10 Best Kept Secrets In Wrestling Today
Great wrestling is EVERYWHERE, but these hidden gems keep flying under the radar.
Buddy Murphy is f*cking great.
Becky Lynch aside, no WWE wrestler has done more to grab the brass ring in 2018. The Australian's outstanding work ethic has resulted in major all-round improvement, and he's now lightyears above the performer that cut his teeth teaming with Wesley Blake in NXT. He looked like a prime candidate for release at the start of the year, but Buddy's now among WWE's most consistent wrestlers, with Super Show-Down and Survivor Series both bringing his outstanding TV form to the big stage.
His 'Best Kept Secret' nickname used to be one of wrestling's most appropriate. Now, everybody knows Murphy's one of the best in the company, making it impossible to mention his name among the sport's biggest hidden gems, as neglected as 205 Live is.
Modern wrestling is so impossibly vast that countless great wrestlers, promotions, matches, and in some cases, entire scenes don't get the attention they deserve. It's time to shine a light on them. Though their obscurity level varies, each of the entries within should absolutely be on the radar of anyone who considers themselves ahead of the curve, even if some are a long way from peaking...
10. Zack Gibson
BritWres devotees and the paltry slithers of WWE Network subscribers that tune into NXT UK's new weekly show should already know of Zack Gibson's quality, but that WWE are yet to present him on the level of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate means he still flies under many a radar.
Gibson is, without a slither of hyperbole, one of the most effective talkers in the sport. His ability to turn any room into a cauldron of bile and venom is second to none in the United Kingdom, and it has seen him become a near-perfect heel. For evidence of this, see the typically searing promo he cut on NXT UK's 24 October episode, during which 'Liverpool's Number One' literally shouted himself hoarse just to be heard over the baying Cambridge crowd.
His formula works every time. As soon as Gibson draws out his first "soooooon to be recognised...", audiences are flinging hatred ringwards, Zack's villainy ensuring they're glued to the ring by the time the bell rings. When it does, he's a domineering technician, grinding away at his opponents' resolve ahead of his feared Shankly Gates submission.