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Submitted by XanMan on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 3:58 PM EST
 "To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage."--W. Clement Stone The Magnificent Seven. A fantastic western--one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. That's not what our voyage is about today, however. Believe it or not, I'll be writing about professional wrestling instead. Like I mentioned in my previous column, I'll be discussing one man from TNA and two each from RAW, Smackdown, and ROH who were in the running for being the best wrestler in the world, or to coin a phrase: The Magnificent Seven. No, ECW doesn't have any representation in either last week's eliminations, nor in this week's. Don't blame me, blame them. If you haven't yet red the first part of the series you can do so by clicking here. Two columns, of course, is not a series, so I have to let you know right now that none of the seven wrestlers discussed today are the best wrestler in the world--per your captain, of course--but are all worthy of being in the discussion. I'm going to do my best to put these men in reverse order, though for the most part it's going to be difficult. None have glaring weakness; if they did they wouldn't be in the discussion, but if there wasn't at least one weakness they would be in the next column. If you didn't read the previous column and didn't click the link I handily provided up above, I just want to mention briefly that when I say "best wrestler in the world," I mean the best wrestler I've seen in the United States this past year. Grading foreign ones is exceedingly difficult for various reasons. Before we go on, I feel there's something else I should explain that wasn't addressed by me in the previous column but that was questioned by a feedbacker to it. I first became a fan of professional wrestling by watching the World Wrestling Federation when I was around 12 or 13. I wasn't weened on the days of the business when there were still territories or on the National Wrestling Alliance, so to me the "entertainment" aspect of sports entertainment is something that seems as inherent to me in professional wrestling as the collar-elbow tie-up or the Irish whip. I realize it hasn't always been that way, of course, but there hasn't always been the designated hitter rule in baseball, either, and most people that became fans after it came into effect understand it as an integral part of the game--unless you're on the wrong side and think the NL still has the better rule by letting pitchers bat. The same with entertainment in wrestling to me. I understand that while wrestling has always had characters, it hasn't always been the "male soap opera" that it is now and was certainly never acknowledged by the people in charge of running the organizations to be predetermined and scripted. That has been a change in fairly recent years, and it's arguable as to whether that's a good thing or bad thing. That's not an argument that's going to be addressed here. The point is that I'm one of the oldest people around here at Lords of Pain, and if I busted my wrestling virginity during the WWF's Rock and Wrestling era, that means that most of us around here think of wrestling mostly as sports entertainment. I've really gotten into Ring of Honor lately, and I'm alternating between watching 2008 shows and watching shows from the beginning of 2005 on to catch up on what I've missed. Some of the wrestlers they have look like they came out of a cartoon or comic book, such as Delirious and Mschif, and they do have some promos, but the reason they've succeeded and keep growing where WCW and the real ECW failed, and TNA is losing ground, is that they know what they are and don't try to compete at a level they are not yet ready to. The reason WCW fell so far so fast is because they spent money trying to out-WWF the WWF; that's the same strategy TNA appears to be employing, and it will never be successful. Ring of Honor, however, will be ready to compete with the WWF, eventually because they know who they are, because they don't fool themselves, and because they are putting their focus on wrestling instead of sports entertainment. Putting their focus on wrestling instead of sports entertainment doesn't make them better or worse than the WWF, it simply makes them different. From what I've seen, I do prefer the ROH product to the WWF, but not by a huge margin; one major reason being I like the fact that those in ROH don't seem to be the physical freaks that many in the WWF seem to be. This is an organization in which Chris Benoit would have achieved sustained success at a far faster rate than he did in the WWF, and why? Because Ring of Honor is an organization that values the ability to wrestle above all; something that I, as a wrestling fan, tend to do, as well. I understand and appreciate that the ability to work a mic and show charisma is an important part of being a WWF--or TNA--superstar, but it isn't the most important thing to me; I look at the entire package. So, even though I continued to evaluate each wrestler's ability and gifts in the different areas in which a wrestler should be evaluated, I didn't see anyone that had a better one than Chris Benoit, except, as I stated last time for Eddie Guerrero in 2005. Maybe I looked at Benoit through rose-colored glasses because I always tended to like the Hart Dungeon graduates, but I never thought he had the poor mic skills and lacked charisma the way many in the IWC seemed to. He may have been only average in those areas, but his superior ability in-ring made up for it, so he was to me both the best wrestlerand the best performer. Just wanted to make that clear. "All things change, nothing is extinguished."--Ovid Like I mentioned above, I'm going to try to rate these guys in reverse order of greatest. While I'm not in love with all of these guys as performers, I do think they all have excellent qualities; it's just that some have weaknesses that are too big to be overlooked and some don't. There's really no such thing as a perfect wrestler, is there? People say Chris Benoit lacked charisma and speaking ability, Bret Hart couldn't draw, Curt Hennig and Rick Rude had their personal demons, Brian Pillman had his personal demons and lacked size, Hogan was great on the mic and had wonderful charisma but was terrible in the ring, Ric Flair is generally considered to be the best wrestler the business has ever seen, but always seemed to wrestle the same match. But, I believe that while we may be seeing a low in terms of ratings for professional wrestling, we're also seeing the evolution of the professional wrestler, as the best wrestlers today appear to have less weaknesses than those of yesterday. Or maybe it's just that we always psychologically want everything now to be better. My two favorite movies are now Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and The Dark Knight. But, what if I'd seen the original Star Wars Trilogy or Lord of the Rings Trilogy afterwards? Would they have then been supplanted? Are Jack Swagger and Ted Dibiase the next evolution in pro wrestling, or are they just the latest? Are the 4 guys I end today with really 4 of the greatest ever, or just some of the best right now? Who is the least of the septet I mentioned earlier? Edge, and it isn't close. I think Edge has been entertaining at times this year, I think he's improved dramatically in the ring, and somewhat on the mic over the last couple of years to the point where he has, indeed, become a superstar. However, he still seems to be someone who is far below the place in which he has resided during most of said period. I was seriously rooting for him to defeat John Cena at Unforgiven 2006 to send Cena over to Smackdown and end his reign of terror on Monday nights, but that was pretty much the last time. He's become very good in his role as a monster heel, because he's easily someone the fans love to hate, but a lot of that has had to do with the high popularity of his opponents and, recently, his complicated relationship to storyline wife Vicky Guerrero, who has tremendous heat with the fans. I also feel that Edge doesn't always come across as the heel he's trying to portray; occasionally still doing face things, such as beckoning for his opponent to get up when setting up for his spear. Aside to Mr. Copeland: Guess what, dude, you're the bad guy! We don't want you to hit your finisher, because that would mean you're likely going to defeat the hero and win the match, and dude, you don't have the right body-type for a spear anyway and thus, yours is weak as hell. Dismiss it from your repetoire promptly; or at least reduce it to what it should be: a set-up move. I love the creative ways you've found to use it, but it still doesn't work as a finisher for you. I'd prefer the split-legged inpaler you called The Edgeocution--and heel gestures to go with it would push you closer to the top. This one is kind of tough for me, because Randy Orton is probably my favorite current wrestler on regular television broadcasts; and we all love to elevate our favorites higher than they really should be. I don't believe I've done that here. He's got the look, he's got the pedigree(not the hold,) he's got the attitude, and gotten better and better in the ring. He's no technical marvel, of course, but I doubt that he ever will be. What he has done, though, is find a move-set that works with his character of being a cold, calculating viper. His ropes-hung ddt, vicious stomps to all parts of an opponent's body, the punt, knee drop, and even his much maligned so-called "chinlock of doom" work well with his character and all make sense as a way to wear down the head and neck of his opponent for his cutter variation--the lightning fast RKO. I also think that he's gotten better year-by-year on the microphone, and he's always had a sort of natural charisma. In short, he's become a superstar on the level of the top tier in the WWF. He no longer has to be carried in matches; he can now hold his own. The one thing he can't do that guys that are above him can is carry a poor worker to a good match. Guys like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H have shown the uncanny ability to carry green or just poor wrestlers to classic matches. Orton just isn't ready to do that yet. Samoa Joe is consistently one of the few reasons to watch Impact!, and when TNA still had some worthwhile matches and storytelling going on, his matches against AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels were still stealing the show. But, right now when I think about watching Impact!, it boils down to whether I feel I can stomach the segments involving Styles, the Murder City Machine Guns, Stone Cold Shark Boy, Awesome Kong, and Velvet Sky. Watching Shelley and Sabin perform is always depressing because as fun to watch and as talented as they are, they get a) hardly any time to show their stuff and b) job all the time now. To see SCSB, I have to put up with Super Eric and Curry Man, and Angelina Love gets more love than her partner, my girl, Velvet, and for much of the last two years AJ has been a lackey to either Christian Cage or Kurt Angle, and now is involved in bullshit with Frank Trigg. That leaves Joe and Kong, and while I think Joe has the capability of being the best performer in the world, he constantly allows himself to wrestle down to the level of his competition. I say if Booker T, Christian Cage, and Kurt Angle can't wrestle at his pace, he should force them to. I know Joe's capable of so much better than he's shown lately, but I have to rate him on what he actually does, and since all we've heard from him is basically--I'm going to kick your ass--and all we've seen from him is subpar performance after subpar performance I can't rate him any higher; but still being 6th best in the world isn't so bad, is it? "Truth is tough. It will not break like a bubble at a touch. Nay, you may kick it about all day, and it will be round and full at evening."--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Not long ago a comment was made in a LOP Columns Forum column that Bryan Danielson had no legitimate claim to calling himself "the best wrestler in the world," as he so often does. When I questioned it, the response was that he has to work in the WWE and against such people as HHH, HBK, Cena, Undertaker, etc and see how he did against them before he can make that claim; using the analogy of the best baseball players playing for MLB and the best basketball players playing in the NBA . But, I, Xan, say wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean, sure, it works in theory, but there's also something called "The WWF Style," and should we really judge the talents of a wrestler by how well they adapt to that style? No. Sure, there are differences between college basketball and the NBA, which means that some will excel in one and fail at the other, but that still doesn't make them comparable. Bryan Danielson is not the best wrestler in the world simply because he has neither the promo ability nor charisma to be so, but still he makes it on this list because his skills in the ring very nearly put him at the top; much like Benoit before him. He is the most well-rounded in-ring performer in the world, with brutal strikes, a variety of submission holds, and great throws. It's not ludicrous for him to claim he's the best in the world. He's only slightly wrong. Here's the paragraph in which some of your fears are laid to rest. No, I'm not going to proclaim Triple H to be the best wrestler in the world. He's very, very good...excellent, even. If, of course, you're on the other end of the spectrum, you might be asking yourself: what in the world could prevent you from believing Triple H is the best wrestler in the world? There is really nothing that Triple H does wrong, per se. We all know how good he is on the microphone, whether he's a face or a heel, we all know he's got just as much charisma as anyone in the history of the business, a finisher that looks like it could legit kill someone, and could--as the saying goes--wrestle a broom handle to a 5-star match, and he even is reportedly part of the booking committee; talk about a well-rounded performer, huh? There's no doubt Triple H is the present and a large part of the future of the professional wrestling industry, but there's something missing. This is where we start to really split hairs, folks, because the best 4 wrestlers in the world really have no tangible weakness. When I watch Triple H's matches, he doesn't make me feel anything. He's very good in the ring, he's very good on the mic, but for some reason nothing he does gets me to really care what happens in the match. I don't root for him or against him; what I feel watching him is apathy. That's a very big deal, don't you think? I couldn't believe the way in which Chris Jericho left the WWF. It was disgraceful that he would be "fired" on national television after carrying the golden boy of the company to what--at the time--were Cena's two best matches. So, imagine my pleasure when word started to leak that the person that was being promoted in the "Save Us" videos was none other than our Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah, Y2J, Chris Jericho. When he first came out, it seemed like the same Y2J--same "Break the Walls Down," same flashy outfit, same back-to-the-audience crucifix pose, same flashy outfits, but there was something different. Even though what he spouted sounded like Jerichoisms, his hair was different and something about his demeanor was more intense, and that intensity has translated to what we see now, where he can do what I've only ever seen one other wrestler be able to do to generate heat: stand in the middle of the ring and glare at the audience. Eddie Guerrero used it to great effect during his heel turn in early 2005, and Jericho is now. Both, of course, did so after betraying a beloved fan favorite. Like Triple H, there isn't a single tangible tool Jericho is missing. I wish he had an impressive finisher--perhaps if he were allowed to use The Lion Tamer--but other than that, the only thing that's keeping Jericho from the top of the list is his history. The first time he was World Champ, it was the worst run in history until Rey Mysterio. I think he's ready this time, but let's see how he does as monster heel champ this time before we fit him for a crown. As far as I'm concerned, Austin Aries has the perfect wrestling name. In case you don't know, he derived it from the first name of his favorite wrestler and his astrological sign. But, his name is not the only perfect thing about him. Yes, he's a bit short by the standards of the WWF--just like Bryan Danielson is. So what? I said in the first part of this series that titles weren't going to factor into my determinations, and they're not, but it does say something that an organization that prides themselves on pure wrestling, like ROH, put their World Title on him 8 months to the day of his debut--and not only that, but he was the man who unseated Samoa Joe for it. Last week in ETA I posed a question that asked in its simplest form, "Is Bryan Danielson going to be the first two-time ROH Champion?" I think the answer is "no," because Aries is going to be. As good as Danielson is, and he is very, very good, Austin Aries is the best wrestler in ROH, because he's got it all. He can mat wrestle, he can sell, he can "catch-as-catch-can" wrestle as JR likes to call it, he's got incredible psychology, charisma, mic work, intensity, and he can sell like nobody's business. His brutal head kick, brainbuster, Last Chancery combo is amazing in its fluidity. I don't think either The American Dragon or Aries are the best wrestler in the world, but Austin has the better claim. There's only one thing stopping him from being the man, and since I think most of you will have figured out who I'm going to proclaim as the best wrestler in the world by process of elimiation, I feel free to say his one weakness is this truth: he's not Shawn Michaels. These are the columns that I believe to be the best posted in the LOP Columns Forum over the last 14 days. I suppose you could call them plugs, but these are the recent columns I see as shining examples of stellar work: Hardtime #113: Enter Stage Right by former Main Page columnist RIPBossman The Spider's Web: Omega Edition by CoLd Here Comes The Money #6: Bigger is Better? by Shane O'Mac History of the Monday Night War Part 7 by Sean Taylor You can send any comments by email to me at XanManX@hotmail.com with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line or you can click here to leave feedback if you're a member of The Lop Forums. The Northern Star will rise again, until then... Long days, pleasant nights
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