MidasGloves

Bryan & Funk as the Top 2 was both the safe and correct-feeling bet so I'm glad it shook out that way. I'm fine with either outcome since while I put Danielson 1st that's definitely my heart talking since if I looked at it objectively I'd probably say that Bryan is at BEST on par with Terry. This definitely rings true. Look at the matches HHH had with the title before working Roman at Mania 32: a B-PPV title defense against Dean/Mox that was very grounded and technical as opposed to the plunderfest you'd think they'd have on paper, and a TV match against Ziggler who was still considered a big workrate guy at the time.

I had Hansen 8th so this seems about right. I think KFG's blurb is pretty much on the money, he's a big bastard ready to fight no matter who, what or where and in pro wrestling having a guy who does that well is always a plus. Him being below Austin is a bit of a surprise given Hansen probably has more top-end matches to his name, but I also totally get why. Austin's a guy who understood how to carry himself in every match and every role he was in, that whole "he couldn't work after his neck injury" myth got buried, more people reevaluated his 2001 heel work as being fantastic despite doing poor business, and he had a comeback match this decade that was genuinely awesome. Hansen is always Hansen (which is the best version of what he was ever in all fairness), Austin was extremely multi-faceted.

The only thing that I'd wish for the Top 10 to make it "less boring" is Kong making it to put a bow on the rebound of women compared to 2016 (and also because she's incredible, I put her in 3rd and she's still building a case). I'd personally swap Bret or Misawa for her and lo and behold, she came pretty close to both of them. I've enjoyed Kobashi more than Misawa since I found King's Road AJPW/NOAH uploads over a decade ago. I've always just liked big hosses, and Kobashi manages to pull off everything I like about that style while also being a super sympathetic face. Misawa's more stoic demeanor that occasionally lets emotion shine through which harkens all the way back to Rikidozan has its place and does explain how well he connected with his audience, I just prefer Kobashi's approach.

Vader's placement was pretty predictable (pretty much confirmed the best at his brand of wrestling to do so well across 20 years) but Kong missing Top 10 hurts so much since I would've bet she'd make it. 11th is nothing to scoff at, but it would've been a nice thing to see the clear best woman to ever do it (IMO) make that Top 10. I had Bret 64th, I think he's definitely a peak case but it's quite a strong one with a few all-timers and some solid stuff scattered in his Hart Foundation and WCW days. Bret's just kind of canonized as one of the greats and because of Bill Goldberg he's also a "what if" case at the same time (disregard his 2010 run where he barely bumped and had to work Vince, Miz & The Nexus; Steamboat in 2009 was at least able to work with the best version of WWE Jericho).

Casas was the first of the lucha legends I found when I was first looking for stuff outside of TV products, in an indie match with Hechicero, and I ultimately had Casas one spot ahead of Hechicero on my ballot right up around 40th. Insane longevity, incredible technical work, stands out with his expressions and mannerisms even across from much more colorful masked luchadors. Even though Panther has had a more spectacular recent run, Casas just has the better overall case so it's good that he won out there. Omega seemed like a lock for Top 20 from the onset so 29th really tells me that I overestimated how many new voters were super into his work, and I say that as someone who had him 63rd. I think of all the guys who have these big bombastic maximalist main events I like Kenny's approach the best; he's able to go a mile a minute and still make adjustments to work to the crowd or add a little detail for his fans to pick up on, and he's protected his finish for over a decade now. I think his AEW work can feel like a less-great version of his peak mixed with some PWG fun-time but he does nail (most of) his big swings there. I also just think his DDT & All Japan work are very good. Lawler right after Omega is poetic. Mr. Maximalist just barely beaten out by Mr. Minimalist. Whether it's fans who need at least more than punching and a piledriver or just enough people who can't separate art from artist, I was also surprised by Jerry dipping all the way down from 10th, but this is closer to where he was on my ballot (23rd). Another insane longevity case, though it's kind of a given when you look at how his matches go. I watched this man wrestle live in 2016 and it was like the 3rd-best match on the whole card of 10+. Okada's case to me is different from a lot of peoples' Okada case, though I did put him in the 50s on my ballot above Kenny (and Tana). I think his best work is when he gets to be a cocky prick and work tight sprints and he spent the better part of a decade working as the top face in 30+ minute epics instead, but outside of some poor pacing (and a couple Tana matches where he gave up on selling the leg at the end) he still looked incredible in most of those. The thing is, without his past few years I don't think I'd have him nearly as high on my ballot. His little feud with Kiyomiya is EXACTLY what I want Okada to be, and while AEW Okada isn't quite that it's a lot closer; he's such a good heel on offense and when his opponents actually get him in a pickle, and that translates to great shorter matches on TV and even PPV. AEW's Okada/Omega is the 2nd-best of their series and would be the best with a cleaner finish, and Okada has put together some awesome TV performances with the likes of Adam Priest and Bandido (guys he'd probably never have worked in New Japan). Hashimoto missing the Top 25 is very disappointing since I had him 13th but I get that guys who depend on NJPW footage that wasn't from the past decade or so lost out, and not a lot of people are spontaneously watching 00s Zero-1 (though they should). I look at him and I see the Main Character of Professional Wrestling and every single match of his has him back that up even when he's working in front of maybe 50 people as NWA Champion. I said LA Park is the coolest wrestler ever yesterday and that photo of Big Hash might have made me a liar. Liger hurts the most of ANY drop so far as my #4. A wrestler who demands attention in any match in any era of his career. Invented the SSP and then kept his matches engaging even after he couldn't do it anymore. Has some of the best Jr. Heavyweight singles matches of all time, but delivers in any other context you could want, even outside Japan and into his 50s. Liger vs Hashimoto is among my absolute favorite Hash matches but maybe only Top 10 for Liger IMO. I admit a big part of what had me latch onto Liger is knowing someone who went through an extremely similar brain surgery and seeing how much Liger flourished even after going through that. I also saw him live in 2016 and he was in the best match on the card (same show I saw Lawler; Northeast Wrestling's Wrestling Under The Stars V, wild show). Steamboat being the guy everybody rated but few put at the very top sounds about right (I had him 67th but in retrospect I could've probably shifted him down a bit to move Butch Reed up). Incredible babyface in singles or tags for a half-decade run with stone-cold classics and fun TV work alike, plus a fun little 2009 run that showed us a glimpse of what if. He's thrown some chops in AEW as just a guest ref/commentator that are better than 95% of active wrestlers'. Punk is a guy that surprised me when I really thought about his case. I was never that big of a Punk guy, but especially with his 2020s comeback run he's really got an undeniable resume and I put him 70th. Had his whole persona locked down in the ring in the early 00s in IWA-MS, had a number of excellent matches in ROH despite leaving before the promotion even peaked, has plenty of matches that are bright spots in the midcard of bad WWE shows until they really started running with him and giving him feuds that are defining for himself AND his opponents (mostly Hardy & Cena). His AEW run as messy as it was backstage was just fantastic, and while it took a minute his current WWE has more strong matches than you'd expect while having the clout to bring blading back to the company. Shame his final match with Cena was a dud but that's hardly his fault. Santito is the wrestler I voted for having seen the smallest percentage of their work, which speaks to how incredible he was. The 2001 bloodbath with LA Park is a contender for the best Lucha match I've ever seen and yet it's not his best match (it's not Park's best either but you get the idea). The famous 5-star Horace Hogan match in FMW is that good because of him and Casas going absolutely wild in it more than anything else. I've seen all the big matches from him, but for a wrestler so prolific with 40+ years of work there's a massive amount I haven't seen. I couldn't really bring myself to rank him based on work I hadn't seen yet but knew he deserved to be on my ballot so I ended up with him 60th. Seeing him place outside the Top 20 makes me wonder if I put him too low, though he wouldn't have even caught up to Savage if I put him in my Top 5. I had Savage 22nd so he actually outdid what I voted him at and I still am a little surprised he missed the Top 20. Savage could channel the Memphis style of making every single move count, but embraced the cartoonish nonsense of Hulkamania WWF as well. He managed to have amazing matches with all sorts of opponents, even having an all-timer with the Warrior on the back of his insane storytelling chops (with Sherri picking up any slack). I think he's quite good into his WCW run even if he's not at his peak. Ultimately a good placement. In 2036 maybe we can get Sherri to place next to him.

LA Park making 40th is huge but I was hoping he would sneak even higher. My highest drop so far at 5th. There is something to be said about how in his prime there was almost no other wrestler you'd want as a utility guy on your roster than La Parka: singles, tags or trios; 1 minute or 20; he could keep up on the mat, fly through the air, or beat a guy's ass with a chair. Effortless physical charisma. Has a resume of brawls a mile long that remain among the best ever with Santito, Wagner, Rush, and more. Gave the guy who took his gimmick while he was in WCW the best match of his career and went on to keep using the legally-distinct variant he came up with anyway. Burned Wagner's shirt in effigy while flipping him off before having one of the best matches of all time. Kept fighting with Rush for nearly 10 minutes after the promotion ordered the ref to call for a No Contest due to blood because he knew the crowd deserved a show. You WILL book his sons if you want him on your indie show. Many people think Onita is the coolest wrestler of all time but I think it's LA Park. Moxley I already made a big post about yesterday but I'm very happy with 39th, though maybe bittersweet as I do think Park outclasses Mox at bloody brawls when that's Mox's bread and butter. I could be overrating his 2014-2017, I do think he had a number of very good matches in that stretch but I'd need to revisit some of them and they're certainly not his best work. Can I petition Tony Khan to book Mox vs LA Park? Garcia & Yuta can wrestle Park Jr. and Hijo del Park. I had this hunch that Akiyama would rank above at least Taue but I guess that wasn't the case. Ironically I had Akiyama one spot below Mox on my ballot (24th & 25th). I obviously love his early work and as a big Kobashi guy Burning is always a good time. When Kawada didn't make the jump to NOAH with the other Pillars, Jun stepped up and did a great job there too. I do say all this admittedly first seeing him as an old man in DDT, where he can both play a great straightman to the nonsense on the roster and be a strong opponent for a younger wrestler in more serious matches, which is a really perfect role for him. HBK is a case of a guy where I watch his stuff and I can tell it's good and even great, but very rarely has he ever blown me away. I can't quite put my finger on it, he's good at everything he needs to be good at. Doesn't help that he's had multiple DX runs where he's working off of HHH I suppose. I don't know if he'd make my Top 200 but I also totally understand consistent Top 50s from him. When one of Shawn's matches hits it HITS. Perhaps I need to watch more Rockers footage because I don't know if more 00s HBK will change my opinion and his 90s singles run is all charted territory by now. Inoki lapping Baba by this margin is not something I expected at all. Inoki's certainly a worthy inclusion in the Top 100 but 36th is well beyond what I would've thought. I suppose there is an energy unique to Inoki on offense that Baba despite his distinct stature couldn't replicate, and while many from the generation during or just after Inoki's prime might surpass him in certain skills, there is still something to his matches with those wrestlers that makes them feel special. I feel like I enjoy Inoki more as a promoter than as a wrestler sometimes; he was truly willing to try crazy shit and follow through with his vision for pro wrestling's future even if a portion of it fell flat and/or didn't do good business. The Island Death Match, bringing in the Russians and MMA fighters, whatever the hell he was on when he put IGF cards together. Taue rules. It's been said many times with many reasons given and he's still the first Pillar to fall. You can't possibly call him underrated at this point, but maybe undervalued is the better term? He was my #50. Like I said with Fujiwara, Bock is a wrestler I've watched a handful of times before voting but didn't feel comfortable enough voting for on such a small sample size just because I've HEARD how good the rest is. Of course, now I see even a pity 99th as a thank you for some great multi-man tags and telling the APW promoter to put Danielson over in 2001 would've placed him above Cena. Should've found the time. A lot of wrestlers are praised by saying they "could" do anything that's asked of them. Cena's a rarer breed where it's that he "would" do anything asked of him. From the moment he saved his career with that Vanilla Ice costume Cena has done exactly what WWE wanted him to do, and I've found he does a remarkable job within the boundaries of what he's told even when it's some of the worst TV you've ever seen. Cena did a great job at making big matches feel big without feeling "epic" unless that was the explicit goal (see the KO trilogy and his 2nd & final Styles singles), his big cartoonish head and arms played amazingly to the crowd and camera when he had to express something in a match, one of the best bladers of all time before WWE went PG, and for a guy basically pushed as a solo act for 20 years was always an enjoyable tag guy when his TV tags got the time to breath. I put him 40th, maybe that's too high but he's also half of my favorite match of all time so I had to give it to him. To be blunt, Chigusa seems like the kind of talent that would've made my ballot on the back of the longevity case given she's still going today much like Kong is, but I've only ever seen her big prime run in AJW. Incredible stuff that had me consider her, but I was also considering Dump for a lot of that same era and so when Dump fell off so did Chig (since all respect to Chigusa, her matches with Dump aren't QUITE Dump vs Ohmori). Bull was my 10th-place, though I am a bit floored she received no 1st place votes. Bull is just awesome in every context I've ever seen her in, great at the small things and great at delivering big memorable moments like the Steel Cage Leg Drops. Great in singles, can tag with or against just about anybody, one of the standouts among all the joshi talent when WWF & WCW experimented with bringing them over. I'm actually struggling to give a write-up for her that isn't just "she's cool as fuck and so are her matches". Excited for tomorrow's drops at this point there aren't too many real upsets unless something wildly unexpected happens like Tanahashi missing the Top 20 (which I doubt, I do think he'll get in the 8-12 range).

Han's entire career is also incredibly digestible. You can watch his full rivalries with Tamura, Kohsaka, Nagai, and Vrij on top of a few scattered matches and his final worked match against Fujiwara in an afternoon.

I like that Piper climbing dozens of spots was not based on any sort of push or narrative or timing, he was just that good and people realized it. I watched a match of his today and thought that putting him 22nd on my ballot was underrating him too much.

Also I am truly baffled where all the Inoki voters came from because the distance he's built from Baba and even some of the modern New Japan darlings is kind of insane. He's a worthy Top 100 placement but this is one of the most surprising runs (also Mox, again while I'm a big proponent of his 43rd minimum is better than I expected for him).

Blue Panther very clearly gained places due to all the Danielson marks (myself included) rushing to watch his old tape after Bryan called him his favorite, but he's also just been showing out like crazy as of late with a series of excellent sprints with Ultimo Guerrero, great trios/tag work, a real intrinsic understanding of what the Arena Mexico crowd wants, and of course showcases of his matwork with not just Danielson but Xelhua & Moriarty both in CMLL and the US. I can't say what I watched justified putting him above guys like Park, Casas, Rey or Santito but it was enough to get on the ballot in the bottom quarter. Fujiwara is a guy who was regrettably in the "clearly excellent but I wasn't able to watch enough to fit on my ballot without it feeling performative" zone for me alongside Bockwinkel. Him dropping places while having the craziest Top 25 turnout so far really shows that like Bock it likely just is a matter of people like me not seeing enough to know he deserves better. Definitely one of the first guys I'll do a deeper dive on. Meiko is just so cool and it's cool she got as high as 45th even if her recent retirement has put her on the minds of many. A great mixture of athletic and physical with impressive longevity only eclipsed by the insane run of her rival in Kong. She's got great matches in every era of her career, even her baffling stretch in NXT UK of all places (A real "What's a polar bear doing in Austin, TX" run) where she worked with great talent like KLR, Jinny & Perez (plus a Bayley house show match we luckily have tape of). Her Stardom & Senjo & other mid-10s work were what clued me into her and helped me see how good her opponents in those matches (Io, Mayu, Chihiro, Kana, etc.) were. Andre gaining spots is also unexpected and a really cool result. I think he was getting pushed a lot in opposition to the prevailing theory that he wasn't good because he could barely move in his final years but it's nice to see both more eyes on younger Andre work and the ingenuity that made his slower work resonate so much anyway. He's a blueprint that other giant wrestlers, including ones I had near or above him on my ballot, likely needed to exist to succeed as much as they did.

I had Mox 24th and I wouldn't even blink an eye if he matched that placement though I doubt he'll go THAT far. In the 00s he's an above-average deathmatch guy and good tag worker in CZW while having some good work in HWA, in the early 10s he has some genuine classics already with Jacobs, Danielson & Regal (plus his FCW Seth matches are very good), Shield trios speak for themselves and even as the guy on the outside he contributed a lot to Seth/Roman tags, his 2014-17 solo run is really solid-to-great work across the board even when he was given cheesy prop spots, that tag run with Seth is the last time I'd say Seth had a good in-ring run, and then after a mediocre final stretch in WWE with the heel turn he's been all gas since he left there. Killer NJPW stint, hot early run in AEW carrying their main event through COVID, and from the formation of the BCC through today mid-Death Riders he's just been hitting over and over again from main event epics to TV sprints to big tags and done it as one of the most hated heels of the 2020s or over like crazy with the crowd (All In vs World's End just last year to see both 4 months apart) with the only misstep being the feud with Cope (which I would hardly blame on Mox). That doesn't even include his outside bookings from his returns to NJPW to work some great brawls, his strong indie work (including one of the best shootstyle matches ever against Barnett alongside deathmatches and some awesome brawls, especially the Biff Busick one), and his few CMLL dates where he's turned in multiple great multi-man tags. That's nearly 20 years of varied, consistently great work with the worst stretches being a matter of months. You could call it AEW bias since he's been their load-bearing pillar/true ace for about six years but I do think his absolute best-ever matches (vs Jacobs I Quit, vs Barnett Bloodsport, Shield/Wyatts) are outside the company, and some of his best AEW work are quick TV matches like against Uno & Yuta rather than just his time on top. In terms of indie guys who missed both the post-AE vacuum boom and he mid-10s boom he's head and shoulders above his peers. I believe Mox can do anything and if he keeps going strong I think he might have a Top 10 case by 2036.

I'm overjoyed at the jump for Takayama since he should definitely be in the same conversation as Hansen & Vader as some of the best big bruisers ever. It's pretty impressive given he's been effectively retired via his paralysis for years now, but his career already spoke for itself and he was still awesome right up until the day he got hurt. Ospreay getting a huge number of Top 25s and 9 Top 3s but only barely getting a third of the vote is pretty much what I expected, I just expected that to be enough to launch him into the Top 30 or so. 75th is still a massive jump from 2016 when he had only just made a name for himself in the BritWres boom but I'm pretty happy with the result, given I knew he'd make it deep regardless of what I think (and there are occasional Ospreay matches that do it for me to be fair). Baba getting just above Ospreay is really fun but I'm also quite surprised Inoki did better than him in the same way as Eaton beating Morton and Dusty beating Dustin.

Morton dropping isn't a shock given the trend of 80s guys (though his longevity is kind of insane given he's still having decent matches on the indies to this day) but him placing below Eaton is a huge shock. I expect it'll come down to a couple people giving Eaton Top 5 finishes while Morton missed out on any Top 10s. I think variety is actually a big part of Suzuki's case. You'd look at his background and expect all shootstyle but he's been slotted in everything from 2010s New Japan main event epics to wild crowd brawls to straight-up comedy matches and he's been a highlight in them. I particularly love his work in DDT where he plays a great straight-man to the nonsense; the Tokyo Dome Empty Arena with Sanshiro Takagi is just a riot, and there's a trios match where him and Yukio Sakaguchi beef so much that their own teammates are just scrambling to keep them apart that rules. Sabu's placement is awesome and not many people seem to be commenting on it. Nobody has ever really moved like Sabu in the same way nobody's ever moved like Low Ki. Great in ECW, great in Japan, great on the indies, great in WWE, all against a huge variety of opponents, and every time it's very clearly a Sabu Match without being too formulaic. I do think he got a bump from his retirement and subsequent passing last year, but he's hardly the only one who looks to get that end-of-career bump. KO making the Top 100 wasn't a shock to me at all. He's considered a bright spot in rough patches for multiple promotions; when ROH was pushing Edwards & Richards on top Steen was tearing it up in the midcard, and when WWE gave him bullshit he almost always pulled something good out of it. He was great in PWG, he was very good in NXT, and he's been attached at the hip of a guy who was an even greater lock than he was in Zayn/Generico for his entire career in a case of generational chemistry as both opponents and partners. I even had Kevin above Zayn on my ballot solely because I think Kevin is a much better heel.

Kudo, Sasaki, Christian & Togo all dropping before 110 really hurts but I suppose they had an amazing run. Christian seemed to be the victim of a lot of people putting him in the middle or lower because over a third of voters had him in their 100.

Destroyer is my first Top 25 loss and in fact my first Top 20 as well and man it hurts for him to miss even 125th. His style of heeling is just so timeless in its pettiness.

I think Orton understood exactly who he was pretty early: a guy with such a strong grasp on the fundamentals he could have an acceptable match in his sleep, and he decided that acceptable was all he needed given the rocket they had on him. I think the disparity between how wrestlers talk about Randy and how fans do is understandable; if you're working Orton and you don't have heat with him it's probably the easiest night you'll have all year. I do think his highs are unbelievable, but he hasn't bothered to give it his all more than at most once a year on average since around '06, barring coming up with new ways to RKO people.

Steve Corino jumping 203 spots while wrestling less than a dozen times since the prior cutoff is really awesome. Every time I watch him work he's just phenomenal from ECW to 00s indies to Japan (not just Zero-1 but his HUSTLE work as Monster C) to 10s ROH to his most recent stuff mostly working PWX; his match with his son Colby from 2021 is just incredible stuff that places him a role completely different than most of his prime. Also I think he might be the only guy with singles feuds against all three Rhodes?

So far Big Show & Awesome Kong are my only Top 50 votes out and most of the rest are from the bottom of my list so I guess I'm doing well. Can't say I expected Show or Kong to go super deep so Top 400 placements work just fine for me, especially since I wasn't the high vote on either. I had to go back and check, this is my rating lmao. To better explain the appeal of Lulu, let me try this: Lulu Pencil to me is the babyface equivalent of Andy Kaufman (A comparison I made in her nomination thread that came to me as a realization just recently). She's an outsider to pro wrestling, she is NOT built for pro wrestling, she's in way over her head and can get crumpled by a simple suplex or hold, but the difference is that she loves and respects pro wrestling instead of Kaufman trying to make a mockery of it, and she's anything but a quitter. Her main story throughout her short career was just trying to be seen as a pro wrestler by her peers at ChocoPro and how that ends up rubbing Chris Brookes the wrong way. The feud has nothing tangible on the line, at most Chris steals her hat and Lulu wants to win it back, and you never in a million years expect Lulu to beat this big tall dude with exponentially more experience in the ring, but she's TRYING, and all of this means the world to her. That's what makes Lulu Pencil's run so magical to me: rooting for someone who believes in their improvement in the face of failure over and over again. The Iron Man match she has with Brookes manages to tell an incredible story that the final result wouldn't imply, and this is before her other work in Gatoh Move/ChocoPro comes into play. Her tag team with Emi Sakura as Pencil Army (as well as her brief time tagging with Brookes before their feud) always results in some fun matches, and the Tag Team I Quit match between Lulu/Emi and Brookes/Mizumori is excellent. She even has other good standard singles under her belt during her long defining losing streak against the likes of Mei Suruga, Ryo Mizunami, Emi Sakura, Antonio Honda, etc. Would I put her #2 all-time? Nope, she was basically locked in as 100th on my ballot from the get-go. But I respect that #2 vote because when I first watched some of her big matches I was more invested in her than I've been in most matches I've ever seen. Also she was willing to get RAGDOLLED in that little ChocoPro room good lord. chris & lulu.mp4

Taichi was genuninely a late cut for me so I'm happy if he takes a while to pop up.

This is slightly rearranged from the ballot I dropped in the Discord to match the order I did in the form. I definitely didn't watch as much tape as I would've wanted to since I didn't commit to making a ballot until March, but I do think this lines up well enough with how I'm feeling. A lot of vibes (Sheamus, Steiner, Kofi, Miu, Shelley, Lulu, Biff, Chuckie T, some of my Top 50 placements), a few people I still have a lot to watch for that got on even with what little I watched (Hokuto, Santito, Bruno), a few sad cuts (Mascarita Dorada, Ultimo Guerrero, HARASHIMA, Buzz Sawyer, Taichi, Angle, etc.), and a LOT of people not on the list I basically haven't seen that I could regret not putting on before the year's over.

I find it fascinating how this guy can really split the difference in terms of style and be both an incredible, clean base for Minis and one of the dirtiest brawlers/deathmatch guys at the same time, while also being totally in his element working multi-man tags in Japan. I was watching a bunch of Mascarita Dorada/Sagrada matches for his case and found the Demus has been attached to him at the hip for the better part of 20 years to the point where they're still working together in 2025 AAA (just with Demus taking on the Mini Abismo Negro gimmick) and their work is just as good as it was in 00s CMLL despite the various detours they've had; that match is only half a year removed from the insane Demus/Hijo de Fishman fight in Zona23, one month removed from his rematch with Mad Dog Connelly in the ECW Arena, and immediately prior to him touring DDT. Not a lot of guys have the range Demus does and he's definitely got a case because of it even if I can't pinpoint many classics.

I've got Aja Kong down as the highest woman on my ballot and in the Top 5 at that, so it's only fair that her protege can make a case. You wouldn't expect the student to surpass the master here, but I do think there are a couple things Awesome Kong does better than Aja that, pivotally, she leveraged really well in her career. I've found that some of the best storytelling is done through body language & facial expressions, and Awesome Kong was one of the best at it; whenever a scrappy underdog would get a shot in on her you'd get that crazy wide-eyed look before the ass-whooping, and oftentimes she's grab her opponent with the windup of a slasher movie villain as opposed to any standard goozle. Then her ability to ragdoll her opponents around was top-notch; the spot in the MsChif match where she'd get you in the rack and make you kick your own head is a favorite every time I see it, and her backfists always have the stank on them just like Aja's. I think she just about perfected the monster heel formula and pulled it off to great effect in both Japan and the US, and that's before you touch on her Margaret gimmick in HUSTLE where here and Erica (Aja) wore frilly dresses and came out giggling and skipping before beating the hell out of their opponents as usual which lead to a number of great tags. While her peak was in the mid-late 00s I do think her early 10s are underrated too due to her WWE run being limited to a few segments and a Rumble appearance. She has a brief but great run in 2010 Ring of Honor, her second TNA run is mostly her running it back with Gail (not their best work but still very good) alongside some good stuff against Terrell and Havok, and she has some solid indie work there too. By the time AEW came around she was clearly winding down and was saddled with being in the worst stable that company ever booked, but she had some fun squashes on Dark at least. Her last match in a big Knockouts tag on Impact 1001 is really great too, the whole thing is basically centered around her eventually getting some action and that body language makes that feel like a big deal even so far from her prime. She won't be ranked as high Aja but there's definitely room on my ballot for two Kongs. She'll probably be within 75-90.

I think his AEW stuff can give that impression because AEW loves the big prop stunt spots and Darby is the guy most down to do them. His indie work shows that he does have a really rock-solid basis as a wrestler that his willingness to ragdoll himself helps differentiate. If you're a heel and you're working Darby, you're basically leaving money on the table not doing at least one big spot where you chuck his ass halfway across the arena because most guys won't or can't take that. #1 with a bullet for showing what Darby can do without any frills is the WALTER match from 2019 EVOLVE; no gimmicks, no huge bumps, just one of the best David vs Goliath matches ever worked. He has other good work in EVOLVE and DEFY and other major indies right at the end of the 2010s; he only barely began to make a name for himself on the indies before AEW & COVID focused his attention. I swear I saw that he did an interview about five years ago saying he not only doesn't expect to be physically able to wrestle 10 years out, but that he'd be a little disappointed in himself for not going truly all out. If that holds true we're probably going to have Darby's full in-ring career in consideration for 2036.

Possibly the most recently-built case that has an outside chance on my list. If storytelling in wrestling is carried much by a wrestler's body language and facial expressions before, during, and after the actual moves of the match, Miu is a prodigy of wrestling storytelling. She comes out about as pink and cutesy as a wrestler could possibly be, but isn't afraid to work like a hoss and sell both the struggle and lack thereof in the heat of a match. There's selling the struggle of getting off a power move that was blocked or has bad leverage, or selling the anger behind a strike, but then there's moments like in a semi-recent tag to build to Yuki Arai's title match, Yuki has Miu on the mat and is trying to get into a submission and just cannot physically overpower Miu's legs despite having the position of control, and the look of bemusement and "wow, you really can't pull it off huh?" on Miu's face was perfection. And yet, in their title match once Arai got the better of Miu and locked the submission in Miu had a look of agony on her face. That wasn't even her best title match this year, as the Suzume match from early January was phenomenal. In a way it reminds me of John Cena in his prime, walking the tightrope of looking superhuman and still very human in big main event matches and TV-level tags alike. Perhaps it's much too soon to put her on a ballot of the 100 best wrestlers ever, but I think she is practically a lock for 2036 if she keeps this up (and gets to work more in other companies and/or outside of Japan).

Pretty much a perfect #100 pick, agreed with the nomination. I only just made this comparison in my head, but Lulu Pencil is basically the babyface side of the same coin Andy Kaufman is on: a non-wrestler who is not built for wrestling and has no business in a ring but is competing anyway. Whereas you want to see Kaufman take the one bump that will completely take him out, you want to see Lulu dodge that as long as possible or somehow find a way to keep going. Her feud with Chris Brookes alone tells such a great, simple story; you'll never see someone lose a match so triumphantly as their Iron Man together. Her and Emi Sakura made for a great team as well with their huge contrast in style and experience. I'm very much a longevity guy, but as far as short impactful careers go Lulu captured my heart quickly and completely and if that's not encompassing pro wrestling I don't know what is.