highflyflow

Does talent alone make you a better wrestler though? And I say this as someone who has Taue 4th amongst the pillars.

Not sure there's a year between 2004 to now where both have been active and Jericho was the better wrestler. Honestly could probably stretch that back to 2003. Punk in a landslide.

I agree that Regal being rated the 21st best wrestler of all time is insane. He should have been higher.

After going through the year 1980 in full, four best in the world contenders stood out for me: Tatsumi Fujinami Larry Zbyszko Bob Backlund Buddy Rose That ended up being the order I ranked them in. Some other workers that I thought were excellent that year but not quite up to the level of that top four for various reasons were Jackie Sato, Jim Breaks, Terry Funk, Ken Patera, Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Nick Bockwinkel, Rick Martel, Roddy Piper, & Mark Rocco.

Do these few get unfairly penalized for it, or are they just guilty of it to an extraordinarily higher level than the wrestlers they’re being compared to?

Cash Wheeler It's always been somewhat baffling to me that Dax Harwood is nominated but not his tag partner, so I'll seek to rectify that now. Cash Wheeler has been a part of one of the most popular tag teams in the world over the last decade, and arguably THE best tag team over the same timespan. Wheeler admittedly hasn't gotten the same singles opportunities as Harwood, but he's consistently brung it in their tag team epics, and input wise I think he may be the best member of the unit over the past couple years. as Dash Wilder w/ Scott Dawson vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa (WWE 11/19/16) w/ Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH 4/1/22) w/ Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH 12/10/22) Athena Admittedly I'm not too familiar with her work pre-NXT, but she had great matches there with the likes of Asuka, then signed with AEW and became the centerpiece of Khan's ROH. She was one of the best wrestlers anywhere in the world last year; she was able to be a dominating heel, a sympathetic heel, a stooging heel, able to work straight matches, able to work plunder brawls, able to work long matches and absolutely killed it in squash matches. If she keeps up the pace she's been at, in 2026 I think her resume will undoubtedly be strong enough to merit consideration. vs. Mercedes Martinez (SHIMMER 3/17/12) as Ember Moon vs. Asuka (WWE 4/1/17) as Ember Moon vs. Asuka (WWE 8/19/17) vs. Willow Nightingale (ROH 3/9/23) vs. Willow Nightingale (ROH 7/21/23)