elliott

Lots of people have said they're voting for so and so based solely on their peak run. Yes everyone should try and get as full a picture as possible. But that's not what is happening here. Boiling her run down to her late 90s and 2000s JD and ARISON work and dismissing her based on that is a misrepresentation of what her candidacy is. I think it's important to point out what a candidates peak actually is and what sort of candidate they are. Anyone voting for her is likely to do so based primarily on the strength of her 80s run. Nobody has ever promoted her JD run or talked about it as a meaningful building block for her candidacy. Thats not her peak run. To dismiss her as a candidate based on that stuff is like saying Flairs not a candidate because he sucked after 1996. Or Misawa was disappointing in NOAH so hes not a candidate. Nobody who is voting for Flair is doing so bc of his mid 90s to 2000s work. Lioness is an 80s candidate. People need to watch that stuff first. That's what's important. Let people watch the stuff people have actually put over. Theres plenty of people to talk about and watch. We're already at the dumping on people at random phase? That sucks if so. Anyway I think Lioness is like the 8th best person in 80s AJW. But that's still the strength of her candidacy and that's what folks should know.

If people are gonna vote for Jim Londos based in 45minutes of footage, it's more than fair to skip the JD run and just watch her prime.

Even less discussion here than I remembered. I was a big fan 20 years ago but its been that long since I've really watched him. Its been about that long since I've been interested in his style, but I know he has a big reputation among some folks. So I feel like I should give him a shot. Can someone toss out like 5-10 matches to watch?

Probably #1 on the didn't live up to their potential list. Bam Bam was right there with Randy Savage, Sting & Bret Hart as one of my first favorite wrestlers as a kid. Big fat dude with tattoos on his head that could do cartwheels? Thats fucking awesome. He's in a few of matches I absolutely love and you could make a killer 3 hour Bigelow play list. But it starts to get thin pretty quickly after that. Love Bammer, but I just don't see him anywhere near a top 100.

That was cool! Thank you! Is that a Bellevue, WA police badge??? WTF?

I liked the November 1990 match with Onita where Onita just obliterates him with headbutts. And the 1996 Anniversary show match I liked a lot. But I could go the rest of my life without seeing the scythe bullshit again.

I don't even like Lioness all that much but this is ridiculous. Lioness' case comes from the 80s. My advice to anyone that clicked on this thread would be to watch the Crush Gals stuff.

Touche. That one on Aja fucking rocks

The clips are amazing and I'm glad we have them over nothing. But if we don't even have one full match this feels like a nominee for a different project. Is there even 60 minutes of clips. I was hoping there was gonna be more out there. I would recommend watching whats out there. Its interesting and Londos looks great. He had a signature finisher back in the early 30s which is cool. I would love to consider him for this but couldn't in good faith.

Can anyone make a real case for Londos based on the existing footage? I've tried to watch what I can find but the vast majority is like 90 second clips. The Nagurski match is 47 minutes? Of which was have under 15 minutes? Is there a complete match?

King Kong is an all time babyface so that isn't an insult to Hansen. Its like saying someone doesn't punch as well as Lawler.

The Stan Hansen match is just perfect in all ways. Godzilla vs King Kong come to life.

There's a 100% chance they wouldve teamed him with Val Venis and there would have been a ton of "Dick Dude" signs in the audience.

OMFG that is amazing. Hahahahahahahaha. Thank you! That probably moves Heenan 3-5 spots up my list. He's like #6 now.

That Inoki match recommended above where they take the ropes down and handcuff themselves together so they can look each other in the eye while they attempt to murder each other is one of the most incredible spectacles ever. I fucking love Masa Saito. An all around talent who could trade holds but could also brawl and bleed with the best of them. Probably finds a way on my list.

I agree with all of this. Dibiase might have been the Wrestler of the Mid-South Set based on stats & # of matches. But Duggan was the revelation. I had NO idea Duggan was one of the ultimate babyface bruisers in wrestling history until watching him in Mid-South. Sort of everything I wanted from Terry Gordy I got out of Mid-South Jim Duggan. What is that Saturday Night match you referenced with Tony & Bobby? I gotta watch that.

Jetlag mentioned this way back in 2015, "Ive heard bad things about him." I've heard whispers of this too. Presumably on the heels of the NJPW 80s set? I've never seen a full takedown of Koshinaka and I don't really want to. I'm way more interested random recommendations for him. I wouldn't go as far as @El-P did in the last go round with his Japanese Arn Anderson line. But I get where hes going with that. Super fun midcarder. You could put together an interesting comp that shows him in a variety of settings. The Satanico match, the Aoyagi match, the Tenryu match, other WAR tag matches, the 96 G1 Climax run was super fun. I know the Takada matches are super polarizing but I dug the broken fingers match last time I watched it. Finished 77th in 2006 which is bonkers high and fell to 286 in 2016. Realistically he is probably closer to 286 than 77th, but Ive always liked him and I would recommend his best stuff to people.

I watched that Zero 1 Tag match w/Kohei Sato v Shinjiro Ohtani & Takao Omori (Zero-1, 218/07) that KB8 recommends above and it was awesome. Fantastic selling from Takayama getting his ass kicked and still able to come across like an absolute killer. Takayama is an outlier for me in that I'm generally not a fan of the time & place he worked during his peak but I'm a big fan of him within that landscape. In a comparison of big tough ass kickers who could sell and come across as a monster and excelled in big time spectacles, Takayama smokes Brock Lesnar.

I don't mean to always be the blood soaked brawl guy, but is there a blood soaked brawl? Thats sort of the missing piece of the puzzle at this point for me. Edit: Oh, can one of the Spanish speakers go over the amazing introduction Virus would get with the symptoms of wrestling him being listed? I never knew about that until the watch party and a lot of people weren't there for it. Thats the sort of thing that moves you up on my list

I don't think Lawler's post 80s stuff reaches the heights of Terry Funk's. But there's quite a lot of really good-great stuff. Your mileage may vary on how much you like it and how much it adds to his case, but its certainly not a negative. Lawler is one of those candidates that just obliterates the peak/longevity question and the interviews/extracurricular stuff question. At his best from say 1981-87, Lawler is as great as anyone ever. He was great before that and very good-great for basically forever after that. If you're a "WHAT ABOUT PROMOS AND SKITS?" person, Lawler belongs in your top tier for that alone too.

I just watched a match between Aoyagi & some dude named Hirofumi Miura from 3/20/98 and it was exactly the kind of incredible selling performance mixed with wildly aggressive striking against some random dude who doesnt look that great that you want to see out of a top 100 candidate. Aoyagi continues to impress. All I want him to do is kick and sell and if he's just gonna kick and sell then he 's gonna kick and sell his way onto my list.

I feel like I owe Hijo del Santo more words. When I first got into tape trading way back when as a kid, there were a few people who immediately jumped off the screen and I "got" right away. Some folks you have to watch a few times, read about and watch a few more times and others you just know right away. El Hijo del Santo was a know right away sort of guy. Immediately he felt larger than life and important compared to his peers. He's not just another wrestler. He's special. Then the match starts and he's still not just another wrestler. Everything he does is more graceful and beautiful than everyone else. Everyone does an armdrag or a dive out of the ring. But no ones dives or movements are prettier than Santo's. Some people are just more special than the special people. Its what separates Michael Jordan or Serena Williams from everyone else. Santo's like that. The more I watched the more that was confirmed. Sure he's formulaic but when you have the best signature spots and everytime you hit them it looks like a Da Vinci, you can run your formula and delight everyone. He's the closest thing wrestling ever got to a real life super hero. He's everything you could want out of a Greatest Wrestler Ever.

So hes got longevity

So hes got longevity

I don't think anything will ever top Ken getting counted out because he can't get in the ring because he's boxes. That alone makes him a candidate. Brilliant storytelling.