Timbo Slice

That Momota match was really good. They gave him a shot at Lyger and then a shot at the GHC Jr. Tag Titles and he was great in both. Liger is going to be really high with me, as even now into his 50s he can still do some great stuff. He's got perhaps the best longevity case out of anyone on the list outside of Funk or Lawler, and like Dylan said, he very rarely has a boring match. Just an incredible worker and someone who has done more for wrestling that can be quantified, really. His influence is absolutely insane.

He's not the guy who championed the super-indy style. If anything, he subverted the way the indy style went in a way where people tried to copy him from an aesthetic standpoint and it couldn't be matched. I agree he fell into it from time to time, but he got more out of the other big names of his time than anyone else, really. I think watching his matches with multiple guys doesn't tell the complete story. For me, the story is that when those guys went off and faced off against other big names at the time, they didn't really come close in a lot of ways. They lacked what he added to matches that made them stand out. The one thing I took away from his indy run was that he went out of his way to do something different in a lot of the big matches, which is why regardless of who he faced, it was better nearly 100% of the time (stuff like the Roddy match, Aries 75 minute match are big strikes against him in my eyes, but those are outliers). A lot of me putting him where I originally had him was because I figured he had more time going forward, but the completion of his career has me thinking Top 15. Maybe even Top 10 depending on the names I switch around.

Will vote for him when he's not being billed from Ghana, West Africa.

Some foundation for the match: -Akiyama had just been humiliated by Nagata on a recent NOAH show and entered the G-1 for revenge -Akiyama destroyed Tenzan in their pools matchup, putting Tenzan on the brink early -Tenzan had to win out to have a chance since Takayama was in his pool, too, which he did thanks to the newly minted Anaconda Vice. -Akiyama beat Nagata in the block breaker before this to get his revenge and be in position to embarrass NJPW -Tenzan beat Takayama in their block breaker thanks to the Vice after taking a hellacious beating. Akiyama is at his zenith here. Grumpy old Akiyama is awesome, but invading asshole Akiyama is just on another level. It's all about making Tenzan battle through the same things he had to fight for just to get to this point, but the Vice is the great equalizer. The stretch run to this might be one of favorite things ever with Tenzan just fighting through everything Akiyama has before getting his opportunity to go for the Vice. And when he slams him down to the mat as Akiyama looked to escape, the pop there, and the pop a few moments later when he gets the submission is one of my favorite moments in my wrestling watching fandom. I know people see this as the Akiyama Show, but Tenzan was terrific here. He brought some incredible tools to the table for Akiyama to work with, and the result is Tenzan's best match and Akiyama's best non-NOAH/AJPW match. The payoff with all the work on the midsection at the end is beautiful. It also cannot be understated just how amped that crowd was for Tenzan. Then NJPW had to go fuck it up in four months because they pushed Nakamura too early. Unbelievable.

This is correct. Dunn is technically the highest-ranking non-owner employee. His stock options get added to with each contract negotiation.

Oh, Triple H is still the king of all this. He's still doing it now.

The best Ace has ever looked, and their run in 1996 was really, really good. I don't know if it's enough to make the list, but for a short-lived team, they definitely had some high-end stuff. An odd wild card to throw in to the end of the voting period.

So this is probably an outlier's way of thinking, but I think that when he was with the right guy, he could have himself a pretty damn good match. The Bret matches were good, the Michaels Good Friends, Better Enemies match was great considering Michaels was a wreck at the time, and that Goldberg match before the finish saw him bumping around like a madman for him, something that surprised the hell out of me when I actually watched it a while back. I don't think he's anywhere near a Top 100, but I also think that he was a lot better than what people give him credit for, because the politics bullshit is such a big thing about him. But when he wanted to show he could go, he showed it. Problem was he really didn't give a fuck for a good part of his career.

Really can't wait for the 2/3 falls match next week. Joe has been absolutely on fire since the turn and knowing what I know about the match (basically the length), this has the makings of one of the best matches NXT has ever put on. Plus, they did the smart thing and put this match first on the tapings, as opposed to putting it at the end, which will guarantee a hot crowd.

Cena, Styles, Rhodes, Joe (Probably at #100), MAYBE Nak, but he's kind of on the edge with a few lost years there. Brock is in a similar situation, but he has so much high end work (which I value highly in the process, even if it's at a low quantity), I might be hard-pressed to keep him off.

Again, I bring up this far into the process that a lot of people are digging in for weaknesses in Flair and that even with those weaknesses, everything that makes him one of the all-time greats supersedes those weaknesses by a large, LARGE degree. All for bringing up all aspects of people's career in the process, but there shouldn't be that much entropy when it comes to his career, regardless of what people think of his low points.

Yeah, they're a great RnR/Steiners hybrid. One thing I wish they'd do is break up the tapings a bit. I know why they don't, but it leads to the crowds not really caring about the shows that are at the end of the tapings unless it's Bayley or Finn. Hell, even Enzo and Cass aren't immune to it.

Here's what funny: I think that at the time, what they were doing in the U.S. to speed up the tag team style akin to what was going on in Dragon Gate was really compelling. The problem is that it got repetitive and/or cute a few too many times to the point where they both became another team and saw the Bucks surpass them. There was a year or two where they were at least fun to watch, but I don't think it's enough.

Hokuto's match against Ozaki from 11/18 was really good stuff, with each woman trying to be a bigger asshole than the other. Hokuto even does the Scott Steiner push-up taunt in this match!!! Wish the knee work was a bit tighter, but there's a lot of good here, and Ozaki really shines.

My apologies on the Brody-like selling, Loss. My thing with Hase is that I don't think he was someone that I actively thought was a great part of the matches he was in outside of a few exceptions. A lot of those matches being tag matches hurts him in my ways. I WILL hear the argument, however, that he was not booked in a way that built him up as a great singles performer.

Yeah, the ROH commentary at the time with Lenny was just...well, actually has ROH EVER had a good regular PBP guy? I'm trying to pinpoint one and I'm not coming up with one. That Driven match was tremendous and made my Top 100 ever.

The Hash IWGP title match is one my favorite matches ever, actually. I think it's a spirited Hash defense and right there with the Lyger defense as the best one Hash ever had. Hase's over offense made his near falls great, too. Match is here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz7cgj_shinya-hashimoto-vs-hiroshi-hase-njpw-08-03-93_sport I don't think he has enough in something like this, though. He'll be just out of my Top 100.

This is exactly why I thought Undertaker from the start. Onita is another good one.

Undertaker was one of the first guys I thought of, for some reason. Arn Anderson is another.

Survival Tobita vs. Ken The Box IS professional wrestling. Also:

I remember the Eddy match and liking it, although I think I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to see a bit more from Williams. I think what makes him a stronger candidate than most is that he's one of the few guys that can show up and have a decent/good match basically at any time over the last 15 years. He didn't do it that consistently, but when he was on, he was fun to watch.

Didn't see a thread so I figured I'd start the new one. Really looking forward to RAW ratings explanations on the Iowa Caucus and televising Super Bowl media day causing lower than expected numbers.

PWG isn't my favorite fed, but it might be the one I can sit down and enjoy more than any other promotion right now. Even NXT or LU. I love how everyone really turned it into this awesome cult fed, and it being the secret weekend entertainment of a lot of Hollywoodites for as long as it has been is pretty fantastic stuff.

Going back to Loss' point about Jericho as a headliner, it's now pretty obvious that Jericho's Undisputed title run was fodder for HHH more than anything else. They didn't want HHH going over Rocky or Austin on a big show when he came back, and he was definitely just a fill-in at that point. The bigger overall issue is that Vince plain doesn't trust a lot of these new guys coming up. They're just guys to feed Cena or HHH or what have you. The last few years have shown that Vince doesn't really care too much about the rest of the card so much that the guy on top is doing what he wants him to do. When that goes wrong, that's when issues like this start to really show up. With that in mind, I guarantee the Styles/Jericho feud is to pass the baton.

Man, the end of year shows I did weren't in the WON calendar, but I never heard anyone clearly talk about Zayn/Neville as a MOTYC when people were making their lists. That seems like a pretty egregious oversight.