highflyflow

A mostly negative thread here. I can see why, on first impression, Jeff Hardy doesn't seem like what you would traditionally define as a "great" wrestler, let alone one of the 100 greatest of all time, as a representative of the hardcore WWF/E tag matches of 25 years ago; however, as his defenders have pointed out earlier in this thread, there's more to him that meets the eye. I very much agree with the notion that Jeff was one of the best babyfaces in the WWE, probably in all of North America at minimum, between 2006-2008, and he did this while working fairly standard singles and tag matches with his brother. I stand by pretty much all of the matches Jimmy Redman recommended for this period, and I think the Triple H series is especially a feather in his cap considering the dearth of quality in Hunter's other singles work during this time period. I do think, though, as Redman also stated, that the hardcore period of his career, 1999-2003 to be specific, gets misconstrued; he's not as good of a seller then as he is later in his career, but he's not exactly lacking in this department either. Despite the matches he partook in often being considered car crashes, the dangerous feeling those matches provide still holds up decades later because of Jeff's commitment to take the nuttiest bumps possible and then his commitment to selling the weight of that work. Am I going to vote for Jeff? If I did, he'd probably be my vanity #100 for sentimental reasons, being my first favorite wrestler and someone whose work I still enjoy. But I think he's worthy of discussion, too, and probably a little underrated in this bubble of wrestling discussion.

At the very least, I'm considering (not in order): El Hijo del Santo Negro Casas El Dandy El Satanico Blue Panther Sangre Chicana Atlantis Villano III LA Park Mocho Cota Virus Hechicero Rush Pirata Morgan Black Terry Fuerza Guerrera Perro Aguayo Jerry Estrada Emilio Charles Jr Gran Hamada La Fiera Mistico MS-1 A lot of these candidates are here because of the 1980s DVDVR lucha set, which I've finished recently.

Mox has a very strong chance of making my list, especially after the incredible performance he had at All In last Saturday, it's just a matter of combing through his pre-WWE Indies work and touching up on his WWE work to see what range I could place him in. I do fall in the camp of thinking he's been one of, if not the best wrestler of the 2020s so far, and for all the things I could nitpick at him for, I can only see him solidifying that case over the next 5 years into the 2030s.

Absolutely watch the Ueno and HARASHIMA matches from last year

How do people feel about this current heel run in the context of Cena's GWE case? It seems like it's almost universally panned already, and we still are months away from its conclusion. Do you genuinely hold it against his case, or do you give him more of a pass due to this being his last year as an active worker and his more sporadic schedule since becoming a movie star? Does the fact that this, being his only real heel run, is a disaapointment mean anything to you? I suppose to those skeptical of Cena in general this doesn't do anything but confirm their biases against him. For me personally, I'm very high on him as a candidate, but I do think the lack of any real substance so far in this last year has hurt him a bit in my eyes, along with the decreased workload since 2016.

You have the analogy wrong. The wrestler is the director here. The films are the matches, or I guess in the context of this conversation a run of matches. Nobody’s saying Joe/Necro is a worse match because of the lulls of Joe’s career down the line, just as nobody is diminishing The Godfather as a film because of Coppola’s later works. Do people not rank Coppola as highly as a director because of those later works? Absolutely, and that would be no different to not having a wrestler as high due to their later career. You don’t have to agree with that logic, of course, but that’s the correct use of the analogy.

Joseph Montecillo just released an article detailing Meiko's GWE case in the wake of her recent retirement, I figure it would be beneficial to post here in her nominee forum: https://www.josephmontecillo.com/2025/05/04/for-your-consideration-gwe-2026-meiko-satomura/

Does talent alone make you a better wrestler though? And I say this as someone who has Taue 4th amongst the pillars.

Not sure there's a year between 2004 to now where both have been active and Jericho was the better wrestler. Honestly could probably stretch that back to 2003. Punk in a landslide.

I agree that Regal being rated the 21st best wrestler of all time is insane. He should have been higher.

After going through the year 1980 in full, four best in the world contenders stood out for me: Tatsumi Fujinami Larry Zbyszko Bob Backlund Buddy Rose That ended up being the order I ranked them in. Some other workers that I thought were excellent that year but not quite up to the level of that top four for various reasons were Jackie Sato, Jim Breaks, Terry Funk, Ken Patera, Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Nick Bockwinkel, Rick Martel, Roddy Piper, & Mark Rocco.

Do these few get unfairly penalized for it, or are they just guilty of it to an extraordinarily higher level than the wrestlers they’re being compared to?

Cash Wheeler It's always been somewhat baffling to me that Dax Harwood is nominated but not his tag partner, so I'll seek to rectify that now. Cash Wheeler has been a part of one of the most popular tag teams in the world over the last decade, and arguably THE best tag team over the same timespan. Wheeler admittedly hasn't gotten the same singles opportunities as Harwood, but he's consistently brung it in their tag team epics, and input wise I think he may be the best member of the unit over the past couple years. as Dash Wilder w/ Scott Dawson vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa (WWE 11/19/16) w/ Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH 4/1/22) w/ Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH 12/10/22) Athena Admittedly I'm not too familiar with her work pre-NXT, but she had great matches there with the likes of Asuka, then signed with AEW and became the centerpiece of Khan's ROH. She was one of the best wrestlers anywhere in the world last year; she was able to be a dominating heel, a sympathetic heel, a stooging heel, able to work straight matches, able to work plunder brawls, able to work long matches and absolutely killed it in squash matches. If she keeps up the pace she's been at, in 2026 I think her resume will undoubtedly be strong enough to merit consideration. vs. Mercedes Martinez (SHIMMER 3/17/12) as Ember Moon vs. Asuka (WWE 4/1/17) as Ember Moon vs. Asuka (WWE 8/19/17) vs. Willow Nightingale (ROH 3/9/23) vs. Willow Nightingale (ROH 7/21/23)