[mcskills]

This isn't another "who's my favorite wrestler thread" (though I suppose they could be the same) - but rather, who's a wrestler that came out; you absolutely hated and since their inception into the lime light has actually grown quite considerably on you?

I'll go first and say absolutely, 100% - Randy Orton. I used to look at the guy and honestly question what the fuck the WWE was thinking. His workrate was slop, his mic skills were mediocre at best, and they kept taking him from good-to-bad-to-good-to-somewhere-inbetween...

Drezzy, thinking back, can probably vouch for how bad I hated him back in the day.

It wasn't until they actually solidified the "Viper" gimmick that I began to fully appreciate him. He's went from some scrub kid, to someone who actually oozes charisma and has exceptionally good matches compared to his earlier days. Hell, that guy's managing to pull off the coveted "he's a bad guy but we love him anyway" role rather seemlessly here as of late.

[drezzy]

BJ Whitmer. Looking back at his run in RoH, it started off fucking lame, but once the feud with CZW started up he began pwning like a motherfucker. But now, of course, he's retired, so I guess I'll have to go with...

Ummmm...hrmmm...

MMIIISSSSSSSSTTEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...


...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNDERRRRRRRRRRRSONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN...

...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNDERRRRRRRRRRRSONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN...

Ken Anderson, the former Mr. Kennedy, has grown on me a whole fuck of a lot since doing the "I'm an asshole" promo a month ago. I didn't care for him at all when he first arrived in TNA, nor when he was feuding with Angle (in fact, I think that's the one bad feud Angle has had in TNA since the matches weren't that good), but once he started hooking up with Jeff Hardy...damn. The man's on fucking fire.

[Emanuel_Cole]

John Cena. His skills on the mic have always been strong, but they strapped him too early, stripped him of any sort of gimmick, turned his moveset into the size a pokemon would feel comfortable with, and pushed him before he was ready. I get it now. Now that he's actually a good worker (I'll forgive his terrible submission acting). Beyond that, he's kind of like Hogan, Rock, and Austin all wrapped up into the neat little WWE Machine package. If there is somebody who can be a better John Cena than John Cena show me. Until then this guy is the one who has grown on me most.

[projectx]

Sheamus, fella.

[Lucious Starr]

I gotta go with Edge.

I didn't really start watching wrestling til about three or four years back, but I really hated that he couldn't do a damn thing for himself. If it wasn't Lita, it was Vickie, and if it wasn't Vickie it was Hawkins and Rider. Peeved the hell out of me that this so called "innovator" of TLC and all would be so highly regarded, when he showed little to no skill in-ring due to his constant need of followers.

But as of late, being back from his injury 100% alone (more or less, I suppose), I've taken the time to watch him and realize just how skilled he is. Certainly I missed this based on his role as the Cult Leader, but now I can't get enough of the Rated R Superstar.

[andre]

	Shadow Starr wrote: I didn't really start watching wrestling til about three or four years back.

You missed you some good stuff dude. WCW vs ECW vs WWF? Awesome times.... Remember that time DX showed up at Turner in Atlanta? Awesome.

For wrestlers who have grown on me, I gotta go with Cena. For the most part I hate the hip hop/rap game (metal up yer ass!!!), but the guy has got charisma. I haven't seen someone work the stick that well since Kevin Nash showed in WCW for a second time.

[andre]

	projectx wrote: Sheamus, fella.

Ahhh stereotypes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol He makes ginger look well... not like ginger! yeah!

[Emanuel_Cole]

Stereotypical gimmick or not, Stephen Farrelly is the real deal.

[flex20]

He's the next big thing literally.

[Chamelion]

The Miz.

I mean, from Real World to what he's doing now? Excellent mic skills, good wrestling, tons of charisma... and the WWE's use of him in NXT can only help him and whatever rookie he's working with.

C

[Emanuel_Cole]

The problem is Bryan Danielson isn't a rookie. He's wrestled for the E before on several occasions. I don't know who he's paired up with this time, but hopefully it's actually someone who hasn't been a household indy name for a decade. He does have a lot of talent and it deserves to be showcased and shared with a little younger guy.

[Chamelion]

The Miz is paired with Alex Riley, the current FCW champion.
I watched Riley do his first promo on NXT last week and I instantly became a fan... his promo style is very similar to how I view Chamelion's style when he's in his heel mode.

C

[drezzy]

Just stopping in to add Skip Sheffield to the list. I thought he was an entertaining goofball on S1 of NXT but not somebody that I'd ever mark out for, but then WHAM~ Lariat to Cena time and time again, as well as everybody else that Nexus has surrounded in the ring, and I'm loving him as a monster heel.

Justin Gabriel's 450 is fucking beautiful, too, and the look he gives the crowd and his fellow Nexus members before he leaps off is perfect subtle heel work. His selling after hitting the move is exactly how RVD should've sold the 5-Star Frog Splash - holding his ribs because it hurt him too, but not to the point where he's trying to catch his breath all the time, because then why would you continue to do the move? - and he may be the only person I've ever seen who's made people boo the 450 Splash.

[rob]

CM Punk.

I never watched any ROH so when people were all excited about Punk being on ECW, I was expecting something awesome. Then I watched a couple of his matches and didn't understand what all the hype was about. It wasn't that the matches were bad, but they weren't the five minutes packages of pure awesome that I had been lead to expect.

But right around this year's Royal Rumble when Punk would eliminate someone and then start talking until the next guy came down, it dawned on me that I'd been a fan for a while. The closest analogy I could come up with for my reaction to him was Eddie Guerrero in WCW. His matches were (obviously) good, but it took a while for him to really click with me. But once he did, he was one of my favorite wrestlers.

[vaxman1]

	Chamelion wrote: I watched Alex Riley do his first promo... his promo style is very similar to how I view Chamelion's style when he's in his heel mode.

you mean coming across fake as hell?


to answer the tread's question: probably Sheamus or Jack Swagger

[Rayn]

The Miz...

Honestly, when he first came in, I had the opinion that everyone else did, "What the fuck is the E doing with THIS tool???" But, well, lately he's been getting a decent push. I'm actually somewhat surprised with him winning the Money in the Bank, and I dig the angle where he's been tryin to turn it in and fails over and over. But I started doing some research on him out of boredom, and looked up a couple interviews he did, and being a small world, he was trained by the tag champs of the indy that I'm training in (Big Time Wrestling's the name of the indy, based out of hayward/newark California. Miz was trained by their tag team champs, The Ballard Brothers).

So... If the Miz can go that far... well.... it makes me thing that I'll be up there in a few years as well cause hey, if his big ass mouth can get that far that quick, well hell... the sky's the limit for me....

[J.T. Whiplash]

I'll list three workers who, over time, have grown on me.

The Miz- Three years ago, had you told me this guy was gonna be the next WWE champion, I would have laughed my ass off. Dude's great on the microphone and has a believable move-set and great psychology.

Jay Lethal- Maybe it was his Black Machismo gimmick that made me not take him seriously, but since he ditched that vat of abortion, he's started to show what he's really capable of even with Russo's piss-poor booking.

Jimmy Jacobs- Never really appreciated the guy until the Age Of The Fall angle in ROH. Kind of amazed Vince hasn't scooped him up yet.