Super 20 - Week 11, 2012

Guess who is #1? Is there even a need to guess? Read on, nontheless..

20 -7 2w		The Rock He choked on the microphone and got owned by Cena for a second straight week, but again Rock's sheer presence gets him into the Super 20 for another week.. just about.
19 new		Randy Orton Even though Randy Orton has been given a mid-card feud with Kane for WrestleMania, his presence back on TV gives a main event feel that is missing when he is out injure.
18 new		Justin Gabriel Justin Gabriel put on yet another fantastic match Heath Slater this week, this time on Superstars. The two former tag team partners have a great chemistry together in the ring..
17 new		Heath Slater ..but I just give the edge to Heath Slater, despite being the loser in the match. I've stated it before, but I think Heath Slater has a unique presence that could be utilised in the mid-card on Raw or Smackdown.
16 new		Teddy Long While the past couple of WrestleMania's could be criticised for having a poor build-up in the mid-card, this years is different as Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis continue to provide one of the most entertaining feuds in the wrestling world right now. Of course I am on Team Laurinaitis, but Teddy Long always provides a laugh as well.
15 new		Jack Swagger Taking two losses from Santino Marella this week, but putting on a great cage rematch on Smackdown after dropping the US title sees Swagger re-enter the Super 20. That, and his new hair.. more subtle hilarity from Swagger.
14 new		Daniel Bryan "...and my undeniable sex appeal"
13 new		Mark Henry Ok, so all he did was destroy Ezekiel Jackson in a squash match, but that's all we need from Henry to rebuild him as the monster he was in 2011.
12 -5 11w		Bully Ray Calfzilla just being Calfzilla.
11 new		Drew Mcintyre Simply here for beating the shit out of Hornswoggle on Smackdown. If I had not already written my Top 5 Hornswoggle moments article, I'm sure that would have made the cut.
10 new		Sonjay Dutt I keep thinking Sonjay Dutt doesn't have much more to offer after his first couple of weeks in Ring Ka King, but still he continues to surprise me. Running around with his new golden wings was hilarious. I've said it before, but TNA needs to bring this guy to their main roster.
9 new		Santino Marella Santino gets his Cobra-covered palm on the US buckle after getting massively over with the live crowds in the past couple of months, and a great match on Smackdown with Jack Swagger sees him rocket back into the prestigious S20 in ninth.
8 -6 2w		Jeff Jarrett Double J debuted the RDX stable with a killer in-ring promo reminiscent of the good old days of Immortal or nWo, burning minutes of valuable TV time with self-indulgent, over the top antics.
7 +12 3w		Sting The Insane Icon is back in full swing, talking to himself in the mirror and smearing paint all over his face, the classic Sting of yesteryear has returned.
6 new		Joseph Parks / Abyss Abyss picks up points this week for taking the tag straps in Ring Ka King with Scott Steiner, but he propels in at number 6 due to the debut of his mysterious Joseph Parks character. Seemingly the antithesis of what Abyss was, the Joseph Parks character should be an intriguing storyline in the weeks to come.
5 +3 5w		David Otunga Otunga and...
4 -1 4w		John Laurinaitis ..Mr. Excitement can seemingly do no wrong, as both continue to burn hot streaks in the Super 20, finding themselves amongst the upper echelon of talent every week. Their dynamic has grown to the point they both compliment each other in their backstage segments and you can safely bet everytime they appear you're going to get a laugh. This is what mid-card wrasslin' should be about. John Laurinaitis especially killed it this week in his spandex gear and oversized trainers for his match with T-Lo.
3 +17 6w		Triple H Still cutting some of the best promos every week right now, Triple H is making this match with Undertaker feel like the match for the real wrestling fans watching. The Metallica theme for the match is a sharp contrast to the other pop bullshit music used to promote WrestleMania.
2 new		Shawn Michaels Though Triple H was great on the mic again, it was Shawn Michaels that really brought it this week, announcing himself as the special guest referee of the Triple H-Taker match. He has the ability, like Hunter and Taker, to really draw you in to a storyline.
1 n/c 4w		John Cena Who else would be number 1 this week? Nobody else is coming close to what Cena is doing right now, even the aforementioned Shawn Michaels and Triple H. To get a crowd chanting "Tooth fairy" to one of the biggest wrestlers of all time set to appear in his first singles match for 8 years shows just how good Cena is on the microphone. Every week he is proving his naysayers wrong and showing he is even better on the mic than The Rock, when most expected him to fail. A significant milestone in the proud history of the Super 20, as Cena picks up his third #1 spot in a row!

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Super 20 - Week 9, 2012

With the road to WrestleMania well under way, let's see how the WWE stars of Raw and Smackdown fare this week against their competition from TNA, NXT, Superstars and Ring Ka King. Also: Will Bully Ray make it on to the acclaimed Super 20 list for a 9th week in a row? Read on..

20 new		Michael McGillicutty A decent match from McGillicutty this week on Superstars. He is showing he is capable in the ring as of late and has a unique, slightly crazed look which makes him stand out amongst the other low-carders. His new finisher is cool too, I haven't seen as many neckbreakers so mean looking. The prospect of a match between him and Tyson Kidd on NXT next week has me excited. Is this the re-genesis of Mcgillicutty?
19 new		Johnny Curtis So.. Johnny's added a toothpick to his gimmick now.
18 new		Sheamus Two more clean wins for Sheamus on the Road to Mania this week, one of them a really good match with The Miz on Smackdown. Though his in-ring work is great, Sheamus really needs an issue going into the PPV with Bryan, or perhaps they are waiting to add Randy into the mix when he is back from his injury?
17 new		William Regal It's been coming for a while now - Regal earns his spot on the Super 20 for his hilarious commentary on NXT. Quote of the week, after Darren Young explains how he watches old tapes of Regal to learn about his craft: "When I was your age I was out spending my time with old scrubbers"
16 new		Zoravar Love this little guy in Ring Ka King and like Regal above, his spot on the Super 20 has been coming. He was comedy gold this week running in between all the legs of the wrestlers in the tag team match. Love the fact he is as toned as a wrestler too, despite his size. Great fun character.
15 new		Eve Torres Is it right that little Cena kid fans should be chanting "Hoeski!" at Eve? I would say so.
14 new		Teddy Long If they are building towards a Teddy Long vs. John Laurinaitis sometime down the line or even at WrestleMania I will be made up. Teddy and Big Johnny threatening fisticuffs on Smackdown was classic.
13 new		Tyler Reks Really enjoyed Tyler Reks this week, putting on the best match of the week with Tyson Kidd on NXT and having a pretty good outing on Superstars with Mason Ryan too. Reks has a unique look and style and could prosper on Raw or Smackdown if given the chance. The WWE needs bigger guys like him on their main rosters.
12 new		Sting Only one week off the Super 20 and Sting is back with a bang - the insanity is back! Can't wait for the Stinger's match with Roode at Victory Road, should be a great one.
11 new		Abyss "It" debuted on Ring Ka King this week and utilised every big bad monster cliche to get over, including pre-taped "aaahhhh" noises which were dubbed over the tapings... What was particularly great was Abyss scaring the gullible fans in the Ring Ka King Zone (that's just what I'm calling it), but even better was...
10 n/c 3w		Scott Steiner ...Big Poppa Pump, who borderline assaulted the fans, throwing the rails aside and chasing them around the arena like a crazed lunatic. It was one of the preview clips I saw before the Ring Ka King show debuted and seeing it in full swing was even better.
9 -6 9w		Bully Ray I usually hate celebrity guest spots in wrestling, but Bully Ray's mini-feud with Brandon Jacobs over the last two weeks was great. Like I've said before, Calfzilla is the ultimate heel in all of wrestling right now. I love the fact he adds something new to his repertoire almost every week too - taking the mic' off the ring announcer and announcing himself is yet another little bit that goes into making him the star he has become. Nine weeks in the top 20 and still going strong!
8 new		CM Punk Hooray - CM Punk finally makes his long-awaited debut in this celebrated list of excellence. Punk has been at one of the lowest points of his career the past four months or so, but this week we saw glimpses of the Punk we fell in love with in the breezy summer of yesteryear. Donning his old commentary jacket for the main event on Raw was vintage Punk and he had a pretty good match with Daniel Bryan on Smackdown (and also, shockingly cut a promo on him which wasn't too arrogant or annoying). One of the highlights of Punk's week though was calling out Chris Brown on Twitter and owning him in an ongoing war of words - going as far as to say he would choke him out in a fight. Here's hoping Punk gets a hot streak going into Mania - and his opponent Chris Jericho who has also cooled off as of late.
7 n/c 3w		David Otunga Otunga is one of the guys for me who can get in the S20 for the simplest reason - and this week it came in the form of his post-match pose. So arrogant, pompous and with a hint of irony like everything else he does, David Otunga can be a legitimate main eventer in the future.
6 new		Tyson Kidd Tyson Kidd keeps impressing me every week just for his in-ring work but this week he blew me away with a match on NXT with Tyler Reks. He could easily be pushed to a upper mid-card level on wrestling ability alone - but he also shown that he has a little bit of star power in backstage segments and on the mic too. Of course he isn't David Otunga when it comes to charisma, but he's not shockingly bad like Daniel Bryan used to be. I'd like to see him get a push after Mania season.
5 new		Magnus Sir Brutus Magnus just became the number one contender for the Ring Ka King Heavyweight Title this week and Magnus succesfully retained the TNA Tag Titles on Impact. The future of the business is looking stronger every time I see him.
4 +1 2w		John Laurinaitis Some vintage Big Johnny moments this week, but my favourite of all of them was him coming out and doing the Teddy Long dance on Smackdown. Like I mentioned above, I am dreaming of a Laurinaitis vs. Long match in the future. A fifth WrestleMania main event perhaps?
3 new		Undertaker Despite the pathetic "what" chants by the idiots in Minnesota this week, Undertaker had a magnificent 20 minute promo along with Triple H to finally seal the deal on a Taker-HHH match at WrestleMania. I love the new Metallica theme and the sleeveless hooded trenchcoat. It's going to be a big moment when the Deadman finally reveals he is bald. Epic line of the week, as Triple H was going to leave after declining the initial challenge: "Hey businessman.."
2 n/c 4w		Triple H Again I have Triple H edged slightly over Undertaker, just because he is bringing it a little bit more in their promo segments. I literally punched the air with excitement when The Game challenged Taker to a Hell in a Cell. The whole dichotomy between the two characters is so compelling, with Undertaker in his new outfit and Triple H in his suit and tie. With weeks left to go and Shawn Michaels scheduled to be at more Raws, I am intrigued as to where the story is going.
1 +3 2w		John Cena Cena cut the best shoot promo since Vince Russo called Hulk Hogan a "piece of shit" at Bash at the Beach, calling out The Rock for everything I and many others dislike about him. Make no mistake - I am on Team Cenation and always have been and I can't wait to watch tonight's Raw to see what Team Film It's response is.

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Super 20 - Week 7, 2012

With more NXT stars than Raw ones this week, has the world gone mad? No.. this is wrestling, so expect the unexpected. But who really ever though an Indian promotion would ever come along that would challenge the big American companies? Ring Ka King finds itself entering the Super 20 this week and most likely will for many weeks to come..

20 new		Percy Watson Sadly the end of Titus O'Neil's 3-week streak on the Super 20, but perhaps the beginning of something new as Percy Watson hits number 20 on a super tough week. He looks like he could be a future star to me - he's confident, his in-ring work is good, his promos are clear, he has a good voice and he has charisma. Plus, age is on his side.
19 new		The Great Khali Don't know if it's my new-found love for Indian wrestling after seeing Ring Ka King, but I find myself receptive to the return of Great Khali. He brings something different to the table and we haven't seen him for a while, plus he sold the RKO like a champ' on Raw - which he deserves kudos for.
18 new		Gail Kim I wasn't into Gail Kim much til the last couple of weeks when she had two great matches with Tara. Tara deserves plaudits too, but Gail Kim is just a little bit better.
17 -16 6w		James Storm Storm did not look the star that he did last week on Impact or Against All Odds and seemed to play second fiddle to Jeff Hardy. He still looked great though, but TNA need to put everything behind him leading up to Lockdown if they want to build him up as the next top face of the company (which they should)
16 new		Johnny Curtis Curtis' character is awesome and unique and he plays the part of the creepy sexually charged guy well. Proper laugh out loud moments when you see him hiding behind doors or corners of walls. As well as his backstage skits, he had a cool match with Yoshi Tatsu on Superstars this week and showed off his new personality well, making the rest holds fun with his peculiar mannerisms.
15 new		AJ Styles AJ Styles still looks like a main event star to me, no matter how many mid-card angles he gets put in. His matches with Daniels and Kazarian this week were good and he came out of both looking like a real pro.
14 +2 2w		Austin Aries Aries gets in here for a second week just on match strength alone. I'm glad to see him beat Alex Shelley clean, he has to be one of the first long-term dominant heel champions I've seen in years. But it begs the question - who else is left? Zema Ion is the new number one contender, and whether that was by accident or not after the Jesse Sorenson injury, it should prove to be an interesting match up with Aries. The fans are already chanting his name - perhaps a face turn is in order? That could be the cause if they plan to feud him with Ion.
13 new		David Otunga Hilarious promo from Otunga this week, "praying" for John Laurinaitis in the Tim Tebow pose to big heel heat. The reason I love Otunga is the same reason I love Ring Ka King - he's an over the top, larger than life character who takes what could be a crap gimmick without the right direction and gives it personality of his own. Always like to see wrestling in suits, ever since I saw The Wall in WCW - so another bonus that helps find Otunga back on the top 20.
12 new		Gunner Welcome back to the Super 20 Gunner and let's hope you stay here for a long time to come. It was about time someone beat the hell out of Garrett Bischoff and taught that punk kid a lesson, and thankfully that man was Gunner at Against All Odds. Would preferred to have seen his DDT on the concrete, but a simple DDT to the mat was fine enough. Still believe he will be a World Champ' by the time the year is through.
11 new		Sonjay Dutt Not sure if Sonjay Dutt is an American-born Indian wrestler or if he is just one of the Indian guys, but he has a crispness to his in-ring work that I was surprised to see - most of the other Indian talent in RKK is pretty green. His character is great too, that of the weaselly heel and he does it better than anyone else in wrestling right now. Kissing his opponent's foot was hilarious and even one of the Indian commentators broke into English to laugh and say "I love this guy"
10 +2 2w		Robert Roode I thought I was getting sick of Robert Roode, but the ending of the Against All Odds match showed me he is a legitimate champ', with his interactions with Sting. Spitting in Sting's face then laughing and telling him to count when Sting knocked Hardy out with the belt was great. I can forgive how badly the match was booked (why didn't Sting count Bully to win the title if he could count Roode?), just for the great ending - which Roode played magnificently. Even tapping out to Sting on Impact and rolling out cradling the belt like his baby and trying to get friendly with Bully Ray was quality - "Calfs and abs, like old times!" - "Old times" of course being less than 2 weeks ago.
9 new		Jwala I don't know what Jwala's beef is and I'm not quite sure if he is face or heel, but he has an amazing intensity and creepiness about him. Not even sure what the mark is on the side of his face, but it looks cool. As soon as I saw him on camera he stood out to me and he is one of the better Indian wrestlers in Ring Ka King.
8 -5 2w		Randy Orton Randy Orton brings real star power to WWE, and even though he is hanging around in the mid-card at the moment, he should either win the Elimination Chamber match or face the winner at WrestleMania. A strong match with Bryan with a good ending in where he brawled with Big Show sees him stay around the top 10.
7 +2 2w		Heath Slater The One Man Southern Rock Band stays on the chart for a second week after having the best match in WWE world on Superstars with Justin Gabriel. Why is Gabriel not here though? Because he doesn't have the charisma, the charm and the brilliance of Heath Slater. Both are good workers that compliment each other, as seen with their great match - but Slater has the edge on Gabriel with his mannerisms and general demeanor. He stands out from the crowd.
6 +7 7w		Sting Sting is one of only two players left suviving from week 1 of the Super 20, in a tough week where Cody Rhodes (did nothing noteworthy), John Cena (not on TV), John Laurinaitis (rarely featured) and Mark Henry (suspended) all lost their spots. But Sting was great this week.  His mega charisma, while more apparent than anyone elses in TNA, doesn't overflow and make anyone else look bad. That is why Sting is so good, whereas Hogan's charisma just steals the show - that can  be a positive or a negative. The Stinger was great in the tag team match main event and his segment with Roode at the end of Against All Odds showed why he is one of the more intriguing characters on the show, even if that match was overbooked so poorly at the end.
5 +2 2w		Triple H The Triple H-Taker feud just blows everything else out of the water right now in WWE and the slow build up to WrestleMania should be epic. Hunter's opening promo on Raw was long, but necessarily so - it gave a new spin to the feud and made the match seem more relevant than it would have been, giving HHH a heelish edge.
4 +2 2w		Daniel Bryan Bryan improves week after week and his new left-wing liberal gimmick makes him even more hateable as a heel. Everything about him has improved, from his promos, to his matches and even his facial mannerisms. It is small things like that which make a star and one of the things I criticised Daniel Bryan about in my '10 reasons Daniel Bryan sucks' was how he should study Randy Orton for that part of his in-ring game. Seemingly he has taken my advice and he has become one of the more entertaining acts in WWE at the moment because of it.
3 new		Magnus After seeing Magnus kill it on the microphone this week on Impact and then seeing him in Ring Ka King as "Sir" Brutus Magnus, I am convinced he is the future of the business. Wade Barrett move over, Magnus is the next big thing out of England. To think he is only in his mid-twenties is a shock, his in-ring work and promo style suggests that of a veteran. In Ring Ka King he looks like a total star and in TNA he is helping make Samoa Joe relevant again - something nobody has been able to do for 2 years.
2 n/c 7w		Bully Ray The Bully was incredible this week, as always and along with Sting is one of only two remaining stars who have appeared on every Super 20 list since its inception, many moons ago. He played his part in some good matches this week and cut awesome promos as usual (calling Christy Hemme a skank was priceless), but my favourite Bully moment this week came on TNA Xplosion, the UK only show. Some blonde slag from the shitty Man U channel was being interviewed as she had been in attendance at the Impact house show in Manchester, when Bully Ray turns up in a Liverpool top and starts calling her ugly and fat and to stop calling him at 3 in the morning. So, so funny - but not as funny as... .
1 new		Scott Steiner ...Big Poppa Pump! With Ring Ka King pulling in a reported 14million viewers in India, beating out Raw in America by 10million, Scott Steiner is the hottest act in wrestling right now. Some may say Matt Morgan would be entitled to this honour, due to him being the RKK champion - but the real star of the show is The Genetic Freak, bringing his surreal jacked-up comedy ravings to India and terrifying the fans in the process. Anyone who doesn't believe a Ring Ka King star deserves to be at the top of this list just needs to watch the opening minutes of one of the latest episodes in where Steiner calls the Indian general manager Jazzy Lahoria "white trash". Ring Ka King is awesome in itself, but Steiner being on there makes it 10 x better. It is more simplfied and old school in it's feel as it's for an audience more unaccustomed to wrestling than our own, which begs the question why they brought a lunatic like Scott Steiner across - someone that native English speakers can barely understand half the time. It just adds to the greatness that is Ring Ka King - the show is wrestling gold and Steiner is the best act on there.

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