GOTNW

I'm fascinated that someone would actively look for Meltzer's star ratings (maybe this wasn't the case and it's just a bit you happened to remember but w/e) after watching matches. Maybe I'm just too young to give a shit but even when I first started watching great stuff it was a lot more due to the rep of a particular match (Joe-Kobashi, AJ-Daniels-Joe) than one man's star rating.

I found pretty much all NXT Women Title Matches to be overrated and wouldn't consider any of them as serious MOTYCs. Really don't see how Brock/Roman is a near-perfect/all time great match but I definitely enjoyed it more than Sasha/Bayley.

He is probably my favourite squash wrestler, I doubt he'll make my list but if I were basing it on favouritism only he probably would. Enjoyed his big matches vs. Takada, Kawada etc. and watching him suplex the shit out of people is always a treat.

SHINYA HASHIMOTO VS SATORU SAYAMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7QXDdHai-c This is probably the most important video of my life. Like I think there's a chance I encountered it somewhere before and then forgot about it but finding it right now, at this stage of my life, holds a meaning that is hard to put into words. It may not even be worked but who cares it's HASHIMOTO AND SAYAMA. This is a boxing match from a japanese TV game show. It's awesome. Great visuals, goofy gloves, punches to the face. Is it even pro wrestling? It should be. It rules.

It is what it is. In his New Japan junior stuff you'd get glimpses of what he could do, whereas in his WOS stuff pretty much every transition struck me as a holy shit moment.

Satoru Sayama vs Yuji Ito-Gracie Tournament 29.7.1994. Firstly I'd like to thank the person that helped me decipher Yuji Ito's kanji/name and made this review possible. One of my favourite things right now is finding as many Sayama shoot matches as possible and their inaccessibility and the convoluted youtube journeys I have to go throught to find them make them even more amusing. They mostly seem to be exhibitions on MMA cards. This was completely badass, just them trying to cramp as much cool stuff as they could, kind of like a highlight video of neat kicks, submissions and takedowns. The lack of struggle is something that could usually bother me but here I thought it was acceptable because of the medium and the purpose of the match. The technique Sayama showcased in his execution was tremendous. A GIF match, but a great one. ***1/2

I haven't watched all of his UWF stuff yet but if it's as great as what I've been watching so far I'll probably rank him. The one young lion match of his I found totally rules, his World Of Sport stuff is GREAT, to the point if it was the stuff getting the hype the DK matches do I'd even be inclined to agree with it, he really looks like the most athletic performer ever there. HIs junior stuff I also like but would agree is overhyped. He was one of the strongest influences on my favourite style (shoot) and that's something I'm going to count in.

........fuck.

Hashimoto vs Kojima for the Triple Crown in 2004 is an amazing match, significantly better than their 1998 G1 match imo. Also greatly enjyoed his Triple Crown matches vs Muta and Arashi and LOVED his ZERO-1 matches vs. Masato Tanaka and Otsuka. Hashimoto/Otsuka vs Misawa/Ogawa rules as well. And there's a great Choshu singles match from a Dome show in 2001. Also recommend a singles match vs. Steve Corino from 2001.

He was the admin on the puroresu.tv board and posted on DVDVR as Daniel/ダニエル.

There a couple of thing to address in this: 1)People who are super high on Taue and regard high as an all time great are usually really big fans of japanese wrestling (shocking! I know). Most people that watch japanese wrestling don't view it like you do (I mean, most wrestling fans in general don't, but it's especially true for a style that's built so much on physicality, which isn't something that's as important in match quality as it is in grabbing someone's eye and getting them to check something new out). 2)As I've mentioned before you don't have a full grasp on Taue. I think right now his role in the All Japan tag matches is what you're so impressed with but I seriously doubt you've seen him in enough roles to understand why thinking Taue is a lesser worker than Misawa, Kawada or Kobashi is a majority opinion. 3)There's a pretty big chance Taue is going to do worse on this poll 3)Taue has been defended as an all time great for years. Daniel made a great video about it a few years ago which I'd recommend:

But it's not YOUR canon, and you've admitted to as much, so your statement doesn't really have much merit. You can talk about canon in american wrestling, All Japan or whatever else you "get" and have indulged in significantly. But where does the admiration stem from? Their influence on a bunch of artists you don't care for? Their reputation? The number of people that like them? Great art should greatly resonate with you. Enjoyment and your opinion of an "objective quality" of something aren't always going to be a 100% match but it's a problem every quality reviewer quickly disposes of. If it's not worthy of your love in some form.......why is it on your list?

The problem I have with Parv is he doesn't really watch wrestling with the intention to understand it but rather to form some kind of a quasi elitist completist best of, very much like a Rolling Stone critic. If you don't think the Velvet Underground And Nico is among the top xx albums you ranking it like it is is disingenuous. Ditto El Dandy or whatever famous wrestler we all think rules but you don't. I do think it's that great (and would have it like top three at worst)-but once you see what other stuff I'm into it's blatant why I hold it in such high esteem. Even if you do understand what makes something great there's really no point in you spending time digesting it and analyzing it if you're not getting much out of it. It's YOUR time, after all. And also putting it onto a "best of" list based on its influence is undermining all other great influential albums you also couldn't get into. If you put enough effort into "getting" lucha I'm sure you could at least understand why we all think a certain wrestler is considered great but your mind seems so corroded with an idea of what you think wrestling is I don't really see it as worthwhile. Stick to what you enjoy and just go through as much of it. Just don't go around imposing it as some kind of "truth".

I'm too old to hate people for not being good at fake fighting but my least favourite non-backyard wrestlers are Randy Orton and Hirooki Goto.

I mean Lizmark was doing Northern Lights Suplexes so.....

I have no idea what the consensus on Fujiwara was in 1992 on RSPW boards or w/e but the idea he is only regarded as an all time great here and on dvdvr/segunda caida is laughable and completely incorrect. Maybe Meltzer's followers don't puch much stock into him but that means less than it ever did. I mean it makes sense that someone who doesn't spend time interacting with younger fans would think that "things are how they once were" but they're not.

I feel like I should respond to this with a detailed explanation of how stupid american wrestling is.

They could always just snatch him from DDT.....

I like Kotaro but.............seriously? I really don't see how he's list-worthy if the list isn't focused specifically on japanese juniors.

I'll remain positive since I presume no one is going to vote for him. A few yearso this post would've been full of rage and capital letters but I've matured since that (and that involved watching less Kanemaru matches). There are certain things Kanemaru is good at. He's ready to absolutely kill himself with stupid bumps. This doesn't mean that much by itself, but when a better worker reels him in and makes him work their pace it can either lead the sheer ridiculousness some (like me!) are going to love (vs. Takaiwa) or just very good matches (vs. KENTA). He has very good fundamentals. This is almost a given for almost all All Japan/NOAH guys from that time period but he's not someone who'll blow a bunch of spots or bump inappropriately or whatever. What he lacks is understanding of pro wrestling, selling nuance, creating struggle and charisma/presence and unfortunately for him those are the things I care about the most. I'll also say there was a period in 2010-2011 where he bizarrely started building his matches around Headlocks and became a very good, perhaps even great? (okay probably not) worker for a while. But yeah.......Yoshinobu Kanemaru is not very good at pro wrestling and I do not enjoy watching him pro wrestle. Also his Brainbusters look terrible and devalue the move. Do a Suplex or do a proper Brainbuster. Should also note that despite being the hardest pushed junior in NOAH history he has never been as over as his peers.

Were any of his matches in 2000 other than the Foley garbage matches and the TAKA match actually good?

Yeah but there was just no way that was going to happen. Also for the pace of the match to work they had to have Miyahara sell Akebono's cut-offs as death. Akebono moving slowly is a given due to his shape, Miyahara putting over his stuff and playing his role to a T isn't.

Akebono's "pacing" is just a consequence of the shape he's in and not some great artistic choice(thought if it works for you I guess it doesn't really matter). The only other pace it could've been worked at would be the one he works against Doering, Suwama etc. which they didn't choose for obvious reasons. But I really don't get what you're aiming at saying it and his "approach" made "a good match great". What exactly about his approach was it? That's a pretty vague formulation. And also why wouldn't it have been a great match without it and how do you think they'd have worked it differently for it to be good but not great.

I haven't seen anyone claim he is that good. I'll acknowledge his improvement but the quality of his matches still largely depends on how his opponents will react to him. Akebono's strenghts are his presense and cut-offs and he doesn't even use them all the time. It's hard to take this statement seriously considering that the match they had last year that got pimped as a japanese MOTY on some places was wrestled when Akebono was sick and could glaringly barely move. Somehow I think Miyahara knew what he was doing in there.

It must suck to be so jaded with wrestling.