Lo-Down Wrestling’s Fav Five: January 2012

Time for me to debut a new feature in which I name my top 5 wrestlers from WWE and TNA over the last month. I know I got this from Booker T but, unlike Booker, it won’t change from minute to minute, just month to month.

5. Kane

Kane, since he has come back re-masked, has been trying to get John Cena to “Embrace the Hate” by attacking Zack Ryder and scaring Eve Torres at every opportunity. I enjoyed the segments involving them on RAW on the 9^th January despite Zack taking decades to change the tyre, and Kane disappearing like Batman when he was attacking Cena before that. Kane, along with Cena, Ryder and Torres, are now one of the things that I look forward every week on RAW.

4. Bobby Roode

I know that I constantly mention that Austin Aries is the best thing in TNA right now (and he still is); however, he hasn’t really been on TV that much so I can’t put him in my Fav Five. The second best thing in TNA at the minute has been World Champion Bobby Roode. Whilst I would have liked his heel turn to be more gradual like Daniel Bryan’s, Roode has been performing brilliantly on the mic on Impact, pissing off everybody including Sting and his own family. I think that Impact has slowly improved over the last month and one of the reasons is because of Roode.

3. John Laurinaitis

I know that he’s not a wrestler but I have really enjoyed watching John Laurinaitis (did you know that he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the interim RAW GM?) as he has evolved into a credible foil to Punk. What I like about Laurinaitis is the way that he kept on “inadvertently” screwing Punk over in his matches. Then Laurinaitis, aware of his job being under review, had a good role at the Rumble match then had a massive stroke of luck when The Undertaker interrupted his job review when he was about to get fired by Triple H. I’m glad that he didn’t get fired as I like Laurinaitis to continue in his role.

2. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho was been absolutely brilliant since his return and yet he has only said one sentence since then. Jericho is excellent at playing the crowd as he showed when he returned on the 2^nd January. He spent over 8 minutes running round being happy and not saying a word then going off managing to get the crowd go from cheering him to booing him. Two weeks later, he was in a 6-man tag match with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan against Dolph Ziggler, David Otunga and Mark Henry. In probably the best hot tag ever, Punk tags in Jericho, he goes round playing to the crowd, slap-tags Bryan and goes off. He was the runner-up at the Rumble to Sheamus and is starting a possible Wrestlemania feud with Punk so the next few weeks involving Jericho will be very interesting.

1. Daniel Bryan

I know a lot of people think that Chris Jericho is the best thing going in the WWE right now. However, for me, it’s Daniel Bryan on Smackdown. His gradual heel turn since becoming World Heavyweight Champion has been awesome. Plus, I didn’t think that he had the mic skills that he has been showing in him. What I like most about Daniel Bryan is that we all know that he’s a heel, but he is at the stage that he doesn’t believe so. Bryan is using his head as well as his superb technicial skills to help him stay the Champion, provoking Mark Henry and lumberjacks in matches to inadvertently help him out. The best was when Bryan got his new love AJ to come to ringside when he faced The Big Show, and Show accidentally ran her over. Bryan sensed an opportunity and went mental at Show calling him reckless and a bastard. I have been really impressed with Daniel Bryan and I hope that he stays Champion until Wrestlemania.