GlassS0Ldier

Looks like Ed from 90 Day Fiancé, wrestles like a god of war with a nose made of glass. I'd be ashamed not to lock a guy like him in, one of the most exciting shootstyle workers, never overstaying his welcome and bringing the ugliness to match a frantic, chaotically paced fight wherever he went. Doesn't even matter to me if he wasn't much other than a jobber and rarely went over 10 minutes, he built his case of being concise and violent.

Impressive thighs, unimpressive wrestling.

When people make the argument of peaks over longevity for a wrestler's career, my first question typically is "do this wrestler's peaks illustrate the type of wrestler they are?" or "do this wrestler's available matches have a clear franchise/theme?". While I can understand being hesitant to rank someone with a lesser volume of matches to evaluate, the available Sangre Chicana matches all show a particular flavor of brawling that next to none, lucha or otherwise, have matched. His aggression and selling, whether as a techico or rudo, are so distinctly his own that he feels like an Auteur wrestler. I remember in a GME thread someone mentioning that the Satanico match from '89 felt like a movie fight scene. The sort of vulgar and feral approach to Chicana's beatdowns, followed by the imminent danger and tension when he plays defense only moments later gives the match a greater sense of weight and consequence you'd expect from the climax of an action flick, but with an organic, un-Hollywood overproduced tone and environment. They even managed to make the unresolved finish not feel too flat as a result. This on-a-dime switch between Chicana's tense, urgent attempts to evade his opponent and his primal, cathartic offensive surges are the basis for so many of his best matches, even multi-man or trios tags like the Los Infernales tag from 9/30/83 or even the less popular 12/1/85 trios. Despite sharing the spotlight with sometimes five other men, his presence alone sets a precedent for the type of match it'll be, bringing out the most carnal side in his opponents. Funnily enough, Satanico is one of the few other guys in Lucha I've seen who can similarly whip others into shape solely by being in a match, and that's great company to be around. Now this is just making me want to see a John Woo or Wilson Yip style Sangre Chicana action flick. Or like, Robert Rodriguez even, fuck it.

I was just about to nominate her last night, but decided to save it till the next day, lo and behold I get beat to the punch. Super underappreciated for how short her career was and how little of that short career we've even seen. The little that is available paints her as one of the smarter workers in 80s AJW, reigning in Lioness Asuka who frequently struggled with having focused and well structured singles matches in the 80s despite her obvious physical talents, giving her easily her best 1-on-1 match of the decade (4/15/87). Additionally had standout performances against Dump, Chigusa (10/20/87) and Masami that weren't simply the greats leading the charge. I'm also just a sucker for the top rope chop. A bit trickier to make a strong case for her only because she had such a brief peak in a brief career, hence why I'm gutted she didn't come out of initial retirement outside of a very small handful of matches decades later.

The Wyatt match was great, probably the best broadways the US in a long time (those Trevor Lee matches from a couple years back weren't doing it for me). Yehi himself is easily my favorite current US indie worker, and when he's in control, one of the more intelligent. It's refreshing to see someone on the circuit who's more focused on submissions and grappling, which is a style that's easier to borrow from tactfully unlike much of the AJPW/NOAH/Modern NJPW cosplay seen so frequently the last decade. Even when he fiery and starts to ham it up, his mannerisms feel like a charming and unintrusive 80s WWF throwback more than the distracting melodrama you'd expect. That said, Yehi can still get sucked in to other wrestlers' bad habits and tropes, though he's rarely ever the one initiating them. I loved his match with Thomas Shire from last year, but it was tough to ignore the unnecessary forearm exchange awkwardly thrown in at the end that felt at odds with the story and tone of the match up to that point. Just illustrates a larger issue with modern wrestling that even guys as talented as Yehi can't really escape from. That said, great worker. Still got a ways to go before being considered a top 100 guy ever, though, but not impossible if his career pans out well (though that's become a bigger concern, with how infrequently he's worked beyond Ring of Honor, somebody better sign this guy already).

His 2010s was far quieter than his classic 2000s run, but a handful of his matches in MLW I think have been impressive enough to show he's still got it to some extent. Wasn't crazy about his NJPW run earlier in the decade, as much as I enjoy guys like Taguchi I don't feel as if most of his singles from that run were all that impressive. More does need to be said about his versatility though, working shitkicking brawls with Necro Butcher to matching guys like Danielson on the mat. He's a rise or sink kind of guy, able to match some of the greats but also capable of stinkers when paired with a less interesting opponent. That alone might ward off some from considering him Top 100 category, but I do believe the best of Ki in the 2000s vastly overshadows his lows. Like a lot of his indie peers, he's a guy with very transparent inspirations and derives much of his offense from them (I roll my eyes a bit when he does the Mutoh running elbow drop mannerisms), but unlike many others, he doesn't feel like a shameless wink-wink nudge nudge copycat, cultivating his own identity through his demeanor and body language, no matter how goofy they sometimes came off as. He'll make the bottom half of my list for certain, missing out on getting higher because of his later inconsistency.

70s-early 80s junior Fujinami is probably the best junior in the company's history. I enjoy him more than Liger, even. The Ryuma Go series is classic stuff.

I said till 2021, but to be honest. I'm not thrilled at the prospect of watching NJPW from 2012 onwards. Actually, 2007 onwards. More than likely I'll take a long break or do a different project after I hit that point, once I have a better grasp of where exactly the company really changed (for the worse).

For the last 13 months, I've been doing an on-and-off, somewhat comprehensive deep dive on New Japan, trying to grab every available recommended match from 1972 to 2021 across multiple platforms, along with a bit of my own digging based on matches/cards I find intriguing. I'm currently only up to March of 1996, so I won't be much of a help for the later years of the decade, but I can contribute a working list of my favorites from '90-'95 that haven't been mentioned in this thread so far. I think the biggest takeaway is that while NJPW in the 90s almost never reaches the same peaks as the 80s, it's even more consistently great, which goes a long way. Anyway, here's what I've got to contribute (bolded are highly recommended): Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masashi Aoyagi (6/12/90) Big Van Vader (c) vs. Riki Choshu (IWGP Title, 8/19/90) The Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase (9/14/90) Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (c) vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takashi Iizuka (IWGP Tag Titles, 12/13/90) Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (2/6/91) Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroshi Hase (5/6/91) Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs Masahiro Chono (IWGP Title, 5/31/91) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono (G1 Climax Block B Decision, 8/11/91) Antonio Inoki vs. Hiroshi Hase (1/4/92) Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Akitoshi Saito (2/15/92) Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito (3/9/92) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Akitoshi Saito (4/30/92) Shiro Koshinaka vs. Masashi Aoyagi (5/1/92) Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs. Big Van Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow (5/1/92) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Akira Nogami (6/20/92) Hiroshi Hase vs. Kensuke Sasaki (6/26/92) Masahiro Chono vs. Shiro Koshinaka (7/31/92) Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura & Mashashi Aoyagi (11/23/92) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shiro Koshinaka (12/14/92) Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto & AKIRA vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa (2/5/93) Choshu, Fujinami, Hase, Kido & Iizuka vs. Tenryu, Hara, Fuyuki, Kitahara & Ishikawa (2/3 Falls, 2/16/93) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki (3/23/93) Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu & Genichiro Tenryu (5/3/93) The Great Muta (c) vs The Great Kabuki (IWGP Title, 6/15/93) Fujinami & Chono vs. Tenryu & Hara (7/14/93) Fujinami, Chono & Hashimoto vs. Tenryu, Hara & Ishikawa (8/2/93) Masahiro Chono vs. Hiroshi Hase (G1 Climax Semifinals, 8/6/93) Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (G1 Climax Finals, 8/7/93) Hiroshi Hase vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (8/8/93) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto (8/8/93) Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Mutoh vs. Masahiro Chono & Shinya Hashimoto (Super Grade Tag League III, 11/4/93) Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs. The Steiner Brothers (1/4/94) Antonio Inoki vs. Genichiro Tenryu (1/4/94) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Genichiro Tenryu (2/17/94) Shinya Hashimoto vs Jushin Thunder Liger (2/24/94) Antonio Inoki vs. The Great Muta (5/1/94) Hiroshi Hase vs. Riki Choshu (5/1/94) Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Shinya Hashimoto (IWGP Title, 5/1/94) Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka (G1 Climax, 8/5/94) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka (G1 Climax, 8/7/94) Shiro Koshinaka vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (Inoki Guest Referee, 11/13/94) Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Hiroshi Hase (IWGP Title, 12/13/94) Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Kensuke Sasaki (IWGP Title, 1/4/95) Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiro Saito & Sabu vs. Hashimoto, Choshu, Hase & Junji Hirata (2/3 Falls, 3/13/95) Hashimoto (c) vs. Steve Regal (IWGP Title, 4/16/95) Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata (IWGP Tag Titles, 6/12/95) Keiji Mutoh vs. Shinya Hashimoto (G1 Climax Finals, 8/15/95) Jushin Thunder Liger vs Naoki Sano (10/9/95) Masahiro Chono vs. Yoji Anjoh (10/28/95) Some extra notes: Mileage may vary on the surplus of Shiro Koshinaka, Masashi Aoyagi, and Heisei Ishigun matches in general here. Personally, it was my favorite part of the first three years of this decade. I also somewhat disagree with the narrative I've seen elsewhere that Fujinami was washed into the 90s. Obviously he wasn't in as prominent a role as he was in the prior decade, but he still put on some of his best work after his peak, including one of his career best against Hashimoto in '98, along with performances reminiscent of his 80s self against Choshu in the Dontaku '93 tag match. I've watched a handful of big matches post '95, and remember loving Hashimoto vs. Tenryu G1 from 98, along with the Yamazaki finals match. Curious to see how the former fares compared to the February '94 match, which is currently my favorite in the Hash/Tenryu series. I'll prolly wrap up the back half of the decade by the end of the summer, at least that's the goal.

If we're going by legacy, Bruno 100% of course. I was just thinking how my five favorites from the company all happen to be B names. B. Brian Blair is a hideous oversight, though. Shame on me for forgetting the GOAT.

Brock represents the five great B's of WWF/E, alongside Bret, Bryan, Benoit & Backlund. Of those five, Brock is probably either number two or three. Terrifying big fight presence and intensity unmatched by anyone that's ever come into the company, and an all time great grape-faced seller. Even when the booking makes it painfully obvious that he's going over, he manages to get me sucked in to the possibility of his defeat off his selling alone (matches with AJ, Joe, Bryan the last four years, and those matches were in his less-creative Suplex-City era). Only thing working against him is that he's not a guy who frequently elevates lesser performers, and will occasionally phone it in when the opponent or build doesn't meet his standards. Those low-lows aren't enough to take away from his extraordinary highs. Easily Top 40 for me.

Love me some Rush. ROH has partially cooled him down because, well, ROH, but as mentioned before, he is largely a victim of circumstance and the politics of the business. As more time goes on, the further we seem to stray from a proper apuestas conclusion to Rush vs. LA Park, and yet it still stands as the most defining Lucha feud of the 2010s. He could have had a more impressive career the last 7 years if everything had fallen into place and CMLL wasn't so conservative/hesitant, but the talent is clearly there. It's a little unfair to try and put Rush up against many of the best lucha brawlers of prior decades (and even today) who also happened to be all-time great maestros as well (Black Terry, Satanico, Santito, etc.), but there's something still to be said about a guy who excels as much as Rush does in one category. His ROH work isn't even bad, per say, I enjoy the PCO match, but there's a clear ceiling in that environment. Not sure if he's much of a Lucha Roman Reigns, aside from them both having incredibly luscious hair.

Triple Tails & Kana Pro are just about the coolest things on the entire planet, Kana/Asuka deserves for that alone. Truly a standout for how much she went against the grain in the Joshi landscape during the relatively dry 2000s. Kana didn't have the "privilege" of an environment like late 90s/early 2000s GAEA or other equally intense, cutthroat promotions to showcase her skillset, but did something even more worth commending in creating those opportunities herself, primarily running produce shows and freelancing, putting on some of my favorite Joshi Intergender matches ever with the best of Japan's indie scene. While greats from a similar timeframe like Meiko have Kana beat in terms of volume of great matches, Kana I'd argue is on par with, and at times exceeds her both on the mat and striking. Their trilogy from 2010 - 2014 highlights this. She wasn't content to just book shows with BattlArts/Futen or other indie workers either, though, as she'd often bring her own unique vision to each of her matches on her shows. As pretentious and pseudo-artsy as it may come off as, I adore the atmosphere of the last match in her trilogy with Satomura from 2014, and wish we got to see more of it today. The only thing I feel really works against her is that she wasn't quite as brilliant until after 2008 or so, and that, as stated before, she lacks the dense catalogue as some of her other contemporaries, which can be contributed to how only so much of what she's done is available for us to see (though this is a bigger issue for others). It's also astonishing that once she came to WWE as "Asuka", she stripped her own wrestling style down so heavily, and yet was still head and shoulders above the level of even some of the best that WWE had to offer. Even if her work in the states is a far cry from what she did on the Japanese circuit, she still stands out as prolly the best women's workers in WWE, with only Sasha Banks coming in as a close second. Easily a top 10 Joshi ever for me.

From what I've seen in my handful of years lurking around this community, Edge has been one of the more negatively received wrestlers mentioned in this conversation. I think there's a fair argument against his acceptance into a Top 100 solely off his subpar work in non-stipulation matches post neck-injury from 2004 onwards. That said, I cannot stress this enough, it's okay to enjoy Edge. In fact, Edge is someone I think is worth celebrating It could be my nostalgia for 2006 talking, but a lot of the down-talking of Edge's matches from the last four years of his first run undermines his entire run from 04-06, which I'd argue is one of the best from a hardcore wrestler/brawler of that era not named Necro Butcher. Issues with his seemingly flaccid offence are circumvented by his vicious punches and intensity displayed in some of the best feuds WWE had to offer in that era against Matt Hardy, Shawn Michaels & Ric Flair (the latter two having their best TV matches of that entire decade against Edge). He's not, nor was he ever the workhorse that Christian was, but was smart enough to emphasis his promo, character work, and brawling skills during the peak of his career (kayfabe wise, not physically speaking). He also just has way more swagger than Christian ever did. Even before the neck injury and his character evolution, he still brought his brand of hardcore creativity to matches to the tag team division (TLC Matches) and even a handful of great singles performances (vs Eddie in 02). I'm very curious what the reception will be of Edge's second run will be once it's over and done with, as it seems thus far he hasn't done much at all to sway his biggest critics here. I find it especially intriguing given Edge has gone on record recently to state that he wants to "go back to Nick Bockwinkel, Terry Funk, and All Japan with a modern twist." (Fightful, Feb. 4th) and while a little bit of that can be seen in how he worked the beginning of his match with Randy Orton last summer, I'm not sure how much of that he'll be able to properly convey in the current WWE climate, as I've gotten almost none of that vibe from his big matches so far in 2021 (praise for the Bryan/Roman/Edge triple threat aside). In any case, he'll make my list, cause I'm about as insane as the faces he makes in his matches.