Parties

A guy I've been meaning to nominate for a while. Has sporadic matches online, but seems to have been genuinely great from as early as '71 until as late as what, '87 off the NJ set in those two big 5-on-5 matches? Or even '88 doing six-mans with Goto and Saito. One of the best tag workers in company history, esp. for Inoki. Has a really good Andre singles readily available online, then the very good tag against Andre and Tony St. Clair like ten years later. I need to rewatch/see more of him before I can say he fits, but he strikes me as a better version of Baba in a lot of ways, to the point where aside from Baba's prior sports fame I feel like Sakaguchi could have been a much better Baba than Baba ever was. The New Japan set was filled with great "lost workers" (Hoshino, Kimura, Super Strong Machine, Takano, Nogami), but Sakaguchi was right there among them. Strong contender for my list.

I was someone who missed the Texas set and am only now watching the late 80s/early 90s USWA situation. Gary Young and Billy Joe Travis have been revelations. In some ways Travis is more fun as his selling is so over the top and comedic in a shtick way that's really crazed cartoon genius. Plus he has the great Hugo match in PR. Travis is if nothing else the best Home Plate worker of all time. But Young's work with Embry, Dundee and the like - while comparatively subtle - is still bombastic, fun madness. Also absolutely awesome as Super Zodiac in that insane "Baseball Bat on a Pole" match. I genuinely enjoy this stuff more than the big glory days hugely popular Von Erichs stuff of earlier years. Dude has an odd grace to him as well where he moves in this really slapstick-agile way for such a tall guy. How was his GWF stuff? He has TV matches listed on Cagematch with Cactus Jack, Rip Rogers, and Buddy Landel. There's also a taped tag between Brian Adias and Young vs. Bill Irwin and Randy Rhodes, which may be the scummiest match of pound-for-pound dirtbags that I've ever heard about.

I was never big on the "Roman Reigns Hit Job" conspiracy theory, but I'll absolutely buy the conspiracy theory of "Vince/Hunter/Steph will intentionally tank the biggest Mania of all time in order to make themselves look like stars and everyone else on the roster look like third-class dweebs who should be thankful to even have jobs, Lesnar included". The amount of wishful fantasy booking everywhere online this month that has revolved around some combination of Bryan, Nakamura, and Styles saving Mania has been incredible. Just incredible. It's still real to y'all, dammit.

1) Steamboat is "workrate". See his execution, desire to present himself as an athlete, layout of his matches, and lack of character beyond "upstanding citizen/father". 2) Steamboat is "anti-workrate". See the ravenous fans of late 70s Mid-Atlantic who gave him the loudest pops I've heard any wrestler receive, and who viewed him as their own local Bruce Lee, who every man wanted to be and who ever woman wanted to be with. See also: working a months-long angle around getting your larynx crushed by a Randy Savage elbow onto the guardrail, getting mugged by Terry Funk at the '89 Clash, and spitting literal fire while dressed as a fantastical dragon throughout the early 90s. In short, like most attempts to classify all of wrestling into This or That, it's boring, short-sighted, and pedantic. El Dandy is workrate. BattlARTS/FUTEN is workrate. Damien Demento is anti-workrate. Right to Censor is anti-workrate. Both sides have their place. Both sides have had instance of greatness/dullards. And in spite of it all, Tenta and Demolition still suck.

Terry had at least a year or two in 2008-2012 where he was the Worker of the Year and has been close to that in others. Navarro's run over the last decade suggests he's been a top 5-25 guy every/most years for the last decade since 2006. Solar has not aged and as OJ says, if you're listing Navarro you almost have to list Solar. I've got all three on my list. IWRG/indie lucha has been the best thing to happen to wrestling since the second BattlARTS went down. Ironically the guys representing modern-day wrestling on my list are 50-60 year old luchadors.

At the start of the World Title tournament, HHH offered Roman the chance to become the new Rollins. Join the Authority and we'll make sure you win the title. Reigns declined and eventually speared him, leading to a feud. It was lame and didn't get over until Roman won the title, but it is a reason, and it did eventually lead to getting the belt off Sheamus/an interesting RAW title win/Vince-Roman stuff that has gotten over. Only problem is that it's now leading to Trips getting his heat back in the Rumble and beyond.

Remember when legit funny dude Big E was pegged to be the next Cena for like two weeks?

"Milky white" line wasn't bad and he's one of the only guys who knows how to actually psych a crowd up into seeing a match, but otherwise Chippendales Jericho burying all the heels was pretty lame. Writers are leaning on him hard tonight if he's working double duty as ref and Highlight Reel host. Had forgotten how good a promo Rusev is when he's fired up.

Was Bischoff's trial the one where the big punchline turned out to be that Maria was really articulate and legally savvy when they put her on the stand? I actually remember finding that to be an endearing brand of dumb.

On last week's Art of Wrestling, the great Dan Maff cited Sharpe as the wrestler who was nicest to him as a kid when Maff's dad worked as a referee.

It's hard to say whether they'll learn anything from this though. If looking to confirm their own biases, they'll paint this all as "We had the worst luck ever with injuries, but thankfully HHH saved the show by gifting us a credible main event and carrying Roman to such an epic match. Plus next year we'll have Cena, Orton and Rollins back!"

Easily makes my list on what is out there, and I would agree with the idea that he's Hijo del Santo's best overall opponent, at least from what I've seen in their big 80s/90s matches. That anyone got more out of Santito than Casas did is amazing, but the chemistry and pace of the Santo-Espanto matches is one of the best pairings I've seen anywhere.

His longevity is absolutely unreal. Having performances at his age as good as the ones he had with Dandy in 2014 is crazy. As Elliott notes in that great list he put together, to understand the idea of how well Satanico has aged, you'd need to picture a world where Flair, Backlund, Hansen, and Fujiwara were still showing up a few times per year to have MOTYCs.

The jury is still out with me on Faroan. He's a guy who looks awesome in some matches (esp. in the 80s) and downright bad in others (his later stuff). He's a guy who I wanted to investigate further as the Morgan bloodbath is so great, but I've yet to see anything that lives up to that (though the '92 one with MS-1's very good as well). Watching stuff that comes up various searches of his name, he feels like a solid also-ran in a promotion w/ 20 guys who are ahead of him. But if anyone knows of great performances from him, I'm watching as much old lucha as possible before the deadline.

He's a guy I'm looking at more before the deadline, if only because I've had trouble gauging in the past how much I actually like him. In stuff like the big Chicana matches he looks like the Second Coming. Then in certain random 90s trios he's badly telegraphing spots. At times it seemed like his height worked against him as he has to work down to smaller guys and ends up looking awkward in the process. Just re-watched the hair match with Faroan (another guy I'm trying to figure out at the moment) and it was good and spirited, but there was something about both guys that felt past their prime in that one, as if you were watching two old stuntmen kill themselves on their last hurrah. Like, I would never vote for any of the original batch of Los Oficiales or Freelance from 2008-ish IWRG on this list, but at times I have as much fondness for them as I do for the 12th best guy in 1990 EMLL.

Here here, Hamaguchi definitely deserves a thread. As of now I don't have him on my list, but he's worth evaluating and could very well make mine if nominated. Just a guy worth rewatching in general, esp. the IWE stuff.

Been enjoying the Brisco that I’ve seen lately. He wasn't even on my radar originally (as I sort of put him in the same realm as Race, but JVK's hype has served as a good reminder. He'll definitely make my list, but where exactly will depend on what I watch. Brisco vs. Black Jack Slade in Australia was awesome: great selling from Jack. Not sure what the year on that one was, but he seemed in his athletic prime here and was a very believable champion. The Big Bad John promo at the end was really good too, to the point that I had to research Big Bad John afterwards as he was someone I'd barely ever heard of. Brisco-Inoki from ’71 was excellent and definitely felt like an instance where Brisco brought an opponent to his level through generous, smart work. Kind of an ideal use of amateur-tinged stuff where you have the suplexes and takedowns as a means toward effective matwork, rather than the other way around. The clips of the ’73 match in Florida with Terry Funk are great, but more an instance of why Terry should be #1. Same deal with the clipped eight minutes of Terry-Jack from St. Louis in ’76. The Muraco match from Mid-Atlantic TV in ’82 is very good wily vet face vs. younger heel stuff, as they focus on taking out Jack’s injured knee, but even in what's supposed to be his prime, Muraco didn't seem like much of an opponent. And as an aside, low-voiced monotone heel Roddy Piper trying to sound Machiavellian on commentary with Caudle is one of my least favorite Roddy Pipers.

'90 and '91 title matches with Atlantis were really good, with '90 being the superior of the two. I'm still trying to figure out if/where to rank these guys, but both looked strong. '91's a bit more of an Atlantis showcase, while '90 is the Charles show. There he has great offense, and even sells L'Atlantida notably well. So far I actually like Charles in random trios matches moreso than in title fights, but he's a worthy candidate who does well at both. Will be a guy I watch more of in the weeks to come.

Watching some Tully to see if he makes my list (see Glaring Omissions thread). Tully-Dusty from the June ’87 taping of Pro was one of the most self-indulgent matches I’ve ever seen. The best part of it was that I think that it’s the match that Bruce Mitchell tells a story about on an episode of Between the Sheets. All of the criticism of Dusty’s ego from this time is valid and then some. Their GAB ’85 match in the cage is more evenly worked, but still not anything that would get him on a list. Tully vs. Terry Taylor for the US Title from an ’85 World Championship Wrestling taping is really good. Smartly worked title match for TV that felt like a battle between two athletes. Tully working a lot like Flair: heeling on the ref, selling fatigue, both guys working pin attempts well. I’d forgotten that Taylor was kind of a badass at this time. Still not sold on the Slingshot Suplex as a finisher on anyone but Big Bubba. Tully-Windham from May '87: chief takeaway is how much J.J. looked like Heenan at this time. Weird that Tully was almost exclusively about selling and begging off during this time. He's a heel who barely works any offense. Tully really feels like Dusty's go-to pin cushion right now, just feeding him to every top babyface they had. Match was okay: liked the fisticuffs at the end. Tully-Garvin from Oct ’87 “right here on The Wrestling Network” is the Garvin title defense previously discussed on I wanna say the Crockett ep of Exile. Awesome call of this from Jim Ross, though he did use the “Hands of Stone” line for Garvin like forty times. The sparring exchange with Tully doing the wobbly Funk selling and some decent chickenshit boxing was a lot of fun. For a six minute match with a DQ finish, that was good stuff. Last, I wanted to watch Blanchard-Ultimate Warrior as it’s an interesting pairing that I’ve heard people talk about, and it felt like a good test of how Blanchard would work a) being totally outmatched, and having to carry a big goof through a match. The result is like a more extreme version of Tully-Dusty, which makes sense. Warrior sells exactly one knee-lift in the course of a seven minute match. Tully begs off for most of it. Schnoz finish builds to Survivor Series.

As a little contrast for Togo: I watched his '94 six-man from MPro (Sasuke/Sato/Shiryu vs. Shinzaki/Delfin/Naniwa) and then a singles with James Mason from his 2011 retirement tour. Togo does some of the same matwork spots (like his great version of the old spot where you do a headstand over your opponent who's in a bridge and then bring both knees down to try to break said bridge) in 2011 that he was doing in '94, only he's doing them even better 17 years later. He is the ultimate Going Out on Top story of recent memory. He also played to crowds better than any Japanese worker I can recall in the last decade, as you see early and often in the Mason match. Great mastery of comedy and toughness paired together. I haven't liked this cliche when it's been busted out to describe other nominees here, but Dick Togo is Pro Wrestling.

Just rewatched Scorpio/Benoit from Superbrawl and the Slamboree tag of Scorp/Bagwell vs. Benoit/Eaton. The two big top rope aerials that Scorpio hits at the end of the tag are amazing. Because of his size, the height and force that he gets on his leap from the top is all the more incredible. That inverted splash he does where he moves in kind of a 180 degree shift from mid-air has maybe the best air I've seen someone get off while standing on the top rope. Scorpio-Windham from the Clash is a match I've watched in full several times and it's always good, as much for what Windham does as for 2 Cold. Windham's brief tenure as the surly Lone Wolf champion with Misawa mannerisms doesn't get enough love.

Alan Serjeant is making my list off like five matches. Likewise, Jon Cortez is right on the border of either making it or not for me (currently #98). Not sure how surprising they are, but Dick Togo is currently my #99, and Jackie Sato is #100. Sabu has been discussed, and I think others will have him too. Sheamus is a guy I thought about, and he's really not an out-of-bounds candidate at all. If he worked the same seven year run from 1992-1998 (or '88-'88 for that matter), he'd be getting the credit he deserves.

Who are the guys you expect to do well in the final voting that won't make your list? Where do you break from the conventional wisdom of the board, or wrestling fandom at large? I'd say there's a difference in that obviously, guys like Michaels and Angle would do better in the average poll than they will here. My most controversial pick of a guy who might not make my ballot is Tully Blanchard, which would be absurd to many here. It's not so much that I won't list him as it is that I need to go back into his Microscope thread and remember what's great about him. Something about the conventional wisdom around his excellence has never quite worked for me, but I also know that a big part of why I don't enjoy watching him work is that he is one of the ultimate sleazebag heels. He's clearly adept at coming off like a terrible person, and even successfully worked that into his moveset and choices in-ring. He's crafty, but I need to ascertain how much I genuinely like him vs. how much I "appreciate what he's doing". I just watched the Embry match and it was so creepy that I had a hard time actually enjoying it. I think I watched the most praised Garvin singles years ago and remember it being really good, so maybe that's the skeleton key. Need to watch the I Quit match again. I liked him in the tags w/ Gino that I've watched (more than I like Adams/Gino), but not enough for a top 100. As of now he's on my list, but could fall off unless I find new reasons to love him. The other controversial absences on my own ballot as of now would likely be: Akira Hokuto (prob. haven't seen enough to fairly judge her, but haven't liked what I have seen.) Brock Lesnar (not sure how controversial this really is.) Carlos Colon (his fans are diehards: I like him but don't see him as a top 100 all-time.) Curt Hennig (David Shoemaker's GOAT, but not mine.) CM Punk (I honestly find him to be a ridiculous choice, but others disagree.) Dean Malenko (Seems to have a lot of fans here.) The entire Von Erich family and pretty much anyone primarily known for World Class (Do not enjoy any of them - Kevin or Kerry included - and the creepiness factor doesn't help.) Harley Race (Wasn't he #2 or #3 all time in a poll of DVDVR editors from 10-15 years ago?) Jerry Blackwell (More of a 150-200 guy for me.) John Cena (Teetering on the borderline for me; stellar resume but he's clocking somewhere around #110 right now.) Lou Thesz (Haven't seen enough to judge, but what I've seen doesn't get him there.) Low Ki (I have no personal love for that era outside of Necro, Joe, Danielson, Super Dragon and maybe a few other guys. Ki has always been way too self-serious for me.) Nobuhiko Takada (He's honestly a guy who could squeeze in at the bottom: I like him more than most, but I've seen too many bad performances and he's really out of vogue among shoot-style guys nowadays.) Owen Hart (Is this controversial here?) Pat Patterson (Has his mega-fans: I think he's really good but won't come close to making it for me.) Paul London (See Low Ki.) Rick Martel (The rediscovery of him is deserved, but like Blackwell, he's someone I enjoy but who doesn't make the cut. What do I need to see to change my mind?) Ron Garvin (See Martel.) 2 Cold Scorpio (A guy I need to rewatch before balloting ends, but like Cena he barely misses the cut-off as of now. Honestly almost a #101 candidate for me at the moment.) Shinjiro Ohtani (Don't like him at all outside of his peak. Too many bad late-career performances/matches.) Shinsuke Nakamura (Don't see the case for him at all, beyond "huge charisma and better than Tanahashi/Okada".) SMW guys in general (see Tracy Smothers thread).

Would not come close to voting for him. I like Dolph more than some here, but he's coming off an undeniably terrible year - prob. the worst of his post-Spirit Squad career. In ring, on promos, as a commodity: he's in a real slump and his terrible meta-aloof kvetching hasn't helped. All this coming off the 2014 Survivor Series when it seemed like he was almost on the verge of being booked as at least an Orton/Jericho-level guy. His peak was with Big E and AJ, and that's such a short-lived deal (and one with Bryan as a prominent opponent) that it's nothing to get a guy on a top 100 all-time. Dolph wouldn't likely even be top 100 in the world in every year of his career. Calling him the best jobber they've ever had is interesting, but I find it hard to buy that a guy who's main evented PPVs, won Money in the Bank, held the US and tag titles once apiece, and the IC title four times is still a jobber. It's a new world order with seven hours of TV and stop-start pushes, but he's been to the mountaintop. While they’ve never gone all in on him, they’ve come much closer to treating him as a main eventer at times than they have with most of their current roster.

He has a resume of some of the best WWF matches ever. Honestly he's up there with Bret, Mysterio, Cena, Benoit, Valentine, Tito, Cesaro as having the most impressive WWF list of matches to watch from a singles worker. But unlike those guys, he often seems to have that list due to his great, diverse set of opponents moreso than due to what he's achieving. To call him carried would be overstating it, but he's too weird a worker in some ways to make the cut. On paper he's a strong candidate, yet he doesn't feel like a good choice for this list. The Takada and Funaki matches are great, but they aren't enough to put him over the top.