El McKell

A great character in TNA in 2011 & 2012 (and good in the ring too), I cannot recommend the promos with Scott Steiner enough and for non-comedy shit everything he does in the build to his PPV match with Austin Aries also rules. Hard to say he really has enough in the ring in the relatively short post D-Von part of his career when he is good to warrant being on a top 100 though, but I do think he is good and shouldn’t be totally written off as a non-candidate. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Dudleys vs Hardy Boyz vs Edge & Christian (27/08/00) ***¾ Team 3D vs Motor City Machine Guns (07/11/10) **½ Bully Ray vs AJ Styles (12/06/11) ***¼ Bully Ray vs Austin Aries (13/05/12) ***½ Bully Ray vs Joseph Park (10/06/12) ***¾

WWE hasn’t been kind to this man but he does have a career before that that isn’t super short with some cool stuff. Good as an underdog and good as an exciting ball of energy, also I like when he screams for no reason putting on a headlock or whatever. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Akira Tozawa vs Chris Hero (05/09/10) ****¼ Akira Tozawa vs BxB Hulk (30/01/11) ***½ Akira Tozawa & Kevin Steen vs El Generico & Ricochet (27/05/11) ***¾ Naruki Doi & Ricochet vs BxB Hulk & Akira Tozawa (21/07/13) ***¼ Akira Tozawa vs Eita (11/05/16) **** Akira Tozawa vs Gran Metalik (26/08/16) ***¾

Brody is boring as hell and the Inoki match I watched feels like a miracle from Inoki to get an exciting big match feeling event out of Brody. I’m posting in all the threads of wrestlers I’ve looked into who haven’t had any posts during the 2026 run so they are still considered to be nominees but I don’t have much I can say about this man. Immigrant Song rules. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Bruiser Brody vs Ric Flair (11/02/83) *¾ Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr (08/12/84) **½ Bruiser Brody vs Antonio Inoki (18/04/85) ***¾ Bruiser Brody vs Abdullah The Butcher (04/08/86) **¾ Bruiser Brody vs Genichiro Tenryu (15/04/88) ***

A real mixed bag of a wrestler, terrible in his short WWE run, a deathmatch guy who isn’t good in deathmatches, I hate when he spits on his hand and I once saw him live and he broke a fan's umbrella for literally no reason. But when he’s on he delivers these very dynamic performances and he is something unique in a sea of cookie cutter US indie wrestlers. I liked his iron man match with Adam Cole when it happened like 10 years ago and I’m not gonna ruin memory of it by watching it again and hating it. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Sami Callihan vs Danny Havoc (12/12/09) *** Sami Callihan vs Fit Finlay (26/07/11) ***¾ Sami Callihan & Zack Sabre Jr vs Chris Hero & Tommy End (22/01/16) ****½ Sami Callihan vs Mike Bailey (03/02/16) **¼ Sami Callihan vs Pentagon Jr (22/06/18) ***

The Briscoes have a whole pile of incredible tag matches and for me it’s a toss up between them and KENTAFuji for best tag team of the 00s. He doesn’t have the resumé of singles matches that his brother has but he wasn’t granted the same chances to do that. If we’re comparing them when they’re in tags Mark tends to do the more memorable crazy shit that sticks in your head after the match is over What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Mark Briscoe vs Jay Briscoe (03/05/07) **** Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Kevin Steen & El Generico (11/08/07) ***¾ Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Kevin Steen & El Generico (26/08/07) **** Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura (02/03/08) ****½ Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Motor City Machine Guns (19/04/08) ***½ Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Matt & Jeff Hardy (26/04/14) ***½ Mark Briscoe vs Roderick Strong (24/06/16) **½ Mark & Jay Briscoe vs FTR (24/07/22) ****½

Undeniable charisma, I love the Ameno entrance music, great vibes in almost everything he does. I voted for him in the 90s last time but I’ll probably end up leaving him off this time around. Is there anything really good outside of his peak CMLL run that’s really worth watching? What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Mistico vs Averno (30/01/05) **** Mistico vs Ultimo Guerrero (25/02/05) **¾ Mistico vs Dr Wagner Jr (27/07/07) **** Carisitco vs Volador Jr (20/10/17) *½ Caristico vs Penta El 0 M (28/12/18) ***

I like Hotta but she seems to lack some kind of charisma or presence that the obvious people to compare her to have (Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada). It is cool that she has the hand match with Kong to show that she’s good in a kind of underdog position and not just as someone who brutalises people. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki (15/01/93) ***¾ Yumiko Hotta vs Dynamite Kansai (02/04/93) *** Yumiko Hotta vs Aja Kong (24/01/94) **** Yumiko Hotta vs Lioness Asuka (26/03/95) ***¼ Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota (03/09/95) ****

My favourite from the 50s Chicago footage. I love these matworky matches with a real sense of escalation as they go. He isn’t consistent and can let worse performers drag him down to their level (although he pulls a really good match out of Yukon Eric). I really do think he has a lot to offer and has one all time classic match with Thesz. What I watched for this and my match ratings Verne Gagne vs Billy Goelz (21/6/50) *** Verne Gagne vs The Mighty Atlas (9/11/51) ***¼ Verne Gagne vs Red Bastien (1951) ***¾ Verne Gagne vs Lou Thesz (25/01/52) ****¾ Verne Gagne vs The Mighty Atlas (4/4/52) *** Verne Gagne vs The Great Togo (16/5/52) *½ Verne Gagne vs Carl Meyer (31/10/52) ** Verne Gagne vs Roy McClarity (6/8/54) ***¼ Verne Gagne vs Yukon Eric (21/1/55) ***¾ Verne Gagne vs Don Leo Jonathan (15/4/55) **** Verne Gagne vs Dick The Bruiser (28/10/55) * Verne Gagne vs Wilbur Snyder (4/5/56) ****¼ Verne Gagne vs Billy Robinson (20/11/74) ****

There’s absolutely part of me that wants to rank this man. A good little weasly heel and a very entertaining to watch in face-face matches doing his cool technical shit. We love the 3-in-1 hold in this house. But I can’t really rank him in a top 100, maybe I need to make a top 250 in 2026 just for myself. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Zoltan Boscik vs Jon Cortez (14/04/71) **** Zoltan Boscik vs Jim Breaks (12/02/72) **¾ Zoltan Boscik vs Robby Baron (08/05/74) ***¼ Zoltan Boscik vs John Naylor (24/08/74) *** Zoltan Boscik vs Steve Grey (18/03/78) ***½

I don’t get it. I like his whole prematch routine but I don’t really like the actual work. He comes across as a much less enjoyable version of Buddy Rogers to me, less fun to watch be all stoogy and cowardly and also not as good being vicious/aggressive. His weird combination of headlock takeovers he uses as a finish is kinda cool, I guess. Also conker in the thread didn’t like the Woody Strode match but I thought it was the best one I watched (despite the commentator presenting it as 3 separate one fall matches for some reason) What I watched for this and my match ratings Gorgeous George vs Frankie Talaber (14/4/50) ** Gorgeous George vs Cyclone Anaya (23/5/50) **¼ Gorgeous George vs Hans Schnabel (3/11/50) **¾ Gorgeous George vs Woody Strode (unknown date) *** Gorgeous George vs Jesse James (4/9/51) **

Does very little for me. Presents himself as a mat technician but he never actually impresses me with any of his matwork. There’s gotta be around a dozen or even twenty better US indie wrestlers from the 00s when it comes to their actual performances and I’m not considering his influence or training or booking when I’m making my list. What I watched so far for this and my match ratings Mike Quackenbush vs Chris Hero (17/12/07) **¾ Mike Quackenbush vs Johnny Saint (08/03/08) ***½ Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli (13/09/09) ***¾ Mike Quackenbush vs Eddie Kingston (13/11/11) ***½ Mike Quackenbush vs Drew Gulak (03/12/16) ***

I like how Johnny Saint matches tend to have those fast paced final rounds with rope running and counters and rollups. As long as he's not doing too much dumb comedy schtick the stuff early in the match is pretty good too, he does stuff that you really don't see from other people even in British world of zany counters to holds. Still he's a long shot for me to be putting him on the list What I watched so far for this and my match ratings Johnny Saint vs Jim Breaks (14/03/73) **** Johnny Saint vs Jim Breaks (05/05/73) ***½ Johnny Saint vs Steve Grey (28/01/80) ****¼ Johnny Saint vs Mike Jordan (13/01/87) ***½ Johnny Saint vs Robbie Brookside (28/04/87) ***¾ Johnny Saint vs Fit Finlay (05/01/88) ***¾ Mike Quackenbush vs Johnny Saint (08/03/08) ***½

One of the better Dragon Gate boys at making himself stand out by having a clear identity in the multi man matches and also by doing exciting shit, but does he have any singles matches where he gives a properly great performance? I can't realistically see him on my list in 2026 What I watched so far for this and my match ratings CIMA, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs Roderick Strong, Jack Evans & Austin Aries (30/03/06) ***¾ Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs BxB Hulk & Shingo Takagi (15/01/08) **** Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs Takagi Shingo & Dragon Kid (28/11/09) ***¼ CIMA, Dragon Kid & GAMMA vs Naruki Doi, BxB Hulk & Masato Yoshino (27/03/10) ***½ Masato Yoshino vs Masaaki Mochizuki (16/01/14) **** Masato Yoshino & Syachihoko BOY vs Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora (09/04/15) ***½ Masato Yoshino vs PAC (4/12/18) ***½

When you say it received **** at the time, can you clarify from who? I don't know who's star ratings from 1999 we can get a record of besides Dave Meltzer and he gave it *3/4

The only match I have ever seen where a wrestler blading is more visible and obvious than what is meant to have actually caused him to bleed in the match.

Here's a few Johnny B Badd matches you can watch: Stunning Steve Austin vs Johnny B. Badd-WCW Slamboree 1994 Steven Regal vs Johnny B. Badd, WCW Bash at the Beach 1994 Johnny B. Badd vs. Brian Pillman 1995 Fall Brawl DDP vs Johnny B Badd World War 3 1995 Johnny B Badd (Marc Mero) vs. Arn Anderson (12 23 1995 WCW Saturday Night) Good luck. And if you want more stuff and can find the other two DDP PPV matches one from Halloween Havoc 95 and the other from Superbrawl 96 maybe check out those two.

It's this:

The board control the company but every year the shareholders vote on who gets to be on the board for the next 12 months. So whenever the fuck that meeting is Vince as the person with the majority of votes can appoint a board of people he specifically picked who'll put him back in power if he wants. I'm sure this would tank the share price, so it'd cost Vince hundreds of millions if he's ever planning on selling, but he can do it.

Interesting to me that two modern G1 guys have gotten a mention and neither of them were Tomohiro Ishii. To me Ishii is the most obvious case of someone who has consistently for years stepped up his game in the summer for G1 and been the best performer more than once in some of the best tournaments ever

This match is on Mitsuya Nagai's MMA record on wikipedia. Do we know if this is actually a work or a shoot?

The simple answer is because of this post. But who knows what the logic there was besides the clear emphatic "Not joke nominations"

If they're gonna introduce an undercard belt for up & coming wrestlers with 15 minute time limits, just eliminate the meaningless NEVER Openweight belt already

I actually think Rayo de Jalisico doing that weird headbutt looks kinda cool, maybe i'm just stupid

What in the name of god is going on with the finish of the 1st fall here? Mistico fucking submits as a result of missing a dive??? But wins the fall anyway because Guerrero is DQ'd for continuing to attack him? This is the most baffling finish to a fall I've seen in my life.

Y'know I feel like there's the idea that Shinsuke Nakamura is the proto-typical wrestler who will fall in the overall list for 2026, but Sami (who finished higher than Shinsuke last time) also hasn't done much of anything worth talking about in the period from the last poll to now and probably won't do anything interesting going forward. Do other people who voted for him last time think the past 6 years have negatively impacted his case?