YES YES YES! Perfect.

I'm trying to think of who in the WWE I'd replace Beer Money with, because I don't really watch TNA anymore. The funny thing is, I can't come up with anyone.

active entertainers

1. CM Punk
2. Miz
3. Alberto Del Rio
4. Kurt Angle
5. Randy Orton
6. Jack Swagger
7. Daniel Bryan
8. AJ Styles
9. Wade Barrett
10. Kofi Kingston

Still wish Brian Kendrick would get a real push.

I realise this is all subjective but Bully Ray and not Daniel Bryan? Weird. Sure, Bryan might not get as much screen time as any of the names you picked but his presence is practically a guarantee that we'll see some great wrestling. Your list certainly gives the impression that you value mic skills more than in-ring skills.

I have to agree with most of this list Kev (especially Roode and Morgan). But where's A.J Styles? 11th?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Styles, John Morrison and a couple others were strongly considered.

Spot on about Bully Ray, the guy simply knows how to work. I've enjoyed watching his his singles run.

I am all for any Top Ten list that doesn't include John Cena! As a pure wrestler/entertainer I enjoy Kurt Angle, but this JJ/Karen thing has played out and is boring. I would probably take Morrison over Swagger and Morgan, but I pretty much agree with your list.

This is a good list, and yes even though Anderson is no more than a poor man's Stone Cold, his personality is what makes makes him entertaining. Personally though I think I would swap him out on the list with AJ Styles, who seems to do something in every match that makes your jaw drop.

It seems Jack Swagger is coming into his own and is starting to become a very entertaining performer. But as for TNA it's becoming painfully obvious that Hogan and Bischoff aren't putting that TNA World title on any of TNA's home grown stars any time soon, which is rediculous. Matt Morgan and Robert Roode are two obvious young stars that should be elevated to Main Event status while they are in their prime. But it seems as though if you're not recently fired from WWE or over 40, then you're not main event material in TNA. Hopefully for the sake of entertanment that will change soon.

Bully Ray might be delivering the best promos in the business right now. The Miz and Alberto Del Rio are on fire and hitting on all cylinders. And yes, when Miz's music hits you know something entertaining is about to happen. I can't wait to see the inevitable promo battles between The Miz and Chris Jericho. That should be fun. And Christian is truly underrated, and even though it probably won't happen, I'm hoping he gets to carry the World Heavyweight "Title" atleast one time in his career. He deserves it.

Randy Orton probably is a better heel than face, but he's such a cool heel you just want to cheer for him. One thing I like about Orton is that his character is essentially the same as a face as when he was a heel. He doesn't rally fans to cheer for him, they just do.

CM Punk is hands down the best performer in the business right now. In terms of the combination of in ring ability and promo skills, there's none better than Punk.

There are also a few who are rising on my list. John Morrison due to his acrobatics is getting close to becoming 'must see". And a year ago I couldn't stand the guy, but Sheamus is begining to come into his own and he's climbing my list as well. His power just jumps out at you.

It makes me smile that you also like Edgeand you name him as a fovourite of yours, because I never felt that you gave him enough dredit in your posts.

Kevin,
Love the list. I typically mark out for the same wrestlers.

So what happened to AJ Styles and/or Samoa Joe? They used to be can't miss wrestling TV. Has their diminished pushes made them less entertaining?

Chris

Kev i am really suyrprised that Miz is not your #1. from your comments about him now and everything you have been saying about him over the past year. As fas as fans hating him i don't think they really hate that much though i think most people look at him like they little preppy kid that annoyed everybody in high school or college because he looks like he's 19 or something. i am really surprised you don't have the new Jeff Jarrett you have been really really marking out for him over the last 6 months.

Umm, shouldn't that be 'My 10 favorite active Superstars' or 'My 10 favorite active Sports Entertainers'?

I quickly wrote down mine when I saw your blog title. I don't follow TNA too closely so these are my picks (no particular order)

CM Punk
Christian
Randy Orton
John Cena
Alberto del Rio
Wade Barrett
Jack Swagger
Sheamus
John Morrison
The Miz

Swagger..............Really?....Really? A Top Ten favorite...? Your credibility as a writing covering the glorious sport of WRESTLING just took a huge hit in my eyes.

Perhaps if you should had made 2 lists: Top 10 Active Wrestlers and Top 10 Active Sports Entertainers....that way you could have placed some of the jabronies from your wrestlers list to the wrestling 'wanna-bes' list.....Swagger, Really?

RESPONSE FROM KE: What don't you like about Swagger?

Wheres Jarrett? You seem to really like him during your TNA reviews. Have your opinion towards him changed?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I like Jarrett, but there were only 10 spots.

What don't you like about Swagger?

.....first of all, he has a lisp-which makes for a 'Elmer Fudd' Heel and even if he didn't have a speech problem-he still can't work on the mic...he comes out shaking & beating his chest-looks like a goof...its not entertaining, its not intimidating-its laughable and when the WWE pushed him & put the title on him, he had the personality of my dish towel in the dirty laundry....he has size, has the collegiate background as far as grappling skills-but just too damn, weirdly goofy to be taken seriously by an 8 year old or an adult wrestling fan......Cole got more heat in 2 minutes than Swagger has ever been able to muster, and think I didn't talk about that 'Eagle Mascot' thing...whatever the Hell that was a few months ago, which probably wasn't his idea-but made him look even sillier than he already was to begin with-if that is possible.

RE: Vince McMahon

"active entertainers"

I think you meant "Action Soap Opera Stars."

CM Punk
RVD
Kurt Angle
JAck Swagger
Sting
Christian

That's about it at present.

1. CM Punk
2. The Miz
3. Chris Jericho (yes I'm still counting him)
4. Kurt Angle
5. Christian
6. AJ Styles
7. Daniel Bryan
8. Beer Money / Motor City Machine Guns (cheating, I know)
9. Samoa Joe
10. The Undertaker (esp. @ WrestleMania)

10. Santinoi
9. Mr. Anderson
8. James Storm
7. Jack Swagger
6. Kurt Angle
5. Christopher Daniels
4. Robert Roode
3. Christian
2. The Miz
1. AJ Styles

Just out of curiosity, would you care to give a list of your favourite divas/knockouts? I realize the list would likely be shorter but it would be interesting to see where they land.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I love lists, so I'll give that some thought.

Pretty much spot on, except AJ Styles might sneak in somewhere in Jack Swagger or Mr. Anderson's expense. Would love to see Kelly Kelly on the list as well.

Wagdaddy doesn't think Swagger is a wrestler? A guy with a legitimate background in amateur wrestling? How absurd.

Punk will go down as an all-time great.

He is the best in the business right now - a perfect blend of old-school psychology and new-school ring work.

I really enjoy his move sets.

And young wrestlers would do well to watch him play off the crowd. It fits his personality and draws classic heel heat.

Other than Punk, I look forward to del Rio, Orton and Miz.

I've tried, but can't connect with Christian.

He's a fantastic worker (although I can do without the slaps he delivers and the slow-claps he sometimes does), but I don't think his mic skills are compelling.

He just seems to be a perpetual IC-title type.

Your mileage may vary.

I made a list of my own favs. I don´t watch TNA and with no HBK, Edge and Jericho in WWE I must admit I had a hard time coming up with 10 wrestlers. I even had to threw in Justin Gabriel and a Diva:

Miz
Christian
Wade Barrett
CM Punk
John Morrison
Daniel Bryan
Alberto Del Rio
Jack Swagger
Justin Gabriel
Kelly Kelly

Hey Kev, just wondered ho close John Cena was to making your list out of interest?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I like Cena, and if I ran a wrestling company, I would probably have him be the face of it. With that being said, his character is not one of my favorites.

If you told me a couple of years ago that "The Miz" would feature as number 2 on your "10 favorite active wrestlers" list and that I would argue that he should be number 1 I would think you, me and the entire world has gone insane. But it can't be denied what the Miz has done is simply "Awesome". If your talking about inspiring the newbies on tough enough you don't need Bret Hart, John Cena or anyone else. Get the Miz to just stand there, he dosent have to even say anything. If what he has done dosen't inspire the rookies they may as well give up now

Kev: You definitely like to cheer for the bad guys, don't you? Me too, actually, but it's just an observation: Even though your list is 50/50 heels/faces, the heels mostly rank higher, and most the faces (except Christian) are playing heelish characters who happen to get cheered (esp. Anderson and Orton).

I feel like there was a time not that long ago when I would have strongly argued for a lot of younger TNA guys like Styles, Joe, Pope, Lethal and the MCMGs to have a place on the list, but by your criterion, I can't fault you for not including them. TNA has either given them very little time or bad storylines recently.

I agree with you kev about Matt Morgan. To be honest, I find him better than Mr. Anderson overall. I do not know what the hold up is about putting the title on Morgan. He cuts great promos, not annoying, like Anderson, and has the look. Oh well, i don't understand 75% of TNA's booking any ways. :)

10. Big Show.
9. AJ Styles
8. Matt Morgan
7. Motor City Macine Guns
6. Undertaker
5. Sting
4. CM Punk
3. Samoa Joe
2. Beer Money
1. Kane.
I have always like Kane. Especially when he debuted and was unstoppable.
Jack Swagger is good, I just think that he has not been used the right way.

1. CM Punk
2. Jack Swagger
3. Dolph Ziggler
4. Daniel Bryan
5. Christian
6. Alberto Del Rio
7. The Miz
8. Cody Rhodes
9. Kofi Kingston
10. Tyson Kidd or Zack Ryder

1. CM Punk
2. The Miz
3. Alberto Del Rio
4. Christian
5. Dolph Ziggler
6. Wade Barrett
7. Jack Swagger
8. Daniel Bryan
9. Sheamus
10. John Cena

What? No John Cena? How could you leave out the guy who's main eventing EntertainMania in Miami year?

Jack Swagger is a top five in ring worker. The guy is huge and he can go, he needs a serious push back to the top. Too bad he's on Raw. All those midcard heels are going to have their careers destroyed by John Cena in the next 11 months.

Wow! You're incredibly fair to guys like John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler in your weekly review of their segments.

I always thought you were a big fan of their work (and their absence on the list doesn't mean you aren't a fan, but I mean I thought you were a bigger fan of them than this list would imply).

This was a very interesting list to see in writing (and no, I'm not a troll that will use it as ammunition to attack you later; although unfortunately, this list will likely be used by your trollers as such).

RESPONSE FROM KE: Ziggler and Morrison just missed. As crazy as it sounds, Imy interest in Ziggler has waned since he took on the generic look.

Heel R-Truth would be near the top of my list. Did you consider him?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Too soon for me. Need to see more of his heel character in WWE.

Great list, Mr. Eck. I have to say I agree with every placement---(note on Anderson--if you noticed the April 28th edition of iMPACT-they're finally tweaking his character a bit--where he has a certain likable vulnerability that Stone Cold did not have, and which differentiates him as a character if they keep it up---he's less the unstoppable bad-ass as the guy who is an a$$hole, but isn't going to stop even though he is on his own and stacked against odds that he has little chance to overcome---Austin's bad-assery was a physical, threatening force---Anderson's developing bad-assery is that he isn't the best or the strongest--but he won't quit or compromise---that slight difference will give him room to be quite a bit different than Stone Cold given time and more character development---coupled with his mic skills--since that kind of bad-assery is mental--not physical)
Also, I too, despite preferring TNA over WWE at this point think that Punk may be the greatest walking right now in terms of overall potential. If he leaves and goes to TNA--with the way TNA has been actually showing strong improvement every week--we could be seeing the belated birth of a strong competitor to WWE---Morgan is also a given--here's to hoping that his current program with Steiner puts him over in a fresh way that will allow him to enter the main event picture and stay there.
If TNA gets Punk off this list, continues to tweak Anderson---pushes Morgan--and keeps Beer Money active in a relevant tag team situation--(they do have the Guns and others)--this could finally be the big time for TNA. And this isn't to turn your list into a TNA promo---if they get over---WWE is going to have to push organically and step their game up too, and guys like Swagger and Morrison are primed to explode if given the chance in an atmosphere of inter-company competition.

My list would be fairly similar. William Regal probably would have made my list, if he's even considered an active wrestler anymore.

I honestly don't know if there are 10 performers that I like enough to call "favorites". I've really got to start watching Ring of Honor.

One guy that hasn't been mentioned in the comments that you neglected that I'd include is Dolph Ziggler. I think he's got the best ring sense of the WWE's young generation, meaning that he knows how to put together a match very well. His match with Edge at the Rumble is probably my favorite match so far this year, though I admittedly haven't actually watched a lot of wrestling.

Swagger seems to have stirred up some controversy; I like him too but I don't know if I'd go that far with him. I think he's still got loads of untapped potential, though. WWE creative has really dropped the ball with him since his ECW run, even including his Heavyweight title run. And he needs his eagle back!

I know he is a little older than most, but where is Sting in all of this? He is an icon and unlike Hogan who truly doesn't bring much to the table any longer, Sting is still great at what he does and has good presence and delivers good matches. It doesn't hurt that he is also a decent person.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I have nothing against Sting. In fact, there are a lot more guys that I like than guys I don't like. But there are like 80-90 wrestlers on the WWE and TNA rosters; I just picked my top 10. That doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other performers who I appreciate.

AJ Styles
Beer Money
CM Punk
Jack Swagger
Christian
Matt Morgan
Awesome Kong
John Morrison
Chris Daniels
Eric Young (World Elite Version)

Kevin, I'm curious...What does the "FTW 13" under Tazz's name mean (when they introduce themselves at the top of the show)? Mike Tenay has "The Professor".

RESPONSE FROM KE: When Taz was in ECW, he created a championship for himself and called in the FTW title, which stood for [Expletive] the World title. Thirteen, I believe, is his lucky number.

Swagger just doesn't do it for me either. I think he has plenty of potential, but the way he has been used has not helped. However, I hated Kurt Angle when he first came on in WWE. Swagger seems like a "poor man's" Angle at this point. Kurt is one of the only reasons I tune into TNA now so things could change for Swagger too.

The Miz would be my number one.

Kev, if the hardyz were back in their Prime of face Wrestling.....and active...would they be high on this list?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Perhaps. The Hardy Boys were one of my favorite tag teams

Long time reader here. You gotta stop using the term "mark out" Too much of a backstage term, that doesn't belong here. Your a much better writer than that. Use your words!

this is why vince hasnt giveen christian the position to shine as a rated player.

because people look at him. and think. who is this old man. and change the channel.

I love the miz but the problem is I don't feel they haven't build him as a legitimate wrestler (yet), so it gives the impression that the moment he's losing the title he wouldn't be able to win it back (except though something like MITB).

@ ryan b

Just have to defend Mr. Eck's impressive ability to use his words...as his is the only forum on the internet I visit for wrestling news and discussion because of that skill and because of his insights--(as well as the insights of many of the regular commenters such as yourself).
"Mark out" is not only acceptable, but necessary. We all know it's fake...when a character, story or situation makes us "mark out"--it is a phrase which indicates the highest praise--because it means we have suspended our disbelief and have been pulled into the story or character to the point that we cheer, jeer or get excited as if the whole thing WAS real---See how much space that takes to say?
"Mark out" is a hell of a lot shorter--and references the inescapable fact that wrestling IS staged and the need thereof to provide something which suspends that fact in our minds is a subtext of the whole spectacle.
Backstage terms became part of the vocabulary as part of the evolution of wrestling--there comes a point where you look stupid by trying to ignore that it's a sport with staged situations---or you integrate the fact that it IS into the lexicon and the general understanding of it---so that its essential validity as sport and entertainment is not undermined---(jeez---maybe McMahon is right...you've forced me to consider that)

Dolph Ziggler is my favorite active wrestler by far right now, and I didn't even recognize him on Monday night when he was wrestlining Randy Orton. His look was fine as it was in my opinion, it was his associations that needed to be changed.

PS- @Ryan B, ring is the new street. ;)

I'm not going to tell you who you should/shouldn't have listed (it is your list, after all), but I am surprised to see that you think Beer Money is the best tag team going right now. For me it's MCMG, and by a pretty wide margin (no disrespect to Beer Money). Did their recent inactivity lead you to downgrade them, or do you genuinely consider Beer Money the superior team? No criticism either way, just curious.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I didn't consider MCMG because they haven't been actve for a few months .

1. John Cena
2. Rey Mysterio
3. The Undertaker
4. HHH
5. Kane
6. R-Truth
7. Evan Bourne
8. The Great Khali
9. Sin Cara
10. Randy Orton

Other favorites: Christian, Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, The Big Show, Santino Marella, The Bella Twins

Its been a decade since the WCW/ WWE invasion angle. In the spirit of that, what if WWE bought out TNA? What would your dream card be?

Great list Eck. You should do this every month or every couple months. It would be fun to gage who, we the fans think, is the most compelling character in wrestling.

Also I was wondering if you've ever considered doing a list of dream matches. This is a little game a buddy of mine and I play all the time. It varies from current wrestlers (RVD vs. C.M.Punk) was just thrown out there the other day, to all time, Shawn Michales vs. Ricky Steamboat always seems to come up. Something to keep in mind around WrestleMania time. Maybe a dream WM card.

randy orton es el campeon y ya