InYourCase

Hero won last year, didn't he? Crazy to think he fell that far (and I think his ranking is awfully generous). Great work with this, Sam. This list always represents a very deep, very interesting bubble.

Really happy I ran across this post. The environment ruled, this match ruled, and I wish there was more Tajiri from this era on tape. Great way to spend 10 minutes.

I find it fascinating that those who feel disconnected hyperfocus on Dave Meltzer and his star ratings. As someone that loves modern wrestling, and feels bad for those that can't realize we're in a golden age, I can say that Meltzer's stars mean nothing to a large quantity of people I interact with. What is Meltzer's influence? There are so many outlets and so many voices, why is Dave the one that people look at?

I don't know how I didn't know this match existed. I hope this project sheds light on how foolish it is that CIMA finished at #201 for GWE. He was so good here, and at this point, was 22 years old. I desperately wish we would've gotten him in the BOSJ instead of say, Kid Romeo, who was actually in the 2000 BOSJ. Loved CIMA, loved Liger, and loved Kanemoto on the opposing side. Super entertaining match. ****

Lol. It's because he's a NXT reject who doesn't fit in a workrate promotion (or whatever ROH tries to be these days) and clearly got booked just because he was an ex WWE guy they could roll out . That your first thought would be "is it because he's fat?" is hilarious. A company that books the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and brings in Okada/Tanahashi fairly regularly. Weird that that audience doesn't give a shit about Bull Dempsey. Not hilarious . Fans of today hate wrestlers because they are overweight . That is a fact. You have to be a great worker to get past being overweight . I don't watch NXT so I have only seen a picture of James , never seen him work .Unless you are Samoa Joe or Steen , ROH fans boo fat guys out of building. Been that way since the Blue Meanie hit TV screens. You're right, indies didn't start promoting "hoss divisions" or anything. Keith Lee isn't one of the most buzzworthy guys on the indies right now. Willie Mack doesn't have a large circle of fans. Fuck off with that shitty, uninformed opinion. And it isn't a matter of "ROH fans". The ROH fans that went to the RexPlex are not the same ones going today. Even the Chicago Ridge crowd has completely evolved, and they've been in that same building for 13 years. I would love to know where you came up with that theory.

Young Bucks vs. Futureshock vs. Super Smash Brothers: 7/21/12 ACH vs. Kyle O'Reilly: 8/31/13 AR Fox, Rich Swann, & Candice LeRae vs. Adam Cole & the Young Bucks: 8/31/13 Chris Hero vs. Akira Tozawa: 9/5/10 Kevin Steen & Akira Tozawa vs. El Generico & Ricochet: 5/27/11 Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Brothers: 5/25/12 Threemendous III and both nights of BOLA 2013 are essential viewing to me

EVOLVE started out as a Danielson-esque style for big matches. TJP, Danielson, Bobby Fish, Sawa, and then later Finlay and Callihan. That lasted from EVOLVE 1-9. 10 started the time period in which EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA were in the same universe. EVOLVE became Dragon Gate USA without the Dragon Gate guys. Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, El Generico, Samuray Del Sol, Ricochet, and again, Sami Callihan. Even a guy with as much talent as Chris Hero struggled to fit in during this time. It was a dreadful period for the promotion in terms of attendance and buzz, but the talent pool was top notch. EVOLVE 31 started a reboot for the promotion. They went to weekend W-L records and put a huge emphasis on a top 10 ranking system. This was the start of Timothy Thatcher, Drew Gulak, and Biff Busick being the faces of the promotion. There was a clear transition period between 31 and 44. The undercard was filled with young high-flyers like Matt Cage and Shane Strickland. Guys like Swann, and even for a short time, Johnny Gargano, were pushed down to the midcard as the grapplefuck trio, Drew Galloway, Roderick Strong, and Chris Hero took over the main event scene. This style officially took off at EVOLVE 45, which is oddly enough one of the best EVOLVE shows ever. The Strong vs. ZSJ match is essential viewing. Thatcher won the world title in the main event. EVOLVE 45-57 was the peak of Thatcher being at the focal point in the company (and subsequently getting outshined by the rest of the card). TJP really took off at this time. Hero was starting his insane run that just concluded, Drew Gulak finally started to take off as a legitimate main eventer, and fresh faces like Tracy Williams, Fred Yehi, and Matt Riddle were starting to take off. EVOLVE 58 is when Thatcher was, to me, the official point in which Thatch became a joke. The grapplefuck style was still present, but TJP, Chris Hero, Fred Yehi, Matt Riddle, Zack Sabre Jr, Hot Sauce, Drew Gulak, and Tommy End were all performing lightyears better than Thatcher. 58-69 featured a lot of Thatcher bombing, and various Grapplefuckers giving their farewell speeches to the promotion. 69 was highlighted by Johnny Gargano saying goodbye, which, in my mind, is still a wound the promotion has yet to fix. From 70-now (77), there's been a giant influx in new talent. The grapplefuckers have disappeared, and we're starting to see a new style form. Sammy Guevara, Jason Kincaid, ACH, and Keith Lee will probably be main eventing the promotion by this time next year, and they're a part of this new generation of high-flyers. tl;dr - the promotion is slowly transitioning out of a grapple-heavy style

The first match that comes into my mind is Kobashi vs. Misawa from 3/1/03. Somehow there's been three and a half pages of talk, and I dont' think anyone has mentioned that. For that style, in that time and place, it's the perfect match. It holds up 14 years later as a five star, no doubt about it, classic. I would listen to arguments for 4/7/13 or 1/4/16, the two best Okada vs. Tanahashi matches. If I was compiling a list, it would be hard to not include at least one of those two in my top 10. I don't think there's ever been a more dramatic match than 1/28/86. It's the perfect balance of emotional storytelling and in-ring action. I could buy arguments for 12/3/93, 6/9/95, and Kobashi vs. Kawada from 6/12/98, as well. I have to mention Blood Generation vs. Do FIXER from 7/3/05 and Mochizuki vs. Shingo from 11/1/05. I think those are two of the greatest matches of all-time. tl;dr - Kobashi vs. Misawa, 3/1/03

Dylan Hales does. It's been probably two years since I've watched them at this point, but I was in favor of 12/3/93 over any of the praised All Japan tags.

1980s: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenyru vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu - 1/28/86 1990s: Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada - 6/12/98 2000s: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa - 3/1/03, Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA - 9/17/06 2010s: Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Shingo Takagi - 11/1/15 I haven't watched WoS in almost a year, so I don't want to comment on the 70s

Desperately need wrestling to watch, so for the time being I'm giving pimped joshi and lucha a shot for PWO2K. I've seen Bucanero before, sporadically, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've watched Tarzan Boy. Big fan of Boy bleeding a minute into the match. Great bit of juice. I really liked the first fall. Bucanero's offense looked good and Boy bumped like a would expect a pretty boy lucha lad to do. No matter how much lucha I watch, and no matter how much I read about lucha, I will continuously struggle to get past most matches being 2/3 falls and the silliness of the first 2 falls. I've accepted it as something that happens, but it still annoys me. The banana peel second fall made me roll my eyes. Third fall felt clunky, but the double juice helped me look past it. HUGE fan of the submission tease that Tarzan Boy punched his way out of. That had me fooled. I thought that would've been the finish. At the very least, this was fun and it made me want to at least try more lucha. I really liked Tarzan Boy. I have a feeling this is the most enjoyable I'll ever find Bucanero. ***1/2

Why is Okada vs. Omega not on here? Also want to nominate Strong BJ vs. Twin Towers from Big Japan 1/2 NO to Yehi vs. Henry. I like both guys and that was not a very good match. It would've been very good had it been 18-20 minutes, but the last 10 felt dead and the execution suffered greatly in the last stretch. Those two are capable of much more.

I think this is the most under appreciated All Japan match in history. The pacing is out of this world, Yatsu is at his peak, Kawada breaks out in a tag that isn't a Footloose match, and Jumbo & Tenryu have unparalleled chemistry. Perfectly executed and a beautiful display of violence. It's been probably a year since I've watched it and it's something I'd like to go back and watch again. *****

I was shocked at how good Magnum looked in this. Pretty sure I won't like him again until 2003 haha. CIMA is so good and it's scary because he's so young. This was pre-knee injury. Mochizuki really comes into his own in 2001 but my goodness he and Fujii tore it up. ***3/4

I'm glad you brought up that Misawa vs. Kawada match. I thought it about putting it on my initial list. Although it's far from being their best match (and I like it more than most), there's something romantic about seeing them end their saga in the Dome.

I forgot about the 15 years in the business. Thought it was just 35+

I don't have a problem with Dave doing it because it's HIS thing, his stars, and his system. It's not something I will be implementing anytime soon.

Bucks aren't old enough. I'm probably the biggest Omega supporter on this site and he is nowhere near being a 2019 first ballot guy unless something changes. I will certainly listen to an argument about Ibushi, because I don't think he's that far off from being deserving of getting in, but Omega is nowhere near as close. In-ring he's not a top 30 guy of all-time, which is when I start looking at guys on getting in on ring work alone. If Mochizuki was on the ballot, I'd vote for him because I think he's one of the 10 greatest wrestlers of all-time. Omega is a draw, and anyone that disputes that is factually incorrect. He sold out Sumo Hall, has the Tokyo Dome number to boost himself, and I believe his run in All Japan did very well at the box office. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. Regardless, he's not a HOF level draw. By 2019, I feel like his drawing would be his best attribute, but with the way his career is going, who knows. He doesn't have an influence case. He was office for DDT, so I can't give him credit for training their new crop of talent. Wasn't substantial on the US indie scene. I think he's influenced the Young Bucks and Ricochet in their career decisions (staying in Japan, holding out for a better deal), but it's not a widespread influence at this point.

I subscribe to this train of thought more than anyone else's. I have a 1/4 when I rate things, but to each their own. The big thing with me is that there's a huge difference between ****1/2 and ****3/4. In modern wrestling, ****1/2 is tremendous, it's captivating, it rocks - but there's a strong chance that I won't even consider a ****1/2 for my top 10 at the end of the year. There's a huge difference in quality between the two, more so than ***1/2 to ***3/4 or even ****3/4 to *****.

I brought it up because, A) One of my favorite Shibata matches B ) Hopefully that sheds some light here on how great Ibushi is

vs. Tomoaki Honma - 8/3/14 vs. Kota Ibushi - 7/29/15 vs. Tomohiro Ishii - 1/4/16

Maybe not my favorite, but the two Kobashi matches (vs. Akiyama, vs. Sasaki) should be in the running. I don't think I like either of those more than the last two Okada vs. Tanahashi matches, Nakamura vs. Ibushi, or Okada vs. Omega, but they should be in the discussion.

Heat evolves, just like everything else in wrestling. People have phones and tablets now - even in the biggest of big spots, some of them are going to be filming it, rather than living in it. I also just believe that people react differently. People evolve.

I don't even think it was close. Goto vs. Shibata was a great match and it had plenty of heat, but it's not even comparable to the reaction of the main event. What match were people watching? The last 20 minutes were deafening. Audience members were crying after the finish. They clung onto every nearfall. Get lost with that "it wasn't anything special" bullshit. And thank you for saying that, Parv. Maybe not people will get a grip and realize that New Japan doesn't have "one style", and saying that they don't like "the New Japan style" is a ludicrous and uninformed argument because there is no specific style. The second half of modern New Japan cards are littered with different styles.