NotJayTabb

Malice once had a surprisingly decent match with a knackered Vic Grimes on an XPW card, much to my shock

I had Rey at #3. Just a remarkably consistent guy, and someone you could slot in on TV with anyone for any length of time, and he'd give you a decent match. His offence to me always looked more effective than someone like Michaels because it worked with the fact Rey is such a tiny guy. Rey wasn't flipping for the sake of flipping, he was trying to build more momentum to ensure he was able to knock his opponent over or have enough velocity on a flying headscissors to make sure his opponent didn't just catch him. The 619 is much-derided, but he'd build up a lot of momentum before pivoting between the ropes to slam his feet into his opponents face, so to me it always looked painful. AND he could be an effective heel - unmasked dungarees-wearing Filthy Animal Rey was still a decent wrestler, but man I wanted to see that irritating runt get his comeuppence.

I like some aspects of Graves' commentary: heel cheerleader for Eva Marie and his outspoken despair at Mojo Rawley are both strong points on his resume. I agree that having both commentators ganging up on the Drifter is counterproductive - I also think they've missed a trick by having Samson already lose a few matches. Taking this guy the fans despise and giving him a long winning streak would've made for fun viewing. Certainly he should have beaten Crews at Takeover, losing his first big match makes little sense.

Yeah, I prefer to watch a full show. I like a bit of lightness and shade throughout my wrestling watching and sometimes having a well-paced sprint, a competitive squash or a comedy match on a card makes the bigger matches feel more important.

With regards to how mainstream the list is, I think it's important to look at the number of wrestlers who made ballots. 557 different wrestlers received votes, which to me is a testament to how much footage people we watching. The mainstream US/puro guys will have done well because people have been watching them for years. People have seen countless matches by Bret, Savage, Arn and other guys who were deemed unreasonably high. When we're discovering new styles and areas, we don't have that built in knowledge, so we can only follow the recommended matches and make our journey from there. Guys like Santo and Casas are almost a gateway into lucha, the first guys you watch to get into the style, so it's likely that people getting into lucha will have rated them highly. From there, people will have taken different routes. I gravitated towards La Fiera and LA Park, both of whom scored well on my list, other people will have gone off in different directions and favoured other guys they're discovering for the first time. Same with WoS - Breaks did well amongst people who will have watched it for the first time because he's so easy to get into. From there, the number of WoS candidates spread throughout the honourable mentions shows that a lot of people have been watching the footage. We've been watching the mainstream guys all our wrestling lives, some of us have only been watching WoS/lucha/Japanese indys for a couple of years. People talk about "the journey" of GWE, but I think it's most important aspect will be it's legacy. GWE is nearly over, but I'm still watching WoS on YoutTube, still planning on working through the lucha DVD's I bought last month that I've not watched yet, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

I've got quite a lot of wrestling shirts, though you'd really have to be into the Brit indys to know that my "Henchmen Gym" and "Big Griz" shirts related to wrestlers. I think it helps that people are getting a bit more tasteful in their designs - Chris Brookes is a guy who has really nice looking shirts, the kind I'd buy even if I wasn't a fan as they look so good. WWE wise, I've not got as much. A Brie Mode shirt and a Nunzio shirt that I bought for £5

Got to be Vader, surely?

Man, last time I posted in the reaction thread, I was so smug about none of my top 10 dropping, then in two days I lose Santo, Regal, Savage, Casas and Fujinami. Top 4 still intact for now though. I also want to agree with Jimmy Redman's post. I'm a relative newcomer to the board, only being active since July, but I've gained so much from this process. Since I started watching footage for this project last February (it took a long time for my account to be activated, but I started watching from the day I registered), I've discovered guys I'd never seen before. Guys like La Fiera, Yoshinari Ogawa and Steve Veidor were barely on my radar 12 months, and they all comfortably made my list. Heck, I was the Steve Veidor high voter. In the process, I've also been reconsidering guys I've loved for ages and weighing up their cases. I remembered how much I loved M-Pro guys like Togo, Delfin and Sasuke (who all made my list), I wrote a long blog post looking at matches the Barbarian had in Japan and even if I know I'm going to probably have to defend my #1 pick in a few days (spoiler - it's Bret), I learnt so much from the GWE, and most importantly, enjoyed it every step of the way (If I have one regret, it's not sneaking a vote in for Rampage Brown at 99. I probably do like him more than Alex Shelley in hindsight. Plus, I'd have a badass avatar)

Buddy Rogers? I think that's a good shout, especially in terms of influence.

Trying to think of a decent analogy for Cagney. We're missing a chunk of footage, but what we do have (The Public Enemy, The Roaring Twenties, Angels With Dirty Faces, White Heat) marks him out as a GOAT candidate. You've also got influence to consider and performing different roles (a man as comfortable hoofing through a song-and-dance number as hatching a villainous plan)

I think my high vote team of Sheamus, Ernie Ladd, Fritz & Kevin von Erich and Jeff Jarrett would be a fun heel squadron. Especially with my #1 pick to come and Veidor, Zenk and Mason on the subs bench

My first thought was Barry Windham. He's a guy I see ranking highly, but not being anyone's #1

The opener to Spring Stampede 99 with Juvi is generally considered his career peak, I believe. Blitzkrieg kept up with Juvi pretty well

In no way, shape or form trying to compare it with Benoit, but what was the situation when Verne Gagne had Alzheimer's and was involved with the death of a fellow care home resident?

Grimmas, sorry to be a pedantic arse, but you've got that Gordy got 0 top ten votes, but also that the highest vote was an 8

Pretty sure it was Luger, think he's talked positively about the experience on Twitter. I also liked Riggs, seem to remember he had a really good match with Kanyon on Thunder shortly after the Flock broke up, while he was still wearing an eyepatch. Also though he was quite good with his "I get better looking every single day" gimmick. Definitely better than Bagwell

Sami is the first guy to be in the exact position in my list as he is on the countdown

I've been watching 1994 Raws, and found the exact same thing with Michaels: as a heel, he's really uninspired at controlling matches. Even his jobber squashes are really lacklustre, even compared to the likes of Adam Bomb and heel Crush. Great thread BTW, looking forward to reading more

I didn't even know it was a guilty pleasure until I started going online, but Tom Zenk. As someone who got into wrestling through watching WCW Worldwide on ITV in the early 90's, Tom Zenk pretty quickly became my favourite wrestler. He was the quintessential babyface wrestler, adorned in bright colours, high-flying, virtuous and always trying his best, often in vain as the Z-Man would eat a lot of 3-counts. Zenk is the face of my childhood Saturday afternoon, and here's the thing: I still think he's great. Watching back old WCW, he's still loads of fun to watch in the ring. He's that perfect size where he can be the power worker of the Lightheavyweight division or the undersized underdog against Dangerous Alliance members in the midcard. If I wasn't online, I'd be shocked to learn how derided he is, and I maintain that he's a terrific wrestler.

Kerry is my first to fall in the top 100, though he was only the 3rd highest Von Erich on my list

I think for a lot of people this is one of the key reason's they find watching Benoit hard. The last Benoit match I properly sat down and watched was vs Regal at No Mercy 06. There's a point where Benoit bloodies Regal's forehead with a series of straight headbutts where the knowledge of what happens less than 12 months later makes it too unpleasant to watch.

Big Show is the first guy I thought of. He really makes his mean something...he incapacitates his opponent in the corner, shushes the crowd, moves any garment of clothing that could soften the blow, then clobbers them with a hand that's nearly as big as his opponents entire chest. Like getting hit with a snow shovel

Here's the No Mercy match with Kennedy you mentioned. Short version: Logical match let down by Kennedy not being a very interesting wrestler The Undertaker vs Mr Kennedy Slightly hard to find the Undertaker as intimidating as usual as his fake tan starts running down his head at the start of the match. Taker starts working over the arm of Kennedy early, with him hoisting Kennedy up in the air by the arm being particularly impressive. Kennedy manages to block Old School by armdragging Taker off the top. Kennedy's selling of the arm is remarkably consistent, though he does try punching Taker with the bad arm which leads to Taker Flatlining him. In the midst of all the arm-offence, Kennedy manage's to take a turnbuckle pad off. When he does get on offence, Kennedy is nicely vicious, but makes the mistake of trying to get his breath back, giving Taker time to regain control. You get the impression Kennedy is putting in some real effort here, knowing what an opportunity this match is. Certainly, he seems a lot less half-arsed as he has done in recent years. Problem is that when Kennedy is on offense, it's a bit dull. His offence here is mainly based around kicks and hammering Taker in the corner. It's done with intent, but doesn't exactly enthrall the audience or myself. Piledriver from Kennedy (daftly called a Tombstone by Michael Cole) gets 2, and Kennedy reacts by pounding Taker in the face in frustration. It's like he's really selling the story of the match well (cocky upstart desperate to beat legend), but his offence isn't good enough to match up. In the middle of his hottest spell of offence, he puts on a resthold and the match cools down again. Taker hits a chokeslam, but Kennedy is able to reverse the Last Ride and ram Taker's head into that exposed turnbuckle. I'd forgotten all about that, which made for a nice little surprise. Swanton Bomb gets two for Kennedy. Kennedy tries to nail Taker with the US title, but Taker blocks it and uses it on Kennedy instead, giving Kennedy the DQ win. All that for such a shitty finish. Really out of nowhere considering Taker had just done the zombie situp and looked ready to win. Story of the match was better than the work within.

I didn't rank Benoit. For me, I wanted to revisit and rewatch everyone I voted to ensure a fair ballot, and I simply don't want to revisit Benoit's matches. I've watched a few since 2007, and every time I've found it impossible to watch them without instantly thinking about the murders. Both the GWE and wrestling in general are supposed to be fun, something I enjoy watching. Watching Benoit's matches take away that sense of enjoyment for me, so he didn't make my ballot. Also, just wanted to defend Big Daddy after he was listed with other wrestlers who'd accidentally killed someone. King Kong Kirk had a pre-existing heart condition that killed him, not Daddy. In fact, the inquest fully absolved Crabtree of any responsibility, so Big Daddy didn't kill anybody.

Grey and Larry take a hit from my list. Saw Grey live vs Mal Sanders in a WoS showcase match back in 2005, and I really wish that it could've been 2016 me watching it rather than 2005 me, who enjoyed the match but didn't have the "Oh fuck, I'm seeing Steve Grey live" factor that I would do now