Timbo Slice

That is always my point when talking about Hokuto/Kandori 4/2/93, too. First near fall in that match doesn't come until 18 minutes in. Sometimes, you just know how to get the crowd into it without the need for kicking out of stuff.

Well, that's because all the guys you mentioned could work heel. Steamboat was a perpetual face and All Japan was not used to a face touring Japan like that. I know there were other guys who ended up working face, but I think that has to do with the crowd more than Steamboat.

I think he's a completely underrated worker. One of the things he did better than almost anybody was lay out matches in a way to grab the crowd's attention, regardless of what you thought of his nutty spots. I think he has a shot at making this list for me.

Nice work, Chad. Really good stuff.

Probably the best baby face ever. Resume speaks for itself, but I wish he didn't get hurt when he did. He could have made a run at a #1-type career if that was the case. Don't see him falling out of the Top 50 for me, maybe even Top 25.

Probably the only female worker I'll consider for my Top 10. When I went back and started going through the AJW Classics, she stood out heads and shoulders above everyone else. Didn't like much of her stuff in Jd', but there were few wrestlers better than her in her prime. She'll be way up there for me.

Bret and Punk are similar to me in a lot of ways. You could tell when he gave a damn, when he really wanted to put on a good match, all that. So when he did give a damn, he was great. But there was also a lot of time where he didn't give a damn that drags him down in my eyes. I'll have him in the bottom half of my list, I'm pretty sure.

I'll have him on the bubble. Liked his 2000s stuff better than his 90s stuff. Him teaming with Lyger in 2003 was one of my favorite things in wrestling at the time. Liked him as the gatekeeper of the BOSJ, as well. For his later stuff, the Hayato Fujita matches he had were great. Good longevity probably gets him on in the end.

One of my favorite wrestlers ever. Easy Top 50, maybe Top 25. Best big match wrestler I've ever seen. Not even a question. He adds something to a match that few others can match.

Haven't seen him as much as other people but I love what I've seen. I have him in the bottom part of my list but trending up the more I see him.

Not seeing it. In the big matches I've seen him in, he was always the lesser guy, and I never saw anything from him that made me think he was on the level of his other shoot-style contemporaries.

Don't think I can put him on there. He'll be in the mix, but off the top of my head, he's not a shoe-in.

He was my WOTY for 2013 and it was by quite a wide margin so I'm as big on him as anyone. Definitely interested to see where he'll land a few years from now, but his work on the indies wasn't as god as Bryan's and while I think he's better right now, I'm not sure he's gonna get the chances we hope he'll get for a while.

Don't know him well enough to put him on the ballot. Anyone got a starting point at all? Or a couple matches of his to check out?

Can't do it. Fun to watch, though.

He'll be close, if not just making the bottom part of the list. If anybody hasn't seen the 6/12/96 tag with him and Iizuka vs. Hashimoto and Hirata, go see it right now. One of his great non-UWF performances.

Easy addition to the list. Probably in the 50-75 range.

I think he has to be in my Top 100. The Garvin series basically did it for me on him, and I got a chance to see some of his Mid-Atlantic stuff, too. He'll be in there.

I'm gonna have him in the Top 10-15 range, and chances are he and Misawa will be back-to-back. As much as I've grown to appreciate Misawa more over the years, I'm not sure if I can put him above Kawada. Will be the toughest decision I make on my ballot, probably.

I can definitely see him making my list. Fantastic brawler, fantastic rudo, but I want to see a bit more of him before making him a definitive part of my list.

He'll be on the list. One of the most dynamic wrestlers I've ever seen. Will be hard to place him, but I could see him breaking into my Top 50.

Definitely soured on him over the years. As big as I was on him when he first became well known, I don't see him as a candidate now. One thing that is interesting to me is whether he'll be able to work within the WWE style that well. If that's the case, maybe something changes in a few years.

Is there enough footage of Thesz that can put him amongst the top guys here? Thesz is one of those guys I'm not too knowledgable about from a footage perspective.

I could see him sneaking into my Top 100. One of the greatest spectacle workers ever, and I'm big on spectacles.

Don't think Taue really "turned a corner" in 1995 so much as he was just given a chance to shine. Loved his stuff teaming with Jumbo, and even with Kawada/Misawa being at the forefront of their early tag feuds, he still has a ton of parts to his matches where he showed he was great. As epic as the Kawada matches were with Misawa, Taue's work against Misawa was just as good, if not better in some ways. For his "limitations," he knew how to work them into matches that were as smart as anyone else could. Best Nagata match ever. Possibly the best Kobashi GHC defense, although the Ogawa match is my favorite. I'll defend his 30-minute draw with Misawa before the Kobashi match, as well. I will have him in my Top 25.