ohtani's jacket

You've undoubtedly seen more Kandori than I have. I could be way off, but I also like the Kandori/Toyota match more than the Hotta bout, and I don't think fans of the Hotta match will agree with me there.

#90 El Dandy Man, the way El Dandy is treated on cagematch is rubbish. His most well-known matches have been rated (but only by 30-40 people), but he only has something like 17 matches with ratings and half a dozen of those are WCW matches. I suppose that's indicative of what lucha is up against as a whole, but I feel that we've let El Dandy down a bit. We were so excited to discover his work in 2006 and were championing him so hard, then we kind of abandoned him. People move on and watch other things, and Dandy didn't add to his case a lot after the Navarro feud, but hopefully as Loss enters the '89-90 period with Wrestling Playlists, there will be a Dandy revival. Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr. & Super Calo vs. El Dandy, La Parka, Psychosis & Silver King (WCW, 1/24/98) I'm fairly certain I've seen this before, but I'd seen everything else on the list and I was curious as to why Dave gave this four stars. It's not a bad match, but it's no different to a match they could have had on Nitro or Thunder and not what I'd consider four stars. Dandy is in it. His stuff looks good as he was fairly fit around this time period, but he's not a major participant in the bout. It's most notable for Parka attacking everyone with his chair afterwards. Interestingly, WCW may have spawned a thousand La Parka fans and all the El Dandy doubt, thereby making them responsible for their individual placements on the GWE list. I wish I'd seen something better for El Dandy, but cagematch is clearly not the place for lucha hidden gem research.

If I didn't make it clear, I'd take Kandori and Nakamura out of the top 100.

#91 Shinsuke Nakamura Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW 1/4/15) I honestly can't remember which Nakamura New Japan matches I've seen. There's a good chance that I've seen this before. I know that I definitely haven't seen his WWE work, but I figured that he made the top 100 based mostly on his New Japan run. His entrance immediately reminded me of why I never vibed with Nakamura. His look was different for wrestling but not different from what a lot of non-salary men types are continuing to do today. He borrowed a lot of his showmanship from punk rock and J-Rock, and part of me thinks I should like it, but at the end of the day my Japanese wrestling hero is Akira Maeda and Nakamura is not Akira Maeda. He's fairly restrained here (by Nakamura standards) outside of his entrance. The problem is that Ibushi isn't that interesting. Nakamura may act like he's on speed, but Ibushi is plain boring. I liked the finishing stretch here, but five stars? Not in my sky.

This was presumably part of the build to the Hokuto/Satomura singles match. It's a typically messy GAEA match that favors heat over match structure. They cram a good 25 minute match into 13 minutes, which may be merciful depending on how much you like Joshi. The finish is exciting and the post match brawling is cool. You definitely leave feeling you've seen something good even if it's not quite as good as it could have been. Ozaki isn't far removed from her prime. She gives herself a hideous, unnecessary crimson mask, scraps, gets thrown around like a ragdoll, and sells great. I don't think she quite clicks with Hokuto as they're too similar, but she doesn't detract from the main storyline of Hokuto going after mother bear and baby cub. The Hokuto/Satomura match is one of the great matches of the early 00s, IMO, which makes the setup worth seeing even if it's pure setup rather than a great match on its own.

#92 Mayumi Ozaki Ozaki is a bit of a strange one. She has an overall 9.14 rating, but cagematch users have only rated a small fraction of her matches. It's a mix of her most well-known matches and random stuff from this century that I've never heard of. I'm intrigued by that stuff, but at the same time I'm not sure that I trust cagematch ratings. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (GAEA 3/11/01) This was presumably part of the build to the Hokuto/Satomura singles match. It's a typically messy GAEA match that favors heat over match structure. They cram a good 25 minute match into 13 minutes, which may be merciful depending on how much you like Joshi. The finish is exciting and the post match brawling is cool. You definitely leave feeling you've seen something good even if it's not quite as good as it could have been. Ozaki isn't far removed from her prime. She gives herself a hideous, unnecessary crimson mask, scraps, gets thrown around like a ragdoll, and sells great. I don't think she quite clicks with Hokuto as they're too similar, but she doesn't detract from the main storyline of Hokuto going after mother bear and baby cub. The Hokuto/Satomura match is one of the great matches of the early 00s, IMO, which makes the setup worth seeing even if it's pure setup rather than a great match on its own.

This was pretty great. Wrestlers, I'm telling you, if you hate a guy, I mean really, really hate a guy, it's much better if you beat him up in and around the ring than in the bowels of the arena. Just letting you now. This obviously had great heat and a ton of fantastic violence. I loved how much Joe was enjoying throwing cats around at the start of the match. It was a nice bit of juxtaposition to the rage he showed after the bout was over. I like Necro Butcher. I mean, how could you not? He looks like a mentally ill vagrant, and has such a simple, direct approach to wrestling. Loved all of his exchanges with Joe, and the exchanges with Whitmer. Super Dragon was low key great in a style of bout that you don't automatically associate him with. Hero seemed to be ducking the action a bit. Perhaps the camera man wasn't following him, or the editor didn't find any shots he liked. I thought his selling was a bit iffy at times. They could have trimmed the fat a bit, but it was a heck of a spectacle, and a great set up for the Cage of Death match.

I may be the only person in PWO history excited for a Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels match. The thing I appreciate about this match is that it's a non-standard WWE match. It feels like Michaels and Orton are working instead of acting out some predetermined match layout. You can argue that the work doesn't go anywhere but at least it feels organic. I've ragged on Michaels a bunch in the past, but I really like this 2005-07 period of his comeback. He brought back a lot of old-school matwork during this run. At a time when everyone was trying to mimic the UFC, he was out there getting pops off a backslide. Orton is also strangely non-formulaic for a guy who everyone says can't work. The finish of the match is amusing. Michaels spazzes out after hitting the Savage elbow, trying to get the crowd into it. It's classic over-the-top Michaels bullshit. He tunes up the band and Orton hits him in the balls while he's going for the superkick. It's a bullshit finish in terms of Orton getting DQ'ed and retaining his title. That's a crappy rule that doesn't make any sense. Why didn't Orton just low blow him in the opening minute if he didn't care about losing the bout? At the same time, Michaels it for all of his carry-on before the superkick. I enjoyed this match for the most part, but the finish pretty much ruined it.

I was expecting this to be a bigger style match with plenty of nearfalls, though to be honest I don't know if that was McGuinness' style of match. Instead, this was tightly focused on head shots and attempts to decapitate each other using the ropes on moves to the outside. It was brutal at times, but captivating. Maybe it's me, but I don't think you should be allowed to hit a guy with a tope when he has his back turned to you. Topes are dangerous at the best of times let alone when get hit from behind. I'm guessing he was concussed. I don't think his selling was that good. Then again, he was able to continue with the match, so who really knows. I was into the finish. I don't know my ROH title lineage so I thought Aries might pull it off. Good fight even if it was a bit hairy at times.

This was OK, I guess. It kind of showed an alternative universe where Morishima was a classic pro-wrestling heel instead of a working big man. I don't know if either version is truly satisfying. This was one of those matches where Danielson's goofy selling reminds me of Backlund except Backlund never had the vicious offense that Danielson dishes out.

#93 Necro Butcher Necro Butcher may be the lowest cagematch ranked wrestler to make the top 100 at 6.96. Team CZW (Chris Hero, Necro Butcher & Super Dragon) vs. Team ROH (Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer & Samoa Joe) (ROH, 4/22/06) This was pretty great. Wrestlers, I'm telling you, if you hate a guy, I mean really, really hate a guy, it's much better if you beat him up in and around the ring than in the bowels of the arena. Just letting you now. This obviously had great heat and a ton of fantastic violence. I loved how much Joe was enjoying throwing cats around at the start of the match. It was a nice bit of juxtaposition to the rage he showed after the bout was over. I like Necro Butcher. I mean, how could you not? He looks like a mentally ill vagrant, and has such a simple, direct approach to wrestling. Loved all of his exchanges with Joe, and the exchanges with Whitmer. Super Dragon was low key great in a style of bout that you don't automatically associate him with. Hero seemed to be ducking the action a bit. Perhaps the camera man wasn't following him, or the editor didn't find any shots he liked. I thought his selling was a bit iffy at times. They could have trimmed the fat a bit, but it was a heck of a spectacle, and a great set up for the Cage of Death match. Claudio's cameo at the end was better than anything in the AEW match. There's your Claudio match, folks.

Man, I wanna see those matches.

You could kind of sense it coming, though I don't think anyone expected it to be mid-series. I wish he had held on a little longer, but NZ don't play enough test cricket for him to reach the milestones I was hoping for. I'd still call Hadlee our greatest cricketer, but Williamson is definitely our finest batsman.

#94 Claudio Castagnoli Same deal as Kingston. Kenny Omega, Swerve Strickland, The Opps (Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs & Samoa Joe) & Willow Nightingale (w/Prince Nana) vs. Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Marina Shafir & Wheeler Yuta) & The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson), Anarchy In The Arena Match (AEW, 5/25/25) What the fuck was this? This was one of the worst matches I've seen in my entire life. I hated crowd brawling and backstage fights while it was happening in the 90s. Why would I want to watch a pussified version of it in 2025? I think Claudio was the guy fighting Fat Joe. He did his giant swing a couple of times later in the match. God the shit later on was awful. The Bucks are awful. Kenny Omega is awful. Claudio deserved a better match than this, but Dave and his wrestling midlife crisis gave this five stars. The CZW match was so much better. I need to go watch a classic concession brawl to wash the taste of this match out of my mouth with mustard and ketchup.

That's probably true. I was just getting into it and it ended. I might watch it again at some point knowing that it goes short.