Parties

Nominating: Los Panteras vs. Dinestia Navarro (IWRG, 1/10) This rules. You get smooth maestro work from Navarro and Pantera I. Seriously, I was amazed at how quick this re-masked Pantera was. He looks like modern-day Sayama if he was less fat and more agile. You get fired up Hilo del Pantera in a wifebeater looking like he wants to kill somebody and doing really fancy footwork that looks like a mix of old school kung fu and jazz tap-dancing. Like, dude is basically doing parkour off of the brick walls that are the Navarros’ chests. You get Pantera II doing good ranas and taking fantastic bumps out of the ring off Trauma II’s offense. Trauma I hits a bridging submission here that is my favorite spot of the year to date. Really fun finish that makes you want to see this brought back back again - and lo and behold, they did just one week later. Los Panteras vs. Dinestia Navarro [intercontinental Trios Title] (IWRG, 1/17) I think the story here is that the first match was non-title and that this is for the belts. This is worked and filmed completely as a 2010 Black Terry, Jr. brawl with a lot of gritty handheld footage of brawling. Everyone here is angrier than they were the week prior. This starts with more of a maestro throwdown with Pantera and Negro Navarro, and even they have a lot of heat. The Navarros spend a surprising amount of this match tearing at masks and roughing up refs. The Panteras take a serious beating, as Negro Navarro relishes punching the younger generation in the face and stomping them when they’re down. Hijo del Pantera remains a great lunatic bump freak, and the kids mount this great babyface comeback where they’re garnering so much sympathy that you really want to see them win and defy the cruel heels. The awesome arrogance of the Navarro sons during this match as they rest in the middle of the ring with their hands behind their heads after having beaten down their opponents was awesome, and should be shown in NXT training montage videos. The chaotic comeback here is three different fights going on at once, including Pantera II throwing boxing jabs at Negro that have the crowd going crazy, while elsewhere in the arena Trauma I begs off like he’s the second coming of Michael Hayes. You also get Trauma II at various points trying to fight two guys at once while jaw-jacking at them, completely willing to get his ass kicked but so filled with rage that he’s going to go down swinging. Every dive in this looks like it could seriously injure everyone involved. The crowd is great too, as they’re amped the whole time and you have lots of kids in Pantera masks. This match even has a worked ear-biting spot. A worked ear-biting spot in 2016! WATCH THIS FEUD. IT IS THE BEST THING IN WRESTLING RIGHT NOW. Zach Sabre, Jr./Sami Callahan vs. Drew Gulak/TJ Perkins (EVOLVE 54, 1/23) Sami-TJP opening to this is so fun. Perkins is a surprisingly great addition to the company as he’s a stylistic contrast and everyone else being so different from him makes his dynamo flying really stand out. Wrestling is a game of embellishment, and the way TJP’s stuff seems exceptional here is a great example of how you can still in 2016 condition your audience to watch a slowed-down matwork-and-striking product so that your sporadic high flyer really matters. The matwork here in turn is awesome, as Perkins and Sabre are fantastic escaping in and out of leglocks, Gulak is outright trying to tear apart Sabre’s knee, and Callahan works his controlled frenzy gimmick by doing amateur chain wrestling the way a shark would attempt it in the high seas. The stuff with Callahan kicking Riddle in the head just because he felt like it was awesome. Loved Sabre working this like a strong ace as it was a moment where his size and gawkiness didn’t deter him. TJP going for Romero’s stupid spider-in-the-ropes pose and getting punched out of it by Sabre was great. There’s a moment in the middle of this where Gulak breaks up what would have been a suplex off the top rope from Sabre to Perkins. Something about the way he did it made me think, “That’s what Fuchi or Jumbo would have done in a great 90s All Japan tag.” What’s shocking about this match is that after a while it really seems as good as a good 90s All Japan tag. Some of the late breakups of pins here are excellent stuff that you’re gonna see other indie workers rip off in the years to come. I will say that the final exchange here between Sami and Perkins is just a little overwrought, but when you consider how many great moving parts there were right to the end of this, you can forgive them for going just a little bit over the top in the last couple moves. Great stuff that anyone and everyone should watch.

5) Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles (Payback, 5/1) Byron making his best point in a while: “Who’d have thought a month ago we’d even be seeing this match?” Good slow burn at the start where Styles is a nuisance kicking Reigns in the back of the knee, working long head-and-wristlocks. Big momentum shift came with Reigns’ lariat, leading to him doing the de facto heel control segment. The table/countout/restart were all just a means toward getting to a place where they’re both selling fatigue. The dual McMahon appearances were cheesy. Yet like Brock-Reigns, they manage to have the company’s best possible match in a scenario with lots of over-the-top booking. Incredible flight from Styles. Even Anderson and Gallows, who less than three months ago on the Feb NJ show looked like my least favorite act in the business, were now redeemed. The actual finish is a bit video game for me, but still so well done that you have to give it to them just for pulling it off so naturally. For the second year in a row, Reigns has a true MOTY in the spring with an opponent who happens to be the hottest act in the business. With Brock it was a war: this was a power vs. speed NBA playoff - who can make the next shot at the buzzer - and he excelled at both. If it takes the public time as it did with Cena for them to get how good Roman is, it may take less time. Reigns continues to veer into a heelish or at least rogue character. Where Cena was asked to be Superman in a Batman world, Reigns is Khal Drogo. After seeing this out of Styles I was reminded of a common GWE question, “Was so-and-so ever bad at any point in their career?” Like how Rey is pretty much flawless for 20+ years unless you hate the Filthy Animals stuff. I’m hard pressed to name a bad Styles performance. There were almost certainly many bad Styles matches in TNA, but when has he ever sucked? Or not looked like he was working hard. He’s a guy who I never would have thought a top 100 contender until this year. He’s having maybe the most interesting career of anyone in wrestling outside of Danielson for the last what, 10 years? Maybe even moreso than Danielson, if he goes far in WWE and has the major Japan run in his portfolio as well, plus Europe and Mexico. Dude is now a WWE main eventer. There’s not much more in this era that he could need to accomplish.

This is outstanding, beautiful madness. Bravo.

I'm 30 mins in, and already dig how much Pete sounds like George Saunders.

The characters' dynamic is rehashed and a bit lukewarm now that the kids are old enough to have kids of their own, but I much prefer this version of the McMahons soap opera to HHH playing with his action figures.

On audio they seem to now just be letting the echoes of disinterested boos for Reigns flow. The tweener play is real, and Chicago is dropping a deep dish deuce on the unbeatable WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

"Venomous spew" But Steph co-opting "You still got it" was fun, and I'm at least curious to see what the sibs' co-branded promo segments sound like.

Special event recap: Miz rolls up Cesaro off the distraction. Maryse's transition into Trump wife is in full effect. 1997 Showbiz Pizza version of the Montreal Screwjob. Announcers keep saying "This makes me sick" in Vince's "He's gonna puke!" voice.

Cesaro-Miz was really good even with a bunch of schmozzery. It was actually good chicanery, as you actually want to see the rematch and Maryse dragging him from doom looked good. The Owens-Zayn stuff is pretty whatevs for me but at least they're letting them throw hockey punches in something that looks like a brawl. Cesaro seemed quite over.

They premiered a hip new backstage segment they're now calling the Social Media Lounge, so that's a thing.

Terry Funk Jerry Lawler Tatsumi Fujinami Stan Hansen Yoshiaki Fujiwara Ric Flair Negro Casas Nick Bockwinkel Mitsuharu Misawa Rey Mysterio, Jr. Bill Dundee Satanico Toshiaki Kawada El Hijo del Santo Eddy Guerrero Yuki Ishikawa William Regal Jushin Liger Shinya Hashimoto Bryan Danielson El Dandy Genichiro Tenryu Ricky Steamboat Jumbo Tsuruta Akira Maeda Jim Breaks Masa Fuchi Dick Murdoch Fit Finlay Kenta Kobashi Black Terry Buddy Rose Steve Grey Jun Akiyama Negro Navarro Kazuo Yamazaki Masakatsu Funaki Randy Savage Terry Gordy Daisuke Ikeda Kengo Kimura Bobby Eaton Kiyoshi Tamura Virus Chris Benoit Jack Brisco Barry Windham Billy Robinson Dutch Mantell Andre the Giant Arn Anderson Bull Nakano Jaguar Yokota Greg Valentine Terry Rudge Blue Panther Villano III Yoshiaki Yatsu Vader Cassandro Hiroshi Hase Naoki Sano Dustin Rhodes Ricky Morton Alan Sergeant Marty Jones Gran Hamada Antonio Inoki Solar I Atsushi Onita Sangre Chicana Alexander Otsuka Pirata Morgan Riki Choshu Akira Taue Espanto Jr. Bret Hart L.A. Park Kantaro Hoshino Chigusa Nagayo Osamu Nishimura The Destroyer Brazo de Oro La Fiera Atlantis Mocho Cota Mascarita Sagrada Masa Saito Eric Embry Michael Hayes Sabu Butch Reed Dick Togo Steve Keirn Jackie Sato Steve Williams Cesaro Volk Han Fuerza Guerrera 2 Cold Scorpio

Re: Childs' question about how the 90s fit into a Funk vote for #1: I can say that it helped his case for me. He has some great showings in USWA, Dustin-Stud Stable, SMW, and even ECW/WWF/WCW. But perhaps even more importantly than his 90s matches was his incredible capacity to stay relevant and stay really over in an array of environments. Working with guys like DX, Foley, the Gangstas, Dustin, Sabu, Bret, even Raven: you see him in there a lot of different major young players of the 90s, and it does a lot to preserve his own youthful spirit. I don't say this to deal in hypotheticals, but if we'd gotten the AAA run that ended up going to Jake Roberts (Konnan claims to have pitched Funk, but says Pena had never heard of him), he would be even more versatile in the 90s. If he'd just become Kevin Sullivan or Abdullah around 1990, working local indies and becoming a nostalgia act, he would still have a #1 case in the ballpark of Hansen and Flair. The 90s (and even his sporadic moments of genius on the indies in the 2000s with Lawler) put him over the top.

Flair at #1 after all the back-and-forth handwringing is the ultimate Dusty Finish. Just watched Flair-Jumbo '83 hour draw for the first time in years last night. Pretty solid! Almost as good as Mascaras-Tenryu the year prior.

Too early for another Kamala break?

Fujiwara was my #5 and I didn't rank Styles, so this is all going according to plan. I think the average votes for Breaks (36.28 on 67 ballots) and Fujiwara (32.64 over 81) speak well for why people who haven’t seen them or given them a fair shake should check out their stuff. Even if they’re somewhat different than typical US workers, neither is an acquired taste. If you like Bockwinkel, heel Lawler and other violent Memphis stooges, Adonis, the Crockett Horsemen, or heel Danielson, you can get into Breaks. If you like Dusty, Eddy, Garvin, Kawada, Choshu, or Randy Savage, there are distant traces of them in Fujiwara.

110 ballots for Brock and 109 for Tully are the best argument yet for "Tons of voters/lurkers either didn't read the nomination threads or didn't find their arguments convincing".

We need to get over the idea that the results matter much. It's a "journey = destination" deal. The real countdown is you watching YouTube way later at night than you should be, because you need to know when Bull Nakano became great. That's the good part. As others have said, the rankings may or may not give us a sense of how the footage boom has helped/hurt some guys, but as has likewise been noted, it's not clear how voters have really used that boom. Are you watching new stuff and eclectic old stuff, or just watching more of your old favorites? The best takeaways come from the list as a snapshot of one's own viewing at this moment in time. Why you did or did not vote for someone, what you have or haven't seen. What could benefit or suffer from a rewatch (which is something I think a lot of us, myself included, don't do often enough). Hell, there have been matches and performances from 2016 alone that I've already done massive one-eighties on. If your own list looks baffling and borderline embarrassing to you five or ten years from now, you're probably doing it right. You're broadening your range. Which doesn't mean Flair-Steamboat '89 in Chicago isn't amazing. It is. I should know: I just rewatched it.

May 2026 bring a cure for sass-mouth, and a colony on Mars where all the bars play old lucha.

Lot of my #95-110 folks in this round. Scorpio: I was the #100 vote, but he’s not a sentimental/personal pick so much as a really deserving worker behind 99 others on that day. He could be higher on my list and his high-end stuff in WCW and the indies is textbook. Great deadly flier who’ll crush you with his dives and could give athletic credibility to any place he worked. I was also the #97 low vote on Cesaro. He’s the only guy on my list really making his case in the present-day prime of his career, but as we’ve said elsewhere he’s been a WOTY candidate for years running now. Didn’t vote for Garvin, but I like him. Had Onita at #70. Would never vote for Tanahashi, Zayn, Taker, or Angle. They’ve all had great moments, but the consistency isn’t there to be this high on the list. Hadn’t seen enough Toyota to rank her. Piper was my #100 for quite a while but fell off in the end. Oddly enough it was Cesaro’s last-minute placement on my list that Piper fell off: still not sure if that's the right call, but it was on Mania Sunday. He’s great and I dig that people have come to see him as a genuinely talented wrestler beyond his mic and character work.

I didn't rank Garvin, but the case for him was well made throughout and more power to him. I will say that at times I don't give him enough credit for the same reasons I dismiss Backlund, in that there's something about his fifty-yard stare and eccentricity that causes me to not take him as seriously as I probably should given his talent. I had Onita at #70, which is too high, but I think his 80s stuff is some of the exciting anyone was doing back then, he's the only death match guy who stands the test of time, and he's one of the great characters in wrestling history. He's as sentimental a pick as anyone on my list.

I suppose I get some of the reasons why people voted high on him, but Dusty at #92? Do people like his work in-ring a lot more than I do? Great wrestling personality and one of the true power brokers in the business for decades, but all the dancing and whirly-gig punches in the world don't get the Bull of the Woods on my list.

Wanted to point out some folks who despite their rankings had really high averages, as it's interesting to me when workers have such ardent fanbases. I picked the average rank of #60 or better as the cutoff, as you have tons more who are in the #60-65 zone, and because #60 kinda feels like a point where you’re really going to bat for someone. It also helps put certain workers into perspective for me: Chris Hero becomes kind of undeniable when he makes 1/3rd of the ballots at an average of #56. I’ve bolded the ones that seem most worthy of conversation, but all are worth discussing. The ones in bold strike me as significant either because of their high vote, the notably high value of their average vote, a considerable drop from their 2006 ranking (Jaguar, Ozaki, Nagayo), how well they did on a small of ballots, or who they are nowadays in relation to their legacy and status among the average wrestling fan (someone like Big Show for instance). You see a few recurring groups emerge: Golden Age workers, Dragon Gate, Joshi. What do you think? Were any of these folks robbed? Are any of them apparitions of extremely vocal minorities? Are you surprised by any of these rankings overall? How many ballots is “enough” for a contingent to seem credible in your view? 354) Super Delphin (124 pts, 2 ballots, 39.00 avg, high: 11 - anonymous, 2006: honorable mention) 353) Jimmy Jacobs (126 pts, 3 ballots, 59.00 avg, high: 38 - Dan Rice, 2006: unranked) 345) Ray Gonzalez (137 pts, 2 ballots, 32.50 avg, high: 14 - Dean Rasmussen, 2006: unranked) 335) Bestia Salvaje (149 pts, 3 ballots, 51.30 avg, high: 30 - Dean Rasmussen, 2006: unranked) 321) Susumu Yokosuka (168 pts, 3 ballots, 45.00 avg, high: 31 - InYourCase, 2006: unranked) 302) Steve Keirn (202 pts, 4 ballots, 50.50 avg, high: 25 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: unranked) 287) Azumi Hyuga (231 pts, 4 ballots, 43.25 avg, high: 10 - The Great Puma, 2006: honorable mention) 281) Kazushi Sakuraba (238 pts, 5 ballots, 53.40 avg, high: 41 - Venegas, 2006: honorable mention) 264) Gorgeous George (282 pts, 6 ballots, 55.00 avg, high: 5 - Lee Casebolt, 2006: 139) 258) Kevin Von Erich (298 pts, 7 ballots, 58.43 avg, high: 24 - NotJayTabb, 2006: unranked) 255) Shingo Takagi (303 pts, 6 ballots, 50.50 avg, high: 14 - Alan Counihan, 2006: unranked) 205) Pat O'Connor (597 points, 14 ballots, 58.36 avg, high: 28 - simen oem; 2006: honorable mention) 204) Daisuke Sekimoto (597 points, 12 ballots, 51.25 avg, high: 10 - Alan Counihan; 2006: unranked) 203) Big Show (612 points, 21 ballots, 51.25 avg, high: 38 - topropepodcast, 2006: honorable mention) 197) Ray Stevens (625 points, 12 ballots, 48.92 avg, high: 12 - Ricky Whittenburg; 2006: 122) 194) Masaaki Mochizuki (665 points, 16 ballots, 59.95 avg, high: 4 - Alan Counihan, 2006: honorable mention) 187) Mariko Yoshida (754 points, 17 ballots, 56.65 avg, high: 19 - El-P; 2006: 59) 163) Terry Rudge (923 points, 22 ballots, 59.05 avg, high: 23 - Venegas, 2006: unranked) 151) Black Terry (1065 points, 25 ballots, 58.40 avg, high: 21 - Dan Rice & Dr Ackermann, 2006: honorable mention) 145) Lou Thesz (1119 points, 21 ballots, 48.76 avg, high: 3 - Moonsault Marvin, 2006: 82) 142) Buddy Rogers (1123 points, 25 ballots, 56.16 avg, high: 7 - Lee Casebolt, 2006: 120) 139) Bruno Sammartino (1155 points, 28 ballots, 59.75 avg, high: 12 - Kelly Nelson, 2006: 150) 138) Marty Jones (1168 points, 27 ballots, 57.74 avg, high: 13 - Frankensteiner, 2006: honorable mention) 135) Devil Masami (1193 points, 29 ballots, 59.90 avg, high: 8 - anonymous, 2006: 35) 133) Mayumi Ozaki (1365 points, 32 ballots, 58.34 avg, high: 9 - The Great Puma, 2006: 31) 130) Meiko Satomura (1457 points, 33 ballots, 57.27 avg, high: 3 - anonymous, 2006: honorable mention) 127) Alexander Otsuka (1508 points, 34 ballots, 56.65 avg, high: 18 - anonymous, 2006: honorable mention) 126) Naoki Sano (1521 points, 36 ballots, 58.75 avg, high: 23 - The Great Puma, 2006: 97) 124) Dean Malenko (1554 points, 36 ballots, 57.83 avg, high: 13 - anonymous, 2006: 90) 123) Yoshihiro Takayama (1600 points, 38 ballots, 58.89 avg, high: 21 - Tanner Teat, 2006: honorable mention) 121) Pat Patterson (1663 points, 39 ballots, 58.51 avg, high: 5 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: honorable mention) 120) Triple H (1668 points, 38 ballots, 57.11 avg, high: 12 - refused to reveal identity, 2006: 109) 119) Kenta (1729 points, 40 ballots, 57.83 avg, high: 7 - The Great Puma, 2006: 148) 114) Jaguar Yokota (1843 points, 34 ballots, 46.91 avg, high: 6 - anonymous, 2006: 23) 112) Dory Funk Jr. (1930 points, 44 ballots, 57.14 avg, high: 14 - John Steffy, 2006: 69) 110) Chigusa Nagayo (2008 points, 37 ballots, 46.84 avg, high: 6 - donsem43, 2006: 39) 108) Steve Grey (2017 points, 42 ballots, 53.02 avg, high: 7 - Frankensteiner, 2006: 135) 104) Chris Hero (2148 points, 52 ballots, 56.69 avg, high: 18 - Mrzfn, 2006: honorable mention)

Beyer is my 41st to fall. I had him at #82 and could have gone higher with more footage. I agree with the assessment that he's one of those guys who embodies pro wrestling, to the point that if something like MAD Magazine or a political cartoon was drawing a stereotype of a wrestler in the 60s/70s, they pretty much just drew the Destroyer. Yet in spite of that he's sort of a singular act: there's no one quite like him, and to Dylan's point elsewhere about originality, he's a dude who I love in part because of his novelty and unique role in Japan.

I had Virus at #44, so not far off from his 49.7 average. Best mini of all time (if he can still be called one), and being so good on tape for 20 years doesn't hurt either. To the people who don't get why Ikeda and Virus are on here: they made 30% of the ballots and both averaged at #50 among those voters. That's a pretty strong endorsement, albeit a different type than someone like Waltman making nearly 50% of the ballots with an avg. rank of #71. I expect you'll see a similar look for someone like Angle or Dynamite Kid, where the people who love them really love them.

An Al Pacino-level "Hoo-Wah" and proverbial pair of flimsy pink plastic shades from the Hitman himself to Grimmas for making this all happen. Ikeda cracking 100 is a huge and unexpected achievement. I kind of love that he ended up being the #100 guy, in that for so much of his career he's been truly amazing, but still an acquired taste who's often viewed as being a peripheral NOAH guy or the duke of a tiny kingdom. Props to the DVDVR editors and WKO crew for really being his champions over the years. If Ishikawa makes it past #95 I'll be quite surprised, but still a great showing for both of them.