There were lots of ways he phrased things or mentioned that so-and-so was the best in the world, or the best at a particular thing, that such-and-such stood highest or was the most powerful. There was a lot of that in the early books, Lan is the best Warder, Galad is the best swordsman of his generation, Nynaeve is the strongest female channeler, Rand is going to be the most powerful channeler, Aginor was the 3rd most powerful Forsaken after Lanfear & Ishamael, all sorts of stuff like that. Giving a little bit of data inspires people to try to fill in the rest of it. There aren't nearly so many arguments about the best swordsman in aSoI&F or other fantasy series, because sword fighting is not described in the same way. In WoT, there is the sword forms, and the formal rank of "blademaster" with its own symbol, which narrows things down to more specific issues. When you are arguing whether the Hound would beat Loras Tyrell in a sword fight, people are generally weighing physical attributes, age & quality of experience. When they argue Gawyn versus Darlin, all that stuff is expressed in terms of the quantifiable attribute of "swordsmanship," because WoT has ranks, and the duels are contests of skill, almost like boxing or tennis.

I guess that stuff will continue for fans of the show, if things are expressed in the same way.