Welcome back, boys and girls, to the only list of wrestlers that you are currently reading at this very moment, the CRL 100! We're deep into our countdown of the best and brightest in the wrestling industry this year, and things are starting to heat up. With only 50 wrestlers left to go, we're starting to get to the point where people's favorite wrestlers are going to start popping up left and right. Last year, the list of people from 50 to 26 prompted the biggest outcry of complaint, as people saw their favorites juuuuuuuust miss out on the top 25. But being in this grouping is hardly an insult, and indeed, this year's selection is packed full of incredible performers, all time legends, and a few people so reviled by the internet wrestling community that i'm wearing a bulletproof vest while I'm typing this. But no matter who they are, each one will lead us ever closer to the man or woman who will be crowned Mr./Ms. 2013.
There can only be one. But before the one comes these 25. Try not to shoot the messenger.
Just like last year, i'll be doing write ups for the top 50, to give you some insight into everything they accomplished this year. We've already begun with 100 - 51, and now we're getting into the real meat of the list. From here on, I'll be giving you insight into what got these men and women on this hallowed list and what made them incredible this year and in general. But before we get to the list, I'm going to post the traditional FAQ to hopefully clear up some questions that may arise from this list.
Q: But why did *insert my favorite wrestler* rank below *insert wrestler I don't like*?
A: Because I said so.
Q: But you can't possibly think...
A: Yep.
Q: But that's ridic...
A: Nope.
Q: ...
A: That's right. Never argue with science.
Alright, that's enough with the questions already. Let's get down to the meat of the thing. Here are numbers 50 - 26 on the CRL 100 list of the best wrestlers of 2013! These aren't the best, but they're damn near. Let's see who qualifies as the best of the rest.
(WXW Women's Championship)
Ah, Mercedes Martinez. Possibly the least appreciated of the triumvirate of women's wrestlers that revolutionized the independent scene all through the last decade, (Cheerleader Melissa and Sara Del Rey being the other,) Mercedes rarely gets the credit she deserves for being continually great year after year. In 2013 she ended Kalamity's 538 day hold on the NCW: Femme Fatale Championship, and continued to serve as the backbone of the Shimmer roster. But it was her alliance with a newly heel Cheerleader Melissa that may bear the most fruit as we look forward to next year. Two Woman Power Trip? You best believe it.
In some ways it's been a tough year for fans of the giant swingin' stud. They've had to watch him abandon his singles run in order to tag with Jack Swagger in an anti American stable, and as part of it he's taken more losses than Henry VIII took wives. But all the while, Cesaro has remained incredibly relevant, both with the fans and, if you believe the rumor mill, the WWE office. And with an open endorsement from John Cena, and with Cesaro finding a move that fans absolutely love in the Giant Swing, Cesaro stands a fair chance to cut his ranking in half again going into next year.
After missing a year of her career due to various injuries that put her in real danger of never wrestling again, Madison Eagles returned to the American stage in a major way in 2013. With fans adamantly refusing to boo her in Shimmer, she developed an Eddie Guerrero style "evil babyface" gimmick and just ran with it while running through all comers one at a time. A collision with the woman who took the Shimmer Championship from her, (Cheerleader Melissa,) seems inevitable, and since their last match was a contender for match of the year, one can only imagine what they have in store for us next time.
47. (#23) Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH)
(GHC Tag Team Championship)
I will eagerly call Naomichi Marufuji the greatest Jr. Heavyweight wrestler of the the post Jushin Liger era. He was among the first to break the Jr. Heavyweight/Heavyweight barrier, opening the door for guys like KENTA and Prince Devitt to enjoy the success they have; and he is perhaps specifically responsible for the rise in prominence that Jr. Heavyweight and lucha libre wrestling have seen in recent years in New Japan. He's just pretty much awesome.
But this is about 2013. And Marufuji's 2013 is less about year long consistency, and more about the incredible, incredible matches he had with longtime rivals Shinsuke Nakamura and KENTA. Marufuji has become perhaps Japan's best part time performer, and he's made a habit of turning it on when the lights are on brightest. He's limited by his role as the Vice President of NOAH, so he'll likely never work enough to get much higher on this list. But when he does work, it's an event unto itself.
Once upon a time, Katsuyori Shibata was the viewed as a can't miss future main eventer alongside his fellow young New Japan dojo graduates, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi. It didn't exactly work out that way. A long and complicated road led Shibata out of New Japan and into increasing irrelevance. Years went by without much in the way of career progress for Shibata in either wrestling or MMA, until the new owner of New Japan stunned the wrestling world by bringing in Shibata and Sakuraba to go to war with Shibata's old compatriots. But that was 2012.
2013 saw Shibata testing himself against the toughest bastards that New Japan has to offer. He had incredible battles against Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii that more than proved his badass credentials, even if it didn't get him any closer to title contention. But even more important than what he did in the ring was what he did outside of it, as he controversially allied himself with Pro Wrestling NOAH champion KENTA, creating a cross promotional alliance that is set to strike fear in the hearts of all life forms that are susceptible to being kicked in the face.
Kofi Kingston was born to rank in the mid 40s. For yet another year, Kingston was in high profile midcard matches, and was a very popular babyface, while not making any actual upward progress towards the top of WWE. Kingston remains WWE's most valuable midcard star, and they seem content to leave him there, stranded forever in mid 40s limbo. Is Kofi capable of more? Who knows? Maybe someday we'll finally get to find out.
The only problem with Ayako Hamada's 2013 is that she didn't wrestle more. What she did was effortlessly charismatic and dazzling just like it has been throughout her entire comeback to wrestling. A full slate of Shimmer shows and some more shows in Japan will doubtless see her right back in the thick of the top 10 race where she belongs. But when 45th is a down year for you, you must be a special talent.
King Kong took on more of a support role in New Japan this year, giving Okada a title defense, and acting as Hiroshi Tanahashi's second in his year spanning feud with Prince Devitt and his Bullet Club. But this was still perhaps Makabe's finest year as a professional, as he found exactly the right tone for his People's Champion character and got enormous reactions for nearly everything he did.
New Japan has the unique problem of having a main event that is preposterously overloaded, which forces people like Makabe into the midcard, but make no mistake. There isn't a company in Japan that wouldn't kill for Makabe right now, and it's not hard to see why. He makes every show he's on better.
It isn't often that being fired from a lucrative and high profile job is a blessing, but for Alex Shelley it would be hard to argue that it has been this year. After living through a year in exile in TNA after Chris Sabin got injured Shelley left the States and headed on across the ocean to live out his dream of wrestling in Japan. And boy did he ever. In KUSHIDA he found a Japanese partner that he quickly established a chemistry with to rival even his partnership with Sabin, and his performance in the Super J cup earned him a nation full of fans. An injury kept him out for most of the last half of the year, but as one half of the most electrifying tag team in all of Japan, 2014 may be the best year of his professional career.
I hate seeing people like Bobby Roode take such a precipitous drop in the rankings for reasons that are completely out of their hands, but the facts are the facts. In 2012, Bobby Roode was the glue that held TNA together, as well as becoming its longest reigning World Champion in history, and proving himself as a clear cut main eventer in feuds with everyone from Jeff Hardy to his former partner James Storm. He gave TNA a foundation to build on, and everyone who feuded with him became a bigger star for having done so.
So naturally 2013 saw Bobby Roode shunted into a nonsensical, (but entertaining,) tag team with Austin Aries, the man that he had put over tremendously just a few months before. The two of them would spend the year being high profile jobbers to whatever passing fancy TNA wanted to push that week. But despite the rotten booking working against him, Roode continued to show great skill and dependability as one of TNA's greatest assets, and stole the show at Bound For Glory against Kurt Angle.
It's probably asking too much to hope that Roode will ever return to the stature he achieved in 2012. But if nothing else, he has developed a body of work that nobody can deny, and 2013 proved he could do it with no help whatsoever.
Credited as the 2nd most successful MMA fighter in Japanese history, (behind only fabled Gracie Killer Kazushi Sakuraba,) Funaki has been enjoying his twilight years as an athlete in the only way that a double hard bastard like he can, by getting kicked in the face a whole bunch, and dishing out even more.
2012 saw Funaki capture the AJPW Triple Crown championship, and he held it all through the first half of the year before dropping it to SUWAMA to set the younger man up to be the face of All Japan from that point on. But Funaki, unhappy with the new ownership of All Japan, bolted in the second half of the year to join up with fellow legend Keiji Mutoh in his burgeoning WRESTLE-1 promotion. The early months of WRESTLE-1 have been dominated by the epic feud between Funaki and his protege, Masayuki Kono, as Funaki continues to put over the next generation and kick people's teeth out, usually whichever comes first.
2012 was the year that the Miz turned it all around. Unfortunately, it seems like nobody noticed. In the years following his Wrestlemania main event, the Miz seemed to slip further and further into obscurity. But after some time off and a stunningly great feud with Kofi Kingston, the Miz was back on his feet, and that momentum carried him into 2013 and led to an unexpected babyface turn that I wouldn't have belieced could possibly work unless I had seen it with my own eyes.
Miz captured the Intercontinental title once again this year, thanks to Ric Flair formally granting him the use of the Figure Four Leg Lock from here until eternity. And while the Miz still hasn't grown back to the main event status of a few years ago, he has become a trusted midcard force, as well as catalyst for numerous segments like Miz TV. It's not exactly going to get him into the top 25 anytime soon, but nobody worked harder to make the secondary belts in WWE matter than the Miz did this year, and if you smarks don't watch out, you may well find yourself realizing that this former reality star is becoming one of the best in ring talents in WWE.
There aren't enough words in the English language to fully articulate just how wrong I was about Seth Rollins. All throughout his run on the independent scene, (as Tyler Black,) and throughout his time in FCW and then NXT, I was one of the harshest critics in the world of the man. I raked him over the coals for being spotty, for being inconsistent, and for lacking the charisma to stand out on his own. And while I don't think he's ready to be on his own at this point, what I never could have expected is for something like the Shield to come along.
Rollins' run with the Shield has been downright magical, as these three rookies shook the WWE to its foundations all year long, while simultaneously delivering the best run of debut matches by any group, team or wrestler in WWE history. In Roman Reigns, Rollins found the ideal counterpart to his high flying, fast bumping antics, and the two of them have torn up every show from here to eternity ever since.
It's always hard for someone to admit when they're wrong, (especially when they, like me, are so frequently right,) but Seth Rollins is a god damned star. And I couldn't be happier to say it.
It was a year of change and renewal for the man who represents the single greatest failure in the history of Pro Wrestling NOAH. Once upon a time, Shiozaki was a can't miss prospect, expected to usher NOAH into a new generation of prosperity. Unfortunately that all fell apart in the wake of Mitsuharu Misawa's death, when NOAH overpushed Shiozaki before he was ready and killed any chance he may have had to be the top guy. If the years after, Shiozaki just sort of hung around and carried that albatross with him, until January of this year, when he made history.
Shiozaki and several other NOAH talents jumped ship to All Japan, and the change invigorated Shiozaki immediately. He won the tag titles with Jun Akiyama, feuded with a whole new group of main eventers, and impressed even his most ardent critics with his firey performances. Go revived his career from life support in 2013, and even more impressively was part of that terrifying pic above. Legend has it that if you look into his mad eyes while eating a sandwich, you'll only have 3 days to live. So, you know, hug your family or something.
36. (#67) LuFisto (NC:FF)
(ICW Olympic Championship)
What a comeback year it was for LuFisto. After bouncing back from a stroke, as well as from doubts about whether or not she should continue wrestling at all, it seemed like this year was all about LuFisto in women's wrestling. In Shimmer especially, Lufi went from "beloved midcard veteran" to "badass top babyface" in the blink of an eye, and her match with Cheerleader Melissa is already one of the most looked forward to matches of 2014.
Beyond that, LuFisto made her debut in Mexico with great success, and remained an icon in her home province of Quebec. This wasn't just a bounce back, it was a pounce back. And if a stroke can't stop her, what on Earth can?
When the Shield debuted last year, it started with two established and experienced wrestlers and a big green guy who really just did spears and stayed out of the way. What a difference a year makes. Fast forward to Survivor Series, where Roman Reigns turned in an absolutely marvelous performance in eliminating 4 men on his way to a victory that will go into highlight packages for years to come. And that was just the cherry on top of a year that saw Reigns grow into one of the best tag performers in the world alongside Seth Rollins.
As the year draws to a close it is clear that Reigns is on the verge of breaking out on his own. How that will work for him is impossible to guess, but if he keeps growing at this rate, I doubt there's anything that can stop him.
It's hard to imagine that TNA has fired this man multiple times, isn't it? In 2013, Christopher Daniels was the glue that held TNA together throughout all of the turbulence and awfulness, and there could be no better man for the job. He stole the show in matches, backstage segments, in ring promos, and probably the company picnic too. I dread to think what watching Impact would have been like without Daniels having his fingers in nearly every major storyline while sipping on his now iconic appletini. And while recognition from TNA seems characteristically hard to come by, anyone watching their shows knows damn well that they're looking at a Hall of Famer in action.
Oh hey, remember Sheamus? It's been 6 long months that Sheamus has been out with an injury, so it's easy to forget what a major part of WWE programming he was before the injury. He was a major part of the coalition to defeat the Shield, he played a huge part in the heel turn of the Big Show, and in general he was the top star that Smackdown has been searching for for years.
With his great skill and the full weight of the WWE marketing machine behind him as the potential heir to John Cena, its hard to imagine him missing the top 25 next year. Especially if he actually sticks around for all of it.
Just what in the hell is this old bastard doing this high on this list? After all, just 6 months ago, Goldust was about as far removed from relevance as the Gobbledy Gooker. And then, during a storyline between Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, Goldust was given the chance to beat the WWE Champion in order to get his job back. He came up short that night, but much to everyone's surprise, (possibly even Goldust's,) his run was far from over. In the weeks that followed, he teamed up with his half brother Cody to do battle with the Shield, and in perhaps the most emotional moment of 2013, they triumphed over the most dominant team of the decade to win both of their jobs back.
Which is all well and nice, but that doesn't tell the full story of why Goldust is here. The simple fact of the matter is that over the last 3 months of 2013, he may very well have been the best wrestler on the planet. I don't even know how to come to grips with the fact that at the age of 44, Goldust is having the best run of his entire career. But all you have to do is turn on Raw on any given night, and see the Goldy stealing the show away from men half his age and with twice his push. And he makes it look good.
First of all, go back and read that last paragraph about Goldust, because all of that applies to Cody too. Up until Money in the Bank, Rhodes was going nowhere fast, and the writers dropped storylines with both Kaitlyn and Damien Sandow on multiple occasions. But what separates Cody Rhodes from his brother is what happened at Money in the Bank, where Cody jump started his career in a single match, blowing the roof off of the place and turning face in the process. Ever since things have been gravy for the baby Rhodes, and he's a popular choice for the breakout star of 2014. We've been sold that old story before with Rhodes, but after the last few months it would be impossible to say that he doesn't have it in him.
The enforcer is one of the classic wrestling archetypes. Having a guy in your stable who takes all the punishment and does the heavy lifting is half the reason for even having stables, and there are generally considered to be two types of enforcers. There are the musclebound monsters who will inevitably go on to lucrative careers of their own, (Batista, Kevin Nash,) and then there are the guys who seem to lack the charisma or star power to ever be more than the guy who does the dirty work. Up until this year, Ishii had spent nearly all of his career being in the second camp, only to break loose and catch fire in a major way almost out of nowhere.
In 2013, Ishii became an unlikely fan favorite as he took unbelievable beatings from the best in the world and refused to stay down, resulting in all time classic matches against the likes of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata, and allowing him to completely steal all the attention during the G1 Climax Series. Now all eyes are on him going into 2014. Can the momentum carry him all the way to the top? If the fans have anything to say about it, this stubby, charismaless enforcer will have a brand new belt to go along with his heart of gold.
I suspect that if I had been running the CRL 100 for the past 10 years or so, there's no year that Yuji Nagata would have dropped out of the top 50. He continues to be a pillar of consistency and excellence, even while wrestling in nearly every major Japanese promotion against a wide variety of opponents. He carried long term feuds in THREE DIFFERENT PROMOTIONS AT THE SAME TIME, while still finding the time to put over KENTA as part of NOAH's last chance at relevance. Just another year for GatMan.
Not since the debut of CM Punk has a prospect come to the WWE main roster with so much buzz and potential ahead of him. Unlike Punk, though, Wyatt began living up to that potential immediately. With the eeriest entrance this side of the Undertaker, a series of enthralling promos, and some genuine intrigue behind both his motives and his abilities, Bray Wyatt has become the most fascinating character in WWE in no time.
Of course that's no surprise to anyone who saw him completely dominate NXT throughout the first half of the year, along with his posse of bearded giants. Everywhere he goes, Wyatt brings breeds discussion and destruction. And if you want to know where the future of WWE might very well lie, then it's very simple. Just follow the buzzards.
(JWP Openweight Championship)
(WAVE Tag Team Championship)
Just another year for the best Joshi that the world has to offer. This year saw Kana invade JWP and win their biggest title while insulting the promotion as a whole. Like an army of one she brought the company to its knees before being driven off, but that's just one chapter in the story of Kana's 2013. She stole multiple Shimmer volumes, continued to be the shining star of the Japanese indy scene, and just for good measure she opened a potential feud with Shimmer champion Cheerleader Melissa. You know, yawn, ho hum. Just another year for the Queen.
Jun Akiyama is the last of the legendary walkers of the King's Road. He was the youngest of that great crop of talent that roamed All Japan in the 90s, and he is the only one still going strong. But in recent years he had been pushed to the side in Pro Wrestling NOAH, as that company tried desperately to find a new identity is the wake of Mitsuharu Misawa's death. But nobody could have seen what would happen when NOAH decided to get rid of Kenta Kobashi at the end of 2012. Akiyama, Go Shiozaki and a few others all immediately decided to leave the company and return to All Japan, in the biggest mass defection of talent since the formation of NOAH itself.
Once he showed up back in his old stomping grounds, Akiyama wasted no time in showing that he was still just as relevant as ever, winning the tag titles with Shiozaki and heading the "Burning" stable which all but declared war on the promotion all through the first half of the year. Akiyama even went on to wins All Japan's most prestigious event, the Champion's Carnival, before finally being turned back by SUWAMA in their title match.
Jun Akiyama might very well have single handedly saved All Japan from the brink of creative and financial ruin simply by arriving and bringing the credibility of his legendary career with him. And as revitalized as he has looked this year, he might just be getting started.
Well that'll do it for this round, boys and girls. Stay tuned as we finish off this bad boy just n time to give one wrestler the greatest Christmas gift of all, the title or Mr./Ms 2013. That's all coming soon, and until then remember to keep reading and be good to one another.
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