The Top Ten 08.29.06: Wrestlers You Can't See on Television
Posted by Steve Cook on 08.29.2006
A look at some of the best guys not gracing WWE or TNA rings!
Hi, hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Top Ten. Julian Williams is not with us this week, but he will return next week. Until then it is I, the quintessential stud muffin, the man with the biggest hard drive in the I dubya C, Steve "Bigger and better than the Titanic, because only 400 women went down on the Titanic" Cook. Remember that name, you'll be screaming it later.
Some of you may know me from News From Cook's Corner, your one-stop shop for everything wrestling newsy every Thursday right here at the Mania. Longtime readers of the column likely remember a time when I did a top 10 list every couple of weeks or so, but that came to a halt once this column made its debut. To Julian's credit, he has actually made the Top 10 list something to be taken seriously, whereas I just used mine to make crappy jokes. So there are differences in our approaches, but this week I shall do my best to make sure that this column does not suffer in quality. The only person suffering around here shall be me, because I'm writing this while suffering from a cold. Oh happy day!
This week we're taking a look at some guys who don't get a whole lot of props outside of the hardcore fanbase for one simple reason…they're not on national television. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the great majority of North American wrestling fans watch just WWE, with most of the rest watching TNA when they remember it's on. Most wrestling fans aren't very familiar with people who haven't appeared on Raw, Smackdown or Impact in the last few weeks. You may notice that most of these people are either from ROH, CZW or CHIKARA…well, that's because those three promotions along with IWA Mid-South are what I've seen the most of recently. I'm sure there are plenty of other guys in other promotions who deserve to be on the list too, but I haven't seen them lately. My apologies. And really, there are a shitload of people that I'd like to include here and people that deserve to make the list but I just don't have room for all of them. If there's somebody you feel deserves to make the cut that didn't, feel free to e-mail me with your suggestions and I'll probably mention them in Thursday's news column.
Without further adieu…
The Top 10 Wrestlers You Can't See on Television
Honorable Mention: Jack Evans & Matt Sydal
If MTV's Wrestling Society X hits the airwaves sometime this fall, these two men are scheduled to be big parts of that show. Evans is known for being the ultimate flippity floppity guy, but he's really improved his game recently with stints in Dragon Gate over in Japan. He's also really good at taking a beating in a tag team match a la Ricky Morton. Sydal reminds a lot of people of a younger AJ Styles, he came up in NWA Wildside just like Styles did, whether he will have the same amount of success remains to be seen but he has been very successful in ROH & Dragon Gate alongside Evans.
Honorable Mention: Milano Collection AT
Milano has recently gone back to Japan, but those who got to see him in the indy scene were in for a treat. The Italian supermodel who kinda looks like a Japanese guy's gimmick is somewhat suspect in my book, but you can't take away from his wrestling ability.
Honorable Mention: Ian Rotten
Contrary to popular belief, Ian Rotten can actually wrestle. I have seen him do it before in CHIKARA. Of course, he's better known for the death match stuff, but the guy can work European style. He also does a headstand. It's tremendous.
Honorable Mention: Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson
Formerly known as Chad Allegra in his NWF days, Anderson has been honing his craft over in California at the New Japan Dojo, and people who have seen him wrestle would not be surprised to see him in the big two one of these days. He makes a great chickenshit heel, that much is for sure. Watch out for his girl-like screams when he takes big bumps.
10) Davey Richards
Richards is the newest guy reminding everybody of Dynamite Kid in the indy scene, and tore it up on the West Coast in promotions like PWG before heading over to ROH. He likes to work that strong style, and it has served him well in matches with guys like KENTA and Jimmy Rave. The one thing holding him back might be his lack of size, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him either in TNA or among the tippy top guys in independent wrestling sooner rather than later.
9) "Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney
If you're talking old school, you gotta be talking about the multiple time former ICWICWA Tex-Arkana Television Champion "Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney. Sweeney forsakes the usual indy moves for things like fistdrops and piledrivers that were all the rage in Memphis in 1985. He also might have the best t-shirt in the wrestling business today:
You may remember him from his appearance on Raw as "Nick Hogan". Or if you're like me you're desperately trying to forget it. Regardless, Sweeney has the charisma to go a long way in wrestling before he's done.
8) Delirious
Delirious was with TNA for about a week, but unfortunately for them he's now spending most of his time with the Ring of Honor promotion. ROH seems like a strange fit for a lizard that speaks gibberish, but eventually the hardcore smarks that populate most ROH venues accepted Delirious even if he couldn't do 55 variations of a wristlock. Delirious is a solid worker, but it's his gimmick that gets him on this list and makes him one of the more memorable indy performers out there today.
7) Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers & Chris Hamrick)
If you love the Southern style of wrestling, it doesn't get any better than these two. Smothers has been a very solid wrestler for almost 20 years, but recently has really become quite the entertainer with his ridiculous dancing before, during and after matches and his imitable promos that have given him quite the cult following. Hamrick is a great second banana for Smothers…his dancing and promo skills are not as great, but he can wrestle with the best of them. With these two in the ring, you're guaranteed to get either great wrestling or great entertainment, and usually you end up with both. Smothers & Hamrick wrestle mostly in Europe these days.
6) Nigel McGuinness
This HWA product is as good as it gets when it comes to the European style of wrestling, and has also been honing his game over in Japan while wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Nigel has become one of ROH's top talents as their Pure Champion, and has had a well-received series of matches there with Bryan Danielson in 2006. Nigel had a total of one match with TNA and also had a short stint with OVW before leaving, but he's got the skills and charisma to make it big in either of the big two within the next five years. He's in it to win it!
5) Mike Quackenbush
Probably the most talented and experienced wrestler I know of that still competes to never appear in either WWF/E, WCW, ECW, TNA or ROH during his career, Quackenbush has kept himself busy by creating CHIKARA and training scores of wrestlers to compete there & in CZW. He also competes regularly in Europe and other Northeastern promotions when healthy, and is considered one of the best play by play announcers in the business with his work on CHIKARA tapes. Quackenbush's style combining elements of lucha libre with puroseu and American style wrestling has become associated with the CHIKARA promotion and will be carried on as long as his trainees continue to compete.
4) Steve Corino
The King of Old School seemingly wrestles everywhere except for WWE & TNA these days, mostly in Japan, England, Europe & the Northeastern U.S. Currently Corino spends most of his time with Zero-One & Hustle over in Japan along with 1PW in England, but has made sporadic returns to ROH to feud with Homicide when his schedule allows for it. Corino isn't the flashiest guy in the sport, and he doesn't have the best physique, but he knows how to put on a damn good match. Which is really all one can ask for. Unfortunately I have not seen his son Colby in action.
3) Necro Butcher
Necro is often tossed aside by "smart" wrestling fans as just another death match worker, which really isn't fair to him because he's probably the best death match worker in the States right now. This is the kind of guy who will wrestle in a barbed wire match on a Friday night, then drive 10 hours to wrestle in a death match tournament the next day. Why does he do it? Well, it certainly can't be for the money. You can talk about your WWECW and your Extremists all you want, Necro Butcher is more hardcore than any of those guys could ever dream of being, with the exceptions of Mick Foley & Terry Funk, who I guess don't really count as extremists, but even they would probably look at Necro Butcher and say "Now there's one tough bastard right there".
2) The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli)
Both of these men deserve spots on this list by themselves, but they are listed together because they are the best tag team currently competing in North America. Don't believe me? Check out CHIKARA's 2006 Tag World Grand Prix Night 3 and see the Kings of Wrestling win three matches against three vastly different tag teams. Hero has been kicking around the indy scene since 1998, wrestling mostly in CZW & IWA Mid-South with steady work in Europe and other places. Hero is currently CZW's heavyweight champion and has held their tag team titles alongside Claudio in the past. The Swiss-born Claudio moved to the United States last year and since then has been bringing his ferocious European uppercuts to ROH, CZW, CHIKARA, PWG and almost every other major indy fed in the USA. Standing at 6'5, Claudio dwarfs most other indy wrestlers, giving him a chance to break out onto the big time someday if he wants to. And maybe even as something more than a police officer. But if he and Hero would rather dominate tag team wrestling forever, that's cool with me.
1) "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson
Without a doubt, the best wrestler in the world that doesn't appear on national television in his home country has to be the American Dragon. Danielson is currently the ROH & FIP heavyweight champions, and recently he's been wrestling 60 minutes with everybody under the sun. Danielson's style isn't everybody's cup of tea, as some find his technical wrestling to be a little bit boring. But hell, this is the Internet, where technical wrestling gives us wet dreams and other things too disgusting to talk about in a family column. If you were on the "Benoit is God" bandwagon in the mid-90s, certainly you should be on the "Danielson is God" bandwagon now. It's not a question of should Bryan Danielson get a chance to shine on a national stage…it's if he'll get the proper chance to.
Shrimpin' Ain't Easy…
Don't forget to check out Hidden Highlights this coming Sunday, as I go head to head with the usual writer of this column in the Great Positivity Debate! I'm a straight shooter, so I'm hoping for questions that I can actually give positive answers to…if they want me to defend the Kiss My Ass Club, expect Williams to win for sure.
He'll be back next week, I'll see you Thursday in the Corner…until then, you stay classy, Planet Earth.
