Boss Rock

Unless that's what you meant with the Big Bang Theory.

I actually know a ton of people who probably couldn't name John Cena if shown a picture either.

Work in progress here: 1986: Stan Hansen 1987: 1988: Stan Hansen 1989: Ric Flair 1990: Jumbo Tsuruta 1991: 1992: 1993: 1994: Mitsuharu Misawa 1995: Mitsuharu Misawa 1996: Mitsuharu Misawa 1997: 1998: Kenta Kobashi 1999: 2000: Kenta Kobashi 2001: 2002: 2003: 2004: Kenta Kobashi 2005: A.J. Styles 2006: Bryan Danielson 2007: John Cena 2008: Bryan Danielson 2009: Rey Mysterio 2010: 2011: 2012: 2013: Daniel Bryan 2014: A.J. Styles 2015: A.J. Styles 2016: A.J. Styles 2017 (so far): Kenny Omega

It's funny because when I first started really watching wrestling, it was right before Summerslam 2002. So from the very beginning of my wrestling fandom I was taught that Shawn Michaels was one of the greatest of all time, ha.

While I'm not sure WWE will ever push his mythos as much as they do Shawn's, they repeatedly called his 2016 the "greatest first year-run in WWE history". This leads me to believe he'll be pretty well-celebrated.

And when Brock is at his very best (in-shape and gives a shit about who he's facing), he's an amazing wrestler. Stuff like the matches against Punk, Cena and Rollins, and Reigns are what originally made me a huge fan of him. It just seems to me that he's physically shot and incapable of carrying a match beyond 5-6 minutes. He still does a good job throwing guys around and can be a great seller, but after a few minutes he gasses and is incapable of doing much else without a ring general like A.J.

I don't take it personally at all. And it's not an issue with super heavyweights either. I love Braun Strowman and Keith Lee. When it comes to Brock in this match I thought he did two things well: toss A.J. around the first few minutes and sell the leg. But other than that, he gassed really quickly and A.J. provided the more dramatic parts of the match in the latter half.

Supposedly per the Observer, season 4 is only around 20 episodes or so.

Thought Dunne-Gargano was really good. Although the realization was a bit long, loved how Johnny noticed Dunne's mouth guard was dislodged and hit him with a super kick. Great stuff.

Think you pretty much nailed all of it here.

One of the best NJPW matches this year. Great escalation with Tanahashi gradually working over the leg before Ibushi would mount his comebacks. And while Ibushi is pretty famous for no-selling damage to his legs, it never seemed excessive or forgetful. Really more like he was dealing with but managing to find a way to overcome the damage. Tanahashi did some solid heeling here as well. And despite both men being faces, they really sold the contempt they had for each other with the vicious slap and strike sequences at the end. Excellent match and low-end MOTYC with Tanahashi proving that even at 41 years-old and one arm, is still one of the best big match wrestlers in the world.

Pretty good TV match. I love how Miz has made the softness of his strikes part of his character. Great heeling on his part and very good comebacks from Reigns who's pretty easily the TV match kings this year.

2017 has really been the year of A.J. getting the most out of absolutely anyone not named Kevin Owens. First few minutes were your standard Brock squash, but A.J. did a great job bumping and selling the devastation. Once A.J. made his comeback we were off to the races. Very smart work going after the leg and the set up for the Calf Crusher was great. And as shot as Brock was after the opening few minutes, he did a good job selling the leg at the end. Fantastic carry-job. ****1/4

I'm actually not super-high on the A.J.-Tanahashi matches. They're very good, great even. But the chemistry isn't quite there as much as it is with other opponents. Even before A.J's WWE stint the Suzuki match is pretty clearly his best match (I'd say either the Extreme Rules Reigns match or Royal Rumble Cena match is his best now). And with Tanahashi, I think the later Okada matches and the King of Pro Wrestling match with Suzuki trump the A.J. matches by quite a bit.

What was so funny about this is that the Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels series in 2005 was more of a car-wreck style than AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels in 2005. Remember thinking Styles-Daniels was so overrated at the time in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and its circles, but watching it again recently, it holds up pretty well and is more of a traditional wrestling match - with clear heel and babyface structure - than what Angle and Michaels were doing on WWE TV and PPV in 2005. Same with the Styles vs Samoa Joe series, which has very clear roles from both men, but I guess I can see the car-wreck thing being applied to the three-way series between Styles, Joe and Daniels. I feel the same way about A.J's 2005 especially when it comes to the Joe and Abyss matches. Guy played a really good babyface.

The Ibushi match from Invasion Attack 2015 in really highly thought of, though I'd have to go back again to give a fair assessment of it. There's about three or four matches each with Okada and Tanahashi and a couple with Naito as well. But the Suzuki G1 match is the standout of the New Japan tenure imo. His runs in the 2014 and 2015 G1's have a ton of hidden gems as well.

From what I understand WWE passed on him a while back. I think in Cobb's case he feels handcuffed by when he can or can't take indy dates. Sort of like how talent were supposedly told to keep the beginning of 2017 clear because they were supposed to start filming but then it didn't happen.

http://www.sescoops.com/lucha-underground-offering-releases-to-unhappy-talent/ Looks like LU is gonna let some people go if they want out. I've heard that Cobb isn't too happy, so perhaps Matanza gets killed off.

As for my vote, as much as I am an apologist for post-comeback Shawn (that was the first run of him I ever saw so it might be nostalgia) I give A.J. the nod. Great offensive wrestler, capabale of pulling something good out of almost anyone, and an all-time great bumper.

I haven't seen a lot of his latter TNA stuff, but I remember A.J. being consistently good in the mid to late 2000's. His 2005 in particular was awesome with MOTYC's against Abyss and Samoa Joe. I do agree though that NJPW-onward is where he took his career to a whole new level.

Pure speculation, but I could see that being a situation where Brock didn't want to work with him.

Up until Sunday I had it: 1. Reigns 2. Braun 3. A.J. But A.J.'s recent string of great matches against Finn, Jinder, and Brock as well as holding the Hell in a Cell triple-threat together put him back at number 1.

Stomps: Jumbo Kicks: Hashimoto Chops: Tenryu and Kobashi Punches: Lawler

Really loved Takeover, thought it was legitimately one of the best shows of the year. Lars vs. Ohno was fun, hard-hitting, and exactly what it needed to be. Dream vs. Black had fantastic character work and a fire finishing stretch. Dream is an absolute star. Fatal Four-Way was solid and even though I thought Peyton should have won, a really cool finish. Almas vs. Drew was great and had the right person go over. And while WarGames may not have been the same as what it used to be, I thought it was an awesome No DQ match.

Thought the show was pretty good for the most part. Usos vs. Cesaro and Sheamus was great, Alexa vs. Charlotte was good, and A.J. vs. Brock was perhaps the greatest carryjob I've ever seen. Not since Bryan have I seen someone get so much out of almost anyone. The main event on the other hand was maybe the most bizarre and confusing thing I've ever seen. Sure it perfectly summed up everything wrong with WWE and their inability to make almost anyone not from the Attitude Era look good, but nothing about it made sense. Why bring Cena in at all if he was only in for 5 minutes and was in complete phone-in mode? Why have Owens and Zayn interfere if they ended up being completely ineffectual and have no bearing on the finish? Just unbelievably stupid stuff. Still, Braun destroying Haitch was absolutely delightful.