North South

Nominating: Mil Mascaras vs. The Destroyer: AJPW (10/9/73) - Solid work in all of this. Mil is nifty playing on the mat with Destroyer, and gets rather snapy when he gets out-countered. Good body work and simple and smart wrestling. Nice quality match. vs. The Destroyer: AJPW (7/25/74) - Superb battle in the rematch which shows that these two clicked well in the first outing. Mil does a lot of cool lucha based mat work with Beyer adding nice little touches. For me this is a top three match for All Japan in '74. vs. Jumbo Tsuruta: AJPW (8/25/77) - Mil looks very smooth twisting Jumbo into all sorts of shapes, which is one of the performances of his I've enjoyed the most. Very good effort and Jumbo looks fine as usual. This match sucked me in straight away, which speaks strongly for it.

Nominating with reviews: John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Eddie Guerrero: Judgment Day 2004 - Hard hitting and bloody brawl, with Eddie giving one of his career performances and Bradshaw showing more than he ever had. The champion shows incredible heart while the challenger inflicts massive damage on him with strong fury. Killer brawl, and a career best performance from JBL up until this point. vs. Rey Mysterio: Judgment Day 2006 - Rey does a super job as the struggling babyface at the mercy of the powerful Bradshaw. JBL does a basic job of grounding Rey, with Rey busting into life at certain times. As far as heel performances go this was a masterful showing from Bradshaw. He's such a bully. Strong stuff here. vs. Finlay: WrestleMania XXIV - Sweet brawl between these two which is fun from start to finish. Finlay can brawl with the best of them and Bradshaw shows his decent skills in this setting really well. Good brawl.

To JvK..... I enjoyed both of those matches a fair bit, but it wasn't Tully's performance in either of them that did it for me. The Starrcade match I felt was a killer showing from Steamboat, and an okay one from Tully. As for the Clash tag, I liked Tully's performance in that more than Luger's, and less than Barry's or Arn's. Once again, I think Tully is a sound wrestler, just not one who blew me away with what he himself did in the ring pretty much all the time.

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I'm very sure about the following not making my list, having re-watched all of them over the time of this project: The Great Sasuke: Having watched all of his work from the 90's and so on I've been left feeling nothing. I was left thinking Sataru Sayama was a much more well rounded wrestler than Sasuke ever was. And that's also taking in that Tiger Mask is on the edge of falling off my list. I find Sasuke to be lacking in many areas in the ring. Just seemed to have no good understanding of structure, being the man of a match or how to make a match feel memorable. Tully Blanchard: I think the Magnum I Quit cage match is a classic. I also think he might have had a better series of matches with Dusty than Flair. But it's not enough. I found him to be very underwhelming in everything else i seen him in. He has good smarts, but not the smarts of a guy who is top 100 in terms of what he did in the ring Chris Jericho: Always found him to be overrated. Real sloppy performer who as someone on here pointed out never *got it* as a worker. Basically a guy with the tools but not the mind. Sting: Not worth the time for me. Vader series was excellent. Nothing else i cared about. AJ Styles: Never been a fan. Think i'm the only one as it's seems even his biggest critics have thrown him a bone here and there. Don't enjoy the offense, don't enjoy the structure, don't enjoy anything about him. If i was ever gonna like him i would have by now. Just don't get anything out of watching AJ Styles. Giant Baba: Good mat worker, but nothing that special. I understand he is what he is, but I just can't see there not being 100 other wrestlers not being better. Love the Destroyer match, and i liked his stuff with Harley but that's pretty much it. Dory Funk Jr: Has an all time classic for me with Inoki from 12/2/69 (JWA), haven't enjoyed a single performance after that. Find him incredibly hard to watch 99% of the time. More to follow......

I was watching random 80's matches on YouTube and Dailymotion when I came across Sawyer. The first match I watched of his was with Terry Taylor from Crockett (I'd say it's from 1985). The match just sucked me in from start to finish, thanks to Sawyer's performance. One of those wrestlers you just watch for the first time and just want to see more from, as soon as you can. Going on to watch more of his bouts from Georgia, Florida, Mid South, JCP, World Class and WCW just made me totally fall for him. Guy just oozed quality in pretty much everything I seen him in. I haven't even checked out is tag work yet. He's got matches out there, from 1979-1990 with Terry Taylor, Jim Duggan, Tommy Rich, Tully Blanchard, Bret Hart, Arn Anderson, Jack Brisco, Ted DiBasie and Kevin Von Erich. Also a good amount of tags which I've yet to watch. Going by what I've seen, and how much I've liked it, I just know Buzz is gonna have a spot in my top 100. I can see him anywhere on my list from #51 - #80. From looking at where he ended up in the 2006 poll, it seemed many at the time had not seen much (if any) of his work at that stage. He really seems like a wrestler with the talent who should at the very worst crack the top 150 this time. That can only happen if more people take a look at him. To see for themselves if he belongs. I think so.

This would be my top four. I'm yet to decide on everyone else. 1. Bret Hart 2. Kenta Kobashi 3. Toshiaki Kawada 4. Ric Flair

Randy Savage was on fire in the WWF in '86. The series with Tito Santana, the 7/27/86 Toronto match with Steamboat, the awesome ten minute cage match with Adonis against Bruno and Tito, his series of matches with Hogan which are clearly better than their '89 series. A match i haven't seen but remember someone here saying was watchable (jdw?), a match with George Steele from SNME. Seems like someone who should be talked about for the year.

I can honestly say i have never seen a Booker T match that has entertained me. I think he's a flat-out bad worker due to fact that i've never enjoyed a single match he's ever had. I guess when your brother is Stevie Ray and he's far worse than you, people are going to think your good. But most of us know that's just not true. Again, another guy i nominated as there were people who did like him back in the late '90's. A reason to discuss him.

I never saw any real talent in The Sandman as a wrestler or at really anything else for that matter. But with the likes of other ECW performers such as Tommy Dreamer and New Jack getting nominated, i decided why not him? From what i've saw, his best years as a worker are 1995 and his 1999 WCW run as Hak. The two ECW matches of his that i like would be the '95 ladder match with Mikey Whipwreck and the '98 PPV match with Sabu. I actually don't think his WCW '99 matches with Kendell Windham (Nitro - 4/5/99) and Bam Bam Bigelow (Spring Stampede - 4/11/99) themselves were any bad. Wouldn't be anywhere near my list, but one person did vote for him a vote in the 2006 poll. Take that for what you will.

I dig Milano a good bit myself. Clearly one of the better guys of the Toryumon era. I think the 1/15/05 Saito match may be his career match and performance. A real super outing. I also enjoyed a good chunk of his other matches in Japan. He showed skill in being able to carry dry workers to quality matches also. The Wataru Inoue NJPW bouts from 9/06 and 6/07 are decent examples. His U.S. indy work is also pretty interesting. Rock-solid matches in ROH, IWA-MS and Chikara with the likes of Samoa Joe, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. Truth is, he maybe wouldn't make my top 100 due to the quality levels of so many others. But chances are he would crack my top 150.

Added reviews for Homicide and Debbie.

I've posted three reviews for Cruz, Tenzan, Booker, Kojima and Spivey. Joe Malenko is covered. Someone can look around for match links for Dream Machine, Homicide, Milano, Sandman and Debbie.

Listed these in the star rating thread - CM Punk vs. Chris Hero: IWC - 3/22/02 Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong: IWA-MS - 9/30/06 Super Dragon vs. TARO: Revolution Pro - 11/29/03 (Mask vs. Mask) Samoa Joe vs. Chris Hero: IWC - 11/13/04 Punk/Hero and Hero/Strong are *** matches at best, but are worth watching even if they are kind of short. Dragon/TARO and Joe/Hero i think are two great matches which i rate at ****. Can't decide which is better as their both about of the same quality. Make sure you track them two down if you have not yet.

Off the top of my head ***** Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada: AJPW - 9/30/90 Buddy Rogers vs. Pat O'Connor: Chicago - 6/30/61 Dory Funk Jr. vs. Antonio Inoki: JWA - 12/2/69 Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin: WWF - 3/23/97 El Hijo Del Santo vs. Negro Casas vs. El Dandy: CMLL - 12/6/96 Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk: WCW - 11/15/89 Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada: AJPW - 1/19/95 Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue: AJPW - 6/9/95 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi: AJPW - 1/20/97 **** The Destroyer vs. Toyonobori: JWA - 2/26/65 Antonio Inoki vs. Tatsumi Fujinami: NJPW - 9/19/85 Curt Hennig vs. Nick Bockwinkel: AWA - 5/2/87 Chris Hero vs. Samoa Joe: IWC - 11/13/04 Aja Kong vs. Yumiko Hotta: AJW - 1/20/94 Verne Gagne vs. Billy Robinson: IWE - 11/20/74 Bob Backlund vs. Don Muraco: WWF - 10/17/81 Ric Flair vs. Koko Ware: Memphis - 11/18/85 Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho: WWE - 3/30/03 Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA: NWA - 11/28/85 Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich: WCCW - 12/25/82 Eddie Edwards vs. Kotaro Suzuki: NOAH - 1/29/11 Javier Cruz vs. Jerry Estrada: EMLL - 10/20/89 Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind: WWF - 9/22/96 Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto: AJW - 9/2/95 Wild Pegasus vs. Black Tiger: NJPW - 6/11/96 Triple H vs. Cactus Jack: WWF - 1/23/00 Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka: NJPW - 8/6/94 Edge/Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit: WWE - 10/20/02 Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura: RINGS - 1/22/97 Jeff Jarrett vs. Shawn Michaels: WWF - 7/23/95 El Hijo Del Santo vs. La Parka: Monterrey - 12/23/01 Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit: WWF - 5/29/01 Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura: GAEA - 4/29/01 Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan: WWF - 6/3/91 Dick Murdoch vs. Killer Karl Kox: AJPW - 12/9/76 Super Dragon vs. TARO: Revolution Pro - 11/29/03 Mayumi Ozaki vs. Takako Inoue: JWP - 6/20/93 Steve Austin vs. Dude Love: WWF - 5/31/98 Espanto Jr. vs. El Hijo Del Santo: Monterrey - 8/31/86 Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart: WWF - 8/3/97 Javier Cruz vs. Ciclon Ramierz: CMLL - 6/20/94 Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett: WCW - 12/19/99 Sgt. Slaughter/Don Kernodle vs. Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood: NWA - 3/12/83 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Bruiser Brody: AJPW - 4/14/88 Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit: WWE - 3/14/04 Ric Flair vs. Jumbo Tsuruta: AJPW - 6/8/82 Jun Akiyama vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan: NJPW - 8/17/03 Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman: WCW - 9/14/98 Randy Savage/Adrian Adonis vs. Tito Santana/Bruno Sammartino: WWF - 7/12/86 Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama: NOAH - 4/25/04 Chris Benoit vs. William Regal: WWE - 7/12/05 El Hijo Del Santo/Atlantis vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Lobo Rubio: EMLL - 11/25/83 Ric Flair vs. Wahoo McDaniel: Florida - 9/2/85 I know it's only 5's and 4's, but here is my matches at *** CM Punk vs. Chris Hero: IWC - 3/22/02 Harley Race vs. King Kong Bundy: WCCW - 8/15/82 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe: NJPW - 8/11/08 Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero: WWF - 6/23/96 Milano Collection AT vs. Wataru Inoue: NJPW - 6/17/07 Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi: NJPW - 4/13/07 Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho: WCW - 9/15/96 Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart: WWF - 2/18/96 Sgt. Slaughter vs. Pat Patterson: WWF - 5/4/81 Blue Panther vs. Super Astro: AAA - 10/8/92 Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah The Butcher: WWC - 6/15/86 Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada: AJW - 12/9/89 Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler: USWA - 1/5/91 Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger: WCW - 5/19/90 CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong: ROH - 6/12/05 Randy Savage vs. Tito Santana: WWF - 4/22/86 Dennis Stamp vs. Merced Solis: Amarillo - 4/??/79 Bob Backlund vs. Hulk Hogan: WWF - 4/12/80 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Kensuke Sasaki: NJPW - 1/4/00 Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell: Memphis - 3/29/82 Ric Flair vs. Jeff Jarrett: WCW - 5/29/00 Dusty Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson: NWA - 9/9/86 Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz vs. Edge/Christian: WWF - 8/27/00 Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong: IWA-MS - 9/30/06 Jerry Lawler/Dutch Mantell vs. Bill Dundee/Buddy Landel: Memphis - 3/10/86 Triple H vs. The Rock: WWF - 8/15/00 Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka/Shinya Makabe vs. Super Delphin/Takehiro Murahama/Tsubasa: NJPW - 12/14/00 Lex Luger vs. Ricky Steamboat: WCW - 7/23/89 Dave Finlay vs. Young David: WOS - 3/12/82 Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle: WWE - 3/14/04 Chris Hero vs. Bryan Danielson: ROH - 1/14/06 Chris Hero vs. Jerry Lynn: ROH - 5/8/09 Shawn Michaels/Randy Orton vs. Edge/Christian: WWE - 2/21/05 Samoa Joe vs. Homicide: ROH - 5/31/03 KENTA vs. Chris Hero: ROH - 10/12/09

Here is a few more nominations: Joe Malenko Milano Collection A.T. The Sandman Homicide https://jzsaysretrohreviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/homicide-the-notorious-187/ Debbie Malenko http://flikreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/ajw-tv-9111992.html http://flikreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/ajw-8301992.html http://flikreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/ajw-9151992-bull-nakano-10-year.html

This lot have not been nominated yet, so i'll nominate them...... Javier Cruz http://deathvalleydriver.com/forum/index.php?/topic/644-jerry-estrada-vs-javier-cruz-102089/ http://deathvalleydriver.com/forum/index.php?/topic/631-javier-cruz-vs-hombre-bala-63089/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15755-ciclon-ramirez-vs-javier-cruz-cmll-060794-hair-match/ Hiroyoshi Tenzan http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27117-genichiro-tenryu-shiro-koshinaka-vs-masa-chono-hiroyoshi-tenzan-njpw-best-of-the-super-juniors-060598/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/20346-shinya-hashimoto-vs-hiroyoshi-tenzan/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25858-jun-akiyama-vs-hiroyoshi-tenzan-njpw-g-1-climax-081703/ Booker T http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27090-booker-t-vs-chris-benoit-wcw-thunder-052798/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27083-chris-benoit-vs-booker-t-wcw-monday-nitro-052598/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/28118-bret-hart-vs-booker-t-wcw-monday-nitro-022299/ Satoshi Kojima http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25790-toshiaki-kawada-vs-satoshi-kojima-njpw-super-force-group-declaration-060601/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25818-genichiro-tenryu-vs-satoshi-kojima-ajpw-summer-action-series-071702/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/21722-toshiaki-kawada-vs-satoshi-kojima-ajpw-realize-021605/ Dan Spivey http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18297-lex-luger-vs-dan-spivey-wcw-wrestle-war-022491/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18436-stan-hansen-dan-spivey-vs-steve-williams-terry-gordy-ajpw-championship-carnival-041891/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18584-mitsuharu-misawa-toshiaki-kawada-vs-stan-hansen-dan-spivey-ajpw-super-power-series-060791/ Dream Machine

RVD for me is a wrestler who might not be the smartest but is just flat out fun. The best two years of his career are 2001 and 2006, with 2001 being his best year. '01 saw real strong matches and performances against Jeff Hardy, Jericho, Austin, Angle, The Undertaker and Kane. His 2006 featured decent stuff with Cena (twice), Rey Mysterio, Test and the best match of Bob Holly's career. His WWE work in other years could be seen as good if somewhat flawed. Outside of that I enjoyed the hell out of the 6/9/95 Dan Kroffat match from All Japan, and his ECW work has the matches with Doug Furnas, Jerry Lynn, Sabu, Bam Bam Bigelow and Lance Storm. He was off more times than when he was on, but he a blast when he was having a good night. Where I stand right now, he has a chance at making my list, but he's not set in stone (just like The Great Sasuke). I guess it comes down to how others do for me over the next year and a half.

At this point Sasuke might or might not make my final list. I get the feeling he won't make it, but we'll see overall. Just depends on how well others do on my ballot within the next two years. I watched a good amount of his matches from MPro, New Japan, WAR and WWF this week on YouTube. Super Delfin: MPro - 7/24/93 Liger: NJPW - 4/16/94 & 7/8/94 Benoit: NJPW - 4/16/94 Ultimo: WAR - 7/17/94 & NJPW - 8/5/96 Taka: WWF - 7/7/97 & MPro - 10/10/97 Togo: MPro - 6/5/11 I enjoyed these matches. The best of the bunch being the Liger J Cup match. The Togo bout was the weakest but for 2011 it was rock solid. The thing about Sasuke is that while those were all truly quality matches, it was the guys he was in there with who were the man of the match. But with that said he did look good in all of them, just not 100 greatest all time good. I'm going to check out his tag and multi-man work to see what he can bring to the table in them. So, he's got a real good list of matches to his name, but performances in them which were not world class. I think i'll drop him at the end but who knows.

My rough list so far (not in order, just who came into my head first): 1. Bret Hart 2. Kenta Kobashi 3. Toshiaki Kawada 4. Ric Flair 5. Javier Cruz 6. CM Punk 7. Brock Lesnar 8. The Great Sasuke 9. El Hijo Del Santo 10. Shawn Michaels 11. Dynamite Kid 12. Randy Savage 13. Rey Mysterio Jr. 14. Jeff Jarrett 15. El Dandy 16. Jumbo Tsuruta 17. Terry Funk 18. The Destroyer 19. Billy Robinson 20. Steve Austin 21. Dustin Rhodes 22. Chris Benoit 23. Juventud Guerrera 24. Jushin Liger 25. Stan Hansen 26. Pirata Morgan 27. Giant Baba 28. Hulk Hogan 29. Chris Hero 30. Akira Maeda 31. Dick Murdoch 32. Ricky Steamboat 33. Steven/William Regal 34. Rob Van Dam 35. Kurt Angle 36. Blue Panther 37. Negro Casas 38. Curt Hennig 39. Nick Bockwinkel 40. Bob Backlund 41. The Undertaker 42. Manami Toyota 43. Eddie Guerrero

Some WCW recommendations - Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair: Las Vegas, NV (Handheld) - 2/20/98. I myself would take this over their Souled Out match. Very solid match between these two. Worth watching if you are in to either guy. Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage: Slamboree - 5/17/98 Another good, solid battle. See what you think of it. Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.: Great American Bash - 6/14/98 Super bout between Eddie and Chavo here. Really watchable with lots of cool spots. Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger: Nitro - 8/10/98 Bret gives maybe his greatest performance of 1998. Luger gives maybe his greatest performance in years. Very nifty t.v. match. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera: Thunder - 11/12/98 Juvi was my favourite WCW worker of '98 and he shows it here. Rey is his usual self. A match I don't think anybody really knows about, which they should. Eddie Guerrero/Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr./Billy Kidman: Nitro - 12/28/98 15 minutes of slick tag action. Eddie and Juvi are a sweet team. Rey brings it, and Kidman doesn't get in the way too much.

Hi there, I've been a lurker on this board for the last couple of years, and I've decided to join up. Like mostly everybody here I grew up watching WWE. That was until I discovered other wrestling in 2003. Since then I've been watching wrestling from the U.S., Japan, Mexico and elsewhere in all the decades past. Some of my all time favourite guys are Bret, Kobashi, Kawada, Flair and El Dandy. I hope to post regularly and enjoy my time here. Thanks.