10 Best Wrestlers Of 2023

It looked as though 2023 was going to be a relatively quiet one for Bryan Danielson, but even before he took the bulk of it off with injury, he'd contested one of the finest matches in AEW history and maybe the best to ever carry the "Iron Man" tag.

His first short sabbatical after Revolution and second one following Forbidden Door should have marked his cards, particularly after a dream match with Kazuchika Okada fell a long way short of expectations. Fortunately for Bryan and all of us, an arm injury didn't get in the way of the second half of the year matching the first.

Getting the best out of a tired trope, the 'American Dragon' was breathing fire during a gauntlet run before his shot at the 'Salt Of The Earth'. His matches with Konosuke Takeshita, Bandido, Brian Cage, Timothy Thatcher and Rush were individually sensational while simultaneously telling one larger singular story, and his subsequent heartbreak after losing to MJF has informed a quietly psychotic heel turn alongside the Blackpool Combat Club.

With Bryan Danielson, when it seems like it can get no better, it does. A two-match make-good run with Ricky Starks covered for the fact that 'Absolute' had lost his planned programme with CM Punk, and the more Danielson lives on Collision having weekly blinders, the more he'll raise the ire of ROH legacy rival Nigel McGuinness.

He says he'll be done in a year, but he also once admitted that he loves to lie after Cody Rhodes taught him how. Bryan is as good as he's expected to be at all of this, and those expectations are sky-high. That alone puts him at the top of the pile.