10 Best Wrestlers Of 2023
4. MJF
MJF was a wrestler of the half-year when he still wasn't being coaxed into working more matches by his new best friend Adam Cole, but the frequent bell-to-bell blinders have only upped his pedigree as he leaves behind one of the most significant years of his career.
By early summertime, was reflective of the paradigm shift AEW, Jon Moxley and others spoke of in 2019 - things had shifted significantly enough that a company's top heel could extend his bump card, protect the integrity of a character and wrestle instant classics at an exclusive rate. With so many of those Bloodline tags being boring until the final five minutes, not even Roman Reigns was on the level of The Devil in 2023.
A June boast that he'd worked the best ever four-way match immediately after the best ever Iron Man match was...not without merit actually, and the pairing with Cole resulted in a peak-of-the-genre comedy drama classic with his ROG Tag Team Championship partner in front of AEW's largest ever crowd. A Grand Slam main event against Samoa Joe saved the prestige of that brand too.
His choices are wearing thin on people as 2023 came to a close but even the perceived failures were very noble ones, and his AEW Championship run looks certain to be one celebrated more in retrospect than mid-reign.