club

LA Park and Lou Thesz made mine. I have the suspicion Lord Alfred had a top 100 career, but footage.

Great seeing Bomber getting some love.

Great write up. Encapsulates what made him special in the context of 90s WWF.

You should totally submit a ballot! Don't feel obliged to put anyone on based on obligation/rep or anything of the sort. A list like this will never be finished.

Great post. I have Tamura at #4 currently, between Jim Breaks and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. What these all have in common is how good they are at leading opponents through these matches. Tamura will leave just enough openings for his opponent to make things flow well, without leaving so much open as to spoil the illusion of being uncooperative.

Might sneak onto my list. Such an under-appreciated guy. The King Ben match is almost proto-UWF and one of the best matches of the era. His deafness isn't overplayed but adds a neat wrinkle to his matches.

Nagata years as a top guy seem better the further away they are. At the time there was that taint of the losses to Mirko, and later Fedor, that hurt his aura. He'll slot in somewhere around #80.

Thanks for the recs. Thought the Hase and Kawada matches were both great. What a weird promotion post-NOAH All Japan was.

Been watching a bunch of Tokyo Pro shows this past week. Indy Anjo circa 1996 has been fun. Strong match with Okamura vs Tarzan Goto & Mr Gannosuke. He looked good teaming with Sayama vs. Benkei & Abby though the match was rough. Highlight of that was seeing Tiger Mask attempt a monkey flip on Abby. Anjo is always this fountain of charisma in-ring and the indys seem a way better outlet for this side of him than the shoot style feds. Outside of Tokyo Pro and WAR, is there any other Anjo indy stuff worth checking out?

No Bull Nakano? On my list: Billy Robinson Blue Panther Bret Hart Brian Maxine Bull Nakano

Bret will land somewhere in my top 30. 91-97, fantastic peak years. Not a great deal to shout about before that. I'm trying to figure out how he compares to wrestlers with similar patterns like Chigusa Nagayo, Jaguar Yokota, Atsushi Onita, Rick Martel or Yoshihiro Takayama. Looking back I realise Bret was also my gateway into this kind of fandom. Watching as a kid he was the first guy where I got a sense that in the ring he was clearly better than everyone around him.

He won't make my list but could totally see him making people's lists. Some high quality comedy bullshit.

Definitely Aja Akira Hokuto Akira Maeda Akira Taue Antonio Inoki Arn Anderson Atlantis Atsushi Onita Maybe Abby AJ Styles Alan Kilby Alan Sargeant Alexander Otsuka

Reminds me of some of the France stuff in how very un-1950s his offence is. He's so much fun from what I've seen. Wonderful physical charisma. Not sure there's enough for me to put him in my 100, but would be delighted to find more. His match with Brother Frank Jares:

DIdn't realise there were so many of his matches knocking around. Do love his chain match with Mr Argentina.