Best Character in Wrestling Today

[PhD]

So this poll is pretty simple: who do you think is the best character in professional wrestling today? 2010 has seen a lot of shuffling, as many wrestlers have revamped their gimmicks, while top characters like Batista, Chris Jericho, Undertaker, and CM Punk are all currently sidelined or out of the business.

In posing the category of "character," I want to suggest a holistic assessment that takes into account gimmick, promos, crowd interaction, attire, entrance, even performance style. How well does this person present a three-dimensional persona that you find as entertaining as, say, a character from your favorite film or TV program?

I've tried to include current wrestlers that I expect will be common choices; however, if you favorite is not represented, tell us why you think they are the best character. Also, I'm limiting this to TNA and WWE, as I haven't had access to ROH since August, and it's unlikely enough people are able to keep up with the indies to form a consensus opinion.

I'm hoping this poll will not only stir discussion over who is the best character, but what exactly it is that makes someone a "good character."

Apologies for leaving out Alberto del Rio; I think he definitely deserves a spot on the list, but it was hard for me to remember everyone I thought deserved to be listed.

 

[Disturbed]

I chose other. I am really into Jeff Hardy's new character and he is one of my favorite superstars at the moment. He always leaves you with a question and I like that but I have to go with other because I believe the best Character in pro wrestling at the moment is The Nexus as a whole. If you can only pick a superstar then I would choose Wade Barrett since he is a leader. When everyone except Barrett who won got eliminated from NXT, they all said they would be back. Well they all came back and as a group, as one, as a whole. Barrett joined up with them and ever since they have dominated the entire WWE. They are involved in one of the biggest storylines in quite sometime with John Cena. Sunday Cena is either free or fired. That is great booking on WWE's part. Nexus still has a ways to go because they are going to be together at least untill after WrestleMania. I could see Cena staying in Nexus but not because he is forced but because he turns heel and wants to. I like everything about the Nexus at the moment and I like the fact that Monday Night Barrett will be walking out to the ring on Raw with the WWE Championship. Well that is if The Miz doesn't cash in but I am a Miz mark and I wouldn't care but that's a different topic in a different thread.

 

[Calderownz]

I went for other, as I am really into the Alberto del Rio character right now. He's a cross between Eddie Guerrero and JBL, only taking the best from both.

Just a great blend, great worker on the mic and in the ring and something a little different. So damn good.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

The Miz's character is Main Eventer of The Future? I wouldn't just go on that as a worthy gimmick but to each his own. Really he doesn't do anything for me.

I was going to pick Other, but I decided on Jeff Hardy. Why? Because it was a smart move on TNA's part. Much like Hogan (except not as much drawing power or wide a fanbase), Jeff was the top face of his company and then betrayed them all. Proclaiming himself to be "The Antichrist" also gets props from me. I'm a big fan of the darker gimmicks. IIt's just on-par with an ECW Raven back in the day and I was a major fan of that.

So Jeff "Antichrist" Hardy gets my vote, but only as a second thought. Many characters have been getting my attention as of late:


Wade Barret's Militant Supervillain role.

Edge's Comical Madman/War On Stupid.

Hell I'm shocked John Cena didn't make this list. He is the proverbial superman; a true hero character.

And Del Rio. Even as a villain I love that charm he carries with him. Honestly I think he is one of those guys that will get a bigger reaction once he goes face.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

Personally I like the Pope, he's not running a great storyline right now. But damn Wwe dropped the ball with him. He's great on the mic, and can wrestle to. I love seeing him come out every week and preach to the masses. He's deffinatly someone I can get without falling asleep with them on the mic every week. The Pope gets my vote on this poll.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think a notable exception amongst the ones mentioned is Randy Orton as the psychotic Viper. I may not be Randy's biggest fan but its this gimmick that has managed to keep him hot for the entire 2010. Pro wrestling had not seen an antihero for a long time until Orton came along.

Among the ones listed I chose Anderson. He is again, like Orton, an antihero. A guy who chooses to be bad because he feels that is the only way to succeed. Add to that the fact that he is extremely charismatic and a decent wrestler too you cannot help but wonder what took him so long to reach the main event. You can see from the reaction he gets when his music hits the iMPACT Zone how much the crowd loves him.

I also like Jeff's new character. But he has to show me more characteristics of an Antichrist for him to grow on me. So far he has just used the antichrist word as a moniker and has gone about his business just like any heel would. So what is it that distinguishes him from any other leader of a heel stable?

The Pope is also someone whom I like but I have not been too impressed with his latest feud with Abyss. In fact I thought his segments with Bischoff last week were extremely cheesy. He has to improve a bit before he becomes a permanent main eventer.

 

[RobL15]

Well, I love Hardys new character, definitely the best we've seen him at for a while.

But I went for Miz, 'cos I love the guy. He's great with the Promo's, getting better in the ring and his character is this cocky, arrogant bastard that just really interests me.

You could've put Punk up on that poll as the Straightedge Savior, then I may have voted for him.

 

[Dyno Kid]

While I don't regularly watch today's WWE but from what I have seen of the Miz I'd say he's really improved tremendously ! His promo work has improved and the little that I saw of him wrestling was a lot better than I remeber him being !

 

[RVDgurl]

While all the choices listed certainly do deserve recognition, I chose "other". Although Austin Aries comes in a close second, Wade Barrett has got to be the best character in wrestling at the moment.

The Nexus storyline has been the hottest angle in wrestling since this summer. The group itself has endured some changes, but the centerpiece has remained the same. Nexus has never really about the group as a whole, it has always been about making Wade Barrett into a monster heel- and it has absolutely been successful. Barrett's character is larger than life. He has been able to consistently get heat simply by smirking into the camera. Barrett has worked so well as a monster heel that he has been able to help create sympathy for Cena from the crowd. Cena has been getting less boos than usual since being placed into his current role, thanks to Barrett.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I am with RVDgurl.

Wade Barrett managed to make the aged old gimmick of "Final boss with a bunch of flying monkeys" into something all his own. The guy is completely convincing as the quintessential gang leader. He never looks out of place when he is giving orders. He doesn't look out of place when the other Nexus guys look for him for confidence. Another thing I appreciate about Wade is that his character is simple. It isn't overly complex. It's just an super intelligent guy who is using his persuasive nature to get what he wants.

If nothing else, the crowd starts off booing Cena; but by the end of the night, they are going bananas to see Cena knock the British out of Wade Barrett.

 

[PhD]

Thanks for all the great responses. Apologies for leaving off so many preferred choices, especially Nexus. Let me explain my rationale for who was included and left off.

I considered putting both Orton and Cena on, but both guys seem a bit flat to me at the moment. I think part of this is a function of commentary, which doesn't seem to want to talk much about Orton's super-evil heel past, nor do they try to build a character for him that involves anything other than "hearing voices in his head" when it's time for an RKO. His promos have had very little depth, because being a face, or even a tweener, doesn't really suit him in my book.

Same goes for Cena in a lot of ways. I think Cena is a fantastic performer, but he's just so exceedingly bland at the level of personality; he very seldom responds like a human being would in kayfaybe situations. He got a bit emotional in his promo with Piper on Monday, which appeared to be completely ad-libbed, but it also came off as fairly incoherent to me. I feel in general the WWE doesn't want their main-eventers to be too complex, and this is a big problem for me.

Finally, as for Barrett, I'm starting to get confusing by the illogical nature of the Nexus storyline. I agree this group is compelling as a whole, but really Otunga is the only one given any sort of three-dimensional characterization to me; the rest are just bland lackeys, and while Barrett does well as a foil to John Cena, he keeps coming out on the shit end of things, which I find boring.

Personally I had a tough time choosing between Alberto del Rio, who I think is great, and a few other people (again, apologies for leaving him off), but ultimately I went with Jeff Hardy, who has really impressed me with his new gimmick. He has a new theme song, he's been cutting fantastic heel promos, he's changed his non-wrestling attire, and he's getting great heat from the fans. Finally, he's done it in a way that ties together his career trajectory as a fan-favorite spot monkey who has been driven to personal excess to cope with the stress of his career. I find him to be easily the most compelling and believable character in TNA or WWE (my apologies again for leaving out ROH, I agree with you RVDgurl that Austin Aries is fantastic; sadly, Comcast doesn't carry HDNet in my area).

Thanks again for all the responses. Anyone want to stump for any of the apparently unpopular choices I've pitched out?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I went for The Anti-Christ of Pro-Wrestling...Jeff Hardy.

It is something totally fresh from a man who was getting VERY stale, and I applaud Jeff for trying this new character out, and I like what I have seen so far, it is kinda like a 2010 version of the original Raven character, which is why I think Raven would make a terrifc mentor/manager for Jeff right now.

It is great to see Hardy not trying to please the fans, or kids screaming whenever Jeff does his weird dancing/bounce thing in the ring, and it gives wrestling fans the oppoertunity to see Hardy as a heel, which has never really happened despite him being in the business for over a decade. I am very excited to see where TNA go with this character, I would love to see Jeff go even darker with it and enjoy a long-term (I mean a year or so) run with the World Title to really establish him as a top heel in the business.

It is fresh/different/unqiue and WWE have nothing to compare with this character in my opinion. CM Punk as the leader of the SES was better, but as with so many things, WWE dropped the ball on this character, they should have let Punk be himself, and let him work his magic, as we all know he can do from back in his epic ROH promo days.

 

[PunksNo1Fan]

I went 'other' because I believe CM Punks "Straightedge Savior" was possibly the best character of the year. Obviously with my name, you're thinking, "Well that's obvious", well actually Jeff Hardys character interests me highly as well, but Punk just nipped him in the bud.

 

[jmt225]

As of right now, there is no character in wrestling that interests me as much as Jeff Hardy's "Anti-Christ of professional wrestling" character

The gimmick is simply genius, and they have the absolute perfect wrestler portraying it; the problem is, TNA isn't giving the character as much attention as it deserves, which is why there isn't more hype around it. I mean, it's pathetic that even as the World Champion that this dude STILL doesn't get enough air time. It blows my mind. The show should be completely built around him and his feuds.

Moreover, Hardy should not be stuck as some puppet in a faction. Why would the Anti-Christ of wrestling be a follower in a faction? That makes absolutely no sense. Hardy having a couple of flunkies would be fine, but him being one just shows how fucking stupid TNA can be.

Regardless of how terrible TNA is doing with the character though, it still intrigues me more than anything else at the moment, and keeps me tuning in to an otherwise horrible program. So, yeah... while I love what Cena and Bryan are doing on Raw, Jeff Hardy still gets the nod here.

Also, let me just say that Kendrick's Buddhist character owns as well, but it's just yet another thing TNA is dropping the ball on. Makes me sick.

 

[Agent_of_Anarchy]

I had to vote for Cole. Hardy's new gimmick interests me alot, but I think he would be better without having Hogan and Bischoff around him. Kane plays the moster heel PERFECT, but really needs a strong opponent to pull off anything major.

First off, don't ever call me a Cole Miner. But after watching the "Old School" Raw last week I became a HUGE Michael Cole fan. Sure, whenever someone does a snap powerslam he calls it a scoop slam (which shits me up the wall), but the Swagger vs Bryan match when JR came down as guest commentator had me in stitches. Cole plays the whiney, nerdy little twerp to a tee.
When he told JR "You know thats my voice at the beginning show now.....ITS ELECTRIC!", I pissed my self laughing. Granted, his antics kind of ruined what could have been an amazing match between Swagger and Bryan but it was a great way to further get himself over as the heel announcer.

I always thought that Striker would end up with the role Cole now is in, but he plays it so well and so perfectly that he has cracked that very hard boundary and become more than just a heel commentator, he is genuinely hated by almost all wrestling fans. Thats pretty impressive.

 

[red ass skull muhfukkah]

I have to say the most intriguing character in wrestling, is Jeff Hardy's "Anti-Christ" of Wrestling.

The creation of the character came out of nowhere, no one expected his heel turn. His delivery and speech is very Raven-esque but with his own spin on it. It's a dark character that I didn't think Jeff Hardy could pull off.

I wrote Hardy off and shit on him for the last 2 years but this gimmick is so good, you can't ignore his talent now. He's cocky, arrogant, yet it's subtle and angry. This character changed my whole perspective on Jeff Hardy and TNA.