Jetlag

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.

Fairly unique worker who doesn't have any really flashy spots or works exceptionally stiff compared to other euro workers, but was able to create highly engaging matches out of thin air through excellent selling. You could probably pick any tall, fat ugly dude from a bar or construction site and Franzl would get a three star match out of him. Also, he was able to get a better match out of Suni War Cloud than Terry Rudge, in my opinion. There's a decent amount of footage available from his late career, even into the early 90s in that france wrestling promotion where he was still able to have really fun matches (check out that Haystacks bout). Of course the highlights are against the king bad boys like Rudge and Lasartesse. Overall an exceptional euro heavyweight worker with a tremendous ability to connect with the crowd, and had what is for my money the greatest chain match ever with Dave Taylor of all people. Recommended matches: vs. Terry Rudge vs. Rene Lasartesse vs. Dave Taylor

This is probably more a question of how much more footage will show up. This dude is one of the definite heels on the euro scene who was extremely effective working in germany throughout the 80s and able to have super heated, fairly gritty matches while looking like your granddad. Pretty fun run but wouldn't consider him for a Top 100 all time on that alone, but with more of his early work from france showing up thanks to youtube, I could see him being worth consideration with a few more lost gems showing up. Recommended matches: - like half a dozen vs. Franz van Buyten - vs. Michael Allary - vs. Billy Samson

Since Terry Rudge is a definite consideration, Cortez should be a must have too, as I think he was arguably more consistent. I think there is only one match of his from the 70s available (a pretty fun bout), but throughout the 80s he was such an awesome veteran technician on the british TV, who got high quality, hard fought matches out of anyone, with most of them being up there with the best stuff of the decade. Recommended matches: vs. Pete La Paque vs. Steve Grey vs. Keith Haward

I think this guy has like 10 matches on tape, so if you like volume, he has no chance, but it would be a sin to not atleast look at this guy. Sarjeant may be the definite mindblowing brit technician for me, as his endless array of intricate techniques, freaky body contortion spots and great sense of timing and structure always made for highly entertaining TV matchups. He also could do in a fast paced heated match as the McManus bout proves. When it comes to delivering matwork, I don't think Sarjeant is much below your best shoot stylists or luchadores. Recommended matches: vs. Clay Thomson vs. Robby Baron vs. Eddie Capelli

Black Terry http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-184-black-terry-handhelds/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-280-black-terry-negro-navarro-y-villano-iv-vs-blue-panther-ultimo-dragon-y-olimpico/ Angel Azteca http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/17326-el-dandy-vs-angel-azteca-emll-032390/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/17504-el-dandy-vs-angel-azteca-emll-060190/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-132-blue-panther-vs-angel-azteca/ Mocho Cota http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-393-cmll-the-lost-years-pt-1/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-374-dvdvr-best-of-the-80s-2/ Johnny Saint Alan Sarjeant Jon Cortez http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15983-the-beginners-guide-to-british-wrestling/ Rene Lasartesse http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15983-the-beginners-guide-to-british-wrestling/page-9 http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/16764-french-catch/page-5 Franz van Buyten http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15983-the-beginners-guide-to-british-wrestling/page-4 Tamon Honda http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25797-daisuke-ikeda-vs-tamon-honda-noah-departure-090101/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25848-kenta-kobashi-vs-tamon-honda-noah-encountering-navigation-041303/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25847-tamon-honda-vs-akitoshi-saito-noah-encountering-navigation-033003/

I'd add this for BattARTS stuff Daisuke Ikeda vs. Mohammed Yone, BattlARTS 8/29 Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono v. Masao Orihara/Mohammed Yone BattlArts 6/25 I'd say BattlARTS was pretty great in 1999, Daisuke Ikeda may have been the wrestler of the year.

The Jacobs/Whitmer I Quit from IWA MS 500th show should be a must. Necro Butcher vs. Toby Klein from the 2004 KOTDM too if you want to include deathmatches.

I really loved this and it instantly became one of my favourite AJ matches. I'm one of those people who are bored by a lot of 90s AJPW so I guess it's a matter of preference. The opening work was tremendous. I enjoy watching talented workers battling over tight holds and they did a great job here. Even simple things like Hansen escaping a headlock or Misawa retaliating with a series of elbows to Hansen's arm felt really important. It also helped that Hansen just beat the shit out of Misawa throughout the match. His shoulder block might be one of my favourite spots ever - I mean just imagine this huge Texan with notoriously bad eyesight crashing his body into yours at full speed. The bit on the apron with both guys stubbornly battling for control and Misawa leaping into some kind of desperation elbow drop was also really great. The whole match was a hard stubborn battle for control really. Misawa trying to facelock Hansen with his weak arm then switching sides and almost putting him away was one of the coolest spots I've seen. The finishing run was also really great. It didn't have big bumps or anything but they really got you to believe they could put eachother away with basic submissions, and Hansen repeatedly crushing Misawa underneath him was brutal. The finish was the only real logical way for Misawa to beat this fucker and they had done a great job building toward it. You see so many shitty meaningless elbow exchanges these days that Misawa really looks like a GOAT contender just based on all his extremely well timed strikes that he lands with considerable smack. Great match, the bad rep is undeserved.

Actually, I thought the matwork in this was brilliant. Hashimoto may look clumsy, but anytime he did something it felt innovative, while Hase was really aggressive and trying to use his powerful takedowns to his advantage. Once they stood up this turned into a festival of pure distillated death. If I had been asked who threw the hardest chops before I probably would've said Tenryu or Kobashi, but Hase of all people may outdo them both in this one, just trying to fell a tree. The look Hashimoto gives him before getting up and damn near splitting Hase in half with one of his own says it all. That's the kinda moments why Hash is the fucking greatest. Then I believe to take Hase's speed advantage away he decides to knock the wind out of him in the nastiest manner possible. He really establishes basic moves like toe kicks or body scissors as deadly by doing them in the most violent manner possible. The last couple minutes felt like Shinya putting on some AJPW-ish touches to his game by busting out variations on his signature moves, but it had that distinct NJPW feel where they fight over posture and mini details like that, in between absolutely nuking eachother. Hard to believe anyone could get up from that spin kick alone. Badass match, Hashimoto is the king.

Looks like Le Petit Prince Daniel Dubail. According to french Wiki a he made his first TV appearance with Andre.

This reminds me a little of a situation I had with a friend of mine a while ago. She was really concerned that people would ridicule her if she admitted that she loved classical music, but at the same time had no problem talking about her love of cheesy hollywood movies. Maybe it's because I live in a country where pretty much everybody indulges in Trash TV, or because I'm younger (20) and the people I surround myself with, but hiding your love of wrestling seems silly in these days and ages, as long as it's not your only hobby (to be fair, if I met somebody who watches 5+ hours of WWE a week and spends lot of time gossiping about backstage stuff online I'd probably think that person is pretty weird too). Actually, I've gotten more shit on online message boards for watching "obscure" wrestling like lucha or shootstyle, while explaining the concepts of lucha de apuestas or exoticos makes for pretty amusing conversation with people who are foreign to the subject. I don't really have a fellow fan that I chat about current wrestling to, but then I don't follow current wrestling closely anyways. About girls and getting laid, I've experienced very little problem. I guess it helps that wrestling has inspired me to join BJJ and amateur wrestling classes - girls dig a guy who can handle himself on the mat.

Mother of fuck that Rudge/Hurst match is great. That is what I love about watching old wrestling, when they take offense that we think of as low end and make it interesting. Rudge may have turned a hairpull into a holy shit spot in that match.

I think Jeff Cobb was part of Guam's olympic wrestling team. Guy has some talent and really beautiful execution on some of his moves and especially really nice suplexes, he had a match vs. Timothy Thatcher that was really good I thought last year. Of course he could also turn into another Kurt Angle - when you mentioned a stupid powerslam move I thought you were talking about that backflip thing I've seen him do in another match. Personally I don't think that sort of move or the one you see in the video is as stupid as, say, most Go 2 Sleep variations or convoluted facebuster moves you see other indy wrestlers do, atleast it's athletically impressive enough. Oliver John I think is a guy who also had a good match with Timothy Thatcher (hey Meltzer if you are reading this why aren't you raving about that guy cause he really rules). He's been working US "lucha" shows for a while and when he fought Hijo del Santo in TXT he didn't show anything that would make him stand out amongst a million other US workers. In the US I think he works a generic Border Patrol stooging heel. Just a baldheaded wrestler dude.