El-P

Great matches galore Asuka, Nakamura and Samoa Puroresu luv will find you in the end

Well, I'm kinda "retired" of the board at this point, but I feel I have to say a word about this one. As some people who knew me from way back know, I was always a big FMW fan, it was one promotion I really kept up with, even during the goofy yet underrated Fuyuki years. Hayabusa vs Gannosuke really was one of my favorite feud of any era/promotion. Of course I was mostly a Gannosuke mark, but Hayabusa was an important figure in my puroresu fandom growth. Terrific babyface, super innovative flyer in the 90's. Had the immense pressure of carrying FMW on his back after Onita left them dry, and although for a while, it was on Megumi Kudo's shoulders that the responsibility weighed the most, Hayabusa remained the face of the company as a male babyface ace from 1995 up to his tragic accident. It's yet another sad chapter on the demise of FMW, which really had been a greek tragedy of sorts. Iv'e got tons of great memories of getting FMW tapes to see Hayabusa's matches against Gannosuke, Onita, Kanemura, Fuyuki and plenty others. I loved his presentation and music theme, it had the mystic and dramatic flair FMW always carried. I'll fully admit that none of the recent deaths made me react at all. Yep, pretty much none of those huge stars going away had me left thinking and pondering for a minute (probably because none of them, and yes, I'm talking Piper of Dusty, played a huge part in my wrestling fandom, I was an early 1990's WWF guy). But this one sure does. Because it brings me back when my pro-wrestling fandom shifted, it brings me back to the joy of tape-buying (and waiting for weeks to get tapes from overseas, each match on those seemed so more precious then, even the bad ones) and to the days of one of my favorite promotion ever, FMW. After such a terrible accident, the fact that he fought to get on his feet again, to some extent, says a lot about the will this guy had. It's just so sad. (a little thought for BAHU too, who must be sad as hell) Thanks for the memories Eiji Ezaki.

Funny how in the last few years, I became appreciative of the work of the Devil.

It's kinda funny. Over the last few years, the whole Takada thing almost became a running gag with me. Liking Takada after 2000 was "dated", because so many "great" workers were "discovered", like really contemporary guys no one ever talked about before like Jerry Lawler and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. All of a sudden, some old favourites from the pre-Benoit Workrate Guilt era became suspects. And Takada had to take a dive in the pantheon of great workers of the past, to let his place in the rankings to more adept guys like Mark Henry (who's indeed a decent big guy BTW). I never really cared to make a project of rewatching old Takada stuff I already knew about and the vast majority of the Takada stuff I hadn't seen before. Then, I happened to watch lots of UWF. And while I gained a new appreciation for guys like Maeda (whom I really only knew from his past his prime RING days and one or two big UWF vs NJ tag matches), Fujiwara (again, mostly seen his 90's headbutt-choke maestria) and Super Tiger (whom I really never was a big fan of and thought he was overrated, even before the DVDVR sets, would you believe such a thing could happen ?), I noticed Takada was actually already really good as a rookie. Then went on to other important business, like rewieving the dying days of WCW and watch the entire SMW library. Then after this new GWE poll started, I decided I was gonna watch some more UWF, because I like it. The second version. And I watched more Takada. And to my surprise, but not really, I found out he was arguably the best worker of the promotion next to Maeda, with Fuji a close third (although I'd say his best matches ever happened then). Then I watched some random NJ vs UWF-I stuff, to see if what I remembered held up. And yes, Mutoh did drag Takada down the crapper at this point, but Takada was terrific as this UWF-I ace challenging NJ on their own turf. Not a big deal for him, he was always a pro-style worker at heart. And then I watched the most famous 80's feuds, including NJ vs Ishin Gundan and UWF vs NJ. And Takada was fucking great there, easily the second or third best worker, again next to Maeda and Fuji. And I mean Fujinami. While I was at it, I rewatched stuff I loved back then, and yes, Takada was indeed a terrific junior champ, his series against Koshinaka is tremendous and he even got a watchable match out of the Cobra (not a small feat). When I put everything back together, I realized that Takada pretty much was good to great for most of his career, and in every role he was put into : young UWF lion, young NJ prodigy fighting against Ishin Gundan, UWF third guy punking out NJ tradition, IWGP junior champ, UWF up and coming big star challenging the old masters Maeda & Fujiwara, UWF-I ace fighting against the odds (in a Onita/Cena way and flair for big spectacle) and UWF-I ace coming back to NJ and taking away their title. The one thing Takada could be, was a bit lazy and not give that much of a fuck if his opponent wasn't motivated. The two Mutoh matches are the illustration of this, but who could blame him, really ? I really never tried to prove an old point by rewatching Takada matches. If I thought they actually weren't that good, I would have gladly said that I overrated this guy in the past. But as I went through it, the opposite occured. Takada was like 21 on my 2006 list. He would be 8 or 9# this time. Honestly, I enjoy watching Takada more than Liger, whose style like I said I haven't cared for more than a decade now. So maybe he would get the #8 slot. Maybe also because, since MMA matters and PRIDE was pro-wrestling after all, well, Takada's terrible fake shootstyle stuff jumpstarted the biggest company of the late 90's and basically MMA's peak in Japan. Damn, now I'm using Dan's arguments to praise good ol'Nobihuko. And really, who doesn't love General Takada in HUSTLE ? Fuck Yamada, he worked too much with Chris Benoit anyway. Takada is my #8. And that's it.

No idea how I would rank Aja at this point, but it would be pretty damn high, especially if she kept on being good in the last 15 years. And come on, the uraken + Judas Priest. All-time favourite.

I never got into MMA, like ever, but that particular RING show I bought the tape of just to see those two fights, and I wasn't disapointed in the end. Great stuff.

It's funny when people talk about Stevie being terrific, since Raven was the one putting all that shit together. But anyway. I'd have him as my #100.

Bockwinkel is everything I would want from an old-school american pro-wrestler. He's been a joy to watch to me in the last few years. #10.

A lot of this describes pretty accurately how I felt when I tried to watch lucha trios match. The arbitrary momentum shifting, the drab pacing, the rigid samey structure, the generic feel. The way the announcer speak never helped either. I always got a lot more out of single mathes whenever I tried lucha (for the last GWE poll for instance), maybe because it's worked in a way that is closer to US style, I dunno. But yeah, those trios matches, never got it. That will forever be the one part of pro-wrestling I never got into (european style I have no problem with).

He had his shortcomings. He didn't reach the peaks of Misawa and Kobashi. But there's one thing, he worked a style that never required you to get dropped on your head like Misbashi did after the late 90's. It was stiff as hell, but safer. Well, not always safer when he would botch that powerbomb, Onita style. But he's been part of so many great matches. And not so great ones, but which were always fun to see, be it against Muta (broken bottle !), Fujinami (broken nose), Onita (broken heart…). Great personnality. And a former maegashira. What's not to love. He's my # 6. Yes, above Misawa, for reasons discussed earlier. Don't die for pro-wrestling, it's not worth it (big up to CM Punk BTW).

Don't judge a book by its cover. One of the most solid worker I've seen, despite his super sleazy look. And a fantastic promo. His work as a color guy in SMW may be my favourite ever, adding a lot to that little promotion's 80's like squash matches and redneck angles. He would definitely find his way in my top 100.

Here's one guy I always wanted to see pushed, either in WCW or WWF. Underrated worker that goes under the radar because PR pretty much does so. He did the unthinkable and got a good match out of a stupid scafold match gimmick in WINGS. He was always solid as hell in Los Boricuas (the missed opportunity of 1997's WWF to me, Savio & Miguel could have been a tremendous latino gang heel team if pushed seriously) despite the awful opposition (when Brian Lee is the best guy of the oposite team, good luck). Him vs Rey Jr. in WCW in 97 is one of the imaginary feud I'd loved to see.

Totally agree. It's a shame Arn got badly injured when he did, because he was still so good in the ring, and with more emphasis put on promo and competitive TV matches, he was picture perfect for the Nitro era. The promos he did in 98 building up to the return of Flair and the Horsemen comebacks are some of the best ever. And yeah, I hated the Rock's promo too back in the days. I got to enjoy them much later (as I did the whole character and worker BTW).

The more you watch Andre prior to his WWF days, the more it gets obvious the guy was a tremendous worker. Could work serious brawl, comedy, babyface, heel. Totally would make my list.

So yeah, I was a shoot-style fan, and Tamura was the apex of the style. For that reason only, and for years of being awesome and pushing his style to the extreme, he'd be my #4 or 5.

The King of the 90's. I really haven't re-watched much of him in the last 10 years, but still. You can't deny his greatness. #4 or 5.

She did carry Mika Akino to a tremendous debut match. Although she trained Akino, who was a prodigy rookie herself, so that must have helped.

I should just have said "watched TV seasons and arena footage" in my first post, since that one didn't get any bad reaction. I was just giving my two cents. (and you're the one making the only snarky, attention grabbing post of this thread BTW, with your patronizing "Congratulations you may be the only one to think that, you win the prize.". If that's not trolling, I don't know what it is.)

I told you before, Cena needs to turn heel and go Lance Armstrong on the WWE Universe's ass. Greatest gimmick ever.

I talked about going through TV seasons. Forgot to mention arena stuff. Someone pointed out the arena stuff was better. I simply replied that actually I had seen a bunch of arena footage too, and that it was nothing special to me either. Nothing to get worked up like that, really. It's not dismissive. If I hadn't seen the arena footage I'd have replied "Ok, maybe I needed to see that stuff then". I guess you have to be all "Johnny watches WWE" mood these days…

It's not that I don't care about the topic. If I had to make a list, I would probabIy agree with what Coffey said. But my point is I don't care about what WWE puts or their TV show anymore, and have zero confidence they will make it better (from my perspective). It's a reflection of the failure on their part to get me back, despite some stuff I really enjoyed this past year (Rusev, the heel New Day etc…). Like I said, it's been fun for a while, but...

At this point, I don't care anymore (I did my best to try, and I watched more current stuff this year than I did in 15 years, and enjoyed quite a bit of it, thanks Rusev). It's been fun for a while though.

He's probably the first japanese wrestler I was a fan of. Not because of WCW. We didn't get WCW before 96. But we got NJ on Eurosport, with lots of bad gaijin matches (that Vader vs Gigante match was shown all the time, for some reason). And some great stuff. Easy to become a Liger fan back then. I got bored with junior wrestling in the early 00's when I went through TV blocks, on tape bought from Jeff Lynch. At that point, I'd rather watch Choshu vs Hash than Liger vs Benoit. Liger is the greatest wrestler whose style I haven't cared for in more than a decade. would be #8 or #9. Oh, Yamada was great before the outfit, but he really beneficiated from the mask.

#3

Congratulations you may be the only one to think that, you win the prize. WTF ? Really ? As I said, I've been through shitloads of Mid-souh years ago, TV seasons and a bunch or arena stuff. That's what Duggan's work seemed to me, nothing special. That's all there's to it, really. Don't make everything a personal or ego issue. It's really not. I couldn't care less. I'm having "boring choice" Jumbo Tsuruta as my #1 wrestler ever, and other oh-so-original choices like Hansen, Terry Funk and Kawada in my top 5. I really couldn't care less if I'm in a large group or by myself. Especially at this point of my life, I mean...