TheBean

Interesting to hear people talking about what a few of us were hinting at before voting took place regarding age/generational stuff and how that will effect the results. The shorter match time stuff is neat to hear for instance. Back in the day when buying tapes or DVDs, you'd want that big match to be super long since you were spending your money basically for that one match (unless a comp). Now since we're watching most online, we don't really want these 40 + minute epics. I know I feel that way when finding new stuff to watch. I'm super interested to see where some 80's wrestlers end up. Windham was in the top 25 and I'd like to see where he lands. As a Scorpio fan, I was surprised he was as high as he was in 2016 😄 I'd like to see the lucha and UK fans, make their own lists of top 25 wrestlers since it seems consensus they're going to be underrepresented.

Funk Bros vs Road Warriors (10/20) - There are a number of Road Warrior matches in '86. This looked like the best one. I'm very glad I watched it. The Warriors at their best - Powerful but also vulnerable. Terry is great too. Comedy at the start but selling his fear but being tough SOB. That's a rarity in wrestling. Dory is the thing keeping them in the fight. They are selling for him and all is right in the wrestling world. Where this match turns great, is the finish. There's a great high spot that kicks it off. I loved this match! It's astounding that of the 4 wrestles in the ring, Dory Jr. is the one still alive. Keep on, keeping on Dory!! Terry Funk vs. Riki Choshu (10/21) - Terry gets slapped really hard by Riki. He rolls outside and has a coniption fit 😄 This is a good match and what one might call.A minimalist match. It mainly consists of Terry getting beat up by Choshu but finding a way to keep himself in the fight. I wish this was more competitive but I don't know who to pin that on. Did Baba not really want to push Terry as a threat? Did these two have a reason for doing this kind of match? November Haru Sonada, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara (11/01) - It took me a minute to commit to watching this one. No reason why but I am glad that I did. It is great! It's a precursor to what All Japan would do with the 6-man match. It's hard hitting, intense stuff. Just look at those teams! They scream smash mouth wrestling to me. Hara & Strong Machine on the same team is something cool. This is just another example of why the '86 roster was pretty great. Tiger Mask vs Norio Honaga (11/01) - This was a good match when they're not farting around trying to do wrestling holds. I'm not a "movez" guy but come on dudes...just do some moves! The wrestling you're doing is like saltine crackers and watered down Kool-Aid. They listened and ends up being a nice lil match. Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28) - Holy cow! Baba comes alive! This is a precursor to the late 80's Baba tag/6 man resurgence. Not only that but Misawa Tiger goes off! He must have done a half dozen high risk moves. Tenryu and Jumbo just laid into their boss & didn't go easy on their junior partner either. Misawa definitely looks ready to play a bigger role in the organization. If you're OK with Baba then, this might be a near classic match. December Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk (12/03) - These two can do this shit in their sleep. That said, this seemed to be the stiffest match of theirs that I've seen. Terry & Stan were beating the crap out each other. I mean Terry did an overhead elbow right into Stan's face right towards the start of this bout. Things never chilled out from their. This was a very good match overall & the post match was excellent also. Dory Funk Jr. vs Jumbo Tsuruta (12/03) - We only get a third of this but this is slow boiling old school technical match that I would have loved to see in full. Now don't get me wrong, I try to watch stuff under 15 minutes like this TV version especially when looking online. Again, I am trying to get thru my DVD backlog. That said, this was really good and they work a mean headlock match. They are knocking the sweat from each other with their elbows & chops. I dug this one! Rick Martel vs Riki Choshu (12/03) - This started out with a lightning pace. Then, they settled down into working over each others legs which was ferocious. I so wish they sold this after the fact since it appeared they were really going to town but, it was a 10 min. match. Evenly fought but ended a little to soon for me. Very good, intense match though. Totally worth watching! Just not the heavenly dream battle I hoped for. But the first few minutes had me believing it was real! Rick Martel & Tom Zenk vs Tiger Mask & Samson Fuyuki (12/06) We only get the last few minutes but this is the cool moves match of 1986. This was a blast!!! Funk Bros vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (12/06) - Much too short for the amount of talent the ring but, it's an excellent follow-up to the Terry vs Stan match above. More of a storyline/booking angle but enjoyable of course! Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Playoff Match 12/12) - They just cut a great pace and whooped each other from bell to bell! Each blow was audible - whap! thud! It was like the Adam West Batman 😋 Awesome stuff...four of the best in the ring. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Final 12/12) - I gotta watch the finals...especially after their earlier match. This is for all the marbles and it's an excellent compliment to the prior bout. They pick up where they left off but Tenryu is hurt. Can Stan & Ted put him away? Can Jumbo save his partner? A heck of a finals especially given how it all played out. Great match!

Welcome aboard! Definitely encourage you or anyone else who's interested to checkout and post in the Match Discussion Archives. It's like the GWE discussions/threads but for matches. It's a little buried but it'd be great to hear people's takes on new & classic matches and angles. Just putting it here for anyone interested: https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/78-the-matches/

With GWE excitement at it's zenith, definitely hope new members to PWO stick around afterwards & keep posting - lots of great opinions, info, etc. 🙂 Nice to see the board bustling again.

Bouncing around, doing research and came across this: "Code of Honor Volume 1 - The Era of Honor Begins, a new book about the origins and earliest days of Ring of Honor is in the final stages of editing with a release date announcement expected to be imminent. The book is written by Chris Mauerer aka former ROH talent and backstage official Shane Hagadorn. He has spent several years working on the book and interviewing countless former and current ROH talents and officials. The plan is for this to be the first of several books chronicling the promotion's history and legacy. We are told there may be three volumes if everything works out as planned..." By Mike Johnson on 2025-12-12 (pwinsider.com) ---- This looks pretty great for old ROH fans...even if only one volume is published. I saw a very small sample somewhere and looks excellent.

Contrary to the title, there's only 2 death matches. It just happens to feature the final match from the Death Match tournament. If you like traditional wrestling, there's still a lot for you to enjoy! •Brahman Brothers vs. Hoshito Takahashi & Kazuki Hashimoto: A really fun junior comedy match. Good bits of humor with some nice wrestling. Nice start! •Speed of Sound (Hercules Senga & Tsutomu Osugi) vs. Madoka & Shinya Ishikawa - A fun 10-11 match with a heel ref. Speed of Sound (who remind me of Cheech & Cloudy) are growing on me. They did a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately we didn't get much of note from Madoka & Ishikawa who are talented in their own right. They should have used lower ranking guys than them. So a tad disappointing but still a good time. •Yuko Miyamoto, Kankuro Hoshino & Masato Inaba vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Takashi Sasaki & Shadow WX: Badass 6 man match! Miyamoto is so damn cool! He really made this so exciting. He was taking it to all his opponents. I'm not taking anything away from others (and thank goodness Ishikawa & Sasaki were in this too). I guess this was a real team effort by all. Everyone added something and I thought it was great. Miyato is becoming a favorite of mine though 🙂 •Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) vs. The Non-Stops (Ryuichi Kawakami & Yoshihito Sasaki): Oh yeah this was 12-13 minutes of hard hitting action. It's not a tank emptying war but for where its at on the card, it's great. Yoshihito Sasaki might just have the best lariat in the business. It's a head eraser. I need to see more of these teams facing off! •Barbed Wire Boards Death Match: Abdullah Kobayashi & Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Jaki Numazawa & Masashi Takeda: Started slow but this got good. Tsukamoto really tasted the wire as his back was visibly chewed up from all the slams he took in the stuff. Abby Jr. is past his "prime" but brought a lot of charisma. Jaki never really had a prime but he was still more of a wrestler here than Abby Jr. today. Takeda was good but I need to see more of him before I form an opinion on him. •2 out of 3 Falls Death Match: Isami Kodaka vs. Ryuji Ito: If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough. This was all about who's tougher because otherwise a lot of this could be called dumb. The psychology here is :"we're bound to be in pain & bleeding by the end of this - who can tolerate more?" So you get your turn-my turn spots. You get Side Russian leg sweeps onto objects - both guys are getting hurt. But again: who's tougher? Not who's smarter, more skilled, anything. That's not to say all match is like this because each guy really doesn't want to get destroyed. It's 2/3 falls and feels like an endurance match in a good way. There's no quick 2nd fall for instance. Again, tough not smart. I'm not sure if I can rate it but it really is something to see. Not for the squeamish. Both guys were fucked up by the end. If you're interested, then I am going to Recommend it...Strong Recommendation actually. Thanks for reading folks!

Two of the very best putting on a classic match. Superstar Sleeze's write up hits the nail on the head. If you're a fan of either, go watch this!

This is a pretty fun match. I wish we got a clean finish or at least something not as meh as an NWO interference. Still enjoyable stuff seeing Savage vs Giant/Big Show. Less than 10 minutes too.

For those interested Lucha Libre USA has a YouTube channel still(?) and have posted the first episode. The hope is that they're going to post every episode: Anyone know anything else?

Mini review for my April Anarchy project. Check out Wrestling Dream Battles and/or The Further Adventures of Puro + More... for additional good shit. Thanks 🙂 Don't Sweat the Technique - April, 2015 ACH vs Tommaso Ciampa - Lil bit of comedy but Ciampa puts an end to that with with stiff elbows and knee strikes. ACH is no slouch and responds in kind. These guys work well together. We get a Stone Cold Steve Austin offense from ACH but it actually works rather than just being goofy fun. Nice finish too!Good pacing, no over-kill and a good mix of serious on-point wrestling with light heartedness. Andrew Everett vs Ricochet - PWG was the monthly indie super show in 2015. So this felt like the two best indie high flyers facing off. They were in lock step with one another. Ricochet was at his best when he employed brutal kicks from a variety of angles. Now there was definite over-kill and "showing off" but if you flip the switch off in your brain this was a helluva exhibition. Plus that finish was badass! Guilty pleasure recommendation 🙂

Nice to see ECW and old Japanese indie guys get some love! Koshinaka & Kobayashi too! I know Danielson is going to finish pretty high but I probably have him right around the same spot on my list. Savage at #8, I dig it!

Loved reading all of the Steamboat ideas! I totally second the opinion of wrestling on the weekends. Until high school, that was the only time I got to watch wrestling. When ROH was on Sinclair, it was shown Sunday 11am which totally was in line with those hour long weekend shows of old. Hoping this show will have the same vibe.

Thanks for posting this one! This was a lot of fun. Great there's no commentary. It was a laugh hearing Piper shouting and grunting 😄

For those who've submitted their lists already, is there anyone you wish you would have included? Maybe your #101 but also anyone you would have swapped out in hindsight? Or someone you just plain forgot about until after submitting?

You know, I was actually thinking Steamboat in ECW could have been a possibility but yeah SMW seems more likely in terms of finding some success. I definitely like the idea of him working WWF with Vader & Owen. It probably would have been short lived. And him working Saturday Night and Thunder here and there with those guys would have ruled. It makes me think of the Larry Z vs Regal stuff in '94. He comes out of semi-retirement to teach some guy a lesson for a summer program 🙂

•Gran Hamada vs Perro Aguayo (NJPW 04/21/82): Woefully, we only get the last five minutes. Thankfully we got something at all! This was 5 minutes of excellent action from both guys. Hamada was flawless & quick in his execution. I definitely need to see even more Gran Hamada after watching this. Definitely worth your 5 minutes! •Akira Nogami & Takeshi Iizuka vs Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto (NJPW 04/16/92): Yes! 7 of 11 minutes of fun, fun tag wrestling. Neon pink and yellow trunk wearing baby faces versus two fat on muscle mask wearing heels (Saito & Goto were in their Raging Staff gear). This was a treat! These teams fit like a glove. Like WCW Saturday Night, this is simple quality pro wrestling. 3 guys on my top 85 favorite wrestlers list! •Kenta Kobashi, KENTA & Tamon Honda vs Yoshihiro Takayama, Naoki Sano & Go Shiozaki: A lot of the match story & action was Shiozaki challenging his mentor, Kobashi. They damaged each other's chests with vicious chops. Then there's the additional element of Go breaking away from 'Burning' so Honda & KENTA are glad to punish Shiozaki for. Sano & Takayama are a helluva team to have on your side though. Takayama has eternal beef with Kobashi and KENTA for instance. There's tons of hard hitting action like you'd expect. If you like this style then, I RECOMMEND this one - it's great! See the full 04/27/08 NOAH show review here! •Akira Tozawa & Kevin Steen vs Young Bucks (PWG - DDT4 2011 - 04/03/11): Wow, this told a story! This was a typical Bucks get their shit in match. Tozawa & Steen are fighting the Bucks in the crowd early on. Very much a battle! The Bros. injured Akira and Steen is left to fight on his own. 2 on 1 - can Steen survive? Can Tozawa do anything to help!? Haha you might be able to predict a little of what happens but you'll have to watch to find out 🙂 Great match from the first third of PWG's peak. RECOMMENDED •Athena vs. Ayako Hamada (Shimmer #53 04/06/13): This marks pretty well on my April Anarchy checklist. Two 'A' wrestlers and an April match. And this is actually a lot of fun! The crowd is a little sleepy since this was a Wrestlemania weekend show and I'm sure were overloaded. Anyhow, this was a good vet vs up-and-coming star match. Hamada was drilling Athena with kicks. She was taking some big risks too. I think this could have been more developed but by the three count, I had a big smile on my face. •Angelico & Hijo del Fantasmo vs Masato Tanaka & Ikuto Hidaka (AAA - Star Battle Japan 10/26/16): OK now this isn't an April match BUT it's Triple A plus we've got an 'A' wrestler - good enough for me! 😄 Plus two more guys on my 85 favorite but not greatest 85 wrestlers list. Actually, Tanaka definitely is on my top 100 GWE. Anyway, this is a blast at 15 minutes. A load of fun fireworks wrestling. Angelico who I've seen maybe once was impressive in a modern wrestling sense. I definitely recommend this match if you're looking for something a lil different.

I have been spending a lot of brain power and time thinking of Greatest Wrestler Ever. It's actually been taking away from my own projects. So I want to get back to that with a mix up of wrestling in the spirit of April Anarchy. Keep checking out wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com for more recommendations 👍 •Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne (04/19/81 AWA): A really fun cage match! To be honest, the faces probably got too much offense in but Adrian and Jesse were calling it so it stayed competitive and kept everyone happy. Adrian even did a splash off the top of the cage! •Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo (04/15/87 AJW): This was a great match with high energy & high intensity. It begins with a technical orientation but escalates into a power battle as Devil takes over. This Crush Gal won't quit and rattles Devil with great duplexes and pinning holds. Masami gets frustrated and brings out the weapons and introduces a bit of anarchy into this April match. At under 15 minutes, I give this a Strong RECOMMENDATION as two of the best ever go at it. Click the link for pics & more April Anarchy! •Hijo Del Santo y Negro Casas vs. Bestia Salvaje y Scorpio Jr. (04/02/99 CMLL): The crowd was really amped for this one. I think that elevated excitement. This was fun seeing Negro and Santo on the same team. Good action, each fall was a little different and was a fun afternoon wrestling match 🙂 •Blue Panther vs Hijo del Santo (04/09/00 Monterey): This was a ton of fun! Painful holds, flying head scissors, pinning predicaments - it was two masters going at it. This was allowed to breathe and by the 3rd fall, the outcome was in doubt. Folks that have seen WAY more lucha libre than me have called this a classic. I can't say since I'm tourist in Lucha libre land. I will definitely recommend this bout though. You will have fun too. Also I noticed that no one has commented on the PWO match discussion archive since 2018. I'm glad to give this a mention 👍 •The Rock vs Triple H (04/30/00 WWF Backlash): Make no mistake, this isn't pro wrestling. This is Sports Entertainment®™. And it is great sports entertainment. Seeing as it's been awhile since I've watch a big time WWF/E match, it reminded me that the "match" is a device to get the audience to big moments, to the spectacle. We pop for everything else except the match. This is a shining example of that. There's a guest referee, run-ins, shenanigans, and bonus shenanigans. This additionally seems like a fantastic one match summary of this era of the McMahon-Helmsley regime. It's a classic Sports Entertainment®™ main event. •Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs Super Crazy & Ryusuke Taguchi (04/28/03 NJPW): This is a real treat for fans of these dudes. Bucanero & Ultimo are their usual great selves - a top 10 tag team of the 2000's. Super Crazy meshes well with them and is cool to see him in this setting. Taguchi is pretty under appreciated. Here he's still a young Lion on whatever 😋 He's in all black gear and his main offensive move is a killer drop kick. And from watching a lot of 80's wrestling, I've learned to really value a good drop kick! (Heck that seems to be what Okada thought too!). Anyway, this was one from my Video Daze post and am glad I made time for it. Solid Recommendation for fans of any of these guys. •Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (04/14/05 WWE Smackdown): 99% of this bout is fantastic! These two guys flowed. They never made this dull. Everything kept moving and they filled this with plenty of surprises. This was PPV level stuff and actually felt like they wanted to prove that they could do a ROH/Japan high work rate match on TV. It's only sullied by a WWE finish but I highly recommend this. It's on the Eddie Guerrero 'Viva La Raza' DVD. Thanks for reading!

You're probably right. I was thinking that if he got a bigger national audience via Nitro that his career wouldn't be so linked to Ric Flair (and 1 match versus Macho Man) in the mainstream/WWE collective memory. I don't have any fantasy booking ideas though but it definitely would be cool to think about or someone to write up. Maybe if he stuck around long enough for NWO?

These are all really interesting predictions! I think I probably have to agree with all of them in some form or fashion. I think "80's wrestlers" are going to get really pushed back which is funny to me because I've been watching way more 80's wrestling in the past few years. Jumbo will never leave my top 20 🙂 But I think a lot of big 80's names from the 2016 list are getting bumped for newer folks. The top 50 may look very different. Lawler & Windham I am looking at especially. Re: #1 - I'm thinking Danielson and Kobashi might be fighting for the top spot. Flair flop indeed! 😄 I think some big jumps up are going to be Okada at #137 in 2016. Omega, is bound to make a big jump, #259 in 2016. I think he & Okada are going to be top 50 at least. Meiko Satomura was #130 and I think she's bound to be in the top 100. A lot of 80's & 90's joshi stars missed the top 100 and I'm hoping that they make it this time. From the lists people have shared, that does seem likely to happen. Looking back at 2016, there were some BIG names missing from the top 100. So they may replace many of the 80's US stars in the top 50. Will Ospreay will probably make the biggest jump if I have to guess. He barely made it on the 2016 at #557 (last place). That will be fun to see where he ends up. Thanks for the encouragement on submitting a list. I definitely made some progress. I think I'm up to around 80. But 60 of those are only slightly more organized 🙂 I think I've got some free time this week so I might have a system to get them in order. And hell yeah, Larry Z! Might make my list too.

That's actually why I probably won't be submitting a list. I just can seem to rank anyone except like a top 10-15. Also I feel confident in my top 50 but anyone past that I wonder, "am I putting them on the list out of some sort of obligation?" without knowing enough. Probably over thinking. Still super interested in the process and the final results especially in comparison to 2016. It sounds like there's a whole new batch of folks voting. I get a vibe that they're will be some BIG jumps. Also think there's going to be some big drop offs. I'm curious if anyone has any predictions.

Am very interested to see if he can pull ahead of Taue this time around (#26 in 2016). I've been watching more Taue recently and am certainly high on him but, I think Akiyama's post NOAH work has got to push him ahead of Akira this time (in my mind at least).

Very interested to see where Akiyama will place. He's had a better/smarter later part of his career than the 4 pillars but I'm not sure that will count as much as it should. There's some good post NOAH recommendations in these 5 pages of posts. He was #27 in 2016.