10 Best Wrestlers Of 2020
Jon Moxley, Drew McIntyre, Bayley, Io Shirai... all have been excellent, but where do they rank?
A poor year for New Japan Pro Wrestling robs our Wrestler of the Year list of several safe bets, as booker Gedo buried countless headlining matches under mounds and mounds of destructive Western tropes, spoiling many a big name's résumé in the process.
Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, and Hiroshi Tanahashi miss out as a result of this, though at least Okada's downturn was by design. NJPW's honourable mentions include Tomohiro Ishii, Shingo Takagi, Kota Ibushi, and Hiromu Takahashi, whose records weren't as blemished by Gedo's pencil.
Roman Reigns is perhaps the most notable WWE exclusion. Had he been 'The Tribal Chief' for a longer period, he'd be a surefire top three candidate, but this persona has only been in play since August. Randy Orton is similar, having delivered some of his career's best work across spring and summer, then regressing to heavy-handed exposition and chinlocks post-Edge. AJ Styles, Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, and Asuka were also in the conversation for inclusion.
From AEW, notable absentees include The Young Bucks, Darby Allin, and Chris Jericho. Similar to Roman Reigns, a full year of Eddie Kingston's would have seen him enter contention.
Wrestlers are ranked based on every aspect of their performances (from promos and match quality to believability and assuredness) in their respective roles. Consistency and peaks and valleys were given equal weight.
Let's go.
10. Minoru Suzuki
NJPW fell off hard in 2020, with any wrestler close to the main event scene tarnished by their booker's increasingly destructive use of distractions, referee bumps, and other tiresome shenanigans. The EVIL debacle was not self-contained: since Wrestle Kingdom 14, New Japan has been in a mire.
Minoru Suzuki has been largely unaffected by this. Much of this is because he tends to operate outwith the main event's sphere of f*ckery, largely competing amongst fellow NEVER Openweight Championship hopefuls and in other midcard attraction bouts, where his output speaks for itself. A sharp upturn from a middling 2019 that suggested NJPW's murder grandpa was finally on the downswing of his career has made MiSu the surest thing in this grim era of what used to be the world's best booked promotion.
Suzuki's early-year match with Jon Moxley was a unique, thrilling battle between two different kinds of badass, and his fruitful G1 run yielded incandescent rippers with Kota Ibushi and Tomohiro Ishii. NJPW's best 2020 feud came in the form of Suzuki vs. Shingo Takagi too, and none of his cohorts have adapted as well to New Japan's silenced clap crowds. Suzuki's indomitable aura burns as brightly in this environment as any other.