All Things Combat- Top 10 Male Wrestlers Of 2019
And once again, the end of the year lists have reached their conclusion. Much like the women’s list, the top 10 men’s list was very hard to figure out. Not necessarily the wrestlers that would be on here, but the exact order for most of them. With so many fantastic years, there were so many options. That is the reason that the likes of Brian Cage, Tetsuya Naito, Tomasso Ciampa, and more ended up on the honorable mentions list. These 10 had just a little bit better of the year than the wrestlers on the honorable mentions. With five different promotions represented, there are a wide variety of wrestlers represented. There are dominant champions, surprise rises to the main event scene, and one match help turn someone’s year around to get him on this list.
In order to get into the top 10, I have a few criteria. One, they have to have competed for the full year. There are some wrestlers on this list that haven’t competed for the whole year, and have a smaller sample size to grade their year on. Two, championships and tournament wins are important. Three, match quality and in ring skills are also taken into account as well. With that being said, on to the top 10.
In order to get into the top 10, I have a few criteria. One, they have to have competed for the full year. There are some wrestlers on this list that haven’t competed for the whole year, and have a smaller sample size to grade their year on. Two, championships and tournament wins are important. Three, match quality and in ring skills are also taken into account as well. With that being said, on to the top 10.
10) Sami Callihan
The current Impact World Champion gets onto this list due to how good the last six months have gone. Sami Callihan’s year got started on a very weak note, as he would lose to both Rich Swann and Johnny Impact with the X-Division Championship (Swann) and Impact World Championship (Impact) both on the line in different matches. Callihan did come into the year as both the A1 Outer Limits Champion and the AAW Heavyweight Championship, but would drop both of them before the years end. While Callihan wasn’t winning championships, he was winning matches. Wins over Eddie Edwards, Jimmy Havoc, Tommy Dreamer and Swann would get some people talking about just how good Callihan actually was in the ring. These matches would build to the match that would get the wrestling world talking about Callihan when he would take on Tessa Blanchard in the main event of Slammiversary. Callihan would get the win and he and Blanchard would become the talk of the wrestling world with how good the match was. The two would meet again at Unbreakable, and Callihan would win again and set up a date with Impact World Champion Brian Cage. Callihan would get that title match at Bound for Glory in a stipulation that would favor him, No Disqualification. Callihan would lose that match, but would win the title a few weeks later when he defeated Cage in a Steel Cage match on Impact. Callihan has finally reached the top of the mountain in Impact, and with a title defense against Blanchard at Hard to Kill on January 12th, it will be interesting to see what Callihan will be able to do to match his 2019 performance.
9) WALTER
Ever since WALTER chopped Jack Starz chest to oblivion in the second week of the year of the year, his tone for the year was set. The hard hitting Austrian powerhouse has been dominating the European independent scene for years, and now he is doing the same under the WWE banner. WALTER debuted at Takeover: Blackpool, and immediately targeted NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne. The two would collide at Takeover: New York where WALTER would end the 685 day reign of dominance in the division. WALTER would defend the title against Dunne and Travis Banks on NXT UK Tapings, and against Tyler Bate at Takeover: Cardiff in a match of the year contender. While WALTER has done a lot under the NXT UK banner, his continued work on the independent scene helped him earn a spot on this year's top 10. WALTER came into the year as both the PROGRESS and OTT World Champion, and would add the PROGRESS Atlas Championship and the wXw Tag Team Championships with Ilja Dragunov. His fantastic matches against Mark Davis, Viet Muller, Pac, Jordan Devlin, Trent Seven, Dragunov, JD Drake, Kassius Ohon, Kushida, and the never ending war between him and David Star have all been highlights this year. WALTER also had a lot of great matches in tournaments this year as well. He reached the finals of the wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament, getting wins over Starr, Fenix and Avalanche before falling to Lucky Kid in the finals. WALTER wouldn’t miss his chance to win a tournament twice, as he would win wXw’s AMBITION 11 tournament. With him and Imperium running the roost in NXT UK and having continued success on the independent scene, WALTER could be in for another big year in 2020.
8) Kento Miyahara
First, a huge thanks to Alex (@TheBarryPotter on Twitter) for helping me with a lot of the information on Kento Miyahara. This is someone that not all wrestling fans may know. Kento Miyahara is currently in his fourth reign as Triple Crown Champion for All Japan Pro Wrestling, and has been the champion for 423 days as of writing, and has been the ace for the company for about three years. Miyahara would win the Triple Crown Championship from Zeus during the Raising an Army Memorial Series late in 2018, and has been putting on amazing championship defenses since. His defenses against KAI at New Year Wars, Naoya Nomura during the Dream Power Series, Yoshitasu during the Dynamite series, Zeus during the Summer Action Series and Jake Lee during the Raising an Army Memorial Series are all must see title defenses. Miyahara would have a running feud with Lee during the year, as they would meet a few times this year and every match between the two are must watch. Miyahara wouldn’t just have successful title defenses, but he would win his first Champion Carnival, All Japan’s equivalent to New Japan’s G1 for lack of a better term. Miyahara would win the A Block and defeat Lee in the finals to win the tournament. Miyahara would also have a great showing in the Royal Road Tournament, advancing to the finals. He would defeat Sam Adonis, Jiro Kuroshio, and Zeus to get to the finals, but fell to Lee. Miyahara was recently named the winner of the Outstanding Performance Award from Tokyo Sports, and has moved into second place for combined days as Triple Crown Champion, having passed Suwama. He now only trails Mitsuharu Misawa for the most combined days as champion, and is only two successful title defenses away from tying Toshiaki Kawada record of 10. It will be interesting to see if Miyahara can climb the ranks of this list next year, and just what he does as champion of the promotion.
7) Kota Ibushi
The Golden Star got his year off to both a good and a bad start. Kota Ibushi walked into the Tokyo Dome for Wrestle Kingdom 13 as the NEVER Openweight Champion and with a dream match against Will Ospreay, but he would walk out without his championship and with an injury. After losing at Wrestle Kingdom 13, Ibushi would be off until just before the New Japan Cup. It was in the first round of the tournament that Ibushi would get a win over Tetsuya Naito, earning himself an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match in the process. After falling to Zack Sabre Jr in the second round, Ibushi turned his focus to Naito, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, and the G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. At the show, Ibushi would win the championship in a very brutal match, but that wouldn’t be the last these two would meet. They would meet up again at Dominion, in a somehow even more brutal match, where Ibushi would drop the championship, a common thread for the Intercontinental championship this year. It was then on to the G1 Climax, and this is where Ibushi would shine. Ibushi started the tournament with two losses to KENTA and EVIL, but then things started to click. He would rattle off seven straight wins over a lot of the big names in New Japan. He would get revenge over Ospreay to start his seven match win streak. Wins over SANADA, Lance Archer, Bad Luck Fale, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada would follow to put Ibushi at 14 points, and with his win over Okada, Ibushi would win the A Block and advance to the G1 Climax Final to face Jay White. Ibushi’s winning ways would continue and he would defeat White in the final to win the tournament and earn a guaranteed IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 14. With the biggest match of his career on the horizon, 2020 seems like the perfect time for Ibushi to take over New Japan.
6) Jay White
The New Japan Triple Crown is something that is really hard to determine. Some say that the NEVER Openweight Championship is included, others say that it’s the IWGP United States Championship. For the sake of space, let's consider both the NEVER Openweight and the United States Championship as tertiary championships, and that there are only three triple crown champions in New Japan history. From their first championship wins, it took Tetsuya Naito three years to make history as the first, and it took Kenny Omega two years to do so. It took Jay White 18 months to accomplish this. After defeating Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 13, White turned his attention to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and Hiroshi Tanahashi. He would win the championship from Tanahashi at New Beginning in Osaka to become the first ever New Zealand born IWGP Heavyweight Champion in a decision that would shock the world. His reign would be short as Okada would win the championship from White at the G1 Supercard after winning the New Japan Cup. After some time in the multiman tag team ranks, White turned his attention to the G1 Climax. White had a historically slow start, as he started the tournament 0-3 with losses to Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano. Nobody had ever gone from an 0-3 start to the finals, but Jay White bounced back, wth wins over Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Taichi, Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson to get to 10 points, being tied with Tetsuya Naito for the B Block lead. The two met on the final day for the block win, and White would walk away with the win and advance to the finals. White wouldn’t become the first person to win the tournament after an 0-3 start, as he would fall to Kota Ibushi in the finals, but his run in the tournament wouldn’t be for not, as he would be the next challenger for Naito’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship. White would win the title from Naito at Destruction in Kobe to complete the triple crown. Now with a chance to win back the IWGP Heavyweight Championship while being the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, it will be interesting to see what exactly is next for Jay White.
5) Kazuchika Okada
The reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion got his year off to a bad start, as he walked into Wrestle Kingdom for the first time in three years not having the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and not in the main event for the first time in four years. Okada would lose to Jay White at Wrestle Kingdom 13, but that would only be the start of the return of Okada to the title scene. Okada would enter the New Japan Cup, where the winner would get a match against the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at G1 Supercard. Okada would get to the finals after wins against Michael Elgin, Mikey Nicholls, Will Ospreay and Tomohiro Ishii. He would meet an old foe in the finals, SANADA. The feud has been one sided, and that theme would continue as Okada would win the New Japan Cup for a second time, but would promise SANADA a championship match if he won the championship. Okada would have to beat the man that beat him at Wrestle Kingdom 13, and the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Jay White. Okada would win the title back in Madison Square Garden and start his fourth reign with the championship. He would keep his promise to SANADA and gave him a championship match at Wrestling Dontaku in another epic match that saw Okada once again walk away with the win. After a match against Chris Jericho, it was on to the G1 Climax. Okada would get off to a hot start, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi, Zack Sabre Jr., Bad Luck Fale, Will Ospreay, KENTA and Lance Archer to sit at 12 points. It looked like a block win was all but assured, but then there was an upset as SANADA would finally defeat Okada to stop his undefeated run in the G1. The loss would really hurt Okada, as his 6-0 start would turn into a 1-2 finish, only defeating EVIL in his final three matches. After retaining the IWGP Heavyweight Championship over Minoru Suzuki, the only person standing in his way from walking into the Tokyo Dome as IWGP Heavyweight Champion was SANADA. Okada would get his revenge at King of Pro Wrestling, defeating SANADA, and be set for a match against Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 14. Okada rebounded from six months off of being the top wrestler in the company, and now that he is back on top, it will be interesting to see where exactly Okada goes from here.
4) Kofi Kingston
Talk about a well deserved break for a wrestler that has earned everything in his career. Kofi Kingston has been with the WWE for 12 years, and all those years he was never able to escape the midcard. He had success there and the run with the New Day has been fantastic, but it never seemed like he would get any higher on the card. He had been in Elimination Chamber matches for the championship, but never had a one on one championship match. Kingston was at first in the right place at the right time when Ali suffered an injury, and had to be taken out of the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. After an impressive run in a gauntlet match to determine the final entrant in the Chamber match, KofiMania was in full swing. He was one of the final two in the match, but Daniel Bryan was able to retain his WWE Championship. Kofi would then find himself in a build to a main event level match at Wrestlemania against Bryan for the WWE Championship. It was a moment 11 years in the making, and Kingston wouldn’t miss this opportunity, as he would beat Bryan and win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. He would have successful defenses against Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Samoa Joe and Randy Orton before losing to Brock Lesnar on the debut episode of Smackdown on Fox. Now back in the tag team ranks due to Xavier Woods injury, he and Big E are the current Smackdown Tag Team Champions. It was a shame to see Kofi’s championship reign come to an end so unceremoniously, but the run that he had will always be a part of history forever. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to Kofi now, especially if he is only going to be in the tag team ranks until Woods returns.
3) Seth Rollins
Talk about someone who has had such a topsy turvy year. Seth Rollins came into the year as the favorite to win both the Royal Rumble match and be the one to end Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship reign. Rollins would do both, but then he would have a very bad feud with Baron Corbin for the championship. The matches weren’t the worst, but the story just didn’t work. The culmination wasn’t great either as it was a mixed tag team match that included the Becky Lynch and Lacey Evans feud, because I don’t know if you knew this, Rollins and Lynch were dating at the time and are now engaged. The pair would win but Lesnar, who had won the Money in the Bank briefcase, cashed in and would take the Universal Championship back. The two would meet up at SummerSlam where Rollins would take the championship right back. Then there was a feud with the Fiend. The story told there was good, but the Hell in a Cell match was horrible. After he dropped the title to Wyatt, Rollins started to act more like a heel and would eventually turn after Survivor Series. Rollins would make an alliance with the Authors of Pain and go after Kevin Owens. Now with so much bad, why is Rollins so high? While his storylines after Wrestlemania sucked, his matches were very good. He had a very good year in the ring, with such good in ring work, it was going to be hard for Rollins to not be high on this list. Now as a full fledged heel, it’s time to see just what Rollins will do as the top heel on Raw in 2020.
2) Adam Cole
Like I said with Rhea Ripley on the women’s list, it’s amazing what one month can do for someone in pro wrestling, the same thing can be said for Adam Cole. I had Cole on the list at first, and he was in the top five, but the NXT Invasion and his performance at Takeover: War Games and Survivor Series in back to back nights moved him all the way to number two. Cole started the year off on a quiet note, but that all changed when Tomasso Ciampa got injured. Cole was put into the main event match of Takeover: New York, where he and Johnny Gargano would meet for the now vacant NXT Championship in a two out of three falls match. While Cole would lose at Takeover New York, he would find success soon. Due to Ciampa’s injury, the Cole-Gargano story got pushed forward a little bit. I still fully believe that the plan was for Gargano to have a short title reign. That would happen when Cole would beat Gargano at Takeover XVV to win the NXT Championship. After their epic two out of three falls at Takeover Toronto 2, Cole had a bit of a reprieve from wrestling on NXT television, but then the aforementioned month of November happened. Cole would make the most of the NXT Invasion, defending his NXT Championship against both Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins on Smackdown and Raw respectively. Both times, Cole put on fantastic matches and got major wins on both occasions, clean as a whistle over Bryan and a heel win over Rollins. While he was at the forefront of the NXT Invasion, Cole also was in a heated war on NXT as he and the rest of the Undisputed Era battled Ciampa, Keith Lee and Dominic Dijakovic. That feud would culminate in a WarGames match at Takeover: WarGames where Undisputed Era took on Team Ciampa, with their fourth member of Team Ciampa being Kevin Owens. Cole would take a huge Air Raid Crash off the top of the structure through the table from Ciampa in a spot that would be the talk of the weekend. While most wrestlers would get a few weeks off after a bump like that, Cole was back in the ring the next night, defending the NXT Championship against Pete Dunne in another of the best matches of that weekend. One last title defense against Finn Balor on NXT, and Cole is heading into 2020 as NXT Champion. It will be interesting to see what 2020 has in store for Cole. Will he stay in NXT, or is a move to Raw or Smackdown in the cards for him and Undisputed Era?
1) Will Ospreay
It really couldn’t be anyone else. Ever since the turn of the year, nobody has anywhere close to the body of work that Will Ospreay had all throughout the year of 2019. At Wrestle Kingdom 13, he was able to defeat Kota Ibushi for the NEVER Openweight Championship, his first title outside of the junior heavyweight division, and got the show off to a fantastic start. After the title win, Ospreay entered the New Japan Cup and reached the quarterfinals after wins over Bad Luck Fale and Lance Archer, before losing to Kazuchika Okada. He would then defended his championship against long time rival Chris Brookes and Dalton Castle before losing it to Jeff Cobb in a winner takes all match at G1 Supercard during Wrestlemania weekend, where Cobb’s Ring of Honor Television Championship was also on the line. The match with Cobb was also one of the best matches of the weekend, and something that I feel went overlooked on the weekend. During the same weekend, Ospreay once again stole the show when he and Bandido tore down the Hilton Ballroom at the WrestleCon show. Ospreay also began the year with a tag team championship, as he and Paul Robinson reformed the Swords of Essex, and won the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships from Aussie Open at Chapter 82. They would put on steller matches against CCK and Aussie Open before dropping the titles in a phenomenal TLC match back to Aussie Open. After losing those two championships, Ospreay turned his attention to the Best of the Super Juniors 26, where he put together a fantastic tournament, posted a record of 7-2 and winning the B Block and advance to the finals. The only thing standing in his way from another shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship was the unbeaten, unchallenged Shingo Takagi in the final. What awaited fans was one of the best matches of the year, and Ospreay was able to slay The Dragon, giving Takagi his first loss in New Japan. He head into Dominion and won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Dragon Lee for the third time in his career. Ospreay would then enter the G1 Climax, and put on even more great performances against the likes of Kazuckika Okada, KENTA and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Ospreay was able to post eight points, including wins over Fale, an upset win over Tanahashi, as well as wins in dream matches against KENTA and SANADA. Ospreay would then enter the Super J Cup, where he would make a run to the semifinals but came up short to El Phantasmo. He then converted Robbie Eagles from Bullet Club to CHAOS and the pair entered the Super Jr. Tag League, where the duo (now with the name Birds of Prey) finished just two points shy of reaching the finals. The main reason Ospreay gets the number one ranking is due to his consistency of great matches throughout the year. Whether it was ‘The Ace’ Hiroshi Tanahashi, the hot up and comer in Bandido, new faces to New Japan like El Phantasmo and Robbie Eagles, big men like Lance Archer and Bad Luck Fale, when they went against Ospreay, fans knew that it was going to be a great match. Ospreay's 2020 is going to be off to a big start as well, as he defends his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against the returning Hiromu Takahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 14, in a must see match.
