Childs

Angle popped up, at 68 I think. It's Foley, whom I actually regret not ranking. Thanks for the memory jog TravJ.

Looks like I will have 48 of the top 50 somewhere on my ballot. I didn't rank Harley and I'm blanking on the other missing man/woman.

He does not get a free pass for that at all. He was a very good to great wrestler for six years before he ever got to WWF, and that's why he made the list for a lot of us. It's a stretch to say Warrior had more good WWF performances than him, but no question Henning in WWF was a disappointment, much like Dibiase in WWF. If they were both great there, they'd both be top 20-30 guys. Martel too, though his career is less defined by his WWF gimmick.

I had Dundee at 56 so no complaints on this one. Seriously, watch the guy with a specific eye on his offense. Phenomenal.

Really? How? That seems like a huge stretch of reasoning given that he hasn't worked Kurt in 13 years. He worked him in IGF in 2007 but w/e. I think it's pretty obvious how it influenced him and his current gimmick. How is Lesnar doing a million suplexes and finishers different than Angle doing so? I just think it's a stretch to cite Angle as the driving influence, given that Brock didn't work that way immediately after being paired with Kurt and didn't work that way right after he came back. I blame it more on the WWE branding machine and the "Suplex City" bullshit than I do on Angle. And I'm happy to blame Angle for things.

Where did you have Owen? I think that somehow, in our sleep-deprived state, we didn't talk about him.

Really? How? That seems like a huge stretch of reasoning given that he hasn't worked Kurt in 13 years.

I am also now officially sorry that I voted for Lesnar. He does not need to be this high, and I could've helped any number of comparable workers who didn't get enough love.

I thought it was fitting that Han and Tamura were so close but fascinating that they got there by different means. Han appeared on significantly more ballots but was regarded as the inferior worker by those who likely voted for both of them.

Agreed, and I'm puzzled by it because almost all of the talk has been in the other direction. The quick and dirty would be that Han had a longer prime even if Tamura peaked higher. It'll be interesting to see if Fujiwara ranks above them? I liked both Han and Tamura were better than Fujiwara because the style during their prime was more interesting even if all 3 were masters of their style at one point or another. The best of RINGS is better than the high point of UWF or PWFG in my view. But Fujiwara has the pro-style crossover for his NJ work so my guess is he makes more ballots. Agree on Fujiwara going higher, because of New Japan, the DVDVR sets, etc. Don't really agree about Han having a longer peak. He was great first, but Tamura was also damn good from the jump and had clearly passed Han in 1998 and 1999. I don't see a big difference there. I guess it depends how you feel about Tamura in UWFI.

Interesting. The No. 1 is a clear No. 1.

No way on the average. The top tier guys will beat that easily.

Agreed, and I'm puzzled by it because almost all of the talk has been in the other direction.

The Tamura comp is fantastic.

I'm compartmentalizing with that. But yeah.

I can't help but feel disappointed by that Tamura placement. He's just flat better than at least 20 guys who will go above him.

I had them pretty close together. I do think Ohtani was better in the '90s. Maybe not cooler but better. He has no second act to stand up to Togo's finishing burst of greatness, but I ended up liking his heavyweight stuff a lot more than I expected. He might have been more consistent in the aughts, though some of that is an opportunity/footage issue. Pretty much a pick 'em for me.

Relative to Angle, I don't mind if Shawn hangs around for a bit. Far greater career and demonstrated grasp of pro wrestling.

I'm one who likes later Blue Panther more than prime Blue Panther. He missed my ballot because we have almost none of him from the UWA and because a lot of his '90s stuff was uninspiring relative to the best work of his peers. I find him overrated as a mat worker, but I dug the shit out of his mask losing performance and his work against Casas. Those matches showed his fire and his ability to flat out fight. He was in my 100 most of the way and just missed in the end.

My favorite thing about this so far is that you guys did let yourselves go off on interesting tangents without worrying about run time. I'm thinking particularly of the Virus conversation regarding different standards of stardom in different countries. It's also interesting how different your ballots are in the 35-50 range. It sort of re-hammered home how much I wish I could have voted for 150-200 wrestlers.

Look at Ishikawa's average ranking--very telling as to how highly regarded he is among people who've spent time with the style. Would that he could find Kurt Angle somewhere and drill him in the chin with a straight right.

I honestly don't think there's a single "great" Hansen/Misawa match, which is one of the biggest goddamn mysteries of all time. Two incredible workers that simply do not mesh. This is a tired old saw. They meshed fine, and Hansen played a huge role in getting Misawa over as the new ace. Hansen hit higher peaks against Kobashi and Kawada, but those were some of the greatest matches of all time.

He was widely regarded as such in 2014 and 2015. If not the best, certainly one of the top five.

I love how often people play the "You're a Canadian" card on Steven.

Ooh, psyched for that one.