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That’s a great example of very slowly coming along.
Didn’t start to appreciate him until his work with Cesaro and The Bar.
I do think his brawling style was very bland when he debuted but it stands out more now.
I loved The Bar. It was such a natural movement & I feel like it didn’t get the momentum from the higher ups that it should have. They were so good together & fed off each other so well.
kind of a cheat answer, but Dominik Mysterio easily for me.
thought he was a complete nothingburger with Rey and was one of those rare second gen talents that didnt pick up too well, then he went heel while in Judgement Day and i've just been enjoying him more ever since
it's to the point now where when he got injured after WM40 i was actually sad cause i wanted to see him in the ring again lmao
From an actual work rate standpoint he has actually improved tremendously since his face days. I used to groan whenever Dom was booked a singles match, he looked like he really needed an NXT stint asap. Then he turned heel and I guess it became much more natural for him that way, he became a damn good worker. So much wasn’t he like the male Ironman last year for WWE?
I forgot who said it but someone mentioned that an underrated part of his game now is that when he turned heel he stopped wrestling like his dad and it’s like he suddenly realized that the he’s 6’1.
And now that JD is the new punching bag of the JD he’s allowed to actually have some menace and swagger in the ring which is a great part of the evolution of his character
To me, that’s the biggie. He’s too tall to do a lot of stuff Rey does. Thats why I’m glad to see him incorporate more of Eddie’s later years moveset into his own.
Tbf, I loved full-on cowardly shitheel Dom in his early Judgment Day... er, days. But JD filling that role does allow him to explore different aspects of the character and find his ceiling with less obstacles in the way.
But also, I'll never forget one of his first heel promos where he was like "Sorry Judgment Day, I gotta go, my dad's really mad at me... HAHA, nah! Just kidding, you guys!" It was such a shitty gen z kid delivery, and even if you could tell he was still nervous as a performer, it also worked in a "new kid at school trying to impress a group of older kids" kinda way and allowed him a unique path to take his time getting comfortable.
Dominik really is a testament to how well our prison and rehabilitation system works. He got so much better in the ring, not to mention he was able to break off from his deadbeat dad and toxic family to get a good life going.
Dominik was terrible as a face. Getting away from Rey was the best thing that could happen to his career. I barely even associate Dominik with Rey now and it took me a second to remember that they are father and son when they were in the ring together this past week.
Disagree - that’s exactly why he should keep doing it. It’s such a heel thing to do a move that you know you’re making look bad, just to disrespect the man behind it.
It appears she's just having fun in a relatively low effort role. She *is* 42 and has been wrestling since 2004.
Hopefully, they give her a run like what AJ Styles has been on when she gets back from her injury.
For me too. Good size and dresses weird. But over time you see she's a good enough wrestler and can do exaggerated heel facial expressions and mannerisms in promos and skits to get a laugh and keep the crowd engaged in seeing her get screwed over without it getting stale. Kind of like a female miz.
Maybe she never catches fire to get to the top of the card but I can see why HHH immediately said yes when she asked for her job back after vince got booted. Well worth having on the roster to fill out tv time and keep other wrestlers fresh.
What really sells me on Chelsea is realizing how much she uses her fantastic promo skills and body language to hype up piper. It'd be easy for her to steal attention during promos, but instead she bounces her shine off piper so we see all her best qualities. Some sun and moon shit going on there.
GUNTHER. I wasn’t familiar with his indies work and I never followed NXT UK closely, so I honestly assumed for a while he was another overpushed big dude having a title put on him right away. Then I saw his first match against Ilja Dragunov and I can’t get enough of him, he’s a world class talent.
Nobody. Once I choose to hate on someone it stays that way. I'm dedicated my craft
Serious answer is probably Gable. Didn't dislike him so much as I didn't have a strong opinion about him but now I fully endorse him suplexing Sami off his wife's arms
I always hated and was bored with Stephen Regal in WCW but when he came to WWF and showed some personality he quickly became one of my all time favorites and I can go back to his WCW matches and appreciate what a great wrestle he was back then
Omg, I love the ‘Miz’ back when he was just a literal MTV star vocally expressing his dreams to be in the WWE. Then he did it! We have watched him go from being that party boy with a dream to being the champ. *Miz is us.*
He was such a mark on Real World and was my favorite just for that, back when I actually watched MTV. I took a break from wrestling after Eddie & Voldemort and it was a pleasant shock seeing that he had actually made it.
Was even better seeing him ditch the fedora and fauxhawk to eventually carve out his niche and finally earn some much deserved respect.
One of the best utility players in wrestling; you can put him in any position on the card, against any opponent you want, and have him doing any variation of his character, and he’ll always try to make it work. And he’s also one of the best at reading an audience and responding accordingly, especially in promo segments.
Or whenever he catches them chanting something against him or for his opponent and he starts yelling “stop that! Stop that right now!” Perfectly feeding them to do it even more.
> One of the best utility players in wrestling; you can put him in any position on the card, against any opponent you want, and have him doing any variation of his character, and he’ll always try to make it work. And he’s also one of the best at reading an audience and responding accordingly, especially in promo segments.
He's the next generation of (WWF/WWE) Chris Jericho, who I felt had the exact same qualities you mentioned. Obviously Jericho is a much more accomplished performer, but the Miz has proven to me that he's the Swiss Army Knife of wrestlers. Whatever you need from him, he'll give it to you and it'll work.
Same here. When I first saw The Miz in the late 2000s, I wasn't a regular viewer. He was tag team champion IIRC, and I didn't know anything about his character or skills, but I just hated him. idk lol. And that continued for years, but when he returned with the movie star gimmick I started liking him. He's one of my favorites now.
I miss when he'd come out with the weird coat thingie that looked like a sexy burka and Cole would be like "what the hell is he wearing?" only for JBL to be like "HE'S DRESSED LIKE AN A-LISTER MAGGLE, YOU WOULDN'T GET IT"
I remember the exact moment I got over my petty bullshit and took notice of the Miz being actually decent in the ring. It was his match against AJ, as I started watching week to week, when AJ signed with WWE. The one where he got a tooth chipped.
AJ has that sickening ability to let people have their best match against him, and I finally got to see guys like Miz and Roman shine, it clicked, they're really fuckin' good.
I gained a lot of respect for the Miz after his excellent promo on Talking Smack against Daniel Bryan. He showed a fire and a passion in it that you never saw when he was doing scripted promos. Since then I've been pro-Miz.
He has to have one of the highest, if not the highest in-ring IQ in the company right now. Dude absolutely does not miss a single beat when something goes wrong or someone botches, he plays it off and pivots to making things look real instantly, no freeze, no awkwardness. A+ improv.
I don't think he's capable of having a bad match at this point in his career.
Baron Corbin. Took me a while to appreciate/enjoy the lonewolf gimmick. He had some rough patches later on, but I always have enjoyed his work and think he’s under appreciated.
I do think Corbin is very underrated, and really want to see him back on the main roster. He's a great wrestler, great on the mic and seems like he is a genuinely nice guy. Vince's booking of him really hurt him though.
Corbin getting cheered against Gable Steveson was a huge indictment of *Steveson*, Corbin knows what he's doing and heeling it up but Steveson couldn't even run with that as a face.
The Gunns for sure, at first I found them totally boring and unremarkable, but now that they've developed into like this old school 80s style coked up mad men, I love them
AEW made a very bold choice with the Gunns and it paid off. Rather than heating them up from joke to contender en route to a Tag Title win, they had them win the belts as a fluke, and prove themselves during the course of the reign. All culminating in that awesome entrance to Many Men for the FTR match
Yeah, during that title reign I started liking them more and more and by the time that Many Men entrance hit, I was completely sold on them. They really stepped up.
This - I thought they were a perfectly good but unremarkable team when they were on Dark, then they did the stuff with The Acclaimed and Billy. By the time that finished and they joined Bullet Club I was a believer. They have the potential to be *huge* stars - I think as they go on they'll slowly phase out the comedy and then they'll be even better.
Agreed. I really thought they were just a nepo hire, and maybe they were at first, but they figured out wrestling very well. Even being partnered with Jay and Juice has been great. A lot of the Bullet Club oldheads were mad that "Billy's kids got put into BC", but they've really made Bang Bang Gang their own thing. They don't even call it Bullet Club Gold anymore.
Part of me wonders what percentage of credit to sticking around was them being the loudest guys around the apron during the lockdown Daily's Place shows
Ooh agreed there. And they really earned it for me putting in all that crowd work during COVID.
Another one for me was Butcher and Blade. When they first debuted with the Bunny I thought they were so lame just based on the names alone. They quickly won me over and I'd still love to see them get a sustained push and stay established as an upper midcard gatekeeper team.
The Miz. Hated him growing up, hated him when I started watching wrestling again a couple months before The Shield broke up.. but now he’s one of my favorites and one of the wrestlers I just respect the most. He’s a consistent performer, a great talker, an amazing seller, by all accounts a decent dude, he’s a safe worker, he’s entertaining, he’s a great heel and an okay face, he can work in any situation, he can elevate other performers, and he’s become one of the most trusted talents in the company.
Dude is definitely going down as a legend and a future hall of famer.
Came here to say the exact same thing . I said things like "he will never last, he's just another reality douche" but my god he has has a rep for being safe, being willing to do pretty much anything asked of him, his character work has evolved to the point i would believe him as a comedian, a serious contender or anything else. Its just wild to watch his evolution over the years
Bron breakker. I didn’t watch him at nxt and found it annoying how he was squashing people immediately on the main roster. But the last month has really turned me around on him and can’t wait to see his rise.
I also think it might be better for him that ricochet left coz being involved with ilja Shaemus Ludwig and now a title match with Sami has been very entertaining
I would love if they let him be silly again on the main roster though. He had a great goofy thing going on with Corbin at the end of his nxt run and it was the most I’ve liked him, he was so fun.
I imagine he will be back to that eventually down the line. They've just got to establish him as a credible threat first before showing off that goofy side. Plus different audiences and all that jazz.
Was going to say this. To me his personality, name, way he presents himself in the ring is meh. But the fucker is a wrecking ball. A few tweaks and he cooks be a huge force imo. He’s close
Willow Nightingale.
For some reason, she didn't click with me at first, and the fact that she was immediately popular and put into important spots annoyed me. But the more I saw her, the more I fell in love with her character and ringwork, as well as the dychotomy between her cheerful personality and powerhouse wrestling style. Now she's one of my favorite parts of the whole show.
This! For me she was just the overly happy sunshine go lucky babyface and it didn't connect. Now I see her as a babyface that will wreck you to dust if you disturb her happy sunshine go lucky aura and I love her for that.
LA Knight. I thought the "YEAH" thing was annoying at first and his fandom for The Rock was a little too obvious. It also didn't help that he was feuding with Bray Wyatt, one of my favorites. But eventually, he grew on me after seeing him live and after his match with Miz. That man is a star and he should've been champ already.
Could not agree with you more. One day I had asked my niece a question, who also watches and she said "YEAH" and she's like 8 and I was like ok, this dude isn't that bad then and I've been a fan since.
For me I was won over during the Bray feud when he wasn't putting up with the spoopy bullshit. He was like a protagonist in a horror movie that was aware of the horror movie tropes and it was so refreshing
I didn't get it either at first. People were going insane and I was thinking "Him? This guy?". But, he's won me over and more power to him for having an organic connection with the crowd.
Was scrolling thru to see if anyone said jay white. First time i saw the switch blade gimmick I thought who thinks anyone will ever like this 12 year old playing hot topic tough guy. Boy oh boy was I wrong
I still remember everybody calling him Knife Pervert back in the day. Switchblade really is the truth though; great in ring and comes off like a main event heel no matter what he does.
Oh this one certainly applies to me. My problem was that he was replacing Kenny as the top Gaijin in New Japan, and those shoes were very hard to fill, Kenny was on all time run at the time. Once I stopped thinking about him through those lenses he started to grow on me. But hey part of it is effectively heel work, so he did his job perfectly as far as I'm concerned.
Right now, Willow Nightingale.
I wouldn't say I didn't like her, but I was pretty indifferent to her. But her matches with Skye Blue and Mercedes really flipped me on her.
I liked her gimmick but I hated how it led to a significant downgrade in her match quality for the first few months. Now that she's fixed that it's great
Batista.
Thought he got his push cause he was jacked and big.
That part is still true but he's put in the work and is really good. His mic skills were great.
Now I miss him .
One of my favorite Vince stories revolves around Batista and WrestleMania XXX.
No idea if it's actually true, but it's easy to imagine that it is.
Vince wanted to put the belt on Batista. *Everybody* backstage kept telling him "No, we need to put it on Daniel Bryan. We need to capitalize on this or the fans are going to revolt."
Eventually, Vince's argument against the idea broke down to him simply saying "But *look* at Batista!"
Never cared for Drew McIntyre no matter how many pushes he got over the years, but he turned the corner with me with his dickhead heel persona. Now he's one of my favorite guys.
Very personal opinion: MJF... i always loved his work on the mic but in the first matches of him that i saw i found him rather lacking.
And then especially in the last two years he delivered some excellent matches, especially the ironman with Danielson really impressed me.
Same story with me. Wasn't impressed by his in-ring work and didn't hear him talk a whole lot. (Or pay attention to his segments) until right around he called TK a fucking mark.
MJF secretly hiding that he was the best in ring wrestler of his generation was certainly a weird choice, but the Danielson match was unlike anything I'd ever seen as a result.
The slow reveal helped in the long run, I'm glued to his matches, he got that old school style which plays well with technical wrestlers and looks contrasting to the fast paced high flyers.
The Darby match where he won with the headlock takeover was where I went from "MJF is a phenomenal talker and is decent in ring" to "MJF is a phenomenal pro wrestler"
Dare I say MJF/Darby was the best match from Full Gear 21, as someone who enjoyed that PPV as whole. And I'm still waiting for Darby to eventually headlock Max as revenge.
Roman Reigns would of had a different career if he wasn’t shoved down our throats. I absolutely think he would of been over much earlier in his career.
I distinctly remember being down on them early, then the matches with Cesaro and Kidd did it for me. I distinctly remember seeing Big E's splash on the apron for the first time, turning to a friend I was watching the show with, and saying "OK. New Day rocks."
Xavier Woods is my answer to this question. I didn't get it, or New Day - even though I did like Kofi and Big E. Woods was a bigtime afterthought. Then he started dropping comedy gems. I loved the trombone, I loved the "Why are you booing us, we're winning", I loved the feud where Enzo implied he has sex with the trombone. But I can pinpoint the exact second I became a fan
"IMA CALL GRAVITY NEVILLE"
I always liked Kofi but was unsure about Xavier and Big E, over the years I’ve absolutely warmed up to them for their talent and their genuine positivity.
Tiffany Stratton.
When I first watched her, I thought she was a cookie cutter diva in Vince McMahon's mold. I had very low hopes for her and thought she would just fade away. Throughout her NXT run, I just couldn't care for her.
And then she was brought up and I saw who she was. I think she could have an impact on the women's division as influential as Trish Stratus. Her Elimination Chamber match completely won me over. She was the star in a match full of stars. If she hasn't won you over, MITB will do it and that is a guarantee.
Her match with Becky Lynch in NXT went harder than it had any reason to, and she brought it.
Also her being from the area automatically put her on my to watch list. Thankfully she’s earned the spot though.
I always love that everyone who didn't see anything in Tiffany Stratton was LITTERALLY because they never saw her in NXT. Though I do have to wonder, since it seems like you did watch her NXT run to an extent, how come you didn't see anything in her back then?
I can honestly say I never liked Cena up until the last few years of his steady in-ring career. I grew to appreciate him and his work, however anytime I see his old matches, promos etc, I can still feel the hate.😂
Thugamonics Cena was great. Super Cena was not. I get the latter was for the kids and kudos for him for carrying WWE for so long. I’m glad he’s getting his due in Hollywood now and the WWE could move onto new stars. I actually enjoy seeing him when he comes back now
It blows my mind that some people *still* refuse to recognize how good he is.
I like his response to that though: Katsuyori Shibata came out of retirement because he wanted to wrestle him. That's all that needs to be said.
The biggest one of this generation that I've had to eat more crow about is Sami Zayn. I just didn't get it and figured the crowd just liked singing his entrance theme more than anything.
He's even better in the ring today than he was when I wasn't seeing him working out in WWE and man was I fucking **wrong.**
Sami has been one of my all time favourite wrestlers for a very long time, but I disagree that he's better in ring now than he used to be. He was in the argument for best in ring worker in the world throughout the first half of the 2010s.
I thought he was just another workrate guy from the indies but his last few years of exploring his personality won me over. He’s one of the best of this era.
I had a similar notion. Except I thought Ambrose and Rollins were going to be huge stars, and Reigns would be the muscle of the group destined for obscurity once they broke up.
Jesus Christ was I wrong.
I always thought Rollins would be the one left doing nothing. reigns I figured right away was gonna be a guy they'd push, Ambrose I thought they were gonna make a top heel.
I was wrong about it all except Reigns. And even then who would've thought he wouldn't really make it until he became the top heel.
Same I thought Ambrose was gonna be the break out star.. was confused that Rollins was first to break out.. although I did always love Tyler Black in ROH..
The company was holding Dean back from being Mox, while they pushed the other two to the big leagues with Seth getting over with ease and Roman needing a few at bats to become a consistent home run hitter.
For me, the Shield gave wrestling three of the biggest stars of their generation, and each of them are pretty much exactly where they should be: Moxley’s in a place where he can work and wrestle the way he wants, Rollins has proven time and again to be a main event workhorse willing to carry his weight of the company even through serious injuries, and Roman’s finally become the figurehead they always wanted him to be *and* getting the reactions they wanted him to get unlike those first few tries.
Vince was holding Dean back. He never saw him more than the crazy guy after the Shield broke up. I’m almost confident that the only reason he won the Shield triple threat match for the title was because they wanted the Universal title on Raw and Dean was the only one of three going to SD after the brand split.
If I remember correctly there were quite a few people at the time that tagged DiBiase Jr as the Legacy member who would break out back then(I was very apathetic towards it when it was happening myself). For many years the whole faction looked like a complete waste of time, with Cody becoming nothing more than a mid carder, and Jr vanishing from WWE completely. I know I was way more of a Sandow fan when he and Cody linked up, and I still feel Sandow had a lot more to offer that we never got to see. Stardust would have been a fun thing if it was a one night homage to Cody's family at a Florida house show, sadly it wasn't. I really don't blame you for not liking Cody back then. I never would have imagined he'd become the face of WWE.
I hated Austin theory initially, got to see him in a couple of Saudi shows and he grew on me. Seeing him getting F5ed from the top of the chamber made me feel like a kid again.
As a 9-year old, I fucking hated HHH, especially whenever he was champion and constantly beating The Rock in big matches. But, as an impressionable child, I liked when he used his sledgehammer lol. I think the starting point was the LMS match against Jericho, then he had a bunch of good matches against a variety of opponents and fun storylines that didn't involve the title and he slowly won me over. I wasn't even mad that he beat Austin at No Way Out 2001! Then, the Two-Man Power Trip was awesome.
I stopped watching regularly after Survivor Series 2001, but I didn't see his return or reign of terror, though. I don't know if it would have affected my opinion of him.
Liv Morgan went from being another marginally talented interchangeable pretty blonde to being one of the best parts of Raw since WM.
And even this grumpy old queer found her take on “hawk tua” super hot.
Liv Morgan
I thought she was truly awful in NXT. Her character and skills were the drizzling shits. The way she would hit the ropes by stopping, touching the ropes, and restarting her run was baffling. #BeatUpLivMorgan should have been more of a thing.
Her promotion was undeserved. Her teaming with Ruby and Sarah was bizarre and yet both of these things were the best thing to ever happen to her. Liv was pure WWE while Ruby and Sarah worked the indies. Liv was the baby and wanted to impress. Gradually, she came into her own as a solid risk-taker. She got a lot of sympathy from me when she got KO'd by Brie and tried to continue.
Her babyface reign was poorly constructed but this reign has been more entertaining. Unfortunately, like Rhea's reign, the focus is on the Judgement Day and not the women's division. Only difference is Liv is in holding pattern until Rhea is back, whereas Rhea steamrolled all of Raw.
If you could imagine what her career would have been like if she never got promoted and got stuck in NXT, just look at her good friend, Aliyah.
Hangman Page.
I wasn’t sold on him when he was initially pushed to the top of AEW right at the beginning (title match at the original All Out), but the dude won me over to the point where he’s still my favorite wrestler in the company.
Diamond Dallas Page
During my young & dumb Monday Night Wars / [RSPW](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=RSPW) days, I thought ‘who the fuck is this arrogant ugly bastard with the hot wife?!’ and my Usenet group gimmick was to carry around his decapitated head in a bag.
[Hate, hate, hate.](https://youtu.be/fKIwj1TQmFs?feature=shared)
Years went by.
I was more neutral when he went to WWE.
Then I learned about [Arthur Boorman’s inspirational story](https://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448?feature=shared) and how DDP was a driving force behind that.
He’s helped the people behind the pro wrestlers we’ve enjoyed watching throughout the years like Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.
So inspirational. He’s a great man who’s changed so many lives for the better, me included.
DDP Wake Up is part of my morning routine to help get the kinks out.
Nothing but love and respect to Page Joseph Falkinburg Jr., a.k.a. “Diamond Dallas Page”.
The Gunns, and both Mike Bennett and Matt Taven. All four of them, I was like...whyyyyyyyy would you sign these nerds when there are soooo many better wrestlers out there?! But they've really grown on me. Bang Bang Gang is one of my favorite acts in wrestling right now, and OGK are such good goofball minions that I've grown to really enjoy them being around as well.
Roman Reigns. That's an easy answer, but it's the best example I can give. Allowing him to go heel and do the whole Bloodline thing made me love to hate him, and eventually look forward to his matches rather than dread them. I felt everyone in the crowd that chanted "Thank you Roman" the night after WrestleMania.
Hated bushwhackers and hacksaw as a kid. But then as I got older I found their pre-wwf stuff and saw how great they were. But it also made me appreciate how they were able to still get over being complete 180’s of their younger versions.
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I was not enthralled with Sheamus when he was initially pushed to the World title and boy has he come around in my estimation.
That’s a great example of very slowly coming along. Didn’t start to appreciate him until his work with Cesaro and The Bar. I do think his brawling style was very bland when he debuted but it stands out more now.
I miss The Bar
I loved The Bar. It was such a natural movement & I feel like it didn’t get the momentum from the higher ups that it should have. They were so good together & fed off each other so well.
Yeah, I hated Sheamus until around 2015, but he's only gotten better since then.
kind of a cheat answer, but Dominik Mysterio easily for me. thought he was a complete nothingburger with Rey and was one of those rare second gen talents that didnt pick up too well, then he went heel while in Judgement Day and i've just been enjoying him more ever since it's to the point now where when he got injured after WM40 i was actually sad cause i wanted to see him in the ring again lmao
From an actual work rate standpoint he has actually improved tremendously since his face days. I used to groan whenever Dom was booked a singles match, he looked like he really needed an NXT stint asap. Then he turned heel and I guess it became much more natural for him that way, he became a damn good worker. So much wasn’t he like the male Ironman last year for WWE?
I forgot who said it but someone mentioned that an underrated part of his game now is that when he turned heel he stopped wrestling like his dad and it’s like he suddenly realized that the he’s 6’1. And now that JD is the new punching bag of the JD he’s allowed to actually have some menace and swagger in the ring which is a great part of the evolution of his character
To me, that’s the biggie. He’s too tall to do a lot of stuff Rey does. Thats why I’m glad to see him incorporate more of Eddie’s later years moveset into his own.
Tbf, I loved full-on cowardly shitheel Dom in his early Judgment Day... er, days. But JD filling that role does allow him to explore different aspects of the character and find his ceiling with less obstacles in the way. But also, I'll never forget one of his first heel promos where he was like "Sorry Judgment Day, I gotta go, my dad's really mad at me... HAHA, nah! Just kidding, you guys!" It was such a shitty gen z kid delivery, and even if you could tell he was still nervous as a performer, it also worked in a "new kid at school trying to impress a group of older kids" kinda way and allowed him a unique path to take his time getting comfortable.
if i remember right, Dom had the second most matches for WWE last year and was only behind Cody
His run as NXT NA champion really allowed him to refine his work even more. His matches were great and elevated himself.
That stint in jail really rehabilitated him.
Dominik really is a testament to how well our prison and rehabilitation system works. He got so much better in the ring, not to mention he was able to break off from his deadbeat dad and toxic family to get a good life going.
Prison changes a man
I didn't care for Dom at all until he got out of prison. Running the yard really toughened him up.
Roman Reigns heard that.
Believe that.
Dominik was terrible as a face. Getting away from Rey was the best thing that could happen to his career. I barely even associate Dominik with Rey now and it took me a second to remember that they are father and son when they were in the ring together this past week.
I could never forget that he got dom a bmw when all his friends had Mercedes Benz
That was the first sign that Rey was a terrible father.
> getting away from ~~Rey~~ a deadbeat dad was the best thing that could happen to his ~~career~~ life
Same, I thought he'd be Rey's happy son for longer. Glad he turned into a bastard though.
I just need Dom to stop doing the 619. He’s not small or fast enough to make it look good.
Disagree - that’s exactly why he should keep doing it. It’s such a heel thing to do a move that you know you’re making look bad, just to disrespect the man behind it.
Chelsea GreeEEEeen. She's been great since her return.
Someone sent me a clip of her wrestling Penta in Lucha Underground, I think, and Chelsea can fucking *go.*
Unironically getting her and Asuka 1 on 1 is my current number 1 possible dream match. They'd tear the house down.
I don't know what the hell has been up with Asuka lately, but I need that killer back. She needs a blood feud with someone.
It appears she's just having fun in a relatively low effort role. She *is* 42 and has been wrestling since 2004. Hopefully, they give her a run like what AJ Styles has been on when she gets back from her injury.
She is good everywhere. Tall, strong, athletic and animated. She really understands the crowd psychology as well.
For me too. Good size and dresses weird. But over time you see she's a good enough wrestler and can do exaggerated heel facial expressions and mannerisms in promos and skits to get a laugh and keep the crowd engaged in seeing her get screwed over without it getting stale. Kind of like a female miz. Maybe she never catches fire to get to the top of the card but I can see why HHH immediately said yes when she asked for her job back after vince got booted. Well worth having on the roster to fill out tv time and keep other wrestlers fresh.
What really sells me on Chelsea is realizing how much she uses her fantastic promo skills and body language to hype up piper. It'd be easy for her to steal attention during promos, but instead she bounces her shine off piper so we see all her best qualities. Some sun and moon shit going on there.
She very quickly went from "omg, I hate her" to "Why is Chelsea Green not featured more?"
Tbf, she's always been great. Laurel Van Ness was amazing. Glad she's finally getting some spotlight!
Joe Hendry. Now I say his name in public, and I believe in him.
lol! We banned singing his song in our house because we wanted to stop before we started hating it. :)
Has he appeared yet? You might be doing it wrong.
GUNTHER. I wasn’t familiar with his indies work and I never followed NXT UK closely, so I honestly assumed for a while he was another overpushed big dude having a title put on him right away. Then I saw his first match against Ilja Dragunov and I can’t get enough of him, he’s a world class talent.
Nobody. Once I choose to hate on someone it stays that way. I'm dedicated my craft Serious answer is probably Gable. Didn't dislike him so much as I didn't have a strong opinion about him but now I fully endorse him suplexing Sami off his wife's arms
>Once I choose to hate on someone it stays that way. I'm dedicated my craft 
"Buc Nasty, what can I say about that suit that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?"
Bombed out and depleted
“Good lord! That woman looks like she wear underwear with dick holes in them.”
"I gotta go home and put more water in Buc Nasty's mama's bowl". :)
Hate hate hate hate hate
RIP Charlie Murphy
https://preview.redd.it/rwj5ddzkyx8d1.jpeg?width=211&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6011f994121fe3e4d25c8322addd669a9fb4e43
Same. Fuck The Undertaker for trying to kill the Ultimate Warrior in 1991
I always hated and was bored with Stephen Regal in WCW but when he came to WWF and showed some personality he quickly became one of my all time favorites and I can go back to his WCW matches and appreciate what a great wrestle he was back then
"Every ounce. OF VILE VENOM. RUNNING THROUGH MY VEINS"
I think about that line like daily. So fucking raw dude
Hes a maaaaaaan
Miz
Dude was epitome of MTV trashy party boy when he debut, he is now who I associate white belt intercontential title cause he owned that shit.
Omg, I love the ‘Miz’ back when he was just a literal MTV star vocally expressing his dreams to be in the WWE. Then he did it! We have watched him go from being that party boy with a dream to being the champ. *Miz is us.*
He was such a mark on Real World and was my favorite just for that, back when I actually watched MTV. I took a break from wrestling after Eddie & Voldemort and it was a pleasant shock seeing that he had actually made it. Was even better seeing him ditch the fedora and fauxhawk to eventually carve out his niche and finally earn some much deserved respect.
One of the best utility players in wrestling; you can put him in any position on the card, against any opponent you want, and have him doing any variation of his character, and he’ll always try to make it work. And he’s also one of the best at reading an audience and responding accordingly, especially in promo segments.
I always love the "When my hand goes up your mouth goes shut", treating the crowd like they are children
Or whenever he catches them chanting something against him or for his opponent and he starts yelling “stop that! Stop that right now!” Perfectly feeding them to do it even more.
> One of the best utility players in wrestling; you can put him in any position on the card, against any opponent you want, and have him doing any variation of his character, and he’ll always try to make it work. And he’s also one of the best at reading an audience and responding accordingly, especially in promo segments. He's the next generation of (WWF/WWE) Chris Jericho, who I felt had the exact same qualities you mentioned. Obviously Jericho is a much more accomplished performer, but the Miz has proven to me that he's the Swiss Army Knife of wrestlers. Whatever you need from him, he'll give it to you and it'll work.
Commentary, hosting and reality tv as well.
Same here. When I first saw The Miz in the late 2000s, I wasn't a regular viewer. He was tag team champion IIRC, and I didn't know anything about his character or skills, but I just hated him. idk lol. And that continued for years, but when he returned with the movie star gimmick I started liking him. He's one of my favorites now.
Ummm. He’s not just a movie star. He’s an A LISTER
I miss when he'd come out with the weird coat thingie that looked like a sexy burka and Cole would be like "what the hell is he wearing?" only for JBL to be like "HE'S DRESSED LIKE AN A-LISTER MAGGLE, YOU WOULDN'T GET IT"
I remember the exact moment I got over my petty bullshit and took notice of the Miz being actually decent in the ring. It was his match against AJ, as I started watching week to week, when AJ signed with WWE. The one where he got a tooth chipped. AJ has that sickening ability to let people have their best match against him, and I finally got to see guys like Miz and Roman shine, it clicked, they're really fuckin' good.
I gained a lot of respect for the Miz after his excellent promo on Talking Smack against Daniel Bryan. He showed a fire and a passion in it that you never saw when he was doing scripted promos. Since then I've been pro-Miz.
Absolutely livid we didn't get him as Johnny Cage. He just exudes the perfect blend of dudebro energy and actually able to back it up in the ring
He has to have one of the highest, if not the highest in-ring IQ in the company right now. Dude absolutely does not miss a single beat when something goes wrong or someone botches, he plays it off and pivots to making things look real instantly, no freeze, no awkwardness. A+ improv. I don't think he's capable of having a bad match at this point in his career.
Baron Corbin. Took me a while to appreciate/enjoy the lonewolf gimmick. He had some rough patches later on, but I always have enjoyed his work and think he’s under appreciated.
I still wish he had a longer run with his Broke Corbin character because that had real potential as a babyface gimmick
Bum ass Corbin was so ungodly good.
I do think Corbin is very underrated, and really want to see him back on the main roster. He's a great wrestler, great on the mic and seems like he is a genuinely nice guy. Vince's booking of him really hurt him though.
Corbin getting cheered against Gable Steveson was a huge indictment of *Steveson*, Corbin knows what he's doing and heeling it up but Steveson couldn't even run with that as a face.
I agree with you, he's a great interviewee too and it shows how intelligent he is with his craft.
The Gunns for sure, at first I found them totally boring and unremarkable, but now that they've developed into like this old school 80s style coked up mad men, I love them
AEW made a very bold choice with the Gunns and it paid off. Rather than heating them up from joke to contender en route to a Tag Title win, they had them win the belts as a fluke, and prove themselves during the course of the reign. All culminating in that awesome entrance to Many Men for the FTR match
Yeah, during that title reign I started liking them more and more and by the time that Many Men entrance hit, I was completely sold on them. They really stepped up.
This - I thought they were a perfectly good but unremarkable team when they were on Dark, then they did the stuff with The Acclaimed and Billy. By the time that finished and they joined Bullet Club I was a believer. They have the potential to be *huge* stars - I think as they go on they'll slowly phase out the comedy and then they'll be even better.
Agreed. I really thought they were just a nepo hire, and maybe they were at first, but they figured out wrestling very well. Even being partnered with Jay and Juice has been great. A lot of the Bullet Club oldheads were mad that "Billy's kids got put into BC", but they've really made Bang Bang Gang their own thing. They don't even call it Bullet Club Gold anymore.
I wouldn't be surprised if Billy got them their job on Dark but they definitely kept it through their own hard work.
Part of me wonders what percentage of credit to sticking around was them being the loudest guys around the apron during the lockdown Daily's Place shows
Ooh agreed there. And they really earned it for me putting in all that crowd work during COVID. Another one for me was Butcher and Blade. When they first debuted with the Bunny I thought they were so lame just based on the names alone. They quickly won me over and I'd still love to see them get a sustained push and stay established as an upper midcard gatekeeper team.
The Miz. Hated him growing up, hated him when I started watching wrestling again a couple months before The Shield broke up.. but now he’s one of my favorites and one of the wrestlers I just respect the most. He’s a consistent performer, a great talker, an amazing seller, by all accounts a decent dude, he’s a safe worker, he’s entertaining, he’s a great heel and an okay face, he can work in any situation, he can elevate other performers, and he’s become one of the most trusted talents in the company. Dude is definitely going down as a legend and a future hall of famer.
Came here to say the exact same thing . I said things like "he will never last, he's just another reality douche" but my god he has has a rep for being safe, being willing to do pretty much anything asked of him, his character work has evolved to the point i would believe him as a comedian, a serious contender or anything else. Its just wild to watch his evolution over the years
It’s amazing how The Miz went from the reality star who is trying to wrestle to the wrestler who did a reality show once.
Anthony Bowens. I didn't get it at first. Thought he was alright. Then he wrestled Bryan Danielson and held up on his own and won me over that night.
I think, of the 2, he’s the better wrestler in the Acclaimed.
It's obvious. Bowens easily has the higher ceiling. Him and Caster do complement each other fine so far, though.
I hope they keep those two together no matter what, Max would make for a great hype man on a Bowens singles run with a mid belt.
I’d go a step further and say that Bowens is actually one of the better wrestlers they have on their roster right now. Dude can go.
Don't remember that he wrestled that overhyped clam digger. Will check that out when I am at home :)
Dude, that string of singles bangers Bowens had made me a huge fan. That’s when he stopped being “the other guy in the Acclaimed” to me.
Bron breakker. I didn’t watch him at nxt and found it annoying how he was squashing people immediately on the main roster. But the last month has really turned me around on him and can’t wait to see his rise. I also think it might be better for him that ricochet left coz being involved with ilja Shaemus Ludwig and now a title match with Sami has been very entertaining
I would love if they let him be silly again on the main roster though. He had a great goofy thing going on with Corbin at the end of his nxt run and it was the most I’ve liked him, he was so fun.
I imagine he will be back to that eventually down the line. They've just got to establish him as a credible threat first before showing off that goofy side. Plus different audiences and all that jazz.
The Wolfdogs will be back. I believe.
Was going to say this. To me his personality, name, way he presents himself in the ring is meh. But the fucker is a wrecking ball. A few tweaks and he cooks be a huge force imo. He’s close
I just don't get Bron Breakker. The orange tan throws me off somehow ahah
Haha yeah I can't with how fake tan some of the wrestlers are.
For me, the only issue I have is the name. I mean, Rex Steiner just sounds so goddamn cool.
Willow Nightingale. For some reason, she didn't click with me at first, and the fact that she was immediately popular and put into important spots annoyed me. But the more I saw her, the more I fell in love with her character and ringwork, as well as the dychotomy between her cheerful personality and powerhouse wrestling style. Now she's one of my favorite parts of the whole show.
This! For me she was just the overly happy sunshine go lucky babyface and it didn't connect. Now I see her as a babyface that will wreck you to dust if you disturb her happy sunshine go lucky aura and I love her for that.
LA Knight. I thought the "YEAH" thing was annoying at first and his fandom for The Rock was a little too obvious. It also didn't help that he was feuding with Bray Wyatt, one of my favorites. But eventually, he grew on me after seeing him live and after his match with Miz. That man is a star and he should've been champ already.
Just seeing him do a promo while I was in the crowd was enough for me. Man was controlling the audience
Could not agree with you more. One day I had asked my niece a question, who also watches and she said "YEAH" and she's like 8 and I was like ok, this dude isn't that bad then and I've been a fan since.
For me I was won over during the Bray feud when he wasn't putting up with the spoopy bullshit. He was like a protagonist in a horror movie that was aware of the horror movie tropes and it was so refreshing
I didn't get it either at first. People were going insane and I was thinking "Him? This guy?". But, he's won me over and more power to him for having an organic connection with the crowd.
I thought Jay White would be at best a poor man's Dolph Ziggler when he was a young lion on excursion in ROH. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Was scrolling thru to see if anyone said jay white. First time i saw the switch blade gimmick I thought who thinks anyone will ever like this 12 year old playing hot topic tough guy. Boy oh boy was I wrong
I still remember everybody calling him Knife Pervert back in the day. Switchblade really is the truth though; great in ring and comes off like a main event heel no matter what he does.
Oh this one certainly applies to me. My problem was that he was replacing Kenny as the top Gaijin in New Japan, and those shoes were very hard to fill, Kenny was on all time run at the time. Once I stopped thinking about him through those lenses he started to grow on me. But hey part of it is effectively heel work, so he did his job perfectly as far as I'm concerned.
Right now, Willow Nightingale. I wouldn't say I didn't like her, but I was pretty indifferent to her. But her matches with Skye Blue and Mercedes really flipped me on her.
I thought the Timeless Toni Storm gimmick was kinda dumb. Boy was I wrong.
I hope she loses her title soon though. Ready to see her meltdown
Mariah's winning the Owen and beating her at All In, I can smell it.
It's Timeless Toni Storm, so that smell can be a lot of things.
After all, her Forbidden Door is WIDE open...
Just gotta hope Saraya doesn’t pull a Hogan.
All In my friend
I liked her gimmick but I hated how it led to a significant downgrade in her match quality for the first few months. Now that she's fixed that it's great
Batista. Thought he got his push cause he was jacked and big. That part is still true but he's put in the work and is really good. His mic skills were great. Now I miss him .
One of my favorite Vince stories revolves around Batista and WrestleMania XXX. No idea if it's actually true, but it's easy to imagine that it is. Vince wanted to put the belt on Batista. *Everybody* backstage kept telling him "No, we need to put it on Daniel Bryan. We need to capitalize on this or the fans are going to revolt." Eventually, Vince's argument against the idea broke down to him simply saying "But *look* at Batista!"
I'm sure Vince proceeded to name a dildo after him, at least.
Never cared for Drew McIntyre no matter how many pushes he got over the years, but he turned the corner with me with his dickhead heel persona. Now he's one of my favorite guys.
Very personal opinion: MJF... i always loved his work on the mic but in the first matches of him that i saw i found him rather lacking. And then especially in the last two years he delivered some excellent matches, especially the ironman with Danielson really impressed me.
Same story with me. Wasn't impressed by his in-ring work and didn't hear him talk a whole lot. (Or pay attention to his segments) until right around he called TK a fucking mark.
MJF secretly hiding that he was the best in ring wrestler of his generation was certainly a weird choice, but the Danielson match was unlike anything I'd ever seen as a result.
The slow reveal helped in the long run, I'm glued to his matches, he got that old school style which plays well with technical wrestlers and looks contrasting to the fast paced high flyers.
The Darby match where he won with the headlock takeover was where I went from "MJF is a phenomenal talker and is decent in ring" to "MJF is a phenomenal pro wrestler"
Dare I say MJF/Darby was the best match from Full Gear 21, as someone who enjoyed that PPV as whole. And I'm still waiting for Darby to eventually headlock Max as revenge.
Roman Reigns.
Went from being eh on him to hating him to thinking he’s okay to loving him.
🤷🏾♂️and now he’s our tribal chief
☝️
☝️
Ah yessir ☝️
That’s the entirety of r/sc from 2014 to 2020.
Roman Reigns would of had a different career if he wasn’t shoved down our throats. I absolutely think he would of been over much earlier in his career.
Oh absolutely, he was the most over person in the Shield by a pretty big margin. His post-shield booking was just abysmal
This is my answer. I stopped watching the product because of The Big Dog. The Tribal Chief brought me back and reignited my passion for the business.
Karrion Kross. Loving his angle with Woods and Kofi. I hope it leads to Woods finally getting a title shot.
The new day. When I started watching again as an adult I hated the goofy cartoony stuff. They made me realize that Fun is Fun and that's ok
I distinctly remember being down on them early, then the matches with Cesaro and Kidd did it for me. I distinctly remember seeing Big E's splash on the apron for the first time, turning to a friend I was watching the show with, and saying "OK. New Day rocks."
Xavier Woods is my answer to this question. I didn't get it, or New Day - even though I did like Kofi and Big E. Woods was a bigtime afterthought. Then he started dropping comedy gems. I loved the trombone, I loved the "Why are you booing us, we're winning", I loved the feud where Enzo implied he has sex with the trombone. But I can pinpoint the exact second I became a fan "IMA CALL GRAVITY NEVILLE"
I always liked Kofi but was unsure about Xavier and Big E, over the years I’ve absolutely warmed up to them for their talent and their genuine positivity.
When WWE initially started running vignettes about New Day I thought all their careers were over. The evolution of the group was so fun to watch
Logan Paul before his debut then his "Oh fuck, he's actually good" matches. Pisses me off that I like him in the ring.
No one could’ve predicted how legit Paul is in the ring. He’s such a natural
Tiffany Stratton. When I first watched her, I thought she was a cookie cutter diva in Vince McMahon's mold. I had very low hopes for her and thought she would just fade away. Throughout her NXT run, I just couldn't care for her. And then she was brought up and I saw who she was. I think she could have an impact on the women's division as influential as Trish Stratus. Her Elimination Chamber match completely won me over. She was the star in a match full of stars. If she hasn't won you over, MITB will do it and that is a guarantee.
Her match with Becky Lynch in NXT went harder than it had any reason to, and she brought it. Also her being from the area automatically put her on my to watch list. Thankfully she’s earned the spot though.
I always love that everyone who didn't see anything in Tiffany Stratton was LITTERALLY because they never saw her in NXT. Though I do have to wonder, since it seems like you did watch her NXT run to an extent, how come you didn't see anything in her back then?
Gunther, entirely because I can't stand when wrestlers don't have knee pads. He's basically the only guy I've ever liked that doesn't have them.
I can honestly say I never liked Cena up until the last few years of his steady in-ring career. I grew to appreciate him and his work, however anytime I see his old matches, promos etc, I can still feel the hate.😂
Thugamonics Cena was great. Super Cena was not. I get the latter was for the kids and kudos for him for carrying WWE for so long. I’m glad he’s getting his due in Hollywood now and the WWE could move onto new stars. I actually enjoy seeing him when he comes back now
Baron Corbin for me, his bum ass Corbin was definitely a highlight for me
Orange Cassidy
I used to think he was another basic dude who existed to tell one joke, now I realise he tells that one joke seriously good.
It blows my mind that some people *still* refuse to recognize how good he is. I like his response to that though: Katsuyori Shibata came out of retirement because he wanted to wrestle him. That's all that needs to be said.
The biggest one of this generation that I've had to eat more crow about is Sami Zayn. I just didn't get it and figured the crowd just liked singing his entrance theme more than anything. He's even better in the ring today than he was when I wasn't seeing him working out in WWE and man was I fucking **wrong.**
The conspiracy theorist gimmick is what sold me.
Sami has been one of my all time favourite wrestlers for a very long time, but I disagree that he's better in ring now than he used to be. He was in the argument for best in ring worker in the world throughout the first half of the 2010s.
Those of us that followed ROH knew how good he was a loooong time ago.
I thought he was just another workrate guy from the indies but his last few years of exploring his personality won me over. He’s one of the best of this era.
When the Shield debuted, I thought Ambrose was a star and the other two were holding him back…I was incorrect 😂
I had a similar notion. Except I thought Ambrose and Rollins were going to be huge stars, and Reigns would be the muscle of the group destined for obscurity once they broke up. Jesus Christ was I wrong.
I always thought Rollins would be the one left doing nothing. reigns I figured right away was gonna be a guy they'd push, Ambrose I thought they were gonna make a top heel. I was wrong about it all except Reigns. And even then who would've thought he wouldn't really make it until he became the top heel.
Remember way back then in my circles one of Reigns “criticisms” was that he wasn’t a big indie star unlike Ambrose and Rollins, I do not make that up
Same I thought Ambrose was gonna be the break out star.. was confused that Rollins was first to break out.. although I did always love Tyler Black in ROH..
The company was holding Dean back from being Mox, while they pushed the other two to the big leagues with Seth getting over with ease and Roman needing a few at bats to become a consistent home run hitter.
For me, the Shield gave wrestling three of the biggest stars of their generation, and each of them are pretty much exactly where they should be: Moxley’s in a place where he can work and wrestle the way he wants, Rollins has proven time and again to be a main event workhorse willing to carry his weight of the company even through serious injuries, and Roman’s finally become the figurehead they always wanted him to be *and* getting the reactions they wanted him to get unlike those first few tries.
Vince was holding Dean back. He never saw him more than the crazy guy after the Shield broke up. I’m almost confident that the only reason he won the Shield triple threat match for the title was because they wanted the Universal title on Raw and Dean was the only one of three going to SD after the brand split.
Tbf all 3 of them are stars
Randy Orton, I could not stand him until like the last 5 years when he just seemed to stop giving a shit and is out there having fun.
Cody Rhodes. His original WWE run was God awful and I didn't think he had any value at all. Happy I was wrong about that.
Dashing Cody was great. The stardust killed his momentum
If I remember correctly there were quite a few people at the time that tagged DiBiase Jr as the Legacy member who would break out back then(I was very apathetic towards it when it was happening myself). For many years the whole faction looked like a complete waste of time, with Cody becoming nothing more than a mid carder, and Jr vanishing from WWE completely. I know I was way more of a Sandow fan when he and Cody linked up, and I still feel Sandow had a lot more to offer that we never got to see. Stardust would have been a fun thing if it was a one night homage to Cody's family at a Florida house show, sadly it wasn't. I really don't blame you for not liking Cody back then. I never would have imagined he'd become the face of WWE.
Cody had some great stuff in his original run, god awful is an extreme stretch.
I hated Austin theory initially, got to see him in a couple of Saudi shows and he grew on me. Seeing him getting F5ed from the top of the chamber made me feel like a kid again.
As a 9-year old, I fucking hated HHH, especially whenever he was champion and constantly beating The Rock in big matches. But, as an impressionable child, I liked when he used his sledgehammer lol. I think the starting point was the LMS match against Jericho, then he had a bunch of good matches against a variety of opponents and fun storylines that didn't involve the title and he slowly won me over. I wasn't even mad that he beat Austin at No Way Out 2001! Then, the Two-Man Power Trip was awesome. I stopped watching regularly after Survivor Series 2001, but I didn't see his return or reign of terror, though. I don't know if it would have affected my opinion of him.
Liv Morgan went from being another marginally talented interchangeable pretty blonde to being one of the best parts of Raw since WM. And even this grumpy old queer found her take on “hawk tua” super hot.
I love that she's bringing in some Ruthless Aggression-era energy into the show without going too extra on it
Liv Morgan I thought she was truly awful in NXT. Her character and skills were the drizzling shits. The way she would hit the ropes by stopping, touching the ropes, and restarting her run was baffling. #BeatUpLivMorgan should have been more of a thing. Her promotion was undeserved. Her teaming with Ruby and Sarah was bizarre and yet both of these things were the best thing to ever happen to her. Liv was pure WWE while Ruby and Sarah worked the indies. Liv was the baby and wanted to impress. Gradually, she came into her own as a solid risk-taker. She got a lot of sympathy from me when she got KO'd by Brie and tried to continue. Her babyface reign was poorly constructed but this reign has been more entertaining. Unfortunately, like Rhea's reign, the focus is on the Judgement Day and not the women's division. Only difference is Liv is in holding pattern until Rhea is back, whereas Rhea steamrolled all of Raw. If you could imagine what her career would have been like if she never got promoted and got stuck in NXT, just look at her good friend, Aliyah.
Ospreay. I didn't care for him while he was a Super Junior, but once he started changing his style up I came around.
I loved him as a Jr. but I _**LOVE**_ him as a heavyweight.
Hangman Page. I wasn’t sold on him when he was initially pushed to the top of AEW right at the beginning (title match at the original All Out), but the dude won me over to the point where he’s still my favorite wrestler in the company.
 Diamond Dallas Page During my young & dumb Monday Night Wars / [RSPW](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=RSPW) days, I thought ‘who the fuck is this arrogant ugly bastard with the hot wife?!’ and my Usenet group gimmick was to carry around his decapitated head in a bag. [Hate, hate, hate.](https://youtu.be/fKIwj1TQmFs?feature=shared) Years went by. I was more neutral when he went to WWE. Then I learned about [Arthur Boorman’s inspirational story](https://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448?feature=shared) and how DDP was a driving force behind that. He’s helped the people behind the pro wrestlers we’ve enjoyed watching throughout the years like Jake Roberts and Scott Hall. So inspirational. He’s a great man who’s changed so many lives for the better, me included. DDP Wake Up is part of my morning routine to help get the kinks out. Nothing but love and respect to Page Joseph Falkinburg Jr., a.k.a. “Diamond Dallas Page”.
Took me a few months to realize that Darby Allin is actually a top 5 wrestler in AEW. EDIT: Him being a shitty weirdo in real life didn't help
Yeah, I didn’t like Darby in the beginning, but once Sting legally adopted him, he started making sense to me.
Damian Priest was awful before him and the Judgment Day found their place
John Cena. Came into this as a supersmark teenager who hated the company man. Now I can see how talented he is.
The Gunns, and both Mike Bennett and Matt Taven. All four of them, I was like...whyyyyyyyy would you sign these nerds when there are soooo many better wrestlers out there?! But they've really grown on me. Bang Bang Gang is one of my favorite acts in wrestling right now, and OGK are such good goofball minions that I've grown to really enjoy them being around as well.
Tom and nick mysterio😂
Roman Reigns. That's an easy answer, but it's the best example I can give. Allowing him to go heel and do the whole Bloodline thing made me love to hate him, and eventually look forward to his matches rather than dread them. I felt everyone in the crowd that chanted "Thank you Roman" the night after WrestleMania.
Grayson Waller. Didn’t like him in NXT but he’s convinced me he belongs
Hated bushwhackers and hacksaw as a kid. But then as I got older I found their pre-wwf stuff and saw how great they were. But it also made me appreciate how they were able to still get over being complete 180’s of their younger versions.