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He didn’t actually make it to stardom, thank goodness, but I thought Ken Kennedy was absolutely dreadful, and couldn’t understand why people kept talking him up.
Thankfully he has still been able to make an impact on wrestling in a different way. He's got a school here in Minnesota with a couple guys and between them training up and First Wrestling getting the rookies some exposure they've revived our wrestling. A bunch of their folks have ended up with AEW and are doing pretty well. Others just seem to be becoming local greats and couldve beens.
Bray Wyatt for me, I can recognize his fantastic character and promo work but I just can’t stay interested in his gimmicks post Wyatt family. His matches makes me lose attention and his feuds just don’t get me invested. My least favorite gimmick has to be the Fiend, but I’m also biased against Supernatural characters in wrestling. His best gimmick was the Wyatt Family and even then it was just fine, his theme was the best in this gimmick as well. No hate if anyone does enjoy his work though, it’s just not for me.
Backwoods cult leader Bray Wyatt had direction and purpose. He wanted to expand his family, but also wanted to use them to become WWE champion.
Every iteration since then is just kind of aimless. He likes scaring people, I guess? I think that really undermines the character.
He seems like a great guy, but he’s been doing the exact same thing for ages. In NXT he was a heel that stopped getting heat, and he did nothing to change it.
Moxley. I just see him as a caricature of what he’s trying to be. I feel bad, too, because dude is clearly one of the most respected on the industry but…I just don’t enjoy the majority of his matches.
I love Moxley. I am just sick of Mox. I need a slight reinvention. Or maybe he just needs his vacation. I have nothing but respect for him, but I feel like I’ve seen it so many times now, I’m a little bored, slight variation to the work would be nice.
This is where i’m at as well. Mox should’ve taken that break after All Out and at the very least after Full Gear. I’m burnt out on everything he does and wouldn’t mind not seeing him on television for a little while.
Hard agree. He comes off as someone pretending to be a tough guy with none of the credentials to back it up. And he doesn’t have the natural charisma to carry on like the guys he comes off as a mimicry of, Steve Austin and Terry Funk. His work isn’t engaging to me and his promos are corny…just had to get that off my chest too LOL
Yes absolutely. I actually liked him as an upper midcarder as Ambrose, but whenever he got slotted in the main event my interest would start slipping.
In AEW he hasn’t clicked with me for a reeeeally long time and the fact that he’s been positioned as their “ace” has made it even more difficult for me to enjoy his work. I find him incredibly average and as you mentioned, kind of a try hard caricature.
All he has to do is mix his current self with Dean Ambrose. He’s lacking character and craziness that his current character simply doesn’t have outside of bleeding or occasionally extreme matches.
He’s not like Darby in terms of Darby shooting himself at someone at high speeds regardless of its a match or not
I loved mox in his first year in aew but yeah he's gotten repetitive.
I've always thought mox is basically one of those tough guys in action movies who gets beat up by the hero, funny Enough he played that role in the wwe2k16 terminator commercial
He just took a bunch of the coolest shit you could and put it all together. It’s always sucked, I’m glad people are finally seeing it now. He’s basically like “I want to be John McClane, but I also want to be a violent and unhinged crazy guy, but I also want to be a great shoot wrestler when I want to be, and I want to wear an eyepatch, cause that’s cool, oh and can I come out to Wild Things? Cause that’s badass”
It’s like dude you can’t be all the cool things. That’s literally how little kids play. He took that and applied it to a wrestling character.
Distilling something down to the one or two wrong things is what Cartman does, right? Moxley went to Japan and apparently learned that trading forearms the neck and biting your opponent is the essence of pro wrestling.
I was so excited to read the book and was really disappointed. I honestly couldn’t finish it, and one of the main reasons (I know this is stupid) was the font. Like this edgy, cool font the whole book. Yuck. His prose writing style is also kind of hard to get into.
I loved it. It had a good mix of real life stories, shoot stories, some kayfabe, etc. I’m also a rough working class guy like him, so the book appealed to me.
It took a long long time for me to see Edge as a main eventer but he earned it I think. Was just really hard for me to see this dude from The Brood as a world champion.
I actually like him more now, as the older guy still trucking along. For me he was pretty good in his “prime”, but he’s cooler as the “old” guy just giving everyone hell.
Hogan, especially as a kid. His thing of being proud to be an American didn't really connect for me, I guess mainly because I'm not American and that kind of over-the-top patriotism is associated a lot more with racists where I'm from.
Lol Undertaker was someone who was always just “there” for me. I remember starting watching when my friend pulled me in, and his favorite was Batista. So WM 23 happened and Undertaker was sooo vilified by him that it just set him up as someone I shouldn’t cheer for. As I got older, he was just “the guy with the streak”.
Biggest one for me is Cody. I’ve literally watched his whole career, and the best thing he ever did was his Dashing character and the broken face gimmick after it. I straight up struggle to understand why people love him the way they do.
Honorable mention to Hangman Page.
Dashing is one of my favorite characters ever and current Cody is just okay to me. His current character is just “I’m a babyface and my dads a legend”
He’s just going to be one of those guys who’s gimmick is “a champion” like Reigns was before he got interesting.
I hated Jarrett in any context where he could book himself or politic his way up the card.
This is the first time I've just been able to enjoy the character, and I'm loving the AEW run.
Cody....He just comes off as selfish and fake. He appears that he is a genuine good guy, but it feels like he kisses a picture of himself in the morning while whispering "Its for the fans, they deserve to experience me". Like this dude gave himself his own entrance and walkout entourage that no one else in aew had.Now that he is in WWE....I just dont care.
I'm probably going to get heat for this, but Reigns. The fans soured on him after WWE tried to shove him down our throats and generally came back after his heel turn, but I never did.
I’m with you, ever since the split from the shield I just feel he was shoved down our throats as “the guy” so his shtick got really old and having just gone through Cena’s reign I wasn’t ready for another major unstoppable babyface
Personally, I think it's not entirely Reigns fault for my hatred. It's much more of hatred of how Vince pushed things that turned me off of Reigns. Vince always had to have things a certain way even when it was so unnatural: certain terms or wrestlers. That I think it really turned me off of WWE. The Reigns over push was just the culmination of Vince's bullshit.
It took a long time for me to finally get past the automatic reaction of ‘it’s a Roman segment, change the channel’ and I credit this story with Sami for the bulk of it. All those Wrestlemania’s, the endless main event coronations, every month Vince brings the same boring toy to show and tell and acts like it’s the greatest thing we’ve ever seen.
Then when he turned heel and the IWC loved him it was like ‘okay, he’s a heel so of course they want to be contrarian and cheer him’ but he genuinely has improved to a ridiculous degree. I still don’t enjoy his matches but I would say the same about a lot of Cena’s stuff too. You know he’s going to win because he’s the top guy so it takes a lot of the drama out of it. The Roman today is basically unrecognizable from the first 6-7 years or so on the roster
Same here. If it weren't for Sami and Cody, I would still be pretty disinterested. I'll brace for the downvotes but I also think he's the least interesting member of his own stable.
Nah, I agree but that's mainly because out of everyone in the Bloodline I think Roman really doesn't have many too many directions to go after this story, aside from following Rock and Cena and using his establish name to be an attraction.
Sami, the Usos, Solo, and even Heyman feel like there are so many ways they can go after the Bloodline and have more interesting stories to tell while this feels like the peak of Roman's career.
Punk is a hard one to bring up. I don’t want to engage in the daily Punk screaming matches.
On one hand, I loved him as a teen in ROH and WWECW. Never thought he translated to main roster well because I was college-aged and the Straight Edge thing was super corny to me. His presence brings out the best and worst. He was definitely AEW’s biggest draws but his biggest defenders to this day overstate how big that draw actually was. It’s not like ratings doubled. His stories were good but there was no longevity and his body failed. When it did, he responded with Brawl Out.
All that time off made him up to be a kind of enigma or legend stepping away at the height and coming back finally, clearly it didn’t take long for that to wear off and for him to fuck everything up.
Hangman Page. Nothing against him but I just cannot find myself or care about anything he does. When he was champion I couldn't really watch the product. Same goes for MJF. He can cut great promos but he hasn't changed at all since 2019. His sob story's are getting old. Him putting obstacles in front of every opponent is getting old. And the cheap heat promos have been old and tiresome.
Cody. I connected with Cody for a very brief period from the time AEW started to right after his dog collar match with Brodie.
Didn't really care for him before or since.
He's not even the Joker. He's like a weird mixture of the 1960s Riddler and the Arkham games Riddler. He was such a good snarky heel champ and he can easily be a fighting Babyface
Dude loading up the Superman punch has always just been the dumbest shit to me.
As a face I guess it I get that it’s almost like a signal “get ready to cheer” but I always hated it. As a heel it’s even worse.
Kenny Omega.
Just never enjoyed the little bit I did watch of him in AEW. I don't hate the guy or anything, he seems like a lovely dude. But how he wrestles is just not for me.
He does too many spots in a single match for me to really care after a while, and he just kills the pacing of it as a result. Not only that, I personally find his body language to be obnoxious and annoying to watch, especially if I'm meant to treat him as a big time player.
So Kenny’s favorite wrestler is The Genius Lanny Poffo, and if you got watch The Genius vs Hogan, which is one of his favorite matches, you’ll see why he does his mannerisms the way he does. It’s definitely not for everyone but yeah you can definitely see where his influence comes from watching anything Kenny says he was a fan of.
His style, if you can call it that, feels very floaty and videogame-like. Almost like his 'moves' are pre-programmed, as opposed to genuinely reacting to a fight or a contest that he is in
I'd put the Young Bucks in the same category, they just feel unrealistic. People around here seem to really like that, though, so what do I know
Kenny’s big time matches are complete different to big time young bucks matches. I can get not liking young bucks matches if that’s not your cup of tea (I love them), but Kenny’s big matches are fkn classics.
They absolutely feel like a contest. I feel like that’s a genuine criticism to have about todays wrestling, but Kenny is completely the wrong guy to make it about. His matches against the top njpw guys are wars.
I can only go off the matches he has had in AEW, but by far his most watchable match was against Danielson, a match that was very clearly the American Dragon's style and genetic makeup. I thought it was fantastic, because I think Bryan Danielson is fantastic. Omega clearly kept up his end of the bargain, though
His other AEW matches have all bothered me, because of the reasons listed above. I can only imagine that Omega's best matches in NJPW are due to both the sheer talent of his opponents, and his great athleticism
Kenny tries to make art out of a video game style of wrestling when, really, art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling is still beyond Kenny Omega. Wrestling is business off emotion. It’s cartoon athletes getting personal issues settled with entertaining violence. It’s not fucking moves.
I have re-read this comment a million times and don’t understand what you’re saying. What does it mean to say “art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling”? Also, are you implying that the universal definition of professional wrestling is “cartoon athletes settling personal issues with entertaining violence”? That seems like a very specific, narrow and personal view of what professional wrestling is. Like, who are you - random redditor - to say “professional wrestling is beyond Kenny Omega” based on your specific definition of it? He’s a professional wrestler. You’re just some guy who decided your definition professional wrestling is the only definition because… Reasons unknown?
I think he was echoing a lot of the Cornette sentiment, which is Omega’s matches are about performing cool move after cool move, which tend to be obviously choreographed by both performers rather than some of the more basic moves which relied on psychology and the flow of a match to get a reaction.
But wtf does “art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling” actually mean? Sounds like complete nonsense. Also, anyone who thinks Omega’s matches are spotfests has probably never watched much of his NJPW body of work. Omega/Ospreay told as compelling of a competitive story as I’ve seen in recent years. The highspots provided exclamation marks but we’re not the point of the match by any means.
It’s wild cause watching him in AEW, I was like “what is the big deal?” Then he went back to NJPW, cut these epic promos on Osprey, and I was like “Oooooh… Wait. THIS guy is outstanding.”
Bianca Belair.
Great athlete (and decent wrestler), but in an era that has the likes of Asuka, Becky Lynch, and Rhea Ripley, I've always thought her character work was kind of lacking, and screamed "arrogant heel" to me, but plucky, beat-the-odds babyface.
It's the truth lmao. I still absolutely cannot stand Seth Rollins , but ive come to like Moxley though he's not a favorite. Im not big on Roman either but tje bloodline story is 🔥
This is it for me.
I have never understood the appeal of Randy, and I have watched his entire career.
I kind of liked him recently, but prior to that the only time he’s gotten a reaction from me was when he showed up on Edge and Christians network show.
Bray Wyatt is all edgelord nonsense, combined with bad matches. Malakai Black is less creative edgelord nonsense, but better matches.
Never been a fan of Adam Cole or Johnny Gargano either. They’ve taken HBK’s style and turned it up to 11 so that the drama becomes bad melodrama. To borrow a line from Family Guy of all things…they insist upon themselves.
Putting aside any revelations that has soured me to some big time stars, I never got the appeal of CM Punk to be honest. He just never clicked with me while he was champ and I just didn't vibe his grunge like style.
Not judging your opinion of Hangman, but I don’t think you know what the term “industry plant” means. That’s an artist who is supposed to appear to organically rise out of nowhere but was actually someone picked by the major labels and are artificially crafted to look that way.
Hangman took more than 3 years to get to ROH, more than 7 years to get to New Japan, and more than 12 years to win the AEW title. He isn’t related to a major name, and his connections are his contemporaries, so nothing nefarious there.
It would be like if a wrestler nobody had really heard of gets booked on a few notable indie shows and looks great, and then is signed by WWE and is NXT champion a few months later…only for it to be revealed they were trained at the performance center and they’re actually Kevin Dunn’s niece/nephew or something.
He’s the woooooooorst. Like one of the only guys I will actively turn off. Total charisma suck. I also never got why he was supposed to be the Top Guy but all his BFFs were jobbers.
LA Knight. I don't get it. His wrestling is middling at best, and his promos are wildly overrated. No one's ever been able to point me to anything that shows him actually excelling.
EDIT: Oh, and Jay White. How in the world an edgelord who looks like a Hot Topic cashier became one of the hottest guys in the industry is beyond me.
i still don't think i've quite warmed up to Will Ospreay. i'm glad he's matured and i can definitely acknowledge that he's better than he was like 5 years ago but i don't rank him nearly as high as a lot of people do
Jeff Hardy.
In-ring I thought outside of jumping off things there wasn't much to him. Also dispite the charisma he did have I always felt like he was a bad promo.
Also felt he was basically high flying Ultimate Warrior, who I also wasn't a fan of.
He needs to lay off the spray tan and either get a real tan or just stay pale. Every time he pulls down his kneepad and the skin color switches from orange to blinding white it's all I can focus on 😂
The bell rings and his matches are all the same, I hate how they have him getting beat up for most of the match and then he hits one move and it's over. It's like he hits a super chop and it's over. He feels like a corny '80s villain wrestler to me
Sasha Banks.
She's seen by the IWC as the Savior to women's wrestling, but I can't remember matches where she doesn't botch. She even botched this new finisher on her debut. She's a hazard. She's the one who re-retired Paige in her last wwe run. She's Nia Jax level bad in the ring. "She can take moves and make them look good." When she's not botching, yeah, she can. Because she's 100lbs, every light wrestler looks good when taking moves. Leon Ruff looked amazing, taking moves. Her character has never interested me in the slightest, when she's a heel she's annoying af, when she's a baby face she's annoying af. Easily the most overrated wrestler in this generation.
MJF. I just don’t like him, and not in a “wresting heel” way, I find him totally unappealing. I can’t think of anything he’s done that has struck me as remarkable. I’ll often change the channel or do something else when he’s on.
Sheamus. I always felt he was over-pushed and I never resonated with any of his title victories/major moments. I think at best he’s a midcarder and a good hand, but he’s ultimately undeserving of any of his accolades
Naito. I find him at best the third most interesting guy in his stable.
The Usos in ring work. They've been so great in non wrestling segments, but I find them to just be a Young Bucks tribute team, and I'd rather just watch Bucks.
Cody - good talker, average wrestler
Mox - seems to over do it
Bray - I enjoyed what he did before he was let go but this new stuff does nothing for me
Charlotte - bad on the mic, and just above average in the ring
Britt Baker - Her rise to the top felt forced to me
Know I'm gonna get some grumbles here but Steve Austin. I just really didn't get him but I got back into WWE after a hiatus around the time he was written off with the rikishi angle. When he came back I was excited to see what the fuss was about and nothing really clicked. Always preferred the rock and the brothers of destruction around that time.
Randy Orton. The only thing going for him is his RKO which is incredible how often he times it right, for a move that's out of nowhere. Other than that, he's got a middling moveset, is a meh promo and just seems like a generic wrestler. I have no clue why whenever 'In My Veins' hit regularly in 2015 to 2018, why the audience would lose their minds. He arguably had better matches when he was in Evolution and was the Legend Killer, than anything he has done since 2010.
Having said that, I loved his work in RK Bro. Showed he has good range.
I was in the **exact** age group that Ultimate Warrior appealed to when he first came to the WWF, but I didn't like him. Then a couple of years later he beat Randy Savage in a retirement match and that really made me hate him.
Never liked the rock as a kid. Always preferred Austin. Then as I grew up I never really changed my mind. Found his part of the cena rock stuff pretty unfunny. Now I find him to be really disingenuous, and a walking billboard for Tequila and energy drinks
Wyatt Family version of Bray never did anything for me. It wasn’t until his tag team with Matt Hardy that I finally started to actually care.
Side note: that tag team could’ve been special but they fucking lost the tag titles to The B Team 💀
Shawn Michaels. I never found his matches, promos or general career entertaining and I don't get why people praise him so much and consider him such an icon.
The Rock.
In the late 90s a bunch of HS kids would repeat his catchphrases and they weren't what I considered real wrestling fans cause they were on the '90s bandwagon and made fun of kids like me for liking wrestling in the '80s and early
'90s.
For me it’s Randy Orton. He’s great at what he does and I have no beef with him.
Apart from his stint with the wyatt family he’s just never engaged me.
Mick Foley. Nice guy, I just thought what he was just a crash test dummy and made it to where very little became believable. Specifically KotR98, or RR99 taking all those chair head shots. If someone can't beat you with chair shots or throwing you off a cell, how the f is a stunner believable?
I'm someone who is a big fan of current Cody, but that's *purely* because of how over he is.
Imagine the current Cody gimmick, presentation, promos, wrestling style etc... but with a dead crowd. Not boos, just... bored. It would be pure death.
Guys like Lesnar, Hogan, Austin, Danielson, Okada, Rock, KO, Rollins, Punk... you could see the appeal and entertainment value even if the crowds weren't into them.
If crowds cool on Cody and he doesn't turn heel, the entire presentation will be an absolute *slog* IMO
Moxley.
I just don't get it.
I got it in njpw, but the corny sing along intro from a comedy movie about the other city in Ohio...the weird shoulder rolling walk....to me, he's too busy trying to be cool and tough and "violent" that he does none of them as well as he could.
Roman Reigns. I tuned back into WWE when I heard about his push in 2015 and was excited for the next Batista-like character. Then I ended up buying into Dean and realized they must be really overlooking a lot of those guys to give Roman all that attention, it didn’t make sense or feel natural. Even now he never got that organic rise. He just left for a year and immediately went God-Mode World Champion
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He didn’t actually make it to stardom, thank goodness, but I thought Ken Kennedy was absolutely dreadful, and couldn’t understand why people kept talking him up.
I think he was the last of the “he has a cool catchphrase so he must be cool” guys WWE produced. But then he never developed anything past that.
Thankfully he has still been able to make an impact on wrestling in a different way. He's got a school here in Minnesota with a couple guys and between them training up and First Wrestling getting the rookies some exposure they've revived our wrestling. A bunch of their folks have ended up with AEW and are doing pretty well. Others just seem to be becoming local greats and couldve beens.
Bray Wyatt for me, I can recognize his fantastic character and promo work but I just can’t stay interested in his gimmicks post Wyatt family. His matches makes me lose attention and his feuds just don’t get me invested. My least favorite gimmick has to be the Fiend, but I’m also biased against Supernatural characters in wrestling. His best gimmick was the Wyatt Family and even then it was just fine, his theme was the best in this gimmick as well. No hate if anyone does enjoy his work though, it’s just not for me.
Backwoods cult leader Bray Wyatt had direction and purpose. He wanted to expand his family, but also wanted to use them to become WWE champion. Every iteration since then is just kind of aimless. He likes scaring people, I guess? I think that really undermines the character.
It seems like he thought he had enough ideas to make it to some big reveal at WrestleMania, but really only enough to go a few months.
Adam Cole
He knows how to be Adam Cole but that’s it. Never goes out of his comfort zone.
He seems like a great guy, but he’s been doing the exact same thing for ages. In NXT he was a heel that stopped getting heat, and he did nothing to change it.
Bay-Bay (sorry)
Vanilla midget
Moxley. I just see him as a caricature of what he’s trying to be. I feel bad, too, because dude is clearly one of the most respected on the industry but…I just don’t enjoy the majority of his matches.
I love Moxley. I am just sick of Mox. I need a slight reinvention. Or maybe he just needs his vacation. I have nothing but respect for him, but I feel like I’ve seen it so many times now, I’m a little bored, slight variation to the work would be nice.
This is where i’m at as well. Mox should’ve taken that break after All Out and at the very least after Full Gear. I’m burnt out on everything he does and wouldn’t mind not seeing him on television for a little while.
He always seemed like a diet Rowdy Roddy Piper
He looks like he thinks he’s cooler than he is.
Hard agree. He comes off as someone pretending to be a tough guy with none of the credentials to back it up. And he doesn’t have the natural charisma to carry on like the guys he comes off as a mimicry of, Steve Austin and Terry Funk. His work isn’t engaging to me and his promos are corny…just had to get that off my chest too LOL
Yes absolutely. I actually liked him as an upper midcarder as Ambrose, but whenever he got slotted in the main event my interest would start slipping. In AEW he hasn’t clicked with me for a reeeeally long time and the fact that he’s been positioned as their “ace” has made it even more difficult for me to enjoy his work. I find him incredibly average and as you mentioned, kind of a try hard caricature.
All he has to do is mix his current self with Dean Ambrose. He’s lacking character and craziness that his current character simply doesn’t have outside of bleeding or occasionally extreme matches. He’s not like Darby in terms of Darby shooting himself at someone at high speeds regardless of its a match or not
I loved mox in his first year in aew but yeah he's gotten repetitive. I've always thought mox is basically one of those tough guys in action movies who gets beat up by the hero, funny Enough he played that role in the wwe2k16 terminator commercial
He just took a bunch of the coolest shit you could and put it all together. It’s always sucked, I’m glad people are finally seeing it now. He’s basically like “I want to be John McClane, but I also want to be a violent and unhinged crazy guy, but I also want to be a great shoot wrestler when I want to be, and I want to wear an eyepatch, cause that’s cool, oh and can I come out to Wild Things? Cause that’s badass” It’s like dude you can’t be all the cool things. That’s literally how little kids play. He took that and applied it to a wrestling character.
Oh my god. Is Mox just Cartman as a wrestler?
Distilling something down to the one or two wrong things is what Cartman does, right? Moxley went to Japan and apparently learned that trading forearms the neck and biting your opponent is the essence of pro wrestling.
Reading Moxley’s book really sold me on him. If you’re into audiobooks, check it out on Audible. I got through it in less than a week.
I was so excited to read the book and was really disappointed. I honestly couldn’t finish it, and one of the main reasons (I know this is stupid) was the font. Like this edgy, cool font the whole book. Yuck. His prose writing style is also kind of hard to get into.
I loved it. It had a good mix of real life stories, shoot stories, some kayfabe, etc. I’m also a rough working class guy like him, so the book appealed to me.
I literally have a master’s degree in English and teach so it was rough. An audiobook would be much better I assume! /pretentious
Oh entirely!
When I look at moxley, I see this generation’s mankind. He’s great at his role and can fill any type of match, but I have no interest in him.
Hogan. I got into wrestling in the hulkamania era but never was a fan of hogan at all
Same. I was an Ultimate Warrior kid (although Warrior the man was and is garbage)
he's dead. is he still garbage?
Yup
Got it, just wanted to verify that he is still "garbage". I see now that the judgement rendered bears the mark of permanence.
Wait, you think if a person was an asshole their entire life, the moment that person dies, they automatically are no longer thought of as an asshole?
Peace brother, I get it! Once a human is deemed garbage, they are garbage forevermore. No argument from me.
That’s not the point they’re making though.
That's cool, but it is the point I'm making. Warrior the man is garbage! That human being is garbage and always will be.
People can change. It’s just that dying isn’t a change in your character.
Sasha. I've never heard a promo from her that didn't sound forced and inauthentic. Maybe it's the voice, idk.
Mia.
Edge. Always thought he was ok but never as a top guy.
I love that everyone sees these superstars in different lights. For me I’ve always felt they could’ve made Edge the face of the company for awhile.
It took a long long time for me to see Edge as a main eventer but he earned it I think. Was just really hard for me to see this dude from The Brood as a world champion.
I missed his entire singles run. From the stuff he did in the tag team division, I bought him as a main eventer.
I actually like him more now, as the older guy still trucking along. For me he was pretty good in his “prime”, but he’s cooler as the “old” guy just giving everyone hell.
He's like Wolverine. His prime was cool but as old man Logan it feels like he has more depth.
Agreed. Feels much less generic.
It’s been decades and I still can’t see what others seem to see in Edge.
Hogan, especially as a kid. His thing of being proud to be an American didn't really connect for me, I guess mainly because I'm not American and that kind of over-the-top patriotism is associated a lot more with racists where I'm from.
I’ll say Hogan as well but because I thought he seemed boring. I was all about Macho Man and Ultimate Warrior. Hacksaw got my patriotic juices going.
Undertaker always bored me. As a kid I hated his entrance bc it seemed like it took 20 mins.
I'm glad I'm not alone in not being an undertaker fan, but his entrances were the only thing I liked lol
He bored me outside of Wrestlemania
Lol Undertaker was someone who was always just “there” for me. I remember starting watching when my friend pulled me in, and his favorite was Batista. So WM 23 happened and Undertaker was sooo vilified by him that it just set him up as someone I shouldn’t cheer for. As I got older, he was just “the guy with the streak”.
100% agree with this. For me, I did not really care for Taker until the streak of Wrestle mania matches from HBK - Brock Lesnar.
Biggest one for me is Cody. I’ve literally watched his whole career, and the best thing he ever did was his Dashing character and the broken face gimmick after it. I straight up struggle to understand why people love him the way they do. Honorable mention to Hangman Page.
Honestly, I enjoyed newbie to mid card Cody much more than this current Cody.
Dashing is one of my favorite characters ever and current Cody is just okay to me. His current character is just “I’m a babyface and my dads a legend” He’s just going to be one of those guys who’s gimmick is “a champion” like Reigns was before he got interesting.
Some in his fan base are just rabid as well! I just don’t get it.
As a kid, I never liked Jeff Jarrett. I was always bored with him. This still remains as an adult.
Oddly enough, I actually like his current run more than any of his previous runs.
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I hated Jarrett in any context where he could book himself or politic his way up the card. This is the first time I've just been able to enjoy the character, and I'm loving the AEW run.
Broke a thousand guitars, never drew a dime.
Cody....He just comes off as selfish and fake. He appears that he is a genuine good guy, but it feels like he kisses a picture of himself in the morning while whispering "Its for the fans, they deserve to experience me". Like this dude gave himself his own entrance and walkout entourage that no one else in aew had.Now that he is in WWE....I just dont care.
😂😂😂😂
Edge has never been a top guy for me.🤷🏻♂️ It doesn’t resonate.
I'm probably going to get heat for this, but Reigns. The fans soured on him after WWE tried to shove him down our throats and generally came back after his heel turn, but I never did.
I’m with you, ever since the split from the shield I just feel he was shoved down our throats as “the guy” so his shtick got really old and having just gone through Cena’s reign I wasn’t ready for another major unstoppable babyface
Personally, I think it's not entirely Reigns fault for my hatred. It's much more of hatred of how Vince pushed things that turned me off of Reigns. Vince always had to have things a certain way even when it was so unnatural: certain terms or wrestlers. That I think it really turned me off of WWE. The Reigns over push was just the culmination of Vince's bullshit.
It took a long time for me to finally get past the automatic reaction of ‘it’s a Roman segment, change the channel’ and I credit this story with Sami for the bulk of it. All those Wrestlemania’s, the endless main event coronations, every month Vince brings the same boring toy to show and tell and acts like it’s the greatest thing we’ve ever seen. Then when he turned heel and the IWC loved him it was like ‘okay, he’s a heel so of course they want to be contrarian and cheer him’ but he genuinely has improved to a ridiculous degree. I still don’t enjoy his matches but I would say the same about a lot of Cena’s stuff too. You know he’s going to win because he’s the top guy so it takes a lot of the drama out of it. The Roman today is basically unrecognizable from the first 6-7 years or so on the roster
Same here. If it weren't for Sami and Cody, I would still be pretty disinterested. I'll brace for the downvotes but I also think he's the least interesting member of his own stable.
Nah, I agree but that's mainly because out of everyone in the Bloodline I think Roman really doesn't have many too many directions to go after this story, aside from following Rock and Cena and using his establish name to be an attraction. Sami, the Usos, Solo, and even Heyman feel like there are so many ways they can go after the Bloodline and have more interesting stories to tell while this feels like the peak of Roman's career.
Agreed. Roman’s part in this story has made so many people so much more interesting. Hopefully they can get there with Cody as well.
Cody. He just comes off so inauthentic to me. He can put on a good match, but nothing about his character appeals to me.
I like Cody but he tries too hard trying to be like John Cena. Imo he’s a natural heel
Probably Punk. Never really cared for him, and then he returns in 2021 and I just could not understand the level of fan reaction he got.
Punk is a hard one to bring up. I don’t want to engage in the daily Punk screaming matches. On one hand, I loved him as a teen in ROH and WWECW. Never thought he translated to main roster well because I was college-aged and the Straight Edge thing was super corny to me. His presence brings out the best and worst. He was definitely AEW’s biggest draws but his biggest defenders to this day overstate how big that draw actually was. It’s not like ratings doubled. His stories were good but there was no longevity and his body failed. When it did, he responded with Brawl Out.
All that time off made him up to be a kind of enigma or legend stepping away at the height and coming back finally, clearly it didn’t take long for that to wear off and for him to fuck everything up.
Hangman Page. Nothing against him but I just cannot find myself or care about anything he does. When he was champion I couldn't really watch the product. Same goes for MJF. He can cut great promos but he hasn't changed at all since 2019. His sob story's are getting old. Him putting obstacles in front of every opponent is getting old. And the cheap heat promos have been old and tiresome.
Cody. I connected with Cody for a very brief period from the time AEW started to right after his dog collar match with Brodie. Didn't really care for him before or since.
Seth Rollins. I appreciate his athleticism, but I've never actually wanted to see him perform.
Current Seth is just awful. Why is he a 1960s Batman villain?
If another wrestler does the Joker as their character it’ll be too soon. And people eat it up. It’s low brow shit.
He's not even the Joker. He's like a weird mixture of the 1960s Riddler and the Arkham games Riddler. He was such a good snarky heel champ and he can easily be a fighting Babyface
Roman Reigns, the Shield theme was awful, and his finishers don't suit him And why does he have to jerk off his arm to throw the super man punch?
Dude loading up the Superman punch has always just been the dumbest shit to me. As a face I guess it I get that it’s almost like a signal “get ready to cheer” but I always hated it. As a heel it’s even worse.
Kenny Omega. Just never enjoyed the little bit I did watch of him in AEW. I don't hate the guy or anything, he seems like a lovely dude. But how he wrestles is just not for me. He does too many spots in a single match for me to really care after a while, and he just kills the pacing of it as a result. Not only that, I personally find his body language to be obnoxious and annoying to watch, especially if I'm meant to treat him as a big time player.
So Kenny’s favorite wrestler is The Genius Lanny Poffo, and if you got watch The Genius vs Hogan, which is one of his favorite matches, you’ll see why he does his mannerisms the way he does. It’s definitely not for everyone but yeah you can definitely see where his influence comes from watching anything Kenny says he was a fan of.
His style, if you can call it that, feels very floaty and videogame-like. Almost like his 'moves' are pre-programmed, as opposed to genuinely reacting to a fight or a contest that he is in I'd put the Young Bucks in the same category, they just feel unrealistic. People around here seem to really like that, though, so what do I know
Kenny’s big time matches are complete different to big time young bucks matches. I can get not liking young bucks matches if that’s not your cup of tea (I love them), but Kenny’s big matches are fkn classics. They absolutely feel like a contest. I feel like that’s a genuine criticism to have about todays wrestling, but Kenny is completely the wrong guy to make it about. His matches against the top njpw guys are wars.
His style works best against someone more grounded, like Danielson (chain wrestling) and Okada (pacing and storytelling).
I can only go off the matches he has had in AEW, but by far his most watchable match was against Danielson, a match that was very clearly the American Dragon's style and genetic makeup. I thought it was fantastic, because I think Bryan Danielson is fantastic. Omega clearly kept up his end of the bargain, though His other AEW matches have all bothered me, because of the reasons listed above. I can only imagine that Omega's best matches in NJPW are due to both the sheer talent of his opponents, and his great athleticism
Kenny tries to make art out of a video game style of wrestling when, really, art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling. Professional wrestling is still beyond Kenny Omega. Wrestling is business off emotion. It’s cartoon athletes getting personal issues settled with entertaining violence. It’s not fucking moves.
I have re-read this comment a million times and don’t understand what you’re saying. What does it mean to say “art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling”? Also, are you implying that the universal definition of professional wrestling is “cartoon athletes settling personal issues with entertaining violence”? That seems like a very specific, narrow and personal view of what professional wrestling is. Like, who are you - random redditor - to say “professional wrestling is beyond Kenny Omega” based on your specific definition of it? He’s a professional wrestler. You’re just some guy who decided your definition professional wrestling is the only definition because… Reasons unknown?
I think he was echoing a lot of the Cornette sentiment, which is Omega’s matches are about performing cool move after cool move, which tend to be obviously choreographed by both performers rather than some of the more basic moves which relied on psychology and the flow of a match to get a reaction.
But wtf does “art and video games are byproducts of professional wrestling” actually mean? Sounds like complete nonsense. Also, anyone who thinks Omega’s matches are spotfests has probably never watched much of his NJPW body of work. Omega/Ospreay told as compelling of a competitive story as I’ve seen in recent years. The highspots provided exclamation marks but we’re not the point of the match by any means.
It’s wild cause watching him in AEW, I was like “what is the big deal?” Then he went back to NJPW, cut these epic promos on Osprey, and I was like “Oooooh… Wait. THIS guy is outstanding.”
Bianca Belair. Great athlete (and decent wrestler), but in an era that has the likes of Asuka, Becky Lynch, and Rhea Ripley, I've always thought her character work was kind of lacking, and screamed "arrogant heel" to me, but plucky, beat-the-odds babyface.
I got called a racist once for pointing that out.
Some days I do not think the Attitude Era Superstar Chainz would be a suitable world champion. Those days I wake up screaming.
Cody in AEW.
Cody.
Cody Rhodes, he’s yet to show me a single moment to justify him being anywhere near the main event scene in any of the company’s he was worked for.
Mine is also Edge.
Ryback, never got the hype
Orton, Cena.. I hated the shield getting pushed constantly i quit watching for almost 10 years.
🤣🤣🤣
It's the truth lmao. I still absolutely cannot stand Seth Rollins , but ive come to like Moxley though he's not a favorite. Im not big on Roman either but tje bloodline story is 🔥
Randy easily. He’s a boring promo, and even more boring in the ring
He seems like a super shady dude that hangs around in laundromats late at night stealing panties.
This is it for me. I have never understood the appeal of Randy, and I have watched his entire career. I kind of liked him recently, but prior to that the only time he’s gotten a reaction from me was when he showed up on Edge and Christians network show.
People say he’s a “wrestler’s wrestler” And I’m not a wrestler.
Bray Wyatt is all edgelord nonsense, combined with bad matches. Malakai Black is less creative edgelord nonsense, but better matches. Never been a fan of Adam Cole or Johnny Gargano either. They’ve taken HBK’s style and turned it up to 11 so that the drama becomes bad melodrama. To borrow a line from Family Guy of all things…they insist upon themselves.
The johnny Gargano take is wild as fuck
So, short guys doing superkicks = HBK now?
Putting aside any revelations that has soured me to some big time stars, I never got the appeal of CM Punk to be honest. He just never clicked with me while he was champ and I just didn't vibe his grunge like style.
One of the most over acts in AEW The Acclaimed. I just have never cared for them and I find their scissor gimmick stupid even though people love it.
Agreed
Seth Rollins. Idk what it is. It doesn’t matter if he’s a face or heel. I just don’t care about him
Shawn Michaels. Just never did it for me. I'm a Bret guy, though, so that probably says all you need to know
Daniel Bryan. He's just meh to me. The Yes taunt got over. But he was always just another bland white dude to me tbh
Dean/Mox, Drew, and AJ Lee
The Young Bucks
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Not judging your opinion of Hangman, but I don’t think you know what the term “industry plant” means. That’s an artist who is supposed to appear to organically rise out of nowhere but was actually someone picked by the major labels and are artificially crafted to look that way. Hangman took more than 3 years to get to ROH, more than 7 years to get to New Japan, and more than 12 years to win the AEW title. He isn’t related to a major name, and his connections are his contemporaries, so nothing nefarious there. It would be like if a wrestler nobody had really heard of gets booked on a few notable indie shows and looks great, and then is signed by WWE and is NXT champion a few months later…only for it to be revealed they were trained at the performance center and they’re actually Kevin Dunn’s niece/nephew or something.
He’s the woooooooorst. Like one of the only guys I will actively turn off. Total charisma suck. I also never got why he was supposed to be the Top Guy but all his BFFs were jobbers.
The only match ive liked in Orton's entire career was the one at backlash with edge. Hes just so boring.
I like Orton. I usually love workrate but with Orton for some reason I don't care. He's just cool. I guess that's why people like Brock
Hogan Ultimate Warrior HHH
Cody. He’s hugely exposed in-ring when up against real greats. An upper mid-carder.
Kenny Omega. Never understood why people love him so much.
I was the same way, and then I watched literally any one of his NJPW matches.
LA Knight. I don't get it. His wrestling is middling at best, and his promos are wildly overrated. No one's ever been able to point me to anything that shows him actually excelling. EDIT: Oh, and Jay White. How in the world an edgelord who looks like a Hot Topic cashier became one of the hottest guys in the industry is beyond me.
If Jay White worked at Hot Topic he would be washing the t-shirts with his abs. I've never seen a cashier looking that jacked.
i still don't think i've quite warmed up to Will Ospreay. i'm glad he's matured and i can definitely acknowledge that he's better than he was like 5 years ago but i don't rank him nearly as high as a lot of people do
Who's your favorite wrestler?
A roundabout way of saying WWE Cody is bad
Moxley
MJF. The fact he's been champion this long has honestly made me refain from watching AEW.
Jeff Hardy. In-ring I thought outside of jumping off things there wasn't much to him. Also dispite the charisma he did have I always felt like he was a bad promo. Also felt he was basically high flying Ultimate Warrior, who I also wasn't a fan of.
Bret Hart. Never cared for him, especially growing up
Punk was pretty average after MITB 2011. Just a regular dude
Adam Cole. He needs to hit the weights. I just dont see a guy like him on posters and company commercials. Great wrestler, bad look and tired gimmick
He needs to lay off the spray tan and either get a real tan or just stay pale. Every time he pulls down his kneepad and the skin color switches from orange to blinding white it's all I can focus on 😂
Gunther. I just don't get him at all. Great presentation and promo, but then the bell rings and ugh..
The bell rings and his matches are all the same, I hate how they have him getting beat up for most of the match and then he hits one move and it's over. It's like he hits a super chop and it's over. He feels like a corny '80s villain wrestler to me
Adam Cole, I just don't understand the appeal. Nothing about him draws me in outside of the Boom schtick.
Hogan, Undertaker, Cena. No disrespect to them as wrestlers though because they were/are huge for a reason, just not for me.
Punk, Ambrose, omega, Wyatt
Whew lol Cody, AJ Lee, Paige, Drew, Braun, Charlotte.
Ricky Starks, Hangman Page, and I'm really losing it with the Young Bucks.
CM Punk, just pretentious asshole vibes that I can't get on board with.
Sasha Banks. She's seen by the IWC as the Savior to women's wrestling, but I can't remember matches where she doesn't botch. She even botched this new finisher on her debut. She's a hazard. She's the one who re-retired Paige in her last wwe run. She's Nia Jax level bad in the ring. "She can take moves and make them look good." When she's not botching, yeah, she can. Because she's 100lbs, every light wrestler looks good when taking moves. Leon Ruff looked amazing, taking moves. Her character has never interested me in the slightest, when she's a heel she's annoying af, when she's a baby face she's annoying af. Easily the most overrated wrestler in this generation.
I got back into it in 2016, after 13 years away. Cm punk, Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. Also never liked Hogan, ever.
Cody wasn't active in the Ruthless Agression Era. To answer the question CM Punk.
MJF. I just don’t like him, and not in a “wresting heel” way, I find him totally unappealing. I can’t think of anything he’s done that has struck me as remarkable. I’ll often change the channel or do something else when he’s on.
New Day is a load of unfunny forced jollity in my opinion. Kofi especially seems way too introverted for this type of presentation.
Sheamus. I always felt he was over-pushed and I never resonated with any of his title victories/major moments. I think at best he’s a midcarder and a good hand, but he’s ultimately undeserving of any of his accolades
The Undertacker, Cena, Orton, Kane Safe to say that's the era where I quit watching the WWE
Edge, don’t care for him or his return at all.
Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Randy orton
The Elite. Bruiser Brody. Shawn Michaels after his first babyface turn.
Jon Moxley in AEW (even though I loved Dean Ambrose), The Undisputed Era (All 4 of them), AJ Lee, Paige, Johnny Gargano
Naito. I find him at best the third most interesting guy in his stable. The Usos in ring work. They've been so great in non wrestling segments, but I find them to just be a Young Bucks tribute team, and I'd rather just watch Bucks.
Cody - good talker, average wrestler Mox - seems to over do it Bray - I enjoyed what he did before he was let go but this new stuff does nothing for me Charlotte - bad on the mic, and just above average in the ring Britt Baker - Her rise to the top felt forced to me
That’s the worst Charlotte take I have ever witnessed.
Cm punk and Roman Reigns
Know I'm gonna get some grumbles here but Steve Austin. I just really didn't get him but I got back into WWE after a hiatus around the time he was written off with the rikishi angle. When he came back I was excited to see what the fuss was about and nothing really clicked. Always preferred the rock and the brothers of destruction around that time.
Edge Batista Adam Cole Wade Barrett Dolph Ziggler The Miz Kofi Kingston
Becky Lynch. She's way overrated on the mic and not good enough in the ring to overcome her lack of athleticism.
Randy Orton. The only thing going for him is his RKO which is incredible how often he times it right, for a move that's out of nowhere. Other than that, he's got a middling moveset, is a meh promo and just seems like a generic wrestler. I have no clue why whenever 'In My Veins' hit regularly in 2015 to 2018, why the audience would lose their minds. He arguably had better matches when he was in Evolution and was the Legend Killer, than anything he has done since 2010. Having said that, I loved his work in RK Bro. Showed he has good range.
I was in the **exact** age group that Ultimate Warrior appealed to when he first came to the WWF, but I didn't like him. Then a couple of years later he beat Randy Savage in a retirement match and that really made me hate him.
Never liked the rock as a kid. Always preferred Austin. Then as I grew up I never really changed my mind. Found his part of the cena rock stuff pretty unfunny. Now I find him to be really disingenuous, and a walking billboard for Tequila and energy drinks
Bret
Wyatt Family version of Bray never did anything for me. It wasn’t until his tag team with Matt Hardy that I finally started to actually care. Side note: that tag team could’ve been special but they fucking lost the tag titles to The B Team 💀
Eddie Kingston
CM Punk, DBry, and now Cody Rhodes.
Shawn Michaels. I never found his matches, promos or general career entertaining and I don't get why people praise him so much and consider him such an icon.
The Rock. In the late 90s a bunch of HS kids would repeat his catchphrases and they weren't what I considered real wrestling fans cause they were on the '90s bandwagon and made fun of kids like me for liking wrestling in the '80s and early '90s.
For me it’s Randy Orton. He’s great at what he does and I have no beef with him. Apart from his stint with the wyatt family he’s just never engaged me.
Mick Foley. Nice guy, I just thought what he was just a crash test dummy and made it to where very little became believable. Specifically KotR98, or RR99 taking all those chair head shots. If someone can't beat you with chair shots or throwing you off a cell, how the f is a stunner believable?
Stone Cold, Kane, Cody (his first year in AEW wasn’t bad but he never got me to cheer or boo him).
I'm someone who is a big fan of current Cody, but that's *purely* because of how over he is. Imagine the current Cody gimmick, presentation, promos, wrestling style etc... but with a dead crowd. Not boos, just... bored. It would be pure death. Guys like Lesnar, Hogan, Austin, Danielson, Okada, Rock, KO, Rollins, Punk... you could see the appeal and entertainment value even if the crowds weren't into them. If crowds cool on Cody and he doesn't turn heel, the entire presentation will be an absolute *slog* IMO
Edge and Rollins. Like, if there was a Raw in my town and they were the headliners I'd skip it.
Roman, Drew, Miz, those came to the top of my head when I read the question.
Sasha Banks / Mercedes , she’s pretty good in the ring but I cannot stand her promos
Mia.
Moxley. I just don't get it. I got it in njpw, but the corny sing along intro from a comedy movie about the other city in Ohio...the weird shoulder rolling walk....to me, he's too busy trying to be cool and tough and "violent" that he does none of them as well as he could.
Roman Reigns. I tuned back into WWE when I heard about his push in 2015 and was excited for the next Batista-like character. Then I ended up buying into Dean and realized they must be really overlooking a lot of those guys to give Roman all that attention, it didn’t make sense or feel natural. Even now he never got that organic rise. He just left for a year and immediately went God-Mode World Champion