Jetlag

HOLY SHIT!!! I LOVE WRESTLING!! Who is Tiger Conway Jr.? Greg Valentine dives for the legs from the first minute on. Greg Valentine has to be some kind of wrestling genius that he can work slow as a slug and still have these brilliant matches. This goes like 30 minutes but there is a not single 10 minute headlock or any of that bullshit. Just Valentine beating the dogshit out of Tiger. Loved how Valentine would block a headbutt and knee Tiger in the face. That looked like it really fucked him up. Tiger knew exactly that he was facing Greg Valentine here and acted accordingly. He used his quickness, tactics and approaching Valentine carefully in order to not get crushed (he gets crushed anyways). Needlesss to say Valentine is a master at dropping elbows and knees at different angles and positions on his opponent's neck, throat, knee, thigh etc. so you don't get bored. Conway Jr.'s selling is just right mix of babyface agony and bitter contempt for his opponent. He does some dancing and showy headbutts in the first fall, but after a while Valentine beats the antics out of him. The second fall is fucking great with Conway Jr. fighting like a devil to avoid the figure 4 and protect his leg. He busts out a fucking anaconda roll and follows up by kicking Valentine in the fucking face like this was Futen and then lands a motherfucking leaping headbutt on Valentine like he was inspiring a young Daisuke Ikeda in the audience and I am now the #1 Tiger Conway Jr. fan. Both guys look completely wiped out after the 2nd fall with Tiger having this look on his face like he wants to lay down and die but can't. Then he starts the 3rd fall by BITING VALENTINE IN HIS EYE while Greg lets out a blood curdling scream. Tiger Conway Jr. starts tagging Valentine with punch combos and this is off the charts. And then... a lousy finish happens. But still, anything up to that was pure gold brutal 70s style wrestling and I wouldn't mind if another ten thousand 30 minute Tiger Conway and Greg Valentine matches showed up on the service.

Really interesting match up. El Halcon is a guy who does pretty lucha spots. Spoiler is a killing machine. Parts of this were really good - Spoiler bumps well for Halcon's armdrags, and Halcon showed that he had some skill in applying pin combos. On the other hand, Halcon on offense was kind of a mixed bag. Especially considering that Spoiler was crushing him with knee drops and elbows that looked like they weighed ten thousand pounds. I think Halcon's stuff in response was a little doosy doo. I mean, at one point Spoiler powered out of a pretty lucha submission and just kicked Halcon in the ribcage before dropping him on the cold arena floor. I really loved the bit where Halcon kept slipping out of Spoiler's Claw, so Spoiler rips his mask open and applies the claw to his exposed brain, leaving him bloodied. Once again Gary Hart ends the match. Very worthwhile match and Spoiler is becoming a must watch guy simply for his blunt force style.

The shortest truely great match I've seen (Ikeda vs. Ono) is 4 minutes, so I will go with that as an answer. I think the hardest thing to deal with about short matches is the disappointment. I remember watching a Fujiwara vs. Otsuka match that went 60 or 90 seconds. The work in it was great, but the fact that it didn't even go 2 minutes was such a punch in the stomach. It was still a good match, just not GREAT. The above match avoids this.

It is on NWA Classics & please spare me of your lectures when you haven't even seen the match in question. I'm more than familiar with both workers.

Interesting to watch a US junior title match from 1980. And this wasn't a workrate match at all. I know Thornton had a kickass match with Terry Rudge in england, and while he was working a more generic style here, he carried it along nicely. I assume Don Diamond is some green boy (green enough to not know how to apply a figure 4) and Thornton just beat him like a dog. Thornton has a really great european uppercut, forearms him in the face while in a chinlock, knees to the face, and punch to the throat. I dug Diamond's selling as his body went limp everytime Thornton hit him. Thornton was stealing falls and folks got really riled up and into the match. Really entertaining stuff, maybe borderline listworthy if it weren't for some overly showy leg selling with no consequence in the 2nd fall.

Ha, Dory is so lazy he almost forgets to bump for a Mascaras armdrag during the opening exchanges. This was worked like one of those AJPW 70s tags, but a really efficient one and none of the stuff they did came across as dated. The Funks are a heel duo here and really good one at that. Christ, can you imagine running this match in 2016? If it happened today Terry would come in with a MAGA trucker hat and tell Lothario to go back while patting him on the shoulder. Terry was really great here like I expect a guy I placed in my All Time Top 5 to be. He came across as a hotheaded bull even during the hold sections and he was a total prick to the babyfaces all the way through. Feels weird to wish for a 30 minute match to go longer but this could've gone a little longer. The Lothario v. Terry boxing section in the 3rd fall was everything you are hoping for from seeing this matchup. Terry was dancing around Jose and waffling him with punches, but he just withstood the assault, came back and just clocked Terry. Mil and Dory, thankfully, stay out of the way for most of this match. Nifty finish to wrap it up and fuck the Last Battle of Atlanta, Terry vs. Lothario is my new most wanted match.

Fun match. These girls all have good offense while at the same time too broken down to do anything to workrate-y so there was no no-selling or annoying prideful screeching. I always pop for Kuragaki's Norton-ish power spots and her moonsault into outstretched legs looked savage. AKINO vs. Syuri section was pretty good and I like Akino's mix of kicks and cradles. Akino still can do some slick spots. Dug the bit where Kato and Akino took turns kicking Kuragaki in her face to cut the big woman down. Some sloppiness keeps it down.

Krupp is already doing the roman salute during the introductions and proceeds to warn everybody of ZE GERRRMAN KLAH!. Very subtle there, mein Freund. For a guy who is so outwardly heelish, he starts this off with a lot of wrestling. Lothario was clearly a world class pro wrestler at this point. I really dig the detailled selling, such as Lothario leaving his arm up his back after escaping from a hammerlock. The first minutes of this are great, if you can get into this kind of 70s rolling on the mat like I can. Then Krupp locks on some kind of under the shoulder claw hold, to which Lothario responds by attempting to break his nose and I am in love with this match. Then you get the nerve hold and claw sections, but Lothario is such a champ selling for it that YOU will believe in it. Everything Lothario does is amazing and brutal. He works his way back into the match by neutralizing the claw and it's brilliant. The stuff he does has a prime Kawada feel of simple nastiness: chop to the nose, knee drop to the bent wrist, square punch to the face, knee drop to the back of the head. You expect Krupp to get up with his brain hanging out of his nose. Then Jose busts out the stomach claw and we get a battle of the claw holds, with Krupp doing his best terrified B movie actor impression to sell it. This was a better finish away from being listed. Maybe I'll list it anways somehow. It is def. near the top of the list of brilliant matches centered around claw holds. Regardless, take my word: Jose Lothario is the fucking man.

I remember watching the PWFG match and it was really fun. Some comedy and quality shootstyle action. These japanese supershows are really interesting. There's also the Rikidozan Memorial Shows or Indy Summit shows from the 2000s that give you all kinds of weird matchups like Tarzan Goto vs. Yoji Anjo.

This only goes 12 minutes but it's 12 minute of truely excellent wrestling.Even basic moves like a pinfall or headlock look great and intense when these guys are doing it. I really loved the little neck crank Regal busted out. You know it's awesome when JBL on commentary gives a shit. Besides all the gritty, super intense mat stuff you also have the greco headbutts and Benoit chopping a bloodied Regal in the face. These two did some really innovative stuff together when you think about it, crossing the technical finesse of the british style with the deadly stiffness and suplexes of an AJPW classic.

I thought this match was badass. The transation from Nagata dismantling Yoshie to Nagata fighting for his life was great. Yoshie was pretty outmatched in the beginning, but as soon as he got to bring out his arsenal of fat boy attacks thanks to his open hand punch he was just wasting Nagata. At times it looked like he was just short of crippling Nagata. Nagata's one shot comeback ability is cool too and the last few minutes are full of kick to the face goodness while Yoshie is ready to die on his feet. Just good old japanese wrestling goodness.

Oh Carlos, I will never not watch your matches. And she faces off against AKINO who I know can go as she pretty much works like a gender switched Ikuto Hidaka/Katsumi Usuda type of lucharesu shooter so this is an automatic must watch anyways. And this was a damn good undercard match, let me tell you, despite the JIP and all. This starts out a little weird as both are full of disdain for eachother but also working kind of comedic, then move swiftly into slick technical sequences lifted straight from a Hidaka/Usuda matchup and finally end it with all the skull crushing headbutt and orbital bone breaking shootkick glory you can wish for. The selling is decent enough for all you joshiphobics to tolerate it and there are some transitions and counters that just make so much sense: AKINO countering a leaping headbutt by kicking Carlos in the teeth, Akino ending up outside the ring after a missed baseball slide dropkick to set up Amano's dive, etc. Damn tasty sandwhich of a match.

This is one of my favourite joshi matches. I can't really do it justice. Joshi fanatics will tell you GAMI isn't that good, but I love her. Tall, awkard girl with a big belly and completely sullen and melancholic face that is like carved from a rock who can go like a motherfucker is an awesome wrestling character. Lifelong undercarder pushing beyond his limitations vs. established star is one of my favourite match types and GAMI does some really brilliant wrestling here. Gami uses her lucha technique and just totally outclasses Hyuga. Really, there wasn't a single move in this bout GAMI did that didn't rock. Includes the most memorable use of a face rake ever. It's a Hyuga match so it also has the fast pace, brutal skull crushing knee attack moves and headdropping suplexes for you workrate addicts to sink your teeth into. Still, GAMI.

Some person is uploading 5$ bin 2000s joshi by the bulk on YouTube, and I'm happy because I can watch Carlos Amano matches. And this was a pretty fun veteran technician's match. The whole match is highly polished and Nagashima actually has really mean offense too for such a tiny girl. Amano is all flying headbutts and she has spectacular flying headbutts. There's all kinds of variations on them: flying headbutt to Nagashima on the top rope, Flying Headbutt right into a nasty Nagashima low dropkick that looked perfect, flying headbutt tease into a cradle which Nagashima reverses anyways etc. Kinda veers into joshiriffic territory at times, with a brawl on the outside where they end up balancing on a height like in a Pirates of the Carribean swordfight and an exchange of german suplexes, but other than that this is all perfectly fun stuff and I really dug some of the slick spots they pulled out towards the end of this.

I will never not find T2P nifty. Sure, these matches are a littly exhibition-y, and you can't help but think that they could use some of the spots they throw out in the opening here for greater effect later, but they were experimenting after all. Surprised no US Indy has ripped off T2P yet, to be honest. I'll take this stuff over the movezzz matches that PWG et al are doing these days. And there is even a little story here, as you have a power vs. technique matchup and Ogawauchi attacks Kondo's legs to make up for Kondo's short distance lariat and slam attacks. Especially liked how Jun bumped huge for a Kondo german suplex to put over his strength. Ogawauchi lands some world class kick aswell that wouldn't look out of place if Daisuke Ikeda threw them. Some great counters in the last couple minutes. Come for the weirdo grappling, stay for the classier things. Surprised no T2P stuff made it into the Best of 2000s Japan project.

I wasn't even aware of that service. Thanks!

Did you see these SCI matches live? They don't seem to be out on DVD yet. Riddle/Rave sounds really interesting.

I want to recommend Pat McGill vs. Enrique Torres. I think the match may have been from LA. I haven't seen a ton of pre-70s wrestling but it had just the kind of tough as hell grappling you'd like. Parts of it reminded me of amateur style UWF, including a leg lock sequence unlike anything I've seen in other old matches. It's a short match but worth watching.

I'm one of those guys who lost their exact ballot. I remember jumbling around with the order a bit right before submitting it. Tier 1 El Hijo del Santo Shinya Hashimoto Yoshiaki Fujiwara Negro Casas Terry Funk El Satanico Mitsuharu Misawa Dick Murdoch Toshiaki Kawada El Dandy Genichiro Tenryu Stan Hansen Jerry Lawler Rey Mysterio Jr. Yuki Ishikawa Vader Kiyoshi Tamura Buddy Rose Jun Akiyama Akira Taue Steve Grey Daniel Bryan Black Terry Daisuke Ikeda Blue Panther Naoki Sano Volk Han Ric Flair Negro Navarro Marty Jones Virus William Regal Tatsumi Fujinami Ricky Steamboat Pirata Morgan Barry Windham Nick Bockwinkel Fit Finlay Takeshi Ono Eddie Guerrero Dick Togo Alexander Otsuka Terry Rudge Billy Robinson Jim Breaks Ron Garvin LA Park La Fiera Bill Dundee Yoshihiro Takayama Masa Fuchi Sangre Chicana Yoji Anjoh Yoshihiro Tajiri Butch Reed Aja Kong Riki Choshu Tsuyoshi Kikuchi Sgt. Slaughter Greg Valentine Jushin Liger Wahoo McDaniel Fuerza Guerrera Kenta Kobashi Terry Gordy Tamon Honda Meiko Satomura Jumbo Tsuruta Tully Blanchard Perro Aguayo Steve Williams Joe Cortez Tier 5 Villano III Akira Maeda Dustin Rhodes Bobby Eaton Osamu Nishimura John Cena Arn Anderson The Destroyer Atlantis Akira Hokuto Yoshinari Ogawa Steve Austin Tier 6 Yoshiaki Yatsu Shinjiro Ohtani Katsumi Usuda Gran Hamada Lizmark Too Cold Scorpio Solar Andre the Giant Great Sasuke Koji Kanemoto Mariko Yoshida Antonio Inoki Chavo Guerrero Sr. Franz van Buyten Jaguar Yokota Carl Greco

So... are we gonna disseminate this list like the WKO100? I just posted it on a german message board and people are already complaining about Dolph Ziggler not being there.

Oh look another debate about the 619. This really is the old folks home of wrestling message boards.

I don't see how people can have a problem with this Top 100. I mean, you all have your own Top 100, right? I know my Top 100 is the best. So what if 150 people vote the Beatles as the greatest rock band ever and didn't even include Demilich in their Top 100... I can just ignore that and listen to Nespithe again.

So Fujinami beats Hashimoto. Huh? Did people love the 80s set so much? And his junior work too?!

Hash was my #2. A little shocking only one guy had him at #1. He is THE japanese wrestler in my eyes. With Casas out too, that means 4/5 of my top 5 are gone. I think the average vote for Casas and the number of #1 votes says it all. Altough I think people praise him for his clowning too much. The guy is an awesome wrestler.

Bobby Eaton has that great punch too. Easily enough to knock him into Top 30. I had him at #75 or so, but him in the Top 30 is cool. I'm more puzzled about Dustin Rhodes finishing so high. That guy has some really big chunks of bad in his career. If it weren't for his awesome 2010s runs I may not even have included him.