Wrestlers Of The Week 1/2-8/05

Here's an attempt at some recurrent content. We'll see where this goes.

1) Batista - (d. Chris Benoit, 1/3/05)
Isn't this guy supposed to be booed, a bad guy? Isn't Benoit the hero that I'm supposed to be behind? And yet, why was it that I was laughing my ass off watching him grab Benoit's arm & make it tap out, and then to see him argue with the ref that it was a legit win? Then, how the man powered out of the Crossface, then proceeded to bash Mr. Benoit's head into the exposed turnbuckle. Capped of by a personality building exchange with Triple H, Batista could do no wrong. Looks great going into Revolution.

2) AJ Styles - (d. Chris Candido, 1/7/05)
Always a crowd pleaser. Less of a paint-by-numbers Styles match, thanks in no small part to Candido (more on this later).

3) Edge - (d. Chris Jericho, 1/3/05)
I'm digging heel Edge, even though I can't get the concept of why he went heel following the release of his book. In the kayfabed world of wrestling, wouldn't that cause fans to avoid his book? Well, at least the sections about SSW are pure comedy GOLD, baby.

4) Rey Mysterio - (d. Eddie Guerrero, 1/6/05)
This sure as hell wasn't their match of the century at Halloween Havoc, but it was still pretty decent. This one wasn't so much about the story being told by the moves, as it was told by the personalities of the players involved. But, there's a small part of me that's wishing the scheming bit from Guerrero would die a quiet death already. Or at least slip into a coma.

5) Shelton Benjamin - (d. Sylvain Grenier, 1/3/05)
Solidly outshines much of his midcard counterparts. The part I don't get is, while he looks so good against a lesser opponent (particularly one like Grenier, who can't even kip up right ... and are we still mad at the French??), why is it that he hasn't looked good when in the ring with a great opponent (a la Flair, or Edge), since his defeat of Helmsley? Ah well, the spinning leg lariat makes up for it.

6) Chris Candido - (lost to AJ Styles, 1/7/05)
Candido looked great. I mean, here's hoping that he's kicked the drug thing at least for a few months, because it would be great to see the Candido that brings the pain (circa ECW style), as opposed to the go-nowhere, do-nothing Candido of recent past (circa WCW style). Could be a great X Division guy, or a solid World title contender, assuming TNA stays around longer than a month.

7) Victoria - (lost to Trish Stratus, 1/2/05 & 1/3/05)
Every time Victoria makes an appearance, it's worth a mention. I don't think there's any other female wrestler that I'd rather see doing butt naked split-leg moonsaults onto my dick.

Honorable mentions: Monty Brown (no ring action, but seems to be more solid on the mic in the past few weeks); Daniel Puder (can't wait to see where they're going with this dickhead gimmick); Muhammed Hassan (evil foreigners that use mark current events to build their evil ROCK!!); Abyss (good luck in your future, I'm sure you'll be great teaming up with Eugene against Hurricane and Rosey ... and losing); Hector Garza (yep, wrestler of the week, but not always in a good way ... "our family name was Bermudagrass"); Christopher Daniels (sat in on commentary on "Impact," and I for one wouldn't mind a Daniels/Sabin feud down the road)