Makai Club #1

I'm just being pedantic when it comes to determining the greatest matches ever. Hansen doesn't have a lot of matches I'd put in a lot that elite, elite tier. But he's got a bunch of matches just below that. Also I'm slowly making my way through the Carlos Colon feud right now (slowly, but surely) so this statement could easily be outdated once I'm done.

Stan Hansen is my working #2 despite this very thing. Compared to someone like Kobashi or Okada, who has a long list of 5 star matches for me, Hansen's individual case is how he approaches wrestling. It doesn't always lead to the greatest matches of all time but his performances are so stand out that they don't need to be. When I made my first draft of the top 100, it did happen to turn out that mostly all of my top ranking guys were main eventers. Regal still gets his due respect as do many non main eventers though. I guess it just depends on the person and how they approach it. Rank names as you see fit, and amend due to your gut reaction or rank using a formula.

This case will really rely on how much people like to watch Dragon Gate. While he is much different from a Masato Yoshino or a Ryo Saito, Shingo still embodies a lot of what DG is about through his in-ring work.

No. I have no clue what people were watching. To me, it was an okay match at best.

Sekimoto had a terrible year in 2020. I can't think of one good match that he had. It was consistently underwhelming, regardless of opponent, partner or promotion. Sekimoto had a good run from 2015 to 2019 as a good wrestler who consistently good matches in a promotion that has non deathmatch wrestling as a secondary division. But I'm not so big on him before this. It'll be hard to include him.

Yeah. This wasn't a great triple threat match like WM 30 had but it was good nonetheless. They certainly made me think that both Edge and Daniel Bryan had the match won at certain points in the match before that momentum was snuffed out. The conchairto spot were wicked and Bryan's selling of his was excellent. Someone I was speaking to genuinely thought he was having a seizure. I think Roman pinning both was a great character moment. I think Roman's new gimmick can either be way too melodramatic with the in-match soliloquies or he can just be plain boring, but having the gall to stack Edge and Bryan on top of each other like King King Bundy winning a handicap squash in the build to WM 2 is an excellent character choice. ***1/2

This was a really good main event. I still think that this should've been swapped with the opening bout because that felt hot and this didn't. Nevertheless, this was a solid match with some rather unique work using the hair. Sasha Banks used it for more leverage on her submissions, she used it as a defensive tactic and Bianca Belair used it to whip Sasha which was pretty insane. Bianca Belair was way over the top emotionally. This is a big moment for her and she didn't hide it one bit. Some toning down when it came to her reactions, especially when it came to the nearfall, was desperately needed. ***

I first watched Timothy Thatcher right after his EVOLVE title reign ended and all the EVOLVE fans hated him and thought he was very boring and basic as a wrestler, and as soon as I watched him, I knew that wasn't the case and he's gone on to prove that since, getting those fans back on his side with his work in wXw, Progress, OTT, etc. In WCW, Dean Malenko's Iceman gimmick made Malenko's no personality gimmick into a gimmick in of itself. Thatcher is similar. On the surface, he's a no-nonsense wrestler with a plain look, but there is something very unique in the way he wrestlers and acts. It's hard to describe. It's just something that should be watched and then you'd get what I'm talking about.

Hiroshi Hase, depending on how much you love his title match against Hashimoto in 94.

He had an excellent match at i 2011 G1 Finals with Nakamura. I'd put it just below the Okada match for best pre-LIJ Naito match.

Yep. Same thing. New Japan put out a story that Okada's injured and of course people ate that up.

I'm really down on his WWE run. AJ has had a few really good matches against the likes of Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar, but I have been consistently underwhelmed by him since he debuted at the Rumble. The Jericho feud was a bust. I dislike the Cena feud for reasons that aren't AJ's fault but they don't help his case. The Samoa Joe feud had some tediously dull matches by any standard. Same with the Kevin Owens series over the US title. There is more bad than good. I'd like to revist his TNA run more. I watched it as a kid growing up but I've not really went back and rewatched it in depth.

Recently, HARASHIMA had a six minute match with Yukio Sakaguchi (Seiji Sakaguchi's son for those who recognise the name) on the 2021 Judgement Show and it was excellent. Even seemingly nothing matches on the eye have the potential to be gems.

Obviously this isn't the be all end all but no one except Kenta Kobashi has more matches that I rated 5*. And that's after me spending hours trying to cut that number down to seperate the best from the rest. So calling him a "Big Match Worker" is perfectly accurate for him. It's noticeable when he has a match most would deem a "good" match. It's a running joke on certain areas on social media that any time Okada has a less than stellar match, he gets called washed by a small minority. That's the level Okada has set. Not many people can lay out a great match like Okada can and he's had a lot of people's best match (Kenny Omega, Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima, Kota Ibushi, etc). His criticisms would be that he can be way to reliant on a certain formula - maximising his opponents strengths, selling for the opponent before making a comeback. And while Okada has shown that he can switch it up for more quicker paced matches (there was one ZSJ match that comes to mind) or matches built around him not taking the opponent seriously, but you usually get a similar layout for any big match that he may have. Another criticism for some is his offence. Similarly to Tanahashi, his strikes and other big offence can lack the visual impact that Shibata kicking someone in the chest would BUT the emphasis is on what does it mean within the match. So I can forgive a few lazy back elbows because his dropkick is an instant game changer and one of the more important moves in Japanese wrestling. The fact that Okada can get a lot out of not many big moves is a plus for me. And his selling is his strengths anyway so it's smart to have that be the focus of the match. I'm sure you can pick apart him selling a leg poorly in certain matches but in the grand scheme of the match, his selling is usually excellent. Okada had a signature title reign with Good-GOAT title matches with people ranging from Kenny Omega to Naomichi Marufuji to Bad Luck Fale. You could make a case for him on this title reign alone. You add the Tanahashi feud, the Jay White feud and many other great matches in between, you have an insane amount of quality matches to sink your teeth into. He might be in my top 10 when it comes down to it.

His DDT run is excellent in parts. Mostly after 2011 when he grew into himself. Matches I'd recommend of his are: Omega vs Kota Ibushi - DDT 18/08/2012 Omega vs Isami Kodaka - DDT 21/01/2013 Omega vs Michael Nakazawa - DDT 29/02/2013 W/Ibushi vs Isami Kodaka/Yuko Miyamoto vs Konosuke Takeshita/Tetsuya Endo - DDT 26/01/2014 Omega vs HARASHIMA - DDT 20/07/2014 His DDT run compliments his New Japan run really well. He delivered in two totally different promotions where expectations and styles are very different.

I believe it was. Maybe I'm misremembering the match as its been five years since I've watched it. Tanahashi teaming with YOH against HARASHIMA and Ken Ohka is another example of Tanahashi being an excellent heel. And there are backstage politic elements to the match in the build to add more spice to the match. Basically Tanahashi big leagued HARASHIMA in a singles match on one of the Peter Pan shows in 2014, and he said in a promo backstage that he felt like he was above DDT, legitimately. HARASHIMA was pissed by the comments, naturally and this tag match was them sweetening things out so DDT and New Japan could continue their partnership.

Yes! Suwama is another match that's excellent. And I dislike Suwama a lot.

I'll say this about Tanahashi. He took a good while to really put it together as a main eventer. He won the title in 2006 and, despite his peaks during this time against Nagata, Goto and Mutoh, he took until around 2011 to become a great wrestler. That's nearly 6 years of inconsistency at the high level. If he was still a midcarder, that's different because expectations are a tad different for me. Nakamura easily outshone him during this period. But once he got great, he was immense. The Okada feud speaks for itself. Classic after classic, even long after New Japan ran it into the ground. Plus many more matches against any modern New Japan act. Tanahashi is also a great babyface work who can rally a crowd with ease to his side, which in turn helps the opponent get over in the heelish role. His weakness are his offence execution, which isn't as bad as his detractors would claim. His mat-work isn't Tatsumi Fujinami's but he works it well in a purposeful way and that's all you could ask for. His striking does get exposed in matches where he's going toe to toe with Shibata or Tomohiro Ishii though. Tanahashi builds his matches in ways that they almost always end in exciting ways, even if the body of the match isn't that great. Tanahashi works really well in a more dismissive role as well. His match against Naomichi Marufuji comes to mind where he didn't respect Marufuji's status at all and he came off like the biggest ass, in a good way. Tanahashi probably will be in my top twenty. Maybe higher.

Konosuke Takeshita Since making his debut at 17 Year's old in the Nippon Budokan against El Generico in 2012, in a really good match btw, Takeshita has been tipped for the top of the card. And 9 years later, Takeshita has grew into a great offensive wrestler who is both agile and strong, making him one of the more unique wrestlers in Japan. His German suplexes are killer as he just launches them. It didn't take him a while to really get to that point as his body has grown in size and muscle (remember he started when he was 17), and his style has evolved since then. But regardless of style, Takeshita has always had good-great matches in his career. Takeshita's rookie year won't be compared to Akiyama's or Ronda Rousey's but he had a good set of matches against the likes of Kota Ibushi, Yukio Sakaguchi, Kenny Omega, Hikaru Sato at such a young age. The matches only got better as he matured and grew into the Future of DDT spot that DDT trusted him in as Kota Ibushi was doing more New Japan work and eventually left out-right. And in 2016, he won his first KO-D Openweight and hasn't look back since. Since doing that, Takeshita has had a great series with a plethora opponents such as Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo, HARASHIMA, Shuji Ishikawa while growing into the ace spot as he went along. 2018 was when the pieces began to really come together when it comes to the ring-work where he started deliver some of the best performances in the company's history - a company that had Dick Togo vs Antonio Honda, remember. So this isn't Takeshita out performing indie scrubs. One thing I'd admire about Takeshita is how much he works outside of the main events. When you look at other modern Ace's like Hiroshi Tanahashi an Kazuchika Okada, they have a natural tendency to take it easy in tag matches or matches against lower card guys, but I never get that sense with Takeshita. He'll work hard with anyone he's working against, whether it be a comedy ddt act (Kazuki Hirata), a generational rival (HARASHIMA) or an out of the box outsider (Meiko Satomura, Chris Brookes) and he's more than likely going to have the MOTN with them. I'm not sure where I rank him as I don't want to work myself into placing him extremely high as I'm writing but he's a lock for me. Definitely one of the modern Puro guys that people should check out, regardless of your notions about DDT as a promotion. Match Recommendations: Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo vs Yankee Two Kenju (Yuko Miyamoto & Isami Kodaka) vs Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) - DDT 2014 26/01/2014 Konosuke Takeshita vs Tetsuya Endo - DDT 15/07/2019 Konosuke Takeshita vs HARASHIMA - DDT 03/11/2019

The thing is Daniel Bryan is that I have very little desire to rewatch his most of that ROH run. If I watch a random ROH event, I'll see one and like the match but in no way am I seeking out a Daniel Bryan going 60 minutes with Roderick Strong, no way. Same with that 75 minute Austin Aries match, and I'm insanely high on Aries (who I might actually prefer when you strickly look at their ROH run). Watchability has to be a factor here. How much are you willing to watch of a certain candidate? The value that brings for your time? And sadly I'm just not willing to sit down and watch a ton of long Daniel Bryan matches, except maybe the ones against Nigel McGuinness, Morishima and a few select others. But I will watch someone like Nick Bockwinkel over and over again. It doesn't mean Daniel Bryan isn't a top candidate for this but it puts a ceiling on him for me personally.

The comments above covered HARASHIMA perfectly. Outstanding wrestler. There isn't many things better than HARASHIMA kicking someone brutally in the chest while he is smiling so brightly. HARASHIMA can come off as bland at first (I'm fairly certain his gimmick is a smiling babyface with a heart of gold which totally works in a very meta way), but the more you watch him, the more that charm he has comes out to compliment his excellent work. I can watch HARASHIMA all day every day, and I can't say that about most wrestlers.

The Charlotte match was thrown together last minute so it could be that match. And what a match it was. It's probably the best women's match wwe has had upto that point. I definitely prefer it over the Bayley v Sasha Banks matches in NXT as of right now.

It's not the opponents that stagnent in this case, although that's a real issue. The matches themselves go through the same spot like it's 2013 and everyone is first exposed to it. Evolve a it, is all I'm really asking. Ishii is a midcarder so perhaps that's asking too much. There has been a lot of matches where I'm like "oh here we go with this again". It's insanely fustrating at times because Ishii can do more. I know this is a criticsim that's easy the point out as it's currently on-going and I'm watching mostly every match of his.

Unlike Hansen, Ishii reguarly runs his own match into the ground. In those G1 runs that everyone is fond of, he's just as likely to have the dullest match on the show. Ishii is also best when someone else is leading the match otherwise it just turns into a match with elbow exchanges which is just lazy by this point. Unless he is against someone like Jay White who'll do something unique with that idea (dropping immediately to the ground on strike one instead of playing the macho tough man), he can get tedious to watch. That's a criticisim of him. Now despite all that, he does have a large list of great matches against a variety of opponents. The G1 Shibata match is a signature match of the Bushiroad Era that constantly gets named as a match to watch., there was a series with Honma that's mostly great and he had on-off chemistry with Tetsuya Naito, but when they were on, the matches were so good. That's three opponents that you could get 10-15 good-great matches out of. Then you bring up the 2016 Okada match, the Kenny Omega 04/08/2018 match and the match where he pins Tanahashi and you got a great match playlist. I contridicted myself many times in this post.Ha! Ishii is someone that works upon reflection. However, I'm just sick of current Ishii which sours my opinion of him slightly. He'll make my top 100. I'm not sure if he'll go below the 50 mark though.

Early Chigusa has definitely risen in stock after watching more and more of 80s AJW. And that run is one of the greatest babyface runs someone could have. She was really versatile as well. The Dump hair matches were built around her selling for Dump in a chaotic brawl with a screaming crowd and crooked ref while the Devil Masami Budokan Hall match was mostly built around submissions. Two matches that couldn't be more opposite from each other. But I've virtually watched nothing of her second run post return except one or two matches that don't even come to mind currently.