10 Best Wrestlers Of 2023

8. CM Punk

Gunther Cody Rhodes Bryan Danielson
AEW

CM Punk's return to AEW was a good time rather than a long one, and the ever-divisive former World Champion wouldn't have had so many people fighting his corner if he wasn't so exceptional at fighting his own.

Wrestling's become more about quality than quantity in the content super-service era, and literally all of Punk's 10 matches between June and August 2023 were completely captivating. He rebuilt Ricky Starks' crumbling career brick-by-brick as Collision burst into life in his image, entered into gripping tag, trio and multi-man bouts alongside the likes of FTR, Darby Allin and Sting, against Bullet Club Gold, House Of Black and Mogul Embassy, and was in peerless and irrepressible form against Satoshi Kojima and Samoa Joe.

The former was a Forbidden Door undercard bout with zero stakes, but emerged from its meme-adjacent origins to very nearly steal one of the most critically acclaimed pay-per-views of the year. And speaking of which; the All In opener against the 'Samoan Submission Machine' was maybe the most universally beloved Wrestling Observer-rated 3.5* match in history. Wembley came unglued playing along with the boo/yays before being sucked into a luxurious and almost arrogantly brilliant contest that paid loving tribute to their legendary series and advertised how the magic behind all of this remains as much in the mind as the body.

Injury-free and ostensibly with the clearest head yet following his release just days removed, his WWE return at the Survivor Series was a remarkable turn of events, but not that unexpected when viewing his career as a whole. For better and worse, Punk is always the story.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett