NotJayTabb

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!

If the rumours of Bryan winding down are true, then I hope he has a run like early last year when it felt like he was testing how good he was. Can he have a good strap match against a guy who refuses to sell and isn't remotely good? Incredibly yes. Can I work a PPV opener against a talented, but underutilised, guy, worked almost entirely on the mat and still get the crowd into it? Also yes. I just want to see him having the most unusual matches and still being great on his way out.

Pete Dunne. I considered nominating him last time just because he was half of the best match I'd ever seen live, but I couldn't really justify it. I don't think he's such a bad shout 10 years later.

Yeah, short haired angry prick Kid Kash was great in TNA. I don't think I'll be picking him, but I did realise that he's a guy who was solid/good for 10+ years.

I've been tinkering with my list throughout the past 5 years, just moving and adding guys based on what I've seen recently or changing opinions. My last draft had Tom Zenk 3 places higher than where I had him in 2016, so that's something. I already know that I'm getting into GWE mode when I was watching some ECW on the exercise bike the other day, and I started mulling over Kid Kash and if he's a potential 95-100 guy.

I've basically been fiddling with my list ever since 2016, adding guys and moving people about, and I've found it's always a fluid thing depending on what I've been watching. For example, when I watched a bunch of CHIKARA, Quack and Kingston both leapt about 20 places before settling back to more reasonable positions. Something someone said in 2016 that still holds true is that you'll never have a definitive list, so you should consider your list a snapshot of who you believe the 100 greatest wrestlers ever are at the time you submit it.

I agree with most of these, but I think Shawn Dean is worth keeping around. Young, good look, solid wrestler, has a low enough profile that they can mould him into whatever role they want. Plus I imagine he's working for $20 and last season's Fulham shirt, he's not stretching the finances too much. That's a rogue's gallery of awful female wrestlers. I forgot Mel even existed, and Abadon is truly terrible.

I honestly don't know how Tony Khan does it, balancing his three business interests. As a football fan, I'd be furious if the Coventry chairman was flying to America every week, trying to find ways to make Shawn Spears relevant instead of concentrating on the team, and Tony has his NFL team to worry about too. That feels like an insane amount to juggle if he's really getting as deep in the weeds as he says.

I'd go as far as to say that Ford's only storyline/character trait is that she's Kip Sabian's wife who has only been shown to be monogamous. Cornette's recent tweet seems to suggest that he's using her former relationship with Janela as his justification. On the other hand, Miro needs to be smarter than this. He's obviously not going to beat up Cornette, he's not going to get Cornette cancelled as his fanbase aren't going to give a shit. All he's done is amplified Cornette's original comments and made sure that the inevitable rebuttal clip will garner a huge number of views. I guarantee Cornette saw Miro's tweet and rubbed his hands with glee

I always thought submission victories were more impressive because you're literally forcing your opponent to concede defeat to the pain you're causing them. I remember in the Bret/Lawler kiss-my-foot match that Lawler hangs on a few seconds longer than you'd expect in the Sharpshooter, which really put over him desperately not wanting to lose but ultimately being unable to stand the pain.

The one thing I read that stuck with me and helped me last time is that, as long as you're happy with your list and believe you've been honest with yourself, that's the only criteria that matters. My starting list was very different to my end list, people near the top that I wasn't particularly taken with because "that's where they probably should be". By the end, as I got more confident in my opinions, I created a list that I felt represented my thoughts - Flair dropped out of the top 10, Jumbo out of the top 20, Kobashi ended up in the 70s. One of my favourite thing in the project was the podcasts where people explained their unusual picks, like the guy who had B-Boy in his top 20. As for suggestions, I agree that watchalongs/watch parties were a really fun thing from 2016 that got introduced a bit too late. I think it was a taima.tv channel that was set up with Youtube videos on a loop with at least one match from every candidate that you could just dip in and out of.

The poster boy for this argument would be someone like Sean O'Haire, who had those promos that people loved, but couldn't convey that into his in-ring stuff and was just another big guy. If I vote for someone like Dusty Rhodes, then his charisma will be a big part of it, not due to promos but because of how much personality he showed in the ring. Similar to a Negro Casas, it's a universal type of charisma. I'm personally very excited by the prospect of GWE 2026. A combination of no crowds and the Speaking Out movement showing that I'd been cheering for a bunch of scumbags has really done a number on my wrestling watching in the past 6 months, so the idea of having a project to get me back in excites me. My 2016 list didn't feature any women, I just didn't get round to joshi and I didn't think any US workers deserved a place, which is a big oversight that I'm looking forward to rectifying, and I want to give WoS a bigger look. Suspect I'll still be the high voter on Jeff Jarrett and Tom Zenk in 2026 though.

I was surprised that Bravado is only 31, seems to have been around for years. I guess being Evolve alumni worked in his favour. I always assumed Taya was going to WWE to join up with her husband. Don't think her age will work too much against her, she's younger than the Raw women's champ and half of the tag champs, think she'll be a good addition to the NXT women's division

Wasn't there a story that Goldberg wanted to put Bobby Eaton over, but had to be talked out of it?

Dar is someone I first saw live when he was 17, and thought he had a big future. I was quite excited for his 205 Live run and, though I enjoyed it more than most seemed to, he didn't quite seem right. Getting a bad knee injury and subsequently returning in better shape with better gear seems to have lit a fire under him, he's far closer to the wrestler I felt he was going to be.

I guess if they changed the name or decided to drop the tournament, they'd get called out for being churlish or bitter about AEW, its a no-win situation. Plus I get the impression that Dusty was actually beloved in NXT, so it's seen as worth keeping.

Flair would be George Best, I think. Maybe Negro Casas for Maradona. One of the best ever to do it, kinda lovable, but definitely some kind of simmering sleaziness to him. An inbuilt charisma that transcends language

Yeah, I think the passing of time, plus the fact most people under the age of 40 weren't following football at the time, means that most people I know revere him as a genius, rather than a cheat. The fact Peter Shilton appeared in the Daily Mail yesterday still fuming about it is delightful though.

You'd think after all the uproar over the Matt Hardy incident that AEW would be all over any potential concussion/ head trauma injuries, but no, here's an EVP of the company watching a spaced-out Alex Reynolds stumble to his feet and hitting him with a running knee and a bulldog. Just horrible to watch

I'm all about the Wild Boar love, he's been a favourite of mine ever since I saw Sabu live twice in three days, and the match Boar had with him blew the match Jimmy Havoc had with him out of the water. Boar wrestles as he should, like a feral little wrecking ball hurling himself at his opponents. Looking forward to this project.

The last time I saw Tegan Nox live was as an unannounced entrant in a scramble for Fight Club Pro, just before she flew to America. I remember hoping she'd look after herself and not risk an injury (which of course meant she did a Molly-Go-Round to the floor onto a group of people). The fact she's now had 3 ACL injuries since arriving at the PC is devastating, it feels like an injury that must be as harmful mentally as physically at this point. On a cheerier note, I thoroughly enjoyed Danny Burch translating Fandango-to-English for Regal, and using cockney rhyming slang to call their opponents a wanker and a c**t.

I'm guessing Jim Ross and Justin Roberts

I almost felt sorry for Strowman and Wyatt for taking some big bumps out there, especially that stage dive, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was watching Bugsy McGraw vs Doink in a hard-core match, waiting for an actual main eventer to come out and save it.

I think I'm right in remembering that Murphy shed a bunch of weight in order to get down to a cruiserweight body because he was doing nothing after the Wesley Blake team split. Now he's used that run to get himself back in the spotlight, i guess he's building mass back up

In fairness with the Cole thing, he was cheapshotted while being held down by a load of officials, getting kicked in the head by a man who's job was apparently to kick things really hard. It's not like McAfee beat him up in a fair fight, and a punt to the head has been established as a death move in WWE cannon by years of Randy Orton. The real question is why they're bothering with Kross when Ridge Holland already feels like the beast they should be pushing to the moon.