Boss Rock

A friend of mine introduced me to Mad Dog Connelly. Easily one of the best indie workers today and probably stands out the most.

Toru Yano top 3 vote!

Speaking Out and flaming out in WWE didn't help.

I always thought they were a good tag team, but when they got the chance to work as singles wrestlers in BOSJ, Sho was always a standout I thought. Great offense and fire.

Mark Davis beat Jack for the National Title. As much as I think AEW has way too many titles, it's nice to see Mark get some time to shine. It seemed like his injuries caused Fletcher to leave him in the dust. But it's cool he's gotten to prove he's still really good.

Dang, Doug Somers already dropped too.

I didn't vote for him, but the Fabulous Ones were a fun discovery for me a few years ago so it's a bit of a shame Keirn finished so low.

Count me as one of those folks. The 2016 results getting posted to Cageside Seats is what brought me here and what got me to do deeper dives of wrestling.

Oh God that "V-Trigger" clip. It reminded me of all the folks circa 2018 who insisted Chase was this super underrated talent.

Gedo's the booker.

Lucha may not get a ton of new additions, but Casas and Santito will finish higher than in 2016, possibly top 10.

Thanks @Grimmas for running this show.

It won't happen, but imagine Taue finishing 26 for the third time in a row.

I had Joe at 57. I think I would've voted for him regardless, but his AEW run has been quite a boon.

So for months I've been waiting for the Death Riders eventually turning on Mox but supposedly he put the kibosh on the angle.

I am also on board with Kofi and Xavier with going to AEW. The Bucks match may not be as hot as it would have been years ago, but I'd still like to see it. There are lots of other interesting matches on the table too.

Togo ended up finishing at 40 for me. The fact that some wrestlers have higher ceilings knocked him out of the top 30, but I don't even know if I'm fully comfortable with that placing. He has arguably one of the highest floors of any wrestler and can have a fun match with nearly anyone on the planet in a variety of styles. Kinda thinking I should've placed him higher.

Finished at 43 for me. I think he could be a bit more inconsistent than his peers due to injuries, but at his best he was one of the best in the world for a good chunk of the 2010's at least.

Kansai ended up at 33 for me. As a joshi powerhouse, I have only Aja ahead of her. But a tremendous tag wrestler as well and the brawls with Ozaki are fantastic.

The more ballots I've seen the more confident I feel Tanahashi will at least make the top 20.

Just barely made the cut for me at 94. His offense is largely not good and his WWE return still hasn't been stellar apart from a handful of matches. But he was very good to great through most of his first WWE run and in ROH. And his AEW stint produced probably the best match of his career with the MJF dog collar match. Not only that, but he can work both face and heel convincingly.

Seeing that Roppongi Vice is wrestling tonight on Dynamite got a friend of mine reminiscing about Roppongi 3K and man, there's a distant universe somewhere out there where Sho got a proper singles push and became a huge star.

It's complicated. 2016-2019 he was genuinely a pretty good bruiser and while not a guy you would want in 30-minute main events, was a solid upper-midcarder who could be counted on to have a fun G1. When he turned heel, joined Bullet Club, and became a main eventer, he pretty much eschewed his powerhouse style in favor of one that relies on repeated interference spots and cheating. And he would do this virtually every match which, in a promotion with a big emphasis on in-ring action, was a major drag for such a pushed act. But he reportedly had a good match with Takeshita last year in the G1 finals once he dropped the schtick. And earlier this year at Wrestle Kingdom, he had a genuinely solid match against Aaron Wolf in his very first match, which goes to show that the ability still is very much there. It's just buried under horrible overbooking.

Jun made my top 10 at 8. Really one of the best peak + longevity cases in wrestling.