10 Best Independent American Wrestlers Today

Last month he won the ROH World Championship, and this one he began by closing out the first night of NJPW's US tour in a losing effort to IWGP champ Kazuchika Okada. As indie wrestlers go, Cody - formerly Cody Rhodes (it's a radical name change we're going to have to come to terms with) - is pretty hot right now, and at 32, he's never really looked better.

And to think, some feared that his decision to give up a cushy job with WWE - the company to which he was contracted for a decade - would put paid to his hopes of unlocking his true potential. Instead, he's completely reinvented himself on the independent circuit, to the extent that it wouldn't be a shock to see his former employers roll out the red carpet for a return.