WDKW100 2017 RESULTS

[concrete1992]

The WDKW100 is a fan poll used to identify the very best wrestlers of the prior year based on an in-ring basis only. Votes were solicited mostly on Twitter and the final tally saw more than 70 folks submit ballots. You can find posts for the top 100 including blurbs from the WDKW forums and recommended matches on my blog.

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS: http://wdkwrestling.freeforums.net/thread/626/wdkw100-2017-honorable-mention-countdown

WDKW100 BLOG POSTS: https://spandexarestillcool.wordpress.com/category/wdkw100/

 

Now, here are is the WDKW100:

100. Chihiro Hashimoto

99. Low Ki

98. Chad Gable

97. Alexa Bliss

96. Marty Scurll

95. Dominic Garrini

94. Kyle O'Reilly

93. Rush

92. Bobby Roode

91. Kevin Owens

90. Daisuke Sekimoto

89. Yuji Okabayashi

88. Nikki Cross

87. Konosuke Takeshita

86. Matt Jackson

85. Cain Justice

84. Shinsuke Nakamura

83. Matt Tremont

82. Jason Jordan

81. Sami Zayn

80. Nick Jackson

79. Toni Storm

78. Michael Elgin

77. Mark Andrews

76. Io Shirai

75. Finn Balor

74. Charlotte Flair

73. Chuck Taylor/Dustin

72. Pentagon Jr.

71. Yuji Nagata

70. Arik Royal

69. Drew Galloway/McIntyre

68. Rezar

67. Ilja Dragunov

66. Akam

65. Mike Bailey

64. Travis Banks

63. Ember Moon

62. Donovan Dijak

61. Dragon Lee

60. Kairi Hojo/Kairi Sane

59. Jeff Cobb

58. Trent?/Trent Barreta

57. EVIL

56. Dean Ambrose

55. Jonathan Gresham

54. Minoru Suzuki

53. Sasha Banks

52. Shuji Ishikawa

51. Kofi Kingston

50. Aelister Black

49. Katsuyori Shibata

48. Juice Robinson

47. Hideki Suzuki

46. Nick Gage

45. Kento Miyahara

44. Kassius Ohno

43. Neville

42. Rey Fenix

41. Darby Allin

40. Roderick Strong

39. Brock Lesnar

38. Seth Rollins

37. John Cena

36. Joey Janela

35. Kota Ibushi

34. Xavier Woods

33. Ricochet

32. Trevor Lee

31. Oney Lorcan

30. Big E

29. The Miz

28. Sheamus

27. Samoa Joe

26. Tomohiro Ishii

25. Will Ospreay

24. Andrade "Cien" Almas

23. KUSHIDA

22. Hiroshi Tanahashi

21. David Starr

20. Timothy Thatcher

19. Hiromu Takahashi

18. Cesaro

17. Fred Yehi

16. Jey Uso

15. Jimmy Uso

14. Tyler Bate

13. Asuka

12. Keith Lee

11. Johnny Gargano

10. Braun Strowman

9. Kenny Omega

8. Tetsuya Naito

7. WALTER

6. Pete Dunne

5. Zack Sabre Jr.

4. Kazuchika Okada

3. Matt Riddle

2. Roman Reigns

1. AJ Styles

[Boss Rock]

Really had a ton of fun doing this.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Great list. Probably the one that most closely aligns with things I enjoy.

[KB8]

I've been using this to check out some indie guys from last year, and man is Jeff Cobb fun as hell. His Riddle match from MLW this year is maybe my favourite match of 2018 so far and he was balls out great in it. Dude was like a stockier Scott Steiner just chucking Riddle around. I want to follow the indies a little closer this year and he's definitely someone I'll seek out more of.

[Boss Rock]

I haven't been too impressed with Cobb's indie work prior to LU, but I admittedly didn't see a ton of his stuff this year. Really hope he turned it around because outside of LU (where he's usually great), he's a guy I always WANTED to like.

[KB8]

I didn't even know he was in LU which shows you how much attention I'd been paying.

[Loss]

What are the best Usos tags from 2017? I've loved their image makeover, but haven't really seen too many matches where they've gotten a chance to shine.

[WingedEagle]

Certainly the New Day feud (Summerslam, Hell In A Cell, Battleground, Smackdown from 9/12) and vs. Cesaro & Sheamus at Survivor Series. Those seem to be the standouts / most widely well regarded outings.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I haven't been too impressed with Cobb's indie work prior to LU, but I admittedly didn't see a ton of his stuff this year. Really hope he turned it around because outside of LU (where he's usually great), he's a guy I always WANTED to like.

Chosen Bros tags are fun to watch.

[concrete1992]

What are the best Usos tags from 2017? I've loved their image makeover, but haven't really seen too many matches where they've gotten a chance to shine.

Not at my computer but on the site the entire top 100 has recommended matches for each wrestler in case you wanna check there.

[Boss Rock]

What are the best Usos tags from 2017? I've loved their image makeover, but haven't really seen too many matches where they've gotten a chance to shine.

 

Anything with the New Day. One of the best tag feuds in recent memory. Battleground, Summerslam, Hell in a Cell, and a street fight on SDL.

[Boss Rock]

 

I haven't been too impressed with Cobb's indie work prior to LU, but I admittedly didn't see a ton of his stuff this year. Really hope he turned it around because outside of LU (where he's usually great), he's a guy I always WANTED to like.

Chosen Bros tags are fun to watch.

 

 

Yeah, I've seen a few and he shines a lot in those.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

There gonna be 10 hrs of podcasts for this that I can listen to on the plane to NOLA?

[FMKK]

What are the best Usos tags from 2017? I've loved their image makeover, but haven't really seen too many matches where they've gotten a chance to shine.

If you only have time to watch one make it the Hell In A Cell.

 

Interesting list and I've seen lots of discussion of how the final result may have been produced. Individually, I don't think there's any argument whatsoever for AJ Styles to have been placed first but he was obviously an unity candidate.

[Stiva]

 

What are the best Usos tags from 2017? I've loved their image makeover, but haven't really seen too many matches where they've gotten a chance to shine.

If you only have time to watch one make it the Hell In A Cell.

 

 

Agreed. One of my favourite WWE matches in the last 5 years. Great violent feel with a career best performance from Woods.

[soup23]

Late to this but to me the most glaring individual in the top 10 was Riddle. Everyone else in the top 10 I think a fair argument can be made they were either sustaining levels of their peak performance or had a peak year in 2017. It was pretty obvious for me that RIddle declined from his 2016 output to 2017. I know that isn't a sentiment shared by everyone but I did think that was a consensus so to still see him rank top 3 and ahead of someone like Sabre was pretty surprising.

[WingedEagle]

Late to this but to me the most glaring individual in the top 10 was Riddle. Everyone else in the top 10 I think a fair argument can be made they were either sustaining levels of their peak performance or had a peak year in 2017. It was pretty obvious for me that RIddle declined from his 2016 output to 2017. I know that isn't a sentiment shared by everyone but I did think that was a consensus so to still see him rank top 3 and ahead of someone like Sabre was pretty surprising.

 

Strongly agree with this. While I was never as high on Riddle as some, there was (and is) no denying his talent and output for someone so early in their career. But I didn't find his 2017 all that impressive except when paired with Walter, who essentially always delivers when in with anyone talented.

[concrete1992]

The thing about Riddles case is that while he probably regressed slightly, his volume and diversity probably took a boost. Being that he worked at a high level at a lot of different places, a lot of eyes were on him. And his match with Miller gave a big boost to a certain group of this voter pool.

[Boss Rock]

I actually had Riddle higher this year than I did last year. That being said I watched loads more of his stuff this year as opposed to last year which was just primarily Evolve. Don't think he had any real MOTYC's that you usually want out of a number 1 pick, but he certainly had volumes in spades.

[InYourCase]

Hero won last year, didn't he? Crazy to think he fell that far (and I think his ranking is awfully generous).

 

Great work with this, Sam. This list always represents a very deep, very interesting bubble.

[concrete1992]

Hero won last year, didn't he? Crazy to think he fell that far (and I think his ranking is awfully generous).

 

Great work with this, Sam. This list always represents a very deep, very interesting bubble.

I do it for the love of this great sport.

[Dylan Waco]

Late to this but to me the most glaring individual in the top 10 was Riddle. Everyone else in the top 10 I think a fair argument can be made they were either sustaining levels of their peak performance or had a peak year in 2017. It was pretty obvious for me that RIddle declined from his 2016 output to 2017. I know that isn't a sentiment shared by everyone but I did think that was a consensus so to still see him rank top 3 and ahead of someone like Sabre was pretty surprising.

 

This deserves a longer form response than I have in me right this second, but as someone who had Riddle number one I really think this is off and I've gotten the point where I think a lot of the Riddle criticism is a response to micro traits people dislike (myself included in at least some cases to varying degrees) rather than macro traits, or wanting him to be a wrestler he's not and never was, or not fully getting what he's supposed to be. I think he's by far the most consistently heavily critiqued indie star at his level and some of that he brings on himself (all of it is fair imo), but a lot of it strikes me as people upset because they want to project Volk Han on to a guy who decided he wanted to wrestle because of WWE era Daniel Bryan. I recognize I am sort of strawmaning you here Chad because you haven't made an argument and I actually agree that some of his flaws and habits I don't care for got more pronounced in 2017 but in terms of output? No way. I doubt very seriously there were 5 wrestlers in 2017 who even came close to having as many good matches as Riddle. It's possible and perhaps fair to say that his great match total was down, but i'm not sure I buy it and I feel to the extent that that is true a part of that is a byproduct of the booking in Evolve. In any case part of the reason I ended up putting him number one on my ballot was because he had the most matches I was fairly sure I would have in a top 100 for the year if I were to do that sort of thing.

 

On the Sabre comparison, I'm kind of at a loss because try as I might I didn't think really think Sabre had this all timer year last year like a lot of people did. Like Riddle he does have the volume of good matches and also like Riddle Sabre is a guy who almost never has truly bad matches. On the other hand I have so little investment in Sabre so often, that I almost never remember good matches of ZSJ. Every year it's a thing with him where I look at CageMatch and go "oh yeah that was good!" but have no deep thoughts about it. On the flipside I can tell you all about Riddle v WALTER series or Riddle v. Cobb from SS16 or Riddle v Lee from La Boom or Riddle's performance at the SCI or Riddle doing death match v Gage and Tremont or Riddle's Mania weekend and all of those things feel different and special to me. Sabre beating Thatcher certainly fits for last year. After that I can't think of a single match offhand I had a strong feeling about from Sabre for the entire year, even though there were some I thought were great (including a very late to tape match with Janela that virtually no one else saw before voting). Sabre also suffers for me because his formula is such that if I am not feeling a match I know I'm going to have sit through 10-15 minutes of often wholly irrelevant but flashy matwork just so we can all be shown that he's really good at it. It's incredibly masturbatory to me, and it's often inevitable with Zack even if it is mitigated some when he's working heelish (Sabre is effectively cosplaying as Hero at this point too at times which I really don't buy). With Riddle I might get some dumb destroyer spot, or the upkick no one likes, or a German no sell (which I have grown to tolerate and even enjoy at times when he does it, but certainly not as a rule) but they are momentary, not time eating segments that suck my soul.

 

Anyway I think even if you disagree with all of that one thing Riddle does have that Zack doesn't is a certain aura to him that makes you excited and want to see him in freak show settings or out of his element. That goes along way with me in the modern indie landscape where so much has been done to death. I was really torn on my number one vote between him, Reigns, and WALTER, but I don't regret voting for Riddle even if I kind of think it's a wash with those three.

 

Speaking of WALTER he's the most rubber stamped, non-critically examined indie guy on the planet which is why i couldn't bring myself to vote him number one. He's someone I'll be looking at closely this year.

[Childs]

I'm probably somewhat guilty of what Dylan is talking about here, judging Riddle against the wrestler I hoped he would become. I definitely hold him to a higher standard than most of the other top indy guys, because he has so much talent, both athletically and in terms of charisma.

 

I still love him in matches where he's physically challenged -- the WALTER series, the Shibata match, the Speedball match in OTT, the SCI sprint. But throughout last year, I was more likely to end up frustrated with his performances than blown away by them. I respect anyone who isn't taken out of his matches by the upkick or the shitty tombstone or the the German no-sell. But I hate that shit, and I really hate that he's made it part of his routine.

 

There was no one I looked forward to watching more in 2016, and that's just not the case now.

 

I haven't watched much of this Mania weekend yet, and I'll be thrilled if his performances blow me away. He's certainly still on the short list of guys who inspire the highest of hopes.

[WingedEagle]

I'm probably somewhat guilty of what Dylan is talking about here, judging Riddle against the wrestler I hoped he would become. I definitely hold him to a higher standard than most of the other top indy guys, because he has so much talent, both athletically and in terms of charisma.

 

I still love him in matches where he's physically challenged -- the WALTER series, the Shibata match, the Speedball match in OTT, the SCI sprint. But throughout last year, I was more likely to end up frustrated with his performances than blown away by them. I respect anyone who isn't taken out of his matches by the upkick or the shitty tombstone or the the German no-sell. But I hate that shit, and I really hate that he's made it part of his routine.

 

There was no one I looked forward to watching more in 2016, and that's just not the case now.

 

I haven't watched much of this Mania weekend yet, and I'll be thrilled if his performances blow me away. He's certainly still on the short list of guys who inspire the highest of hopes.

 

I'll hopefully remember to post more about it tomorrow, but Riddle vs. Ospreay from the WWN Supershow is the Riddle we all want.

[Dylan Waco]

The Riddle of Mania weekend was absolute incredible. I've seen 9 of his 11 matches and all of them were worked differently and really tailored to his opponent, setting the card, et. There are still little things I don't love (the upkick v Sekimoto was BAD) but it was a tremendous run that should put to bed any notions of him being one note.