Tetsujin

His performance last week against Josh Alexander is so impressive. Here's Claudio, who's been working heel since september 2024, being a babyface champ who has to look badass and powerful while showing vulnerability through an injured leg, building anticipation for his signature spots. And he has the crowd in the palm of his hand, in part thanks to not only his strength spots, but to how he struggled to do them. He also moved as quick as a cat still, and he's in well into his fortys working full time with no injuries since I don't even remember when. Unreal pro wrestler.

That Brisco/Armstrong match is a real gem, one of my favourite short matches ever. They tell so much with so little.

Grand Slam Australia was weird, and a good example of what I've been feeling with AEW lately. The matches were all good, but none were truly great, it all felt like a house show with tv build. No ambition behind anything, except maybe some instances at the main event. The storylines all feel stale and the product overall not as interesting as it was during the peak of Mox's reign last year and the first months of Hangman's. They're definitely not on a bad batch, theres some good stuff going on mostly everywhere on the card, but something is missing, idk what. Am I the only one?

I still need to watch much more from her, but atm she doesn't resonate with me all that much in the 80s, she's a bit hit or miss in those years. I believe her pseudo hybrid style needed more time to be properly defined, and fair enough, I often enjoy her more the later in her career I see her.

Now that AJ has seemingly retired, where do people think he's gonna land on their lists? He's always been a tope 10 contender to me, and while his last WWE years were a waste in terms of output, I don't feel he ever became less of an awesome wrestler, just one that didn't have (or maybe didn't want to have) as many opportunities to show it. The final two GUNTHER matches and the last Nakamura match have been all great. There are some hidden gems here and there throughout the years with almost everybody on the roster. And, of course, we still have his monstruous 2014-16 peak and his ROH/early TNA stuff, which is still as impressive as any other pro wrestler I've ever seen. An extremely inteligent wrestler with the perfect balance between flashiness, intensity and psychology.

Pretty confident at the moment: 1. Kenta Kobashi 2. Bryan Danielson 3-5. Aja Kong/Hiroshi Tanahashi/Shawn Michaels 6-7. Nick Bockwinkel/Jushin Thunder Liger 8. Akira Hokuto 9-10. Mitsuharu Misawa/Ric Flair

Thinking about this, I believe the TNT title run, the Christian and Mox feuds or the Sting retirement match were clear proofs of Darby being an awesome underdog you wanna root for, not just a crazy guy you want to see get killed.

The more I think and rewatch him, the more I like him, and he was already top 5 for me. I don't think he's surpassing Kobashi and Danielson on my list, but atm he's against Aja for my #3. Just an overall perfect pro wrestler in every stage of his career, at any role, against both elite wrestlers and broomsticks that needed to be carried to something pretty good. His crowd control is second to none, too.

My favourite wrestler in the world right now (alongside Mox), tremendous aura very interestingly displayed in the ring, as her pseudo heel persona while trying to market herself as the purest babyface the joshi landscape has to offer is very mesmerizing. Feels larger than life in every setting she's in. So glad she escaped WWE before it was too late for her case. She's still so young and has an incredible career to fulfill until the 2036 project, where I hope she has a strong case for being as high as anyone else. Right now, at her current level, she already looks one of the best ever. She just needs to keep going for a longer time.

Crazy to realize he wasn't nominated until now. A really unique wrestler, for sure. Maybe the biggest fumble the industry as a whole had this last two decades or so.

Not enough case *yet*, but dam if I was a wrestler promoter I would love to build this kid as my top babyface in the near future. He's a total package and one of the most believable wrestlers today. Surprisingly good as a heel as well, and can cut good promos. I really feel like the sky is the limit for him.

While I also believe he will fall, I can only see Danielson, Funk, and the Pillars (sans Taue) ranking higher than Flair this time.

They're acts that are getting tv time by default while they're actively bad and/or their contributions to the product have come to an end.

I really enjoyed his AEW run for the most part, he's always been one of my favourite wrestlers since I was a kid, but yeah, he adds nothing to the product now. If he never wrestled in AEW again, I wouldn't mind, in fact he's one of the guys I see hurting the company the most right now (alongside HOOK, Lashley, Harley Cameron, Jack Perry, Julia Hart and the Bucks). The bad thing is that I believe he's coming back with Christian to take the titles from FTR sooner than later, so that'll be annoying.

Just an over glorified stuntman. And I mean, there's place in for wrestling for that, but there's also plenty of wrestlers who do that role much better (and they actually wrestle) than Shane. Moving on.