10 Most Improved Wrestlers On The Planet Today
1. Finn Balor
Finn Balor as Prince Devitt was mechanically sound long before he honed the magnetism which has seen him fast-tracked towards main event stardom in WWE.
For years, the most interesting thing about him - before he stepped through the ropes, at least - was his entrance music, Joe Esposito's fantastically-naff You're The Best Around. Beyond that, his character was a fairly bland babyface devoid of the intangibles needed to transcend the workrate-centric NJPW junior heavyweight division.
Devitt astutely delayed signing with WWE, who had courted his signature even before they relented on their kamikaze attitude towards internet darlings, until he developed in the personality department.
Like Naito and countless others before him, Devitt added depth to his act following a heel turn, the nuance of which was astonishing. As the architect of the Bullet Club, Devitt raised the ire of New Japan crowds by ordering his Bullet Club brethren to interfere during his matches - a commonplace heat generation ploy in the U.S., but a novel and detested tactic in the East in 2013.
His Wrestle Kingdom 8 cosplay entrance, which saw him enter the ring dressed as Venom from the Spiderman comics, ignited his imagination. The body paint became a permanent fixture, which eventually gave rise to the copyrightable, merchandisable Demon King character in WWE.