Quentin Skinner

The HHH world title run from December 2002 to September 2003.

Only major rise on my list has been Jun Akiyama. Been watching a ton of his stuff and he's gone from maybe top 30-35 to my top 5-10.

No chance of making my list. He's just an average "brawler" who never really interested me, but every now and then he puts on a match I wind up really enjoying.

Both will be on my list, but Rey is gonna be in my top 15-20 and Liger will be a bit lower. Rey's TV matches take him over the top for me.

Thatcher's match with Hero at BOLA was fantastic. Kinda wish they had Thatcher win so we got more singles action from him, but it is what it is. Night 2 was easily the best night top to bottom. Really enjoyed every night of the tournament and there only like maybe 3-4 matches I would've got rid of, everything else I was all in on.

For the past month or so I've been doing a mass Jun Akiyama rewatch instead of watching RAW on those Mondays. After watching so much of him he's worked his way in to my top 10.

The way Kamaitachi finally countered that big apron hurricanrana to the apron powerbomb had me going crazy.

Five favorite active guys at this very moment AJ Styles Zack Sabre Jr. Cesaro Dragon Lee Roderick Strong

A lot of people are going crazy for the 8/30 Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi match. That was just all out craziness. Just an awesome match and maybe over took Angel Del Oro vs Polvora as my favorite CMLL match this year.

Bryan would be a slam dunk for me. Styles and CIMA have the next best cases for getting in out of the new people on the ballot. I think Edge is vastly underrated and out of the three names you gave, the most deserving one to go in to the HOF.

I really hated that Bucks, Sydal, ACH vs RPG Vice and Kingdom match from Field Of Honor. I typically love wacky multi-man matches, but they did so much stuff where I just rolled my eyes in that match. I thought Okada/Strong and Elgin/Goto were both really good. Cole/Daniels was a solid opener. I'm starting to think we'll be getting O'Reilly vs Cole at Final Battle for the World Title

I'll just agree with everyone else here and go with Rey. That whole WCW cruiserweight division delivered good-great stuff on TV every week, but Rey was delivering for years with any type of opponent.

Never really cared much for Banderas outside of his LU run where I think everything just came together perfectly in the Muertes role. His work in other promotions hasn't left a big impression on me. Haven't seen too much of his Puerto Rico stuff so I'm kinda interested in that.

Here are names on my list as of right now. This is not in order yet. Terry Funk Ric Flair Eddie Guerrero Kenta Kobashi Tatsumi Fujinami Shinya Hashimoto Rick Rude Stan Hansen Bryan Danielson AJ Styles Toshiaki Kawada Ricky Steamboat Keiji Muto Mitsuharu Misawa Jushin Liger Rey Mysterio Curt Hennig Dynamite Kid Arn Anderson Genichiro Tenryu El Dandy Chris Benoit Shawn Michaels Masato Tanaka Satanico Jumbo Tsuruta KENTA Christopher Daniels Nick Bockwinkel Bull Nakano El Hijo del Santo Bret Hart Chris Jericho Koji Kanemoto Masaaki Mochizuki Owen Hart Akira Taue Randy Savage Manami Toyota Davey Boy Smith Barry Windham William Regal Vader Edge Mick Foley Negro Casas Chigusa Nagayo Meiko Satomura Tully Blanchard Kurt Angle Jun Akiyama Great Sasuke Minoru Suzuki Juvetud Guerrera Hiroshi Hase Chris Hero Devil Masami Terry Gordy Still have to seek out more stuff from guys like Volk Han, Johnny Saint, Pirata Morgan, Billy Robinson and Yoshiaki Yatsu.

I guess I'm not 100% sure that everyone has the same take as that. I often get the feeling that some people when breaking down a match and assigning it a rating are doing so from the perspective of "based on the technical merits of layout and execution, this match is of *insert rating here* quality", at which point they might add the qualifier, "but I loved the hell out of it and had a blast watching it", which to me are two separate views. I think there's value in each approach, but the difference is why there tends to be a lot of flame wars over "star rating" on boards like this. People go into it with different intentions. I don't rate matches just because I simply can't get my head around it, due to the fractured nature with which I consume wrestling. I do it with music though, because I listen to so much stuff I need the reference points just for my own sanity. When I do it there, it's entirely within the context of my own personal taste. I might give a particular old school Rush album a 4 out of 10 simply because I have a lot of Rush albums and that one doesn't speak to me for whatever reason. I might then turn around and give 8 stars to some newer prog band that I've only heard one album from because their sound feels fresh to me. At no point am I making the argument that this newer album is twice as good as the old Rush album. It's more for me to know how necessary the album is for me. To bring it back to the "context and quality" issue, my enjoyment of a match can be completely altered by the conext in which I'm viewing it. I personally LOVED the Bayley-Sasha match on Saturday in large part because NXT is the only current promotion I watch with any consistency, so I went into it looking for the payoff and was deeply invested in getting it. Conversely I watched some random All Japan tag match on YouTube the other day involving Jumbo and a partner who I forget versus an aging Pat O'Connor and Ken Mantell, and I loved that depsite having ZERO context. I could never really compare the two experiences because one them was just me enjoying a random match for the art of the craft, whereas the other one was completely influenced by an emotional connection that would not have been there had I known the outcome going in. Even if I revisit the NXT match years from now, it will be impossible for me to view it in a vaccuum, because it was always bring back the feeling I had watching it live. I think there is something to looking at it both ways, but for me, I account for everything, you'll see me give reasons WHY I enjoyed something or though it was great. That includes how the match was worked, layout, execution, etc as well as emotion, context, and how the match me personally feel. That will all factor in to my enjoyment. For me it turns in to one package. I'll say whether I like/dislike a match and what about it I liked/disliked that warrants my rating. If I enjoy the hell out of it, if it got some emotion out of me AND I think it was worked/executed in a great manner, you'll see me throw a high rating at it.

Star rating are always about how YOU personally feel about a match and what's going on. I want to enjoy what i'm watching and if I do, my star rating will reflect that. That's why people's star ratings will always differ because not everyone will view matches the same way. I might give Tanahashi/Nakamura from the G1 Finals *****, but other people on the forum might give it ***1/2. I may personally love the match and get really wrapped up in to what they're doing, but not everyone will. It's all at your personal discretion.

Maybe a Batista, but the way his last WWE run ended left a bad taste in his mouth, he is creeping up on 50, and he has a burgeoning movie career to focus on. I would rule him out and put him in that same category of all the other guys who aren't "stars".

I'm not saying having that context will always make the match better because it can have a great build and disappointing or bad in ring, but I think when it all comes together with a great build and a great match, you get something special. Sure without really knowing the story it might be a very good match, but with that added meaning it can turn in to so much more.

I watch a lot of out of context wrestling, but watching something have a great build and then put on the great match is something else. You have qualities like emotional investment, crowd connection, sympathy, shock, nervousness etc all playing in to it when you watch it like that in the moment. You want to see the babyface finally get their big win (F.E Sami Zayn last December or Bayley last night) because if you've been following them you've seen all the trials and tribulations they get through to get to that point. You want to see the asshole heel champ finally be dethroned. Context can take a match from good to great to something special.

Props to Taker taking way more offense than I expected him to

What sucks is that the match itself was actually better than it had any right being prior to that stupid fucking finish

Now that I think about it I might be the high man on Christopher Daniels

The emotional connection and the way I was personally invested in the women and their story made this match special for me. Not everyone is gonna have the same view of it as I did, but for most people who've followed NXT and watched these women grow, this match represented many things.

I have Banks/Bayley at ****1/2. Loved the action in the ring and Sasha turned in another fantastic performance, but the video package, crowd emotion, and the curtain call after with all the women was just awesome stuff. Seeing that as the (possible) symbolic end of that women's era in NXT made me feel like I was watching something much bigger when it was done. Those women in just a bit over a year turned that women's division in to a phenomenon and seemingly went out with a bang.

Another guy who at several times has seemed like he was going to be a solidified main event guy but has dealt with tons of bad booking and unfortunate injuries is Wade Barrett.