Ma Stump Puller

After watching that Kawabata match, I definitely have to say he's edging a place in the top 100. Guy took a green as grass ex-sumo who hadn't even been wrestling for a full year to a very well done sub-15 match that didn't drag, had a great balance of offence and comedy, and got great reactions from the crowd who were initially pretty dry for this. That's incredible talent and something I think even some of the bigger names would have issues with, yet gets done here with no struggle.

I think one aspect of Nagata's career that gets overlooked a lot is his NOAH runs. In them, Nagata plays a babyface fighting against the odds and a invading force with one of the smuggest auras I've seen, both excellently while making sure to get over his opponents a ton. His first run has him have a underwhelming bout with Kobashi but also some great hard hitting action against some of their biggest stars, never feeling lesser than them in the process (well, outside of the Kobashi bout, but no one thought he was going to win that anyway) as well as his short lived GHC Tag title run that gets some great personality out of a fairly dry Tanahashi at the time. His second is a complete different dynamic: Nagata is being phased out of the main event scene in NJPW, but also has to then has to do the opposite as NOAH's drastic downturn and lack of star power after Go's departure alongside many other powerhouses forces them to pull from wherever to fill places. He has to be a major Global League contender and then later on has to actually become GHC Champion because of this fact. Despite all of this going on, Nagata has a legit great run with the belt, excluding a shit match with Maybach. He's consistently having fun matches with whomever while also doing NJPW bookings in-between, which is pretty nuts if you ask me. In both of these runs, Nagata excels in his roles and manages to be a big workhorse, giving NOAH a proper heel as his title run goes further and further and he, in turn, gets more and more cocky. Here are some definitive suggestions for these runs. Highlighted are particular high points. 1st Run Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (17.02.2002) Masao Inoue vs. Yuji Nagata (14.05.2003) Akira Taue & Takashi Sugiura vs. Takuma Sano & Yuji Nagata (01.06.2003) Akira Taue vs. Yuji Nagata (06.06.2003) Jun Akiyama vs. Yuji Nagata (16.07.2003) Kenta Kobashi vs. Yuji Nagata (12.09.2003: this is quite good, just not as perhaps interesting as it could have been) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yuji Nagata vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda (30.11.2003) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yuji Nagata vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (06.12.2003) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yuji Nagata vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (10.01.2004) 2nd Run Jun Akiyama & KENTA vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuji Nagata (24.07.2010) Go Shiozaki vs. Yuji Nagata (03.11.2012) KENTA vs. Yuji Nagata (17.11.2012) Takashi Sugiura vs. Yuji Nagata (26.10.2013) Takeshi Morishima vs. Yuji Nagata (10.11.2013) KENTA vs. Yuji Nagata (07.12.2013) Takashi Sugiura vs. Yuji Nagata (08.03.2014) Mohammed Yone vs. Yuji Nagata (17.05.2014: this is a carryjob, but it is quite good regardless) Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yuji Nagata (05.07.2014) Chris Hero vs. Yuji Nagata (18.10.2014) Mikey Nicholls vs. Yuji Nagata (21.10.2014) Masato Tanaka vs. Yuji Nagata (04.11.2014) Takashi Sugiura vs. Yuji Nagata (07.11.2014)

I definitely think this thread needs a update. At the time this was posted, Zack was still in his Indie-riffic tendencies, submission spamming, incredibly goofy matchups and a tendency to just sorta stick to a one-note style that while he was definitely fairly solid at, he just kinda....didn't do a lot that felt rational, if that makes any sense. Yes, his NOAH work was definitely a low spot for him for the most part outside of some fairly good Ogawa tags (and I side that more with Ogawa being, well, really solid than anything else) but for what it's worth, I think he's stepped up a lot since then. He's proven he can be a shit-eating heel and a surprisingly effective tweener in the Tekkers, had some incredible G1 performances, as well as a very underrated indie run of tip-top matches in the mid 2010's along with a fun stint in EVOLVE. Despite how objectively trash the NJPW tag team scene is at the moment, he's been a consistent high spot with whomever is against him, even getting the dreadful SANADA to something presentable. There's a huge case for him being a top 100 at the moment, let alone if he keeps his level of quality up for a few more years afterwards.

I got a big soft spot for the guy. Great tag specialist, solid in the fundamentals but could work a crowd incredibly well for himself and was such a gift at character work that he actively chose to hide his technical gifts in matches in order to play a more effective antagonist. The fact that he could keep up with a prime RVD while playing such a slimy heel is incredibly impressive on his part, and a true sign of his brilliance. For what it's worth, even when he was reduced to mostly working mostly less significant matches in his AJPW material around about the mid 90's, he still stood out from the pack with his abilities: I mean for god sake he got the crowd to chant for Giant Kimala lol. That's a momentous task to be had, especially when sharing the ring with guys like Kobashi and whatnot. People always go over his usual biggest hits but I feel like there's a lot of underrated material that doesn't always get picked up on, especially his match series with a pre Rat Boy Ogawa and whatnot. He's a lot better as a tag worker but he could still throw out some solid material in singles. Definitely has a spot on the top 100 for me.

He's a great talker, I'll give him that. Guy can work a crowd like nobody's business. In terms of workrate, he's a lot more iffy and tends to not be capable of carrying very well against opponents that are below his skill level, especially when he's demotivated and can't be bothered. Like a good few other wrestlers, you can tell when Punk doesn't care and when he does, namely by how he conducts himself in the ring. Sure, many have this quality: it's only natural after all: but Punk is particularly noticeable. This has the opposite effect when he DOES care: the Cena series, Joe bouts and Undertaker WM fight are all examples of a motivated Punk giving some big fire in his responses. Punk is far better as a heel than as a face. I never brought him as a face personally: he's just not really built for that role in general, and that's fine. Him suiting a crazed zealot or a egomaniac just comes more naturally, and he makes heat so easy to grasp that it's almost insulting at points. IWA crowds hated the crap out of him at points. I just hate when he tried the "cool heel" stuff he tended to lean into at times and more the out and out mean heel he showcases a lot during his early days. Like workrate wise, he's painfully average and likely would've been dumped in the undercard of any major Japanese promotion, which is probably why he never attempted to do so like his peers at the time. That and, well, most of his moveset was stolen from other guys anyway, so he probably would've got confused reactions like Joe did when he went over to NOAH for those disastrous matches. His indie stuff from what I've seen has mostly aged well.....most, anyway. There's annoying tendencies that pop up that do get annoying, way too many overkill finishes for one. Would Punk get a top 100 spot? Eh. While he has really big high spots in his career, there's a lot of, well, nothing in-between, and even those high spots are marred by bad payoffs or whatnot. If we were doing top 100 promos, he'd have a spot easily. He might have one in general but it would need to be quite high up given there are countless acts that can run circles around him. His current AEW work doesn't really set me one way or another: he's had good matches at best and completely dull ones at worst, I'll need to see how he does when he inevitably moves up the card. I want to see what a Danielson could do with current Punk mainly.

In his prime, he was very competent in the ring and when he was with guys who could really squeeze something from a good hand, he could have some pretty solid matches, not gonna lie. I think if someone honestly went back to his earlier days and did a deep dive, they could very easily get a list of good to great showings that he was in, especially during his tag days with Punk, whom he worked well with. How much of that is his own talent and how much is him sharing the ring with some of the best of that era (including Styles, Joe, Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, etc etc) is another matter through. I hate his comedy shtick so much. He's the main reason why I usually skip a lot of undercard comedy matches in the first place: repetitive bullshit that relies on his opponents looking like complete dumbasses and essentially burying them for a cheap pop. For some bizarre reason NOAH kept having him be showcased going over legit top talent for no fucking reason, stunk up the ring every time he wasn't sharing it with Hero alongside him. It's sad that he's the most well known comedy worker when there's guys that completely trump his nonsense with half of the opportunities he has. No way he gets in the top 300, let alone anything near the main list. Guy has tried so hard to get rid of the comedy ceiling and he just can't now, even when back in RoH and having all of the resources and experience to do so: that is a true sign of bad character work.

One match that I would highly recommend is actually her last official match back in Marvelous against Iroha. Despite the fact that she's obviously very limited, she puts in a great performance against her younger apprentice with raw intensity and crowd connection. It's a solid showing for her ability to work a match without her amazing ring skill that she had in earlier decades and not only do well, but knock it out of the park while doing pretty little in terms of big workrate spots. It's a bit hard to find but definitely give it a watch, it's very good.

Got a link? The only match I seen of them against each other was a incredibly rushed showing in SWS.

I love the guy in AJPW undercard 6-man tags with his delayed selling and grumpy uncle vibes but I've seen nothing of his prime work that suggests he's a top 100 recommendation at all. Even at his peak, he was always limited as to what he could and couldn't do and usually needed someone a lot more competent to lead him to a good match. He was a good prototypical brawler type but exactly HOW good he was will never probably be known fully because all of his early nasty cage stuff that got him his rep never made it to tape. Sure, he was a ace, but he wasn't a particularly interesting one. Frankly, Elgin and Momota have way better track records (especially Elgin, who is deservingly more solid than you think he is from his comedy stuff) to work with, but that's another topic for another day.

You know what? Fuck it. Time for some match writeups about Sapp. This is probably a terrible idea but it's worth showcasing some of his bright (ish) spots. Not including his more obvious solo showings with Nakamura or Akiyama, if only because people know about them already. Danshoku Dino vs. Bob Sapp (DDT Peter Pan, 24.07.2011) This is billed as a "Special Rules Match" AKA it's MMA, so rounds and breaks here. Dino is surprisingly alright here, playing a blend of goofy comedic act that thinks he's Inoki all of a sudden and a legitimate underdog babyface when things go to pot. Sapp plays along with Dino's antics until he gets hit in the balls, getting him mad. This involves some big slams, some funny outside brawling and even beating up people not involved in the match because he's that mad. Dino gets his revenge in the second round with....a combo of low blows? He then does a Dragon Screw notion while holding on to Sapp's groin, which was pretty funny. Sapp's selling is also super solid as he shrieks in terror while this destruction is going on and frails around frantically to escape Dino's grasp. One thing I can say about this match is that Sapp is perfectly game to play along with all of this silly shit and making it as exaggerated as possible. He gets what wrestling is about ultimately, which is more of a pantomime than anything else. I mean ffs, he even gets a Danshoku Driver here no problem. Through his offence is mostly pretty basic, the crowd eat up his last domination section here in the third round as he takes back control: him making fun of the consistent Dino chants gets him big heat as well. While Sapp's offence is, again, basic, he does nail a fantastic Kobashi-lite standing lariat that takes Dino's head off for a near 10 count. Eventually he misses a second one, gets Dino'd with all of his signature spots, and then trapped in a Gedo Clutch for the win. Obviously your mileage on Dino will vary but for what it's worth, this is a good example of a near perfect Bob Sapp match: all of the main spots are done by someone else, he gets in his big offence and pops the crowd, plays a solid monster, etc. The comedic stuff is also well done and Sapp is a good sport, selling some incredibly goofy offence far better than a lot of wrestlers could. Aja Kong, Atsushi Onita & Shogun Okamoto vs. Bob Sapp, Jaguar Yokota & TARU (ZERO-ONE Bob Sapp Current Blast! 12.05.2017) Honestly, I loved this if only for how trashy it was. It's such a bizarre matchup that it somehow works, and even despite the conditions, Aja Kong and Yokota do actually have some decent exchanges with each other workrate wise, and Yokota was way more mobile than you'd expect her to be here. While everyone else was at different degrees of limited, they do as best as they can here with them. Bob Sapp is a good giant to have throw around the other guys here, Onita gets a fairly good pop when he gets his comeback going (despite some truly terrible stunners and double suplex attempts) Okamoto was a fine third party brawler, and TARU was a mega shit heel as per standard, consistently getting in the way of the other team's big efforts. As a match objectively, this is a big old trash brawl with some of the most awkward pacing around. Subjectively, it's a dumb hardcore bout that manages to be charming despite the circumstances: it's entertaining, and I think that's the main aim to come into this with. Bob Sapp is obviously quite beaten up by this point but he suits a cartoony Onita-style foil way better than you would expect. Bob Sapp vs. HG (HUSTLEMANIA, 25.11.2007) This is another one where Sapp's ability to play the monster in danger comes into play here. He's fighting against HG, who's probably HUSTLE's biggest home-grown star and very much over, even if somewhat limited wrestling wise. Sapp spends most of the match on top with his usual big chops, punches, and slams, but also sells pretty strong for HG's dumb offence, most of which is focused around the groin or using it as a weapon, namely countering a powerbomb into a Triangle Choke into a pin, or just slamming it into his face at times lol. Even if his selling at points is somehow doing too little or too much (like he barely budges from a full on dropkick to the back, but a simple enzuigiri sends him flying out of the ring at top speeds) he's pretty reliable here when it comes to making HG's comebacks look pretty solid. He eventually takes over with his usual power moves, but also nails a actually pretty great front dropkick that gets some good height on it. Needless to say, very impressive. Eventually Sapp hits a final powerbomb to end things. This is a nice short match that cuts a good bit of filler and just goes into the pair hitting moves on each other, albeit Sapp dominating for the most part. He puts over HG as having the skills to knock him around, but ultimately falls just short of handling The Beast in action. Not a amazing match but a good short bout. Bob Sapp & Monster Soldier vs Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka (HUSTLE TOUR, 16.10.2008) This is really only here because Tenryu goes nuts and hits a top rope flipping senton to the outside at the start. For what reason, I don't know, but it's incredibly awesome to see in action. Monster Soldier and co all put on fairly solid performances, but one can argue that Sapp is the guy that functions as the glue of the match here. He plays the inpatient hot tag when Monster Soldier gets worked over against the pair, he gets big heat when he interrupts the two fan favourites during their offence, and while his worked punches are pretty bad, both Koshinaka and Tenryu get good exchanges out of him, in particular the latter: Korakuen roars when Tenryu and Sapp start throwing hands and his eventual big suplex gets big cheers from the crowd, especially after Sapp had been terrorising the pair all match long. This is another well built match that plays to Sapp's strengths, in which he's fairly good at in general, albeit his strikes are pretty bad lol. The crowd really got into this one, but I felt like it wasn't just because they were well receptive to the wrestlers here, it was also because of some good pacing on their part and some fairly basic heel/face dynamics that got the crowd invested into this. Definitely check out this out for a fun outing. Bob Sapp & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura (NJPW Yokohama Dead Out, 03.11.2003) I mentioned this above as a example of a proper good Bob Sapp match, and I wanted to go into more detail about why this is. For a bonus, Nishimura was doing double god damn duty here as he was also working the opening 6-man card prior to this. In terms of Sapp in general, he works well here with Nakanishi and Nishimura for different reasons. For Nakanishi, both men can work the big powerhouse style fairly solid, and even if Nakanishi was never particularly great, he pulls a solid job here with his facials, completely selling Sapp as a complete monster despite him being quite green (I mean he's only wrestled two matches in a year before this, so understandable) but for what it's worth, Sapp's offence looks completely fine for the most part and he fits his role quite well. You'd think Sapp: a big power wrestler who isn't really known for technical work whatsoever: and Nishimura, who's, well, all about technical work probably wouldn't click together, but they probably have some of the best exchanges here. Nishimura takes him down to the mat and does his usual routine, but Sapp legitimately keeps up well with the guy, even doing his signature handstand at one point. The spot where Sapp just has enough and lifts him from the floor to the turnbuckle before doing making fun of Nishimura's "clean break" chest slap gets a great response from the crowd and was pretty cool. They later go into Nishimura's test of strength sequence, with Sapp eventually just having enough of his shit and throwing him right over his head. While Nakamura is obviously the better worker here, he spends most of the match being worked over by the other pair due to a shoulder injury, with Sapp only being able to hit small pockets of offence when him and Nakanishi get into it with some brawls. For what it's worth, what Sapp does here works, even if you can equate some of that to his opponents being solid foils for him. He regardless does wrestle good here for his role, and gets some big reactions when he hits huge power moves on the pair. All in all, while Bob Sapp is a meme (and for obvious reasons given his insanely huge push in the early 2000's) he does eventually mature into a actually half decent worker, capable of being a serious brick of a monster while also working a comedic side that's very underrated. He kinda reminds me of Vince in a way that Vince obviously isn't a very good wrestler, but he's very entertaining to watch and is willing to make a complete fool of himself for the sake of making the match better. Definitely not top 100 in terms of workrate, but he's also got a unfair stigma around him that he doesn't really deserve. Get someone in with him that knows what they are doing, and Sapp can work way better than you think.

If this was "top 100 draws" in wrestling, Sapp would be in a fair position for himself given how insanely popular he was as a pop-culture figure. For what it's worth, I think he's not the worst of the worst and has had some fairly decent matches when paired with people who can bump around for him. Him and Osamu Nishimura actually had a pretty good sequence together back in NJPW, through I think that was more Nishimura being a amazing carry than Sapp's own qualities. Limited, sure, wouldn't get nowhere near a top 100, but he's got some stuff worth checking out: in particular his match series against Manabu Nakanishi and some of his IGF work if only for how bizarre some of the matches were. He also had a ZERO-ONE exploding barbed wire baseball bat 6-man with Onita and co that was pretty entertaining.

I definitely agree with this. Seeing Sakuraba do NOAH-style strike exchanges with Marufuji and just outright letting him chop him as hard as possible with no resistance makes zero fucking sense. When he isn't doing that, he's doing incredibly slow, tenseless technical work that gets overextended a lot. He's great in short bursts of action but anything paced longer is a struggle.

I do remember watching some very early Kong and being impressed by how good she was already for someone who had maybe a year or so actual ring work at that point. The main issue is that most of her Japan work came during a time where Joshi wrestling in general was on a major downturn and actual footage was incredibly hard to check out. I'll need to do a deep dive soon to see what's up with that these days. That being said, she's a great sprint worker and a solid monster role when paired with someone who can play a equally impressive underdog alongside her. Top 100 material? Me personally at the moment, I don't see it.

Thanks for the interesting thoughts on the matter. I'm obviously not incredibly privy to the exact consensus people have exactly on this site: but generally I see Taue being either omitted a lot outside of the usual big hits people cite or just outright ignored at points, especially on more popular forums. This is a baseline opinion that's obviously not centred to any one niche area naturally. The rest of your post does bring up good points in all fairness, I'll need to think those through. That being said, Akiyama is one of those guys who I stylistically don't really like, especially with his later NOAH work and beyond. He's still obviously brilliant for the reasons stated but I don't really get any connection from his work. I get your point, I just don't agree with it personally.

Thanks! One bit of extra context for the last match that might be of interest is that while most of Kea's Heavyweight Trial Series wasn't televised, we do get a full match with him and Misawa as well. To note, while that match is still fairly good especially with Misawa bumping like a madman for all of Mossman's offence and that getting him over because of sheer name value, it isn't nearly as dynamic as the Taue bout was in terms of storytelling and whatnot. I think there's a fascinating contrast in that to make between the pair in terms of wrestling philosophies.

Ogawa is a guy that you REALLY need to look into to get the true value out of in the first place. I know a lot of people write him off as some basic, undercard journeyman that only got where he was because of a certain association with a certain big time ace at the time taking him up the card. It's not like his lackluster appearance and tendency to not be very dynamic pre-feud with Akiyama does him any favours in that regard. However, his charm quickly pops up when you see just how damn versatile Ogawa is. From dirty bully beating down the other Jr's in his way to fluke champion to giant killer to tag specialist to a grizzled vet hosting his own technical torture chamber, he's the prototypical wrestling everyman in that he's fitted every booking slot you can think of over his career, and still continues to do so even to this day. He's super underrated technically as well: the guy does things I've never seen from anyone else, and unlike other technical oriented wrestlers, he doesn't show off or suspend realism like a Sabre Jr or a Yoshida tend to do at times. If he needs to pull something fancy, he will, but he doesn't need to do so when he has other, simpler means. He's all about practicality: either by a cheap roll up or spamming backdrops to death, Ogawa is all about grabbing the win by any means necessary, and you see that perfectly in his GHC run, as well as his Jr stints. The man has no standards and is willing to go to the dirtiest, darkest lengths possible to win. The real genius is that he can make this a babyface OR a heel story, and both are seamlessly organic. I could go on about his selling or incredible dynamics as a tag duo with Misawa or Sabre but needless to say, I can't not have him be top 100. He's done way, way too much to say otherwise. People know his greatest hits, so I'll throw out some more off the wall match suggestions. Deeply recommend checking these out. Ogawa vs Kaito Kiyomiya I (NOAH, 13.06.2021) Great showcase of modern Ogawa in action. Kaito tries playing Ogawa's own game in a bid to get back his momentum after a crushing loss to old man Mutoh, namely by trying to exhaust him in headlocks and whatnot. He's trying to show off, prove that his big loss was just a fluke and he's in control. This is the case...for about the first 10 minutes anyway, the rest is Ogawa just slowly breaking Kaito down with either some nasty stomps to the head, tying his legs up in painful ways, or just being a shit in general. There's a few points here where Kaito makes big comebacks and Ogawa sells amazingly, truly placing himself in danger before eventually outsmarting Kaito when he tries pulling from Mutoh's playbook in a panic and gets demolished for making such a mistake, eventually losing in the same manner he did in that match by being completely outwitted. This was mentioned as a potential MOTY for 2021 and while I don't quite agree, it's definitely a sleeper hit. Their second match together is also worth checking in on as well. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (NOAH, 17.03.2019) Such is the state of NOAH that matches like these get buried. Maru is one of those guys that I get people liking but I've never truly dug outside of a few matches here and there, especially later on his career when he turns into a leg-slap spammer that seems to have one note matches all the time. Ogawa and him have some fairly great chemistry through, and it comes off well here, namely in both men working technical. Maru works the arm, Ogawa the neck, and the majority of the match is them selling those effects over time while pulling out flashy counters and whatnot. This turns into more of a regular Maru style match after a while but even then, Ogawa's crazy roll ups + Maru's general insanity in finishing stretches makes this into a really well paced bout that appeals to both men's strengths a good bit here, more so thanks to Ogawa being able to really sell the effects of his arm being attacked a ton: you buy his opponent getting the advantage because of that. HAYATA vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (NOAH, 04.01.2020) A common complaint about Ogawa is that people allege that his slow, technical-oriented limb work isn't very compelling or exciting to watch. This match just outright throws that out of the window as Ogawa gets HAYATA, a pretty middling Jr who has had direct issues in connecting with the crowd INCREDIBLY over, despite the fact that they weren't exactly hyped for this in the first place. This is a basic narrative of HAYATA's speed and youth against Ogawa's experience and how HAYATA's speed gets him a big advantage at first, but Ogawa eventually picks him apart with holds, and through the crowd isn't into it at first, Ogawa slowly gets them into it by consistently hammering in his dominance, until they realise that the champ might actually lose: by that point, every near fall becomes a big deal, and HAYATA gets some sensational cheers as he throws out as much as humanly possible despite the damage. Ogawa's opponent sells a ton for this in turn, sure, but it is Ogawa's approach that drags the crowd into this until they reach a fever pitch at the finishing section. Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW, 27.11.1999) This is a really neat gem that doesn't get much credit at all. Honda and Inoue are two guys who honestly weren't particularly great at this point at all. Honda would get surprisingly solid when the spotlight was on him in NOAH, but as of now he's a goofy mid-card act. Inoue is...well, Inoue, albeit he's way better here than you would expect. Why pick this out then? Basically, Ogawa tries to work fancy with Inoue with the security of Misawa at his side, gets his ass beat when he realises that Inoue is a lot tougher than he thought, and then has to spend the majority of the match selling for two guys who aren't exactly well known for devastating offence or being compelling on top. Regardless, Ogawa actually manages to get this narrative over! The crowd really get into this, especially when Inoue and Honda start pulling out the big signature spots and Ogawa has to not only survive, but also help out his partner out of some surprisingly dangerous situations. It's a great example of Ogawa playing a underdog babyface, but also a established act trying to hold on to that spot against a pair that are willing to do anything to move up in the Tag League, so he plays up his desperateness in trying to protect that with everything he's got on top of everything else. Even some of the best could not make this work, especially with a very much B-show mode Misawa hanging around, but yet, this somehow functions without a hitch.

Sure, I just get a bit lazy sometimes with these lol. I'll edit them in, give me a sec.

Welp, guess I've gotta stake something here. I'm not gonna act like big Johnny was a consistent workrate machine but I do think people underestimate him in terms of how essential he was to the AJPW scene, especially in the mid to late 90's. Ace goes from being mostly a third party figure who is mostly known for refining a early Kobashi with some title gold to having three successful pairings: one with Williams, the other with Kobashi collectively in GET before breaking up and creating Movement, of which has him get Bart Gunn to some of his best tag work since...ever, really. Through he was never the big singles star that I think they were grooming him to be, Ace pulls out some, well, ace work as a tag specialist that had tremendous success, especially for a guy who's best known work is arguably outside of his prime. Watching daily AJPW content, this becomes really apparent as he's mostly involved in some form of high-card match doing his thing. He's almost omniscient in how he almost always has something to do. Sure, was there some carrying involved? 100%. Did he get some of his initial success from backstage bias? Yep. The fact is that Ace got REALLY fucking over, and you see that a ton in his high-stakes bouts, especially when pairing with Kobashi. Both men are incredibly well regarded by the crowd and everyone loses their shit whenever Ace gets his signature comeback sequence from a hot tag, or nailing his big moves. Obviously the guy has his negatives: he's a complete goof in terms of promos, his look is pretty shoddy, and he has no real measure of success outside of the AJPW bubble despite multiple attempts. That being said, while I probably wouldn't have him particularly low on my list, he's definitely one to consider in terms of consistently being pretty solid workrate wise and being able to adapt to a changing wrestling climate, namely AJPW moving away from more brawl-orientated scraps to more athletic displays. If you can appreciate that, then perhaps he can fit in on a top 100. Some (late game) Ace you should be watching (bolded are particular highlights) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton (09.06.2000) Johnny Ace & Mike Barton vs Jun Akiyama and Mossman (15.04.2000) Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (23.07.1999) Johnny Ace & Mike Barton vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (09.06.1999) Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (04.12.1998) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace (27.11.1998) Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (21.11.1998) Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (23.08.1998) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (05.06.1998) Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen & Vader (01.05.1998) Johnny Ace vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (28.02.1998) Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi (21.03.1998, through I wouldn't recommend this personally I've heard others say it was good, albeit their 1995 encounter is better) Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (23.11.1997) Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (21.10.1997) Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (25.07.1997) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (27.05.1997) Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1997) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (30.11.1996) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Steve Williams (22.11.1996) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (16.11.1996) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & The Patriot (12.10.1996) Danny Kroffat, Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Giant Kimala, Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (28.09.1996) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (05.09.1996) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (07.06.1996) Johnny Ace, Lacrosse, Patriot & The Eagle vs. Kenta Kobashi, Kentaro Shiga, Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako (This one is very fun) (22.01.1996) Johnny Ace vs. The Patriot (24.07.1995) Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi (26.05.1995) Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (13.04.1995) Akira Taue, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa & Stan Hansen (02.04.1995) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (04.03.1995) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (02.01.1995)

I can get why people would think he'd be a good fit, but for me, I feel like he got really good way too late: it didn't help with the fact that NO FEAR, by far his biggest thing he's known for, quickly fell apart as Asako retired after his traumatic neck injury and Takayama was being pushed elsewhere, literally too big for the group anymore. He was just sorta stuck in limbo afterwards, floating around in lesser promotions, occasionally showing up here and there but mostly in nothing matches. His pre-breakout stuff is pretty eh as well: Omori as a bland babyface with zero flavour does him nothing with the crowd and while he does have some good matches on the AJPW circuit, he's mostly just the fall guy/the one that bumps a lot, especially when working with older guys. I can appreciate that fact as the function of a good hand, but still, he's JUST a good hand. Kobashi seems to be the only one that gets anything out of him in singles for the longest time. He's a good tag specialist and can play the hot babyface leading the charge or the dirty heel that'll do anything to get ahead, best used alongside stronger acts workrate wise. Omori is a good brawler but he needs a greater opponent to bounce off of in the ring, and he's kinda middling in anything that's not a scrappy brawl or stiff striking. If I could make a comparison, he's basically in the role of Akitoshi Saito: loyal workhouse, good in tags, can be brought to something truly great with the right man leading, but he's a lot more underwhelming than you'd expect from someone with the rich history he has. Even his TC run, as short as it was, was incredibly forgetful. It would take a revelation for him to even get a whiff of the top 100.

Taue is incredibly underrated, and it bugs me to death. Sure, he doesn't have as many high points as the other Pillars: he has no definitive singles title run outside of a kinda middling Triple Crown reign that's more known for how it ends than how it actually was as a whole: but what he does have is incredible ring presence and psychology. Everything Taue does in the ring makes sense to his character: he's a big dude who throws around the smaller guys without abandon, he's a bully who makes sure to get in the way of anyone else mounting offence, even if he's not the legal man. When you look at the many six-man tags and general work, Taue stands out as a supreme ringleader, keeping everything in line, even with those who usually aren't particularly fantastic. He can be a masterful babyface, either a young hotshot aiming against the big bruisers, or a war-weary vet battling against a new generation of scrappy guys. He's so good at making narratives in his matches and sticking to them regardless of the outcome. Here are some Taue matches you might've not considered before showcasing this: Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Rikio (NOAH 2005) Rikio's title run isn't getting over, despite Misawa and Kobashi giving the poor lad wins in big main event slogs. Most people know about this already: Rikio was a failure in terms of main event stuff, namely because of a true lack of charisma. Taue comes in at the last second to be his rival, and he takes advantage of this, teasing the crowd that he (might) just lose this despite his best efforts. Despite Taue by this point being banged up, he delivers a hellacious performance and hits all of his usual big notes while selling his vulnerability. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 2000) Taue goes into this incredibly injured (namely his shoulder and some smaller issues) and has to play the plucky underdog against two guys who don't give him a inch to work with. This is essentially giving a extended look into Taue selling his injuries, struggling to fight back as Omori rips away at his bad shoulder with malice and whatnot. Takayama steals his bully routine, consistently gets in shit when he's just about to get a comeback or tag out. He paces himself greatly here so that when he gets that hot tag and starts throwing out everything he possibly can do, the crowd completely eat it up like he's just won the lottery. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace (AJPW 1998) Gunn and Ace are vultures here, picking away at Kawada. They can't collectively beat him, but with Ace on the outside wearing him down, Gunn in the ring keeping their momentum up, Kawada is soon barely able to run to the ropes, let alone fight. Why mention this? Because Taue does some great work on the apron, consistently saving Kawada's ass from near falls, getting amped up when he's able to recover, and even putting himself in danger (namely having to quickly risk damage by crawling to save Kawada after a big double suplex) when he does get in, it's great: big offence, huge cheers, only stopped when he gets a bit too ahead of himself and gets a Ace DDT off a chokeslam. Again, Taue barely shows up here and he's still able to deliver some great work, despite not even being in the ring for the most part. Akira Taue vs. Maunakea Mossman (AJPW 1998) Mossman/Kea gets some pretty harsh criticism at points, unfairly at times. One thing that I can agree on is that he wasn't very interesting outside of workrate: he didn't really have anything for crafting stories in the ring and his charisma was....ehh. Not exactly anything to talk about. This match is short, but Taue gives the guy something to work with here, namely the fact that Mossman at this point is moving to a Heavyweight, and this is essentially his Trial Series, to get him over as one in the eyes of the crowd. Most guys wrestle normal bouts here, giving and taking offence, taking it easy. Taue tries this for a bit, takes some big offence until he basically gets fed up and starts beating the crap outta him: DDT's on the mat, boots to the face, big brain chops, you name it. Taue has no respect for this little Jr who thinks he's a giant killer and he really wants him to know it as well, even daring Mossman to throw out his usual kicks to no effect. This gets Mossman over as well: the small pockets of room where he throws out as much as humanly possible are met with strong reactions. The result is obvious, but Taue almost convinces those watching that he might just....lose here, and that's not easy to do by any means. I could go on all day, but needless to say, Taue kicks big ass. The top 20 more than does him fine on my list.

I'm gonna try to make the case for Albright being at least on the top 100. First off, I'll agree with some of the sentiments here: he's a bit of a lame duck, and when paired with someone who can't take his huge ass suplexes (I.E. a Hansen) he struggles immensely. He's far from a natural in the ring and he quickly gets booked away from the main event after a fairly underwhelming Misawa TC defence. However, when you are going through weekly AJPW tapings, looking at the same guys over and over, Albright is one of the few guys that stays consistently entertaining, at least for myself. He's a great monster heel when he's manhandling the smaller lads, terrorising the Super Generation Army or whatnot, completely wrecking them with big suplexes and slams. Sure, he's NOT charismatic and you definitely can't build a match around him, but he plays a critical role in the Triangle of Power as Williams's vicious partner in crime and supporting act in his later years, getting some really good matches out of someone who was, quite frankly, starting to break down a fair bit physically and wasn't the man he was in prior years. He's a great upper card tag worker and has made some truly bizarre team-ups (him and Sabu) work well. Here are most of his highlight matches in AJPW, in bold being the ones where he particularly shines (please note that I haven't checked out Albright's debut year yet so there's probably a few missing) Gary Albright, Maunakea Mossman & Scorpio vs. George Hines, Johnny Ace & Mike Barton (1999) Gary Albright & Vader vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (1999) Akira Taue & Jun Izumida vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (1998) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (1998) Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda (1998) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Steve Williams (1998) Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (1997) Akira Taue, Tamon Honda & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright, Steve Williams & The Lacrosse (1997) Kenta Kobashi Johnny Ace & Maunakea Mossman vs Steve Williams, Gary Albright/The Lacrosse (1997) Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (1997) Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (basically all of their matches together: 1995, 1996, and then one in 1997, albeit that one is weaker than the others) Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (1997) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 1997) Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (1996) Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (1996) Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (1996) Gary Albright, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (1996) Gary Albright vs. Jun Akiyama (1996) Gary Albright vs. Masanobu Fuchi (1996) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Stan Hansen (they have two matches together in 1996, both worth a watch) This isn't including just generally alright or decent matches (of which there's a fair chunk) as well as his shooty work in UWF, of which some have claimed is of better quality overall before he had his fissy fit against Tamura and essentially ruined whatever chances they had at continuing. All in all, the idea that he was a slow tank that had to be led to good quality matches is incredibly untrue, the man could work quite well for himself, hopefully this list helps in dispelling that.

Don Arakawa Controversial, but Arakawa deserves, at the very least, a crack at nominations. He's one of the most consistent comedy wrestlers ever, and that's coming from someone who groans at that style in general. Under the comedy work is a pretty technical hand who can almost universally take any act and get them to a decent match: a lot of his (documented) SWS work is getting random NJPW guys who are barely out of the Dojo to presentable (or at times even fairly good) matches. He's the perfect opening guy and remained as such for way, way longer than you would expect. That being said, he's had some particularly fun showings when allowed to get his hair down a little, and his weird out of his depth persona when entering shoot style stuff is very entertaining. Don Arakawa vs. The Cobra (NJPW, 1985) Don Arakawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (PWFG, 1993) Carl Greco & Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa (Bridge of Dreams, 1995) Don Arakawa & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Fugo Fugo Yumeji & Kuroge Wagyuta (ZERO-ONE, 2002) Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (ZERO-ONE, 2003) Don Arakawa vs. Munenori Sawa (Big Mouth Loud, 2006) Don Arakawa vs Osamu Kido (Big Mouth Loud, 2006)

I've gotten a huge appreciation for the man as I've slowly clawed through his content. If one thing is true, it's that he tries to make every match he's in better. Random AJPW 6-Man tags where most of the guys involved can barely bump or do moves? Sure, he can settle with that. Taking a 70+ Dory Funk to some of his best exchanges in decades in singles or tag matches? Yep, that as well. Taking guys like a super green Ryota Hama or Bas to some of their highlights workrate wise at the time? Not a issue. Going a full 30 minutes with Kentaro Shiga of all people, and getting probably one of his best matches ever out of the guy? Somehow done with ease. He's one of those guys that can be fitted in anywhere as a consistently reliable force, and while his formula gets pretty stale (especially when with someone who can't really work his pace without making it look forced) there's no doubting that he's a top act and should've at least been given a "thank you" run somewhere major. Top 30, no question about it. It's only the lack of a true top run that stops him being further down.