From a Celtic Colossus to Zero Fear: the Top 100 Wrestlers of 2018 #15-11

Eighty-five wrestlers have come and gone on our countdown. Today we cut that list even more, as we close out the last five names before our Top 10!

Image credit: WWE.com.

15. Drew McIntyre

Ever since he made his return to the main roster after Wrestlemania, Drew McIntyre clearly seemed set for bigger things in WWE. His run in NXT felt odd, a short babyface title run in the main event ended by injury. But as Dolph Ziggler's ally and partner, he started to show a lot of the fire fans saw from him on the indies and in Impact. As poor a storytelling tool as it was for Braun, his alignment with McIntyre and Ziggler also increased the tag team's profile.

And while McIntyre ranks fifteenth this year, he could very well have a better 2019, as it seems clear he's being groomed to be one of the top heels for the company in the new year.

Image credit: WWE.com.

14. Daniel Bryan

Bryan's position at number fourteen on this list is an example of how much WWE can botch their storytelling. His return at Wrestlemania to team with Shane against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn should have lit a huge run for him. Instead he was mired in a feud with Big Cass in the aftermath, the purpose of which no one seems to understand. Though Cass took him out multiple times on television, their pay-per-view clashes were complete destruction for the big man. The last battle came with the news just hours later of Cass's release. Team Hell No made the Extreme Rules poster but their match started with an awful backstage angle and basically involved Bryan being beaten down by both men and slinking off from the tag division after the match.

Everyone thought the feud with The Miz would reignite the fire. Instead it felt like an average Kurt Angle feud in Impact with dirty trick shenanigans ending the matches instead of clever storytelling. His Crown Jewel match was moved to television after he refused to fly to Saudi Arabia and he lost the title to AJ Styles. Bryan's return was an absolute mess, leaving him as a lackluster upper midcarder.

But what a change a heel turn out of nowhere can make. Say what you will about WWE, but Smackdown offered a few brilliant storytelling points in the second half of the year and Bryan's heel turn to win the title was everything Shinsuke Nakamura's was not. Though he lost to Lesnar at Survivor Series, his heel role made that far more acceptable and he can enter 2019 on far more secure footing as Smackdown's top villain.

Cody and wife Brandi Rhodes, before his US title match at Wrestle Kingdom.
Image credit: @CodyRhodes on Twitter.

13. Cody

I'm personally a bit surprised at how high Cody made it on this list, until I remember that we might have a few old school NWA fans in this voting pool. He did have several significant matches over the year, but far less than he did in the previous year. Yet he made those matches count, with an ROH win over Kenny Omega, his US title victory over Juice Robinson and of course, his winning of the NWA title at ALL IN.

Of course if out of the ring achievements were part of this list, his production of ALL IN alongside the Bucks should have put him in a three way tie for first place. ALL IN proved a ton of naysayers wrong and helped increase the three men's cred enough to form an entire promotion around it in 2019.

That being said, Cody has promised he will miss a significant part of the early year with a desperately needed knee surgery, which puts a lot of his 2019 into question. But he's still in his early thirties, so his recovery should offer him a lot of years to keep doing what he does best and AEW could vary well reduce his schedule to a level that can maintain his health for years to come.

Image credit: WWE.com.

12. Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe is the teflon man of WWE. Because it doesn't seem to matter how many losses he's given, he still comes out with high marks and in a good position. Of course, a lot of that can be put to his brutality in the ring. Joe makes everything look real and painful. At 39 and 280 pounds, he still moves like a Cruiserweight a decade younger. The man can go.

And he certainly wrestled his share of great matches in 2018. In the matter of a few short weeks, he faced Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and AJ Styles. His feud with Styles would get highly personal as he would cut some of his best heel promos ever. After that feud though, his year seemed to fizzle as he left the Survivor Series match in short order and has since been mired in a go-nowhere feud with Jeff Hardy.

Joe may never make it to the World or Universal title, but it's clear he's placed to be a major player whenever WWE wants him to be. Honestly, that's a pretty great place to be right there.

Photo credit: Impact Wrestling on Twitter.

11. Penta El Zero M

Call him Penta El Ciero Miedo, Pentagon Jr, Pentagon Dark or just Pentagon, he's now a dominant force in professional wrestling. He entered the year as just a Lucha Underground star and an indie mainstay for places like AAW and PWG. But Alberto El Patron's own idiocy over Mania weekend cost him a job at Impact and opened a door for his scheduled opponents at the Impact / Lucha Underground crossover show he missed. Fenix and Pentagon both immediately made their presence known and in his second ever Impact match, Pentagon beat Austin Aries for the World title. He would drop it back to Aries soon enough, but he cemented a spot on the Impact main roster that has listed since. He's since feuded with Sami Callihan and OVE and the LAX.

After leaving AAA in somewhat controversial fashion in 2016, he returned to that company as well, with his Mexican bookings featuring him in The Crash, AAA and CMLL, basically every major company in the country.

And yet still his most significant appearance might be as one of the hired talents at ALL IN, where he faced off with Kenny Omega in a certified dream match. Though he failed to pick up the W, even more people now knew about Cero Miedo.

Pentagon and his brother Fenix have been rumored targets of WWE for months. But with AEW in the mix, it looks like Penta may have two major promotions looking to sign him very soon.

In the end: thoughts on ALL IN two weeks removed

I talked about the importance of ALL IN a week ahead of the event. Now almost two weeks removed, I finally can talk about ALL IN as an event.

The show started out with an interesting opening bout. MJF and Matt Cross came in without a match and they answered the reason by facing each other one on one. This was smartly done after the Over Budget Battle Royal on the pre-show. The two men played a rather simple story: the cocky heel working the arm against the high flying veteran. But the simple battle allowed them to keep the crowd hot as they built up to a fine shooting star press finish.

The first Bullet Club appearance came from the celebrity wing as Stephen Amell emerged to face Christopher Daniels. Unlike other matches, the announcers over-looked the whole "framed for murder" angle from Being the Elite. Yet the two men spent the match showcasing how naturally gifted Amell is an athlete. His wrestling was far from perfect, but with Jerry Lynn as ref and the ring veteran as his opponent. Ultimately Amell's anger would prove his undoing as he brought a table into the match only to go through it. A Best Moonsault Ever served as the final nail through the coffin to give him his first wrestling loss.

Don Callis left ringside to allow injured Women of Honor Tenille Dashwood and Mandy Leon to join commentary with Ian Riccaboni and Excalibur. This was my first time seeing Dr. Britt Baker in action. Chelsea Green came in working a combination of her indie and her Impact personalities with a great Two-Face look. The veteran Madison Rayne and the arguable queen bee of indie wrestling Tessa Blanchard rounded out the four corner match. Tessa comes off a title victory on Impact just days before, so the young powerhouse already came in with momentum. Yet much of the match served as more of a spotlight for Baker and Green. Those two women seemed the primary focus, with only Rayne getting the short end of the stick in storytelling. Ultimately Tessa powered through for the win and showed why she deserves every ounce of attention on her right now. WWE made a huge mistake not signing her when they could, as I suspect she's going to make huge waves through wrestling into 2019.

Brent Tarring was the only commentator I wasn't familiar with coming into this match. Turns out he worked on OVW, in fact calling Cody's very first match. His arrival served to intensify the big fight feel as we moved into the NWA Worlds Heavyweight title match against Nick Aldis. Both men came with an entourage, Cody with his wife Brandi Rhodes, DDP, Tommy Dreamer and Ray "Glacier" Lloyd. (I won't pretend how happy that last name makes me.) Aldis came in with Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Daivari and two men that have become key to NWA: Tim Storm and Samuel Shaw.

Suddenly the pitch of the arena picked up as a fight months in the making was happening. The announce team and the crowd didn't hide from the importance of Cody making a run at the title his dad held on three separate instances. Instead they pushed that narrative as the two men brutalized each other in a mix of modern wrestling and old school Southern style. Cody wrapped himself in a crimson mask as the two battled, but neither man would fall to the other's finish. Ultimately, he would turn a sunset flip attempt by Aldis into a deep cradle to score victory and become the next NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion.

I've read a few complaints about the placement of this match as fourth on the card, but I really think it serves this bout well. While this is arguably the most momentous match on the card, Aldis and Cody don't bring the insanity of the later matches on the card. Their straight up styles work well together, but would have seemed like a bit of a slow down after any of the other matches on the card. By placing it here, it feels like a huge bout but also sets up the fact that from here out, this is a true supercard, filled with dream matches and big bouts for the rest of the night.

Hangman Page went into easily the biggest match of his career against a star also appearing on his biggest stage ever, Joey Janela. Page admitted publically to the murder of Joey Ryan, a long running story on Being the Elite 48 hours earlier. He expressed a hatred for anyone or anything called Joey. Hangman Page came in as a man possessed. His current storyline might be somewhat silly, but it has done wonders in giving him a full-fledged character to build his character around. He showed that several times in the match as both his boots and the infamous phone found their way into the match. He picked up his win after putting Janela head first through a table.

Of course the story for Page continued as a wall of men in penis costumes opened the return of Joey Ryan. Ryan brutalized Page once again before his army carried him from the arena. That's a sight you will never see in WWE.

Two storylines from Being the Elite combined in the ROH championship match. Flip Gordon snuck into the Over Budget Battle Royal to win his way onto the ALL IN event. Meanwhile, Jay Lethal suffered an injury that caused him to routinely delve back into his Black Machismo personality. Brandi accompanied Flip to the ring, while Jay Lethal came to the ring in a classic Macho Man jacket accompanied by "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, his "brother from another mother". Lethal had some fun character work, especially confusing Brandi for Miss Elizabeth repeatedly. We even gave a few Mega Powers references between the two stars.

And that was really what this match was about. It showed why Lethal deserves far more praise for his work around the world and why Flip deserves a higher place on the ROH card. Ultimately, Lethal retains, which leads to maybe the weakest bonus segment of the night, where Bully Ray assaults both men leading to Colt Cabana coming out and hitting a Shield style powerbomb with Gordon and Lethal.

In a dream match for myself and many others, Penta El Zero Miedo took on Kenny Omega. This one proves hard to describe, but both men brought the A games they were knew for well ahead of this match. Both men destroyed the other, but with the IWGP Heavyweight champion in this battle, the winner seemed clear from the start. Omega hit the One Winged Angel for the decided victory after a hard fought contest.

Of course, his night wasn't done. After the lights went out, Penta was back on his feet, only he grew a couple inches. A disguised Chris Jericho assaulted Omega and landed two codebreakers before he promised to see the champ on the Jericho Cruise.

The semi-main event was designed as a star-maker and Marty Scurll didn't disappoint in his role. He went toe to toe with Kazuchika Okada in an epic encounter that builds beautifully on both men's move sets. The All In umbrella to stop the Rainmaker was inspired, as was Scurll following it up with a Rainmaker of his own. Ultimately, Scurll showed his toughness and Okada took him seriously, as he delivered two straight Rainmakers to get the pin over The Villain.

The main event was truncated for time because of the broadcast, but honestly, it doesn't show. The six men are perfect for a fast paced match, so each team throwing all of their biggest bombs at the others in an eleven minute car wreck actually worked rather well. While I'd like to have seen more spots with Kota Ibushi and the Young Bucks jelling, ultimately they put on an impressive match with Rey Mysterio, Rey Fenix and Bandido.

In the end, I suppose one can look at ALL IN as just another pay-per-view. But it was also a one shot for the ages and a huge money-maker for a ton of talents and a ton of Chicago businesses. It remains to be seen if the event will be repeated next year or not, but I'm hoping we will see it again.

The world needs shows that can rival WWE's draw. Cody and the Bucks proved that was possible without sacrificing great wrestling and solid storytelling.

ALL IN: the most significant wrestling event in the last 15 years

A lot of words have already been written about ALL IN, the Young Bucks and Cody-produced mega-show. It sold an unprecedented 10,000+ tickets, unheard of for an indie show up until this point in history. It continues Nick, Matt and Cody's slow change of how wrestling storytelling works. And its card has been named incredibly underwhelming by a ton of critics.

I'm not going to break down the card too much, because I am not sure I will even be watching the show live on the 1st as I have a bunch of other Labor Day weekend plans. But all the critics that have ran down the card have missed the point. ALL IN sold out its entire ticket base without a single match announced. Just the roster of talent managed to do that. Being the Elite, the weekly show the Young Bucks produce every week, scores over 200,000 views every week from a subcriber list of approximately the same size. All it took was one twentieth of that base to make this event a rousing success.

Of course, those same people might decry that the same feat can't be repeated if ALL IN doesn't produce the biggest card possible. This of course ignores the fact that ROH and NJPW have just repeated the over 10,000 number for yet another show without a single announced talent. That show will come Wrestlemania weekend and will be at a venue that served as a WWE stronghold for four decades, Madison Square Garden. Times are changing, folks.

I question how many of these critics actually pay that much attention to the work the Young Bucks have put into the build on their weekly show. It always seemed likely the card would be built around matches for every member of the show's cast. Hence Cody fighting Nick Aldis for the NWA title, Hangman Page fighting Joey Janela, Marty Scurll getting a match against former IWGP Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada, the Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi teaming to take on a lucha trio consisting of Bandido, Rey Mysterio and Rey Fenix, and of course the once in a life time bout between Penta El Zero Miedo and Kenny Omega. They even built a storyline to give Stephen Amell his first singles match ever against a true ring general, Christopher Daniels. Jay Lethal has become a Being the Elite regular of late as well, so his ROH title defense doesn't come as a surprise, nor does the pre-show appearance of ROH stalwarts, the Briscoe Brothers. They built the show around people they know having battles with people fans want to see. And that's just what they're delivering, which is why all the talk of a lackluster card makes little sense.

My pick for match of the night on September 1st.

The measure of success for ALL IN was accomplished way back in July when they sold the show out. By any stretch of the imagination, it has become an important point in the history of the business. It drew interest from Chicago area cable station WGN America, and now has a network broadcast preshow, something no other wrestling company has been able to boast since Heat left Spike TV in 2005. It already looks capable of shattering independent wrestling pay-per-view records as well and ROH has already talked about an uptick in new subscribers for their own streaming channel, which will also air the event.

The show is a success by any metric before a single wrestler steps into the ring at the Sears Centre. Cody and the Young Bucks took a huge gamble, one that looks to pay off in major dividends come September 1st. And they have likely created the possibility of an independent super show for years ahead.

Independent wrestling has never been stronger in the United States. One way or the other, every fan that travels to a bingo hall or community center or armory to see their favorite stars needs to realize what this means for the industry they love enough to support on the smallest level. The sport of kings has a future even without WWE. And we should all be proud of that.