50 Absolute Best Wrestlers In The World Right Now

Honourable mentions are vast; while the booking of many promotions is lacking, and every promotion beyond WWE is struggling to create new needle-moving stars, the talent exists. In absurd volume.

(This is why a lot of AEW fans in particular have felt a sense of frustration and disappointment for well over a year now).

Komander is an electrifying talent whose stuff would look more awesome still, if fans could actually back him as winner - and if he was more prominent amid AEW's rotating cast. This list is (mostly) concerned with singles wrestlers, and while Dax Harwood was much better moonlighting solo in 2022, he’s still dependable as a stiff technician with the rare ability to make a match feel like a fight. Shelton Benjamin has drawn raves since arriving in AEW as a surreal monster of a heel. The Beast Mortos might be the most under-pushed wrestler in the game. He’s like an old-timey strongman who can warp around the ring. The mask and the look alone raises his floor to three stars.

On the subject of asterisks, Shingo Takagi has declined very slightly from a guy who never dipped below ****¼ to someone who now averages ***¾. He’s 42 now. He’s spent every year since 2005 on lists like this, and he’s still, somehow, very close to it.

Alongside the Dragon, El Desperado, Yota Tsuji, DOUKI and David Finlay were key in salvaging another cold and barren year for New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2024. Mascara Dorado is the standout in sister promotion CMLL.

In WWE, poor Sheamus is a bit over-exposed, but as respectable as any upper midcard act gets. Zoey Stark is really, really good mechanically, but finds it a challenge to make anybody care.

Who stands upon the hallowed ground of the top 50…?

This list was a collaborative effort penned by Michael Sidgwick and Michael Hamflett.

50. Julius Creed

A standout in tag and multi-man matches, Julius Creed has yet to explore much in the way of singles action, but every clue from the last few years suggests he could be key to WWE’s topline success in the years to come.

A better and more explosive mechanic than 90% of his colleagues who also happens to have an underrated speed/aerial game, Creed follows the straight line down from Kurt Angle and Chad Gable in terms of gimmick, work and obvious untapped charisma. An incredibe hot tag as a babyface and believable bully as a heel, the only thing he’s not proven adept at is getting over as a big star while working as a heater in a suit.

Creed is young and over enough to suffer a little bit of sludgy booking, but for it to happen during an otherwise creatively prosperous period is disappointing to say the least.

49. Roderick Strong

Roddy is a hard one to appraise, in that his AEW spell has coincided with its wider decline.

The Undisputed Era lads are outwardly, unashamedly dorky, and AEW’s fondness for yuk-yuk has softened Roddy’s edge. Roddy screaming out names was a terrible bit in 2023. He still did it in 2024.

In AEW, Strong was pushed with far more conviction than you’d expect, and didn’t make the grade as a must-see, featured TV character. It’s a shame; a company obsessed with booking veteran talent to lose frequently actually has the best guy for the job. (This take was best underscored by Roddy’s loss to HOOK last year, which was below the Samoa Joe match but a level above everything else the young lad did).

Strong, who is still clinging onto his fastball, would be awesome as the guy who babyfaces narrowly survive en route to a title shot. When he’s in the zone, Roddy and his relentless ass-kicker in-ring brand is still a wonderfully gruesome spectacle.

Roddy can’t sports entertain, but he can still go. His future seems obvious. He should be the gatekeeper that makes men out of Daniel Garcia, Zay and the like.

48. Daniel Garcia

Daniel Garcia has worked his confused young man persona brilliantly in recent years.

It’s not a money-drawing act, not that anything in AEW is, but it’s the sort of considered character work that will slowly bond him to AEW’s fans and forge a loyalty when it all finally clicks for him.

Garcia was exceptional in the 2024 Continental Classic, capable of wrestling situationally and coherently in the same series. He was aggressive in his excellent scrap with Mark Briscoe, spirited and sympathetic in displays against Kazuchika Okada and Kyle Fletcher.

Technically immaculate, Garcia is also, slowly, mastering body language and match structure. He’s never too neat. Garcia is a guy who seems to understand the problem with a lot of modern wrestling. When he takes a lariat, he won’t just do a back-flip; he’ll take it on the shoulder with deliberate awkwardness. The landing is meant to be ugly. You’re meant to fear for the babyface.

He might be a little too understated for a modern AEW audience that is more inclined to erupt for a Will Ospreay performance - it’s hard to shake the idea that Garcia is not as over as he “should” be - but he’s on the correct path.

47. Montez Ford

The Street Profits have been without WWE tag gold for so long now that the company have had no choice but to factor it into storylines. Unfortunately, this has manifested as continuation of a lengthy losing streak rather than another attempt to reboot and revitalise an act that never should have gone stale in the first place.

Triple H just doesn’t seem to put an awful lot of creative care into the group, and more’s the pity when Montez Ford in particular stands out as somebody that might be losing his prime years not only to bad tag booking but a complete lack of upward momentum as a future singles star too.

This isn’t to rule out just how integral Angelo Dawkins was to their success, but he seems to have read the tea leaves more than Ford and worked in line with his push. Meanwhile, before, during and after the Profits’ WWE peak, Ford was a force of nature - a performer so clearly custom built for the Sports Entertainment big time that his lack of push absolutely scans as promotional malpractice. There’s always a next year, but it should be have been the last one, or the one before that.

46. Becky Lynch

In totality, Becky Lynch’s 2025 return will likely determine once and for all just how lucky WWE were to keep her around.

After smashing through a million glass ceilings in 2018 en route to main eventing WrestleMania and becoming an objectively bankable female top star in a barren time for making anybody, she bet on herself big in the years following a 2020/21 maternity break. Her heel run had ups and downs narratively, but she locked all the way in as a wrestler, flexing her decades of experience in ways that hadn’t been so nakedly apparent in the years prior. This spoke to a confidence that was perhaps laying dormant, and one that powered her latter babyface run as both an established headliner on the main roster and surprise player/coach package (and significant ratings draw) on NXT.

2022-2024 was a reflection of all of that, and in Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Tiffany Stratton, and to a lesser extent Liv Morgan and Lyra Valkyria, Lynch began building a CV of wrestlers that benefitted enormously from long runs with her. Boxing clever when she had the most power and influence to do so, Lynch looks to be one of the few that seems to earnestly want to help others as much as herself. In a Women’s Division that never gets enough creative attention, there may be no singular wrestler more valuable.

45. Dragon Lee

It’d be unfair to say that Dragon Lee gets in here on reputation, but he’s at very least leaning on what is known about his brilliance rather than what is necessarily being exhibited in an otherwise red-hot company.

A victim of WWE’s sludgy lower midcard booking, Lee’s almost never been in contention for anything meaningful on the main roster. This should be a damning indictment of a wrestler while the market leader’s been such a well-oiled creative machine, but here it categorically falls in the lap of the booker. TV losses as part of the LWO and Main Event wins nobody ever watches doesn’t exactly put you in the frame for big title wins, and as if to illustrate that, Lee’s currently the holder of the X/Twitter-exclusive “Speed” Championship - just about the one belt you can’t sneak on screen on Raw or SmackDown.

Lee’s problem is one so many others used to face in the prior regime but so few do now - he’s far too good for his position, but also far too good to ever likely get released to a competitor. Every card needs stars and utility players, but ‘The Game’ doesn’t always do a good job of hiding his prejudices when it comes to discerning between the two.

44. Hechicero

Hechicero is incredible. He’s also unique in an industry that has done everything. He deserves praise for standing out alone, before you even consider his stellar and consistent in-ring output.

A stunning technician living in the skin of the hardest looking bastard you’ve ever seen, Hechicero wrestles like a predator. He gets people over as wrestlers with a brain in their head and fighting spirit in their veins purely by having them escape his hermetic submissions - which while distinct and creative to begin with are legitimised further by his ridiculous proportions.

In 2024, he wrestled the best match you may not have seen against Zack Sabre, Jr. for CMLL. That was the year in which he gained traction beyond his native Mexico as the stand-out performer amid AEW and CMLL’s newly established working relationship.

Hechicero boasts every positive physical attribute - he’s fast, strong, agile - and his matches look like nobody else’s.

It really is worth labouring on that point; in this age of homogenised style, Hechicero, amongst the best wrestlers alive, is without doubt the most refreshing.

43. Jay White

Jay White is an enigma.

He’s an exceptional pro wrestler. He wrestles as if there’s something to win. He wrestles as if he thinks deeply about his strategy in the days ahead of his matches. His WrestleDream win over Hangman Page was a great example of this. He weakened Page’s knee throughout, and then, when Page crumpled under his own attempt at the Buckshot lariat, Jay, with sharp, breathtaking exhilaration, warped over to the ropes and floored him with the Blade Runner.

At the exact same time, Jay never says anything in promos that anybody ever remembers. He doesn’t project megastar charisma. His absence wouldn’t mean a great deal. As great as his best performances are, they’re never iconic. He has this mystifying way of building a library of great matches that never adds up to anything undeniable - a string of matches that never beg for him to be pushed to a higher level. Jay White is almost always in great form, but his form never seems to matter. It’s bizarre.

People will debate how good Jay White actually was years after he retires. In fact, that will be the first thing you think about whenever his name is mentioned.

42. Brody King

Brody King shouldn’t lose as often as he does.

His willingness to do a job - all-too-rare in All Elite Wrestling - might not ruin his aura. Swerve Strickland and Kyle Fletcher were both granted opportunities to ascend by becoming undeniable as they played the game.

The nature of those defeats - Brody tends to take the majority of his matches before simply losing at the end - isn’t credible.

That’s because Brody himself is too credible. A massive, winged behemoth, Brody can fly at his rivals from all angles but is still capable of carrying himself like a big man and a bigger threat. His disregard for his own body elevates his matches - this man will splatter his guts against a guardrail purely to make his opponents look like smart, evasive underdogs - and with his awesome Gonzo bomb finish, as gross-looking as anything conjured by the vaunted AJPW pillars, King becomes, in theory anyway, the most fearsome hoss in the game.

He’s far over than his push, and his crowd interaction bark is a wonderful, rousing reminder of that.

Brody, with a string of wins, is so good at being a monster that he’d feel invincible.

41. Seth Rollins

The true value of Seth Rollins in 2025 remains as much of a puzzle as it has done for the majority of his run as a main roster singles star.

If the question is around him being positioned at the very top of the card, the answer is no. If the question is based on him being the best in-ring performer in the company, the answer is also no. If the question is can he be either ever again, the answer is again no, but Rollins has - in brief but bright flashes - worked in such a way that that the response is certain.

His ability to simultaneously be a dyed-in-the-wool sports entertainment act and main event gatekeeper that can occasionally live up to the big match billing is impressive, and he’s at very least consistent in his ability to fit that specifically difficult profile. Never permanently converting all that into being WWE’s very top guy will always be his undoing though. He doesn’t get enough credit for how much of a utility man he’s been across so many different versions of what WWE even is, but that’s not the critical acclaim he craves. Or, truthfully, warrants.

40. Jon Moxley

Jon Moxley’s quest to save AEW has proven itself to be very ironic. At time of writing, he has opened an infinite loop; many are proposing that Kenny Omega needs to save AEW from Jon Moxley. While that sort of development is the aim of the storyline, that’s not a measure of its success.

To borrow a football cliché: form is temporary, class is permanent. Mox is in horrendous form. The dour, cartoonishly evil Death Riders make for grim TV. There is no fear nor joy to any of it. Mox’s cryptic, rambling promos are bad. His graphic threats, increasingly lame, no longer carry the same credibility.

And yet, they should, because when Mox steps foot in the ring, he’s still a terrifying sh*t-kicker.

At Dynamite Grand Slam, he booted Darby Allin so hard that Darby’s mouth was orange, a spit and blood cocktail, for the entire match. Mox somehow managed to avoid giving Orange Cassidy permanent scar tissue at Full Gear by digging his fingers deep into the back rake.

The idea of Mox, as this ultra-credible Big Bad whose eventual defeat will usher in a new AEW golden age, is failing. Dismally.

And yet, against Cassidy, his 2.99 Orange Punch kick-out was so well done that it felt in that moment like a real changing of the guard was imminent.

Maybe this can work. Or maybe Mox is still elite in spite of this awful character.

39. Kazuchika Okada

He is not the Kazuchika Okada of old.

Okada used to take an age to build his matches in order to convey his dominance. There was an obvious, even naked psychology to it - taking it slowly informed the frisson of the closing stretch - but his body language and pacing was so great that it really meant something when his opponent grew into the match.

Okada lives down to the old criticism in AEW. His opening phase feels far more languid than careful. Perhaps his brain is too wired to that resurgence New Japan style. Or perhaps he can’t be arsed.

Either way, Okada no longer tops these lists - and yet, he still appears in them because those last five minutes still feel like a wrestling God is deciding the fate of the very landscape. This is especially impressive, since he fights over a bespoke vanity title every now and then these days.

While Okada has struggled to grasp the pacing of a U.S. TV match, he has nailed the classic psychology. Okada is an impish heel who positively delights in cheating and being a prick. There’s more levity to his work, which is divisive, but even if you think comedy is below him, it’s harder to criticise his wonderful timing and deadpan.

38. Mark Briscoe

AEW, through its broken roster hierarchy, will always draw criticism for not pushing every wrestler to a certain level - because there are too many wrestlers.

Is Mark Briscoe the most under-pushed of the lot?

From one perspective, it’s easy to understand why Briscoe is often cast as the Obvious Loser. He boasts an almost profound level of sympathy, people simply love him (and thus resent the heels who beat him), and he’s been around for so long that perhaps fans won’t buy him past a certain level.

Conversely, the guy is incredible.

He’s only 39, and he’s double f*cking tough. Despite the decades of unreal punishment he has taken, he still goes insanely hard even in throwaway TV matches. He made Chris Jericho look worthwhile at WrestleDream last year, largely because Briscoe is the wrestler with the most soul in a soulless world. His redneck kung fu fire-up spot is endearing and believable. He’s hilarious, but never one-note.

Funny can draw money, in Briscoe’s case.

At a minimum, a babyface with his incredible ability to make people care - the hardest skill, and the most important quality - should be positioned as a doomed Word title pay-per-view contender.

37. PAC

A floating presence in All Elite Wrestling - for reasons that are his own - PAC, around whom major storylines are never built, isn’t positioned to take a top 10 slot here.

He has the talent to crack the top three.

Nobody takes a better DDT. PAC spikes the heart rate by landing at an angle that makes it look like he has broken his neck. The body is not meant to move that way, but he uses his supernatural agility to make his bumps look like horrific in-ring accidents.

Equally awe-inspiring on offence, PAC is a mean bully heel with ferocious snap powering everything he does. He folds his opponents in half with lightswitch quickness. He boasts such incredible control over his sculpted body. Of all his physical gifts, his footwork might stand out; PAC is a man who can sprint full-pelt and then stop in his tracks to take something deadly. His high-speed run into, for example, Jay White’s Blade Runner is phenomenal.

It’s hard to get too thrilled by much of anything in 2025 - workrate inflation is too real - and then you watch PAC.

36. Ilja Dragunov

The second half of 2024 desperately missed Ilja Dragunov.

Leaving NXT a substantially better and talent-richer land than he found it, Dragunov was the perfect champion for a time where star-making was a necessary requirement. Not least because just about everybody looked like a bigger one after wrestling him. This was evidenced by how smooth his main roster transition was too.

A great match may seem low on the priority list to many WWE fans, but impressive back catalogues can still inform the longer-term faith people choose to invest in pushes. To this end, battles with Bron Breakker were fantastic on either side of the developmental divide, as were the former NXT Champion’s early Raw showings opposite everybody from Ricochet to Dominik Mysterio. With a surprising gift for a Sports Entertainment-adjecent promo and a nailed on epic rematch with legacy rival Gunther down the line, the near future at very least looks bright for somebody that once felt as far removed from the WWE landscape as the BT Sports studio itself.

35. Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre had his best ever year in 2024, convincing some of his staunchest critics that he was more than just a script-reciter on the microphone and a dependable working big man between the ropes.

A happy accident that became storyline gold, the injury sustained by CM Punk in the Royal Rumble put McIntyre at the front of a long queue of folk that had perfect worked shoot heat with the controversial star. Making you forget that it’s a turn-taking business, the two exchanging verbal and physical attacks on one another until both lives were ruined, leading to a summer series of matches that - while divisive - peaked sky high with the Hell In A Cell payoff.

Along the way, he further refined his character to futureproof it beyond the Punk rivalry, and was able to lay claim to drawing a major house in Glasgow when the company returned to the UK for his second high profile Clash At The Castle title loss. That’s not without additional merit too - like his pandemic WrestleMania win, McIntyre has monetised his failure to win the big one in a way Lex Luger never could. He succeeds in real life when he chokes on screen - a rare gift few are afforded.

34. Oba Femi

Oba Femi feels like the first WWE developmental prospect in some time to be celebrated for what he can do, rather than ruined for trying to do what he can’t. And this early into his run as the most dominant star of his generation in NXT, thank goodness for that.

Used in multi-man matches that allowed him to destroy guys while using other guys as weapons, Femi has been pushed in line with his popularity in yet another case of the market leader actually allowing fans to set the agenda with an unproven talent. A tweener by design, he looks set to hit the main roster with the same momentum as a Bron Breakker, and hopefully those on Raw and SmackDown will only tweak his best bits in the same way they have with the second generation Steiner.

Huge, charismatic, and yet to do anything that exposes or undermines his unstoppable force aura, the simple route with Femi continues to be the smart one. There aren’t many within mainstream wrestling that have his combination of stature and charisma and the longer that’s the case, the further he can go.

33. Rhea Ripley

The quintessential main stage star in 2025 WWE, Rhea Ripley is typically a dead cert for stadium shows and/or tentpole events, but there’s probably no bigger name that Triple H is so routinely as stingy with than the ‘Eradicator’.

What perhaps scans as a dream gig for Ripley herself grows somewhat frustrating for fans, but only because more often than not she brings the best out of just about everybody. Dominant in all the ways a monster babyface needs to be, her ability to sell in spite of seemingly obvious physical advantages has been massive in shaping her as one of the company’s most dominant stars.

As leader of The Judgment Day and on-screen beau of the detestable Dirty Dominik Mysterio, she had such a magnetic personality that the turn was inevitable before the group even split. Her arrival on shows now results in a Steve Austin-lite pop and certain trouble for the villains, but hopefully her matches get more familiar again now she’s finally concluded her long-standing business with Liv Morgan.

32. Bianca Belair

Bianca Belair remains a shining light of the WWE women’s division, which is doubly impressive considering the typical lack of attention on both her and it.

At just 35, she’s only now entering her wrestler prime, but her resumé of iconic matches and moments stacks up against every contemporary great. Furthermore (to be generous to the booking) the fact that she’s been trusted to give Jade Cargill and several others the smoothest possible start to main roster life while anchoring an ailing women’s tag division shows the experience and skill she’s got well beyond her years.

Regardless of stories (or lack thereof) she constantly finds herself in some of the very best matches the division has to offer, and has so much appeal that she remains in the sort of all-year-round WrestleMania speculation conversations most males on the roster would be jealous of. ‘EST’ by name and nature, Belair is still the division’s total package until somebody categorically and definitively proves that otherwise.

31. Jacob Fatu

Gifted one of the best debuts in recent memory and a key spot in one of the company’s top storylines, Jacob Fatu has been given every chance to succeed by WWE. But that understates just how much he’s taken advantage of the opportunities.

A total killer on offence and believable no-selling even the toughest attacks from the biggest stars, Fatu owns the entire space when he’s on screen, and constantly feels like he’s desperate to stop holding himself back and destroy it all. Comparisons to wild, untamed animals from commentary weren’t remotely off base - he instantly creates an energy that everybody in sight is in danger as long as they’re around him.

Already a bigger star than everybody else in The New Bloodline despite being the last to be revealed as part of it, his aura also helped a struggling Solo Sikoa in the second half of the year too. Benefitting from Fatu’s chaos-causing actions, the idea that Sikoa had to be insecure to the point of insanity to even imagine unleashing him was crucial in improving his credibility. That’s star-making stuff, long before he’s even peaked on the show himself.

30. Chad Gable

Mr Reliable in WWE for going on a decade now, Chad Gable continues to represent an in-ring bar few reach, even if his streak of establishing chicken salad tag teams might have finally come to an end with American Made.

Continually and consistently too good for his own good, Gable was so spectacular as a valiant babyface trying and failing to snare Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship that he was then able to seamlessly pivot into a heel run severing himself from the likes of Sami Zayn and Alpha Academy by being a spiteful bully. The matches across the board were never not excellent, which is always the pattern.

Trusted with getting the likes of The Wyatt Sicks and Penta started thanks to his fabulous physical range, Gable continues to be stuck as a premium quality utility player, though has at least verbalised his quest to win a singles title in 2025. Based on how well he was booked the last time he got close, there may yet be a summit he’s finally permitted to reach.

29. Giulia

There was a brief moment in the earliest stages of Giulia’s NXT run where quiet questions were asked about exactly who the market leader had brought in to the fold. A good-but-not-great start in front of an audience prone to snap judgments cast doubt on the pedigree and possibilities of ‘Beautiful Madness’ within WWE, but the speed in which she put those to bed was only matched by how quickly she became a deserving NXT Women’s Champion.

That title is one of the few within North American wrestling to still take its legacy quite seriously, and when Giulia dethroned Roxanne Perez, it was confirmation that she was to be considered the very best across WWE, AEW, TNA and the North American indies, even with some hot competition on her own brand.

Thankfully, her confidence wasn’t shaken by the early wobbles, and she owned the role before the belt confirmed it. Established now as the benchmark of the packed division’s upper tier, her matches will be among the most scrutinised on the various television and PLE specials the developmental brand puts on. She’s never looked more ready to cope with the pressure.

28. Jordynne Grace

After years of building a reputation as one of the most compelling women’s wrestlers in North America, Jordynne Grace exploded into the mainstream thanks to show-stealing turn in the Royal Rumble. The second TNA Women’s Champion to get a spot in the match after Mickie James, the spot turned out to be more than just a unique one-off too.

Grace kicked the door wide open for a relationship of sorts between WWE and TNA, and in doing so became the top figurehead for the latter while fans waited for her seemingly inevitable debut in the former. Impressive matches and promos on NXT during a summer stint in Orlando only added fuel to that fire.

A celebrated run as TNA Champion ended with her putting over Masha Slamovich, and a controversial programme with recent returnee Tessa Blanchard might well be the last thing she does for the company as the WWE rumours re-circulate. With two new singles titles and several more hours of content required in 2025, her timing couldn’t be better.

27. Bron Breakker

Bron Breakker keeps being tested.

Following the 2.0 rebranding of NXT, he was tested by having the rocket strapped to him as an out-of-nowhere new Champion and leader of the brand, alliterative name and abandoned family history and all. Obvious skillset be damned, he was then confusingly required to work overlong 2003 babyface Bill Goldberg-pilled matches seemingly to test if he could be the perfect generic jock when his call-up came. He was then turned heel when a call-up seemed imminent, which tested his resolve and audience patience in a performer that felt due for a Raw or SmackDown spot months earlier.

Not all of the tests were passed with flying colours, but based on his largely great main roster run to this point, they might have been productive. The version of Breakker that made it to Raw ran the ropes faster than anybody that ever worked for the market leader, hit harder than almost ever hoss figure from the last 20 years, and deftly walked a character alignment tightrope that made him a relatively effective situational babyface/heel dependant on who he was in there with. So far, so surprisingly good.

26. Orange Cassidy

It took far longer than even good faith critics forecasted, but Orange Cassidy might at last be out of material. Ahead of his match with Jon Moxley at Full Gear, OC failed to convince fans that he was fired up. His performances on the mic were subpar.

And yet, that match was outstanding. The funniest Orange Cassidy punchline was always that he was better than the babyfaces who took it seriously. You can still see glimmers of the Orange Cassidy who told that impeccable, long, ambitious story as the banged-up International champion. He is outstanding at conveying the agony of a fight, with his stagger, his glassy-eyed facials, and he’s even better at building the comeback.

In a weird way, it’s almost a shame that he adopted one of the most successful gimmicks of the decade. The OC act worked primarily through its use of juxtaposition. It was awesome watching the aloof, cool guy get battered into caring and firing up.

But the fire-up doesn’t just work on that basis; he’s superb at one of wrestling’s most vital and challenging principles without that contrast.

25. MJF

You’d have thought, in 2022, that MJF would have topped such a list in 2025. His trajectory was a vertical line.

That hasn’t happened.

Bad vibes era AEW fell into both creative malaise and systemic disarray. Nobody thrived consistently. MJF himself was probably too ambitious and self-conscious, reaching for hour-long MOTY contenders with Will Ospreay and in-vogue “cinema” through his doomed storyline with Adam Cole. They said he couldn’t work - so he worked against type and wrestled one of the most athletically impressive matches of all-time, just to prove that he could.

Was that the best use of his talents?

MJF, almost infuriatingly gifted, too often uses his brilliance as an audition for something else. Thin skin is the enemy of the professional wrestler.

He was far better, or at least far more himself, against Daniel Garcia at All Out ‘24. He played a cowardly heel vicious enough to exploit a cheap opening with aplomb.

If he exercises a bit more in the way of discipline, MJF could still be an all-time great.

24. Roxanne Perez

A protracted period in WWE’s developmental division seemed to be with Roxanne Perez’ best interests in mind, but there’s something to be said for saving the blushes of several main roster stars she could already comfortably out work.

‘Prodigy’ by nickname and nature, Perez has an in-ring IQ that obscures her youth, and at just 23 she’s proof positive that just as much progress can be made outside of WWE’s four walls as within them. Nonetheless, strong runs as NXT Champion as both heel and babyface has allowed her chance to flex her range between the ropes and results are almost always good-to-great.

Things can only get better on the microphone too. Where she’s played carry artist and consummate pro when the bell rings, her promos have flattered to deceive. With the gift of ample time on her side and a working style that Raw and SmackDown’s finest would be foolish not to want to mesh with, she’ll hopefully be able to eradicate the stumbles and stutters that have undermined her presence in the face of apparent rehearsal. She may yet grow into the best all-rounder in the company.

23. Stephanie Vaquer

Facing the dual pressures of following up on killer runs outside of WWE’s fairly rigid system mere weeks before she signed and debuting (and wrestling) alongside Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer has gone beyond proving herself as the best an overflowing division has to offer.

Effectively only out of title races as a booking convenience, Vaquer carries herself as an uncrowned champion in her work, her poise and the enormous gulf between her ability and that of the majority of her peers.

The Giulia super-team booking was shrewd enough in that it motivated a significant hierarchy reshuffle with the show already boasting an abundance of talent, but almost damaged the former Stardom standout’s aura for how much more prepared Vaquer looked. To this end, she may skip NXT gold entirely en route to a main roster that needs talent for its secondary titles. She may win the North American strap if only so the top duo can do a quickie power trip deal and run roughshod over the roster, but Vaquer is half-doing that without the enforced validation of the gold.

22. Willow Nightingale

The most accurate and flattering statement one can write about Willow Nightingale is that she naturally radiates a sense of fun and charm - so much so that she gets over automatically every time she makes her entrance.

This also does her a disservice. The idea that Willow simply goes out there and is Willow detracts from how hard she works - and the huge extent to which she has improved.

Willow, a couple of years ago, was a fun worker who could light up an undercard with her presence.

Now, Willow has evolved into a fiery hoss powerhouse who can lob bombs in violent midcard brawls and elicit real emotion in high-pressure situations. People don’t merely like her; in matches against Kris Statlander and Mercedes Moné, they lived and died with her.

Bruising wars, great backstage pull-aparts, and a good catchphrase - which seems trivial but absolutely is not - Willow could be headlining pay-per-views in a Jericho-less, utopian AEW.

She might not be undeniable - can you say that every match of hers is really better than her last? - but she should be awarded far more opportunities to succeed.

21. Mercedes Moné

Mercedes Moné is finally on the path to realising her potential as an all-time great - irrespective of gender.

Wrestling at half-speed and with even less confidence, much of her 2024 was a monumental let-down - until she was paired with Kris Statlander. After that match, the spark - which was always there, illuminating very good matches against Willow Nightingale and Stephanie Vaquer - caught fire.

A Moné match feels like an event. She was sensational against Hazuki, which many praised among the greatest women’s matches in the history of the United States. There was a hint of Kenny Omega to her performance, particularly the awesome spot in which she allowed Hazuki to rope-break the Moné Maker. That really felt like the end, and that is key in playing the Ace role. It’s a very tricky balancing act - the Ace must appear invincible and vulnerable all at once - and Moné, who is once again throwing herself to the canvas with deranged abandon, is mastering it at long last.

She might never learn how to effectively promote her big matches, but she’s delivering when the bell rings.

20. Nathan Frazer

There’s no need to talk around Nathan Frazer’s offering when the bell rings. He’s got the matches, he’s always had the matches, and WWE feels set up well enough to have more of the matches on Raw and SmackDown whenever the time comes for him to make the move to the main roster.

But it’s as part of a genuinely intriguing tag team storyline alongside Axiom where he’s shone in a way that doesn’t require him to hit the ropes faster than anybody not named Bron Breakker.

There’d be an argument to put Fraxiom in here as a dual entry. They’ve got the matches, they’ve always had the matches, and WWE feels set up well enough to have more of the matches on Raw and SmackDown whenever the time comes for them to make the move to the main roster. But Frazer’s inherent dislikability has been the beating heart of their eventual (?) breakup and informed so much of the drama in their team-of-2024 title reign. A born heel even with some of the most dazzling aerial skill, the former Ben Carter will do well to learn from his mentor Seth Rollins and lean in to however he’s received. There’s a babyface in there, but not before fans love hating him first.

19. Athena

Athena is wasted in Ring of Honor - but, underscoring just how brilliant she is, the most dead and utterly pointless brand in all of wrestling is worth watching when she’s on it.

It’s difficult to play the invincible heel character without incurring the wrath of the fans. Even when the wrestler was once beloved, if they lack the necessary credibility and aren’t completely dialled-in, they just breed resentment (see: Jon Moxley).

Athena, record-setting ROH Women’s World champion, generates the best strain of heat. People want to see her lose, emphasis on the “want”. They’re happy to wait and love to hate her in the meantime.

Her stuff looks as impeccable as ever - in an age of total excess, her forearm is best in class - but she’s not afraid to stooge and get silly with it. She wants the fans to want her to lose, which is key. It never feels like she uses her run at the peak to indulge some lame tough guy fantasy.

Much as it all feels like a waste, Athena - and one hopes this day arrives imminently - will re-enter AEW proper like a new signing, equipped with a godly aura.

18. Kyle Fletcher

Kyle Fletcher, in the first half of 2024, was indebted to Will Ospreay - so much so that this formed the basis of their excellent programme in the second half of the year.

Before that breakthrough feud, Fletcher could be accused of being a little indistinct. He was very good, and his face-melter of a running big boot was close to the V-Trigger and the Hidden Blade with its super-impressive physical timing. Still, the odd match of his often scanned as PWG landfill. Athletically impressive, a bit soulless, nothing you’ve not seen.

In the second half of ‘24, Fletcher proved that he wanted it.

He got shredded. He shaved his head. He added even more oomph to his killer offence. In the most promising development, he didn’t turn up the pace. He took moments to taunt and bait the crowd and picked his spots. Something like his Tombstone piledriver onto the steps, which he half-killed Will Ospreay with at Full Gear, felt even more disturbing, since he’d grasped how and when to register it to dramatic effect.

A wicked bully heel with loathsome facial expressions, of late, Fletcher has raised his floor - and the ceiling is fast disappearing from view.

17. Tomohiro Ishii

Tomohiro Ishii does the same thing in every match. Virtually every wrestler does, granted, but Ishii wrestles Ishii matches.

The Ishii match is unmistakable.

He draws from a narrow range of moves and plot points. He kicks ass and gets his ass kicked. He fires up, kicks ass, and gets his ass kicked when you think he’s winning. Then, when you think he’s getting his ass kicked, his face turns to stone as he advances on his opponent, no-selling every strike because he’s too hopped up on fighting spirit. Then he gets his ass kicked and eats a signature or finish.

This motherf*cker kicks out at one when you think he’s knackered, and he inspires disbelief even when you know better. It’s so odd; the longer he does this, the easier it should be to see the wires. It isn’t. How does he do it?

He’s a magician, the preeminent master of the “when” to do it”, and he’s so good at making it seem like agony is shooting through his body that you forget the “order”.

He’s still great. He should be a husk of a man, but he’s still great.

16. Kris Statlander

There’s a saying in pro wrestling - don’t get too good at doing jobs - and it’s becoming eerily relevant in the case of Kris Statlander.

The idea is that a booker will beat somebody that good like a drum because every match they have is awesome. Stat belongs in that bracket.

In a plunder-free environment, Dr. Britt Baker never looked better than when Stat was in the opposite corner. Willow Nightingale ascended in 2024; Stat helped propel her to that level. When Julia Hart felt like she’d arrived, it was Statlander she journeyed with.

Stat used her stardust to make Moné all over again.

Her offence looks absolutely wicked, physically, and it’s no wonder AEW put her in the position to work the longest match in the history of the women’s division: she has a grasp of craft that elevates her closing stretches to the epic strata.

The fear is that Stat, who was more over a couple of years ago, truthfully, has been stigmatised as the solid hand. She’s better than that - far better - and with some actual booking focus in the babyface role, she could be the centrepiece of the entire scene.

15. Konosuke Takeshita

Konosuke Takeshita is phenomenal.

He should be wrestling high-profile singles matches far more often; the byproduct of AEW’s questionable approach to signing and promoting talent is that you are all too able to forget how incredible he is.

A hybrid monster capable of doing everything, Takeshita exhilarates fans without ever abandoning the thread of how he should wrestle. He is a unit. He can barrel across the ring with his triathlete prowess, but always takes that extra moment to register how formidable he is. His Blue Thunder Bomb is jaw-dropping. It seems to take an age between the set-up and the impact, as if Takeshita is ensuring that he can ensure the maximum nausea and most devastating impact. It also looks as if he’s simply toying with his prey.

As great as Takeshita was across 2024, when he was actually booked, he was actually miscast. Despite his unreal proportions, Take - and this can’t be taught - is inordinately sympathetic. People just think he rules.

A warp speed warlord who makes a forearm look like a damn decapitation, Konosuke Takeshita could be an (or the) answer to AEW’s babyface problem.

14. Iyo Sky

Damage CTRL’s relatively uneventful ex-communicating of Bayley had to be disappointing for all the wrestlers involved considering how much time and effort had been sunk into the group since their SummerSlam 2022 formation, but it didn’t stop the ‘Role Model’ and Iyo Sky having one of the best matches of the year at WrestleMania 40.

Little stops Sky flexing that kind of form, in fact. A perennial great match specialist, she goes underrated despite multiple title wins thanks to a raft of ostensibly throwaway television matches that outstrip everything else the share the shows with.

Versatile in singles or tags and proven as a stable leader and - selectively in NXT - a difference-maker with viewers, Sky joins an elite club of women within WWE that thrive in spite of half-baked booking and/or consistent indifference from the creative team. In an era of Premium Live Events with five matches or less, she unjustly struggles to make the cut. The grim irony is that she offers a virtual guarantee of quality when she actually secures the spot.

13. Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns is at long last everything WWE wanted him to be.

A babyface headliner that only truly found himself when at long last allowed to turn heel in 2020, ‘The Tribal Chief’ now actually gets to use the undeniable poise and presence he had all along.

The constant evolution of the Roman Reigns character has resulted in him withdrawing much of what made him an exciting in-ring prospect in the mid-2000s, but it’s hard to argue with results and he’s had a boatload of good ones. Longest reigning WWE Champion since Hulk Hogan’s 1984-1988 run. Largest number of WrestleMania main events and it’s still getting bigger. Most successful consecutive defences of the top strap on the ‘Grandest Stage’. WWE hitting new commercial highs ahead of a move to Netflix with Reigns routinely commanding the biggest audiences for his quarter hours and (wryly infamous) returns to television. He was and still is the real deal.

Does the company soar, post-pandemic and especially post-Vince McMahon without him already installed as a Champion fans can completely believe and invest in? Hard to say, but Reigns never made wearing such a weighty crown look all that heavy. He’ll wrestle how and when he wants to most likely for the rest of his career too, and he’ll do so in the very best spots. As far as “figuring it all out” goes, there aren’t many in the current era that have done as effective a job.

12. Sami Zayn

The enormous, endless and ever-changing value Sami Zayn offers to WWE year after year after year with no end in sight is absolutely remarkable. The same could be said for Kevin Owens (and more will be elsewhere), and both of them being such integral figures on screen remains one of the most incredible real life and fictional stories in the company’s history.

Though not quite able to go at his former clip, Zayn has mastered how to blend his expertise with WWE’s more dramatic house style. A difference maker at the box office as a result, the times under Triple H’s creative purview where the former El Generico has come within a whisker of holding the industry’s richest prize have had the desired effect - people just want it more.

Contesting what some considered the best WWE match of 2024 against Gunther, Zayn was excellent in title feuds with Chad Gable and Bron Breakker before once again assuming the most heartfelt position in The Bloodline when the group reunited as babyfaces for WarGames. 2025 in almost everybody’s fantasy booking looks just as intoxicating.

11. Kenny Omega

Kenny Omega is a hex upon pro wrestling.

Not because he doesn’t sell or because he can’t tell stories or any rubbish like that: it’s because, when he wrestles a big match, everybody else, without exception, feels lesser than they did before the bell sounded. Omega almost spoils it.

Omega is a God.

With long matches automatically conflated with great/acclaimed matches, most wrestlers opt for that route. Again: none are on Omega’s level.

The difference with Omega is that he earns it. There is nobody better at inserting a peak before the actual peak. A lot of reactions to near-falls are performative. That’s absolutely not a bad thing. Being in the crowd, live, invested, is a fun thing. Omega is different; through his ability to sell, even a niggle, he can make it feel like the end is nigh. In a wrestling landscape studded with head drops, it’s really only Omega who sells a blinding headache down the stretch. He’s still explosive, his timing still supernatural, even though he’s years removed from his physical prime - but it’s his structural ability that separates him from the pretenders.

Omega can slowly raise his foot to the rope to make the break starting at 2.99. His timing is impossibly good.

Omega’s ability to layer his matches with deep thinking and little touches is also beyond his peers. The recent spot at Wrestle Dynasty - in which Gsbe Kidd worked over his repaired guts and paid tribute to Antonio Inoki with one abdominal stretch - was the next-level detail associated with the wrestling God.

Only a prolonged period of inactivity removes Omega from the top of this list.

10. Toni Storm

Toni Storm might already be the best all-rounder in the history of women’s wrestling in the USA. And, as much as that results from the historical misogyny rife within the medium - women weren’t allowed to be funny until a few years ago - there’s nothing relatively amusing about Storm’s act at all.

She’s genuinely hilarious; crude, but inventive with it. Like the best comedians, she can conjure a wonderful mental image - like Stan Hansen giving her a lariat with his full girth. Demented time-travelling sex acts, filthy threats, gee-whiz amnesia: Storm is an endlessly inventive joy of a TV character.

She is also exceptional in the ring.

She’s a pacy, stiff hard-hitter with an excellent grasp of how many near-falls to burn through. She takes her closing stretches right to the edge, pinpointing how to create a sense of disbelief while allowing the fans to retain the belief in her Storm Zero finish.

Storm is one of the best wrestlers in the world right now - and there’s a good chance that she will be remembered as a trailblazer for women’s wrestling and how it is “meant” to be performed.

9. Darby Allin

This is a harsh way of going about it, but the comparative exercise really does illustrate how incredible Darby Allin is.

Measure Darby’s success against his Four Pillars peers.

Jack Perry has floundered in the heel role, unable to grasp (despite being mentored by Christian!) how to work as an undersized heel; Sammy Guevara lacked the ability to wrestle with true main event substance after initially impressing with his creativity as a heel; MJF, a budding genius at his best, is guilty of overthinking almost everything.

Five years in - five years of the relentless episodic TV that so few characters survive over the long-term - Darby is still really over. Nobody even wants him to turn!

In a severe irony, the man accused of not wrestling in a “pure” way, the man who most thought would be broken down before he was 30, actually has the lasting babyface staying power of Ricky Steamboat.

He’s incredible, almost peerless, at building drama with real, agonising weight behind it and plotting a comeback that is at once improbable and easy to buy. A slick technician who is rapid but never uses his mind-blowing pace unless it means something, Darby takes the Mick Foley formula of making his opponents look like absolute world-beaters - but applies it far more consistently.

8. Zack Sabre, Jr.

Wrestling is weird and cruel. It’s almost a bad thing, to be consistently great, because fans will come to expect it. It’s better, somehow, to get injured and to come back, to jump around the industry and create some buzz, to enter a period of middling form and mount a comeback.

Consider AJ Styles. His Backlash France performance stood out and was widely praised in 2024 because fans didn’t expect him to reach that MOTYC level ever again. It was great, and not merely because the Lyon fans sang a hit song at him.

But was it really any better than the excellent performances ZSJ churns out at a shockingly casual rate?

It is hard to get too hyped about a ZSJ match - he’s done the NJPW/Rev Pro thing for too long, you could argue - but it’s always staggeringly great and believable. An unreal grappler, Sabre, Jr. can make people scream and pop and buy into the idea of a finish simply by shifting his body weight.

Vicious, hilarious, world class, ZSJ could work something approaching a masterpiece without taking a single bump.

The man is destined to become the single most underrated wrestler of all-time.

7. CM Punk

Nobody will ever agree on CM Punk, and the longer that’s the case, the longer he can still make a case for being ‘The Best In The World’.

Even without many matches to his name in 2024 thanks in part to injury, Punk’s divisiveness has driven major storylines with Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins, played a part in his placement in a thrilling WarGames build and will likely inform any of his potential roads to WrestleMania.

His ability to be so captivating has always set him apart from the majority of the chasing pack, but after a year of talking people into buildings, feuds and even dropping money on pay-per-view the old fashioned way, it’s the chasing pack he actively doesn’t want to be part of. Punk will never not create selection and political headaches for anybody that has him on the books, but if he can still prove his worth enough in major matches, he’ll make Triple H’s job much easier when it comes time to decide on new headliners and champions that can offer much-needed fresh main events.

6. Kevin Owens

There simply seems no end to Kevin Owens’ worth within WWE.

Like Sami Zayn, it was easy to see ‘KO’ gaming the system when the system was broken for so long. Having rode out those dark times, Owens has deservedly benefitted from the improvements made by Triple H, and - again like Zayn - has been integral in ensuring The Bloodline’s sustained success as the biggest story in the company.

With high floor/high ceiling matches, an ability to juggle humour, violence, pathos, spite and drive in almost every promo he cuts, and a relatability almost unmatched in the industry, Owens is an indispensable multi-tool player.

In keeping with many of his prior turns, the latest heel run has already yielded a feud-of-the-year programme with Cody Rhodes, and yet another impossible dream of a main event/title series with Zayn seems within reach for both after careful separation of the pair during Owens’ meltdown. All the pieces fit, but then they always do. The Montreal natives have always been in lockstep with one another, even when the booking wasn’t in lockstep with them. Since all components have worked together, no two men have mattered more to the maintenance and efficiency of WWE’s well-oiled machine.

5. Gunther

It feels like cheating for Gunther at this point. Not only has the former WALTER managed to successfully navigate an awkward name change and main roster call up, he’s gone on to have era-defining reigns as both Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Champion, contested excellent matches on his own terms more than anybody ever would have predicted, and is now typically responsible for one of the best promos of any show he’s on.

Very possibly the most consistent all-rounder in WWE outside of Cody Rhodes himself, if he’s a secondary figure at the top of the card he’s worked to make the title over his shoulder mean just as much as the industry’s richest prize. Booked to perfection and owning the role, there aren’t many in wrestling that own the spot they’ve been given quite as much as the ‘Ring General’, and based on how he’s smashed prior expectations, it’s still hard to know just how high his true ceiling is.

4. Hangman Page

Hangman Page could be ranked #1 for his ability to play unhinged. That’s how challenging that role is.

Page is not really disturbed, but with his incredible bug-eyed facials, you picture him storming off the plane, slamming the pedal of his rental car, and turning up to the arena in a foul, agitated mood.

Page is a deeply intelligent craftsman and full-on lunatic, one of the best cerebral and physical wrestlers of his generation. Somehow, despite what he puts himself through - this is a man who took a vertebreaker to the edge of the back at All Out last year, evoking memories of the bump that took Shawn Michaels out for four years - Page isn’t close to breaking down physically.

Character work, in-ring, fiery promos drenched in conviction: Hangman Page is one of the best all-rounders in the game, and even that is understating things. He is a genius in many ways.

One day, in the future, we might look back on this run and wonder if Page was under-appreciated by AEW at virtually every point after May 2022, some classic rivalries and matches aside.

3. Swerve Strickland

Swerve Strickland still looks weird without the AEW World title - and since some (your writer included) questioned his credentials for the role, he achieved his destiny as the guy he always said he was. There are few thrills more awesome than watching a babyface do what they set out to do.

Swerve is a pro wrestling unicorn.

He can work the ultra-athletic hybrid style at Will Ospreay’s awesome level, but he also appeals to the self-styled sickos with his lunatic commitment to claret and gore. Swerve is funny, but in a cutting way. He’s great at taking the piss and insulting his storyline rivals without leaning too heavily on his blunt comedic timing. There’s substance to his character work, but he’s savvy enough to create moments in a moments industry: few grasp the badass theatre of pro wrestling as well as Swerve when he’s got a staple gun in his hand.

Really, about the only criticism one can level at Swerve Strickland is that, in promos, he can suffer a lack of composure - well, that, and his attempts at playing sinister can sometimes be a bit too arch.

2. Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes is The Guy.

WWE soared to new commercial heights under Roman Reigns as Champion, but Cody Rhodes has solidified and enhanced those metrics since taking the strap at WrestleMania 40. Realistically he’s been doing that since his 2022 return. A pendulum swing thought impossible as recently as 2021 has occurred in the court of public opinion between AEW and WWE, with Cody Rhodes’ seismic jump one of the more significant checkpoints in that shift. John Cena’s 2025 return has already generated amazing box office returns, and many said nobody could ever touch ‘The Champ’ at the gate again. Cody Rhodes literally has the receipts.

All of this while building a legacy few can ever match merely thanks to the existence of a viable alternative mainstream promotion in North America, and flushing away any last critiques of his work bell-to-bell.

It was thought there could never be a topline singles wrestler to base WWE around thanks to decades of Cena destroying the meaning of the role and the company itself choosing a brand-first strategy over the biggest star. Cody once again broke with tradition while simultaneously restoring it.

1. Will Ospreay

Will Ospreay sometimes wrestles every match like it’s the fight of his life. Very few TV matches go by without him refusing to die with the whites of his eyes peeled. He’s never made quick work of anybody.

Is that the only reasonable criticism one can direct towards him?

There’s also his immense enthusiasm to get a lot in, but even if you find the cause-and-effect lacking at times, you cannot deny the atmosphere Ospreay summons. The man is absolutely sensational. He can’t do too much; if he did too much, the fans would have tired of him by now. They haven’t tired of him.

They go absolutely ape-sh*t as he finds a way, over and over and over again, to add another layer of frenzied turbo drama to his closing stretch, to arrive at some inconceivable means of manoeuvring his opponents into a Styles Clash set-up.

Excellent at conveying the pain and the struggle - so much so you sometimes wish he’d do so on TV more often - Ospreay doesn’t just use his supernatural physical gifts to put himself over as the guy who wrestles the best matches.

Re-watch his bump for Kazuchika Okada’s dropkick at Worlds End. Okada can’t manage the heights of old, but Ospreay contrived to sprint into his boots and flat-back at the same damn time to maintain the illusion.

He is a machine driven to make everyone and everything look amazing. That’s the criticism, for some. To others - and they make deafening noise in the arena - that’s the magic.