Tetsujin

From what I can say, Yoshida-Yagi is a better match than any Bull Nakano match I've ever seen (including Queendom). I like Bull, and I feel I should like her style more than I do because, on paper, hers is the type of wrestling I would do If I were a pro wrestler. But there's something about her that doesn't click with me as much as other joshi candidates, or great wrestlers in general. She's like a mix of qualities I appreciate, but in small dosis, and you can find what makes her great at bigger scale in other joshi legends. She's not as brutal as Aja, as dramatic as Hokuto, as menacing as Kandori, as spectacular as Toyota, as vicious as Ozaki, as creative as Satomura, etc. And I can't find a proper word for her: That's maybe because I'm watching her against (what I consider) better wrestlers, so I would love some Bull recommendations where she's the main atrraction, the clearly better wrestler of the match, against lesser known opponents.

Foley was the best wrestler in the Attitude Era by far (considering Austin best years, 1997 and 2001, happened just before and after the AE). The most intelligent "dumb" wrestler ever, and the kind of worker you could always trust to deliver something great when it was necesary. He'll be on my list, near the middle.

Just watched this. Fuck, you were god damn right. Satomura is a top 25 contender to me (just like others, idk, 40? or some others wrestlers, duh), and the more I watch of her, the more I'm convinced she's AT LEAST top 3 joshi ever. Right now I have her in my top 5 (Aja, Hokuto, Kandori and Devil are the other ones, and I think Meiko has a strong chance to, at least, surpass the last two), and she's totally one of the best workers of the 10s. Male and female. One of the absolute best offensive wrestlers ever, and her consistency is almost unmatched (from what I've watched thus far). Pretty hyped to see where I'm finally putting her after five more years watching her work.

Isn't Gorgeous George the guy that basically invented heel gimmicks and wrestling?

I think 2016 GWE nailed it with Bret. Top 20 but not top 10 sounds perfect for him, to me. I have him a bit lower, he's definitely a top 25 contender, it's just that there are more than 25 amazing wrestlers fighting for a top 25 slot.

I would say Batista had his best match ever with Trips at Vengeance 2005, the HIAC. Triple H is a guy I don't think deserves to be considered as great because reasons we all know, but I seriously think he really is pretty great at his best. Hell, I think he reached that level more times than people tend to give him credit for. Since 2002 he have: -Elimination Chamber 2002 (his performance kinda puts together the whole match). -WM XX main event, when I think he's the best performer of the match. -The Batista feud, the only time in his career he put over someone else, with the HIAC showdown as their greatest hit and a legit MOTYC. -WM XXIV Orton/Cena/HHH, very fun triple threat kinda underrated because how good that whole WM edition was (specially the MITB, Shawn/Flair and the main event. Oh and people seem to really like Show/Floyd too for whatever reason, but that's another story). -vs Cena at Night of Champions 2008. Their best match together I think, pretty cool. -Both 2008 and 2009 Elimination Chambers. -That TLC with Shawn against JeriShow, very fun stuff. -vs Sheamus at WM XXVI (he should have lost, yeah, but still pretty good match). -Both Taker matches at WM XXVII and XXVIII. I know some people don't like that kind of WWE epic storytelling, but I enjoy it for special ocassions like those two. -I remember really liking the cage match with Lesnar, but I should rewatch it, it's been a while. -Shield vs Evolution. Those two matches are amazing. -The Ambrose title match. This was the kind of match nobody expected to be that good, but damn they had so much quemistry. It was worked like a modern NWA title match, in a good way. -The Rollins match. Yeah I really like that, and I'm not really a fan of either guy. But that match worked pretty well for me. -Batista's retirement match at WM 35. That was fun as hell and Triple H showed his most vicious side sincew the RA Era. (I'm excluding the most famous or typically recommended stuff like the Bryan match or the Ronda mixed tag, but those obviously are fantastic matches too. I just wanted to focus on more underrated stuff.) As you can notice, I'm only recommending a couple of matches per year (sometimes even less), and considering how many opportunities he had throughout all those years(or gave himself), that's totally a failure of a main event career. For every great match or performance he has had, he had a lot more of dissapointing, mediocre or even garbage stuff, some of it even working with good wrestlers and bringing their worst version out of them (thinking of you, Shawn). But he still had more pretty good, some even excellent matches to his resume after his 2000-01 peak. I'm not trying to encourage people to reconsider Triple H's candidacy. I won't vote for him because, as Cap said, the bad stuff totally outweights the good stuff, and for the worst reason possible: he choose to be that way, to ruin wrestlers and matches just to keep his career alive. But I dislike that theory that he wasn't able to have good matches after 2001, so I wanted to share some of his cool stuff from the last two decades, that's all.

I totally agree with El-P here. Angle was amazing as a go-go worker, but is not like he was great until 2003 and suddendly he stopped being good for the rest of his career. Great short-term seller, cocky heel dominating, limbworker, overconfident matworker, intense brawler... I think only Kobashi is better at kicking out at 2'999999 when it's necessary. He probably was the most entertaining worker to follow in TV beetween 2000 and 2006, which is awesome, and then you have his TNA run... I don't think that's Angle's peak (at least not all those years), but he is still great at what he does. His New Japan run is a bit dissapointing though, but I think you can still build his case without those matches and considering him a serious top 10 contender.

Not even close. Okada has that privilege.

The Jericho matches are excellent, specially the apuestas one. And you should definitely watch him against Billy Kidman at 15/03/99 Nitro, a match I consider a masterpiece in highflying cruiserweight matches. Another very underrated match is vs Taker at Royal Rumble 2010.

1. Kenta Kobashi 2. Bryan Danielson 3. Jushin Thunder Liger 4. Hijo del Santo 5. Nick Bockwinkel 6. Chris Benoit 7. Stan Hansen 8. Mitsuharu Misawa 9. Aja Kong 10. Hiroshi Tanahashi Choosing just ten wrestlers for a preliminar ranking is hard as fuck, because I can give another, idk, 20-25 names who have strong chances to be in these top spots too. I think I have my top 3 pretty locked (the order could change, though), but from #4 to maybe #25 or whatever anything can change. Same with wrestlers I'm considering for that Q2 segment of my list (26-50). For example, right now I have Hokuto and Akiyama near the top 20, but I can see both of them as top 10 locks if everything I still have to watch continues to deliver. And the more I think about it, the more I see Misawa out of the top 10 (but not too far below). I have more top tier contenders than ever, and that's fun and satisfying as hell, but also puts a lot of pressure on me. How the hell does a list feel right if you have Casas or Funk "only" at #15 or #20 in it? But again, there's a lot more of amazing wrestlers. I still have five more years...

He's a better, darker, Jeff Hardy, and I say that in the best way possible. He should look like a vanilla, "look at how edgy I am" version of Jeff, but his ringwork makes you take him seriously. His consistency have been pretty admirable since 2018, and I'm sure he's not at his peak yet. These next five years will be very important for him, and AEW should put the trigger on him for the main title sooner than later. The potential for a high position in a 2036 GWE is there, iykwim.

Two of my favourites: vs Io Shirai, Sendai Girls 19/4/2018 vs Mercedes Martinez, WWE Mae Young Classic 2019

I watched the Chigusa match yesterday, and damn. It was amazing, and Hokuto was perfect in her role, with all that vicious offence and attitude towards Chiggy. I also loved her in the Bull match in 1991 when I watched it a few weeks ago. I don't need her to be at 93-95 levels before and after those peak years, just great enough to see your career as consistent as possible. And Hokuto is delivering, to me at least. She clearly was a very good wrestler before her peak, from what I've seen. I'll watch those 80s tags and more 00s stuff.

That's also my favourite Martel match ever, and the only thing keping it away from the full five, for me, is the stupid finish. Everything else is just perfect pro wrestling. Other Bockwinkel matches are excellent too, they had awesome chemistry and it should be reminded as one of the best in ring sagas ever.

As recently as late 2019, he had his last singles match with Minoru Suzuki and that match rules. Not exactly the showdown I think the rivalry was building up to, but if you see it in a vacuum you won't be bothered by that. Great fight.

I'm one of those fans, actually, and yeah I love Vader. Not my favourite big man (Hansen exists) but pretty close. He'll probably make my top 30, surely top 50. The shoot stuff was a great reinforcement of his case, he was able to adapt to the ringwork there while retaining his overall style and aura. I love the "subtle versatility" he has, specially for a monster powerhouse. PS: and I LOVE Flair and specially Terry, too

I need a deep dive in his indie run, but I've been loving his WWE run. He's one of these guys that does everything he can with whatever they gave to him, be a four minutes match with Cesaro at WM kickoff, comedy stuff in a dead Cruiserweight division, etc. He has delivered in a big way when giving the chance (Bryan, Thatcher, ZSJ...) so yeah, these next five years will be crucial for him. He could make my list easily.

I'm pretty sure Kenny Omega have a strong chance to be that guy. I feel Shawn's goofiness kinda suits him very well, both as a confident babyface and as an arrogant heel, but Kenny does that while trying to look serious and great, and I think he actually ruined big matches because of It.

Grey might be my favourite WOS guy, and have a strong chance of making my list. It's just a matter of where. I've seen some of his most famous matches (Myers, Saint) and some others with guys like Breaks and Cortez, loved all of them, but I still need to watch a lot more of WOS as a whole, so any recommendations are welcome.

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.