10 Smartest People In Wrestling Right Now

Honourable mentions are vast, even if as wrestling fans we've just witnessed the worst of the market leader's stupidity this week: what is Kevin Owens doing, rushing to the aid of Braun Strowman?!

ICW's Mark Dallas and Jim Smallman of PROGRESS have done, if not the impossible, then the improbable: reestablished British wrestling. The scene was in the gutter before the former resuscitated it with his brand of fun, creativity and edge. He aimed for ECW, and achieved not an ersatz version but something as unique for its own audience. Smallman in contrast promoted a very different product built on long-term storytelling, a superior in-ring product, and a marketing drive that established the company as a genuine alternative.

Conrad Thompson has built a podcast empire by identifying the unquenched thirst of a generation of fans simply unable to let go of the Attitude Era and dragging the minutiae out of co-hosts both entertaining (Bruce Prichard) and antagonistic (Eric Bischoff).

You might balk at this, but Jeff Jarrett appeared at both WWE's Hall Of Fame and ALL IN in 2018, by way of the second biggest show on the lucha calendar. A career midcard talent years past his physical prime, he has an uncanny knack of getting everywhere. He was in the Bullet Club, for Christ's sake.

But he was not Elite...

This may seem counter-intuitive, since Joey Janela willingly absorbed the Burning Hammer on a ladder at ALL IN, but bear with us:

Though his daredevil approach to the mat game is questionable, his promotional nous is not. Janela is a genius because he sees things other promoters do not. How he manages to locate the stars of yesteryear who A) can still go, B) haven't worn out their nostalgia currency and C) we didn't know we really wanted is beyond us. Janela has rejuvenated the career of PCO, who this time last year was wrestling guys called 'Maxxx Testosterone'. Later this month, he is set to take part in PWG's Battle of Los Angeles - the most prestigious tournament on the independent scene.

For better or worse, "banter wrestling" is a "a thing" now. Subjectively, it's for the betterment of the industry, and Janela is at the forefront of it. His Spring Break shows over WrestleMania Weekend are genuinely fun, and they don't "expose the business" because the business has long since been exposed. Moreover, the greatest wrestlers on the scene are so great that they can allow you to suspend disbelief and treat wrestling as an emulation of sport irrespective of what is presented elsewhere. Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada IV happened in the same year as druid d*cks provided Joey Ryan a guard of honour. Anything is fair game, and Janela knows this.

His awesome, growing brand is built around leaning into that premise with a deranged verve.