EnviousStupid

If he never has another match again, ending his career on giving Kyle Fletcher the biggest rub in a MOTYC is quite remarkable.

There's a saying that a light which burns twice as bright burns half as long, and I think it can apply to certain wrestlers who never recapture that lightning in their body of work. As it pertains to Foley, while he definitely suffered a physical decline quicker than most, I think he might've been one of the best at maintaining that intangible fire when it counted. He has arguably Orton's career match in 04, Edge's in 06, great matches with Flair in both WWE and TNA.

I don't see it. He's definitely a good wrestler and impressed me when I saw him live a couple years ago, but the peaks are where I struggle to compare him with anyone else I'm expecting to be in contention on my list.

Flirting with my top 25, and certainly a lock for the top half of my list. Has the singles + tag runs that I really value in this project, along with just how many different places he popped up in over his career.

Abdullah the Butcher ought to be in the conversation. Great tags and brawls, but in 1980 he also got to show flashes as a face in Japan opposite The Sheik in their matches. His best singles matches against Terry Funk, Dory Jr., Dick Slater, all arguably happened that year as well. vs Dick Slater (March 28th) vs Terry Funk (April 18th) vs The Sheik (May 2nd) vs Dory Funk Jr (June 29th) vs Terry Funk (November 1st) vs The Sheik (December 1st) w/ Tom Kamata vs Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (December 9th) w/ Tom Kamata vs The Great Mephisto & The Sheik (December 11th)

I assume this is referring to AEW and/or WWE, but the multi-man tag method seems to have worked fine for CMLL.

Incredibly weird match. Also apparently the only singles match these two had together. Interesting start with Kawada dodging and avoiding Vader before overwhelming with kicks to the leg. The ol' chop down a tree tactic. I was very surprised at making Vader the one on the backfoot and Kawada being more dominant. He even tries his own version of Vader punches, despite all of Kawada's punches looking bad. There's a reason we talk about Kawada's kicking and only the kicks when it comes to strikes. Vader opts to give him a thumb to the eye for some space, and I couldn't believe how a monster like Vader decided to do that on the guy most prone to a KO sell in the middle of matches for the last decade. Some very odd choices here. Vader takes control on the outside when given enough space, and for the most part, his work on top is so plodding and slow compared to what you can find from his other matches that year against Akiyama and Kobashi. It's so weird, especially when this is only around 13 minutes. And working over the abdomen of all things? Once he gets Kawada in the corner and can dish out haymakers, the crowd really start roaring for their guy. I wish they had gone that route much earlier in the match though. Really build to the potential breakthrough instead of teasing back to the previous flurries that absolutely worked, even knocking down the big man multiple times. Not a fan of the layout. Vader giving so much in selling whilst not able to be that dominant force we expect on the other end, and that he gave that much to a losing Kawada anyway. Outside of the kicks, a lot of the latter's striking were flubs. The tree chopping thread turned out aimless, as did the damage from the recurring armbar submission. There's enough meat and potatoes to not have me not call it outright bad, but they were not cooking with them.

Sami Zayn and Cesaro/Claudio Castagnoli were #88 and #87 respectively back in 2016. I can't imagine them not making at least a slight jump after another 10 years of active work. Claudio especially.

I try to view a wrestler's work in GWE as purely additive. If they're doing great stuff, it makes up parts and elements of their case. If not, it doesn't. John Cena's recent heel run does little for me in enhancing his claim to GWE, but I don't see it as detracting from what he had built up beforehand. Same with Seth Rollins, Undertaker, Adam Copeland, or whoever else has those lull periods at whatever stage in their careers. For a sporting comparison, I'm not holding Michael Jordan's 2 years with the Washington Wizards against a career that many believe to be as close to perfect as was possible. He still has his accolades, records, stats, etc. that make his case as the 2nd greatest NBA player we've ever seen.

I think the biggest struggle I have with her in the context of GWE is how she winds up being typecast for most of her career in a similar way that Vader wound up being. They had their role and worked to that specific ideal, better than maybe any other wrestlers of the like (potentially a curse of being so good that bookers and whoever else don't want to mess around with something that already works great). And yet despite her showing flashes and examples of what she might also have been capable of, I find myself taking them as more of exceptions to the rules they regularly abided by throughout their careers. It's not quite like a Hansen; someone who fits the archetype but was able to emulate a freight train of sorts in one side of the world while taking incredible beatings on the other, or even just embracing new vulnerabilities overtime that distinguishes from their past work. She absolutely belongs in the discourse for all-time greats, especially with how capable she still is, though I hesitate to put her ahead of some contemporaries like Bull, Chigusa, Meiko, etc. Are there many matches people here know of that show Aja in a different light or doing things that she's not particularly known for at large?

I'm alone on this hill but I thought this was the best Hansen match I've seen that was largely focused around graps and mat wrestling. Starts with Jumbo taking the initiative and giving his own version of the Lariat, then when it's clear Hansen won't play ball like that, he goes for headlocks and takeovers to wear down the larger of the two. Great work over Jumbo's arm as well; we even seen Hansen try an armdrag to remain in control. Considering this is All Japan in 1986, I could not believe my eyes over Jumbo putting on a heel hook, Hansen pulling at the arm, and both rolling to the ropes like it were Chono/Hase 93 G1.

I think there's enough great stuff across all his runs to find each of them adding to his case rather than detracting from it. Maybe not the NOAH criticism that pops up here from time to time but consider that a) it was only 2 matches while still signed to TNA, and b) it's against Misawa in a main event singles match in 2007. I think there were bigger issues than Joe being laughed at (even though it clearly doesn't happen much at all).

A friend of mine made this comparison a few years ago, but AJ does feel like the LeBron James of his generation. Absurdly gifted at a raw level and capable of so much yet stuck inside a promotion that seldom had their shit together enough to make consistently good use of him. Not to say that he wasn't a great wrestler around the time; his ROH/other indie work around the time he wasn't exclusively kept to TNA shows should prove that fact to most. But it's not until 2014 where he takes his talents to greener pastures and becomes undeniable as one of the best in the world.

Perhaps it's because I saw this matchup on the Nitro episode 2 weeks prior, but once Flair came down to even the odds it felt so tedious and drawn out with the heels isolating Sting. Great shine followed by a dull heat segment that sucked the life out of this for me. The finish is still hilarious, dumb and wonderful.

I like her. Effective enough as a babyface and works well in a TV format, but she's somewhat hindered with a gimmick that has no real charisma behind it. She fits the narrative of "good wrestler, but little personality" that Daniel Bryan was (falsely) saddled with. Though I have been impressed by her PLE matches against Nia and Becky in the last year or so.