Microstatistics

It's a great match but a masterpiece and in contention for greatest WWE match ever? If you consider contention like maybe the 40th best match they have had? It has kind of this incessant, urgent intensity to it the entire way through that very few WWE bouts can match. There are no peaks or troughs. The closest comparison is Bret vs Austin. Everything is crisp, aggressive, purposeful. The character work is sublime. The screwy finish for once works perfectly in the context. It feels like a bloody, personal battle but is also elevated by the world title being at stake, and in the process elevates the title itself by the quality of the work and the desperation to win the match or hold on to the strap by any means necessary. It is the culmination of paranoid, violent, unhinged 2001 Austin who needs the title and will do whatever it takes to hold onto it. That sequence when he repeatedly hurls Angle into the ring post and then unleashes some beautiful punches as he is prone against the apron bleeding everywhere. And Kurt's revenge, with the fiery, angry comeback, suplexing him on the floor and unleashing a beautiful moonsault. JR calls the match perfectly. Love Austin's gradual realization as the match progresses that he won't be able to beat Kurt Angle on this night, his opponent is too driven, too good. Brilliant match, and possibly the only WWE match that would be a lock for my Top 25 of all time. Great Summary. I would rate it as the best WWE match of the 2000-2009 decade and Top 10 for WWE overall.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa (NJPW 10/11/1999) Based on what I have read about it, this is a polarizing match to say the least with opinions ranging from garbage to all time classic. Regardless of the booking, as a match I thought it was pretty excellent. Ogawa was pretty good in this actually with great looking offense (though it did get repetitive) and I liked his frequent taunting. Hashimoto carries it though with his selling and ability to generate drama. There was also a cool spot where he tried to minimize the distance between himself and Ogawa to counteract the strikes. They could have taken it home about 2-3 minutes earlier though because the finishing stretch dragged a bit. **** 1/4

Might have to rewatch this because I don't remember any moment selling wise that stood out from Hansen in this. Offensively he was great but that was about it. But then again I don't think Hansen is a great seller in general like many others do, particularly in the 1980s. There was a spot at the end where he pops up literally 2 seconds after taking a Tenryu powerbomb to hit the lariat. Anyways this is a really good match with a fantastic Tenryu performance. His selling and amazing timing of hope spots made for great drama in the second half.

I would give him 3/3 for offense. I guess you haven't seen much 2000's and modern Akiyama but he developed into one of the greatest on the offensive workers of all time. Great range and depth of offense, executed with tremendous focus. He might have the most focused offense I have ever seen, especially when working over a body part.

This is pretty much a squash but is probably one of the 3-5 greatest squashes ever. Cena's selling was pretty fantastic here and Lesnar's offense and character work were pitch perfect. A 15 minute+ match that felt like 3 minutes. **** 1/4

A really good mat based match with great dueling body part work. This was pretty much the Finlay show though and he was responsible for almost everything good about the match. ****

1) Ric Flair 2) Stan Hansen 3) Toshiaki Kawada 4) Terry Funk 5) Jumbo Tsuruta 6) Genichiro Tenryu 7) Mitsuharu Misawa 8) Jushin Liger 9) Kenta Kobashi 10) Daniel Bryan DiBiase - 67

Agree that Kobashi's performance in 1/20/1997 is a contender for greatest ever individual performance in a pro wrestling match. I was curious about your thoughts regarding Misawa's arm selling in the final stretch of the match. That was one thing that had always bothered me about the match because I thought he used the bad arm for throwing elbows too many times so I used to have it around **** 3/4. But on rewatch a few months, I noticed his subtle selling of the pain every time he threw a rolling elbow (crumbling in the corner from the pain, his arm going limp on his side) was a thing of beauty and also fit his character so I bumped it up to *****. And really Kobashi's performance and the rest of the match is too good for it not to be five star.

Things I would recommend (apologies if you already reviewed it): Everything with 1984 El Satanico Hokuto vs. Kandori feud (importantly Dreamslam and the Queendom tag) Liger vs. Sasuke 4/94 and vs. Ohtani 2/97 Fujinami vs. Maeda 6/86 Santo vs. Dandy/Casas Feud 96 and 97

Nice to see all the praise for Liger, someone I thought was being overlooked. Currently he and Satanico are battling for my #2 spot so he is a lock for Top 3 (possible high vote). Easily the best body language ever, maybe the best seller ever, his top matches are all time classics for me (given more of his matches five stars than anyone not named Misawa), brilliant as face or heel, could work his style against anyone, incorporated some comedy into his matches as well as anyone. Consistently good for 30 years as noted with an amazing 1989-2003 run.

Hansen is not gonna make my ballot. Is Flair? He is but he will be much lower than where most people will have him.

One of my personal favorites. Regal is just relentless in working over the broken nose, adding all kinds of cool and violent touches. Hashimoto was able to balance sympathetic selling and ability to maul someone at any given moment better than almost anyone. **** 1/4 though I could easily go higher.

Bull is amazing in this. How she is able to play bully monster while still display vulnerability and put over Hokuto as a threat is pretty remarkable. Excellent David vs. Goliath match with that cool matwork segment in the middle. **** 1/4

I might have you beat for the Ikeda high vote. Right now he is #12 on my list. Most people prefer Ishikawa which I get but Ikeda was consistently the star of all the Battlarts/Futen matches for me and I like his NOAH and pre-Battlarts stuff a ton.

Hansen is not gonna make my ballot.

It is funny how different this site is from the rest of the internet wrestling community. Here many people will have Big Show, Mark Henry and Sheamus on their lists while people in other places would probably laugh at you if you brought them up as all time Top 100 contenders. Same for Cena. While someone like Kurt Angle outside of here is thought of as a superworker and an all time great while people here acknowledge his flaws and some even think he is terrible. Anyways for me: Locks - Cena, Brock Probably - Dustin, Samoa Joe, Cesaro

I am not as high on Flair as most people in general, but there was absolutely no way he was the worst wrestler in the WWE during the mid 2000s. I remember his 2005-2006 stuff was actually pretty good and he adapted well and become Terry Funk like hardcore/gimmick match worker, having some good matches with HHH, Foley etc.

Worthy pick. That match would probably be in my all time Top 5.

I doubt a few omissions and some low-ish votes (like me) are going to stop him from finishing in the Top 3 (or at worst Top 5) of the final total list.

Slightly disappointing but still a very good match. I really liked Han's focus and urgency here and he looked impressive right out of the gate. Maeda didn't really do much here I thought but this was a great indication of Han's submission wizardry and skills. Smart finish too. *** 3/4

Wow, good to see Akiyama as a #1 contender.

Who are the 4? Just curious.

Fair Point Honestly I thought Vader had a far greater aura than Hansen. Hansen had a sense of danger about him but Vader always had a more threatening and imposing presence, kind of like Andre. Facing him always seemed like a big deal. And probably the most impressive part was that it was like that in almost every setting (NJPW, WCW, UWFi, AJPW etc). The argument could be made it was just Vader being Vader and that doesn't really diminish the fact he had a dominating presence everywhere he went.

Interesting you have Hansen over Tenryu, Eddie and Vader for Intangibles. Any reasons? Also surprised Flair got a perfect 10 for Intangibles.

Well said and I think someone like Onita fits that criteria perfectly.