GOTNW

I actually don't remember if I'd ever watched this match prior to today. If I did it was in 2009 when I was in my second year of watching wrestling. (Re?)watching it wasn't a priority because I don't hold either man in high regard. For some reason I decided to do just that today. The first minute and a half were amazing-they actually made the size difference matter by having Michaels only get in control when Undertaker would miss a strike and then quickly run away. This resulted in some great moments like Taker countering Michaels' strike by grabbing his hand and then throwing him halfway across the ring in which Michaels took his usual corner bump but in a much more brutal and realistic way. That whole exchange was so well done. Then Michaels does a crotch chop and fakes an injury for three seconds and I instantly remember why he sucks. This is pretty much identical to Go Shiozaki vs Zeus except these guys were fifteen years older than them which makes the way they worked even more stupid. They did the workrate submission sequences you'd expect but outside of their flashiness there was no point to them. Michaels used a Crossface because GREAT WRESTLERS DO CROSSFACES. No wonder Cesaro and Harper got them. Undertaker's big dive was super ugly and derailed the match a lot. Michaels used a lot of Chops in the middle portion but he doesn't hit as hard as Go Shiozaki and really it wouldn't make any difference if he'd hit one of his shitty punches instead because that's just how WWE uses strikes. There was at least one WWE big match strike exchange™ and it's a good thing those aren't overused because they make me yearn for Goto vs Yujiro. Michaels' acting and facial expressions were horrible but perhaps fitting since WWE's target audience is 8 years old? The Tombstone DDT counter and the aforemention Suicide Dive came off like Cena doing indy moves he shouldn't be doing. Taker countering Michaels' Moonsault Plancha by pushing him aside looked amazing. Finishing stretch really showed how good WWE used to be in conning people. There was no way this was going to end with the Chokeslam, Last Ride or the first Superkick but everyone popped like crazy for them. It also reminded me of JR saying Undertaker "almost had him" with a Sidewalk Slam which is about as preposterous as a call can be. The finish was contrived. I'm not going to completely shit on this because I've seen enough Michaels/HHH matches to know how trully appaling WWE big match style can be but this wasn't very good. Definitely not as good as Go Shiozaki vs Zeus. I appreciate their insane desire to harm their body with insane bumps and there were parts, albeit small, that I liked. **3/4 sounds about right. Mostly it showcased how bad WWE has gotten at making matches feel special by diminishing everything. Their idea of a great match includes big spots and finisher kick-outs so if they ruin both what's left? They've always been more about smoke and mirrors than actually good wrestling and just lucked into good/great workers.

Interesting how Jingus had the courtesy of comparing me to a hateful homophobe because I disagreed with him over a pro wrestling thing he is clearly wrong about showcased by his shock at a norm of japanese isolationism everyone that is even remotely familiar with the culture is aware of. Lad-breathe in, breathe out and log off. No reason to start screaming at every single person that dares to have a different opinion than you-both here and at DVDVR. ECW died 14 years ago. Put that into perspective.

Don't kid yourself, most of Sandman's "fame" comes from participating in those WWECW reunion shows.

We had a similar thread like this with some really cool responses on the puroresu.tv board before it died an untimely death I got into pro wrestling because I saw two guys fighting in the ring. I was a big fan of action movies and kickboxing/MMA. I was informed it was "fake" while I was watching my second show ever but it really didn't influence me one way or the other. I just suspended my disbelief like I did for any other TV show. I presumed 99% of those are fake anyway. In comparison to action movies and real fighting pro wrestling is just clearly superior in creating intrigue and drama without making me unintentionally laugh at them. I liked the wacky action movies but it didn't take me long to get too old for them, just like it didn't take me long to stop being emotionally invested in WWE storylines due to poor acting and writing. In a nutshell pro wrestling is an artistic expression done through violence. It MUST be amazing. And unlike sports I can get inherent enjoyment out of it without caring for any of the participants involved in the match. I also find it really hard to care about a spots team or an athlete these days.

Please tell me they're doing the Fusion.

Considering that mainstream media has JUST NOW stopped laughing at them it's hardly a surprise they're not any good at it.

There's a lot of under the radar Nakajima goodness. His 2013 feud with Yone was amazing but nobody other than me and five other people probably saw it. Lots of fun tags with Kensuke and he was putting on good showings as late as last year's Global League. I mean I understand why someone wouldn't like Nakajima but if you do the idea "his case runs cold" after 2009 is ridiculous, especially since some of his best stuff like the Kotaro Suzuki matches and the KENTA GHC Heavyweight match took place then.

Overrated indy run, overrated WWE run. Two years of being a good TV worker shouldn't get you anywhere near a list like this.

Kazunari Murakami http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25766-yuki-ishikawa-vs-kazunari-murakami-battlarts-112600/?hl=%2Bkazunari+%2Bmurakami http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25838-yuji-nagata-vs-kazunari-murakami-njpw-triathlon-survivor-121202/?hl=%2Bkazunari+%2Bmurakami http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25947-yoshihiro-takayama-hirotaka-yokoi-kohei-sato-vs-kazunari-murakami-shinjiro-otani-takao-omori-zero-one-011907/?hl=%2Bkazunari+%2Bmurakami

You know they just don't care.

His retirement match was great.

I like Taker fine but it took him more than 20 years to get it and I actively dislike most of his stuff beforehand. No chance.

Not even my unabashed love of squash matches could get Goldberg on my list no matter how great he was at them.

Enuhito just reported it on his blog and he's usually correct (I don't remember him reporting anything false and he was the first to call Ibushi in the 2012 G1 for instance). And yeah there's the Takeover thing.

Maybe that's also why they were quick in giving him a colour commentator job...

I really liked Joe's short ROH run because even if he couldn't perform on the level he did ten years ago he displayed a fresh approach to matches that compensated for that and made them all feel fresh and unique. So far in NXT he's been working like he did in TNA after his athleticism detoriated but he's also mostly been working squash matches.

I've seen praise for Steen as a brawler and I don't get it. His strikes never looked good. His strikes look less bad now but I'm not sure if it's because of the constant camera changes, him doing less strikes because of how they are used in WWE or is it just a case of them looking better in contrast to other WWE workers who have even shittier strikes. Maybe they did improve. During his indy run his biggest strenghts were his bumping and his move-set and his best matches were all faux-deathmatches. I liked that run a lot. Haven't been very impressed with his WWE run so far. Zayn totally outperformed him in their first match and that's the only WWE match of Steen's I'd call great, and even that would be borderline. On the other hand he has stuff like the Balor matches and the last Cena match that I absolutely loathe. He's good, but not top 100 good.

Tanahashi's earlier work can be quite fascinating. His 2005 Dome match vs. Nakamura brought some interesting ideas but you get bullshit like no selling a Superplex and the match eventually falls apart and you can see a good chunk of people start to leave immediately after it's over. Their 2006 IWGP title match is almost like an inverse version of the match they'd have now as the first half is unbelievably strong and the matwork is way better than you'd expect the best Nakamura-Tanahashi matwork to be but they couldn't follow it up with a captivating finishing stretch. Then there's stuff like his match vs. Scott Hall where Hall squashes the shit out of him, starts cutting a promo on Muto mid-match and Tanahashi beats him with a surprise roll up, a fun tag w/ Kensuke Sasaki vs. The Steiner Brothers and his IWGP title match vs. Kazuyuki Fujita which is a wonderful slaughter and pretty much what a Brock Lesnar vs. Shawn Michaels match would look like except shoot kicks to the head replace suplexes. His matches vs. Tenzan in the 2003 and 2004 G1 are a prototype of him working a style he'd adopt and become synonymous for later in his career. I'd say he matured as a worker in 2007 feuding against Nagata. Their series from that year is, in my estimation, the best stuff he's ever done.

He had a surprisingly good G1 run which included probably his career match (vs. Ishii). But yeah, he has no chance of making my list.

Storm is a good worker but he doesn't really have the resume to make my top 100 and I'm not sure he'd have one even if he worked somewhere else. I'll give him mad props for getting multiple good matches out of Gunner and convincing people Roode is/was good but I've never seen him deliver a performance that made me think he is a latent great worker.

*raises hand*

Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoji Anjoh and a bunch of other shoot style guys. Also Hashimoto. Parties how highly do you rank Ikeda? He's in my top 20 currently.

Takada's struggle to get out of the Brainbuster once Hashimoto had already lifted him up was an amazing visual and made the Brainbuster an even bigger deal. Of course Hashimoto milked it out and it resulted in one of the biggest pops ever.

I like Edge. He was a good ladder wrestler, carriable in other mediums and an interesting TV presence. However he is not among the 100 best wrestlers ever or even close to that.

Jericho was my favourite wrestler when I started watching WWE. I liked pretty much everything he did whether it came from WWE, WAR or CMLL. Favouritism wise he isn't even someone I particularly like now and his last two WWE runs have completely killed my desire to watch him produce any new stuff. I'll probably come up with 100 guys I like more but I won't completely write him off. I also think he's a very underrated Cena opponent as they managed to have really good workrate matches in 2005 and completely different, psychology-heavy matches in 2008 as well as some fun TV matches.