Microstatistics

Yeah I just gave it to Regal on the strength of the Ohno and Cesaro matches and his individual performances. A usual suspect pick like Casas or Bryan should probably take it but I have some viewing gaps. For 2000 I had created an ongoing 2000 WOTY thread. My current contenders for #1 are Hashimoto, Ishikawa, Satanico, Aja, Akiyama and Kobashi. I thought the Tenryu match was really good but I'll agree the Sasaki match was quite terrible. Very much agree on AJ's 2016. Just out of this world and a legit all time year. Would have to look things over, but you don't think Danielson's run in '06 rises to that level? Its the only other year that came to mind on the domestic side, but haven't looked back at the lists for a close comparison. I'd say, stateside, Austin 2001, Joe 2005 and Danielson 2006 are much better than Styles 2016.

Sublime match with a completely different dynamic from their 94-95 bouts which were more about the underdog Yamamoto trying to survive. Here, he is near/at his peak and so the exchanges are far more competitive. Han does a great job at presenting him as a serious threat with a superb display of subtle vulnerability. The mat exchanges rule as expected (though they are a noticeable step down from the Tamura/Han interactions but that's an awfully high standard to be fair). The standup game is arguably even better and more dramatic and intense. Probably the best thing about the match is the way they use the points system with interesting twists and turns, comebacks and teases. Fantastic finishing stretch as well. **** 1/4

If the lack of high end pro style matches was a possible knock against him, his 2016-17 run has rectified that.

A topic that I thought would complement the MOTYs by year thread well. 1983 - Terry Funk 1984 - El Satanico 1985 - Chigusa Nagayo 1986 - Tatsumi Fujinami 1987 - Tatsumi Fujinami 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu 1989 - Ric Flair (insanely competitive year: Fujiwara, Satanico, Tenryu, Jumbo all up there) 1990 - El Dandy (Fujiwara would have won it in almost any other year) 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta 1992 - Jushin Liger 1993 - Akira Hokuto 1994 - Aja Kong 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa 1996 - Volk Han (Ohtani is close) 1997 - Kiyoshi Tamura 1998 - Koji Kanemoto 1999 - Mariko Yoshida 2000 - Shinya Hashimoto 2001 - Steve Austin 2002 - Genichiro Tenryu 2003 - Kenta Kobashi 2004 - Eddie Guerrero 2005 - Samoa Joe 2006 - Bryan Danielson 2007 - Bryan Danielson 2008 - Yuki Ishikawa 2009 - Rey Mysterio Jr. 2010 - Daisuke Ikeda 2011 - Dick Togo 2012 - Negro Casas 2013 - William Regal 2014 - AJ Styles 2015 - Sasha Banks 2016 - Black Terry 2017 - Kazuchika Okada

Wow, WWE actually delivering on a dream match in Lesnar vs. Styles. Even though I have been praising him a ton lately despite suplex city, I hope Brock wrestles the match the way he did against Cena/Punk/Roman. From an offensive standpoint atleast. Everything else is still on point, but he has diluted his offense quite a bit I won't deny that. Him smashing someone in the kidney is way more compelling than 6 back bump Germans. Then the match has a real chance of being a high end MOTYC.

Necro Butcher - The best of all the post-2000 guys I've seen when it comes to violent punches Yuki Ishikawa - Most brutal body (and sometimes even face) shots of all time Genichiro Tenryu - Those jabs were a thing of beauty.

Kiyoshi Tamura 1989 - vs. Shigeo Miyato, 8/13 1991 - vs. Yoji Anjoh, 7/3 1992 - vs. Kazuo Yamazaki, 10/23 1993 - vs. Nobuhiko Takada, 2/14 1994 - vs. Vader, 6/10 1996 - vs. Volk Han, 9/25 1997 - vs. Volk Han, 9/26 1998 - vs. Mikhail Illoukhine, 1/21 1999 - vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto, 6/24 2003 - vs. Wataru Sakata, 2/15 2004 - vs. Hiroyuki Ito, 8/18 2005 - vs. Josh Barnett, 11/23

AJ Styles. I never hated him and actually thought he was pretty good. But I didn't really got the best in the world hype or thought he was particularly great. But with his WWE run and after looking at his non-Samoa Joe TNA stuff in depth, I have come around and now agree with the one of the better workers of this generation assessment. The Abyss match from 4/2005 was the one that sealed the deal. Outstanding match, incredible individual performance.

Yeah the reaction to the tweet is a little over the top IMO atleast. Wrong place, wrong time for making a dumb joke definitely but the actual content was pretty inoffensive.

Similar to the MOTY thread, a list of the best wrestlers of 2000 from what I've seen so far. 1. Shinya Hashimoto 2. Yuki Ishikawa 3. El Satanico 4. Aja Kong 5. Jun Akiyama 6. Kenta Kobashi 7. Genichiro Tenryu 8. Takehiro Murahama 9. Mariko Yoshida 10. Azumi Hyuga

No 6 star matches but if I were to pick a match that was a cut above the rest of my ***** matches, then 6/9/1995. It's kind of scary how everything just came together so perfectly in that match.

Toru Yano if he counts. One of the better comedy wrestlers and very creative to boot.

Well, the fact that he was an all time/GOAT level worker and arguably the godfather of an entire style should probably go in his favor.

Yeah, I'm not a Kurt Angle hater but this match (and apparently the Lockdown 2012 one as well) do him and his reputation no favors.

Top 5 at this point 1. Akira Hokuto - 1993 2. El Satanico - 1984 3. El Dandy - 1990 4. Yoshiaki Fujiwara - 1990 5. Mariko Yoshida - 1999

What a superb little match. Creative spots, violence, comedy, the underdog narrative and awesome heel work from Suzuki. Love the dynamic with Suzuki murdering Yano with killer offense while Yano did really basic stuff like hair pulling and grabbing the referee just to stay in the match. I know Yano gets ironic praise on places like reddit but he really is a great foil for Suzuki. The repeated interference from Taichi worked really well and had a nice payoff. Great, great finish. **** 1/4

Sort of stealing tim's format here, listing all the great (**** +) level matches I have seen for 2000 so far. 1. Atlantis vs. Villano III (CMLL, 3/17/2000) 2. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa (NJPW, 4/7/2000) 3. Mariko Yoshida vs. Ayako Hamada (ARSION, 10/17/2000) 4. Cactus Jack vs. Triple H (WWF, 1/23/2000) 5. Aja Kong vs. Kaoru (GAEA, 2/13/2000) 6. Azumi Hyuga vs. Carlos Amano (JWP, 3/20/2000) 7. Shinya Hashimoto/Takashi Iizuka vs. Naoya Ogawa/Kazunari Murakami (NJPW, 1/4/2000) 8. Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa (Osaka Pro, 3/25/2000) 9. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 2/27/2000) 10. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW, 10/9/2000) 11. Kenta Kobashi/Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama/Maunakea Mossman (AJPW, 6/9/2000) 12. Akira Hokuto/Mayumi Ozaki/Kaoru vs. Chigusa Nagayo/Meiko Satomura/Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA, 6/11/2000) 13. Alexander Otsuka vs. Naoyuki Taira (BattlARTS, 5/11/2000) 14. Atlantis vs. Villano III (CMLL, 2/11/2000) 15. Yuki Ishikawa/Carl Malenko vs. Kazunari Murakami/Naoyuki Taira (BattlARTS, 9/7/2000) 16. Lioness Asuka/Sonoko Kato vs. Sugar Sato/Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA, 2/13/2000) 17. Yuki Ishikawa/Naoki Sano vs. Alexander Otsuka/Kazunari Murakami (BattlARTS, 3/25/2000) 18. Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 5/26/2000)

88-94 (US) 1. Vader 2. Ric Flair 3. Bret Hart 88-94 (World) 1. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 2. Jushin Liger 3. El Satanico Present (US) 1. AJ Styles 2. Roman Reigns 3. Sasha Banks Present (World) 1. Minoru Suzuki 2. Kazuchika Okada 3. Black Terry

Currently have him at #12 for GWWE. Watched a lot of him after GWE and yeah, a terrific worker. All time great heel, super hard hitting, lots of good-great matches.

Jim Londos vs. Bronco Nagurski (Philadelphia, 11/18/1938)

I don't know, I prefer the Akiyama stuff from 13-16 to what I've seen this year from AJPW.

The two matches vs. Azumi Hyuga (9/23/1999 and 3/20/2000) are must see. Superb offensive wrestler + great underdog. Also Hyuga might be the greatest wrestler ever who no one talks about.

I'm not quite as high on 90s All Japan as I used to be. Nothing too dramatic considering 3-4 of the certified super classics would still make my all time Top 20-25 easily (including my undisputed #1). Plus I absolutely love Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Am and other under the radar stuff like Taue vs. Hansen or Kawada vs. Albright. But I wouldn't consider many of the acclaimed classics (12/3/93, 5/21/94, Kawada vs. Williams etc. etc.) great anymore and think many of the matches that were praised as **** ish/MOTYC level are merely good. A big part of that I feel is fatigue due to limited combinations of guys and lack of variety. I'd rather watch Tenryu vs. Hashimoto over Misawa vs. Kawada (tags or singles) nowadays. No longer a fan of the traditional big match WWE style. Matches (even the highly acclaimed ones which I used to like as recently as a couple of years ago) with reversals and kickouts and "drama" do nothing for me. Much prefer more unorthodox stuff like Foley brawls or Lesnar beatdowns or something with a narrative hook or stylistic twist.

Not sure if this has been brought up, but how will a potential Shields reunion gel with the planned Roman vs. Brock WM match?

I'll agree the finish was weak but the match had a clear structure/narrative (early Braun domination to the corner arm bump/kimura as the equalizer transition to injured Braun vs. depleted Lesnar back and forth).