El Dragon

If there’s a listing of this style in order for World of Sport I’d be very interested as well, though that’s probably just as big of an undertaking

This shit is why I was so excited to have this back, btw.

I also remember an argument against him last time being he hadn’t proven he could work as a top heel and actually be a Hated Heel. Then the Planets Champion gimmick happened, and that had to end that. He’s my working No.1 and it will take a lot to nudge him, but there are guys who can probably give him a run.

I’m not ready to go quite as high as Steven is, yet. But Hokuto is jump off the page good to me in 90-91. Outstanding bumper and seller, killer looking offense, very very strong at the in between stuff. She’s not the total character she ends up becoming, but she’s a high point of every match I’ve seen her in. At present, she’s in my top 25, and could see her moving up.

Amusingly Dunne was a guy I thought was on a trajectory to a real player in 2026 until he got NXTified. I haven’t seen a guys career arc get utterly dismantled in terms of “them losing what makes them actually really good to instead put on mindless sprints that lose there appeal fast” as fast as Dunne outside of Gargano.

Continuing that train of thought, it’s super early but that’s kind of the fun of these prediction: Pick 5 wrestlers who made the Top 100 last time that won’t this time, and 5 who didn’t but will this time. Making it in: Chris Hero Meiko Satomura Jaguar Yokota Minoru Suzuki Roman Reigns (there are some New Japan guys I could add but that’d be boring to list) Missing Out: Shinsuke Nakamura Dusty Rhodes Sami Zayn Kerry Von Erich Rick Rude

Steven might beat me to this, but there a lot of Shimmer era workers that didn’t get nominated last time that probably should have been, and some of them deserve deeper thought. Lacey, Daizee Haze, Sara Del Ray, and Madison Eagles are kind of lost great wrestlers from that era we just very infrequently saw get a chance to stand out, but when they did they were frequently very good. I didn’t mention Mercedes Martinez because Steven is gonna be loud on that one.

Regarding the current discussion points. I'm just one guy, but Rick Martel is someone who skyrocketed up the rankings, even past the point I thought he would, from his AWA and Portland work. I legitimately think he's about the best babyface I've ever seen . Love his fire, love how much he makes every single hold or move he puts on look as full effort as possible, he's a top 10-20 guy for me at present. On the other hand, I came away mostly unimpressed by Curt Hennig through the AWA set. He had some great matches against Bock/Hansen, but the Hansen match was the only one I ever thought he came across as "As good as the other guy", and every time he had to lead a match he regularly let me down. Him finishing 55 last time is something that always confused me. I also think a common thing this go around will be a moderate tear down of a lot of the Crockett/WCW guys that dominated last time. So much of there high placement last time seemed to be "Everyone knows they are good, everyone has seen them, and it led to some placements that were not great. (Just as a general example, I don't understand the case for Pillman over Waltman, but that's a minor example)

I get your argument, but I think the main thing the footage actually hurts is that we have tons of evidence to point the soft spots around a worker. Ishii is guy who if you just add up “most 4 star matches” on some people’s scales would finish super highly: but that’s not how I evaluate wrestling, even if I did view most of those matches in the 4 star range (and I don’t). One of the main things that will always elevate a wrestler to me is versatility. And to be quite blunt, I don’t find him a versatile performer, and I know exactly what to expect from him in most of his matches tends to take away all the “specialness” others tend to get from his matches. Ishii probably has 20 times as many 4 star matches as Willian Regal, for instance, but in no way do I buy him as an actual better wrestler.

Having pretty recently gone through the AWA set, I don’t think ranking Heenan would be crazy and he might sneak into my bottom 20. “Wrestler playing a Manager who can’t wrestle” is a genre of wrestling, and 80% of people who play it suck at it. Heenan was legit incredible at that specific element of wrestling, best of all time at it by a wide margin. Add in he’s a center figure of a match that I have at 4 1/2 (Six man with Patera and Ventura vs. Hogan and High Flyers), and he’s on my list of people to consider

Without going into too much detail, I had Eddie Kingston at 98 last time and was self conscious about including him at all. This time around he's going to be in my top 50, it's just a matter of how high I can get him.

The Joshi watching Mondays have been a real treat. Except for Toyota.

If that match was Bruiser Brody vs. Nick Bockwinkel and Brody gave the exact same performance Hansen did in that match it would be held as a prime example of Brody being unwilling to do business and ruining what could have been a great match. I will gladly die on this hill.

Bockwinkel vs. Hansen was mediocre and I wish you were willing to look past your admiration for both men enough to see that. But yeah, obviously I’m in. Been watching tons of stuff so I like my ballot a lot more in 26 then I did in 16. Looking forward to others joining in the watch parties

My money is Lashley gets a title shot tomorrow and wins, which I'm cool with.

UH OH

Cool Finish.

Bonus Point call if this does happen: AJ pins Drew, not Sheamus, and Sheamus pins AJ. Basically they re-do Bray's first title win. EDIT: Nevermind!

Honestly, have really liked everything since Sheamus got in. A rare time the Chamber match does just feel kind of wild and out of control.

Will say, really liked those short punches from Drew to start that brawl with Sheamus. Small thing, but looooved it.

God that Monkey Flip almost had a brutal head on head contact that would have been absolutely brutal.

If Omos ever figures out how to even be a mediocre wrestler he's going to be a big star. Hell, he might be a pretty big star just as a bodyguard type.

My question is, why would the ref make these counts?

I honestly like Jeff Hardy more then most people around these circles do as a worker, but there's nothing more Jeff Hardy then opening a match with no actual live crowd by trying to get the fans to clap.

When Nia's been in everything has felt slow and uncordinated. With Shayna is in the interactions looked fucking amazing. Sounds about right.