El-P

Foley was a great worker though. I was thinking more of people who are not traditionally though of that way. Sting was always game. But yeah, I forgot about him too. I for one think his awesome AEW stint really benefitted him. Greatest retirement match ever, thanks to the Bucks.

With him (Onita) and Dump and a few others (Dusty, Rock) going so high, it's obvious how the "biggest characters" gained quite a bit in this version of the poll. Who else from that category left ?

Of course she was. But she was not a better pro-wrestler than Devil Masami or Jaguar Yokota. Neither here nor there though really. I'm amazed Onita is gonna go so high too. And I'm an old Onita fan.

I missed Arn & Mutoh. Two old perennial favorites. Arn to me is kinda like Regal, an awesome TV worker, but with some actual great matches, both in tags and in single. Mutoh I spent way too much time over the years explaining why he was pretty much underrated. Genius is right, in a "mad savant" way. Half brillant, half crook. Loved Mutoh despite all his many flaws.

The Dump hype is Dumb. On SO MANY levels. But I shall and will say no more about *that one*. 😎

Totally forgot Devil was still in this. Awesome in the 80's (better than Chiggy), still terrific in the 90's as the mommy monster. That's quite a great comeback.

They sold out too. It really has the feel of a big time event.

Gunther at 88 would have been pretty funny.

Coming out party (or not) : way back when it was happening, I could not stand the Rock. I thought he sucked in the ring (we're talking 1998), the catchphrase intensive promos were quickly unbearable to me, as it became the overriding theme of WWE's promo style. The Royal Rumble 99 match against Foley made me really hate his guts, in a go away heat way (although of course Foley was also to blame). I only warmed up to him to a degree for, ironically enough, the 2006 GWE project when I took upon myself to visit some of the early 00's WWE. Also, it appears pretty clearly from some of the last few names and some of the remaining ones, that "modern" WWE is actually weighing quite heavily on the process after all.

Hulk Hogan making it to the top 100 :

I blame Cody.

The later. People waxing poetic about Bruno, Dusty, Inoki and the likes is cool and all. Watching it happen in real time is better. Also, that mofo would take stupid apron bumps on an MLW show, just because, so that makes him more like a Terry Funk. He doesn't need to do what he does. But he does it. And that's the beautiful part. Aura, uh ?

Owen died 27 years ago on this day. I remember watching the PPV on the next day morning, which I *never did* back then, as I was a student and usually waited until the next week-end to watch the PPV's, taped on VCR. I have no idea why I watched this one right away. "We got big problems out there"... Certainly one of the most "famous" JR call to me, for the most terrible reasons. This is a beautiful tribute :

Asuka & Iyo Sky back to back. This poll is so rigged. Tomohiro Ishii. Choshu + Animal Hamaguchi + Tenryu - a neck, rolled into a modern package = a never ending shitload of great matches for 15 years.

I'm not sure you got that reference... I don't remember if you were around during the shodate days. (I was a huge Volk Han fan btw)

Morishima. Talk about a forgotten name these days. I really liked that Terry Gordy looking mofo. Apparently life has not been kind since he had to retire. Kind of a big "what if" case.

With 1FW (QT's promotion) episodes being dropped on MyAEW and with Triller going down, I wonder if some other indies could end up on the service. And although I already don't have enough time to watch what I'd want to, it could be a pretty cool idea and a good one to counter-act WWE's pathetic ID stuff, which is getting more and more ineffective (since now the ID signed guys must used their WWE names).

Rush, people. Rush.

you and your odd tastes

I can totally see that point. Although to me Terry being Terry more than often takes matches way above the plateau that Regal, while being a great worker, can't seemingly break to me. Then again, Terry Funk is one of my all time GOATS, while Regal is "a terrific worker I liked a lot".

I bet both will do better than Omega, and better than *some* pillars. Or not. I watched those mixed shows. I really enjoyed Ikeda. But yeah, this was also the days of paying shitload of money to get tapes from overseas, so I really cherry picked... THEN AGAIN. When I think about some of the stuff I bought back then, maybe I did not cherry pick enough. 😅

Funny, I was such a huge shoot-style fan, and I never bought into the Battlarts hype. I liked it (never watched a lot either), but never though Ikeda nor Ishikawa were these all time greats. I would think if I had watched it much later (when I grew an appreciation for older NJPW stuff), I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I think I was too much into the RINGS Tamura stuff at that time, which is far removed from the Inoki influence that Ishikawa portrayed. It's probably one of my biggest "what if ?". Wrong time, wrong place for me.

I would consider someone who started to watch during the 90's and 00's as old, really. But yes, the % are an indication that it is indeed a pretty mixed crowd overall. The weigh of the old-school canon (you know the one) will be felt at the very top of the list though I think. As it is expected, of course. I actually have been surprised how well some of the greats from the last 15 years have done. But like it's been demonstrated the "AEW effect" has been pretty much killed off already. Some bubbles names that have not dropped yet show that there's remains of the hype of former years. Some names will be the product of some current trends of a niche landscape. Like I said, I think this top 100, whatever the rankings inside of it ends up being, is *much* better and representative than the last one.

Jumbo is gonna drop from last times placements. Tenryu is not. I would not be shocked if Tenryu made the top 10. He would probably have made mine.

I'm shocked no one dropped the David Finlay classic already by this point. It's really not like it used to be...