Our countdown of the best wrestlers of 2013 continues! See numbers 50 - 41 first!
40. Adam Cole
Adam Cole is the reigning Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion, it's a title he's held for over a year. He's also the reigning Ring of Honor World Champion (a title he won in a tournament back in September). That makes Cole the owner of the top titles of the top two indy promotions in North America. Did I mention that he's also only twenty-four years of age?
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| Rather him than Cena though, right? |
Babyface just isn't Randy Ortons "thing". Try as they may, WWE just can't make him a convincing good guy. And they certainly tried their best in 2013, having him feud with The Shield for the first few months of the year and be part of the babyface team (alongside Sheamus and Big Show) that took on The Shield in a losing effort at Wrestlemania.
There was a brief dalliance as a team with Daniel Bryan for a tag-title match at Payback, before Orton turned and the two had a mini-series of three matches which ended 2-1 in Bryans favour (with the sole Orton win being as a result of a legitimate injury to Daniel Bryan). In July he won the Money in the Bank contract for the WWE Championship which he successfully cashed in on Daniel Bryan (who had just got a clean pin over John Cena to win the title) at Summerslam.
A stare down with the World Heavyweight Champion, John Cena, at Survivor Series led to a title unification bout at the TLC pay-per-view in December. It was a Tables, Ladders and Chairs bout which Orton won to unify WWEs two main titles.
Orton is the first of two men in this years TWF50 to drop places due to also picking up votes for the Terrible25.
38. The Wyatt Family
A series of great vignettes really built up the anticipation for the arrival of this unit to WWE television after their title winning run in NXT. Despite Rowan and Harper being far from the finished articles, and the group themselves having little in the way of storylines until their recent recruiting of Daniel Bryan, the charisma of our Best Gimmick Award winner, Bray Wyatt, has managed to earn his group (cult?) a spot in this years TWF50.
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| Not even on the main roster and in the TWF50. |
At only twenty-one years old Paige is already the most talented in-ring female wrestler WWE have on their books. She's the reigning NXT Womens Champion after winning the tournament to crown the first champion back in June (aired on TV in July), and has spent the entire year lighting up not only that division, but the entire NXT show. Expect her to make a high profile debut on the WWE roster proper during 2014.
36. Christopher Daniels
Despite earning a TNA World Title match back in January and taking part in the Bound For Glory Series, Daniels has spent far more of 2013 in tag-team shenanigans as one half of Bad Influence than as a singles wrestler. More on Bad Influence later, but it's a testament to how much Daniels stands out from the crowd even as part of a tag-team that he made the cut for the TWF50 during 2013.
35. The Young Bucks
Once known as Generation Me in TNA, Nick and Matt Jackson have become THE indy tag-team. Currently holding titles in multiple promotions including Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and New Japan Pro Wrestling, the Jackson have spent 2013 bouncing around between (and headlining) shows from the likes of ROH, DragonGate, PWG and New Japan as well as countless indy feds. The highlights of their year were undoubtedly winning New Japans Best of the Super Juniors Tag Tournament and then going on to be crowned the IWGP Jnr Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
34. Kurt Angle
Kurt Angles stock is finally dropping among the TWF faithful. This year marks his lowest placed appearance in the TWF50 despite a TNA Hall of Fame induction. He spent a large part of 2013 feuding with the Aces and Eights, including unmasking D'Lo Brown as their Vice-President, and spent a little over a month in re-hab after admitting to drug and alchol problems. The remainder of 2013 was spent feuding with Bobby Roode. Kurt is finally begining to show his age, this may be his final appearance in the TWF50.
33. Jay Briscoe
2013 marked the highlight of Jays career so far. After winning the ROH World Tag-Team titles on no less than eight times, Jay finally burst into the singles division by claiming the ROH World Title, defeating Kevin Steen on April 5th at SuperCard of Honor VII. After a couple of title defenses a legitimate contract issue and injury saw ROH strip Briscoe of the World title. It was a disappointing end to an interesting period in ROH, many people were curious as to whether Jay could carry the company. Upon his return to Ring of Honor he proclaimed himself the true World Champion because he'd never been beaten. At Final Battle 2013 he lost a three-way match for the ROH title he never lost against Adam Cole and Michael Elgin.
32. Jay Lethal
2013 was not a spectacular year for Jay Lethal. He failed to win the ROH title against Kevin Steen back in March, lost a number one contenders match to Michael Elgin in April and lost in the second round of the World Title Tournament to the eventual winner; Adam Cole. That said, his stock has risen slightly among the indy feds with 2013 seeing him make his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and also won the UKs SpeedKing event.
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| Minoru Suzuki: Bad Ass. |
Minoru Suzuki doesn't only have one of the best entrance themes in wrestling, but is now at the stage of his career where he can easily fit into the challenger role for any title and be instantly accepted as a threat. 2013 wasn't his best year, in fact his feud with Toru Yano is considered by many to be the low point of his career - though it should be pointed out that that opinion is born of Yanos lowly status rather than anything related to Suzuki.
The highlight of his 2013 was probably his win over New Japans wrestler of the year, Kazuchika Okada, back in February. Since then though Okada has gone on to become the brightest star in puroresu and when the two squared off again, this time with Okadas IWGP Heavyweight title on the line at Wrestling Donataku in May, he lost.
In November he took on Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental title and also lost.
Interestingly, this is Minoru Suzukis debut in the TWF50 - New Japan may have started making in-roads into the West as Suzuki is reaching the twilight of his career, but we still believe that there are only thirty wrestlers in the world that are more enjoyable to watch.
Continued Tommorow...
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