The Tuesday Morning Backlash you all knew and loved is a thing of the past. Instead, so you get the same absurd amount of content, but in smaller chunks, what we have now is a new Backlash column each and every day. Here’s the breakdown:
Monday Morning Backlash – WWE Smackdown and/or PPV Thoughts.
Tuesday Morning Backlash – WWE Raw Thoughts
Wednesday Morning Backlash – The Week in News
Thursday Morning Backlash – Miscellanious Thursdays (Indy, Wrestling History, Match Reviews, Etc)
Friday Morning Backlash – TNA Thoughts
Along with each feature, whenever anyone wants to send something in, if I like the article, it will run in the Guest Spot Section on the appropriate day. Now, to determine who the best in the world is.
There were, at the start of 2010, five wrestlers that had stake to the claim best wrestler in North America, and with the falling of the business and talent Japan, likely, best in the world. Tonight, I’d like to discuss those five and one who has joined their ranks, who I feel is currently the best in the world, while one of the former group has retired and another is seemingly headed to semi-retirement.
The best wrestler in the world at the start of the year was almost certainly either Shawn Michaels or Chris Jericho.
Michaels needs no introduction. An all time great in ring and hugely influential on what became the Attitude Era with D-X, you can easily argue HBK as the best wrestler ever. Heading into the year, he was wasting a lot of his talent screwing around with D-X, but we all knew he could still, at any given moment, have a match the rest of the company could only look upon in envy, or build a feud, like his feud with Jericho or Undertaker, that could get more heat than anyone else could hope to.
Of course, as good as Michaels was, he did lack a basic consistency. He was always too willing to joke around with D-X and have lackluster matches between major feuds, especially towards the end of his career. That complaint isn’t one that can be levied at the feet of one of his greatest opponents and current best in the world, at least until he’s back in semi-retirement in a few weeks, Chris Jericho.
Jericho is a true jack of all trades workhorse. Whether in openers putting over Evan Bourne or atop the card getting the Big Show as over as he’s ever been, Jericho can work anywhere and have a great and over match (one means little without the other). He’s been doing the best heel work of his career with his “only honest man in wrestling†routine where he’s clearly a hypocrite, but he’s so good that he can work face without changing his character and get the crowd fully behind him, as in the Nexus feud. This sheer ability to do anything he wants in a wrestling ring and make it not only acceptable, but top notch, made Jericho the best in the world. I truly hope he re-signs and remains in that position, but it, at this point, seems unlikely.
Next, we have the man who, around the turn of the century, would have guessed would be the best in the world today: Kurt Angle. Angle, in WWE, had the making of an all-time legend. His matches, feuds and promos, whether face or heel, were phenomenal. Then he went to TNA, where he was revealed to be something of a WWE creation. While he can have great matches in TNA, they have clearly taken a downward turn and all feel the same, as do his promos. Although they are still good, they just are not at the level they were prior to leaving WWE. It speaks to Angle’s talent that he’s still in the discussion, but he has slowed down enough to not be a frontrunner.
A surprise entrant into the race, but still not a frontrunner either, is CM Punk. Punk is, quite simply a heat machine. Getting such visceral reactions from the crowd in this day and age is absurd, and his matches are rarely anything but top notch. So why is Punk merely a contender? He lacks the versatility of the rest of the list. Punk is clearly superior as a heel and, as such, can be among the best, but the field would have to be more diluted than it is to be the best. Add in his trouble with good matches with monsters, and in the WWE, the man will face his fair share of monsters, and you have as superior wrestler who cannot be best in the world.
Finally, we come to the man everyone expects me to name best in the world, but is merely second best, even after Jericho’s retirement. Daniel Bryan is a man with a strong claim for best in the world. His matches are on par with anyone else on the list, as is his ability to work face or heel. Many complain that his matches were in indy feds, but New Japan and NOAH are hardly indy feds and the talent to make a crowd care translates across all borders. He is the worst promo on this list, but despite the net’s complaints to the contrary, is more than competent on the mic, in fact being very good and relatable. But he isn’t the best in the world after Jericho.
Randy Orton is. Orton is the perfect example of a guy who just gets it in the manner an 80s wrestler atop the card would. In fact, he may be the only wrestler in the world that understands the little things and crowd mannerisms to perfect catch a character and engulf them in whatever he does as a face of heel. Everyone from Ted Dibiase Sr. to Jim Ross to Greg Gagne to Hulk Hogan to Gabe Sapolsky has called him the best in the world. One of HBK’s favorite matches ever was against Orton. While the internet may not appreciate these matches as technical classics, the sheer skill in getting that much of the audience to believe, whether as a face or a heel, is unmatched in the wrestling world. Punk can do it as a heel. Angle can do it in a real feeling fight. Danielson has the real fight and the underdog role down. None can bring it, can get the crowd to that point, get that real of an emotional reaction regardless of situation in quite the way Orton can. That’s why Randy Orton is currently the best wrestler in the world.
Now, thoughts on the Nexus from Kyle Sawyer Paul:
First of all, I want to thank Pulse Glazer for giving me the chance to promote my book, International Object: Essays on Professional Wrestling. It’s a book a few years in the making, and it’s coming out in the next 4-6 weeks or so. In that time, you’ll be seeing me around Pulse Wrestling. If you like what I write, you’ll probably like the book, which is a longer, more big-picture view of contemporary pro wrestling. Over the next few weeks, I’ll deliver a few bite-sized insights going on in the wrestling world in 2010, starting with the Nexus.
The story line of the Nexus began in early 2010, when Vince McMahon closed down ECW and started up what at first appeared to be another version of Tough Enough. NXT in many ways resembles the late-era Tough Enough competitions that occurred on Smackdown, as a band of fresh wrestlers were quickly given gimmicks and expected to jump through a variety of sports entertainment-related hoops. Unlike Tough Enough, the first group of NXT competitors decided to band together and do something a little different.
The Nexus group was interesting for several reasons. First off, they were like an anti-NWO, a group of upstarts unwilling to respect the glass ceiling in WWE. To WWE’s credit, the Nexus is probably the largest stable they’ve ever produced. With the exception of perhaps the Heenan Family, there’s never been a group in WWE with more than 5 members.
The first attack on John Cena was the obvious end of the post-Wrestlemania dull period WWE often suffers from, and for the past four months, a Nexus-dominated RAW has been a relatively novel experience, not only viewing the group itself, but how current Raw main-eventers were portrayed. Jericho and Edge have grown their characters to far more believable levels. The Miz has received a push unlike any I’ve seen this side of Randy Orton. And John Cena, WWE’s Superman, has even shown some character growth, albeit mainly that his merchandise is purple now.
It was an exciting four months that ended at Summerslam, a fairly ho-hum show that climaxed with a legitimately great main event where the right team won, but the wrong guy stood victorious. How much more interesting would the main event had been if John Cena was eliminated earlier, and it was down to Jericho, Edge, and Bryan? But I digress. The point is, the threat of the Nexus was largely eliminated. The wind was taken out of their sales. And now it doesn’t matter–it literally does not matter–what they do with the Nexus group, they will never again reach the same peak of heat grabbing they did this summer.
But that’s okay, because the WWE’s plan for the Nexus characters is to let them find their place on the roster and compete. They will become integrated members of the WWE. Really, they would have anyway. The Nexus storyline was simply an introduction, and possibly the best introduction any group of wrestlers have ever received. Wade Barrett appears to be a main eventer for now. Everyone else will find their spots. But the Nexus story is done, because they’re already beginning to resemble the NWO b-team, and almost nobody wants to see that again.
Expect the fall season of WWE television to resemble the spring: a lot of guys looking to find their comfort spot on the card. The fact that they needed to do a six-pack main event at Night of Champions only proves that point. There’s too many guys on the top, and HHH’s return is just around the corner. They have a log jam, and they’re going to make us watch for months as they pry it loose. Don’t expect a clear story line at the top of the card until the Rumble. They don’t actually have to make a decision until then.
That’s it for today and remember to check back tomorrow at 10am for the Wednesday Morning Backlash. If you missed yesterday’s Monday Morning Backlash with my Night of Champions Report Card, click that link!
