10 Wrestlers Having An AMAZING 2023 (… That Nobody Is Talking About)
Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, and Sami Zayn are having transcendent 2023s - but they aren't alone...
Professional wrestling, subjectively, is enjoying a momentous 2023.
WWE has produced a powerful slate of Premium Live Events, two of which - Montreal's Elimination Chamber and Puerto Rico's Backlash - were championed by their respectively riotous audiences.
AEW is teetering on the edge of something remarkable amidst the expected CM Punk comeback, Kota Ibushi arrival, and Collision launch. NJPW, still salvaging their COVID-ignited self-destruction, is recouping some of its losses. IMPACT is in a euphoric state following the debut of Trinity. Smaller platforms, such as GCW and DEFY, are indulging in a profitable and fortunate indie scene.
Amongst this sea of success stands its captains, the shining lights of the wrestle-verse. Sami Zayn, although now cooled off, was burning between January and his vehement WrestleMania victory. Seth Rollins is still a roaring performer incapable of producing a ghastly bout. Bianca Belair, too, embodies the wrestler's wrestler characteristics impeccably, endorsed by a zealous audience. Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley just recently wrote the next chapter of their best-selling novel; a diabolical Steel Cage match that brought new meaning to the otherwise-boilerplate stipulation. Bryan Danielson, now symbolising the best branch of his career as an ROH-like heel, has been a workrate machine, but that's nothing new.
Justly so, they've received flowers for their efforts. The following ten names? Not quite...
10. Bron Breakker
Antithetical to the other pillars of the NXT 2.0 era, Bron Breakker is scarcely heralded as a premium worker.
An elongated babyface run drastically hindered his success rate. Ensembles of boos were commonplace for Bron in the first four months of 2023, the live audience restlessly awaiting a change from his draggy babyface NXT Champion run. It came when he was dethroned by Carmelo Hayes, but the match and the angle were controlled by immeasurable plaudits for Carmelo. Bron may as well have been Triple H circa-2003 for how fatigued and spiritless NXT onlookers had become of him.
Turning heel post-'Mania released Breakker from babyface confinement. He's evidently a more organic performer and his work has improved because of it; take his recent NXT TV bout vs. Trick Williams as a pertinent measure of this. Breakker practically eradicated Williams before Spearing the sh*t out of Carmelo Hayes post-match in a scene he has received mass ovation for on social media.
Babyface highlights vs. Grayson Waller and Pretty Deadly shouldn't be left out of the conversation either. Breakker was sturdy and authoritative in both, bulldozing Waller with a nauseatingly divine Spear in the former, a Steel Cage match where the cage worked in every way it should. He's always been a brute of a pro wrestler; disregarding him for his lifeless babyface persona isn't admissible, knowing what we know now.