Ma Stump Puller

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

there's a 9 hour complication of his matches online that has I think them both included if that helps?

I would handily say Tenryu. Kawada even by the late 90s seems to kinda drift quality-wise as his routines start to become more homogenised; his once explosive spots and spectacular displays of intense selling turn into things he just does in almost any match because it's what people are expecting, and there are a number of instances where his selling becomes downright schlock in the face of trying to elicit a reaction. Kawada also never really adapts his style either; the work you get from him in the 90s is exactly the same in the 2000s, just slower and more focused around holds (something he was never particularly engaging at). One does not see the incredible adaptations that Tenryu did between the decades to stay relevant, nor the versatility (and no, we can't use the "Kawada stayed in AJPW!" point because there are multiple years where he was freelance afterwards). For me there just isn't a comparison. Tenryu is a league above in the grades despite Kawada having an arguably stronger peak.

Does his recent AEW work change his listing on anyone's top 100? I for one found most of it to be uninspired (not helped by their crowds being at best apathetic to anything with two feet on the mat) but I can definitely see the inherent value of him having made a comeback and hanging with younger talent as a positive of sorts.

The tags between these two are great, so how about a singles? This is mostly intact out of the (spoilers! ) 30 minute draw, I'd say about 27 minutes in total. They work this as a really fascinating variation of the David/Goliath theme, with McClarity having the speed while Big Don has his imposing size yet still has to keep relenting to dirty heel antics while his opponent can overpower him cleanly when he gets the chance, making for a interesting twist on the typical concept. I really liked how they focused a bunch on pummelling; a novel concept to us today (even from the so-called "technical" wrestlers) but back then with such deep Catch influences it's almost a given that it pops up here as a sense of structure given the size difference. Don finds consistent points to trap Roy's arm behind his back during said pummelling which lets him drill the guy with some really good-looking knees and scrappy closed-fist punches. This leads to some cool arm work as well by having Don lean his whole weight onto his weakened limb to further damage it, shoving Roy into the corners or ropes to force the issue. I also was kinda into Roy's opposing work here, having to at times just focus on rough and tumble work with a couple of body punches or focusing on the head with a big sequence of consecutive headlocks. Now typically this is usually entering the boring filler section of the match wherein they slow the tempo down enough to make up for the time they need to occupy but they actually did really well making the headlock struggle on both ends actually worth watching especially since Don at a good few points gets quite close to escaping/countering with some fast technical work of his own. Ron makes himself seem like the behaggled underdog here in how he just has to keep on his feet consistently just to keep pace with his much bigger opponent which is wild because usually it's the opposite way around with these sort of things. There's a awesome heel comeuppance when Don tries to lunge at a prone Roy with him only just able to roll out of the way before dodging another charge into the corner to throw a bunch of scrappy shots to the back before getting thrown up and over with a backdrop, Don just missing a full on double stomp to the head right after using the ropes as leverage to showcase his frustration at Roy's ability to keep in the fight. This bit was in particular very well timed since the two come within I'd say about inches of tagging the other. They reset, going into more focus around the headlock; namely Roy being able to apply it multiple times despite Don's imposing strength, forcing him to cheat with hair pulling or smacking the back of his head to get even minor relief. Don puts over his opponent huge with a couple of incredible prat-bumps, kipping up for a couple of dropkicks and just this insane full-body flop escape over the top rope when Roy sticks on a Cobra Clutch that looked straight out of a French Catch match by how spectacular it looked. They cooled off with some more focus around holds right after but still had Don doing a bunch of great running leaps into corners and turnbuckles to sell his agitation, boiling to the point that he was willingly charging blindly into danger just to get his hands on his opponent faster. The "big" spot of the match was him landing a Thesz Press and them working a long FIP with Roy stuck in the subsequent hold afterwards which for me came across as the weaker material in my book (if only because it's so unconvincing for SO long to boot) but like with everything else here the two are just so good at getting great mileage out of their situation so you get Roy selling the struggle well alongside Don being a shitbag and getting his comeuppance when he gets violently thrown to the mat when trying to reapply the hold. They do a good job making the eventual time limit stipulation work by having more frantic exchanges as the impending time limit draws closer, with each man kinda just jumping over the other to try to get a quick pinfall attempt while Don hogs the ropes for dear life to survive. There's a great build to the giant heel heat spot by having Don cheap shot out of the ropes and doing his signature middle rope knee drop to the leg which gets admonishment from the ref but also a huge advantage, letting him bully his opponent with some nasty looking whips to the corner to attack the back more for his submission finish. He's protected by having his modified Bow & Arrow finish be clearly in the ropes yet he's so clearly impatient that he just applies it anyway which you could argue tends up costing him the victory since he never gets a chance to reapply the hold afterwards. Shit got super violent in the last minute as Don tries bending the back with a illegal bulldog choke while Roy's throwing fists to the back of Don's head alongside slamming said large head into the turnbuckle before the ref breaks them up and announces the 30 minute draw. This was a super strong outing that showcased Don as the stronger but far less intelligent of the duo, multiple occasions where he could've maybe got a win yet was content to go the easy way with his consistent need to take shortcuts; pretty great performance out of the guy that just makes me wish we had more prime Don Leo in circulation since he seemed like such a unique worker, especially since he's a gigantic dude yet was doing these ridiculous Shawn Michaels-like bumps decades before they would even remotely be in vogue. Roy similarly looked really good here; a prototype of the scrappy punch-happy babyface for decades to come in how he gets over his selling early while not losing too much face, especially in his explosive comebacks where he's throwing really awesome punches. He makes a headlock seem like THE big weapon here against the giant which is a testament to his talent more than anything else. A great example of how to make a draw engaging on multiple levels beyond just filling for time and standing around.

Extremely sharp in the ring and insanely slick at her best (like one of the greatest when it comes to doing just crazy back and forth sequences) but from prior watching of her she seems to have a terrible habit of completely slacking off in B-shows and just doing maybe one impressive spot and completely doss work for everything else. Fell into the trap of awful 2000's style weapon slop-brawling as well so her matches sometimes veered into her just doing heatless outside work/throwing chairs around as opposed to actually working some sort of narrative or structure. I've had matches where she does that spinning kick of hers like 15 times, it's a cool move sure but Christ tone it down a little lol. You can find a decent chunk of her Mexico indie work as of current on Youtube, though having watched some they seem to be pretty nothing affairs. I might stick her on the top 100 though since her best work seems to be plentiful and fun to go through.

don't want to be in the timeline where zack sabre jr gets on before takayama but that's probably how the cards will go

Blame Quackenbush, it got popular in Chikara.

Yeah this was a stinky one folks. "Melissa" is far better known as Cheerleader Melissa and will go on to be one of the real pioneers of women's wrestling in the 2000s and beyond but however she just wasn't ready here to have anything substantial with 1 year working at this point. She'd been given a mini-push by beating a bunch of lower-card acts so she was at least formidable in terms of her rep and we get a couple of spots here where Yoshida is trying her damn well best to give her the room to work, so that's something at least. Melissa has early control with a bunch of week 1 wrestling offence (arm drag, headlock, scoop slam) however quickly concedes it as soon as Yoshida gets on the ground and is allowed to work in her holds to equalise the situation; we get a couple of fun moments where she's just bullying the shit out of her opponent with hair pulling and nasty catch-focused face and arm cranks, the typical Yoshida brilliance as you'd expect out of her even at this point. Melissa has like one hold (front guillotine) and makes sure to spam it when necessary alongside the occasional messy counter. I think the main problem in this was that Melissa just didn't have any convincingly solid offence. Everything felt green or wimpy in regards to it actually looking substantial here from the unimpactful forearms to the weird running front elbow to the face, never here did I buy that she was actually doing any sort of damage. Everything just looked like a sloppy transition. The mat work is probably worse because Melissa can't really do anything in that front so just ends up having to slowly scurry to the ropes most of the time instead of any real interaction between the pair. At the VERY least she pulls out a Lotus Lock into a crucifix pinning position which was the only actually cool spot she did the whole match, but it was like after a vast majority of nothing so this didn't hit nearly as well as it should have done. Melissa gets a couple of obligatory near falls by doing pretty nothing moves until Yoshida punches her in the head a couple of times and throws a big boot/Air Raid combo for a very close near fall of her own. Finish they just went right into by having Melissa answer with a chokeslam that gets no sold and then Yoshida spams submissions for what seems like forever until a deep Spider Twist forces the tap. This just felt really janky, no real chemistry between the two and a lack of experience on one side meant that this always had an annoying stop/start pace to it that never really let up. Yoshida is giving it socks for a fairly nothing undercard and has to be commended for accommodating for her opponent in mind by them pacing a lot of this around her taking big bumps for a rookie and having more focus on slow grindy heat spots to get that aspect over with the crowd. That said.....still isn't good in the end, alas. Should've had this a couple years later.

I imagine if Joe got in a time machine to the 70s and gained a little extra height he would be a pretty beloved upper card workhorse of the era. The guy does the kind of methodical NWA-style sprawling matwork style very well and adapted strongly to the climates he was thrown in, learning how to incorporate more grit and submission work when shoot-style comes knocking and gives him a bunch of opportunities to be a strong hand with a bunch of the greats. I even enjoyed his brief 2010 comeback, for as little as it lasted. Not much of a complex wrestler when it came to psychology or showmanship but if you wanted a guy to straight-face grapple with you for a good 20 to 30 minutes, he was your guy. Not for my top 100 sadly though, sadly.

Great epic peak, feel like she gets a little bit too much flack for her work post-prime though. Her mobility takes a big hit but she makes up for that by hitting just as hard and being very game to push herself with the right people (Aja, Meiko). She also has a fairly fun tag stint with the headbutting GOAT Carlos Amano where they take on a bunch of wildly different duos and I'd say Dynamite despite definitely being the weakest of the links most of the time still shows that there was some quality to be had in her just steamrolling people with huge kicks and massive bombs. Even wrestling with ACTIVE LUNG CANCER she's still got it. Easy top 50 for me.

Tanaka is a weird case for myself. He has some brilliant atheticism and the guy has been a consistent perennial force when it comes to guys who do not age. I've seen him in his late 40's do 450 splashes and bounce around the ring like he totally hasn't had 20+ years of wear and tear on him, tending to have the better performances on a card than many far younger. He also has one of Kendo Kashin's best ever matches (if that means anything) On the other hand the guy has some of the WORST wrestling instincts I've ever seen from someone in GWE consideration; he will repeatedly sell big for a attacked arm or leg before immediately dropping it to do moves with the same limb, doing kicks with a leg that he wasn't able to put any weight on a minute prior. Yoshinari Ogawa gives this man a million lead-ins for him to sell the head or work something explosive but he doesn't do anything and just settles for the usual leg holds/no contact kicks. He really struggles in complex, elaborate settings that require him to do more than just his regular flashy routine which is bizarre for a guy who started in PWFG and had a multi-year stint in Battlarts. He also has some of the weakest performances in company history there as well which is a HUGE - for me since that company was stacked in the 90s. I really struggle to rank him on any top 100 because you only really ever get a certain amount of depth with him.

They spend 99% of the time as midcard heels so I'd say they were midcard, no? I haven't seen anything suggesting they are a net negative to the product either. I bring up Makai Club/Voodoo Murders because they A. Existed during periods of growth (which runs contrary to the narrative presented here) B. Were arguably even worse at their peak (Makai Club were in every main event for a good long while and TARU was immobile even in the peak of VM's push and couldn't work a good singles match) Is it "weird"? idk. I just feel like it's a erroneous point in general to associate a specific faction as being behind a national downturn in business

Says a lot that we're this far into the next millennium and we're still finding great performances out of her like that '83 Jaguar match found out of nowhere recently. Really stellar peak, found her 90's work to be pretty mixed depending on who you ask; some say it's a continuation of that brilliance, others find it dull and much more plodding by comparison. I shan't be that harsh, but I do think that Devil around the 1990's becomes much more effective in tags where her domineering powerhouse work becomes more effective and pronounced by comparison to her more technical side found in the last decade. Now for me I found her hurling people around like sacks of shit really fun, however I can see how that can glare on people compared to the more crazy workrate that they would expect. Her GAEA work I think is when she starts to really show her age wherein she drags down a lot of matches by her lackadaisical pace and horrendous selling, not helped by her occasional dip into nonsensical WWF Undertaker cosplay with the Super Heel shtick which got real old after like the 4th time she was indulging in it. She has a better peak than Aja, but lacks the longevity/versatility that she had, I think. That said, easy top 50 for me.

HoT have a new shirt out every single tour (and they all sell fairly well all things considered if they keep getting made) and there was a grandswell of support for him both during the match and after. They will always gravitate towards native home-grown (or at least perceived to be) talent than those from elsewhere, it's pretty ubiquitous. The main issue is, as mentioned, the Japanese economy is in the toilet right now. None of the major promotions have had particularly amazing success post-COVID (AJPW had a little boost but that's basically all gone) so the smarky idea that it's down to a particular group/individual being pushed is particularly erroneous. There are much bigger problems contributing to NJPW's business than some goofy mid-card heels.

AEW is his prime contract and is the one he'll be undertaking the most. He's "signed" to DDT as well and he has done like a couple of shows per-year. I'm sure this'll lead to a strong title shot at WK but the draw will be Tanahashi ultimately, you could have anyone in that slot and it wouldn't matter all that much. Probably This is simply untrue: many wrestlers in Japanese promotions obtain substantial roles within the companies they frequent especially Tana who's been pivotal to the admin and restructuring of NJPW since the rear-end of Inoki-Ism. He's a CEO with a board to answer to but is nevertheless the CEO. It's a substantially larger issue than it was in, say, 2005 (where it was non-existent bar memes like Kenzo Suzuki) and 2015 (where it was only in exceptional conditions/was mostly non-native stars like AJ). Now that the economy is so weak and COVID has done its damage we're seeing a lot of open season hiring by both major Western companies that rest assured will continue to happen. HoT is fine, it's the same thing as what Voodoo Murders/Makai Club were in the 2000s and other silly heel groups from even earlier than that. They sell a new shirt for them every tour and it seems like they make enough money to necessitate their existence, even if smarks hate their style (which is understandable). If they weren't profitable I imagine they wouldn't be around.