El-P

I've seen the last three. I'd consider none as great matches. Good to excellent. Not great. Ok, sorry for the Brock ranking. I voting him #37, I have no idea why, and when I saw that match at Mania, I just felt like an idiot for doing so. Brock has no business in my top 100. I like him a lot, but he just doesn't have the resume thus far.

Objectively.

Worked in WCW. I guess. I rated both, Aja six slots above Vader.

Since you called me on Bull's great matches, what are those great matches in 4 decades in several different styles ? I'm asking simply one per decade.

I really enjoy Finlay, but this is someone who never struck me as that great of a worker. Super solid, yeah. Even more than that. But he never put it together to have special matches, whereas Regal did (despite being put more or less in the same position). I had seen some of his most vaunted WWE match, and I was not that impressed. His WCW work is excellent, but he also never found a way to get himself over. And it's not a matter of not getting a push. Finlay winning the TV title early in one PPV in 98 deflated the crowd hard. His New Japan sting in the 90's is mediocre. Way overrated on this list. Would have made my top 150 or 200 without an issue, but I don't see him as a Top 50 guy ever at all.

Yes. It's all about mainstream US wrestling taking over this time around. Let's not kid ourselves, if a guy like Tajiri did really well, it's because of his US career. If Regal and Finlay (who's WWE career is ridiculously overrated from what I've seen) are so high, same thing. I guess I'm guilty of this as much as anyone since I never dig into lucha and WoS, but I did rate a bunch of women and shoot-style guys, including at very high spots. Anyway, really curious to see how the top 50 will be put together, especially some specific guys.

This list was not kind to anything but mainstream. It's ironic that with all the footage explosion, the Top 100 is more centered than ever on mainstream US guys. I think Post Benoit Workrate guilt and criticism relativism (with the awful "he played his role well" arguments which led to stuff like "Kamala was very good" and other absurd way of thinking of that ilk) played a part in this, since Japan was always seen as "workrate territory", as was lucha in a way. The only japanese guys who will gain from this are the ones who have been pimped hardcore over the last few years, by that I mean the two Fujis (who did deserve better than their spot of 2006), same thing for one or two territory guys (Lawler & Rose). Like I predicted early, a very conservative list. Ric Flair should win. So yeah, Aja Kong is #49 and the last woman to make the list. Kinda embarrassing for such a great wrestler.

Santo, Casas, Cena (fuck me)... I believe Aja is the last remaining woman.

Late 80's Andre was getting the most out of zilch. Which in the end of the day, meant zilch. And shitty, boring matches with a guy in pain who could barely move.

I had him at 72... that feels like a mistake now. Don't even want to talk about it... he's the one I regret ranking actually. But. Talking about regrets, at this point, Andre above Hokuto feels like a complete joke. Pendulum effect gone insane. Andre was good, but not that good. I had him at #99 because I wanted to represent him, but really, people got carried away when they discovered than young Andre was really good. Oh, and Andre after the mid-80's wasn't very good. And Andre in Japan in the late 80's/early 90's sucked and was painfull to watch. Just sayin'.

When Dick Murdoch was on, he looked like the best wrestler in the world. I said it before, serious Dick Murdoch would have been a better champ than Flair. But Murdoch could kill a match with his antics too. Murdoch was my #83 Really ? Hokuto dropping that low ? This joshi backlash really sucks. I had Akira at #25 because I valued more consistency over peak this time around, but still.

Hennig was my #66. The AWA stuff puts him over there when you add up Portland (well, the very good Buddy Rose feud) and WWF (mediocre ? he has enough good stuff in an era which wasn't conducive to having really good matches, unless you consider Hogan's crapfests as good stuff). Yeah, he fell off a cliff afterward. Valentine was my #74. Not that much great stuff. The Backlund match in 79 (I think, but he had several really good ones later too), the very good Piper match at Starrcade, the Santana feud… Maybe overrated. But the thing is, I really like Valentine. I'm the guy who wish Greg Valentine would have been pushed to IC title in 92 and again on Nitro in 96 against guys like Regal and Finlay. So, glad he made it that time around.

You mean those goofy-ass Fujiwara headbutts weren't looking real enough ?

I'm not sure what you watched already. To me like I said, Takada's big UWF-I matches were my gate to shoot-style, as they were aesthetically in the vein of UWF, but much more pro-style at heart, with a sense of epicness, milking comebacks to the max and making the whole thing dramatic. Of course you could say the same about his big matches in the second UWF, although they were much more pure in term of style since he was working a lot against Maeda and Fujiwara. Those matches are terrific too.

And I hear that from a lot of guys whose oppinions I respect. (And I don't care for MMA at all either). But when trying to make any more sense of why I have such a hard time getting in to shoot, other than just saying "I feel bored", this explanation is pretty much the best I can come up with. Maybe some day I'll see the light and come join you on the shoot-side of life :-) I totally understand being bored by shoot-style, especially if you try Tamura, who's just the purest of the purists. I didn't get Tamura at first. It's only when I got to like shoot-style as a whole, including by the gate of big spectacle/pro-style mentality of Takada, that Tamura became my all-time favourite.

I love shoot-style. I don't give a fuck about MMA. I'm a pro-wrestling fan. For those who don't care about shoot-syle per say, just watch Takada. He's as pro-style driven as anyone in this game. Tamura is for purists only.

Ok, makes sense. But not liking shoot-style makes me sad.

I had Bret in my top 5. He was 9th in 2006. No way he is dropping in the bottom half of the ballot. Yeah, Bret is not dropping anytime soon, motherfuckers. I had him very high too, higher than in 2006.

ARN !

I don't understand how could anyone rank Volk Han (who was my #37) and not Tamura. I had Owen at #56 so it hits pretty close to home to me. Owen doesn't have a lot a great stuff, but he has a lot, a lot of very good stuff and was damn consistent. Re-watching WWF 95/96 kinda reminded me that even when he was cruising at times, Owen was still better than most. Not surprised about the drop though.

Bull vs Aja in a cage, the two Bull vs Kyoko in 95 from the top of my head. LCO are not top 100 indeed. They are top 15 at worst.

PPV 42 delivered. For a Vince Russo booked product, it was quite decent, although it had way too much stupid booking, obviously. Raven vs Jeff Jarrett could have been an excellent match, although Jarrett’s execution is somewhat off at times. But he works hard, and Raven rules at this point. Took it slow at first, then went into blood, teased a table shot that came only later. Then, well, they kicked out of their finishers. I dunno when that stuff really became prevalent, if that came from the indy mentality or if WWE was doing it already in big matches, but it’s annoying, especially with stuff like the evenflow DDT which was instant death in ECW and WCW. But anyway. The stupid stuff began when team ECW showed up, handcuffed Jarrett and used chair on him. Yeah. Russo is recycling that damn Douglas vs Foley match *again*. Then, lights go off and I was more annoyed, but when it was Sabu ! Well, I thought it was pretty cool since that was his gimmick entrance in ECW and it’s unexpected that he would go against Raven. Then again, the timing of the whole thing was off. I never get tired of Sabu though, so that’s good. I must also point out how terrible Rudy Charles is as a referee. It took hims so long to try to get the handcuffs off Jarrett that freakin’ Raven had to help him and made it look like a defiant gesture toward his opponent. Anyway, Jarrett kicked out of another Evenflow before winning. So yeah, much more a Double J Special than a Raven Dog & Pony show, which Raven doesn’t need anyway now. I’d call it quite good still, all things considered and all stupidity aside. The fans totally shit on the finish BTW, speaks how highly they think of Jarrett as their ace babyface. Funny fact, Raven quoted Fleetwood Mac in his promo tonight, after quoting David Bowie a few weeks before. That’s really Scott Levy talking, he was never really a gen-Xer listening to grunge, ya know. Match of the night goes to Jerry Lynn vs Christopher Daniels, who’s a terrific heel and worker. I don’t get the criticism of « too smooth » at all, sounds like complete bullshit to me. He’s just super crisp but everything he does looks on point and he shows tons of character too. Lynn works differently than against Red, with more intensity. That’s one thing I really like about Lynn, he’s not just a mindless spot monkey, he puts intent in what he does. The X-division match between Amazing Red & Kid Kash was pretty good too, although a bit sloppy, which is always a risk with these two, especially Kash who’s still way better as a dick heel. He gets tons of heat too. Too bad the ending has to do with that stupid mystery luchador. It’s been going on forever and nowhere and has not link with Konnan anymore. It’s like Russo has no idea what to do with this stupid stuff now. The screwjob ending + shitty referee work kinda killed Red’s big moment of winning the belt too. Then, some clusterfucky X-division action with a four way between Jimmy Rave, Chris Sabin, Shark Boy & Jason Cross. Rave & Cross are everything I dislike about 00’s indies, work and look. Got better with Shark Boy & Sabin at the end. Sabin almost killed himself by trying to jump on the top rope and sliding outside, all that for a stupid 4-way cluster. Another 4-way in the opener, between four teams, always a good idea. Harris vs Lee & Slash vs Saturn & Credible vs AMW. Decent action, too many decent guys not to be, but too many bad guys to amount to anything, plus making it non-elimination always makes it worse. Perry & Credible won, which is kinda baffling. On the funny side of things, they cut back just after the match, and the Harris boys are in the locker room, all fresh and shit. Great production, guys. A pretty good tag match with AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown against No-Charisma-So-We-Need-Desire’s tits and ass team of Siaki & Young, who never looked better. Wonder why. And the promo/angle front, Eric Watts is supposed to be funny, Konnan & Ron Killings are heels for talking about racism (although Konnan’s promo is excellent, as always since he arrived, too bad he can’t work worth a damn) and a jealous stripper attacks Lollipop so we have a stupid catfight. Yes, that is the debut of Tracy Brooks. And Lollipop should never cut a promo, ever again. Pretty decent show with its share of good stuff, but the booking screws up most of the good in-ring work. Raven has failed in his quest to win the title despite having four guys handcuffing Jarrett and hitting him with chairs square in the head, after what Jarrett still kicked out of the Evenflow DDT. Kinda makes Raven looks like a bitch. Jarrett was really the HHH of TNA, except he didn’t marry the boss daughter, he just had his daddy made up a promotion for him and had his friend book it. No idea where this is going. Not anywhere in the long run, I know… 2003/04/30 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs Sonny Siaki & David Young 2003/04/30 Amazing Red vs Kid Kash 2003/04/30 Jerry Lynn vs Christopher Daniels 2003/04/30 Raven vs Jeff Jarrett

Arn.

Living in France, I waited like 3 or 5 weeks before I was getting my batch of 5 or 6 120mn tapes every three months or some, after spending shitloads of money I didn't earned. Today ? https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Kiyoshi+tamura So let's not kid ourselves.

I don't want to listen to spoilers about LU = I don't listen to Dave spoiling LU. But it's kind of his job to report on pro-wresting, ya know