Jetlag

Very intelligent psychology in his big matches, but there's a lot of undercard tags where he's just there or being crappy. I recall Ikeda trying his darndest to carry him to a good match and Inoue just not bringing anything. Also, literal one-trick pony.

Ferocious worker, I like her better than the Toyota descendants. She also had a really good match series against Natsuki Taiyo and a title match against Hyuga early in her career that looks really good, plus the Bolshoi singles. I didn't really see her as a contender the first time but the more I come across her the better she looks, she might warrant a deep dive.

There is a theory that she was Mie Dohiki before she was Bolshoi. Her origins are very mysterious, though.

I'd say Fujinamis peaks pretty much crush Brets, though Bret never had the luxury of facing Maeda, Inoki, Vader, Hashimoto etc. in their primes.

Match by match Bryan is the better guy, but if you lined up their Top 50 or so performances Misawa would annihilate him. At his best he was that great.

Demus has had one of the most interesting career turns of all nominated luchadores. He left CMLL, and built himself a body of really violent indy brawls. That's pretty unique. Like with all luchadores who had great matches in the 2010s and later, I wonder how much of his early work is available. The Pierrothito match still stands as a lucha singles MOTDC.

I mean, the opening statement says it's getting hard to deny her, but I found it quite easy. How is she a greater worker than, say, Yumi Fukawa or Maika Matsumoto? Saying she had a handful of good matches and was really great at portraying a character doesn't really tell me a lot.

He was definitely not awful. In fact, I don't ever recall seeing a bad Matsunaga performance. Yes, he lost mobility after his knee injury, but a karate guy throwing kicks is always more exciting than your standard garbage brawler. I've also grown fond of his early career karateka vs. pro wrestler stuff. He wouldn't make a top 100, but I've yet to see any evidence of him being an awful worker.

Of all the japanese juniors to be stranded on the second to last page with no replies since 2014, Hidaka is the least deserving. For a long time the man has been the sole good thing about ZERO1, and I keep coming across hidden gem matches involving him. The 2002 tag he has with Tiger Mask IV, Ishii and Yuasa is great and a Japanese indy MOTDC, and he's about the best guy in it. It's also notable that he's been great from the get go since 1997. Doubtful he'd make my Top 100, but there are a lot of indy guys nominated who wish they were 1/10th as cool as him.

I have serious doubts she would make a Top 100 Female Wrestlers of all time list.

If anything, he should get bonus points for doing all that while continueing to make people buy into his carny catch wrestling gimmick.

He also had a pretty excellent match against Kishin Kawabata of all people on a random NOW show. Other than that, it's a bit surprising how few matches he actually has on tape. For someone who is clearly skilled and respected, you'd expect him to get a vanity title run in some indy promotion or something.

After watching her most hyped matches, she is #1 on my list of "Wrestlers I never ever want to watch again."

Kawada, Tenryu... Tanomusaku Toba. Not kidding in the slightest about the last one.

El Dandy... Mitsuharu Misawa... Jumbo. If you want an outsider candidate - Shinobu Kandori.

Yuki Ishikawa. You could skip the entire year except for the top 4-5 matches or so and you'd miss nothing, though.

Black Terry. Other contenders are Brian Kendrick, Rush, LA Park, Hechicero, and Meiko Satomura. Looking back, it was an extremely weak year though.

Those Takayama matches he had in the 90s were great. Like a plethora of 90s guys, he had his moments, but he was a couple classic matches and maybe feuds away from me truely considering him one of the best. Could've had a great veteran career, but he got thrown into the MMA meat grinder. Still looked decent the few times he showed up in the last few years, though.

Another guy with about 20 matches. He is good, but never made me think more than "wow another cool Russian grappler".

I am pretty sure he had less than 20 matches, and I never thought he looked like the 3rd best guy in RINGS. That said he does some fantastic stuff in his matches. The 1999 Han match is a borderline masterpiece and at times the best grappling shootstyle match I've ever seen.

If this were a list based on raw talent he'd have a good shot. Really good shootstylist when he came into his own. He doesn't really have the kind of superclassics I want a margin candidate to have (the Tamura match is good but a little overrated, the Suzuki match is also good but wouldn't make a Top 50 of the decade probably). I could see him making it if he keeps having 1-2 matches a year for the next 5 years like he does now. Other than that I welcome anyone to go back and watch all his IGF and NJPW work. I recall him feeling very much like an awkward MMA guy trying to not hurt anybody in his earliest matches, and he was in some shitty IGF main events.

I remember him being incredibly dull when I went through all the IWE footage years ago. Really had me tearing my hair out watching badass legends like Vachon face this dullard. Even in his marquee matches like the Jumbo bout he doesn't add much. His old man run also produced about a solid decade of skip material. I know we shouldn't judge that stuff, but other guys like Aoyagi actually managed to add to those matches. He has his moments here and there but then, who doesn't?

If people can nominate and vote the likes of Mokujin Ken there's no reason they can't vote for Jim Londos.

I wouldn't say they were hurt by that. But they were working a style of match that was a little below what Ono is capable of. They just did scuzzy heel stuff instead of quasi shootstyle epics and they were a bit spotty/sloppy here and there. It would be an upside to most wrestlers career but for Ono it's a bit of a step down he didn't work matches like in 1996/1997 that year, although they had a few great matches.