One of the big issues for me is I'm relatively new to the Japanese game. I was one of the morons who was hesitant because commentary was in a different language and I just never followed it so it was hard to dive in. I've been playing catch up the past 2-3 years and thanks to YouTube and iPPVs i've been able to watch a ton more and consume years worth of matches in relative quick time.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am saying top five big match worker of ALL TIME. I think he's certainly (really without a doubt actually) the best big match worker of this current era. Cena always rises to the occasion but I'd argue Tanahashi has better bigger matches than Cena and obviously has them with more regularity than a Michaels or Undertaker.
On the podcast I continued to bring up the idea of "era" vs. "all-time" and although these guys are voted groupings with guys from all eras, you still need to take into account era and that needs to be important. Tanahashi has dominated his "era", end of the story for me really. Absolutely been the top star, in the top promotion in Japan, having the consistently best matches. Maybe it doesn't stack up with 90s All Japan level, but that shouldn't really be the debate. He's doing the best he can possibly do, in the era that he's in.
To answer your original question though, not sure I can feel totally comfortable saying top five big match worker of all-time just because I haven't consumed or studied enough to say that — he certainly is the top big match worker of his era though. Very comfortable in saying that.
