El-P

Grim, you really should have put that damn Bret Hart quote for Dandy. Like it or not, that's one of the most iconic quote in pro-wrestling for nerds like us.

Seriously, a #36 ranking for a guy whose prime was in Portland in the late 70's early 80's and who, from your own account, doesn't have much in term of great matches (I've seen two, at least, counting one Rockers match in AWA). Being frustrated about that doesn't make any sense, really. It's all positive if you love the guy.

Buddy Rose has been one of the most pimped guys in the last few years, along with Fuji & Fuji and Lawler. I'm not surprised he did well. Still, in the end, I do think the category that will progress the most in the Top 100 is mainstream US guys.

Yeah, I was really thinking about Buddy Rose when I talked about mainstream US guys... Fucking Portland.

Had Buddy Rose at #87. Haven't seen enough to put him higher, but the Hennig feud and the AWA stuff is good enough for me to make him part of my Top 100.

Foley was my #45. Too much really good stuff in WCW and WWF plus his ECW stint that was incredible from a "character work" standpoint. Yeah, I know. There are still a few stuff that I'm really not a fan of though, the stupid potato match with Vader, the infamous Hell in the Cell match with Da Bump (who am I kidding, it's Shane O-Mac who's got the nod now), the awful chairshots match with Rock at the Rumble. Maybe he's a bit of a nostalgia pick.

That Timeline with Kevin Nash is what youd expect from him. Pretty funny at times. Not exactly deep as far as insight goes, but never boring. You can easily filter through Nash's bullshit, and he comes off like a guy you'd want to have a beer with. Love his Sullivan's impersonation the day after WM XIV.

Honestly, if his TNA work keeps on delivering like it did the first year, AJ could get dangerously close to my top 10. Eddie is not even close at this point.

Then maybe you should stop crying about how people didn't rate enough shoot style or joshi workers. No women or shoot-style workers in the top 39. If 5 luchadors are making it, then they didn't need my votes apparently. (well, depends what you call "luchadors", I'm guessing we're not talking about Eddie and Rey here)

And so credible in a shoot-style match too.

Ironically, I had AJ Styles just behind Fujiwara in my list, at #28. His peak in New Japan has been terrific, and as I'm going threw early TNA, he strikes me as a great wrestler already in 2003. Filling the holes and he gets pretty fucking high in my book. Like CM Punk and another contemporary candidate, I'd have to actually watch more in-beween to see if he goes up or down, but AJ Styles is one hell of a talent.

He was, like many, a shoot-style guy was also worked in pro-style promotions. As a shoot-style guy, he also used quite a bit of pro-style stuff. Did I mention his horrible headbutts ? He also wasn't that great working outside of shoot-style environment, unlike Yamazaki or Takada. He was fun, but not that good, especially past his peak. Yes.

I didn't expect Fujiwara to show up that soon after years and years of hardcore pimping, some warranted, some not. I had him at #27. Great worker in the 80's, up to the end of the second UWF. Although he had his ups and down, I'm not fond of his work in New Japan during the UWF feud for instance. Great mat technician and submission wrestler, but could get goofy with no-selling and silly headbutts too. That he's the highest shoot-style guy ranked at #40 is telling, both of the fact he's been pimped like crazy over the last 10 years, and also that shoot-style really didn't fare well.

Enjoying the details people are adding to this thread. Makes it more fun to me, and everyone I'm sure. PPV 43 Hey ! Finally, TNA goes into the shitter again. What a dumb as fuck show this was. *Glen Gilberti, N°1 contender after beating up Jarrett like no ones business and winning a complete clusterfcuck Royal Rumble-like match (with pinfalls counting anywhere too). Ok, I think Gilberti is a pretty good worker and did well on the mic. But really, Disco Inferno main eventing against Jeff Jarrett ? What is this ? USWA circa 96 ? *Talking about this mess, the matches during the show were qualifyers for that Rumble-like fiasco. Expect, of course, the vast majority of the participants didn’t have to qualify at all, so every JTTS gets automatically into the thing while AJ Styles has to earn his spot, for instance. Dumbfucks. *A bordeline disturbing angle with Kid Kash beating up Trinity in front of people while nobody around moves an inch. Great babyface locker room. Kash had been established already. Trinity won their grudge match. This was needless and gratuitous. Russo is a dipshit. BTW, Tracy Brooks threatens a sexual harrassement lawsuit yet acts like she’s gonna whore herself to the commisionner at the same time. Vomit. Desire vs Tracy was closer to softporn than a pro-wrestling match. Oh, then Tracy gets into the Royal Rumble match and Kid Kash beats the shit out of her too. From simple « complete jerk jealous of his valet » he’s now « woman beater ». Fuck that shit. *Surprise entrants in the Asylum-whatever match : Rick Steiner & Buff Bagwell. Star power. No comment. *Harris Boys sounding like racist homophobic pigs on the Interrogators segment. I guess it’s allright since they’re heels right ? Well, they sounded a bit too genuine to me. *Tag Team titles being defended one against two and changing hands on a DQ. The match of Lynn & Red vs Daniels was actually quite good until the shit finish, they made it work. Daniels is great, definitely. A top 5 worker in the company already. *Storm (James) vs Harris (Chris) having a decent qualifyer match playing on familiarity (although a little bit too choregraphed to me), settling their differences yet teasing problems again during the Royal Cluster. Fuck me… No one wants to see this, as showed by the tepid reaction to their match at first. Ultimately, only the opener XXX (Low-Ki & Skipper) vs AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown was a good match without any shit booking. Brown keeps on looking strong in the ring. The other qualifyers were a bad ECW match with New Jack diving to his death. He cuts a good promo before the three way against Sandman & Sabu though, as old ECW issues seems to be the new thematic now. Yeah. Complete shit show. Only thing that made sense was Raven showing up at the end to screw Sabu. And frankly, Sabu vs Raven is sort of an ECW dream match to me. I'm sure they'll find a way to ruin it though. 2003/05/03 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs XXX (Skipper & Low-Ki)

Had Choshu at #79. I'm a Choshu fan, but I do think people only got to see the best stuff of his and not the mediocre stuff, and really didn't take in accounts his flaws. Seems a bit too high. That being said, nice that he got higher. I have 33 left, which is not surprising since I didn't rate any luchadors (5 are left ?) and I rated some women and shoot-style guy pretty high.

Hey, DiBiase, I forgot about him. Didn't vote for him this time around. Most average greatest wrestler ever and greatest solid wrestler ever. Yeah, that recommended match list... Struggling to find something really special ? I still love Teddy, of course, but he ain't all that. Million Dollar Man gimmick still helps him a whole lot for perception I think.

Going through his AWA stuff, Rick Martel's stock went way up with me. What a great worker he was in the 80's. I just love his stuff over there. Of course the tag work in WWF is also really strong. And then he shows up past his prime in WCW in 98 and looks like one of the better guys, although working an old-school style which wasn't going to get over (like Backlund showing up in 93 in WWF). I just wish the 80's Montreal footage would show up, preferably with Carpentier/Hauray's commentaries, I would just go crazy for that kind of shit. Anyway, Martel was my #48. Glad he gained so much spots in the final list. Quebec Love !

Fujiwara footage was available for ever. Mike Lorefice was selling PWFG footage 20 years ago on mixed tapes. The UWF stuff was always widely available to anyone interested in buying it. It's just that Fujiwara had probably been forgotten about in the 90's, it's not like his work then was anything special at all, to say the least. The shoot-style was dominated by UWF-I and RINGS, so Takada & Tamura were the big names while Maeda was considered past his prime. But let's wait for Fuji to show up, he deserves a high ranking.

Pretty much. That's why I didn't get into him right away, as it's easier to enjoy a striker at first. Tamura was going for the hardcore approach right away. But once you get used to it, you're in for a treat.

Yeah, Tully… Not sure he warranted that #65 slot from me, really.

Holy shit ! Harley Race doing George Brassens ! Awesome ! I actually forgot to vote for Harley. Never got the backlash, especially the "Harley Race is the Kurt Angle of the 70's", which seems really exagerated. Yeah, Harley was a go-go-go worker. So what ? So was Flair. His matches with Baba are terrific. Damn ! I just forgot. There's another one coming actually.

Ditto. Loved the character. So I had him at #36, since I really loved some matches I've seen. Whereas he's too high or too low is something I'll only know once I'll have to revisit his career as a whole. One of the 00's guy that had *it*.

Thanks for reminding me that Akira Hokuto used a cheesy synth-ladden latin pop song for a music theme ! I missed hearing that. Hey, Hansen is mostly an AJ guy. But yeah. I'm betting on Flair.

Just to point out the constant trolling. But I don't care about arguing with this troll. I couldn't care less.

Again, you're the one who are stuck in 2000, as showed by the way you're consistently trolling me for no reason. You think I give a flying fuck about you in *2016* ?