The Top Ten 12.19.06: Breakout Stars of 2006

Posted by Julian Williams on 12.19.2006

The superstars who made a name for themselves in '06 and could become the next big things in professional wrestling. Of course, they also said that about Brock Lesnar....

Six more days until Christmas is upon us and I for one am…..unexcited. The older I get, I look less forward to Christmas and more forward to New Years Eve. Christmas is great for gifts, eggnog, family, and all that other crap but New Years is where you get to hang out with friends and consume as much liquor as humanly possible without feeling bad about it. And you get to rock out with Dick Clark at midnight, what's better than that? Welcome to The Top Ten people, I'm your holiday-weary host, Julian (or Big Daddy Jules according to the ladies), and this week we're going to look at The Top Ten Breakout Stars of 2006. I was going to do a list of The Top Ten Wrestlers of '06, but since we already have a trademarked column dealing directly with the top wrestlers of every week, and subsequently the year, I figured that I would tweak my column a bit. This list will deal primarily with the wrestlers who may not have been the best wrestlers of '06, but who made a sufficient enough impact to make themselves a main event player in the world of professional wrestling. But before we head into the list, let's take a look at some of your emails about last week's column.

Reader Feedback

First up is Tanner who has a little venting to do about wrestling in the '06:

Hey Julian,

In terms of wrestling, 2006 was a pretty good year. ECW returned, Kurt Angle coming to TNA, and ROH just kicking soooo much ass in every way possible. But, jeez, there were some pretty bad moments.

I have to say, personally, ECW December to Dismember was the worst of the worst. Creative either: a. Totally dropped the ball on it OR b. Has no faith in ECW. They only had TWO matches scheduled ON THE DAY OF THE SHOW!!! And one of which (the "Extreme" Elimination Chamber) sucked so bad that true ECW fans would vomit at its sight. What's soooo extreme about having four, COUNT 'EM, FOUR weapons. I was hoping for at least FOUR CHAIRS, not to mention two or three tables, a barbed-wire baseball bat, a crowbar, and heck, throw a stun gun in as well as well as some barbed-wire covering the cage. Plus, you had CM Punk and RVD, both of whom shared the most momentum four weeks prior got DUMPED for Bobby Lashely who took over ECW in a month, making the who brand look like shit. Sure, they're making up for him being ditched for Batista on Smackdown, but why now? Once Punk and RVD were eliminated the crowd completely shutdown. This ppv sucked all kinds of balls.

ECW also disappointed me at first because they kept bringing in WWE guys that didn't belong. Remember when they came back to the Hammerstien Ball Room after ECW's launching? I've never seen the crowd shit on a main event that badly before! 'Nuff said.

I'm so disgusted with Vince Russo coming back to TNA that I'm not even gonna talk about it.
The same with RVD and Sabu getting arrested.

The Rey Mysterio "living for Eddie" crap was way too much. I would have been happy to see him dedicate the Royal Rumble to Eddie, come close, and lose. But no, they had the man win it! And not only that, but he WON THE TITLE AT WRESTLEMANIA!!! We had to put up with that angle for
11 months too long!

That's all the venting I'm gunna do.



As for breakout star of 2006, my money is definitely on CM Punk. The man has taken the whole company by storm. He brought in a stiffness in his style that had never been seen by WWE fans. I would even go as far as saying that an over-whelming amount of people tune-in to WWECW just to see CM Punk.

You could also make a case for the new-Kurt Angle. The man had had a spectacular year, from being WWE champ to helping start ECW to going to TNA and blowing the roof off with Samoa Joe.


Thanks Julian and keep the columns coming.

Tanner has a valid point about December to Dismember because I don't think I've ever seen a Pay-Per-View handled as poorly as that. We've had to deal with quite a few shiity PPV's, but at least they would make an attempt to make it seem like the PPV was going to be great even though we all knew it was going to suck. They only announced two matches prior to the PPV which was basically like saying, "Yea, these are the only two matches that are going to be worth watching." The reason people see ECW as a joke is because nobody takes their talent seriously. Nobody buys wrestlers like Shannon Moore, Balls Mahoney, Christopher W. Anderson, and Kevin Thorne being main event or even mid-card caliber because there isn't even an attempt to make interesting storylines for them. I really hope Vince learned his lesson with the DTD debacle and will at least make an ATTEMPT to make ECW a little bit more intriguing and start utilizing some of the talent they have rather than only focusing on eight guys and leaving the rest of the locker room in the cold. The rest of Tanner's gripes can be understood as well as I don't think even the most hardcore TNA fan can defend Russo being head of creative and the use of Eddie's name was a bit too much for a lot of fans this year.

Meehan writes in to complain about two of my picks. Wait, it's not 411's Meehan, it's a different Meehan. There's more than one Meehan? It's ok John, you'll always be the only Meehan to me:

Big fumble at the end of your latest column.

First off, Eddie is wherever Eddie is regardless of whatever Randy Orton says during a wrestling show. Eddie's family was clearly all right with it so I don't see where the moral outrage comes from. By your own admission, it caused your jaw to drop in disbelief. That's exactly what they were aiming for. It made Orton look like a guy who'd do or say anything to get ahead and it gave Misterio a reason to take the match personally. That's what good promos do.

"There are just certain things you don't say and that's one of them." Again, what wrestlers say doesn't affect the metaphysical shape of the universe. So why not say it? I can think of plenty worse things to say.

Second, Vince and Shane vs. Shawn and God was probably the BEST program the McMahon family worked all year. It established that Vince's character had gone completely nuts. And the segment in the church was hysterical. I also liked that Michaels didn't once pretend that God cared about what happens inside a wrestling ring. I thought it was cool how the religious guy was the one focused on the human element of the match. Had Michaels played the holy roller then you might have had a case of it being a worst moment, but he didn't. Contrast that with Sting's promo after he won the NWA title where he pretty much did everything short of saying Jesus wants him to champion (part of what I call Sting's Holy Ghost transformation). Now THAT was ridiculous.

How would a devout Christian react to something like that? Well, I'm guessing that any devout folks who watch the WWE aren't the uptight, easily offended sort. After the past decade I think we're all well aware that the WWE will be pushing the envelope on multiple fronts.

So Vince used Heaven and Hell for cheap heat. It worked. If anything I'd fault it for being too easy rather than in bad taste. It's like faces wearing whatever the hometown sports team jersey is. Ideally the premier wrestling outfit on the planet shouldn't have to take such obvious shortcuts.

Anyway, I thought you came up with a nice list of eight Worst Moments and then you tried to summon up some outrage over two incidents that weren't really worth any outrage.

- Mike Meehan

Well Mr. Mike Meehan (if that is your real name), I can understand your feelings that the Eddie comment really wasn't that bad and that Vince used the whole God thing for cheap heat and that it was effective. The problem is that both were very distasteful and just another reason why people look at pro wrestling as crass and disgusting. What other show do you know would proclaim that one of their recently deceased cast members was in hell? I understand that pro wrestling is a different beast than any other show on TV because the line between reality and fiction is very unclear whereas on fictional TV shows, it's obvious. The use of Eddie's name in storylines really didn't bother me because with feuds like Chavo/Rey and Chavo/Benoit, they were fighting over what they felt was the honor of Eddie. I don't find anything distasteful about that, it's two men who both loved Eddie fighting over what they felt Eddie would prefer. That actually happens in real life constantly between friends and families once a loved one dies. But to have Orton come out just barely two months after Eddie died and proclaim that he was in hell was just completely unnecessary. Imagine Eddie's kids watching that. Imagine that one of your loved ones recently died and then one of their co-workers say that they are in hell. How is that going to make you feel, whether it's scripted or not. I understand that Orton was just fed the line so I don't personally blame him, but I do blame whoever wrote it and I do blame Vince because there was no reason to have that on the show EVER, let alone just a few months after his death. The whole deal with God was just stupid, plain and simple. I understand that Mr. McMahon's character is an egotistical asshole so I get him feeling that he is more powerful than God, but to have him actually FEUD with God is just retarded. If he did the skit in the church and that was the end of it, I would have had no problem with it. But to have him do the whole deal where "God" tries to strike him down with lightning when he tries to attack Shawn and to have a match against God, complete with JIGGIFIED entrance, was idiotic. Defend it all you want, but you can't tell me you looked at that angle and thought, "Wow, this is going to make A LOT of money."

Next up is Reinaldo who adds a couple more shit piles to a year filled with them:

I totally agree with your top ten. But I have a few that should be in your honorable mention.

-dX DOMINATES. I am a DX mark but it was borderline ludicrous when they would beat ALL 5 members of the Spirit Squad, The Macmahons, The ENTIRE RAW TAG DIVISION, The SmackDown Midcard and the Big Show with ease in one show in matter of minutes, over and over again.

-ReyMysterio's World _____Title reign. 2006 was the year of the broken cieling, as guys who were thought to never be able to win a world championship won this year (ie, RVD, Christain, Edge,Booker T, and Rey) What was a great Wrestlemania moment became a distant afterthought as everyone and their mom absolutely CRUSHED Rey. To pour salt into his wounds, they stopped calling it the World "Heavyweight" Title.

-The X-Division and Jackass. The cross promotion with the movie nearly Killed all the momentum the division had. Even the TNA audience would plead to the wrestlers, "No More Jackass!"

-Kevin Nash in the X-division. It seemed TNA was intent on killing their trademark division this year. Kevin Nash can't wrestle anymore, due to his age, injuries, and years of substance abuse. So what is left for him to do? Berrate and mock the one entity that helped put TNA on the map.

I gotta agree with Reinaldo about some of these, especially the retarded Jackass shit with the X-Division. It's as if all the writers sat down and said, "Ok, how can we make this division a complete joke?" I actually liked Rey's title reign because it showed that if you've got enough heart and drive, anything is possible. Sure in real life, Rey would probably get squashed like a bug, but in fictional entertainment (which is what WWE is) it's nice to see the little guy win the big one. Kind of like that movie Rookie Of The Year with the kid with the broken arm that joins the Cubs and……nevermind. The DX shit was pretty stupid as five men should be able to beat down two at anytime, unless the five men are midgets and even then they still have those sharp midget teeth to bite with. At first I hated the Kevin Nash stuff, but I'm starting to like it because those segments are some of the funniest things I see all week. Sonjay Dutt is a ‘roided up FREAK!

And finally, we've got James who provides his own worst moments list:

You had a pretty good list as I agreed with many of them. But, of course, I got to be different and make a different list.

10.) Chris Benoit, woman beater- I know this angle has just started, but already I'm hating it just like I did with the Rey Mysterio one. They took three entertaining future legends (well, depends on how you feel about Chavo) and did something I thought could never happen, make me want to skip their matches.

9.) Lack of a midcard/tag team scene- Yea, they got a few entertaining people (Carlito, Kennedy, Cryme Tyme, London/Kendrick). But it seems like they have no clue what to do with them. If you're a tag team, you basically break up or depush once you get popular. You need more than just the main event.

8.) Punjabi Prison Match- Ignoring the fact that Big Show subbed for Khali, the match was just plain boring. The cage did look cool though.

7.) Movie Pimping- If I see one more behind the scenes segment for "See No Evil" or "The Marine" I'm gonna scream. There's a difference between advertising something, and shoving it down out throats.

6.) Kane vs. Fake Kane- They did this angle unsuccessfully 10 years ago with The Undertaker, horrible match, plus they aborted it so fast we never found out what the deal was with the Fake Kane.

5.) Orton/Brooke Hogan- While the match that resulted was ok, the lead up was messy (Did Brooke ever find out it was Orton who attacked Hulk?) and not very fun or funny.

4.) Spirit Squad Squashed- Couldn't they had just broken up or start feuding with one another if they wanted to break them up? Did they really need to be humilated like they were? Will anyone take any of them seriously when they come back with their new gimmicks?

3.) Kevin Federline- Is anyone really interested in seeing a z-level celebrity like him (at least David Arquette did some movies) "wrestling" Cena? Are we supposed to be so pissed at him that we are supposed to want to see Cena destroy him like Warrior did to Honky Tonk Man years ago? It's not working.

2.) Sensational Sherri's HOF Speech- It was funny at first seeing an obviously drunk Sherri yelling like a maniac. But as she went on, and on, and on, I just felt sad for her. I even cringed a few times just listening to her. She did seem to have fun that night, but fun nights can come back to haunt you. Just ask Danny Devito.

1.) ECW's Sci-Fi Premiere- Literally the worst hour of television I've see this year. The Zombie was funny, but everything else stunk. Thank god they have improved since then, but I was surprised they lasted past that. It only takes one bad impression to destroy something.

James brings up a lot of craptastic stuff here including the never ending pimping of WWE's movies (seriously, I dream about all those "Marine" segments because I've seen them so much), the HORRENDOUS Fake Kane angle which I can't believe I forgot about, and the crappy way the Spirit Squad was broken up. I actually liked Sherri's HOF speech as it seemed authentic and I don't think she was drunk, I just think that's the way she talks, which makes me feel sorry for her husband. K-Fed being FU'd was positively glorious, how could you not love that? And why no love for the Zombie, bro? Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!! Classic…..ly bad.

That's all the emails for this week homeslices. Thanks to all you guys that wrote in, I appreciate all the feedback you guys send me, even the ones calling me an absolute moron because you took 5 minutes out of your day to specifically let me know that I'm a moron. And that takes a special kind of hate. Keep sending in that feedback guys, let me know what's on your minds.

The Top Ten Breakout Stars of 2006

10) Kenny
When The Spirit Squad debuted, most people were quick to hate them and write them off as another McMahon experiment gone wrong. Many of those views would be changed near the end of The Spirit Squad's run and one of the primary reasons was the impressive outings shown by Kenny. At only 20 years of age, Kenny has a long future ahead of him and has already shown some extraordinary athletic ability as well as one of the prettiest finishers I've seen in a while with that sweet diving legdrop that he delivers. Now that he's going to have a chance to shine in singles competition, Kenny should have an even bigger 2007 and I wouldn't be surprised if one day we see Kenny as either the World or WWE Champion.

9) Mickie James
Kenny's fiancée had a very impressive 2006 after make a few waves in her debut in 2005. She quickly became everybody's favorite psycho bitch after revealing her obsession with Trish Stratus. Hey admiration soon turn to hate after Trish was quick to dismiss Mickie's advances and then all hell broke loose. Mickie did everything that a psycho would do including kidnapping Trish's boyfriend and good friend, Ashley, as well as give Trish a blood smeared kiss. The match between the two ladies at Wrestlemania 23 was one of the best women's matches ever and the reaction of the Chicago crowd to Mickie James was unbelievable. I haven't seen a crowd that much into a women's match probably ever. Mickie got all her momentum cut from underneath her once Trish retired as she became the only viable female babyface by default and her psycho gimmick was taken away and given back to Victoria(which isn't too bad because I absolutely LOVE Victoria as a psycho bitch). Hopefully they can find a way to still make Mickie's character interesting because she has all the tools it takes to become the next legend in female wrestling.

8) Umaga
Love him or hate him, you can't deny that this big guy had a huge year in 2006. Everything about him when he first debuted screamed that he would be a failure, from his 1992-ish gimmick to his seemingly stupid finisher to the fact that he use to be freakin' Jamal of 3MW. Yet somehow, he was able to get himself over as an unstoppable monster and start gaining the respect of a lot of the people who felt he wouldn't amount to anything. With a kickass manager in his corner and his seemingly indestructible nature, accompanied with an undefeated record, people are now starting to buy Umaga as a legitimate contender to the WWE title. I for one was skeptical about him when he debuted, but I've started to actually enjoy his work and I even look as the Samoan Spike as a legit finisher now. I think that he and Cena will have a damn good match at New Year's Revolution and Umaga will become an even bigger force in 2007.

7) Johnny Nitro
Whether he was part of arguably the best tag team for quite some time in MNM or shining as a singles competitor, Johnny Nitro has made a big name for himself in 2006. Many people felt that Nitro was decent enough, but that Joey Mercury was the glue behind MNM and that Nitro couldn't really shine once he was on his own. Nitro proved many of his doubters wrong by having some great matches against the likes of Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, and Jeff Hardy. He's upped his game a notch by busting out some very impressive moves and showing what seems to be unlimited athleticism. Many readers have been writing in to talk about how impressive Nitro has been and how he could be one of the megastars of the future. I definitely can't disagree as Nitro reminds me a lot of a young Shawn Michaels from the cocky attitude, to the limitless athleticism, to the hot manager(Sherri, not Diesel….sickos). If Nitro gets some help on his mic skills, he could become one of the biggest stars this industry has seen and this year is what would have started him on that path.

6) Kings Of Wrestling
Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero made huge waves as a tag team this year and with their impressive list of accomplishments in 2006, it's hard to argue with their moniker. On top of holding tag team titles in THREE different promotions within the same year, they also had an impressive list of victories over the likes of Austin Aries & Roderick Strong, Jimmy Jacobs & Colt Cabana, Milano Collection AT & Skayde, Tough Crazy Bastards(Necro Butcher & Toby Klein), BJ Whitimer & Adam Pearce and various others. The team is coming to an end due to Castagnoli signing with the WWE, but both men made a tremendous impact this year and we will definitely be hearing more from these two for years to come.

5) Alex Shelley
Indy fans knew about the great personality that Alex Shelley possessed, but Alex didn't get a chance to display it to TNA fans until this year. Before this year, fans looked at Shelley as an impressive wrestler, but he didn't have much personality. That all changed once he was hired by Jeff Jarrett to follow Sting and thus Paparazzi Productions was born. Through these skits, Shelley was able to display his humor and charisma and thus get over with fans at the Impact Zone. His comedic pairing with Kevin Nash only increased his profile and he seems destined to move onto even bigger things. Shelley has the wrestling ability and charisma of a young Chris Jericho and if he continues on the pace he's going now, he may achieve a legendary cult status like Y2J by the end of his career.

4) Bobby Lashley
Lashley made a huge step towards becoming the next big star in the world of sports entertainment with a very impressive 2006. With victories over the likes of King Booker, The Big Show and Finlay, Lashley proved that he was certainly a force to be reckoned with. Though his ECW Title reign may have come a bit too early, it can't de denied that Lashley has been most impressive and was eventually going to have championship gold around his waist. Hopefully Lashley can help lead the new ECW to bigger and better things in '07 and continue to be the dominating force that he was in '06.

3) CM Punk
The hype around CM Punk before his arrival in the new ECW was off the chart as fans who knew about Punk's ability couldn't wait until he could display it on a national stage and fans who had never seen Punk were eager to see this dude that everybody was talking about. Punk didn't let either side down as he had an impressive debut and has continued to impress everyone since then. His popularity has grown so much that he even outshined the mighty DX at Survivor Series. Even though the new ECW has left a lot of fans in a fury, the one thing that can they can always look forward to is seeing Punk perform. If any one man can turn around the fiasco that is ECW, it is CM Punk.

2) Mr. Kennedy
Holding victories over five former world champions in one year is certainly enough to turn anybody into a star and that's exactly what happened to Kennedy in '06. We all knew that Kennedy was a big mouth after his introduction in 2005, but the question was whether he could back up the talk. He certainly did that with a list of impressive victories over the likes of King Booker, Batista, Rey Mysterio, Lashley, Finlay, Kane and The Undertaker. He has an entrance and persona that the fans love, but he plays the arrogant asshole character so well that people can't help but boo him. His mic skills are top notch and he seems destined to be the top superstar on any brand of WWE within a couple years. Hell, he might be the top superstar on one of those shows before the end of 2007.

1) Samoa Joe
It can be argued that Joe is already a top star in TNA and that's certainly true, but I feel that 2006 cemented Samoa Joe as THE top star in TNA. I believe that Samoa Joe is currently the most over superstar on the TNA roster and that can be attributed to the great year he had in '06. He continued to produce fantastic matches and hold significant victories over the likes of Christopher Daniels, Sabu, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner, and to cap it off, he made Kurt Angle tap out. That victory over Angle absolutely MADE Samoa Joe and he, even more than Angle, will be the catalyst to determine how successful TNA is in the future. Angle adds a level of credibility to the promotion, but Joe is the star of he future that TNA needs to build their promotion around. Joe is the equivalent of John Cena in the WWE because the fans will tune in for Samoa Joe more than any other star on the roster. I know you TNA fans are throwing up in your mouth right now after the comparison of Joe to John Cena.

Drive-By Pimpin'

Check out all these UPDATED great columns by my 411 brethren:

-Andy Clark's "Shimmy"
-Ari's "Column Of Honor"
-Sean, Alex and David's "Triple Threat"
-Bayani's "Truth B Told"
-Weyer's "Shining The Spotlight"
-Byers' "Cheap Wrestling for Cheap People"
-Larry and Geoff's "3R's"
-Fact Or Fiction
-O'Dog's " Goodness"
-Sat and Uncle Trunx's "High Road/Low Road"
-Phill Feltham's "Quick Talkdown"
-Sarnecky's "Piledriver Report"
-Slimmer's News Report
-Hidden Highlights
-Carapola's "That Was Then" and "Friendly Competition"
-The Fink's Payload
-Gamble's "Just 'Spose"
-Cook's "Ask 411"
-Meehan's "Meethinks"
-Sforcina's "Evolution Schematic"
-Prag's "In Defense Of?."
-Wrestlers of the Week
-Sullivan's "Crystal Ball"
-Randle's "Wrestling News Experience"
-Joe Boo's "Ringside Or Cheap Seats"
-Linkous' "WWE vs. TNA"
-Double M's Rasslin Report
-News To Start Your Weekend
-Dunn's Rawtopsy, Smackdown Breakdown, & ECW eXperience
-Cook's "News From Cook's Corner"
-Mike LaFave's "Getting Over"
-Your News, Larry's Views
-Mike Hamflett's "Storylines"
-Rodriquez's "Puerto Rico Report"
-Zac Calhoun's "The Ripple Effect"

The Sign-Off

I'm out kids. Be sure to come back next week for The Top Ten's Super Duper Year End Spectacular! We'll have tons of reader feedback, ridiculously gratuitous hot diva pics, top ten things to be thankful for from '06, top ten things to look forward to in '07, as well as The Top Ten Matches of 2006. So don't be the one to miss out on the fun, make sure your ass is parked here next week. Same bat time, Same bat website.