Jetlag

From what I've seen, Hotta is really good at punting opponents into a coma, and not at all good at anything else. Didn't think those Kansai and Hokuto matches were that great, to be honest. And I like japanese wrestlers killing each other as much as the next guy. Will be interesting to read a defense of Hotta as she strikes me as a wrestler with glaring flaws. I'm also interested in that post on Devil Masami. I'm a fan of her, but couldn't find anything truely great from her 80s stuff, Chigusa match aside, and everything I've seen from her in the 90s has been straight up bad. I want to throw Mariko Yoshida into the mix aswell. I've been watching some of her post prime stuff, and she still looks pretty much like herself in it. Too bad the IBUKI stuff is so clipped up. 2003 match vs. Megumi Fuji is a borderline classic and they did some really fun stuff in IBUKI too. I also give Yoshida some credit for knowing how to switch up her signature spots and keeping her matches interesting. Shoutout goes to Azumi Hyuga too. I watched a match vs. Ran Yu Yu the other day where she just blew me away with her matwork. Her matwork of all things! She may be a discovery.

WOW! This was a really fun grapple-heavy junior bout. It was worked almost in a "maestra"'s style which is really something that more of the japanese girl's shouldve gotten hip to. Plenty of tricked out sequences and counters. Yabushita uses her judo and is pretty great with unpredictable transitions into armbars, Bolshoi goes for the leg and busts out a Lucha-meets-Honda rolling cradle submission that had Rey Hechicero eating his heart out. Bolshoi really has an awesome moveset (dig that carne seated chokehold) and is just such a fabulous military clown grappler luchadora veteran wrestler. You'd think Lucha would have an awesome weird clown technician but instead Bolshoi's that girl.

Wait people hate long NWA style matches now? When did that happen? Bock vs. Jumbo from Hawaii was like that and it's my favourite Bock match by a mile.

That Toyota match really is something. Kandori is very interesting in how she applys her submission expert gimmick. She's closer to Memphis than shootstyle because of all the mugging and taunting she does. Her swagger is really outstanding and it really makes for compelling interpromotional showdowns. She gets so much fire and unusual grit out of otherwise bland opponents. She's like a female Tenryu with added flash submissions, weird as that comparison may seem. I also really like how she isn't afraid to look vulnerable despite her status as a killer. She seems vulnerable to rollups and other wrestling moves and can get overwhelmed even by opponents much lower in the rank. So in conclussion, going into her matches expecting killer matwork is the wrong approach. She has the great submissions, but these are generally an insta-kill. So her matches are about heat and character work and a little violence to top it off. But bah gawd she is a spark plug of a wrestler. Admittedly I haven't been able to find any LLPW stuff online, but it'll absolutely be on my shopping list now (only 3 weeks till ballot time so the snail mail better hurry up...). Even without it she could crack my list.

This may seem very weird, but I'm really dreading watching Ricky Morton. Particularily because he's so synonymous with a certain match layout. Call it the Seinfeld effect. As for Jumbo, I find the guy overrated, but I have no problem with Jumbo himself. He'll crack my Top 100 just fine. Generally I'd say it's wrong to place someone because of perceived outside pressure and not perceived greatness. It's that simple. If you really can't decide flip a coin.

I'd say Dean Malenko during his time was a far above average TV worker. I've yet to find a better Benoit TV match from WCW than Malenko/Smiley or Malenko/Parka. People dismissing him so hard irks me a little because the guy really was good against a variety of opponents. Just look at those names: Ultimo Dragon, La Parka, Norman Smiley, fucking Scotty 2 Hotty. I'm almost tempted to get some of the matches he had in austria just to prove he could please a european crowd too. The line about Malenko/Guerrero style exchanges has been used a lot in negative reviews over the years but I really dug their 2/3 falls match from ECW, cliche as it is it's not more in your face as a "self conscious technical masterpiece" than your typical maestro matches from Mexico. People give him shit about being robotic. Don't really care about it. 90s Benoit is far worse, acting like a computer simulation. To me Dean gives the vibe of a silent killer and that fits his style. He even facially looks like a psycho during his big babyface reveal as Ciclope. Malenko also benefits from the fact that in WCW he'd wrestle matches where the announcers actually put his style over as in "the guy has hands like pliers!!!" and there was an air of genuine excitement about cruiserweight matches. All that and I'm not likely to vote for the guy at all. I imagine if he had a slightly bigger run of TV matches in the 2000s, maybe a short stint in a Tajiri booked promotion he'd probably be in. The guy deserves some credit.

Here you go: https://youtu.be/WO1r5gcTNPw

Wahoo hasn't been discussed much, so I will bump this. With the NWA Classics service making some of his matches easily available, and a plethora of footage on YouTube, I think there's no way around Wahoo. The tough, ex-football player who throws the hardest chop in the world is a great character of course, but Wahoo has something beyond that. Sure there's lots of guys who hit really hard, and then there's also some guys who can bleed, but few of them feel like a force of nature the way Wahoo does. The man is able to turn simple moments, such as getting tossed out of the ring or hitting a guy on the apron into epic visuals. His body language is amazing. The Spoiler match is a textbook class on how to build an epic match around simple strike based offense and timing. The Flair match at Battle of the Belts is a classic long title match with that extra bit of violence and grit Wahoo adds. The guy shows up in so many places, even Puerto Rico and japanese garbage indies, washed up 70s tapes and studio fights, and never stops looking like fucking Wahoo. The Hashimoto comparison hits the nail on the head.

Giving Usuda a polite bump because I just found this weird as hell Usuda vs. Tomoaki Honma matchup from Big Japan: https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiLp9ysl6zLAhVFbRQKHfTfBUsQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx3djq2e&usg=AFQjCNEY9bTZXsHE_d2Of6kutB9yceysyw&sig2=EtJcd4TUFn9fFBHmaPxdNQ Going back through Usuda's stuff I'm starting to think the guy is undersold. Now you really have to be a completist to be familiar with this guy enough to see his case, but let me explain. For example, did you know Katsumi Usuda and Ikuto Hidaka have all-time great chemistry together and all their meetings are outright spectacular? Did you know Usuda has a history of getting damn great matches out of indy lowcarders, including such names as junji.com, Naoyuki Taira, Yuta Yoshikawa and (the absolutely terrible) Keita Yano? Did you know Usuda was pretty good right away in PWFG and then became a pretty great tag worker in BattlARTS? Did you know Katsumi Usuda may have been in fact be one of the best undercard workers in his country in the second half of the 2000s? I don't expect any of this stuff to be on people's radars but I want to emphasize Katsumi Usuda's career is worth studying. I also want to say while he is clearly a "BattlARTS" guy and part of his case rests on those brutal fights he had with his buddies throughout the 90s, he also developed into quite a remarkable junior worker who could match up really well with anyone. I want to point to his J-Cup match vs. Men's Teioh here (weird and awesome match), but the above BJW match is also a good example of this. He holds the match together with his selling, keeps things interesting through Fujiwaraish counters and blasts his opponent in the face. In conclusion, I'd characterize Usuda as almost a japanese Bobby Eaton. Not exactly a charisma bomb, but great mechanics, lots of high end tags under his belt (including a very unheralded tag from december 2010 in FUTE'N where Usuda gives a really masterful performance) and shows the flashes of brilliance you want from a wrestling master.

Schumann is very interesting. He is very much a 90s guy and different from the other euro workers nominated. Really good worker as long as you don't expect WoS style high end grappling from him. I imagine if you are into Brian Pillman you'll be really into Schumann aswell. He also has a lot of matches on tape against a variety of opponents. Really consistent guy, and best of all he didn't lazy his way through face vs. face matches doing comedy like other guys would. If you want to nominate him, here's 3 reviews: Schumann vs. Chris Benoit, Vienna 1991 If you liked Schumann vs. Liger, here's him vs. another 90s star. This is a really compelling match. Benoit isn't a heel, but Schumann is the hometown favourite. Benoit can beat Schumann and they do some really good head to head to wrestling throughout the match, leading to a really hot last two rounds. Schumann sells like he is on the edge of defeat. It leads to a particularily great near KO in the last round. This is a qualifying match of some sort, so they do the scoring thing in the last round where each knockdown scores a point. No big dives or bumps, but a super effective match. Schumann vs. Finlay, Reslo 1992 I think OJ panned their matches. This pains me because in my eyes Finlay is as awesome as ever in these and Schumann goes toe to toe with him. Schumann always takes a full on assbeating from Finlay and gives back as good as he can. By the end of this match the arena is considerably dismantled, both guys swinging pieces of the barricades around while all the little kids and their granddads in the audience are freaking out. Schumann hits a fucking plancha on Finlay with no regards for the safety of anyone. Finlay does some really great bumping including a monkey flip into the ring which I've never seen before. I still think Finlay sucking during this period is a myth and in fact mullet Finlay is underrated. Schumann vs. Barry Horowitz 6/26/94 Ever wondered what a long Horowitz match would be like? Well here you are. Horowitz is really fantastic in this, doing lots of nifty tricks and punching Tony St. Clair in the face. The austrian crowd is really rowdy in this and the two work a rocking match until halfway into the bout Schumann starts doing a really compelling job of selling an injury. This is a classic heel foreigner vs. european babyface match and the type of bout Franz could do in his sleep.

Could you give a link for that 2003 Kakihara match? Only see one from 2006. EDIT: Nvm its this right?

I like the french style, but Cesca has like 7 matches on video and he doesn't always look outstanding in them. In fact he sometimes looks like the lesser guy next to Catanzarro, Anton Tejero etc. I enjoyed him vs. Ben Chemoul but Chemoul is the better guy aswell. The french guys are suffering from current lack of footage, plain and simple. Maybe we should do an extra list for guys with very limited footage available.

I'll probably have him as my #1. The guy couples a tremendous variety of excellent matches over a nearly 30 year time period with a legendary aura. He has a formula, yes, but it's a winning formula in my eyes. The great performances in random high school gyms and british church halls make up for the holes in his career.

I love Arkangel as guy holding CMLL undercard tags together. Currently I'm not familiar enough with his history to see a case for him (as he only gets showcase matches once in a blue moon), so I would like to know when exactly he got really good.

Trauma I had two really great years in 2010 and 2011. His advantage over his brother is that he has a handful of go to single matches, not all of which were easy tasks (the Angelico match comes to mind). If that period had kept up he really could have been one of the better workers of the 2010s, but unfortunately an injury happened and Trauma I wasn't the same anymore. Right now he doesn't touch his brother, as he kind of he lost the super menacing, stiff brawler aura that made him stand out in the beginning and as a mat worker was never top shelf (later on even regressing). He seems to have some kind of resurgence going with lots matches against prominent opponents, haven't gotten to check it out to be honest, but currently I don't see a case for this list at all and it pains me because at his best the guy is a killer.

I really, really liked her match vs. Amano from 1999. Really out of left field great performance. However, her other, more praised stuff that I've seen isn't on the level. Maybe she would benefit from someone doing a mass uploading spree because there's still a lot I like about her and the online footage from her is limited. I recall her matches vs. Haruyama are some of the best 2000s joshi bouts simply for being psychotically fast paced, violent deathfests.

Good as a rookie with a good cool-stuff-per-minute ratio (which is what you want from a young overactive japanese girl worker), but her post-injury, pushed as company ace current run I don't like at all. It represents all the bad aspects of the style for me - excess combined with bad execution. Didn't even like her matches against Kana who had developed into a near superworker at that point.

This starts slow and builds to quite the epic 3rd fall. Lewin's chops and nerve holds were unusual and nasty looking. I dig the chop to the throat as a finisher and him attacking Terry's face in the 3rd was nasty. This was the Terry Funk show through and through. He does all his awesome signature punches and bumping and throws in a bunch of amazing ankle picks. It felt like something a high end UWF wrestler would bust out. The best being in the 3rd where he does this awesome amateur switching and sliding to weasel into the toe hold. His staggering selling alone comfortably pushes this into the EPIC territory. Nuclear reactions in the 3rd are a testament to the greatness here.

Kawada being a bad 70s wannabe may be the most alien thing I've ever heard. Sure you are talking about the guy who spin kicks, stomps people on the back of their heads when doing a leg crab and doesn't do worked punches at all? Or is "doing holds and going long" something that belongs in the 70s in general? I don't recall him doing any Destroyer-style teases of the Stretch Plum. Atleast now I have a motivation to watch those 60 minute matches again....

Good example of a shootstylist who was really great right out of the gate. For 3 years this guy produced a string of high quality undercard matches with some incredible carry jobs under his belt. Great on the mat, great at structuring matches, great at telling a story through subtle selling and mannerisms, and a really great moveset to top it off. And then BattlARTS closes and his career kind of ends. I was excited to see him popping up in HARD HIT again but he hasn't done anything worthwhile there. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done in NJPW had he been accepted into their dojo.

No comments on Sawa, so I'll leave something here. I don't see him as a contender at all, ESPECIALLY not with the hardcore BattlARTS fans. To his credit: able to work both as a spunky underdog and as a stiff bully. To his detriment: often obnoxious and goofy with his mannerisms to a degree that he would drag down matches. Not great at his style. He has a handful of surprisingly good outings (his match with Super Tiger II borders on a miracle), but for the most part he is fodder to the argument that Yuki Ishikawa is the best ever.

I haven't dived to deep into him, so I mainly want OJ's opinion here. I was surprised to learn he has quite a bit of footage on tape, so I want to know if he's a contender. He has a really strong rep especially with the folks who used to watch him in germany but the footage isn't there. I really love him vs. Czeslaw and based on that I could see putting him above someone like Pete Roberts.

I think Jones is a wrestling genius. It baffles me that Dylan mentions his lack of subtitles, nuances and tactical approaches, because that seems to be his trump card for me. He's being touted as a forebear to the Regals and Finlays but those guys are far more erratic. Jones is a stone faced technician and doesn't do any of that posturing or grimacing at all. I may be seriously overinterpreting things but the way he carries himself, how he will dissect a body part or calmly set up a move off of the top and how he excels both at fighting heavyweights and lighter types in methodical/fast paced bouts makes me think of him as "the man" of british wrestling akin to a Misawa type. When he gets fired up at a heel its barely a change from his usual demeanour and yet he oozes intensity. I would add him vs. Alan Woods to the list of recommended matches. Not a perfect bout, but I love it for Woods' performance and how Jones fuels his mania. Jones also shows some real commitment there taking reckless bumps to the floor. The match also has some nice symmetries for you psyche-fans to spot. Jones/Rudge is epic. And Jones does so much in it. One thing I love about him is that he knows exactly how much offense to give and take, when to hit his spots etc. A 30 minute technical match is a perfect example of this, but he never loses his sight even in these rippingly fast paced go here-go there lightweight style bouts. I guess one criticism towards him is that he doesn't jump out the way some of the flashier technicians or outrageous characters of the era will do. On the other hand, he does enough nifty stuff like bust out a Santo-style tope or just slapping his man square in the face in the first round. Point is the main thing that keeps me glued to watching him wrestle is the stuff described above. Nuances and subtitles. Again maybe I'm just ranting, but in my eyes Jones beats the shit out of a loooooot of other guys nominated in this.

Nominating Caswell Martin, again via. OJ's euro thread.

Faulkner is one of those ultra-talented, slightly weird brit dudes you just come across. When he's fired up and pissed-off, he's blowaway great. What's interesting about him is that he was also able to do super fast paced, 70s-lightweight-workrate stuff. Even more notable is that unlike many other brit workers he has some tag bouts worth checking out, being in a popular team with his brother Bert Royal. I remember having problems with his more cliche doosie-doo "smiley technical brit comedy" stuff, but he's def. a guy I want to go back and study in detail before I complete my Top 100.