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Grand Hamada : He ran so Tiger Mask could fly. Something like that. Loved him as an already old guy (aka younger than me now... fucking kill me) in MPro showing the young generation how lucharesu was done before a certain Mr. Arai even thought of going to Mexico. Satoshi Kojima : took one of the coolest shit Kobashi did and turned it into just shit. Basically Riki Choshu if he picked up spots against every great guy he worked against. Managed to build himself into a great worker in the dreaded Japanese naughties. Tam Nakano. My gateway to Stardom. Yes, the hype was Syuri vs Utami, but then there was this magical girl looking fella, all uWu uWu, kawaii desu yô and stuff, and then the bell rings and she would FUCK PEOPLE UP. Just an awesome worker and awesome character. Her retirement match will remain an all-time classic for the ages. Invader 1 : ahhh, remember when he was all the hype of the moment and I called him "Everyone new favorite's murderer", and people got all pissy and triggered and shit. Good times. Paul Ordnorff. I even enjoyed washed up Orndorff in Pretty Powerful. That's how much I enjoyed Paul Orndnorff. Raven : Did I ever mentioned how much I was a Raven fan ? I think I did. Probably not enough time. I LOVED Raven. It made me sad to see him struggle with health issues lately. Shine on you crazy diamond... Cody Rhodes : no one can work a tear like Cody. He also resolved racism, haven't you heard ? Quite the worker really, as he hooked up with the coolest and most revolutionary people of the last 30 years on the indies to make people forget he was a WWE coded nepo-baby. That's being a true carny. I wonder how Edge haters are gonna cope with him being this high....

Superstar Billy Graham. Great at yapping and steroid injections. A certain idea of pro-wrestling that is mercifully dead and forgotten. Well, unless, ya know... Nah, nevermind. Orange Cassidy. Genius concept. Translated incredibly into a national promotion because the guy is a great pro-wrestler who actually understands pro-wrestling better than all the old boomers who got strokes watching his matches. I still remember that PAC match years ago and the moment you can almost see the illumination on PAC's face. Like, the guy realized he was having a great match with a great dance partner. Orange Cassidy is pure joy. Christopher Daniels. If he had one main event stint in a major promotion over the last 30 years, he would be talked about exactly like his counterparts AJ & Joe. Those three redefined what pro-wrestling could be in the 2000's. Hell, he even never had a lull in his career like Joe when he was (very understandably) completely phoning it in TNA during the worst of Russo days then looked thrashed in NXT (before the infamous raincoat at Mania, you know the picture) and never wasted 10 years in WWE like Styles either. His last match was a great bloodbath against Hangman Page. He was already ahead of his time when I saw him the first time I believe in a WWF C-show in 1998 or so. Incredibly versatile, could be funny as fuck or super vicious. A true understated legend and all-time great. Lex Luger. I will never not love the "I don't give a flying fuck anymore" Luger from 2000 alongside Elizabeth. And the hypocrite Luger tagging with Sting in early 96. And the Narcissist (yeah, I don't care). And the WCW vs nWo era Luger (the 1997 version, of course). I think overall I did enjoy Lex Luger quite a bunch.

I started shitting on Triple H in 2000 when people were starting to praise him for his dull-ass style match. Which of course were more solid, in many ways, than the Attitude Era clusterfucks of the two previous years. But jeeez. The name and shame was funny as hell. Fuck Paul Levesque. Commando Bolshoi. Imagine your first time seeing her was the Bolshoi Kid stuff. And then you have to wipe that off your mind, especially later in her career when she actually was a terrific worker, including doing funky matwork. Mima Shimoda. Oh Mima. Bloodletting Bitch Queen. Not as good as Etsuko at first, then better. Had to tag alongside Toyota, imagine that for an education. Again, tag team wrestlers not getting their right dues. LCO was an all time great. I just saw Mima, 50 something, take a bump not too long ago at Fantastica Mania, like she usually does when she and her legendary lucha legend of a husband Okumura go back to Japan once a year. We Still Want Mima. Jeff Jarrett. Didn't budge. Hilarious. His AEW stuff is easily some of the most entertaining shit he ever did. Better at podcast than many. The last Outlaw indeed. When you think about his career and how he went from places to places, navigating during the hottest eras and the lowest of lows, it's absolutely fascinating. The Stroke is one of the worst looking finisher ever. Whoever manages to make it look good always wins a point from me. He gave TNA to the world. What have you done with your life ? I was a fan since the very first vignette in 1993. From there it has been a very, very, very bumpy road, but everything will be fine in the end. Pillman. The father of Lexis King. Talk about another absolutely fascinating career. "I respect you bookerman" traumatised more people than the Montreal screwjob. The first wrestling death that really hit me like a ton of bricks.

Nah, forget I just said that. 😅 Match was nothing special (quite good, but rushed and nothing special, and that is a tell of how they are using Leon Slater, who is probably the best young wrestler in the world, even much better than his TNA work would tell you), booking was idiotic, and we get yet another ex-NXT reject as a "big surprise" at the end. That company feels SO dead right now. I swear 6 months old MLW tapings sounds more appealing to me. Morbid curiosity will push me until Slammiversary, as always. I just wanna see a car crash at this point. We don't agree on everything about pro-wrestling (!), but I could not have put it much more eloquently. I would put this period comfortably at the bottom of TNA history. And not the entertainingly bad side of it (like the first Hogan year, which was insanely fucked up).

Yes to the second sentence. Nope to the first. Because Young Bucks are the Top 1 tag team of all time. 😎

And so like I said before, Dax is hurting Cash's perception. Because Dax Harwood is such an awesome wrestler. He laps most of his influences (sorry Arn, Tully... Bobby and Bret, you're not quite "lapped", but...). And he's a great promo to boot. The only thing he ever sucked at was podcasting. Sandman at #7 greatest wrestler ever. 😂 And you know what ? I love it. His retirement match against the Invisible Man was awesome too. I was, am and always will be a Hak fan. Still the best entrance ever (I'm taking about the Woman era too, the perfect un-fit).

He's only 33. No idea how the injuries are gonna do him bad, but hey, at some point, it seemed like Bandido's potential had been ruined forever with the never-ending wrist injury/surgery and look at him now. I feel like he was always a slow-burn project. Which fits his style. I'm confident about his future. He sure could be a top heel there.

Dax Harwood into Sid into Rikidozan Whaaaaaat in the actual fuck ? (lol, Booker T)

Oh, I missed Cash Wheeler. It's a bit ironic he got so close to Dennis Condrey. As in, both one half of one of the greatest tag team ever. A sign that being seen mostly a tag team wrestler is still a stigma (but shouldn't be). The one thing that actually hurts Cash Wheeler is that he's tagging with Dax Harwood. That's it. He's a great pro-wrestler. Also, I don't remember who it was exactly, but when they changed their names after escaping WWE, and the name Cash Wheeler was revealed, someone made a joke that still makes me laugh to this day, which was something like "It sounds like the name of someone who knows where the meth is hidden". Incredible.

That Ring of Honor taping at the golf field were tons of fun, and Supercard of Honor looks like a really cool card on paper. Bandido vs Blake Christian ? Oh yes. Time for Bandido to move on and let Vanilla Baby shine in a setting where he can, so that will give him some time to build. Athena I'd say is a good time for her to finally lose the strap too (although maybe they want her to win the first women Survival of the Fittest too). Some really fun matches on this with Nigel vs Josh Woods in a pure match. Ace Austin vs Moriarty for the pure title. Sounds terrific. Purazzo vs Diamanté for the pure title sounds really solid too. Mark Davies vs Xelhua because why the fuck not. AR Fox vs Smeagolio Rush for the TV title. Red Velvet vs Viva Van ? Sure. Why not. One thing is the lack of the tag champs, as they have been noticeably absent from the latest tapings. Not enough Beast Mortos in general in AEW lately.

I wouldn't say it was her finest hour, she had much better matches since leaving WWE, but it was a defining, amazing carry-job performance. The last time I ever watch a Mania main event too. The one thing I remember the most actually is her sitting outside leaning on the barricade (or the ring, In dunno) after the match was over with *that* face where you could read the joy and pride of "Yup. I did it". She just loves this shit and it shows.

Ogawa ? Oh yeah, Ogawa in early NOAH was a blast.

Not the Mercedes I've seen going through randoms indies to win then drop titles, with workers she's not familiar with, obviously having a blast interacting with these audiences too. But yeah, they are much different workers with different instincts, and Athena has awesome instincts. The only reason I would put Mercedes ahead is the fact she was always the best of the WWE bunch, and for a long time. And although I did love Ember Moon for the time she was there, she never got the opportunities, and the character was going nowhere. And honestly, the idea of ranking, as I said, doesn't really compute with my brain anyway anymore. I love them both.

With Utami showing up, I wonder where Syuri is gonna up end. Her match with Utami a few years back is what really got the hype about Stardom outside of the joshi circle, and holy shit she's been great all this time. Utami ? Not *that* much, she never got back to her Red Belt reign level from what I've seen. Last time I checked she was being bodyshamed by Hat-guy and now she's going freelance.

Jay White. "Brilliance" is his middle name. Holy fuck. I can't wait until he comes back. The counter wrestling game is sick, and it absolutely fits everything about him, his body-type, his look, the way he moves. A student of Alex Shelley, uh ? Yeah, that shows. TAKA Michinoku. Milked a 30 years career out of going to WWE for three years or so. He was ridiculously great as a very young guy in MPro before going to the Fed and learning how to give terrible English name to his holds and factions. Tracy Smothers. The anti "Back in my days" old-school worker. Managed to get a great match out of RVD when I was in my RVD-hating phase. If he was around today, he would fuck around with Eddie Kingston and be awesome at it. Love me some Tracy Smothers, always. Athena. If Mercedes Moné didn't exist, she would probably be the best US women wrestler ever this side of Gail Kim. Her ROH stint is the best hidden secret of modern wrestling (as far as being part of a major promotion). Great veteran, terrific character work, versatile as hell. I LOVE Athena. Osamu Nishimura. One of those kids who post under a Soundgarden Youtube video clip and goes like this "I wish I lived that era, music was so much better then than the crap my generation listens to". I never cared for revivalism stuff very much. So I'd rather watch prime Fujinami, and prime Fujinami was that much better. But Nishimura was cool.

I have supported TNA for a while during the IMPACT D'Amore days when they had this cheap Youtube subscription deal where I would get it for a month and binge watch two/three months worth of it. Of course I have watched it since this time using extremely legal means only(tm). And yeah. Boring is the right word. It's not even entertainingly bad booking, sadly. It's just mostly generic and boring and dull (three years of the System being the top heel group, for fuck's sake, and I like Eddie Edwards a lot). Too bad for the few really good (even great, Ali, Slater, Miguel) workers around, which are fewer and fewer too. Man, EC3's return has been such a huge failure thus far. To the surprise of no one. I wonder what WWE reject they will sign next. Probably the worst ones again (man, the women division, I swear). And really, for all the astroturfing and artificial "records" last year, the tapings scream "dying territory". It's half empty buildings with tons of empty chairs and you can hear echoes of the chants. Slammiversary's advance is pathetic right now. I'm sure they'll try to get some help from NXT, but with what name right now ? And really, it seems NXT has lost interest in working with TNA. A few weeks back they just cancelled a show of their own for lack of ticket sales, so they have their own issues. Remember the actual talk of "Wow, TNA is gunning for #2 promotion" 8 months ago ? Of course it was already completely dumb then, but now... (and I say all this and really this week's show doesn't look half bad on paper with Leon Slater vs Cedric Alexander going 2/3 falls)

I have this very funny memory during the pandemic. During a WOR episode. Out of literally NOWHERE, Dave asks Brian "You know who's a complete idiot ?". *Immediately* it popped up in my brain. Brian says he doesn't know. Dave goes "AUSTIN ARIES !". Cracked the fuck out of me. He probably would have been my highest rated douchebag. I mean, between the awful Christy Hemme stuff, the indeed idiotic anti-mask stuff and all the unprofesionnal shit during his career, culminating with the always hilarious "Stand up and casually walks away" right after the three count at Slammiversary 2019 (the main event mind you), Aries is the posterboy for asshole who tanked his career because of a misplaced ego. And the thing is, that douchebag is indeed awesome. Insane mechanics, great as a heel, great as a babyface, great promo. Hell, I've seen him two weeks ago in Arena Mexico thanks to the WTF partnership with MLW (Fusion coming up, I swear), the guy is still really good to this day. At worst, he would be a big name in TNA. At best, he would be having bangers left and right in AEW. Instead, he has to rely on Court Bouer, the carniest modern carny who will sign every problematic guy under the sun. (BTW, Matt Riddle did not make it at all ? Incredible, well not that incredible, considering who he was ten years ago) Kyle O'Reilly. As great as his tag work in ROH, NJPW and NXT B&G had been, he probably has peaked since his return in AEW last year with the awesome Mox feud. Just like Roddy, for a guy who was for a long time dismissed by a certain crowd as "generic ROH guy with kickpads", he has shown so much character and charisma in AEW. Should probably be 200 spots ahead or something.

Renee had a rough night between Mark Briscoe and the MJF stuff ! Oh yeah, re-run Mark Briscoe vs Ciampa, why the hell not. That Stadium Stampede is probably gonna be the best use of the Hurt Syndicate too. Also, think about how David Finlay would be where EVIL is right now if he signed for *less money*, learning how to "adapt to the WWE style". Yeah, screw that, he's in Stadium Stampede.

Speedball Mike Bailey. Oh, you lovable non-binary mullet wearing bare-feet kicking québécois. Easily one of my very top favorites of the last few years, dating back from the TNA days. AWESOME pro-wrestler and for all intents and purposes, an awesome human being. But really now, only 7% of the ballots ? 7% as in... New Jack ? NEW JACK ? Jerome NEW JACK Young ? Are you fucking kidding me ? The one thing New Jack has is that he and I share the same first name. I do not condone the cutting off forehead with x-acto knifes nor throwing people off scaffolds to injure them on purpose. (although *some* people actually deserve it for behaving like really fucking garbage human beings, ya know) But come on now. And I actually think New Jack before he was completely shot physically was a decent worker. The Dark Side episode is a classic. But hey, this is completely whacked out already. DDP. I loved DDP. I actually did DDP Yoga for a few years, so I listened to DDP's voice more than anyone probably would want to. And it was indeed working great. But at some point, ya know... Still got a lot out of it. Ayako. I saw her debut at 17 years old. The LCO vs HamaKINO match is still probably considered a classic in term of bloodletting with two great rookies. She had a fun stint in TNA too, how odd in retrospect. And she carried chemicals in her bag one too many times apparently. Chris Sabin. Probably better than 70% of the people coming up. Super influential tag worker. Come to AEW, all his forgotten. Speaking of which... Rey Fénix. Oh, the irony. Better babyface in LU than Ricochet under a hood. Awesome, AWESOME flyer. Dumb as fuck in term of PR apparently.

That Darby title reign is low-key the best in AEW ever, apart from Omega's reign of terror. Certainly the most different, and that's awesome. One of the best thing about it is that you know he's not losing yet. BUT, they still make you believe that OMG he's actually losing. They actually sold me to the idea that maybe, just maybe, there was a slight chance of getting a bald MJF. Am I really gonna get Darby vs Speedball before DoN ? The Owen brackets sure are interesting. Sareee ? I thought she was currently injured. But it would be awesome to see her in AEW. I wonder if Persephone is gonna come back a more evil version of herself since she's been misted buy Julia. And yeah, Julia hasn't looked that great lately. But tbh she never was that good and her first TBS reign was mostly because she really got over as this witchy character, the matches weren't exactly shining. Skye on the other hand, she clearly is very motivated. Ok. Time to jumpstart that Ace Austin push sooner than later. Either side will do, but he's a great douche. Brian Cage coming back was nice. To all his freaks out there, the Machine is your hook-up, holla if you hear him. Or something.

Schadenfreude intensifies 😅

Oh wow I see. Back then try 4 weeks for me or so. Overseas, you know... (plus yeah, shipping) Kids these day have no idea how easy they have it. And then they'll vote for Shane McMahon. The indignity.

People buying bootleg wrestling stuff in 2026. I'm actually amazed. It would take two lives to even watch what's out there for free. Not to mention the never-ending flux of new stuff. Fun fact, a few months ago I threw away 90% of the tapes I bought from Lorefice, Lynch and Zach Arnold (here's a name from the past for ya) because everything is basically available. The 10% or so I kept is me going "yeah, maybe I'll just put it on Youtube one day if I get the time and courage". Newsflash : it probably will never happen.

Imagine reading the names Lorefice and KAORU on a pro-wrestling forum on the same day in 2026. Too much past thrown at me at once. I can't think of anyone who annoyed the hell out of me more the last few years than old Nanae Takahashi being a fucking annoyance in Stardom with her stupid PA-SHION shit. Typical overrated egoistical "old-school" worker who got a fake-ass rep from being the last remains of the Zenjo brand. I've seen Emi Sakura like in the late 90's on some IWA Japan tape. Then I saw her again in AEW sometime in the 2020's. What a life.

People move on. Which is good too.