NotJayTabb

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?

No disrespect to Trish, but I think I could name 100 better wrestlers than her without thinking that hard. I could probably name 10 better women wrestlers currently under contract to WWE, and given that there's only one Horsewoman who I think could make my list, she's not making it.

Yeah, agree with Boss Rock's post above. She's always been the least of the Horsewomen for me, her instincts aren't as good and I don't think she's got the range of the others. While the other 3 all feel different to their NXT incarnations, she's pretty much stayed the same in terms of character and ability.

Taking a dive from 2016: Adrian Street, Matt Hardy, Doug Williams, James Mason, Terry Taylor, DDP, Zack Sabre Jr Probable additions at this point: Cesaro, Bayley, Lex Luger, Eddie Kingston, John Tenta, and I want to nominate Iron Mike Sharpe for my #100 spot

She's still got 5 years to go too, and though not many people watch NXT UK, she's now going to be having matches on a show that is easily accessible. She's already had the best match of Isla Dawn's career, and there's a bunch of good/ great women on that roster.

I just can't see an argument for her. It'd be a stretch to call her a top 10 WWE women's wrestler of the last 10 years (4HW, Naomi, Io, Sane, Asuka, Ronda, Shayna at least all ahead of her), and that covers her whole career. Add in the men, and she's not a top 30 WWE wrestler of just the past 10 years, and I don't see that making a top 100 of all time.

Omeg'a final placing is going to be interesting, I think. He feels like the candidate who's most divisive, where the people who like him will vote him very highly, but the people who don't wont place him at all. I don't feel like he'll get many votes in the 75-100 range.

Finished in my mid-70s last time, almost certainly a lock to rank again this time. Very good tag worker with Martel, Pillman, Johnny Gunn and various others. Smart enough to be able to adjust his style to his opponents, working as an underdog high flyer against larger heels or using his relative size/strength when working smaller opponents. Has the advantage of working TV matches in one of the best years of any North American promotions and he looks good whenever he turns up.

The king of the wobble sell, made his opponents look like stars just by getting him off his feet. I've recently gotten a 2-disc Tenta comp from the IVP patreon, so I'll be giving him a fair crack.

I would freely admit that I'm not very consistent on things like this, and I genuinely can't explain or justify why that is. Like, I still really like Chinatown and I still watch Woody Allen films, but I haven't listened to Lostprophets in a decade. I'm the same with wrestling - I still watch old CHIKARA, and Quack has a good shot for my list, despite being a scumbag. Same with Lawler, and I think that's in part because a lot of his offences happened before I knew who he was, it's easier to keep separate in my mind. Conversely, I can't bring myself to watch the likes of Jack Gallagher or Travis Banks now, they feel ruined for me. No real logic to it, sadly. Regarding Benoit, that feels different because it's arguable that his issues were a result of his wrestling style. Watching Chris Benoit miss a diving headbutt or split William Regal open with a headbutt does feel like you're watching a man damage his brain to a tragic conclusion, so for that reason he's out.

I ended up being the high voter for Sheamus in 2016, and I think he's very much a guy who's added to his resume since then. He had the best of 7 series with Cesaro leading to the Bar run as one of the best teams in the world. He's remained constant throughout, he's someone you always get a good performance from, through to this year where he's been a really standout on WWE TV in 2021. I had him top 50 last time, and I can see him being one of my guys who doesn't drop even with a deeper dive into wrestlers I'd overlooked- there were wrestlers I had above him who'll be placing lower in 2026.

I like Jericho, but I couldn't find a spot for him in 2016, and given that I already know of 5-10 wrestlers who I'll be adding in 2026 and I've not been impressed with his past few years, he's not making the cut.

Casas was my #8 last time, and I can think of a couple of guys he'd overtake if I was doing my list today. It's kinda incredible that he's managed to add more good matches to his resume since then, as he was already a longevity candidate in 2016

I really like Tremont, he's almost certainly the best post-Necro deathmatch worker. I think he's got really good instincts and is much smarter than a lot of her peers. I remember watching the first H2O event, where he wrestled Kevin Sullivan, a veteran who's pretty broken down and limited. Tremont crafted a really good match that hid Sullivan's limitations and was mainly worked around punches. He didn't expose himself or his opponent by trying stuff they couldn't do, they just had a good match based on what they both could do.

I think the Nia match from Takeover London is a definite plus in Bayley's favour. I'm higher on Nia than most here, but I don't think many other women could have that match with her, a really great underdog babyface performance with a really good ending.

I've been rewatching the initial Shield run, and I'd say it takes no more than 5 months for Roman to be comfortably the best worker in the group, which is nuts when the other two were the indy vets designed to carry the workload. Even in 2014, which is the best year of Ambrose's career as a wrestler, Reigns is the clear star of the group, and he's kept developing since then. I could see him going top 50 for me

Two nominations: Pete Dunne i've been watching Pete Dunne for a decade now, and even as a youthful flashy babyface fresh of a Michinoku Pro tour, he was a standout on most cards he was on. By 2014, he had developed enough that he was able to look comfortable as a mat worker against the likes of ZSJ and Doug Williams, and spent the next few years becoming one of the main faces of the burgeoning BritWres scene. By the time he broke out with a MOTY contender against Tyler Bate in Chicago, winning over a crowd who barely knew them, he became one of the most "must-see" guys in the WWE developmental leagues. He's one of the best "big match" workers on NXT, always good value on Takeovers, and at 27yrs old I can see him adding to his resume in the next 5 years. Matches: vs Tyler Bate (NXT Takeover Chicago 2017) vs WALTER (NXT Takeover New York 2019) vs Finn Balor (NXT Takeover Vengeance Day 2021) Bayley I think Grimmas's strong advocacy of Sasha Banks is going to see a lot of people do a deep dive on her, and it's very hard to do that without watching a bunch of very good-great Bayley matches. The thing is, I very much believe Bayley is the best wrestler of the Horsewomen, and I think if any of them are going to make my list, it'll be her. For years, the big thing with Bayley was that she was the arguably the best babyface in wrestling. She was so likable that the idea of her turning heel was preposterous, like trying to turn Rey Mysterio heel. Then she DID turn heel...and she was bloody great at it to the point now where I look at her and wonder how she was ever such a great face. I think that versatility gives her the edge over most of her peers, she's proven to excel in any role. Matches: vs Asuka (NXT Takeover Dallas) vs Sasha Banks (NXT Takeover Respect) vs Sasha Banks (WWE Hell In A Cell 2020)

I'm probably going to do a little dig into Stardom because I think Io has a good shot at my list, and I think Hojo is going to be worth looking at too. The first time I saw her wrestle was in person, bizarrely in a small pub in Tooting, when Stardom did a co-promoted show, and despite being the smallest person in a tag match, she absolutely stood out in terms of ability and sheer in-ring charisma. I think she's someone who benefits from having a good few years in WWE, we've got to see her excel in a number of different roles, from TV worker to wrestling on big shows, working underdog face, vicious heel, tag and singles, it's a nice variety.

I've got my mailing list email, I've got a 5hr block to listen to the podcast when working from home on Monday, I've got a bunch of footage to dig into and a renewed urge to watch some great wrestling. Let's do this!