In case you live under a rock and decided to only open up your computers for this very post (Thank you for that, by the way.), you might not know that the 2016 Summer Olympics are happening in Rio right now. With sports like mat wrestling and gymnastics being olympic mainstays, professional wrestling could fit right in the mold. Each country could send their best in-ring competitors to outdo other countries in timed matches and judges could rate the performances. If that was the case, there is something that immediately comes to mind: Who would compete for professional wrestling in the Olympics?
Note: Because of how much professional wrestling there is, I am not 100% familiar with Japanese wrestling and Lucha Libre. I have most of my wrestling knowledge from WWE, TNA, Lucha Underground, and some occasional outliers. If there is someone I don’t choose, it might just be because I haven’t been able to check out his or her work (but I’m more than willing to if suggested). Also because of this, I am only focusing on men’s wrestling for now, with perhaps a women’s wrestling version soon.
United States: Seth Rollins, John Cena, Ricochet/Prince Puma, & AJ Styles
These four wrestlers are perhaps the best performers in the business right now, and yes, that includes John Cena. Even though Rollins’s WWE Championship run last year seemed lackluster because of constant shenanigans, he put on amazing performances night after night with a myriad of Superstars. The prime example of this was when he competed in two back-to-back great matches against John Cena and Sting at Night of Champions (Let’s ignore that he injured Sting in that second match).
Cena has proved that he can have consistently great matches thanks to his US Open Challenge over the last year, and he would add nice size and strength dynamics to matches that would otherwise include smaller, more aerial competitors.
Ricochet and Styles are perhaps the two most polished wrestlers in the world, with performances that contantly blow people away. Ricochet has the 630 Splash, which would alone give him a couple extra points. Styles is a little less “flippy” than Ricochet, but he can match him note for note in his aerial attack.
Canada: Sami Zayn, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, & Tyson Kidd
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens alone can put on an instant classic. Just look at their matches over the past few months where they nearly kill each other just for the sake of a good match. Chris Jericho has the wrestling wisdom of almost three decades of experience, and he knows very well how to improvise in the ring so he could fill in needed gaps. Tyson Kidd is injured for a while with a neck injury, but when Kidd was active he showed that he has the in-ring knowledge and fluidity that only the Hart Dungeon can provide.
England: Zack Sabre Jr. & Neville
With Wade Barrett gone from WWE and shifting to more of an acting focus, there aren’t many English wrestlers that come on my screen when I watch wrestling. This leaves the technical wizard Zack Sabre Jr., and Neville, who can rival the flipping abilities of the olympic female gymnasts. I could see these two putting on several gold medal worthy performances.
Japan: Shinsuke Nakamura & Kota Ibushi
Japanese wrestlers have not seen a ton of spotlight on American television, so it is pretty slim pickings for this choice. Nakamura has a potential “Match of the Year” candidate against Sami Zayn, and another one against AJ Styles when they squared off at Wrestle Kingdom 10 to begin the year. Kota Ibushi has two amazing matches in the Cruiserweight Classic, and he even faced Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 9 last year, so the chemistry between these two would be great.
Mexico: Fenix, El Dragon Azteca Jr., Gran Metalik, Pentagon Jr./Dark
Lucha Underground has done an amazing job at bringing lucha libre to the United States. Fenix and Pentagon Jr. have been in The Temple since the first season, and have had some amazing matches. Gran Metalik has also made some waves in the Cruiserweight Classic recently. I would give Mexico a gold just for Pentagon’s Canadian Destroyer.
There are plenty of other countries that compete in wrestling and the Olympics, but this just shed some light on the bigger countries of wrestling. Obviously there would be Cesaro (Switzerland) and Rusev (Bulgaria), but there are not a ton of mainstream wrestlers from countries other than the ones mentioned above.
Based on the wrestler choices above, I could see close competition for every single country getting gold medals. There are tons of wrestlers to choose from that could represent each country just as well, but these are just a sample of amazing talent that enters the squared circle.
