December is here, and that means Steve Cook takes a look at his Fave Five for the month!

Usually once we hit December, we’re commenting on how the year has just flown by. I don’t think anybody’s saying that about 2020. We’ve got one month to go, let’s just hope that the changing of the calendar somehow translates to most things changing for the better. It usually doesn’t work that way, but I won’t let that stop me from hoping it does for once.

Until then, we take a look at my current Fave Five. These people are making the best out of 2020, at least recently. Hopefully their positive momentum carries forward into the new year.

5. Su Yung

Impact Wrestling ran into a bit of a problem back at Bound For Glory when Kylie Rae didn’t show up for her match with Deonna Purrazzo. Fortunately, they had a backup plan that made an amount of sense. Some weeks before, Purrazzo had broken the arm of young Susie, the meek alter ego of Su Yung. So once Deonna offered an open challenge, it was only natural that Su Yung would answer that challenge. Su won the championship because you couldn’t very well beat the Undead Bride on her first night back. Deonna got it back of course, and now we’ve got both of Su’s personalities running around.

Pretty good piece of business there. Now Deonna & Kimber Lee have recruited Father James Mitchell to help them with their problem, which I’m sure will go well. Su’s been killing it here the past few weeks, it’s nice to see her get this type of run in this role. She gets her character, and is a bit underrated in the ring.

4. Rhea Ripley

This has been somewhat of a lost year for the Nightmare, but she’s hardly alone on that front. Also, it looks like she’s regaining momentum. Whether she stays on NXT or moves to Raw or SmackDown, she should be one of the top competitors in any women’s division in 2021. I never had a problem with her losing the title, it was all in the lack of follow-up. Rhea was frustrated as well.

Go NOW to the free version of the #WWENetwork and watch the latest episode of #ChasingGlory with @LilianGarcia as the special guest is @RheaRipley_WWE!! RT pic.twitter.com/gCLDNoI0PW

— Team Lilian / Chasing Glory Fans (@TeamLilian) November 30, 2020

I could see having Ripley lose the championship to Charlotte if it was going to lead to anything at all. Triple H told us that it would, and scoffed at the idea that people would be displeased with the booking. Either H was full of stuff or he got out-voted, because the Charlotte loss led to absolutely nothing for Rhea Ripley, other than getting cooled off for a few months. I’ve talked about this before though. The important part is that Rhea has worked her way back into the swing of things, and barring any creative hiccups, should be headed back towards where she was this time in 2019.

I realize there’s an easy way this could go wrong.

3. Jon Moxley

I had always assumed that Brian Pillman would be the best wrestler to come out of Cincinnati, Ohio. If not the best, certainly the most diabolical. Jon Moxley might have Pillman beat on both of those categories.

I don’t know what it is about these Cincinnati boys being so edgy and controversial! Maybe I should know, being somewhat edgy & controversial myself. Might be something in the water. Moxley might not be AEW Champion by the time you end up reading this, but he did as good a job with the championship as one can do during a pandemic. He’s also going to be a father sometime in 2021, so pretty much everything is going all right for the guy. He made the right choice taking his career in a different direction.

2. Josh Woods

I was a big Ring of Honor fan back in the day, but took a bit of a hiatus during the Sinclair Broadcasting days. It was a late night show on a local TV affiliate, which would have been golden if I was younger, but now as an older man I need sleep. And, to be honest, ROH under Sinclair Broadcasting got away from the ROH I knew and loved back in the day.

These days, ROH is revisiting their roots. Somebody there has realized that ROH was at its best when it focused on the real sports aspect of wrestling. The pure form of wrestling, if you will. They did a whole Pure Wrestling Tournament, and are still featuring Pure Wrestling Rules at least once a week on television. They want actual wrestlers to be the stars of the promotion. Which is really good news for a young kid like Josh Woods.

He won the ROH Top Prospect Tournament back in 2017. Since then, he kind of bounced around, finding himself under the leadership of Silas Young. Say what you will about Silas, but he knows the art of pro wrestling, which is what Woods needed to make the transition complete. Not every amateur wrestler makes it big in pro wrestling. It takes truely gifted people in athletics and personality like Kurt Angle. I’m not saying Josh Woods is the next Kurt Angle, but he’s in the right place to make people think he can be. I’m buying all the stock in this kid that I can. Just a great in-ring talent that has a bit of a personality. He’ll get over big somewhere.

1. AJ Styles

I don’t think I’ve ever highlighted AJ in this column before, which is pretty amazing. I’ve always been a fan of AJ’s in-ring work. If you ask me who the best worker of the 21st century is, it’s a coin flip between AJ Styles & Daniel Bryan. Choosing between those two is a tough thing to do.

AJ is at the peak of his powers right now on Raw. The man got everybody on his Survivor Series team so together that they ran through Team SmackDown like a buzzsaw. Now he’s worked his way into getting a WWE Championship match at TLC, and he’s working all kinds of mind games. See, AJ knows that he’d have an easier night at the office beating The Miz than he would beating Drew McIntyre. He could beat Drew, no doubt, but beating Miz would be so much easier.

Once you get further along in your wrestling career, you’re looking for easier solutions to problems. We all realize we need to work smarter, not harder. Beating Drew McIntyre at 100% takes a lot of work here in 2020. It took Randy Orton fifty thousand matches or so, or at least it felt that way for those of us that had to watch them. It’s no wonder AJ would be looking for another way.

We’ve all had our tough times in 2020. AJ Styles literally got buried by the Undertaker in a Boneyard Match. He kicked out of it. We can find some strength in that.