Quentin Skinner

I know Sam from WDKW said he had Casas at number 1

Regal doesn't have a lot of great post-2006 stuff, but the fact that he had 4 remarkable matches (maybe even low end match of the decade contenders) against newer guys in a developmental territory is insanely impressive. I'm not sure how many people actually accounted for his WWECW stuff or his King Of The Ring run.

This just edges out Bock/Robison as the match of 1980 for me. Awesome rollercoaster romp. This was really good. Don't think I'd go as far as saying it edges out Bock/Robinson, but this was a hell of a lot of fun. I'm surprised that with all the love for Rose that's been going on, his tag work with Wiskowski doesn't really get mentioned among the elite of that era. I started going through a bit of the 1977 stuff and Rose blew me away in his match vs Jay Youngblood. The rope running sequence they did was fantastic and damn impressive on Rose's end.

To be fair I think even in 2005 AJ had a best wrestler in the world case.

Now that GWE is over and I don't feel as rushed to cram footage in of people/promotions I've never seen, Buddy Rose's Portland run is high on my priority list. Up to until a few hours ago, the only Rose stuff I had ever seen was the much acclaimed AWA feud with the Midnight Rockers. What Rose feuds/matches in Portland are essential viewing or key to seeing what makes him great? I've seen the stuff with Piper get a good deal of praise. Would any of his tag matches with Ed Wiskowski be viewed as "essential"?

Togo was in the bottom 20 initially for me, but going back and watching his 2010/2011 run in DDT facing Honda, Sato, HARASHIMA, and Ibushi really shot him up.

Great showing for Zayn, way better than I expected. I'll come clean as one of the Zayn high voters. The reason I did vote him so high and over guys like Hero and Cesaro is because I don't think they have resume of being one of the best guys in whatever role they played. I think early Hero was a good babyface and right now he's great as the "bully" in his matches, but I think Zayn's work as a consummate underdog babyface outweighs that. Hero is just now finding the role he's made for, while I think Zayn has had it figured out for years. Cesaro doesn't have any particular alignment and that hurt him a bit because I think he's good at playing both, but I can't think of any outstanding heel or babyface performances he's had. Great in-ring without the role execution to really bring him up. The only indie guy I feel like could play a role as well as Zayn played babyface is CM Punk as a heel. In addition, I also prefer Zayn's tag work with Owens over what Cesaro and Hero did together so that was another factor. I put him in the conversation with guys like Kobashi, All Japan era Terry Funk, Hennig, Steamboat, Morton, Martel, HBK (yes, I know) as guys who take a compelling beating, have great fire, and are top tier at garnering sympathy. He endears himself to fans in a way a lot of guys can't. The fact that for most of his career he was able to be so emotive under a mask, not talking, and working under what could be considered a comedy gimmick is extremely impressive to me. Then he takes the mask off and somehow gets even better at it. He's also someone I think has shined in every single promotion he's been in. ROH, PWG, CHIKARA, DDT, wXw, EVOLVE, WWE, he has stand out matches in all these places and has had a deceptively long run as a very good worker. He's better in a feud or "series" setting than I think people give him credit for. I look to the feuds with Owens, Ibushi, Cesaro, and The Briscoes as proof of that. If I'm doing this list again in 10 years, Zayn could possibly climb even higher and so could Cesaro or Hero, maybe to the point of leap frogging him (especially because I think as they stand right now, Hero and Cesaro are better than him). Just right now I feel like his resume is a bit better.

Yeah the Hansen feud got me hooked on Colon. Made me seek out everything I could of him on YouTube and download a bunch of WWC. He made huge impression on me during this process.

Great climb for Colon, but man that's super disappointing. More of a gut punch for me than anyone else so far.

Yeah some of my favorites made it, but only the ones I felt like I could truly justify. Since last August I went back and rewatched stuff of my favorites to see if they deserved placement. In a lot of ways my favorite wrestler ever is Chris Jericho, but I couldn't in good faith keep him on my ballot over someone I may have seen less of but I think was better like Mayumi Ozaki so Jericho wound up getting cut.

May not be the best thread to ask in, but could someone point me to these Super Porky performances from his prime that made people vote for him? One of the guys I'm surprised at the love for because I've only seen his current self.

Actually surprised how well Masa Saito fared but I'm not sure I should be. Where did he finish in the 2006 poll? I'd say Brody falls first, then HHH, then Luger.

Gannosuke just missed the list for me, only because I didn't do enough diving in to later stages FMW. Oddly enough I still think Gannosuke is really good working a small indie like GUTS World.

Genki Horiguchi was one of the last few guys cut from my list, but I'm happy he got a vote.

Buddy Rose and Ted Dibiase, those were issues of me just not having enough time to get to them.

I'll be watching EVOLVE, WWN Supershow, NXT, maybe SHIMMER, and WrestleMania of course.

I'll be one of the higher voters on Shawn Michaels, El Generico, AJ Styles, and Hiroshi Tanahashi.

When I was turning in my ballot I noticed HARASHIMA from DDT wasn't nominated. Shame because he gonna make the list.

Ballot is in.

Angle is someone I enjoyed a lot from about 1999-2008. Will on my list somewhere in the 50s. Yes his recent TNA years hurt his stock a bit, but even with that Angle is still probably one of the best wrestlers I've ever seen. Now the peak of Angle's run was when I was a kid so of course I went back and watched a lot of stuff from 2001-2006. It was the same thing I did with guys I liked a lot at that age like Chris Jericho, RVD, Jeff Hardy, and Shawn Michaels during this process. I thought maybe his stuff wouldn't hold up too well since so many people in this bubble of wrestling fandom seem to be so critical of him and the guys I mentioned. While a guy like Jericho did have his stock dropped on rewatch and RVD and Hardy aren't coming anywhere close to my list, Angle like Michaels, did hold up for me. I may have liked Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco as a kid. When I go back and listen to Late Registration or Food and Liquor, I still get that feeling I would back then. Would that apply to every single musician I liked as a kid growing up? Of course not, but there will always be a few acts that stand the test of time and you still see that greatness as you get older. Angle matches from that time period always reeled me in and still do.

The more I think about it as time winds down for this project, Sheamus isn't an out of the box pick could sneak on to my ballot in the 90-100 range. A guy who's capable a lot, but doesn't really have many "big matches" to really boost his case. Even with that being said I think he's that great of a TV worker (one of the best in his era) and has done stuff I've enjoyed with a variety of guys like Reigns, Goldust, Bryan, Morrison, Cesaro, Big Show, Mark Henry, Ambrose, Del Rio, and Ziggler. As Jimmy mentioned he actually can work effectively switching between sympathetic and dominant as a babyface which is something I don't think he gets enough credit for. He's also great as a brutish, bully heel. Glad I'm not the only one who's really high on his 2012. May not be important to other people, but I always end up super impressed with Sheamus when he's thrown in to gimmick matches. In ladder matches he's very unselfish and has no problem taking insane bumps which is something you don't expect from a man his size.

Nothing finalized, but very much in play for my number 1. At worst he finishes at 5th.

I have Eddie slightly above Rey for the exact same reasons. It's jarring to me how good he was at every single thing I could want in a pro wrestler.

I'll be doing stuff for the Greatest Match Ever project Sam mentioned. Besides that I think I want to dive more in to lucha history. I hadn't watched much of it before the project, but it left a huge impression on me.

Shawn is a guy that will rank very highly for me. I completely get most the criticisms levied at the guy although I think it gets extreme with some people. With that being said, I don't think I've ever rooted for a babyface as much as I did post-surgery Michaels. The way he sold getting his ass kicked made me feel bad for the guy in a way not many can match. Whether he's selling a concussion, his back, his leg, or just overall fatigue, I always bought in to his struggle and wanted to see him succeed. Now I grew up in the 2000's so when I saw the way people crapped on the guy it made me think I need to reevaluate Michaels' work during that time. What's he doing so wrong that people are this annoyed by him? Was I just placing him because of nostalgia and when I go back will I have a completely different stance on the guy? I did that for a lot of guys I liked growing up. Jeff Hardy isn't anywhere near my list, neither is Rob Van Dam and both were favorites of mine from that time as well. For me, Michaels' stuff holds up. I'm not a huge fan at all of the HHH feud (although I don't think it's nearly as bad as some people do), but that Summerslam 2002 match is still something I enjoy very much. His performance in the 2003 Survivor Series is stellar. He has two really good RAW matches with Chris Benoit from 2004. Both the triple threat title matches from 2004 are among the best matches of that kind I've ever seen. Always liked his interactions with Orton and the way he made Orton look like a killer more than anyone else did. I like both of his Jericho feuds. The stuff with Angle from 2005 is absolutely fantastic. I still really like both the Cena matches from 2007. There's also a Street Fight with Edge from 2007 I think is awesome. Both the Taker Mania matches I still love and if anything would be a nostalgia thing it'd be those two matches. Week to week on TV I had zero issues with him because I think he was always reliable for a solid TV match. Even with all that being said I haven't mentioned I like pretty much anything from the Rockers tag team and a lot of Shawn's singles work from the 90's I love watching. Is Michaels overdramatic, "hokey", and a product of the WWE hype machine telling you he's the greatest? I think yes would be a fair answer to a lot of those, but he draws me in as a performer so much that even when I concede to these criticisms, it still doesn't really change the way I feel about him. He's a lock for my top 10 and may climb higher.