TheBean

Michinoku Pro Wrestling •Dick Togo vs Masato Yakushiji (03/07/97): Was going to watch this for March Mayhem but got it now! Yakushiji does a bunch of cool arm drags & ranas like you want him to. This is prime Togo so he makes all of that look great will still man handling the weenie Masato 😄 11 minutes of really fun stuff! •Shinzaki & Hamada vs Naniwa & Mochizuki (05/09/99): This match was about Jinsei being a heavyweight competing against juniors...and a FMW & All Japan level heavyweight at that. We get fun comedy with Mochi & Naniwa not wanting to face him. But they put their pea brains together and attack him as a team! Hamada does some big moves but no other Gran Hamada awesomeness of note. This is a breezy action packed tag match. About 15 minutes. •Great Sasuke vs "Fake" Sasuke (Masao Orihara) (05/09/99): Big time singles matches. Much like lucha libre, there's more more brawling. Orihara & his valet were excellent heels. I mean Orihara was a real scum bag. But don't think there wasn't great flying, counters & false finishes - there was! This was a great match. Definitely cathartic. Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero (03/18/04 Smack Down!) A very good match for the belt. It was cool seeing them go so hard on a TV match when just a few years earlier they couldn't get 10 minutes on Nitro. vs Eddie Guerrero (09/09/05 Smack Down! Cage match): This is towards the end of the Dominik's Dad saga. Eddie looks like a disturbed individual. I really am appreciating his character work. This bout has excellent intensity along with cool cage spots. They told a great story and sold how much they wanted to win. The finish was extremely clever given the storyline & personal animosity. A great cage match and seriously I am not a cage match fan. Motor City Machine Guns vs Kings of Wrestling (May 2010 ROH Super Card of Honor V): The Guns come out ready to fight. They do their synchronized attack but the Kings respond with a Storm of Boots to the face. The big guys use their size to their advantage. Chris damn near KO's Shelley with a back brain elbow - damn! This is as awesome as I hoped. I'm not going to spoil anything but we get a finish that serves the overall booking instead of serving the match. I can live with that especially since it's justified. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Ring of Honor tag match. A classic to me. vs Matt Taven & Vinnie Marseglia (04/28/17 ROH Unauthorized): This takes me back watching ROH on Sinclair. I've got a clutch of these DVDs to watch and am pumped after this bout. It's a relaxed tag rules match. It features all sorts of tag switch a roo's, dives and other spots - High octane stuff! Taven & Vinnie were really good in keeping up with Shelley and Sabin. In fact, neither get any credit from what little I've seen. Taven was a great character & heel in late original ROH. In fact, he gets in some character work in this high speed bout. Respect is due! Great match - recommended! Lucha Libre Ladies •Cynthia Moreno, Lady Apache & Xochitl Hamada vs Martha Villalobos, La Tigresa, & La Diabolica (05/08/92 CMLL): Anyone familiar with early 90's joshi should be familiar with a few of these luchadoras. Like in AJW, they are amazing here. Just an amazing pace & dazzling skill from the technicas. A great team of rudas. I LOVED THIS ONE! •Cynthia Moreno, Lady Apache & Miss Janeth vs Dibolica, Tania & Maria del Angel (05/08/93 CMLL): Wow! What a first fall! Cynthia & Lady Apache are on some next level shit. They are so quick & graceful, making the rudas work like mad. Falls #2 & 3 are good and definitely have their moments but Fall #1 is where it's at. LIKED IT More good shit at wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com

I was looking at the 2006 poll and the top 25 then had 3 women in the top 25 with Hokuto, Aja & Jaguar. This time around seems more similar to the 2006 poll in other ways too.

There's a really fun thread in the 2016 GWE folder where folks in 2016 make predictions about the 2026 list. Many are off the mark in a fun way. Great insights but also shows how much things can change booking wise, who's going to be a big star, etc. Fun read!

They weren't getting the votes to begin with. Does that mean they aren't great then? No, of course not. My rough list got shredded to bits already this time. It's 90% 80's & 90's wrestlers. Well, we're still using all of the top 100's of the 2006 & 2016 poll along with whatever the top 100 of this year is. I think 80s & 90s will be accounted for. I think reevaluation for younger folks will occur within that pre-existing pool (largely). I think the footage is already there for this GWE. I think there might be reevaluation of the 2000's moreso. But my idea isn't something with every facet accounted for, just a general idea to maybe use what data we have. Again, if we're trying to make a list of the Greatest Ever 🙂 Warts & all

It's not arbitrary. It's using the data we have already collected the last 20 years. Not using that data and starting from scratch every 10 years is arbitrary. Ruling people out is the point of making the list to begin with. But like I said, no one is going to use it 🙂 I mean its 10 years from now anyhow.

As far as nominating to "poll harcore wrestling fans on who they think the greatest wrestlers ever are... basically a survey done every 10 years" as Kadaveri succinctly says, should be done differently. I have an idea that will never happen but here it goes: There will be three Top 100 lists by the end of this project. Anyone who made the Top 100 in '06, '16 or '26 gets automatically added to the 2036 eligible wrestler list. We don't need to re-nominate them. These wrestlers earned it. Additionally, we need to stop including wrestlers from the 80's, 90's etc. who haven't made the top 100 yet. They have had 3 chances to make the top 100 and haven't made it. A lot of favorites are going to be left off but if they haven't made it yet & they aren't going to. Trust me, a lot of my favorites get slashed but so be it. Here we have to acknowledge that the list has and it's limitations- some part of it is a "popularity" contest and is a product of recency bias. That's probably not going to get better but it can be accounted for with the following points. For anyone who's an active wrestler by the end of the 2026 project from 101-400, gets automatically added to the 2036 eligible wrestler list. These are wrestlers on the rise and we can expect them to keep pace or improve in 10 years. So, it's worth including them no questions asked. There's not actually as many as you would think. I counted around 35 wrestlers in the 201-300 range for instance. I don't follow current stuff but I know most of them as their reputation proceeds them. Any active wrestler from '26-'36 outside of that (or brand new) has to get nominated with matches from 2026-2036 along with some kind of substantial claim or review/write-up of those matches. See Kadaveri's point #3 for a fantastic explanation. If it could be done without being a hassle, a 2035 approval vote like HowtobeaMark suggests would finalize a nomination. If done on PWO, the post can be made as a poll & people can vote. This probably can be done elsewhere too. If the yays outweigh the nays by the deadline, they get added. If there's no votes or they don't get enough yays then, they aren't added but that wrestler still is getting promoted/discussed. Then in 2036, the eligible list is set and that should be ample time for anyone wanting to research a wrestler better. And any discussions etc. should be focused on that list. So if there's anyone late to the project, they have a pre made list to construct their top 100. If they can't put a list together from that list then it's just not the project for them. The bar to nominate has to be higher. Everyone should be welcome to vote but it needs a leaner ballot. There was 867+ people voted for and more nominated. I think 300-400 would be reasonable (I'm guessing at that number). Plus it would be more manageable for whoever is doing the work at the end. With this method, we should essentially have a good chunk of the 2036 nominations set in a few days too. Then it's up to the active wrestlers to keep up the good work and for us, to watch more wrestling in the meantime 🙂

I pity the fool who thought I was taking a break! May Madness is here! A Video Daze entry as I'm posting video links where applicable. There's going to be more at Wrestling Dream Battles so click that link and join me. Marufuji, Danielson & CIMA vs Davey Richards, Rocky Romero & Mochizuki (ROH Live in Osaka): Mochi is an honorary No Remorse Corps member & it totally makes sense. This is exactly the match you from these 6 dudes - plenty of stiff kicks & elbows, great team moves yet excellently paced. There's no rushing but no dragging things out either. A near classic? Low level classic? You decide! Strongly recommended 6 man. Rey Mysterio Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996): Fucking psychotic awesomeness! They wrestled this like it was their first, last & only match in WCW. They wrestled this like it was their last day on Earth. This was next level shit that is still ahead of its time because it is executed to perfection. As far as WCW Cruiserweight matches go, it a classic. Loved it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED vs Dean Malenko (08/15/96 WCW Clash of the Champions): Rey was aggressive with his moves but Dean's had more effect. Malenko's Ice man persona was a great contrast to Rey's Mighty Mouse. This was a lot of fun opening match for the Clash. Cool finish too! vs Kaz Hayashi (05/01/99 WCW Sat. Night): 7 minutes but this was very good. It wasn't all rope running & high flying. Kaz was a good rudo & maskless Filthy Animal Rey was keeping hope alive. Very good TV match. Macho Man vs Bret Hart (Sat. Night Main Event 11/28/87): Only 15 minutes but they told a great story. There's great selling and constant action. Miss Elizabeth on the outside is fantastic! Bret and Savage are two of the very best going at it - classic match! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED vs Ted DiBiase (06/27/88 Cage Match): This is WAY better than their WM 4 match. This is a fight with urgency & desperation! Virgil is playing spoiler on the outside. Miss Elizabeth is beautiful yet helpless. The fans are electric! One kid is SO electric that his dumb ass climbs the cage trying to save Savage from Virgil's vicious assault. 😆 I love it! This is a great cage match. I recommend it to ya. Thank you for reading folks! More Madness to come!

Just posted a couple "battle archive" match recommendation lists on the other blog. Links underlined & in bold 👍 Joshi You Might Have Missed which is mainly GAEA, a really great promotion, but also some JWP & AJW in there as well. Definitely planning on more old time JWP down the road. Plus the big boy, Early 2000's Puro You Might Have Missed which I think is quite a resource to an overlooked & underrated time in Japanese wrestling. This definitely is ongoing.

That'd be pretty awesome. Hope you can! Thanks for your hard work with this project.

You're braver than I am. Back in the winter when we were going over Flair, I would think that's a reasonable bet. Not the vibe I was getting but a safe bet. However, I'm not so sure after seeing the drops from earlier today. I can't gauge how strong the "Flair is the best because he's Ric Flair" sentiments are anymore 🙂 Update 5/30: After seeing Bret do one spot better than Misawa (which has never happened) and Austin & Rey Jr. do better than both (inevitably). I think the "Flair is the best because he's Ric Flair" sentiments are still pretty strong. In fact I think the WWF/E sentiments are very strong.

I put this in the reactions thread but it probably was the wrong place so I deleted, updated and put here instead: I wonder, if it wouldn't be a pain in the ass, to sort the final results by the "started viewing" categories/demographic. Just the Top 100 ? After everything is revealed of course! I think that might be cool to see how each age/viewing group voted. I think there will be some interesting breakdowns with those groups. I guess I'm in the segment that's interested in 1) getting recommendations for new wrestlers to check out 2) seeing the intergenerational differences as that seems to be the BIG story so far. Maybe this is something planned but wanted to mention it. Thanks!!

Very interested to see where Flair ends up given how things are shaping up. I don't think there's been any bombshells yet but there's time... This all started with thinking he'd not make the top 10 and now I'm really wondering if he makes top 20. I almost think "conventional wisdom" gets him there over people who have actually watched many of his full matches of his especially since many are on the longer side, personal issues folks have with him etc. People seem to have voted with their hearts more this decade so maybe there will be a few shockers. Still hoping Steamboat finishes higher 😋 But again, this time around I'm not holding my breath!

Thanks! There's a lot of "who the hell is this person?" right next to someone I'd consider a favorite when I've checked.

For someone who's not keeping up with all of the drops & discussion, what's the general vibe with the 2026 list so far? Any big surprises?

•Lex Luger vs Masahiro Chono: Color me surprised! This was very good stuff...maybe even great. Chono doesn't get the love he deserves. Just a great character especially in Japan. But here, I had no idea Luger was still wrestling. You know what I mean? This would have been pretty well received if it took place in the States, I think. Probably just because they actually wrestled with a good pace, good action and there wasn't a bunch of crap. Not gonna say I'm a Lex fan but...he's probably one of my favorite muscle bound meatheads. •Riki Choshu & Takashi Iizuka & Osamu Nishimura & Satoshi Kojima vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Akira Nogami & Michiyoshi Ohara & Akitoshi Saito: As I get older, I understand the punch & stomp-on-the-throat style of wrestling much more. I have always valued intensity in wrestling; a type of intensity that you don't get in 2020's wrestling (sorry it's true). It connects with me on a primal level. I'll be honest, I'm more interested in these bone eating, skull fuckers smashing their fat fists into each others' faces than what Muto is doing too. This is that type of match. I don't think it hits the same highs as the similar 04/05/96 bout in Korakuen Hall but it is very good stuff nonetheless! •Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu: Two of the very best ever. Two guys that are in my personal top 10 ever. Early on the Dragon is breathing fire and Tenryu is getting burnt. Dragon Rocket topes until Genichiro puts an end to that. Tenryu busts Fujinami in the snout and is gushing blood! This is what he needs. Tenryu feeds on his opponents pain. Oh this is fucking beautiful - blood is spraying off Fujinami's chest with every chop from Tenryu! The Dragon WON'T QUIT. This is classic stuff. Emotionally speaking, this is an All Time Classic to me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Must see! •Randy Savage vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Where did this come from?! This was great. They worked surprisingly well together. Savage took a couple insane bumps for his 1996. This was about 9 minutes of wrestling joy. Maybe I'm a Tenzan & Savage fan. Maybe I just love bright colorful pants? Either way RECOMMENDED stuff. •Shinya Hashimoto vs Nobuhiko Takada: That bastard Takada waltzes back into New Japan and wins the belt??? Hashimoto says 'Fuck that!" The mutton chopped big man is gonna get that title strap back. Takada isn't buying it. This is a very good to great big-time title fight. Both guys are laying in the kicks. Hashimoto is hitting his chops. Heck even the submission holds are pretty good too. A match like this makes me wish Takada had just stayed with NJPW for his own sake. He's a pro wrestler more than a shoot stylist. Seeing him here is a precursor to Yuji Nagata (Nagata trained under Takada) so, it definitely could have worked. Anyhow, this is a nice hybrid of both styles and definitely is worth your time. It's not a long match, like 12-13 minutes. Many people think this is a classic so there's no reason to skip it. Please check out my other blog Wrestling Dream Battles Thank you for reading!

Greatest Wrestler Ever is in the reveal stages. I was gonna put a list together but, it wasn't to be. I'm not a good person for lists. Do you know what I mean? I'm not a list kind of guy. Sure I'll have a shopping list or or a to-do list but I struggle with these kinds of lists. It starts out as fun but it eventually takes over my fucking mind. "Just Right" thinking is what it's known as in some circles 🙂 So there's no way I can get a list of 100 of my favorite wrestlers together in any fucking order at least. Yeah, ordinal lists are a problem. It's cool to see a bunch of other people did. It's also cool to see some youngbloods on the board. Hope you folks stick around! As I said elsewhere, it be cool to hear some different views on some old matches on the Match Discussion archives. Back on my original blog, I did a big list of my favorite projects from the first 350 posts. I'm going to share that here with you. It's really the best way I feel like a I can participate in the GWE experience/excitement. If you're looking to the GWE stuff for new people and matches to watch, I hope this helps. I'm pretty sure you're still going to watch wrestling afterwards, right? ----- Early-mid 80's AJPW is really awesome stuff. I think it's a fantastic way for someone to get into old school wrestling or Japanese wrestling. You've got lots of legends and it's got a even mix of U.S. & Japanese stars. Then when Terry "retires", Brody is in NJPW and Riki & co. join for a few years, it feels like a brand new organization. Similar to the early days of NOAH or when Akiyama & co. go to AJPW in 2013. Hansen, Tenryu & Terry Funk are my #1, 2 & 3 wrestlers of all time. Jumbo, Misawa and Riki up in the top quarter for sure. I would probably put Dory Jr. there as well. Seriouly, I see people ranking Baba but no Dory Jr.!? 😁Then personal favorites like Ted DiBiase, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara & Kuniaki Kobayashi are shining in this era too. Top 50 guys. This is prime stuff. Here's the best of what I saw: Bruiser Brody vs Jumbo Tsuruta (10/14/83) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (AJPW 11/28/83) Baba & Dory Jr. vs Hansen & Brody (AJPW 12/10/83) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84) Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84) Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85) Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85) Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85) Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85) Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2 aired Tiger Mask vs Great Kabuki (01/28/86) Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara (04/12/86 AJPW) Tenryu & Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (07/05/86) Stan Hansen vs Terry Gordy (09/11/86) Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28/86) You'd be wise to check out 1985-86 for Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi and Super Strong Machine (Junji Hirata) as well. No "classics" but really exciting wrestlers in great matches. These guys are fucking great! Definitely personal favorites that I watch for in New Japan and IWE as well. ----- Tatsumi Fujinami became one of my favorites because of my 1988 New Japan project a few years ago. My admiration definitely increased when watching New Japan 1980. Fujinami is the quintessential technical pro wrestler. Top 10 wrestler. I highly recommend watching these: 1980 Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn 01/18 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid 02/05 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ashura Hara 04/03 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero 05/09 Kengo Kimura vs Tatsumi Fujinami 09/25 1988 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Big Van Vader (04/27/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu (05/27/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu (06/24/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Big Van Vader (06/26/88) Antonio Inoki vs Tatsumi Fujinami (08/08/88) Other pretty recent recommendations are: Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami - 04/29/96 Hulk Hogan vs Tatsumi Fujinami - 03/12/82 👆Click the links to go to Wrestling Dream Battles blog 👍 ----- Tiger Mask I is absolutely worth checking out especially beyond his matches with Dynamite Kid. I think the hindsight "bad reputation" Tiger has gotten is from just how hard those matches were hyped. And don't get me wrong those are amazing matches at first but I've probably watched them all 5 times each. Only their final encounter holds up after multiple viewings. Tiger Mask/Sayama has one of the best runs ever. Some of my favorites from his New Japan tenure are: Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (11/05/81) Tiger Mask vs Steve Wright (04/01/82) Tiger Mask vs Black Tiger (05/26/82) Tiger Mask vs Bret Hart (07/30/82) Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Black Tiger & Pete Roberts (08/27/82 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Pete Roberts (09/10/82 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (02/03/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid (04/21/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (06/02/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (07/14/83 NJPW) Then you have his stuff in the original UWF and WoS. I don't know if he'd make my top 100 due to the brevity of his quality but certainly top 25 of the 1980's wrestlers. ----- I'm really glad that I've had the opportunity to dig into FMW. As an ECW fan in high school, FMW always seemed like the cooler cousin of ECW...if just for the Tanaka vs Awesome stuff. In my VHS days, I had BJW & IWA Japan stuff but not FMW. Eventually I got an Explosion Death Match comp tape. Then a few years later, I got the Highspots Hayabusa comp which was very good but not great as a taste of the true best of Hayabusa. So finally sinking my teeth into the meat of FMW has been fulfilling. As garbage/hard core wrestling has fallen out of mainstream favor for a long while, I think the memory of ECW and FMW is fading. So I'm glad to keep the flame burning. I need to watch more but my absolute favorites so far are: Atsushi Onita/Tarzan Goto vs M. Kurisu/Dragon Master [Kendo Nagasaki] (FMW 04/01/90) Masato Tanaka, Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa vs Kanemura, Hido & Hosaka (FMW - Exploding Barbwire match - 09/01/96) Masato Tanaka vs Mr. Gannosuke (01/06/98 FMW) Hayabusa vs Masato Tanaka (03/13/98 FMW) Hayabusa vs Mr. Gannosuke (04/30/98 FMW) Jado & Gedo vs Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (05/05/98 FMW) HM Hayabusa & Tanaka vs W*ing Kanemura & Kodo Fuyuki (05/27/98 FMW) HM Tetushiro Kuroda vs Masato Tanaka (06/19/98 FMW) Hisakatsu Oya vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda (12/12/98 FMW) Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99) Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99) Masato Tanaka and Mr. Gannosuke are definitely top 100 guys. Tanaka's case gets stronger as he's awesome in the 2000's & early 2010's. I would say top 35. He is probably my favorite wrestler of all time BUT in my mind, that's not what the Greatest Wrestler Ever is. But maybe that's why I didn't put a list together 🤔😋 ----- I'm very glad that I've been able to find and enjoy early ROH. I wasn't quite sure of what I was in store for as I wasn't sure just how developed some of guys were. And you can definitely see some chinks in their armor on some of the lesser known matches but, on the big recommended matches below, they delivered. As you can tell, there's a handful of guys working at that high level but the matches never seem repetitive. I threw in a couple other matches from IWA-MS may as have been in a ROH ring. The list below has some usual suspects but I bet there's a couple that you don't know: American Dragon vs Low-Ki vs Christopher Daniels - Era of Honor Begins (2002) American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels - Round Robin Challenge (2002) Christopher Daniels vs Low-Ki - Round Robin Challenge (2002) American Dragon vs Low-Ki - Round Robin Challenge (2002) Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles - Road to the Title (2002) American Dragon vs AJ Styles - All Star Extravaganza (2002) Low Ki vs American Dragon vs Steve Corino vs Samoa Joe - Final Battle (2002) Bryan Danielson vs Paul London (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02) Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Do Or Die – May 2003) Samoa Joe vs Christopher Daniels (ROH Glory by Honor II - September 2003) Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (ROH War of the Wire - November 2003) AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson (ROH Main Event Spectacles 2003) CM Punk vs AJ Styles (Tradition Continues 2003 ROH) Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04) Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS) Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM Low Ki & Homicide vs Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal (Punk: The Final Chapter 2005) It looks very likely Danielson could end up winning the 2026 GWE. I can't rate him that high especially since I haven't seen much of his 2011-present work. I'd say top 50 and undoubtedly top 10 best wrestlers of the 2000's. AJ Styles is right up there with him...like I would probably put AJ ahead of Bryan because of his adaptability. He can wrestle American Dragon's style but also do the traditional high flyer style and more when he gets to TNA. Samoa Joe makes the top 100 but I'm not sure where. Top 75-85? CM Punk should be on the list. If we're talking total package then top 50 perhaps. Certainly top 25 of the 2000's. ----- I'm going to keep posting some of these match guides (battle guides) over on Wrestling Dream Battles. So if you're planning on watching more wrestling, you'll find some great recommendations there. Ones that are planned are: Joshi, Dragon Gate USA, AJPW 2010's, Ring of Honor 2009-2010's & Early 2000's Puro. Hope to see you there!

Tajiri vs Super Crazy (ECW 02/06/99) Concord, NC fan cam footage. God damn! That is how you do it! 10 minutes of distilled, 100 proof Tajiri vs Super Crazy straight to your eye balls! A steady stream of lucharesu action flowing from your TV. I first saw this match 15 years ago on a comp. I have. I happened to have another DVD set which I am watching now...and couldn't remember if this was the same match. So I had no expectations going in today. This holds up!! This is that good so I will echo my review from back then: this might be their best straight up match. No tables or chairs. No furniture arrangements. There's no deep story or even surface level story. It's two rivals going at it to get the win. That's all you need sometimes. Great shit! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED More at: TAJIRI You Might Have Missed #4

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!