El McKell

I don't think Moxley is a Terry Funk clone. But I also would not agree that nothing about him feels copy paste. He kind of is a pastiche at times, not taking from any one wrestler, but like a Tarantino movie knocking off several things at once to end up being something different. He has lifted from Terry Funk, Roddy Piper, Steve Austin, Atsushi Onita and more. And in more than just the applying classic pro-wrestling techniques to his own work way. Not a dig at Mox, he's great, just an observation.

On WCW editing down their PPVs to under 2 hours, I think Bill Watts has said something online the lines of the Turner Home Video people thought it'd help them in the rental market because short movies did better rental numbers than long movies. This annoyed him because WWF's longer VHSs were doing much better business than WCWs.

Don’t tempt me to make that list 😅

I didn't realise top 40 in the world was the same as in contention for best. It seems too broad, top 40 best in the world in a particular year has to been seen as fairly meaningless for a project for this. From 1980-2025 there are more than 1,800 spots.

Okay, while I agree that Adam Priest is not even close to a top 100 wrestler of all time. Nobody in the organising of this project ever intended for the list to be a list of most significant or most influential pro wrestlers. You are free to apply whatever criteria you believe constitutes greatness (as long as it's based on footage) but you shouldn't think for most people those things matter at all for their lists. "Indieriffic" or only wrestling in front of small crowds are not criticisms or negative points for most voters. But I do think that Adam Priest as a contender for best in the world in 2022 and 2025 is weird as hell. I don't know who's been saying this.

I'm probably gonna have AJ Styles in the 30s of my list. Probably my number two wrestler in the world both 2005 and 2015, with a very different appeal in both of those years. Plenty of other great stuff outside those years obviously, a huge highlight of early TNA shows in '02, absolutely jumps off the page there with both match quality and physical charisma (shame about the promos). I don't think he's retired for real though.

I don't think any Hart Foundation tags or Stampede matches or early NJPW or anything like this will change your view on Bret Hart, there aren't a bunch of classics. The best of Bret is singles matches in the 1990s, if you think the output isn't there from just that you need to accept that he's not a tippy-top wrestler for you or you need to watch more. There's a good chance you have seen all of the great matches I've listed below but if you've overlooked one or two check them out, they'll be better than any deep cuts from the 80s. If you have seen all of them, and you aren't willing to just accept where you are with Bret; pulling out random PPV or long TV matches from 1992-1997 you haven't seen is gonna probably be a use of your time than 80s stuff.

Here's that match, hope you enjoy it

The mortal locks for my top 10 are: · Bryan Danielson · Hiroshi Tanahashi · Kenta Kobashi · Ric Flair · Shawn Michaels And the people most seriously vying for the other 5 spots in my top 10 are · Akira Hokuto · Bret Hart · Kazuchika Okada · Jerry Lawler · Jumbo Tsuruta · Manami Toyota · Mitsuharu Misawa · Rey Mysterio Jr. · Toshiaki Kawada · Will Ospreay

Reading DMJ's summary of Rhea I can't help but notice that the vast majority of it is about star power and how she's presented by the company in the booking. The only allusion to her work is to talk about which matches are good (and that's important because someone analysing her work needs to be told what to watch). But I would love someone who is very familiar with Ripley to say something substantiative about her actual work. Because thinking about it, I don't know if I ever have heard anyone do that. What is she good at? What is she bad at? How is she similar or different to say Roman Reigns? Does she do very typical WWE style matches or does she work differently from their usual mold?

So that means all the people in the list below are in the Index of Nominees but are not actually nominated. Adnan Al-Kaissie Akira Nogami Alex Wright Baron Scicluna Bobby Bass Bull Pain Candy Okutsu Chic Cullen Damien Wayne Derrick King Doug Somers Gary Young George Wells Hido Huracan Castillo Jr. Jado Jonny Storm Kotaro Suzuki Rampage Brown Ranger Ross Ricky Santana Stan Stasiak Takashi Ishikawa Tiger Dalibar Singh/Gil Singh Todd Morton Togi Makabe Tommaso Ciampa Toru Tanaka Waldo von Erich If you are such a fan of 2000s NOAH that you wanna vote for Kotaro Suzuki or such a fan of NXT melodrama faces that you wanna vote for Tommaso Ciampa, or such a fan of the 2007 Yuji Nagata match with all the blood that you wanna vote for Togi Makabe OR any of the jabronis in that list. Post In Their Threads! If you're a lurker who can't post in their threads but you are in the discord, then say something about them in there and I'll put in in their threads.

The Road Warriors were the biggest stars not yet nominated until just now. Honestly, I wouldn't rank either one of them but is there any case that can be made that Hawk isn't much better than Animal. Hawk cuts a great promo, looks better than Animal, is better at the mechanical execution of in ring wrestling, carries himself as just as much of a badass.

Confirmed deadline is May 5th. Ballot opens April 5th. All the nominations have to be in by March 5th.

Matt responding to being jokingly accused of being the shooter outside the building with “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I wasn’t at this show. I’ve never been to Boston!” Was so funny.

Just some short things: - His mouthing off to refs is some of the funniest stuff in wresting. - He is great at small technical details. Yesterday I watched this match and was shocked at how great of a babyface in peril The Destroyer was.