Greatest Indie Wrestler of All Time

[wrestlingfan]

So we all know about the independent circuit and how it helped build stars like Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Evan Bourne, One of the stars it helped build up was CM Punk, CM Punk has been said to be the King of the Indies or at least the King of ROH and has had notable feuds and matches with Chris Hero, Raven, Samoa Joe, Homicide, Austin Aries, etc, and is said to be the Best Wrestler In The World Today, Overall in all criteria

What do you think, is he the Greatest Indie Wrestler of All Time?

 

[Paralyzer Z]

I don't know much about the Indies HISTORY. Though I do posses decent knowledge on it's current status. On YouTube there is a channel by thesuicidaldragon that list a shit load of Indy top tens. I mean there's is a lot of Indy I found out about there.

My pick is CM punk simply because currently he is most well known former Indy wrestler to achieve such success. Danielson is close but not at the top of the biggest wrestling company in the world like cm punk. I saw punk do the awesome Pepsi plunger on YouTube. He is the king

On a side note my favorite Indy wrestler right now is ricochet. Double moonsault!

 

[The Dragon Saga]

CM Punk was the King of Ring of Honor? Since when? I and the rest of the Ring of Honor faithful since 2004 who followed the guy since he arrived from IWA: MS must have missed the memo. The bubble there is burst. CM Punk was never the "King of the Indies" or the "King of Ring of Honor." He's just one of those guys who went from Ring of Honor and the independant circuit to becoming a top name in one of the mainstream companies. He didn't contribute to the independant scene all that much.

Overall, I hate to label anyone the sole best. So overall I'm going to pick two, and those two are Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson.

Danielson is known as the Founding Father of Ring of Honor. He was labeled by Dave Meltzer as the best wrestler of the decade at the turn of 2010, and that's overall, Meltzer even said he saw Danielson's work as better than his trainer Shawn Michaels. Danielson made it by himself on the independant scene, be came into the WWE with a well established name, he's the original "Best in The World." He used the nickname before Punk did. Danielson has won countless belts on the indy circuit and was by far the largest draw until he signed with WWE. His feud with Nigel McGuinness contributed to Ring of Honor getting noterity as well as Danielson's constant accolades from various highly respected wrestling journalists. Overall, he may be the best but he has competition.

Samoa Joe was the biggest thing on the indepedant circut. He entered TNA with a bang, and that bang was the ovation he got as his music hit. Joe held the ROH Championship for nearly an entire two years, he had countless great matches, he toured everywhere and sold out arena-after-arena. Joe made the ROH Championship so prestiged in my opinion and that's why he's above Danielson. It took Bryan until late 2005 to gain the ROH Championship and by that point it had already been set on such a high pedastil by Joe. Joe made the indies big in the 00's, TNA were smart to take him and use him the way they did, too bad now he's a shell of what he used to be.

But doesn't take anything away from what Joe did. Its tight, between Danielson and Joe though. Punk didn't contribute enough, where as these two did. I'd say its even, but what Joe did for the belt is special, he defended it over fifty times in his near two year reign. But its between these two.

 

[wrestlingfan]

CM Punk was the King of Ring of Honor? Since when? I and the rest of the Ring of Honor faithful since 2004 who followed the guy since he arrived from IWA: MS must have missed the memo. The bubble there is burst. CM Punk was never the "King of the Indies" or the "King of Ring of Honor." He's just one of those guys who went from Ring of Honor and the independant circuit to becoming a top name in one of the mainstream companies. He didn't contribute to the independant scene all that much.

Overall, I hate to label anyone the sole best. So overall I'm going to pick two, and those two are Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson.

Danielson is known as the Founding Father of Ring of Honor. He was labeled by Dave Meltzer as the best wrestler of the decade at the turn of 2010, and that's overall, Meltzer even said he saw Danielson's work as better than his trainer Shawn Michaels. Danielson made it by himself on the independant scene, be came into the WWE with a well established name, he's the original "Best in The World." He used the nickname before Punk did. Danielson has won countless belts on the indy circuit and was by far the largest draw until he signed with WWE. His feud with Nigel McGuinness contributed to Ring of Honor getting noterity as well as Danielson's constant accolades from various highly respected wrestling journalists. Overall, he may be the best but he has competition.

Samoa Joe was the biggest thing on the indepedant circut. He entered TNA with a bang, and that bang was the ovation he got as his music hit. Joe held the ROH Championship for nearly an entire two years, he had countless great matches, he toured everywhere and sold out arena-after-arena. Joe made the ROH Championship so prestiged in my opinion and that's why he's above Danielson. It took Bryan until late 2005 to gain the ROH Championship and by that point it had already been set on such a high pedastil by Joe. Joe made the indies big in the 00's, TNA were smart to take him and use him the way they did, too bad now he's a shell of what he used to be.

But doesn't take anything away from what Joe did. Its tight, between Danielson and Joe though. Punk didn't contribute enough, where as these two did. I'd say its even, but what Joe did for the belt is special, he defended it over fifty times in his near two year reign. But its between these two.

Good analysis

Well Punk is said to be King of the Indies now that his recent storyline is getting popular but between these two I would say Bryan Danielson is the Greatest Indie Wrestler of All Time given he didn't join WWE to 09 or 010, unlike Joe who spent the second half of his career in TNA.

 

[Remix]

How can Danielson be the "greatest indoe wrestler of all time" when he's watched by more people on one episode of Smackdown than he was in all of his ROH dates combined?

If we include people who are better known (outside of the IWC) as WWE/TNA/WCW/ECW guys, then you'd also have to include guys like Eddie Gurrerro who, while best known for his WWE owned work, wrestled on the indies for a while.

The same (only far more) applies to Punk, Styles, Daniels and Joe seeing as the latter three were working in ROH and TNA for quite some time and Punk who's been in WWE for about as long (or longer, for all I know or care) in WWE as he was in ROH.

 

[Remix]

It's not about who's known, That's not the wrestler's fault,that's just the state of the companies.

So a wrestler primaraly known for wrestling in larger companies can still be called the best indie wrestler of all time, as long as they also wrestled for companies other than the big ones? In that case, I name Chris Benoit as the best indie wrestler of all time because he wrestled at the first three Brian Pillman memorial shows.

 

[Trill Co$by]

CM Punk was the King of Ring of Honor? Since when? I and the rest of the Ring of Honor faithful since 2004 who followed the guy since he arrived from IWA: MS must have missed the memo. The bubble there is burst. CM Punk was never the "King of the Indies" or the "King of Ring of Honor." He's just one of those guys who went from Ring of Honor and the independant circuit to becoming a top name in one of the mainstream companies. He didn't contribute to the independant scene all that much.

You're fucking kidding me right? Punk never was King of ROH? Okay, so maybe you're not as faithful to the indies as you'd like to believe. Or did you forget that during his time in the indies, he was responsible for without a doubt the most memorable feuds in ROH and across the world? Did you forget that his feud with Raven was one of the most talked about, and during that feud, Danielson wasn't even that big of a name? Or did you forget about Joe vs. Punk? Forget that it was Punk who was approached by Mick Foley? Forget that it was Punk who carried ROH in the period where it was gaining its popularity? Danielson only got the label because WWE recognized CM Punk becoming a threat to their empire and snatched him up.


If anything, the King of Indies is, was, and always will be Christopher Daniels. The guy has been the best draw for tons of indy companies and he's had compelling storylines along the way. Sure, he's never held a major world title save for the PWG World title, but to the indy fans who truly follow indy, if you've seen a Danielson indy feud, then you'll talk about it for years and years to come. Not to mention his work with Curry Man which is equally as entertaining.

 

[RavensEdge]

are we talking about guys who rose through the indies and became big names like CM Punk, Samoa Joe, and Daniel Bryan?

I would go in the direction of the guys who people have heard of and have never left the indies. Guys like Mad Man Pondo, Corporal Robinson, or Davey Richards.