donsem43

Stardom has uploaded one of the best top to bottom cards in company history to YouTube. The 3 title matches + Hazuki/SLK are worth the time to watch.

Back in the early 00's you had people going through all of the AJW and JWP (post split) commercial tapes. The first run of AJW Classics on Samurai TV. GAEA and Arsion were still fresh in people's minds. All of that talk fizzled out after 2006. I didn't help the current joshi scene at that time was deader than an already dead scene in Japan. Things didn't start to really pick up until Meltzer started talking about Stardom, specifically the 12/23/15 Io Shirai/Meiko Satomura match. Then newer fans started watching 90's AJW and some Japanese fans started uploading tonnes of 80's AJW up on YouTube. With current joshi, barely any Stardom wrestlers were nominated. Maybe Kamitani and Starlight Kid do well but AZM finished down at 385 and she's fairly well regarded outside of joshi circles. On the Horsewomen, only Mercedes is the only one who hasn't had drop in favour since the start of the decade. People's view on her might have dropped to if she stayed in WWE.

The only thing that I can think of is people finding BAHU's work and really getting into it. It can't just be a deathmatch thing otherwise someone like Masashi Takeda would have done way better. I thought I was being optimistic thinking he would making it past 250. It's extremely rare to see anyone talk about he in-ring work these days. Reading the non-troll #1 votes it getting more and more clear to me that younger fans need to feel a personal investment with a wrestler in order to think of them as one of the greats. If you are someone bemoaning the drop of World of Sport and older territory guys and want to change that, you need to realize that just going "(Wrestler X) is great!" then listing a handful of matches that people need to watch isn't going to get the job done. You need to a more elaborate, involved sell job than that.

Before this thread, I had only spent about 30 seconds thinking about Lulu Pencil and I watch a lot of joshi wrestling. After I read this thread for last time I'll doubt I'll think about Lulu Pencil for more than 30 seconds. Anyway, I have 69 left. 42 in my top 50.

24.5% of the people who voted started watching in 2010 or later. You're not going reach these people in ways that were common ten years ago. Twitter engagement has been replaced by TikToks/IG Stories/YouTube Shorts. Blog posts have been replaced by video essays. Podcasts have been replaced by interactive streams. You also have to find a way to package it in an attractive way plus find a catchy way to sell it. You can't just plop it in front of people saying "Watch this it's great!" That won't work these days.

I have 76 left but there's about 15 or so, including 4 in my top 50, that I'm genuinely surprised that they have last as long as they have.

Ron Garvin is the closest I've come to a top vote. I had him at 39. Asuka, Arisa Nakajima, Meiko Satomura, Dynamite Kansai, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Shinobu Kandori, Bull Nakano, Dump Matsumoto, Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka, Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami. That's two dozen women left. More than 10% of those left to be named. Not bad, about what I would've guess before this started. Shocked Saya Kamitani didn't get a last minute nomination. She could have at least been in this range fueled by recency bias. Considering how many people pump up her tires, Mio Momono ranking is fairly surprising.

Comedy wrestlers not just getting on lists but receiving extremely high votes.

This is the start of their rivalry that would last for nearly the next 2 years. At this point, Anou had really put everything together as a wrestler while Iwata was snapping the final few pieces into place. The early back and forth is pretty even. Iwata has a clear advantage in striking while Anou does better when the pace quickens. A short excursion to the outside turn the tide in Anou's favour when she kicks out Iwata's leg when she attempts to do a running kick on the apron. Anou's attack zeros in on the injured leg even busting out a Figure 8. Iwata manages to stay in the match with some well timed submission counters and getting kicks in at any opportunity. This goes to a 15 minute draw but the time flies by so quickly that you'd swear it only went half that time. So pretty good chirping at the end foreshadows the future between these two. ***¾

I don't actually mind pre Shield breakup Rollins. Post breakup though...

This is quite the sprint. Just like the Toronto match, Steamboat is in complete control in the early going but he goes for a top rope splash and ends up eating Robert's knees. Jake follows up by focusing in Steamboat's midsection and keeps going back to it throughout the match. Steamboat keeps firing back in strike exchanges to stay in the match. He eventually gets lucky catching Roberts with a crucifix for the win. It's a shame that they had another flash pin finish but at least this one was less awkward then in Toronto.

Poor Psicosis, what a horrific sandwich to be stuck in. Shimoda got push as Manami Toyota's tag partner in '95-'96 plus had more singles matches in the late 90's/early 00's. I imagine that's where the difference is.

According to Fightful, Asuka signed a multi-year deal last fall. Oh well... Asuka vs. Chihiro Hashimoto would have been pretty cool too.

We are very much into "Very niche wrestler who you could see doing well on a few people's list" territory. Has Yokozuna been named yet? Curious if an actual yokozuna, Akebono, did better than him. Although I think the fake one was the better in-ring worker. TJPW and ChocoPro women finishing higher than Yumi Fukawa gets a big ol' 😕 from me... Trevor Lee and Shuji Kondo should be on the list of wrestlers who would have definitely done better if there would have been a list in 2021. Hopefully with Shimmer starting to upload their stuff to YouTube more people will check out the work of the likes of Madison Eagles and Nicole Matthews Rusher Kimura was amazing as an outsider in both AJPW and NJPW. All of the 70's/80's AJW wrestlers who either didn't do anything in the 90's, or nothing of note, are all dropping together. Would imagine we'll see Yukari Omori sooner rather than later. How did only 2% of people voted for Buddy Landell??? Was he a late cut for a lot of people? There is an argument that Akira Tozawa is the most talented wrestler ever to be completely wasted by WWE.

Syuri vs. Asuka for the IWGP title as the semi-main.