elliott

Oh, that's disappointing. I feel like there could have been some real potential in Great Sasuke the Garbage Brawler because he's such a nut.

I thought about this too and I also thought of the Ladder match and the MSG match with Cactus. So that's two, but if you think about it a lil more, the Rock came out of the ladder match as the clear next superstar of the company, not HHH. And the brawl with Cactus is a memorable part of Cactus' story, not as much HHH's. THe 97 Cactus match he's more of a warm body. If you look at the list of candidates you'll see a lot of different profiles. Some folks are great right away. Some folks it takes time and maybe something happens but eventually the switch flips and they become great and stay great for a long time. Some folks have an incandescent peak that burns out too quickly. Some are really good for a really long time and are never boring. What's HHH's profile? Took him 6 years to become better than average. Was pushed to the moon and great for about 16 months, but its not like he was even the best guy in the US at the time, let alone the entire world. Then he got hurt, came back and never reached that level again. There's some great stuff after the injury, but its few and far between despite more booking advantages than probably any wrestler in history. This doesn't strike me as a top 100 GWE Profile. Who had their career best match against HHH?

That Makabe match is awesome. So that's fair.

What does 2000s Great Sasuke look like? Candidate for best 90s Junior other than Liger. I watched a few of his best 90s matches over the last 5 years and sometimes he's really great and other times he's doing really dull mat work for long stretches.

I didn't rate HHH in 2016 and I nailed it. HHH sucks.

I feel like the standard answer for best shootstylist ever is one of Tamura, Han & Fujiwara. I think I'd put Kohsaka #4 and the only reason he's not comfortably there with them on a Mt Rushmore is the longevity issue effects Kohsaka even more. As good as anyone when he was working.

Worst elbow strikes ever?

Yessss! I'm so glad you were able to find it and it was worth the wait!!! Just a completely insane match. Sort of everything you could hope for out of a Shoot Style vs Garbage Style match and then even more.

All of them. Everyone should just watch all of them. Its only like 55-60 matches and they're all cool.

In the Ricky Steamboat thread @KB8 said But did anybody? Heaven is a Stan Lane vs Volk Han match.

The Bloody is just the fucking coolest. I wish her matches were easier to search for online. You don't want to be doing random youtube searches of "The Bloody vs" I maintain that the Joshi scene around this time was killer and loaded with talent. It was just spread out across a variety of promotions and there is so much fucking clipping for a lot of these show.

If you ranked Andre like 3rd overall I'd look at your list and say "they ranked Andre 3rd! That's cool as fuck!" and then I'd be super pumped for the rest of your list You won't regret ranking Andre ridiculously high. The only mistake with Andre is leaving him off.

these are the most acclaimed singles matches from Mexico. Interested in what you think about the Psicosis one in particular. Rey Mysterio Jr vs Psicosis 9/22/95 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1vRSyBg6yQ vs Juventud 11/30/94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7nsKSJ08U4 vs Juventud 4/21/95 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxiQxfmFdPI vs Juventud 3/16/96 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Vmp6CvwlY

This is awesome! Congrats Phil!

The Colon vs Abdullah rivalry is one of my all time favorites. I haven't seen a match between them less than good and every one of them is different which you might not expect. I wanted to highlight this one from 1991 that El Boricua selected for the watch party. Here is my spoiler filled review of the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4l__9aDABs

Fujiwara is an oversight he should be in there somewhere. Along with like 10 other people. re: Joshi excitement. Only time will tell. I can say that I've been a Joshi fan going back to the late 90s and while 2016 was probably my low point as a Joshi fan had I done a list in 2006, 5 Joshi workers in my top 10 wouldn't have been crazy for me. On my personal timeline as a hardcore wrestling fan, I arrived at Hokuto as an all time great far earlier than Lawler, Fujiwara or Satanico. I convinced DEAN to make the Best of Jaguar tape 20 years ago Liking Joshi isn't new for me. I'm in my mid 30s and I first found Joshi when I was 13-14. My values have changed too in terms of ranking people compared to 2016. I care far more about peak than longevity. I also appreciate chaos and over the top spectacle more than just about anything. That will be reflected not just in how I rate DUmp, but Invader 1, Abdullah, Sangre Chicana, Savage, Perro etc.

I'm going to have major troubles this time around because I could also see a world where I put Tamura at 2.

No tag team poll means I have no way to pay tribute to the Nasty Boys, so I'm thinking about Jerry Saggs at #100. I could present a case if pressed, but I think Saggs is probably one of those unimpeachable universally recognized great wrestlers that doing a big write up isn't necessary.

I sent this to Grimmas the other day when we were sharing top 10s. I dunno. I feel like 7-10 could just as easily be 3-6. I'm also looking at it and there's no Heenan, Volk Han, Tamura, Savage, Casas, Masami, Andre or Destroyer. This is gonna be difficult. 1. Terry Funk 2. Dump Matsumoto 3. Akira Hokuto 4. El Satanico 5. Jerry Lawler 6. Bull Nakano 7. Jaguar Yokota 8. Chigusa Nagayo 9. Hijo del Santo 10. Stan Hansen

Devil's vertical suplex into a gorilla press is cool as fuck. Did she take that from anyone or come up with it herself? Has anyone since tried to use it?

Ooo! Challenge accepted! Two texans: Hansen & Funk? Two Joshi: Hokuto & Aja? Two Nature Boys: Flair & Rogers Two Lighterweight: Liger & Bryan (or Rey?) A Giant: Andre? A Pillar: Kobashi?

We had one of these in 2016 and I figured it would be nice to have as a reference point for 2026. So what does your current top 10 look like? Who's in and who's knocking on the door? Is there anyone who looks like a candidate for your top 10 but you're hoping to see more of during the project? What do you need to see out of a top 10 candidate?

I think its a real feather in both wrestlers' cap. Its probably not a top tier match for either guy if one were to sit down and rank their career best matches. But its a match that I'd recommend people watch for the purposes of this project before they watched the 2nd best Liger vs Ohtani match or the 2nd best Hashimoto vs Choshu. These are two great workers. The best NJPW wrestlers of the decade. So having a 4 - 4 1/2 match against each other should come as no surprise. But given how Japanese wrestling is worked, them having a competitive 20+ minute long satisfying match with each other is a real achievement.

I don't think the 9/20/84 is a crazy pick for a top 20 of the decade. Its a fucking awesome match. Unbelievable selling performance from Martel. If I had to use one match to sell someone on Martel, that's the match.

Looking a little closer at the 2016 results, Vader finished 14th and didn't get a #1 vote and only one #2 vote. His average vote was 26. But Vader tied Ric Flair & Terry Funk by appearing on the most ballots at 148. I think this tracks with the general discussion I've seen of Vader over the last 20+ years. You'll rarely find anyone who puts Vader at the absolute top, but he's never too far from it and everyone loves it. I was wondering what younger hardcore fans think of Vader? Folks that grew up watching Daniel Bryan and modern NJPW. I can imagine folks like that watching Flair or Terry Funk & not really liking them, but I can't really comprehend someone watching prime Vader and not enjoying him. During his career he was able to transcend stylistic differences and get over in a major way basically everywhere he worked. I wonder if he's someone that will be able to transcend time as well?