Boss Rock

The biggest issue I have with Sasha as a candidate right now (and this could change in 5 years) is that her output was severely hampered by inconsistent and downright piss-poor booking. Imagine if she had gotten Charlotte's push for all these years.

Thanks!

Tanahashi is top 15 for me and could very well be the best worker of the 2010's. To this day he's still one of the best big match workers in the world. Even as he's slowed down in recent years you can expect at least one or two MOTYC's from him. His performance in the last two G1's are also major feathers in his cap. 2020 in particular he was in a rather weak block and still delivered on an almost nightly basis. His pre-2010's stuff is also very good with good to great matches against Giant Bernard, Nagata, Fujita, and Suwama. The Suwama match in particular is a fantastic heel performance by Tanahashi, playing the cocky hotshot free agent from the "other" promotion.

Love the Jungle Jack tag team but interested in some singles recs.

Carlos is currently a top 20 candidate for me. Phenomenal babyface, seller, and brawler. The feud with Hansen is one of my all-time favorites and the feud with Hercules Ayala is super underrated. The brawls with Abdullah are loads of fun and he got something halfway decent out of Steve Strong who might be the worst wrestler I've ever seen.

Probably the Dreamslam tag. For a singles match, probably the 95 Hokuto match or one of the Aja matches. I think Childs hit the nail on the head with her doing the most making her the biggest perpetrator. But at the same time, her peaks are pretty dang high.

It has in fact, changed haha. Cena will still almost certainly make my ballot because his peaks are undeniable (Umaga, Bryan, Brock 2012) and his 2007, while not an all-timer year, had some pretty impressive carry jobs with Khali and Lashley. But he's been involved in a lot of crap. Some of that was due to not always having a ton to work with, but there are times I felt he really didn't wrestle to his strengths. His 2015 U.S. Title run was a fun novelty but the matches have not aged particularly well. His desire to prove the "You can't wrestle!" crowd wrong saw the rise of "PWG Cena" with tons of big moves that he could never properly pull off because of his sloppy execution and multiple finisher kickouts. Even his series with A.J, which is still very good overall, uses the same tropes. At this point I would be surprised if he cracks my top 50.

I'd love if they could bring Takeshita in full time.

His matches with the likes of Okada, Omega, Naito, Sabre, and Jay show what Ishii is capable of apart from strong style strike sequences.

I recall you saying during the first GME poll you were no longer a fan of Rage in a Cage. Is that still the case?

Let me get the negatives out of the way first because even as a huge fan, I can't deny that Okada has his flaws. His mat and submission game is bad. His transitions are slow and his submissions are weak. If I can call out Cena for having the worst STF ever, I have to call out Okada for having ineffective-looking submissions. That being said, he's thankfully gone back to the Rainmaker as his primary finish with the Money Clip as a secondary. His strikes also tend to be on the soft side. It's interesting, because during his initial push from 2012 to 2013, his strikes actually looked pretty solid. Although his striking game has declined over the years, it's almost a meta character aspect. Since his gimmick is that of being the flashy, hotshot ace who relies on his athleticism and gas tank, he doesn't need to be a great striker. But when challenged by a physically more powerful opponent, he tends to put a bit more "oomph" in his strikes. His leg selling is also historically spotty (although he's hardly the only offender). And when it comes to 30 minute plus matches, his urgency can be left wanting. He always delivers in the second half and finishing stretches of a match, but the first 10 minutes or so are always slow and padded. I get that his character is supposed to be confident and collected and his kayfabe strategy is to dictate the pace. But sometimes I wish he would just step on the gas pedal. Now that I've covered the holes in his game, it's time to mention the positives which I think he really has a lot of. As a big match worker, he's one of the most consistent in the world over the last few years. His return from excursion in 2012 has great matches against Tanahashi, Naito, Nakamura, and Anderson. From 2013-onwards he's had a pretty comfortable claim of at least top 10 in the world while being the arguable best in 2017. He has an uncanny way of adding drama to his matches and making the ending seem in doubt when his win is already a foregone conclusion. I'll never forget seeing a match with him and SANADA during the 2017 G1 already knowing that he won but still on the edge of my seat when he was locked in the skull end. He's perhaps better than anyone at selling peril and that he's in danger of losing. He especially thrives against physically larger and more powerful opponents as he sells their biggest shots like he's been ko'd on his feet. And even against opponents who aren't that big, his match formula allows them to show off their best offense even if they're limited in other regards. His 2018 G1 run is probably the best example of this as he gave nearly everyone their best match (and it was a rather pitiful field). His 2020 was a bit rocky due to ostensibly having a bad back, but he still had the highest peaks on anyone that year. As a character-worker, I think he's an underrated babyface as evidenced by his wars with Suzuki as well as some of the Tanahashi matches. However, it's obvious he thrives more as the cocky ace or disrespectful youngster to the beloved veterans. His matches against Kojima, Nagata, and Makabe are probably the best example of these, especially the miraculously fantastic Dominion 2013 match against Makabe. It's another formula that works for him because he gets to sell their best and flashiest shots like death. And that's to say nothing of the 2017 Shibata match. Shibata's performance may have been the greatest any wrestler has ever had, but there's no way he has that kind of match against anyone but Okada. And while I mentioned his iffy limb selling at times, he's overall a really good seller and great at making his opponents' moves look good. While his best matches are obviously against BITW-level wrestlers, he also has quite a few notable carry jobs. He's gotten several solid to downright good matches out of Bad Luck Fale. Put on really good matches with Michael Elgin, even after the latter was exposed as a one-trick pony. The 2015 match with Tenryu is also pretty miraculous considering Tenryu had no business being in the ring at that point. Unless he completely breaks down or retires, I think Okada has a pretty comfortable spot in the top 50. But I'm not quite sure he breaches the top 30 yet.

I need to revisit his initial WWE run and his brief run in Japan. His 2012-2020 run is filled with matches I love and matches I hate. At his best, he is the absolute attraction WWE would promote him as. The Cena 2012 match is the only one I would consider a classic, but the Punk, A.J, Bryan, Finn, 2015 Reigns, and Goldberg matches are all very good to great. At his worst, he's either incredibly lazy and selfish (Braun, Ambrose, 2018 Reigns), limited to dumb finisher/kick-out fests (also 2018 Reigns, Drew), or saddled with Triple H at his most Triple H. If he does make my list I don't think he makes the top 50, but he's also not someone I'm completely ruling out.

The round-robin and submission matches are great. He already looks like one of the best in the world.

I have to watch more of his early stuff, but his 2019 was phenomenal and Strong BJ is a really fun tag team.

Currently my pick for number 1 and while 5 years is a long time, it's going to be difficult to unseat him. Greatest offensive wrestler ever. It's not just the number of moves he had or how good they looked, but knowing when and how to bust them out. He obviously only did the Burning Hammer 7 times, but how many times did he bust out the Orange Crush? The antithesis of a GMSI worker. And even as his body broke down and he became more reliant on chops and half nelson suplexes, he still had the physical charisma to make them engaging. The same goes for his NOAH matches being very "big move, sell, big move, sell". As excessive as it could be, Kobashi could still make it engaging. He's also the ideal "peak + longevity" wrestler for me. He started in '88 and by '90-'91 he was already really good. His '93 is the stuff of legend and from then until at least '05 or so he was arguably the best in the world (he still looked good in 2006 too). He was Misawa, Jun, and Hansens' best opponents, all 3 of whom are top 10 contenders (the Misawa and Hansen series' arguably being the two greatest of all time). He was also an excellent tag worker in a variety of roles with a variety of partners. He could play the unsinkable underdog with Misawa or the big brother clean up hitter with Kikuchi and Jun. The early 90's trios matches mainly focused on the Kawada-Taue and Misawa-Jumbo dynamics, but Kobashi's selling and face in peril segments were pretty crucial. The only two criticisms I can think of are that he never really played heel and that he didn't have that one big broomstick carryjob (the closest I can think of is the great Tokyo Dome match against post-neck injury Chono). But even the folks I have in contention for the top 5 have their flaws. Kobashi is as close to perfect as I can think of. Arguably the greatest seller and greatest babyface ever. Greatest singles match ever (1/20/1997). The greatest tag match ever (6/9/1995). I just don't know how I'm going to be able to deny him the top spot.

Ishii is definitely a lock for me at this point. He's been a top 10 candidate for BITW for close to a decade now and is almost always the MVP of the G1. His inconsistent booking doesn't always give him a ton to do outside of tournaments, but it's almost impossible for him to have a bad singles match. And he's not just great in hard-hitting matches against guys like Suzuki, Shingo, Goto, or Shibata. He's also been a terrific underdog face against more heavily pushed guys like Jay and Kenny. Great offense but underrated seller as well. Fighting spirit no-sell moments are extremely difficult to pull off, but he's as believable as possible when he does it.

I dont think she has the volume for a 100 greatest ever list, but her peaks were really good. Very much a "what if?" candidate especially considering how quickly she picked it up.

WALTER Was a relatively obscure indie name who exploded over the last four years. Fantastic juggernaut and final boss type with some of the most physical matches in recent years. Might be the greatest chopper ever and his overall offensive game is among the best in the world today. Every WALTER match is a brutal spectacle. WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher: Progess Chapter 62 1/28/2018 WALTER vs. Darby Allin: Evolve 106 6/23/2018 WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov: NXT UK 10/29/2020

Agreed, one of the greatest WWE matches ever.

The Unified match with Nigel is absolutely one of the greatest matches ever. The 2008 Anniversary Show match is also up there. I agree that his peaks dont quite reach the likes of Hansen, Flair, or the Pillars, but he's extremely hard to beat on overall volume and good matches with lesser opponents (Miz, Wyatt, Triple H).

3.5 years after posting this comment, Tenryu is still a top 5 contender for me. Insane longevity and versatility. Awesome slugfests with Hansen, Hashimoto, Choshu, and Kawada. Great, competitive championship-style matches with Mutoh and Flair. Exploding barbed wire cage with Onita? No DQ plunder match against Nobutaka Araya? Both really good. Tenryu was awesome and his ability to compete at such a high level for 20 years is a major feather in his cap. Also, his powerbomb is the only move that still doesn't look great to me. The enziguiri and lariat are awesome.

Hero's currently a top 30 candidate or so for me. His 2016 run is obviously great, but it's interesting to see how good he was prior to becoming the knockout artist juggernaut. I still need to do a bit of a deeper dive on his early 2000's stuff, but based on his matches with Bryan, Kingston, and Regal, he was still awesome before he became the final boss of the indies.

Just watching that match you could tell he was trying so hard to make it interesting, and he succeeded as well as one could in that match.

Bryan is an easy top 10 candidate for me, borderline top 5. The Pillars have higher peak and that's probably gonna give them the edge, but Bryan being the most versatile wrestler ever could give him an edge in the end.

I think Onita and FMW is going to be the next season.