Cross Face Chicken Wing

I would (and will) argue that being the best at what is most basic and primal is exactly why he should be on a list like this. 100 percent agree. If WWE took a more "basic and primal" approach to how it operates its current product, imagine how much better it would be. Basic and primal in pro wrestling is usually a good thing. No need to out-think yourself.

When I started seriously thinking about my rankings, I thought there was no way Undertaker would not make my top 100. By the time I was finished, there was no possible way I could have squeezed him on my list.

Sounds like a self-conscious epic podcast. Just kidding Part 1 was outstanding and I'm looking forward to part 2.

What makes the modern WWE self-conscious epics even worse these days is the production truck's insistence on dozens of close-up face shots throughout a match. Fox does the same thing on its NFL broadcasts and it's annoying. "These guys are stars! We need long close-ups of their face after a big first down/impactful move/near fall/turnover! The people need Tom Brady's/HHH's mug right up close on their 50-inch screens, in HD!" Often, the NFL players have no expression on their faces, so it's just a dull shot. WWE wrestlers have obviously been trained to contort their faces in various ways to try and convey some type of emotion, but it usually just comes across as terrible acting and lame.

Have fun, have fun and have fun. Because the 2016 GWE project sure has been a lot of fun. Don't get bogged down in the "process" or get caught up in silly debates about objectivity. Keep the focus on the wrestlers and wrestling. You can actually influence others and move the needle when you keep the discussion focused on wrestlers and wrestling. You can also help others discover new workers or matches they've never seen. Nobody is going to change their mind when it comes to silly stuff like "greatest vs. best" or whatever else, so keep it focused on wrestling.

Thanks for the shoutout, gentlemen

If the "like" button was used on these forums, I'd like all the replies to my updates. Thank you all for the kind words. Looking forward to the shows, goodhelmet. What's the over/under on the number of F-bombs dropped?

Hopefully him and Piper drop soon. With Dusty gone, we can go to the really good ones. Because really, inside the ring, neither of those three were much (Piper being the worst by far). Watch Piper in Portland in 1980 and you'll immediately change your mind.

Nakamura followed by Bob Backlund......yup, this list is awesome.

I kept putting Benoit back on my list after taking him off. He eventually stayed on my list. Now that I've seen guys like Necro Butcher and LA Park revealed, I regret keeping Benoit on and not replacing him with someone else.

Positive: Really happy Kerry made the top 100. Too many great matches and feuds to not be on the list. Negative: Now I'm mad I didn't vote for LA Park. He deserved it.

I am a huge Kerry advocate... about 1/3 great match theory; 1/3 charisma and 1/3 Texas. And he was a decent worker when he only had one foot. That has to count for something.

By my count, 33 of my picks have fallen off as we head into the top 100. Here is a long-ass post about my fallen soldiers along with where I had them ranked and why. 100. Bobby Heenan Ignore those who push the “Heenan didn’t have enough matches” talking point. He did, and he was excellent in most of them. 99. Kamala A personal pick, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought Kamala legitimately belongs. He got over in several territories and on the big WWF stage. Solid matches with Hogan, Andre and Lawler. Kamala cemented himself on my list while I was watching him beat the Moondogs with a door in ’92 Memphis. My 2 year old – who had never paid attention to wrestling before – took notice and sad, “Bang! Bang! Bang! Man fall down! Hit him with door big man! Hit him with door!” 98. Taka Michinoku A 180 overall finish for an amazing junior? This one was disappointing. 95. Sabu Sabu’s gotten shit on a lot in recent years, and I don’t get why. A fun and innovative talent, who actually finished higher on the overall list than I thought he would. No. 149 seems fair for Sabu. 94. Rick Steiner Rick Steiner > Scott Steiner, in my not so humble opinion. I have recently watched everything on tape from the NWA in 1989 and Rick is outstanding. Also, he was insanely over as a single and that didn’t change once he teamed with Scott. 92. Dennis Condrey You want a scummy wrestler? Look no further than Condrey. On top of the scumminess, he was also underrated as an ass kicker. 91. Jake “the Snake” Roberts One of the best promos of all time and a guy who knew how to work despite his limitations. 90. Masa Fuchi The greatest six-man tag worker of all time. 88. Sean Waltman Damn. I regret not ranking Waltman higher to see if he could’ve cracked the top 100. I think he deserves it. 87. Masa Saito The AWA set bumped Saito up to the top 100. 86. Norman Smiley Always kept me entertained, whether I was watching him on a throwaway match on Nitro or on some random comp tape I had lying around. 84. Koko B. Ware His work in Memphis alone in both the 80s and 90s gets him a spot on my list. An underrated talent. 83. Col. DeBeers Ignore the weird racist gimmick in AWA. While all the buzz about Portland revolves around Buddy Rose (as it should), Wiskowski was an outstanding No. 2. He was great as both Rose’s tag team partner and sometimes foe. Did I rank him a little high? Probably. But I definitely think he belongs in the top 100. 82. Butch Reed If you watched the Mid-South set and don’t have Reed in your top 100, I don’t know what to tell you. 79. Dick Slater Whenever Slater hit the ring, you knew at the very least you’d be getting an interesting match. I can’t name any Slater matches that blew me away, but I also can’t name any that put me to sleep. 75. Akira Maeda A big fall from 61 in the 2006 to 105 this time around. Oh well. 74. Buddy Landell No one else could cut a promo about someone owing him money for new car tires quite like Buddy. But seriously, I thought we’d see Landell get closer to the top 100 given the recent love for Memphis and the podcasts that covered Landell’s career in-depth following his death. 73. Ultimo Dragon Another super talented junior that kept me entertained no matter where he worked. 70. Great Sauske One of the workers who got me hooked on tape trading and exploring different styles of wrestling beyond WWF/WCW. 69. Tommy Rich Would’ve liked to see Tommy finish higher than he did, but No. 141 isn’t bad. I’m sure Rich bladed himself to celebrate once he saw where he finished. 68. Ivan Koloff With more footage, I think we would’ve seen Uncle Ivan finish higher than he did. 65. Dutch Mantell The Lawler feud alone makes Dutch an all-timer, in my opinion. 63. Michael Hayes Hayes > Gordy. Yeah, I said it. 60. Adrian Adonis Whether he was in shape in Portland or Japan or out of shape in WWF or AWA, Adonis would always go and go hard. An outstanding worker and top-of-the-line bumper. 61. Masa Chono Oye. I thought Chono would fare much better than he did. Oh well. 57. Eddie Gilbert I can see the argument that Gilbert was more about angles than work, but he has plenty of good matches on his resume to warrant a top 75 ranking on my list. 56. Carlos Colon The Hansen feud sucked me into exploring more of Colon’s work and I’m glad I did. Super over in his home territory and a great brawler. 53. Tracy Smothers Smothers’ work in the FBI piqued my interest. The more I dug into his work in WCW and Smokey Mountain, the more I loved it. A versatile and extremely consistent talent. 50. The Rock Is this too high for the Rock? Probably, but the biggest mainstream star in wrestling history has to mean something, right? Rock also has some outstanding Wrestlemania main events and good to great work against Lesnar, Foley and others. That said, Rock finishing at No. 101 seems fitting. 48. Yoshiaki Yatsu What? WHAT? WHAAAAA? Seeing Yatsu fall off at 172 was a shocker to me. I had him pegged as a lock for the Big List. 45. Wahoo McDaniel Post-prime AWA McDaniel kept me entertained as a kid. Anything I’ve dug up on Wahoo from his earlier years was still post-prime Wahoo, but all of it was outstanding. The chops, the presence, the respect he commanded in the ring and outside of it – I’m glad Wahoo had a decent showing at No. 115 overall. 31. Ken Patera A huge draw in both the WWF and territorial circuit, at MOTY candidate with Backlund in 1980, outstanding run in the AWA with Blackwell and others, and fun post-prime AWA run that kept 9-year-old me entertained. Is 31 a little high? Maybe, but a 220 overall finish is definitely too low. 21. Jerry Blackwell Did I rank Blackwell too high? Hell no. Blackwell is a badass worker who deserved to finish in the top 100. That said, realistically, finishing over HHH and at No. 118 is really damn good. Biggest regrets: Not voting for Manny Fernandez, Necro Butcher, Adrian Street, Killer Khan, Ernie Ladd, and Super Porky. Who would I have removed from my list to fit those guys in? I have no idea. Who did I probably rank too high? The Rock and Ken Patera. Who did I probably rank too low? Sean Waltman and Taka Michinoku.

Who should we nominate as ring announcer to introduce the top 100? The Fink? Gary Michael Capetta?

I had Rock firmly in my top 100.....but 101 still seems like a fair overall placement for him.

Waltman came thiiiiiiiissssss close to cracking the top 100. The Yearbooks convinced me that Waltman was a top 100 guy.

Agreed. Flair's matches also consistently finished well in the DVDVR 80s set rankings, even while many of our eyes were being opened up to previously unheralded workers and other hidden gems. If Flair does finish No. 1 in this thing, I'm guessing it will be because he had plenty of support from both within the PWO circle and folks who might not be around PWO much but still voted.

Larry Z was a guy I couldn't stand until I went through the Dangerous Alliance footage and his Regal matches. Now I've even come to enjoy some of his AWA work. A solid showing for Larry Z. Also, why are we talking about Giant Gonzales? Did he get revealed and I missed it?

We should create a new thread for discussion about "the process" or complaining about people who complain about certain wrestlers finishing where they do. That way we can keep this thread for reacting to the reveals and not let it get bogged down by all the other big picture stuff.

The first round of this year's NBA playoffs looks like this year's Mania card: not much to get excited about.

My wife is due to give birth to our second son on April 28. Hopefully he's on time so he can take in the full top 10 reveal. So basically you're naming him Ric, Stan, Terry or Jerry? Hopefully Ric 😀

Depends who it is. I had Blackwell at No. 21, but I didn't honestly expect him to finish in the top 25. I was happy to see him crack the top 120.

I am very proud to be the high voter on Blackwell. Absolutlely loved everything he did. And me ranking Blackwell so high probably vaulted him over HHH, so I am giving myself a Barry Horrowitz pat on the back.

My wife is due to give birth to our second son on April 28. Hopefully he's on time so he can take in the full top 10 reveal.

How does one vote Inoki No. 1 for historical reasons, then leave Flair completely off the list?