Folks & Things We Enjoyed 2k23- Wrestlers Part 1
It’s 2024 and yeah everyone already did their best of’s, polls, and the what-haves-you to celebrate all that was more than magnificient in 2023. Well, I have stuff to do and this is late. Last year we had our IAPW Fold & Things We Enjoyed 2k22, and the year before that we had our Holiday Buyer’s Guide podcast episode. So to keep up with tradition, because tradition is all we have left on this godforsaken hellscape, we are once again looking back and the people and inanimate institutions that made 2023 a good place to be, wrestling wise. Oh, and you should definitely keep an eye on them for 2024. I’m what my smart wife calls an “early adopter” when it comes to trends or something like that.
Here you’ll find some of the wrestlers I believe you should pay attention based on their 2k23 and what also what their future entails. Also check out wrestlers part 2, wrestling promotions, and wrestling and non-wrestling adjacent things we’ve enjoyed.
The Wrestlers Part 1
One thing I should make clear is that this is a biased list based purely on what my eyes see, and what my brain configures as good. I am by no means an expert when it comes to wrestling, and I have not watched even 10% of the wrestling available within the last year. However, I’ve seen my fair share of what is out there, I know what I like, and usually I’m right about these things. If there is someone you think should be on here, awesome good for you. If you think there is someone on this list that shouldn’t be, fuck off and go write your blog thing.
Royce Isaacs
Last year I focused on Royce’s tag team West Coast Wrecking Crew (WCWC) with Jorel Nelson. While I still see great things happening for WCWC, as well as Royce’s affiliation with Nelson, and Filthy Tom Lawlor, in Team Filthy, I truly want to focus on Royce himself. You see Royce is our hometown guy. Born and raised in the Denver area, Royce has been the Denver scene since I started paying attention to local wrestling.
During his initial time in Denver, Royce took every opportunity to train with every possible school/mentor in the area. In being able to work with anyone locally and politic appropriately, he became one of the true mentors to many of the up and coming wrestlers in the area. For a local wrestler to wrestle Royce now means a lot to where the wrestler is at in their career, and the potential they have in their future.
Isaacs has been on quite the tour of the United States, and Japan since 2019. From being a focus point on the re-energized NWA (Billy sucks I know, but it was still a big deal), to being relied upon in the NJPW Strong tag division Royce has proven himself to be a qualified television wrestler. Include that with recent appearances in AEW (Adam Cole still owes him a PPV payday), Ring of Honor, Deadlock Pro, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, GCW, and being a regular in Lucha Libre and Laughs, Prestige Wrestling, and West Coast Wrestling, Royce is working some of the most prominent promotions in the States.
Again, I biased, I’m even a self categorized dick rider for Royce, but he completely deserves it. He has the capability to go with the best that Japan and the United States has to offer (Minoru Suzuki v Royce Isaacs at LLL’s A Place Both Wonderful and Strange 2022, Royce Isaacs v Bryan Keith at LLL’s Ten Year Anniversary Show Night 2 and Royce Isaacs v Simon Gotch at LLL’s The Hands of Fate 2023). His physique is only getting better, without inhibiting range of motion, agility, or stamina. Also, from ring general, to killer, to cheeky beefy rapscallion, Royce’s character work is incredibly versatile.
In other words, New Japan get your head out of your ass and utilize him more, AEW/RoH grab a hold of him before New Japan takes him exclusively, DLP/LLL/Prestige/GCW/PWG appreciate what you have got with him, and for every other promotion in the states book him. Book him and Jorel as WCWC. Book Team Filthy with WCWC and Lawlor. Adam Cole pay Isaacs and Lawlor for their missed PPV payday! And fans, just enjoy one of the best out there.
Photo by @hvphoto
Royce Isaacs
Heidi Howitzer
Quote from last year’s blog:
“Howitzer is brash, truly grating, and just will not shut the fuck up and that is why we love her. Whenever she is near the ring all focus goes to her, and if starts to drift elsewhere she will make sure it comes right back.”
Most of this is true, other than the love thing, now we have realized she’s a thief, and a swashbuckler. Her constant theft of our $15 beers for her own gain has been nothing but financially devastating. I had to make my gifts for my kids this Christmas from “Santa” because of her. At least she get’s her yucks and guffaws I suppose.
Howitzer’s 2023 was easily her best by far. Wrestling for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW) and becoming the TJPW Princess Tag Team Champion with Max the Impaler is a pretty decent start to the year. I mean I also suppose wrestling in DDT during their Judgement 2023 PPV event is something too. Then there is the time she won Lucha Libre and Laughs’ Heavyweight Title ( Warhorse (c.) v Heidi Howitzer (c.) LLL Ten Year Anniversary Night 2 ) when she already was its Women’s Champion, thus synergizing the two and becoming the Ace of of the promotion. Then there was the whole Ring of Honor Match against Athena. Oh and that Apter rag, Pro Wrestling Illustrated listed her in both the PWI Women’s Top 250 and PWI Top 100 Tag Team in 2023, as well as being recognized by Outsports Best LGBTQ Wrestlers of 2023.
In other words, Howitzer is making a ton of moves. Despite her refusal to take a correct back bump, snapmare, or chain wrestle, she is continually moving forward in all of the right ways. If 2023 was any indication in her growth as a national and international talent, then the next handful years should be Heidi’s.
Photo by @SURE_SHOTS
Heidi Howitzer
Masha Slamovich
Masha Slamovich should scare the shit out of most wrestling fans, and if you have been paying any attention to the wrestling scene you should know that. One of the personal highlights I had the previous year was being able to see Masha live multiple times. The first two matches she had were good, and entertaining, and I was just happy to see someone that is killing it in the scene at the moment. Then there was the third match. This was match that reminded me why she is killing it in the scene.
The match was an intergender match at Lucha Libre & Laughs’ Deep Hurting this last November against Austin Reddick. Now a typical LLL crowd is not full of idiot, stinky, marks like myself. The crowd are there for a good time, to party on a Friday night, and to be entertained, and the entertainment they chose that night happened to be pro wrestling. However, this is one of those matches where you could feel the crowd get focused and invested into the match. Much of this had to do with how Masha held nothing back. She took Austin and beat the living hell out of him, while also taking everything he could give. This was the Masha that could have murdered Speedball Mike Bailey earlier in the year at GCW’s Worst Behavior. The match was savage, violent, and really everything that pro wrestling can be.
That being said, saying that everyone should be the lookout for this up and coming star sounds redundant as hell. Masha is technically at the top of her game. Being a part of the first women wrestlers to wrestle in Pro Wrestling Guerilla, being the GCW World Champion for a quarter of the year, TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Killer Kelly as MK Ultra, as well as multiple indie and international titles over the last year, Slamovich was one of the premier wrestlers of last year. However, Masha has the possibility to become to be a cultural force in wrestling. With the momentum she has picked up over the last fews, she can certainly become the best women’s wrestler in the North America, and possibly the world. With her ring skills and intense charisma, she has the ability to change old-heads’ opinion on intergender wrestling, and women’s wrestling as a whole.
Photo by @hvphoto
Masha Slamovich
The Workhorsemen
I like tag team wrestling. Probably the best thing that teams like the Young Bucks, and FTR did was make tag team wrestling relevant again. Currently, the relevancy is completely vacant, and an afterthought on televised wrestling. We are back to single wrestlers teaming up and being the broad representation of what tag team wrestling is. It sucks.
But guess what, there is a tag team that can once again rejuvenate the television tag team scene, like the Bucks and FTR without all the stupid bullshit that they bring with them. That team? Its in the sub-header idiot, it’s The Workhorsemen.
The Workhorsemen are a blessing to have on TV. JD Drake is one of the most believable and intense bigmen out there, while Anthony Henry is by far one of the smoothest, without being annoyingly perfect, in the business. They compliment each other perfectly, while not having to rely on each other’s individual skill set to have a match.
If there is a chance that we can get back into the most recent tag team renaissance it will be on the backs of The Workhorsemen, and we will all be grateful.
Photo by @MIKEY_NOLAN
The Workhorsemen
- Anthony Henry
- JD Drake
Lee Moriarty
Lee Moriarty was a wrestler whose name I saw over and over in 2020 and 2021. It got to the point where I actually had to do something about it, and I actually looked him up and watched some matches. Since they were just matches and nothing more, I thought he was fantastic in the ring and understood why he was being booked everywhere like he was. It wasn’t until he got to AEW that I actually paid serious attention to him.
My opinion since he has been in AEW is, to put it bluntly, They have no idea what they have in Moriarty. Lee has taken every opportunity that has been given to him, whether on AEW or Ring of Honor, and ran with it. From his Matt Sydal mentorship, to “The Firm” debacle, Moriarty made the most of his TV time, not just by being an amazing technician, but by actually having a character, that no matter what came off cool. Lee Moriarty is fucking cool.
I saw Moriarty at a Dynamite/Rampage show in godforsaken Colorado Springs. In a show that also had the next generation of true wrestling talent of Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, and Moriarty, Lee was somewhat surprisingly the best of the three that night. Do not get me wrong, Garcia and Yuts were really good, but Moriarty just had everything together that night against Bandido & The Lucha Brothers, when he was teamed with Ethan Page and Big Bill. Moriarty was able to mix in perfectly with the luchadores, while also taking them out of their traditional style without it looking janky. All the while he was fucking cool, because Lee Moriarty is fucking cool.
Photo by @Brainbuster__
Lee Moriarty
Check out wrestlers part 2, wrestling promotions, and wrestling and non-wrestling adjacent things we’ve enjoyed.
