NUMBER 7:
Immortal’s Enforcer – Bully Ray
Very few guys spend two decades in professional wrestling and suddenly spring up out of nowhere late in their career. I believe the list is basically comprised of WWE’s Mark Henry, and TNA’s Bully Ray… The later of the two has landed himself at #7 on the all-new Depth Chart, and he’s definitely earned it! The men in numbers 7-4 all came within a handful of points of one-another. Just a single pinfall, elimination, or well-placed promo could have moved each of them in radical directions! It’s unfortunately, but Bully Ray came up on the short end of the points pool this time around, but that just means he’s got a great chance of moving up next month!
TNA is going to have a hard time out-performing WWE during the home-stretch of the Road to WrestleMania, but with somebody like Bully Ray in the main event scene they could easily continue performing at the high level Impact Wrestling has shown in the last five to six months. This angle with NFL star Brandon Jacobs could make or break the Bully. If he delivers it well the fans will cry out for his ability to get a non-wrestler over in a feud. But if it tanks, the blame is going on Bully Ray’s shoulders, and you don’t want to be the guy that let your company down with a relatively high-profile target. This could be very good for TNA…or it could just be more of the same. Fortunately, more of the same in recent months isn’t that terrible of an idea!
NUMBER 6:
The Barrage – Wade Barrett
I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how a guy that hasn’t done a lot of visible damage on the WWE front this month made the list, let alone took a spot above John Cena and Bully Ray. The answer is pretty simple: competing every single week, picking up a significant amount of wins, being placed into Smackdown’s Elimination Chamber, a brutal No DQ match with Randy Orton, and putting the Viper on the injured reserve all ganged up to do the trick! Barrett’s climb to the top hasn’t been flashy in recent weeks, but he is consistent. They say slow and steady always wins the race – the slow and steady usually win World titles too – eventually…
Barrett is a great talent: big guy, great build, wicked accent and excellent charisma in and out of the ring. For a guy his size he’s got impressive agility and his shoot style makes him an aggressive opponent for any man, big or small. He’s got all the tools to be a huge star, now he just needs opportunity. Elimination Chamber was a start, but I firmly believe we’ll see Wade Barrett chasing World title gold again immediately following WrestleMania.
NUMBER 5:
World’s Largest Athlete – Big Show
He didn’t manage to “win back” the World Heavyweight title at the Elimination Chamber, but he did break through the top of Daniel Bryan’s pod to beat the holy hell out of him! That, and his impressive path of destruction through Friday Night Smackdown since returning from a Mark Henry-related injury have placed Big Show firmly in our Top Five!
Justin LaBar is the Executive Producer and co-host of Chair Shot Reality on Wrestlezone.com, hosts a show on TribLIVE Radio, and is the current commissioner of PWO Wrestling. He can be reached on Twitter @JustinLaBar.
Justin LaBar: “I want to say that Big Show is like fine wine, better with age. I don’t know if that would be the most accurate way to describe him. Rather, he has consistently been in top stories over his 13 year career with WWE and has delivered.
He is one of the best big men that professional wrestling has ever seen. The offensive ability and mobility he displays for an athlete of his size is impressive. He also knows how to logically sell for his opponent which has made many feuds against smaller guys work in the ring. We have seen him compete for so long that I think many, including myself, often forgot how effortless he makes it look. If we ever need reminder of limits for big men, we can always watch The Great Khali.
The past months have been another showing of Big Show’s range as a performer. Of course he can be the big bad bully when WWE wants him to, but we have seen him show some emotion as he accidentally hurt AJ during the match with Daniel Bryan. Big Show has engaged in the emotional part of the storyline as well step up for the Smackdown brand as guys like Randy Orton and Mark Henry have had nagging injuries with time off.
Big Show and Daniel Bryan. Two very different backgrounds and styles. Just as much credit has to go to Big Show for making that feud work as long as it has. Just another example of the big man consistently being there for WWE and why is in in the top 10.”
