Timbo Slice

Florida damn well still belongs to Ox Baker. Rest in peace.

The 2003 ROH AJ/Paul London match that was London's last match before heading to the WWE was really good save the ending. Some good leg work in the match and I remember it being a lot different than the ROH matches that were going at the time because it looked like there was a concerted effort to tell a story, which was missing in ROH back then. That sold me on AJ being a lot more than a spot monkey.

The work was good, but it seemed empty due to Fujinami not being well known amongst the crowd. I understand why they paired them up, but bringing over Muta to work Flair would have been great to see and would have worked considering Muta was about to get the big push in NJPW at this time. Fantasy booking aside, Fujinami was in a no-win situation here. Can't really blame him for not getting over quickly because he just doesn't work a style that allows him to get over in the course of one match. A lot of dull moments here.

Disjointed in a lot of points, but there are definitely some high points, and if they figured out a better bridge after the initial salvo to the finish, this would have been the best tag sprint ever. As it is, the sum of the parts just doesn't add up. Not a great match, but a lot of fun in parts. Scott especially came off looking like a star. He had a lot of pop in everything he did in the match and when he was in there, he added a lot.

Most likely, Danielson and Low-Ki were known quantities. Gulak and Busick aren't. Most people who are fans of any kind of entertainment give creators they like more rope than people they have no idea. This, basically. And wrestlers most definitely work in stuff where they think they're going to get a This Is Awesome chant. Guys who work to that aren't doing it right. That's not organic. That's reactionary to the point where it's like a Pavlovian reflex. I understand the idea that Joe's presenting, but there's a big difference between a couple of guys doing something organic that elicits that type of reaction and a couple of guys working through spots for the hand clapping or This Is Awesome chant in response. You don't work for that response like it's a spot in the match.

The main problem with me is that crowd chants, more than anything else, have become more about getting the crowd over than it is about reacting to something that the wrestlers do. It's about people hearing them and thinking, "Wow, those guys know what's going on. That's funny/smart/good." That doesn't sit well with me and it really hasn't ever since it started. Even with me being a big ECW fan, I was never a big fan of the chants they'd come up with. Rooting for the face or booing the heel is just how I like wrestling. I don't need affirmation from a bunch of fans trying to get over to tell me how I should feel about something they see.

Is there much footage of his LA stuff? The Piper stories he tells when he went up against him make me really want to see that stuff.

Justin Roberts released. Ever since the Fink retired, WWE just hasn't found a good ring announcer at all. They stuck with Roberts for 12 years. Unbelievable. Is Gary Capetta still out there?

The Reborn shows in 2004 really got me into the product. That Chicago Street Fight is one of my favorite ROH matches ever, too. I think they did a lot from there until about 07-08 to be level with WWE, who had lost their way in producing a good product in many ways. Once they decided to get a bit too big for their britches, they lost me, but ROH helped me stay interested in wrestling for a while.

Dana White vs. Vince McMahon. Book it.

I just watched a lot of ME going through the old WCW PPVs and they were superb in this incarnation. I know people prefer Condrey but I think Eaton and Lane were the better team. I think I might have these guys in my Top 10 when it's all said and done.

I'm gonna have a tough time putting him on here even with me putting an emphasis on working in big matches. He's had as many as anyone on this list, but I don't think they have been nearly as good as a lot of others who worked main events, and even then, I haven't seen him as the best worker in a lot of them.

I don't think you're gonna be able to have a list without some strategic voting. Not at all possible. There's gonna be dismissive comments, there's gonna be troll bait, there's going to be people looking at lists and thinking if that person might have been under the influence of something when they turned it in. Can't avoid it. That being said, I think there's a lot of people on here who are gonna be able to craft lists without the need for strategic voting. Say there's 25 ballots? I'll bet at least 3/4 of them will be 100% without strategic voting.

One of the best right hands ever, the best swinging neckbreaker ever, a fantastic bumper, and as said above, great timing. Watched the WrestleWar '90 tag between the Midnights and RnR and even after all those years, they figure out ways to make things work, with my favorite being Eaton coming in on a blind tag as Morton rolls up Lane to deliver the neckbreaker. Stuff like that made him stand out during that time, way more than Lane's crappy karate stuff.

So then where do guys have more elasticity in a style and are having great matches? To my knowledge, agents are a big part of the finishes more than anything else, and guys who have been around a while are trusted to call the match themselves when they're out there.

I feel like Parv would like the Brahman Brothers based on what Will just said.

As far as his knees go, I wonder if working at the performance center and having some strength and conditioning work is going to help him going forward because he's already lost some weight and that's gonna help his knees going forward. I don't see him making my list, and I love Steen, but if he comes through in the WWE, he'll be interesting to revisit if this happens again down the line.

I'm not sure about the health aspect (although I know a lot of people think that way) but in the context you're talking about, Kobashi's entire late career run comes into question because of that. Same with guys like Angle, Toyota and a lot of other guys reliant on a lot of high spots, but because they feel the need to up the ante, end up burning those spots out. One reason why a guy like Hansen gets considered as a #1 guy in a lot of people's eyes is because he knew how to build his matches up to where the question became whether he hit the lariat or not, because people basically knew if he hit it, it was over. He then figured out ways to incorporate it without burning it out as a true finish, with the 2/28/93 Kawada match perhaps being the best example of that. Vader DID have that to an extent, especially when you had guys kicking out of the moonsault. But I'm not sure if that's on Vader or that's just on the style he ended up working.

Right. I'd say he was good until 2000 at the least, and while there might have been a NOAH highlight or two before he stopped working there, he was basically done as a good worker after the TC run in 2000.

I know where Dylan's going with his point and I'm going to agree with him ahead of time. You did see Jumbo in a lot of different situations, but he basically worked Jumbo most of the time. Hansen had subtle differences against whoever he wrestled, doing different things with Misawa than he would with Kawada or Kobashi. Not to mention his style was fantastic against guys like Andre, Funk and Baba. Dylan will expand on that, but Hansen did have different things he tried to do based on his opponents.

I dunno if you can deduct points because his peak occurred during a high-point for wrestling worldwide, but I think he was a good worker in All Japan in the late 90's, definitely stepping it up after a subpar WWF run. His peak was from 92-96, definitely, and while his AJPW work doesn't hold up to what was being done earlier in the decade, it's still good stuff.

I want to put them in the Top 25, but there's a lot of overrated Steiners stuff out there, especially the two big NJPW tags that were heavily pimped way back when. They do have their share of high-end stuff, but I'm not sold on them being a lock for my list.

Locks for my list, probably Top 15, maybe even Top 10. The series with Ozaki and Kansai speaks for itself, but they have other great matches with Kudo and Toyoda on 5/5/93 and the 1994 tag match with Mita and Shimoda that rank pretty highly up there. Toyota's best work to me was done as a tag wrestler, and while she eventually outshines Yamada near the end of their days as a team, I see them as the best women's tag team ever.

Chigusa is an all-timer and Asuka is great, but I'm not sure if they have the stuff as a team to be considered better than the JBA. The big thing was that as singles competitors, they were pushed pretty hard, leaving them less time to tag up. That being said, they do have a lot of great matches, including the 3/20/86 match with the JBA, but them being more singles driven than tag driven hurts them when putting together a list like this.

I think in the end they have a better argument as a team than the Crush Gals do. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to put them on my list, though, but I wanted them to be nominated just so people could see how they matched up against other tag teams of the era. If you've only seen their WWE stuff, you'll be even more impressed by what they do in AJW in the 80's.