Timbo Slice

He's basically the Ricky Steamboat of this era, as even with an unlikable prick like Steen, he was getting cheered when presented as a heel team back in the team's early ROH days. He's someone I'm really hoping I can find room for just because he's at least enjoyable in his indy work, if not outright great at times (mainly in PWG) and has had one hell of an NXT run. Of the 2000 and beyond guys, he's one that I'm considering.

Not much has changed with Cesaro, unfortunately, and he's looking like he'll be outside the list when it's all said and done. I really do like his tag work, and he's had some pretty cool singles standout matches, but he's mixed in with a whole bunch of other guys that I'm considering at the bottom of my list and I can't think of many things he's done that will outshine some of them. That being said, I REALLY hope he proves me wrong because he's one of the few guys that I'll set time aside for.

One thing that has me leaning towards putting AJ on there is that in the two years or so he's had since leaving TNA full-time, he's really been one of the best wrestlers in the world. A lot of the guys that are being considered here that are non-WWE guys don't have that track record, and even the Japanese contingency really doesn't hold up that well in the end. Some of that may be recency bias, but he's looking more and more like a lock the more I see him.

I think he got cringeworthy stiff to the point where it was dangerous at times, like Low-Ki stiffing your random indie scrubs, and it was in a way that was too much at points for me. I'm not sure how well his stuff has held up considering I last watched Super Dragon Evolution like four years ago, but in PWG, he has an aura unlike anyone else, really, and he did have some electric match-ups before the injuries shut him down. I don't think he'll make my 100, but he's someone to consider if you're big into the indies right after the boom, as he really was probably the biggest guy that didn't work a major East Coast indie that much.

So what was the Narita Nightmare again? I'm foggy on what happened.

TEJANO KAHN, BABY!!!! And this is the second time this week my love for Texas has been questioned. I'm kicking myself for missing the Brody question, but then again, I hate Brody.

Yeah, basically Ciampa could make money going all over the place but he was hoping that with the money being thrown at the Briscoes that he could be an ROH exclusive. So when he wanted a bit more, they said no. I don't think he's a top-tier name with ROH, anyways, so it's not a big deal. I think he'll make PWG his main base going forward.

DDP was the first guy I thought of. Really odd to think of where he was, getting in the game late and then becoming a star. I almost want to say Dario Cueto, but that's just good casting.

I think the problem I had with this match was that it really didn't get into anything that enjoyable until the stretch run. I did like the finish with the KRD payoff and I thought even with Fish's knee issue they did a good job working around it, but I'm not sure it's a top-flight tag match. I considered it, but I think ROH has had a surprisingly good amount of stuff this year and this is in the tier below their best.

I was there live for it. It was basically 15 minutes of them beating the shit out of each other and has one of the nastiest finishes I've ever seen, and I won't spoil it unless it does show up somewhere. There were cameras there taping it but APW is notoriously bad about releasing footage.

Haven't seen too much this year, but from various outlets: WWE/NXT: RR 3-way, Owens/Zayn, Reigns/Lesnar NJPW: Okada/Fale, Nak/Ibushi, Ibushi/Styles, Ishii/Honma ROH: Bullet Club 6-man (2/14), Styles/ACH (13th Anniversary), Styles/M. Briscoe, maybe El Patron/Daniels. Indies: Thatcher/Hero, Thatcher/End, Thatcher/Cobb vs. Reno Scum (APW - March) Gun to my head, spectacles are my bag, so Reigns/Lesnar is tops, but being live at Thatcher/Hero is going to challenge it. Need to watch the PWG shows and a couple matches that are being highly pimped, but this has been a pretty good first four months so far.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-second-annual-pro-wrestling-draft-board/ BRAY WYATT AT #2!!!! Because reasons.

I think you can arguably call him the greatest trainer in the history of wrestling. He's responsible for more of the best wrestlers of the modern era than anyone else, even if he couldn't book to the times and pay his best guys. But man alive, that class in 1972 alone makes him an all time great. Rest in peace.

Because it's Chicago, basically.

So am I gonna be the outlier on the Payne/Cactus vs. Nasty Boys SuperBrawl IV match? Payne started the match off throwing the Nastys around like Gary F'n Albright and Cactus breaks out the Nestea Plunge AND gets busted up from the inside because of it. I thought this was actually a pretty well laid out match considering it was the Nastys in there, and the faces did more than their fair share to carry the bulk of everything. Ending was kind of a cop out but then it set up Spring Stampede well, too. I dunno, it's definitely watchable at the very least, if not good.

Just came across that Bryan is out for tonight. Neville will face Barrett on the kickoff show.

THE CARD (UPDATED AS OF 5 P.M. EST): -Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match) -Roman Reigns vs. Big Show (Last Man Standing Match) -Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus (Kiss Me Arse Match) -John Cena vs. Rusev (United States Championship Russian Chain Match) -Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper (Chicago Street Fight) -Nikki Bella vs. Naomi (Divas Championship Match) -Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. The New Day (Tag Team Championship Match) -Bad News Barrett vs. Neville I'm not sure what to make of this card. A lot of retread stuff, not much that has me psyched unless the Russian Chain Match goes full on bloody (which considering Cena's pull, don't rule that out), the main event should be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, Bryan's injuries messing up the IC title match a bit...maybe Ambrose and Harper go crazy a bit? Maybe the Tag Team match delivers? This really seems like a placeholder card while they figure out where to send people over the summer feuds. Either that, or they really don't know what the hell they're doing. As it's been said before, they aren't booking to crowds and they're really in a vacuum, which is going to make tonight's normally-hot Chicago crowd probably as insufferable as the Post-WM Raw crowd.

Regal's shot up the board for me where I can safely consider him in my Top 50 and more likely in my Top 30. If I were to pick out my favorite performance I've seen of him since watching stuff for this project, the Arn SuperBrawl IV match is right up there amongst his best, as is the Larry Z matches. 1994 might have been his best year in the US as far as his work goes.

Kyle O'Reilly is someone I'm actively seeking out to watch now. He was awesome in that Fish Tank. His response to all the craziness was sensational.

This is something that I think a lot of people are gonna have with a lot of different wrestlers, not just top-tier guys like Jumbo or Flair or what have you. A lot of it is oversaturation, but there's also the element that over time, when you see something you like, you're drawn more to work of that caliber than even those who are considered GOAT candidates just for the sake of being considered GOAT candidates. I totally think that's a worthwhile reason to not rank someone that highly, and it mainly has to do with the fact that when you expand your horizons, if you enjoy something else, it's gonna come before it and so on. I don't think any of us are going to be able to watch as much as we want to for this project, only what we can, and going back and not ranking Jumbo highly or even at all on anyone's list is not going to be something I argue about with anyone. There's no mandatory picks here, even if they're held in high regard by a general consensus. Now I fall onto the opposite side of the ledger here, in the sense that over time, I've come to appreciate the stuff I really enjoyed when I first expanded my horizons into 1990's Japan and such. Some of it is a bit nostalgic, most of it is stylistic, but there isn't much that's going to change my mind at this point. I'm hoping to get to a lot of other things that are pimped highly in the 80's or in the nooks and crannies inbetween, but at the same time, I'm only going to seek out the stuff I think is noteworthy relative to what I like (which we all do to an extent). If I'm not excited about watching a guy work, there's a good chance I won't rank him that highly anyways, and so it's a moot point. The problems for me come up with "This guy is such a slam dunk #1 candidate that he has to be seen" when in reality, while we all seek out recommended stuff, sometimes it's not going to interest us that much. And that's fine. I understand some people think this is a hivemind-type place, but let's not actually become one here. That's why I really love this project as a whole and why I'm sticking to my guns about this being a really tight Top 10 vote. Just from how I've seen people talk about a lot of candidates, I'm ready for about a dozen different wrestlers occupying the top spot, and a Top 25 that could have some extremely interesting candidates, which a couple that will come out of nowhere and really surprise people. I'm also totally ready for the idea that guys who were a part of the last SC poll near that top of the list having heavy falls down the list or being omitted completely. I'm really getting excited for how this is all going to shape up.

Tenryu and Fujinami are gonna be in my Top 10, but I'm not sure where. I don't think I can put Tenryu over Hansen and I like Tenryu a bit more than Fujinami. The overall top 10 is probably going to be uniform save one or two names and it's going to be close all the way down. It's really crazy to think just how close a bunch of these guys are.

Jumbo has become a guy I've seriously considered as replacing Flair as my #1. I think he's the most enjoyable wrestler I've ever watched, and his three distinct periods (70's up and comer, 80's ace, 90's old man badass) offer so many different perspectives on him. I was trying to think of career arcs that were as good as his and I think the only guy I could come up with was Lawler. I know some people will say Funk, but Jumbo as The Man and Lawler as The Man are different compared to Funk as Grizzled Tough Old Outlaw. Right now, I'm thinking Flair and then a tough choice for me between Lawler and Jumbo. Funk 4th, probably Hansen 5th. But it's pretty much splitting hairs at this point.

Watched it last night as I trudged through the pre-Hogan WCW PPVs and this was a fantastic match. I had seen it before and loved it but really grew to appreciate how both guys worked chain wrestling sequences that were so enthralling and peppered in these great "high spots" in between. Regal must have been loving the idea of working Arn simply because of the fact he isn't afraid to get rugged and work snug and so they just tattooed each other. Felt like an old heavyweight boxing prize fight at times where guys worked an opening and then came up with a crowd-popping shot and made it stand out. Feather in the cap for both guys and as lauded as Spring Stampede is, it's right up there with the two brawls for the best match of 1994 for the company.

I wasn't on big as others were on Red when he was at his zenith, but at the same time, he's got the claim of being one of the more influential wrestlers of his era. His work varied all over the spectrum, but he was at least fun to watch and at his best, he had some of the most jaw-dropping spots I'd ever seen at the time. I don't think he'll make my 100, but at the same time, I feel like he's undervalued to an extent and was happy to hear Wes, Naylor and Kris talk him up big during the latest Exile on Badstreet podcast.

Well be interesting to see what new finish Rollins comes up with since the curb stomp has been banned.