Daniels and Kazarian do as bad influence. Since we can’t include out of ring work, I’ll be honest and say that Kaz doesn’t really do it for me in the ring but man alive, is there something wonderful about watching Daniels do his thing. Hell, I even watched TNA pay-per-views to see him wrestle AJ Styles, who I once swore I would never watch because he made a bunch of rude comments to me at a Brooklyn Cyclones game, but that’s another story for another day.

Typical ROH Fan: Amazing how he delivered the best year of his career which has been both wonderful and quite frankly a long one. He isn't as young as the rest of the guys on this list yet he can still go with any of them. His tag matches with Kaz were mostly very good and his singles work in the BFG series also delivered big time. (Favorite 2012 match: with Kazarian vs. AJ Styles and Kurt Angle at TNA Slammiversary)

Bully Ray, droppin' the elbow on Abyss Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

17. Bully Ray
Points: 2316
Ballots: 29
Highest Vote: 3rd Place (Victor Rodgers)
Last Year's Placement: 22nd Place

TH: Bully in the ring flipped 180 degrees so seamlessly I thought he might have been anchored on a swivel point. Point to the match he had with Joseph Park in the summer where it was just him being true to his name, kicking the crap out of the erstwhile-Abyss as one of the best examples of heel work. Then, check out any of his matches post-alliance with Sting and watch him master the art of working babyface. I dig versatility, and it doesn't hurt that Bully is one of the finest brawlers TNA has right now.

Ryan Kilma: Can’t we say now that Bully Ray is the greatest ECW alumnus of all time? Sure, Jericho, Malenko, and Benoit, all rode their horses through the bingo hall, but Bully went from being known as “one of the table guys” to being one of the only non-depressing guys in TNA and an absolute delight to watch at times.

Jericho pulls up to punch CM Punk Photo Credit: WWE.com

16. Chris Jericho
Points: 2361
Ballots: 32
Highest Vote: 3rd Place (Joe Drilling)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked

TH: I have to admit that I was underwhelmed by Jericho's return to the WWE last year. He had good matches. He even had a few great matches, mostly against CM Punk. However, I felt like there was something missing. That being said, Jericho with something missing is still at the very least entertaining enough to get a spot in the 90s on my ballot. Plus, he had the best match at WrestleMania, which should count for something, right?

John Rosenberger: There are many wrestlers who come and go as they please and every time they do I lose my enthusiasm bit by bit. For example, there’s your Randy Orton who either due to Wellness or movie shoots can’t stay a consistent presence and every time he vanishes I care less and less. Then there’s a Chris Jericho who could go out for as many packs of smokes as he wants and whenever he walks back through those doors I will accept him with open arms. He’s a great technical wrestler, has tons of charisma and doesn’t mind putting over talent or stomping them in to the ground, whatever the WWE asks him to do, he will do with vim and vigor and I don’t care how many times he walks away, I will be sitting on the porch waiting for him when he comes home.

Sandow leaping over the guardrail to clothesline Sheamus Photo Credit: WWE.com

15. Damien Sandow
Points: 2496
Ballots: 33
Highest Vote: 5th Place (Robert Dorman)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked

TH: SILENCE! I am about to speak to you about the grappling wonderment that was Damien Sandow's calendar frame in 2012. Of all the wrestlers in FCW that I checked out from the first half of 2012, I think I watched the most Sandow. He was clearly the best guy going in developmental at that time. He had a trilogy of matches with Richie Steamboat where he was far and away the best wrestler in that match. He also had great performances against Leo Kruger and Seth Rollins in matches where he didn't have as much to work with.

What really got me into him was his viciousness. He was so ruthless, and it belied his erudite, scholarly character. One might expect him to break out chain wrestling exchanges, but there he was, using his intelligence in other ways to exact brutal pain on his opponents. Whether it was trapping Steamboat in between the apron and the ring skirt, or corralling any number of his opponents in a full nelson and slamming them face first into the turnbuckle, he was a sight to behold.

He dropped the nelson spot upon arrival to the main roster, but he still kept his trademark mean streak. He had several matches against Sheamus where he not only beat the shit out of a man 50% bigger than he was, but did so extremely believably. A lot of that goes to Sheamus, obviously, but you gotta have fire behind your offense. He also had a good run with Cody Rhodes as a tag team, and his Main Event match with John Cena was definitely a treat. In 2012, Sandow had all the reason to tell everyone "You're welcome," because the man deserved major gratitude for the year he had in that squared circle.

Rhodes dropkicking The Big Show Photo Credit: WWE.com

14. Cody Rhodes
Points: 2555
Ballots: 34
Highest Vote: 6th Place (Justin Daley)
Last Year's Placement: 7th Place

TH: For the longest time, I thought the youngest Runnells son was struggling to grow into his own self as a pro wrestler. It seemed 2012 was the year that it would all start to really click for him. The Big Show series helped him a lot, but I think working with Show would help anyone of any size. He had more than a few solid free TV singles matches, and his tag run with Damien Sandow was definitely a highlight of the year for him. I don't think he's "14th place good," but I have fewer qualms about people rating him this high as I would, uh, I don't know, Randy Orton.

Show shoving his boot right in CM Punk's throat Photo Credit: WWE.com

13. The Big Show
Points: 2598
Ballots: 32
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Luke Starr)
Last Year's Placement: 35th Place

TH: There is no one more historically underrated than The Big Show. From the time he got back from OVW Fat Camp until now, he has been one of the most reliable hands on the roster, but I feel like people still like to bag on him for being "lazy" or "slow." It's been a decade now, people. This year, for example, he did wonders for Daniel Bryan through the matches, even if the build around them was suspect. Then he helped Cody Rhodes improve in the ring. Then he turned heel and gained a renewed focus that led to some really strong matches with Sheamus. Yet people still groaned when he came out. There's no accounting for taste, but if you're still bagging on Big Show for being a "poor worker" in 2012, you need to get your head checked.

Jesse Powell: No one has flip-flopped from face to heel and back like the Big Show. He can do everything, and no matter what he is utterly believable whether he is smiling while holding little kids, crying after winning the piece of scrap metal known as the IC title, or knocking out innocent bystanders with his thunderous fist.

Robot Hammer: Given his size and tenure in wrestling, Big Show could slip into neutral and coast for the rest of his career. But his series of matches with Sheamus and del Rio show that the big guy's still got a lot left to give in the ring. I'd argue he's one of the most giving big men in wrestling's history. Good guy, bad guy, or somewhere in between, it's irrelevant. Big Show is one of the WWE's most dependable performers.

Dylan Hales: I actually don't have a ton to say about Show, but since he made my top ten I feel obligated to explain it briefly. There were guys who had more great matches and who's best matches were better. But in 2012 I don't think anyone worked harder than Show night in and out. Every time he popped up he was busting his ass doing something and in the process he had some great matches, including the really great series with Sheamus, and the run of bouts early in the year with Daniel Bryan where I thought he looked incredible. In my dream scenario he would get a whole year to work competent opponents, in meaningful matches, because I believe Show is a guy capable of finishing on top of my ballot in ideal conditions. Maybe 2013 will be that year.

Roode shoving a ladder into RVD's gut Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

12. Robert Roode
Points: 2624
Ballots: 33
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Cewsh, Justin Daley, Jay Sanudo)
Last Year's Placement: 14th Place

TH: Roode was exactly the kind of guy TNA needed on top of their promotion. He was in his prime as Champion (and still is right now), was able to get great matches out of everyone on the difficulty scale, and he had a great handle on psychology unlike some other wrestlers getting paid big bucks to be in their main event. The James Storm match at Lockdown was a great pay-per-view main event, and everyone raves over the Aries series, but I point to his one match with Sting on Impact, where he dragged one more solid match out of the old codger in facepaint. To me, that means a lot more than getting to tell a story with someone who CAN do it on a regular basis any day.

Cewsh: The fact that TNA hasn’t crowned Bobby Roode Champion For Life after the 2012 he had just further reinforces that they have no idea what in the hell they have in him. From the first show of the year to the last, Bobby Roode carried TNA on his shoulders in 2012, bringing better matches than should have been possible out of the likes of Jeff Hardy, James Storm, Sting, and even Austin Aries. His matches made the World title credible in TNA for the first time in years, and nearly all of it was due to his surehanded heel work, his faultless technical skills and the slew of great performances that he put in to give TNA a champion that the fans could actually appreciate. He’s now stuck in a tag team with Austin Aries. Because TNA is TNA.

Typical ROH Fan: I love Bobby Roode. He has always been one of my favorites to watch since the early TNA on Fox Sports days. Was so awesome to see his title run in 2012. I thoroughly enjoyed it and consider it up there with one of Christian Cage's and AJ Styles as best TNA champ. (Favorite 2012 match: vs. Austin Aries at Destination X)

Cena putting the STF on CM Punk Photo Credit: WWE.com

11. John Cena
Points: 2868
Ballots: 37
Highest Vote: 3rd Place (Scott Holland, Luke Starr)
Last Year's Placement: 4th Place

TH: Every time I want to say John Cena took a step back in 2012, I get reminders of what he can really do in the ring. For example, the match with The Rock at Mania wasn't all that good by any stretch of the imagination, but the fact that it wasn't a disaster speaks volumes for the hernia Cena gave himself carrying Rock's bloated ass around the ring, even as the big-time movie star gasped for air and forgot where he was supposed to be. Then the next month at Extreme Rules, he and Brock Lesnar wrestled maybe the most unique match in WWE history, one that was stiff, suspenseful, and satisfactory, even from a standpoint of who won.

Then he went onto series with old rivals like Big Show and CM Punk, where he once again had consistent match quality throughout each feud. Then there was the Ziggler feud, which was ass out of the ring, but just tremendous in the ring. All of that isn't even taking into account the spot matches he'd have on free TV with guys like Daniel Bryan and Damien Sandow, which did more for them in defeat because he didn't go Super-Cena all over their asses. He made them look somewhat on his level. Cena's an easy guy to take for granted because he's so inconsistent out of the ring, but WWE is lucky to have a guy like him anchoring the product inside of it.

Cewsh: Matchwise this wasn’t the best year of his career, but it was certainly close. In a year that centered around his storyline inadequacies, he shined in matches against CM Punk, Brock Lesnar and Dolph Ziggler. Cena somehow grew into a role as the workhorse of the WWE main event all throughout the year, without many even seeming to notice. He had a long way to go to erase the stink caused by the first 3 months of his year against Kane and, to a lesser extent, the Rock, but for my money, John Cena had as good a second half as anyone in the world in 2012. And perhaps nobody in the world turned in such consistently quality matches against such a wide variety of styles and opponents as Cena.

Ryan Kilma: John Cena’s five moves of doom have become so integrated in my brain that it becomes a minor miracle whenever somebody counters the Protobomb or Five-Knuckle Shuffle. And if someone kicks out of the Attitude Adjustment? Ragnarok. That’s what made his match with CM Punk early this year so epic: the WWE has trained us to accept that John Cena’s Fireman’s Carry is the equivalent to gunfire and all shall crumble beneath it. But when people kick out of his unbeatable moves it leads to mass confusion, which then leads to piledrivers and hurricaranas.

John Rosenberger: Unpopular choice to be sure, but so much about a good wrestling match and in turn a good wrestler is about what they make you feel in the heat of the moment. I, personally, think his actual wrestling improved a lot in 2012 and despite what I think about him on the mic or as a person in general, he was all in all fairly entertaining to me throughout the past year.

Dylan Hales: If we were judging guys based solely on their best performances you could make a strong case for Cena at number one. Between the ladder match with Dolph Ziggler, the excellent match with CM Punk and the match of the decade candidate with Brock Lesnar, Cena had about as strong a year as you can have from a big match perspective, especially when much of the rest of the year was spent working angles with Johnny Ace or The Rock. Where Cena suffers some is that he did not have a ton of out of the park stuff on tv in 2012, and there is no way to get around that. In the end he had to be in my top ten, but it felt like a mild stretch to put him in the top five. Looking back it was a strange year, with astronomical peaks and then a whole lot of.....?

Typical ROH Fan: I like Cena. In the ring. I think he's highly entertaining and often times can deliver a classic. Had some vintage matches to add to their series with CM Punk. Sure he had some horrid ones but his better matches evened it out. The match vs. Lesnar was my favorite WWE match in years. Such a memorable one. If only it was saved for the main event of WM 29... (Favorite 2012 match: vs. Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules)

ACH about to splash Matthew Palmer Photo Credit: Texas Anarchy

10. ACH
Points: 3075
Ballots: 37
Highest Vote:1st Place (TH, Ryan Kilma)
Last Year's Placement: 54th Place

TH: I'm going to paraphrase a Bill Graham quote about the Grateful Dead to describe my feelings about ACH. He's not the best at what he does, he's the only person who does what he does. There are high flyers. There are athletic wonders. There are people with "swag," or guys who even affect Dragonball Z in their matches. But there's no one who combines everything I described above in the perfect percentages, nor do they add his panache or flair, nor do they have some of the wholly unique things that ACH brings to the table. There is no one I have ever seen like him, and that's why he's got my number one vote this year.

The main knock against ACH is that he's all athletics and isn't as good at "the wrestles." I don't see how anyone who has watched a single minute of any of his matches can claim that. Is it mutually exclusive that a guy who can jump really high and do a bunch of flips in the air isn't good at psychology? I don't know, I watched the end of the first Iron Man match between he and AR Fox, saw him cling to a one-fall lead, and do everything he could to make sure Fox was not physically able to get a pinfall on him. He ran around the ring. He clutched the ropes. He broke out Inoki kicks and played the best round of keepaway that I've seen since I played it myself in the schoolyard. That was his best example. It wasn't his only one though.

But he doesn't sell, is the next cry. That's bullshit too. He doesn't do long term selling in a match. I'm not sure that's a requirement for good wrestling. If it was, then people wouldn't fawn over Davey Richards. I understand that the crowd that praises Richards and bashes ACH may not be remotely inclusive. But it ignores the fact that ACH not only sells in short bursts, but that he also bumps huge. He goes into guardrails. He lands hard on aprons. You don't need to hold your arm for 20 minutes to show that you're hurt. Everything that's major enough to the match at hand always resurfaces at some point.

But enough about heading off the haters at the pass. This isn't a referendum on ACH's flaws. It's an appreciation of him as a wrestler. The man has a magnetic personality. He knows how to lead the charge behind him, and once the support is behind him, he conducts those swells into crescendos, sometimes without even having to turn around and beckon their support. A true master in the ring doesn't have to lead his own chants all the time.

Look, if the only thing that was good about him was his freakish athletics and his ridiculously impressive moveset, he'd be Shelton Benjamin. Shelton Benjamin sucks. However, ACH is amazing, and when his freak-of-nature offense is factored into his entire portrait, it makes all the difference in the world. Anyone can do something insanely athletic and pop a crowd. Fuck, look at John Morrison or Kofi Kingston or even Jack Evans. They do crazy shit, and you remember the moment but not the guy giving you said moment. It takes someone with real talent to harness it and make it part of a sensible repertoire that builds matches rather than pops spots.

And that's not even getting into the fact that nearly every time he went out and wrestled in 2012, he was having either the best match on the card or somewhere close to that. Strangely enough, he was outshined most in Texas in ACW, but that's only because they stupidly put him in four-way matches where the focus was on Jaykus Plisken or Shawn Vexx. I like both those guys as wrestlers, but if they're in the same match as ACH, and they're the ones getting most of the attention, there's a problem. I'm not even talking about offense. Fuck that. ACH would take like a big bump to be out of sight, out of mind, and then Plisken would go on and work over someone else as if they were the ones jawing with him before the match and not ACH. I love ACW. They were my promotion of the year last year. But they weren't perfect, and for a point in the spring/early summer, they totally fucked up what you do with ACH.

What do you do with him though? You do what AIW did with him and put him out there against the best of the best. You do what Chikara did and put him all the way through to the Young Lions' Cup Finals. You do what St. Louis Anarchy did and have him go up against the guys who would go as far as the Arch but not be able to/not want to venture down south to Austin. You do what Metro Pro did and make ACH a centerpiece of their televised programming when he was able to make it to their tapings.

Now we venture into dangerous territory. So ACH only has to be pushed to the moon to be good? What if he were on WWE TV every week, having to get his shit handed to him by Ryback or whomever else he was tasked at making look good? Again, I don't buy that one bit, because I can't think of any wrestler who came out of a match with ACH who didn't look just as good afterwards at least. Whether it was Mat Fitchett in a match shot on a shitty fancam on YouTube or Tim Donst in a main event for a major show in AIW, whether it was a random tournament match to open a show against Willie Mack or a Championship match on the flagship event against Gary Jay, ACH put in the same effort, flashed the same personality, and wrestled equally as excellently.

People are waiting for him to grow and evolve. I think ACH has a lot of room to improve, and that's what makes him right now so impressive to me. He could become Bryan Danielson good. He could be the best of all-time. He could be the guy who makes wrestling boom again. All because he's unique in the ring, a genuine article, a man who breaks molds.

ACH is not the best at what he does. He's the only one who does what he does. That's why he's my best wrestler of 2012. As much wrestling as I watched… hell, as much GREAT wrestling as I have watched in the last year, I don't think it was even close. That's how good I thought he was.

Ryan Kilma: From Bissonette to Chikarason (not alphabetical, there are others), nearly every wrestling announcer I’ve heard call an ACH match has called him “a human video game.” He can do things only programmed avatars can dream of. With all due respect to the late THQ, who filled my life with a random assortment of wrestling video games, that is an insult to ACH. You can’t perform a second-rope 450 in Here Comes the Pain. It’s impossible to replicate “Ready or Not, Here I Come!” in a Create-Your-Own-Finisher engine. ACH has yet to burst into flames after hitting three consecutive big moves, but I wouldn’t put it past him. See, right there. ACH’s offense has become so other-worldly that it’s becoming difficult to describe him without dissolving into a puddle of hyperbole. In 2012, ACH was the second most interesting three-letter-word in wrestling, trailing only the company he helped put on the map with six-month old matches.

Alex Torres: ACH spread his special brand of Super Saiyan wrestling in ways no one else has duplicated, appearing on IPPVs for DGUSA, Chikara, CZW, and ROH in the calendar year. And he's still a young gun.

Jennifer Logsdon: I saw ACH for the first time in person at CHIKARA and then again at Insanity Pro. Attitude, Charisma, Heart. He has all three and more in spades. He's the future of wrestling and the future is NOW.

Lee Spriggs: I do sometimes worry that I'm taking ACH for granted. He may be the most gifted physical specimen out there (I think he and AR Fox can both lay claim to that title, which makes their AIW Iron Man matches so glorious) and he's only getting better in the ring. But he's so damn inventive: every match I think I've ever seen of his has something I've never seen him, let alone anyone else, do before. And he has personality to spare, able to go comedic for long stretches, as we saw in his matches against Mr. Touchdown in Chikara.

He's been everywhere lately, and I can't imagine that he'll be in the indies for long; every match of his that I watch feels like watching Pedro Martinez circa the turn of the century: you have the chance to see a masterpiece, but at the very least it's going to be awe-inspiring.

Steen dragging Eddie Kingston to his feet Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

9. Kevin Steen
Points: 3190
Ballots: 38
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Samantha Allen, Jerome Cusson)
Last Year's Placement: 18th Place

TH: Steen seems to be polarizing. Some hate him. Some say he only has good matches with Generico. Still others think everything he does is plated in gold. I'm somewhere in between all those places, but I tend to gravitate towards the superlatives. The guy is one of the most unique wrestlers on the scene, and it comes through in nearly every match.

I won't accuse Steen of being versatile. He very much works his style, and either you cheer him or you boo him. However, it's such a different style that I can forgive him for working with no alignment in mind (or at the very least as an amalgam of every Attitude Era anti-hero). In some ways, he's an impressionist wrestler in the same way Rocky has been described as such, but he's got a much better handle on how to organically get a crowd behind him. He's one of the few guys whose work remains consistent no matter what promotion or opponent he's in there against, and Steen in PWG is probably the purest form of him you'll find. It's also, not coincidentally, the best.

Alex Torres: The standard bearer for PWG and ROH. What else is there to say?

John Rosenberger: Yeah, yeah “He’s never had a good match that did involve Generico”. Guess what, I don’t really care about that. I find him entertaining, I like that he’s more than willing to interact with the crowd during matches and he gave my little cousin a weird look at Cibernetico Rises that he still talks about to this day. The Ladder War from Final Battle 2012 is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in person. We can talk all day about who was responsible for that but you know what? I think he deserves a bit more credit for how good it turned out than most people are giving him.

Shawn Duckett: Kevin Steen was one of the few bright spots in a lack luster year for ROH. Steen seemed develop into more of a brawler this past year, but he always delivered in the ring. He is the best trash talker in the business. Fans and opponents are always likely to get a verbal jab from Steen. The Ladder War with El Generico was the icing on the cake of a great year in ROH for Steen. Once again he put on superb matches in PWG. Kevin Steen put on a heck of a show in 2012 and I loved every minute of it.

Typical ROH Fan: Another dude who lit it up in both PWG and ROH. The ROH matches I enjoyed most were vs. Generico, Jacobs, Richards, Elgin, Rhino and Generico again. The PWG matches with Willie Mack, Generico (again), Edwards Edwards, Brian Cage and Adam Cole were my favorites over there. He had a really good one at Chikara too in the big multi team match. (Favorite 2012 match: vs. El Generico at ROH Showdown in the Sun)

del Rio working over Big Show's arm Photo Credit: WWE.com

8. Alberto del Rio
Points: 3260
Ballots: 40
Highest Vote: 5th Place (Robot Hammer)
Last Year's Placement: 5th Place

TH: I know I put forth in the guidelines that booking really shouldn't play a role in how to rank certain wrestlers, but it's almost like when del Rio came back from his injury after Mania, he was put in an endless cycle of awful stories against Sheamus, ones that hurt him more than it hurt the other guy in the ring. Still, he had a fine year, as any time wrestlers the caliber of him and Sheamus tilting in the ring produces at least decent matches. He also dragged a decent series out of Randy Orton before reenergizing and turning babyface at the end of the year, showing he's actually better playing the good guy than he was working rudo.

Cewsh: The trouble with 2012 for Alberto Del Rio is that is wasn’t 2013 yet. He’s already made a strong case to be a top 10 guy in 2013, but 2012 had him still stuck in a rut as a directionless bad guy in boring feuds. But even so, Del Rio was nothing close to a slouch in the ring. His matches with Sheamus were so good that they gave us about 40 of them against everyone’s better judgment, and his overlooked feud with Orton carried Smackdown through some lean months. He’s better than his ranking probably suggests, but he’ll have to wait for next year.

Robot Hammer: Del Rio has become one of the WWE's most reliable in ring performers. His matches with Sheamus, while surrounded by questionable at best story lines, were always solid. And for what it's worth, I could watch his running corner enzuigiri, on loop, for hours.

Sheamus driving his shoulder into Daniel Bryan against the barricade Photo Credit: WWE.com

7. Sheamus
Points: 3320
Ballots: 39
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (TH)
Last Year's Placement: 10th Place

TH: Sheamus was the best in-ring wrestler in WWE in 2012.

I say that fully acknowledging Daniel Bryan's existence as a WWE-contracted wrestler. I state this with cognizance of CM Punk, John Cena, Big Show, and Damien Sandow all having tremendous years. There is no one who put in the amount of work week-in and week-out that Sheamus did on a consistent basis. He had at least one match every week on TV, sometimes working double duty on RAW and Smackdown or Main Event. He always got time to work, WrestleMania excepted. Each time, he made the most of his minutes.

First thing's first, the man is a certified hoss who had no problems throwing his size around. Whether against smaller wrestlers or in HOSS FIGHTS against The Big Show, Sheamus asserted himself with the force and dominance befitting a WWE main event superstar. He could stand out here and chip away at Mount Rushmore with his bare hands, and believe me, standing across the ring from a motivated Show is akin to tilting giant stone faces, and I'd believe it.

The dichotomy, though, was that he also was one of the most believable men in the company at working vulnerable. He had a series of matches with Sandow that was absolutely made because Sheamus got his ass kicked. He wasn't taking empty beatings either. As someone getting lost in the moment of a match, there were several times when I felt like Sandow had him, that he was going to end up getting a win somehow, that he was being portrayed as the better man. That means something.

He was also in one of the WWE's three best matches of the year, the two-out-of-three falls match against Bryan at Extreme Rules, a match that was as much Sheamus as it was Bryan. The secret is that I thought that was Bryan's best performance in a WWE ring to date, one that hearkened back to his independent days. So what does that say of Sheamus that he answered the bell and went toe to toe with the American Dragon?

Cewsh: Thank god this is about in ring quality, and not out of ring, because in 2012 Sheamus may have been the most unlikable babyface on the planet. But in the ring, he grew from a meat and potatoes kind of big man, into one of the most exciting and dependable wrestlers in WWE. Somewhere around his feud with Daniel Bryan, he started showing an incredible about of ability, and a great understanding of how to bring drama into a match. He carried this through feuds with Alberto Del Rio and the Big Show that would have been incredibly hard to enjoy had the matches not been so damn good. He was one of the unsung heroes in wrestling in 2012, without a doubt.

Robot Hammer: Sheamus has better free televised matches than some wrestlers have pay per view matches. From the top of the roster and all the way down, he put in quality work with everyone he stepped in the ring with. His character can be grating at times, but judging on in ring performance alone, few match up to the Celtic bruiser.

Ryan Kilma: The stipulation that only “in-ring prowess” counts knocked UltraMantis Black off my list and kept Sheamus from hanging out with Drew Lucid and Zack Ryder at the bottom of my Barrell O’ Wrestlers. He really is one of the most impressive hosses I’ve ever seen in the ring and can have a believable slugfest with almost anyone. If I was Vince McMahon I’d send Sheamus on a pilgrimage across America to terrorize independent wrestling. I may never buy an ROH DVD; but if it has that match where Sheamus kicks the shit out of Roderick Strong for 45 minutes? I might take a look.

John Rosenberger: The fact that this is entirely focused on in-ring product and not character work outside of it is why the Celtic Warrior ranks so high on this list, or at all for that matter. He took some shots this year that had me legitimately concerned for his well-being and bounced back strong, while still making moves look effective, as opposed to a certain Jorts wearing fella’ who jumps right up after every move hit.

Mike Germano: Sheamus is the best big man the WWE has had in years. Nothing against Mark Henry, who was inactive much of the year, but since his arrival, Sheamus has consistently shown that he can have a great match where he gives as good as he takes. While I greatly enjoy his battles with Big Show, his versatility in being able to work with all sizes really showed in one of my favorite matches of the year, his 2 out of 3 falls match with Daniel Bryan. Based solely on in-ring work, Sheamus was clearly one of the best in 2012.

Dylan Hales: I don't have a wrestling blog because I'm a lazy ass. Well that's part of it. Another reason I don't have a wrestling blog is because I really like wrestling discussion, more than I like the idea of recording my own thoughts in a central place for people to look at and likely not comment on. To me the give and take is the best part and if I don't have it it's hard to stay motivated.

I mention this only because people who do know me and are familiar with the way I talk and write about wrestling, know that I am really big on "week-to-week" wrestlers. When it comes to a poll like this, I will always favor guys who have depth and quality tv performances, particularly if it's against a motley crew of characters. It's why I have always been the high voter for Rey Misterio in these things and it's why I have Sheamus so high on my ballot this year.

In 2012 Sheamus had more televised matches than anyone in the WWE and he made the most out of it. Yes his best bouts were on ppv (vs. Show and Bryan), but Sheamus was the guy that really stepped into the Rey role of "guy we know can have a good ten plus minute match vs. anyone on the roster regardless of placement on the card or whether or not they have an angle together." It was a role that I believe was tested with Dolph, who flopped with it. So instead Sheamus was given the ball and had the home run matches with guys like Sandow, Barrett and Tensai that no one else was having. He wasn't the best guy in wrestling in 2012, but he was the best guy wrestling on TV week-to-week.

Aries bloodying up Bully Ray something fierce Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

6. Austin Aries
Points: 3455
Ballots: 38
Highest Vote:1st Place (Justin Daley, Jamie Girouard, Victor Rodgers)
Last Year's Placement: 11th Place

TH: A Double proved that you don't need to be tall to have shoulders broad enough to carry a televised wrestling company. He started out remodeling and renovating the X-Division, one that was left threadbare by the parent company and really abandoned after he traded in his X gold for the World Title. Between New Year's and Destination X, he turned in some of the strongest free TV performances, including a match in England with Mark Haskins and a nice feud with Bully Ray that flared up at various points. Obviously his high water mark came as TNA Champion with highly acclaimed PPV matches against Bobby Roode and even Jeff Hardy.

You could make a strong case that Aries was the most valuable wrestler in any company in 2012. I give the Impact roster a little more credit, but the guy turned in strong efforts whenever he was called upon to do so. Not a whole lot of wrestlers have stronger resumes on television, and that counts for a lot.

Cewsh: 2012 basically belonged to 3 men in TNA. Bobby Roode, James Storm and Austin Aries. And while Roode and Storm got to work with the best TNA had to offer, Austin Aries managed to stay on their level while wrestling Kid Kash and Jesse Sorenson. Add that to the fact that he had TNA’s match of the year against Bobby Roode at Destination X and managed to carry Jeff Hardy to his best match in years at Bound For Glory, and this guy deserves a pat on the back at the very least.

Dylan Hales: Austin Aries was number 5 on my ballot, but in a strange way he feels like the only guy I could conceivably accept as a true rival to my number one (Sami Callihan). It's hard to fully articulate why, but I'll give it a shot - In 2012 Austin Aries had a "career" year and did so in the worst promotion in the history of pro wrestling and in the process of doing so had multiple great matches in a promotion that very rarely even has good matches. I cannot stress enough how impressive it is to be able to say that you had a GREAT in ring year in TNA.

Aries had a great in ring year in TNA. He had two outstanding matches v. Bully Ray and two more v. Bobby Roode (and let me be the first to say that Roode is overrated as all hell and had no clue how to carry the heel control segment in the first match - that was all Aries). His unsanctioned "fight" with pre-unmasked Doc was really good. He actually got an excellent match out of Samoa Joe, a guy who has been completely unmotivated and virtually incapable of having even decent matches for the last five years. And while I thought the ladder match with Jeff Hardy was a bit disappointing, it was still a strong match, with a really good performance from Aries. On top of all this he had strong in ring performances as both a face and a heel, as both the "star" of an undercard division and an "underdog" in the "star" division and in straight matches and gimmicked brawls. He also has the best tope in wrestling (though criminally underrated, Aries lookalike Kyle Matthews is a close second). So even though I had Aries number five I may have underrated him a tad. In any event he was 2012's Mark Henry - a previously unappreciated and poorly utilized talent, who was given the ball and ran with it.

Typical ROH Fan: During the hot TNA stretch of great shows, Aries was right in the middle of it. Even during some of the weaker shows, his X Division title matches or rematch vs Jeff Hardy were the best thing on the shows. Similar to Bryan, his variety of opponents were also impressive. X Division dudes like Zema Ion and Kid Kash to main eventers like Bobby Roode, Hardy, Samoa Joe (yeah I may be stretching there) to bigger dudes with different styles like Bully Ray and Luke Gallows, he delivered all year long. (Favorite 2012 match: vs. Bobby Roode at Destination X)

Photo Credit: PWI via WWE.com

This year's Hall of Fame class is absolutely loaded. Like, I'm talking 82% of the first 7500+ days of the WWE Championship's existence are going into the Hall this year. A third holder of the WWE Championship, one who was one of the three most important holders of the title in the Attitude Era, will also be going on. The last important holder of the WCW Championship will also be getting his spot in the Hall. So will maybe the most important woman of the last 15 years. And they'll be joined by a bloated, bald, one-percenter douche nozzle. Hey, they can't all be perfect. Here's a look at this year's WWE Hall of Fame class.

Bruno Sammartino - Without Sammartino, there probably is no WWE as we know it today. He may not have been the biggest breakout star nationally, but without him in New York, there's no way that Vince McMahon would have had the base to be able to expand outwards. You would think that it would have been him and not Andre the Giant as the first inductee. So why didn't he end up as the first in the Hall? Well, it had to do with his objection to WWE's direction towards the lascivious.

What made him soften his stance? I'm not sure. Maybe he thought WWE really had slowed down on its drive towards too-edgy programming? I don't know what show he's watching. Maybe if he watched during either one of Linda McMahon's Senatorial runs, he might have a point, but since Linda lost her second campaign, well, I feel like the show has gotten a bit more risque. Regardless, he's going in. Now, I doubt that the Hall of Fame is as much an honor as some people treat it. Given some of the prior inductions and one specific one this year, I feel like it's just a thing that Vince McMahon does to part fans from their money and to tell people in the biz, "Hey, I like you." That being said, even if it's a bit of a farce, the fact that there's a Hall without the seminal Champion in the company's early history, then no one belongs in the goddamn Hall.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Bob Backlund - Backlund, in many ways, was the anomaly during his title run. The then-WWWF and its predecessor, Capital Wrestling, had mostly relied on ethnic babyfaces as their top draws. Antonino Rocca, Sammartino, Pedro Morales, all of those guys were decidedly not of Nordic stock, which played to the heavy Italian and Spanish populations in New York City. So at the time, Backlund as the top babyface Champ went against trend. However, Backlund made it work with his devious strength and in-ring ability. His short-arm scissor deadlift? The stuff of legends.

His run on top was before my time, but how I grew to love him was through his crazy old man run in the early '90s. Yokozuna was the first heel I ever rooted for, but Backlund was the heel I loved the hardest, maybe ever. He inspired me to try and perfect the crossface chicken wing. Plus, if there's one guy who could come back for one more run of the really old guys, it's him. I'd KILL to see Backlund/Daniel Bryan.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Mick Foley - Mama Foley's little boy had a hell of a career, didn't he? I'm not sure people were looking at him as a future WWE Champion when he was getting his ear ripped off by Vader in European rings, but for better or worse, he pioneered a style of wrestling that got really popular. Whether his furthering of death matches is good or bad for wrestling overall is irrelevant to me, though. When you think about it, every style of wrestling that started to come through in the '90s was supremely dangerous in its own way.

Underneath the massive bumping and general insanity, there was a genuinely charismatic, warmly lovable schlub who grabbed at the fans' heartstrings like on a cello. He took so much abuse from guys like the Undertaker, The Rock, Edge, and Randy Orton, and with each shot he took, we felt it too. He was the easiest wrestler to empathize with, because he was the easiest to root for. He was just a regular guy who would do anything to make us happy, whether killing himself or just mentioning the name of the town he was in for a cheap pop.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Booker T - Forget his travails as a singles Champion. Booker T was one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all-time. If you think that's a slight, you underestimate my love for the tag arts. In a company that had large doses of the Road Warriors, the Steiner Brothers, the Outsiders, and the Nasty Boys, Harlem Heat may have been WCW's most important and best tag team. You can make fun of the time he called Hulk Hogan a "n-----," but believe me, the Hulkster had it coming. Then, after he came to WWE, he formed one of the most warmly-remembered tag teams ever with Goldust.

But yeah, the singles stuff wasn't to sleep on either. Poor Booker had to get his moment in the sun in the turmoil of Vince Russo's morass of WCW's dying days. He also had Jeff Jarrett as the assiest foil in wrestling history. In a perfect world, he would have feuded with Scott Steiner for a good year, ending in a worthy final Starrcade main event. But he'd be redeemed somewhat in WWE. Sure, he got Sambo'd by Triple H, but other than that, he had the King Booker run, which was wickedly fun.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Trish Stratus - I know I've belittled Stratus' contributions to WWE in the past few months, and that's totally undeserved on her part. The thing is, it's hard for one woman to change a patriarchy where their sex is institutionally marginalized. I mean, the only sin that Chyna committed was her boyfriend falling in love with the boss' daughter, and she was fired. It's unbelievable the kinds of pressures women like Stratus had to face.

But while she was probably hired for her sex appeal, she rose above that to become a good manager and, the best actual female wrestler they had on their roster of all-time with the exception of Fabuluous Moolah at the time she retired. She actually got to be in memorable stories, work matches longer than thirty seconds, and be something of an icon for women fans. I wouldn't exactly call her a feminist icon, but at some point, you have to realize, even begrudgingly, that there's only one singular woman who can change how her gender is portrayed in WWE, and she's the daughter of the current CEO, married to the heir apparent, and the one inducting Stratus into the Hall this year.

Donald Trump - Fuck this guy. So. Hard.

I'd like to start this column with three simple words: I'M TAKING OVER!

Yes, in light of the fact Main Event this week was an affront to everything good and pure in the world as well as the fact that we are hours away from the (coincidentally) 29th crown jewel of WrestleFest, your usual narrator of Best Coast Bias is dans la maison. The Twitter Request Line -- usually ably handled by the grandmajor domo -- handles questions about wrestling's past and present, as well as other catchall misasma, and then pumps out a column because 140 characters can't restrain him, fool! You can follow him @tholzerman and the call for questions usually begins post-Smackdown Friday nights.

For reasons that can only be termed "random draw" we'll start with long-time associate and honorary member of Cypress Hill Brandon Mars -- if that is his real name -- who askswill be a mistake on the part of WWE if they don't have Dolph Ziggler cash in at Mania?

Even though I myself would love to see it happen, the real thing is the same problem the WWE seems to run into lately; what do you do with all the chapters that you have after the beginning of a quality idea? It's not the cash-in (I'm assuming it'll be succesful), it'll be what they do with Ziggler moving forward as the World Champion. You have a great talker with the muscle as backup and a beautiful girl who based on what I can figure from the polling is in crucial circles one of the top 5 wrestlers in the world, so let him be it. Let him carry around the belt for a good long while while he's doing it. If he has to cheat every so often to win, all the better. But whether or not it happens in Not New York City on the 7th, that's the best way forward.

Jesse Powell, probably the most awesome follower we have from North Dakota chimes in: Who is your least favorite WWE wrestler ever?

The stock answer is Chris Benoit, because obviously.

Failing that, I would have to go with Nathan Jones, who's biggest crime was coming along at the same time I started getting hip to the Internet. Also the fact he sucked more than a Faye Reagan marathon and had one move and couldn't even do that right were factors.

JohnJohnPhenom from New York, New York, the city so nice it made redundancy cool offers this with his turn at the conch: A scenario: Team Hell No wins at WrestleMania but splits up at Raw or soon after, leading to a match at Extreme Rules for sole ownership of tag titles? (ref: I AM THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!)

Firstly, THIS is a scenario:

Secondly, I'm beyond over the trope of teams breaking up to feud. Maybe Team Friendship's found the one soft spot in my small, wrecked black heart, but why should they make up to break up? IF you're going to break them up you might as well do it at the biggest show of the year. Nobody's turned on the Biggest Stage of Them All in years. The entire point of their unity in the face of Team AJ is they've moved beyond themselves as individuals to form a cohesive unit worthy of being the best tag team in all of the world; the sum has finally caught up to the parts. And what awesome new thing comes from them splitting? Kane's a mean, evil bad guy? That's new. MY BOI D-BRY RIGHT THERE becoming an egotistical little man with 1,007 holds? That's new too, then. Let them go their separate ways when the time comes individually Team Rhodes Scholars style. Sometimes no swerve is the best swerve.

Charlie Owens (via the Facebook), a longtime friend with black and yellow running through his veins asks if the new ROH champ Jay Briscoe is a good or bad thing, and if he should feud with Mark.

It's too soon to tell because it's too soon to tell. I'm leaning towards it being slightly bad -- the closest analog I could make right now without the benefit of clairvoyance would be if Ricky Morton had beaten Flair for the belt in '86 -- but then again I am a big fan of the Zoo Enthusiast and not so much of crazy, tooth-missing rednecks as a general rule. It seems that based on who's been lining up to contend that the best long-term ROH plan would revolve around Elgin or Lethal taking the final step to the top shelf and doing away with SCUM/dethroning Steen once and for all and this isn't that. But maybe this is just a blip in Steen's highway to hell. Oh, and what I said about tag teams splitting up a few beats goes to the infinite about brother tag teams. There's a Barenaked Ladies song about that, and it isn't even one of the great ones.

George Murphy gets all Borglum with the following: You've just been assigned to make a Mount Rushmore of Wrestling. Go.

Trish Stratus, Lita after the heel turn, Layla, and...not what he meant? Are we sure here? Well, fine. Let's do it the traditional way for THIS BUSINESS and all.

Firstly, if I want to get people in the tent, I need the Hulkster, brother. Oh, he's not awesome in the ring. Oh, he's an egomaniacal prick. Oh, he seems to have descended into a parody of himself where he doesn't seem to be able to discern the line betwixt himself and reality faster than you can say Courtney Stodden. Hogan's Hogan. It's weird how everybody's "right place at the right time" story seems to happen when a force of nature or unique talent comes along, isn't it?

Secondly, speaking of right place at the right time, I do believe that Steve Austin will be in my rock-solid foursome. Great technically, great at the brawl. Delicious no matter if he was trying to get you to root for or against him. Turned McMahon into an evil multimillionaire about 2 years after he was literally at the lowest point in his coffers. Also I heard on the Internet that one time he hit the Rock with a Stunner so hard that once it was oversold he ended up standing by passively while Vince Vaughn did the Roger Rabbit, but who knows.

Thirdly, if I'm doing these to appeal to me and those who think like me, what I need is a limousine-riding, Lear Jet flyin...oh, you know. Naitch has to go up. And finally to round out this out, Miss Tessmach--oh, hell, got the wiring crossed again.

Fourth on the mountain for me is Eddie Guerrero. You can make a compelling case for the Rock, Stan Hansen, Curt Hennig, or Bret Hart, but for me there was just that always something extra about Eddie no matter who he wrestled for or alignment that pushed him over the edge for me. I'm sure growing up with the exploits of Los Gringos Locos weighed this in his favor, and to that I merely say if you don't like it, make your own f'n Rushmore.

Hmm...some of you are cheering...and some of you are booing...and some dude just yelled BRRRR ABADOO. Must be time for What We Talk About When We Talk About John Cena!

The Booker T to my podcasting Stevie Ray, Kenny Borsuk has a question because suckas GOTS to know: Is the problem with Cena more on us for being Internet smarks or is he really that bad a character?

It doesn't stop there because another long-time Web friend Goog asks if I could see Cena doing something heinous to win the WWE Title, sort of like Austin at WrestleMania 17?

And to close the circle G9zwrestling would like to know how much of a legit surprise do you think a Cena heel turn would be? People are predicting it sure, but does anyone think it's they're actually going to pull the trigger? And if so, how big of a game changer do you think it'd be? 

So here we are a few scant hours short of WMXXIX and it comes down to this. Whither Cena?

Well, Ken, like most things in life we are and aren't to blame. It's us to an extent, sure. We pretend our corner of the bubble is bigger than it actually is and some of the bottom us merely want to inveign against the current dictatorship and replace with one where we wield the sword. That said, portraying the most dominant force of the past decade as a perennial underdog redefines cognitive dissonance. Does he even have a character anymore besides being the BMOC?

Hence the rapidly growing clamor that's been in place for years. Turn him. Flip him. Have him make little kids cry and kick a Make-A-Wish tot in the face and spew venom about the Rock having a sc instead of a schedule and all the people he stood up for twice a week for years immediately went and went Hollywood on him, that the worst year of his life was better than everybody else's year in the arena combined and start really choking people out in that STF. Hell, you can even have him wrestle with long tights on and grow a goatee.

Make no doubt about it, friends: John Cena, before Sunday turns into Monday, will be the WWE Champion once again for the first time in a couple years.

But if you think Uncle Vinnie is going to flip John just because you don't like him, look at the end of X-7 and think about how completely the WWE imploded in a creative sense from turning their top guy to the other side of the table. I'm not saying it's justified or that history would repeat itself. What I am saying is that there is the possible outside glory for us and those like us should the scenario come to pass; it would of course come to pass on the night where they benchpressed 8 figures without anything besides Once In A Lifetime II: the Never-Ending Story. When we all sit back and berate them creatively. Where some of us live-hate-blog Raw and still tune in every week.

It's fitting that the Rock's headlining because in this case, the wants of a few? It doesn't matter what they want. The WWE has no major competition anymore and they may never again. Thinking somebody like Del Rio or Sheamus could fill Cena's shoes right now in that position is like if Destiny's Child replaced Beyonce with Kat Stacks. To parphrase that Masked Man from Grantland, they don't need to turn John Cena heel because he already is a heel to the people he needs to be a heel to. Vinnie's outsmarted the logic. He plays both sides against the middle, and oh my lord how the money rolls in. From a business standpoint alone I'd never trade the masses of people filling my coffers over the wants of some who're less likely to buy the things I need to keep my dominion over the landscape. Sure, it'd be a gigantic game changer. So were new Coke, the Edsel, and the fourth season of Community (which sources tell me is happening somehow).

And do you trust WWE Creative as it is to pull this off to a satisfying 2013, 2014 and beyond? You know, the people who getting word-filled effigies burnt into the Internet about them every day, the killers of the United States and Intercontinetal championships who've brought us such sparkling gems as babyface Miz and Kaitlyn as the queen of a land without any other inhabitants, the turners of the exploits of Hornswoggle, Sweet T, and the type of people Glenn Beck will dismissively sniff at before he walks back into mainstream irrelevance rather than interact with them in this, their biggest hour?

John Cena will raise the WWE title again. The champ will return. And you can go back to hating his ubiquity.

But he won't need a chair or the Shield or anything else to do it. His sheer force of will, sparked by his fanbase when he's down, will lead him to victory and out of the worst year of his life.

Or do you kids not know how an underdog story works by now?

Did the fans' reaction to Maria Menounos cross the line? Photo Credit: WWE.com

Last night at the Hall of Fame, it was reported that the fans were a bit, well, unruly. The two major watermarks on the show were them booing John Cena during a video documenting his Make-a-Wish work, and then booing Maria Menounos to the point of tears when she was inducting Bob Backlund into the Hall of Fame. They booed Donald Trump too, but fuck that guy. So. Hard. That's an opinion that I'm sure not many people outside the Tea Party or a seven-figure income bracket would disagree with.

It was the booing of Cena and ESPECIALLY Menounos that riled people up. One might think that the Hall of Fame was one time when it's time for people to show some decorum. Yeah, on the surface, I might agree, but I think there's a need for perspective here before really railing on the fans there last night.

I myself just in the first paragraph justified why someone might want to boo Donald Trump. I would feel a bit hypocritical if I was going to say that and then chastise a bunch of fans for doing the same thing to Menounos. Now, I don't think Menounos should have been booed, and if I were there, I know I definitely would not have booed her. But the thing is, if I had my reasons for booing Trump, then what makes them more valid than a random person's for booing Menounos? You could argue that because it's the Hall of Fame, it deserves a sense of decorum in that no one should be booed and everyone should golf clap, but I find that very hard to reconcile with my own belief system. If you have a problem with something or someone, you should vocalize it. I think the reasons people might have been booing were fucking stupid (Oh, she was a part-timer who pinned Beth Phoenix? That's not her fault, assholes.), but nothing ever good has come from shutting down an opposing viewpoint, right?

And going back to the idea that the Hall needs a sense of decorum, that sort of spits in the face of what the Hall really is. It's not really a measure of objective honor like a sports Hall of Fame. Even those are suspect, because entry into those is decided usually by a group of crusty, stubborn sportswriters whose views on the respective games they cover are static from the Stone Age. But still, there are at least criteria to get in. Where's the floor for getting into Vince McMahon's Hall? He either has to like you, or he has to think you're going to make him money on ticket sales. That's it. So what kind of decorum do Hall of Fame entrants or people inducting them really deserve if they're only cronies of a guy most of us seem not to like when he's not an actual wrestling character? I'd say the answer is between "none" and "infinitesimal."

Besides, why should the fans show any kind of decorum if the performers don't? It was clear that the wrestlers were still working during the event. Sure, Bob Backlund's "was it real or just a callback to his early '90s character" breakdown during his induction and the impromptu Chris Jericho vs. Mick Foley "match" that ended with special guest ref CM Punk counting three on Y2J after a Foley elbow drop were all done in fun, but they both set the precedent that this was a total in character thing. So if the wrestlers were putting on a show, then wouldn't it be expected that the fans booed the ever-loving Christ out of John Cena no matter what the appearance? We are part of the show, even the Hall of Fame, and booing Cena is a company-sponsored thing for fans to do to the point where they made shirts highlighting it.

Again, I'm not comfortable with booing someone like Menounos (although to be fair, other reports seem to say that she got a zero-sum reaction, which can be just as jarring if everyone else is getting cheered), or hearing boos for Cena when his charity work was being highlighted. It's also not to excuse wrestling fans for being crass, but at the same time, it's very hard to police crowd reactions. But when you engender a certain environment, you really shouldn't expect the fans to behave differently just because the dress code is more heightened.

Hey, do you live in Westchester Co., NY or in New York City in general and want to hear me on AM radio? Well, you're in luck. At 12:50 PM this afternoon, I will be appearing on the Scorecard program on WFAS 1230 AM to discuss WrestleMania. I never thought in a million years I'd ever be on the radio, but here I am. Tune in and listen to me make my terrestrial airwave debut!

EDIT: You can listen to it ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY via iHeartRadio.

David Burszan, aka Chudley Cannons, went to the Cupcake Lady Cupcake Carnage wrestling comedy show on Thursday night. The Cupcake Lady is actually a comedy troupe based in New York. The show featured several wrestling related skits and "matches," and it also had TWB Sometimes Staffer (Texas Indie Review Division) Brandon Stroud as part of the show as a commentator. Anyway, here's his review of the show in handy vlog format.

Not included, the thud Photo Credit: WWE.com

In the standard TH style.

Highlights:

• Thanks to a Roman Reigns spear right after Randy Orton RKOed Seth Rollins from the top, Dean Ambrose was able to get the pin for The Shield.
• Mark Henry held onto the top rope on a Shell-Shocked attempt, collapsing Ryback underneath him and getting the win.
• Kane laid out Dolph Ziggler with a choke slam, but Daniel Bryan finished him off with the flying headbutt to get the win for Team Hell No, retaining the WWE Tag Team Championships
• Fandango reversed an awkwardly laid Walls of Jericho into an inside cradle to win his debut match.
• In a match fraught with shenanigans, Alberto del Rio tapped out Jack Swagger with the cross armbreaker to retain his World Heavyweight Championship.
• In an all-time classic, Undertaker put CM Punk to rest with a tombstone piledriver, extending his streak to 21-0.
• Triple H survived a billion German suplexes to put Brock Lesnar away with a Pedigree on the steel ring steps for the win.
• John Cena won his 11th WWE Championship and 13th overall top title by ending a long string of false finish dosey-dos with his third Attitude Adjustment of the match to defeat The Rock.

General Observations:

• "By popular request, we are skipping "America the Beautiful." Real line from the Mania broadcast, or repurposed Simpsons quote? YOU DECIDE.
• Is Seth Rollins' gimmick to kill himself in every match? I mean, I'm still trying to wash the taste of Tyler Black out of my mouth, but that doesn't mean I want the kid to die. He damn near took his own head off with a plancha to the outside. Jeez.
• Raise your hand if you thought Randy Orton snaking the tag from the Big Show would result in Orton being the one to turn heel.
• Actually, with the TLC match in the back of my mind, and then with Rollins taking the RKO after leaping from the top, I think his gimmick might just be "official decoy." There are worse gimmicks to have.
• Guys, let this sink in. Dean Ambrose pinned Randy Orton to finish a WrestleMania match. Jon F'n Moxley pinned a 9-time WWE/World Champion to win at the biggest event on the calendar. That, my friends, is awesome.
• Big Show was the one to turn heel, which really was just him reverting back to the character that had worked so well for him in the past. It definitely was the right call. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Man I love being a turtle! there's still a ton of mileage in The World's Largest Rebellious Teenager.
• Did Mark Henry and Ryback ramming into each other to start the match remind anyone else of two elephant seals fighting on the Antarctic beach?
• I wanna know who paced the Henry/Ryback match, because I've seen both of them wrestle before against other opponents. They're dynamic dudes (not Dynamic Dudes though, the only one of those worth a damn didn't show tonight, hash-tag sad). Just watch a fucking tape of Henry/Sheamus from SummerSlam '11 and let that be your rough template for each hoss fight, GAWD.
• I will say though, Henry showing his innate veteran cleverness by grabbing the ropes, causing Ryback to fall like a ton of bricks into a pin, was the perfect way to finish that match. Now please, just let the rematch wait until SummerSlam, preferably with gold on the line.
• Also, such bullshit after the match. We don't need to let the good guys always get their heat back, GAWD.
• JBL, playing with those seizure-affecting toys, was slapping the Rey Mysterio figure out of rage and frustration. Continuity is a beautiful thing.
• Article #99123814 on why Daniel Bryan and Kane should remain besties, even after they lose the Tag Pennies: Daniel Bryan held his ears when Kane was about to enact his pyro. SO ADORBS, GUYS.
• For a moment, I really thought they were going to have Bryan beat Dolph Ziggler in 18 seconds to the point when I clenched by butt. The match kept going though, and thus, it just turned into a little nugget of an awesome callback to last year.
• Big E. Langston is so strong, guys. SO STRONG. He was moving in Antonio Cesaro levels of effortlessness on some of his power moves, especially with Kane.
• Of course it's not a match unless Dolph goes FULL ZIGGLER. Here, he went all BOMBS AWAY into the turnbuckle, face first. Oh Ziggler.
• Kane went for a pin on Ziggler, when out of nowhere, Langston with the SPLAAAAAASH. Guys, I think I found a new hoss to worship.
• Oh man, they went over the top with Fandango's entrance, didn't they? All those dancers! And his main dance partner? SHE WAS WEARING MYTHRIL!
• When Chris Jericho is motivated, there are few who, from soup to nuts, are better complete performers than he is. I was awestruck by how fired up he was on the ramp coming down for his entrance. You could tell he was super-into the match, at leaste beforehand.
• That being said, I thought they mistimed a lot of their exchanges in the match. It was a shame, because I thought what they were trying to do would have been really solid if they hadn't been so far apart on some exchanges. That being said (dammit), I think the perceived sloppiness helped out the finish. Instead of looking sloppy, it made it look like a struggle-fight, and as you know, I kinda dig that.
• I didn't mind that Diddy performed. However, WHY THE FUCK DID HE FUCKING PERFORM TWO SONGS THAT ORIGINALLY HAD BIGGIE ON THEM? LEAVE HIM ALONE, MAN, OR JUST SPIN A FUCKING RECORD AND SYNC IT UP TO THE HYPNOTIZE VIDEO. FUCK MAN, YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST DONE THE FUCKING KASHMIR SAMPLED SONG, I WOULD HAVE ENJOYED THE CODED RACISM THAT WOULD HAVE SPRUNG FORTH. GOD, WHY AM I IN ALL CAPS?
• Hey, guys? Can we take a minute to appreciate the absurdity of Zeb Colter wearing his survivalist vest over a shirt and tie? I mean, I know I'm supposed to hate him for being a vile racist jerk, but man, does he have a great ironic sense of fashion.
• Alberto del Rio dropped the BOMBS AWAAAAAAAAAY plancha ring-out dropkick within the first three moves of the match. It felt like going for checkmate with your first chess move. Maybe not the soundest of strategies, but God bless you ADR, I admire your goddamn moxie.
• Swagger got the heat almost right back with the heel hook sweep of ADR while he was on the top. Fun fact, that was the move Goldust used to hand Sheamus his first WWE loss, ever. I miss you, WWECW.
• ADR stomped Colter's hand at one point. It was the least subtle subtle thing ever done in a WWE ring, but I loved it.
• Okay, the lack of a cash-in. I girded myself against expecting Ziggler coming out because it felt like the crushing weight of expectation dictated that he HAD to come out and take the belt. In my experience, it's about 75/25 as to whether Vince McMahon will actively troll the audience by withholding something expected at the moment they think it's definitely going to happen. Trust me, it's an awful way to run an entertainment outfit, but the man's loonier than Canadian currency.
• LIVING COLOUR. LIVE. OH MY GOD, SO FUCKING AWESOME! WHY DO THE MUSICAL PERFORMERS TRIGGER AUTOMATIC CAPS LOCK?
• Punk's gear, by the by? Gray and purple. The man is such a student of the game on so many levels, I would have been surprised if it wasn't a callback to anything Undertaker related.
• The way Punk started the match was sheer brilliance. He slapped Taker, then let him give chase outside the ring until Punk had him in his sights. A perfect way to kick the match off given the tone of the feud.
• CM Punk did the Old School after reversing Taker's attempt at it. So good. Punk went for it a second time, but Taker crotched him on the top rope, then right hooked him out of the ring, causing Heyman to remark "Hey, wha happen?" For all the times I get annoyed by Heyman, he is legitimately a great manager.
• The mark of a great manager is that they will take the bullet for their guy. Heyman did just that, distracting Taker and allowing himself to get marked with one of Taker's soup bones so Punk could springboard off the top while saying "I'M FLYING!" before landing a lariat.
• He followed that up with a top rope elbow that was more than cromulent. It was... form perfect? St. Savage be praised!
• JBL: "If at first you don't succeed." King: "Time to go to sleep!" I know that probably wasn't intentional, but it was so goddamn silly and stupid that I laughed.
• Punk laid Taker out on the Spanish announce table and leaped in with another Savage elbow. But the table didn't break. I heard a thud, and my heart went into my gut.
• Punk countered the gogoplata with a jackknife pin? Oh man. Taker countered the Anaconda Vise by STANDING THE FUCK UP AND LOOKING AT PUNK LIKE HE WAS GONNA SHOOT MURDER HIM? I'm getting the vapors. Punk doing the throat slash? The facial expressions? Tombstone teases? Punk with the RIP pin? This match fucked me up in the best way. It was the best Mania match since... fuck, the first Taker/Michaels match? It feels so much like an all-timer to me. I dunno if I'm just in the afterglow or not.
• Brock Lesnar in the Jimmy John's skull cap? Oh man, Brock. Oh man. Never stop being you, okay?
• So, either Triple H had just gotten buzzed inadvertently with the steam machine, or well, something more vulgar happened, because good Lord, he was covered in something.
• Lesnar suplexed Trips through the Spanish announce table (thank Punk and Taker for loosening that shit up for you), and hten Lesnar let out this Tarzan-esque primal scream that I could only describe as 100% sincere. Lesnar maybe what happens when you give Scott Pilgrim a shitload of steroids and knock his eloquence down a few levels.
• To the guy with the sign that said "Caution: Blue Blazer" with the arrow pointing up? Please go fuck yourself with the rustiest, most splintery railroad spike you can find, and refuse to get a tetanus shot afterwards. You are the lowest of the low.
• Did anyone catch Lesnar's left pec? It looked like his entire areola had flared out and consumed most of the lower part of it, almost like a blood blister. Yuck.
• I dunno, but I think Lesnar is still suplexing Triple H.
• This match just sort of rambled on down the stretch and threw everything at the wall to see what would stick. The problem was that the whole middle of the match was dedicated to Brock going T. Rex-on-a-sitting-goat on Trips to the point where I couldn't really get into Trips' comeback. I mean, the kimura sequence was actually way cool, but Triple H should not have been able to fucking stand at that point, let alone wrench in a keylock.
• Oh man, did Rocky and Cena draw straws to see who'd get to play Larry Zbyszko in the beginning of that match and both get the short one? So much goddamn stalling. C'mon, you felt each other out last year.
• There were so many finishers in this match. Did they decide to use Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles from 1/4/10 as a template? Expect someone to "hack" Angle's Twitter this week and flood the timeline with accusations of how WWE steals from TNA again, completley unironically, of course.
• But of course, there were some good nuggets in this match. I really dug Cena playing off last year's finish, going for the People's Elbow if just to draw big dumb steroid-faced Rock into trying to win the same way as last year. If that led into a definitive finish after no prior attempts at ending the match? It would have been the best finish in WWE in the last year. Instead, it was lost in the shuffle.

Match of the Night:CM Punk vs. The Undertaker - I may take a lot of shit for this, but I don't care. This match smoked the ever-loving shit out of the last three Mania matches. It's not even close. I don't know whether Punk is that much better than Triple H (read, he totally is), or whether there was just a better sense of purpose (that was probably more of the case though), but every detail of this match was just perfect, or almost perfect at least, right down to Punk's ring gear.

From jump, we got an actual pissed-off Undertaker, something we've been lacking for a long time. I guess there was a reason they had Punk do everything except have sex with the urn, eh? He came out with a renewed sense of fire, but he also showed an uncharacteristic vulnerability if you couch this match not against the Streak matches of the last four years, but against the series of matches he and Punk had in late 2009. Maybe that's not fair, but then again, it shows how much Punk has grown in stature since then.

But then again, this match wasn't really about historical stature. There were personal stakes. Undertaker flailed wildly, and hit on some of his shots. On others, he left himself wide open. I especially dug the reversal of the Old School and Punk mocking him with his own version of it. Paul Heyman was also the perfect manager, as he set up another really good emotional overdrive spot that went into Punk hitting the springboard clothesline. It should also be noted that Punk hit what may have been the best Savage elbow in his goddamn career, which in and of itself is a minor miracle. The second one to the outside looked like it hurt him more than Taker, but I blame superior announce table craftsmanship on that.

The finishing sequence finished with such a crescendo. Say what you want about Punk "carrying" Undertaker - and personally, outside of the rare, really anomalous example like Savage/Warrior, Rock/Hogan, or Cena/Rock, the term "carry" feels so presumptuous - but Taker really was dialed into the moment there too. Both guys hit all their notes, and it didn't hurt that we got the Tombstone into the rest in peace pin. Classic Undertaker for a classic match. The early days of the Streak were all about blood feuds, Taker getting into supernatural brawls with caricatures, almost like it was WWE's version of the kaiju film genre. Punk's no mutant - he's more Lex Luthor - but he played the role for one night, and because of that, he helped Undertaker do what he couldn't do from WrestleManias VIII through XIV. He perfected the art of the hate-laden revenge Streak match.

Overall Thoughts: WrestleMania this year at least felt a lot better than last year, mainly because it didn't start out with the buzzkill of Daniel Bryan losing in 18 seconds. That's always a plus when the best wrestler in the company doesn't eat it to a single finisher. That being said, there were certain things that brought the show down. For example, the last two matches were not really that good. Yeah, it's hard to follow one of the maybe five or six best matches in Mania history (I know, I know, hyperbole masked by recent feelings, but c'mon man, that was good), but there's no way that Triple H winning after taking a billion German suplexes in the middle portion of that match was good psych. Rocky and Cena then went out and tried to outdo Kurt Angle and AJ Styles with their finisher spam, which was a shame because they had the framework of an excellent match going on.

That being said, the undercard needed to deliver, and it did. The Tag Team Championship match was perfect. The Shield six-man opener was close to perfect, and the right guy went back to being a bad guy afterwards. Jericho and Fandango was a bit sloppy, but some of that worked to its advantage in the finish of the match. Plus, it really put over Fandango and let him show that he can perhaps carry his own weight in a WWE ring. There were even strains of good in the matches that really disappointed me. For example, Henry going over in the HOSS FIGHT (which wasn't a certified hoss fight cuz it was paced awfully) was exactly the right call, even if the attack afterwards was bullshit. The Trips/Lesnar match was the right call on who won (and if I think Trips should have won, then fuck, he should have won), and if they had streamlined the middle of the match, it would have been passable to good. And the main... well, it had a good framework.

But this year's event was all about the Streak. I thought the build petered out at the end, but come to think about it, I think Punk HAD to go overboard. It set Taker over the edge, and we saw a difference in him tonight than we did in the last four Mania matches. A good Streak match is good, but when there are personal stakes? Yeah, that's when a match gets its gravitas. All in all, it was a very good flagship event.

Yeah, of all the pretty cool stuff that went down at Mania last night, this might have been easiest to miss. Hell, Daniel Bryan is probably the smallest figure in that pic. But him holding his ears while Kane does his pyro is just yet another reason why he's the true Best in the World©.

Also, it bears repeating, but when you let Daniel Bryan (and Kane, Dolph Ziggler, and Big E. Langston) wrestle for more than 18 seconds at WrestleMania, it's going to be memorable and great. Last year was a necessary evil, one could argue. This year though was finally proof of something we knew all along.

It had become almost a running joke. If you're ROH World Champion, one of your first defenses is always supposed to be against Jay Briscoe. It was clockwork. No one ever expected him to win, because he's a tag team guy. He's there to give a good fight, a memorable title defense, and that's it. The crazy redneck from Slower Lower would be in that role of periodically winning the Tag Team Championships and getting random title shots until WWE came calling, if they ever did.

Kevin Steen won the ROH World Championship May 12, 2012. He didn't defend against the elder Briscoe until this past Friday night, a fact that wrankled more than a few longtime ROH fans. Little did anyone know that when he'd finally get his shot, he'd actually win. It was the most shocking ROH World Championship switch since I'd been following the company at least, edging out the time Eddie Edwards defeated Roderick Strong for the title. The mechanic behind both title changes? Hunter Johnston. I don't think it's a coincidence.

Anyway, after the first reaction of surprise, I got really happy. Jay Briscoe actually won the ROH Championship. The last time he was in the consciousness of the fans was when a few of them were groaning that he and his brother Mark had won the Tag Championships, ugh, yet again. For an act that was as fun as the Briscoes could be, their fate as being stuck in the mud wasn't something I thought they deserved.

Yeah, I know, "deserve" is kind of a dirty word in wrestling. Wrestling isn't a meritocracy. You don't really earn anything, regardless of what anyone on top says. That's why part-timers headlined WrestleMania last night. That's how hot new things can get pushed through over less over veterans who plateau at levels below top guy.

But then again, the Briscoe Brothers aren't this stagnant duo. They still draw blood from a stone in the ring together, even if they've reached their limit as a tag team. Sure, they haven't held the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas, and that in and of itself would be hilarious on so many levels. But do they need to win every promotion's tag Championships to be validated as one of the best, if not the best tag team in the last decade?

So it would follow from that train of thought that there could be mileage in them as singles acts, right? What could someone like Jay Briscoe do as a centerpiece of a singles feud? ROH or at least some company owed it to itself to try, right? That's why Briscoe winning the title Friday made so much sense. But it also came with a bit of sentimentality too.

Now, I know that the Briscoes aren't everyone's cup of tea. Whether it be for them being too redneck or their wrestling style not resonating with everyone. However, with the ROH crowd, the people who have followed the company from day one (where the Briscoes also started) or from any point afterwards, he's resonated quite a bit. He's fun. He's built emotional equity. He's worked his ass off. So yeah, this is the rare spot where a guy who had cache going forward also deserved his time in the spotlight.

So yeah, it goes without saying that I'm over the moon about Briscoe winning the title. It was that rare confluence, a perfect storm if you will, of everything that can make a good title change in one spot. And yeah, it couldn't have happened for a better performer.

Yeah, I spaced on the announcement of Sidney Bakabella's bruisers on Friday, but to be fair, I was a bit busy at work in between blog postings. But yeah, as expected, the Devastation Corporation has been added to the Tag World Grand Prix as the second team. The bruisers had their Campeonatos de Parejas-aspirations derailed in Florida, but they still have to be considered favorites to at least make the semifinals. I mean, their cardio could be a problem, but then again, if you win matches in mere seconds, cardio doesn't matter.

Also not surprisingly, Darin Corbin and Arik Cannon, also known as AC/DC, will be showing up for the affair. They are somewhat local; Minnesota is a lot closer to Chicago than it is to the East Coast. They're also both pretty popular with Chikara fans, but it remains to be seen how much slow motion from Corbin we're going to get. My guess, it'll be in at least one of the matches they participate in.

The storyline development that WWE fans needed, but not the one they wanted? Photo Credit: WWE.com

Wrestling is the best artform in entertainment to me because it can literally be anything to anyone. It's the blankest canvas, so not only is the art produced by the wrestlers open to so many different avenues in the making, it can be interpreted in so many different ways by a given audience. That being said, even though the interpretation can be open, it's not infinite. There's still intent from the art producers, and on a corporate level, that direction is guided by certain principles coming from the head of the company, Vince McMahon in this case, trickling down through each filter.

That puts a range of true values for any given card, with the people creating that art strongly hinting at a theme. Trust me, it's not entirely different on more independent levels. Each promoter has a vision, whether it's one that balances artistic courage and desire to make money like Chikara and Mike Quackenbush, or a fully-fueled by profit one in Pro Wrestling Syndicate.

So, what happens when the vision that people ideally have for WrestleMania doesn't jibe with the one Vince and his underlings have? That's where I think most of the criticisms for the overall aura of WrestleMania came from. The show was meant to reap, while people wanted them to sow. It would be easy to dismiss those criticisms or fully embrace them if Mania did have a constant thematic strain linking them from year to year.

There are tropes that remain somewhat constant for varying lengths of time. The Royal Rumble winner challenges for a Championship. The Undertaker wrestles to try and maintain his WrestleMania win streak. For six years, someone banked a guaranteed title shot whenever they wanted it. However, those aren't really overarching themes. They set up singular matches.

In order to parse what Mania actually means, we have to examine the evidence as to what McMahon and his company seem to want it to mean. Mainly, is the show a harvest, or is it a planting? In less agricultural terms, is the show a place where long-term stories are resolved, or is it a place where things are started for the next year or so? Well, the answer to that is yes. There are plenty of examples where they've both planted seeds and reaped the fruit of long stories, and at least to my unfocused eye, there are equal amounts of both.

For example, last night, we saw the end of a few major stories, all of them in the three main event matches. John Cena redeemed himself, Triple H won back his family's honor, and Undertaker shut CM Punk's yap something fierce. However, they did enact some starts to stories, or at least planted new beginnings for them. Fandango's win was definitely a start of something pretty major, his career. There's no resolution in sight for either Henry/Ryback or del Rio/Swagger. However, I'd also say there wasn't that impactful, hit-the-ground-running moment ending either.

However, how many WrestleManias have had that kind of moment, where someone changed alignment in a way that it totally reset the landscape? I can think of only two, they both involved "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and only one of them ended the show. Usually, the big moments seem to provide finality. Hulk Hogan bodyslamming Andre the Giant didn't end their feud, but it ended an era. Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth reuniting was the cathartic resolution of seven years of slow-simmering character building and interaction that some of the best TV shows never come close to achieving. Hell, even the embrace at WrestleMania XX between Eddie Guerrero and He Who Shall Not Be Named felt like it was the culmination of two careers at that point, careers that at that point weren't trivial in length at all.

That begs the question, should WWE keep doing things just because that's the way they've always done them? Well, that's an awful reason to keep a status quo, but at the same time, there's an argument that there is a day when WWE shakes the tree a little harder than usual. That day happens to be the day AFTER WrestleMania. The first episode of RAW after Mania has the big developments that will end up shaping the next several months. Last year, it was the return of Brock Lesnar. Two years ago, it was Cena throwing down the challenge to The Rock for their first match.

While it's good to change up the formula every once in awhile, it stands to reason that WWE has a good thing going for Mania. End some stories, continue some others, and whenever they can, provide large doses of emotional catharsis. Those opportunities won't come around once a year, but when they do, they're worthy of their grandest stage. I can empathize with people who wanted there to be an earth-shattering kaboom that resulted from a John Cena heel turn, a Dolph Ziggler cash-in, or something else monumental. I want those things to happen too, but I think I'm okay with them taking place on RAW or on a "B" pay-per-view, shows that start or continue stories rather than end them.

Wrestling is the most free-form art that I can think of, but artistic freedom can sometimes grow too unwieldy without a structure to attach to. Sometimes, that means having a vision that can clash with the desires of some fans. As long as people can learn to discern what the meaning of something like WrestleMania is and reconcile it with their own desires, then maybe things won't be as jarring in the future.

Hey guys, did you enjoy WrestleMania? Can you still not get enough? Well, why not watch a match from Mania's storied past? This one is a big one, the first match that was billed as once-in-a-lifetime, actually. The Icon of the then-present, The Rock, was set to go up against Hulk Hogan, i.e. the franchise of the first nine years of the WrestleMania era. This match was famous for the oddly warm and positive reaction Hogan, decked out in his nWo black and white, received from the Toronto crowd, but it should be remembered for how Rocky deftly orchestrated the crowd to amplify that reaction and roll with the punches. Once upon a time, Rock wasn't a clueless actor with the cardio of an asthmatic shut in.

You start out with the best intentions. The fans love you after you have your big moment, winning the Championship with great fanfare, usually defeating the most dastardly of villains. The honeymoon period is nice, and once you hit the six month mark, well, things start to hit a nice stride. The fans are ready for you to hold the title forever. Then, forever rolls around, or at least something approaching forever. The crowd gets a little bored, because hey, it's the same old thing. We're in a different era now. Time's compressed, thanks to cable television. So what do you do?

There are three paths, logically. First is to plow ahead like nothing's changing in the narrative. For some, this is the right choice, because their crowd reactions stay somewhat the same. John Cena got the same alternating chorus the day he won the WWE Championship in his year-long reign, and it was the same when he lost it. The second choice would be to do a title switch. Babyfaces are generally better challengers anyway.

The third option is something that doesn't seem intuitive to do, but it actually makes so much sense from a storytelling standpoint. That would be to turn the Champion in the middle of the reign. There has been precedent for this in the past. Most recently, CM Punk turned heel in the middle of his 434-day title reign. Friday night at Combat Zone Wrestling's WrestleCon event, Masada also nominally turned heel, enlisting the help of Christina von Eerie to keep his CZW Championship against Jun Kasai. Additionally, Saturday night, Johnny Gargano, unable to put away Shingo Takagi via legal means, used a low blow and a cord to take him out after 510 days of clean wins and heroic fanfare.

Sometimes, the pressure of being Champion just gets to a character, or at least it's a more-than-valid trope. The Championship belt becomes less an honor, and more a master to which the Champion is slave. It has to be kept at all costs, and the burgeoning crush of staying The Man makes people do things of questionable morals.

It's actually analogous to one of the most famous books-turned-movie trilogies of all-time, The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring has tangible power over the holder. Whoever holds it in their possession eventually becomes mad with the idea of being able to wield it's all-consuming might. An entity can hold the One Ring for some amount of time, but no one, excepting Sauron (who is the biggest heel in all of Middle Earth anyway), can hold it without it holding them. By the time letting go was inevitable, the holder, whether Isildur or Frodo Baggins, could not throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. They had to keep it at all costs. The same could be said for Smeagol, who never had designs on destroying Precious, even as it warped him and changed him into the vile abomination before nature, Gollum.

At some point, the Championship ends up taking hold on a longterm titleholder. It makes sense that someone who has held the Championship, has held onto not only the prestige of being Champion but having the extra added power of being Champion, would want to have those perks. Again, the era changes from when Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund held the belt. Back then, being Champion was reward enough. It was something to be defended. But around the Attitude Era, being Champion was somehow conflated with having some kind of authority. One belt to rule them all and in the politics bind them.

So at some point, it's very plausible that a change will take hold in the Champion. CM Punk can go from the Voice of the Voiceless Champion who didn't need the bullshit to keep his spot to cheating, swerving, and conniving his way into adding an extra 180 or so days to his reign. Masada can transform from the sickest fuck who would just out-hardcore his opponent into needing reinforcements to keep from losing that belt.

Right now, there's one other exceedingly long reigning Champion left in major wrestling. Eddie Kingston has been Chikara Grand Champion 512 days today. He also has potential to let his reign consume them. In fact, he's probably long overdue for some kind of shift. The question is, will he also succumb to the power of the One Belt, or is there something different in mind? I wouldn't mind the latter; variety is the spice of life. But there's also an inherent power in seeing the Championship corrupt a soul that up to that point was sterling, indefatigable in its quest for honor.

5. El Generico
Points: 3622
Ballots: 40
Highest Vote:1st Place (Cameron Riley, Jesse Dlugosz, Shawn Duckett, Vince Morales, Jerome Cusson, Tim Bridges)
Last Year's Placement: 16th Place

TH: El Generico was a national treasure in 2012, even though he was a Canadian pretending to be a Mexican. I didn't know how he could follow up his 2011, but man, he did. I don't wanna say that he made a concerted effort to ramp up his storytelling in matches, because that would be really presumptuous on my part, right? However, he did have two of the best matches of the year from a pure psychology standpoint, against Sara del Rey at Chikara's Hot off the Griddle and Ricochet at PWG's Death to All but Metal. The former played on gender roles expertly, while the latter was almost a Mortal Kombat-style mirror match. OR maybe it was more Dark Link or nega-Scott Pilgrim. All I know is it was riveting theater.

To distill Generico's year down to two matches would be a disservice to him. As always, he was fantastic in PWG, but that's like saying water is wet, the sky appears blue to the normal human eye, and Lex Luger "was in the best shape of his life" in the late '90s WCW. Then again, it always bears mentioning. He and Willie Mack had a phenomenal run in DDT4, and his feud with the Young Bucks that included an impromptu reunion of Steenerico at BOLA night 2 was one of the best moments of the year. He was also pretty spiffy in Chikara as well, but again, that's natural.

The Final Battle Ladder Bump Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

His the most memorable moment in time of the year may have been one that could have ended his life if it landed slightly askew. Final Battle saw him and Steen have their literal final battle on the indie scene. Steen jerry-rigged a ladder altar and gave Generico the package piledriver through it, the rare bump that broke the Ziggler Scale. If there was any singular moment that defined El Generico, the wrestler, it was that. He took crazy, sometimes too crazy, bumps in order to make the fans drop their jaws. Sure, those giant falls often just whetted our appetites for him to bust out his crazy offense, but without the canvas of vulnerability that Generico lays out, it's just MOVEZ.

Generico will be awesome in WWE as Sami Zayn. I fully believe this, because you can't just stuff that kind of charisma and innate wrestling ability into a mask and leave it there. But he'll be awesome in a different way than he was on the indies, especially in 2012. El Generico was one of a kind, and I'm glad I got to see him at his best.

John Rosenberger: I watch a lot of wrestling clips at work during my lunch break. I work with a lot of nosy people who like to look at what you’re doing over your shoulder. More often than not, if somebody is taking the time to ask whom the wrestler I am watching is instead of rolling their eyes and walking away, it’s an El Generico video. The fact that his style is strong, fluid and, dare I say, beautiful enough to intrigue those who don’t usually care for wrestling says a lot more than I could in a paragraph.

Generico about to send Sami Callihan into the corner Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

Shawn Duckett: El Generico was the best in ring performer in 2012. He sells better than anyone in the business. He is like a human rag doll when taking insane bumps. His offense is high octane and keeps the fans on the edge of their seat during his matches. El Generico makes every card better with his presence. Generico can turn in a good match with anyone. The Brainbustaaaaahhhhh is the craziest finisher in wrestling. The Generic Luchador will be a great addition to the WWE. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for El Generico.

Vince Morales: I've always known that El Generico was a very good wrestler and that he was worthy of the adoration that we give him, but it wasn't until 2012 that I really began to realize exactly how great he was and how very lucky I was to see him perform live. After the year he had in 2011 in PWG and Chikara, Generico became a guy that you had to see when he came to your town. When I was in Miami for Wrestlemania I went out of my way to buy tickets to an ROH show because El Generico was wrestling Kevin Steen and anytime that happens you need to see it. (I didn't end up making it to that show because of bad directions. I will get my revenge on that hotel concierge one day.) I would get another chance to see El Generico live, this time against Sara Del Rey and the match did not disappoint.


On this blog, where intergender matches are championed like no other place, this match should be held up high as everything that intergender wrestling could and should be. If I made lists it'd probably be my 2012 match of the year. I would later see El Generico face off against The Shard in Chicago. This match seemed like the most obvious result in the history of wrestling to me. I'd never seen The Shard win a singles match and El Generico was the best wrestler in the world. How could he possibly lose? Yet, somehow, during the course of the match I got the idea that he could and that not only could he lose this match, but that The Shard would be a deserving person to win that match. I'd seen the Geikido and I'd seen The Shard, but he'd never looked like this. Not the way El Generico made him look. It was a masterpiece, but it came in the middle of the show and it didn't take away from anything else that happened before or after. It was amazing and it made me fully appreciate the greatness of this guy from Tijuana, Mexico.

We always hear about the details in wrestling and I don't think anyone does the details better than El Generico. Watch his fingers when he kicks out, the way he flutters them in the air like he is reaching for help. I love the way he looks to the crowd for help in his comebacks without ever losing sight of his opponent. When he goes for the top rope brainbuster there is a moment when he tells the crowd "hey guys watch this, it's going to be really cool and you'll love it" but he does it only with his body. It's this kind of stuff that makes him the easiest hire in WWE history.

I've seen a few people state on here that they like someone because they "make it real" for them. I've said this before and it is a great way to explain what a really great wrestler can do to you as a fan. I could say this about El Generico, but I don't think it would fully explain the way I feel about him. El Generico might take me to a special place when the match is going on, but it is not that place where this wonderfully make believe place is real. Instead, El Generico takes me to a place where, after I watch one of his matches, I want to spend the rest of my life with professional wrestling. Watching El Generico makes me want to watch more and more wrestling because wrestling is fucking awesome and when El Generico is wrestling, wrestling is beautiful.

Dave Musgrave: El Generico had another strong year, wrestling everywhere and doing everything. He could now be the heir apparent to Mysterio if WWE lets him be that.

Typical ROH Fan: Regarded as the best indy wrestler for a while before signing with.... errr I mean before going back to Mexico to help the orphans. Always delivered in ROH, PWG and DGUSA/Evolve. Not much more to say. Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole. (Favorite 2012 match: with Rick Knox and Kevin Steen vs. The Young Bucks and Brian Cage at PWG BOLA Night 2)

1. Daniel Bryan (Last Week: 1) - Daniel Bryan just spent the last year saying "Hi haters" to every cocky shithead writer and self-hating fan who drop the word "smark" like they were Skrillex. Bryan cemented it with a standout WrestleMania match. Next stop, it's the main event.

2. Rachel Summerlyn (Last Week: 3) - She and Jessicka Havok are bromancing so hard that I feel the need to invent a new word to describe it. I haven't been able to find the word yet, actually. I'll let you know. But necessitating the creation of neologisms is definitely a reason to get ranked this high.

3. Mark Henry (Last Week: 2) - The HOSS FIGHT was more a hoss slog, but Henry still fucked shit up, yo.

4. Jay Briscoe (Last Week: Not Ranked) - The celebration over Briscoe's ROH World Championship win at Sandy Fork Farm was so intense that when the clan woke up the next morning, all the moonshine was drunk, two chickens were missing, and the John Deere was tipped over.

5. Bob Backlund (Last Week: Not Ranked) - When I grow up, I wanna have the cache to be able to flip my shit when I get inducted into the Blogger Hall of Fame like Bobby B.

6. Cheerleader Melissa (Last Week: 6) - Melissa won back her SHIMMER Championship, then teased taking it out on the town in Manhattan. I don't know if she actually followed through, but I wonder how many free drinks she would have gotten if she did. My guess is all of them.

7. Jushin Thunder Liger (Last Week: Not Ranked) - LYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That is all.

8. Dogfish Head Raison d'Etre (Last Week: Not Ranked)OFFICIAL HOLZERMAN HUNGER SPONSORED ENTRY - Such a good beer. The description says that it is brewed with green raisins, Belgian beer sugars, and a sense of purpose. You can really taste the purpose. It tastes like chicken.

9. Johnny Gargano (Last Week: Not Ranked) - Yeah, yeah, he wrestled well, but man, his troll game was on point after cheap-shotting Shingo to in

10. Sara del Rey (Last Week: 10) - SARA DEL REY FACT: Sara del Rey climbed the Statue of Liberty at Mania last night in 90 seconds, but it was cut from the broadcast because she's way too modest.