ohtani's jacket

Interesting that MJF dropped. The plot thickens. 90s Juniors aren't doing as badly as predicted.

Maybe he likes Reigns' star power. Just like some people are gonna vote for the Undertaker because he was the phenom. These things matter more than people give them credit for.

To be honest, I'm not sure that Kikuchi was great for 12 straight years. I can't even remember what he did between those early 90s six-mans, his matches against the CanAm and his feud with Liger. Likewise there were a lot of years where Fuchi didn't do much. It reminds me a bit of the argument people used to make that Casas was one of the best in the world from 1987 to 20-and whatever. I think there is a lot more ebb and flow to most people's careers with purple patches and pockets of greatness. Unless you're Devil Masami, who I think was legitimately great from 1977-1997.

DiBiase did better than expected given there were people who actively wanted him to fall. I don't think Pirata could have done much better, either, even if talent-wise he was probably a top 100 worker during his peak. Jake Robert and Ultimo Dragon are the type of workers who seem to show up no matter what. I thought Reigns would make the top 100, but I guess the voting base leans more toward AEW. Don't see an issue with anyone voting him number one. You should be able to vote whoever you want as number one based on the anyone can vote ethos.

It's weird that Fuchi finished so much higher than Kikuchi, but I guess those two aren't joined at the hip. I'm not mad at Tito's ranking. That's a decent showing for him. Quietly happy for Ultimo Guerrero as well. Pretty much anyone in the top 200 is a winner.

Maybe, but for all intents and purposes, something like Kyoko vs. Lioness from J'd is just as substantial as anything Toyota did post-exodus. It seems to me that people are even spottier on post-1994 Joshi than they were back in the day. The focus seems to be on Dump-era AJW, the inter-promotional era, and Stardom or whatever the new stuff entails. I suppose those periods mark the highs, so it makes sense, but Kyoko has as much volume as any of the others. I dunno if she ever did anything good in NEO, but it's possible that it holds up similar to the veterans' work in GAEA.

I'm curious to hear how Mascaras improved his 2016 placement given how many territory guys have fallen. I don't think it's because of new footage. There must be some sort of discussion about him happening somewhere. Either that or elliott has huge pull with his Mascaras vs. Graham pimping.

You never really hear people talk about Kyoko Inoue these days. i think I left her off my ballot, and I was a big Kyoko fan back in the day. Smarkschoice was pro-Joshi, which accounts for the high placings in 2006. We did a separate women's poll, as well as various other lists.

This was okay from a technical standpoint, but not a very interesting match. I should have known better, though, since Danielson wrestling as a fish out of water against Go Shiozaki was never gonna do it for me unless they went a bit harder, which Shiozaki only showed glimpses of.

Is the Fabulous Ones match?

Peak Edge may be the Matt Hardy feud.

Ronnie Garvin is an interesting case. There was a real push in 2016 to highlight what a great worker Garvin was instead of being sandbagged as the worst guy to win the NWA title. Now that he's slipped back to where he was before, I wonder if that's a true reflection of where he stands and perhaps 2016 was an outlier.

Steve Grey not making the top 200 is disappointing. If you are a Steve Grey fan, you know this is wrong. My only solace is that cad was the high voter.

Superstar's 1977 is a hell of a year. Gagne did okay all things considered. Could have been a hell of a lot worse. Decent number of votes.

I don't have a bone to pick with Triple H. There was a period where people were excited to rediscover stuff like the Pillman/Windham feud, the Pillman/Rude TV match, etc. back when Dustin of the Day and early 90s WCW reappraisal was a thing. Don't forget, during the Monday Night Wars, Wrestlecrap and rspw crap dominated the narrative surrounding pre-Nitro WCW. It was very Scott Keith-esque. I don't think there's been any new Pillman emerge since then, so out of sight, out of mind.

This was pretty good. Matt Hardy isn't the first name that comes to mind when I think of guys I'd like to see wrestle Finlay, but Finlay, of all people, was used to wrestling randoms be it on the German circuit or on WCW C-shows. I was impressed by how Finlay was able to work an organic match that flowed from one spot to the next without the need for a bunch of signature offense. I guess it helped that his signature stuff revolved around a leprechaun and a shillelagh instead of a bunch of moves, but just typing that out makes it sound like his matches should have been slop. The fact that they weren't is a testament to how good Finlay was. Hardy had a warm up of sorts against Regal the week before, though Regal's performance wasn't as good as Finlay's.

There was a time when I would have considered Steve Grey and Jim Breaks finishing above Johnny Saint to be a victory of sorts, but I don't care anymore. I like Saint in competitive matches. I don't like Saint in four-round showcase matches. He's also my least favorite of the George Kidd impersonators. I got a kick out of seeing Andy Kaufman and Fuerza side by side. Kazuo Yamazaki strikes me as an easy guy for people to forget about over time. I don't know who Gary is, or whether he posts here, but there's just as much/little Blassie footage as any other 50s star. Cool to see Ono holding his own. MS-1 must surely be getting a bump from the Chicana match. Pleasantly surprised that people still remember Survival Tobita in 2026. Why is Perro Jr higher than so many other luchadores?

I'm trying to think how he separates himself from the Bestia. Emilio, Espanto Jr and Jerry Estrada pack. I guess he could work tecnico and rudo, which is a plus. His prime was clearly in the 80s. He was broken down in the 90s. Still a good worker, but from the glimpses we have of him when he was younger, his ceiling was higher. Maybe I'm overstating his potential, but he felt like he was going to be a headline star early on.

It's questionable to me whether La Fiera is better than several of the luchadores he finished ahead of. Maybe if we had more of his prime.

How did La Fiera get on so many ballots?

Kikuchi? That's indefensible. Masa Saito too. Iron Sheik and New Jack side by side amuses me.

Meltzer gave this four stars for some reason. I don't know why as it was an incredibly average match by their standards. Perhaps he had been starved of good WWE wrestling since Mania. It was Edge's match to call, but he wasn't creative enough to add any interesting details. Benoit worked the same match he wrestled against everyone, and JBL and Cole continued to step on each other's toes. I couldn't find a single thing about this that warranted a fourth star.

I'm surprised Grey has made it this far, though I guess those three were inextricably linked. WoS is my favorite era of Finlay's career. Some part of me regards him as a WoS guy. The other three not so much. Dynamite could have been one of the great WoS workers. He was on the right trajectory before he left.

I missed a page. Chicky Starr, Itsuki Yamazaki and Gino Hernandez are a heck of a trio. Yamazaki deserved better, but don't they all.

I wonder whatever happened to Rob. This was his baby after all.