El-P

Hopefully more than this. Plus Yoshida plus plus plus...

Yep. 14 made it in 2006 (Hokuto highest at 15). In 2016, only Hokuto, Bull, Aja & Manami made it back. Aja was the highest at 49 (!) and Hokuto was second at 52. Yep....

He's one of the current NJPW guys I will have the pleasure to get deeper into. I can't wait to see where he stands alongside Naito & Okada.

She was one of the only 4 women who made it last time. She'll probably do fine. She will get people supporting her case.

3 hours really. The first half hour was waiting for the rain to stop.

16/17 Naito was some of the best pro-wrestling I've seen. I need to see what came before.

Not seen this one. I have some great pro-wrestling to watch !

FWIW, I believe Tanahashi said that Styles has been his favorite opponent. That's some praise.

That it's as irrelevant as people saying the same thing about Vader. It's what contributed to make Aja so great for the style she was going after.

Great match against PAC, great match against Page, great match against Fénix, great match against Mox... Nah, his AEW only reinforces his case thus far. He's been killing it showing up in IMPACT too.

His infamous long reign was the greatest since Kobashi in NOAH. Fascinating big match worker. Gotta dig up the years I haven't seen.

The three greatest matches I've seen in 30 years of watching pro-wrestling involve Kenny Omega (vs Naito for G1 Climax 17, the third Okada match, with Page vs Bucks in AEW last year). And that's from someone who really hated him at first. I'm gonna go back and watch his stuff in DDT and early NJPW and there's 5 years of US wrestling upcoming. But he was very instrumental in the three greatest matches I've ever seen... That's quite something because I've seen a whole lot of great pro-wrestling from everywhere and every era.

I mean, she certainly went way overboard at times, and she absolutely isn't (wasn't, because I haven't watch any of that stuff in probably 15 years) one of may favourites stylistically in this era, but to me the "she doesn't sell" bits doesn't bother me that much because selling certainly wasn't one of her priorities. She had others, in term of pacing, offensive-minded style, a sense of acceleration and culmination of bigger and bigger spots until the apex, a sense of desperation and fighting spirit that absolutely had the audience she was working for go batshit insane for her, the intensity of the work, the bumping, the velocity... Yes, she was not about long-term selling most of the time and yes she could get grating with the way she would run around without much transitions, but she brought up so many other elements at an insane level (that I'm not sure I've seen a lot since). I'm not sure what I'd think of it with my eyes of today, maybe I'll enjoy it less than before, maybe I'll see other stuff that make me enjoy it more, I have honestly no idea.

Who cares about overall, I'm telling you what times it is. Lashley vs Drew was very good. Rollins vs Cesaro was great. Sasha vs Bianca was excellent, with Sasha having a career performance. If you enjoy the idea of Bad Bunny playing Ricky Morton to Miz' Arn Anderson (yeah, I know), you'll probably love this match too. Overall (damn), a fun Mania night.

And you won't tell us what he asked and what Jericho answered ? Damn !

People got smarter and accepted pro-wrestling as some kind of "performance art" and put more and more value in the performance itself as they showed more appreciation for the work of the pro-wrestlers (which goes along caring more for them as human beings), while at the same time wanting to keep the "innocence" of playing along. Mike Oles was a prophet.

Oh, ok, makes total sense then. Yeah, it's crazy, he could have totally decided to go into cruise control for years considering how bad the booking got (aka Samoa Joe, who got seemingly demoralized after they screwed him up). Instead, he piled up great matches after great matches, against all kind of different opponents, all kind of different dynamics, all kind of different gimmick matches year after year. Actually I still have the last two years of his stint to watch (but I did see the biggest matches from this period already).

He was already a great pro-wrestler by 2003, he had the best Raven match ever just there. And you can't scratch 2005 when it was one of the best year in the promotion's history, with the iconic Styles v Daniels (vs Joe) series and the insane carry job of Abyss. Totally agree about the rest. Trying to think about the best TNA matches for @Superstar Sleeze podcast ended up basically listing great AJ Styles matches (many against Chris Daniels, whom is gonna have a great case too) and performances, no matter what he was being fed.

Long term selling isn't more realistic than what Toyota was doing. There's no immanence in pro-wrestling where everything is equivalent for everybody in every different context. Also, long-term selling, as great as it can be, can also be a crutch to produce forced drama (WWE Self-Conscious Epic says hello) or tell a more "coherent story" (although there's no "long-term selling" IRL, long-term selling is a narrative cliché, really) but that doesn't mean it makes for a more interesting or better match. Anyway, I agree with OJ about Toyota being actually really good at *selling* in the moment, which is the selling that matters the most. Her selling in submission holds is actually awesome, helped by her great flexibility. The idea that you need to sell everything *after* a shot/submission is a narrow notion which, again, has nothing realistic about it. Whoever does any sport knows that you can be hurting and "no-sell" while you're going on, or sell at points and not sell anymore after a while/almost immediately (because you're warming up, adrenaline and such). Toyota has her ideas of what greatness is, you don't need to like it, but you can't deny it. Trying to watch for stuff she isn't trying to do is useless. She's expressing her own style through her wrestling, as they would say, and she absolutely reached and produced greatness through it.

Oh yeah.... Brutal match. In a good way. But brutal nonetheless.

I haven't spent the last 6 years watching TNA for nothing. When you add the NJ stuff (which I really have seen only a little bit of), he's a lock for my top 15, at the very worst. The good WWE stuff is just post-prime icing on the cake. One of the most brillant pro-wrestler ever.

In WWE ? .... Anyway, I remember her mostly winning matches with running knee strikes.

Yeah, that's awesome. Not sure she thinks that way, but she has to know she was at that elite level where she totally made the other girl. Of course she's probably glad for Bianca, but there has to be a feel of pride in that "Well, that's how you do a main event job, people. Yep, I killed it."

It's also Kenny Omega's favorite match ever if I'm not mistaken.

(disclaimer : whatever I wrote before in this thread if I did is irrelevant today as I totally flipped the coin on Kurt Angle thanks to TNA) There are others but these were part of my TOP 25 TNA matches ever : 2008.04.13 Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe (cage match) (Final Resolution) MMA-like shoot-style infused heel performance 2008.08.10 Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles (Last Man Standing) (Hard Justice) Douchebag heel / great use of gimmick match 2009.01.11 Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett (no DQ) (Genesis) Pissed off babyface / best Jarrett Special match ever 2010.04.18 Kurt Angle vs Mr. Anderson (Cage Match) (Lockdown) Great babyface grudge bloodfest spectacle 2012.06.10 Kurt Angle & AJ Styles vs Chris Daniels & Kazarian (Slammiversary) Total bombfest