Alex Shelley

[10.0] "One of the best wrestlers of all time in my opinion and also one of the most misused , Shelley should have been a multi World Champ. Dude is an innovator and a lot of wrestlers owe their careers to him. After he retires he should be a trainer, he would be excellent at it."

[6.0] "Used to be really good in TNA back in the heydays of 2005-2010 however, ever since around 2012 or so, the antics of the Motor City Machine Guns have gotten stale. The run they had in WWE were a total bust/flop and I don't even know what their gimmicks are supposed to be in WWE? GameFAQS users turned into wrestlers? Nothing really too much worth noting about, especially in the later stages of his career on the indie scene. There are some gems in there dating back in 2005-2006 that are fun to watch but, this isn't 2005 anymore and it didn't help how Alex's sassy promo attitude never really went anywhere and no real progression has been made in the past 10 years."

[10.0] "Alex and Chris have created one of the greatest tag teams of all time and have done nothing but put on great matches, this man is nothing but a legend and I wish the best for him after WWE completely fumbled him."

[9.0] "Shelley is a great wrestler, who is obviously one half of the iconic MCMG tag team. He's also an underrated promo, and can be one of the main stars of a singles division. He had a really good run as Impact World Champion in 2023, which elevated the belt."

[4.0] "Alex Shelley is actually fun to watch HOWEVER he's not a great in worker like everyone else says. Has he been in great matches? Sure but the only two times in his career where he was in a great match where he didn't get carried throughout the whole match was one in TNA against beer money and one in NJPW against the Young bucks. And he has never been good on the mic nor had any charismatic presence"

[8.0] "ENGAGER: 8 STRIKER: 9 CRAFTMASTER: 10 AERIALIST: 8 POWERHOUSE: 2 EXTREMIST: 7 ENTRANCE: 7 NARRATIVE: 7 GIMMICK: 8 ANGLE: 6 GRUDGE: 6 ELOCUTION: 9"

[5.0] "Same rating as Sabin, a good wrestler, and good tag team but not my favorite , all in all, im excited to.see what he does"

[9.0] "Alex Shelley is one of the most influential wrestlers of the past 20 years. A pioneer in the "junior heavyweight" and tag team scenes, Shelley combined high-speed offense with ring psychology in a way that was years ahead of its time. He was the rare hybrid of indie work rate and deep in-ring storytelling, and his work has shaped a generation of wrestlers who came after him. As one half of the Motor City Machine Guns with Chris Sabin, Shelley helped redefine tag team wrestling in TNA and beyond. Their matches with Beer Money, Generation Me, and Team 3D are still held up as some of the best tag bouts of the 2000s. His chemistry with Sabin is unmatched, and together they created a style that countless teams have tried to replicate. As a singles competitor, Shelley was just as effective. His work in ROH, New Japan, and Impact showed how adaptable and skilled he was, even if he never became a mainstream name. Whether as a sarcastic heel or a beloved workhorse, Shelley brought consistency and craft to everything he did. He doesn't get the same headlines as guys like Styles or Danielson, but he belongs in the same conversation when it comes to skill, innovation, and legacy. Alex Shelley is a master technician and a tag team revolutionary. His influence is everywhere, and his resume speaks for itself."

[9.0] "Alex Shelley is one of the most influential and underappreciated technical wrestlers of the past two decades. His work in TNA/Impact, especially as part of the Motor City Machine Guns, helped redefine modern tag team wrestling. Beyond that, his singles runs in ROH and NJPW showed his depth, psychology, and crisp in-ring storytelling. He's truly lived up to the nickname "Student of the Game" and is often cited as a mentor figure to current stars. He may not have the mainstream spotlight like others, but his body of work earns him near-legend status among die-hard fans."

[8.0] "The better half of MCMG. Shelley is one of the best wrestlers to come out of TNA. He's obviously an excellent tag team wrestler who's had some of the best tag team matches of the era alongside Sabin. But he's one hell of a singles wrestler too. His World Title run was the highlight of Late Impact as he elevated the title a lot. Overall, Shelley is a great performer on all aspects."

[10.0] "A generation defining wrestler. Lots of people owe them their careers, and probably some royalties. Brilliant wrestling mind, great as a singles competitor, one half of one of the most influential tag teams of the past 30 years, and an outstanding trainer/coach/agent. He legitimately is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time to watch when he's working heel. He can say so much with his face without speaking a word, going from you saying "you absolute a**hole..." to "well... Shelley is terrifying." He will go down as one of the most influential talents to ever step foot in a ring."

[9.0] "They don't call him the "King of a Generation" for nothing. Alex Shelley is the one name that people usually question when I list my top 5, but as someone who has demonstrably influenced wrestling in a positive way (all the young talent he's mentored! ), as well as being a phenomenal in-ring performer, he deserves the flowers. Babyface or heel, this guy has IT, and I can't wait to see where he lands next. Of course, can't mention Shelley without Sabin, and the Guns are a phenomenal tag team."

[9.0] "One of the greatest tag team wrestlers and an amazing singles competitor. His TNA Tag Title runs with Sabin were phenomenal and his TNA World Title run was really good and I thought it could've gone on longer. Fantastic wrestling."

[9.0] "He is one of my absolute favourites in TNA scene these days. I still believe he could do much more with that world title than Moose. I hope TNA realises that as well and they give him another run too."

[10.0] "At one time he was very underrated. Now he deservedly gets a push. This year he showed himself well."

[10.0] "He is having the career of a lifetime as of right now as Impact World Champion. He has tons of accolades along with Chris Sabin as MCMG. He is capable of having good matches with any worthy tag team or worthy singles opponent. The fact that he is now in his 40's and still one of the best wrestlers on the planet is insane. (10 out of 10*)"

[10.0] "His fingerprints are all over AEW and indie wrestling. The guy is a legendary worker and invented tons of "flippy ****". Better psychology and selling than most of the younger/indie guys. Johnny Gargano should be paying this guy royalty checks since he pretty much swiped his entire moveset. I like the Gargano kid, but he's Shelley 2.0 running Nunzio's gimmick. Shelley is a good talker, great worker, but being a cruiserweight basically kept him out of the fed. Apparently he mostly works as a physical therapist or chiropractor or something now which is why he sticks w/Impact since they're the most flexible. One of their best guys. Finally put the title on him too. The fact he's 40 and moves like he does is baffling to me. One of the top 5 workers on earth right now."

[9.0] "Having a career 2023 but has been amazing for his entire career. His in-ring matches have always been good singles but as a tag specialist he have been some of the best tag matches in the world with either Sabin or Kushida. Charisma and mic skills are good."

"Can't beleave that he is 40! Man this guy is just incredible (no pun intended). He has always been my main reason to watch TNA/IMPACT. What else is there to say? Alex is awesome!"

[10.0] "Incredible technical wrestler capable of having excellent matches with almost anyone as both single and tag-team competitor. Watching MCMG for the first time got Me back into enjoying wrestling after 10+ years of not following it, but now I decided that I enjoy watching Alex wrestle even more in one on one bouts. Both, one of the most influential and most underrated wrestlers of our era."

[10.0] "I was going to give Shelley a nine due to his lack of singles stories or character work....but 2022 has turned me around on that. MCMGs have been apart of too many great storylines in all different promotions to knock him down to a 9 after much consideration anyway. His 2022 run with the IWTV championship was a ton of fun and him and Shelley picking up the NJPW Openweight tag titles this year shows that they are not only one of the greatest tag teams in history but also one of the best teams to stick together and reinvent themselves over the years."

[8.0] "Alex Shelley is one of the X-Division legends and one of the best in the tag team division as well with Chris Sabin and also with KUSHIDA."

[8.0] "Alex Shelley is incredibly influential, and he's probably most well known for his work in the Motor City Machine Guns. Fantastic work wherever he went."

[10.0] "Gargano stole all of his shit and became a millionare. Damn shame but the ones who saw him know how talented he is."

[9.0] "A true legend for the X-Division, the Tag Team Division, and an underrated talent in all. I absolutely loved his initial run in TNA, when he was working with Kevin Nash and Chris Sabin. The Paparazzi gimmick with Nash was hilarious and he was a significant part of the Paparazzi Championship Series, which showed how truly great of a character he is. Most importantly, the Motor City Machine Guns is one of my favorite tag teams of all time. Such great chemistry with Sabin and always so exciting to watch. Also got to demonstrate some humor with Sabin and the two were great with one another as partners and opponents. I'm sad he only had one match in NXT reuniting with Kushida, but he is an important figure on the Independent scene and a key figure in TNA's hottest period."

[9.0] "I love Alex Shelley and really enjoying the flowers he is getting on his current run. Everything from his hilarious partnership with Nash to the MCMG run is gold. Always creative and always fresh."

[10.0] "Shelley is a top tier technician, and probably one of the best play to the crowd wrestlers of all time whether working face or heel. as a young kid I didn't realize notice him playing the audience because I was so enthralled with his in ring work with Sabin in the Motor City Machine Guns, but he really lays down the foundation in the first act of his matches if they go 10+ minutes every time I've watched him nowadays. Also Paparazzi Productions is the greatest thing to happen in pro wrestling, just comedic gold."

[9.0] "If you're in need to fill a spot in a card, this is the kind of guy that you can just throw in and expect everything to be ok. He is a good wrestler in singles action, with some variations of rollups and reverals, and has also a good amount of technical moves and striking. He's just great overall. And in Tag Action, he's really, REALLY good. You just gotta go and check any kind of stuff the MCMG have been involved into. Just classic after classic."

[7.0] "No idea why he's this high up. Shelley was a fast and very exciting wrestler to watch and was a great tag specialist but he had NOTHING else to bring to the table. Zero charisma or crowd work and had to rely on high spots to get any sort of pop. By himself, he's a lot less but the legacy of the MCMG gives him a supreme edge. Likewise he's just not my type of wrestler and there's only so many times I can see him do the same heatless things before I lose interest."

[9.0] "Fifteen years ago I picked about 8-10 guys from the Indy scene who I thought would be surefire future WWE stars. Alex Shelley was one of them, and I'm not sure why it didn't happen. He was one of the better technical wrestlers at just 22 years old, and I thought showed good charisma as the original 'leader' of Generation Next. In TNA, he continue to show great charisma, especially the angle with Kevin Nash and the X Division. Things just didn't quite pan out for the lofty heights I personally set, but he still had a fantastic career as a tag wrestler with the Motor City Machine Guns in America, and the Time Splitters with Kushida in Japan. Overall, a great wrestler to this day."

[8.0] "Even though most people will remember him as a great tag team wrestler, Alex Shelley will never get the credit he should as a singles competitor. What a phenomenal technical wrestler !"

[7.0] "The very definition of a great tag team wrestler who lacked that final tiny bit to become an equally great singles wrestler. I don't think it's his in-ring skills because Alex Shelley has never so much put a foot wrong in the ring but his personality and charisma, or lack of, that held him back in the singles scene."

[9.0] "Shelley is an excellent worker with tons of charisma and interview skills. Definitely more of a natural heel, and he excels in that role. He's also a great tag team wrestler along with Chris Sabin as the Motor City Machine Guns. The only reason I have him as a 9 rather than a 10 is because he never got the opportunity to prove himself at the main event level."

[7.0] "He was a good hand throughout his run in TNA. I think he's a victim of poor booking at the time from the TNA offices. Maybe he could have been more of a player... or maybe he just didn't have the personality. Frankly, I find it difficult to tell. The MCM was a good team for the time they were together, but never broke through to the levels of a team such as LAX were able to reach."

[7.0] "Great tag team wrestler who never got a true shot as a singles competitor. I remember when Chris Sabin got the big TNA World TItle push years back, how I was baffled it wasn't Alex Shelly on the receiving end of that. He has way more personality and promo skills than Sabin could ever dream of. That said, Shelly still managed to have a very good career being a part of some of the best tag teams of the 21st Century. I'll always like him."

[8.0] "It seems like many people perceived Shelley as the better wrestler of MCM but I've always felt they were pretty equally great wrestlers."

[9.0] "Alex Shelley is one of those wrestlers who gets greatly underrated because he doesn't have anything overly flashy in his repertoire, at least not in comparison to some of his contemporaries. Shelley was crisp, smooth, and never put a foot wrong."

[8.0] "An incredible tag wrestler as part of the Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley is quite surprising as he's almost as good as a singles star having a great technical wrestling game. he didn't stop there he also went to Japan and formed the Time Splitters which truth be told were another good tag team for a team. A lot of respect for Shelley."

[6.0] "Not really a big fan of the Motor City Machine guns. They have always been just another high-flying tag team to me. Also between Shelley and Sabin, I definitely preffer Sabin."

[7.0] "Acrobatic and smooth for sure, technically gifted also but his frenetic style and flimsy offensive are not what I desire above the rest."

[10.0] "One of the very best in the business. Great in the ring as a solo wrestler or as a tag team specialist. Has TONS of charisma and is great on the mic. His stuff with Kevin Nash in TNA was some of the funniest stuff EVER in wrestling. The fact that TNA never made him world champ is a huge condemnation of the company."

[9.0] "TNA missed the boat on this guy. The Guns where over, and the company could have gradually spun both guys off and made two incredible stars. He should have been fighting AJ at the top of the card."

[7.0] "Shelley continued to evolve as a worker following his time as a big-time player in ROH, but I never felt like he reached that aura of can't-miss singles prospect again. At the time, it really seemed like he would become a star. Still, while he for whatever reason never got a significant singles push, I find it commendable just how much of a partnership his teams with Sabin and Kushida have been. They looked like teams, wrestled like teams, had a lot of success as teams, and they both provided a lot of value to the shows they were on, even if their brand of highly acrobatic, very elaborately staged spots grew a bit stale for me over time. Unfortunately, while Shelley's charismatic, pretty good on the mic (though, again, I feel like he peaked early on and somehow settled for being just a bit player), and capable of some extremely complicated in-ring sequences, the prime years of his career have seen him plagued with injuries, causing a lot of stop-start stuff to be going on."

[1.0] "Never really seen the hype & appeal of Alex Shelley. His charisma has never really shined for me, and his in-ring work has always been average at best. He doesn't really deliver great matches unless he is in the ring w/ an all-time great like Bryan Danielson. His tag team w/ Sabin is also OK, but I have never viewed MCMG as a great tag team."

[9.0] "An artist on the mat who can also pull off lots of exciting high-flying maneuvers, Shelley is an excellent junior heavyweight talent by any account. Though more than capable of good singles matches, he has had his greatest success as a tag team wrestler and has been a part of two fantastic teams, Motor City Machine Guns with Chris Sabin and Time Splitters with KUSHIDA, both of which are a joy to watch for fans of tag team wrestling. Is doing well in Japan since departing TNA and has also appeared several times with KUSHIDA in ROH, but I'd like to see him work more regularly stateside in the future."

[10.0] "Alex Shelley, along with KUSHIDA, have held the IWGP Junior Tag Titles twice in 2013. Shelley has challenged for IWGP Junior Heavyweight Gold against then-champ Prince Devitt and lost on April 5th, 2013. Not to mention Alex Shelley made the finals of The Best of the Super Junior in 2013, where he lost to Devitt again. Such accomplishments move him on this list, even though he’s recently returned from an Injury."

[10.0] "From starting as a small wrestler stuck in endless fighting with Jimmy Jacobs in IWA-MS, to a prick in ROH, to paparazzi with a strange Chris Jericho vibe in TNA, to a World Touring MCMG, to an exciting part of japan's junior heavyweight division, Alex Shelley had a long ride all-around the globe. Is high-flying athleticism is well-complimented by his pervasive charisma, making him a dynamite of a wrestler. Their are many reasons to like him : his fun matches around the independent scene, his outrageous and comical character work in TNA, his constantly good and somewhat under-appreciated contributions to ROH early years, his breath-taking teaming with Chris Sabin as the Motor City Machine Guns graced rings all over the world, his burgeoning career in Japan, etc... The best reason to watch him is simply because he will excel at any position he is given and will find a way to stand out as a great wrestler."

[10.0] "an incredibly talented and skilful wrestler, I remember watching him for the 1st time many years ago, wrestling then CZW Iron Man Champion Jimmy Rave. Within this match, I instantly knew who the better wrestler was, as Shelley combined chain wrestling and submission wrestling and made it flow like water, really well done. On top of that, Shelley has a charisma to him, and over the years, he has developed into a great wrestler, with hopefully more years to come."

[10.0] "Alex Shelly - the Chris Jericho of TNA/iMPACT Wrestling."