tim

I actually liked it more than at least the 2/3 falls Wyatts/Usos match. Good structure in general with nice performances all around, a super hot ending stretch and really cool moments like one of the Usos going super aggressive against Cody's leg and Cody slapping him with the glove.

Great opener. These guys struggled to get something going during their several RAW matches but that was awesome.

That segment was really having me hoping for a minute they were gonna turn it into a triple threat. As it stands Orton/Jericho is my "piss break" match of the night.

Looks good, three matches (Henry/Rusev, Cesaro/Sheamus, Cena/Brock) I'm really looking forward to.

No chance on my list, but for matches that do not look appealing to me on paper, I really like the two RAW Edge/Michaels street fights.

There have to be some hidden gems out there, don't there? Does a guy really have matches like vs. Tanahashi and vs. Styles with so little coming in the many years before it?

For what it's worth, I remember liking the Judgment Day Henry/Angle match when I watched it at the time, right after I started coming around on Henry thanks to the Rey matches. Also, 2006 Angle was my least favorite iteration of him. I don't know if I could call it the worst because I haven't re-watched Angle in any systematic way and won't do so because I know he doesn't have a chance for making my list. Super-intense mouthguard corner strike Angle fucking did me in in 2006, hated it.

Obviously one of the stickier situations of this project. But I got thinking, how long until we get a lot of fans on the internet more likely to dispassionately revisit Benoit's work and hail him as whatever they decide based on just the matches? I mean, I submitted a ballot to the SC poll when I was 16 years old. Let's say some guy submits a ballot on this poll when he's 16. He's 14 now. And the Benoit tragedy happened when he was only 7. Maybe before he even started watching wrestling. Ancient history. How much do the murders cast a shadow over the work in this guy's case, when he didn't live through the revelation, the coverage and the aftermath?

I think his work this year is absolutely off the charts. I couldn't rank him above Ishii since Ishii has had much better chances but I think there's an argument that he's been BETTER with the chances he's been given. Clearly the MVP of the G1 for me. That Fale match was off the charts given what it was. Shibata/Honma is my MOTY at only 10 minutes long. A bunch of other awesome stuff. I thought he deserved a thread because I'm also aware of his death match reputation, which can add to his incredible 2014. I haven't watched much of it, and that's one of my big to-dos for this. Another guy who could have a stronger case when the ballots are due than he does now. Hopefully NJPW gives him the push he deserves after his G1 performance. No reason he shouldn't be a top 5 worker in the world for the next 2 years.

I haven't seen much of his pre-WWE work but just on that alone he's a top 50 lock for me, no doubt. Awesome to watch every second he was in the ring. Love, love, love his style.

He sure had a great 2007. The rest of his career seems decidedly lower in quality than that relatively isolated timeframe. I wasn't watching much in 2008 though.

Yep, doesn't even get a consideration from me. One of the most entertaining guys of all time as a character outside the ring. Average wrestler.

A bit off topic but the "best in the world" thing really was pretty funny. He wasn't booked as the top guy, wasn't sold as a killer like say a Ryback was, didn't work a particularly dazzling style or present himself as a technical master or anything ... it had nothing to do with his gimmick or character, it was just something he said a lot.

His last several years are enough to get him a solid place on the list. The undisputed king of contemporary juniors-style lucha. No one even comes close to working the modern style as well, for me. That said I've seen very little of his work before the latter half of the 2000s. Other than those two incredible 1997 matches he had, the trios and vs. Cicloncito Ramirez. How much 90s stuff is out there?

I doubt he makes my list. Has a bunch of great matches but I don't often find him particularly compelling in the ring.

My favorite flier ever. You can go on youtube and watch indie chumps doing dives a million times more complicated than Astro ever did, but to me they don't compare in beauty Astro simply backflipping off the top rope or hitting his somersault reverse headbutt. It's all about charisma and execution. Often the highlight of the matches he's in and he can go on the mat just fine. Was a major highlight of the 80s lucha set. He'll be on my ballot, not too high, but he'll be on.

How far does being the best wrestler in the world for one year get you? Also had a very, very strong year last year. I remember really liking some of his 2009 matches. Between 2009 and 2013 I haven't seen anything, nor anything pre-2009. But still, Ishii's 2014 has to mean a lot. Also a guy who has a strong chance of having a much better case when the ballots are due than he does now.

Nominating: Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii - Both guys have three matches reviewed at one point or another in the 2013 G1 thread: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27875-g-1-climax/ Super Astro - Heavily featured on 80s lucha set Virus - http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25028-virus-vs-titan-cmll-012814/?hl=virus ; http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/22218-virus-vs-guerrero-maya-jr-cmll-060711/?hl=virus ; http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/22189-angel-azteca-jr-angel-de-oro-angel-de-plata-vs-cancerbero-raziel-virus-cmll-020411/?hl=virus

Henry definitely gets a spot on my list. Let me dig up a longish post I made about 2 years ago on another forum in a thread about rating workers: an easy thing to ask about mark henry might be "where are the classic matches?" i think this betrays a flawed concept of evaluating wrestling that has been going on basically forever by 'smart' fans. pick a particularly good mark henry match, why not just take the CM Punk match 2 weeks ago on RAW for example. pick some match widely considered to be 'classic', lets say HHH/Taker from last wrestlemania(a match i hold in fairly high regard for the record). can we go through the individual performances of henry, and then the individual performances of taker or trips and say "taker/hhh did ____ better than mark henry"? i dont think you're likely to find many wrestlers who have had matches where you can they were individually more impressive than henry in his particularly good matches. discounting, say, "better atheleticism" etc. henry doesn't work the 'epic' style matches with lots of near-falls, high-energy counter segments, lengthy builds, etc. and this is why he, and many great wrestlers like him, get the short end of the stick. almost every match i see mark henry in i come away thinking he did something individually impressive. be it consistently selling in a certain way, doing something unique to get over his character and his relation to his opponent in the match, or just a bunch of creative, individual touches that make a moment in a match more interesting. an example that always springs to mind is a Money in the Bank match he was in 2ish years ago. they do an 'everyone climb the ladders' spot, except for henry. henry comes in, stands between the ladders, and pushes them over. now these ladders are easy to push over, smaller guys than henry have pushed over these ladders with minimal effort multiple times in the match. but henry stands between them, tries to push over both over at once, makes a strained face, screams, and slowly builds the momentum/energy to start tipping the ladders. it was a spot made memorable entirely by henry's treatment of it in doing something unique and interesting in how he went about doing it. and most of henry's matches have a couple moments like this. that impresses me more than working a standard 'epic' style match more or less the same way those matches have been worked before, without doing anything individually interesting or unique in them. smart fans put too much weight on epic, main event style matches in terms of valuing wrestlings and less weight on 'regular' matches, even if a wrestler manages to make them consistently entertaining(something many of the more highly regarded wrestlers on the basis of their epic-style matches arent able to do, jericho comes to mind) and always make sure to do something individually interesting and creative, even if it's low key, instead of phoning it in. henry i think exemplified this find of wrestler as well as anyone(regal is another, goldust 2009 also a good example) and i think he's possibly the best of them.

Ha, I'm glad I'm not the only person who actually suspects this to be the case.

Yeah, I haven't revisited a lot of that stuff but I remember thinking his 2006 title reign was overrated at the time because he kept trying to work his epic indie matches even against guys he should have went a totally different route with. That said it's not like he lacked for variety in the kind of matches he worked during his indie run. He has the super indie epics but also some totally unique matches vs. Morishima (the Manhattan Mayhem match I legit think is one of the best US matches ever), the first Delirious match which was worked perfectly for the story and the roles both guys occupied, and some awesome, vicious performances in multi-mans, singles and shorter matches. He definitely relied on unimpressive opening matwork/chain wrestling stuff to build his matches but once they got going he was very unique and creative. He became very dynamic when he started incorporating a lot of MMA stuff around 2007. Plus despite appearing like the quintessential "bland indie guy" when he first started showing up, I really think he's an all-time great just at getting crowds involved in his matches. His WWE record is extremely strong. Translated to WWE style very well by picking what he wanted his big spots and signature moves to be and using them perfectly all the time. I don't think there's any doubt that his resume of great matches and performances makes him a top 10 all-time WWE guy already. I'm thinking a definitely top 30 right now.

He's in my top 50. Whenever anyone can say they were clearly the best wrestler in the world for a not-insignificant period of time, that gives them some solid all-time cred in my book, and during his 2013 return run he was clearly the best wrestler in the world. His 2009 run was also brilliant, carrying really awesome TV matches with Ezekiel Jackson and a green Sheamus. His 2002/2003 RAW run was awesome and the match where he and Booker win the tag titles on RAW is one of my favorite WWE tags ever (in fact, that match and both 2013 Rhodes vs. Shield tags ... you could convince me those are the top 3 WWE tags ever). Then we have his WCW run, incredible tag work and some really awesome singles performances, most notably vs. Arn and Vader. Dustin is one of the big "what if?"s for me. If he had kept himself in good shape and stayed with WWE throughout the 2000s, been a solid Jericho-level guy and gotten high level feuds and opportunities for big singles matches over the last 14 years when WWE's emphasis on ring work shot up, would we be talking about a top 20 of all time guy?

I feel like Kobashi is a guy who suffered a bit from the post-90s reaction within our corner of internet fandom. He was a super-popular gateway drug kind of Japanese wrestler, which can sometimes earn the ire of hardcore fans of anything. And there's some truth to the criticisms he's received, a lot of his 2000s work was formulaic and over the top. I don't like that 2003 Misawa match at all. His "epic" style main event matches could feel incredible bloated. And where you have a guy like Misawa who seems to become more special and interesting the more you watch him and the more you pay attention, Kobashi is the opposite: very striking initially, somewhat less interesting and special the more you watch and pay attention. All that said, he still does well on my list, very well. No doubt he has tons of all time level great matches. Super charismatic. As overboard as he could get with it, Kobashi as a state of the art super-offense heavyweight can be pretty awesome. His 2000s stuff still has tons of great matches. Top 30.

I remember really liking his 2009 IWGP title match vs. Nakamura. I don't have a set position on voting for Ohtani right now, will need to revisit his stuff. I will say that it's pretty impressive that a guy so plain looking could be so expressive and charismatic.

Top 50, no doubt about it. Maybe top 30. We all know the criticism: where are the great matches? Well first of all, there are some. Maybe not all-time top tier, 90s AJPW, classic lucha, etc. kind of stuff. But incredible matches. However, yes, for a guy with Regal's reputation as a worker there are few. But almost every time he's in the ring, whether the match is a MOTYC, a very good TV bout or short midcard filler, he is one of the most entertaining wrestlers to watch of all time. Regal is the king of the "little stuff." Adding a cool new twist to a move, finding a unique and bad-ass way to brutalize his opponent. His 1996 Nitro match with Psicosis I always think of as a case in point to what kind of worker Regal is. It might not be a MOTYC but Regal is doing awesome things throughout the whole match, the kind of cool stuff only Regal can do, and it's a really good TV match. I even like his bumping and selling style. One of the most fun wrestlers to watch ever, and his two big matches in 2013 were MOTYCs which, more importantly, featured absolutely stunning performances from Regal himself.