The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Most Influential WWE Wrestlers of the Last Decade

We are far enough removed from The Attitude Era, the nWo, and ECW to keep calling contemporary times post-any of those things. We have arrived at a distinctive period (and arguably had multiple interceding periods), whether you call this the PG Era, the Reality Era, the Social Media Era, the Network Era, or by any other given moniker.

Whereas names like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper defined Rock N Wrestling, and Steve Austin and The Rock defined Attitude, these contemporary times have their own leaders. Some are the defining stars of a generation. Some are quieter, less known players whose creative choices or key performances have helped sway the direction of the business. This week, I’m looking at the top seven most influential wrestlers of the past decade, with qualifiers that each of the men’s influence has to have been recognizably felt in the last ten years and the man himself has to have been an active performer within the last ten years.

#7. Hideo Itami

In WWE’s narrative of wresting history, Hideo Itami had a generically great wrestling career in Japan, and graduated to NXT to work as an upper mid-card face who was more often than not second banana to Finn Balor, leading up to an injury. His in-ring skills are undeniable, but I don’t know mainstream American wrestling fans would think to call him influential on the grander scheme of the business.

But Itami’s influence stems from a time before he ever set foot in a WWE ring, when he instead worked as KENTA. From his kicks and strikes, to his running high knee, to his Game Over (later known as the Yes Lock), to his Go 2 Sleep, Itami innovated or popularized the very best of the signature offense that Daniel Bryan and CM Punk used along their respective climbs to the top of WWE. This brand of stiff, realistic offense from relatively undersized in-ring artists was key to differentiating two of WWE’s most special talents of the last decade. As such, Itami has helped shape a generation of indy Gods turned mainstream stars, and I’d argue that WWE’s decision to sign Itami to NXT when he was already in his mid-thirties, was an acknowledgment of just how special he is as a performer, and how much influence and impact he might still wield for the years ahead.

#6. Zack Ryder

Again, this might seem like an odd pick. In an era when WWE rarely employs true jobbers, Zack Ryder has settled into the new equivalent to that spot—the guy with some name value and some history of success who never picks up a meaningful victory. He’s Virgil or Koko B. Ware in the early 1990s. He’s Bob Holly before he went Hardcore.

Ryder’s rapid descent and profound fall will probably always be points of controversy among the IWC. He’s not a technical virtuouso, his character is cartoonish, and he probably reached his peak in the mid-card when it came to mic game and his skills as a thespian. Just the same, Ryder holds the auspicious title of online innovator. When WWE didn’t have anything interesting for his character. He stormed Twitter and he launched a YouTube show that accumulated massive followings for a lower-mid-card talent. You can make a pretty reasonable argument that no talent before or since has ever done more to single-handedly push himsef and develop a cult following based on thinking differently and hustling away from the ring.

WWE never had a lot of love for Ryder, and arguably demoted him just as quickly as it had pushed him as punishment for getting himself over outside of WWE’s plan and the WWE machine. However, in the years to follow, WWE has wholeheartedly, aggressively embraced social media, pushing Twitter accounts for every talent and urging fans to Tweet to pre-defined hashtags so the company can trend during big shows, in addition to shoving a ton of new content onto YouTube, and ultimately launching the WWE Network.

It’s a stretch to say Ryder was truly responsible for the WWE Network, but I do feel it’s also inappropriately dismissive to say he didn’t have anything to do with it, when he was such a key figure in getting WWE to recognize the potential of social media and the redefined IWC. Not unlike Colt Cabana who paved the way for bigger names like Steve Austin and Chris Jericho to launch major wrestling podcasts, and not unlike Mick Foley who blew open wide the gates for wrestling memoirs, Ryder is wrestling’s signature pioneer for effective use of Twitter and YouTube to advance wrestling characters and angles.

#5. Brock Lesnar

When Brock Lesnar left professional wrestling in 2004, it appeared as though he left behind him a world of untapped potential. Eight years later, he proved just how much he had left in the tank, not just reentering the world of professional wrestling as though he hadn’t missed a beat, but coming back all the more remarkable of a talent with all the more remarkable of an aura for his dominant style and the cred of his MMA successes.

Between social media and worked shoots, Lesnar returned to a post-modern wrestling world, deeply entrenched in the meta-space between what was real and what was fiction. This may have been the best possible landscape for Lesnar to come back and for Lesnar to play a defining role in where the business would head next. Despite working a part-time schedule, The Beast has been involved in a startling number of WWE’s most memorable moments and matches since his return—a bloodbath with John Cena, kayfabe breaking Triple H’s arm, warring with CM Punk, ending The Undertaker’s Streak, and squashing Cena in the main event of SummerSlam 2014.

Our real-life common sense tells us that few if any WWE talents would have any shot in a shoot fight with Lesnar. And from 2013 on WWE has followed that lead, taking Lesnar on a path of monster heel destruction that you could argue no one has ever matched in the history of pro wrestling. More over, his style has permeated much of the top of the card, as we see more and more brutal, physical fights over finesse and showmanship.

Particularly from an in-ring perspective, no single performer has been more impactful to the WWE product over the last three years than Brock Lesnar.

#4. Daniel Bryan

We all know the cliché. Vince McMahon likes big guys. Guys with muscles like Hogan and Cena. Tall guys like Nash and Batista. Moreover, he likes homegrown talents cultivated by WWE.

Daniel Bryan matches none of this criteria. In fact, as a pasty little guy who had developed his pro wrestling cred on the indies for a decade before he got a meaningful run in WWE, it’s pretty fair to say that he was never meant to succeed in the big leagues.

But Daniel Bryan also happens to be, quite arguably, the most talented in-ring performer of his generation. Moreover, he has demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect with crowds, culmiating in his infectious “Yes!” chant. Thus, Bryan had an unlikely run straight to the top of WWE, including a very good heel run as World Heavyweight Champion, a superb tag run with Kane that was easily ten times better than it had any right to be, and finally a shot at the WrestleMania 30 main event wherein he beat two of the biggest superstars in wrestling to claim another world title in the highest profile way imaginable (besides pinning Triple H clean earlier in the same night).

Injuries have tarnished Bryan’s fairytale run, but the fact remains that he was one of a very small handful performers to subvert WWE’s plans arrive as a superstar, and did so in such a way that there’s a very real argument to be made that he Busaiku kneed the door down for other unlikely, indy-tested talents to get their shots on NXT and on the main roster, including Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Samoa Joe. WWE has begun to cultivate a truly riveting roster of proven in-ring wizards which bodes very well for match quality in the years ahead. So much of that particular movement starts with Daniel Bryan.

#3. Shawn Michaels

This was my most difficult pick for this countdown. On one hand I feel that Shawn Michaels is in so many ways this generation’s equivalent to Ric Flair, not only as an all-around great performer, but as a performer who inspired the following generation of workers. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of his most influential work—as a little guy who broke through the glass ceiling, ladder match innovator, and definitive arrogant heel bastard—came well earlier than the last ten years. Michael remained active until 2010 and never really trailed off as a worker, and so it felt like the right balance to give him an upper-mid-countdown slot today.

Talents like Daniel Bryan and Brian Kendrick represent the component pieces of Michaels’s legacy (and it’s far from coincidence that each were trained by HBK). Both are undersizes uber-talents. Both demonstrate an understanding of wrestling psychology that facilitated Bryan rising to the top of WWE, and Kendrick having respectable runs in WWE and TNA en route to establishing himself as top-tier fixture on the indies. Moreover, Bryan’s attention to detail and commitment to craft have made him Michaels’ successor as the very best pure in-ring performer of his time. Kendrick is very good, too, but has exhibited more of Michaels’s personality as brash, outspoken, and alternately all the more loathsome or likeable based on the diminuitive stature he has to back it up.

Michaels’ influence can be seen in so many others, though, from Chris Jericho’s blend of athleticism, technique, and rock and roll bravado; to Jeff Hardy’s every dive from a ladder; to even John Cena’s tendency to not just flex his muscles and expertly work the crowd but actually put on some pretty epic matches at the top of the card.

Shawn Michaels has received about every superlative a wrestler can and deserves a nod as a profound influence on today’s wrestling landscape.

#2. CM Punk

You can take much of what I said about Daniel Bryan and apply it, too, to CM Punk.

Punk was an indy and Internet darling who, despite his obvious talents, was a little too edgy, skinny, and rough around the edges to be a slam dunk WWE prospect. Thus, each stage of his WWE career was a struggle, from surviving developmental, to lasting on the ECW brand, to shoring up his spot in the upper mid-card, to broaching main event status, to finally arriving as that rare talent in contemporary times to hold a world title for over a year straight.

Punk helped usher in an era in which indy-grown talent is not necessarily celebrated, but is accepted as a viable route to mainstream wrestling. In addition to that role, he was key figure in launching the Reality Era. While Zack Ryder Tweeted and John Cena was the face of PG, Punk used his shrewd insights and gift for gab to reinvent the worked shoot promo. After WCW had almost killed the concept with a serious of missteps a decade earlier, Punk delivered his now famous Pipe Bomb Promo on Raw, in what was arguably WWE’s most successful post-modern moment ever, openly acknowledging that some things were preordained by powers that be behind the scene, name dropping indy star and WWE reject Colt Cabana, referencing ROH, and so forth.

Legit shoot interviews were nothing new, and even WWE had started up its documentary business that pulled back the curtain on old-time wrestler stories and behind the scenes machinations in a series of straight to DVD releases. But at this critical period, before the proliferation of wrestling podcasts and before the launch of the WWE Network, no one seamlessly wove together reality and storylines quite like CM Punk. When we look at the intrigue of Brock Lesnar as a real-life badass, the feel-good story of Daniel Bryan’s real-life and kayfabe rise to prominence, and emergence of talents like Kevin Steen who don’t look like bodybuilders but perform like badasses, I’d argue all of these puzzle pieces owe a huge debt of gratitude to one CM Punk.

#1. John Cena

Not unlike the classic question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, I have little doubt that wrestling historians will need to grapple with fundamental question of whether John Cena made the WWE PG, or if PG WWE made John Cena the performer he ultimately became.

From where I sit, each fundamentally and inextricably shaped the other.

John Cena could have fit into the Attitude Era. His early-career rap stylings hinted at a vulgar side and his gift for gab could have just easily lent itself to sexual innuendos as it did to poop jokes. Moreover, as much as critics mock some of the cartoonish elements of his in-ring performance, he has demonstrated in-ring chops to hold up his end of the bargain against top in-ring talents like Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens, in addition to pulling reasonable matches out of the likes of The Greath Khali. But the PG era steered Cena down the straight and narrow, and made him the precise superstar that he is today.

The PG era has its limitations. Professional wrestling has lost viewership since The Monday Night War, and WWE isn’t as mainstream as it was in the Attitude Era. Just the same, the era has also had its successes, including a booming merchandise business, a successful streaming network, and about as positive (if not popular) of a public image as WWE has ever had. Cena, as wrestling’s biggest star in this period, is the backbone of these successes. Had the face of the company walked due to creative disputes or got caught in a drug scandal, it could have undermined all of the good WWE was aiming to promote. To the contrary, Cena was a workhorse who not only made ring dates, but worked the talk show circuit, granted wishes for the Make A Wish Foundation, participated in Tribute to the Troops, and, in the process, never came across as anything less than a polished professional. He was the PG era’s poster boy and its era; its champion and its ambassador.

As such, there has been no in-ring performer more important or influential to WWE in the last ten years than John Cena.

Which influential wrestlers would you add to this list? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.