Ma Stump Puller

Very polarising. One side you have his compelling character work and ability to grab crowds irregardless of the situation, the other he can be a lazy bastard who relies too much on shtick and cheapens out on having reliable matches, either leaning into complete apathy with his spotty selling or going way overboard into risky spots that probably contributed aplenty to his injury troubles. He might get on a top 100, I haven't decided yet since the NJPW-ism style is so bleh to me. If you can though go find his CMLL appearances, him as a heel henchmen for Liger is a lot of fun

I mean as a top 100 wrestler in terms of quality he'd be the last person on, but for "top 100 guys who I watch just for fun" he's definitely on there. So many incredible car-clash moments, loved his recent Best in the World run when he wasn't trying to pretend he was a wrestler.

There's going to be a lot of regency bias towards more recent individuals, I can see a lot of the 2016 GWE list not even showing up since a lot of that userbase don't even bother with the Projects anymore (their loss!). Predicting a lot of 80s wrestlers to be either much higher up here or not even there. Naito/Ospreay/Okada will all be there, though I can also see individuals like Gunther or Sami Zayn getting similar upgrades depending on a few factors. I'd hope so, Akiyama even this year has really shone as a very meat and potatoes-style wrestler, no frills but the things he does are very good.

I've now updated this C&A with a bunch of extra matches, enjoy

It's crazy that a unironic criticism of a wrestler (ESPECIALLY of this era and time) is "they're too stiff" like this was around when you had Hokuto legitmately punching people out in matches and doing career-threatening things to a far greater extent than a rough kick or powerbomb. It boggles the mind. I've watched a good bit of Hotta's matches (from her good years ofc, she sharply dwindles in watchability after the early 2000s.) and she's very much someone that I can totally get people not liking. She has a very crowbar-y style that some can work around and enhance and some clearly cannot, and she really doesn't give a flying fuck either way. She's gonna hit you hard, she's going to try to sit on you in the mat-work, it's just a part of life. Her style is very distinctive in that she obviously borrows a lot from shoot-style in her methodical grappling and focus on more "real" sequences, more grit as opposed to cooperative back and forths. She seems to think she was the hair apparent to Maeda when she's probably in actuality was closer to Anjo. Funnily enough her best matches are working that shithead Anjo-style bout where she's just being a huge bully to her opponent and stiffing them to death, it working either as a hometown defender against LLPW's talent or beating up the natives. She's better than I think some are giving credit to her selling-wise; I've seen instances where she doesn't clearly care about it, but with the right people she tends to ease up and start making more of an effort, ultimately it feels more realistic than the melodramatics of the 90s and fits her style much better. Kicks are great and I love the assortment of just randomly brutal bombs she seems to pull out of her hat, even if sometimes the pacing of them seems to drift as her later matches in the 90s have her doing seemingly endless amounts of moves to a near equal amount of near falls. I can definitely see someone having them on the top 100, for sure. It just depends on their tastes because she does some things great but can look pretty flavourless in other aspects, especially after the 90s where her mobility goes to pot and she has to rely more on the slop-brawling that dominated the industry for the 2000's.

dang everyone wants a piece of gary it seems

I would agree that her general 90's to early 2000s run is good but it kinda hits a brick wall once she gets giga-injured and starts only having super short sprints or slop-brawl main events where they just fill the whole thing with weapon spots. that Her early 90s super-jock run in JWP is outstanding though, if she'd kept that up the rest of the decade I feel like she would've been an almost undisputed top 3.

Eternally frustrating as a general feeling when watching him. He had nearly everything you could need; look, ability, athleticism....but there's just nothing underneath that. A Finn Balor match does nothing for me because the guy is horrendous at anything that isn't doing a move or bumping, and his ability to just null any interest with the same generic moveset he's had since the 2010's is unparalleled. Generic babyface, generic heel (even worse as one because he just does less of everything instead of actually putting a spin on how he works) no real attempt to be interesting as either. He just feels so hollow. Talented physically for sure, but never got it quite in a way that guys like Styles or Omega did.

Clipped to 6 minutes. This was during Dump's 2003 comeback after taking 10+ years off. What's amazing is that she wasn't even that old here; she was 20 when she started wrestling and 28 when she first retired, so she was only 43 here. That's honestly not even all that aged by even those standards, let alone today where we have guys in their late 40's and above still ticking away just fine, but I guess that's a whole different set of standards there. She had openly stated that she came back mostly because the Joshi Puro scene was in the fucking toilet around this time and wanted to give it a much-needed boost. Despite the well meaning intervention the rot would sadly continue throughout the 2000's. Ranmaru is a fairly nothing worker who is mostly known ("known" in big quotations) for being a goofy comedy worker in later years, but here she was generally working fairly serious and taking big bumps. Despite having 15+ years off wrestling Dump has very little rust here and honestly looked pretty damn great in places, stiffing the shit out of Ran with open-hand slaps and giving her Tenryu boot punts to the head. She generally refuses to give her opponent little to anything here with tons of no selling bar taking a flat back bump for one kick and a very quick pin attempt. She otherwise just batters the fuck out of Ranmaru even more with a disgustingly stiff lariat and smashing a chair to pieces over her opponent's head in gruesome fashion. Dump goofs off a little by talking trash on the same mic she was hitting Ran with while intentionally relenting on multiple pinfalls after a Samoan Driver and pretty huge German suplex before finishing off with a standing lariat for the one-foot pin. This was a pretty fun squash with Dump looking energised and eager to prove that she could still do her signature rampaging antics and frankly I very much became a believer after this match, she beats the shit out of poor Ran with mostly just raw ring work with a couple of weapon spots thrown here and there. It was wild seeing her do actual moves and those looking actually solid both doing them and moving around in general. This naturally doesn't hit the highs of her 80s run but if you wanted evidence that she could definitely go after her first retirement then this is excellent proof of that in action.

Might have pioneered the "forced epic" term way before that became in vogue. I recall many a match where the length is 10 minutes over what it should have been, which is weird because she was an excellent sprint-worker. She did have a couple of very good matches with Carlos Amano though (then again who hasn't?)

This was shockingly smooth work from the pair, especially Bolshoi who was very much deep into her retirement run that would finally finish the next year. Despite this she was nevertheless just as crafty and perhaps even better at the fundamentals than she was in the 90s with a lot of her grappling work being refreshingly simple but just refined enough that you could notice the details right away. Konami is similarly refreshing as she's not phoning it in or obviously doing doss work under the guise of "heel antics" (as her work these days seems to imply) here she seemed clearly motivated to wrestle, especially with her sharp kicks which she uses here to good effect whenever she can't handle the grappling parts. Bolshoi appears here as the llave Maestro of the pair, utilising her vast experience to focus on counters and find creative openings to secure limb work; she tends to pull from a more defensive position, taking to give twice as much. Konami is inevitably set as the proactive, younger talent, faster and meaner but not always aware of their surroundings and as such gets punished in most of the holds. She'd stick on a cool calf-slicer then get overeager and suffer for it when Bolshoi managed to loosen her grip and snap on a cross armbar. She gets back into things by then pulling back just enough to hook her arm back onto her other to get back leverage and continue applying the slicer and vice versa. Eventually the big clincher comes when Konami hooks the other leg into the hold and really tears up Bolshoi's leg, forcing her to take a breather outside before immediately getting blasted with a leg/head kick combo that crumples her to the ground. This was somewhat ripped from their JWP match earlier in the year, but it's played much better here than it was there especially in the dramatics department. The second half of the match (as showcased visually Bolshoi rolling up her baggy pants to reveal the exposed kneepad) is Bolshoi now operating with a clear vulnerability; as such she can no longer afford to play it safe and makes that abundantly clear by going right into sloppy strikes. These are clearly not particularly great yet I think they shockingly work here as a desperation move by Bolshoi, especially how she incorporates the leg-selling by kinda sloppily hurling her whole body into it and stumbling a little. We follow from this with an amazing submission-chain by Bolshoi as she spams chokes (head/arm, RNC) while her opponent sells appropriately with some teasing at her getting KO'd but just about being able to defend and keep the hold loose. Similarly amazing lead-in to the classic Bolshoi sliding triangle choke as she slaps Konami with her free hand when she tries taking mount to get her into position to do the thing. This is also sold as a potential world-ender however Konami is able to keep moving through leverages to stay in the game and eventually get to the ropes. The last couple of minutes are for the most part considered by myself to be the weakest, with Bolshoi throwing more sloppy strikes (this time with a stiff slap or two so not awful) while maintaining a big advantage with some wacky arm/leg wrench that seemed like a Navarro rip. That came and went and the two went into just generic "strike into strike" exchanges though these were made better by the fact that they at least had the class to fatigue-sell at the END of the match instead of 4 minutes in. Konami bumps great for a couple of huge suplexes by Bolshoi that build well to her being able to outlast her more frail foil and eventually snap on the Triangle Lancer....just as the bell rings. This is the only stickler of the match that I dislike: draw finishes very rarely work and this in particular just didn't with the slow build and pressure mounting. The match doesn't benefit from it whatsoever and no one really needed to be protected, least of all Bolshoi who was basically on her last major stint and had nothing to gain from this. It adds a sour taste to something that otherwise was incredibly well put together. So how good is it? Very, obviously. Bolshoi comes across as the better of the two though Konami seems to put in a honest effort and has a couple of cool armbar transitions, though I think on occasion she could've put a little more life into the match than what she did. I would've also liked for the leg selling to have been respected beyond just the immediate effects (Bolshoi gives it a good effort until the last 5 or so minutes when she just....doesn't anymore so it doesn't really go anywhere) but other than that this went extremely well with me. Shame that we only really get this Konami once every year or so now.

I mean she has to be top 15, right? She's been great for 30 something years now (and now with 80's footage freely available we know she was a solid hand despite the inexperience) when her mobility completely went she is still having decent to downright incredible matches for her age that most on this list would die for in their peaks. She is very obviously not the GOAT (doesn't have the peaks of other candidates nor the versatility) but she is unquestionably at this point far and beyond one of the best from my viewing. Even her phoned-in performances are fun.

Yeah watching this I EXPECTED mat-work, but this is a false advertisement; the match is very much not "20 minutes of pure matwork" it's a typical hierarchy match with some working holds stuck in there. Here is the review God Ozaki has to be one of the greatest at these petty bitch-fests she ends up having with other wrestlers, it's unreal. At the start of this she acts all regal but as soon as Yagi starts ragdolling her around with Judoka throws the mood changes real quick and Oz is almost immediately back to her old ways of hair pulling and skin pinching to try to get any sort of edge possible. The first half resolves around Yagi getting a small advantage at first with her grappling; something Oz is clearly not a expert in nor pretends to be; but as soon as Yagi has that advantage taken away she is quickly exposed as simply not being on her opponent's level, conditions be damned. Ozaki beats the piss out of her on the outside, landing multiple huge moves including a disgusting powerbomb followed up by a bent-back armbar that Yagi sells as if she's being tortured. Almost to spite her submission-heavy foil Oz goes right into her own arm work as she works on the limb with shoulderbreakers and a bunch of dynamic holds. This is where there's a small breakthrough as Yagi is able to take advantage with her own holds whenever she's able to muster enough to counter whatever's being done to her. This is namely in laser-focus of Ozaki's weakened lower back (she has a brace on here) through really mean submissions where she's pulling it with leverage, landing splashes onto said brace or just slamming them onto the ring. Ozaki naturally sells really well as this goes for a good while, bumping big and getting over the injury enough that the Korakuen very easily get into this. There's also a bit of brawling but this is fairly short and is there so Yagi can use the railings and hit a chair shot to the head of Ozaki, thankfully worked in such a way that Yagi just hits the bench rather than actually swinging for the fences. We get a small break before going right back into the action with Yagi landing top rope dropkicks and some cool rolls into submissions before the ropes are hit. The latter gets a bit too ambitious with a moonsault attempt that Ozaki cleverly counters into a huge top rope back suplex to equalise the match, letting the two do a conventional 50/50 exchange of big moves. Yagi gets a huge pop for landing a duo of top rope foot stomps onto the brace but gets another 2-count. She tries to capitalise by running right at her but Oz hurls her onto the ropes in a fairly reckless move (though again thankfully this goes safely) before catching Yagi in a long sleeper spot that Yagi is able to struggle and escape from. Oz escapes a potential finish to go into a deep spinning Dragon Sleeper then into a regular for the submission victory. This was ALMOST a very good match, but it slips up on a couple of things that add up. For one, Yagi's hold work just isn't all that interesting here, which is sad because she's one of the best to do it. She doesn't pull out the submissions a ton and when she does it's typically generic working holds that the pair don't try to really make seem abrupt, even when we're talking about cross armbreakers. Ozaki sells pain but not fear, if that makes any sense, sitting in the holds too long for the crowd to respect them. Either that or she's not doing them at all and instead launching herself off the top rope for mostly ok but fairly non-descript offense. Secondly; the finish sucks. This is a running theme where Oz will submit wrestlers who focus on submissions (Amano '06) and while it works for her petty character it kills the crowd here who were expecting an impactful climax, not long dragged out holds that go on for way too long for them to keep attention. It especially doesn't make sense with her spamming out powerbombs throughout the entire thing. Thirdly and perhaps most poignant is that the structure is a little all over the place here. The start works to get over Ozaki's advantages and Yagi's openings, but then afterwards Yagi focuses less on the holds and more on random dropkicks and moves that didn't quite fit the style being put over here as her critical advantage. All in all it's definitely still a decent match despite being heavily flawed with a good sell-job by Oz....with that said it could've been a lot better.

Misawa/Murakami does happen a couple of years later and it is, no joke, completely horrendous

Based I can link the match if you want, it's on VK