Tetsujin

45/50 for me. 33 of them are in my top 50. The highest ranked guys I lost in this first half were Benoit (#13), Devil (#21) and Angle (#22). The lowest I have still alive is Bull (#99), followed by Cena (#90) and Panther (#87).

ALSO, I don't think anyone mentioned him on the thread yet, but Piper sneakily making it this far is so cool, specially considering the other territory guys falling.

It really is -but, with Tamura coming now, I believe we'll see Volk by tomorrow.

As a huge fan, Mox making the top half makes me so happy. Overall, I believe it's a pretty solid base for a top 50. Sata not in it makes me sad, Tamura got so close too, but hey, Dump didn't make it so... you win some you lose some. Sting and Omega being in the top 50 is kinda expected, but ridiculous to me. Didn't expect Onita making it this far either. As for predictions now that we have a more general idea of how the list is shapening (that is, no idea at all lol)... I will say Jumbo, Fujinami and Bockwinkel (sadly) drop the most from the previous top 20, Tanahashi will be top 25 as the highest ranked modern NJPW guy, only two Pillars on the top 10, there'll be one woman on the top 10 (Aja or Hokuto, choose your fighter), and from México only Casas and Santito will be top 25 (and I have my doubts about Casas). PS: Awesome pick for Shibata, holy.

Angle is fucking awesome at what he does and he actually brings authenticity to the style. He wrestles like a high school gym bully who wants everyone to know he's the fucking best at everything. To me he never felt like a self indulgent guy the same way Omega, Ibushi, Ospreay, Richards, Elgin, Oku or many others do sometimes (or most of the times). It's true (no pun intended) that his style didn't translate that well into some settings (I'm not in love with any of his New Japan matches) but he got really good really early and had the ability to bring something great out of almost anyone for quite some time. Glad he got a better result than last time.

Devil below Dump feels so wrong, sorry not sorry.

Same thoughts here. Had him a bit lower but the sky is the limit for him. At this point he's having nine straight years being one of the best, sometimes THE absolute best (2018) in the world. Generational talent. I didn't vote for The Rock but I totally get the appeal. He's probably the most magnetic pro wrestler ever, every mannerism, every reaction, every "living in the moment" thing he does, it's just so much fun. Underrated striker and seller too. Ridiculously talented for how young he was. Just too short of a career overall (let alone peak) for me. Arn is fucking awesome and I believe somewhere at the middle of the list is the perfect spot for him. One of the best "input over output" wrestlers ever, for sure. Every Arn performance feels stellar. I guess he shares that with The Rock.

Yeah Mutoh is what Jericho fans believe Jericho is.

I'd bet Tanahashi will finish REALLY high, so this sounds accurate.

This rules so much!

Also, sorry for the double post but, Dusty climbing so many spots in a list where almost every other territory guy dropped significantly is... Weird. I guess he had votes based also on importance and charisma? He barely got on the top 100 in 2016, even passing away the year before.

Místico case is really impressive. From top of México to ridiculed to huge extremes in WWE to whatever gimmick crisis he had right after, to back to top of México stronger than ever. More than half the ballots for him is crazy, specially considering it's probably just due to this last CMLL run. Iyo's peak in STARDOM is one of the absolute best pro wrestlers I've ever seen. A terrific full package. Never reached those highs again in WWE, but she's so great she constantly pushes to bring something at least good out of any situation, to the point that they just have to give her important roles. Never been a Dusty guy. I love him as a pro wrestling figure, but his ringwork never made me think other than "hah, very fun" at best. Absolutely marvelous crowd control, that's for sure. Hopefully Hogan and Omega drop soon.

Shit I didn't realize Asuka dropped as well. Holy shit, almost 47% of total ballots for her. Joshi's top names might end up being reaaaally high.

Ishii is a Claudio-like king of consistency but with several MOTYC to his resume, incredible pro wrestler. Nothing pops me more than seeing him as an underdog taking main eventers to their absolute limit. And that's just his NJPW run. Sometimes he gets autoparodic when combined with other fighting spirit guys like Goto or Shingo or Eddie Kingston or Shibata, but most of the times he rocks my world.

I expect Tenryu in particular to be in the top 10, based on the ballots I saw online during this past month. Almost everyone had him there, but alas, those were like ~6% of total ballots so who knows. The only ones that would truly shock me if they dropped anywhere below top 20ish would be Flair, Funk, Misawa and Kobashi. But again... Who knows.

GWE is so fucking awesome.

Completely forgot about Ibushi. Him landing at #69 is funny. I was never an Ibushi guy, he has very good peak performances through his whole career and in very diverse settings, but there's something about him that doesn't click with me at all. Maybe too reliant on neck bumps (as I say that as a 90s All Japan fan, maybe too overdramatic sometimes (and The Elite brings the worse of him in that regard), maybe the fact the he doesn't take himself very seriously sometimes, or too seriously others (same with Kenny). An interesting career to explore, for sure, and his best stuff is really impressive regardless. But not really one of my guys. Choshu dropping now is intriguing. It kinda gives me a concern for guys like Jumbo or Tenryu. And someone please explain to me, as a casual BattlArts viewer, why Ishikawa always ranks much higher than Ikeda.

People who think he's been pretty great for quite some time, but are careful about putting him much higher due to him being still young and in the middle of his peak. That was my approach for most of active wrestlers I voted for, at least (had Ospreay at #84). KENTA this high surprises me, because when it comes to guys with questionable consistency but a monstruous yet short peak, there has been more interesting wrestlers dropping before him. But I get that peak is undenniable.

Glad Lesnar dropped. Moxley ranking ahead of him in participar delights me, finally some justice for sabotaging their WM 32 match. Didn't expect Ospreay to drop this early! This adds even more intrigue and unpredictability to the list, maybe Omega is not as high either. We'll see. Right now, I don't even fucking know which tendencies are gaining the upper hand anymore. This is so fun.

Can't complain about Naito when last time he was #390, but damn, I really hate how for most people Okada and Omega are better and more popular. That's something I'll never forget Meltzer for. It's also New Japan's fault for not making him the ace of the promotion when they had to. I'm REALLY shocked Morton ranked below Eaton. "Shocking" ranking for Benoit too (not really, I know), guess WWE-based voters don't have as much of a weight as I thought, even when it comes to their more canonized guys. If Michaels/Angle/Cena dropped tomorrow I wouldn't be as surprised as I would've been last week.

Calling Roderick Strong (or Claudio) a charisma vacuum in 2026 sounds crazy to me. Like, those guys never stop putting their stuff over in their matches, they always do something that pops the crowd and keeps them engaged. Sure, they're not top tier charismatic wrestlers ever by any means, they don't trascend pro wrestling nor they are main stars of a card, but when they wrestle they make people pay attention and be excited for their time between the ropes.

Same. His WWE run has been very hit or miss, mostly because of booking, but even before WWE he wasn't one of the very best indie guys. Definitely charismatic and a main event guy, but Claudio is obviously better, Roddy is obviously better, and I buy Hero more too. I assume it's because he's all but officially retired.

Dandy felt to me the less discussed of the remaining luchadores, so I expected him here. Same with Roddy, once I saw Claudio dropping early I knew he was coming sooner than later; still great showcase for him, he totally deserves the recognition, incredible consistency and a very smart and fascinating offensive wrestler. Bruno on the top 100 was one of my biggest surprises, specially considering the lack of footage compared to the rest, and the fact that he's the only one of his peers making it (iirc), but I'm so happy he did. Such a phenomenon in the wrestling world.

Hilarious thread indeed. I think Moxley leaving WWE and having that good of a run elsewhere is a big part of what condemned the case of modern WWE guys. Like, when you see how good and radically different a wrestler can truly be outside of the sports entertainment cage, how can you possibly take into consideration a purely WWE guy for this project? The ones that got to the top 100 are wrestlers who have a case before arriving there (Owens, Zayn, GUNTHER, Asuka, Shirai, Nakamura, maybe I'm forgetting someone). Guys who barely had a case before WWE or are purely WWE products, like Rollins, Reigns, Balor, Sheamus, Gable, McIntyre, three of the four horsewomen (the one making the top 100 is precisely the one who left the company), etc, didn't do as well. I believe the huge success of Mox and Mercedes Moné really expose to a lot of people that WWE was not only worse, but actually holds back what could be awesome wrestlers otherwise.

Ozaki is gone. She did awesome, but #91 still feels kinda low. I wonder if there's gonna be a big gap between the usual big joshi names like Toyota or Aja and these Kandori/Ozaki/new joshi top 100 members. Finally Nakamura dropped. One of the undeserving ones. But at the end of the day, I understand the appeal. Those ~4 years are among the biggest peak any wrestler has ever gotten.