ohtani's jacket

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.

Andy Haden went to congratulate a Welshman and tripped.

I thought Rob was British. There were a contingent of Brits involved somehow or another. I remember they all made the trip to Japan for the 2004 NOAH Tokyo Dome Show. I can't remember ever coming across someone who championed Rocco as Black Tiger, though such people may exist. They were high on stuff like Rocco vs. Keiichi Yamada, and the WoS stuff that was filtering through The Wrestling Channel. I like British people. Just not their sports teams. Rocco is fine when he wrestles the way I want him to. Actually, Rocco at his best is a brilliant worker. He just preferred to work a style I didn't care for. It earned him notoriety, though. But not enough to stop his descent on the GWE list.

I'm pretty selective about the Mark Rocco I like, but even as a non-fan I find his slide a bit troubling. If a guy like Rocco can't do well, it doesn't bode well for other Euro workers. That said, his 2006 rating was overinflated by Smarkschoice being started by Brits, IRC. A lot of the Brit-adjacent forums at the time were championing Rocco as a British workrate god.

I'm specifically talking about the 300s. Maybe it's the pictures messing with me.

I would imagine the pathway is great matches/workers you like. To be honest, the overwhelming majority of TV wrestling is random filler. At least WoS is in English.

Well, essentially it was filmed house shows. You get some progression at times, such as the Breaks vs. Young David trilogy that led into the Breaks vs. Dennison feud. Sometimes you see repeat matches that lead to either a title match or some sort of gimmick bout, but it's only the backbone of what fans would traditionally associate with television booking, and we're often missing pieces of the puzzle. The randomness didn't see to bother you with French catch. I should add that Daddy is a different story, but aside from Daddy vs. Haystacks and Quinn, I was never interested in following his stuff. I think it's more useful to break WoS into eras -- 60s, 70s and 80s, each with its unique set of circumstances, weight classes -- lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight, comedy/gimmick wrestlers vs. serious grapplers (there are a ton of comedy guys in WoS), and heels vs. faces (very clearly defined and recognizable for viewers.) The stylistic quirks and rules you can figure out as you go along. Walton does most of the heavy lifting there. We never got an 80s set, not that the influence of such a set would be felt these days, but I think it's the reason why you don't see any votes for Skull Murphy, Keith Haward, Marvelous Mike Bennett, etc.

What a random list of wrestlers. I don't know who half these people are.

That's a cool picture of Johnny Valentine.

This was another workrate driven match. It was hard fought, but it felt like just another match. ROH fans may disagree since it was a highly anticipated return match, but as an outsider it didn't feel as though either man did anything outstanding. There were some cool moments, but there were too many reversals and a bunch of no-selling down the stretch. The types of things that other wrestlers would be taken to task for.

Gilbert Leduc did ok, I guess. Relatively speaking. Ha ha, Jim Londos at #2, and it wasn't me. It's nice to see Villano IV do well. A worker I have a lot of time for. Respect to the Ken Patera voters as well. Thought Bossman might go higher. It's weird how there are so many wrestlers you'd think nobody gives a shit about anymore still getting votes in 2026. Where's a good place to start with Mad Dog Connelly? Mr. Pogo went up. Which pocket of the internet is responsible for that?

The Blackwell result tells you the majority of the folks who voted in 2016 have moved on.

It's quintessentially British, so if you didn't grow up exposed to that culture then yeah, it can be a tough sell. I grew up in New Zealand, so we were exposed to a steady diet of British television shows. There wasn't a single element of WoS that was a culture shock to me, even if some of the finer regional nuances may have been lost on me. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I doubt it will ever have the reach that other styles do. It's never going to have the appeal that Japanese culture holds for young people online. It will remain a niche genre like lucha, shoot style and French Catch. Maybe that's why those are my three favorite styles.

I'm having flashbacks. Maybe he didn't deserve to be on the list after all. Actually, his brother was probably the better Shamrock.