EnviousStupid

Easily. To be fair though, matwork wasn't a prominent part of the Pillars' wrestling style through the 90s, and Akiyama hadn't suffered as much wear and tear compared to the core four. The amateur wrestling background shines more from him post-Exodus and, like you said, he still shows an aptness for grappling late in his career.

He's flirting with my top 25. Just has so much great work across the board, still probably being among the best in AEW/ROH/CMLL/wherever the hell he decides to work. Biggest thing I'd criticise him for is how rigid and awkward he can sometimes come across as in moments of his matches, but the broad strokes are consistently strong and he honestly has an abundance of stellar moments that always leave me impressed. The man is 45 years old and still performing at a high level, still showing remarkable athletic ability.

Might be flirting with my top 50. His shtick still being effective in modern WWE is something I can't say about other active GWE nominees signed there. Plenty of great tag work alongside the top-tier singles matches before leaving the indie scene. One of those guys that I feel would have a strong batting average for random match theory: he has ways of reigning more indulgent wrestlers in on their most grating tendencies, even in matches that go way longer than should be justified. A special big worker in an era deprived of them.

I feel confident calling him the best I've ever seen with too limited amount of footage to consider on my list. But I'd implore everyone not familiar with him to seek out all his available matches. vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (December 9th 1975) vs. Dory Funk Jr. (December 15th 1975) vs. The Destroyer (December 17th 1975) vs. Giant Baba (December 18th 1975) w/ Billy Robinson vs. Akihisa Takachiho & Mighty Inoue (December 2nd 1977) w/ Billy Robinson vs. The Funks (December 6th 1977) w/ Billy Robinson vs. Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (December 14th 1977)

Maki Ito An unconventional pick, but someone who I feel deserves a lot more credit than she gets in the ways she defines her character, plays off other wrestlers, and has the ability to elevate any multi-person match she's part of purely because of those aforementioned traits. Someone who has already exceeded expectations given their background, and who has found popularity in every promotion she's worked for. It's fair to say she's limited in terms of what she can do in-ring, but her strengths are clearly found across a multitude of match-types and opponents, to a degree that arguably none of her contemporaries have matched. Give the cutest in the world her flowers. She continues to charm in an era of wrestling that could do with more joy. Recommended Matches: w/ Riho & Shoko Nakajima vs. Miyu Yamashita, Mizuki & Yuka Sakazaki (TJPW, 1st December 2018) vs. Aja Kong (TJPW, 3rd May 2019) vs. Hikari Noa (TJPW, 4th January 2020) w/ Mizuki vs. Shoko Nakajima & Yuka Sakazaki (TJPW, 21st September 2020) vs. Miyu Yamashita (TJPW, 4th January 2021) w/ Chris Brookes & Super Delfin vs. Keigo Nakamura, MAO & Mirai Maiumi (DDT, 14th February 2021) vs. Rika Tatsumi (TJPW, 17th April 2021) w/ Miyu Yamashita vs. Mei Saint-Michel & Sakisama (TJPW, 17th June 2021) vs. Mizuki (TJPW, 14th August 2021) w/ Chris Brookes & Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yukio Sakaguchi (DDT, 26th December 2021) w/ Miyu Yamashita & Yuki Kamifuku vs. Mizuki, Shoko Nakajima & Yuka Sakazaki (TJPW, 8th January 2022) w/ Miyu Yamashita vs. Hikaru Shida & Moka Miyamoto (TJPW, 3rd May 2022) vs. Alex Windsor (TJPW, 9th July 2022) vs. Hikari Noa vs. Mizuki vs. Rika Tatsumi vs. Suzume vs. Yuki Kamifuku (TJPW, 4th January 2023) w/ Miyu Yamashita vs. Mizuki & Yuka Sakazaki (TJPW, 31st March 2023) vs. Rina Yamashita (GCW, 17th June 2023) w/ Aramis & Evil Uno vs. Latigo, Masha Slamovich & Peter Avalon (PWG, 13th August 2023) vs. Jun Kasai (GCW, 9th April 2025) vs. Kikyo Furusawa (STARDOM, 6th March 2026)

She's making my list. One of the most adorable personalities in pro wrestling that always shines through across the vast majority of her work, alongside the ridiculous looking bumps she'll take. No idea how she hasn't needed to slow down or take a step back yet in terms of how physical her matches get.

I am quite content with just commenting that points made in this thread today are really dumb. Not an Adam Priest voter either but go off Mr. Clown

This is the dumbest discourse I've seen on any wrestler nominated here.

Terry Funk Yoshiaki Fujiwara El Hijo del Santo Jumbo Tsuruta Genichiro Tenryu Rey Mysterio Kenta Kobashi Ric Flair Bryan Danielson Jun Akiyama Others who might break in are Hiroshi Tanahashi, AJ Styles, Shinya Hashimoto, Bull Nakano, CM Punk, Nick Bockwinkel, Sangre Chicana and Antonio Inoki.

His last 5 years have been quite good, even with a couple periods of him seemingly miscast. I'd give him till the next decade before considering him seriously for the project though.

Easily ranks among the best wrestlers in the world since the turn of the century. What he lacks in the "strong style" department he more than makes up for in his selling, character work, match layout, charisma, and various other intangibles across a very substantial body of work. Go Ace!

We've seen Benoit have great work in short matches, long matches, house show matches, TV matches, PPV matches, le epic finisher kickout matches, all regardless of whether he was taking the lead or acting as the dance partner. He'd be fine.

Seconding the Sheik/Goulet v Dick/Thomas tag, it's incredible.

Incredible in terms of fuelling excitement for future matchups. Would love to see Rikio/Ogawa and Misawa/Murakami singles matches, even when the former doesn't sound appealing on paper at all. Anyways, Rikio here gets chants for how he just tanks what the shooters are throwing at him. Really great in being this huge body throwing himself at people with little regard for anyone's safety. Misawa has a legendary kind of status at this point (& event) but comes across shrewd in how he'll engage the match. The first bit of action from him is a pair of cheap elbows to get Ogawa off of his partner, and from then on, we get more grappling and amateur wrestling from him than any of the signature hits. Him teasing a judo throw on the world-champ judoka had me rewinding the video just to make sure I was certain of what I saw. Murakami is awesome too. Looks like Low-Ki and acts like a pitbull scrapping with far larger dogs. A relatively short match that never felt rushed for time.

Personally I wouldn't have this above the Misawa memorial match, though I'd call it a much more impressive affair given it was a) a singles match, and b) against Sayama in 2010, as opposed to Jun Akiyama and KENTA while still in their respective primes. One could argue KENTA was the one primarily bringing such a fiery performance out of Kawada that we hadn't seen in a long time from him. Not to understate the significance behind WHY the match was even happening but watch KENTA slap and kick the shit out of him early on. It's a very reliable way for him to stir shit in a heavyweight.

Fuck Kawada. Tenryu's one of the best of the 80s, arguably better than Kawada (and co.) across the 90s, and still delivered plenty of great, memorable work throughout the 2000s. He lasted longer, was great for longer, had classics with more opponents, found success in far more places, and even when past his prime I recall thinking his offense and selling was a lot better than Kawada's whole kick, knee and knocked-out shtick ever was.

My gut tells me 2009, but 2002 sees him working in WWE in the second half of that year and the entire time he's making a very strong argument for being the best wrestler in the world.

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.