RyanClingman

With so many new business models popping up in wrestling lately -- like the planned 'The Elite' self-promoted show later this year -- I've been wondering how close we have ever gotten to a collectivist wrestling promotion. What I mean by this is a "a promotion run and owned democratically by the talent themselves". The best I can come up with is early PWG, but even then outside of the first few shows there was only ever a small number of roster members making decisions -- Super Dragon, Joey Ryan, Lost, and Excalibur as far as I understand it. And later it would seem that most of the power collected in the hands of Super Dragon. Is this really the closest we have gotten to a collectively run wrestling promotion on a scale of any real note? Is pro-wrestling culture predisposed to reject this sort of organization more so than other entertainment industries?

Thank you for doing one of these threads again! They are a tremendous resource. I am very surprised to see such universal support for Tanahashi and Naito. As far as the "self conscious epic" goes that match seemed to tick far more boxes than Okada-Omega. In fact, I thought that Tanahashi/Naito pretty much embodied the big NJPW style, where as Omega-Okada was far more diversified -- at least to my eyes. I have a lot of thoughts coming up on these matches, but for now. YES - Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA NJPW 01/04: Absolutely amazing stuff here. I don't mind go-go-go type matches (and this wasn't that), but for any match to do well in my book it must have featured some kind of memorable moment which fits into the broader match structure. This match had that, with the armbar on the floor legitimately taking my breath away -- I may have stopped breathing for a good 4 or 5 seconds. Everything felt crisp, and it was an undoubted star making performance. This is my second favourite match of the year thus far. **** 3/4 YES - Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega NJPW 01/04: I think that the 6-star treatment that this match observed is doing it a dis-service. It was an outstanding match. Would I have liked to have seen more from the back work? Sure. Was there superfluous melo-drama? Yes. Was it the best match ever? No, at least not for me as a viewer -- the term isn't well defined for me anyway. Was the match great? Most certainly. And moreover was it 5-stars? I would say so, yes. YES - Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto NJPW 01/04: When Shibata is on he is one of my favourite wrestlers in the world. When Shibata is off he approaches self-parody. He teetered on the line between the two in this match, as he often does with Goto, but there was a lot to love here. For one, they cut down on head-on-head contact, which can only be a positive. At the same time, however, they substitute the brutal and self-destructive headbutt spots with tamer ones to the chest and neck which worked just as well, if not better. Wonderful stuff here. NO - John Cena vs. AJ Styles WWE 01/29: I know that this match hasn't been nominated yet, and so I don't quite know if I can say "no" on it, but I thought that I would put this here as someone who has honestly tried, and subsequently failed time after time to see the appeal of this match-up. Cena as Donkey Kong is wonderful stuff, but since the Owens feud he has done very little for me, unfortunately. Cena was great for well over a decade, not because he was good at working other people's styles, but because (in part) he was an elite base for most anyone. He has lost that with me, unfortunately. Feel free to discount this 'no' vote!

Thanks Dave!

After several weeks worth of delays our 2016 yearbook is out, and I like to think that it is the best thing we have ever put out. We had over a dozen contributors this year covering a wide range of topics from the history of inter-gender wrestling to the year in DDT to IWRG's match of the year, the history of wrestling tournaments, WWE financials, and so much more. We have two different PDF versions of the newsletter up, and one is essentially pre-press quality and so is A-okay for anyone who wants to print their own for whatever reason, or just wants a crisper experience. Any suggestions for future issues, feedback, and general comments would be very much appreciated as always. YEARBOOK CAN BE FOUND HERE *WWE IN 2016: NEW ERA, BRAND SPLIT, AND THE PRESIDENTIAL SWERVE BY ANDREA GREGOVICH *WWE FINANCIAL YEAR IN REVIEW WITH CHRIS HARRINGTON *THE RISE OF WRESTLING TOURNAMENTS BY DAVE MUSGRAVE *THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF THE CRUISERWEIGHT DIVISION BY TODD MARTIN *THE YEAR IN LUCHA LIBRE WITH THECUBSFAN *2016’S MOST INDELIBLE MOMENTS BY PAUL COOKE *ALL IS SEMBLATIVE OF A WOMAN’S PART: A MODERN AND HISTORICAL LOOK AT INTER-GENDER PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING BY BEN CARASS *THE 2016 PODMASS WITH JOE GAGNE *A 2016 PRO-WRES OVERVIEW WITH BRYAN ROSE *WARRIORS BY ALAN COUNIHAN *THE INDIE PURO YEAR IN REVIEW WITH IZZAC *TO PROVE ONE’S VALOUR: THE STORY OF ISHII & TANAHASHI’S 2ND G1 CLASSIC BY RYAN CLINGMAN *THE DRAGON GATE YEAR IN REVIEW WITH ANDREW PUGH *THE DDT YEAR IN REVIEW WITH JAME ‘O DOHERTY Thanks everyone.

I don't really have any horse in this race, but if RINGS was the minor league to PRIDE then why do you think it should count the same for a hall of fame? If anything, shouldn't that answer the question as to why they are treated differently? I think that they definitely should be treated differently, at least to some extent. RINGS was a worked promotion for the majority of its lifetime whilst PRIDE was not, at least in the traditional sense anyway. However, fans in Japan, by most accounts, saw PRIDE as more of a pro-wrestling promotion than an MMA one (there was no MMA concept in Japan at the time as far as I know)

Thanks, Tim -- I'm glad that you enjoyed the article. I pretty much agree with most of this, However, I think that Han would still have a strong case even if he had stopped working after RINGS switched to almost all shoot fights. As a professional wrestler in his style I personally think that he was Hall of Fame tier, but even neglecting that, he drew as second from the top from 1992 to the switch to full shoot in the very late 1990s/very early 2000s. This was when RINGS was drawing as well on a monthly basis as any company in Japan is at the moment. I make the comparison to modern Japanese companies because both Tanahashi and Nakamura made it in on their drawing credentials in this context as well as their working ability.

Do you think there's an argument that Sting's influence case has grown? I'm not saying I agree with it, and if I had a vote I wouldn't vote for Sting, but there's a certain aura around him that has grown in recent years. He's looked at as a legend by a large subject of mainstream wrestling fandom. There's a certain influence that he has. I don't think it sniffs Bryan's influence, or Punk's for that matter, but there's something there. I know that this isn't your argument, but I think that the idea of "aura" is used far too often when discussing the Observer Hall of Fame. I hear this brought up when discussing some of the modern candidates in particular -- Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura for example. Whilst certainly not always the case, I think that some people use points regarding "aura" and "presence" as smoke screens for the lack of concrete hall of fame credentials of these candidates. Take Brock Lesnar for example, before he was inducted I heard his presence brought up in debates repeatedly, but fans certainly seem to react to Lesnar above most others on the (terribly booked) roster this didn't seem to do much for him as far as living up to his price-tag, elevating anyone else on the roster, or producing compelling in-ring content was concerned. Also, shameless plug for an article I wrote on the 2016 HOF.

With the recent inductions of Brock Lesnar, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Sting to the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame I saw this December as a good time to reflect on the reasons behind these inductions, the possibility of a modern bias within both the voting system and electorate, and perhaps most importantly the influence of the WWE historical hype machine on voting patterns. In the article we discuss the cases of Lesnar and Volk Han in particular, as well as general biases and external influences through the lenses of Sting, Nakamura, CM Punk, and others. As always any feedback positive or negative would be very much appreciated! ARTICLE LINK

My co-author, Ben, runs down the biggest wrestling-related stories in a few thousand words every week in his 'Pro-Wres Digest' column on the site. This week he looks at WWE earnings in-brief The most recent developments in the Lesnar USADA violation Results from Japan this week WWE releases, returns, and the Del Rio departure rumour Dragon Gate's big Kobe crowd and the finals of the NOAH Heavyweight Tag League Big Japan's Sumo Hall show and the G1 Zero1, Mr Gonnosuke, and AJPW shows TripleMania news and brief Stardom result The Ratings Any suggestions are always very much appreciated. You can find the run-down here.

Correction -- all gone. Really odd. Clicked on 1981 & 82 and saw a ton of files, went back and now its all empty. I'm still seeing everything. Maybe it's frequency capped? This must be it, everything's still showing for me. Indeed looks to be the case. Crisis averted! Is this ditch's list?

I'm not quite sure how under the radar this is, but Shooters by Jonathan Snowden is probably the best wrestling book that I have ever read -- if not the best certainly top 5. He gives some fairly in-depth biographies of top legitimate tough guys throughout the history of the business, but the book is laid out in such a way that it also serves as a decent introduction to the general history of pro-wrestling in North America and Japan. I can't recommend it highly enough.

They wouldn't allow or want a Nick Diaz. I agree with this. There is a clear paradox here, at least as far as the WWE is concerned. Vince has been quoted by various sources including Dave Meltzer as wanting people to challenge him. However, as we saw with but a playful nudge with Titus 'O Neil, this all depends on who you are and where on the card you are. Okay, so the tippy-top stars can challenge Vince and others, but, to make it to the top you can't challenge management or you will be pushed back down. So in the end very few people end up challenging management, and those that do like Ryback, Punk, and Cody Rhodes end up leaving pretty soon after realizing that the system is unbudging.

Nominating: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (WWE, 07/24) -- Zayn and Owens have been tremendous opponents since their 2010s ROH feud, and whilst their main roster and NXT work hasn't come anywhere close to that iteration in terms of intensity, they managed to adapt much of what made El Generico vs. Kevin Steen so enthralling to the WWE style and Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens this month. I wrote much more about this here. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW, 06/19) -- Ospreay's debut match for NJPW in April was great, but he and KUSHIDA improved on that match in every respect in their second outing. Ospreay's handless handspring back elbow will stick in my mind for a long time as one of the best move-set adaptions this year. Full discussion.

Lesnar is blaming the failure on an inhaler that he used a few weeks ago, which is going to be a pretty strange excuse (even by MMA standards) if he did in fact fail for clomiphene.

Regular contributor to the site and owner of the crossarmbreaker.com review site, Paul Cooke, wrote about his experience with the GWE project and his high-level opinions on the final list this week. You can read Paul's piece here. And his specific GWE thoughts and ballot at his site here. This is my last plug thread for a while.

I agree with some of this, but concussion risk increases with each successive concussion, and I bet that Fujiwara has had a lot of them. Also, whilst bumping is probably worse for everyone's overall health, I can't see them being worse than shoot strikes to the head for long term brain health. I would guess that most of WWE's concussions per year are as a result of routine back bumps gone wrong (some are from botched strikes and freak accidents too), but I would bet that most of the concussions someone like Ishii suffers (I doubt most if any are diagnosed) are due to overly stiff headstrikes and huge backdrops, not bumping night after night. Although, working injured for years is also a really bad idea.

No, definitely not. In fact, I wrote a lot about this for the upcoming Tag Rope coming out soon (this wasn't meant as a cheap plug, but I don't have anything to link to), and I think that good crowd reactions for such spots can be even more damaging as it helps popularize them. I loved Shibata-Ishii from 01/04, but I felt less high on the match afterwards because of some realizations that I had relating to the crazy spots that got big pops, but may have been detrimental to the neurological health of both men. After all, since Shibata's headbutt spots have been getting such great reactions he has been pulling them out more frequently on smaller shows, for example. I don't believe that anyone should be doing these spots anywhere REGARDLESS of crowd response. With that said, at least in the case of the 01/04 match, this brutality garnered some kind of reaction, and so I could at least understand the motivations of Shibata and Ishii in performing the spot. In the case of Fujiwara it just came across as the "this is my spot, and I am going to do it regardless of crowd response, risk to my health, significance to the match, my opponent's health, or anything else" attitude, which from a critical and personal perspective I disagree with to an even greater extent. And, for whatever reason, it came across as pretty sad to me personally.

I love me some Fujiwara, don't get me wrong. But, in 2016, the idea of a 67 year-old ramming his and Aoki's heads into a ring post with significant force to no reaction on a throw-away spot on an AJPW show is an idiotic one in my view. If those spots got a nostalgia pop perhaps I could see some justification, but they didn't and just came across as excessive, dangerous, out-dated, and frankly pretty stupid.

Nomination - Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryota Nakatsu (BASARA 'Debut Show' 2016/01/28) -- Most of what I had to say about this fantastic match was written here. Nomination - Yuji Okabayashi vs. Shuji Ishikawa (BJW 2016/03/06) -- A battle of two big mean beefy men. Nomination - Nicole Savoy vs. Heidi Lovelace vs. Candice LeRae (SHIMMER 80 2016/04/02) -- I loved the WrestleMania Women's Title three-way, and obviously thought that it was the better spectacle. But, as far as pure in-ring was concerned, this was probably the best three-way I have seen this year. Heidi Lovelace may have been one of the best babyfaces of Mania Weekend Dallas. YES - Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll (RPW High Stakes 1/16/2016) -- As far as go-go-go matches are concerned, this was elite tier. YES - Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA (NJPW Invasion Attack 4/10/2016) YES - KUSHIDA vs. Jushin Liger (NJPW 5/3/2016) -- This was honestly one of the best New Japan matches that I have seen all year. Exciting and engaging from start to finish with KUSHIDA showing more aggression than at any other point at the top of the juniors' division. YES - American Alpha vs The Revival (NXT Takeover: The End 6/8/) -- I actually preferred this to their Dallas match. Everything felt a lot more crisp and American Alpha brought the same intensity that the Revival had in Dallas. YES - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sami Zayn (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) -- My second favourite match of the year behind Ospreay/Scurll at present, although I have a lot of catching up to do. YES - Sasha Banks vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch (WWE WrestleMania, 4/3) -- Most likely the best main roster WWE match that I have seen all year. Banks and Lynch were on fire in particular. YES - Zack Sabre Jr. vs Will Ospreay (EVOLVE 58, 4/1) -- Discussion. NO - Triple H vs Dean Ambrose (WWE Roadblock, 3/12) -- I don't see the appeal here. This legitimately put me to sleep a couple of times and I had to go back and rewatch the match. It felt like the standard Triple H main event, although he did make Ambrose look pretty good in losing. NO - Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose (WWE Fastlane, 2/21) -- A failed attempt at recreating the Rumble '15 magic. NO - Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Atsushi Aoki (AJPW 1/3) -- This is probably my worst match of the entire year thus far. I wrote a lot about this here about this here.

I know that Brock has only had about 25 matches since returning in 2012, but I haven't enjoyed the majority of his performances as much as others. The only matches that I can recall enjoying and wanting to watch again are: *vs. John Cena April 2012 *vs. CM Punk August 2013 *vs. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena January 2015 The second Cena match was interesting on first viewing, simply because we hadn't seen anything quite like it in the modern WWF/E, but as others have said, it quickly became a novelty. And with the WWE style being as soul-less and homogenized as I can recall during my time as a wrestling fan, the fact that Brock beat Mark Hunt doesn't really affect my interest one way or another. If someone like Jack Swagger was able to go out there and have a psuedo-shoot-style match with him, then sure Lesnar's victory would have peaked my interest. But, in the world of the WWE, unless Brock mauls Orton in a few seconds, what difference does it make? At the moment my interest level for Orton/Brock sits at "standard Brock match", so slightly above main roster main event level, and I don't see this changing.

Guest writer for the site, Leslie Lee III, did an interview with Dave Prazak a week or two ago and talked to him about some interesting subjects, namely: *Why he is still in the wrestling business *Watching his first Joshi match *His contribution to wrestling *How things have changed in women’s wrestling since he started SHIMMER *Feeling vindicated as a promoter of women's wrestling *SHIMMER in 2016 *Booking with Portia Perez *What promoters want *His favourite SHIMMER show of the first 80 *The future of SHIMMER You can find the interview here. Thanks, everyone.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned him yet, but it's pretty crazy that Baby Face was never nominated. I would rank his work above that of Dynamite, at least from what I have seen.

I'm incredibly surprised that Ultimo Dragon hasn't ranked yet. I expected him to drop significantly this time around.

Thanks everyone! I will probably order it some time within the next few months. As a quick note, the Tabe comp is one of my favourite comps in my collection, although it should be said that a few matches are missing. Thankfully, most are available on the internet somewhere and it is only a handful.

I am being serious when I say that after all of the results are published I will begin my road to GWE 2026. Perhaps you could begin another greatest ever type project, or maybe work on collating all of the results into a GWE comp with the help of Will and company.