NotJayTabb

I've got both guys in my top 10, but Bryan is on the bubble of dropping into the teens, whilst Rey was a #1 contender at one point, and will be top 3. Rey had an elite career, and was a weekly guaranteed good TV match for at least 10 years.

You know what, I'd not even considered Haku for my list. I'd always considered him the lesser Face of Fear, I don't find his offence as impressive as Barbarian (who I think is pretty agile and quick for his size) and he's not as generous a seller. I suppose I should give him another look for the interest of fairness, but he's pretty unlikely to. I'll revisit 5-6 Haku matches over the weekend to be accurate.

I worry about opening a can of worms here, but having watched a load of Barb's NJPW work in the last week, he's gone from the bubble to being a lock for my list. Only in the 90-100 bracket, but he's going to be in. I've reviewed a load of them for my blog (link in signature - cheap plug), but to sum up: Barbarian in Japan is so much fun to watch - he rampages through the crowd like a mad man, scattering the audience in all directions as he passes through. He's a fantastic offensive wrestler. Great legdrop, nice looking strikes, sudden diving headbutts and real brute strength - him casually doing reps with Kengo Kimura over his head looks great. He's also not adverse to sneaking in something unexpected when the moment calls for it - him countering an Inoki leg lock to one of his own was a pleasant surprise, and looked great. Defensively, he was much better than I expected/remembered. Having the character he does means that he's not a guy to be pinballing about, but his selling manner makes his opponents look great for how they wear him down. I mentioned above the way he sold a quick Inoki chop, but there's many examples - how he sold Fujinami's repeated chinlocks by taking longer and longer to gather his bearings after each one, how he sold Inoki kicking him down to the mat like a big redwood being felled, earning a big pop when he falls to the mat. A lot of his matches don't have satisfying endings, as often he get's DQ'd for using a chain, but that's on the booking rather than Barbarian. There's enough meat in his bouts with Inoki, Fujinami, Steve Williams etc to show Barbarian as a great wrestler.

I don't think you should rank him. If your instinctive reaction to watching a wrestler is so visceral, then there must be some factor that stops him being one of the 100 greatest of all time. As you said, no-one should be ranking a wrestler "because I'm supposed to" and I think everyone will have at least one omission that'll seem like heresy to others (apparently JvK isn't voting for the Barbarian!), so I think you stick with your instincts here.

Waltman is in my 55-60 section, think he's just been too reliably good not to be

So based on the "Bubble Watch", Henry is just above the relegation zone? That's pretty cool, esp as I seem to recall you weren't big on Henry.

This is something I've noticed going through 94 Raw, and comparing squash matches he had 2-3 weeks apart (and with the 94 Rumble in between). As a face, he was flashy, slightly vulnerable and made one of the lumpiest, most useless jobbers look quite competent. Flash forward to the heel squash, and he's a different guy, nailing his jobber with sharp back elbows and nasty looking uppercuts - you don't get that sense that Owen is having to learn to play heel the way some long-time faces do. First heel squash match, and he's turned into a vicious arsehole. I was really impressed with that.

Have you rated Mark Henry, or are you intending to? Just strikes me as a guy who'd probably score well on the BIGLAV metrics

It's strange to me just how much of a regular Masters has become in the UK. It's gotten to the point where he's no longer treated as an import in places like PCW, he's just part of the roster. It does mean some of his better matches in the past few years haven't gotten as big an audience as they would have, but he's had some great matches in PCW with Kris Travis, Chris Hero and Dave Mastiff, and his match with Big Damo for HOPE was one of the better matches I saw live last year. Not going to make my top 100, but it's nice that he's still putting on great performances.

Was kind of surprised he'd not already been nominated, especially when both members of American Wolves and ReDRagon are. It's funny, I was looking through the dashboard for my blog, checking if there were any wrestlers who I'd reviewed a lot of matches by but weren't nominated, and Shelley's name popped up. In each review, I've been very glowing about Shelley, how fun his offence was, how I enjoyed his smug character work and how surprisingly effective his selling was. Yet despite this, I can barely remember the matches. Not sure what this say about him, the fact that he's pretty forgettable despite my enjoying his matches, but it made me think he's at least worth revisiting in the next week or so.

This is more hilarious lie than exaggeration, but Hogan claiming the Undertaker broke his neck on a tombstone...in 1971

1 - Hansen 2 - Flair 3 - Funk 4 - Misawa 5 - Kobashi 6 - Lawler 7 - Casas 8 - Bryan 9 - Tenryu 10 - Mysterio Guessing somewhere around 71 for DiBiase

Thought Alex Shelley was already nominated. Think he's worth a look: Vs Austin Aries (TNA Against All Odd 2012) When Get Cape video stars collide. Shelley attacks Aries as he reclines in the corner to get this thing started. There is a nice spot early on where Shelley throws Aries out of the ring and prepares for a dive, only for Aries to crawl under the ring and attack him from behind. Aries starts hitting knees to the shoulders of Shelley as the commentary team wisely bring up Shelley being sidelined with a shoulder injury. Aries follows this up with a 2nd rope elbow to the back of a seated Shelley. Shelley takes over after A Double takes ages setting up the Pendullum Elbow. Aries tries to crawl under the ring again, but this time gets cut off by Shelley, who hits a suicide dive successfully. Aries takes over and this time hits the Pendullum Elbow with no build up, which Tenay highlights. Aries hits a sick Death Valley Driver on the ring apron but misses the 450 splash. Shelley hits Sliced Bread, only for Aries to get his foot on the rope. Aries rolls through a roll-up attempt and goes back to Shelley’s neck with a series of knees before the brainbuster only gets a two. Shelley gets another nearfall from a series of kicks to the head, but A Double blocks another Sliced Bread attempt and hits another brainbuster, before locking in the Last Chancery for the tapout win. Really good match, with Aries concentrating on Shelley’s injured shoulder, which also softened Alex up for the submission. Vs Joey Ryan (PWG Guitarmaggedon 2005) Alex Shelley vs Joey Ryan Ryan is introduced as the “Technical Wizard”, so naturally Shelley totally schools him on the mat from the get-go. Shelley is working face, and throws in some wonderfully wankerish moves, grabbing Ryan in a wristlock to clap his hand, then manipulating Ryan’s fingers so he’s flipping himself the bird. After a few minutes of humiliation, Ryan finally gets an advantage by kicking the ropes into Shelley’s groin on a rope break, but this merely fires Shelley up more, wrapping Ryan up like a pretzel. I love the dynamic of Shelley being so arrogant on the mat as a face, doing some push-ups while having Ryan trapped in a headscissors. The fans are really into laughing at Ryan, to the extent that even a small child at ringside gives him shit (earning the child a chant). Ryan finally gets on offence by avoiding a Shelley charge into the ringpost, giving Ryan an opening to work over Shelley’s shoulder, hitting a nasty hammerlock slam on the floor before bringing him back in for a Divorce Court. Ryan dominates for a good spell and Shelley’s selling is terrific, constantly shaking his hand to get feeling back and frantically trying to keep Ryan away from his injury. Shelley finally makes his comeback and gets two from a Flatliner. Shelley goes back to the mat with a few pinfall attempts, but gets caught up when trying La Majistral as Ryan grabs the ropes and holds on for a controversial win. Great match, really well structured and it kept both men looking strong. Vs Eric Young (TNA Against All Odds 2009) Alex Shelley vs Eric Young This was the evolution of a smarter, non-cowardly version of EY, and he looks good in the opening stages, outsmarting Shelley and hitting a big dive. Shelley is great as a smug dick here, and after EY hits the guard rail on a failed top rope dive, Shelley zones in on the ribs of his opponent, which is logical strategy on a larger guy. It also gives him an edge, in that he has an area to aim for to abruptly stop Young gaining momentum. I love the big bump EY takes, diving into, then over, the ringpost from the apron. Even when locking on a cobra clutch, Shelley holds Young over his knee to also impact the ribs. I don't think EY looks quite as crisp as he does nowadays, as he's clearly one of the elite performers in TNA today, but his selling adds to the match, with just little subtle winces as he feels the ribs hurt. EY gets to kick out of a lot here, but it feels consistent with the new confidence he's showing. This more confident side costs him however, as he gets into a row with the ref and rolled up for the win. Fun match.

Fritz von Erich vs Giant Baba from 1966 is on YouTube, and is well worth a look (though it strikes me as a match you may have seen before). Both are guys I see as serious candidates.

Horrible news to wake up to. Was one of the first puro guys I gravitated towards, partly because I loved his knock-off character on WCW/NWO World Tour. One of my first comp tapes I bought was a best of Hayabusa, really fun guy to watch.

Feels pedantic as fuck, but it should be "Jonny Storm" instead of "Johnny Storm"

Curious how high folks might go on Togo. I've been grouping up where guys might finish in my list, and right now he's sitting in the 25-30 zone. I always liked him before this process, but he's now a guy I love watching. He's just someone who seems to instinctively get what he needs to do in a match, who his audience is and how to get them to respond accordingly. Going through some of the Complete & Accurate matches over at Segunda Caida has been a load of fun.

The only positions in my list that are locked in are my top 6, and Santo is 5th. I've heard people talk about Santo as a gateway to lucha, and I think that's fair. He was my entry point, and I think it's for all the reasons you listed above: the aura, the smoothness of his high-flying, how great he is on the mat, but most importantly,because I just love watching him.

It's a weird disconnect. He shows all this personality in these houseshow videos where he's dressing up as Bayley, or recreating the Dirty Dancing dance with her, but that guy never seems to be in the ring wrestling. I enjoy his matches, don't get me wrong, but I just don't LIKE him as much as I do outside the ring.

I've got the following guys battling for the final 10 places (in no order): Steve Grey, Terry Rudge, the Barbarian, James Mason, Scott Steiner, Ikuto Hidaka, Ted DiBiase, Juventud Guerrera, Batista, LA Park, Mat Hardy, Adrian Street, Mick Foley I say this with the disclaimer that Grey and Rudge are likely to go higher, as they're only on the bubble due to my not having watched enough footage of them yet, but that's going to change in the next month. I also think Mason and Barbarian are more likely to place than the others, but the rest are all about level at the moment.

I agree with the above. Throw in some League of Nations interference in HHH's favour so Reign's has a reason to come out (and I imagine he'd get a big pop for the save, especially if people realise he's there to help Dean win) and have him cut a "It's not about the title, it's about kicking your ass" promo, and Mania looks way more interesting.

Not going to make my list, but I've always liked B-Boy. The first indy show I bought was CZW's Best of the Best 3, which he won, so I've always had a soft spot for him. Once saw him get something decent out of Ric Blade, which is no mean feat.

Was watching some Barbarian matches from NJPW last night, and it solidified to me that he'll probably make the 95-100 spots on my list. Really great offensive wrestler - I mentioned his big boot and headbutts above, but he's got a glorious powerslam and gets massive height on his legdrops. Given the size, strength and portrayal of his character, he's a surprisingly decent seller too. There's a great moment in his Inoki match (20/10/85), where he rears back for a blow and Inoki quickly chops him in the face. Barb gives the same look my dog did the first time she saw a hissing cat: a slightly baffled look to indicate he's not sure what happened, but he's pretty sure he didn't like it. Inoki peppers in the chops and Barb starts to look more and more off his game, leading to a big pop when he goes to the floor. There's a Barb/Fujinami match I've got coming up that I'm now really looking forward to.

Though I enjoyed some of his tag work with Stars & Stripes, American Males, Vicious and Delicious, and the Scorpio team, he was the worst worker in all four tandems

I can't wait for the BIGLAV score on Strongbow...