Boss Rock

As far as I know there was never a Savage-Funk or Casas-Satanico singles match. But to get a little crazier, I'd love to see Kawada-Ikeda and Hansen-Foley.

The "crazy grandpa of pro wrestling" was Terry to a T.

# of wrestlers outside the top 200 (Hipster Award): 10 # of wrestlers outside the top 500 (Contrarian Award): 0 Highest ranking wrestler who did not make my list: Nick Bockwinkel (33)

Tenryu being third for 2020's viewers. Awesome to see.

Basically, how did your ballot do overall? How many wrestlers made it? Any exact placements? Where did they land? Highest ranked? Lowest ranked? Number of wrestlers who made the top 100: 69 Number of wrestlers who made the top 200: 90 Highest rated wrestler to make my ballot: Terry Funk (1) Lowest rated wrestler to make my ballot: Toshiyo Yamada (351) Exact placements on my ballot: Genichiro Tenryu (6), Hiroshi Tanahashi (13), Akira Hokuto (16) How many in my top 50 made the top 50: 31 How many in my top 20 made the top 20: 15 How many in my top 10 made the top 10: 6

Thanks again @Grimmas for doing this. This was a lot of fun to participate in, especially for someone who discovered PWO because of the 2016 vote. All in all, I think this was a really good top 100. Certainly a few placements I disagree with, but seeing voting trends and narratives was really fascinating.

Funk was my number 10 and Bryan my number 5. But still, a very fitting number 1 and 2. There are parts of Funk's career I'm not huge on, but he was just fantastic for multiple decades in multiple promotions against multiple opponents. A dastardly yet cowardly heel in the U.S. and one of the most beloved babyfaces in Japan. A terrific brawler who adapted to the death match style perfectly. Had arguably the greatest match in North American history (Flair GAB). His selling could be cartoonish and over-the-top, but it was fitting in the cartoonish world of pro wrestling. There will never be another Terry Funk. As for Bryan, he was the best wrestler of the 2000's. He was among the best in the world 2010's WWE. And he proved it again in 2020's AEW after what looked like a career-ending injury. He could play the badass and hard-hitting face. He could play the resilient underdog face. He could play the annoying douche heel. He could play the sadistic and punishing heel. There was nothing Bryan Danielson wasn't good at (except his tope). Just like there will never be another Terry Funk, I don't think there will ever be another Bryan Danielson.

That should be cool.

I get where you're coming from and this is not the first time I've seen this argument. I personally always thought it worked in the context of Bryan wanting to prove he was a better wrestler. Shut down all the "B plus" talk and prove he was the best. And I recall the match still being rather heated for what it was.

Holy crap. I do recall Grimmas saying the top 4 had been pretty much locked from the get-go.

Kinda expected Kobashi to drop next, but was really pulling for a top 2 finish. Kobashi was my number 1 as you can tell by my blurb, ha. That being said, Funk and Bryan are incredibly deserving top 2 candidates.

I was one of those in 2016. Then I watched more of Funk and realized that was only one part of a pretty huge career. This site and the 2016 vote really opened my eyes to how much wrestling there truly is.

Happy with the top 3 which I think many of us predicted, but Flair crept closer than I thought. I had him at number 11. I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said, but one of the best wrestlers of the 80's (I would probably put Hansen Tenryu, Funk, and possibly Jumbo ahead of him). The ideal territory heel champion who could make anyone he worked with look good. His '89 speaks for itself but perhaps proves he was an even better face than he was heel. The Great American Bash Funk match is my pick for greatest match to take place in North America.

Forgot my blurb on Bret Bret just barely missed the top 50 for me at 51. He was someone I knew from the beginning would make my ballot, I just had no idea where. Bret really feels like the ultimate input vs output wrestler. I don’t think he has a ton of volume and I think even his peaks are a bit limited. But he truly was the Excellence of Execution and his offense always looked pristine. He also had a more minimalist approach to selling which really added a sense of authenticity. And he could get good stuff out of lesser workers, the Diesel Survivor Series match in particular being one of his best. But while I appreciate his more grounded sense of realism, there are times where it comes off as too dry or, dare I say, dull. I think his approach to cage matches is the perfect example of this. To be fair, WWE isn’t exactly known for having great escape cage matches. But this dedication to being as realistic as possible with frequent escape attempts didn’t exactly make for engaging watches. And this could even be occasionally reflected in his selling. As realistic as his selling of the Stone Cold Stunner was, it made the move look less impactful when not doing a big exaggerated bump. While I totally get why he’s ranked as high as he is, he just doesn’t have quite what I’m looking for in an absolute top-tier contender.

I also had Tenryu at 6 and the exact ordering of him, Hansen, and Bryan was probably the most difficult part of this process for me. He’s pretty much the ultimate peak + volume + versatility + longevity candidate, though I think Bryan edges him ever so slightly. His best matches are in the late 80’s, but I personally find his work in the 90’s and 00’s more fascinating. You name it, he could do it. Slugfests with Hasimoto, Kawada, Choshu, and Kojima. Plunder matches with Muta and Nobutaka Araya. Exploding barbed wire cage match with Onita. More technical, championship-styled affairs with Flair and Mutoh. He even dabbled a bit in shoot style with Takada and Sayama. His Noah run is also a hoot, whether he’s locking horns with Kobashi or absolutely annihilating KENTA. His offense was definitely rough around the edges and his powerbomb was flat out bad at times, but pretty much everything he did looked like it hurt (and it probably did).