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2020 in many ways derailed the trajectory of many rising stars, essentially banning travel internationally and for a majority of the year, preventing large arena shows and derailing entire companies as they struggled to find out the sweet spot in a COVID era world. Despite that, there were many more people who actually managed to step up and thrive this year proving their versatility and creativity 1. Adam Page (29, AEW) 2. Adam Cole (31, NXT) 3. Kenny Omega (37, AEW) 4. Yuka Sakazaki (???, TJPW) 5. Kyle O'Reilly (33, NXT) 6. Chris Brookes (29, DDT/Choco Pro) 7. Hiromu Takahashi (31, NJPW) 8. Mei Suruga (21, Choco Pro) 9. Brodie Lee (41, AEW) 10. WALTER (33, NXT UK) The edits are just ages and additional info I'll update my post with later to try and sway people into voting for some of my favorites 
RealFoxy fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Jan 1, 2021 |
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Jan 1, 2021 06:48
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 21:45 |
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RealFoxy posted:
"Hangman" Adam Page (AEW) Page started out in AEW in 2019 as a post SHIELD Roman Reigns, we were supposed to like him despite having no reason to. I was there live for his "Cowboy poo poo" promo where he promised he was going to do his best and goddamn he did. His personal character arc in AEW during 2020 was one of the most relatable stories in wrestling period and part of arguably some of the best tag-team wrestling of all time. His story is still evolving and despite not having an audience for most of 2020, I think Adam Page was one of the absolute best at telling a story without a full live audience this year. What to watch: Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson (Fed 29th, AEW Dynamite) Adam Page & The Beaver Boys vs The Inner Circle (December 30th, AEW Dynamite) Stadium Stampede: The Elite vs The Inner Circle (May 23rd, AEW Dynamite) Being the Elite Adam Cole (baybay) This was kind of unexpected, I felt like the Undisputed Era had run their course after years of being at the top of NXT as a heel faction, but Adam Cole showed up and put on some outstanding pure wrestling matches despite being kneecapped by being a WWE wrestler. He ended up turning what was a silly commentator feud into the biggest feud in NXT this year and he did it all with his charisma and wrestling ability. What to Watch The Undisputed Era vs Imperium (Jan 25th, War of the World NXT vs NXT UK) Wargames: The Undisputed Era vs Pat McAfee, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan & Pete Dunne (December 6th, NXT Takeover Wargames IV) Adam Cole vs Tomasso Ciampa (February 16th, NXT Takeover: Portland) Kenny Omega We know that Kenny's the Best Bout Machine and can have a classic with nearly anyone, but even without an audience he continued to evolve and become a massive prick that everyone wants to beat while still managing to put over people on the undercard. His tags with Hangman are all-timers, but you could still see flashes of The Cleaner to come with matches against Alan Angles (Who is now super over in the Dark Order) along with putting on some great matches this year in AAA. Omega is THE guy you want to elevate the rest of your roster, and 2021 might be the year we see Kenny hit his peak as the top wrestler until his feud with Hangman. What to Watch Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs Lucha Bros (February 19th, AEW Dynamite) Best of 3 Falls: Kenny Omega vs Pac (February 26th AEW Dynamite) Kenny Omega vs Laredo Kid (December 12th, AAA: Triplemania XXVIII) Yuka Sakazaki TJPW might be on the smaller side, but her small appearances in AEW in 2019 really stepped her game up. I genuinely believe she's going to be one of the best Joshi wrestlers of all time. Her handful of appearances in 2019 made her an instant fan favorite but her work in her home promotion really seals the deal. I think she can be what Kenny Omega is to Joshi wrestling because she's so charismatic, hard working, able to work ANY style, and has this infinite cardio that puts her miles past her peers. She had a wardrobe malfunction in one of TJPW's biggest shows of the year and effortlessly transitioned the accident it into a submission move against her opponent without getting flustered or skipping a beat, and you'd barely know it happened at all because that's how crisp she was. What to Watch Yuka Sakazaki vs Mizuki (November 7th, TJPW Wrestle Princess) Yuka Sakazaki vs Miyu Yamashita (January 4th, TJPW Tokyo Joshi Pro '20) Yuka Sakazaki vs Yuki Aino (July 23rd, TJPW Brand New Wrestling 4) Kyle O'Reilly Outside of champions, Kyle is the Ace of 2020 in mainstream wrestling. I don't think he's dipped below a 4 star match all year, and he showed up out of nowhere to put on NXT's best match of 2020 against Finn Balor, first universal champ and reigning NXT champion. He isn't world title material, he won't carry a company, but O'Reilly is the guy every company needs to elevate the top of your card. He's in the class of Ishii and Daniel Bryan in the last decade as people who are guaranteed to push your main eventers to the best vanilla wrestling match of their careers. Matches to watch Kyle O'Reilly vs Finn Balor (October 4th, NXT: Takeover 31) ReDragon vs Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne (February 16th, NXT: Takeover Portland) Kyle O'Reilly vs Bronson Reed vs Kushida vs Camerson Grimes vs Timothy Thatcher (September 23rd, NXT TV)
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Jan 2, 2021 07:46
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SG Bamboo posted:Just a note for future lists, two different wrestlers go by Asuka so make sure you denote which one you're selecting. On the first page, 3 of us chose Veny, 2 chose Kana, and EMF didn't specify but assuming they meant the WWE wrestler Asuka (WWE)'s peers are who, Eddie, Rey Mysterio, Kevin Owens, and Andre The Giant as people who's primary language wasn't English but were at the main event? e: After years of everyone begging Foochs to watch anything but WWE for years, I'm so glad that he's become a wrestling fan all over again
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Jan 2, 2021 07:55
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Yuka Sakazaki's age is just a rumor, it's not public info anywhere iirc and she's probably a lot older than 24
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Jan 5, 2021 08:37
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Now that the brainworms have lost their hold on PSP and more people are watching Japan/Mexico/The Indies than ever, I get the feeling there's going to be a lot less "Always Bad" reactions to people like Hangman's first couple months in AEW. I'll admit that I'd never watched a whole lot of Page before AEW and it wasn't until the "Cowboy poo poo" promo I got to see live that I started to turn around on the guy and once he found his groove he really shot up both in ring and in front of the camera as being the best wrestler of 2020. Kinda funny, when AEW was first starting I wanted to buy a Bullet Club shirt from Hot Topic before their show here and all they had was Hangman's shirt and I remember thinking "The logo is really cool but I don't give a poo poo about Hangman" and it couldn't have been more than 6 months later before he was my favorite male wrestler and he only got better from there. When the pandemic's over and more wrestlers are coming over from Japan I can't wait for people's reactions to more Joshi girls like Maki Itoh (For real, and not "My Favorite Wrestler I've Never Seen a Match From"), Mei Suruga, and Mizuki and being shown and not told why they're so great. I've got a huge Joshi blindspot myself since I've worked more in 2020 than I ever have in my life but now I'm ready to catch up on the last year of wrestling I missed too My favorite part of J-Ru's write-ups are just seeing some of the odd pairings photoshopped together during ties. Yuka Sakazaki & Rey Fenix hitting #11 as two of the best wrestlers of the year together was great because they're right on the cusp of being The Best but I feel like people are still sleeping on them and seeing Charles Taylor and Mei Saruga made me realize how similar the two really are, in that they're such bubbly, funny wrestlers who are absolutely outstanding in the ring The juxtaposition of two spooky guys and Riho cracks me up too, as does MJF pointing his thumb at Stahhks
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Jan 25, 2021 17:16
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Rarity posted:I've now seen a Maki Itoh match and I can confirm she rules
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Jan 25, 2021 17:30
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 21:45 |
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Senerio posted:More people need to watch TJPW, if only to see Kamiyu's theme, the greatest theme song in Professional Wrestling. "Who is this girl coming out to Old MacDonald Had a farm?" "Oh she has a cute dog with her!" "Okay, she's a foot taller than everyone else in the ring" "Let me check out her twitter. Oh she just poo poo-posts all day between TikTok memes" I don't know if there was some kind of marketing edict behind TJPW girls' social media accounts but they'll talk to almost anyone about almost everything, I had a hour conversation with Kamiyu over a BLM tweet (I never tagged her, she just happened to follow me) I made and she explained when she was in high school in America as a Japanese transplant, the nicest people to her were black, they never made fun of her accent and they stood up to her when she would get bullied in school. That kinda stuff is true for most of the roster, they're all trying to engage with their English fans as much as possible in their free time. It might be networking 101 because TJPW wants to expand to the English market but they name-search themselves a lot and in my experience, they'll either reply or drop a like depending on how much English they know. Social Media has become a great way to discover new wrestlers and a better way of weeding out the bad people in wrestling.
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Jan 25, 2021 17:54
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