El-P

Agreed. The Jack Briscoe/Dory Funk Jr./Billy Robinson combo is impressive. I'm sure someone somewhere is going "One of these names is not like the other" Rick Martel. Yep. Bye bye 80's territory guys. It was fun while it lasted. I'm kinda glad he finished way higher than tons of his counterpart though. Fuck Booker T and his idiot brother forever for ending Rick Martel's awesome comeback in 98. And here goes Sareee. Her NXT days seems like a fever dream. Is there any modern joshi left ?

I am not familiar with this story, but good for them ! Is Takada still somewhat of famous name in Japan today ? Bruiser Brody and Carlos Colon being so close together is.... ironic, to say the least. Well, if you talk about aura, Bruiser Brody should be the ultimate candidate. He's much better than he has been stereotyped to be too. Back in my days (uh) of watching 80's japanese stuff, I always enjoyed Brody's work for what it was. Two things I know about Dick Murdoch : 1/ He had a wicked brainbuster. 2/ He was a Klan member. Fuck Dick Murdoch. The Dymanite Kid. Yeah. Trash human being. One of the most influential worker ever. Hangman Adam Page. 💜 Fit Finlay. *yawn* GOLDY ! Hey, the Goldberg push is the worst trope of the last 30 years. It worked ONCE. Don't do it ever again. It's done. The fact he got a botched retirement because Levesque is still bitter about WCW beating their ass is kinda funny.

😅 It's understated how much of an old-school carny Takada was. I mean... The double crosses, the worked shoot-fights in PRIDE. He was an underrated sneaky bastard. Him and Onita really were the two sides of the same coin, in a way.

KIND OF ?????

The bolded part. Which is a "natural" part of aging, sadly. I see it all around me, and honestly it kinda sucks because it makes discussion difficult when people my age are all "booh everything sucks now, back in my days blablabla". I saw it happen here about wrestling, I see it happen elsewhere when I discuss music (which is basically my second, well, first, passion in life). As long as it's something sweet and non-harmful, yes, nostalgia can be ok, although it's not something that I enjoy. But anyway, it's a discussion that goes way beyond my tastes in pro-wrestling into more intimate or even political thematics, so.

Oh yeah sure. Williams especially carried that part. Gordy, as much as a menace he came off as, looked kinda like a goof. Well, a menacing goof. But he was not a picture of "cool", if you know what I mean.

Interesting. Well, that's cool. One thing about RVD that I always enjoyed, is that he's very idiosyncratic. Nobody really works like RVD. And I always liked people like that. Yes. I've said it before, the 2016 list was *very* reactionary. I turned 50 this year (yikes). I'm absolutely not nostalgic about the stuff I was watching when I was 14. I'm not nostalgic about the stuff I loved when I got on the Internet in 97/98 and got turned on Japanese wrestling. I'm not nostalgic of Lucha Underground which was my gate back into the current scene in late 2014, after basically more than ten years being turned toward the past. Nostalgia, in everything, is an enemy.

I'm not quite sure Terry Gordy really fit what "aura" is. The guy was a lot of thing (a great worker for one), but aura farming wasn't really one of them. The fact Mariko Yoshida still hasn't dropped is quite amazing, because her case is mostly 3 years in ARSION. If I was right about anything back then it was certainly Mariko Yoshida. I'm the patient zero, thank you very much.

This.

This thread has been thoroughly entertaining. It's kinda funny that the DiBiase drop and the realization that so many "AEW" guys were still alive (including the Elite) did this. Just enjoying my coffee reading this stuff. I am currently very entertained. This. The whole "recency bias" isn't a thing anyway. If there was any recency bias, how do you explain that a guy like Marufuji, who has been an awesome worker for more than 20 years, and is indeed, doesn't make it to the top 100 by 2026 ? Even with the "recency bias" going on, Marufuji can't make it to the top 100 ? Seriously now. PAC : the same. Oh, Takada, what have you become : Oh, I remember. I REMEMBER. I did my best. Well, the result was me being shunned and mocked for having "dated opinions". Which is ironic considering most of the people in those circles are now old men yelling at clouds, having their brains being broke by AEW like a random Jim Cornette podcast listener. Karma being a bitch and all... 😂 Clap clap clap. This was legit funny. Hiro Hase : funny how the Muta scale was really jumpstarted by Hase. Anyway. Kinda like Tomohiro Ishii, but in the 90's. In retrospect, he's been very influential on wrestlers of today. Will Ospreay of all people once wore a Hayabusa inspired outfit. The Falcon Arrow is everywhere. There is a thing about Hayabusa that has transcended his work. And yes, it makes me happy, as an old FMW fan. (although I loved Gannosuke more) No idea how RVD could actually win spots though. And I like RVD (kinda). Slaughter dropping. Another one bites the dust. Like I said, I am currently very much entertained. Syuri. Here's another one. If there's anything like "recency bias", how does Syuri doesn't make it to the top 100 ? Anywoo. She's got one of the best modern Japanese theme this side of the old Naito one too.

Oh you're right. Ohtani is still there. Poor fellow. I saw what you did there. Truth Magnum is the better Outrunner though.

Really ? Who's left apart from Liger ? MJF getting so "high" on the strength of basically the last 4 years of his AEW work is quite something.

Maybe it's Rikishi himself voting... Wait, Turbo Floyd was nominated ? What ? Hey Masato Tanaka. There's the famous anecdote where in 1996 or so Terry Funk tells Meltzer and JDW while they are in Japan that Masato Tanaka is a better worker than Misawa (Terry was working FMW back then). Of course, it was seen as goofy and laughable. Fast forward 2026. Who is still kicking at 50 + having really good fucking matches and looking good and healthy and who is dead because he enabled a style that required that you got dropped on your neck ? Who's laughing now, uh ?

Like, the Mississippi Department of Justice ? I wonder what the rest of his list looks like. If it's only post 2000 WWE guys, well.

This.

I mean, part of the humour in this is that the guy is literaly called TheTribalChiefofRhodeIsland. It's almost too good to be true. But hey, I've seen a #1 vote for Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, so there... 😅

Yes. And will probably be underrated still because of the circles in which GWE has been promoted (and I shall say no more). Although I must say, I'm pretty shocked (in a good way) that the Elite (the real members, sorry Cody) are still alive.

Alex Shelley. Yet another "Awesome and super influential tag worker who doesn't quite get his due", and even moreso, because Alex Shelley outside of MCMG has a whole lot of good stuff too, including being the really good worker being the Big-fish-in-a-small-pond champ, a role that I always loved, dating back to Shane Douglas in ECW. Timeless Toni Storm. Took the awkwardness of the Goldust character (I mean, really now) and turned it into an all-time great pro-wrestling character. Her work early on with the gimmick was not exactly great, but she finally found the right balance. The Mariah May (hey, remember her ?) feud is a contemporary classic. Jake Roberts. I don't think I ever saw an actual great Jake Roberts match. I don't think I really care that much, considering how great he was. Nothings is more of a tell that this edition has *nothing to do whatsoever anymore* with the spirit of the original 2006 SC edition than TheTribalChiefofRhodeIsland voting Roman Reigns #1 with this justification : "Roman Reigns is a great talent, even overcoming his health issues. But he is my #1 primarily due to his run as the Tribal Chief and, in particular, his dominant 1316-day reign. It's worth noting that he is, maybe at this point, the preeminent Paul Heyman-guy! In this run, he beat the likes of Lesnar multiple times, Edge, Cena, Danielson, Cody, Strowman, Mysterio, Owens, Zayn, Jey Uso, and Goldberg - so an almost peerless run there. Roman is the dominant force of this era...acknowledge him!" Regular copy-pasta here. Oh, I have nothing to say about Roman Reigns. I already spent my Nepo-baby card on Orton. Plus, you know, when you have nothing nice to say about someone, just don't say anything. Ultimo Dragon. When you look back at it, not only the Ultimo bashing was always ridiculous and unwarranted (no, he actually didn't "blew spots in every big match"), but he's probably one of the most influential worker on modern wrestling. DiBiase dropping was long overdue. Hey, I always liked DiBiase a lot, ok. But still. Come on now. Top 40 ? Really? Nah. Not even close. Not 20 years ago, not 10 years go, certainly not today.

Yeah, I figured this is the kinda match you would love. Hey, I loved it too. Outrunners & Dalton Castle really are a perfect fit.

Tito Santana was the greatest wrestler I've ever seen for a few weeks. Then I saw Mr. Perfect. That was in 1990. Moving on.

Randy Orton between Homicide and Steve Corino is kinda funny to me. Randy Orton : Nepo-baby, the Wrestler. The supposed greatest wrestler who never had a great match in his life. The perfect picture of privilege, on every front. Spent his entire career being cuddled by the system. Realized later in life that he actually was. What if he had gone elsewhere, even for a little while ? Let me tell you : the results would probably have been underwhelming. Whenever I tried to get to watch some WWE in the 00's and early 10's, Randy Orton drove me away. He was the perfect modern WWE style worker : entirely manufactured, dull as dirt. Made a career out of someone else's idea (that's DDP for you). A legend of irrelevancy.

Kyoko Inoue. Kurt Angle disguised as the Ultimate Warrior. (and yes, Kurt Angle is *major* praise in my book) Kerry von Erich : the reverse Brad Armstrong (you know, like, Kerry was the most underrated member of the most overrated wrestling family. Or the opposite. I still don't know) Mil Mascaras : lucha libre for foreigners. I have no idea what his stance is about his nephew, so I'll reserve my judgement... Apparently nobody liked working with him because he was a no-selling asshole. That Destroyer match will never not be great. Scott Steiner : in 2026, the Steiner math promo is a lot more famous than Steiners vs Muta & Hase at the Dome. Maybe for a reason.

2 Cold Scorpio. 2 Decades 2 Soon Takeshita & Ricochet : the now.

No comments needed. CMLL did it right. (edited with the actual version where you can hear the crowd, which makes it 100% better)

And yeah, that ROH show was tons of fun. Lio Rush vs AR Fox was great. Bandido vs Blake Christian was some MOTYC stuff. Bandido retained and then got smacked around by Swerve. The trios title of STP vs Outrunners & Dalton Castle was the best Outrunners match ever and a terrific feel-good moment, and a very smartly worked match (considering the characters and their limitations). Castle did not do a whole lot, basically working the last hot tag, but holy hell what he did was incredible. And then Orange and Mark Briscoe showed up. Yeah, this is really a continuity of everything AEW, which is nice. Mike Bennett & Matt Taven returned, so that's cool. They really belong in ROH working with younger teams. All the pure matches were good/very good, Deonna really found her footing again in this setting, Nigel vs Woods was all about Nigel being an old sneaky bastard and Ace Austin vs Moriarty was all about Ace not being that familiar with the rules, yet delivering a great performance nonetheless. Red Velvet vs Viva Van was pretty good, and it was nice to see Van get some time, I like her dating back to the NJPW Strong days. Main event was half great spot, half really sloppy shit, but some spots were pretty insane (Yuka doing a springboard top rope splash though a table outside, Athena going through a pyramid of chairs, Athena doing her finisher off a ladder). The never-ending story with Billie keeps on going. She has to win it at the end of this year. Athena was ridiculously better than everyone else too. Part of me really wish she wasn't so comfy in ROH and would just be on AEW but hey, I'll take what I can.