NotJayTabb

Man, I've JUST remembered the horrors of his 2009 return. Randy Orton had just won the Rumble and was looking like the biggest badass in the company, having just wrecked the McMahon family over consecutive weeks. Steph gets on the mic, smirks and tells Randy "We're not going to fire you....we've got bigger plans for you" (looking SO smug), and the whole roster parts to let though pudgy grey-haired Shane, who batters Orton and the Legacy stable with a barrage of lame punches that caused him to run out of breath. Orton had never been hotter in the company and they successfully sank him in one angle.

Rampage is great, just great, and is a surprisingly versatile wrestler. Excellent as a bad-ass heel, really fun tag worker and really likable as a face. Understands how much to give to keep his opponent strong, but not affect his aura. The Team Single run in PCW with T-Bone have had some really great tag matches in the past two year, just the right level of dominant. Not going to make my list this time, but I can see him building up a great case in the next 10 years.

My favourite Shane match is the cage match vs the Rock from just after Backlash 2000. Shane as the overwhelmed son getting battered by the Rock and nearly winning the title solely through masses of interference is his most realistic character, and he sold his beating convincingly. Certainly more realistic than acing an Olympic medalist on the mat.

Always liked Marty, even in his less-popular "Party Marty" days. One of my favourite live wrestlers, seen him have some great matches with Amazing Red, Robbie X and even getting something good out of MK McKinnon. He's also got the LDRS run to fall back on. That said, he's very much the "Marty" (fittingly) of the LDRS and if Sabre Jr (the "Shawn") is only just getting in my list, Marty isn't.

Ospreay wouldn't make my top 20 British workers today, never mind my top 100 of all time. No chance.

With Ospreay, I've always felt he lucked out when Mark Andrews "won" that dead-end TNA roster spot. Mandrews going to America left a gap near the top of the Progress card for a high-flying babyface ace, which Ospreay took up. He was certainly overshone by Andrews in the early days, with Andrews being the first winner of the Natural Progression Series (beating Ospreay along the way). Andrews being more charismatic and a far better seller always made him standout more than Ospreay, at least to me.

Both guys are going to make my list, but I'll be placing Necro a little higher. Not much in it, probably a couple of places, but I like Necro's ability to be both vulnerable and an arse-kicker.

If we used the weighted scale, would we adjust the scoring slightly so that 100th place earned 1pt and there wouldn't be minus points for not featuring on a ballot?

I've got three Von Erichs on my list, but David wont be one of them

I'd take: 1 - Bret Hart vs Roddy Piper from WM8, as it's been my favourite match for years now. It encapsulates everything I love about wrestling in one sub-15 minute match, love the morality play and story-telling in it, and I think the ending is just perfect. 2 - The 10 tag team match from Survivor Series 88. I think you'd need one really long match to pass the time, and something like this with 20 wrestlers in will have so much going on that it'll still be great on repeated viewing. Plus I've always loved this match, it's just so much fun, wrestling as comfort food. 3 - Odd choice, but I'm going with the Henchmen vs Chris Brookes & Tyler Bate from Triple X Wrestling in 2014. I think I'd want something to remind me of home, so this match from my home city would do the trick. Plus, it's one of my favourite matches I've seen live, making it a sentimental pick, and it's a match I've watched numerous times and still enjoy.

Very unlikely I'll vote for him, but I think he's been underrated for a few years now. He came to prominence by having high-flying matches with Jody Fleisch that stole the show wherever they went, but he's always been a bit more well rounded than that. Was surprisingly good on the mat when the situation called for it, and the fact he spent a lot of time touring with All Star meant he had to be able to do more than just a load of spots. I was particularly impressed when I bought a DVD of an All Star handheld from early 2001, and it featured 2 matches he had a fortnight apart against Chad Collyer. Both were good well-worked matches and they were both different, which was a pleasant surprise. The Jonny/Jody team in 1PW was the early anchor of the tag division, matching up well with all the indy super-teams Gauntley would fly in for the shows. He's still going strong now, and working wiser yet as smoothly as before. It's just a shame not as much modern Storm makes tape

"Bear with an angry head" is a perfect way to describe Roach. There's a match I love on a Reslo comp I bought where he's fighting Skull Murphy, and Murphy spends the opening section constantly scraping Roach in the eyes with his wristguard. Every time Roach tries to muster some offence, Murphy is back scraping the eyes again. This goes on and on until the referee has had enough and forces Murphy to take the wristguard off, leaving him with a big bear of a man who's thoroughly pissed off with him, and proceeds to batter him for the victory.

Unlikely to vote for him, but I think he's worth discussion - Jonny Storm Vs Chad Malenko (Collyer) (All Star Wrestling, 14/3/2001) You may know Malenko better as Chad Collyer, so this has the chance of being decent. Hilariously, he still has the initials "CC" on his trunks. Malenko tries to get a "USA" chant going for some easy heat. Nice little mat sequence gets us warmed up. I love the simple touches, where Storm asks the crowd if he should wrench Malenko's arm again, while Malenko shakes his head. They work a nice sequence of counters and reversals, which ends with Storm on top, which must seem like manna from the Gods for this crowd after some of the earlier toss on this show. Malenko takes control and slows things down with a chinlock. He sends Storm high into the air with a massive flapjack. This is being worked very simply, like a good TV match, with Storm getting a few hope spots on his comebacks before Malenko cuts him off. Makes sense, as this isn't a crowd that wants long indy-style matches (which these guys could certainly do). Top rope rana and a moonsault press by Storm gets a good reaction from the crowd. The end comes as Malenko blocks a second top rope rana and hits a tornado DDT for the win. Really enjoyed this. Vs Chad Malenko (All Star Wrestling 22/2/2001) This was filmed 3 weeks prior to the other match, so it'll be interesting if they just had a stock touring match. Seemingly not, as Malenko stomps the shit out of Storm in the corner to start. No mat work, just the more muscular Malenko hammering away on Storm. Storm sends him packing with some dropkicks, playing up his speed advantage. There is a mat section after this, but it's nice to see they mixed it up a little bit. They're definately working some different bits into this match, with Malenko doing a nice little showboat by running round whilst holding a delayed vertical suplex. Malenko keeps control on Jonny, with a nice single leg crab and an STF. Jonny's comeback here includes a nice rana in the middle of the ring, but Malenko catches him leaping off the top for another rana and plants him with a powerbomb for three. Another good bout between these two. Trent Acid vs Jonny Storm (GWF Battle of the Champions 2003) CZW was pretty popular in the UK in 2002, so Trent gets a decent reaction here. Ross Gordon returns and cuts a promo that I can't hear very well. Acid stalls like Hell to start. The highlight of an overly-flippy opening segment is Acid smoothly reversing a hiptoss into an abdominal stretch. Acid really has his character work nailed on here, waiting until Jonny turns around before hiding behind him, then following him in a hilarious, OTT manner. They brawl into the unlit crowd, with something impossible to see earning a "Holy Shit" chant. Acid feigns a leg injury in the corner, then suddenly strikes to attack Storm in a classic heel spot. Acid's mannerisms are great in his control spot, and I like the way that, for a guy who often did too many choreographed looking moves in his matches, he works simply here, drapping a leg over Storm's throat whilst posing to soak up the boos. I also like him following up a backbreaker with a full Nelson camel clutch to focus on Storm's back. Storm's offence at this point was mainly high-risk and flashy, so he was perfect for comebacks that pop the crowd, with a top rope leg-lariat looking great. A triple jump rana gets two for Storm. They work a pin reversals sequence before an Acid Yakuza kick gets two. A second attempt misses and Storm hits a rana for the win. It broke down in places, but overall this was damn good.

Yeah, I agree with all this. It gives it a real "every single vote counts" feel, which means those sentimental #100 picks have some weight. I also like the idea of seeing who each wrestler's high vote is, so we'll actually get a definitive answer to the "Which wrestler will you be the high vote on?" thread :-)

The thing that made the Bret feud work is the difference in personalities between the two. The uber-serious traditionalist wrestler vs the zero-fucks-giving, brash brawler. They just sparked off each other in a way that I can't imagine working with a different wrestler than Bret. Not to mention how much Bret was willing to give Austin in the feud - Bret's big comeback match saw him narrowly win by turning Austin's secondary finisher into a desperation pin. It wouldn't match the Taker character for that to happen, and Michaels wasn't that giving.

"Horowitz Wins!" will forever stick with me because of how unexpected it was. One moment I was watching a basic squash whilst eating breakfast, the next I was on my feet in delight

Thought as the year is still young, it might be fun to have a thread for people to write about shows they've been to this year. I'm always curious to see what shows people have been to, who's been standing out and who to keep an eye out for. To get the ball rolling, here's some words on the only show I've been to so far in 2016 House of Pain Wrestling - 31/01/16 My first show of the year was a House of Pain Wrestling show in Calverton, Notts,. HOP is an academy based promotion, with all the workers coming from their training school, run by BritWres standout Stixx. HOP shows are a nice opportunity to see up-and-coming guys for a reasonable price (6 matches for £5) and a core of workers who are noticeably improving month on month. Joseph Conners & Gabriel Kidd vs Brett Ryans & The Collective Conners is easily the best guy in the promotion and is one of the better guys in the UK. He’s been working bigger shows than this for years, but he still works HOP shows seemingly for the love of helping to work with less experienced guys. This was a comedy opener, as Conners had another show in Leeds to work that afternoon, but was plenty enjoyable. The face team of Kidd and Conners had plenty of fun mocking their mismatched opponents (Ryans is working a royalty gimmick, whilst Collective seems to be some kind of fashionista, who yells “Collective!” a lot), as well as Conners mocking his partner’s ever-increasing gut size. Kidd is a decent young worker with bags of natural charisma, so this was fun without ever threatening to steal the show. The heels won with a quick roll-up on Conners after a clash of heads. Juken vs Danny Thomas Another nicely-worked match. Juken recently turned face, causing him to jettison his former persona of angry German Jurgen Heimlich, a name which was never going to see him taken seriously. Plus he isn’t actually German. He’s another experienced head in the company, working a few tours of Japanese indies to get more seasoning, and he looked great here, really comfortable on the mat and with nice looking strikes. I’d only seen Thomas before in a six-man tag, and he’d not stood out, but he kept up well here, and I liked the story of his stealing Juken’s moves to try and show him up. They’d fought previously with Thomas winning with a low blow. Here, he hit a low-blow again, but was too cocky with his cover, allowing Juken to cradle him for the win. Lucas Archer, Tommy Taylor & Vasillios vs ABH (Johnny Concrete, Eddy Martins and Dante Deurden) Before the match, we were warned that the action would spill out all over the room, but it actually turned out to be a regular six-man bout that operated almost entirely in the ring. The format really helped, as there were enough quick tags to avoid exposing how inexperienced these guys are. Taylor in particular is a guy I’ve not been too high on in the past, but he looked great here, crisp in his offence and looking more comfortable in the ring, so it was nice to see his improvement. This built logically, with a long face-in-peril section before the big spot of Vasillos slamming the 25 stone Concrete. The faces won by DQ, when Vasillos got laid out with a kendo stick. LJ Heron vs Ritmo Heron is super-solid in the ring, really reliable and the right person to put in the ring with someone like Ritmo, who shows potential but is still a bit green. I saw him before Christmas taking on another green worker and that match felt like it went on too long. Here, Heron was able to reel him in and take control of the bout, resulting in a much better match. There were a couple of minor timing flubs from Ritmo but this was decent on the whole, with Ritmo winning in an upset. Mr Goodman vs Disco Dan This was Goodman’s debut, and his gimmick is one part Mr ZERO, three parts Right To Censor, cutting a pre-match promo in dress clothes with a thermos mug, complaining about vulgarity and tomfoolery. Disco Dan works a comedy disco gimmick, so a lot of this match was based around trying to fool Goodman into dancing, with a test of strength/Saturday Night Fever gag being pretty effective. Probably the weakest match of the day, and it was still fun. I liked Goodman’s serious focus on the arm leading to an armbar tapout win TimbaWolf & Barricade vs The Foundation (Danny Chase & Alex Gracie) This was for the tag titles, held by TimbaWolf and Mike Wyld, but Barricade had to sub for the missing Wyld (in a great bit of heeling, Gracie came out wheeling a spare tyre which he hinted was Wyld’s, and lamenting Wyld getting a puncture). The Foundation of Chase, Gracie and LJ Heron have been the main heel stable in HoP for nearly 2 years, but have been showing signs of falling apart, with Chase failing to help Heron cheat in his earlier match up. I think Chase and Gracie have both gotten really good in 2015, with Gracie stellar on the mic. He’s manages to be a really entertaining talker, whilst also being utterly unlikable, which is a hard line to balance. This was a good tag match, given a bit of time and with a fun heat section on Wolf. Barricade is a beast, as well as a former HoP champion, so he was really effective as a hot tag, overwhelming the Foundation. Predicatably, Heron showed up to run interference, which backfired as he accidentally hit Chase with a spear, leading to a face victory. Really good main event, and the post match fall out of the Foundation falling apart left a cliffhanger for the next show.

On my current WIP list, which admittedly is pretty rough, I've got Arn just in my top 25, and Tully just in my top 40. I see Arn as more consistent over a longer period of time, which goes in his favour.

"Rob Black: idiot or carny" feels like a debate that could go either way.

It's a fun match, but even then IRS slows it down in the middle for a lengthy abdominal stretch session or two

XPW once booked a Buck Naked match, where the object was to strip your opponent naked in the middle of the ring. Now obviously, two women willing to take part in such a match aren't going to be highly trained grapplers, but given that Rob Black was a pornographer, and both Lizzy Borden and Veronica Caine had a history in adult entertainment, the audience were clearly expecting some nudity. The execution was terrible. Borden and Caine were both members of heel factions (the Black Army and the Enterprise), so the crowd ended up babyfacing the Black Army for interfering and helping try to strip Caine, despite them being massive heels in a previous segment. It got to the point where Borden was just about to strip Caine....and the lights went out. When they came back on, Caine had vanished. The Enterprise took credit for this to big heel heat....which was promptly wasted in the next match as Enterprise member Steve Rizzono jobbed to a man in a monkey suit (literally billed as "A monkey") in a comedy match. What they managed to do was annoy their entire audience, taking away any reason to trust XPW stipulations in the future, accidentally babyfaced their main heel faction and wasted any heel heat with a throwaway 3 minute match in the next segment.

Nowhere near my top 100. He's been in some good matches, but he's probably #1 on a list of wrestlers who I don't want to watch wrestle. There are worse wrestlers, but none who will have matches of such a length that are so uninteresting. There's nothing about him that compels me to watch a match, and he's been responsible for some of my least favourite matches ever - I still have nightmares thinking about that wretched Last Man Standing bout from the 2004 Rumble.

I really like Tommy End, but I think it's a bit soon for him to make a list like this, and I think he'll have a better shot in 10 years time when we next go through this process. I've seen Tommy live numerous times in the last few years, as he wrestles a lot for Southside Wrestling, who often run 5 minutes from my house, and I've seen him have great bouts and not-so-great bouts. He's really fun to watch as a heel - his 2013 match with ZSJ based on him slowly breaking Zack down with strikes and trying to avoid getting taken to the mat was a lot of fun, and seeing him beast Rich Swann and Robbie X in competitive squashes was enjoyable. The problem is that they were almost TOO fun and resulted in him being turned quasi-face, where's he's less fun. I don't think he's a sympathetic enough seller to rally fans behind him - what was great in the ZSJ match was that he sold Sabre's comeback strikes in a way that showed they were hurting him, but he was too dominant to let his mask slip to his opponent. He's not as able to tell a story with his selling as a face, leading to matches like the Hero stinker* I sat through last August, two guys working a "I'm a great striker" gimmick against a guy totally no-selling the blows. Made me think that you can't be that good a striker if your opponent is bellowing "Come on!" in response to your elbow/kicks to the head. Hopefully these kinks can be ironed out, but for now he's not getting near my list. *In the interest of fairness, I should point out the rest of the audience loved it and gave both guys a standing ovation. It WAS terrible though.

Ha, I can't believe they're continuing the Big E/Nattie's sister storyline. Tyson Kidd's horror at Big E cavorting in his hot tub is one of the greatest Total Divas moments

Really enjoyed the All-Star tag match, there's something about the All Star style I really love. There's not enough places in wrestling where the face will move away from their corner to persuade an audience of kids to yell "cheat" at the heel. I've always kinda thought that All Star would be a perfect place for the WWE to send guys who aren't quite NXT-ready, having good simple matches night after night, and the stage set-up is perfect for getting used to wrestling to the hard camera.