highflyflow

Locks: Bret Hart Barry Windham Blue Panther Bobby Eaton Billy Robinson Bryan Danielson Buddy Rose Bull Nakano Brock Lesnar Strongly Considering: Bob Backlund Bruno Sammartino Bill Dundee

Locks: Aja Kong AJ Styles Akira Hokuto Akira Taue Arn Anderson Strongly Considering: Andre the Giant Atlantis Antonio Inoki Abdullah the Butcher Alexander Otsuka Arisa Nakajima Austin Idol Akira Maeda Angel Azteca

I haven't watched an extensive amount of early 90s Savage, but I can't say I agree with the notion that 1987 was the cutoff for Savage as a great worker. You can call them flashes, but I just don't see how a guy integral to matches as great as the Warrior and WWF Flair ones is anything less than great. I'm deep into 1990 viewing now, which is a weak year for Savage given so much of it is tied to a past-his-prime Dusty, but even in a down year like that he still has the SNME Hogan match and the Tenryu match in Japan that are impressive.

Really, really would like to include him on my list. One of my absolute favorite guys to watch, immensely watchable in practically everything I've seen him in. His highlights, mentioned throughout this thread, really are tremendous and he feels like such a singular wrestler in them despite working a "throwback" style. If he misses my list he'll be one of my last cuts.

A lock for my list, but it's a little surprising to me how little discussion there is on Bockwinkel since the threads were opened back up.

Damn near a lock for me, model picture of consistency for what, 15 years now? I’m sure there’s good stuff past that too. All time great tag worker, great heel, great TV worker, he just checks a lot of boxes for me.

Funny how this keeps happening with the same person over 5 different threads!

Andre’s great, just a complete force of nature at his best. Everybody points to the Hansen match and rightfully so, but I honestly might think the Killer Khan match a year later. One of the best wounded bear performances I’ve ever seen in that one. Will probably make my ballot in the back half

I’ve been meaning to get to it, my eyes lit up when I saw that notification lol. God bless Kadaveri

Watched a bunch of her work last year, 50+ matches from her early 90s AJW work to the peak ARSION stuff and her post-prime in the 2000s. The AJW work obviously doesn't hold a candle to her later career work, but she's consistently good and has a fair amount of gems to her name during this period; I especially like the 6/5/91 tag with Hokuto against Bull and Kyoko Inoue, and 1996 Japan Grand Prix match against Chaparita ASARI. She shows herself to be a real sympathetic worker, and a standout bumper to boot, but I would say it's more of a complimentary period than a true case-builder for this list. The ARSION work, on the other hand, is absolutely unreal, and the bulk of her case. Just mind-meltingly great stuff with everyone from Rie Tamada to Ayako Hamada to Reggie Bennett to AKINO to Aja Kong. Her Queen of Arsion title matches against Hiromi Yagi and Mikiko Futagami in February and April of 1999 respectively are legit classics in my eyes, incredible in construction and execution. The speed and precision with which she moves on the mat made my jaw drop at various points over the course of watching her work, and cemented her as someone I felt compelled to vote for. Her later period work is also quite underrated in my view, too; she's often talked up as a peak candidate from 1998-2000––for good reason––but the Megumi Fujii match in 2003, the AtoZ tournament matches against both Hotta and Momoe Nakanishi on the same night, the 2004 Carlos Amano match, and the 2006 NEO title match against Yoshiko Tamura prove to me that she was still great well beyond that peak and her later years probably haven't received enough critical examination. Hell, her 2017 retirement match against Leon is still really solid and impressive, a respectable final match for a great that wrestled for nearly three decades. Mariko Yoshida's a lock to make my list. At her best in ARSION, her style makes even a style as celebrated as 90's AJW's seem stale and bland in comparison. One of the most compelling figures in Joshi history, and maybe second only to Shinjiro Otani in terms of convincing me that they actually give a shit about winning and losing a match. RECOMMENDED MATCHES: w/ Akira Hokuto vs. Bull Nakano & Kyoko Inoue (AJW 6/5/91) vs. KAORU (AJW 8/28/94) vs. Chaparita ASARI (AJW 8/4/96) vs. Reggie Bennett (ARSION 5/5/98) vs. Mika Akino (ARSION 1/17/99) vs. Hiromi Yagi (ARSION 2/18/99) vs. Mikiko Futagami (ARSION 4/14/99) vs. Aja Kong (ARSION 9/17/00) vs. Megumi Fujii (ARSION 5/24/03) vs. Yumiko Hotta (AtoZ 11/9/03) vs. Carlos Amano (GAEA 4/30/04) vs. Yoshiko Tamura (NEO 11/3/06)

I love Devil, but Chigusa at her best is arguably the best babyface of all time. Devil's best has never given me that kind of feeling, regardless of how more refined her style may have been.

Anyway, Adam Priest is a phenomenal pro wrestler, one of my favorites over the past three years. Not to compare them style-wise or even quality wise, but he has a Jim Breaks like approach to his matches when wrestling as a heel: he could outwrestle his opponents, but he’s too busy whining and throwing fits. Very very good as a babyface as well, so add that in for versatility. Wouldn’t consider him yet due to lack of longevity but he’s definitely a guy I could see being a major player in 2026, especially when Tony Khan inevitably signs him to a long-term contract.

If you ignore the contextualization for that relatively low ranking as well as the other, broader pool that has him much higher, then sure I could see that. Doesn’t change the fact that there are plenty of people that consider him one of, if not the best wrestler in the world.

On Voices of Wrestling’s list of top 50 wrestlers of 2025, Adam Priest ranked #40, additionally impressive considering his brand of professional wrestling does not normally mesh with the tastes of that specific site. In the 2024 VP100, Adam Priest ranked 15th, making 58 out of 84 ballots and outranking prominent names like Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay and Gunther. He will probably finish just as high if not higher in 2025’s iteration, which rolls out next month.

We should absolutely nominate and vote for the best wrestlers ever based on attendance numbers, I agree.