Rob Van Dam
Goldberg
Samoa Joe
Sami Zayn
Kazuchika Okada
John Cena
Tetsuya Naito
Brock Lesnar
Minoru Suzuki
Rey Mysterio
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Shinsuke Nakamura
PAC
Will Ospreay
Shingo Takagi
Kota Ibushi
Asuka
Adam Cole
Ricochet
Cesaro
Were all on my list.
10 will qualify for the Top 25.
I can see the knock on RVD. Was incredibly over until 2002 when the WWE decided to make him into X-Pac 2.0. When he finally got his opportunity in 2006 it all went away in a puff of smoke. His most memorable stint since has been his mid-life crisis gimmick in Impact.
Goldberg has always been a polarising figure. Outside of the streak, I don't think his character connected as well as it should have. Even when he was the Champion, he was still a side-show act behind Hogan, Nash, Flair and Bischoff.
Joe never really surpassed the run he had in ROH despite showing time and time again just how good he is. Currently he's vying for best promo in the biz.
Everybody knows how good Zayn and PAC are but they're lacking that larger than life qualities a lot of the greats have. For me, they both put NXT on the map and made it the best program the WWE has put together since the SmackDown Six.
Okada, Naito, Ibushi, Tanahashi, Nakamura, Suzuki Takagi, Ospreay are all phenomenal but they work in NJPW and it's a different beast to the WWE.
Like Goldberg, Cena is a polarising figure who represents a lot of qualities WWE fans despise. He's had a lot of memorable lowlights and I think it casts a large shadow over a lot of the quality moments he's had.
Brock represents the part-timer fans have grown to despise and his recent run on top has really soured him the eyes of many. The lack of personality is the only thing I could really mark him down on when comparing him to the all-time wrestlers.
Rey is an incredible performer and it's amazing that he's still capable of banging out quality matches despite wrestling for 30 odd years. The thing with Rey is that he doesn't have a huge presence so it's easy to overlook him when putting a show together.
Asuka/Kana is one of the best performers of the recent era, period. However Joshi is incredibly niche and she's only just started to connect with the mainstream audience.
Cole has been on my radar for 10 years so it seems odd to me, but for most, he's only just become a name in the past six months or so. It's only early days despite him being one of the most well rounded performers in Pro Wrestling.
Ricochet only debuted on Raw at the start of last year, so he's brand new to a large portion of the audience. Again, he's been a name to me for well over a decade at this point and an incredible athlete but I can understand why he missed out.
It's pretty on brand for Cesaro to be overlooked. He's basically made a career out of it in the WWE despite having his moments on TV. I think he's destined to be that mid-card thug character despite having all the tools to be champion.
