The Dragon Saga
Whale in a Teardrop
That same "smarky" attitude can be flip-flopped though, especially on this forum.
Let's be honest, if every NXT show this past year was actually an ROH show, 90% of the fans who praise NXT to high heaven on here would have shitted on those shows if they ever watched them. If Sami Zayn had the exact same work in ROH this last year instead of in NXT, nobody would have bat an eyelash towards him. However, since NXT is under the WWE brand, and since Zayn is technically a "WWE Superstar," people want to say what he's done this past year is amazing, despite like I said, I guarantee if he did it in ROH instead, he would just be a "spot monkey" who only "smarks" like.
I haven't seen anything new from Zayn that I didn't see when he was El Generico, except his actual face and the fact he's gained some weight. But that's it. Why all the praise now? If he deserves 'Wrestler of the Year' this year, then El Generico should have been considered for it years prior. But of course, most of the people praising Zayn now, thought El Generico was nothing but a spot monkey then, who had no chance in hell of making it in WWE, just like Punk had no chance, just like Bryan had no chance, just like KENTA currently now has no chance, etc.
Sami Zayn has had a very good year. I'm very happy for his success, and I'm happy he's winning his silly little detractors over. I don't mind someone saying he deserved a nomination, but to be so sure that he deserves to be called 2014's Wrestler of the Year is ridiculous to me, because I just know most of the people saying that are only saying it because he currently wrestles under the WWE brand.
NXT is indeed awesome. I love it. But the praise it gets from the same people that shit on the indy wrestling is baffling to me. I will never understand that.
Anyways, if AJ Styles had the same matches he had this year on the indies in NXT instead, he'd be winning this by a landslide. But since he had those matches, his presence, his aura, his promos, etc. on the indy scene instead, it doesn't matter to a lot of people. Yet WWE's Development internet show does? Again, it makes absolutely no sense.
Also, I have nothing against the "mainstream" wrestling. I'm pretty certain this is the first year in quite sometime where I voted for a non-WWE wrestler as Wrestler of the Year on this forum, but AJ Styles is most deserving of my vote this year since the two guys who stuck out most in WWE this year, Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar, they were both very limited in action. One because of an injury, the other because of his contract. In no other sport or television program where someone was active on the team or show for less than 30% of the year would they ever win an award for best athlete or best actor of the year for their respective sport/program.
This is the best post in this entire thread.
We might be having two different conversations. If you want to talk about who is the kayfabe most successful wrestler of the year, then you have a good argument for AJ Styles. But The Great Khali had a ton of wins when he debuted too, should that make him a candidate for Best Wrestler?
Here's the BIG difference - Great Khali didn't have MULTIPLE great matches in a single year. Great Khali didn't do that by proving every single smarky internet know it all wrong! Great Khali didn't almost completely reinvent himself to the point where he is a bigger star now than he was ever before. AJ Styles did all of that, and then some.
I said the writing has an influence on the conversation, not because wins and losses matter, but because entertainment value matters. Sami Zayn was one of the, if not THE, most entertaining wrestler this year. And I'm not talking about funny promos or cool flippy tricks. While he is certainly adept at both, he was entertaining because we followed his story. He was given a role to play with a lot of potential and he made it his own. It was an amazing performance year-round. And yeah, he had a lot of losses on his way to the top, but those kayfabe losses shouldn't put him below Styles. If anything, they should put him above him, because Sami showed RANGE. Yeah, his character development is definitely worthy of Best angle, but that's not what I'm talking about here, I'm talking about his performance in said angle. A lot of other guys could have fumbled with it, but Sami excelled. A great script and a great angle can turn to shit if the wrestler doesn't excel at it, and Sami killed it.
You might not know you're doing it, but you're talking all about the angle. I don't think you seem to be able to differentiate between "best wrestler" and "best angle". I've already said it, JMT has already said it, Sami Zayn did nothing special this year. He had a very good year and he had some good matches, but in comparison to AJ Styles his year was tame. I've said it previously in this thread, this award comes down to two people - AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar, because in kayfabe they're the two most accomplished wrestlers this year. Daniel Bryan did something very special and he had a great four months - FOUR MONTHS - AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar respectively had great and dominating twelve months.
I don't think it's pure conjecture to say that AJ would have sucked ass in Sami's role. Maybe if he trained in NXT and improved on promos, facial expressions and ring psychology like Sami has, AJ might have been as good as Sami has been this year. But the current AJ Styles would have been a failure in that role. He has no charisma, his promos suck whether you want to say otherwise, and his matches are telegraphed movements with lots of spots that don't make any sense in the context of the match.
You've not seen AJ Styles at all this last year, have you? His facial expressions, psychology, general pacing is better than Zayn's. AGAIN, I knon the dude who used to be El Generico a lot more than most of you do, I'll state that categorically as a fact, when he signed with WWE I was the one who set-up the thread on here and saw people SHIT ON HIM, because this place always does the exact same thing - top indie wrestler signs for WWE/indie wrestler is shit on by WZF posters, despite seeing little of his work/indie wrestler debuts in WWE/indie wrestler is beloved and people act like they never shit on him - KEVIN STEEN is going to be the biggest example of this because for the last THREE YEARS I have been telling everyone and anyone how good he is. He got shit on. I got shit on. Steen debuts in WWE and everyone loves him.
I get you're all on the Sami Zayn bandwagon and that's fantastic, stay on. But as someone who was on his bandwagon eight years ago and is to this day, I know what he was capable of and I know what sort of year he has had. So once again, his year, compared to AJ Styles, is tame. Tame.
I'm not going to quote the rest of your post but I will sum it up; you're a contradiction. Everything you try to use to tear down Styles, applies to Zayn. Sami Zayn couldn't have done what AJ Styles did this year - because here's the truth - Sami Zayn's not good enough. He was never good enough. He was good, but he wouldn't have lasted two seconds in NJPW and he certainly didn't have "IT" to ever defeat guys like Okada, Suzuki, Tanahashi, Naito, the top guys in Japanese wrestling. AJ Styles did that, and in the process had phenomenal matches and won over an entire country's audience.
I'll say this one last time, because this is where this ends - Sami Zayn wasn't nominated because the only people who want to vote for Sami Zayn are people who are so far up the bandwagon that they're hanging onto the edge. He had a good year. He had some good matches. His match with Cesaro was very good. But compared to AJ Styles, as I've stated before, they're eating his dust. He had this won after the G1 Climax.
He was consistent in a year rife of inconsistent main event talent. Done. Daniel Bryan did more in less though. The whole "change the entire build of the biggest show in a decade" and all.
AJ Styles wasn't just consistent, he flourished. He was the John Cena of pro-wrestling this year. He pulled good matches out of people who have no room to be having good matches. And he had great matches with guys when the expectation was he was going to have great matches. Once again, I'll produce evidence.
[YOUTUBE]Tu-imDgphK4[/YOUTUBE]
And I can continue. Vs. Naito, vs. Roderick Strong, vs. Hanson, vs. Michael Elgin. And more. Bryan was active for four months and in those four months had a great run, but he loses because that run only lasted four months! AJ Styles has been on a 12 month run of what Bryan did.
ROH and NJPW were good. But nothing mindblowing like Dragon Saga likes to say. Wrestlers wrestled. That's about it. They were more consistent this year than others, but why praise a promotion for doing what its supposed to do?
NJPW had an amazing year. Match quality, event quality, the fact that they're coming to America, the stadiums they've ran, 24 shows sold-out from February to May, the only reason that run ended was because they tried to run the Seibu Dome which was too large and in too much of an obscure location. The wrestling is what made the year, you see it as, "wrestlers wrestled", well in that case I'd like someone to explain to me why you should ever talk about WWL or any other lucha or Puerto Rican promotion on these forums again, because all they're doing is putting out, "wrestlers to wrestle".
ROH's year was the best they've had in years. Their growth, their quality, their stories - the best example I can think of is when people say, "ROH is all wrestling, they don't have enough stories", and then they watch Final Battle and understand how ******ed that makes them seem. There was more story in Briscoe/Cole than there was in Neville/Zayn, but like JMT said, people on this forum like yourself and others won't give it the props it deserves because it's ROH. ROH has a name because it was so good years ago that it irritated "mainstream wrestling fans" (what a ******ed term by the way). And yeah, the fans had something to do with that, but I'd prefer to tell people how good ROH is and get ONE person watching it, because the product deserves it then to talk about the same fucking subject that every WWE fan talks about on here. It's why this forum often sucks, yet places like Reddit are constantly growing, because all they want is good wrestling and cool things to happen, and when they happen, they get behind it.
People like TDS and The History come off as the worst and make me NOT watch any ROH or NJPW.
Awwwww. I'm sorry. Would it make you feel better if I non-sensically rambled on about WWE all the time? Would that please you? What about NXT? I guess that way I can fit in.