Best workers of the 2010s (so far)

[concrete1992]

From what little I've seen, I'd go with MiSu. Legit MOTYCs this decade vs Tanahashi, Sugiura, Styles, Yano... best match on this year's Jan 4th card vs Goto... and I have heard good things about the Riddle match as well.

He did also have one of the worst titles runs that a "major" wrestling promotion has produced this decade.

[gordi]

 

From what little I've seen, I'd go with MiSu. Legit MOTYCs this decade vs Tanahashi, Sugiura, Styles, Yano... best match on this year's Jan 4th card vs Goto... and I have heard good things about the Riddle match as well.

 

He did also have one of the worst titles runs that a "major" wrestling promotion has produced this decade.

Which one? The GHC Title run? I'm not trying to be funny, I really don't follow modern wrestling closely at all. (Hence, "from what little I've seen...")

 

A lot of other highly pimped guys/matches in the last few years have really let me down when I get around to watching them. MiSu's pimped stuff that I have seen has not let me down.

 

My other choice would be Dick Togo, again based on a very small sample size (mainly vs Billyken Kid and Antonio Honda which are two matches that I loved, and also stuff like him showing up in places like Bolivia and Vietnam and wrestling fun matches). He spent a lot of the decade retired, though... which is why I gave Suzuki the nod.

 

Bryan is also obviously great, but he's spent a lot of time on the shelf as well.

 

Kana/Asuka's matches haven't let me down often, either, come to think of it.

[DMJ]

I went very high on Lesnar on my GWE list, but I must say, his last few years have really tarnished him to me. Which is kind of a weird stance to have too when you consider how high Flair, for example, ranked despite being in quite a few stinkers by the end of WCW.

 

Maybe the difference is that Flair was at least trying and Lesnar almost seems to be actively not trying? In other words, with Flair post-96', you can see that he still desperately wants to put on consistently great performances but can't, while with Lesnar, he doesn't seem at all interested in being consistently great even though he still could be.

[KawadaSmile]

People have Cesaro on their lists, but no Sheamus? To me, when I think about the absolute best worker of this decade, the one I think about is Sheamus. There's simply no one in WWE that has the same volume of great matches as he does, really.

[Matt D]

Hechicero's only been mentioned once in the thread, and that's as an honorable mention. I think he deserves better than that.

[peachchaos]

People have Cesaro on their lists, but no Sheamus?

 

Cesaro was well on his way to WOTD contention before he joined WWE. It took Sheamus a few years to get cooking really.

[Loss]

I feel like Cena sort of fell off a cliff when he started to "adapt" to the second wave of former indy guys becoming the norm as his opponents. That said, he still gets points for adapting and it did pretty much win over the crowd. You suddenly can't be making a "not enough movez" argument against the guy who's doing springboard stunners.

Audible and visible calling of matches is the biggest knock if we want to go after something.

[fxnj]

I went very high on Lesnar on my GWE list, but I must say, his last few years have really tarnished him to me. Which is kind of a weird stance to have too when you consider how high Flair, for example, ranked despite being in quite a few stinkers by the end of WCW.

 

Maybe the difference is that Flair was at least trying and Lesnar almost seems to be actively not trying? In other words, with Flair post-96', you can see that he still desperately wants to put on consistently great performances but can't, while with Lesnar, he doesn't seem at all interested in being consistently great even though he still could be.

Since 2015, he had the Roman MOTYC, great Undertaker feud with 2 MOTYC, cool Orton match, great Goldberg feud, Joe feud wih 4-way MOTYC, and Styles MOTYC. He must have been a hell of a worker before that if being in several of the best matches and moments for the last few years tarnishes him for you.

[Matt D]

 

I went very high on Lesnar on my GWE list, but I must say, his last few years have really tarnished him to me. Which is kind of a weird stance to have too when you consider how high Flair, for example, ranked despite being in quite a few stinkers by the end of WCW.

 

Maybe the difference is that Flair was at least trying and Lesnar almost seems to be actively not trying? In other words, with Flair post-96', you can see that he still desperately wants to put on consistently great performances but can't, while with Lesnar, he doesn't seem at all interested in being consistently great even though he still could be.

Since 2015, he had the Roman MOTYC, great Undertaker feud with 2 MOTYC, cool Orton match, great Goldberg feud, Joe feud wih 4-way MOTYC, and Styles MOTYC. He must have been a hell of a worker before that if being in several of the best matches and moments for the last few years tarnishes him for you.

 

Suplex City is the worst structure in the history of wrestling on any sort of a major stage.

[Mad Dog]

He barely did anything in that Summerslam 4 way too. That was all Braun being awesome.

[Loss]

I doubt he's #1, but would El Generico/Sami Zayn be in the top tier?

[Mad Dog]

I feel like his WWE work has been mostly mediocre but his NXT run was top tier.

[joeg]

Sekimoto

AJ Styles

Nakamura

Danielson

Okada

Tanahashi

Ibushi

MiSu

Ishii

John Cena

Brock Lesnar

Rush

La Sombra/ Cien Almas

Black Terry

Cesaro

[Dylan Waco]

I'm far from his biggest fan but Sabre Jr probably deserves a mention in this thread as he's probably churned out as much volume this decade as nearly anyone in terms of above average matches.

 

If you want an extremely Dylan Hales answer for someone who should be a top tier contender (say top 20ish) if not the actual tip top guy, Kyle Matthews is as consistently good as anyone in wrestling over the last 8 years and has had good to great matches with a massive swath of people over the decade ranging from no name, zero talent, southern indie scrubs to some of the absolute top names in independent wrestling.

[joeg]

I was just thinking Jericho belongs on this list. I look at my favorite feuds over the past decade and he's involved in half of them.

[Rah]

Definitely echo the Kyle Matthews mention. Performance to performance, nobody in wrestling is as consistent as him - though he lacks any true classics even great matches outside of his feud with Tempers. Hechicero is probably second.

 

I doubt I could make an actual order but a top three (based on highs) would most like be

Cesaro

Negro Casas

Virus

[Boss Rock]

Definitely echo the Kyle Matthews mention. Performance to performance, nobody in wrestling is as consistent as him - though he lacks any true classics even great matches outside of his feud with Tempers. Hechicero is probably second.

 

I doubt I could make an actual order but a top three (based on highs) would most like be

Cesaro

Negro Casas

Virus

 

I still have to catch up on a lot of Casas' work this decade, but from what I've seen he always delivers in a big match setting and is frequently the highlight of any trios match. I actually prefer 2000's work to his 80's/90's stuff.

[Rah]

Likewise. Old man Casas is my favourite act of his - especially how he played the vulnerability of it in his feud against Rush.

[shodate]

id like ot see some Kyle Matthews stuff he the only one mention in the whole topic i never seen

[superkix]

Shuji Ishikawa, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada are ones that immediately pop to mind.

[SmoothS]

AJ Styles

Kazuchika Okada

Kenny Omega

Hiroshi Tanahashi

Kota Ibushi

Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan)

Shinsuke Nakamura (Until his arrival to the WWE main roster)

Tomohiro Ishii

Naomichi Marufuji

Io Shirai

Kana (Asuka)

Meiko Satomura

Zack Sabre Jr. (He may be the most consistent in-ring wrestler of the decade)

Will Ospreay (Incredible consistency as well)

WALTER

KUSHIDA

Ricochet

Roderick Strong

Kyle O'Reilly

Jay Lethal

Davey Richards

Daisuke Sekimoto

Shuji Ishikawa

Johnny Gargano

The Young Bucks (Most consistent in-ring tag team of the decade)

Chris Hero (Before going back to the WWE)

Matt Riddle (Even though he came midway through the decade he has been amazing regardless)

Volador Jr.

Negro Casas

[Grimmas]

Kairi Sane

 

Roman Reigns

 

LA Park

 

LA Sombra

 

Cesar

 

Seamus

[Cap]

In no particular order, names that come to mind....

 

Danielson

Walter

Sabre

Reigns

Sane

Asuka

Almas (Sombra)

Styles

Black Terry

Hero

Omega

Okada

Cesaro

Zayne

Starr

Strong

Sasha

Rush

Park

Riddle

Naito

Casas

Nakamura

Trevor Lee

 

Almost everyone on that list - for one reason or another - has some down (or completely absent) periods in the decade, but they also have strong work that I would consider noteworthy when the dust settles.

[Loss]

What have been the absolute best matches from The Bar? Its easy to forget that Cesaro has been part of three excellent tag teams in the last four years alone.

[Kadaveri]

I most like their two PPV matches with Rollins and Ambrose. Iron Man match against the Hardyz was also very good, as was the match they won the titles from New Day with that unique finish.

 

I'm not sure how highly to rate The Bar though. They seem to be a team which consistently has good - very good matches but I don't think they've had a single one that crossed the 'great' threshold. Compared to The Usos or The Revival their top tier matches are a bit weak.