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w/ William Regal vs. Edge & Rob Van Dam, WWF Raw (18.02.2002) This is the most promising so far on paper. Still much too short at under 4 minutes, but there's some fun action to see here. The heels isolate RVD and while it's not great, it's quick enough to not grow dull. Goldust bumps well for Edge's offense the few times they interacted, but I didn't take away much from this that showcases what Goldust can do. It's primarily about building to Regal and RVD for the IC title at Wrestlemania. Regal taps to the Edgucator and then Goldust takes a Spear after the match. Shoutout to Lawler on commentary saying Goldust/RVD at No Way Out went 30 minutes when it didn't even go half as long. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Maven [c] - Hardcore Title Match, WWF Smackdown (28.02.2002) Hardcore time! Most of the matches I've seen for this title are hoots, so my expectations are higher than usual. Start off with Goldust immediately beating on Maven, then slowing it down as he bring weapons into the fray, allowing for moments where Maven can eventually pull off the upset. Aside from that, Maven doesn't do much at all, but Goldust is good enough at working in control to make up for that. His standing Gourdbuster looked particularly nasty here. Not something I would recommend, but nothing to really complain about. Enjoyable! Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Tazz - Hardcore Title Match, WWF Raw (04.03.2002) Goldust now holds the title after winning it from Maven later on that last episode of Smackdown. Tazz comes down the ring with a ref while Goldust was in the middle of a promo, and they just jump right into things. It's full of great slaps, strikes and suplexes, with Goldust bumping huge for Tazz's offense. He finally gets to hit Shattered Dreams in an official match! Tazz gets hold of a Tazzmission to an audible pop, but Goldust is able to reach a trash can lid and knock him out for the win. Another fun one! If they're only going to give wrestlers 2-4 minutes of TV, at least they get to work these kinds of matches. Recommended Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Rob Van Dam - Hardcore Title Match, WWF Smackdown (06.03.2002) This is roughly 10 minutes shorter than their PPV match and it's definitely for the better. RVD is a lot more suited to these shorter, spot-oriented layouts that the Hardcore title is wrestled under. He tries to rush Goldust early with a Tope but winds up eating shit when he goes high-risk a second time. This is also the first time I can recall seeing golden-tinted weapons found under the ring. Once again, 3 minutes of killer action, mostly from hitting each other with trash cans. RVD has a neat counter to Shattered Dreams that took me completely by surprise. Regal is on commentary and winds up distracting Rob long enough to Goldust to win with a rollup. Recommended Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Al Snow - Hardcore Title Match, WWF Raw (11.03.2002) Goldust throws a ton of weapons into the ring and attacks Al on the ramp. This one comes off a more frantic and immediate kind of fight, probably because it's barely over a minute long. Al blinds the champ with a fire extinguisher before hitting a Snow Plow onto a trash can to win the title. Maven wins the title the very next day on Smackdown. Nothing else to say about this one. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Maven [c] - Hardcore Title Match, Wrestlemania X-8 (17.03.2002) Cool to see Goldust have an official match at Wrestlemania! He's more creative with his offense here than previous Hardcore title matches, but it runs more of less the same story and issue as their last match together. Goldust is good at holding up his part, Maven less so. Unfortunately, the match ends with Spike Dudley pinning Maven after a double KO spot, with Goldust along with Crash Holly chasing him through the crowd Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Booker T vs. Bubba Ray Dudley [c] - Hardcore Title Match, WWF Raw (08.04.2002) This is scheduled originally as Booker T vs Bubba Ray Dudley, but it's also the last time for the year the Goldust wrestles in a Hardcore Title match, so I want to include it here. The dance battle right beforehand is well worth the watch alone. As far as the match goes, it's pretty tame on the hardcore stipulation; Bubba does regular moves for some reason and never tries using the weapons he throws into the ring. Goldust runs down once a table is set up and tries to win the title, only to get powerbombed through said table for his troubles. Full match available here

vs. Rikishi, WWF RAW (11.02.2002) Goldust's first official match since returning to WWF would be in that year's Royal Rumble match. Following that, a series of vignettes and promos featured Goldust referring to a wrestler as his "rising star". On the February 4th episode of Raw, this turns out to be RVD, who would get attacked and kicked in the dick by Goldust, establishing the returning star as a heel. This is important to note, because Goldust's first TV match of the year would go for a total of 93 seconds, before RVD causes a disqualification and beats on the golden hero. Still, what little we have here shows promise. Goldust's punches and slaps are great, comes across motivated in how he keeps the action moving while in control. He even takes a corkscrew bump off a clothesline that did not look rehearsed at all (fun fact: he's 6'4). It ain't much, but what we do have show signs of promise. Later on Raw, it's announced that Goldust will face RVD at No Way Out. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Tajiri, WWF Smackdown (14.02.2002) This goes a whole 2 minutes! He's also against a completely different kind of wrestler in Tajiri, and easily matches him when it comes to speed and technique early on. They also manage to implement some fun comedic bits into the work while they have TV time. Tajiri rushes to applying his signature Tarantula hold and tries a Moonsault that Goldust moves away from, then unloads with some great slaps in the corner. For some reason, Torrie slapping a wrestler doesn't result in a DQ. Goldust hits a Neckbreaker that Cole calls the Curtain Call, holding onto a tight pin for the victory. Goldust stalks Torrie into a corner before RVD intervenes with a Wheel Kick and Frog Splash. This will be a long project. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Rob Van Dam, WWF No Way Out 2002 (17.02.2002) This isn't a TV match but given Goldust has had less than 5 minutes of in-ring action so far, I'm willing to see the payoff for what little booking they've gien him so far. It'd also be nice to see what he's capable of with a respectful amount of time, even if against much lesser talent. This is actually a great example of how he can excel in spite of his opponent not being up to task. His slaps sound amazing, and he gets quite creative with the early portions of his heat segment; at one point wrenching Rob's neck and back over a ringpost. Goldust homes in on targeting the lower back, making it all look vicious whilst maintaining that sense of mystique over his character and motivations at the time. There's even a fun moment of comeuppance to the feud when Goldust is inadvertedly crotched over RVD's knees. I tend to admire details like this in the layout of a match, and I'm willing to credit it entirely to Goldust, given that Rob doesn't sell any of the damage done to his back once the comeback starts. Finishing stretch is fine even though Rob doesn't try anything flashy and he predictably wins with the Frog Splash. Part 1, Part 2 (not-so-great quality) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This isn't the start that I had hoped for, but it is closer to what I should have expected. WWF at this time is loaded with talent after the WCW purchase and in the leadup to Wrestlemania 18. He was always going to be put in this sort of position as enhancement to wrestlers further up the hierarchy that need something to do. Fortunately, 2002 is a year of great change, so don't expect him to be floating around in limbo for much longer. “You’re going to be all right. You just stumbled over a stone in the road. It means nothing. Your goal lies far beyond this. Doesn’t it? I’m sure you’ll overcome this. You’ll walk again… soon.”

Last year, a friend of mine made a video covering the best matches and wrestlers he saw from 2002 (watch here) and it compelled me to go back and reevaluate what I had seen from that time period; mostly some big PPV bouts with The Rock, Brock/Taker HiaC, and a dozen or so matches featuring the Smackdown Six. Most of it still holds up in my view, but I didn't stick to just the Smackdown side of WWF/E and ended up skimming through what looked appealing on the Raw brand. That led me to the belief that, in a year where all-time greats like Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero were in their primes, getting plenty of time and quality matchup almost every week, Goldust was clearly the best TV worker the company had. I wanted to dig deeper into Goldust's body of work in 2002, covering the available matches he had on television in ways that can hopefully highlight what a terrific wrestler Dustin was at turning shitty circumstances into something wonderful.

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

For what it's worth, I just watched this match against Steve Corino in 2001 and while Windham was well past his prime, the dude still had some snap behind his strikes and could work a match with all the marks of an old school JCP bout. Maybe the last great match Barry ever had.

Early on, Vince McMahon is applying a headlock for a good 20 seconds on Ric Flair. The match itself is kind of middling till they start introducing weapons and hit gushers, but I keep coming back to a 56yo Vince grabbing onto headlocks against a (recognized) 16-time world champion... in a Street Fight! I have no idea how to feel about it. Very weird.

Nothing for nothing, but right now Jamie Hayter vs Hikaru Shida has a >9.00 rating on Cagematch and I don't think that has ever happened for an AEW women's match before.

2002.09.09 - Mad Dog McCrea vs. Lobo - NRBW, Taipei, 40,000 Raining Thumbtack Deathmatch - YouTube This is a No Ropes Barbed Wire Taipei 40,000 Raining Thumbtacks Deathmatch (don't worry, I also don't know what that means fully). It's also a fairly infamous match in the history of Australian wrestling. At the time, the promotion (Professional Championship Wrestling) was more family-friendly oriented and still is to this day, but this deathmatch ended up with the company losing their home venue and causing a media storm that greatly affected their fan attendance for future events. As a deathmatch though, it's pretty fun. They deliver on plenty of gnarly bumps and violent spots. Barbed wire breaking off from the ring, thumbtacks falling from buckets high above the ring. It's a pretty fascinating spectacle in such a grimy building with low-budget production that at times makes me think this is what the ideal garbage wrestling looks like. Far from my favourite NRBW deathmatch, but hard not to admire, especially when it comes from my home country. P.S. Not the Lobo from CZW

Fred Yehi if he can get signed anywhere would almost certainly be in the conversation. If Cameron Grimes/Trevor Lee can get himself out of NXT, he's also a guy I expect to get nominated. Guys like Kevin Ku, Dominic Garrini, Adam Priest & Anthony Henry I could also see nominated in the next 4 years if they continue building their cases and getting more noticed. It's still early days but considering how much AEW is featuring him, Daniel Garcia could find himself on a few lists. Same with an Utami or AZM in Stardom.

I also feel obliged to share this video, where Dylan Hales brings up John Cena in the context of an ace figure and compares his run to that of Bret Hart, despite the four pillars in the title.

Recently the topic of Bret/Cena came up in a discord server I'm active in, and I was surprised to find that there hadn't been a forum made here about it before. Two of the best aces in WWF/E history, for wholly different reasons. Peaks and longevity vs. execution and consistency? Where one has an unmatched volume of big matches available, the other went above and beyond with limited opposition and opportunity.

So, does anyone think Mandy will continue wrestling after being released? I wouldn't be surprised if she gets offers, but something tells me she'll do just fine financially with how much she made over the years and even now with her site.

I was watching this alongside a few other matches that feature Tiger Jeet Singh and while they were all at least good, this blew away all my expectations going in. This was one of the first matches of Terry Funk's retirement tour (lol) and the heels come out with their sticks and swords, ready to wail on the Funker like it's the last chance they'll get. Naturally, it starts off incredibly heated and has to take a few minutes to settle down into a proper tag match, though seeing all the chairs and monitors get tossed around was quite fun while it lasted. Terry & Jumbo both get to play the face-in-peril at different points as Singh & Ueda act as the dastardly foreign heel team to great effect. Singh in particular tries the ol' hiding a foreign object from the referee regularly and Terry sells like he did taking a fork swipe from Abdullah or Sheik stabbing him with a pencil. Some won't like how dramatic it can get, but you can't deny how sympathetic it was to those Japanese audiences. The biggest surprise for me was seeing how fired up Jumbo got as a hot tag; in 1983 he's still working the classic NWA/world title match style with Flair and Bockwinkel, but this is a wholly different side of him, lunging at his opponents with high knees and eager to turn the fight into an outside brawl. More chaos ensues, gradually the heels use weapons in plain sight of the referee, and it takes Giant Baba coming out to give Terry & Jumbo their chance at revenge. If I were doing a MOTY list for 1983, this would certainly make it on there.

Hidden gem. Probably the best match from Raw to happen all year. It's also now my go-to for Dustin's career performance, delivering on incredible shines, face in peril and hot tag segments. I can't recall ever seeing a tag match where one person does all of these roles in a singular match to such a high standard. Watch it.

The sudden hate for FTR comes from an incredibly fringe group of terminally online Twitter fans who shouldn't be getting much attention whatsoever. They don't represent the crowds, nor the Nielsen ratings they get each week, and I wouldn't even be shocked if they didn't watch the product legally.

I was thoroughly impressed by how well this was structured building up to its climax. Jeff is manhandled pretty easily to begin with, but the goal for Umaga & Randy at ringside isn't merely to win, but to inflict as much pain and damage on the challenger before his world title match at the Rumble. As such, they introduce chairs into the cage match, and even put themselves in high-risk situations, like with Umaga walking along the top rope that gives Hardy his chances to win. It's great seeing a heel's own dirty tactics get turned upside-down, as those chairs become the equalizer for Jeff, as he just tosses them at Umaga's head. Randy deserves just as much credit for his acting and facials on ringside, having my full attention during the periods when Umaga and Jeff were lying on the mat. It's as great a main event & angle you'll find for an episode of Raw, that has unfortunately become something of a lost art in today's landscape.

I don't see him making my list come 2026, but that's more a case of it being too soon for me to judge someone while they're still fairly early in their career. Last year, he was a top 10 WOTY off a highly consistent TNT title reign and being part of the best tag team in the world with Sting.

When is Jeff Jarrett going to be All Elite? As far as I'm concerned, this is his world now. Bree wooo bree wooo

I've personally lost a lot of interest in AEW since All Out, however JAS vs. BCC is hardly a big reason why. Definitely has overstayed its welcome, and I'd love to not see Jericho wrestling guys like Bryan and Moxley, but things like FTR being kept away from TV, Eddie Kingston cooling off, the implementation of ROH titles/talent, and MJF being this terrible example of playing the cool kids' heel have done more to sour my perception of the company.

I had to watch through all of the Duggan/DiBiase feud after seeing their incredible blowoff later in 1985 for the first time, which led me to another goddamn classic between the two. This is easily the best work I've seen from DiBiase, coming across more vicious and urgent than I can ever recall, while still maintaining that core chickenshit heel nature at every point in the match. It makes him such a great foil for Hacksaw, who looks like one of the all-time babyface territory aces around this time. He's certainly limited in what he can do, but the booking and compact match structure is able to accentuate the positives in his game. Moreover, Duggan might have shown the best example of punching blind, throwing straight jabs while falling backwards that immediately grabbed my attention. A fascinating level of detail to something that in hindsight, was only a tune-up for the big gimmick match down the road. It's sub-10 minutes and still delivers some incredibly compelling pro wrestling.

I'm basically nodding at everything @ethantylerhas written out here. The strongest argument Ishii has come from the belief of him being a BITW-level worker for the last decade, and I don't think that alone gives him the edge over half of those Japan candidates.

It's definitely one of Daniels' most attentive performances, especially during the first act. Lots of countering and taunting at AJ to go along with the focused limbwork, really highlighted their history as rivals over the years. Even if you aren't familiar with it, AJ's generally recognized as a bit of a hothead that can let his emotions get the better of him, which made things a lot more interesting when it turned out that Daniels was the one falling into that trap instead of AJ. For most of the match, I got the impression that they were trying different variations of their main offense, as the usual shtick from either would end up being reversed otherwise. Revisiting it after so long, I find myself agreeing with most of Sleeze's conclusions. One of the most rewarding TNA matches from that time period.

New Japan making dozens of his matches free to watch has seriously made me reconsider my stance on him as a candidate. Most of my criticisms for him aren't really applicable to his 70s material, and that's probably when he was working most of his prime years. He's so great at directing where a match will go and how to maximize key moments in them. A wrestler that could make his style of wrestling look realistic (for the time), and then add highly dramatic elements on top that rarely break the tension that he had been building up. Moreover, the pacing and opponents from that time felt more suited to Inoki's strengths. The matches didn't feel like they went on too long because the variables were malleable enough and individual actions were treated like they held weight in the moment, regardless of whether they wound up playing a factor thereafter. Larger wrestlers like Murdoch and Andre could be imposing threats, but also allow their matches to breathe. It's a big difference between them and the likes of Hansen, Brody, Williams and even Choshu through the 80s, who'll force themselves as well as the action onto their opponents and potentially muddy the vision that someone like Inoki aspires to bring forth. In comparison, there's no such rush with these older matches. Even in a bloody, violent one like he has with Kintaro Oki (10/10/74), you get the classic start-stop approach from Inoki in the early periods, hard-fought grappling that looks legitimate, before the dramatics are brought to the forefront and the heat which had been sustained so far can finally be released for an exciting third act. I haven't bothered making a rough draft for GWE, but before his passing I would've pegged Inoki somewhere around the bottom half. Now, he's top 25 at least. Maybe I'll write something in the future that covers more ground, but I hope the few things I've put here can compel others to dive into his body of work.

The first half was sleep-inducing. Really transparent attempt at heated brawling when you prioritize spot -> set-up -> spot so much in the layout. I guess that makes sense in retrospect given what we know about Shawn Michaels' input for this match. Gargano jumping over the barrier onto Ciampa immediately gave me the sense that it was closer to playfighting than what I want pro wrestling to look like. The second half was a major improvement though. The big moves felt warranted for a 2018 TakeOver match and made for some good nearfalls, even if it did go a tad overboard (Project Ciampa off the second rope meaning nothing in the long run, for example). Callbacks to a lot of their history together were really effective and hooked me back into the drama. Really liked how desperate and tense Ciampa got, as he felt like the one who actually projected the importance of this match as a whole. For me, it's in the same boat as Omega/Ibushi vs. The Young Bucks one month earlier as a really ambitious story-driven match that doesn't do it for me, but they have more good things than bad going for it. They do better in the rematch.

Cole has been primarily a big match worker as early as 2014 and, in my humble opinion, has sucked at it since 2016 with that 2nd ROH World Title reign. Looking back through his NXT run, I'm stunned at how much he was loved by crowds in these matches that are emblematic of the common criticisms brought up about this time period of the brand in retrospect. The Gargano series, the Cole matches, Ciampa, Aleister, Ricochet, all the men's WarGames matches. Just flabbergasted at the moment.