Ranking 2023's 10 Best Wrestlers in WWE and AEW So Far

The year is nearly half over already, and the stars of WWE and All Elite Wrestling have spent the first six months of 2023 working to establish themselves among the best.

Who has succeeded and who stands above the rest as the clear No. 1 in a year when any number of competitors could claim a spot in the top five?

Find out with this look at the best wrestlers in WWE and AEW this year, ranked according to the overall quality of their work and the historical significance of their performances.

Wrestlers 10-6

Ranking just outside the top five are:

10. Sheamus

9. Rhea Ripley

8. Orange Cassidy

7. Cody Rhodes

6. Bryan Danielson

5. Gunther

The top five of this list are so great that it almost feels insulting to put the intercontinental champion this far down on the list, but here he is.

The Ring General turned in a defining performance to start the year in the men's Royal Rumble match, setting a record for the longest appearance in the 30-strong version of the bout.

From there, he turned in a five-star contest against Sheamus and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 39 and delivered a fun David vs. Goliath showdown with Mustafa Ali, all while elevating the secondary title to heights it has not enjoyed in years.

A hard-hitting, no-nonsense wrestler, Gunther has the ability to make any match look like a grueling war of attrition. He throws punishing chops, absorbs the strikes of his opponents and gives fans even the slightest hint of hope that their favorite can do the unthinkable and beat him. And then they don't.

He has proved any doubters wrong as a rare NXT export to thrive on the main roster and perhaps even excel beyond what he accomplished in the developmental brand.

If he can keep up the quality of his in-ring outings and the booking continues to support it, Gunther could be even further up these rankings by the time the end of 2023 arrives.

4. Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn exploded back into "best wrestler" lists here in 2023 with a first half of the year that rivals any and all other competitors from WWE.

The Underdog from the Underground followed up some of the best creative of his career with in-ring performances befitting it, including one of the most emotional main events in recent memory against Roman Reigns in his hometown of Montreal.

Throw in another Match of the Year candidate with Kevin Owens against The Usos at WrestleMania 39, strong tag team and trios matches on weekly television, and you have a guy who has not only enjoyed an in-ring renaissance but also established himself as one of the workhorses for WWE in 2023.

3. MJF

MJF does not wrestle a ton, magnifying the significance of his in-ring performances when he finally does, and thus far the AEW world champion has delivered in 2023.

The self-proclaimed "Devil" wrestled one of, if not the, greatest Iron Man matches in the modern era against Bryan Danielson in February at Revolution.

From there, he retained his title in another great match, a four-way against Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara and "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry in which the competitors reminded fans and analysts alike why they are considered the four pillars of AEW.

A strong match with Adam Cole on the June 14 episode of Dynamite that went 30 minutes and hinted at a pay-per-view bout for the top prize in the company only bolstered the heel's argument for inclusion in the top five.

His biggest test may be coming up later this year if the teases by CM Punk on the debut episode of Collision are any indication. The Best in the World never actually lost the AEW World Championship and will be seeking to wrest it away from one of his greatest rivals.

Another series of matches between them that is both different but plays up their well-documented history will go a long way toward further establishing MJF as one of the elite performers in professional wrestling in 2023.

2. Roman Reigns

Some will balk at the idea of Roman Reigns ranking this high on a list of best wrestlers and criticize him for leaning to heavily on his signature stuff, to which this writer responds with a hearty "V-Trigger."

What makes The Tribal Chief great is not that he knows infinite variations of a suplex or because he trained in Japanese dojos. He is the measuring stick in the business because he understands the intricacies that go into his in-ring performances.

In an industry where wrestlers are developed and evolved quicker than ever before, and have so much content to pull from, nearly any wrestler can have a good match. What elevates it are the little things: the facial expressions, the body language and the clear understanding of the narrative at play.

Reigns is a master of all of those.

Look no further than what he was able to do with Sami Zayn in Montreal. Rewatch the WrestleMania main event with Cody Rhodes and pay close attention to how Reigns puts over the story of the match in the way he carries himself and communicates with the audience.

He understands that pro wrestling is performance art and fans will react accordingly when you make them feel a certain way.

His ability to be this trash-talking, manipulative bad guy that audiences hate one minute before turning on the expert selling that allows those same fans to invest emotionally in the match and the idea that the babyface is about to beat him, is that of a virtuoso.

When it comes down to it, Reigns is a performer on a totally different level than everyone else right now. The match in Saudi Arabia, in which he partnered with Solo Sikoa to battle Zayn and Kevin Owens, proved as much.

And none of that accounts for what he has done and continues to do from a character standpoint. At one point in his career, it would have been blasphemy to consider the possibility he could rank above "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and John Cena as the best and most complete pro wrestlers in WWE history.

Not so much anymore.

Yet it is a testament to the guy ahead of him on this list that Reigns takes a backseat and comes in at No. 2.

1. Seth Rollins

For years, fans waited for Seth Rollins to put it all together and become the total package.

When he turned heel, cashed in Money in the Bank and reigned over WWE as the chosen one of The Authority, he still felt like a pawn in a larger story still aimed at enhancing Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's roles as the top villains in the company.

When he turned babyface, won the WWE Championship and embarked on his 2019 run, he felt underdeveloped as a character and someone that fans would ultimately reject if someone cooler came along.

Enter The Fiend and exit Rollins as a top-tier babyface.

Over the next three years, he developed The Visionary, switched up his ring gear, found he could conduct an orchestra of fans as they sang his song and finally revealed to the world an on-screen persona that would keep the fans in his corner.

And to make it all better, he has been producing some of his best work to date between the ropes.

An unabashed workhorse who can compete with Bobby Lashley and Austin Theory for the United States Championship, then turn around and deliver one of the best matches of WrestleMania weekend against a mostly untrained performer in Logan Paul, Rollins is on the hottest streak of his in-ring career to date.

We witnessed it in the recent tournament to determine the new WWE world heavyweight champion, where he defeated AJ Styles in Saudi Arabia in the final to capture the new title, and again when he battled Damian Priest on Raw.

He capped off a banner six months with a victory over Bron Breakker on NXT Tuesday night, hammering home the idea that he is the best wrestler on any show right now in WWE or AEW.

There may be some who argue the point, but one would be hard-pressed to find a performer who is as consistent and dependable as Rollins is right now.