My Take Radio

Every few years, a group of tal­ented ath­letes rise through the ranks of the WWE farm sys­tem or are brought in from other pro­mo­tions that are all des­tined for great­ness. While I have not been impressed with the over­all WWE prod­uct as of late I do see wrestlers that will be major play­ers in the next few years. This will be the first of  many MTR posts that will exam­ine break­through per­form­ers from var­i­ous promotions.

10. Cody Rhodes - Cur­rent Legacy mem­ber, for­mer Tag Team Cham­pion, 3rd gen­er­a­tion per­former. Cody Rhodes cur­rently is the default mem­ber of Legacy that eats pin­falls and plays sec­ond fid­dle to Randy Orton and Ted Dib­i­ase Jr., but he does have flashes of bril­liance. I think that once Legacy runs it’s course, Cody will be a great US/IC Title con­tender. With the pres­sure of being a 3rd gen star rest­ing on his back, I am sure the son of “The Dream” will be around for along time.

9. Ezekiel Jack­son - Big Zeke got his start as a body­guard to the tal­ented yet under-utilized Brian Kendrick, but after see­ing him in action dur­ing tag matches and the over­all vicious­ness of his per­sona I knew a solo push wasn’t far off. My only gripe with Zeke is that his voice does not match his size and he’s seems ten­ta­tive on the mic.  His time paired with Regal and Koslov has done him well because has allowed his abil­ity to shine in the ring with­out the pres­sures of mic work. He reminds me of how Batista was in Evo­lu­tion and we all know how suc­cess­ful Batista became once he went solo. I see the same suc­cess for Zeke as well.

8. Yoshi Tatsu- Even though Yoshi has the typ­i­cal (and stereo­typ­i­cal) mar­tial arts gim­mick, I see that he has tons of poten­tial and is great combo of high fly­ing abilty and solid strik­ing. I see shades of Tajiri in Yoshi Tatsu due to the pop­u­lar­ity he is gain­ing with the ECW audi­ence. His music is kind of catchy too.

7. Dolph Zig­gler- For­mer Spirit Squad mem­ber and Mr. Per­fect replica. DZ exploded on the scene with a semi-cheesy gim­mick where he intro­duced him­self to every­one dur­ing var­i­ous broad­casts. I con­sid­ered him a com­edy char­ac­ter but I have to admit that his matches with John Mor­ri­son have been clas­sic. His gim­mick now is pretty close to the late Curt Hen­nig, which may not be the inten­tion, how­ever, that isn’t a bad per­former to take inspi­ra­tion from. He seems to be in limbo regard­ing his cur­rent sto­ry­line. Rumors are that he may be paired with Vicky Guer­rero since Eric Esco­bar hasn’t proven as pop­u­lar as they expected. If that proves true, we’ll see if Mr. Zig­gles can make the most of this pairing.

6. Kaval aka Low Ki– ROH & TNA leg­end Low Ki has signed with WWE and while I was sad­dened by his depar­ture from TNA, I know that he would be a great addi­tion to any ros­ter. Low Ki has great pres­ence and awe­some kicks & strikes. His foot stomp fin­isher is awe­some and I hope they let him use it. Rumors are point­ing towards a masked gim­mick that will have him feud with Rey Mys­te­rio. If uti­lized cor­rectly I can guar­an­tee Kaval will be a major player.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VsSzs4ATho]

5. Amer­i­can Dragon Bryan Daniel­son– For­mer ROH Cham­pion and one of the best tech­ni­cal wrestlers in the game today. As a fan of the late Chris Benoit, it’s great to see another tech­ni­cal mas­ter fol­low in his foot­steps. Bryan Daniel­son gets a lot of shit for his mic work but much like Benoit, his tal­ent does the talk­ing for him. Besides, I per­son­ally feel his pro­mos are intense and suit him. I look for­ward to some 5-star clas­sics from the for­mer ROH champion.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtL3mtHoMDI]

4.Ted Dib­i­ase Jr. –Cur­rent Legacy mem­ber, for­mer Tag Team Cham­pion, 3rd gen­er­a­tion per­former. Much like Cody Rhodes, Ted Dib­i­ase is also play­ing sec­ond fid­dle to Randy Orton. WWE seems to really have big plans for Ted, given the many times he’s been put at odds with Orton and the slow burn that’s lead­ing to a clash between these two super­stars. With his act­ing debut in The Marine 2, a face turn is immi­nent and should allow the fans to see the other of side of Dib­i­ase. We’ll see if a face turn will prove suc­cess­ful or if he’s des­tined to be a bad guy for­ever like his dad.

3. Hart Dynasty– Now I could have given all three super­stars their own seper­ate entries but I feel that this fac­tion together has tons of poten­tial given their sto­ried back­grounds. I hon­estly thought they would have been added to Legacy and later Orton and crew would turn on the Harts. Sadly right now they seem to also be in limbo. With the power of DH Smith and the quick­ness of Tyson Kidd, not to men­tion the techi­cal prowess of Natalya Nei­d­hart, I see this tag team doing major things in the com­ing year. (WWE are you listening?)

2. Kofi Kingston– I am sure many of you expected Kofi at Num­ber One on my list. Kofi has started on the path towards super­star­dom. With an active pro­gram going on with Orton and a ton of good matches under his belt, Mr. S.O.S is sky­rock­et­ing to the top. Kofi has a mar­ketable per­son­al­ity and tons of ath­letic abil­ity. I do feel his mic work is a bit sus­pect, but I am sure that in feud­ing with some of the major play­ers he’ll learn a thing or two.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpIf6_ADj-I]

1. Matt Sydal aka Evan Bourne– With one of the most beau­ti­ful fin­ish­ers in the Air­bourne Shoot­ing Star Press and years of action under his belt, this Raw super­star has star writ­ten all over him. His matches with Rey Mys­te­rio, Tyson Kidd and Kofi were all clas­sics. He is cur­rently being jobbed out on Mon­day nights, but I think that this kid has the tools to be cham­pion. Sadly I see him being kept away from World Titles due to his size which is unfor­tu­nate. I hope the bias toward smaller per­form­ers changes sooner rather than later because Bourne is way too pop­u­lar to go unnoticed.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdlb3TeBD4g]

Hon­or­able Mentions:

• MVP
• Chris­t­ian Cage
• Zack Ryder
• San­tino Marella
• John Mor­ri­son
• The Miz
• Shea­mus
• Matt Hardy
• Drew McIn­tyre
• The Rip­per — Paul Burchill