Control21

Masakazu Maeda! I was thinking about him too actually. It's incredible how good he was. Apparently, he felt wrestling wasn't for him and left the business altogether.

Yeah, some of the guys I listed have way more matches than some of the others OP mentioned but still, guys like Kohsaka only have about ~20 matches and I foresee a lot of people using the "but he only has 20 matches" argument by 2026.

Dokonjonosuke Mishima is another name that comes to mind. Only had a few matches in U-Style but he was incredibly good. Might deserve a Megumi Fujii-esque nomination.

Some names that I would have in my top 100: Nikolai Zouev Mikhail Ilyukhin Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Top 10 for me) Andrei Kopylov Grom Zaza Carl Greco Yoshihisa Yamamoto They probably won't make my top 100, but Bas Rutten and Caol Uno probably deserve a shout too. Uno's match against Kohsaka on the last RINGS show was some really tasty stuff. Frank Shamrock and Daisuke Nakamura had a great match on U-Style's last show. Nakamura has had a few more matches since then. If you throw in Frank Shamrock's shoots against Kohsaka and Tamura from RINGS, his case gets even stronger. I want to say Valentijn Overeem as well, just for his match against Tamura in 1999 that was a work, but very well done. Other names that come to mind: Aleksander Karelin (had a worked match with Maeda on a RINGS show, he carried a presence in that match that made it feel quite special) and Hideo Tokoro (who showed how promising he could have been as a pro-wrestler in the worked grappling tag he had on a RIZIN show with Sakuraba vs Tamura and Wanderlei Silva).

El Desperado A very talented wrestler that has vastly improved his resume over the past four years or so. The "lost" NJPW young lion has become a very versatile wrestler proficient in technical wrestling, Lucha Libre, the modern NJPW "house style," and even deathmatches. He has become an important piece to the NJPW Junior Heavyweight division and is a fan favorite for many. In many ways, he mirrors Hiromu Takahashi to some degree. Desperado is able to convey emotion in his matches to a very palpable degree, a gift that not many wrestlers have. Certainly, someone that could contend for the lower half of a few Top 100 lists. Recommended matches - El Desperado vs Jun Kasai (9/12/2022) El Desperado vs Hiromu Takahashi (12/11/2020) El Desperado vs Francesco Akira (5/21/2023) El Desperado vs Kazuchika Okada (3/2/2022) El Desperado vs Kota Ibushi (3/4/2021) El Desperado vs Titan (5/26/2023) El Desperado vs Dragon Lee (6/3/2018) El Desperado vs Hiromu Takahashi (5/22/2018) El Desperado vs Kota Ibushi (2/11/2014) Kyosuke Mikami vs Hiromu Takahashi (8/24/2010) Hiromu Takahashi One of the best junior heavyweights over the past decade. Hiromu Takahashi is a very gifted wrestler who knows how to work the modern NJPW formula, and by extension, most other modern styles as well. Hiromu Takahashi is also a master of conveying emotion and utilizing psychology in his matches to insert a vivid sense of tension and danger. He has developed memorable rivalries with the likes of KUSHIDA, Dragon Lee, El Desperado, and Taiji Ishimori. While he is still relatively early in his career, I think he has put together a very solid case for one of the best junior heavyweights of all time and could be a contender for some Top 100 lists. Recommended matches - Hiromu Takahashi vs Taiji Ishimori (6/4/2018) Hiromu Takahashi vs Will Ospreay (1/4/2020) Hiromu Takahashi vs Will Ospreay (2/10/2018) Hiromu Takahashi vs Will Ospreay (6/9/2018) Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA (6/11/2017) Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA (1/4/2017) Hiromu Takahashi vs Dragon Lee (2/11/2017) Hiromu Takahashi vs Ryu Lee (2/9/2020) Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi (1/24/2016) Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi (3/20/2015) Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi (12/4/2015)

I agree with CheapPop, this was a really interesting match that showed Volk Han's more strategic side. His match with Grom Zaza a few months later is another great example of this. We saw this side of Volk Han in his shoots against Nogueira and Hinkle, so it makes sense we see that here in a more grounded RINGS match. Neither use rope breaks that much as they sort of try to out-grapple each other with some nice wrestling and counterwork. Kanehara appears to be sharper at first, but Volk Han's experience comes into play and he catches Kanehara with one of his trademark SAMBO takedowns for the kneebar finish. A nice taste of Volk Han in a different, more realistic setting. ****1/2

This is a RINGS match that has flown under the radar a bit. I thought this was really good. It was more reflective of the realistic approach RINGS was taking by 1998, in the spirit of Pancrase but there's plenty of excitement here if you enjoy some stiff striking and several spirited grappling exchanges. I never thought of Haseman as a fluid wrestler but he was surprisingly able to do some cool stuff with Sakata. Sakata had some great counterwork that made these grappling exchanges believable and compelling. Both eventually go down their last point thanks to several rope breaks and knockdowns. The last minute had a nice closing stretch with both throwing some pretty stiff bombs. Probably the best match these two had in RINGS. ****1/2

With Nikolai Zouev's passing last year, watching this match is almost a punch in the gut because it is a great reminder of how criminally underrated Zouev was. This was a great match and a match that probably deserves to be on any Tamura compilation. Tamura's quickness and speed is matched really well here by Zouev's more methodical approach, but the Russian has a few tricks up his sleeve as you would expect. ****1/4

I thought this was really good and a reflection of the modern approach RINGS was taking due to the influence of Pancrase and the techniques modern MMA was developing at the time. I don't think they were doing "Fake MMA" though, this is "wrestling" distilled in its purest form from two very good "modern" grapplers both highly trained in the art of catch wrestling. It's not as exciting or epic as Kohsaka vs Tamura from 6/27/1998, but I still very much enjoyed this match. ****1/2

I think this was a work. If I am not mistaken, Meltzer mentioned several times in the Wrestling Observer that RINGS adapted their matches due to the popularity of Pancrase, this included tighter, more realistic matwork like this match and shorter matches on the upper-half of the card. It could have been a worked shoot, but I'm not sure. Either way, I really enjoyed this match when I watched it a while back. I gave it ****1/2 but I'm a sucker for the more realistic RINGS stuff like Tamura vs Kanehara a year later.

Tamura had a great 1998 that goes under the radar. Classics against Ilyukhin, Kohsaka, and Yamamoto and carries a few others like Vrij and Sakata to good matches as well. I would say 1998 was his best year overall but 1999 and 1996 come close.

Misawa probably, but Volk Han has a good case here as well. Had some great matches with Yamamoto, Maeda, and Kopylov.

Volk Han is a strong contender here. Had the epic trilogy with Tamura and Kohsaka, and had a few other solid matches along the way.

Akira Maeda's 1988 run is up there among the best in-year runs ever, IMO.

Akira Maeda is in contention here. Ric Flair probably runs away with it but Maeda had a strong 1989.

It's a shame we don't have more footage of him, but we have shows why he was so highly regarded. My personal belief is that if someone wants to rank him high based on available footage + historical documentation + his lineage of trainees and his influence on the development of the industry in Japan, they should feel comfortable doing so.

His AJPW and NOAH stuff has aged particularly well I think.

Immediate names that jump out to me are Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and Minoru Suzuki

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread but I've been watching some GCM: Contenders stuff and figured it was worth pointing out. It was a grappling promotion similar to Quintet and it had some really good matches and moments, including a TK/Suzuki vs Uno/Shibuya tag. They didn't have too many shows and were mainly active from about 1999-2002/2003, but lots of high-level stuff.

Volk Han is currently #2 on my list, just behind Bret Hart for me. I consider both of those guys two of the greatest natural performers to ever grace the ring.

I'm continually put off by this guy. He always felt like a slimy character to me. Just a clout chaser and grifter.

Albright will definitely make my Top 100. Pound for pound, one of the best and most exciting gaijin heavyweights during the 1990s along with Steve Williams and Stan Hansen.

Masayuki Naruse While never a major star or a main event player, Naruse was a very skilled wrestler who was very capable of working a solid pro-style or shoot-style match. Naruse came out of Maeda's RINGS dojo and became a key undercard player during the promotion's history, eventually finding his way to become a secondary star and fan favorite. Naruse would win RINGS' Light heavyweight title, although he didn't defend it very often, if at all. Naruse would later find himself as a common participant in Inoki-ism era NJPW during the early 2000s. Someone who could work very hard to put on a good, entertaining, and hard-hitting match. Recommended matches - vs Volk Han 10/25/96 vs Dieusel Berto 9/10/93 vs Wataru Sakata 12/23/97 vs Kiyoshi Tamura 8/28/98 vs Volk Han 5/22/99 w/El Samurai vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 9/23/2002 Mitsuya Nagai A well-traveled shoot-style veteran that has been going strong since the 1990s. Nagai was a product of Maeda's RINGS dojo and became one of the key native mid-carders for RINGS up until he left the promotion in 1997 due to a disagreement with his mentor (Maeda, of course). Nagai was very raw at first, but quickly became a solid pro-wrestler and had some great matches with the likes of Volk Han, Yamamoto, and his dojo partner, Masayuki Naruse. Nagai would later try his hand at kickboxing and would later participate in BattlArts, NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, and GLEAT. He was also a key figure in the early years of post-NOAH split AJPW as an undercard worker. Not the flashiest name, but someone with a lot of longevity. Recommended matches - vs Volk Han 4/24/93 vs Volk Han 12/24/94 vs Nikolai Zouev 12/19/95 vs Yamamoto 3/18/95 vs Naruse 12/16/94 vs Kawada 3/3/2001 vs Kojima 3/24/2002 w/Kakihara vs Shinya Makabe & Yuji Nagata 6/8/2001 w/Dajiro Matsui vs Minoru Tanaka & Masakatsu Funaki 12/30/2021 Dick Vrij A kickboxer built like a bodybuilder, and one from Holland. This would becomome a common theme in Kakutogi in the decade following Dick Vrij's debut in UWF in 1989. Perhaps one of the first true monster heels in shoot-style. Dick Vrij had the look of a crazed man who couldn't work a lick, but was actually very good in the ring and only improved in time in terms of being able to construct a solid shoot-style match. He was a key part of Akira Maeda's RINGS promotion in its early years and provided Maeda with a credible main event rival to help build cards around. Dick Vrij's involvement with Chris Dolman and his dojo would eventually see guys like the Overeem brothers and Gilbert Yvel make their way over to Japan. Perhaps not a heavy contender for most top 100 lists, but certainly name that merits some consideration. Recommended matches - vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara 11/29/89 vs Akira Maeda 5/11/91 vs Akira Maeda 8/1/91 vs Volk Han 8/21/92 vs Volk Han 7/13/93 vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto 7/18/95 vs Masayuki Naruse 11/22/96

1975 - Antonio Inoki (or Jack Brisco, hard choice here), Billy Robinson, Nick Bockwinkel 1985 - Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara 1995 - Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, Kazushi Sakuraba 2005 - Kevin Randleman (of HUSTLE fame!), Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Frank Shamrock (He wrestled in U-STYLE in 2005!) 2015 - Shinsuke Nakamura, KUSHIDA, Katsuyori Shibata 2022 - Yu Iizuka, Daisuke Nakamura, Takuya Nomura

I don't think that's fair. There's no doubt Funaki vs Rutten was a great pro-wrestling style fight (Takayama vs Frye, Sato vs Uno, and Sakuraba vs Newton are also examples of this), but Funaki had some great pro-wrestling matches during his career, including vs Nakano, Maeda, Suzuki (their UWF match was basically a preview of Pancrase), Anjo, and his AJPW matches with Suzuki and Suwama. A lot of his PWFG stuff is underrated too, which I've been meaning to take a closer look at. On Pancrase, it's an interesting topic because there are a few Pancrase matches included in some of the yearbooks here. Pancrase was 95% a shoot, with perhaps a handful of worked matches here and there but it should be considered a shootfighting promotion. With that said, Pancrase should also be considered a branch of the "Long UWF" and an integral part of the evolution of Kakutogi and pro-wrestling as both separate and interconnected entities. Without UWF, there wouldn't be Pancrase, and without Pancrase and UWF, who knows where Japanese MMA ends up by the 2000s. This doesn't even consider the importance of catch wrestling and the influence it had on Puroresu in general. This is why I don't mind when people consider Sakuraba's impact on JMMA when evaluating his career as a pro-wrestler because he always considered himself a pro-wrestler as a fighter and without his journey through the ranks of Takada's dojo, who knows if we even hear of him. If people want to consider Funaki's work in Pancrase, it shouldn't be discouraged as long as it doesn't form the primary foundation of their argument (he was a damn good pro-wrestler too, and is still going strong).