elliott

These two finished #3 (Hansen) and #4 (Misawa) in 2016. I expect they'll be battling for the top 5 in the end. Who you got?

ugh nevermind "Too swamped at work" Thank god we have the discord this time.

I went with HOkuto. Peak Eddie is awesome but I think over the course of their careers Hokuto is much more consistent, has a higher floor and a higher ceiling. There are chunks of Eddie's career that I'm not particularly interested in ever seeing again but I like Hokuto's entire career.

Brock getting hit in the nuts being his version of the Jumbo Killer is pretty hilarious.

It is the 60 year anniversary of one of the all time great matches. Where do our old school experts stand on Buddy Rogers?

That would be terrible rationale for voting Tanahashi #1 and I really hope no one is thinking like this. If someone thinks he's the best wrestler ever, they should vote for him #1. But to vote for him to like send a message to 15 people on PWO or whatever is not the way to approach this project. Something I think folks should keep in mind...no one really cares what your final list looks like. Look at this thread: https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/34096-your-ballots/ That's how we handled publicly sharing ballots last time around. Its just a sea of lists. No one is going to notice or care if you left off wrestler X or rated wrestler Y in the top 10. Obviously if people want to draw attention to their lists in various ways: podcasts, separate run down posts, whatever folks are more likely to notice. Folks really care about their own list and the final list. So any messages someone tries to send by voting someone particularly high or leaving them off will fall on deaf ears unless you loudly make the case elsewhere.

I anticipate these two challenging Flair/Funk for top 2 in the results. Similar strengths, similar weaknesses. Who you got and where do you anticipate ranking them?

I'm sorry if that came across above as flippant, it wasn't meant to . And I don't want to dismiss the idea of advocacy. But our project is a little different than just some critic making a list and telling everyone what it is. Our project is more about the discussion. So the place for advocacy is in the actual threads. I also can't just ignore the fact that this dudes idea of advocacy is leaving off Bob Dylan but ranking 1st an album that sold 10 million copes. Its a bit like leaving Ric Flair off your list because of visibility/reputation/whatever insane reasoning that has nothing to do with greatness and then putting Chris Jericho #1.

No. I think people should rank what they think is the best in order as that is the whole point.

Neither matters for me.

I went with Lawler. It was easier than I thought it was going to be. Its reallly close. So close that a straight up comparison against Lawler is one of the few times I feel like Tenryu's slow early start to his career really comes into play. Once I sort of realized that was the main difference between the two as candidates it became a deciding factor.

Ricky Morton! But to answer the question, I went with Ricky Steamboat. No matter how great a babyface Rick Martel was, a French Canadian could never be the best 80s American babyface. Seriously though, I still went with Steamboat. YOu could never conceive of him as a heel. I think his top feuds better, I love his over the top selling. My wrestling fandom never would have survived without RIcky Steamboat in my early years.

Lawler finished 10th in 2016 and Tenryu finished 13th. BUT! Tenryu had a higher average vote 17.51 to Lawler's 18.76. Some similarities, some differences. One thing they have in common is they're two of the best ever. Who do you prefer??

Its interesting to think about. Especially in the context of their famous 1993s. You can't watch 1993 Kobashi without seeing a young wrestler on the rise with great things ahead of them. 1993 Hokuto you're seeing 1993 Michael Jordan. The best at the top of their game at the peak of their powers. Someone who couldn't possibly ever be better because they set the bar so high. Yet Kobashi is 4 months older. I went with Hokuto here. She was better than Kobashi every year she was a full time performer. It took retirement for Kobashi to really surpass her and by that point Kobashi was long past the point where he was consistently having matches I liked. I like Kobashi more than his direct peers...maybe not Taue....and Kobashi will certainly make my list. But Hokuto takes this one.

Surprising that they're only 4 months apart in age with Kobashi being older.

Arn has 15 years of high end work?

His real name is Carl Ognibene. He was trained by the Malenkos. Not related and much better than Dean or Joe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malenko

This is an interesting thought experiment. Probably Tenryu. I do wonder how Hansen would have aged if he'd gotten to work shorter main events. He didn't need to be working 25+ minute main event singles matches in 1996, but there he was. Conversely, I wonder how Tenryu would have aged if he had to work in that mid 90s AJPW world where every big match went 25+ minutes. I really want to watch Hansen vs Hashimoto & Onita now hahaha.

How does the Marty Jones match hold up, anyone? Haven't watched that thing in literal decades now.

I'm with Childs. I'd love to read an in-depth take by someone who is a big fan of both of them. I couldn't possibly make it.

Selling for a bag of popcorn would be a positive for Owen's candidacy for me.

I reject the universe where Arn Anderson gets to spinebuster Andre the Giant. In reality that match would've been a handicap match with Andre knocking Arn & Ole's heads together while laughing.

The consensus best "bigs" of their generation. Vader finished 14th in 2016 and Aja was 49th. It should be much closer than that. Who do you think is better?

I love that these guys are tied after 10 votes. Feels right.

Andre finished 51st in 2016 and Arn landed at 19th. Neither of those results feels right to me. Who ya got?