My Favorite Wrestlers Ever: #4

Austin Aries
Three Favorite Matches: vs. Bryan Danielson on HDNet (10/19/09), vs. Tyler Black at the 8th Anniversary Show (an EPIC carry job), vs. Kid Kash and Jimmy Rave on Impact
Three Favorite Moments: Doing a crazy Indian dance night 1 of King of Trios 2009, cutting a promo on the live crowd during HDNet tapings, snagging his contract at the end of Destination X

A Double is the most recent addition to the top five. I'll fully admit that I didn't catch wind of him until 2009, but he was really the first guy at my first indie show that made an impact on me as a fan. It was the start of a beautiful relationship between wrestler and fan. The next time I saw him, he was ROH Champion, walking out to Ric Flair's theme song, eviscerating the crowd at HDNet tapings. He was laying into me, and I didn't care. I was smitten, in a total fan way of course.

There has never been a time where I've seen Aries, on camera or in person, where I wasn't impressed beyond all impression. Even when he was on his way out of ROH (and he knew it too) and had to put over the newly heeled Roderick Strong even though Aries had been a heel for the last two years himself, he put on an impressive show. The guy just does everything well. He's the most eviscerating promo I've ever heard. Him with a microphone in his hand is rivaled by few. He knows how to chew scenery and to be a background character when need be. His first Impact back with the company this year, he not only wrestled in the match of the night, but he was a big part of one of the funniest segments in the show without really saying a word past the point when Eric Young came into the scene.

But the wrestling... the guy gets it. He knows not only how to employ a large workrate and do FLIPZ, but he knows how to make a match a show. Whenever he was wrestling in ROH, it was like he was auditioning to go to WWE, which made him stand out above nearly every other wrestler there, save a few exceptions.

A colleague of mine once said that it's easy to like Aries because he'll never make it to WWE, and thus can never really be considered a back-stabbing sell out. I'm not really the kind of fan who cares about that thing, so Aries never making it to WWE vexes me. He deserves to be there. He's more talented than half the current roster, especially many of the guys they bring up from FCW with no seasoning.

But hey, I guess there's always the chance that Impact blows up huge while he's there, and he's a reason for it. That way, he can succeed and get his day in the sun. He deserves it, and hey, I want to see him every week.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography