Childs

Would have been happy with any of the top three winning. Flair deserves his enduring spot near the top, but it's good to have a fresh No. 1. Hoped Tenryu would push a spot or two higher, but I take solace from him moving up and blowing away Austin on points per vote. He had my favorite wrestling career, even though he's not my favorite wrestler. Kobashi was never my favorite of the great Japanese heavyweights, but I have found him increasingly undeniable over time for all the reasons his No. 1 voters have eloquently stated. I don't think anyone has ever loved pro wrestling more than Kenta Kobashi, and if we can't celebrate that, what the hell are we doing?

You're probably spot on in assessing why Austin has soared, though it's a little odd in the sense that his career was already well in the rearview the last time we did this. When I said earlier that he belongs nowhere near a top 15, it wasn't a judgement of his peak. He was incredible at translating that once-in-a-generation charisma from the mic to the ring. He just didn't do it for very long, which matters to me when we're sorting out the best of the best. So to me, Austin in this rarefied air is a bit of style over substance, great as the substance was for a few years.

Hansen dropped from No. 1 to No. 4 for me, but that's no reflection on him. I just felt compelled to bump Tenryu and Fujiwara up while recognizing that Danielson was the one who kept me attached to the game over the last decade. But no one has ever expressed his character through his work better than the Bad Man from Borger Texas. He made you reckon with him, and those who met his fury produced some of the most stirring wrestling in history.

Bret was my favorite wrestler in the '90s, and Misawa was never my guy among the AJPW elite, but I can't think of a single thing Bret did better than Misawa. That said, happy to see them both near the top.

For me, Tanahashi could never surpass Kawada. I didn't even like him and his weak-ass offense until I saw how well he adapted as his body failed. But I accept that for a lot of people who started watching 20 years after I did, Tana is the ultimate ace, and it's hard to argue he did not earn that, even if I will never feel it in my bones.

If there is a GWE 2036, will be interesting to see if the top NJPW workers of the last 15 years rise, fall or hold steady. You'll have older voters who didn't put them on ballots fall away, and there are a lot of people who came into hardcore fandom at a time when Tana, Okada and Omega were viewed as the pinnacle. But will they endure as Kawada, Misawa and Kobashi have? My guess is yes.

Yep, they've always been a natural pairing.

Vader is the ultimate rewatchable wrestler. His style is such a pure distillation of what makes wrestling fun, and it works in enough different settings that I'm never going to dip into his career and come away bored or disappointed. Come to think of it, I had him too low at 28.

Of those remaining, Austin is the one who belongs nowhere near a top 15. Huge star at a time when many of the voters dipped in, but he didn't have more than two or three years as a great worker, with maybe five others at the very good level. I voted for him, but in the lower half along with Joe, Foley and Punk. I didn't have Tanahashi in my top 50, but if your fandom was heavily shaped by the last 15-20 years, you could argue he was the best ever, so I have no problem with him going this far.

Fuck John Cena. The No. 1 voters who referred to him as the best ace ever and the best big-match worker in North American history need to watch more wrestling.

Toyota above Fujimani and Fujiwara is a bitter pill. Not surprised by Piper. The momentum behind his case has built steadily, though I still don't quite see the volume or consistency of an elite, elite guy.

41 of my top 100 still standing 33 of my top 50 18 of my top 20 (pour them out for Buddy Rose and Satanico) Difficult to complain too much about that, even though I'm part of the badly outnumbered "started watching in the '80s" cohort.

Shibata brought an edge to New Japan's most recent golden age that was missed after his injury. He produced some great matches in his earlier run. But I look at the guys right above and right below him, and I just don't think he did enough to be in that company.

Yeah, I had no idea Mistico had come up in the world to that degree. Didn't really consider voting for him, but that's mostly because he wasn't very good during his first run on top. His last few years are deserving of respect. Modern joshi is my biggest blind spot, so I'm not going to deny Iyo her flowers. Asuka's placement feels a little high, but her best stuff I love, so I'm not mad at it. On the Ishikawa vs. Ikeda question, I've always put Ishikawa higher, because to me, he encompasses all of what's great about BattlArts, from the violence to the cool submissions to the Inoki-influenced showmanship. He is the living embodiment of a style/promotion I dig. Ikeda's just a bad motherfucker, which is also great but at a slightly lower degree of difficulty. Choshu's another one of my favorites for all the reasons you guys have laid out. Also a great tag worker. I'm not sure how to get younger voters excited about a wrestling revolutionary from 40 years ago. It is what it is. Ibushi's highs are incredibly high, and I'd take the best version of him over the best of Naito, who transformed his aura, and Ishii, who was more consistent. I didn't vote for any of them, but again, not mad at their placements. I loved KENTA as a pissy little asskicker, but my god, he hasn't done shit at a GWE level for almost 15 years. That's tough to reckon with. Mercedes deserves her props as the best American woman. Regal, I will always love, not really as a British worker but more as the guy who made that technically sound British nastiness work in the U.S. mainstream. And I do think his best stuff against Benoit, Finlay and Hash (not to mention his end-times matches against Hero, Claudio and Mox) was legitimately great. Voted him a bit higher, but it's a fair placement. I was one of those who gave Ospreay a lower ballot vote. I agree with a lot of the criticism. I do zone out on some of his big matches. I find it hard to put his career in any kind of context at this point. But the dude is a force of nature with his athleticism and insane passion to be the best. Though I don't always like where it leads, I respect it.

Lesnar was the vote I regretted most from 2016. I overreacted to his unique presence in those first few comeback years and failed to focus on the broader point, which is that he's a turd who has not been good for the art form overall.