Tetsujin

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.

Eddie Kingston ranking just one spot below Claudio is hilarious. Someone please share it with him. I also thought Claudio would be higher. It's a shame he didn't improve since last time, considering he added another ten years of really good work week after week. Incredibly consistent and a heavy underrated versatile wrestler too. I guess the fact that a lot of people (is he the first one with +200 ballots?) voted for him but almost nobody put him near the top is a good allegory of his career and how crazy underrated he still is, even by people who acknowledge his talent.

Kandori dropping before Ozaki really surprises me, I thought the Hokuto rivalry would make the difference. Still, I'm glad she finally is in the top 100, where she belongs.

I'm really worried about Bockwinkel. I'm not ready.

Oh, Windham out already as well. This is not starting nice. Obviously #25 last time was always too much, but damn barely making the list is not good either. Incredible all around wrestler, could do anything. I just think he needed more longevity to really compare to the very few elite wrestlers at the top of my list, but the potential was definitely there and his peak is everything you could ask for a northamerican wrestler in the late 80s-early 90s. The only guy (with Kerry Von Erich) rivaling Steamboat for being Flair's best rival.

Ok reading the thread I thought Regal came out already and I gasped a bit. For Ikeda, I didn't vote for him because of not seeing enough tonfeel comfortable to do so, but what I've seen (the Ishikawa series, a 1997 Otsuka singles, the 2010 Ono match and some random BattlArts tags here and there) is really cool. He's just a very cool dude in general, with some of the best kicks ever and an attitude I really get behind, I like him much more than Ishikawa at the moment.

Tully is fucking awesome and it's a shame he couldn't be higher, although with the backlash the 80s guys received I guess I have to feel grateful for him staying on the main list. He's definitely not worse than Kevin Owens or Kenny Omega but hey, though (I'm gonna be saying that a lot these days).

Yeah that's fair. And you still have a link to their nomination threads so you can see what the case is. It's no biggie.

I don't wanna sound like I'm demanding stuff, because I can imagine the hard work Grimmas is putting into this, but it was weird seeing no match recs or some words for Hero now that we're on the top 100. Speaking of Hero, what a guy. Not everything he did hit, specially before becoming fat, but what did hit, it did like a truck. He has a mind and instincts I really appreciate, and as BossRock said, youn can appreciate he still has them when you're watching what he accomplished in the Senka match.

To me, being a pro wrestler (as, that's your job, you're dedicating to pro wrestling) and being a guest in the pro wrestling world (celebrities having matches, the McMahons doing stuff, etc) are two very different things, and for a project like this I have pretty clear what I would consider and what I wouldn't. But maybe there are some wrestlers that don't fit into my definition either, idk. Sometimes is complicated because of wrestling's whacky nature.

Neither is gonna happen, but all I'm rooting for right now is Kobashi winning and Naito finishing ahead of both Okada and Omega.

I still got 75% of my list alive, so there's that. Buddy Rose was my highest loss at #18, followed by Breaks at #26 and then all the way down to Mark Briscoe at #46. I guess I can't complain. My guess for the first 10 guys to drop (I'm always wrong): Iyo, Asuka, KENTA, Necro, Eaton, Bockwinkel, Bruno, Owens, Eddie Kingston and Dusty.

The remaining 100 guys are -mostly- really cool names (Naito and Ishii made it! Mox too! And fucking Takayama and Necro and Jaguar!), but it's the potential ranking what can give me a very bitter taste. I'm not ready to see Omega a lot higher than Bockwinkel, to say two names in a realistic scenario.

Low Ki in almost 200 ballots is insane. Get prepared for the big indie names to skyrocket. There's some... Questionable names inside the top 100, but that's always expected (and we still need to see where they'll land). Really looking forward to the big thing. But damn I can't believe that Nakamura went on a strike since basically the last poll yet retained a spot. It's really hilarious.

BURN THIS GOD DAMN PROJECT TO THE GROUND

Let's do it: Giant Baba, Kevin Owens, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura, Mayu Iwatani and (sadly) Tetsuya Naito.

Didn't expect Otani out ot the top 100. Atlantis I kinda expected it but I didn't wanna think about it, but hey it is what it is. Both did really well, all things considered. Mark Briscoe is fucking awesome and I'm sad both him and Jay couldn't be together on the top. Hope Jay makes it though. Now there's only 6 spots left before the top 100, and theres plenty of active wrestlers still alive: Mayu, Shirai, Asuka, Zayn, GUNTHER, Claudio, ZSJ, Omega, Ospreay, Okada, Naito, Nakamura, Eddie Kingston, Aja Kong, KENTA, Mercedes Moné, Místico, Ishii, Shibata, Low Ki, Joe, Punk, Suzuki, and I'm sure I'm forgetting people.

I would be really surprised if Inoki doesn't make it. Like, it would be the biggest surprise for me thus far, by a lot. I feel he has regained a lot of support.

Kudo finally dropped. Really surprising showcase, and I dare to say a good indicator of how the biggest joshi names will do. Backlund and Togo not in the top 100 certainly take some flavour out of it, but I'm not unhappy. Togo I assume has harmed his reputation by House of Torture association, I personally haven't heard anything worth checking out for him since 2020.