NotJayTabb

Right now, it's Iron Mike Sharpe. It feels like the perfect spot for him.

I went insanely high on Kevin in 2016, think he was like #23 which is really high in hindsight. He's still comfortably a lock for my top 100, he's very much my favourite von Erich. He's not the biggest guy, but he's all action, he's a really believable fighter. He's really fun in brawls, I love the Badstreet match where he takes an uncharacteristic retreat, only because he wants to take his boot off and put it on his fist as a weapon. Probably going to end up in my #50-#75 slots.

In 2016, Santo and Casas were the main reason I took a deeper dive in lucha, because they were so obviously great they had to be on my list, but the idea that my list would be suggesting there were only 2 good luchadors felt ridiculous, so it inspired me to take a longer look. Satomura is the same for me in 2026 with joshi. All the Satomura I've seen - which I imagine is only scratching the surface - has convinced me she's a lock for my list, but to have her and possibly Asuka as the only joshi workers on my list would suggest the only good joshi workers were in the WWE, which is patently absurd. So she's been the catalyst for at least one aspect of my viewing this time around. I'd also think she's a wrestler with an incredible aura when you see her live. Considering she's not a very big lady, she absolutely controls a room and feels like a big deal. This isn't going to be a key factor in my voting, but it could be a tiebreaker, the ability to feel bigger than your surroundings.

So Ishikawa was a bit of a blind spot for me before tonight's watch party, but he's someone who I'm very much going to investigate further. With all apologies to Solo Darling, Ishikawa feels like the real limb reaper, loved the way he weathered the storm in the Murakami and Kana matches, waiting for the perfect moment to grab a body part and hook them. As I said in the Jaguar Yokota thread, I can't say a definite top 100 just off a 2hr selection of matches, but if he's got more like this in his locker, he feels like a shoe-in

I was the Ernie Ladd high vote in 2016, I had him somewhere in my top 50, which is way high in hindsight. He'll probably still make my 100 though, he's someone I always like when he turns up, and he's someone who was very clever at working to his strengths, using his large frame to ensure he's always near the ropes of he needs it to escape or to cheat. Maybe the best legdrop in wrestling. Great in ring charisma too, he'd absolutely draw you in just through his mannerisms

Drew McIntyre Feels like someone worthy of discussion. Has been good at the very least since The Chosen One days, working in a smart, calculating heel manner. Was decent at comedy in his 3MB nadir, then totally revived his career on the indies, working well in PWG and Evolve, looking good in UK indies like ICW and WCPW and being one of the best things in TNA during his run. Came back to WWE and has been one of the highlights of the Covid era, he felt like a real main event star. He's shown he can work well with wrestlers his size and those considerably smaller, and he's going to be given 5 more years of big matches to add to his candidacy. Matches Vs Andrade NXT Takeover Wargames 17 Vs Roman Reigns Survivor Series 20 Vs Sheamus Fastlane 21

I'm kinda surprised he wasn't nominated last time. I'm not voting for him, but I think he's someone who's better than his reputation. He's rarely outright bad in a match, you don't see him messing things up or blowing spots. His offence looks fine and he's had a few fun tag runs with Bryan and the Hurricane. He's just not particularly interesting, but he's been solid enough for years.

I've been watching a few more Martinez matches following the watch party, and one thing she has in her favour is that, by being a long time indy vet who was never really tied to one promotion, you get to see her in a lot of different circumstances against all sorts of wrestlers. In a way, it's a lot like Eddie Kingston, in that you can type her name into the IWTV search bar and get loads of matches that just sound fascinating. I watched her wrestle 19yr old rookie Candy Floss and 49yr old exotico legend Cassandro back-to-back, both great matches and bough fought differently. The Cassandro match had one moment where he hit the ropes and ringpost on a dive attempt, and like a pro Martinez grabbed a choke while clearly checking he was ok, then left him on the floor for a countout to give him time to recover. Just quick thinking to protect her opponent and keep the match flowing realistically. At this point I'm all in on her being great, top 100 isn't out of the running.

I should highlight, I'm not counting the SHLAK match against him, it's just a strange anomaly at the end of his career. I just think it's a shame that it's the final in ring image we have of a guy who was such a force in his prime

I had Necro in the 60-70 slots last time. I think he'll drop a bit this time, but I still think he'll be in my list. His rep has taken a bit of a hit in the last 5 years, partly due to his bad politics and partly due to that SHLAK match where he looked like a mummified corpse, but prime Necro had an aura like few others. I think his work has stood up better than a lot of 00s indie workers, his brawling still looks great, his selling is still surprisingly sympathetic, and his ability to turn his strengths to both deathmatch and non-deathmatch bouts gives him a bit of range.

DiBiase is a guy who I like well enough, but I don't see him getting onto my list. He reminds me of Terry Taylor (who did make my list in 2016, but is unlikely to in 2026), in that he's always solid, but never blows me away. Even when I watch Mid-South, which I haven't watched extensively but am working my way through, I get more excited by a Paul Orndorff match than I do DiBiase. I'm still working through Mid-South, so I'm not 100% ruling him out, but he's unlikely for me.

Tyler Bate is someone I've been a fan of since the very first time I saw him. It was a tag match in a WMC in Coventry, teaming with Chris Brookes against The Henchmen. Bate was 16 and nowhere near as muscular as he is now, but he played a great face in peril before hitting a superb spot that was unforgettable, hitting a German suplex on the 350+lb Jim Diehard. What made it great was the execution - it wasn't a suplex where you can see the opponent do the work. Instead, Tyler got him in a rear waistlock and motioned for the suplex, which got a bunch of titters from the crowd. After all, here was this normal sized kid trying to lift a huge, huge man. Then suddenly, Diehard's feet slowly left the ground as Bate deadlifted him, all freaky core strength. The crowd rightly popped huge, just a good spot made great by the execution. As for his candidacy, he's got a reasonable shout. He's been at worst good for 8 years now, is still in his early 20s, and is both helped and hurt by being in NXT UK. Hurt because not many people watch the show, but helped because it's a show that'll give him plenty of chances to stretch his legs in the next 5 years, he's a featured wrestler who'll be on every Takeover and get a bunch of good 10-15 minute TV main events. I'm certainly not discounting him.

Barbarian was someone I was pretty high on in 2016, and I think he's got a good shot for 2026. In a way, he's an interesting counterpoint to the Goldberg argument, because he's got similar tools and a similar aura, but didn't get a big sustained push the way Goldberg did. Of course, his big push in WCW flopped, but the switch from midcard tag worker to world champion needed more than a month or two build to be accepted. What a beast though. Great offence, clever at knowing when to sell and how much. A guy who didn't win a lot, but always managed to maintain his aura so a win over him felt impressive. Comfortably the best worker in both the Powers of Pain and the Faces of Fear. Even last year, working a tag for ICW NY, he still looked and moved pretty well for his age, which is rare for a muscular 80s wrestler nowadays (Warlord, for example, looked pretty stiff and was clearly less comfortable in the same match)

I was possibly most impressed by the Jordynne Grace match, because Grace is someone who's matches never feel as good as I think they should. She's very athletic and powerful, but often the matches don't come together. Here, everything made sense, there was a proper story and structure, and I think Martinez was integral to that. She played the wily veteran perfectly

I love Iron Mike Sharpe, he's got a very good shot of being my #100 final guy on the list. Watching WWF Prime Time from 1986 can be a chore in places, a lot of dull Sivi Afi or Tony Garea matches, and Sharpe manages to make both guys seem entertaining. I love how he makes potentially tedious lower card matches more interesting with his stooging, the way he plays to the back rows with his selling and offence. Just a really fun guy to watch.

I really enjoyed the watch party, it definitely made me think more of Mercedes than I did before. I'm not certain she'll make my 100, just because there's a lot of great wrestlers out there, and 100 is a small number. She didn't immediately stand out as a "Oh my God, yes" candidate the way Yokota did last week. I'll check out the matches Grimmas listed above (bar the David Starr, because he sucks as a human and as a wrestler) and some of her WWE standouts, but at the moment she feels more top 200.

The problem there is that, although she's currently in a prominent role, she's in a role that's almost certainly going to prevent her having good matches. Nothing The Fiend touches ends up being good to watch in the ring (miracle Bryan match and hilarious Goldberg squash excepted), and if Alexa starts wrestling more like Wyatt, she's going to be in the unwatchable category with him.

There's 2 matches against Jumbo, one in 75 and one in 79, that I loved when I watched them. The earlier one is Fritz brutalising Jumbo in front of Baba before their match the following week, and it's a mugging. The later one is Fritz putting over a more experienced Jumbo. I'm also high on old man babyface Fritz. Like, I really like his retirement match against Bundy where he's this big, aging crotchety old guy taking it to a young punk.

I was the Fritz high vote in 2016, think I had him as a top 40 guy. Don't think he'll be so high this time, but I want to try and watch/rewatch as much Fritz as possible to see if he's still a top 100 guy. I think he's hurt by volume of footage, but I love everything I've seen. He's so fun in his AJPW matches, just a nasty vicious bastard.

Iron Mike Sharpe The ultimate "knew his role" guy. Canada's Greatest Athlete was rarely put in a position to have great matches or stand out, but he remains memorable thanks to his work. A big powerful guy, he'd make his opposition look great by stooging, missing big with wild swings and loudly protesting. His offence looked good, nice clubbing blows and though he rarely won, he still made it look impressive to beat him Matches: vs Tony Garea (WWF Prime Time 16/6/86) vs B Brian Blair (WWF Prime Time 5/5/86) vs Sivi Afi (WWF Prime Time 28/4/86)

Its went down very well, total change of pace from the Galactica match before it, really dug the sense of struggle

I'm looking forward to watching more Jaguar now for sure. I can't say for sure that I'd put her in my top 100 in 5 years time just based on one 2hr viewing session, but if the rest of her output is in that ballpark, I think she'd be undeniable

Yeah, I think the first watch party went really well, an excellent choice of matches. I think it was a useful exercise because Joshi doesn't have the obvious entry points that other types of wrestling do. You can easily start watching puro by using US performers as a gateway, or even someone like Liger who worked a lot of WCW. Same with lucha, where I started by looking up the WCW luchadors. Now, I've a bunch of different names I enjoyed from the footage and that can lead into a number of different directions. Plus it was fun when Jaguar did some crazy suplex variation or some insane bump to see a bump of "Fuck" "OMG!" in the chat.

Kingston is a lock for my list, and he still feels like a guy where I've not seen his best stuff. But he's a standout in early CHIKARA, someone who stands out as being a smarter worker than his peers, and he's very much a guy where I can type his name into the IWTV search bar and every match that comes up sounds intriguing due to his presence. He's also someone Fight Club Pro seemed to wheel out every time I didn't fancy going to one of their shows: "I'm not really feeling this card. Wait, they've booked Kingston against Dunkzilla? OK, looks like I'm going"

I've seen precisely one Jaguar Yokota match, a tag from 2004, so I'm very up for this. Is this going to be an entirely Yokota session?