Tetsujin

He just had the most ambitious big match in WWE since... Idk, maybe Triple H vs Ambrose (sounds wild I know).

Some recent rises and falls, for now I'll focus on current guys still wrestling: Randy Orton. Randy keeps rising up, the guy's consistency and longevity at this point are undeniable to me, and what most people would say are his worse years/run don't bother me at all. It's pretty surprising how fun to watch he is on any random tv match he's in, and how I can watch something like his Kane feud in 2012, which sounds like nightmare fuel on paper, and actually enjoy their matches. He also has great and even some excellent matches throughout 2004 and... 2025. Definitely one of the guys I think has benefited the most from the WWE style of workrate. Definitely much more than Cena, although without as much highs as him. Top 50 contender atm. Roman Reigns is falling down and he's not a lock for the lower part of my list anymore. Too much bullshit surrounding him this last couple of years, and he's the forefront of a style of wrestling I personally despise, even if I acknowledge (ha) his talent to pull it off. He still has very good performances when he cares, and I enjoy the middle portion of most of his matches because him on top is very fun to watch, but I can't stand the overacting, he definitely cannot carry lesser opponents, and the bullshit melodramatic booking and finisher spamming gets me out completely. Lack of overall volume of work doesn't help either. Not a lock anymore, but he could still make it. (You can mostly say the same about Rollins, but he wasn't a contender to my list to begin with). Tully Blanchard. He's now a lock for my list. I honestly believe that, if he had the push and chances Flair got, he would have overdelivered as well as Flair did (not saying they're exact clones character wise nor in terms of in ring style, though). He has that *something* that makes every single one of his matches and performances something remarkable, at the very least. He stands out to me among guys like Arn, Windham, Dundee or some of his other peers I've seen getting more praise than him sometimes. He has so much flavour, iykwim. Top 75 contender. Jon Moxley is climbing some spots as well. Now that Bryan is 99% gone, he feels like the only one left from his generation of indie stars still adding to his case at their peak. Like, you can always trust Joe or Claudio or Rollins or Kingston to put on a good match or even something great from time to time, but Mox is the only one I can see putting on one of the best matches of his career as soon as next week. The recent All In performance is a masterpiece at balancing brutality, cowardice, confidence and vulnerability, in my humble opinion. And his whole Death Rider run is filled with super strong character work, and a way of making the babyfaces earn their stuff, that I believe will be far more appreciated as we revisit it over the years (yeah the booking was mostly shit, not defending that). Top 75 contender as well, although, due to him still being at the peak of his powers, I will keep him on the lower side of my list to let people with more closure on their careers have an advantage. John Cena is obviously falling down due to his atrocious current heel run. It's not just that the run is bad, it's the fact that it is bad despite being something fans were demanding for ten years or so. You cannot fumble a chance this good for a career pay off as big as this. Yet he's doing it. There's no soul behind everything he's doing. He's still on my top 100, but a bit lower. Top 75 contender atm.

I've been a bit harsh to Okada before in this thread, and for a good reason. Now, in his AEW, we can all appreciate he only cares one per three months or so to deliver a great match, and see you next time. However, I respect that he approaches those few great matches very differently than "AI main eventer" Okada, with a more classical heel persona and faster pacing due to less time on his matches, which has helped him a lot. Recently he just had the Speedball match and the fifth Omega match, two home runs on his part if you ask me. He's barely keeping himself alive at the bottom of my list.

That was honestly awesome, exactly what I wanted. Thanks! Btw, Moxley just put on probably his best performance ever (alongside the Juice Robinson match imho) last week against Hangman in their Texas Death (re)match. His body of work this year has been so good he's making people believe the Death Riders storyline wasn't ass to begin with. He's the only guy of his generation of wrestlers who is still on his peak and I believe he could still add to his case for another good chunk of years, so, even if I'm almost surely gonna vote for him next year, I'm more excited about 2036 to see where he's capable of landing. Insane potential for a guy his age.

That's hella interesting. Haven't read the book yet (will soon). Any examples of particular ideas and/or approaches he tried on a specific match(es)?

He'll be on my top 5. He's in his last year as a pro wrestler right now, his body is fucking broken, but he plays with that better than any other broken living legend I've seen. He's a guy you just feel he puts his very soul behind everything, both Hiroshi Tanahashi the character and Hiroshi Tanahashi the performer. The Takeshita match in USA is the best example of that this year.

Both were mostly wasted by WWE, yet still I would say Claudio was far more consistent than Sami in these ten years, and even reached higher highs (no Sami match is better than the ROH Eddie Kingston match). Sami did literally nothing valuable from 2017 to 2022 (besides the Knoxville match) when he joined the Bloodline. He's been really good consistently since then, not on an all time level run but a very respectful veteran run nonetheless. At this moment I would still vote for both, but yeah, both their stocks, specially Zayn's, have fallen a bit. I considered them top 50 locks and now they're top 75 contenders.

Holy fucking shit of a hell that main event. Nothing like it. Absolutely surreal match. Has to be the MOTY.

Ok so Cena is not gettting closer to #1 lol

He has all the tools to become one of the very best ever. These next ten years are key for him.

Greatest tag team that never happened.

I don't buy the "cosplaying" discourse either. I see a wrestler that likes to do a lot of different stuff, trying to give his own touch to everything. Yeah, that means not everything is gonna land as well, but he has a far better win record on his stuff than most of his peers and the guys that have come after him, and even guys before him. That sais, his AEW run feels like the peak of his powers in that regards, a perfect balance, while in his indy days he's still figuring his act out (logically).

He's gonna be way high up for me too. Like, top 10 is not out of reach (he's my #13 right now). The guy is a total package of a pro wrestler and has been consistently great for too long now. It's a shame he's wasting his last good years in WWE, as I don't think he has had as much memorable stuff as he could've had from 2017 onwards, but it's not like he didn't produce great matches here and there recently either. And his 00s work, his NJPW run and his first WWE year (2016) are still among the best wrestling stuff I've seen.

I saw It once, in preparation for the steel cage. I remember liking It more, indeed, and maybe that's a reason why I don't like the steel cage deathmatch as much. I've never felt it paid off the intensity and animosity set up in that tag match.

I'm honestly lost with her post-80s career. Definitely love her at her peak and that's enough for me in order to vote for her, but checking out some of her highlights after that might help her get to my top half of the list.