Predicting The 10 Best Wrestlers In The World Five Years From Now
9. Tyler Bate
Tyler Bate, on the evidence of his incredible war against WALTER at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, is already there. But the problem is the cold brand for which he wrestles, and its complete lack of profile for 363 days of the year.
Bate has hardly regressed by wrestling with such limited exposure, and that is because he is a prodigy with frightening potential.
If you wanted to be really pedantic about it, that match was a flawed masterpiece, insomuch as masterpieces go. At 42 minutes, finisher kick-outs at one, and the general sense that this was the fight of Bate's life - at just 22 - it left precious room for a sequel, unlike, as an example, Kenny Omega's disciplined refusal to use the One-Winged Angel in his first match with Kazuchika Okada.
This doubles as a compliment, don't get it twisted: Bate is capable of wrestling an even better match than one of the greatest WWE matches of all time because he's already accomplished the hard bit. He went 42 minutes and it never once dragged; it built, and built, with the pacing of a much older and wiser performer, and was structured perfectly to exploit his strengths at the perfect time to evoke the maximum reaction.
To take over the world, Bate doesn't have to do anything more. He just needs to do that little bit less.