Cook’s Wrestlers To Be Thankful For 2019 (10-6)

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Steve Cook has amassed a list of 10 wrestlers to be thankful for. Here are #6-10!

There’s no doubt that wrestling fans have a lot to be thankful for in 2019.

WWE has ruled the roost for so long and it’s tough to deny it. 2019 seems to be the year that opposite forces have made a stand. I don’t want to offend the WWE fanboys, so I will point out that WWE still has so many more viewers through USA, Fox & the WWE Network. Your company is still doing well, and we appreciate them for that. There are also other companies doing well, which is also good for the business no matter how much Phil O’Dowd wants to tell you otherwise.

There is a lot to be thankful for this year for wrestling fans. That’s why I’ve increased it to two columns. I’ve found so many wrestlers to be thankful for that we need two parts. Honestly, I could probably spread it to three or four, but I need to get all this done before the holiday. Here are some of the wrestlers I’ve been thankful for here in 2019.

10. The Rock N’ Roll Express

If you’re seriously going to talk about the greatest tag team of all time and you don’t have the RnRs in the conversation, you’re out of your mind. Go back to the 1980s when they were at their peak, and Ricky Morton was the absolute best at getting a crowd worked up while he was getting beat up, and ready for that tag to Robert Gibson. They kept it going in the 1990s in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. They made some appearances here and there and I kind of figured that would be it. But all of a sudden in 2019, here come Ricky & Robert again! They out here doing things in the NWA & AEW, which is perfect because NWA Powerrr gets a lot of their viewers on YouTube from people also watching AEW Dark.

It’s called cross-promotion. Some people get it and some people don’t. If you’re the folks behind the NWA and seeing how AEW fans are helping your views, you’re practically orgasmic and are all about Ricky & Robert going to AEW shows and doing some spots and getting over. You might not be happy about Jim Cornette burying all the people that might actually like AEW on his podcasts. You might be looking for an excuse to let him go, and you might let yourself get exhausted instead of editing his racist rants out of a show. I don’t know, I just write on the Internet. All I know for sure is that Ricky & Robert have been feuding with that Cornette guy for ages and they won’t get affected by his nonsense. And I’m thankful for that.

9. Darby Allin

I first saw Darby on Vice’s series “The Wrestlers” and he seemed like a really interesting guy. He was shown discussing a match with Ethan Page, and Page was all like “The people have been hyped up so much at this point that we can do less” and Allin wasn’t having any of it. He was going completely insane and Page was probably tearing his hair out as a result. But I appreciate a man that’s willing to lay it all out on the line in every match.

Allin isn’t a big guy, but the people don’t care about that. AEW fans have already figured out that the guy is willing to go further than most, and they appreciate him for it. Wrestlers often tease spots that seem completely insane with no intention of doing them. If Darby Allin’s involved, it just might happen. He might not have a long career, but let’s be thankful for it while it lasts.

8. Shazza McKenzie

I get told regularly not to post about mental illness because it will affect my career.

At the end of the day if being open and honest about the struggles makes me unsignable then I can live with that.

I can’t live with the idea that people look up to me and I would be sharing

— “HEARTcore” Shazza McKenzie (@Shazza_McKenzie) November 22, 2019

Twitter has been imploring All Elite Wrestling to #SignShazza for the past couple of weeks now, and I certainly concur with that sentiment. Any friend of Massive Q’s is a friend of 411mania.com-affiliated people like myself. Her desire for the Hot 100 to come back made me feel really good, as sometimes I’m not sure whether or not people remember anything that I’ve written over the past fifteen years. It’s good to know that somebody’s noticed.

Especially when they look like Shazza. Come on now, you know what I’m saying? Gotta be thankful for that.

7. Nick Aldis

One of the highlights of NWA Powerrr has been their champion acting like a classic NWA Champion. Aldis has been perfect in the role. He puts over all of his competition without argument, he puts the brand over without argument. He wears different suits on every show even though it was like 15 shows in two days. The man pays attention to detail.

I’ve been impressed. I wasn’t impressed with Aldis during his TNA run, and wasn’t sold on him when the NWA started building around him. As it turns out, that was the right decision. They’ve made some other bad decisions that took awhile to correct, but their main decision being to build around Nick Aldis wasn’t bad.

6. The Blanchard Family

What can one say about Tessa Blanchard at this point that hasn’t already been said? She’s been the backbone of Impact Wrestling & Women Of Wrestling during this year, doing completely different things in each promotion and still managing to be the highlight of each show. Talk about a performer having range, that’s Tessa Blanchard. WWE completely missed the boat on her, and that’s to the benefit of us that watch other wrestling shows too.

Then there’s Tully, who for way too long was one of the forgotten Horsemen. Chris Hyatte wrote an incredible column about remembering Tully Blanchard that was lost to the Internet. Tully was the perfect heel in the 1980s, then disappeared. He’s back now in AEW, and quite honestly he needs more people to manage along with Shawn Spears. The man needs to build a stable. Maybe at some point his daughter can be part of it. Tully has always been perfect at being hated, and that’s his best quality.

Numbers 5-1 coming soon!