Microstatistics

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).

Where the hell did this match come from? I thought Hashimoto was pretty much done in NJPW after 4/7/2000. First half is slow but very compelling as Fujinami uses his technique to keep Hashimoto in check while the latter wants to turn this into a violent slugfest. Obviously that's just a containment strategy rather than one of control and the match devolves into them exchanging nasty shots in extremely intense and heated sequences. Fujinami holds his own but you can guess how it ends. There seemed to be a really involved story going on as Fujinami goes at Hashimoto head on and treats him with what is almost disdain while Hashimoto is absolutely incensed the whole way throughout to the point of actually spitting at Fujinami (who shrugs it off dismissively). Hashimoto's mannerisms and body language in that context were amazing. Brutal finish and emotional postmatch with another classic Hashimoto moment. I doubt anyone else will like it this much but I thought this was low-end MOTYC level. ****

SLB liked it too so I guess I'm not alone but I actually thought this was a great match, better than any of the Roman/Braun matches and even Brock/Joe. I'll admit the finish was anticlimatic and a little weak, this was one of the instances where 1-2 more finishers kickouts (by Braun) were needed. Still, awesome Brock performance ranging from his initial mannerisms that put Braun over as a serious threat to stuff like his back giving out due to the accumulated damage to him generally getting dominated. The corner arm bump and desperation kimura was a great transition to level the playing field so to speak. Braun's arm selling was pretty amazing, he sold it like it was preventing him executing his finisher properly and how it cost him precious seconds while he was going for the pin (which sort of accounts for the repeated kickouts of the finishers). So I thought, apart from the finish, Braun came out looking pretty strong. **** Edit: Superstar Sleeze liked this match as well so that makes 3.

Huh? Do people agree with this assessment? Not only do I strongly disagree with all of this, I thought Brock was actually great in that match. Nice character work with him from trying to play it cool to actually looking concerned. Strong and selfless bumping and selling for a large chunk of the match. The kimura was actually a great desperation spot and turned the match on its head. He continued to sell deep into the postmatch. I guess I'm probably the only person who thought the main event was actually a great match. Good show overall. Unfortunately, Cena/Reigns was the usual boringness I have come to expect from a modern John Cena match (though I did enjoy his initial character work and stuff like him selling his hand while throwing punches)

This is a really interesting match in that in happened in a Lucha promotion with lucha stipulations, in the US with WCW coverage but is worked like a Japanese juniors match. Anyways, when it comes to the heel/face dynamic, build, storytelling, drama, emotion and interesting twists and turns, this is as good as anything I've seen in pro wrestling. I liked how the pace slowed down in the 3rd fall and the teams trading stiff punts to the body. The Panther piledriver spot was utterly brilliant and got one of the loudest pops ever. Great finish as Santo was resilient enough to survive and smart enough to grab the win at the right time. It has a few botches but who cares? ****3/4

Not as good as the WM 13 all time classic but this remains an excellent match. Very minimalist match, reminds of Choshu/Hashimoto in some ways. Austin was the key figure here as the aggressive in your face rising star attacking with great focus while Bret added lots of cool little veteran touches. An outstanding, really clever finish with Bret pulling a Fujiwara and using Austin's bullheadedness to beat Austin. **** 1/4