The 2016 End of the Year Honorable Mentions List

For the next two weeks, The Wrestling Weekday will look at some of the best wrestlers in the world, the men and women that shaped the industry in 2016.

Tomorrow, the list actually starts to get into wrestlers that earned multiple votes before the Top 10 list starts full speed ahead on Tuesday. All remaining vote getters, the ones that fell short of the Top 10 but received votes from multiple sources, will be revealed next week.

But for now: on with the first list of Honorable Mentions, presented in point order from lowest to highest.

Image credit: WWE.com.

Sami Zayn did not have a spectacular 2016 clearly as he received only a single 25th point vote. He stands alongside James Ellsworth, an ignominious spot if ever there was one, and Hallowicked, a talent I might have ranked much higher if I was anywhere near to caught up with Chikara in 2016.

I expected The Miz to get a bit more support because of his great work on Smackdown Live in the second half of 2016. He just missed my list and perhaps failed to make a few others as well. Similarly, only I was impressed enough by Baron Corbin's work in 2016. Admittedly he only had a few great weeks in NXT at the beginning of the year and his impressive work since Survivor Series with a huge lull in the middle, but he is decidedly a talent that grew exponentially in the year. He's easily one of the best WWE developmental talents without an indie background ever.

I also was a bit surprised that I was the only person to rank the Cruiserweight Classic winner TJ Perkins at all and that he came in behind Randy Orton in points total. NJPW's Katsuyori Shibata and TNA's Lashley both came ahead of him on my list though, as both showed amazing growth in ring and, in Lashley's case, character-wise in the year.

Andy Sheets gave the only votes for Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, two talents that just barely missed my list. He also gave a vote to Tomohiro Ishii, a man that fell out of the NEVER division in NJPW early in the year but had a few great showings for ROH as their Television champion.

Sami Callihan (or Jeremiah Crane for certain fans) did amazing work on the indies and in Lucha Underground this year, showing why WWE seriously missed the boat with Solomon Crowe. I can see him entering a few more folks radar in 2017.

A bunch of tag team wrestlers got single votes as well. Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable only received votes from yours truly, while John Morgan Neal gave Heath Slater and Rhyno their only props. Other talents that made their most significant strides as part of a tag team in 2016 also fell in this place, such as Bray Wyatt or Brother Nero, Jeff Hardy.

I thought Rich Swann deserved a place on the list here as well, as he's the man that seems to have lit a fire under the Cruiserweight division as 205 Live kicks off. Dalton Castle and Pentagon Dark (#10 in last year's poll) get similar rankings, I expect for similarly great character work backed by strong in will skills.

Much like Sami Callihan, I felt Cody Rhodes deserved a place on this list. He's electrified audiences in huge ways since his time as Stardust ended and he took to basically every non-WWE wrestling company. He may have lost his last name (a real poor move by WWE in my opinion), but he's showed why he deserved a higher spot on the card than he ever received on the WWE stage.

Kofi Kingston and Big E both made last year's list (at #8 and #5 respectively), but only got one vote this year. Ricochet (a.k.a. Prince Puma) fell similarly, dropping to only receiving a single vote after ranking at #7 last year. Just ahead of them was the final member of The New Day, Xavier Woods, who fell just short of the 2015 list but through increased in ring presence really cemented himself as a strong third member of The New Day in 2016.

Image credit: Lucha Underground.

We close out today's list with a few of the folks that ranked in several folks' Top 10 positions. Lucha Underground's Cage and NJPW's Kushida and Kazuchika Okada all made Andy Sheets' list in the #8, #7, and #6 spots respectively. Joe Crowe named Goldberg as his sixth best wrestler, an impressive feat for a man with two minutes of ring time in 2016. But they were an impressive two minutes, we all must admit. I ranked Finn Balor at #6, higher than I expected most people to do so, but I was shocked to see him make no one else's list. The first WWE Universal Champion dominated NXT in the first half of the year and impressed on Raw for the month he was on television. It still amazes me he didn't get props from anyone other than yours truly. Finally, Jeff Yelton gave a fifth place vote to ROH's Adam Cole, saying “The two-time ROH World Champ has come from being a bland good guy to a great heel. And he can go in the ring. I keep wondering when WWE is gonna call.”

With this list I have revealed all but twenty names that received votes in the 2016 Top 10 Countdown. The ten final Honorable Mentions will be revealed next week, but for now, stay tuned for tomorrow and the reveal of the #10 wrestler in the world today, despite almost all of their acclaim coming from one tiny venue in Southern California.

Congratulations, Rhyno

Image credit: @Rhyno313 on Twitter.

Not only did the Manbeast rejoin the Smackdown roster in the last 8 days, he could be heading to the Michigan state house next January. Rhyno, a.k.a. Terrance Guido Gerin (did that make him ECW's Big Guido?) won his primary by a whopping 56 votes in a three way race. Even as the results were coming in, Rhyno was busy goring Heath Slater this last Tuesday.

He will challenge for the 15th District seat in a voting battle with no gores allowed. Nor is his opponent Abdullah Hammoud any relation to the famous Butcher of the same name.

Also, Rhyno is amazingly only forty going into this election, meaning he's got lots of longevity left in both his wrestling and political careers.

Bullet points: Week one of the brand extension

A few more bullet points, this time focused on the highlights of this week's Raw and Smackdown.

Finn Balor looked amazing while Roman Reigns' wellness policy
punishment streak got underway. Image credit this page: WWE.com.

• The Raw roster is infinitely deeper than the Smackdown roster. Even without the incoming cruiserweight division (I assume in September), the roster already feels bloated. The brand certainly doesn't need the influx of classic talent that the Smackdown roster is already getting.
• WWE has been wise so far in their additions from the past on Smackdown. Rhyno is a guy that

  

  Rhyno still has a lot he can give
  to the blue brand. 

  never got a real shot to shine in WWE for any significant period of time. He's got all the tools he needs to be a credible upper midcarder for years to come and hopefully he'll get that chance. Shelton Benjamin is honestly one of the most talented WWE stars to never be a World champion. While I don't see him ever getting to that plateau with his return, he should continue to bring great matches. And if WWE can lure Charlie Haas back even for a few weeks, American Alpha versus the World's Greatest Tag Team is a definite dream match.
• Nia Jax isn't ready for the main roster. Dana Brooke got a lot of flack when she was called up, but in my opinion, Nia is worse. She's going to get a huge push and she simply doesn't have the seasoning she needs for it to work. I could be proven wrong, but she has no place anywhere near Charlotte, Paige or new champion Sasha Banks yet.
• The Miz should have been in the battle royal, not sitting on the sidelines to get beat by Randy Orton. Ditto for American Alpha. I get you don't want them to debut in a battle royal they lose, but it makes no sense when the heads of the brand say "everyone has a chance" and three talents not booked for Summer Slam yet don't get a chance. 
• I'm excited to see new talents rise to the top of the rosters, but it very much feels like the writing is already on the wall about the placement of title matches on Summer Slam. Either Orton versus Lesnar or Styles versus Cena will almost certainly get the main event spot on the pay-per-view while Dolph Ziggler and Finn Balor get their chances farther down the card. 
• I really hope WWE uses a Dean Ambrose / Dolph Ziggler feud to turn Ziggler heel. In the perfect world, they would team Ziggler with his now respected rival Baron Corbin and let the two have a strong Michaels / Diesel style run with the title before the inevitable breakdown. 
• Enzo and Big Cass need to find a storyline quickly. The two Certified Gs are far too important to The New Era to have them beating up jobbers on Raw without any real purpose. 
• I expect next week's Smackdown will give us the start of at least one title tournament. I suspect we will see some kind of tag team title as well as a second women's belt (which I'm guessing will be called the Revolution title.) If the blue brand really is the show to go for solid wrestling, they would be foolhardy not to book solid tournaments as opposed to the fatal four way setup Raw gave on Monday night. 
• I'm personally more excited about WWE's weekly shows than I have been for months. I'm back to watching them regularly after over a year of pay-per-view only viewing. If they can keep up the quality, I can seriously see the brand extension pulling in a lot of new or lapsed viewers.

Could Becky Lynch be the face of a new title on Smackdown?

Both shows looked solid and if this is truly the beginning of a New Era of dual brands, WWE is off to a great start. Hopefully the momentum can continue in the weeks ahead as both shows prepare their matches for the four hour Summer Slam spectacle.

NXT Advent Calendar Day 11: Proof of NXT's power with the TLC card

One look at the TLC card shows exactly how far former NXT talent have came in WWE. Out of the twenty-three talents announced as wrestling on the card, a full thirteen of them have served as NXT regulars at some point in their careers. Of those thirteen, four are former tag team champions, two are former women's champions and two are former NXT champions.

Image credit: WWE.com.

So here is the rundown of the card from bottom to top and a few thoughts on the NXT talents involved.

NXT Advent Calendar Day 3: James Storm and Rhyno get elevated

One interesting thing about the cross pollination of older talents making a new name for themselves in NXT is their previous encounters. Over the last several months, Rhino has become a staple of the promotion with brutal battles against Finn Balor, Baron Corbin and Samoe Joe. James Storm arrived more recently in NXT but in his battles with Danny Burch and Adam Rose earned him a "You belong here" chant from the crowd.

James Storm and Rhyno (then, simply Rhino) had a prolonged feud during Storm's first singles run with TNA. The two men were brutal to one another with the nefarious Storm trying everything to pick up a win over "The Man-Beast". All of it would culminate in one of TNA's least safe matches ever, their incarnation of the Scaffold Match they called Elevation X.

How ill advised was it? After Rhino competed in two of the matches over two years, it never returned, officially being retired after this battle. It was probably for the best as neither Rhyno nor Storm needed to risk a career threatening injury with another match in the style.

Watch the battle in its full insane glory below.

A classic Monster's Ball match featuring... Dustin Rhodes?

Back in 2007, Goldust was let go from WWE and it seemed likely he would never return. He made his way to TNA where he took a bit more supernatural twist when he became Black Reign. Sure, it was still clearly a slightly effeminate Dustin Rhodes, but now he seemed to have a more mystic and sadistic side to him. He would form a team with Rellik (Killer spelled backwards), but his sadistic streak would seemingly come back to haunt hi as he wrestled in deathmatch variation after deathmatch variation.

Probably his finest moment was a four way Monster's Ball match featuring two of the innovators of that match, Raven and Abyss, as well as a man that was no stranger to hardcore, Rhino. The match isn't exactly a classic, but it is four veterans of the business putting their all in an attempt to get more recognition for their craft in a company mired in midcard doldrums.

Alexa Bliss is ready to replace the Four Horsewomen

With Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks now main roster regulars, NXT’s divas roster was left depleted in the aftermath of Takeover: Respect. But with the advent of Asuka at the same show and the continued presence of Dana Brooke and Emma, Bayley wasn’t without contenders.

But instead of going with any of those three women, NXT is pushing Alexa Bliss. Two weeks into her feud with Bayley, she seems ready to take over as the top mean girl of NXT.

Alexa Bliss is perfectly bad. Image credit: WWE.com.

Alexa wrestled a solid match with Peyton Royce on this week's NXT. Peyton got in far more offense than I think I’ve seen before, but Alexa Bliss looked like a million bucks as she did everything she needed to pick up the win over Royce. Blake and Murphy surprisingly remained only as ringside spectators, though one suspects they will become far more important once she regularly starts wrestling Bayley.

NXT's roster earns their "Respect"

I've spent two days talking about the importance of last night's NXT Takeover: Respect main event but Sasha Banks and Bayley were not going to sit idle with their shot at the top of the card. They put on a match every bit as epic as their 18 and a half minute classic in Brooklyn.

Image credit: WWE.com.

While Bayley retaining against the now main roster star Sasha Banks wasn't overly surprising, the result didn't matter as much as the quality of two women clearly forming a rivalry that will last for years to come. Bayley and Sasha have been perfect opponents and I suspect we will see much more of both women when Bayley eventually gets her main event call up.

For now, Sasha has the WWE Divas title to focus on, while Bayley has threats from Alexa Bliss, Dana Brooke, Emma and Asuka. It looks like Alexa will be her next major foe, which may prove interesting if Blake & Murphy get involved from the outside.

The other big story of Respect was the Dusty Classic. Finn Balor & Samoa Joe overcame Dash & Dawson while Baron Corbin & Rhyno beat Jason Jordan & Chad Gable in a match that should put Jordan & Gable into bigger roles in the near future.

The finals brought a big win for Finn Balor and Samoa Joe and a touching speech about his father by Cody Rhodes, speaking publicly for the first time about the loss of his father. It was a fitting tribute to the late American Dream.

Apollo Crews got a somewhat surprising win over Tyler Breeze in a match that felt a bit too thrown together to be as good as it should have been. But both men are so athletically gifted that they both have a strong future as both opponents and major NXT stars, so I suspect we will see this matcch again.

My favorite match of the night though was witnessing the WWE in ring debut of Asuka. For all her weaknesses of a few months ago, Dana Brooke has improved leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. She worked as a great foil to Asuka, but everyone knew the results of this one going in. Only interference by Emma gave Dana any advantage, while Asuka picked apart her foe before making her tap to the Asuka Lock in a stunning debut for perhaps the most athletically gifted star now in WWE.

Takeover: Respect was an amazing card from top to bottom, giving us yet another amazing special event for WWE's secondary brand. With one more Takeover before the end of the year, it will be anyone's guess if the amazing stars of NXT can top their already amazing 2015 events.

Previewing NXT Takeover: Respect

NXT Takeover: Respect hits the WWE Network tonight and it looks to be an amazing card featuring six big matches in an expanded two and a half hour card.

The show is of course anchored by Sasha Banks and Bayley and for more on that you can check out yesterday's post. The 30 Minute Ironwoman match promises to be amazing and may very well top their already stunning match in Brooklyn.

Image credit: WWE.com.

The semi-finals and the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic are also in store with Samoa Joe & Finn Balor taking on the team of Dash & Dawn while Rhyno & Baron Corbin take on Chad Gable & Jason Jordan. It would mean a heel-heel match-up but I would personally like to see Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder take on Gable & Jordan in the finals, but I strongly suspect the two thrown together units will win instead and move on to the finals, where Rhyno and Corbin will overcome the super-face team.

Asuka makes her wrestling debut as well as she takes on Dana Brooke. Brooke continues to develop well, but I personally would have rather seen Asuka take out Emma in her first match. Still the former Kana can have a great match with a paper bag, so I suspect this one to work out pretty well.

Image credit: WWE.com.

The show will almost certainly open with Apollo Crews and Tyler Breeze. Both men have been inspiring in their performances of late, but I think Breeze needs the win over Crews here. It's high time Breeze actually get a main event title feud and beating the undefeated Crews would be a good first step in that direction. The Apollo Nation can certainly weather the loss, because Crews seems poised for bigger matches and stronger feuds after the Dusty Classic wraps up.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the show, especially with appearances by the entire extended Rhodes family: Dustin, Cody and even Eden Stiles. It should be another stellar night when NXT Takeover: Respect hits this evening.