No introductions needed...
80. Soldier Ant
Points: 642
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 16th Place (De O'Brien)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
79. Shane Matthews
Points:651
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 18th Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Shane Matthews is like the personification of the beverage he drinks so much, Red Bull. He's got such a manic energy about him in the ring, and it's refreshing. He'd still be good if he didn't have all the trappings of the 3.0 gimmick, but what fun would that be? Not fun at all, I say you. He's the ultimate Chikara wrestler without the mask. He's also one of the best wrestlers in their ever present atomicos and other multi-wrestler matches, which is invaluable.
Philip Rosenbaum: Big Magic, the... less sane member of 3.0, had a fine year, reaching the Promised Land before the team lost the belts in their first defense. Where his partner shined most brightly in a serious match, I cannot help but find Big Magic most memorable for his part in a match that will never fail to make me smile, the comedy atomico from Night 3 of King of Trios. He showed true veteran savvy when he brought Darkness Crabtree back from the dead with Redbull.
Ryan Kilma: By sheer force of will, Big Magic was able to get the Boston Crab and the head scissors over like it was the Tiger Driver ’92. Shane has found his soulmate in Jagged and there should be a constitutional amendment to make sure they never break up.
78. Ophidian
Points: 660
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 3rd Place (Philip Rosenbaum)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Philip Rosenbaum: After "killing" Amasis at the end of 2011, The Venomous and Vile Serpent from the Nile spent 2012 as Delirious' field commander, leading the Batiri into battle. He was also undergoing a transformation of his own, becoming the Serpent Spirit and mastering Snake Style. His successes in the ring came with a noticeable but subtle change in his wrestling style. While he still retained much of his high-flying, speedy repertoire, he began to slow down his style a lot of the time, working a more punishing game and finding a number of wins with his Ophidian Death Grip.
Ryan Kilma: Chikara worked very hard last year to turn Ophidian into a threat, and I think it paid off. He can control pressure points like Ty Lee, and he’s got mist?
John Rosenberger: Ophidian is one of my top 5 wrestlers right now. He’s not higher on this list because a lot of the stuff he did that made me love him either didn’t happen in 2012 or has to do with his hip-hop album or how nice of a guy he to his fans. That being said, the dude does things in the ring that I love. I like the fluidity of his style. I like his steadfast incorporation of his Snake Style in to his matches. I LOVE the multitude of ways he can bust out an Egyptian Destroyer, which is probably my favorite finisher. I now know it was the Canadian Destroyer first (Thanks TH), but it will always be Ophidian’s move to me. Much in the same way that I think of Hurt as a Johnny Cash song that Nine Inch Nails somehow pre-emptively covered.
77. Eve Torres
Points: 663
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 8th Place (Luke Starr)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Eve Torres got my 100th place vote, which to the unaided eye might seem derogatory. Note that I watch a ton of wrestling every year, and see way more than 100 wrestlers ply their crafts. Torres started the year as the generic WWE Diva who had a booty-pop and nothing else, but when she turned, she started to show that there was a pretty good wrestler underneath the bullshit. She was a great heel who carried a lot of the action in the Divas division on her back, whether against capable performers or ones who needed a little help.
Jesse Powell: What a shame, for us fans, that she left when she did. Eve’s work in the ring was as good as any Diva in a long time this past year, and her conniving, manipulative heel persona was so devilish, you couldn’t help admiring her.
Cewsh: It’s hard for anyone in the WWE Divas division to standout for positive reasons. Even if you do a great job, you’re still working with other people who, more often than not, aren’t equipped to help you out. But Eve Torres managed to not only grow as a performer in 2012, she also managed to lift up the quality of the entire division around her, and deliver the best run of title matches by a WWE woman champion since Beth Phoenix in 2007. If we graded this like the BCS, and factored in strength of schedule, she may well make the top 10 overall.
Ryan Kilma: Compared to the other wrestlers on this list, Eve Torres had, by far, the most dysfunctional opponents across the ring to work with. Other members of TWB 100 had the benefit of each other to create great matches with, but Torres was given the absolute dregs. Creative had her commit character genocide early in the year, she was now a Hoeski. This was the Dark Period, the only highlight her wardrobe. However, TV-PG allowed her to understate her status as “adulteress” and become a bit of a ring general, having cromulent matches with Aksanas and Taminas. I’ll miss you, Eve Torres; I’d never thought I’d say that.
76. Scott Parker
Points: 665
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 17th Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Scott Parker is the straight man to Shane Matthews' off-the-wall comedic dynamo. I'm not sure 3.0 would work as well without him, in or out of the ring, but in the ring is the most important for these purposes. On his own merits, he's more likely to take the big bumps and has a slightly better high flying acumen. It should also be noted that both guys in the tag team are really good at doing the double team offense, which to me, is one of the most important things about wrestling in tags.
Philip Rosenbaum: Jagged really stepped it up this year for 3.0. It's no secret that those guys are a solid tag team that just keeps getting better. Another team that can work equally well in serious matches and comedy matches, Jagged's shining moment in 2012 really came in the Torneo Cibernetico, where he displayed how well he can play the babyface in peril.
75. Kana
Points: 666
Ballots: 8
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: 67th Place
TH: Her kicks are a thing of savage beauty. I know that's only one ancillary reason why she's on my ballot any time I get to watch a SHIMMER taping with her on it, but my God, no one has a better roundhouse. A more accurate reason why I voted her on my ballot is that she's so natural at melding joshi strong style with traditional American wrestling and had stellar matches, both in tags with LuFisto and in singles, but man, those kicks…
Eamon Paton: There is not a lot to say about Kana that hasn’t already been said, so all I will say is that any fan caught in the mundane, dull and grim vortex of “ladies” wrestling, needs to be shown a Kana match and have that obliterated.
74. Sugar Dunkerton
Points: 674
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Ryan Kilma: I know we’re only supposed to talk about in-ring excellence and, make no bones about it, Sug gave Tatanka the match of his life. But Sugar Dunkerton has breathed more heart and soul into his character of Globetrotters Castoff than ROH has bothered to give any of its wrestlers. Does Davey Richards have a father? I want to know, ROH, I want to know.
Jennifer Logsdon: The heart of CHIKARA wrestling. The nonsense with Wink spawned a good thing with him and the dynamic between him and F.I.S.T. Plus, him and Aaron Epic are one of the best tag teams today. Wherever Sugar goes, you can always count on getting 100% from him.
73. Kurt Angle
Points: 689
Ballots: 10
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Brandon Infinger)
Last Year's Placement: 29th Place
72. Jessicka Havok
Points: 698
Ballots: 9
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Havok became the hottest rising main event star on the indie circuit in 2012, but no small part of that rise was due to her prowess in the ring. I didn't see as much of her as I would have liked, but her run in the Queen of Queens tournament against Lady Poison and Athena, and her "secret" match against Mark Angel were all outstanding tilts, enough to get her on my radar for this year.
71. Roman Reigns/Leakee
Points: 701
Ballots: 12
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Robert Dorman)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Ryan Kilma: The Spear is a surprisingly easy move to fuck up; but Roman has one of the best I’ve seen.
70. Kenny King
Points: 703
Ballots: 10
Highest Vote: 14th Place (David Shoemaker)
Last Year's Placement: 88th Place
Typical ROH Fan: Kenny King spent half of the year being one of the brighter spots in ROH with Rhett Titus as a part of All Night Express then in his controversial defection to TNA, he delivered there in his sporadic matches. (Favorite 2012 match: with Rhett Titus and TJP vs. The Young Bucks and Mondo at ROH Border Wars)
69. Samuray del Sol
Points: 711
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 15th Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
68. Davey Vega
Points: 741
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 5th Place (De O'Brien)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Vega is one of the most chronically underrated wrestlers on the scene today. His affiliation with the Submission Squad might bely his talents, but man, people who underrate the Squad based on their comedy alone can eat me anyway. Outside of those trappings though, the man has developed into one of the most earnest babyface wrestlers on the indies. He's been able to show that prowess in ACW and St. Louis Anarchy, his home promotions, but he'd also grown a lot in Metro Pro and AIW. He had a great tag run with Mat Fitchett before he got hurt, and afterwards, he got more and more chances to show his worth as a singles guy. He's definitely someone to watch in 2013, but if he improves on his 2012, he'll be a top 10 guy on my ballot at least.
Ryan Kilma: Dear Mike Quackenbush, you don’t have to dress Davey Vega as a buster of ghosts to get him over with the Chikara crowd. Just throw him in there with one of your many luchadores and wrap your money with a strong rubber band.
Eamon Paton: If someone asked me who I thought was going to become the next rising star that every company will want in 2013, my go to answer has to be Davey Vega. One look at a Davey Vega match and you can tell that pro wrestling comes naturally to him. His match with ACH from ACW’s Showtime's Birthday Bash (which sadly isn't on DVD yet), gets slated as the best match I saw live in 2012. That match gave me chest pains I loved it so much. If any promoter has the opportunity to book this man on their wrestling show, do it because he will captivate people in an instance. Yeah, I said it Chikarmy! Stop being ignorant!
67. Icarus
Points: 766
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Frank McCormick)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: People chant "Worst in the World!" at him. Well, I'm one of them. It's a great part of any Chikara show, but the truth is that he's closer to being best than worst. No one is better at selling himself as a bad guy than Icarus. He's on 24/7, and that includes working in several elements into the match that for anyone else might be innocuous. Removing his jacket has become one of the most effective spots in any match, and all he does is take his coat off. It's better than any eye gouge, back rake, low blow, or fishhook, and yeah, he does those pretty well too. It should also be noted that his teamwork in tags and trios is pretty spot-on as well.
Philip Rosenbaum: Nobody has perfected the art of being a heel in the independent circuit like Icarus. Everything the guy does draws the kind of heat many heels could only dream of, though he's secretly a guy that we love due to our hatred of him. Scumbag haircut, scumbag facial hair, the dismay of wrestlers, commentators, and crowd alike that he invokes from such a simple act as taking off his ring jacket, planting an unwanted kiss on Sara del Rey; it's all such a "screw you" to everyone else that you really can't help but love it. Long had the fans chanted "worst in the world" at Icarus, and how does he respond? He wears a pink T-shirt with "Best In The World" emblazoned on it. You hate Icarus, and you love him all the more for it.
Lost in that is the fact that he's such a capable wrestler, pulling off enjoyable and sound matches whether they be singles, tag, trio, atomico, serious or comedy.
Go ahead and decry his horrible back tattoo and hate the guy. Just don't lie to yourself and say you don't love when he's involved in a match.
Frank McCormick: WORST IN THE WORLD! Yet he's actually a good wrestler, and an absolutely top-notch tag team specialist. But nobody works a crowd quite like Icarus. He gets heat just by standing there. People go into convulsions at the sight of his horrible tattoo. He steps in the ring and oozes smarminess. You just have to boo him! And yet I, at least, boo with love.
66. Mark Briscoe
Points: 777
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 16th Place (Jay Sanudo, Erin Pronovost)
Last Year's Placement: 41st Place
Dylan Hales: Honestly Briscoe is low on matches I give a shit in 2012 and I don't have much to say about particular performances. But his goofiness is something ROH needs more of. He's not goofy as in "yuk, yuk wrestling is fake join the joke and laugh with us," he's goofy as in "crazed redneck has watched a ton of Tokyo Shock and is a danger to himself and the rest of society." More to the point he can inject that character into his matches in interesting ways and at least get some entertaining exchanges, in otherwise boring ROH snore fests.
65. Jeff Hardy
Points: 839
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 11th Place (Victor Rodgers)
Last Year's Placement: 78th Place
Ryan Kilma: I’m glad Jeff Hardy isn’t falling any more, both in his personal life and in every single match. I’d hate to have his body. I hope he retires back to Cameron, NC happy and healthy and becomes Amazon.com’s Gestalt.
64. Kazarian
Points: 840
Ballots: 14
Highest Vote: 18th Place (Drew Smith, Brandon Infinger)
Last Year's Placement: 98th Place
63. Samoa Joe
Points: 843
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 16th Place (Samantha Allen)
Last Year's Placement: 44th Place
62. Roderick Strong
Points: 852
Ballots: 14
Highest Vote: 14th Place (Jerome Cusson)
Last Year's Placement: 69th Place
TH: As much as I was sick of him in Ring of Honor the two previous years, every PWG show he was on, he was having great matches. Whether it was against Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Masaaki Mochizuki, or TJ Perkins, he brought it. Plus, there was the ROH match in Philly against Adam Cole that ostensibly made Cole in that town. It can be popular to shit on Roderick Strong, but the guy is the kind of guy you'd be lucky to have on your card. He's a strong hand against nearly any opponent.
61. Heath Slater
Points: 859
Ballots: 15
Highest Vote: 7th Place (Kevin Newburn)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Slater's entry on my ballot is very much because he does the most important thing in wrestling well. He sells like a goddamn Champ. Nothing he did in '12 came close to the sell job he did for Big Show's KO punch at Mania the year before, but this past year was more of a complete body of work. He was tasked with making the legends look good, whether they were dudes who could probably still go like Vader or DDP or absolute trash like Sid. Hell, after that run was over, he and his two pals in 3MB made it their job to enhance the standing of anyone they were in the ring against. If you can make your opponent look good, you're worth your weight in gold.
Cewsh: Heath Slater has to be the best jobber in the world right now. That’s not some kind of insult to the man, because his job is literally to lose to everyone in the most entertaining ways possible, and nobody does it better than he does. Whether he’s getting squashed by legends, and getting freight trained by Ryback, nobody is funner to watch go splat.
Robot Hammer: With all due respect to the Ziggler scale for bump recognition, Heath Slater's gonna need his own scale soon. Slater lands on his head for clotheslines and sells a beat down as good, or better, than most of WWE's roster. He's the goofy guy in over his head in every match and yet refuses to acknowledge this fact. I think in terms of pure potential, Slater's only just begun.
Frank McCormick: Heath Slater is that rarest thing nowadays – a professional jobber. Neither one-shot "local talent" nor Zack Ryder, who is just being ribbed/tortured at this point, his actual role is to go out there and get his ass kicked as outrageously as possible, especially if his opponent was big in the 80s. He's obnoxious, and he's deluded. He's somehow conned two other wrestlers into following his lead into perpetual losing. His catchphrase screamed from the center of the ring, air guitar-"blasting" is just about the most charmingly stupid thing ever. Best of all is his hair, a bright red waterfall perfectly styled to add that little extra bit of razzle-dazzle when he takes a gold album or a guitar to the head and falls to the mat in glorious Technicolor selling. Sure, he isn't going to be champ any time soon (or ever, really), but, you know what? He's on TV all the time. He gets to work with some of the biggest legends in the business. He seems to really enjoy his work. He's perfectly serviceable in terms of wrestling ability. So all the haters can suck it, babaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Scott Holland: Obviously we'll remember Slater in 2012 as the guy who kept getting fed to legends en route to Raw 1000. That proved more entertaining, especially from an in-ring standpoint, than his later work as the organizer of 3MB. He's a guy who knows his job and does it well. He makes his opponents' offense look impactful, and that was especially helpful in working with Sid, DDP, Animal and so on. I've yet to see him in an actually compelling feature-style match, and if that happens soon I'll be ranking him much higher the next time around.
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| Soldier Ant twisting up Jigsaw Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 642
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 16th Place (De O'Brien)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
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| Matthews lifting the boots to Kevin Steen Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points:651
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 18th Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Shane Matthews is like the personification of the beverage he drinks so much, Red Bull. He's got such a manic energy about him in the ring, and it's refreshing. He'd still be good if he didn't have all the trappings of the 3.0 gimmick, but what fun would that be? Not fun at all, I say you. He's the ultimate Chikara wrestler without the mask. He's also one of the best wrestlers in their ever present atomicos and other multi-wrestler matches, which is invaluable.
Philip Rosenbaum: Big Magic, the... less sane member of 3.0, had a fine year, reaching the Promised Land before the team lost the belts in their first defense. Where his partner shined most brightly in a serious match, I cannot help but find Big Magic most memorable for his part in a match that will never fail to make me smile, the comedy atomico from Night 3 of King of Trios. He showed true veteran savvy when he brought Darkness Crabtree back from the dead with Redbull.
Ryan Kilma: By sheer force of will, Big Magic was able to get the Boston Crab and the head scissors over like it was the Tiger Driver ’92. Shane has found his soulmate in Jagged and there should be a constitutional amendment to make sure they never break up.
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| Ophidian whipping Saturyne back and forth Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 660
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 3rd Place (Philip Rosenbaum)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Philip Rosenbaum: After "killing" Amasis at the end of 2011, The Venomous and Vile Serpent from the Nile spent 2012 as Delirious' field commander, leading the Batiri into battle. He was also undergoing a transformation of his own, becoming the Serpent Spirit and mastering Snake Style. His successes in the ring came with a noticeable but subtle change in his wrestling style. While he still retained much of his high-flying, speedy repertoire, he began to slow down his style a lot of the time, working a more punishing game and finding a number of wins with his Ophidian Death Grip.
Ryan Kilma: Chikara worked very hard last year to turn Ophidian into a threat, and I think it paid off. He can control pressure points like Ty Lee, and he’s got mist?
John Rosenberger: Ophidian is one of my top 5 wrestlers right now. He’s not higher on this list because a lot of the stuff he did that made me love him either didn’t happen in 2012 or has to do with his hip-hop album or how nice of a guy he to his fans. That being said, the dude does things in the ring that I love. I like the fluidity of his style. I like his steadfast incorporation of his Snake Style in to his matches. I LOVE the multitude of ways he can bust out an Egyptian Destroyer, which is probably my favorite finisher. I now know it was the Canadian Destroyer first (Thanks TH), but it will always be Ophidian’s move to me. Much in the same way that I think of Hurt as a Johnny Cash song that Nine Inch Nails somehow pre-emptively covered.
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| Torres giving Kaitlyn the business with a grounded leg scissors Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Points: 663
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 8th Place (Luke Starr)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Eve Torres got my 100th place vote, which to the unaided eye might seem derogatory. Note that I watch a ton of wrestling every year, and see way more than 100 wrestlers ply their crafts. Torres started the year as the generic WWE Diva who had a booty-pop and nothing else, but when she turned, she started to show that there was a pretty good wrestler underneath the bullshit. She was a great heel who carried a lot of the action in the Divas division on her back, whether against capable performers or ones who needed a little help.
Jesse Powell: What a shame, for us fans, that she left when she did. Eve’s work in the ring was as good as any Diva in a long time this past year, and her conniving, manipulative heel persona was so devilish, you couldn’t help admiring her.
Cewsh: It’s hard for anyone in the WWE Divas division to standout for positive reasons. Even if you do a great job, you’re still working with other people who, more often than not, aren’t equipped to help you out. But Eve Torres managed to not only grow as a performer in 2012, she also managed to lift up the quality of the entire division around her, and deliver the best run of title matches by a WWE woman champion since Beth Phoenix in 2007. If we graded this like the BCS, and factored in strength of schedule, she may well make the top 10 overall.
Ryan Kilma: Compared to the other wrestlers on this list, Eve Torres had, by far, the most dysfunctional opponents across the ring to work with. Other members of TWB 100 had the benefit of each other to create great matches with, but Torres was given the absolute dregs. Creative had her commit character genocide early in the year, she was now a Hoeski. This was the Dark Period, the only highlight her wardrobe. However, TV-PG allowed her to understate her status as “adulteress” and become a bit of a ring general, having cromulent matches with Aksanas and Taminas. I’ll miss you, Eve Torres; I’d never thought I’d say that.
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| Parker going all Superman on Kobold's rear end Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 665
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 17th Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Scott Parker is the straight man to Shane Matthews' off-the-wall comedic dynamo. I'm not sure 3.0 would work as well without him, in or out of the ring, but in the ring is the most important for these purposes. On his own merits, he's more likely to take the big bumps and has a slightly better high flying acumen. It should also be noted that both guys in the tag team are really good at doing the double team offense, which to me, is one of the most important things about wrestling in tags.
Philip Rosenbaum: Jagged really stepped it up this year for 3.0. It's no secret that those guys are a solid tag team that just keeps getting better. Another team that can work equally well in serious matches and comedy matches, Jagged's shining moment in 2012 really came in the Torneo Cibernetico, where he displayed how well he can play the babyface in peril.
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| Kana delivering the pain via triangle choke to Portia Perez Photo Credit: Gregory Davis/DDS |
Points: 666
Ballots: 8
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Okori Wadsworth)
Last Year's Placement: 67th Place
TH: Her kicks are a thing of savage beauty. I know that's only one ancillary reason why she's on my ballot any time I get to watch a SHIMMER taping with her on it, but my God, no one has a better roundhouse. A more accurate reason why I voted her on my ballot is that she's so natural at melding joshi strong style with traditional American wrestling and had stellar matches, both in tags with LuFisto and in singles, but man, those kicks…
Eamon Paton: There is not a lot to say about Kana that hasn’t already been said, so all I will say is that any fan caught in the mundane, dull and grim vortex of “ladies” wrestling, needs to be shown a Kana match and have that obliterated.
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| Dunkerton taking it to... Tatanka? Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 674
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Ryan Kilma: I know we’re only supposed to talk about in-ring excellence and, make no bones about it, Sug gave Tatanka the match of his life. But Sugar Dunkerton has breathed more heart and soul into his character of Globetrotters Castoff than ROH has bothered to give any of its wrestlers. Does Davey Richards have a father? I want to know, ROH, I want to know.
Jennifer Logsdon: The heart of CHIKARA wrestling. The nonsense with Wink spawned a good thing with him and the dynamic between him and F.I.S.T. Plus, him and Aaron Epic are one of the best tag teams today. Wherever Sugar goes, you can always count on getting 100% from him.
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| Angle applying the Ankle Lock to Christopher Daniels Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
Points: 689
Ballots: 10
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Brandon Infinger)
Last Year's Placement: 29th Place
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| Havok tossing around Jaykus Plisken like it ain't no thang Photo Credit: Texas Anarchy |
Points: 698
Ballots: 9
Highest Vote: 2nd Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Havok became the hottest rising main event star on the indie circuit in 2012, but no small part of that rise was due to her prowess in the ring. I didn't see as much of her as I would have liked, but her run in the Queen of Queens tournament against Lady Poison and Athena, and her "secret" match against Mark Angel were all outstanding tilts, enough to get her on my radar for this year.
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| You might not be able to see Reigns' face, but he's merking Kane with a spear here Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Points: 701
Ballots: 12
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Robert Dorman)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
Ryan Kilma: The Spear is a surprisingly easy move to fuck up; but Roman has one of the best I’ve seen.
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| King giving Shelton Benjamin a backslide Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 703
Ballots: 10
Highest Vote: 14th Place (David Shoemaker)
Last Year's Placement: 88th Place
Typical ROH Fan: Kenny King spent half of the year being one of the brighter spots in ROH with Rhett Titus as a part of All Night Express then in his controversial defection to TNA, he delivered there in his sporadic matches. (Favorite 2012 match: with Rhett Titus and TJP vs. The Young Bucks and Mondo at ROH Border Wars)
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| del Sol tripping up El Generico Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 711
Ballots: 11
Highest Vote: 15th Place (Jennifer Logsdon)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
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| Vega shown here with the lateral press on his hero, Jerry Lynn Photo Credit: Texas Anarchy |
Points: 741
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 5th Place (De O'Brien)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Vega is one of the most chronically underrated wrestlers on the scene today. His affiliation with the Submission Squad might bely his talents, but man, people who underrate the Squad based on their comedy alone can eat me anyway. Outside of those trappings though, the man has developed into one of the most earnest babyface wrestlers on the indies. He's been able to show that prowess in ACW and St. Louis Anarchy, his home promotions, but he'd also grown a lot in Metro Pro and AIW. He had a great tag run with Mat Fitchett before he got hurt, and afterwards, he got more and more chances to show his worth as a singles guy. He's definitely someone to watch in 2013, but if he improves on his 2012, he'll be a top 10 guy on my ballot at least.
Ryan Kilma: Dear Mike Quackenbush, you don’t have to dress Davey Vega as a buster of ghosts to get him over with the Chikara crowd. Just throw him in there with one of your many luchadores and wrap your money with a strong rubber band.
Eamon Paton: If someone asked me who I thought was going to become the next rising star that every company will want in 2013, my go to answer has to be Davey Vega. One look at a Davey Vega match and you can tell that pro wrestling comes naturally to him. His match with ACH from ACW’s Showtime's Birthday Bash (which sadly isn't on DVD yet), gets slated as the best match I saw live in 2012. That match gave me chest pains I loved it so much. If any promoter has the opportunity to book this man on their wrestling show, do it because he will captivate people in an instance. Yeah, I said it Chikarmy! Stop being ignorant!
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| Hey Icarus, is that a closed fist you're tossing at Dasher Hatfield? Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 766
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 10th Place (Frank McCormick)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: People chant "Worst in the World!" at him. Well, I'm one of them. It's a great part of any Chikara show, but the truth is that he's closer to being best than worst. No one is better at selling himself as a bad guy than Icarus. He's on 24/7, and that includes working in several elements into the match that for anyone else might be innocuous. Removing his jacket has become one of the most effective spots in any match, and all he does is take his coat off. It's better than any eye gouge, back rake, low blow, or fishhook, and yeah, he does those pretty well too. It should also be noted that his teamwork in tags and trios is pretty spot-on as well.
Philip Rosenbaum: Nobody has perfected the art of being a heel in the independent circuit like Icarus. Everything the guy does draws the kind of heat many heels could only dream of, though he's secretly a guy that we love due to our hatred of him. Scumbag haircut, scumbag facial hair, the dismay of wrestlers, commentators, and crowd alike that he invokes from such a simple act as taking off his ring jacket, planting an unwanted kiss on Sara del Rey; it's all such a "screw you" to everyone else that you really can't help but love it. Long had the fans chanted "worst in the world" at Icarus, and how does he respond? He wears a pink T-shirt with "Best In The World" emblazoned on it. You hate Icarus, and you love him all the more for it.
Lost in that is the fact that he's such a capable wrestler, pulling off enjoyable and sound matches whether they be singles, tag, trio, atomico, serious or comedy.
Go ahead and decry his horrible back tattoo and hate the guy. Just don't lie to yourself and say you don't love when he's involved in a match.
Frank McCormick: WORST IN THE WORLD! Yet he's actually a good wrestler, and an absolutely top-notch tag team specialist. But nobody works a crowd quite like Icarus. He gets heat just by standing there. People go into convulsions at the sight of his horrible tattoo. He steps in the ring and oozes smarminess. You just have to boo him! And yet I, at least, boo with love.
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| The younger Briscoe showing why, as Dylan Hales says, he's a danger to society to Gran Akuma Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 777
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 16th Place (Jay Sanudo, Erin Pronovost)
Last Year's Placement: 41st Place
Dylan Hales: Honestly Briscoe is low on matches I give a shit in 2012 and I don't have much to say about particular performances. But his goofiness is something ROH needs more of. He's not goofy as in "yuk, yuk wrestling is fake join the joke and laugh with us," he's goofy as in "crazed redneck has watched a ton of Tokyo Shock and is a danger to himself and the rest of society." More to the point he can inject that character into his matches in interesting ways and at least get some entertaining exchanges, in otherwise boring ROH snore fests.
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| Hardy anticipating a plancha from Austin Aries Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
Points: 839
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 11th Place (Victor Rodgers)
Last Year's Placement: 78th Place
Ryan Kilma: I’m glad Jeff Hardy isn’t falling any more, both in his personal life and in every single match. I’d hate to have his body. I hope he retires back to Cameron, NC happy and healthy and becomes Amazon.com’s Gestalt.
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| Kaz goes BOMBS AWAY on Hernandez Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
Points: 840
Ballots: 14
Highest Vote: 18th Place (Drew Smith, Brandon Infinger)
Last Year's Placement: 98th Place
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| Joe wrangling up Jeff Hardy Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
Points: 843
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 16th Place (Samantha Allen)
Last Year's Placement: 44th Place
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| Strong putting Adam Cole in a Boston crab Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Points: 852
Ballots: 14
Highest Vote: 14th Place (Jerome Cusson)
Last Year's Placement: 69th Place
TH: As much as I was sick of him in Ring of Honor the two previous years, every PWG show he was on, he was having great matches. Whether it was against Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Masaaki Mochizuki, or TJ Perkins, he brought it. Plus, there was the ROH match in Philly against Adam Cole that ostensibly made Cole in that town. It can be popular to shit on Roderick Strong, but the guy is the kind of guy you'd be lucky to have on your card. He's a strong hand against nearly any opponent.
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| Slater doing what he does best... bumping and selling, this time for Vader Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Points: 859
Ballots: 15
Highest Vote: 7th Place (Kevin Newburn)
Last Year's Placement: Not ranked
TH: Slater's entry on my ballot is very much because he does the most important thing in wrestling well. He sells like a goddamn Champ. Nothing he did in '12 came close to the sell job he did for Big Show's KO punch at Mania the year before, but this past year was more of a complete body of work. He was tasked with making the legends look good, whether they were dudes who could probably still go like Vader or DDP or absolute trash like Sid. Hell, after that run was over, he and his two pals in 3MB made it their job to enhance the standing of anyone they were in the ring against. If you can make your opponent look good, you're worth your weight in gold.
Cewsh: Heath Slater has to be the best jobber in the world right now. That’s not some kind of insult to the man, because his job is literally to lose to everyone in the most entertaining ways possible, and nobody does it better than he does. Whether he’s getting squashed by legends, and getting freight trained by Ryback, nobody is funner to watch go splat.
Robot Hammer: With all due respect to the Ziggler scale for bump recognition, Heath Slater's gonna need his own scale soon. Slater lands on his head for clotheslines and sells a beat down as good, or better, than most of WWE's roster. He's the goofy guy in over his head in every match and yet refuses to acknowledge this fact. I think in terms of pure potential, Slater's only just begun.
Frank McCormick: Heath Slater is that rarest thing nowadays – a professional jobber. Neither one-shot "local talent" nor Zack Ryder, who is just being ribbed/tortured at this point, his actual role is to go out there and get his ass kicked as outrageously as possible, especially if his opponent was big in the 80s. He's obnoxious, and he's deluded. He's somehow conned two other wrestlers into following his lead into perpetual losing. His catchphrase screamed from the center of the ring, air guitar-"blasting" is just about the most charmingly stupid thing ever. Best of all is his hair, a bright red waterfall perfectly styled to add that little extra bit of razzle-dazzle when he takes a gold album or a guitar to the head and falls to the mat in glorious Technicolor selling. Sure, he isn't going to be champ any time soon (or ever, really), but, you know what? He's on TV all the time. He gets to work with some of the biggest legends in the business. He seems to really enjoy his work. He's perfectly serviceable in terms of wrestling ability. So all the haters can suck it, babaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Scott Holland: Obviously we'll remember Slater in 2012 as the guy who kept getting fed to legends en route to Raw 1000. That proved more entertaining, especially from an in-ring standpoint, than his later work as the organizer of 3MB. He's a guy who knows his job and does it well. He makes his opponents' offense look impactful, and that was especially helpful in working with Sid, DDP, Animal and so on. I've yet to see him in an actually compelling feature-style match, and if that happens soon I'll be ranking him much higher the next time around.