El-P

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* ?

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.