The Top 10 Wrestlers You Can't See on Television

[HEIDENREICH]

Ето и тазседмичната статия.ENJOY!

Honorable Mention: Jack Evans & Matt Sydal

If MTV's Wrestling Society X hits the airwaves sometime this fall, these two men are scheduled to be big parts of that show. Evans is known for being the ultimate flippity floppity guy, but he's really improved his game recently with stints in Dragon Gate over in Japan. He's also really good at taking a beating in a tag team match a la Ricky Morton. Sydal reminds a lot of people of a younger AJ Styles, he came up in NWA Wildside just like Styles did, whether he will have the same amount of success remains to be seen but he has been very successful in ROH & Dragon Gate alongside Evans.

Honorable Mention: Milano Collection AT

Milano has recently gone back to Japan, but those who got to see him in the indy scene were in for a treat. The Italian supermodel who kinda looks like a Japanese guy's gimmick is somewhat suspect in my book, but you can't take away from his wrestling ability.

Milano from 2001 in Toryumon 2000 Project

Honorable Mention: Ian Rotten

Contrary to popular belief, Ian Rotten can actually wrestle. I have seen him do it before in CHIKARA. Of course, he's better known for the death match stuff, but the guy can work European style. He also does a headstand. It's tremendous.

Honorable Mention: Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson

Formerly known as Chad Allegra in his NWF days, Anderson has been honing his craft over in California at the New Japan Dojo, and people who have seen him wrestle would not be surprised to see him in the big two one of these days. He makes a great chickenshit heel, that much is for sure. Watch out for his girl-like screams when he takes big bumps.

Allegra vs. Scottie Murray in NWA Indy

10) Davey Richards

Richards is the newest guy reminding everybody of Dynamite Kid in the indy scene, and tore it up on the West Coast in promotions like PWG before heading over to ROH. He likes to work that strong style, and it has served him well in matches with guys like KENTA and Jimmy Rave. The one thing holding him back might be his lack of size, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him either in TNA or among the tippy top guys in independent wrestling sooner rather than later.

9) "Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney

If you're talking old school, you gotta be talking about the multiple time former ICWICWA Tex-Arkana Television Champion "Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney. Sweeney forsakes the usual indy moves for things like fistdrops and piledrivers that were all the rage in Memphis in 1985. He also might have the best t-shirt in the wrestling business today:

You may remember him from his appearance on Raw as "Nick Hogan". Or if you're like me you're desperately trying to forget it. Regardless, Sweeney has the charisma to go a long way in wrestling before he's done.

Larry Sweeney music video

8) DeliriousDelirious was with TNA for about a week, but unfortunately for them he's now spending most of his time with the Ring of Honor promotion. ROH seems like a strange fit for a lizard that speaks gibberish, but eventually the hardcore smarks that populate most ROH venues accepted Delirious even if he couldn't do 55 variations of a wristlock. Delirious is a solid worker, but it's his gimmick that gets him on this list and makes him one of the more memorable indy performers out there today.

Delirious hosts CHIKARA's Podcast-A-Go-Go!

7) Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers & Chris Hamrick)

If you love the Southern style of wrestling, it doesn't get any better than these two. Smothers has been a very solid wrestler for almost 20 years, but recently has really become quite the entertainer with his ridiculous dancing before, during and after matches and his imitable promos that have given him quite the cult following. Hamrick is a great second banana for Smothers…his dancing and promo skills are not as great, but he can wrestle with the best of them. With these two in the ring, you're guaranteed to get either great wrestling or great entertainment, and usually you end up with both. Smothers & Hamrick wrestle mostly in Europe these days.

6) Nigel McGuinness

This HWA product is as good as it gets when it comes to the European style of wrestling, and has also been honing his game over in Japan while wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Nigel has become one of ROH's top talents as their Pure Champion, and has had a well-received series of matches there with Bryan Danielson in 2006. Nigel had a total of one match with TNA and also had a short stint with OVW before leaving, but he's got the skills and charisma to make it big in either of the big two within the next five years. He's in it to win it!

5) Mike Quackenbush

Probably the most talented and experienced wrestler I know of that still competes to never appear in either WWF/E, WCW, ECW, TNA or ROH during his career, Quackenbush has kept himself busy by creating CHIKARA and training scores of wrestlers to compete there & in CZW. He also competes regularly in Europe and other Northeastern promotions when healthy, and is considered one of the best play by play announcers in the business with his work on CHIKARA tapes. Quackenbush's style combining elements of lucha libre with puroseu and American style wrestling has become associated with the CHIKARA promotion and will be carried on as long as his trainees continue to compete.

See Quack take on Claudio Castagnoli in the ECW Arena!

4) Steve Corino

The King of Old School seemingly wrestles everywhere except for WWE & TNA these days, mostly in Japan, England, Europe & the Northeastern U.S. Currently Corino spends most of his time with Zero-One & Hustle over in Japan along with 1PW in England, but has made sporadic returns to ROH to feud with Homicide when his schedule allows for it. Corino isn't the flashiest guy in the sport, and he doesn't have the best physique, but he knows how to put on a damn good match. Which is really all one can ask for. Unfortunately I have not seen his son Colby in action.

3) Necro Butcher

Necro is often tossed aside by "smart" wrestling fans as just another death match worker, which really isn't fair to him because he's probably the best death match worker in the States right now. This is the kind of guy who will wrestle in a barbed wire match on a Friday night, then drive 10 hours to wrestle in a death match tournament the next day. Why does he do it? Well, it certainly can't be for the money. You can talk about your WWECW and your Extremists all you want, Necro Butcher is more hardcore than any of those guys could ever dream of being, with the exceptions of Mick Foley & Terry Funk, who I guess don't really count as extremists, but even they would probably look at Necro Butcher and say "Now there's one tough bastard right there".

If you haven't seen Necro take on Samoa Joe yet…what are you waiting for?

2) The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli)

Both of these men deserve spots on this list by themselves, but they are listed together because they are the best tag team currently competing in North America. Don't believe me? Check out CHIKARA's 2006 Tag World Grand Prix Night 3 and see the Kings of Wrestling win three matches against three vastly different tag teams. Hero has been kicking around the indy scene since 1998, wrestling mostly in CZW & IWA Mid-South with steady work in Europe and other places. Hero is currently CZW's heavyweight champion and has held their tag team titles alongside Claudio in the past. The Swiss-born Claudio moved to the United States last year and since then has been bringing his ferocious European uppercuts to ROH, CZW, CHIKARA, PWG and almost every other major indy fed in the USA. Standing at 6'5, Claudio dwarfs most other indy wrestlers, giving him a chance to break out onto the big time someday if he wants to. And maybe even as something more than a police officer. But if he and Hero would rather dominate tag team wrestling forever, that's cool with me.

Kings of Wrestling music video!

1) "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson

Without a doubt, the best wrestler in the world that doesn't appear on national television in his home country has to be the American Dragon. Danielson is currently the ROH & FIP heavyweight champions, and recently he's been wrestling 60 minutes with everybody under the sun. Danielson's style isn't everybody's cup of tea, as some find his technical wrestling to be a little bit boring. But hell, this is the Internet, where technical wrestling gives us wet dreams and other things too disgusting to talk about in a family column. If you were on the "Benoit is God" bandwagon in the mid-90s, certainly you should be on the "Danielson is God" bandwagon now. It's not a question of should Bryan Danielson get a chance to shine on a national stage…it's if he'll get the proper chance to.

[totenkopf]

Първото място си е напълно ясно за всеки, но самата класация е смехотворна.Quackenbush, Rotten WTF?!?!

Къде са Jimmy Rave, Colt Cabana, Briscoes, Kevin Steen?

А и бтв темата си мисля, че е за Other Promotions, така де какво общо с WWE има статията :)

[BORKO_10]

Харесва ми идеята на статията и когато ми остане време ще я прочета с интересн,но нещо не ми харесва клацацията като цяло.Mike Quackenbush, Ian Rotten,Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson,"Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney,Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers & Chris Hamrick) нямат място в нея.Както каза toten_kopf вътре може да влязат кечисти като Colt Cabana,Kevin Steen,Jimmy Rave,Roderick Strong, Adam Pearce,Matt Sydal,BJ Whitmer.Може да мисля така,защото от indy сцената гледам само ROH,а от другите гледам само отделни мачове,но някой от тези които са изброени 100% трябва да се заменят.

[totenkopf]

^Smothers & Hammrick рулират здраво, гледай 1PW sмачкват ме от смях. Съгласен съм да останат за цвят(както и Corino btw Corino> JBL ), все пак не може всичко да е от ROH :)

[BORKO_10]

Corino не съм казал да го махат.А и скоро може да изгледам шоуто на 1PW да се запозная малко.Но сега NOAH 26/08/2006 :)

[HEIDENREICH]

Постнал съм темата там по навик.Моя грешка.

[PyroHunter]

Mike Quackenbush си е доста солиден атлет просто за информация. По моя лична преценка с пълно право си е в класацията. Вярно е, че би могъл да е малко по-назад, но определено влиза в топ 10! ;)

[Diamond_Dog]

Според мене лично класацията си е добре,само има няколко кечиста,които за жалост не съм ги гледал - "Sweet N Sour" Larry Sweeney и Southern Comfort (Tracy Smothers & Chris Hamrick) така че ще се въздържа от коментар дали заслужават да влязат в класацията или не.Иначе като цяло тя ми харесва,първото място е ясно като бял ден,лично аз със сигурност бих сложил Jimmy Rave и Брискотата.Иначе другите неща според мен за напълно логични - все пак има много кечисти,които заслужават по-голяма популярност,но в крайна сметка местата тука са само 10 ;)

[totenkopf]

Mike Quackenbush си е доста солиден атлет просто за информация. По моя лична преценка с пълно право си е в класацията. Вярно е, че би могъл да е малко по-назад, но определено влиза в топ 10!

Добре е, че си го отбелязал това :)

[nWoHulkster]

Всички изброени са си awesome поради различни причина и е въпрос на лично мнение кой къде ще се нареди в eдна класация по awesomness като тази. Друго обаче ми прави впечатление - не съм сигурен дали част от изброените кечисти са пригодени за tv... Едно е да си хит на инди сцената и съвсем друго да можеш да станеш hit на mainstream wrestling сцената. Хубаво е да се прави тънката разлика.

[G]

Хаха какво прави Necro Butcher там!

[nWoHulkster]

^ The best Аmerican deathmatch worker oпределено има място в подобна класация ;)