El McKell

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?

I think your reaction is a bit much their Grimmas. They're just trying to point out that detracting from Shawn for Adam Cole isn't a good argument (although I think calling it 'gatekeeping' is also silly) If we really wanted to make your analogy sort of work we'd have to be talking about how Goldberg's salary affects Buddy-Lee Parker's (or whoever the fuck you think was an influence on Goldberg) case. But I don't think saying holding something against someone is stupid is the same as saying that thing is a point in their favour. There's no real way to show that you're wrong for not thinking Shawn is an all-time great. I'm presuming you must have seen what he did in that Kurt Angle wrestlemania match or the hour long match with John Cena or dozens of other matches in his post comeback run where I love everything he does and you just don't enjoy that kind of thing.

I did not like this nearly as much as you guys. Tony Oilver does show good heel offense here and I liked the back and forth exchange with weird roll ups. But this was very long for what it was and outlasted it's welcome with me. And I really didn't like the spots where the ref armbarred Oliver or puched him in the face, it took away from Royal's comebacks to have things like that kick them off.

I just went through this thread and there's a lot of wrestlers mentioned here still not nominated. I don't think I'd vote for any of them, some of them are good, some of them are bad and a lot of them i've never heard of (and one is someone I know as a world of sport referee who the commentator likes to mention used to be a wrestler). I want to give this thread a bump incase someone wants a list of wrestlers not nominated that someone at some point thought would be worth considering. The list of wrestlers mentioned in this thread who still have not been nominated is: ⦁ D-Lo Brown ⦁ Val Venis ⦁ Jack Evans ⦁ Mammoth Sasaki ⦁ Yuko Miyamoto ⦁ Mitch Ryder ⦁ Tazz ⦁ Archie Gouldie/The Mongolian Stomper ⦁ Ryuki Ueyama ⦁ Wataru Sakata ⦁ Hiroyuki Ito ⦁ Osamu Kido ⦁ Hiro Saito ⦁ Manabu Suruga ⦁ Universo Dos Mil ⦁ Angel Mortal ⦁ Bearcat Wright ⦁ Mimi Hagiwara ⦁ Lucy Kayama ⦁ Noriyo Tateno ⦁ Sumie Sakai ⦁ Alan Kilby ⦁ Sid Cooper ⦁ Robby Baron ⦁ TJP/TJ Perkins ⦁ Kengo Mashimo ⦁ Preston Quinn ⦁ Tony Salazar ⦁ Ultraman ⦁ Skayde/Jorge Rivera ⦁ Kris Travis ⦁ Mark Andrews ⦁ Dave Mastiff ⦁ Randy Colley/Moondog Rex ⦁ Steve Bradley ⦁ BxB Hulk ⦁ Human Tornado ⦁ Americo Rossa ⦁ Villano V ⦁ Gran Cochisse ⦁ Primo Colon ⦁ Ryuji Yamakawa ⦁ LuFisto ⦁ The Miz ⦁ Shelton Benjamin ⦁ Sarah Stock/Dark Angel ⦁ Davey Boy Smith Jr/Harry Smith ⦁ Madusa Micelli ⦁ Lance Storm ⦁ Johnny Smith ⦁ Drew Delight ⦁ The Spoiler ⦁ Gran Naniwa ⦁ Brian Christopher/Grandmasta Sexay ⦁ KAORU ⦁ Little Tokyo ⦁ Baby Face/Babe Face ⦁ Dave Bond ⦁ Ephesto ⦁ Yusuke Fuke ⦁ Tommy Gilbert ⦁ Jimmy Hart ⦁ Sonny King ⦁ Oficale 911 ⦁ Shunji Kosugi ⦁ Johnny Kwango ⦁ Mike Marino ⦁ Rick McGraw ⦁ Dokonjonosuke Mishima ⦁ Mitsuo Momota ⦁ Buck Robley ⦁ “Suicida” Mike Segura ⦁ Huracán Sevilla ⦁ El Signo ⦁ El Solitario ⦁ Super Strong Machine ⦁ George Takano ⦁ Clay Thomson ⦁ Victor Zangief ⦁ Zatura ⦁ SUWA ⦁ Blitzkrieg ⦁ Killer Karl Kox ⦁ Don Leo Johnathan ⦁ Dino Bravo ⦁ Tojo Yamamoto

Umaga Excellent at playing a monster, terrifying prescence, knows exactly how much to give an opponent, breaking out occasional explosive quickness just enough to make it special when he does it. Legit isn't even that big but comes across like he's huge with how he carries himself. A good comparison for him is Mark Henry as someone who is from the same place and time and also really 'gets it' whenit comes to being a monster big man. But unlike Henry, Umaga stepped it up and had great matches when it was asked of him with CM Punk, Jeff Hardy and in an all time classic with John Cena. w/D-Lo Brown vs Keiji Mutoh & Bob Sapp (AJPW - 22nd February 2004) vs Brian Kendrick (21st Janurary 2008) vs John Cena (28th January 2007)

Just someone I was surprised hadn't been nominated: Sara Del Rey I'm probably not the person to make the case for Sara Del Rey but surely some people will want to vote for her. Probably would have been the consensus pick for best women's wrestler in North America during the late 00s or early 10s. One of the MVPs of Shimmer for a number of years, good in Chikara when Chikara was good. Good as both a heel and a babyface and understood how to change how she carried herself for whatever role she was in. People who've seen more of her than me can explain why she's good in th thread Here' some good easily available matches: vs Mercedes Martinez (November 6th 2005) vs Lacey (June 2nd 2007) w/Claudio Castagnoli vs Mike Quackenbush & Manami Toyota (September 19th 2010)

Austin Aries was not the wrestler of the year, but that run was so cool. If you're considering Aries I wholehardly recommend his matches against Bully Ray, Samoa Joe & Bobby Roode from 3 straight pay per views during the summer. Honestly Impact was the best wrestling going for like 8 weeks during early summer 2012.

The extra revenue streams are NJPW world, much more merchandise (all those stupid rainmaker towels & Naito stuffed bears you'd see loads of fans with), higher ticket prices for shows and licencing their intellectual property for dumb mobile games. But yeah, Okada would have got in even without NJPW doing good business because as El-P says Okada is viewed by many people as among the best in-ring performers of all time.

NJPW had record revenue in 2019. Barely topping the 90s peak, and being at pretty much that same level in 2017 & 2018 too.