6. Bully Ray
Bully mother f'n Ray. The best promo guy in the wrestling business, officially. Brother/Bubba/Bully Ray was always a great trash talker as part of The Dudleyz/Team 3D, but he has really come into his own as a singles wrestler this year since turning heel on D-Von.
And while you could say Bully Ray is one of the best on the mic, it would be foolish to say he is a bad in-ring worker. Having gotten into shape and dropped a lot of fat this year, The Bully - as Mike Tenay affectionately refers to him as - has had quite a few top matches including a match of the year candidate with AJ Styles in their last man standing bout.
After a great career as a tag team wrestler, Bully Ray has found his niche as a singles star and elevated himself to a position where fans are craving to see him win a world title. As The Bully said in a backstage promo during his initial push earlier this year, in other words: "I would love to win the World Title.. can you imagine how pissed the wrestling world would be if Bully Ray was World Champ?"
While many smarks would have been pissed off at the time if that had come true, even smarks have some sense and they too have come around to Bully Ray being one of the best wrestlers in the business today. Who says only push youth?
5. James StormWhile Beer Money were the best tag team of 2010, the former TNA tag team champions got over on their superb wrestling abilities in their long series of matches with the Motor City Machine Guns. Everyone knew James Storm and Bobby Roode could go in the ring - but what everyone did not know was just how good James Storm was on the mic.
Clearly the Shawn Michaels to Bobby Roode's Marty Jannetty, James Storm was the breakout star of Beer Money during the Bound For Glory series finale - in which Bobby Roode undeservedly won. Just like Bully Ray is currently doing, James Storm carried Bobby Roode as a singles wrestler via his microphone skills, putting over his tag team partner in the build for his TNA World Title match at Bound For Glory with Kurt Angle. It became obvious who the real talent of the group had been all that time.
Though Storm is not as ripped as his former tag team partner, part of his appeal is his everyman look. A little on the fat side he may be, but it doesn't stop him from looking twice as tough and a more legitimate threat in the ring than Roode does since his cliched and uninspired heel turn.
Winning the world title, albeit for a brief amount of time, was clearly the highlight of Storm's year and his whole career. Roode may have stole his thunder for now, but when the TNA bookers realise Storm has more potential to be a main event player, he will be right back up there with the best of them. A win over Kurt Angle at the latest PPV shows he isn't done on top just yet.
4. Cody RhodesWhen Cody Rhodes first appeared on Raw all those years ago, getting slapped by Orton before being schooled by Hardcore Holly - it seemed that the current Intercontinental Champ was just another undeserving and pathetic-looking 2nd generation star who had got a WWE contract through family links alone.
How wrong was I, as Cody Rhodes has since elevated himself to become an almost permanent fixture in my fave five. While he was decent in Legacy, Rhodes really took off in 2010 when drafted to Smackdown - debuting his "Dashing" gimmick. After cutting a hilarious semi-shoot promo on the fat, wasting Matt Hardy, people began to take notice of Dusty's son.
But he'll never be as good as Goldust, they cried. How wrong they were. While the "Dashing" gimmick was fun, the best was yet to come - as at the beginning of 2011 the new Cody Rhodes was born. "Hideous" and "Grotesque" were the words standing out from his titantron video. After legitimately breaking his nose, Rhodes was forced to wear a protective mask which he worked into his character and so began a 4-month feud with Rey Mysterio in where Cody showed his real signs of being a future world champion.
Since his "Undashing" gimmick, a series of excellent matches and brilliant promos, Rhodes has emerged as one of the brightest talents in the WWE and for sure a world champion sometime in 2012. He has elevated the status of the IC title, just as he said he would do and brought more credibility to that belt than Daniel Bryan has reduced credibility from the world title.
Now unmasked and with plenty of character depth, Rhodes has all the freedom and potential to move up to the next level. A long feud with a legitimate main eventer such as Randy Orton or John Cena in 2012 will take him there.
3. Mark HenryWhen I try to think of the worst aspects of WWE in the past few years, the tag team of MVP and Mark Henry often come to mind. While MVP was brilliant as the heel U.S. champion on Smackdown, tagging with Mark Henry in matching red outfits after a big losing streak was the sign of his demise, which would eventually see him leave for a new challenge in NJPW.
But Mark Henry didn't even have that period in his career he could look back on that MVP had. A feud or two with Undertaker and a run as ECW champion was okay, but nothing people would remember in 10 years time. No, Mark Henry would undoubtedly be remembered as the guy who got Mae Young pregnant and subsequently became the proud father of.. a plastic hand.
Then, the 2011 draft came and Mark Henry was moved to Smackdown as one of the "big moves" shown on the draft edition of Raw. A collective groan was emitted within the wrestling world, as a draft pick was seemingly wasted on the happy-go-lucky guy in the big red Kool-Aid outfit. But their groans were about to be proven erroneous and short-sighed, as Mark Henry turned heel that very same night, clotheslining John Cena.
Big deal, we cried - Mark Henry sucks heel or face. But how wrong we all were. The world's strongest man went on to become one of the biggest draws of the year in WWE and the Smackdown ratings went in the opposite direction to Raw's - they rised. Of course, there was more to that than just Mark Henry, but he was a vital ingredient in the success of Smackdown this year. His feuds with Sheamus, Randy Orton and Big Show were all incredible and featured surprisingly good matches - a rare feat for such a big guy (especially 2 big guys, when it came to his matches with Big Show). It was the first time in a long time the fans got to enjoy a dominant heel destroy everything in his path, and suddenly with his tough bastard ad-libbing and slapping up WWE production staff, Mark Henry felt fresh. Then he became the World Champion and you know the rest.
2. GunnerIf you told me this time last year than Gunner would become one of my favourite wrestlers in TNA, I would have said: who's Gunner? Oh, that guy who acts as security for Jeff Jarrett and Immortal? He's a wrestler?
Fast forward to twelve months later, and Mr. Intensity is piledriving Garrett Bischoff onto the exposed concrete. Concrete exposed by his new manager Ric Flair, no less.
He held the TV title for a while, but Gunner really had his breakout moment after pinning Mr. Anderson and Sting 2 weeks in a row, both of whom were the world champion at the time of defeat. It seemed like he was about to break out as the next big thing in TNA and perhaps even wrestling as a whole. His backstage promos were cold, calculating and believable. His in-ring work was hard-hitting and exciting.
But his push was put on hold and not even featured in the BFG series, a (fake) undefeated streak (17 wins and 3 losses) that Gunner deserved was given to the drab, boring Crimson. When a wrestler is named after the colour of his hair, you know he has no distinguishable charisma.
Still, Gunner has re-emerged towards the end of the year and now being managed by Ric Flair after Immortal has crumbled into ashes, a big feud with Garrett Bischoff going into 2012 is just the ticket to get him back on the map. Do I smell a World title next year?
1. R-Truth (Winner)
If a heel turn ever saved someone's WWE career, it was R-Truth in 2011. The phony "What's Up" rapping entrance, which was boring from the moment it was conceived, gave way to one of the funniest and most charismatic superstars in wrestling today.
John Morrison was hit with the Jannetty curse for a 2nd time, as after Miz had gone on to greatness after Miz 'n' Morrison, R-Truth went on to main event another 2 PPV's this year after turning heel and blowing smoke in his former tag team partner's face. Having already been in 2 main events (if you count the Royal Rumble) - R-Truth took his tally to an impressive 4 PPV main events after turning heel - a WWE title match with John Cena at Capitol Punishment, the PPV which was built around Truth himself. And then being involved in the Survivor Series main event against the returning Rock as part of The Awesome Truth with The Miz. A dream year for a guy who this time last year was rapping to fat kids in the audience "What's up?" to which they would reply in their high-pitched voices, and off-time with the music "...What's up?"
But it isn't just Truth's stellar mic work and gimmick that needs to be recognised - his in-ring work has for a long time been great. He just needed this gimmick and the feuds he has had this year to compliment his wrestling abilities. Now that he has been suspended (for smoking weed presumably), he could come back as heel or face and his gimmick would work either way and suit his in-ring style, such is the genius of his new creation.
And so I could go on about how funny Truth's promos were and how he was the greatest thing in wrestling for a number of months - the reason to tune in to Raw every week - but the best thing I could do is post up a video. So here it is:
One last thing that really shows how high Truth set the bar this year - he actually made the "WHAAAAAT?" chants become something funny to appreciate and laugh along with, instead of being tired and old. Dont what me!
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