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Their best match at that point, probably because the Rockers got enough time to put on an excellent shining segment, which frustrated the Brainbusters and motivated their aggression later on, as they were more interested in hurting Shawn, rather than focusing on a specific body part to keep him down. Blanchard was outwrestled by both babyfaces and bumped around big time, until the heels cut Shawn off with an impactful lariat and their got some good heat on him Shawn was no Ricky Morton at this time, but still a very skilled underdog. The finishing stretch was quite hot as well, with a classic heel finish. ****

This was a little masterpiece, a textbook example of a 15 minutes mat-based clinic. While not representing the 'junior' styles of the 90s (or even Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid for that matter), this was closer to a Joint Promotions fight from their golden age. Fuchi was a mean one and very precise in his armwork, but also bumped around for the gaijin's offense, setting up a pleasant pace. While not as famous as his brother, Joe was a good hand and fully comfortable with a huge variation of suplexs. ***1/2

This was a fun match and a well executed angle, portraying Steamboat's return (well, technically debut) to WCW and laying the foundations for his program with Flair. The Horsemen had a long heat segment here, but they gave enough to Gilbert, who was of course the babyface in perils and did a very convincing job in that regard. Flair and Steamboat had a good finishing run, an ideal tease to a future singles match, with some exciting stuff and a good flashy finish. This was so simple and worked so well. ***1/2

This was a blast and a fresh matchup, both for the competitors and for the WWF landscape. Typical good Southern tag team action in the north east, even though the Brainbusters were not super aggressive and mostly relied on smart teamwork here. The Rockers looked good and sold for the heels for several minutes, especially Jannetty, who was incredibly crisp during his comeback. It looked like the Rockers could so much more and were told to slow things down, despite this being solid with a good heel finish. ***1/4

Shoot style is not my thing and this actually bored me partially, as they went 30 minutes and killed a lot of time with rest holds that didn't look like a threat. Despite that, this had some great strikes and good selling from Takada, who was getting worked on his leg and was very focused on not being outwrestled on the mat, countering Maeda's grapples and trying to knock him down to win by TKO as a way out. It was a shame, as this could have been a great 15/20 minutes match, but they didn't do enough to justify a 30 minutes epic attempt. ***1/4

It's a bit weird to see a 'simple' match like this as their blowoff, right after a Fire Match, but this was a very good slugfest with some great blood addition and decent drama. As usual, Colon's selling and desperation were outstanding (especially during the figure four), this was only missing some tighter work from Ayala, who at times went from a thing to another without a logic flow (the long bearhug spot didn't bring anything, for one). I loved the dramatic counter finish and they had the crowd literally exploding by that point. ***1/2

Yeah, Hogan famously offered to do the job so he could take credit for the house. The Rodman/Malone stuff brought a lot of mainstream attention that month, I think BatB had 600k buys or something. WCW was still very hot despite sandbagging Sting, botching Bret Hart's debut and the whole nWo split fiasco.

vs Averno in 2005 and vs Negro Casas in 2009!

10. Dynamite Kid 1982 was much better for the Dynamite feud with Tiger Mask, as their bouts in the summer finally clicked and moved on from some irritating habits. Dynamite was a blast throughout the year, tagging with Bret Hart in New Japan and then also facing him in Stampede, even though his best matches were obviously the ones against Sayama. 9. Stan Hansen Another good year for Hansen, as he immediately got involved with All Japan’s biggest guys. Him and Terry Funk had a very good match in September and Hansen also managed to get a few pretty good performances out of Giant Baba. Hansen and Bruiser Brody formed a vicious tag team and they had a positive run during the RWTL at the end of the year. 8. Terry Funk Funk brought it again, as his matches against Hansen and Brody felt like good deals and highlights of All Japan’s year. Regardless of his performances in singles matches, Terry and Dory also had a bunch of solid tag matches throughout the year, working as amazing babyfaces against their aggressive opponents. 7. Nick Bockwinkel Bock didn't have a classic in 1982, but he surely had plenty of damn good ones. He mostly shined in AWA, but also had a couple of good matches against Lawler in Memphis, plus a few shining performances in Houston (loved his Ricky Morton match from July). He also toured All Japan and put on decent stuff against Jumbo. 6. Tiger Mask I think Sayama did very well, as he got more comfortable with the gimmick and dropped a few irritating habits. His best matches against Dynamite Kid were in the summer of 1982, but I also appreciated his bouts against Bret Hart, Steve Wright and Kuniaki Kobayashi. Sadly, his WWF tour was not exciting at all. 5. Jumbo Tsuruta Jumbo was clearly getting better and started chasing his first World Title, adding purpose to all of his gaijin battles against former World champions. The match against Flair was the highlight of his year and proved his resilience. As usual, he tagged with Baba a lot and managed to do most of the work. 4. Bob Backlund Not Backlund's strongest year of the early 80s, but still a very good one. He gave Adrian Adonis his best matches and program ever, did well against Bob Orton and Greg Valentine. The Buddy Rose feud was somewhat of a letdown as I love Rose, but they didn't click too well and you could see the fans were not 100% into Backlund anymore. 3. Kerry von Erich His two matches against Flair were amazing, especially the one from August, while the cage match a tad too overbooked for me despite being a great spectacle. He also had a really strong contender match against Harley Race in June, plus a few good little matches here and there in the Dallas territory. 2. Jerry Lawler Lawler had a strong year in Memphis, especially when battling Nick Bickwinkel in the fall, even though his best match was against Dutch Mantel in March, where his babyface punches were so satisfying. The Flair bout from August was somewhat of a letdown, while the Andy Kaufman feud is not really my cup of tea but was entertaining enough. 1. Ric Flair What a great year for the Naitch. He brought the Flair formula everywhere in the NWA, making all of his babyface challengers look great and creating hype for return matches. Jumbo, Lawler, Kerry and David, Sawyer, Colon, Reed all benefitted from this. Flair had an outstanding series of great matches and it is a shame we don't have a lot of footage from his Georgia or Florida work for that year, because everything he touched in 1982 turned into gold.

Looks like a solid top 70. Sting, Moxley and Necro are probably the only three that wouldn't make my top 70.

Lesnar had a series of highly overrated matches after his 2012 return. The people that loved his countless suplexs, no-selling and exaggerated kickouts were the same that used to blast the indies for doing that! Jay Briscoe was an incredible tag team wrestler and also a solid champion when ROH needed somebody to step up, but I am not sure about him being in the top 100.

I don't know. That honestly would make it even more confusing to me. It's not like I care or anything, I was just commenting on how different today's wrestling business feels to me. I would actually use social media in an effective way and turn this into an angle, as Chelsea embraces her new MAGA attitude and becomes the biggest heel of the division for a few of months, before a babyface destroys her. You can't do stuff like that today on an entertainment program, yet you can have a president say "a civilization will die tonight" in real-life and nobody seems to do anything about it. I just wished it was the other way around!

I am not a Trump supporter at all. However, given who owns WWE, them doing stuff with Trump doesn’t surprise me one bit. WrestleMania will probably be held at the White House soon as well. Call me old school, but I’m more annoyed about a heel tweeting about “supporting the community” and being an “advocate for human rights,” lol. She’s the same one who once wore a Cactus Jack outfit just for the sake of it, and got more cheers than her babyface opponent, right? Excellent job.

I see your point. I was mostly commenting on the top 100 featuring a lot of modern talents at the expense of others, as clearly the voters are friendly with the current product. I am not being critical, it is completely normal. My top 100 wouldn't feature much Joshi or 2020s wrestlers, for instance. Regal was a fitting example, because according to the top 100 he's in contention with Ospreay for the accolade of best UK wrestler ever (and one between them, Claudio and WALTER will be the best European wrestler). It's not a surprise that 3 of these guys are current stars and that the other has been on American TV for the last 30 years.

Agreed, and I like Hero a lot. I feel the same way about a lot of people in the top 100. I didn’t vote because my list would have been extremely biased, as I stopped watching current wrestling a long time ago. But now I think my ballot would have been a fair counterbalance to other people’s biases. Regal is the only WoS wrestler who made the top 100, even though he’s not even close to being the best from that era. I like Regal, but his list of great matches pales in comparison to Breaks’, Rocco’s, Grey’s and so on. Does he deserve to be in the top 100 just because he got tons of WWE screen time?

10. Jumbo Tsuruta Not an excellent year for Jumbo, but 1981 was a bit weak in general and so he managed to get in my top 10 again. He carried his tag matches with Giant Baba but did his best in singles competition against Ric Flair. Him vs Flair from October is probably the very first Flair highlight of the 80s, so that is somewhat important. 9. Gino Hernandez Gino had a great run in Houston, which made him one of the best heels in the territory and in the country. Him and Tully Blanchard put on an impressive series of tag bouts. While I can’t say Gino had a classic single performance, he did great against veterans like Wahoo McDaniel and Chavo senior because he made them look great and managed to get more over at the same time. 8. Mark Rocco Like Gino, he was an excellent heel and always a pleasure to watch. I am not a massive fan of the Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask series, but in 1981 Rocco managed to have a great match with both these guys. His best bout was against Chris Adams in September, which featured one of the best turnbuckle bumps I can remember. 7. Dory Funk Jr. I know Dory is heavily criticized at times, but I think he had a great year. The Funks vs Brody & Snuka in the RWTL was legendary, but I believe Dory’s best singles from 1981 are underrated. Him vs Terry was a unique match in April, while his Jerry Lawler match from Memphis is not famous only because Terry had a better one. He even carried Bruiser Brody to a good match! 6. Sgt. Slaughter It’s a shame he didn’t do anything noteworthy in the second part of 1981, because he killed it the first 6 month. Very strong series of matches with Bob Backlund and Pat Patterson, culminating in epic gimmick matches, especially his cage bout with Backlund where Slaughter’s demise was so satisfying. He also had a fun match against Andre in March, which he carried for the most part. 5. Nick Bockwinkel Another good year for Bockwinkel, who was involved in my favourite match of the year against Tito Santana in Houston. Of course, most of his good stuff was from the AWA, he also a couple of great ones against Jim Brunzell, making him look like a million bucks. Other than that, he was also able to carry Verne Gagne to some decent stuff again. 4. Stan Hansen What a progression from the previous year. Hansen vs Andre the Giant is a famous match and a great spectacle, but Hansen had a remarkable year in general. Him and Inoki had more good matches, both in singles and in tag matches. Seeing him against Bob Backlund in the WWF was also a treat. One can see why Baba paid him a lot of money to jump ship. 3. Steve Grey Easily the best British wrestler of his generation and an amazing babyface. He had two masterpieces against Jim Breaks and Jon Cortez, selling his arm masterfully on both occasions and coming back from underneath. He also had a good series with Johnny Saint, even though their January 1980 match couldn’t be topped in 1981. 2. Bob Backlund Another outstanding year for Backlund, who was a solid champion for the WWF and did his best stuff against Sgt. Slaughter but also had good series of matches against Stan Hansen and Greg Valentine. He was extremely versatile in the ring and adapted to very different opponents or stipulations, which is something that I consider to be a key detail for a great wrestler. 1. Terry Funk His Jerry Lawler stuff in Memphis is legendary and their No DQ Match is a true gem. Apart from that, Terry did great stuff in All Japan too, against Bruiser Brody but also in his only match ever against Dory Jr. The Funks also shined as an item, especially in the RWTL match against Brody and Jimmy Snuka. I also wish we had more footage of his Florida run from 1981, as his stuff with Dusty Rhodes looked like a blast.

Man, I hate lists sometimes! I wanted to come up with a top 20, but this is heavily influenced by lack of footage for many wrestlers. Billy Robinson is in my match of the year, but he falls into that category, like Steve Grey or others. 10. Stan Hansen This was the year of Hansen fighting Antonio Inoki 10 times in singles matches and, while none of them was a masterpiece, it was a very good series in terms of Hansen evolving and becoming more dangerous as it progressed. To me, this was the year Hansen became a better overall performer. 9. Ken Patera Quite possibly the best year of Patera’s career. His Texas Death Match against Bob Backlund is must-see stuff, but he also proved to be very versatile, doing remarkable work against Pat Patterson and Inoki. He consistently made a simple bearhug look like the most lethal submission move imaginable. 8. Jumbo Tsuruta He still wasn’t at his peak as a performer, but he was featured against all the gaijins invading All Japan and that helped his progression massively. His bout against Dick Slater is remarkable, but he also had a great match with Harley Race in a year when Race wasn’t exactly on fire. 7. Dynamite Kid His matches against Tatsumi Fujinami might not have been as historic as the later Tiger Mask bouts, but they were way better in the ring. He was also the perfect foil for Mark Rocco in the UK and the little footage I have seen from Stampede confirms that Dynamite was incredible in 1980. 6. Bob Backlund Discovering that Backlund was not a boring champion (at least in the ring) became one of my favourite wrestling findings. Apart from his masterpiece against Patera, Backlund’s year was remarkable for the way he made his opponents look (a green Hogan above all) and for how hard he worked in multi-promotional showcase matches that were usually treated as throwaways, such as his matches against Dusty Rhodes and Hansen in Japan. 5. Terry Funk 1980 doesn’t feature an all-time great singles match from Funk, but his performances were consistently outstanding. Whether it was tagging with Dory in the RWTL, or facing Abdullah and Jumbo, his opponents always thrived and looked better when Funk was involved. It’s a shame none of his American matches with Dusty from this year are available on tape. 4. Buddy Rose Easily the best heel of the year, his work in Portland was a blast. Rose could look dangerous and technically brilliant while also being goofy and obnoxious at the same time, mastering his character and serving as the perfect opponent for Piper and Martel. His ability to wrestle long matches over 3 falls and perform well with different tag team partners was one of the highlights of 1980. 3. Nick Bockwinkel Aside from his masterpiece against Billy Robinson, Bockwinkel was an excellent competitor throughout 1980 and performed better than any of the NWA World Champions that year. It’s no surprise that Dory, Baba, and even Verne Gagne all had strong matches against him. While he isn’t my #1, Bockwinkel was probably the best wrestler in the world in 1980. 2. Rick Martel An amazing babyface and a tremendous performer. His feud with Buddy Rose carried Portland for months and produced great singles and tag matches for the territory. Martel and Piper worked surprisingly well together as a team, despite being so different. It’s a shame Martel didn’t do anything noteworthy during his All Japan tour that year. 1. Tatsumi Fujinami None of Fujinami’s matches would make my top 3 or even top 5 matches of 1980, but he was the most consistently excellent performer of the year. I genuinely haven’t seen him have a match that was less than good. He was clearly the ace of the junior heavyweight division, taking on gaijins from all over the world (Dynamite Kid, Chavo Guerrero, Steve Keirn and others), while also elevating local talents and giving Kengo Kimura possibly the best singles match of his career.

That lineup is somewhat disappointing, but I will be watching anyway, I am a fan of the series. However, they have considerably lowered the bar when it comes to what 'dark' is, at least in the last 2 seasons. Is it possible that they are not legally allowed to talk about a lot of stuff? I agree that it is too early for the McMahon scandal, but idk the ring-boy story, Ashley Massaro, the female referee from the 80s, the Speaking Out movement etc.?

After making Sting, Flair also made Luger in one night and this was way better than their match from the Bash. After plenty of Dusty finishes, the stipulation forced Flair to actually get pin or submission on Luger, so he changed his approach and Luger got to shine with some awesome power moves. I'd normally be annoyed at Luger starting to work on Flair's arm and then forgetting about it, but this was put over by the announcer as an unexperienced mistake, so it added to the match actually because Luger tried his power stuff instead of continuing with the limb work. As usual, Flair's legwork was the highlight of the match with some great selling by the challenger. The finish was also well done, because Luger once again paid for his lack of experience and his leg collapsed as he was trying a power move. This put over Flair as the most experienced and capable guy, without burying Luger, as he was still understandably not as astute as Flair despite his raw strength. ****1/4

This was a good match, I even liked the stalling segments from Windham as he was clearly outpowered by Bigelow at the beginning and he had to regroup with JJ Dillon. Bigelow looked good and very mobile despite his size, but he insisted on a couple of non-selling spots that I wasn't really a fan of. Windham had a decent control segment on the challenger, but it never led to anything special and the finish was disappointing as well. ***

This was a fun multiverse match, but it would have been tighter if it was 5 or 10 minutes shorter, as it end up dragging somewhere in the middle. Of course, Backlund was focused on grappling his opponent to collect takedowns, while Takada's main weapon were his kicks. It was mostly enjoyable and Backlund's blood added some drama during the contest. I didn't like the finish, as Takada won fair and square, but Backlund got back on his feet even before his opponnet did. ***1/4

Wanz faced the future Yokozuna and, while this was not a great match or anything, they managed to get the crowd involved and go for 20+ minutes. The round system helped a lot here, as the heel's nerve holds didn't do much and this was mostly Wanz taking a lot of punishment, while the clock would either save him from jeopardy or spoil his comeback attempts. Good 'slaying the monster' finish. This was a good example of putting up something watchable, despite all odds. **1/2

An incredible match and a breaking out performance for Kawada, to say the least. This also felt like the quintessential transition from the 80s to the 90s in All Japan and the embrace of the King' Road, moving towards longer selling sequences, deeper storytelling and real finishes. Outstanding selling by Tenryu and brilliant strategy by the gaijins, who decided to destroy Kawada's leg (and his trunks!) and isolate Tenryu in the ring, rather than having the underdog in the ring. Kawada did all he could and tried to save Tenryu to the best of his abilities, but Tenryu basically fought by himself towards the end and he couldn't survive against the two monsters, after they managed to endure his desperate comeback. ****1/2

This was mostly good, thanks to good pacing and some outstanding punches, as they both excelled at that. They tried to build an epic as Lawler made Kerry bleed, even though Lawler's heel work wasn't the best here and Kerry was rapidly declining by that point. However, the crowd was hot and they bought the claw teasing and comeback, making it all quite interesting. The finish was incredibly stupid and one of those that helped killing the territory, rather than hyping a rematch down the line. ***

Very good match, mostly focused on Kawada replacing Ashura Hara and gradually trying to hang with the Olympians. This was well done, as Kawada managed to get some offense on Yatsu, but had no chance against Jumbo, who worked on his leg to stop the mobility of such an aggressive underdog. Tenryu got involved more than he usually would, to protect his new partner, which was some good storytelling as he was growing into being the babyface in the Jumbo feud. Besides, the Jumbo/Tenryu stuff was very enjoyable as usual. Good finishing run and a fitting underdog finish, as Kawada proved himself and managed to get Jumbo counted out. ***1/2