Powerslam, a non-kayfabe UK magazine published their annual ranking of the top 50 workers in the industry based on in-ring performances from 1st Dec 2012 to 30th November 2013, a list of the "best performing, most exciting wrestlers in the business."

1. Kazuchika Okada
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi
3. Daniel Bryan
4. Shinsuke Nakamura
5. Tomohiro Ishii
6. Randy Orton
7. CM Punk
8. Prince Devitt
9. Katsuyori Shibata
10. Kota Ibushi
11. Austin Aries
12. Shingo Takagi
13. Hirooki Goto
14. Bully Ray
15. Ricochet
16. Kurt Angle
17. Akira Tozawa
18. Masato Yoshino
19. CIMA
20. Seth Rollins
21. Minoru Suzuki
22. Tetsuya Naito
23. Naruki Doi
24. Bobby Roode
25. Matt Jackson
26. Nick Jackson
27. Kevin Steen
28. Dean Ambrose
29. Masato Tanaka
30. Antonio Cesaro
31. AJ Styles
32. Roman Reigns
33. Yuji Nagata
34. BxB Hulk
35. KENTA
36. Karl Anderson
37. Dolph Ziggler
38. Jeff Hardy
39. Alberto Del Rio
40. Michael Elgin
41. Brock Lesnar
42. Adam Cole
43. Davey Richards
44. Kenny Omega
45. Kris Travis
46. Jay Briscoe
47. El Ligero
48. Christopher Daniels
49. Sami Zayn
50. Cody Rhodes.

6. Randy orton

51. John Cena

I was surprised by how high Randy was, expected 20-35 range.

Cena had a strong match with Dolph at TLC 2012, join-the-dots Celebrity Rematch at Mania, a nothing tag match at EC, a lacklustre feud with Ryback across 2 PPVs, a god-awful 1 monther with Mark(please retire) Henry, a fantastic MOTY candidate with Bryan and a decent but predictable 2 PPV series with ADR. Have to mention his Raw match with Punk as well.

Typical Cena - when he works with strong workers he can have an engaging match (Ziggler, Bryan, ADR), when in there with mediocre wrestlers he doesn't.

He's an average in-ring wrestler, always has been and at this point it seems like he always will. If you did a full list then I'd set the line at ~#115.

Orton isnt even the 6th best performing most exciting wrestler in the WWE wrestling on the Raw brand involved in a storyline relating to the WWE title over the past year.

Bryan
Punk

I'm not clear who else. Maybe the Shield but they've been predominantly tag workers. Ziggler's been relegated to Pre-Show. Cesaro tags only.

7 of top 10 from NJPW. shocking

those two, Rock, Cena, Big Show, Ryback and all three of The Shield.

FTR, Rock and Big Show were terrible. And yet, still ahead of Boreton. Unless Fandango has been involved with the WWE title and I forgot then Orton rounds out the top 10 by default.

Goldust and Cody have been more exciting in the ring that Orton this year.

Sami Zayn not high enough. He has at least a 3 1/2 star match every week.

This is true.

He is 1st, and 1st is not 6th.

(admittedly Bryan comes close)

That Cody Rhodes Goldust PPV History for the Year in full:

TLC 2012: Cody wrestled tag
RR: Cody wrestled tag
EC: Not on card
WMXXIX: Not on card
Extreme Rules: Not on card
Payback: Not on card
MITB: Cody wrestled MITB match
Summerslam: Cody wrestles a 6 minute singles match
NOC: Not on card
Battleground: Cody + Goldust wrestle tag
HITC: Cody + Goldust wrestle tag
SS: Cody + Goldust wrestle a SS match

Sooooooo let me clarify - you think Cody Rhodes and Goldust should be ranked above Randy Orton in a list of in-ring performance, when Cody missed 5 PPVs and only had one short singles bout, and his brother was around for less than 25% of the eligible period and only wrestled tag? Right.

Ive had ****s the morning after a curry that have been more exciting in and out of the ring than Orton.

Say what you want about Orton. Say what you want about Cena.

But there is absolutely no justification for Orton being #6 and Cena being #51+.

Forget like the dozens of RAW matches (OH and Smackdown matches), 6 man tags, (1-2 8 men as well) etc they have been in that have been awesome.

Yes, their in ring work has been better than Orton.

Surprisingly the WWE puts on more than just one show PPVs a month (I know hard to believe right?)

In fact the only decent thing in the WWE for months now and repeatedly mentioned in the WWE viewing thread is how awesome a match they have been involved in has been. I've seen one comment involving Orton since I rewatched and that was last weeks RAW.

They should both be higher than their current ranking.

God I wish I could nail down just how often it is that Eskimo is trolling. It can't be 0%, it just can't.

To be fair to Orton though, it is mildly exciting when he busts out a new move once every five years.

Originally the quoted comment started with "Typical Cena" but it applies to both of them.

Yeah, Orton will usually work a slightly better technical match than Cena will with a good worker, but Cena is more over and will conjure up a better atmosphere. I'd honestly probably sooner see Cena in a big match.

Objectively it's pretty difficult to see anything wrong with that, I think if anything Power Slam are guilty of a bit of US bias when they make their listings.

Seriously?

3 of their top 10 are American when America has the biggest company in the world (and 2nd afaik).

I get that WWE performers are often hindered by bad writing and booking, but 3/10 just isn't right. And it gets even more ridiculous when 3/19 are WWE. Actually 3/36 if you don't include the Shield.

There is very clearly an anti-WWE bias in the list.

The WWE is not a good forum for good wrestlers to put on good matches.

Unless you're in the Main Events you don't get allocated enough time to work a compelling match.

There are heavy restrictions on how you put a match together and which moves you can and can't use.

Example:

If Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler were in NJPW then they would be tearing it up every single night they performed and have a great shot at making the top 20 - instead they're lucky if they get on PPV and get more than 5 minutes in matches with advert breaks.

WWE is the biggest company in the world for a myriad number of reasons, none of which is the quality of their current in-ring product.

NJPW is nowhere near as big as WWE but their product is based on in-ring action, hence they're in a much better position to do well in a list that is about in-ring performance.

Power Slam puts a WWE wrestler on the cover (Bryan this month) every month despite the PS 50 going Tanahashi-Tanahashi-Okada the last 3 years. They are under pressure to feature wrestlers that a broad English language readership recognises. Hence when compiling lists like these they're naturally a little biased toward WWE wrestlers.

"Sweet T" was a pretty big star in NJPW. Seriously, the guy who plays second fiddle in an also ran tag team who spends more time on TV as a commentator in the development programming was a two time tag champ, won the New Japan Cup (basically their King of the Ring) and had a few supposedly good matches going on to be part of the WON Tag Team of the Year in 2011.

No ****ing clue what that says about either company, but it definitely shows we are not dealing with a straight apples and oranges comparison as they are using talent very very differently.

Yeah ok you've convinced me. Looking through a pure "in-ring" performance I can understand the list now.