The wrestling year is coming to an end, and I'd just like to point out how much I've enjoyed this year. Well, at least how much I've enjoyed the wrestling aspect of this year. My own personal year has pretty much been shit, but at least I managed to pick a damn good year to get more invested in wrestling than ever before.
If you hadn't noticed, I'm currently in charge of a Top 50 Wrestlers of 2012 thing on the main page. But here's some of my extra thoughts on various talents from this year:
Bobby Roode: I think people are starting to forget how awesome he was, the further we get away from his title run ending. This shouldn't happen, because it was the best thing to happen to TNA in years. Still torn on whether he should have lost the belt in the first place. Best match of the year: James Storm @ Bound for Glory.
Austin Aries: Great talent. Loved him in the X-Division, not a giant fan of his World title run. He had underdog appeal; once he became the face of TNA for a brief few months, I started to lose interest. He just didn't carry the image of World Champ near as much as Roode. You know how I've said Zema got a bad rep because he had to take over for Aries? WEll, same thing goes for Aries taking over for Roode. Cool moment at Destination X; wasn't worth the long-term result in my opinion. HOWEVER, I do like how he works with Jeff Hardy.
James Storm: Another good talent, probably more over with the fans that just about anybody in TNA. Many thought he'd be the break-out talent from Beer Money; boy were they/we wrong. I liked the retribution story, but Jeff Hardy was doing it at the same time, and had a legitimate reason for trying to "find his smile" again. He's like a poor man's Sheamus; generic face, good reaction, not as good a wrestler as the Celtic Warrior though. You get the point.
Jeff Hardy: Glad TNA is using him, but I'm still not a big fan. With the exception of his ladder match against Austin Aries, I don't find him to be terribly innovative recently. Kind of like TNA's version of John Cena, without most of the company-benefiting upsides. So maybe that's a poor comparison.
Joey Ryan: I don't get why people like this guy. He had the coolest intro with all the Gut Check stuff, but once they alligned him with Matt Morgan I completely lost interest. Haven't seen enough to figure out if he can wrestle well, but his promos are god awful and his intentional annoyance has surpassed heel levels, and made me want to stop watching. Speaking of Morgan...
Matt Morgan: I don't see the "future of TNA" in him as much as some, but he does need to be used a lot more than he has been. Still a great talent. One question: what in the name of "Hey God, Are you There? It's Me Margaret" is he doing with Joey Ryan?
Jesse God-turds: Not awful. For having like, a few months of wrestling training, he's passable. More importantly, he's entertaining affixed to Tara for the moment. I'm just glad they resisted the urge to use him in anything more important. So long as he doesn't become their future-world-champion-Miz-character. You know, unless somehow he deserves it.
Hulk Hogan: Not a bad GM of Impact. He still gets tripped up in heated promos, to the point of sounding ridiculous, but I doubt that's ever going to change, as it hasn't for 30+ years. It could be a lot worse. Not the best sellign point I realize, but it's all I got.
Bully Ray: God. I still doubt he gets a World title shot though. And I'm not really upset about that; there are more important things than making sure everyone gets their hands on gold before the end if things.
John Cena: I had one wish for 2012, and it was to keep John Cena out of the WWE Championship picture. Check.
CM Punk: I would love for him to say something new.
Dolph Ziggler: I'm waiting for the counter-culture morons to start saying "Ziggler is over-rated. He was never that good to begin with." It happens every time. Every single time.
Daniel Bryan: I came real close to giving him the wrestler of the year. Cashed in Money in the Bank to win the World title? YES! Became the hottest thing in wrestling with an 18-second loss and a 3-letter chant? YES! Stole the show with CM Punk? YES! Then again with Sheamus? YES! YES! Started the best tag team of 2012, and made Kane relevant again? YEEEEEEEEEEESSS!!
Big Show: Meh. Real good heel promo cutter. Adds some really good emotion to what he says. Had a MOTY candidate with Sheamus.
Sheamus: Severely underrated. People always talk about Punk and Bryan never having a bad match, but I could easily throw Sheamus in that category too. I still hold that Sheamus/Bryan was a MOTY winner, or at the very least a close runner-up. His promos can get a bit repetitive, and I realize how cheesy the good-ole-farmboy-routine can get. But we've put up with Cena for 10 years, and Sheamus is head and shoulders the better in-ring wrestler. In fact, if you made a custom character, copy/paste Cena's attributes, took a bit away from promos and gave it to in-ring ability, you'd have Sheamus.
John Laurinaitis: Remember when that was a think?
I'd actually rank Bryan above Punk as well, given that he probably had just as many top notch matches at Punk and has managed to be wildly entertaining the whole year through, something both Punk and Cena have failed to accomplish.
