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**Tom Guycott** · 12-21-2016, 03:24 AM

Incoming wall of text:

I would also like to say Matt Hardy. I'll get to why shortly.

What I can't say is he's my runaway favorite. No discount to AJ, but I would throw Cody (Rhodes) out there before Styles.

AJ was unanimously a spectacular talent, and everyone waited with baited breath to see if WWE would find a way to fuck him up and piss his talents away because he a) made a name for himself outside of their bubble and b) isn't 6'10", 300 lbs of juiced muscle. They instead, in a massive surprise, opted to not make him look like a joke jobber (this whole angle with "The Chinless Wonder" notwithstanding) from jump. It is a shame it took so long to actually *try* to establish some kind of fresher stars worth seeing in WWE instead of unilaterally deciding certain people don't work and shoving others down crowd's throats. It's a fresh surprise, but he basically did nothing but show up and not get covered in shit.

Cody, on the other hand, had to prove he could "make it" WITHOUT WWE, and ended up going EVERYWHERE. He didn't sign with a particular rival promotion... he appeared in ALL OF THEM... BOLA, WCPW, TNA, ROH, and NJPW and possibly other stuff I'm omitting. I'd place him above AJ simply because while AJ just needed that "last piece of the puzzle" for "complete career" acknowledgement, Cody has only had that piece and is filling in the rest of the board with a widespread campaign that I feel is pretty important to how people can find their fortunes without having to completely rely on WWE or any other single promotion. He has become the quintisential "indy" wrestler- he goes wherever he wants for whatever he wants. He is flipping the whole "independent contractor" status on its side. I think this is an important story, but one that has been getting overshadowed by bigger short-term "loud noises" like TNA's litigation or the Goldberg win.

Honorable mention goes to Bobby Roooooooooo.... (de). The guy I once called TNA's HHH now works for the actual HHH and is taking this "Glorious" business to the stratosphere of over-ness. It doesn't hurt that his song is kick-ass, and they didn't decide to change it because he was getting a face reaction to his song (Christian's original "At Last", anyone? Started getting cheers and they changed it up to sound more sinister. Still a cool song, but the original was like an ancestor to being "glorious"). Roode really doesn't belong in NXT, though, and had circumstances been slightly different, he probably would have made the main roster splash Styles made while this entire descriptive rant would have been about how AJ shouldn't be in NXT instead. Roode hasn't exactly been shit on, either, but he also could have been on a larger trajectory.

However, the thing about Matt Hardy is he has garnered interest into wrestling AS A WHOLE on a level not seen since CM Punk's work/shoot on Cena and the company (and subsequent title walkout... and I refuse to call it a pipebomb, because he hadn't said that yet). He's resonated in a way that is similar (though not quite as large in pop culture scale) to "Austin 3:16", and did so from the ashes of what was doomed to be yet another run-of-the-mill tag-team breakup angle, and went on to overshadow quite a bit of goings-on in the wrestling world and dominate quite a bit of conversation.

Think about that. He was a sad-sack in a suit that let his wife speak for him. Boring-ass world champion. And then, he 'snaps'. His character went crazy, and over something so inconsequential (getting mad because Jeff "selfishly" injured himself). The character devolving into his meta madness, and Jeff playing straight man until Matt "broke" him too. Then, throw in some of the most awesomely bad production values this side of Darkplace. Garnering massive attention and doing it bigger and better/worse. The camp evolved into its own thing. Copycats tried to crop up in-company (that whole Rosemary/Bram crap) and outside (New Day vs Wyatt Family). He evolved his character. He got his wife, toddler son, father-in-law, his home, his brother's lawn, a drone, and a boat over. He breathed new life into himself and his brother. And most importantly of all, he got people talking. People that love the product. People that hate the product. Pundits, "Smarks" like us, Bloggers, Youtubers, former writers, managers, personalities, wrestlers both current and of yesteryear from all over the world have an opinion about the "Broken Matt" business.

Doesn't really matter "how many times" he has wrestled, STD, personally pre-taped or not... he's the one who has garnered the most sustained attention, interest, and conversation. He did the right thing at the right time and struck gold, knocked it out of the park, and did any other metaphor you can place there.

TL;DR

AJ is a spectacular talent (I intentionally didn't use the other word), and my personal leaning is toward Cody, but undoubtedly this year belongs to Matt.

12-21-2016, 03:24 AM	#22
Tom Guycott Wrestling Marks Rejoice! Posts: 10,166	Incoming wall of text: I would also like to say Matt Hardy. I'll get to why shortly. What I can't say is he's my runaway favorite. No discount to AJ, but I would throw Cody (Rhodes) out there before Styles. AJ was unanimously a spectacular talent, and everyone waited with baited breath to see if WWE would find a way to fuck him up and piss his talents away because he a) made a name for himself outside of their bubble and b) isn't 6'10", 300 lbs of juiced muscle. They instead, in a massive surprise, opted to not make him look like a joke jobber (this whole angle with "The Chinless Wonder" notwithstanding) from jump. It is a shame it took so long to actually try to establish some kind of fresher stars worth seeing in WWE instead of unilaterally deciding certain people don't work and shoving others down crowd's throats. It's a fresh surprise, but he basically did nothing but show up and not get covered in shit. Cody, on the other hand, had to prove he could "make it" WITHOUT WWE, and ended up going EVERYWHERE. He didn't sign with a particular rival promotion... he appeared in ALL OF THEM... BOLA, WCPW, TNA, ROH, and NJPW and possibly other stuff I'm omitting. I'd place him above AJ simply because while AJ just needed that "last piece of the puzzle" for "complete career" acknowledgement, Cody has only had that piece and is filling in the rest of the board with a widespread campaign that I feel is pretty important to how people can find their fortunes without having to completely rely on WWE or any other single promotion. He has become the quintisential "indy" wrestler- he goes wherever he wants for whatever he wants. He is flipping the whole "independent contractor" status on its side. I think this is an important story, but one that has been getting overshadowed by bigger short-term "loud noises" like TNA's litigation or the Goldberg win. Honorable mention goes to Bobby Roooooooooo.... (de). The guy I once called TNA's HHH now works for the actual HHH and is taking this "Glorious" business to the stratosphere of over-ness. It doesn't hurt that his song is kick-ass, and they didn't decide to change it because he was getting a face reaction to his song (Christian's original "At Last", anyone? Started getting cheers and they changed it up to sound more sinister. Still a cool song, but the original was like an ancestor to being "glorious"). Roode really doesn't belong in NXT, though, and had circumstances been slightly different, he probably would have made the main roster splash Styles made while this entire descriptive rant would have been about how AJ shouldn't be in NXT instead. Roode hasn't exactly been shit on, either, but he also could have been on a larger trajectory. However, the thing about Matt Hardy is he has garnered interest into wrestling AS A WHOLE on a level not seen since CM Punk's work/shoot on Cena and the company (and subsequent title walkout... and I refuse to call it a pipebomb, because he hadn't said that yet). He's resonated in a way that is similar (though not quite as large in pop culture scale) to "Austin 3:16", and did so from the ashes of what was doomed to be yet another run-of-the-mill tag-team breakup angle, and went on to overshadow quite a bit of goings-on in the wrestling world and dominate quite a bit of conversation. Think about that. He was a sad-sack in a suit that let his wife speak for him. Boring-ass world champion. And then, he 'snaps'. His character went crazy, and over something so inconsequential (getting mad because Jeff "selfishly" injured himself). The character devolving into his meta madness, and Jeff playing straight man until Matt "broke" him too. Then, throw in some of the most awesomely bad production values this side of Darkplace. Garnering massive attention and doing it bigger and better/worse. The camp evolved into its own thing. Copycats tried to crop up in-company (that whole Rosemary/Bram crap) and outside (New Day vs Wyatt Family). He evolved his character. He got his wife, toddler son, father-in-law, his home, his brother's lawn, a drone, and a boat over. He breathed new life into himself and his brother. And most importantly of all, he got people talking. People that love the product. People that hate the product. Pundits, "Smarks" like us, Bloggers, Youtubers, former writers, managers, personalities, wrestlers both current and of yesteryear from all over the world have an opinion about the "Broken Matt" business. Doesn't really matter "how many times" he has wrestled, STD, personally pre-taped or not... he's the one who has garnered the most sustained attention, interest, and conversation. He did the right thing at the right time and struck gold, knocked it out of the park, and did any other metaphor you can place there. TL;DR AJ is a spectacular talent (I intentionally didn't use the other word), and my personal leaning is toward Cody, but undoubtedly this year belongs to Matt.