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No problem, luckily a good bit of his work from that time is just floating around on YouTube (most of the uploads are in Japanese though, so lots of google translate is needed). Gypsy Joe might be his best opponent from that era, and someone uploaded all the Joe matches to YT a few months back. Most of the people I know actually prefer their '76 cage match, which I do think is pretty great, but the '79 one is maybe my favorite IWE match ever. I'd definitely recommend checking out all of his work with Joe though, along with most of his big singles matches with foreigners (especially the Ox Baker matches) and any match where he's put up against Umanosuke Ueda.

Big fan of Rusher here, he'll definitely be on my list and has a slight chance of landing in the top 50. Personally speaking I love all his IWE work, I went on a big project of watching as much IWE footage as I possibly could last year and I think Kimura was easily my favorite coming out of that (Mighty Inoue and Ashura Hara really being his only close competition). He has the 70s bug where some of his matwork can be pretty slow and plodding but it's all technically competent and serves more to build the tension to the inevitable explosion that most big Rusher matches had. He's a strong contender for Japan's best brawler of the 70s, getting into pretty phenomenal spats with guys like Mad Dog Vachon and Ox Baker, and the few times I've seen him have a focused technical affair he's actually been great at that too (see the Strong Kobayashi and Billy Robinson matches). His post-IWE career is very interesting as well, starting out with the amazing stretch of matches against Inoki (especially their 09/21/83 match) where he really got to show a heel side to his work and be a little more ruthless, before then transitioning to AJPW where he became a long-standing midcard general, never putting in bad performances but usually just putting on fun ones. He still has some standout moments though, like his incredible underdog work in the Kimura/Baba vs. Tenryu/Hansen classic. And then his late career work with Family Gundan is some of the best comedy wrestling ever, even if he's not as good as Eigen or Momota in that regard. Here's a few random Rusher IWE recs - Rusher Kimura vs. Blackjack Mulligan (IWE 10/10/1973) Rusher Kimura vs. Billy Robinson (IWE 06/03/1974) Rusher Kimura vs. Mighty Inoue (IWE 06/29/1975) Rusher Kimura vs. Mad Dog Vachon (IWE 03/26/1977) Rusher Kimura vs. Gypsy Joe (IWE 05/07/1979)

I have! I remember it being fun stuff where Kobayashi and Inoue shined the most, but Goto did get to show good energy and pulled off some awesome headbutts (this is a good summary of most of the Tarzan Goto AJPW matches we have).

Goto's currently sitting at #5 on my list, and I imagine I'll be the high voter for him by a wide margin, but he's genuinely my favorite wrestler ever. Badass underdog brawler from his return to wrestling in FMW to mid-1992, where he starts to really embrace being a heel and slowly builds up his resume as the best ghoul of 1990s Japan. As Jetlag stated a while back, Goto continues to be great into his Goto Ippa days, where he spends most of his time putting his trainees through hellish 20+ minute main events where he mauls them and forces them to find a way to get a comeback rolling. I think there are some fair things to point out as negatives for the Goto case (a lack of varied performances from the late 90s onwards, a propensity for BS fouling, etc), but I think even that generally depends on perspective because I love those parts of Goto. There's an argument to be made that he's a flat-out great worker from 1989 all the way to his last match ever in 2018, even if we only have a third of that match in clipped form. We at least have one of his Super FMW scum tags from 2013 and he's a complete monster there. I do wonder how being able to watch more of his 80s work would have an effect on his placement, but I imagine it's more of a Kurisu situation where he's a serviceable midcarder until he's unshackled in FMW (the few bits of territory heel Goto we have a pretty dang fun too). I hope to see more people voting for him this go-around, as he really deserves it.

Kazuo Sakurada Kendo Nagasaki, Dragon Master, whatever you want to call him. Sakurada is most well-known for being one of the two guys that trained Bret Hart, but he's a complete bruiser in the ring and works every match like he's trying to convince a rookie to give up on the business and move back home to pick up a day job. His WCW work is pretty fun, especially whenever he's teaming with Buzz Sawyer in J-Tex, and the little bits of Sakurada we have before then are cool, but he truly comes into his own when he returns to Japan in 1990 with my pick for the greatest match ever, the FMW Texas Street Fight. He then spends the next 10 years traveling around the country, picking fights with every name worth a damn on the indies, all while starting up his own promotions NOW and BJW. BJW gives him the platform to finally be a valiant veteran babyface, defending his own rookies against evil invaders, while also letting him do bizarre piranha deathmatches and other awesome shit like that. Sakurada deserves a lot more than being just a footnote in Bret Hart's career. w/ Masanobu Kurisu vs. Tarzan Goto & Atsushi Onita (FMW, 04/01/1990) vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR, 11/29/1994) w/ Bruiser Okamoto vs. Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke (BJW, 07/25/1995)

Mr. Condor Somewhat of a victim of the same sort of issue Bock has, in that we have almost nothing from the first 20 years of his career. What we have is generally great (including a fun apuestas with a teenage Rey Misterio Jr), but it does lead one to wonder just how much those years would have an effect on his placement. Still, we have a good bit of Romano Garcia's work from this current century, and it is something to behold. He's like if Black Terry always woke up on the wrong side of the bed. His chops are the hardest in the world, and whenever the rare wrestler is able to withstand those he's not afraid to punch them in the face. He still hasn't slowed down in the last few years either, getting into grandpa spats with Black Terry and finding opportunities to bust out some of his cool llave capabilities against guys like Xelhua. Another one for the list of old dudes that continue to impress far more than their younger counterparts. w/El Gallego & Angel Mortal vs. Chiva Rayada I, El Chamagol, & Nino de Oro (AAA, 12/12/2003) vs. Wotan (Gymnasio Hercules, 09/28/2019) vs. Black Terry (Zona 23, 12/05/2021)

Shuji Kondo The closest thing to a video game pro wrestler we've ever gotten, but I mean that in a good way. Maybe the only scenario in which a man could be built like an action figure and hit shooting star presses and still come off as one of the best wrestlers in the world. Stellar as a base for smaller juniors while doing a damn good job as a junior himself when placed against larger opponents, although he almost always relied on his freakish power. His early Toryumon and Dragon Gate runs are wonderful, and his exit from that world leads him to being maybe the best part of the 2000s AJPW junior division, hovering around that spot with Kaz Hayashi and Ryuji Hijikata. Simply put, one of the best juniors of 21st century Japan. vs. Dragon Kid (Toryumon, 07/04/2004) w/ Kinya Oyanagi vs. KAGETORA & Kota Ibushi (El Dorado, 02/27/2008) vs. Kaz Hayashi (AJPW, 08/30/2009)

Kim Hyun Hwan Taekwondo is an awesome martial art to bring into pro wrestling. Kim Hyun Hwan was the shining star of the TKD invasion of FMW in early 1990, edging out over dojo head Lee Gak Soo through sheer coolness. Hwan flew around the ring with crazy spinning flying boots to the face, all while making the Bruce Lee "hwaa" noises and flexing. It's as goofy and stupid as it is awesome, putting in night after night of great different style fights. And that's really all that needs to be said. He was certainly one-dimensional, but I think it'd be more appropriate to say he was easily understood. You knew what you were getting with Kim Hyun Hwan every time he stepped in the ring, and that was kick-ass taekwondo action. w/ Lee Gak Soo vs. Atsushi Onita & Sambo Asako (FMW, 03/10/1990) vs. Sambo Asako (FMW, 04/01/1990) vs. Yukihide Ueno (FMW, 12/02/1990)

Umanosuke Ueda Historically speaking, Ueda is a vital part of Japanese wrestling history as the first major native heel. Sadly, the heavy focus on that fact has sometimes led to his actual in-ring work being overlooked, which I think is a damn shame. Ueda is great!! He's very much of the 70s heel mold, with a high propensity for chokes and nerve holds, but he's also a wonderful brawler and one of the greatest escalators in wrestling history. You can pull up basically any IWE tag involving Ueda, at some point he always gets mad enough that he breaks a bottle over someone's head or stabs them in the face with a turnbuckle. He also gets major points for his return run in the early 90s, where he took part in a few of the most violent matches ever, especially his "Anything Goes Anywhere" match with Ishinriki. Ueda not only created the Japanese heel, he set the bar for it sky high. w/ Jos LeDuc vs. Mighty Inoue & Rusher Kimura (IWE, 09/09/1979) vs. Terry Funk (AJPW, 08/02/1983) vs. Koji Ishinriki (NOW, 12/11/1992)

Wotan A demon in human skin. No wrestler has inspired more terror in the last 15 years than Wotan. Of the currently active lucha brawlers, he's been far and away the best for a while now, building a resume of broken bodies and spirits. The Black Terry match is pretty infamous at this point, but his best work in my eyes has always come from his matches against Hijo de Fishman, full of bludgeoning and reckless throwing that looks more like a bar fight at some points. Any time Wotan wrestles one of his brothers it's equally vicious. He's one of the only wrestlers in the last few years where I've actively looked out for everything he's been doing. vs. Impulso (WMC, 02/11/2017) w/ El Hijo de Mascara Sagrada vs. El Hijo de Fishman / Mr. Condor (Lucha Strong, 02/15/2020) vs. Demus (Zona 23, 03/26/2023)

Ryuma Go Go had a strong start to his career as a talented junior, peaking in the late 70s with his fantastic series of matches with Fujinami. Go's best work came ten years later, after he kinda sorta lost his mind and became the Pro Wrestling Idiot. Go's a charisma monster from the late 80s onwards, putting on some of the most spirited matches of the early indies boom and being one of the main reasons the scene blew up in the way it did. I guess the "Ryuma Go vs. Space Monsters" matches of the later years may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those that can enjoy it, it's real great stuff. vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW, 10/02/1979) vs. Masashi Aoyagi (Pioneer Senshi, 04/05/1990) w/ Kenji Takano vs. Imagine & Mr. Pogo (Samurai Project, 04/17/1996)

Jack Evans Somehow one of the dumbest wrestlers of the 2000s indie scene, while also being one of the smartest. Incredibly physically capable in a way nobody else could match at the time, and totally willing to die for the business with some of the nastiest bumps and falls of all time. At the same time, he avoided catching the bug every other 2000s guy had that made them try to do stuff they weren't good at. He's fantastic in his team with Roddy, as a fan favorite in AAA, and even as a shit-talking heel in Lucha Underground. Blows my mind that he hasn't made it onto the list already. w/ Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Brothers (ROH, 03/25/2006) vs. Necro Butcher (ROH, 12/30/2007) vs. Extreme Tiger (AAA, 05/18/2009)