Tetsujin

I'll watch more of his post-peak TNA stuff (let's say 2009-14, idk), to have a recent image of what he did in such a bad context. His peak years are among the best ever, and his WWE run was pretty cool too. I think he could be in my top 25.

Yassss thanks!!!

Yeah veteran Misawa is kinda cool, but honestly he doesn't have a very strong run. He also doesn't have a very strong Jr, Tiger Mask run. If you think about it, Misawa's case is all about peak, but the fun thing is his peak is absurdly long.

Remember this? Well, the match was an absolute masterpiece. White was the best heel ever for one night, but Tana played that role I described better than ever. I feel like no other two wrestlers today could have worked this particular match, it just happened because Jay is a fucking prodigy and Tana is one of the absolute best ever, even past his prime. I know New Japan main event formula isn't for everybody, but PLEASE give this a chance without caring for duration or whatever. The dynamic between these two characters is what pro wrestling is about. I can't believe I enjoyed this much a match in the COVID era.

More Toyota love here. Not somebody I can see myself putting her in the top 10 ir anything closer like other joshi stars like Kong or Hokuto, but I don't think she'll be outside my top 75 or so. I love her inmediate selling, I love how cool she looks while attacking and how much value she gives to her unlimited arsenal, something very difficult to me. I understand and even share the main issues people can have with her style, but I don't think those hurt her case as an amazing worker deserving a spot on the list. Just not as high as she could have been.

I'm pretty sure Banks is reading this thread (or will do it, eventually) and boy is she gonna feel great. As she should, because her career is going pretty fucking well even with WWE booking downtimes. Let's see how much she brings to the table in the next five years, but for now, even though she's a wrestling prodigy, I don't think I'll rank her. For a Project like this, I want to look at any nominee's career as a whole (or at least as already defined as possible), and Sasha isn't even in her 30s yet. When 2026 GWE happen, she'll have 34 years old still, she might be in her peak years (that sounds crazy considering how good she already is, but mid-thirties is the usual peak run for most wrestlers), and with so much to add to her case as a veteran. We will see.

He has a MOTYC-level match against Rick Martel in Portland, January 1980. One of the greatest championship matches of its time, for sure.

Recently I watched the Hashimoto match and it blew me away. What a fantastic match, and Regal was tremendous as the driving force of it.

MiSu's last year G1 run was fucking badass (he even had something pretty good with 2021 Will "Omega 2.0" Ospreay), he looked like he returned to his peak. He also had the Moxley match, the Shingo matches, and the last singles match of Liger's career, all of them rocked. That's just late 2019-20. He's aging ridiculously well, and that combined with his best stuff from the early 90s and his peak years in the 10s could be enough to make my list in the Q4. His indies and comedy stuff is also worth watching (I 100% recommend two Rocku Kawamura matches in 2017 or so, tremendous). The NOAH runs will decide if he finally makes it for me or not, and how high he ends if he does make it. I love the old bastard. His character is one of the coolest ever in profesional wrestling and that alone carries most of his regular matches, but his top matches (Sano, Kobashi, Tanahashi, Styles, Sugiura, Kawamura, Goto, Barnett etc) are huge, very different from each other, and as good as anyone's.

For these kind of projects I'm more of a ringwork guy, don't care about mic stuff, but obviously how you display your gimmick and charisma while wrestling are huge parts of how much I enjoy watching you wrestle, and the ellte mic guys usually do that with ease. Lawler is one of those.

Top 30 lock for me just by peak alone. If his post-80s stuff holds up, I can see myself putting him in my top 10, honestly. Lawler is what Hogan was but hundred times better, and he's among the best ever in a lot of categories (babyfaces, sellers, brawlers, heels, charisma, coming back...).

Oh yeah, KOR is one of these few current era guys I think can make it by 2026. Excellent tag worker, one of the best ever. One of the most dynamic strikers ever, too. I don't think he has the highs he should, but his consistency and overall coolness can be enough to put him in the lower spots of any list.

Virus is a guy I'm definitely interested on. I watched the Guerrero Maya Jr 2011 and 2013 matches, and the Dr Cerebro 2015 match, and I loved his performances. I know he has some high regarded stuff in late 90s, but I would thank more guidance with him.

Maybe it was his list of wrestlers projecting grumpiness.

Mediocre-to-decent wrestler. Good sometimes. Just a few matches in his career are great (I love the Ryback and HellNo vs Shield TLC). Definitely not a contender.

Top 10 contender to me. He's part of that select club with Hokuto, Joe, Kobashi, Eddie or Misawa, the club of guys who at their very best, look like the best ever. What I admire the most about Rose is that, yeah obviously you have the Martel and Piper matches, you have the Rockers matches (it was obvious Shawn Michaels was a prodigy), but also most of his greatest matches are against opponents you couldn't care less. But, against Buddy Rose, everyone could have the best match of his career. He's also capable of doing it while working 2/3 Falls matches, a gimmick that I usually don't like that much, but Rose mastered the style. He's also a tremendous tag worker, comedy wrestler, vicious heel, surprisingly good babyface, amazing at the mat, all time seller and bumper... When you are at that level for most of the 80s and the late-70s, you clearly are one of the greatest wrestlers ever. Whatever he did in the 90s is still a blind spot for me, so depending on how good that stuff is he can be even higher. But right now, I don't think he'll be out of my top 15.

The Meiko match deserves serious five-star match consideration, I marked like a little kid while watching it the first time. I even have it higher than the Kandori match or Queendom (right now it's in my top 10 for the GME Project). She's a top 10 contender, definitely. I'll watch her 80s stuff (thanks Kadaveri!) and more of her 00s work, but it's true that at her peak years she seems like the best wrestler of all time. If those other periods of her career deliver in a big way, she 100% will be in my top 10.

Taue as the best of the Pillars is something I like to hear a lot. Not that I agree (he's my second favourite though), but I'm glad he's closing the gap with the others in these forums.

I think he's locked in my top 50. Not only that, he's a top 25 contender to me. Amazing tag wrestler, very underrated mat worker, incredible powerhouse, great use of his signature moves amd big spots, always delivering with very good matches (at least) every single week. He doesn't have as many great or legendary matches as the top tier wrestlers(*), but his consistency and amazing offence need to be acclaimed. (*) Althought I would count the ROH Bryan match, the CZW-ROH Cage match, the two Zayn NXT matches, the Regal match, the IC F4W match at Payback 2016 and the No Mercy 2017 tag match as MOTYC level matches. By my standars, those aren't just a few. He definitely has elite stuff.

Tana is right now at my top 10. He clearly was the 10s WOTD, because he peaked between 2011-2018 (that's a fucking eight years peak) and almost always delivered. There's no other wrestler that produced that many "very good or more" level matches last decade, against such different opponents and settings: you have his Ace run with guys like Goto, Suzuki, the Okada series is one of the greatest wrestling rivalries ever, you have the personal and stiff matches with Shibata (another great rivalry), he put over guys like Ishii, Okada, peak Nakamura, Styles Omega, pre-Ingobernables Naito, etc with great matches... After WK 10 you have his Ace in decline run, with a fantastic Omega match, an all time great IC title reign (I specially recommend checking out the ZSJ G1 and Destruction matches), one of the very best wrestling trilogies ever with Naito in 2017, the Ibushi matches, his big comeback to the main event of WK with another great match with Kenny, and more recently he has been working with guys like peak Jay White, definitely non-peak Jericho, the Dangerous Tekkers, Great O-Khan, Shingo, etc and he totally delivered. Then you go to his pre-peak stuff, and more often than not you find great matches with more different opponents and with Tana playing different roles: Bryan, Nagata, Suwama, Angle, the HARASHIMA tag match, the Naka tag against Sasaki and Suzuki... people have already bring those and more matches out. His catalogue is INSANE. The key about Tanahashi is that he always manages to get his formula in all of his matches, but in a way it never feels like the same match at all, he's very versatile while still being a formulaic wrestler, and that's why he might be the best formulaic wrestler (and big match wrestler, honestly) ever. He totally feels like a wrestling superstar thanks to his connection with the fans throughout his matches, his amazing selling, his clever offence, the way he portraits his character and can be the dominant Ace, the arrogant subtle heel, the good guy that gives the bad guy some of his own medicine, the angry, extremely prideful veteran not wanting to be left behind, the veteran that can no longer go at the same level as current guys... He can do it all perfectly, adding so much interest and tons of emotion to his matches. He has a NEVER Championship match with Jay White next week, and I can't wait to see it. He's definitely starting to get physically limited (the Shingo match shows), but he's so intelligent as a worker that he manages to make his condition a reinforcement of the story of the match, instead of trying to ignore it and going all out with horrible results like other aged veterans like, Idk, Undertaker or Jericho for example. Or Okada

The Orton/HHH/Cena Mania match is pretty fun. The Batista SummerSlam match is great. In 2009 you have the high regarded LMS with Edge at Backlash, and more of the Orton saga (the Breaking Point match specially was very good). Then you have some of his most famous matches ever: the Punk matches in summer 2011, the first Lesnar match, Punk at NOC 2012, Punk at February 2013 on RAW, and Bryan at SummerSlam 2013.

I talked about this in the GWE forum, but I think Kobashi has become the most popular and fan favourite of the Pillars (rightfully so, imo) since 2016, so now I guess he might have a stronger chance to be #1 than ever. He's in fact my current #1, and I can only see Danielson, Liger and Bockwinkel challenging him for the top spot in my list. But we still have five more years, so who knows. Don't think he'll be out of my top 5.

I talked about this in the GWE forum, but I think Kobashi has become the most popular and fan favourite of the Pillars (rightfully so, imo) since 2016, so now I guess he might have a stronger chance to be #1 than ever. He's in fact my current #1, and I can only see Danielson, Liger and Bockwinkel challenging him for the top spot in my list. But we still have five more years, so who knows. Don't think he'll be out of my top 5.

I hardly disagree with that take. The Nagata match is amazing, because it's a great example of the ace Kobashi formula: he's a freaking mountain, but he can be damaged, and he showed more and more vulnerability as the match went on and Nagata persevered. I remember a sequence in which Nagata gave him like, five enzuigiris, and Kobashi sold each one of them differently: first he no sells it, then he tries to come back, then he starts to have spaghetti legs, then he's down to a knee... Near the end there's also a struggle on the top rope for a big bomb that felt crucial. I appreciate stuff like that in maximalist matches, much better than just spamming spots with cero build up and treat all of them equally no matter who the moves and wrestlers are.

Yeah his post WWE stuff has been amazing guys. The 2019 NJPW run was fantastic, he killed it against Juice, Ishii, Naito, Takagi, Yano, and had very solid matches with Shota Umino (great three minutes squash), a dull babyface Jeff Cobb, a burned out Goto, MiSu, post prime KENTA, etc. His AEW stuff has some great matches, specially the two Omega hardcore matches, but you can also watch him being a dominant ace against Darby Allin, Janela -which I hate-, Brodie, Cage, MJF... I love his title reign, all those matches were worked different yet still very close to what Mox as a character is. And then you can watch him in the indies giving great matches with Killer Kross, Dickinson and recently the long awaited Barnett match, that one was HUGE. I also like his WWE run. FCW and Shield Ambrose was fun as hell and gave us some great singles and tag/tríos matches (fuck, the TLC against Ryback and HellNo and the EC Wyatts matches are two of the greatest matches in WWE history, and Ambrose played a big role in both). 2014 Ambrose was over as fuck and worked great with Rollins and Bray Wyatt. He's inconsistent in 2015-19, yeah, but his good stuff is very enjoyable (title match with Triple H, Ladder with Seth, the Styles series, Miz matches, tags with Rollins against The Bar and Ziggler & McIntyre). His pre WWE stuff also have some fun performances against Bryan or Brodie, but I'm not a deathmatch guy so most of that early career stuff remains unexplored for me. I wouldn't vote for him right now because I'm not really into voting for current wrestlers (I mean, wrestlers that haven't make their careers already, not guys like Bryan, AJ or Tanahashi who already built their legacy). But if he continues at this level by 2026, I would really think about putting him at the bottom of my list.