Grimmas

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

To me it's Mercedes Martinez. She legit is working everywhere and having classic matches in like every promotion. It's a thing of beauty.

Who is the greatest wrestler of this year?

Who is the greatest wrestler of this year?

I love anytime I am reminded about The Marine Wolves, the best team ever! As Kad pointed out the starting to this is all time elite shit, but the rest does not disappoint. I love Hokuto working in submissions, because she never settles and just keeps finding new ways to make them more violent and if that doesn't work she'll drop it and find another torture device! It builds in intensity towards the finish. I went 8.25/10 on this and it's glorious!

UPDATED!

Elliott said: Josh Barnett vs Kiyoshi Tamura (U-Style - 11/23/05) Josh Barnett vs Hideki Suzuki (IGF - 12/31/11) Josh Barnett vs Jon Moxley (Bloodsport - 4/8/21) Pretty surprised Barnett hasn't been nominated. Big burly shoot style worker who can work the mat and strike & suplex with the best of them. The 3 matches I've put forward to go with the nomination I honestly see as MOTDC for each of their decades. If someone has 3 MOTDC in 3 different decades, they deserve a look. Someone I definitely plan on watching more (or ALL) of during this project. His highs are as impressive as pretty much anyone from the last 20 years.

Jetlag said: Seems like one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time. Badass girl brawler who wrestles like a pissed off, kendo stick wielding Taue. Will boot you in the face, chop you in the throat and has a cool finishing hold. Really good in both a face and heel role, consistently entertaining in both undercard tags and main events. I think she only wrestled for 10 years in niche promotions but she has a few all time level performances under her belt. Recommended Matches: w Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino, LLPW 2/15/1998 vs. Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 12/6/1997 vs. Michiko Nagashima, LLPW 6/21/1998

El McKell said: Adam Cole Has a charisma and presence that gets him over wherever he goes. Despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to be spectacular enough to be a main eventer in PWG or (pre USA network) NXT he still has great matches in these environments. He’s not someone who doesn’t have longevity, he’s been at least pretty good for 10 years, and from near the beginning teaming with Kyle O’Reilly he knew how to be a dickhead heel that has this undercurrent of likeability. w/ Kyle O’Reilly vs Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr WXW 03/13/2011 vs Kyle O’Reilly PWG 05/23/2014, go to 1hr 15 mins in that video for the match vs Johnny Gargano NXT 04/05/2019, go to 2hr 21mins 30secs in that video for the match

El-P said: In the last three years, Adam Page became legit one of the best worker in the world. He's still a work in progress in term of career and I admit I am not familiar with his ROH work, although he was already showing signs of being really good in NJPW (or better than signs, actually). But from his tag work with Kenny Omega, which happened to count arguably the greatest tag-team match ever to his latest accomplishments as a babyface singles main event wrestler, at this pace, of course Adam Page makes the list. (going for the obvious) Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs Young Bucks (AEW - 02/29/2020) Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs FTR (AEW - 09/05/2020) Hangman Page vs Kenny Omega (AEW - 11/13/2021) Hangman Page vs Bryan Danielson (AEW - 12/15/2021)

Reel said: I'm mostly nominating Rusher Kimura because he seems like the sort of person who should be nominated and I'm interested in what the general feeling around him is. Obviously, he has a rep as a talker, and that really isn't in GWE purview, per se, but he was the ace of a major promotion and had a big run in New Japan after IWE closed, plus the run as Baba's partner, including the all-time great Old Man tag from 89. vs Jumbo Tsuruta - IWE 3/28/1976 with Giant Baba vs Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta - AJPW 12/8/1984 with Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen/Genichiro Tenryu - AJPW 11/29/1989

Control21 said: A really underrated shoot-style wrestler who was one of the more promising guys in UWFi along with Kakihara, Tamura, and Sakuraba. He was also a very high-level wrestler who brought a lot of flair to his matches, and became an important figure in UWFi, RINGS, and Kingdom, which sort of speaks to his longevity. His series with Masakazu Maeda is fantastic and might be one of the most underrated feuds in Puroresu. He then had a fantastic series of matches in both UWFi and Kingdom before being a key guy in the later RINGS period, where he probably helped the promotion retain an audience by adding to the undercard. Like the other guys on this list, he didn't really have a bad match either. Recommended matches - Kanehara vs Masakazu Maeda (2/29/1992) Kanehara vs Kazushi Sakuraba (8/18/95) Kanehara vs Sakuraba (12/2/1997) Kanehara vs Volk Han (1/23/1999)

Control21 said: Might be the best wrestler to come out of Georgia? I can't think of many other examples. That's probably not a good headliner by itself, but he was a very fine shoot-style wrestler and really helped RINGS define its unique, state-of-art style through the years as he introduced a Georgian wrestling style that many hadn't seen before. Guys like Zaza really helped develop the RINGS house style I think, because flashy and highly technical matches became the expectation among the fans due to the level of work seen from some of the eastern European grapplers. He was able to have a good match with almost anybody. Maybe a top 25 shoot-style guy? I would put his matches up against anybody on that list. Recommended matches - Zaza vs Volk Han (5/16/92) Zaza vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (12/19/95) Zaza vs Kohsaka (7/22/97)

Control21 said: Another Russian SAMBO guy who made a name for himself in RINGS. His career was limited to RINGS like the other Russian guys in RINGS, save for one match in U-Style against Kawada which was decent. Like Zouev, Han, and Kopylov though, he was very good from a pure technical standpoint. I don't think he had any bad matches either. He was a crowd favorite in RINGS by 1998/1999, and he really put together some late RINGS classics with Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. In terms of shoot-style, it's hard not to consider him one of the top 25 guys in the style. Recommended matches - Ilyukhin vs Kiyoshi Tamura (1/28/98) Ilyukhin vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (9/21/98) Ilyukhin vs Nikolai Zouev (10/21/95)

Control21 said: Certainly doesn't have the resume that Volk Han has, but he was one of the smoothest workers in RINGS and is an example of an intricate technical wrestler that has a lot of finesse to his game. He was probably one of the guys that brought a lot of flavor to RINGS' early period along with Volk Han, Kopylov, Willie Peeters, and Dick Vrij. He was a great SAMBO specialist and his matches really stood out from other shoot-style stuff at the time. I think Kopylov, Zouev, and Han are the best wrestlers to ever come out of Russia and I would rank them above Zangiev and Hashimikov if I am being honest. If we are considering the entire work-shoot spectrum, they founded Russia Top Team, which was a pioneering group for Russia's MMA development. A good example of someone who could sneak into my top 100 based on pure technical ability. Recommended matches - Nikolai Zouev vs Andrei Kopylov (10/23/93) Nikolai Zouev vs Volk Han (11/18/93) Nikolai Zouev vs Kiyoshi Tamura (6/21/97) Nikolai Zouev vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (11/20/98)

Jetlag said: Okay, hear me out. On the surface he's a Zero1 jobber who rarely made TV. How on earth can he have a case? But really, if you look at his indy career, he has been a great wrestler since at least 1997 (only 1 year in his career), and up to 2018. That's a 21 year span. He's shown up in huge variety of different settings, and is always extremely efficient. And he was a pretty great character in Z1 too, attacking people with crazy headbutts and having a few memorable short TV matches. His technical ability is pretty good and he has a knack for building great matches around a few suplexes and his incredibly violent headbutts, which he uses better than almost everyone. Another interesting thing about him is his project EXIT, a promotion that seems to focus on short, intensely violent matches in a ring that has chains instead of ropes. If anything, he's a guy I always want to check out no matter what kind of match he's in. Recommended matches: w Makoto Saito vs. Cosmo*Soldier & Takeshi Sato, WYF 6/10/1997 vs. Katsuhiko Masada, MUGA 4/6/1999 w BUKI vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Johta, EXIT 7/14/2018

Jetlag said: The case of Yasushi Sato is even more mysterious than Watanabe. From what I know he only started wrestling in the mid-2000s, at a pretty old age, and barely ever making tape. But when he does, this guy looks like a wrestling genius. He is incredibly efficient working technical matches built around his leg grapevine moves. He also has a neck for unique amateur spots and cradles, a bit like a smaller Tamon Honda. I wouldn't hesitate to call his match against Masamune a match of the decade contender, and for someone who shows up on tape so little his hit rate of great matches is incredibly high. Definitely someone everyone should check out. Recommended matches: vs. Masamune (Mumejuku 6/3/2018) vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Mumejuku 4/17/2019 w Konaka Pale One vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Hideya Iso, Mumejuku 2/5/2017

Jetlag said: The story of Hiroshi Watanabe is that he was an incredibly talented wrestler whose lack of size denied him success or exposure beyond Z-level indies. That said if you come across him, he is an incredible discovery. The most apt description I can come up with is that he's a sleazier, shorter Osamu Nishimura. A guy who has a knack for working lengthy, extremely technical, brainy matches. Fortunately for us the fed called MUMEJUKU allowed guys like him to do their thing and work the niche 70s throwback matches our hearts long for. I'd say Watanabe is easily one of the best pro-style matworkers outside of lucha of the 21st century. Given how rare quality pro style matwork is these days he's remarkable. He also manages to do his throwback style without feeling phony or like a LARP. That kind of dedication - the fact he's wrestling for over 20 years working the lowest of the low indies and still puts on great performances working brainy technical matches in front of the smallest crowds - should make him well worthy of all-time level consideration despite limited tape history. Recommended matches: vs. Fuminori Abe, HEAT-UP 5/19/2019 vs. Yasushi Sato, Mumejuku 4/17/2019 vs. Kousei Maeda, Mumejuku 6/2/2007

I'll let you answer your own question from July 4th of this year: I thought my point was pretty clear, but I'll elaborate for you. Hokuto, because of injuries and other factors, was not the most prolific wrestler. The company that she worked for, like most Japanese wrestling promotions, thought they could bypass the television networks that kept pushing their timeslots back by going straight to the VHS market. Therefore, the majority of the footage we have of Hokuto in her best year is from commercial VHS tapes, which is the equivalent of judging Eddie on his PPV bouts. Perhaps I was wrong in implying than more than 20-odd matches per year is normal for the average candidate. AJW TV wasn't a weekly TV show but rather a taped house show, and a lot of episodes are rendered redundant by having commercial releases later on, but I feel like we have a better understanding of Eddie in his prime runs than we do of Hokuto. Now, if you have watched the available handheld footage from 1993, or you have something to add about her comedy squash matches from that year, feel free to add something to the conversation.