I'm more counting in-ring product than "total package," although part of that is the charismatic ability to manipulate the crowd through wrestling. I'm not really counting pure "promo ability" though, per se.
Bryan is probably the most TALENTED wrestler in the world, they just don't give him a chance to show it off much.
Aries is out there stealing the show every other week for the last 10 months. TNA has given him the opportunity that WWE hasn't given Bryan, despite having been World Champion.
Jericho still has to re-prove himself after his comeback. He's clearly still VERY GOOD, I just want more evidence that he's still ELITE.
I still like Generico better than Steen. Generico would be my (not 100% educated) choice for Best on the Indies right now.
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero. http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/04/WM28_Photo_255.jpg
From: Jakyl25 | #418 And just to re-iterate something I said in a chat recently to see if maybe anyone else has someone else to throw in this debate:
Austin Aries is, in my opinion, the best professional wrestler in the world today.
i assume you're going by the full package rather than just in-ring skills?
because if you are, then for the first time ever, danielson is without a doubt the best in the world (to me) right now. he's been absolutely murdering since winning the title. i haven't seen aries in TNA so i can't really compare.
as for the japanese guys, i obviously have no idea who's the best on the mic, but if i'm taking a full package guy from there it's probably either tanahashi or tozawa, but i'd take danielson over both of them. devitt is very good as well.
punk, jericho, and steen would be in the top 5 as well, with danielson and i suppose aries since i trust jakyl's judgement so long as HHH isn't involved.
based on pure in-ring talent, danielson still takes the cake.
he's an amazing wrestler and incredibly charismatic and even though i love his gimmick i've always felt like he's a bit of a one trick pony. he did prove that he can be a part of a completely serious blood feud, but i give steen a lot of the credit for that. generico's gimmick kind of holds him back as he can't really cut many intriguing promos when he speaks fake spanish.
his feud in PWG with the men of low moral fiber was the greatest thing i've ever seen however.
Man, I have to hand it to TNA. They have so much talent and yet cant seem to figure out how to handle putting solid angles and builds with their least talented people.
Like Bischoff vs. Bischoff, for a thrown together last minute thing, Theyre selling bischoff v bischoff pretty well. But its Bischoff v Biscoff so who care? The match itself should be decent at least.
And like we're getting what multiple Eric Young talking segments every night with guys like Aries Anderson Roode and Bully Ray on the roster. Its honestly befuddling, how much they squander their massive potential.
Even MORE amazing is that I STILL prefer it to WWE most of the time.
I will give it this though: that Roode vs. Storm build has been great. There;s like NO chance that it delivers/blows off at lockdown because LOL TNA. But I like it a lot, primarily because Roode is one of the best champions I've seen in a long time.
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http://img.imgcake.com/nio/81edpngej.png The one and only Underdog Millionaire and UCA CORPORATE Champion
While not knowing what to do with the talent is a tna theme, Aries is the one case that I'll say they absolutely deserve praise for. They let him go and do things his way and the results show. That belt has never looked better.
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The King Wang. Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.
I think for all that we crap on them, and rightly so if this main event feud goes well and they keep doing the right things with Aries, theyre gonna have three big name stars that they grew themselves.
Not bad for TNA.
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http://img.imgcake.com/nio/81edpngej.png The one and only Underdog Millionaire and UCA CORPORATE Champion
From: Kinglicious | #462 While not knowing what to do with the talent is a tna theme, Aries is the one case that I'll say they absolutely deserve praise for. They let him go and do things his way and the results show. That belt has never looked better.
I'm not so sure about the belt never looking better. The flaw with Aries' current run is that he has been SO good, he doesn't have much in the way of competition. Most of his defenses have been against literal nobodies who were never really booked as much of a credible threat to him in the first place.
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
Ring work is important, but mic skills more so. And you need a combination of both to be the best in the world. That said (not including the Rock, who is probably the best Professional Wrestler ever, if not, he is certainly top 3 without any (intelligent) debate) the best in the world right now is the guy who has it on his shirt. It's Punk. The second best probably is Dragon, just because he became magic on the mic in the past 2 months, to go with his all ready superb in ring talents.
Aries is better on the mic than Bryan. Not that Bryan's not good.
And yeah, I can agree that Punk is probably the best "total package" right now, but when I phrased the question I really just meant it as "the guy that's week-in week-out putting on the best matches over relatively recent history"
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero. http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/04/WM28_Photo_255.jpg
Aries' mic-work is just as good as anyone else's. Punk hasn't done anything great on the mic since Cena, really. Jericho is doing all the heavy lifting on the mic in this feud...
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
That's because Jericho's been given the meatier material, and Punk is really just reactionary. He had a good diatribe towards Jericho early in the feud though.
I give Punk tons of credit for being the biggest natural on the mic in the company (aside from Rock). He says what he means, he says it with conviction, and he sounds like he's speaking to us off the cuff instead of reciting lines he or someone else came up with earlier (which even Rock is guilty of but gets away with it because of his stronger charisma).
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero. http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/04/WM28_Photo_255.jpg
Kinglicious posted... While not knowing what to do with the talent is a tna theme, Aries is the one case that I'll say they absolutely deserve praise for. They let him go and do things his way and the results show. That belt has never looked better.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Aries is an excellent performer in a division that isn't given ****. There was a time in TNA's history where the X-Division was relevant and had great matches going with it.
you're right, it isn't given ****. except for the past couple months when he's held the belt and literally cleaned the division out. he hasn't been just seen as unbeatable mind you - he did have Shelley to worry about. and now he's fighting with legit main event guys while holding that belt. the reasonable thing here would be to have some guys that can fight at the ME level also fight for that belt, so long as they qualify for the weight limit anyway.
which basically means yes, i just want Aries vs. AJ
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The King Wang. Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.
The X-Division has had plenty of upper-midcard guys as champ before and they've done plenty of "x-division champ is now playing with the big boys" angles in the past. Bully Ray in particular has a feud against the X-Division champ every other year or so. Nothing all that new here, really...
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
Yeah the X-Division title wasn't the one that had super damaged credibility anyway, and it has been pretty big in the past. I'll say it was on the wane when Aries picked it up and he gave it a boost, but it was still legitimate even before he had it.
The one with credibility in shambles would be the TV title
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I miss Lacey... she was really effective at what she was supposed to do. That is, look hot and act stupid. Probably helped that she didn't need to act...
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
They learned their lesson though. She STARTED as a wrestler, and the longer she was there, turned into more and more of a "stand around and look hot" role.
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
I think the Knockouts Tag Titles are more credible than the TV Title.
At least you get the feeling that people actually want them with the KO Tag Titles, even if the division is so thin it doesn't make sense to have them.
The TV Title is just like, that thing people that people who fight Robbie E might win if they beat him cleanly.
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The Knockouts Tag Team Titles were invented explicitly to give the Beautiful People something to do. Then they never actually won them. And yet, the titles hung around for some unknown reason.
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
to give eric young more belts, duh. just you wait he'll be the only person to hold every belt in tna. and i mean every - gail kim watch out. just you wait until his main event push!
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The King Wang. Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.
From: Bidoof | #490 Lacey was released by the WWE presumably because they saw her wrestle and were like "ok there's no way we can have THAT on television."
She's not THAT much worse than Kelly Kelly...
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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/
pfft, i don't believe they did that for a second. wwe hired a fitness model who didn't know the first thing about wrestling for NXT3 and she's still employed. and kelly kelly exists. or alicia fox. or the tough enough girl who said she liked that alicia fox/melina match (she's one of the brodus dancer - the one who's better at dancing because she has no wrestling talent, that's entirely in the other one with the huge legs).
you'd have to literally be worse than someone who doesn't know how to do an arm bar for wwe to not consider you if you're a hot chick.
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The King Wang. Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.
I'd rather watch a Lacey match than a Kelly match simply because Lacey doesn't do her best Tennis Player impersonation every time she fights. They're both pretty terrible in the ring but yeah Lacey doesn't shriek annoyingly.
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you just described kaitlyn and cameron. both employed! and early kelly kelly! though yes, there is aksana. who literally botches doing the trombone in a victory lap.
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The King Wang. Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.