El-P

I should have voted for Devil Masami. Stupid me.

Agreed. Thirded. I thought Smothers would crack the top 100. I guess lots of people haven't watched SMW. His biggest accomplishment to me was making me enjoy an RVD match at the end of my ECW watch when going through an RVD match was just torture. I had him at #67. Sabu is my next one going down. Fascinating worker. #70. I like Luger, but this is ridiculous. And Hogan not down yet ? Him getting so high is a sad product of workrate relativism. Fucking Hogan.

PPV 35 A two matches show. Some of the stuff that were good the previous week just weren’t this time around. Jerry Lynn vs luchadors was a little bit of a throwaway match as he teamed with David Young vs Damien & Halloween. Short Nitro sprint, enjoyable but didn’t amount to anything. Damien looked kinda old and off too. Third week in a row he doesn’t get his title shot too. Speaking of which, the good title match of the previous week turned into a stupid clusterfuck three-way with a british guy named Jonny Storm. Sloppy, contrived spotfest. But Trinity did a moonsault. Debut of D-Lo Brown, who cuts the requisite shootish promo like it’s still the Monday Night Wars. Incredible that this mentality never quite disappeared at this point. So, he’s not joining SEX and helps Dusty Rhodes against the Second Generation Croonies later on. Well, I haven’t watched a D-Lo Brown match in a good ten years, we’ll see how this holds up. Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Mike Sanders. As bad as it sounds. Some blonde girl named Holly Wood going into a catfight with Lollipop, leading to the infamous (or not, since nobody’s watching anyway) exposing of Lolli’s boobs. Nice ones too. I’m sure Russo was so proud he put that on PPV. These are only boobs, people. Porn is everywhere if you really want some. Harris Brothers beating Corino in 30 seconds. WTF was that all about ? I guess Corino is done. Damn, he was one I wanted to watch. Well, no Russo on TV is a great thing because he’s such a godawful character anyway, but still way too much Russo's fingerprints everywhere. So, the two good matches. Finally we get AMW vs XXX for the « vacant » titles after that stupid double pin stuff that should not be done ever again. It’s Daniels & Low-ki, the better combination, and the match is probably the best AMW ever had. Really solid built with too much ref stupidity at the end (and man does these referees look dumb as fuck too), but despite that a very good match with crisp work from pretty much everyone and some cool strenght spot at the end by Chris Harris. And so we finally get Raven vs AJ Styles to define the N°1 contender for the title. Again, Styles shows he can work and have a good match against anyone in any style or pace. Raven’s probably the most solid he’s ever been at this stage. Not spectacular, but really good at holding things together and feeding his opponent too. Gets better and better toward the end until… aw gawd… a double pin. Same exact shit finish that they did with AMW vs XXX before. Well, Russo is still booking. 2003/03/12 XXX (Daniels & Skipper) vs AMW 2003/03/12 Raven vs AJ Styles

Handsome ? With that chin ? But yeah, Inoki may be a lot of things, but boring certainly isn't one of them. Well, some of his matches certainly are boring as fuck though. Those Brody stuff in the mid 80's, my god... And the Backlund matches I remember having a hard time going through them, and I'm a Backlund fan. Inoki works better in small doses.

My memory of Taker vs Shawn two is that it was the same match as the previous year, only with more banged up participants and even more complacent and lazy and the self-conscious epic scale. I haven't rewatched it since it happened, but I thought it was a"good" match then, although any match that reaches for epic and ends up "good" should be considered a failure.

Forgot to mention, that Davey Boy Smith picture warms my heart, bringing me back to the early days of being a fan. So early 90's. No idea how he got so high either though.

A night passed and I only lost Dutch Mantell, at #98. Not exactly a guy with great matches, but whenever he appeared he was always very good. I must admit I believe the fact he was the best color guy ever in SMW pushed me to represent him too. I'm shocked by the spot Scott Hall got. Really, he's never been pimped around here, what does he have that people really like apart from the two ladder matches ? Hell, I believe I'm basically alone stating that he was actually pretty good in WCW too. No idea how he got so high. Scott Steiner #1. I dunno. Drugs ? I though Tiger Mask would have dropped way sooner too. In a way I'm glad since I really like his UWF stuff. Yatsu was great for a few years. Then fell off a cliff, so I'm perfectly ok with this ranking. Michael Hayes is officially way overrated now. Went through Texas, wasn't particulary impressed by his work. But like I said, Texas as a whole fells like a dire territory to me and the Von Erichs vs Freebird stuff is something that you probably had to be there to really enjoy it. Doesn't translate well on tape, hasn't aged well at all. BTW I felt Hayes was underrated for the longest time, it's not like I felt his work was the shits. But now the pendulum has swung too far on the other direction. Ditto for Mark Henry. Never got the hype. He's a good big man, ok. So what. I had probably voted for Adonis last time around. I really soured on him since them. Well, basically since seeing a lot more of him. When did Luger get so popular ? And again, Luger is a guy whom I always defended and whose stock rised quite a bit after going through WCW TV. But still, I'm surprised.

And before the inevitable bashing, ok Nagata was goofy, but he was also a really good worker that held the torch high at the worst time possible. Completely fucked over by Inoki's senile MMA obsession. I didn't vote for him, but he's better than some who actually made my list. Blame my lack of consistency and serious post 2002 puro watching.

And there we go. Not quite the third murderer of the list, although he did kill someone, kind off. I would have thought his days with his little family promotion would have helped him more than this, Sasaki is one of the most positive story is that black hole that is 00's wrestling in Japan. Tons of really good matches during that decade. I kinda wish I followed this stuff more closely, he probably would have snuck in.

"Tanaka is better than Misawa." Terry Funk. I had him at #64. Terrific worker in FMW, the best next to Gannosuke. Almost ruined by ECW where he learned to no-sell chairshots to the head. I haven't followed his 00's career, but from what's I've seen on occasion, he remained a strong worker. Amazing physical transformation too, I never got used to it when I stumbled onto one of his matches.

Seems a strange criticism. No. The Hardys & Edge are the ones who brought stupid moves with tons of wasted motions and illogical body movements to the game, the worst being Edge pulling a guy's neck to him while himself bumps on his ass. That's what I hate the most about those moves, is that guy giving them is often talking a completely unecessary bump at the same time to make it look "cooler" (which it doesn't). As far as falling from high places, I think those classic E & C vs Dudleys vs Hardys matches are garbage.

Ugh. To me it's exactly like you told me I would get in a Hitler outfit if I was German or a Franco outfit if I was Spanish. Offensive.

Jeff Hardy. He sure knows how to fall from high places. Did I mention I blame the Hardyz, along with Edge, for popularizing awkward looking indy-like moves in the WWE ? At least the best of the three will place the highest. Still, Jeff Hardy. Hardly a very good much less a great worker.

I would agree with that. Dan should have submitted a ballot for instance.

Dixie at 50 is hotter than Stephy at 35.

21 down, 4 from my top 50. Can't wait to get to the serious business. @Woof : I reiterate, half the fun is bitching and moaning. It's always been that way. Don't take it too seriously.

I had TAKA at #87 in a "old favourite" category. I do think I voted for Psicosis in 2006, but not this time around.

Do you want to be my BFFL ? (creepy mode off) Yeah, Yoshida in 92 was terrific. I'd have her above Toyota then (well, she wouldn't be alone). Her injury really screwed her up because she missed the huge interpromotional era.

Nope. Yamazaki is stoïc. Best bland wrestler is something like Tim Horner or something. Wait, nobody nominated Tim Horner ?

Probably. Still, it says a lot about the current landscape that so much crappy guys are still to come while all the luchadors and strong joshi candidates and shoot-style guys are dropping like flies. It's like we were more open minded to different stuff in 2006, while people have got back to the good ol' US of A rassling this time around. Yep, not feeling that top 150 very much.

Of course the 17 who voted for her, at any rank, are absolved from my wrath. Mariko is my favourite wrestler ever.

Yoshida doesn't make the top 100 ? Fuck all of you people. Sincerely. Glad to be the high vote, but the drop since 2006 is ridiculous. Wait, Lex Luger, Scott Hall, Sting, HHH and co haven't dropped yet, but freaking Mariko Yoshida is down ? This list sucks already. Oh, BTW, I had her above Flair because she was much smarter than him, among other things. Oh, and why not Kazuo Yamazaki while we're at it. My #39. Way too many mediocre US workers haven't been sent to the woodpile yet.

Indeed. It doesn't matter one bit today in WWE though, thanks to the infamous Michael Cole "For the win/championship !" call, which has spread to NXT too BTW.

Well, that's pretty interesting, because of whom Watts reminds me of... PPV 34 A few good matches again and less Russo = winning formula. So, Konnan brings Super Crazy this week, so we get another really good match against Jerry Lynn, the familiarity plays into making it even better than the Juvy one. And again, Konnan is frustrated when Crazy doesn’t get the job done. Third week in a row Lynn doesn’t get the title shot he won with the gauntlet match. Well, at least, him going through luchadors is delivering good stuff. Wonder who the next one will be. Meanwhile, Kid Kash defends against Amazing Red, and it’s Kash’s best match in TNA. Amazing Red is really growing on me, he’s an excellent underdog but his offense gets better and crisper. Very good match again, and Trinity doesn’t get a moonsault but catch the Red bullet in a brave move. Good main event too, with Raven finally unveiling his Clockwork Orange House of Fun match, which sees a bunch of weapons suspended from chains above the ring and Kevin Sullivan as a special enforcer promoting violence, which is kinda cute. Raven vs Sandman in 2003, and it feels fresh to me, as they work a solid garbage match. Raven seems more motivated than he was in WCW and it shows. He bleeds buckets too and they work a pretty nice, not too contrived finish which has Sandman thrown from Raven’s Nest through a bunch of tables. The only thing it lacked was Joey Style, really. Raven cuts a very good whiny promo challenging Jarrett who comes down and proceeds to beat up the bloodied Raven with his belt and some weapons. What a great babyface. So, the whole Raven vs Jarrett vs AJ Styles is still going on. On the failure front, Eric Watts and his second generation croonies just don’t cut it. People chants « We don’t care » at his relatively solid promo. But really, Jarrett is already feuding with actual stars in Raven and AJ Styles, why should he be thrown in an angle with Eric Watts, who has been at best a JTTS at the highest point of his career ? This segment died so hard. And of course we get a beatdown at the end of the show, because every show has to have several beatdowns so none means anything. The rest ? Well, Russo is quitting he wrestling business (AH !), Sonny Siaki is acting like Stevie Ray managing nWo B-team, and Ron Killings is doing Sting’s Crow gimmick now (because Tenay has doubted his allegiance with NWA, this is soooo stupid and transparent). Enough good stuff on this show though with the X-division and the Raven stuff. 2003/03/05 Jerry Lynn vs Super Crazy 2003/03/05 Kid Kash vs Amazing Red 2003/03/05 Raven vs Sandman

Hayabusa was my #50, and the reason why I submitted a ballot. When he died, it brought me back days of being a puroresu super fan and how much fun I got out of it. I thought after taking part in so much discussions over the years, it wouldn't make sens to not do it, unless I was really done with pro-wrestling. Which, after all, is not the case yet.