Just out of curiousity to see what you guys have been digging lately.....

What is your top ten workers currently in the world. Now that means in ring only. Nothing else.......

I'll post mine later after I give some more thought.

I can't honestly give a top 10 global, but currently the only people I would rank in the top (#) list (from WWE or TNA) are Chris Benoit and Paul London.

1. Christopher Daniels - he's been gold in TNA for about 4 months now
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi - put the IWGP Title on this guy during the summer
3. AJ Styles - great match with Kid Kash and the feud with Daniels has been good
4. Jushin Thunder Liger - he gets on by default
5. Eddie Guerrero - his tag team with Mysterio has me tempted to watch Smackdown
6. Rey Mysterio - see above
7. CM Punk - for his series of matches with Samoa Joe
8. Monty Brown - his two matches with Jarrett were highly entertaining and he's been fun on the mic
9. Spanky - some pretty good matches
10. Chris Benoit - been given nothing to work with for months


Honorable mentions:

Homicide - sick of the series of matches with Danielson so he didn't make it
Bryan Danielson - same as Homicide
Samoa Joe - the squash matches in RoH knocked him off the list
Chris Jericho - nothing to work with

MONTY BROWN?!?!!? Jesus, I love Kane, but he isn't even in my top 100 of best in-ring performers today.

It's not really his ring work. His promos are always amusing and he's had two good matches with Jarrett.

^_^

Even then his two matches with Jarrett is superior to most of the workers around the world. 2004 wasn't a banner year for ringwork. I would still consider him on work because none of the WWF's top workers have been given anything to work with recently and the RoH guys haven't really done anything in a few months.

This may not be the best workers in the world right now, but it is what I've been digging, and it's based on in-ring work.

1)Eddie Guerrero - Really been soaking in a lot of Eddie matches lately.
Eddie vs. Brock, Eddie vs. Angle from WMXX and Black Tiger vs. Wild Pegasus
from Benoit's DVD have all been on my list.

2)Steve Corino - I for one, love Steve's in ring style. Very Believable,
and very old-school.

3)Vordell Walker - Seems like he's been impressing a lot of folks lately, and
has the potential to be a WWE type star.

4)Chris Hamrick - Busts his butt every single time out.

5)RVD - This is because of the DVD. His matches with Bam-Bam and Jerry Lynn will
go down as personal favorites.

6)Slick Ric Converse - CWF-Midatlantic switching to the old belt peaked my interest,
then I find out they've got a champ who can really work. As far as NC indies go, I'd
rank Converse the #1 worker in the region.

7)Manny Montana - I was surprised by this guy, because I've never even heard him
mentioned, but from what I've seen, he's an excellent mat worker.

8)Homocide - I'm kind of late picking up on Cide, but he's very fun to watch.

9)Angle - It's older stuff I've been watching, but I love it, and I'm actually
looking forward to his Mania match.

10)Kobashi - So far I've only seen one match, but I definitely want to see more.

This will be hard...

No particular order:
1) Paul London
2) AJ Styles
3) Eddie Guerrero
4) Chris Benoit
5) CM Punk
6) Bryan Danielson
7) Christopher Daniels
8) Rey Mysterio
9) Shelton Benjamin
10) Kurt Angle

THE TOP TEN:

1. Bryan Danielson
2. Chris Benoit
3. Eddie Guerrero
4. Rey Mysterio
5. KENTA
6. Jamie Noble
7. Christopher Daniels
8. Samoa Joe
9. Paul London
10. Shelton Benjamin

HONORABLE MENTION:
Satoshi Kojima
Shocker
Ultimo Guerrero
Kenta Kobashi
Jushin 'Thunder' Liger

While WMD busts his butt every single time in.

BURN!@!@!!!!!

WMD reveals his true feelings.

Top 10: In No Order (Mostly just WWE and RoH.)

1) Colt Cabana
2) CM Punk
3) Paul London
4) Shelton Benjamin
5) Kurt Angle
6) Chris Benoit
7) Nick Dinsmore
8) Chris Daniels
9) Bryan Danielson
10) Eddie Guerrero

Honorable Mentions:

Funaki
Chavo Guerrero
RVD
Samoa Joe
Jamie Noble

And I debate AJ Styles.

10. Christopher Daniels

- He's one of the top three workers in TNA right now, been doing great on their PPV's too.

9. Hiroshi Tanahashi

- This one is gonna be the next big thing in Japan if he isn't already. I agree totally with Mad Dog on this too...should be IWGP Champion real soon.

8. Samoa Joe

- He's put on some of the best matches the US Indy scene has ever seen in the last years time. Great worker and VERY surprising for his size....

7. AJ Styles

-He's consistantly been TNA's best worker IMO, for almost a year and a half now. Pretty much guarantee's that if he's in a match....it's worth watching.


6. Chris Benoit

- He's been the most enjoyable wrestler on RAW's roster for sometime now. He can generally have good matches with anyone on their roster and is definately the best wrestler in the RAW brand.

5. Eddie Guerrero

- See Benoit. Apply with Smackdown.

4. KENTA

- He's like Kawada, Kobashi, and Misawa wrapped up in a Jr. Heavyweight. He's probably the best young worker in Japan (It's probably between him and Hiroshi Tanahashi right now)and has had a really fun series this past year with the Heavy's in NOAH.

3. Bryan Danielson

- The best worker on the US indy scene hands down.

2. Toshiaki Kawada

- He's been consistantly good over the last year having some matches worth seeing against guys like Omori, Kojima, and he's going to be a strong freelancer after losing the Triple Crown championships.

1. Kenta Kobashi

- Hands down Kobashi IMO, is the greatest worker in the world right now. There is no way that he should be putting on the quality of matches he has now for sometime with the injuries that he has succumbed to over his career. His knees are shot and they said years ago that he'd be done by know. Also it should be noted that his recent two year run with NOAH's GHC title was the longest title reign of a major title in the world today.

Man is need to start watching Japanese wrestling.

I know nothing outside of WWE and a touch of TNA.

By workers I guess we're meaning, telling the story in the ring. I guess.

1. AJ Styles
2. Chris Daniels
3. Rey Mysterio
4. Eddie Guerrero
5. Shawn Michaels
6. Kid Kash
7. Paul London
8. Chris Benoit
9. Kurt Angle
10. Petey Williams

Damn, DK had to one-up me with the pictures. And I thought my bolding was cool...

My list is still better...

You list needs more Kobashi/Kawada/Tanahashi damn it!

Haven't seen any recent Kobashi/Kawada (the most recent being Kobashi vs. Misawa with the tiger suplex off the ramp and Kawada vs. Mutoh from a while ago) and I've never seen Tanahashi. Is he really that good?

Tanahashi is awesome RFS. He's like the up and comer (who at this point is past up and comer) who when you see his matches......you can tell he's gonna be one of the main players in the future of Puro. IMO, he's the guy that should take the IWGP from Kojima.

I demand that everyone should add The Classic Colt Cabana to their list.

Sounds like I'll be picking up A LOT of puro very soon. I'm planning on getting the latest NOAH show with the title switch too. Plus some more KENTA, I mean NOAH, Kawada/Kojima, Kojima/Tenzan, and now some Tanahashi. Awesome.

I'm actually awaiting a good amount of puro myself.....I have both the AJPW show where Kojima wins the TC, the Tenzan/Kojima show coming with two other New Japan's and a NOAH show too. I believe its the show with Rikio/Marafuji vs. Kobashi/KENTA.

Yeah, I'm waiting for Kojima's title wins for my tape collection as well.

If that's the tag tournament final from November, it's fucking AWESOME.

That's the one....I take it that you've seen it? If so, I'd be glad to hear some thoughts on it.

Yeah, after re-watching it, I like this a lot.

Thoughts:

The Kobashi/Rikio exchanges really make me wanna see their recent title match.

I've become a huge KENTA fan, and I was glad to see him holding his own against a heavyweight in Rikio, for the most part.

Marufuji's pretty good in this too. Although he's clearly outshined by the other 3, no one felt out of place in the match. It also had a really good flow.

Very nice finishing sequence. Since your a huge Kobashi fan, DK, you should love this. Excellent match.

I'm gonna re-watch KENTA/Takayama now. That's hella good too.

Thanks for the mini review.....I can't wait to watch it.

KENTA vs. TAK.....WHOO HOO, now THAT is a fun match to watch my friend. VERY fun.....

Definately. I'm gonna post thoughts in the WAYW thread.

I'd like to hear what you thought of KENTA/Kobashi vs. Marufuji/Rikio when you watch it.

No doubt. I'll throw a review of it up as soon as I get a chance to check it out.