Parties

This just ending up being a troll pick is disappointing. Also, didn't Grimmas say the worker in question was someone "halfway between Necro and Tiger Mask"? Steiner is more like Dan Kroffat meets Billy Graham.

Yamada and Mariko Yoshida were the last names (alphabetically, obvs) on a list of about 8 previously unseen nominees who I'd planned to watch before running out of time, almost all of them Japanese women. Alas, I am part of the Joshi problem, but resolve to one day become part of the Joshi solution.

Smarkschoice comparisons this round: 91) Toshiyo Yamada - 699 Points (PWO: #314) - lowest SC Top 100 worker on PWO list 160) Lizmark – 208 Points (PWO: #317) 197) Brad Armstrong – 123 Points (PWO: 315) 243) John Bradshaw Layfield – 71 Points (PWO: #316) 342) Carl Malenko – 33 Points (PWO: #328) 429) Mr. Wrestling II – 4 Points (PWO: #323) 431) Yoshihisa Yamamoto – 4 Points (PWO: #320) I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Toshiyo Yamada match. Sorry. Her and Lizmark continue to show the decline of certain lucha and Joshi workers, but Yamada is clearly the biggest difference we’ve seen yet for workers who made both lists. Wrestling II going up a hundred spots is an interesting turn that I wouldn't have guessed. I had Espanto, Jr. at #76. Incredible Santo opponent who I’ve never seen have anything less than an awesome performance: ranking was a "footage seen" issue. Plus his career was cut kind of short as I think we only have about 10 (12 max) years of him w/ limited appearances in that time. I had Hoshino at #79. One of the all-time fiery juniors with unbelievable charisma. I share Ackermann’s assessment that if you didn’t vote for him, you suck. I had Mascarita Sagrada at #87. One of only two minis on my list, and one who could have been higher if I was more of a "year-over-year consistency" voter. Austin Idol being unranked in ’06 is ridiculous, as is JBL being higher than Carl Malenko. For this above all his other faults, I say to hell with JBL. Billy Graham and Tenta being higher than most of the people who’ve come before them is disgraceful, but at least they’ve now placed and can go no higher. 11 ballots for Tenta is a case for forced sterilization. Katsumi Usuda was on my list at one time and is a great choice for anyone. Would make my top 125. Fantastic in the ’08 BattlARTS trios that is one of the best matches of all time, and has dozens of great taped performances beyond that. I will say straight up that anyone who seriously watched 4,000 matches across a range of styles for the sake of this project gets to vote however the hell they want, including for Warrior. Kudos, Marvin.

37) Negro Casas/Blue Panther vs. Solar/Black Terry (LLE, 2/28) The +LuchaTV YouTube channel tends to be tons of short interview clips that aren’t exciting, but it seems like they’re starting to put up some interesting full-length matches. Lucha Libre Elite being a CMLL/IWRG hybrid company that favors maestros and puts them on hot shows at Arena Mexico is maybe the most exciting thing in wrestling right now. Kind of sad to see Panther and Solar stumbling early, but it was not because their minds didn’t know what to do, but rather because their knees are shot to hell and they can’t move on the mat as fast as they once could. The botch of Solar tripping off the top rope was a bit sad. But once the DDP Yoga kicks in they start doing great holds and cool flying armscissors. Terry-Casas is good even if Casas wants to work harder and faster than Terry, but I’m not sure there’s anyone in the business right now who wouldn’t look inferior to Casas while in the ring with him. There’s a really smart veteran spot that I only noticed for the first time: when Casas kicks out of a Terry pin, he puts his hand near Terry’s face and pushes off at the moment of the kick-out. Aside from looking cool, it also seems like a smart way to let your opponent know when to break the pin. Recent Terry has been a little sad even when he’s been good: the mustache makes him look ten years older, and his health looks to be deteriorating as he gains weight and seems to be gasping for air while working Casas. But once they start trading strikes, he looks like his old self again, and Terry bleeding hardway off a Casas headbutt was wild. I actually thought the Casas-Solar slap exchanges were better than the stuff with Terry, and their whole stretch at the end was cool even if it felt at times like Casas working with three crash test dummies. 17) Blue Panther/Guerrero Maya, Jr./Rey Cometa vs. Hechicero/Kraneo/Ripper (CMLL, 4/1) The opening matwork isn’t flawless, but it’s the best Panther’s looked in a while and he clearly wanted to go for it with Hechicero in doing some elaborate spots. Kemonito gets a nice splash on Kraneo, and we get a sweet tilt-a-whirl headscissors from Maya to Ripper (who comes out of this looking like an awesome act that I want to check out more). This is one of those lucha trios matches that are a pleasure to watch and really well executed even though you’ll never remember anything about it a year from now, which is a big part of why I’m keeping this exhaustive year-in-review list. The technico-rudo dynamics are spot-on, and I highly recommend this to anyone who liked the Shield/Wyatts/Bryan trios matches of 2013. You even have Kraneo in the Kane role. 111) Los Terrible Cerebros vs. Los Oficiales (IWRG, 4/6) Five years ago this would have been a dream match, now it’s pretty weak. Rudos beating on faces the whole match; some interesting “country whipping” belt shots and not much else. I love everyone in this match and even I’ll say this wasn’t at all compelling, even with the verite You Are There camerawork. Dull and meandering: modern IWRG can be frustrating in that great workers phone it in some nights and others look better than ever.

Grimmas: out of curiosity, would you say that you made revisions to your list based on the ballots you saw coming in? Like, were you making changes to yours up to the deadline, and were any of them in response to the trends/placements you were seeing filed?

Alright, I didn't want to say it until now, but these anonymous voters are chumps. Show yourselves and be judged for being inferior nerds to we, the publicly displayed nerds.

Smarkschoice comparisons this round: 162) Don Muraco - 203 Points (PWO: #346) 196) Manny Fernandez – 124 Points (PWO: #337) 341) Kazunari Murakami – 31 Points (#344) We’re now getting into the portion of the list where pretty much everyone is really good and I find myself thinking, “Yeah, wow, how about Jimmy Rave?” There are others like Del Rio or One Man Gang who I don’t put at a GWE level, but who I still like a lot: their rankings feel more fun than unreasonable. Still, if YAMATO and Yoshino are here, I wonder how many more Dragon Gate guys we still have to come. If nothing else I’ll say that Heenan and Warrior deserve to be here a lot more than like, Shuji Kondo. Huge drop for Muraco. That Grimmas didn't even vote for him is the most surprising result yet. I still quite like his late 70s/early 80s run, but he’s developed the rep for being lazy and having dull feuds, which is too bad as him and Backlund in the MSG cage is one of my favorite WWF/WWE matches (or was when I last watched it 8 years ago). I am a huge BattlARTS fan, but Murakami’s one of my least favorites from that era of shoot style. Just always felt like a mark for his own gimmick who never wanted to sell for anyone and had nothing but boring matches post-2000. I like my Satanic wrestling characters to be more like King Curtis than Fear-era Mark Wahlberg. For me Kevin Sullivan falls into the Heenan/Cornette category of “One of the great wrestling characters and personalities both in and out of the ring, but not of the great workers.” I had Cassandro at #60 and am surprised not to be the high vote on him. As I’ve said elsewhere: best live performer I’ve ever seen, and him jumping off the balcony of Webster Hall onto Kraneo in the middle of a full crowd is the greatest live spot I’ve ever seen. Also: anyone who hasn’t read The New Yorker profile of Cassandra that ran a year or two ago needs to check it out, as it’s one of the best pieces of wrestling journalism ever. I’m a hypocrite for everything I said about Heenan fanboys, as I almost certainly overrated Cassandro based on my own love of his persona and my own experiences seeing him wrestle guys like the second La Parka and Damien 666 in Harlem high school gyms.

Amusing "2006 in context" Smarkschoice ranking comparison: 141) Kintaro Kanemura – 255 Points 142) Rikidozan - 251 Points 143) Brock Lesnar - 246 Points I also feel like Jimmy Jacobs and Kamala being back to back is exactly right and one of the great achievements of this list so far.

Smarkschoice comparisons this round: 142) Rikidozan – 251 Points (PWO: #347) 184) Rip Rogers – 147 Points (PWO: #355) 242) Super Delfin – 71 Points (PWO: #354) 332) Mike Awesome – 40 Points (PWO: #349) I was one of the four Alan Serjeant workers, and had him at #65. I’d hope he’s someone who haven’t seen him check out, as he’s really if nothing else one of the most original/singular performers I’ve ever seen in wrestling. I'd also like to see more of the timid anonymous come out of the woodwork, esp. for something like Delfin at #11. Rikidozan is an interesting choice who I never considered: I still wouldn’t vote for him, but I didn’t realize how much footage he now has on Youtube. His rank still dropped considerably between ’06 and ’16. Big drop for Rip Rogers too - not sure what that’s about. Was Rogers considered more of a hip journeyman talent in ’06? I’ll say that we’re far enough into this that we have the first two guys who I’d argue are ranked too high (but only in comparison to those who’ve come earlier on the list): Warrior and Heenan. I’m not surprised to see either overrated. With Warrior, the cult of late 80s/early 90s WWF lives on, and we’ll see it rear its ugly head again many times throughout this list. With Heenan (who I consider both the best manager and best color commentator of all time), people got overexcited by realizing he’d been a good worker and bump freak when it was called for in AWA. I like the Alfred Hayes match and he's good in the Greg Gagne '80 singles in a wacky shtick sort of way, but from what I've seen (which to be fair is just a few matches), Heenan is not as accomplished or talented a worker as many who’ve already shown up. How many matches does he have online, or on tape period? He’s a “cute/clever” choice for #90-100, but 14 ballots feels like fandom and groupthink around an idea too smart for its own good winning out. (Not that a fandom vote is an entirely bad thing necessarily, just one I don’t buy in this particular instance.) I'm not saying he's a "wrong" pick to have on a ballot, but one where you see the recency of people realizing he was also a worker come into effect. Many of those who've voted for Heenan talked about him being one of their favorite wrestling personalities (which I agree with wholeheartedly) and how they wanted to find a place for him for that reason, but that to me is different than how I view his work in the ring.

Just for some additional context on Brazo de Oro: on the Smarkschoice poll he was #159, which means he did better than Andre (#164), Greg Valentine (#170), Satomura (#173), Ishikawa (#174), Butch Reed (#175), and Pat Patterson (#176). Plus Verne, Sakuraba, Colon, Dory, AJ Styles, Punk, and many others.

This Kimura picture is from Superluchas: Kengo getting his head shaved on 3/2/79 by the Arena Mexico barber, after losing a hair vs. hair match to Halcon Ortiz during his run as "Pak Choo". From the reactions thread: "Re: me being the high vote for my upcoming new user pic Kengo Kimura - I absolutely predicted he would be my lowest high vote, such that I got the pic ready earlier today. #41 is almost certainly too high for him, but he was a personal favorite and to my mind the greatest revelation of the New Japan set, which I think has been the best overall of the 80s project (though I haven’t seen the Lucha set yet). His work with Fujinami and Fujiwara in singles was phenomenal, he was a tremendous heel and face, and proved an invaluable partner in the big Tag League tournaments and multi-man gauntlets. He's the second-rate Fujinami, but in such a way that still makes him phenomenal, and I love that that also-ran status become a chip on his shoulder and part of his heelish character."

Smarkschoice comparisons this round: 159) Brazo de Oro – 213 Points (PWO: #364) 224) Espectrito – 89 Points (PWO: #370) 267) The Sheik – 50 Points (PWO: #372) 275) Yumiko Hotta - 45 Points (PWO: #369) 359) Raymond Rougeau – 21 Points (PWO: #377) 395) Andrei Kopylov – 10 Points (PWO: #376) 421) Joe Malenko – 5 Points (PWO: #366) Brazo de Oro and Espectrito become the 5th and 6th luchadors to take big rankings drops (Estrada, Cruz, Silver King, Canek). You also have to account for all the previously unranked lucha guys who have newly made the PWO list, but lucha and Joshi (as with Hotta) continue to be where you see the evaluations changing the most. I was one of Brazo de Oro’s ten voters: fantastic worker and to my mind the best of the Brazos, but I reckon we have Porky still to come? Has anyone else come close to ten ballots yet? Really a better showing for Oro than it looks. Sheik’s drop may be from SC voters really liking his All Japan stuff with the Funks? Or voting on character/aura/legacy/etc? Re: me being the high vote for my upcoming new user pic Kengo Kimura - I absolutely predicted he would be my lowest high vote, such that I got the pic ready earlier today. #41 is almost certainly too high for him, but he was a personal favorite and to my mind the greatest revelation of the New Japan set, which I think has been the best overall of the 80s project (though I haven’t seen the Lucha set yet). His work with Fujinami and Fujiwara in singles was phenomenal, he was a tremendous heel and face, and proved an invaluable partner in the big Tag League tournaments and multi-man gauntlets. He's the second-rate Fujinami, but in such a way that still makes him phenomenal, and I love that that also-ran status become a chip on his shoulder and part of his heelish character.

Negro Casas/Blue Panther vs. Solar/Black Terry (LLE, 2/28) The +LuchaTV YouTube channel tends to be tons of short interview clips that aren’t exciting, but it seems like they’re starting to put up some interesting full-length matches. Lucha Libre Elite being a CMLL/IWRG hybrid company that favors maestros and puts them on hot shows at Arena Mexico is maybe the most exciting thing in wrestling right now. Kind of sad to see Panther and Solar stumbling early, but it was not because their minds didn’t know what to do, but rather because their knees are shot to hell and they can’t move on the mat as fast as they once could. The botch of Solar tripping off the top rope was a bit sad. But once the DDP Yoga kicks in they start doing great holds and cool flying armscissors. Terry-Casa's is good even if Casas wants to work harder and faster than Terry, but I’m not sure there’s anyone in the business right now who wouldn’t look inferior to Casas while in the ring with him. There’s a really smart veteran spot that I only noticed for the first time: when Casas kicks out of a Terry pin, he puts his hand near Terry’s face and pushes off at the moment of the kick-out. Aside from looking cool, it also seems like a smart way to let your opponent know when to break the pin. Recent Terry has been a little sad even when he’s been good: the mustache makes him look ten years older, and his health looks to be deteriorating as he gains weight and seems to be gasping for air while working Casas. But once they start trading strikes, he looks like his old self again, and Terry getting bleeding hardway off a Casas headbutt was wild. I actually thought the Casas-Solar slap exchanges were better than the stuff with Terry, and their whole stretch at the end was cool even if it felt at times like Casas working with three crash test dummies.

Wrestlemania 32, Overall: May go down as one of the weirdest shows the company has ever done: a time capsule misfire exhibiting everything that is great and horrible about WWE at this moment. The last two hours (HITC, Battle Royal, Rock-Wyatts, and the main event) in particular is incredible in its oblivion. As you can see from the writeup below, I thought the first four matches of the show were fun if unspectacular, but that the show fell off a huge cliff with Styles-Jericho. MOTN was the Women’s Title match by far, and I say that as someone who hates Triple Threat matches. I also think one of the performances of the night was Xavier Woods working as Ricky Morton tag babyface, which got lost in the drone of a 6.5 hour show. Anyone who disagrees with ranking a six second Rock-Rowan match dead last here needs to understand I'm evaluating the whole segment as one package. 77) Ryback vs. Kalisto [uS Title] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) “Michinoku Driver?” “…Modified.” The extended superplex was awesome. Also: Mauro is stellar. Pulling the Bob Orton ref in that moment was so on point. Lawler heeling on Hayabusa was kind of shitty, but I assume he didn’t hear “the late” part of Ranallo’s line and that Lawler has no idea who Hayabusa is. Surprised to see Kalisto retain. Solid if totally uneventful, forgettable stuff. 60) Total Divas (Brie Bella/Natalya/Paige/Alicia Fox/Eva Marie) vs. Bad and Blonde [Lana/Naomi/Tamina/Emma/Summer Rae] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Emma was the MVP here with the badass Max Max look, the wheelbarrow suplex, and serving as the ring general who kept everything in check. Also liked Naomi’s kicks and Natalya’s stomp. Fox should have been in more. Even Lana was fine, with Tamina looking like the only clunky one here. I maintain that Eva Marie will be a good worker a year from now and that the crowd is wrong on her. I genuinely enjoyed this as I am a mark for 5-on-5 stuff even when it’s pretty short/elementary, and am always rooting for a good women’s division. I concur with the sentiment that Booker is terrible, but in a way that’s familiar to me as a guy who watches NFL/NBA/MLB stuff where you need one retired player on every panel who speaks in nothing but cliches and meandering non-predictive hype. 90) The Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Surprisingly decent match even with that weirdly abrupt superkick finish. Bubba was showing some Bully Ray heat in there and even with the face-heel dynamic off there was a lot of nice action. Could have been early on the Pontiac Silverdome show in ‘87 and worked just as well (tables aside). Usos getting booed was lame: so far I have no love for this smark troll crowd. 56) 7-Man Ladder Match [iC Title] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Sami-Owens faceoff initially made this seem like it'd be them and five other supporting characters along for the ride, but everyone delivered. Zayn's fired-up run was stellar. Cara's big bump to the floor and later dive through the ladder was incredible: he wins hardest worker kudos here. Loved Owens' big frog splash and that for once there was a believable faceoff struggle at the top of a ladder (Zayn and Owens throwing bombs). The Ryder win is not only a surprise, but in the running for biggest upsets in Mania history. Feels like Owens could win it back tomorrow night, but interesting pop for Zack nonetheless. 95) Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Most choreographed match on the show and it was still mediocre. Way too many spots wedged in to make Jericho seem like "the wily vet" genius. Reminscent of 2000s HBK being depicted as the agile cat-like athlete while constantly blowing spots. So many moments where Styles had to hit awkward flimsy offense just so that Y2J could counter it. Calf Crusher was good: Styles Clash always getting countered wasn't. Finish was obviously terrible: hopefully Styles can now exit this feud and move on. Dome setting is great for this show: way better than broad San Francisco daylight last year. Feels like the biggest show of the year, and the lackluster card has over-delivered so far. 69) The New Day vs. The League of Nations (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) ND get the biggest reaction of the night to the surprise of no one. Why isn’t this for the titles? I smell shenanigans. I’d forgotten how great Rusev is: his trash talk and standing plancha ruled. What a FIP performance from Woods: looked to be trying hard to prove himself as a worker and did, and he got to live the boyhood dream of getting comical air off a Stunner. Sheamus’ chanting forearms were fun. Really bad Kofi-Del Rio misfire doing that dumb needlessly complex curb stomp spot. The Legends trio felt lame to me but I was relieved that the big moment Meltzer teased was that and not a New Day breakup. Austin’s been hitting the Double IPAs too hard, but I like that he let Rusev beat on him for a while for at least something of a rub. I really didn't mind the Xavier beatdown: they're comedy heels and it worked in the moment better than a lot of Austin semi-burials have in the past. 92) Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose [No Holds Barred] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Underwhelming. Brock's Germans were on point, but Kendo sticks, fire extinguishers, and a chainsaw in a Lesnar match felt really lame and out of place. Saxton and JBL's commentary was notably bad during the quiet moments here. That said, I liked a lot about Ambrose's performance: he was fun in his reactions. I even liked the cheap nut shot. Whole thing felt like a huge waste of Lesnar in a year where he could have main evented with Reigns. No Wyatts appearance either. They booked nothing more than "Jon Moxley takes a Jon Moxley beating" and tried to get out of there without thinking too hard. 14) Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch [inaugural Women’s Title Triple Threat] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) This match has had a better build on TV than anything else on the show thus far, and proved to be MOTN. Haters will call it "rehearsed", as if that's not true of 90% of all Mania matches. Sasha's tributes to Eddy were great. Killer Frog Splash. Charlotte looked awkward in two different armbars, but that's the only petty crit I had with this. Her moonsault was awesome. Loved Lynch dragging Banks to the ropes to save the match, only to have Flair later mirror it with his interference. Didn't really mind the finish as it felt like true heel heat, but this was Sasha's night to win and it won't mean as much at like, Extreme Rules or whatever. 107) Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon [Hell in a Cell] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Triangle Chokes were weird and terrible. Should have guessed from Shane’s training montages that this would be fake MMA early. So much laughably bad matwork here. So many audibly called spots. Taker completely gassed out five minutes in. Like AJ-Jericho, Taker had to behave like an idiot to put over the idea of Shane outsmarting him. This improved once they started throwing monitors at each other’s heads and going through tables. People on Twitter were joking that you’ll ge get to see this match again at Mania 50, and that feels disappointingly possible. Shane’s dive was amazing in its own way. Really happy he didn’t kill himself, even if he killed kayfabe. I was laughing out loud at the finish in disbelief. Wow. The pre-show panel laughing and dancing to the Flo Rida song of death immediately after that match was like something out of Benny Hill. 103) Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Remember two hours ago when I said this show was exceeding low expectations? 118) The Rock vs. Erick Rowan (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) Goddamn I can't stop laughing. Between a flamethrower, "Thunderstruck" cheerleaders, and the Freebirds speech I've gotten so many great LOLs this weekend. Rock is either the lamest cool guy who ever lived or the coolest lame guy who ever lived. And the weird thing is: no one hated that segment more than Cena. That segment was also this evening's nadir of Vince-talking-through-puppet-Cole on commentary. "Ya gotta give 'em the five knuckle shuffle!” Remember three and a half hours ago when I said that I didn't get people who still complain about the commentary? RIP Husky "Bray Wyatt" Harris 2010 - 2016 100) Triple H vs. Roman Reigns [WWE Heavyweight Title] (Wrestlemania 32, 4/3) If nothing else, this show has given me newfound understanding and respect for our Vietnam veterans. "This is the End... my only friend, the End... weird scenes inside the goldmine…” It isn't just that I don't know what this is. It's that I don't know who I am anymore upon seeing it. We're one Hogan cameo away from putting this over the top. This close. This. Close. Let this be remembered as that time where Banks, Charlotte, and Lynch stole the show and had MOTN on a Wrestlemania. Significant story coming out of this show that isn't getting enough play (as it happened early on): the successful burial of AJ Styles in under three months. What's the biggest change coming out of the largest and most profitable Mania of all time? Zack Ryder: Intercontinental Champion.

Been meaning to say this all week: the Hayes interview was absolutely incredible. For some reason I expected 45 mins of it to be tedious, but the whole thing was a riveting time capsule and I loved his interaction with the fans in a semi-kayfabe way that wasn't overdone but still remained true to his character. Awesome artifact that certifies this show as a weekly listen, and a perfect tie-in to the HOF. The idea of "Santo Gold, Santo Gold" becoming the "Bababooey" that 6:05 fans use to address the hosts and one another is brilliant too.

There's about ten minutes of Inoki-Backlund from '79 on Youtube that is so good it made me think I could have voted Inoki even higher, and wonder if when this poll is redone in another ten years I'd consider Backlund on the strength of his post-WWF Japan stints and the '78-'82 run. There's as much awkward/kinda bad Backlund as there is great Backlund, but the great is really great. The way they struggle for power moves and display their strategies for defending against pins felt like something so absent from wrestling right now. Their pace was exactly right.

There's also something great about Sasha ranking higher than Reigns, and I say that as a Roman fan.

Raymond and Gorgeous Jimmy are the great 80s heel hair team that never was. Personally, I think voting workers higher than you really think they should be just to get them a higher placement is odd, especially if it just means going from like #425 to #380 or whatever. If only because it would drive me crazy to turn in a ballot of rankings that I didn't really believe. But to each their own, and more voting/ballots is always a net positive.

Don Arakawa Babe Face Dave “Butcher” 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

Smarkschoice comparisons for this round: 198) Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 123 Points (PWO: #386) 306) Yumi Ikeshita – 72 Points (PWO: #384) 380) Cuty Suzuki – 14 Points (PWO: #385) Many years of bad Tenzan performances and a less puro-fied crowd here than SC likely hurt Tenzan, but this doesn’t feel like a big plunge. Sakaguchi was on my ballot almost the whole time and somehow fell off in the final week or so. Ikeshita is likewise awesome. I could have honestly had a list that was just 100 workers from ’75-’87 Japan. No votes for Cien Caras in ’06 is lame, but I understand why. I popped for the Shinzaki photo.

This round's Smarkschoice '06 rankings: 102) Mima Shimoda - 498 Points (PWO: #405) 183) Jerry Estrada – 155 Points (PWO: #432) 199) El Canek – 123 Points (PWO: #426) 232) Jackie Sato – 79 Points (PWO: #414) 236) Pete Roberts – 75 Points (PWO: #449) 240) Chikayo Nagashima – 72 Points (PWO: #448) 260) Mike Rotundo – 56 Points (PWO: #414) 279) Tom Pritchard – 37 Points (PWO: #423) 308) Mistico – 70 Points (PWO: #433) 333) Bison Kimura – 39 Points (PWO: #420) 337) Combat Toyoda – 36 Points (PWO: #430) 339) Scott Norton – 34 Points (PWO: #404) 354) Dream Machine – 23 Points (PWO: #438) 358) Gedo – 21 Points (PWO: 438) 364) Robert Gibson – 19 Points (PWO: #457) 378) Ikuto Hidaka – 15 Points (PWO: #446) 382) Pat Roach – 14 Points (PWO: #431) 392) Dragon Kid – 11 Points (PWO: #458) 406) Chavo Guerrero Jr – 8 Points (PWO: #414) 407) Tatsuo Nakano – 8 Points (PWO: #408) 434) The Sandman – 3 Points (PWO: #427) 435) Villano IV - 2 points (PWO: #433) Shimoda becomes the worker who’s fallen the furthest by far. (Prior to that it was Javier Cruz, down from his SC '06 ranking of #130.) Clearly 90s Joshi was a big deal on SC at the time, and probably less so here. I was the #95 vote on Jackie Sato: first person from my list to appear. That white suit is on point. She’s been a revelation in the late 70s/early 80s Joshi that I’ve seen. Such a fun, badass, surprisingly stiff and fast-paced style, and even with a run of only five years she felt like the ace of that place. She was always on my list but varied b/w #90-100 throughout. The lucha slide continues with Estrada and Canek. My hope/suspicion is that it’s not that lucha overall will do poorly on PWO’s list, just that different guys are being valued now/then and that Youtube exposure has changed the game. Estrada, no stranger to big bumps of all varieties, was hit hardest. Him and Canek were about 100-200 spots higher than the rest of this pack back then, so they two more big drops this round. Pete Roberts also fell: I like that him and Nagashima remained coincidentally really close together on both lists. Tatsuo Nakano wins “Closest Ranking B/W Both Lists” so far, which feels right for his persona. Awesome, awesome shoot style JTTS who was in my #101-110 range. I believe America’s favorite surfer The Sandman becomes the first worker whose ranking straight up improved in the last decade - up five spots from the bottom of both lists. Villano IV also falls under the list of guys whose status improved (much higher rankings over 2 ballots rather than 1). There was of course only a singles list at SC, so you may see more tag workers or tag work enhancing someone’s case back then (see Gibson, but likely also eventually see guys like Taue or Eaton). No votes in ’06 for Aoyagi, Jim Brunzell, Ian Rotten, Hector Guerrero, Jimmy Golden, or Little Guido is bad. Even back then they should have known better. (Keeping in mind that I didn’t vote for them either.) I feel like Ron Starr wasn’t that well known back then, but he applies too.

This round’s Smarkschoice ’06 rankings, where applicable: 294) Super Crazy – 26 Points (PWO ’16: #469) 410) Masahito Kakihara – 7 Points (PWO ’16: #463) 435) Akitoshi Saito – 2 Points (PWO ’16: #467) Even though their rankings are lower on our list, Kakihara and Saito seem to be the first workers to make both lists and have their stature rise (if only a little bit) with voters over the last ten years. Each is only a small boost (getting on say two ballots rather than one, or ranking higher on someone's list), but it's there. Super Crazy continues the trend of late 90s/early 2000s luchadors taking a noticeable dive. Starting to see even more of the previously Unranked guys fall. It'll be interesting to see how many (if any) of Smarkschoice's 443 don't make PWO's 567 at all. Paul Jones and Bob Sapp feel like instances where they were Unranked in '06 due to stigma, and perhaps in Sapp's case a lack of clarity on PRIDE as a work. No one voting for Jackie Fargo back then was probably due to voter age and lack of footage/awareness. Yujiro Yamamoto is a guy who I absolutely love, but I felt that his run was too short to give him a vote. If he had even 2 or 3 more solid years on his resume, he could make my list - but there are awesome BattlARTS guys with much longer runs who didn't make the cut and would have before he did.

1) We’re all self-selecting in terms of what we have/have not seen, or what we will never see for lack of available footage. Two different people could each have Fujiwara at #12 on their ballots. One is an longtime obsessive who’s seen everything and bought the dude's used cigar at auction. The other is a novice who’s only seen one-third of the Other Japan set and fell madly in love. Both are right for different reasons. 2) I am a “matches” guy for sure. (See the Viaje del Parties thread for this year's model.) I view wrestling as a series of performances between collaborators, in the same way that certain live albums are better than others. Making grand statements about who John Coltrane or Dick Murdoch is doesn’t interest me as much as chopping up the differences between renditions of “My Favorite Things” or the two big Murdoch-Butch Reed singles. To me the match is the work of art, because it’s the union of different forces coming together in real time. I find it more conversationally inclusive and satisfying to have watched the same match as others here, and to then assess if in watching the same action we saw things similarly or differently. Also: while I am 1000% doubtful toward the idea of “objective analysis” in pretty much anything, I do think that grounding wrestling conversation in match reviews/discussion helps keep us from going off on meandering rhetorical debates and vague “theories” about what wrestling should or shouldn’t be, otherwise known colloquially as “bullshit.” 3) Because I’m a “Great Match” guy, I honestly have little interest in squashes or the “consistency” of a worker having lots of good three-star TV matches. (Though I say that as a guy who thinks WWE TV should have more squashes and fewer repetitive main eventer vs. main eventer matches, so it really all depends on context and striking a balance.) Many workers on my list are where they are due to their 5-10 best performances. It’s not that there’s no merit to that other stuff, but I’m still at a point where I haven’t seen as much of the “peak” wrestling as some folks here, and as such I’ll always prefer to watch a highly touted potential classic over a solid day-at-the-office outing. Even from a worker I love. Someone like Lawler has hundreds of good matches that I’ve never seen, but I’d usually rather check out a Dome show main event or obscure lucha cult hero that I’ve never seen before. I don’t like the idea of having to see every episode of Portland TV in order to have a valid opinion about Piper, because most of us will never be in a position to espouse such authority (and because I’m totally jealous that some people really have seen it all, even if completist ideas of “seeing it all” are a slippery slope that never ends). 4) If anything a Greatest Matches Ever poll would to me be more exciting than GWE, though I also think it is more daunting, and that you’d have to perhaps approach nominations with a bit more consensus, a la the way Wrestling KO requires three “Yes” votes on a match before it’s placed on their “Best WWE” or “Best Japanese indies” lists for a given year. On the other hand: if you can quickly imagine a scene in which thousands of different matches get nominated over many regions/decades, the positive is that it empowers us all to choose stuff and have an extensive pool from which to work. 5) I am apprehensive about ranking anyone who’s still in the prime of their career (or even close to it). I got over it to some degree, and I think Phil provided great context for this in his podcast example of Jay Briscoe being a guy who’s now been good for about 13 years. As did Dylan in his assessment of Cesaro as having a really strong WOTY case for each of the last 4-5 years. Anyone who had that type of run in the 80s or 90s would be a shoo-in on most ballots. Very few on my own ballot are still working today, and I think that’s actually a flaw on my list rather than a positive. It seems harder to evaluate recent stuff in comparison to older stuff, as the business is so different and context counts. 6) I am a sucker for the “recency bias” of whoever I’m currently enamored with, but I think we all are and that you’d have to demonstrate seriously self-conscious restraint to really avoid it. I would go so far as to say that “recency bias” is completely inevitable, even toward workers you’ve been familiar with for quite some time. 7) Like everyone, I have other cultural biases that effect who/what I like. That’s not to say I resent particular companies/regions/groups of workers. But I sure as hell think that Tokyo in 1975 is a cooler place than Minneapolis in 1985, and that undeniably effects who I favor in wrestling. 8) This is also deeply connected to the ways in which camera work/video quality/production value effect my viewing, perhaps way moreso than most people here. I am absolutely more inclined to like something if it’s filmed well (or digitized well), or to tune out if stuck with a Kevin Dunn zoom lens or a grainy house show bootleg where you can’t make out the workers’ faces. 9) I was way less engaged by the tag poll than I was by the singles, through no fault of anyone. Yet I would say that I enjoy tag wrestling as much as I enjoy singles, and that in a Greatest Matches Ever poll, I would vote for just as many tags as I would singles (if not more). The problem is simply judging and ranking teams, especially with such variance in bodies of work. Many of the best tag outings are among people who didn’t tag consistently/lack a team identity. Misawa and Akiyama don’t really feel like a team, but their tag work together is better than everything the Rockers or Steiners ever accomplished. I like what I’ve seen out of Bobby Eaton and Koko Ware more than anything I’ve seen from either version of the Midnights, but there’s no way you can justifiably rank Eaton/Ware over either version of MX. In too many cases, there isn't enough raw material to evaluate. 10) There are many really smart people on here who evaluate wrestling quite differently than I do, and life is better if you choose to love them for it. I can mock the Tenta/Demolition advocates (and will!), but I’m still glad they’re out there, thinking the opposite of what I think. I share two of OJ’s ideas cited here: that my opinion of a match/worker is subject to total change from one year (or decade) to the next, and that there’s an endless amount of stuff out there that I still want to see. Miles to go before I sleep.

To echo Jae's sentiments: as a kindergartner watching in 1990, I also thought Tom Zenk was the coolest guy in WCW. Neon trunks, "Z-Man" nickname, lots of rope running. For whatever reason, kids really love the letter Z. It's like I'd only recently learned the alphabet, and he went and took it to the extreme.

Trauma II was the one who held the IWRG Lightweight Title and had the amazing singles match against Zatura in '09, while #1 has in recent years become his equal on the mat and better brawler of the two.