Jetlag

Man, Matsunaga tied with Murakami over Shelley is a beautiful thing.

3 people voting for FvB is cool. I had him at 97 and that's the highest I could justify it personally, but it's cool regardless. I wonder how many guys would've gotten a significant boost if someone had done a big post + matchlist for them too.

Really? What are those great T1 mat performances? I always thought he was a disappointing matworker,while T2 always looks super talented when it comes to grappling. T1 gets stuck doing the "catch and release" stuff too much, altough his selling is good enough to keep it interesting. Also, Hashi should be higher. Watching some NOAH had me really tempted to vote for him because damn this guy got really exciting, violent exchanges out of guys like Marufuji, even very early in his career. And his 2010 is a truely great year. I'd also replace the recommended match with the Ikeda tag from 2010.

Are all 500 guys who received votes gonna be revealed, or just the Top 100?

You forgot his time in BattlARTS and indies. It was a little underwhelming considering he was such a genius in PWFG but he was pretty fun there crossing his junior style with the quasi shootstyle. He also did a damn good job carrying Minoru Tanaka at one point and had a really fun match with Ishikawa at a Rikidozan Memorial show.

Daisuke Ikeda is the next guy who deserves a big post. The guy's longevity is quite incredible. We're not talking about a guy here who has a long career where he is looking really solid till the end. But rather a guy who has really great matches and MOTYCs in almost every year where he makes tape, up until the very end. The guys versatility is underrated. Sure he is a beast and that's his selling point, but especially during the early BattlARTS months where other guys were still adjusting he was clearly leading and holding things together, along with Ishikawa. He has the epic big matches, the blood feud with Ishikawa aswell as very good sub 10 minute matches to pad out his resume. Daisuke Ikeda of the Year 1993 - I don't think his debut was taped 1994 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (M-Pro 15.12.1994) 1995 - Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda v. Yuki Ishikawa & Shoichi Funaki (PWFG 5/19/95) 1996 - Ikeda/Ono vs. Ishikawa/Otsuka (BattlARTS 30.10.1996) 1997 - Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5.11.1997) 1998 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 29.8.1998) 1999 - Yuki Ishikawa v. Daisuke Ikeda (7.29.1999) 2000 - Daisuke Ikeda vs. Mitsuya Nagai (BattlARTS 30.1.2000) 2001 - Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tamon Honda (NOAH 1.9.2001) 2002 - Morishima/Ikeda vs. Takayama/Smith (NOAH 26.7.2002) 2003 - Ikeda/Morishima/Rikio vs. Akiyama/Izumida/Saito (NOAH 16.3.2003) 2004 - Morishima vs. Ikeda (NOAH 1.6.2004) 2005 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (Futen 24.4.2005) 2006 - Ikeda/Nagai vs. Ishikari/Miyamoto (Kings Road 9.4.2006) 2007 - Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka vs. Hara/Ikeda (BattlARTS 21.7.2007) 2008 - Ishikawa/Otsuka/Sawa vs. Ikeda/Usuda/Super Tiger 2 (BattlARTS 26.7.2008) 2009 - Ikeda/Ono vs. Suruga/Oba (Futen 26.4.2009) 2010 - Ikeda/Oba vs. Hashi/Mashimo (Futen 24.10.2010) 2011 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5.11.2011) 2012 - Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Kengo Mashimo/Hikaru Sato (Futen 22.1.2012) In a 20 year career, there are about 15 real hits there that would tremendously boost any very well respected wrestlers resume, and in many of these years there's lots of extra awesome matches even when they are 2nd best. And that is with the disadvantage of much of his Futen work not being available and BattlARTS stuff often being clipped.

Hase placed #33 in the Smarkschoice list, so the idea that he is some kind of undiscovered great or unfairly dismissed worker is funny. It's just that people have had their share of japanese style heavyweight epics and gotten busy with fresher stuff. That's okay. The idea that this is some kind of "battle" is also funny. You should stop taking every different opinion as a personal attack at you. NWA style matwork vs. lucha/shootstyle/etc is interesting. I don't think there is such a clear difference between them. Some of it is good, some of it not so much. IIRC the NWA matwork is more about building to a transition. When the transition is a letdown you feel cheated because you just sat through a bunch of hammerlocks and headlocks for nothing. When a lucha or shootstyle match ends in a letdown, atleast there is a chance you saw some sweet wrestling before that. For what it's worth, all kind of matwork can be dull and listless.

Bull has been one of the more frustrating wrestlers to watch for this project. Clearly a very good wrestler: Really great offense, very good seller, to the point where her selling keeps me interested in otherwise messy matches, and better than most in the early time killing sections that so many of these matches have. All that and I just can't seem to find the matches to piece a case for her together. It's surprisingly rare for her to really work like a monster, and more often than not she's playing second fiddle in a tag. OJ's comment above that she didn't want to be a heel seems strangely fitting, as she has a lot of matches where she sells sympathetic. The stuff where she actually works like a beast is very fun, but it's not the type of truely great stuff that I could point to in order to justify her as an all-timer. The short career is obviously a bummer. The comments above that she's better than Aja seem ridiculous. Clearly she has a few things that Aja lacks, and you could argue that she was the better worker from 1990-95, but Aja's resume stomps hers and Aja also has the standout performances that I've been sorely missing with Bull. I don't know, if somebody wants to do a big match dump of really great Bull performances now is the time, because currently she doesn't cut it for me in a list of all-time greats.

Finally! A Bull Nakano match where she works like Bull Nakano. This was her working as a monster. Yamada can't lift her etc. Nakano is great at putting over Yamada's kicks and offensive flurries. When she's on offense, she's just beating the shit out of Yamada. I wish these matches had transitions that felt a little less random, but what do ya want. Not all of Yamada's stuff landed clean, but it didn't really matter as she was just throwing the kitchen sink at Bull.

I was disappointed to see this not holding up quite well. I remember feeling there was something fishy about this when I first watched it years ago and now I remember why. This had the lamest crowd brawl in the middle. I enjoyed them punishing eachother with the chain and there were some great visuals here, but this could have been so much more. Outside distraction was crap, so was Kandori's armbar. I liked Nakano avoiding Kandori's feeble punches and just kicking her in the face. Finish makes up for the dragging parts. Good match.

This was the most annoying match ever. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to have this go 20+ minutes? Edit this to about 10-12 and you get a perfect match. The match felt like a DDT weapons battle royal at times. Match would've been better if they had thrown in Super Uchu Power too. Jesus, why was it impossible for Nakano and Aja to have a great match together? Their 1992 match sucked too. Bull vs. Toyota was better than this. In what bizarro world am I where Toyota has a better match than Aja?

What exactly is it that you find disappointing about him? I think Chavo is really outstanding as a junior worker. vs. Kengo Kimura (NJPW 9/30/80) I like Kengo and his 1980 match vs. Fujinami a lot, but this is the Chavo show. Top notch contest. Really great snug work on the ground, which I like a lot more than the boring shit you'd see in AJPW. Chavo is really sinking into holds. When they stand up, Chavo is just beating the shit out of Kengo, elbows and knees to his face, punches him in the nose etc. vs. Atsushi Onita https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS2avPQAtHc This was really great, why wasn't this on the 80s set? Lots of beautiful wrestling and I loved the tricked out, dramatic finishing run. Onita looked fantastic aswell, this is way better than the Fuchi match (which is good). vs. Mighty Inoue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSvfc7txR2k Chavo once again looks like a world class pro wrestler. I loved him viciously elbowing Inoue's face while on the ground and him showing off some lucha craziness on the ground aswell as flying. Going to work on Inoue with chairs etc. was sweet aswel. The structure wasn't as good as in the previous matches but I liked that Chavo seemed to try everything he knew until Inoue just caught him. Should also mention that Chavo is really great at selling defeat which is a major plus for me. Add in the Fujinami match, and you get a really impressive resume. It seems like Chavo got a little slept on in the 80s polls as he was buried under workers with more exciting feuds. Should also mention that he looked better than Bockwinkel in their singles match on classics. Along with his impressive tag resume this makes a really good case. The only thing I don't like about Chavo is his hip attack move.

That tag was very good. I really liked how Martel sunk into that hammerlock, but Piper's performance blew him away. Yes I did, in fact I watched near every match I could find. Bock matches were very good but I thought Martel was merely a foil in them. I remember nothing at all about most of the Jumbo matches. They had one match where they just traded moves and I didn't like it at all. I also watched the Saito match. It was good, but again nothing blew me away. I should probably mention that I've known Martel for a few years since I first discovered Portland, and I was careful not watch too much footage in a row of the same guy while watching things for this project I think I like Martel in Portland the best, probably because Portland in general is so awesome. But as far as Portland guys go, Rose and Piper would probably be my #1 and #2 and there's a big gap after that. The competition for the #3 spot is pretty tough. And I don't know if I will rank Piper. I also watched a few of Martel's matches in Europe and while he was a good heel there, he didn't as look as good as, say, Barry Horowitz. The big problem with Martel is that he's clearly excellent in his role and has a bunch of very good-great matches. But I would like something a little more than that. I probably don't value "good in his role" as much as everyone else around here.

Rick Martel hasn't really clicked for me as much as I would like to. He should be my type of wrestler, but for some reason, I find the man terribly unmemorable. Clearly the matches he's in are logical, the selling throughout is impressive and he shows fire. There's just nothing in them that sways me in any particular way. The only thing Martel seems to do outstandingly is selling limbs, which doesn't always produce great matches. I also dislike the springboard crossbody flash pin and his slingshot splash. Can some Martel fans point me in the right direction maybe?

Daichi really is shit, so I don't blame Ogawa for threating him accordingly. Blue haired punk needs to get in shape and stop getting on by his name. I find it funny that someone would name Kawada of all people as an example of perfectly ethical stiff work. Dude even broke his own arm from hitting so hard. This whole "I am so OFFENDED by [xy scummyness] in pro wrestling" is so lame. It's like complaining that black metal is full of neonazis or that hip hop is misogynist. "You don't kick someone in the point of the chin, that's how you win a kickboxing match!" I don't think I've ever seen a kickboxing match that was won by a pulled kick.

Chavo feels like a guy tailor made for this list. A guy who looks rugged and tough as hell, and at the same is a really graceful wrestler. One of the few guys where the "complete package" tag truely applies: tremendous babyface. Really good at being a stooging and bumping heel. Throws a beautiful punch (especially in the few LA clips), can go on the mat, fly like the best of the 80s guys, and he shows up in all kinds of places - Mid South, Japan, Mexico - and belongs. Also, he has that masterpiece with Mr. Olympia, which is stone cold locked in my personal canon of all time favourite matches. He shows up in mat based junior matches, workrate matches, heated brawls and lucha trios aswell as legend nostalgia stuff or random indy appearances. The rest of his Mid South resume ain't too shabby either. These matches all placed in DVDVR's Top 100: 5.) Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo Guerrero ( 6/24/1983 ) - 9953 points 26.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Mexican Death Match) ( 1/24/1986 ) - 7991 points 29.) The Fantastics vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 10/12/1984 ) - 7959 points 39.) Rock N Roll Express vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 2/13/1985 ) - 7320 points 54.) Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. The Fabulous Ones (Texas Tornado Cage Match) ( 2/28/1986 ) - 6612 points 64.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 12/29/1985 ) - 6019 points 68.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 12/27/1985 ) - 5801 points 81.) Chavo Guerrero vs. Buzz Sawyer ( 6/13/1986 ) - 5474 points 84.) Buddy Landel, Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Brickhouse Brown, Bill Dundee & Jose Lothario (Elimination Match) ( 11/16/1984 ) - 5386 points 97.) Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Keirn (no DQ loser is painted yellow match) ( 1/31/1986 ) - 4756 points Other notable appearance include: NJPW Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura (11/3/80) Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero (5/9/80) Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura (9/30/80) AJPW Chavo Guerrero vs. Masa Fuchi (8/31/83) Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Mighty Inoue & Gran Hamada (9/12/84) Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs. Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat (9/6/81) Mighty Inoue vs. Chavo Guerrero (2/26/84) Texas 102.) Chavo Guerrero, Iceman King Parsons & Kerry Von Erich vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Penalty Box Match) (4/29/83) - 2,787 points He also shows up in that 1990 trios with Dandy, Azteca, Cruz and Rocca. He is not that outstanding in it, altough that would be impossible with all the ultra talented dudes in their prime right there. Still another entry in my canon of super classics. Guerreros vs. Brazos trios from 1991 is really great and has Chavo locking up with Porky, and it is really cool to see him as a master tangling on the mat with a beast. After that there's not much to be found of his career, but there's stuff like him showing up in 1993 WAR and looking really cool, or that PWG legends battle royal where he has a really fun performance for a 100 year old guy. NWA Classics has unveiled some more stuff where Chavo looks excellent. He is always doing neat stuff in singles matches and the tag stuff is a blast. At times he looks a Gran Hamada placed in there with these big heavies. All that and I have to say Chavo doesn't have the kind of tremendous career I feel he should have. Maybe it's that he's not consistent, maybe it's just lack of opportunity. But regardless of that he is a very strong contender in my eyes.

So, Jaguar. I will now weird out possibly everyone on this board by saying the following: after thinking about Jaguar very hard for a bit, I developed this theory that the Crush Gals ruined joshi with their pathos. Kind of like the Beatles ruined popular music. Late 70s-early 80s AJW is some of the most fascinated wrestling I've watched. I really like the weird mix of matwork, throws, and lucha, the focus on nifty takedowns and throws aswell as the brawling which often comes across like a vicious mauling. Because it's so under explored you never know what you are getting from the workers. Jackie Sato was a great ace and Jaguar stands out as a brilliant wrestler amongst the bunch. Jaguar was def. guilty of many tendencies that later gave so many people headaches when watching the praised 90s joshi. But Jaguar strikes me very much as a "wrestler's wrestler" type. She gets praised for having an ahead of the time moveset, and she is def. in there with Gran Hamada, Mighty Inoue and Hoshino as a really fun stumpy legged 80s proto highflyer. She does so many things in her matches that I would love to have become standards, such as the struggling over basic holds, ability to destroy a limb in very compelling ways or neat defensive spots. Couple this impressive skillset with her relentlesness and sheer intensity, and you get a really compelling package. Now to get back to the initial Crush Gals diss. This probably sounds like a cliche, but when they showed up and got popular, the focus stopped being on the wrestling. The fans who had initially shown up to watch Jackie Sato were replaced by rabid schoolgirls. When I first watched the 70s footage, I noticed how quiet the crowds were. I'm not trying to say that the folks who went to AJW shows in 1980 were gentlemen connoisseurs of grappling or something, but it seems their enjoyment of the action was very close to how people who went to AJPW or NJPW shows enjoyed wrestling. The wresters were stoic. Now compare Chigusa vs. Dump to Jaguar vs. Monster Ripper. Chigusa match is about babyface crying and breaking down while the heel is grotesque. The visuals are just as deafening as the heat. These matches are beloved because they are so in your face and shock rock, but I don't think they are great. Now Jaguar vs. Monster Ripper is about Jaguar using her wrestling, being tenacious and cutting down the beast. Of course Ripper is also grotesque (but still in the normal realm of typical big freakish wrestlers) and Dump is a copy of her. Compare Jaguar vs. Jackie Sato to Chiggy vs. Lioness... former match is fast paced, yeah, but it's just a rough as fuck wrestling match where they turn a basic body scissor spots into holy shit moments... later match is all about emotional tension. Or to go back further, compare to Jackie Sato vs. Vickie Williams... match has interference and foreign objects, but resolves to Sato scoring an impressive takedown and stomping the crap out of the heel. Crush Gals matches are centered around crowd connection over anything else. I found that Lioness Asuka is pretty good when working early 80s style matches and bloody awful afterwards. Chigusa was always bad, I watched her vs. Jaguar from 83 and was tearing my hair out about how bad it was. I felt that Chigusa matches are centered around building towards the crowd connection spot, rather than building toward something in the match narrative. Hence these matches are such a mess. Jaguar matches feel like a fight that build towards a finish and not the dramatic crowd connecting with wrestler moment. You don't see the annoying clapping or forced character work in Jaguar matches. Post-Chigusa wrestlers tried to recreate the effect, resulting in so much joshi being a disjointed mess. Hokuto was kind of like that too, but I think she fixed the formula by centering the crowd connection spots around injury stories. Eventually Meiko Satomura comes around and is back to being an aggressive stoic badass rather than whiny crying babyface. So that's that. Just me trying my best to rationalize why I like Jaguar so much despite much of her work having the same "go, go" characteristic that later stuff has that I don't care for. All that considered, for this project Jaguar is on the bubble for me right now. I've watched a ton of her stuff and found a lot to love, but I think her resume is a little thin for somebody who gets dropped as Top 10 and even #1 contender. Granted, she still looks ridiculously good in 90s stuff and after and clearly leading lesser workers, but I am annoyed about her early retirement and can't find any great matches from afterwards. Still, she has a hell of a peak.

There was no way the Yoshida vs. Bolshoi matchup would live up to my expectations. I was a little underwhelmed by Yoshida here. She had some fun exchanges vs. tiny Bolshoi on the mat here and punched Yabushita in the face at one point, but that was about it. Also, here was an annoying clip in the middle of he match. The Yoshida team was carried by Akino, who looked pretty good. Yabushita is a judo girl with legit ability, so all her flying armbars and fighting on he ground looks really good, as she actually looks like she is constantly pulling her opponent into a submission to beat them, rather than doing a pretty spot. She looks more Brock Lesnar than Minoru Tanaka and if Ronda Rousey ever gets into wrestling I imagine this is how she would work ideally. Akino was good but I hated her no selling Bolshoi's top rope Uranage, altough I've learned to give these girls one stupid spot off. Same with Bolshoi's shitty 619. The fancy rollup and flying submissions all looked good, Bolshoi is crazy fast, like twice prime Misterio speed, there were a few moments where they countered eachothers counters, which gave the match a hard fought feeling. The Akino vs. Yabushita finish run was really good with Akino catching her in surprise Fujiwara armbars and Yabushita avoiding Akino's kicks and throws. Also, these girls like to go for the Liger running palm strike, but while the move connects and makes a sound, I think it doesn't look visually impressive because they are physically so tiny. Match ended when it should. Very fun bout.

Of the matches I listed above, only about 7 are lighttubes and barbedwire etc. deathmatches. Like I said, after the Joe match people got hip to Necro vs. regular wrestler matches, in regular matches. Those matches usually have hard hitting and stuff like bumps into chairs, tables or on the floor, but nothing more over the top than, say, ECW. Also, usually the matches are closer to something like a Tupelo Brawl and not like contrived spotfests. But part of his case absolutely rests on his deathmatch work, and is also hurt by some of his deathmatches being listless.

Given we both fundamentally disagree on subjects such as Lucha, shootstyle, modern wrestling, or Dory Funk Jr. matches, it's pretty pointless to argue about this as we might aswell come from different planets when it comes to pro wrestling opinions. I checked cagematch and that match has only positive reviews, so there's that. Atleast I agree with you that Ted DiBiase's best stuff is great Hamada vs. Sasuke will be incredibly tough for me. Before I have thought Sasuke would be an easy pick for the Top 100 while Gran Hamada would require some pondering, but now it seems Hamada's case is easier to piece together than Sasukes. They have the similiar strengths though.

I don't have as good of a grasp on Necro's career as I would like to have. His fame really exploded with the Joe match. I have a hard time pin pointing when exactly he transformed from an average deathmatch guy into a fun deathmatch guy and then into the transcendent character that is Necro. I have only seen bits and pieces from that period, altough I was watching his stuff in real time from around 2005 or 2006 onwards. He's had a real incredible career and is so consistent I wouldn't be surprised if he's had hundreds of good little matches doing random deathmatch tournaments and tiny throwaway indy shows that were put on Smart Mark DVD. He has also found the weirdest succesful formula for getting booked into dream matches as he has matches against indy top stars aswell as legends such as Kevin Suvillan, 2 Cold Scorpio or Dan Severn. On the other hand, after 2007 RoH puts a hole into his career and after 2010 he isn't the same anymore. 25 Not So Hyped Necro Butcher Matches that deserve a little hype 1. Necro Butcher vs. Toby Klein, IWA MS King of the Deathmatches 2003 A short awesome little brawl where they smash eachother with foreign objects. Match feels like a fight and avoids the staged violence that these deathmatches sometimes have. 2. Necro Butcher vs. Toby Klein, IWA MS King of the Deathmatches 2004 I think this was the match that really put Necro on the map in the first place. It should have put Klein on the map too because that guy was an underrated talent who could actually wrestle in a more traditional way. Anyways they kill eachother for 18 minutes straight in a seedy arena with all kinds of garbage laying around a handful of people watching. The big spots here feel closer to AJPW apron death bumps, rather than WWF TV ladder match death bumps, if that makes sense. Really grizzly imagery here. 3. Necro Butcher vs. The Green Phantom (CZW 7/24/04) This is like the best possible 1st round deathmatch tournament match. Green Phantom is the first in a collection of bizarre Necro opponents to have their career match against him, a canadian comedy slash garbage wrestler who used to do Hulk Hogan impression promos. This feels like a total fight and it's awesome. 4. Necro Butcher vs. Tank, IWA DS King of the Deathmatches 2005 When I first watched this I would have never ever believed that both these guys would 10 years later be nominated for a spot on a List of the Greatest Wrestlers Ever. Regardless due to who is involved this is a pretty fun lighttubes deathmatch and a satisfying tournament finale. 5. Necro Butcher & Toby Klein vs. H8 Club (CZW 6/11/05) I think this match actually has a fair bit of hype... this is an all out brawl and far better than a H8 Club match has any right to be. 6. Necro Butcher vs. Eddie Kingston (CZW 10/14/2006) These two guys have a bunch of matches, I assume they are all atleast good. This match was after the Necro vs. Joe formula had been established, so promoters were eager to book Necro into matches vs. straight wrestlers where he would get killed. Kingston is a guy who can kick ass and he gets to look great in the process. Also, this match has one of the more stupid Necro bumps, where he takes a Steve Williams Backdrop driver on the steel ring steps. 7. Necro Butcher vs. Yoshiaki Yago (Chikara 2/26/06) This a great example of Necro working his magic. Yago is a japanese nobody who comes over with fellow nobody MIYAWAKI to work Chikara. Necro allows Yago to look like a total killer in this match by letting Yago hit him full force with kicks and punches. I remember some part on the web was really buzzing with hype for Yoshiaki Yago after his Chikara appearance and this match was a big part of that. 8. American Dragon Brian Danielson/Samoa Joe/B.J. Whitmer/Adam Pearce/Ace Steele/Homicide v. Nate Webb/Chris Hero/Claudio Castognoli/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston (ROH 7/15/2006) This is the climax of the RoH vs. CZW feud... a great War Games style match and Necro looks like a star here. 9. Necro Butcher vs. Jay Briscoe (RoH ????) They had several matches. I remember Necro being barefoot and doing some spots with barbed wire involving that... this is along with the Homicide match the only really good thing to come out of Necro's RoH stint. Jay Briscoe is a perfect suit. 10. Necro Butcher vs Brain Damage IWA EC Masters of Pain 2007 Brain Damage is another guy who got really over through Necro because Necro was willing to let him punch him full force in the jaw. This is a double hell barbedwire match where they really work way too hard for a first round match.. it's a very good deathmatch though. 11. Necro Butcher vs. Masada (IWA-MS vs. ACW Joint Show 4/22/07) Masada is the next nobody who gets to reach some fame and later a big push through a standout match with Necro. I haven't seen this since it first happened so I dunno if it holds up, but the atmosphere (match takes place in a literal bar) and there's a few memorable spots. I also think around this time Necro was trying to turn his Small Package into a finisher. 12. Necro Butcher vs. Davey Richards (IWA-MS 8/4/07) Never actually seen this, but I've heard people calling it Necro's master carryjob, so it's listworthy. 13. Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo vs. Briscoe Brothers (FIP 4/21/2007) This is an awesome out of control brawl. Also, FIP is a fed that normally ran family friendly shows, so this sticks out like sore thumb, as you get kids in the audience looking shocked by the carnage while edgy teens cheer them on. Necro vs. Briscoes is a feud that would have fit right into the 80s. 14. Necro Butcher vs. Bryan Danielson (PWG 7/29/2007) This is the match Necro talks about in his shoot where he thought Super Dragon had sent Danielson to stretch and stiff him, so Necro was hitting double hard here in the first place. Don't think that's actually true, but it's a great little bloody brawl with a great finish where Danielson elbows the maniac into oblivion. 15. Necro Butcher vs. Nigel McGuinness (PWG 9/2/2007) Another good brawl against an RoH superstar. This was before every PWG match went 20+ minutes, and happened in the middle of the big workrate BOLA tournament to give all the spotty guys on the show a breather. 16. Necro Butcher vs. Chris Hero (PWG 1/11/2008) Chris Hero debuts his new, super goofy look and "Young Knockout Kid" gimmick, and the crowd gleefully cheers as Necro murders him for it. This is when PWG discovered it's love for overbording epics so it goes 10-15 minutes too long, but it's a damn good match regardless, as Chris Hero is an underrated brawler. 17. Necro Butcher vs. Predator (IGF 11/24/2008) Necro faces fake Brody and this is a better brawl than pretty much any Brody singles you're gonna find. 18. Necro Butcher vs. Bill the Butcher (IWA MS 1/3/2009) Bill the Butcher was a guy with a great look that IWA MS had some hopes for at the time. Necro again in his role of getting a new guy over and this wouldn't have looked out of place on an 80s card. Freakish looking guys going at it. 19. Necro Butcher vs. Bull Pain (IWA MS 6/3/2009) Main event of the first day of a deathmatch tournament. Bull Pain is an old vet and knows how to make stuff not only painful but also meaningful and is a good heel, so this is quality brawl. 20. Necro Butcher vs. Minowaman (IGF 2/22/2010) Minowaman is a crazy MMA fighter who wants to play Pro Wrestler. Necro carries this guy to an awesome blood drenched 10 minute fight. 21. Necro Butcher vs. Yoshihito Sasaki (BJW 6/25/2010) For some reason, Necro's matches in BJW don't come across as so out of control and reckless. This is still a pretty good match against one of the better japanese hard hitting indy heavyweights. 23. Necro Butcher & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Kantaro Hoshino (6/27/2010) Necro takes one of the dumbest bumps in his career. After that the match is about Necro's great selling of his broken leg (well may have been legit), where he must save his partner. Kind of channeling Terry Funk in this one with a 20 feet drop added to it. 24. Necro Butcher vs. Matt Tremont (CZW 6/25/2011) Necro faces an actually talented young deathmatch guy and this is another great first round tournament match. Kind of a passing of the torch as Necro's body was really shot at this point. 25. Necro Butcher vs. Vader (PWS 4/14/2012) We all got stupidly excited when this was announced. This is a squash but a very fun squash. Summary: I think it's very clear that besides the high end stuff, Necro has more than enough to pad out his resume. He has his formulas that he can stick anyone into and produce a compelling match that is very remarkable. Still unsure if he belongs on my list personally, but I wouldn't argue with anyone who ranks him very high

I don't think the problem is that the footage isn't there. There is some, it's just under explored. I don't see how Hamada from 90-93 isn't atleast as good, if not even better than anything he did in 1980 and afterwards, and there is plenty of handhelds and other complete stuff where we get to see Hamada on a show-to-show basis. Hamada is a weird case where I feel that, despite the fact he is considered a legend and his work in those M-Pro tags is very beloved, he seems underrated to me. He is one of the only japanese juniors where I'm actively interested in watching every match he's in as his stuff ages well. While he is a guy with awesome highspots, he isn't stupid about them. He can lead on the mat, and knows how to make a "comeback" rather than just transition back on offense. The span of his career is crazy: the man first pops up in 1980, looking outstanding and ahead of his time, can go with the top juniors as late as 1999 and then continues a streak of being a really fun 50 year old guy who can still go throughout the 2000s. He shows up in Mexican arenas, random UWF cards, his own promotion as ace, M-Pro as respected vet, NJPW as guy coming over through a working agreement and unexpectedly kicking ass in the BOSJ, ECW shows as old guy nobody has heard of, random joshi or BattlARTS undercards where he teams with his girl, and finally a variety of legends shows... and Hamada always delivers. Maybe it's just that current japanese wrestling undercards are so dire that I've found new appreciation for super consistent japanese workers. Still, 30 years... Sample matchlist, excluding the well known Michinoku Pro stuff 1. Gran Hamada vs. Babe Face (NJPW 4/3/1980) Great match and really outstanding due to being a very complete japanese jr style match with dives, matwork, and face/heel dynamic. 2. Gran Hamada/Sayama vs. Perro Aguayo/Babe Face (Mexico 4/13/80) The first match of the Aguayo/Hamada rivalry on tape. Really fun brawl and Hamada is already outstanding in his role of lightning fast guy who smokes heels with sweet comebacks. 3. Gran Hamada vs. Tiger Mask (NJPW 11/6/1981) I like this better than any TM vs. Dynamite Kid match. Very much a workrate match, but because they are natives they click better than TM matches usually do. Another showcase match for why Hamada looks ahead of the curve as he matches the man previously considered the best japanese athlete of the time. 4. Gran Hamada/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Anibal/Perro Aguayo (NJPW, date unknown) Hamada vs. the legendary Anibal provides some very good wrestling. Aguayo doesn't look shabb either but in the end again brings the fight. 5. Gran Hamada vs. Centurion Negro (2/14/82) Very good lucha style match. First falls are working in and out of holds and throws and it's very good, before they throw out the great looking dives into the dirty arena floor. 6. Gran Hamada & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino (NJPW 2/10/83) Great fast paced juniors tag. Hamada vs. Hoshino is a stumpy legged dream matchup that delivers. Hamada also shows his rougher side. 7. Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo (UWF 4/11/1984) Aguayo chases Hamada down at a shootstyle card. Perro doesn't care that this is really out of place and Hamada gets demolished in this blood drenched massacre. 8. Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Mighty Inoue & Gran Hamada (9/12/84) I wouldn't mind finding a bunch more AJPW 80s lightweight stuff after this. 4 underrated guys kick out a really nifty 80s workrate match. 9. Perro Aguayo/Jose Luis Feliciano v. Gran Hamada/Lizmark (UWF 3.1.1990) Beginning of the tremendous Hamada/Aguayo interactions in 1990. Aguayo and Hamada look like superstar. Perro is brutal while Hamada has some fantastic comebacks and offense himself. 10. Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada (UWF 5.3.1990) They had a few great matches that year and this is the best. 2/3 falls, starts with matwork, escalates and eventually leads to a fucking great 3rd fall where they kill eachother, including a bloody Hamada headbutting a bloody Aguayo. Also really great chaotic spectacle after the match ends. 11. Misioneros vs. Hamada/Aguayo/Kendo (UWF 7.6.1990) An example of the greatness Hamada was doing regularily in multiman tags. Aguayo is great, Hamada is great getting fired up, being lightning fast and awesome and getting in great comebacks. My favourite 90s Misioneros trios. 12. Gran Hamada vs. Blue Panther (UWF 11/13/1990) They absolute work their asses off. Really I'm not a big workrate mark but watching these guys giving their all on a small show handheld is something else. Also interesting because this is, I believe, the first long Panther singles on tape. Not for the lucha purists as this is closer to Lucharesu, but there is a ton of good stuff here and both guys bust out unusual stuff, Panther has a rolling senton to the floor, Hamada flies at Panther with a twisting Asai moonsault and busts out a great deadlift german. Just a tremendous match, the best junior match of 1990 if it weren't for Liger/Sano. 13. Gran Hamada/Huracan vs. Blue Panther/Guerrero Negro (Monterrey 1991) A chance to see why Hamada got so strangely legendary in Mexico. I love how improvized his exchanges feel. Match gets ugly when Hamada takes a powerbomb on his head. In the 3rd falls Hamada seems really offended by Panther suddenly using foul tactics and things get very intense. 14. Cowboys/Hamada vs. Casas/Wagner Jr/Rambo (UWF 2/29/1992) One of the funnest matches of the year. Hamada isn't the best guy here but this is one of these Lucha trios where everyone gets to look really good. 15. Villano V/Villano IV/Rokambole vs Dos Caras/Gran Hamada/Ninja Samurai (UWF 12/16/1993) Hamada vs. Villano IV is the focus here as intro to their feud. This is another great trios, Villanos (Rokambole is V3) are asskicking machines, technico comeback is very good stuff. 16. Gran Hamada vs. Villano IV (UWF 12/16/1993) Villano IV beats the shit out of Hamada and pushes him to the limit. 17. Gran Hamada vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW 22/5/1999) Hamada does the impossible and gets Takaiwa to have a match that isn't completely senseless! At a little less than 10 minutes this is the worlds greatest Superstars match. Hamada at 49 isn't afraid to take brutal Takaiwa powerbombs or bust out spots that would make Masato Tanaka wince. 18. Gran Hamada vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 3/6/1999) Again there is no good reason why Hamada should work this hard in 1999. He does it anyways. Hamada looks almost maestro-ish controlling Kanemoto on the mat here, allows Koji to kick the shit out of him and again shows up all the other juniors in the tournament with some huge spots. 19. Gran Hamada/Great Sasuke/Dick Togo vs. Pentagon/Sasuke the Great/Gran Apache (Michinoku Pro 3/10/2001) Pentagon had attacked Ayako earlier in the show, so Papa Hamada goes after him with a fury in this all out brawl. 20. Gran Hamada/Bear Fukuda/Super Rider vs. Yujiro Yamamoto/Akifumi Saito/Mazada (RJPW 3/16/12) This is like a bizarro world tag where the young guys hit eachother hard while the old guy busts out the big highspot. This shows even a near 60 year old Hamada is still spry and fun. Summary: Even with footage gaps, Hamada has been around so long and been so consistent you could probably move all his stuff together and still have a really great 10 year career with a fun 10 year post prime period. It's hard to watch this stuff without starting to fantasy book a Gran Hamada vs. Kantaro Hoshino feud in your head though. Regardless Hamada has a ton of under the radar stuff to go with his praised showings. Keep in mind the above stuff isn't a "best of" but rather a career overview.

Kyoko is very weird. Sometimes she's really great with her unpredictable, unique offense and good selling, sometimes annoying with Kurt Angle-ish tendencies, popping up and killing a match and sometimes just plain boring. I felt those Nakano matches were carries. She gets bonus points for having one of the best Hokuto matches and looking great in it. I also have a feeling her late career run as grumpy gender switched Super Porky is either terrible or has some bizarre interesting stuff in it. Can't be bothered to watch it though. I like some of the matches listed above, and some not so much. The Kandori match is very fun but seems to be overrated just because it's "different". I could see someone who's really into joshi ranking her, but I don't see the case right now.

While digging for van Buyten stuff on my hard drive I found a few BattlARTS shows I ripped. Here's some Ono that wasn't on the Best of BattlARTS comp. Take it as an easter present. Clips of Takeshi Ono vs. junji.com + Ikeda/Ono vs. Yone/Orihara (BattlARTS 25.6.1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWgkr8x6Usg Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata (12 25 1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KZFD-g9kOE 10. Takeshi Ono vs. Yuki Ishikawa, 6/18/2000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIbbKgggsN8 Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata (4 17 2001) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRF-oDPiCtk

I had almost all this stuff uploded before. Maybe someone else saved it and can assist with the re-uploading, because I'm right now staying with my family over easter and probably won't get back to my discs before next week. Here is some stuff that I had on my hard drive. Not the most high end stuff but good for now. 1. Hassan Ali Bey, Monster Rousimoff & Franz Van Buyten vs. Rusher Kimura, Isamu Teranishi & Thunder Sugiyama (Japan, 2/5/1972) http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wiw259yi0zol3eo (thanks Ditch) 4. Franz van Buyten vs. Rene Lasartesse (Hamburg 18/9/1984) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U69SLMH3F3c 5. Franz van Buyten vs. Rene Lasartesse, Chain Match (Hamburg 11/10/1984) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzfADT2d9GE 15. Franz van Buyten vs. Frank Merckx (Herne, 11/6/1988) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TswXsloyPo 16. Franz van Buyten vs. Mike Shaw (7/10/1988) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5SF_IIAx0k 17. Franz van Buyten vs. Mike Shaw (22/10/1988) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DesIhaGYKv8 Ha! A medal to you for actually watching the stuff while it was all there. Off-topic, but going through the source material for some of the Hamburg and Recklinghausen stuff was an incredibly bizarre experience. Apparently the matches were initially sold commercially on VHS and later transferred to VCD format. These CDs are a mess full of random clips, footage that seems like it's not even supposed to be there, weird color and music choices and just plain oddness all around. The audio commentary is great, though. Most germans are really bad at talking about wrestling and selling it but the guy who made these videos is a tremendous bullshitter. There also seem to be multiple versions of the same matches around - I just checked one of the Lynch Germany DVDs, which has the Van Buyten/Taylor chain match - and I noticed it's about 10 minutes shorter than the version I've got. Must be from the original VHS tapes. Also, I emailed another german collector and he said he can upload some more Franz stuff, which I haven't seen before and apparently isn't available anywhere else. So, hooray!