Clayton Jones

I'm on the same journey a lot who have participated in GWE have been on with Rudge. In a limited amount of matches he's made as much of an impression on me as anyone who I was mostly unfamiliar with coming in. Besides some of the matches already mentioned I also really enjoyed him as an ass kicking babyface VS Bully Boy Muir from 8/27/1988. I like how even when he's working meat and potatoes, big boys grunting & grabbing at each others faces kind of matches, there are still creative touches that make each bout feel unique. I saw a comment that you always get your money's worth watching Rudge. That seems pretty spot on. I know the footage is limited so I'm going to table him for now but he may require the least amount watched for me to have a legitimate shot at sneaking on my ballot.

Nick Gage VS Pagano VS Psicosis VS Joe Lider - EMW DeathMatch 7/12/2019 This is one semi recent Psicosis match I really enjoyed for a totally different side of him. He hangs in there with Gage nicely and the two are the stars of the show. The match is pretty mindless deathmatch fare but I'm a sucker for that when done proficiently and especially with a fish out of water kind of element. Otherwise, Psicosis did very well on my first round watching him for GWE. Always a highlight in random AAA trios and very adaptable with a wide range of tecnico. When plopped into ECW or WCW he thrived, he was maybe my favorite cruiserweight in WCW and that's held up watching currently. And the Rey feud speaks for itself, I'm still finding new (to me) greatness. I'd also be curious for more analysis of his last few decades but I was very happy with my first round with Psicosis, which hasn't been the case with every 90s favorite so far.

Bigelow is so good at working big and opening up for opponents. There's always an edge to his matches working underneath where you aren't sure if he's going to go along with what comes next. I don't know if that's something about how he wrestles or because he's a bit unhinged but I really enjoy it. Inoki is his usual big match self and because Bigelow is game this works very well. Bam Bam's selling and general aura bring this up from something skippable to well worth your time.

Watched the Junior Battle of Glory Tag Finals at your recommendation and it was a banger! I've watched a bit of AJPW from this era so not surprised to see so much under the radar goodness you're digging up. But it's much appreciated. The extra mile you go with the screen captures and such really helps your reviews stand out. I'm always dog earring matches as I read your stuff and was glad to finally see one was easily available on YouTube.

I'll echo the Kojima stock rising sentiment. Someone I was admittedly way off the mark on back in the mid 2000s and now will never pass over a chance to watch no matter what the era. Although I have seen way too little of the Tenzan team for its historical significance, I imagine that'll be a big factor determining how high I can justify going on Kozy.

I watched 8 Bret matches on my first round with him, the most I've sat down to with anyone I'm not trying to fill in big blind spots for. I was focusing on 1986-1991 as I'm trying to figure out if I see Bret as a peak candidate above all else, or if there's a good amount of substance outside of his peak too. The verdict is still out for me. I really like Bret in terms of personal biases, which is a little strange as I didn't grow up a big fan of his. I was always indifferent towards him as a kid, I liked him better than Shawn, but his main event style of match didn't grab me the way guys like Sting, Savage, Vader, Flair, etc did. But as I got older and "smarter" as a fan Bret's style really appealed to me, probably to the point I overrated him a bit over the years. Now for a project like this I have a hard time figuring out where I'm going to have him. I don't feel like going match by match through what I watched but here's a few general observations. I was surprised how often Bret would default, when he was a rising top babyface, to using heel tactics against guys like Warlord, Paul Roma, not the highest caliber of opponent, or even a rising heel like Rick Martel. I remember Bret doing stuff like this when he was physically outmatched or the heel cheated first, but he really went to this well often in the early 90s and I didn't find it endearing. Every Hart Foundation match I watched (VS Islanders, Killer Bees, and trios w/Davis VS Bulldogs/Haynes) Bret was a very effective heel straight man tag team specialist. You could go through every cliche, solid hand, great mechanics, whatever, but he really was. Does this strengthen his case significantly for a project like this? For me at this point, it does slightly, but not to the extent I maybe expected it to. In every one of these matches I thought the style helped everyone look favorable and Bret rarely stood out as being significantly better than anyone else. But he was consistently very good. Next time around with Bret I'm going to focus more on his prime years, but the one later match I did include this time looking for a hidden gem was one of my biggest disappointments of my GWE viewing so far, VS Savage from Yokohama. This may just be a battle of expectations but I read quite a few people give this match middling, slightly favorable reviews, and I just don't see it. Given the time they had, the type of crowd they were in front of, and the main event spot, I thought this was a complete dud. Maybe they didn't get the time they expected but the fact that's the best those two could do with nearly 20 minutes in that setting was a big let down.

Very solid match, Sleeze covered most of the highlights. These two teams had good chemistry and I know this era of WWF tag wrestling can be monotonous but this is an example of when it's done right. All four guys got to show their strengths and the Toronto crowd was hot. Fun, easy watch.

I wouldn't call this a short and sweet match but I definitely wouldn't say it felt every minute of its runtime. I enjoyed the feeling out early as much as the hard hitting second half. And man was it hard hitting, even by their standards these two really beat the shit out of each other. Takada runs hot and cold with me and I've rarely seen him thrive in matches where the point isn't to make him look like a worldbeater. But he was great here. Yamazaki was very convincing taking him to the limit and while there's nothing exactly exceptional about this match, I did think it was very good and well worth a watch.

The tag where he gets his teeth knocked out is one of the best WWE modern tags by a wide margin. His cage match with Brodie Lee is probably my favorite match in CHIKARA history. Everything mentioned but especially those PWG and NXT Sami matches. But at the same time I get throwing his name out there because I could still see him having one defining career match yet to come.

This was every bit the star making performance for Kawada that Kobashi teaming with Jumbo VS Hansen/Tenryu was. I agree with the consensus here that on first watch at least, this felt like an all-time classic. Can't believe I haven't heard more about it, even in my "to watch" list I couldn't really remember when I had added it or why. Easily the best young Kawada performance I've seen. He starts to show little touches with his selling and timing that will make him one of the greats. Tenryu is a man possessed and the Olympians are great confident capable Champions. There are two times where a hot tag leads to the partner quickly getting tagged back in, normally a pet peeve, but both lead to opportunities for Jumbo and Tenryu to continue to tear each other apart so it all works perfectly. If I had one small criticism it would be that the match climaxed and then lost a little momentum before the finish. But this also plays into the story that the Olympians realize they need to put Kawada away already and stop playing Tenryu's game before they lose the titles. Wonderful tag title match that has to been seen.

I think that's his best match I've seen, but I also could see the argument that it's just a taste of what could have been. I'm not sure if I'm more of that opinion or that it was his perfect moment in the sun, given what he brought to the table in the era.

Their matches VS Harper/Rowan and in the tag team gauntlet with Bryan in February 2015 are also excellent. I don't think the Usos really fit the bill. Matt Borne and Brad Armstrong were names that immediately came to mind for me. I know both have some really good career highlights, but did either ever have their career defining matches?

This is a great companion piece to the Bock title change and an infinitely better Jumbo performance. He feels more determined to win his title back than he felt to win it in the first place. He strikes a great balance between confidence and urgency and as previously mentioned I just love the way he matches up with Martel in general. Rick is great staying true to himself until the end while still giving you the feeling that the crown lies heavy. There's just a little Flair and Bock in him by the end, a realization that keeping the title is the real challenge. Nothing dirty but the backslide, the sleeper, his pissed off stare down with Jumbo, it's a different shade of Martel as Champ and it's great. This is an essential match in both guys' careers.

Throw another vote in the **** pile. All-time great Bockwinkel performance, good enough Jumbo performance, and Funk as guest referee adds a little novelty. More importantly doesn't take much away. Of course he's chewing up scenery like crazy, and the booking to make sure he's involved prominently until the end is a bit convoluted. But as far as guest refs go it's all pretty good stuff. Tsuruta's selling is an issue but I wanted more from his overall struggle and sense of accomplishment in general. We've seen it from him VS Bock in the past so it's frustrating on his big night this felt more like another day at the office for him. But as a plug and play local babyface he's decent, and Bock makes a point to create magic for him no matter what. He makes Jumbo feel massive, makes himself feel like as skilled of a Champion as there's ever been, dances around and slyly plays off Funk, it's just beautiful. And I'd agree the abrupt finish works well.

Thatcher is an interesting case to me. I really enjoy his approach to pro wrestling, he's one of the few of his generation that always has a complete vision of who he is before, during, and after a match. He wrestles with a clear intent to win and rarely breaks my suspension of disbelief. On the flip side I can sometimes get frustrated at how unselfish he is, which is a quality I normally value, but in his case sometimes undermines his grizzly, aggressive persona. I also think he's rarely booked to his full potential, possibly due to his giving nature, or more likely because he's such a square peg in a modern landscape of round holes. Even runs like his EVOLVE Championship which should be a big plus, he was often portrayed as boring or unsatisfying, sometimes to the detriment of his work. Regardless, the five matches I watched of his on my first round of GWE viewing left me feeling optimistic about his chances of making my list. 2019/03/07 Yuki Ishikawa/Shigehiro Irie VS WALTER/Timothy Thatcher - wXw Builds to the Ishikawa singles match beautifully. I'd also strongly recommend that match which I watched a while back. Everyone in this plays their part perfectly but the focus is on Ishikawa and Thatcher and neither disappoints at all. A very substantial tag match with some length that never drags. The work is logical and everything builds with a very deliberate and engaging pace. Thatcher is underrated as a tag wrestler and whenever I see him in a big match like this teaming with Ringkampf I get excited. 2020/12/06 Timothy Thatcher VS Tommaso Ciampa - NXT The fact this match was this good in the pandemic era against an opponent like Ciampa is remarkable. I like Ciampa well enough but he has tendencies I don't love and isn't a must watch for me by any means. That said, as SegundaCeurda mentioned, this was a great example of an opponent in a big match situation adapting nicely to Thatcher instead of the other way around. This felt spontaneous and intuitive in a way that WWE produced wrestling rarely does. One of the best pandemic matches I've watched. 2017/03/19 Timothy Thatcher VS Tom Dawkins - IPW:UK 2017/01/20 Timothy Thatcher VS Joe Graves - PCW ULTRA On the topic of Thatcher being unselfish, these were matches I watched to see how he works a few different "make the local guy" kind of situations, without any knowledge of the results coming in. They were two very good examples as such, with Graves bringing a good bit more to the table, while Dawkins was an exercise in making the best of being dealt a bad hand. I don't believe I've ever seen these two wrestle otherwise and I could be way off base from just one match to judge them. But "Blackbelt" Tom brought decent selling, weak strikes, and one or two big spots but not much else, while Graves worked a more interesting hold for hold, gritty sort of match that complimented Thatcher nicely. Dawkins got eaten up a bit as a result while Graves felt like he really accomplished something in his match (which was the third in a trilogy and of course the rubber match). I did like how Timothy basically built everything for Dawkins around his two big spots and gave him very little otherwise, while he had much more of a give and take with Graves. Neither of these matches were great but I thought they were everything Thatcher could do and then some given the circumstances. 2018/12/31 Timothy Thatcher VS Simon Grimm - Beyond I was hoping this would be a bit of a Thatcher showcase and it delivered. Grimm came at him headfirst, kind of like Ciampa did, but in a much more condensed package of a match. This was really compelling and even though it had similarities to the other three Thatcher singles matches I watched it still felt very fresh and different. I'd like to see more from these two. This was a pretty focused period of Thatcher's career, not intentionally, and I know there's a lot more to explore. Still it was interesting to dig into material that was all post GWE16 where I'd agree his case was pretty much nonexistent. Since then I'm of the opinion he's built on his resume tremendously and deserves a much closer look this time around.

Outstanding.

In the stock/rising falling thread I mentioned how I don't know if there's anyone who I've circled back to more times while watching other candidates than Akiyama or Masami, well at this point Grey is on that short list as well. Which is nothing shocking to add as many have already pointed out how he's had so many wrestler's best matches. He's just so damn good, so consistent, with great variety even in similar settings and playing similar roles. I'm left asking myself questions like did he work outside of Britain (cagematch says no)? Just how long is his peak? How much quality post-prime output is there? Because man he is one of the leading "how high is too high?" candidates for me a year in.

Not that it negates that he had some good stretches here and there but didn't he end up being yet another conspiracy theory idiot manchild? Or something along those lines?

Sydal had really great matches VS Ospreay in RevPro and Strickland in DEFY since the last round of discussion!

I don't feel like I'm the guy to go to bat for Corino but he does have a solid shot at making it onto the tail end of my ballot. Besides the stuff mentioned I really enjoyed him as a general shit stirrer in ECW, feuding with Taz, house show matches VS Dreamer, as well as later on ROH stuff teaming with Steen and sponsoring Jacobs. For GWE I just watched his matches VS Colby and an early 2000s match VS Windham, both were very good but polar opposite performances. In the latter's defense Windham looked great too. I like him well enough as a Hashimoto opponent. But big title matches, dream match type settings are where I think he falters most. Or when he relies too much on getting his friends/students work. Overall he moves the needle for me though, I get that he doesn't for a lot of people, but I'm still surprised by the relative indifference he's gotten as a nominee.

Haha damn it!! Next time, I swear. You guys keep churning and burning!

I'm coincidentally on a round of Hashimoto viewing right now and I'd say all 3 of the matches I've watched so far he was clearly the best wrestler in (IWGP title defense VS Tenzan in 95 after his excursion, the US 4 way with Corino, VS Choshu from WK 2001) and were all great matches in their own right. And even against Dylan Night and Gary Steele, and especially against Tenzan, he did a great job of elevating his opponents while always looking like a world beater. I was much higher on that Tenzan match than most reviews I see out there and give it a strong recommendation. I will definitely recant my 2016 opinion that he lacks career defining feuds after digging deeper into the Tenryu and Choshu matches in particular since then. I also 6 years later find the wide range of opponents Hash had good to great matches with much more endearing, and now that I've made the commitment to vote this time around am more excited to keep exploring his career because of that variety. The question of who was better at elevating opponents between him or Nagata is an interesting one, and makes me really wish we could have seen Hash have a rivalry with an up and coming Tanahashi. I'd also say he was great as early as 89, with performances in matches VS Zangiev, Vader, and Choshu as evidence.

I did hate the finish, and I'm finding I hate a lot of Choshu finishes in singles matches, but I loved everything else. Two guys that excel painting in broad strokes having the type of match they both thrive in. Big moments, huge strikes, even a simple lock up feels like it moves the ground under the ring. They both project such huge personas and back it up with everything they do in this match. The only Inoki-ism criticism I have is the dud of a finish, and that that's what the fans had to settle for after an epic war up until that point.

Great match that felt much more cohesive than their 85 match I just watched. My main criticism here was the finish made Choshu look pretty dumb, and not in a hotheaded way because of the clear callback to the 85 match, where he was clearly getting a pass this time. I do appreciate the character development, where these guys come in and where they leave, and the great job the above posts do of outlining that. But I still hated this finish. That said, I loved everything else about this match, miscommunications and all, these two are rarely graceful and that's not what I'm looking for between them. Even more than the big moments I especially liked the build, the grappling, and the momentum shifts in this one.

I'm somewhere between World's Worst Man and the consensus ****1/4 here. Choshu getting up in the middle of the scorpion, especially in one of his matches where he fights to apply it for such a large portion, really drives me nuts. That said, the presence these guys bring is huge, I loved the opening, and I liked the finishing run. I'm curious to watch more of their matches because it does seem like the potential is there, and Tenryu is particularly great here.