Grimmas

My, almost, daily routine of watching Bolshoi matches with my morning coffee is very good. 2010.6.13 JWP Shinjuku FACE JWP Certified Indiscriminate Championship [Champion] Nanae Takahashi vs Command Bolshoi [Challenger] This match is awesome and a well built main event match. That kept getting better and better as it went along with some outstanding nearfalls that I bit on many of them. Love seeing Bolshoi work the main event style for a change. The desperation on her near the end trying to get the title was so great! Bolshoi really tried to strike her way to victory. Rating - 8.25/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN_-hjnW6Lc 2004.5.9 JWP Dojo English Ban Match Command Bolshoi & Kayoko Haruyama vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama The typical good match you'd expect from this group. Yoneyama hitting Haruyama with a paper fan as foreshadowing of her current days hitting people with newspapers is funny to me. In such a small setting they don't go as all out, but they have some fun. The referee also uses the paper fan to hit almost everyone to laughs. An all around good time is had watching this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3HyqKaRmBk 2006.9.18 Korakuen Hall Tag Partner Decision 3way Match Command Bolshoi vs GAMI vs KAZUKI They did a three person running ropes criss cross, so this match is an A plus. Actually this match is worked like an undercard three way AZM Stardom match, where everyone is trying to sneak in a victory quickly and we get various team ups. Another setting that Bolshoi excels in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KYdB-K2fFw

CHIKARAPRO USA September 15, 2012 Command Bolshoi & Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama vs Chuck Taylor & Icarus & Johnny Gargano When you plan to watch every Command Bolshoi match you don't realize that gets a Johnny Gargano match, but here we are. Bolshoi has an opening segment with Gargano and made him look okay. We'll take this as a victory. Each member of Team JWP get their little moment to shine and it's a borderline spreadsheet match. Well worth your watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lvv3iLiFQk 2010.3.22 Osaka Sekaikan JWP Certified Tag Team Championship Finals Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs Toshie Uematsu & KAZUKI I really like Bolshoi and Yabushita together, they are like submission buddies! They do some good work on that front in this one. Just another solid tag match, nothing to go out of your way for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mc8tGp3-Nw 2010.7.18 Korakuen Hall Command Bolshoi vs Sakura Emi I LOVE how often The Great Kabuki was in Bolshoi's corner. I had no idea, but it's so awesome. These two both know so many grappling tricks and it's a joy to watch. This felt like an awesome 9 minute TV match, more than them going for an all-time classic. They clearly work well together and I hope a bigger match pops up. Rating - 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a07ruS9oZqI Another fun batch of matches here.

She uploads so much! I take one day off and two matches are uploaded! At this rate it will take forever to go through the back catalog. It's awesome though. 2006.12.17 JWP Dojo Match [If there is a Christmas tree in the ring] Command Bolshoi vs Kayoko Haruyama Rule: In addition to the normal rule, if you defeat the Christmas tree, you will lose. What are these rules? All the match titles and participants I post are a google translate from Bolshoi's Japanese title. There is a christmas tree and they have presents. They both are wearing a santa outfits over their gear, including Bolshoi wearing a santa hat over her mask. This is just silly fun with some cool spots trying to get the other to knock over the tree to lose. The ability to insert great work into comedy by Bolshoi always rules. The crowd loved it and so did I! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHHGf6tomHo 2005.11.27 Tokyo Kinema Club Command Bolshoi vs Fighting Beast Fang Leon My first real exposure to Bolshoi was a 2019 match against Leon in EVE, so seeing a much earlier version of that match that blew me away is very exciting. The intro is them talking about the past and they look like best friends now. They have really good chemistry and this is a fine technical affair with the high spots mixed in. Well worth your watch. Rating - 7/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvbs8NZ845Y 2003.12.22 JWP Battle Sphere Tournament ▼ 3WAY Match Bolshoi Kid vs Azumi Hyuga vs Sarubobo No idea who the third is here, but I love the other two. We get old school Bolshoi outfit, so maybe this will be comedy. Sarubobo is like Bolshoi's comedy second. Azumi is not having this shit, while Bolshoi is doing a bit of great wrestling and comedy. I loved early on when Azumi would kick down Sarubobo and then Bolshoi would play dead and Azumi would look confused. I looked it up and Sarubobo is Yoneyama! No wonder she rules. Wow, her being a future clown too. This is all falling into place. This legit fucking ruled! Just great mix of technical wrestling and comedy, but not comedy in the "wrestling is fake" mode. A hot match well worth watching. Rating - 7/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ennfNr327E

Very excited for some Yokota!! 2009.10.4 JWP Korakuen Hall Bolshoi 20th Anniversary Match Command Bolshoi & GAMI vs Jaguar Yokota & Tsubasa Kuragaki GAMI is a weird choice for a partner for this match. In this match, her character is I'm a bad a wrestler. However, she's clearly really talented so it really takes a talent to fake being bad. It's actually good comedy. Her segments are all fun. Tsubasa and Bolshoi continue to be a good pair, but the few minutes of Jaguar-Bolshoi we got were fucking awesome! Tsubusa also pulled out a double torture rack. A fun, just outside the spreadsheet match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMhsxyukylw Let's stick to the legends and go to America. CHIKARAPRO USA September 16, 2012 Command Bolshoi & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Manami Toyota & Kaori Yoneyama This is not Bolshoi's cam from the balcony, this is straight Chikara footage with a pre match promo by Bolshoi and Tsubasa plus commentary. This is a fucking awesome showcase match and it really warms my heart to see American fans go nuts for Toyota's and Bolshoi's regular spots. This is legit Rey-Psicosis level of touring match! Watch it! Rating - 8.5/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ4OfOojhRg One more, because I woke up early. 2009.7.19 JWP Certified Tag & Daily Sports Certified Women's Tag Championship <Champion> Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs Kaori Yoneyama & Emi Sakura <Challenger> On the watch party we saw Bolshoi/Nakajima vs Yoneyama/Sakura and it was an all-time classic. I'm very excited to see how this matches up. It's not on the exact level of the before mentioned match, but it does fucking rule. Yabushita and Bolshoi have a great technical chemistry that works really well. Yoneyama and Sakura would become an elite team, but here they are just developing their great chemistry. Another must watch. Rating 8.25/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDXGAqZEhg

After a few days of laziness, let's get back in with the clown. I want to keep up with the latest drops, while slowly filling in the backlog, so two have been posted since my last post. 2005.5.22 Kaikyo Messe Shimonoseki Bolshoi Kid vs Erika Watanabe Did I point out how cute the cartoon graphics on this channel are? Her giving a little talk about the history of the match or opponent before the match is the best idea ever, I just wish it was subtitled. These would be unbelievably valuable. For some reason Bolshoi is in her very early 1990s costume, that's interesting and I have no idea why. To answer my question, Bolshoi flat out starts the match with all her old comedic schtick. That's fascinating, I wonder if this outfit is her comedy outfit she pulls out when she wants to do comedy matches? SHE WENT FULL CLOWN in this match. Some hilarious stuff, and really cool how she can incorporate her cool real spots and slightly adjust them to comedy. I love that her comedy isn't kayfabe breaking like some it doesn't make the match feel fake, just that she is trying to frustrate her opponent. A small example is that Watanabe slams her and goes to the top rope to do a high flying move, while climbing Bolshoi casually gets up and moves and lies back down too far away. Watanabe then has to go to the other corner and repeat. Watanabe then tries the too far dive and misses. It's good stuff! A fun match and one of the better comedy matches I've ever seen if not the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4R4y9y_mE 2005.5.22 Kaikyo Messe Shimonoseki Command Bolshoi & Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Kayoko Haruyama & Erika Watanabe & Aja Kong This is the main event of the show where the previous match took place on and she changed into her legit gear. That makes a lot more sense, she's working twice so let's make them completely different matches. It's amazing that when I saw Tsubasa vs Bolshoi I thought she was a world beater, but in this she is a solid wrestler with cool athletic spots. That might be the best case for Bolshoi you can get from this match as she clearly wasn't the focus here. Hyuga continues to impress and Kong looked great as well. Sadly no Kong-Bolshoi moments. A pretty good match, borderline spreadsheetable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL7z2HQSPPk One more before work and we can go back to the oldest posted stuff. 2009.4.12 JWP Korakuen Hall JWP Certified Tag & Daily Sports Certified Women's Tag Championship <Champion> Yumiko Hotta & Kikyouto vs Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita <Challenger> Later Hotta is all about crowd brawling and using her chain. It's so strange because I'm in 1993 with her. Yabushita bleeds early and the first few minutes is just all out war around the Hall. We settle into the ring for a petty traditional match after that. What sucks is this rules, especially Bolshoi and Yabushita EXCEPT for when Hotta is on offense for the body of the match. The last third we get no Hotta boring us with her offense and it gets rather exciting. She is either working with others who are doing all the fun stuff or she is throwing bombs. This ended up with a damn good finishing sequence. I'd say about on par with the previous match above. If you use the star ratings the 3ish to 3 1/2 star range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tsZt8-3iDU

I was going to be done for the day, but I decided to fit in a few more. 2007.8.26 JWP Korakuen Hall Command Bolshoi & Kaori Yoneyama vs Chisako Kanari & Sachiko Kanari A sister team? Siblings or not they are very aggressive, but seem to be new to the business as most of their offense was dropkicks. Maybe Manami Toyota trained them? Luckily Bolshoi and Yoneyama carry the load. Bolshoi pulled out another version of the tarantula. Seriously how many different versions can she do? Her and Yoneyama have good team work too. A real fun tag match! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft4_SsKWFvA One more before I am done for today. Seeing Hotta in the thumbmail made me not continue going from oldest to newest, so I will do the most new upload I can. 2006.9.3 Tokyo Kinema Club JWP Certified Tag Team Championship [Champion] Ran Yu-Yu & Toshie Uematsu vs [Challenger] Command Bolshoi KAZUKI This match has Bolshoi and KAZUKI talking about it in current time. That's a fun feature and I wish it was subtitled. The "Bolshoi Class" t-shirt is pretty cool. Ran Yu-Yu can keep up with Bolshoi in exchanging holds, so this is a great open to the match. Toshie is a wild women. This is an uptempo tag match that was very exciting. Lots of drama with the nearfalls and just great action. Rating - 7/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzLtWwnBW0w

Well I can't get enough Bolshoi and this match looked too tasty to wait on. 2005.9.18 JWP Korakuen Hall Command Bolshoi & Devil Masami vs Amazing Kong & Haruka Matsuo I never thought about Kong vs Bolshoi before, but what a fucking dream. There opening segment with each other is everything you could had hoped for and more! Bolshoi tags out and then we have Devil vs Kong, which same thing! We don't settle who has more power, which leads to Matsuo tagging in. She's all speed and quickness and Devil murders her. Luckily Kong helps her and she gets some great stuff in on Devil. There is some laughs at Matsuo is so clearly under matched vs Devil. One thing I loved about Bolshoi in tags is her taking out the opponent on the apron in order to ensure her stuff in the ring vs the legal opponent. Kong and Devil do dueling gorilla presses!!!! After a fun Kong-Bolshoi segment, Bolshoi does a flying rana from the top rope to the floor on Kong! This follows with Devil crowd brawling with Matsuo and Bolshoi and Kong crowd brawling. The wrestling is good today! After another fun Bolshoi-Kong sequence, Bolshoi does a super rana on Kong. This whole sequence with Kong gets better and better and better. I don't want to ruin it, but hot fucking damn this rules! I hope a singles match exists, because this is the best! The finishing sequence then rules! Watch this match! Rating - 7.75/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkzwR2Gcjbg

@Reel definitely, although she may be uploading her whole damn career here! @NotJayTabb some of the matches you should really go back to watch, but they will pop up in this thread if I get to them! NOTE - If I don't give a rating, that means it's below 7/10. It could be good like I say, but doesn't make my spreadsheet and I don't rate things that don't make it. Going through her channel is interesting, because it starts with all music and than that one EVE match. Then in continues on and on with music, until this match. Then it's mostly matches from there. 2004.9.12 JWP Korakuen Tournament Azumi Hyuga 10th Anniversary 6-person Tag Match Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki & Erika Watanabe vs Command Bolshoi & Kayoko Haruyama & Kaori Yoneyama A nice little ceremony for Hyuga starts this off. On the Bolshoi watch party we learned Bolshoi has amazing chemistry with Tusbasa and that continues here with all of the cool Tusbasa throwing Bolshoi around as she turns them into submissions. We learn in this match, she also has unreal chemistry with Hyuga! I'm starting to think Bolshoi just works great with almost anyone. Some fun things early on are Bolshoi's team doing the demolition all reigning blows down on in a triple team and the rope walk by Bolshoi leading to her getting to the corner where Hyuga was, so she moon walks and then does the armdrag. We got a nice dive train after Tsubasa gorilla presses Bolshoi to the floor which ends with an amazing sommersault off the top rope by Hyuga. Hyuga is clearly designed to be the star here and she gets the win after a great closing segment with Kaori Yoneyama. Really both of those two need to be explored further, they rule! Rating - 7/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps4pWofXylQ Also, why not check out what was uploaded today too. 2009.2.8 Tokyo Kinema Club Command Bolshoi & Kayoko Haruyama & Ran Yu-Yu vs Kikyouto & Yumiko Hotta & Kyoko Kimura Aono weirdly gets left off the translation. So this starts as a wild brawl all over the place, before breaking down to the heels, Hotta's team, cheating and some heavy fists thrown. The first half Bolshoi is only in to give a slick armbar takedown. Finally, the last half is all Bolshoi. First she's destroyed by Hotta with chains, then a vicious head chair shot. The real highlight was the ending last few minutes which was all Boslhoi and Kimura. They work so well together and I want more! A fun and solid match here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrIziIoKpHw

You mean the clown that Hotta punted? Over the last year or so I have barely tipped the iceberg of Command Bolshoi, but I have learned that she is easily a top 75 GWE candidate. She may be a top 50 or even a top 25 candidate. I want to find out. Yes, she's a clown who started as a flying comedy worker. However, she developed into a Rey Jr Kimura worker in her 27 year career. I have seen her damn good in 1993 and damn good in 2019, so the question is how fucking great is she? Thankfully a few years ago she started a youtube channel to upload her music. Somehow that turned her into the Buddy Rose of joshi and now that channel has over 300 matches of her's. I am going to start diving into this channel, because it's riddled with gems and someone needs to make her case. I have so much on my plate, so this may not be constant updates, but I'll work through it. 2018.11.10 ProWestlingEVE ~ SHE1 Command Bolshoi vs Jetta The first match uploaded is from EVE in England. It's not EVE's footage, but it's shot from the balcony. A very unique angle to watch wrestling from. With this being Jetta and Bolshoi this could be a technical match or a comedy match, but they went with the tricked out technical submission work and it fucking ruled. Bolshoi has so many tricks in her arsenal and we need to speak of her as one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever. 8 minutes of tricked out submissions leading to a tiny comedy spot and a strong finish. Well worth your time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYbti264pTU

Watching a ton of her to put together a watch list for the watch party this upcoming Saturday and damn she seems like such a no brainer choice. She debuts in 1992 and not only is a good comedy worker, but is good on the mat and a great flyer. As her career goes on she develops into one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time. It's really wild. Has great match up to 2019, when she retired. The fact she can be a Russian Clown who can do comedy, technical, flying, and pure bad assery is an impressive resume. She has the great matches to back it up to. I have no idea how you can leave her off your list, unless you just refuse to watch her.

People did want Kofi as a star forever. Look at the Orton match to see that.

So should I go into hundreds of threads and just type "Nope" to all the people I don't think are worthy? Would that be helpful?

Cool, so ignore the thread. I find going into threads to just say no to be the most pointless activity that people do in GWE. What is the fucking point? If you aren't adding anything, then why post?

I doubt Hidaka would make my two 100 male list.

Thanks for adding so much to this thread. I do appreciate it.

I am doing my list of wrestlers of 2021. Syuri and Utami are easily above him. I think Mercedes Martinez is a better wrestler today. Thunder Rosa too. I could go on.

The problem with Martin for me is not her fault, but her competition. The JBA series rules, but she is really lacking in opponents for the majority of her career. Sadly. Would love for a lot of recs though.

UPDATED

I said: In 2016 I didn't think so, but Mickie just keeps adding and adding to her case. She's been great as a face and heel. She's really great at portraying her character into the ring. Great brawls or regular matches. She can really play up drama to make very emotional matches. Mickie is making it harder and harder to deny her. vs Deonna Purrazzo (Impact, 2022-01-09) vs Trish Stratus (WWE, 2006-04-02) vs Asuka (NXT, 2016-11-19)

kas said: She's been among the best wrestlers in the world for the last 4 years. Offensively strong (those kicks!) and has a good amount of versatility. Generally consistent, but excels in big match situations, leading to Stardom trusting her in several important matches (Mayu Anniversary match in 2020, Utami's first title defence, GP final against Syuri). Already has an excellent big title run under her belt with the Wonder of Stardom title, and given how young she is, the sky is the absolute limit for her. Vs Syuri (09/25/2021) - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1DL411W7Ur/ Vs Jungle Kyona (03/03/2019) - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7num5p Vs Io Shirai (02/18/2018) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr_HWyyY6Tc

UDPATED

Grimmas said: I am under the impression that any wrestler that is the wrestler of any year should be a nominee and Syuri is the wrestlers of 2021. She's just reaching her prime now and had two all time classics and was so good Stardom had to abandon their long term plans to crown her champion. A lot of her earlier stuff while she was still fighting in MMA is good, but not elite. However, once she retired from fighting and went wrestling full time look the fuck out! Obviously her kicks and submissions are amazing, but she gets the drama of wrestling so well. The passion she shows while fighting as an underdog, or the meanness she shows as a bad ass ace both rule. A perfect blend of shoot style and pro wrestling. Recommended Matches: vs Utami Hayashimta (2021-06-12, Stardom) vs Unagi Sayaka (2021-07-10, Stardom) vs Momo Watanabe (2021-09-25, Stardom) vs Utami Hayashimta (2021-12-29, Stardom)

Ma Stump Puller said: Don Arakawa Controversial, but Arakawa deserves, at the very least, a crack at nominations. He's one of the most consistent comedy wrestlers ever, and that's coming from someone who groans at that style in general. Under the comedy work is a pretty technical hand who can almost universally take any act and get them to a decent match: a lot of his (documented) SWS work is getting random NJPW guys who are barely out of the Dojo to presentable (or at times even fairly good) matches. He's the perfect opening guy and remained as such for way, way longer than you would expect. That being said, he's had some particularly fun showings when allowed to get his hair down a little, and his weird out of his depth persona when entering shoot style stuff is very entertaining. Don Arakawa vs. The Cobra (NJPW, 1985) Don Arakawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (PWFG, 1993) Carl Greco & Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa (Bridge of Dreams, 1995) Don Arakawa & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Fugo Fugo Yumeji & Kuroge Wagyuta (ZERO-ONE, 2002) Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (ZERO-ONE, 2003) Don Arakawa vs. Munenori Sawa (Big Mouth Loud, 2006) Don Arakawa vs Osamu Kido (Big Mouth Loud, 2006)

I did a podcast on this and easily had Bull Nakano number one. Being the complete ace and having many classics, but also telling the story in her work of slowing down after each and every big title defense. It's a thing of beauty.

This is by far the hardest year to judge with so much stuff cancelled and most of it empty arenas. Like how even?