Best U.S. Workers of the 00s?

[anarchistxx]

How do guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Homicide rank?

Isn't (or wasn't?) the consensus that;

 

- Styles was an athletic but uninteresting worker, capable of a very good match with a talented opponent yet too characterless to be considered a really top wrestler? His status was more interesting in and around 2003/2004, where in many quarters he was still an Indy superworker, yet his TNA work was alienating him to ROH fans who were getting behind their own emerging stars and a lot of smarks were turning on his output as soulless and lacking in 'telling a story' (which was the big craze back then, along with limb part selling).

 

- Daniels is another indie superworker who was being praised in the tail end days of WCW and also in many parts when he was having 60 minute draws with Styles on indie shows. Some people still liked him by the mid-decade, but the tide was turning. I think he's a horrible worker, no character, no edge to anything he does, makes every match look like a dull exhibition, can't talk, can't sell a feud on the mic or in the ring, looks shit. Amazing this dude was ever considered a top worker, but that's just the taste of the time.

 

- Homicide has never really been talked about as a top worker, more as a very good brawler, especially in his series with Corino and to a lesser extent with the ROH/CZW stuff. I remember his team with Hernandez getting praised as well. I liked him more as a member of the Rottweilers, one of my favourite groups in recent memory. I stopped watching ROH around the time of his face push towards the world title before he left for TNA, that role really didn't fit him at all IMO. Anyway, I think the general reaction to Cide is that he's solid if unspectacular, one of those who'll never appear on any 'worst of' lists but probably not that often on 'best of' lists either.

 

Of the three, only Styles has the body of work to be considered for top ten of the decade, and even then it's entirely subjective on whether you like his style much, as he really doesn't change at all as a worker throughout the decade or indeed match to match. You pretty much know what you're getting with an AJ Styles match. Homicide may be a cult, sleeper candidate, but I'd be more inclined to nominate someone like Low Ki, who had interesting matches throughout the decade and managed to maintain this huge aura despite never being a particularly good speaker.

[Al]

Guerrero would almost have to rate #1 if you set a decade as 1996-2005.

[MJH]

Eddie circa 2004 was the best any US worker was in the decade.

 

Austin had a great run for six months or so in 2001, actually, but he was out all of 2000 and was retired shortly after so I'm not sure I can put him anywhere above low-end Top 10.

 

Benoit's there, too. I don't like the Angle matches anymore than anyone else around here but on a week-to-week basis, especially through '04, he was just great.

 

Angle I might tuck in at 10. I mean the last few years in particular have been... but I still enjoy the majority of his stuff in the first half of the decade.

 

I find 95% of Danielson matches overrated but still at least generally good, some very good, so he's difficult for me to rank. That said, I can't see him being outside a Top 10. I'm far more likely to watch his match with Daniels from the second show than anything he did with Nigel or KENTA, though.

 

I think it's been such a depressing decade, really, and given it's so recent as well, I don't know.

 

**

 

'96-'05 is Eddy in a heartbeat with Benoit the only other candidate.

[Dylan Waco]

Rey is clearly another candidate from 96-05. I could easily construct an argument for him above Eddy and Benoit in fact.

[Phil Schneider]

When did Necro start getting good? He feels like a dark horse top 10

[S.L.L.]

When did Necro start getting good? He feels like a dark horse top 10

First time I remember people really losing their shit over him was the 2 Tuff Tony match from the 2001 KOTDM. I'd say by '02 at the latest, he's really good.

[smkelly]

Necro had a surprising list of good/great matches in the decade.

 

He has the deathmatches. Matches against guys like Joe, Ki, Strong. His match against Super Dragon is a darkhorse match in itself. He's not going to make my top ten, probably not at least, but I can see an argument for him being in the top thirty (maybe even twenty).

 

And I wasn't considering that Styles/Daniels/Homicide were *lock* or even in the top ten. I mentioned them because they had largely been unmentioned, and because they were a contingent of super-Indy workers for the decade.

[smkelly]

Eddy is a contender, that much I know.

 

I can't recall much of 2000 for him.

2001 has no matches that pop out to me.

2002 is when he went from 'disappointing' to 'excellent' with the SmackDown 6 era.

2003 doesn't ring any bells all that much.

2004 was one of the finer years of Eddy's career.

And in 2005, he went out on a good year of in-ring work.

 

I could be wrong about '00-01, '03 - but nothing is really standing out to me. He has three solid years out of the bunch, of which, he missed the rest of the decade. But I think his work from his better years is sufficient enough of a resume to be a mandatory top ten lock. I don't know about #1, but he's somewhere in the top ten.

[Ricky Jackson]

The last decade for me is a little fuzzy. I'm far more knowledgable when it comes to the 80s and 90s. I missed most of the 2001-05 period completely, have seen relatively little ROH, next to nothing of the international scene, and actually haven't seen a lot of the most highly regarded WWE stuff. That said, my top three, at least as far as those who entertained me the most, would probably be Michaels, Cena and Mysterio.

[soup23]

Chris Hero feels like another candidate for top 10. He had many very good matches with diverse opponents in a variety of places. Matches vs. Michael Todd Stratin and Mark Wolf really set him apart from all other indy candidates except Danielson in my opinion.