Tetsujin

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.

It's gonna be Omega. That saddens me, but it is what it is. Ospreay and Okada too, both will make it as well. Maybe ZSJ and (hopefully) Naito, also the Shield guys specially Moxley, but Omega, Okada and Ospreay seem like the three undisputed fan favourites of the last decade. They're the biggest representation of today's canon of what great wrestling is, this late-meltzerism era of workrate and fandom that led to AEW as the first real alternative to WWE's US monopoly since the late 90s. They have the hegemony at the moment and I'm sure they'll rank somewhere between 80-100.

That's a superb tournament right there. I would have put Okada/Takeshita on the same league just to add more uncertainity, and I really wanted heel García to make it, but other than those two nitpicks this is an absolute gem of a C2, holy.

From AEW, I'd say Moxley has somewhat strong chances to make it next year; as for the "not yet" part, I believe Ospreay, Darby, Hangman and MJF are already on their way to be strongly considered by 2036, and Takeshita, Fletcher and Daniel García have all the potential in the world to join them.

PPV was a bit weird to me. Every match delivered, yet there was little to no cohesion at all. If you watch any of these matches in a vacuum, It will feel awesome, but when you put seven or eight awesome matches together, it gets tiresome sooner than later. It's a shame both world title matches had almost no heat at all. I honestly would prefer matches that each complement the show on its way, instead of every match competing to be the most epic one of the show. The Casino Gauntlet was my motn, everyone shined in their roles and I would specially call Ricochet for one of the best performances of his career. He was to this match what Flair was to the 1992 Rumble, only on (even more) cocaine. I would also like to point out how experimental Mox/KOR felt, the crowd wasn't really with them most of the times but it was a match that tried to educate them into new forms of northamerican wrestling and I hope more wrestlers with their spotlight do the same kind of stuff, so eventually northamerican crowds can get invested in holds, counter holds, quick pin attempts and stuff like that. The show also had very questionable booking choices. FTR beating Brodido is definitely not bad, but the upcoming transition to Edge & Christian is. Darby going from making Mox submit at the main event to losing to PAC at the opener is very weird an dissapointing, and I know that that result and Mox tapping against KOR again are both setting up the DR being better without Mox and maybe even having PAC as the new leader or whatever, but that's an approach I don't see anyone benefiting from (other than babyface Mox wanting revenge). The DR are not gonna be better without Mox, guys. And then the main event. I love Joe to death, but this didn't feel a right way to crown him again. No, I don't think Hangman necessarily needed a 300 day long reign (well, maybe I do, but that's besides the point), but that doesn't mean it has to end so abruptly after such a cathartic coronation. Joe practically losing two times in the match and then winning because of help from a C Tier guy on the roster is insane to me, definitely not the way of presenting a new top heel champ. And you're telling me Swerve is coming back? Jesus Christ, just make Hangman vs Swerve for the belt. It's so easy. That's exactly what Hangman's reign needed: higher stakes challengers, rivalries that can feel the biggest act of the product right now. I don't know why instead they took the hard way with another heel champ hiding behind a stable, AGAIN. After only four months or so after Moxley dropped the title. Maybe Hangman takes it back from Joe anyway, but I don't think they're gonna hot potato the world title so, we'll see. Hey, at least they had Statlander winning against Moné. Such a shame it didn't felt as great of a moment as it should have due to the crowd being exhausted and the build up not being powerful enough (should have been the main event, but I guess Swerve's new nerfed theme song is more important).