Jetlag

Watching some of these bouts which I havent checked out before Ray Steele vs. Pat Roach This was a really solid but unspectacular match. If you like your heavys smashing eachother with forearm blows and knees definitely watch this. Also really liked all of Roach's throws, you could tell Waltons Judo talk wasnt bullshit. Hurt by lack of build and three short finishes Alan Woods vs. Vic Faulkner Man this was good. The opening technical stuff was nice if you can stand Faulkner. Then Woods goes after the leg like a fat kid after the last piece of candy. He doesn't even act overly heelish, just rips it up and is a bit of an asshole about it and the crowd loathes him. Faulkner gets super fired up and man watching him here makes me want to put him in my Top 100 because when this guy is fired up he is unbelievably great. Really good showcase match for Faulkner and Woods killed it too. Bert Royal vs. Steve Logan This was another awesome match, really hard fought brutal mat brawl. Royal is a real dick for a babyface and Logan looked tough as nails (probably due to him not reacting to anything). Not much fancy technical stuff, instead you get plenty of nasty bootscrapes, hits to the throat and Logan throwing punches that look like they weigh a ton. Royal actually reminded me a little of Axel Dieter in this. This was as rugged and nasty as WoS gets. Johnny England vs. Kid Chocolate England reminded me of these 5'7"ish bodybuilders you will see at the university gym. I think that gimmick would still work well today. This match was a fairly good mix of heat mongering and wrestling and kind of felt like it could take place anywhere in the world. England did every trick in the book, including dropping his opponent on his hard head in dangerous fashion after the bell.

That 97 Ikeda match, for example, saw Otsuka taking a huge shit-kicking, but teasing that he had a chance if he could connect with a strike. I was really into that, but the pay-off didn't match the build, as Otsuka ended up winning via suplex-spamming. Otsuka's gimmick was that he didn't have any devastating strikes, so he would just dump you on your head until you stayed down. The match had a theme of a lower ranked guy rising up the ranks vs. established star, so naturally Otsuka would upset the renowned mauler Ikeda with some strikes of his own, but in the end it was clear he didn't have the same firepower as Ikeda so he switched to the "nuke it with suplexes" tactic. Pretty cool story I thought and the match was pretty epic and had a bit of an AJPWish "super finish" moment.

I think the closest thing to a "bomb" type move was Ken Joyce's tombstone piledriver. I also remember someone doing a reverse powerbomb of all things, but it was merely to set up a pinning combo. Even something like a powerbomb is done almost gently placing the guy on his shoulders for a pin. I always found this a really cool and unique thing about WoS that it's more about fighting for a pin or submission using your wrestling, instead of knocking the other guy out until he stayed down for a 3 count. Other moves were stuff like hip tosses or back drops that would cause the other guy to take a hard bump. I think Hoffmann used his side suplex almost like a finisher in AJPW and Robinson too with the Butterfly one.

Here's Ishikawa/Amano vs. Kana/Fujiwara Really good match and a great example of what Ishikawa does so extremely well, selling masterfully and getting the absolute best out of an (at that time) limited opponent. He really deserves more discussion and a close look.

I remember having my mind blown when I watched his match vs. Windham where they beat the piss out of eachother and bleed all over the place. If he has more stuff like that he will def. have a spot on my Top 100. In the meantime, I'm not too high on his more junioriffic stuff.

I really like Hidaka. I'd say he's probably the best indy junior next to Dick Togo and he always looks good when working quasi shootstyle, but he also has some stuff that touches on the worst aspects of current junior style wrestling and parts of his career are pretty dead teaming with that slug Fujita or the last 3 years in Zero1. The 2010 Chris Hero singles match is a killer though. Def. a guy worth going back and watching all his stuff, including the ECW run.

I liked Sekimoto when I first got into puro as a blunt introduction to the styles tropes, but in hindsight he feels like the worlds most limited wrestler. He has a total of two facial expressions and I feel like I can count the matches of his that don't go by filler opening work->strike exchanges->signature moves->2,99999 ending run peppered with lots of fighting spirit spots with one hand. Also, I don't think I remember him ever being the best guy in his best matches - his partner Y Sasaki was a better worker than him. Overall Seki ranges from fun to hideously boring and he's nowhere close to my Top 100. I'm a little shocked so many people feel he's that high.

Demus only made his debut in 2004, right? Was he very good as Mini Damian? I think his 2010 match with Pierrothito is a classic, but other than that he's "only" an excellent trios worker.

I don't think Dr. Cerebro is completely out of the question. He had some great stuff with Santito (altough not a great worker then) the early 2000s, was supposedly a freaky matworker back then already (would need to see these 1999 IWRG or Dragon System shows), turned into a really good worker throughout the 2000s with the 2004 tag title match with Cerebro Negro against Virus and Suicida being a real highlight, and was one of the best workers in the world 2009-2011 (where he carried some greenish guys like Multifacetico to high quality title matches). Hechicero seems like another case where there might be lots of cool under the radar stuff. He was in that awesome title match with Valiente in 2008 and a few matches with Caifan that are def. quality stuff. He's had quite the career - spending 10 years in nowhere then rising through the ranks in CMLL in minimal time. Las Traumas are probably the hardest to sell considering they didn't get "good" until 2009 but had sometimes weekly awesome performances after that. They both where close to being the greatest in the world in some years, but vanished for now. Altough I liked their rudo run in IWRG earlier this year.

There's way more "Ikeda working from underneath" than you'd think and he rules at it. He always gets credit for the maulings he dishes out, but his selling ability is as good as anyone elses.

Every match on this list that OJ did should be a must watch http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/index.php?showtopic=2555&st=0 But most probably don't have the time to dig through all of that now. But I've been checking out OJs recommendations for years now and I don't regret it. WoS rules

Greco is all I want from a shoot stylist. A total grappling machine that looks like he would pop your shoulder in seconds. He was amazingly consistent in his first BattlARTS run and always delivered crazy matwork and forced his opponents to go all out. Also has a legit classic with the Ishikawa singles match which is pretty much the perfect grappling match.

Not the most consistent of the 90s BattlARTS crew and no long classic singles matches then, but always looked good to great and was reliable in tags, then came back as an excellent veteran worker in the reincarnated BattlARTS. It's a broken record, but at that point this guy could've had a match with a half eaten sausage, and makes you wish more wrestlers got this good as veterans. Also worth noting that he looked on Ono's level when they battled in Futen.

Another matter of how much you value volume. From the 90s footage that is available (often his matches were cut or clipped), Ono looks like he was good from the get go, and pops up occasionally in a big tag, being really good and playing his role to perfection. The early 2000s saw him relegated to undercard matches, showing glimpses of later genius and putting on quality performances in pretty meaningless matches. Then Ono disappears for almost 10 years, pops up again as veteran on Futen cards and has reached unreal levels. Guy with blindingly fast matwork and submissions, throwing a variety of strikes and delivering mark out worthy selling is a great recipe for Battlartsian quasi shootstyle and Ono routinely looked like the best ever at it delivering one great match after another. Also, probably the greatest skinny wrestler ever.

Takeshi Ono http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/21985-daisuke-ikeda-takeshi-ono-vs-manabu-suruga-takahiro-oba-futen-040909/?hl=%2Btakeshi+%2Bono http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/11550-yuki-ishikawa-alexander-otsuka-vs-daisuke-ikeda-takeshi-ono-battlarts-103096/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/11618-katsumi-usuda-takeshi-ono-vs-daisuke-ikeda-alexander-otsuka-battlarts-122596/ Katsumi Usuda http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/11618-katsumi-usuda-takeshi-ono-vs-daisuke-ikeda-alexander-otsuka-battlarts-122596/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25987-katsumi-usuda-vs-keita-yano-battlarts-111608 http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/12559-carl-greco-vs-katsumi-usuda-pwfg-102993/ Carl Greco http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/12559-carl-greco-vs-katsumi-usuda-pwfg-102993/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/26981-yuki-ishikawa-vs-carl-greco-battlarts-042498/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/21902-yuki-ishikawa-vs-carl-greco-battlarts-young-generation-battle-060108/

Don't forget to check out the 1991 Anjoh match. That's definitely an early great, altough Anjoh plays his part there aswell.

Seems like a good example of a worker that's a favourite but not a great. Her big advantage is her fairly unique style, at her best being reminiscent of Negro Navarro or Tamon Honda with all kinds of neat grappling and an endless array of unorthodox submissions (perhaps too endless and unorthodox). Some strong showings in 1999 (which was a dire year otherwise), but after that there's not many great matches despite making tape plenty of times. It would be interesting to go and watch her work as a veteran in her own Ibuki promotion, as I feel she played second fiddle to her opponents a bit too much.

Genichiro Tenryu/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mighty Inoue/Great Kabuki (AJPW 2/21/90) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CDlYdMe0qs Sweet Jesus this RULED. I think after watching this Mighty and Kabuki deserve a closer look at their careers as I didn't realize they could still go this hard into the 90s. Everybody played their roles to perfection and the result was a super gritty, violent spectacle. Tenryu and Kawada were being gigantic dickheads to the old guys, constantly running in and kicking them in their faces, Tenryu gets especially nasty towards the end. Inoue was great as the plucky technician and took horrific abuse, while Kabuki was a tank. I don't know which I loved more, him repeatedly running across the ring to punch Tenryu in the face, smashing a chair over his head or finally having enough and repeatedly punting him in the eye with the point of his boot. The early going was a lot of holds, but all quality stuff, as the submissions made sense and Kawada did a great job selling chokes. The finishing run sees Mighty finally losing his cool and decking Tenryu with lefts and rights, just killer. If you want to watch some violent pro wrestling with strong character work, give this a shot.

Fiera is not to be underestimated. The singles matches with Babe Face and Estrada are gritty masterpieces and really showcase that nasty gut wrenching feeling you only get in these old lucha brawls. The rest of his work sees him living up to his reputation as one of the best workers around - just a blindingly spectacular wrestler who'd bump like a madman. Throw him in there with a young Misawa, with a dozen other guys in that Cibernetico, or pretty much any other random matchup, and he'd steal the show.

Honda has his sceptics, and probably for good reason, but never overlook a guy who arguably outwrestled both Akiyama and Kobashi in singles matches. All-out Honda was undoubtedly a world class worker, and even while some of his undercard work is uninspired, there's plenty of neat underrated stuff to be found thanks to his unorthodox style and exceptional moveset. I think NOAH letting him go was a mistake, as he could still go in his Futen matches (of which there are far too few available) and he was able to have a surprisingly good tag in 2012 with Akiyama, Shiozaki and his old rival Saito.

Maybe the discovery of the Lucha 80s set, with two classic title bouts, great work in tags and awesome character work. Cota is one of those faces made for pro wrestling. He still had plenty left in the tank for his 90s run as old guy, so there's a lot to check out.

Maybe a lucha dark horse for me, this guy was definitely one of the most skilled technicos around. Always a highlight in tags and a quality guarantee when working title matches, including one of the definite lucha singles against Dandy and holding his own against Blue Panther. Doesn't seem like a huge career compared to other lucha guys, but there's plenty of quality stuff, neat exchanges in random tags to be found throughout the 90s.

Not the most beloved WoS worker at this stage, as he had annoying tendencies, but was undeniably in some of the best WoS matches and he could really go when outside of his comfort zone. Also, a pretty cool run as ancient maestro type worker on the indy scene with lots of good to great exhibitions.

This blog post says more about Terry than I ever could http://segundacaida.blogspot.de/search?q=Black+Terry Long, excellent career with plenty of classics and hidden gems sprinkled throughout. Pretty great run for a guy who pops up only sporadically, and when he was showing up more regularily thanks to his kid from 2009-2011 he was delivering high quality stuff sometimes twice a day. Great brawler and technical worker, who has that "it" in him to produce epic moments similiar to other lucha greats like Sangre Chicana.