Four years running, it’s time for the 25 Best Wrestlers on Television!  This year, like no other year before it in a long, long while, saw some of the most captivating, business-changing, entertaining wrestlers and moments on Television.  For those of you reading this list for the first time, the criteria is simple: I only consider wrestlers that have been showcased on North American television in the calendar year.  However, this year, I am making one unprecedented exception…

[Honourable Mention] “The Macho Man” Randy Savage

I’m not one for hyperbole; I’m not one to throw around melodramatic eulogies, so you know the following statement is true: Macho Man Randy Savage was one of the best wrestlers, ever.  There is absolutely no debate about it. No matter how you slice it, Randy Savage was great.  He was one of the most distinguishable professional wrestlers to have ever graced a television screen.  He is one half of what is considered one of the greatest matches of all time.  He transcended professional wrestling, and became a cultural icon, something only a handful of wrestlers can even come close to claiming.  He left us this year, he may be gone, but he is most certainly not forgotten.

And now, onto the List.

[25] Edge

Sadly, we must bid another farewell, this one to “Edge” Adam Copeland.  In 2011, his career was suddenly cut short, as a career of neck injuries and high spots finally caught up with the perennial entrant on this list of mine, and his doctors strongly recommended retirement.  Thankfully, Edge was able to do it in style, wrestling his last match at WrestleMania, successfully defending the World Heavyweight Championship.  Thank you, Edge, it has been a pleasure.

[24] Kenny King and Rhett Titus, The All-Night Express

It’s wrestling 101.  What do you do, when you have two decent singles wrestlers, and you want them to get over?  Why, you stick’em together and promote them as a tag team!  Kenny King and Rhett Tutus, The All-Night Express, shot through the ranks of Ring Of Honor’s Tag Team Division really fast in 2011, finding themselves deep in the title hunt for the ROH Tag Team Championship.  Keep up the good work, dudes!

[23] Christopher “Daniels” Daniels

The Fallen Angel pulled some double duty this year, wrestling for BOTH ROH and TNA.  He reigned for a few months as ROH’s Television Champion, and then went back to TNA to hang out with his friends AJ Styles, Kazarian, and the rest of the League of Great Wrestlers Who Make Poor Career Decisions.

[22] Natalya Neidhart and Beth Phoenix, The Divas of Doom

Natalya and Beth finally did something most of us wrestling fans have wanted to see for a while: they are WAGING WAR on the Supermodel Divas!  A tandem that makes complete sense, The Divas of Doom have been taking it to the likes of Kelly Kelly, Eve Stupid Torres, and the other ones in 2011.  I’m just glad to see Beth Phoenix on top of the female wrestling world once again.

[21] Brian Kendrick

Brian Kendrick is too damn good for TNA.  His promos are awesome, his in-ring work is unquestionably great, and he is the MVP of the show.  He helped save the X-Division from the evil clutches of that damned Eric Bischoff, and is an all-around entertaining guy.

[20] Christian

In 2011, Christian went back to doing what Christian does best, being a rat-bastard!   Christian rocked as the old wrestling standard, “The Pussy,” finding loophole after loophole to get him never-ending shots at Randy Orton’s World Championship, eventually winning the World Title at Money in the Bank through dubious means.

[19] Steve Corino

After 2010 as one half of one of the most sinister, evil tandems in Ring of Honor (along with Kevin Steen), Steve Corino went on a path of redemption in 2011.  He didn’t want to be evil anymore.  He wanted to atone for a lifetime of sin and nefariousness, he wanted to be a wrestler whom other wrestlers could look up to.  He even got himself a sponsor, the formerly evil Jimmy Jacobs, and all seemed well… until that bastard Kevin Steen showed up.  The feud came to a head at Final Battle 2011, where Steve Corino once again “went evil” for one night only, to take the fight to Kevin Steen, who had to win to rejoin ROH.  Unfortunately, all of Steve Corino’s Evil could not withstand a package piledriver on a chair, and he lost the match.

[18] Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, Air Boom

Much like the All-Night Express, the solution on how to deal with two wrestlers stuck in midcard hell is making a tag team out of them.  Air Boom was the first impression WWE gave us in 2011, that they have a new interest in tag team wrestling.  I mean, it’s a natural pairing, two high flyers that the kids love!  They currently reign supreme over a tag team division that shows promise, and as long as Evan Bourne can avoid any more Wellness Violations, 2012 should be a good year for them.

[17] AJ Styles

…Goddamn it, AJ Styles.  You’re only on this list because, as I said last year, no one, NO ONE can deny your natural talent.  I grow tired of yelling at you about your stupid loyalty to such a terrible promotion.

[16] Eddie Edwards

At first glance, Eddie Edwards is unassuming.  Average size, average appearance, average charisma.  But holy shit, can the man wrestle.  Trained by Killer Kowalski, Eddie Edwards busted his ass to make himself one of ROH’s top talents in 2011.  He’s the only man in the organization’s history (to date) who’s held the ROH Triple Crown, becoming World Champion this past spring, something most would have never predicted of Eddie Edwards, at first glance.

[15] “Showtime” Eric Young

Bless you, Eric Young.  Bless you.  You are, without a doubt, one of the most entertaining things on TNA Impact.  As Television Champion, he vowed only to defend the championship against actual Television stars.  He beat Matt Morgan, former American Gladiator.  He beat Jason Hervey, TNA producer and former cast member of “The Wonder Years.”  He went on a crusade to face Scott Baio of “Happy Days,”, defeating D-Lo Brown (whom he confused for C-Lo Green) along the way, and BEAT Scott Baio!  He then lost it to that Jersey Shore ripoff they have, but who cares!  Eric Young is fucking awesome!

[14] Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team

If you wanna talk about comebacks of the year, you HAVE to mention the tandem of Haas and Benjamin. Reforming one of the best tag teams of the 2000’s in Ring Of Honor seems like a logical conclusion, and it paid off very well, dethroning the Kings of Wrestling as ROH World Tag Team Champions, and defending them against ROH’s best tag teams, and the Briscoe Brothers!  They ultimately lost the titles to Wrestling’s Dumbest Tag Team (the aforementioned Brothers Briscoe…), but it’s good to see Haas and Benjamin back as a unit, doing what they do best.  I just wish they were creative enough to think up a better name.

[13] Cody Rhodes

Well well.  Cody Rhodes.  Y’know, I gotta hand it to this kid.  When he started his professional life in WWE, I instantly labeled him Plywood Cody Rhodes, as he had all the charisma of a board of plywood.  It seemed as nothing could get this poor kid over, and that all of the charisma in the Rhodes family gene pool went to his older brother Dustin.  And then, something magical happened.  Rey Mysterio bashed his “Dashing” face in with a knee brace, and all of a sudden, Cody Rhodes was interesting.  He turned into a brooding, sullen asshole, taking his vengeance out on the world for the loss of his good looks, and donned a plastic face protector.  Cody stepped his game up, even won the Intercontinental Championship.  And, if that wasn’t enough, Cody chiselled his name into the hearts of smarks everywhere by bringing back the classic Intercontinental Championship Title Belt, restoring a great deal of credibility to the championship in an instant.  Cody is flirting with the main event scene, and I think he’ll go further in 2012.

[12] “Cowboy” James Storm

James Storm is an interesting case.  Here we have a man who is a solid wrestler with loads of charisma, wrestling a time-tested gimmick with a new edge to it, and is quite over with the TNA faithful, and yet, he lingered FOREVER in midcard hell.  Sure, pairing him with Bobby Roode to form Beer Money is great and all, but, it always felt like TNA was letting Storm’s talent go to waste.  And then, he gets an upset victory over Kurt Angle, and now he’s the TNA World Heavyweight Champion!  This is great!  It looks like TNA is finally taking itself seriously, and giving one of its most loyal and hardest working guys a chance to carry the comp-what’s that?  A week-long title reign and he immediately drops it to Bobby Roode?  Oh, for the love of fuck, TNA…

[11] Bobby Roode

…See, here’s my problem.  If your plan was to make Bobby Roode TNA World Heavyweight Champion, WHY NOT HAVE HIM BEAT KURT ANGLE IN THE FIRST PLACE AT BOUND FOR GLORY?  You spent the whole dang summer, running this “Quest For Bound For Glory” Series, to determine who would face the TNA World Champ at your marquee event, and you built up the event, AND Bobby Roode, for NO REASON.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Bobby Roode is TNA World Champion, but holy shit, it would have meant much more if you just had him win at your big event.  Jesus…

[10] Randy Orton

My, have the mighty have fallen.  Slightly.  For me, Randy Orton has lost some of his killer instinct, when he turned good guy.  He doesn’t seem like the vicious, anti-hero viper to me anymore.  He’s a bland GOOD GUY.  Well, except when he went completely apeshit all over Christian  at Money in the Bank 2011.  I do applaud him for taking the time to build Wade Barrett up, the dude needs the rub.  Personally, I wish he would just shave his damned beard, it looks SO stupid.

[09] Davey Richards

For those of you who have never watched an episode of Ring of Honor TV, or have never seen a clip of a match on YouTube, ROH is trying very very hard to cast itself as a legitimate, serious wrestling promotion, the Anti-WWE, if you will.  It wants to catch the magic that has made the UFC so unbelievably popular, and frankly, it’s doing a good job of doing it.  The biggest thing they have working in their favour is their World Champion, Davey Richards.  Davey Richards is a killer.  He is so technically sound, it’s downright unbelievable.  He is being showcased the right way, and he is more than deserving of being ROH World Champion.  I’m sorry I ever doubted the man.

[08] Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, The Kings of Wrestling

Kings reign supreme, boys and girls.  And in April 2011, the KOW, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli made it official by scoring the record for the longest reign as tag team champions, ANYWHERE, since 1989.  Unfortunately, they were two days short of making the reign one full calendar year, losing the titles to Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, but that’s ok!  Because, it looks like there are bigger things in the horizon for the Kings of Wrestling.  Namely, in the summer of 2011, a certain worldwide wrestling promotion based out of Stamford, Connecticut started taking an interest in Hero and Castagnoli, and as of this writing, Claudio Castagnoli is under contract to WWE.  Apparently there have been complications with the signing of Chris Hero, but there is no doubt that, before long, the KOW will be tearing it up in the big leagues!

[07] R-Truth

AW HELL NAH.  THIS TIME ‘ROUND, DA TROOF, HE AIN’T GETTING’ OKEE-DOKED BY LIL JIMMY.  LIL JIMMY, THE SPI-DUHS, THE WHOLE GAT-DANGED C-O-N-SPIRACY, THEY AIN’T GONNA HOLD DA TROOF BACK.  HE DUN EARNED HIMSELF HIS NUMBAH SEVEN SPOT ON THIS LIST BY RE-INVENTIN’ HISSELF FROM A NOVELTY ACT TO KILLER UPPER-MIDCARD HEEL BY KICKIN’ LIL JIMMY TO THE CURB AND BLOWIN’ SMOKE IN JOHN MORRISON’S FACE, SINCE NEITHER WERE HELPIN’ HIM WIN NO TITLES!  UNFORTUNATELY, WWE WELLNESS IS IN ON THE CONSPIRACY TOO, AND THEY BUSTED HIM FOR SMOKIN’ THE FAKE POT, BUT EVEN WWE WELLNESS CAN’T HOLD DA TROOF BACK ON THIS LIST! OH, DA TROOF HAS SET HIM FREE!

[06] The Miz

I kind of feel bad for The Miz.  I do.  He is so insanely charismatic, he is so surprisingly skilled (considering his background), and yet, no one wants to give him a chance.  He had a BLOCKBUSTER year in 2010, which amounted to the poor bastard playing second fiddle to THE ROCK VS. JOHN CENA for most of the year, which sent him tumbling down the card.  He rebounded nicely around the summer, aligning himself with R-Truth… only to, once again, play second fiddle to THE ROCK VS. JOHN CENA.  Thankfully, The Miz was able to prevent himself from falling down again, and kept himself in the WWE Title picture.

[05] Alberto Del Rio

His name is Alberto Del Rio, and he has had one hell of a 2011!  But, you already knew that.  He kicked off the year winning the Royal Rumble, sending him to the main event OPENING MATCH of WrestleMania 27!  He didn’t achieve is so-called Destiny there, but eventually, he won himself a Money in the Bank contract, and cashed it in at SummerSlam successfully, in a move I predicted months prior, because of WWE’s impending Mexico tour this past fall.  He’s firmly planted himself as a main event heel in rather short order, and as a side note, he has one of the best entrances in the business.

[04] Dolph Ziggler

2011 appears to be the year in which a ton of wrestlers started living up to their potential.  Dolph Ziggler is the best example of this.  The sole survivor of The Spirit Squad, Ziggles worked his ass off to rise up the ranks and become a force to be reckoned with in professional wrestling.  While it is indeed worth mentioning that Dolph was World Heavyweight champion for like, an hour or something, it’s his reign as United States Champion that ranks this man so highly on this list.  He quickly became the Go-To Guy to have a solid match, even wrestling twice in one night, on two consecutive pay per views.  Now, Dolph goes into 2012 with a WWE Title shot, and the opportunity to fully seize his potential as a main event star.  Not to mention, there’s NO ONE in the business that sells their opponent’s offence like this man.

[03] “Long Island Iced Z” Zack Ryder

10 years ago, Zack Ryder could not have happened.  Hell, FIVE years ago, Zack Ryder could not have happened.  You see, Zack Ryder is a trail blazer, and living proof that hard work does pay off.  He went from curtain jerker to one of the most popular wrestlers on WWE television in 12 months, almost completely on his own and without being on television a whole lot.  In case you have been living under a rock, Zack Ryder took to social media, and launched a revolution.  With his Facebook page, and his Twitter account, and, most of all, his YouTube show, Z: A True Long Island Story, Zack Rider tapped into the “WWE UNIVERSE” in a manner no other wrestler had ever done before.  In fact, one can argue that, because of Zack Ryder, WWE finally tuned into the 21^st Century, and started to boost its online presence.  He crowned himself WWE’s Internet Champion, and by year’s end, won himself a real title, the WWE United States Championship.  However, the true test for “Long Island Iced Z” is to maintain this newfound popularity in 2012.  Is he a legitimate star, or just a fad?  Let’s check back next year.

[02] Daniel Bryan

Ladies and Gentlemen, if only for a brief moment in time, Daniel Bryan is the World Heavyweight Champion of WWE.  Let that sit in your mind for a moment.  Daniel Bryan, the posterboy for Independent Wrestling, the man WWE fired because he was too ‘intense’ for TV-PG, the man that is constantly buried by WWE’s top play-by-play man, Michael “I WAS A WAR CORRESPONDENT!” Cole, the man who is the complete opposite of what one thinks of, when they think “WWE SUPERSTAR,” is on top of the WWE World.  The Magic started on what should go down as one of the best PPV events of this decade, Money in the Bank 2011, when Daniel Bryan won what was a very exciting ladder match, to claim his number one contendership.  And, despite the adversity, the Michael Cole catcalls, and playing third wheel in the SIN CARA VS. SIN CARA feud, he persevered, and won himself the World Heavyweight Championship.  No matter what happens now, this is something no one can ever take away from Daniel Bryan.

[01] CM Punk

“Big things await CM Punk in 2011, I can feel it.”

When I wrote this one year ago, I had no idea, NO IDEA, how right I would be.  Hell, 6 months into the year, I still had no idea how right I was.  CM Punk did alright for six months.  Kept himself afloat as an upper card player, had a decent feud with Randy Orton, leading the New Nexus.  And then, something wonderful happened.  There he was, one June evening, sitting on the RAW stage in a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt, cutting one of the greatest, most shocking worked shoot promos ever said.  He sang like a canary, he said what smarks have been griping about for YEARS.  He named dropped ROH, New Japan, and Colt Cabana.  He ripped into John Laurinaitus, Stephanie McMahon, that “Doofus Son in Law,” and Vince McMahon himself.  And, most of all, he vowed to win the WWE Championship, and leave the company with the crown jewel of professional wrestling.  And then, he did it.  He won the WWE Championship, in front of a jam-packed, ravenous hometown crowd in Chicago, and he left.  He left the company, and took the title belt with him.  He showed up on Jimmy Kimmel with it.  He went to Wrigley Field with it.  He crashed WWE’s seminar at ComicCon in San Diego with it.  He even put the belt in his dang fridge.  He was the toast of the wrestling world, and he was, for all intents and purposes, a free agent.  And then, just to stoke the fires further, he returned as a conquering hero, In Living Color’s “Cult of Personality” blaring, having set the professional wrestling world on FIRE.

You see, the best moments in professional wrestling, are the ones that make you forget that what you are watching is scripted television.  That’s why the New World Order made wrestling fans tune into WCW Nitro in droves in 1996.  That’s why one in every three wrestling fans owned a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt in 1998.  Disbelief wasn’t merely suspended, it was expelled.  This, this is what was the key to the success of CM Punk in 2011.  At least for one brief night, wrestling fans were captivated.  Even the smarkiest of smarks suspended their cynicism and their disbelief, losing their shit over the most believable worked shoot ever executed.  CM Punk grabbed the attention of the wrestling world and refused to let go.  All because he wanted to change the business he loves so much.

See, he didn’t do this for himself.  He didn’t start dropping Pipe Bombs and waging war on the status quo of professional wrestling and WWE in particular for his own personal gain.  He did it for guys like Zack Ryder.  He did it for guys like Daniel Bryan. He did it, even if he won’t admit it on television in character, he did it for guys like Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes. He saw the state of professional wrestling for what it was, and he did something about it.  He is an agent of change, and he started a revolution on that hot June evening, a revolution that we’re just beginning to see the results of.  If you do not believe me, just look at this picture:

What happens in 2012, is up in the air.  But, in 2011, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, CM Punk, WWE Champion, was the best wrestler on television.

Thank you for reading.

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