Ma Stump Puller

Akiyama's first year (he debuted in 1992, but he was only around for the last 3 months so we can't really count that as a "year") had him in prominent singles against Steve Williams, Kawada, DiBiase, Kobashi x2, then a bunch of tags. In all of them he's pretty solid and I think despite not being near the quality he would be he holds his own there. I'd say he did better than Senka though it's not as far apart as you may imagine. I put her relatively high on my VP100 list for this year and she ended up 85th overall, which for someone who just debuted is fairly insane. Tamura only wrestled a couple of times in his first year but he was already pretty fucking good, maybe over Senka in terms of quality. Hashimoto we have very little of for his first two years but he was pretty much already great and the matches we do have show him way above his class as a finished product.

His match vs Hiroshi Hase in 1995 is a lot of fun for a relatively short match

true!

100% Lock: Hiroshi Tanahashi Hiroshi Hase Maybe? HARASHIMA Harley Saito

Can be enjoyable (the DDT tag with Ishii is astonishingly good) and I really liked him in Battlarts but there are so many awful matches he's been apart of that I can not in good faith endorse him for something like this.

Potential #1 Genichiro Tenryu Definitely has a spot GENTARO Giant Baba Gran Hamada Maybe? Gunther Greg Valentine Gran Naniwa

Has a spot: Daisuke Ikeda Devil Masami Dick Togo Dynamite Kansai Mostly There: Dump Matsumoto Dragon Kid Maybe?: Daisuke Sekimoto Darby Allin

100% lock: Command Bolshoi Chigusa Nagayo Carlos Amano Almost There: Carl Greco Chihiro Hashimoto Christian Curt Hennig Maybe: Cesaro CM Punk Christopher Daniels

Will almost conclusively have a spot on top 100: Aja Kong AJ Styles Akira Maeda Antonio Inoki Akira Hokuto Akira Taue Has a chance of showing up: Abdullah The Butcher Atsushi Onita Alexander Otsuka Arisa Nakajima

As someone who ran the Yuiga propaganda train for quite a while I am unfortunately remiss to say that she will not be on my top 100. She's terrific at what she does though and is probably the GOAT at intergender matches. I could definitely see her having a slot for some people.

I think people really overlook his pre-comedy stuff, Yano wasn't a solid wrestler but he was better than most at being a dangerous spoiler-heel who could chain enough bullshit together to catch anyone unawares, and his more bloody showings involving his work with the WEW belt are pretty fucking cool. In another world the guy would've been scrapping with Carlos Colon in some dingy stadium. Can't see a world where he gets top 100 though

I like Taichi more than most, I enjoyed him when he was a hapless rookie seconding Kawada in places like HUSTLE or AJPW, I was one of the few who actually liked his Jr heavyweight stint where he just stooged and stalled for most of his matches, etc etc. I'm somewhat mixed on his material today since it seems like he's relented to becoming a NJPWism upper main event guy who needs to have 30+ minute affairs with endless false finishes and forearms while also occasionally doing something Kawada did for the sake of it. I enjoy when he's pushed outside his comfort zone like his KOPW series with Shingo, but those aren't often enough these days so his material is (mostly) just acceptable tag matches with a good match every couple of months. When he's allowed to do a bit more I think he's tolerable than most at the style however.

Yeah the JWP fancam files give Ran some pretty stellar showings; she was a far greater natural when it came to working than some of her contemporaries, even if she didn't have the same success they had overall. Had some of the most awesome elbow shots since at least Misawa and from my viewing always came across as a super worker that just never got the spotlight deserved of them. Shout out to her never having a bad match with Carlos Amano, though with their joint consistency I imagine that would be next to impossible. Maybe has a slot in the upper regions.

One of the stronger characters in regards to playing the "washed up uncle who comes down to the ring to harass old work colleagues and blackmailing promoters for the Yakuza" role, and he does that fairly well I'd say. The Marufuji match is one of the few I've actually enjoyed that involved the latter in them, for instance, which is high praise. Don't think his career has the high-spots needed for a top 100 though.

Sadly of no fault of his own his career was far too short for me to really grade him on a top 100. That said, solid wrestler with a really wicked technical edge to them.