Microstatistics

Huh, the majority of appraisals of Backlund here are pretty negative and yet he finished in the Top 100 last time. I agree with the criticisms to some extent so he is unlikely to be higher than 75-100 if I do rank him. Having said that, I think his goofiness is overstated and his technique and fundamentals were actually very strong. Plus, he was evidently one of the most over wrestlers in US history. Moreover, as some people have alluded to, he does have the volume. Not saying that I do, but if someone values most of his stuff vs. Superstar, Sheik, Inoki, Patterson, Valentine, Hogan, Patera, Slaughter, Rose, Takada, Bret etc., I can easily see them placing him astronomically high.

I attended live. Really good show with 4 hours of compelling wrestling. The tag match and the ending were the only misfires. MJF vs. Adam Page: Solid opener, albeit a little long. I would have liked some more hateful brawling but MJF's heel antics were fun. **3/4 Mercedes Mone vs. Momo Watanabe: Very good stuff as you'd expect from Mercedes. First time watching Momo and she was a little slow on the uptake but grew into the match and story. ***1/2 Swerve Strickland vs. Ricochet: This was shockingly good and maybe the best match of the night, the last thing I would have expected. Great action, even if Ricochet's selling wasn't the best, and the Nana story was incorporated very organically. ***1/2 Kazuchika Okada vs. Brody King: This was alright but pretty by-the-numbers. Seeing Okada sell like a comedy heel was strange (even if he did it quite well). **1/2 Hurt Syndicate vs. Outrunners: Shelton looked good as always but this was terrible and a complete waste of time. Should have been a 3 min squash instead. *1/2 Toni Storm vs. Mariah May: Their All In match was my 2024 AEW MOTY and while this didn't hit those heights, it was the perfect ending to a memorable trilogy. Few of the transitions and selling were rather lazy but the violence and vitriol were on point, to a disturbing degree. Excellent, climactic finish. This should have been the main event. ***1/2 Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita: Pretty good, better than their All Out 2023 match in terms of psychology. Takeshita looked like a beast and Kenny worked well as the underdog vet. Don Callis drew crazy heat. Great finish that protected both guys. *** Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher: Maybe I was a little burned out after 3 hours because the start was so slow and devoid of anything interesting. But they won me over by the end with the escalation of crazy spots and violence, though the repeated blood consumption spots were revolting. ***1/4 Jon Moxley vs. Cope: The match itself was actually ok (Moxley's off-selling notwithstanding) but the finish was nonsensical and completely killed the crowd. They had a truly great ending right there with Christian's crafty one-handed pin but instead made him look like a complete chump. **1/4

Interesting question and I think I agree with the majority of comments here: Bryan was an in-ring prodigy but not necessarily someone who was singularly important for putting US indie wrestling on the map in the 21st century. He was just one of the guys involved in its ascension (albeit the best one wrestling-wise). Overall, Punk is a bigger draw and seemingly the bigger name, though it is hard to overstate just how over Bryan was in WWE from late-2013 to early-2015.

To me, Ospreay seems to be a case of high-end performance vs. generic outing. Criticism of his selling is overstated and even fallacious if you look at his best work but appears to sustain if you examine his average spotfest. In some ways, he epitomizes some of my most despised elements of modern wrestling, namely 1) the perennial back-and-forth segments that have usurped proper transitional segments 2) introducing a lot of ideas into a match but not following through on any of them. The Danielson match was an egregious example of the latter, though Bryan was almost as guilty. Will's strikes are stiff and his athleticism undeniable but most of the rest of his offense is not particularly interesting either. Having said that, he is one of the best in the world when he is working from underneath against a belligerent heel and his three top MOTYC-level matches all embody that: vs. Shingo Takagi (NJPW, 6/5/2019) vs. Kenny Omega (NJPW, 1/4/2023) vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW, 11/23/2024) Maybe the WK match was more of a Kenny clinic (though Ospreay's selling in it was pretty fantastic) but I have yet to see a better Shingo match and Full Gear was almost certainly Fletcher's career match. As a result, despite the limiting flaws, I'll consider him for the Top 50 due to my penchant for tippy-top performances/matches (particularly against wrestlers who haven't hit the highest level against anyone else).

Toni Storm One of the standout women wrestlers post-2015. She has an extensively diverse catalog of work, having worked in virtually all the main wrestling regions (Japan, USA, UK, Germany, Mexico), and hence has incorporated different stylistic elements into her arsenal. In the ring, she is generally reliable with decent fundamentals and an ability to work both serious notes as well as comedy spots. Her current "Timeless" run is probably her most compelling, dripping with eccentricity and charm, and the Mariah May feud is likely a career best, culminating in one of the best non-Joshi women's matches in history at Wembley. vs. Io Shirai (Stardom, 5/14/2017) vs. Meiko Satomura (WWE, 8/9/2018) vs. Mariah May (AEW, 8/25/2024)

To me, Punk vs. McIntyre III is the Danielson vs. Ospreay of WWE: A deeply flawed match that is mystifyingly getting intense, almost unanimous MOTYC praise. It was pretty violent and they retained the necessary vitriol but, otherwise, it was shockingly plodding with large empty chunks and no real structure or direction at all. The Berlin Strap bout was exponentially better and the highlight of the feud, having struck an optimal balance between a hateful gimmick brawl and a smartly constructed match. The main event tag was alright but pretty much what you'd expect. Super-babyface and WWE champion Cody Rhodes getting outcheered by Roman Reigns in Atlanta was something else though and tells you that virtually anything can be achieved.

I ended up watching the whole thing. Very good show, every match was, at worst, decent. Cody vs. KO: Strong opener. It suffered from the usual structural disjointedness of Cody defenses since Wrestlemania but the ribwork and KO's moral crisis were well done. **3/4 Bianca/Cargill vs. The Unholy Union: Much better than I expected. The theme of a good team vs. pairing of powerful individuals and the rare instance where the latter prevailed. FIP on Bianca was the best segment but Jade's hot tag and the finishing stretch weren't bad. ***1/4 Punk vs. McIntyre Strap match: Now that is more like it. This was much closer to what I expected from a blood feud, not the clown show that was the Summerslam bout whether Seth Rollins took center stage for some reason. At least they built off that finish with Punk learning to kill things off before indulging emotionally. They actually tried to beat on each other for large stretches and any time either of them got too cutesy, they ceded control. The pacing and selling felt stilted at times but that might be down to the stipulation. This is one I'll revisit. ***1/2 - ***3/4 Terror Twins vs. Dom/Liv: Solid intergender match with the babyface shine, FIP segments, interference, and revenge spots all put together fairly well. **3/4 Gunther vs. Orton: I appreciate how they constructed this, capitalizing on Gunther's locational babyface status and having him work from underneath across an experienced, similarly sized guy. Having said that, the pacing was too deliberate for it to hit any great heights and I think the KOTR final was ultimately better. Still, a nice moment for Gunther (and Ludwig). **3/4 - ***

Perhaps this is unfortunate timing from a political standpoint, but I've largely come around on Hogan and will likely rank him, a thought that would have been utterly preposterous in years past. His unrelenting motion approach did bring something extra to his matches by elevating the competitors and intensifying crowd heat. I have gained an appreciation for his basic offense, combined with some of the flashier stuff he could bust out, and he could even sell well when he focused on it. Still, certain fundamental criticisms do persist e.g., the Hulk-up which, in many instances, was awful because it involved completely blowing off all the damage sustained and rarely going back to selling. But, in his defense, that's what the audiences craved so it's a case of artistic merit vs. what draws the money. He particularly excelled in brawls and spectacle matches and the MSG Desert Storm bout and Wrestlemania X8 are career highlights and should be enough to secure at least a 75-100 spot. Also, it took me a while to fully accept it, but it's nearly undeniable now that he is the face of professional wrestling. There have been larger-than-life stars before (Jim Londos, Bruno, Backlund) and after (Austin with his 98/99 mega-peak, Rock and Cena with cross-over appeal, even Roman to some extent) but when non-fans think of wrestling, they think of Hulk Hogan. He was a case of right guy, right place, right time as his infectious energy and persona melded perfectly with the landscape of 80s America and immortalized his place at the top.

I agree completely. The comments here and in other forums are classic Germanophobia where any negative connotations related to Austrians/Germans just have to draw Third Reich parallels, followed up by people filling in their own blanks by projecting ideological ideals onto specific elements. Equating the snobbery and talk of sanctity of the mat with Nazi concepts of racial hierarchy and purity is plain ridiculous. Like you said, if it was any other European, people wouldn't even bat an eye.

MJF Up there with Darby Allin as one of the best post-2015 debutantes. At first glance, he seems like purely a mic guy with limited chops in the ring. Until you actually watch the big matches, which deliver in spades. He does well to combine old-school psychology with hyper-modern offense. Charismatic, particularly as the heel, though his unshakable kayfabe bit could be over-the-top. His commitment to long-term limb selling is also admirable, even if not everyone is going to be a fan of that particular style of selling I suspect. vs. Darby Allin (AEW, 11/13/2021) vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW, 3/5/2023) vs. Jay White (AEW, 11/18/2023)

Online wrestling community "humor" is usually cringe but some of the Mya Lesnar jokes were pretty amusing e.g., Brock suplexing the Punnett square into oblivion, reproducing via asexual budding etc. Yeah, I'm surprised how bad some WWE wrestlers are on Twitter/online considering the company's public relations strength. Between the above and that winceworthy Sheamus tweet about Gunther last week before their match, they don't seem to know what flies. At least they had the good sense to delete the tweets after a few minutes.

Melina Contender for best WWE/US women's wrestler. Very reliable worker who was effective both as a fighting, sympathetic underdog and a vicious, underhanded heel. Bought a lot of intensity and aggression to her matches, which was particularly impressive in an environment of sub-10 minute matches and cringy commentary. Even with the supposed revolution of 2014-15, the I Quit match vs. Beth Phoenix still might hold up as the best women's match in the history of the company. vs. Mickie James (WWE, 4/29/2007) vs. Beth Phoenix (WWE, 6/1/2008) vs. Michelle McCool (WWE, 7/26/2009)

That finish was so surreal that I never actually considered the match quality itself. It doesn't have the best rep but wouldn't be surprised if it held up well, especially with all the historical context and Lesnar being his best opponent. Taker has a solid shot at the Top 50 for me. I guess he was a late bloomer and his form dipped in the early 2000s but 1996-1998 and 2006-2015 are very impressive career peaks. The picks below are, at the very least, very good, while the bold made my most recent Top 100. This doesn't include the series vs. Big Show, Edge, Triple H, Batista, which were all worthwhile from what I remember. vs. Mankind, Buried Alive vs. Bret Hart, One Night Only 97 vs. Shawn Michaels, Badd Blood vs. Mankind, King of the Ring 98 vs. Kurt Angle, No Way Out 06 vs. Shawn Michaels, WM25 vs. Rey Mysterio, RR 2010 vs. Shawn Michaels, WM26 vs. Brock Lesnar, Summerslam 2015 As for old man Taker, I remember liking Reigns WM33 and Goldberg 2019 way more than most outside our bubble did, so those are feathers in his cap to me. And, of course, he was one of the most legendary characters in wrestling history and combined that with array of interesting offense (particularly impressive for a big man) and, as mentioned, great and sometimes nuanced, and hence under-appreciated, selling.

Completely agree. Didn't rank him in 2016 but he's in now.

Watched the last two matches and ending of Jey vs. Priest. I'm glad they did a PLE in France but I don't know what to make of that crowd: they ranged from spiritedly engaging to being mildly obnoxious. The tag title match was looking good but the stretch where Kairi wasn't legal and they looked completely lost for a couple of minutes while Bianca sold on the floor really cooled things off. Good main event but could have been better had they followed up on the arm injury angle instead of introducing new ones (back, neck) that they didn't really build on either. Yeah, busting out the Burning Hammer of all moves, only for a 1-count fighting spirit comeback was strange as hell. The rest of the match was strong though.