Childs

I haven't jumped into the Piper renaissance with two feet, despite having watched his Portland stuff. He was remarkably over, but I'm still not sure I've seen a ton of great wrestling performances from him, even in the land of Don Owen. The Valentine match endures as an incredible showing, and perhaps if I saw more of his Mid-Atlantic stuff, I'd turn the corner more decisively? I don't know. He was also pretty bad in his last WCW run--not just in the ring but as a guy who became tone deaf about how the crowd saw him. That doesn't matter too much, but it didn't leave a good taste.

Happy to be a minority voice with you here. You're not really a minority voice if he makes less than half of the ballots. I don't know too many people who had him in thier lists. I know of a couple. An interesting comparison would be Undertaker vs. Inoki. A shitload of matches.... a shitload of main event protection.... a handful of classics and a ton of crap. That's actually a great comparison, and Inoki was clearly better.

Is the battle to reorder AJPW consensus or to destroy the consensus that AJPW was the best wrestling ever?

This has been an awesome day in terms of eliminating wrestlers I didn't want to see go any higher.

I'm now picturing Garvin beating the holy hell out of Zayn in the GWE Invitational.

Colon hasn't been accused of killing anyone.

Garvin's rise from 237 to 90 seems to suggest all the advocacy has been effective. His placement is one of the happier results so far.

Scorp had a great '08 in general. At the time, I liked his matches with Callihan and Necro more than his Claudio match. Meanwhile, Generico needs to bite the dust. The idea that he could finish 20-25 spots higher than Ki and Hero irks me.

Well, you're not a math teacher.

I'm actually fine with Tanahashi making the top 100, though I didn't vote for him. He found himself as a worker before Nakamura did, and he's sort of the Japanese Cena in the sense that he's made it work as his country's No. 1 main eventer despite an uninspiring skill set.

Interesting that Nakamura finished below Tanahashi. I figured he'd do better given that he's beloved by modern New Japan fanboys and well regarded by a lot of the more frequent posters here. Fine spot for him though.

Those five hours felt like a breeze compared to Charles and I going Broadway. Seriously though, I enjoyed the show greatly. Your bottom 50s were both chock full of wrestlers I wished I could've voted for, and a lot of the discussions of individual guys echoed our conversations about the same workers. Hoping part 2 drops this week.

I'm glad you posted this, because it's something I was just looking at. Very interesting to see Triple H on this list as it puts to rest the notion that a lot of people held their noses and stuck him at the bottom. The people who voted for Hunter seem genuinely to like him, which is as it should be. I'm still a little surprised Hero didn't make more ballots--highly visible U.S. worker over a long period of time now. But I guess he also turns a lot of people off.

He's one where I'm just happy he got into the top 100. I think it's now clear that a lot of voters just never got to BattlArts, shootstyle, WOS, etc. So for those guys to make the list while only appearing on 1/3 or so of ballots feels like at least a modest victory.

Battlarts and Futen are very much hybrid shoot style promotions. Shoot style is their base but they incorporate pro style moves in more realistic ways. Ikeda specifically is known for being probably the stiffest worker ever. Battlearts reoccurred a lot on the lists of Childs, Chad and Charles, and clearly with him ranking #100 a lot of people are high on him, so I might watch some of this stuff when I start watching wrestling again. Your description and what I've heard sounds vaguely promising, and I'm wondering if it's more accessible than the dryer-than-paint-1990-UWF type stuff I tried to watch whenever it was or than Volk Han etc. It's more strike-based, more violent and yet goofier at times than a lot of the shootstyle you've sampled. So yes, I think you'd like it more.

Yeah, I wasn't going after you at all. I was just belatedly responding to that part of what he said.

Misawa worked himself to death, which is tragic but in no way evil. Benoit killed his wife and child. It seems frankly absurd to link them.

You're stating as fact that Colon orchestrated Brody's death? That seems irresponsible.

Benoit's rank on this list won't capture how good he was or wasn't, and there's no way around that. I have no problem watching his matches and recognizing him as a great wrestler. But many people feel differently and that's fine. It strikes me as an issue where debate isn't really necessary, because I have no desire to persuade anyone.

That's insulting. I don't think it's insulting. Dusty was one of the greatest characters in wrestling history, but Taker's best in-ring performances were better than Dusty's best.

Dynamite isn't a bad pick. His misfortune is that his most famous stuff is far from his best. But even there, I blame Tiger Mask and WWF tag formula more than I blame him. I didn't vote for him, but he was a gifted wrestler who managed to stand out in a lot of places. I would have voted for him before Taker or Angle.

I was really shocked that Low Ki ranked as high as he did, and I say that as a fan of his work in early ROH, I never would have guessed he had the body of work to rank anywhere near that high. He is not on my list. But hey, I guess some people saw things I didn't, in terms of footage and longevity. Also + 1 points for the usage of the phrase "self-serious ponce." If I regret something massively, it is ranking Low Ki.Why? Highly skilled worker with several notable peaks and great matches 15 years apart. Unique aura in his context. He was a really easy pick for me.He's someone I can admire / appreciate while having basically zero personal connection with anything he does. He might as well be a robot or a computer game character. I really have no fondness for the era or type of wrestling he represents. He is a poster-boy for inauthentic wrestling. I didn't use my list to make any grand statements, I used it to try to accurately reflect the 100 GWEs as I see it. Low Ki is one of several workers I have a deep personal loathing for who made it on my list. That's interesting. I share a lot of your antipathy for "inauthentic" wrestling and yet I've never felt that way about Low Ki.

That's pretty evenly split between sorry to see them go and good riddance.

I was really shocked that Low Ki ranked as high as he did, and I say that as a fan of his work in early ROH, I never would have guessed he had the body of work to rank anywhere near that high. He is not on my list. But hey, I guess some people saw things I didn't, in terms of footage and longevity. Also + 1 points for the usage of the phrase "self-serious ponce." If I regret something massively, it is ranking Low Ki.Why? Highly skilled worker with several notable peaks and great matches 15 years apart. Unique aura in his context. He was a really easy pick for me.

Yeah, I didn't vote for Virus but am pleasantly surprised he made it.