Tetsujin

Four years later, I keep my words. Even when starting to break down and with COVID heavily affecting my enjoyment of NJPW as a whole, he has had amazing matches and performances like the Ospreay and Okada G1 bouts, the recent O Khan and ZSJ matches, an impressive carryjob to fucking Hikuleo, the Hiromu tag against Taichi and Ishii, even his last match with broken down Tanahashi was great. This guy is an all timer.

El Hijo del Santo is a top 10 contender for me at the moment. He's my #11 right now (defending his slot against another four guys), but I can see him getting as high as #8. Negro Casas might end up somewhere in my top 25. He's my #29 at the moment, but there's a huge battle from #16 to #29 and his stock is rising in my eyes. LA Park is in my top 50, and I'm confident in him staying there. He's my #47 and I can see him gettin as high as #40. Tbh from #40 downwards my list is just a mess, big moves up and down could occur, but he's one of the guys I'm feeling more comfortable with. Satánico and Dandy are in my 80s right now. I've never clicked with them as much as with the other three guys, but their catalogue is undenniable. Maybe Satánico gets in my top 75 because I still need to watch some of his most famous stuff from the 00s, but not farther than that. Last, but maybe not least, Blue Panther and Atlantis are two guys I'm 99% sure I'll vote for them, but I need to rewatch some of their most acclaimed stuff first, it's been a long while. Panther is still adding to his case today (holy shit), which definitely helps. He's not reaching Satánico's level for me yet, but I believe it's a matter of when, not if. Guys I need to dive deep before putting them on my top 100, but I definitely see their potential: Villano III, Mocho Cota, Virus, Hechicero. I simply need to watch more.

The biggest factor imo is Naito leaving. He was the ultimate lifeboat for that company and now... Well. I'm only probably gonna watch the Taichi matches.

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.

I never got Onita. At first I assumed it was a style preference more than anything, but then I watches Kudo/Toyoda and thought it was absolutely fantastic and far better than anything I've seen Onita do. I'm really high on the Omega/Mox explosive Barbed Wire match, as well. With Onita, thought, something is missing. The match with Funk is just good (awesome post match though), and I'm really bored by the Tenryu match, and I'm never bored watching Tenryu. Maybe he's the most "and then the bell rang" wrestler ever for me, idk.

She's one of those few wrestlers I can say I don't know why she doesn't click for me. I know she's good, I can see that. I can watch a match of her and consider it pretty good, great even. But she leaves me feeling cold. She never resonates with me. I don't know why. Maybe she's too generic. Maybe some guys like Syuri, Meiko, Sareee, Shirai or even current Aja do her stuff much better than her.

I'm starting to watch some Aoki for the first time. This far, only three matches of him: vs Keigo Nakamura, vs Charlie Dempsey and vs Kazusada Higuchi, all of them this year. I'm loving him, like it's been a while since I felt love at first sight for a wrestler. His style is so unique. Definitely wanna watch more of him because he's such a delight; I don't think I'm gonna watch enough of him befire feelihh comfortable to vote for him in GWE next year, but damn. Seems like special wrestler, for sure.

I believe I'm gonna vote for Cena, but on the lower side of my list. The dude has a shocking amount of all time great matches that even for me, more of a detractor than anything else, is hard to deny. Yeah, it's true that the vast majority of those matches are against better wrestlers and/or wrestled out of Cena's comfort zone and/or the other wrestler is the star of the match, but that is not a case against Cena per sé. He's not a very good driver (his overall career suffers a lot from that, because as one of the longest Aces in wrestling he had to drive more than anything), but he's one hell of a dance partner, which is an underrated aspect of pro wrestling if you ask me. In terms of imput, he's very lackluster. He has some stellar selling performances, but most of the times his selling is a mess. Sometimes he doesn't even bump like a pro (he takes those powerbombs by Owens in their series together forearms-first instead of using his big ass back and extend the arms to absorb the impact, and I hate it). Don't get me started on his punching, his silly facial expressions, how hilariously loud he calls his matches, or his weak moveset. But Cena is more than the sum of his parts, and when he works, he's one of the purest babyfaces I've seen. I honestly believe he has a sicko side hidden deep within him, but sadly was forced to main event PG Era WWE. You see the Umaga, JBL, Lesnar, Sabu matches and you can see a territories era bloody babyface in him, or maybe a hardcore wrestler. Those glimpses are amazing to perceive. His 2006-07 peak is really great. It's a damn short peak, but then he also has a full decade of brief moments of greatness here and there. He almost never was a guy I was looking forward on tv matches, but when Big Match John had a job to do, he sure did most of the times. Also, most of his bad stuff is due to booking more than anything else, which is not his fault (I guess) but It definitely hurts his résumé compared to many other all timers. His heel run sucks so bad. His performances in the Cody match is one of the most dissapointing performances I've ever seen. If he spends his whole last year like that it will definitely hurt his case, although not too much. It's not like his part timer run has been adding to his case anyway. At the moment he's on my list, not in the top 75 though.

Yeah, awesome tag guy as well. Aside from Taue, maybe the best Pillar in tag matches. He can be the underdog weak link in peril (the Misawa vs Jumbo tag matches, the Misawa team against HDA or others), the anchor and hot tag guy in southern style (with Kikuchi vs Can Arm), the leader (the Akiyama team), he knows how to work both long epic matches and short quick bursts, his return from cancer tag match and his retirement multitag are basically matches centered around him and he totally overdelivers. He has both my #1 singles match and my #1 tag match.

I used to think the same when he was a heavyweight in New Japan. He was basically wannabe Omega. They have similar weaknesses, specially in that 2019-2023 years, that I won't deny. Also, both of them found more strength once they went to american tv due to the need to compact their stuff in shorter matches. But the key difference to me is that Omega feels like a guy who acts like his case has already been made, he has that pretentious attitude of already being the best ever. Ospreay, on the other hand, works like he's still building his case. He keeps improving: he sells better, he doesn't overact as much, he doesn't act like his shit is the best thing ever.

He's still my number 1 and not even Danielson's last run could change that. He's the one pro wrestler who makes me FEEL the most. Like, wrestling nowadays is full of guys pretending to farm aura and look like the best ever. They all look to achieve what Kobashi didn't even inted to achieve: he just worked harder than any other pro wrestler ever, he believed in pro wrestling as strongly as possible, gave everything he had in any and every match, not because he wanted to look badass and godly, but because his job was to make us believe he was fucking trying to win that damn match! And, therefore, he looks like the best ever. But's he's a natural at it. His passion for fighting no matter what is trascendent. I believe he's the overall favorite Pillar today (what are people's feelings about this? I know, same old debate, but it's unavoidable specially with GWE coming up), and as such has strong chances of being #1. If I were a betting man, I would say he'll end up #3 this time, behind Danielson and Funk.