Marketh.

Got this idea from a thread on the ROH board and thought it was a decent idea. This is just the American scene, not Japan. For me it's:

1. Davey Richards - It's obvious that this is the best year of his career and he's put on a load of quality matches this year. The only person I think that rivals him as WOTY is KENTA, but I'm not including Japanese matches here. He's been booked incredibly well and been given lots of opportunities for good matches, delivering in all. His two matches in ROH with Tyler this year show how great he's become and show that it's not just because he has good opponents, because he was clearly carrying him. I've also seen him put in very good performances in PWG too.

2. Austin Aries - His match quality isn't as great as Davey's has been or someone like Dragon, but his gimmick change to A-Double has done wonders for him this year. He's easily the most charismatic man on the ROH roster and I always find him enjoyable to watch now. He was also a good-sized part of making the TNP 2009 main event great.

3. KENTA - Despite only wrestling a handful of matches this year, what I've seen has been gold. By my ratings, he had about 3 ****+ matches in a row in ROH, plus two great matches on HDNet and a great tag match, which suffered from a shitty crowd.

4. Nigel McGuinness - Great performances whilst injured in his defences against Tyler, KENTA and Lynn make him deserving of a mention. He hasn't been the same from what I hear, but he's already put on better matches than a lot of folk.

5. Bryan Danielson - It was between him and Chris Hero, but I chose Dragon because I've yet to witness the full extent of Hero's change in style. Dragon hasn't had as many opportunities to put on great matches as he used to, but he was a driving force behind the great bouts that were his HDNet trilogy with Tyler and the Tag Title Classic. He's also had some great matches in PWG and CHIKARA, especially the Team Uppercut/Masters of 1000 Holds match and Dolphins/MCMG and Dolphins/Young Bucks.

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King Steventon

1. Austin Aries - Hasn't really been given the spotlight or the platform to work on yet, hopefully that will change with his title run. The guy has pretty much evolved into the most natural looking heel currently in the business. Really entertaining character that comes of tremendously on TV, and still one of the best guys in the ring.

2. Nigel McGuiness - Havent seen his return stuff yet, but even as a crippled champ he was incredible. Broken down with no arms, he pretty much carried Tyler, KENTA, Lynn and Albright to good matches. And I say they were carrys because all of them really were one man shows with Nigel looking excellent.

3. Bryan Danielson - Like Aries he hasn't really been given the platform to shine, hopefully he gets a few matches with Aries soon, but has looked conistantly good in every match I've seen him in. Pretty much the best man in every match he's in, and has been doing more "fun" stuff than high-level stuff we are used to, but still feels like the sort of guy who could pull out a MOTY at any given notice. He was incredible in the Bucks match.

Honestly after those three I think it's a big drop off. Quack would probably be my #4, really good match with Dragon, was excellent in the 1,000 Holds vs Uppercut match, really good match with the Portal and one or two good outings. #5 would be Davey, Steen, Strong or maybe Claudio, though all of their stuff is starting to get a little tiresome.

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Marketh.

Was QuackSaw/Portal this year? If I remembered that, I'd have taken that into consideration and Quack would probably be my #5.

I'm surprised you didn't have Davey higher up on yours, although you didn't like the KENTA match as much as most folk.

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King Steventon

Yeah it was this year.

I thought the KENTA match was great, best match of Davey's career... I just didn't think it was MOTY. >_>

Davey has improved a lot but still does a lot of small things wrong. The Steen match, which I assume you'll watch eventually, started off well but then fell apart into spot, rest, spot, rest at the end and there was a really awkward part where Davey tried to wrap the chain around his leg, couldn't do it, then just gave up. I like him but he still seems to make a lot of mistakes that make him look second rate.

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Marketh.

I haven't actually noticed many mistakes from him, but there are a few things I don't like about the way he is now. Particularly his shoot-y comments. It was fine what he said after the KENTA match, but mentioning Pearce's name in the videowire was really uncalled for and unnecessary.

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Marketh.

I've been thinking about Claudio lately, and I think he's a really underrated talent. I mean, people always say he's a good wrestler, but I think he's better than people give him credit for. I've noticed that he's incredibly versatile, able to put on any match with anyone.

He can with big guys, or guys more his size:
Brodie Lee, Takeshi Morishima, Chris Hero, Nigel McGuinness, Brent Albright (ofc, I like the Albright matches a lot more than anyone else)

Highflyers:
El Generico, Jack Evans, Matt Sydal, PAC

Technical wrestlers:
Bryan Danielson, Mike Quackenbush (though you could call him a highflyer too ofc)

He's also shown he can brawl and work cage matches, play a face and a heel very well, and is almost always over with the crowd.


So yeah, come to think about it, I wouldn't have a problem with putting him on the Top 5.

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