Matt D

That Blackjack Windham picture is awesome.

Will be very cool to see what the two of them could put together in 82.

I've liked all the Akiyama I've watched. I just thought that particular argument wasn't super strong. Other arguments are stronger.

If Akiyama was in those tags instead of Taue, would you think he was the weakest worker? (I know some people wouldn't, but you kind of get the point for why that argument is a little silly, right?)

I think Casas and Santo are wildly different wrestlers even though, at one point, they may have been very similar foils.

Bock and Casas survive another day.

As a kid I was so frustrated I got onto the game late and could only get the pink plastic shades things and not the silver ones.

Maybe if someone other than me voted for him? I even made a case for him too. (I know though. I hate that he went so low. At his best, he's just as charismatic as someone like Eddy).

He gets the indies at least. I am praying to the wrestling gods that Casas vs Hech from last night drops soon.

Oh wait, I found this. But you have to put up with the Patriots. Sorry.

Somewhat off-topic, but seeing this made me wonder if Morton ever worked Eaton in 1991 WCW while Morton was heel and Eaton was babyface. There was only about a 5 month or so overlap there to where this could have happened, but that would have been just so weird to watch, I really hope it happened. This is a fun novelty, though not quite what you're looking for: There's a Eaton/Big Josh vs York Foundation match, but it's Taylor/Rich.

I would be far more sympathetic to this argument if the top 25 wasn't shaping up to be filled with Japanese wrestlers who peaked before 2006. Heck, of all of the wrestlers yet to be listed, I thin there's only 5 (maybe 6) where you can argue their active work since 2006 helps their case. Everybody else has not been active or their work since has almost no bearing (IMO) of their case for GWE. The wrestling didn't change. We changed.

I'm excited to explain my bitchy reasons for ranking Cena at 51 right under Fuerza later this week.

I explained Eaton over Morton (just by a couple of spots) on the pod we did today but I don't think I did a great job at it. I think they're the mirror image of each other. A lot of it comes to the variety of partners creating a sort of compelling illusion of variety to me, the fact that I'm higher than most people on Eaton's babyface work (even if I also probably like Morton's heel work more than most), and the fact that frankly, I think Eaton's physical reactions to everything that happen in the match, good and bad, are almost as good as Morton's selling, with Eaton having the stronger offense. Some of it is footage too since Morton was in the wilderness more. I voted before seeing Morton vs Bock and the Lucas tag, but then Eaton's been helped by Houston footage as well. They're very close.

I had Eaton maybe 40 spots above Condrey and it was a footage issue mainly (and I even like Condrey in his singles run in Continental). I also had him 3 over Santo and I'm happy with that too. I trend lower than a lot of people on Santo. I wasn't at all high on the rudo run save for the first couple of weeks. i think there are lots of footage gaps and it's harder to get a sense of him as a week to week worker than Casas and even Satanico. I think he's more two dimensional than some of the other wrestlers in my top twenty (though those one-two dimensions are amazing). He still ranked high, but I had Eaton just a little higher and and Casas and Satanico significantly higher.

I want to hear Dylan compare/contrast AJPW being forced to push Funk and WWE being forced to push Bryan. Both "The Other."

Welcome aboard. Thanks for coming along and explaining your pick.

I kind of like Santo here, and I had him in my teens. He's one of those pesky "emotional" workers.

You'll still get something great, don't get me wrong, but not something uniquely great.

After having watched hundreds of Joshi matches in the final weeks before the poll I just can't agree with this even though I really want to. Do I believe that people (perhaps myself included) oversimplify Joshi and other styles at our worst? Almost certainly yes. That said the criticisms I have pointed to about Joshi as a style are criticisms that could apply to Nagayo and Jaguar before Toyota was even on the scene. That she was the absolute worst expression of those habits and flaws I won't argue, but she was in no way the first, nor was she an anomaly. Going through the footage I discovered that I much prefer almost all of the Joshi workers as tag wrestlers. I've thought a lot about why that was the case, and the best I can come up with is that it seems to have forced their hand a bit more on selling, and made the "go-go" elements a bit less eye roll-y to me. In any event there are certainly people who understood build (Kudo) and could sell there ass off (Hokuto), but part of what makes them stand out is that they are exceptional. If the idea is that the discussion of Joshi as a style is too absolute in its criticisms I suppose I could buy it, but if the discussion is that there aren't consistent and unique trends within the style that many people will find problematic I think it's way off base Tag matches in general allow for an "out" when it comes to kick outs, that being the interference pin break-up. (As an aside, 2/3 falls tags are even better because it allows for a big finishing move or two in the middle without completely destroying the pacing. Most indy tags now seem to want to have those without the pin/transition of a fall break).

I have a hard time figuring who'll come next at this point. Eaton has to drop soon. How high can Regal get?

What about now? I have no problem with Santo over Cena. I had Santo pretty high. Like I said I have more problem with a guy like Austin over Cena, because they are a like for like comparison and Cena is better. EDIT: Bret too. Fuck that off. You put Austin really high. You must have.

I am sort of morbidly curious to watch this out of context. In context, after hours of relatively mediocre wrestling, it was something that we, as a community, banded together to survive.

Very big jump for Morton (I had him high, was almost the high vote actually, so no complaints). What's the footage boost here? Mid-South set, some Houston matches, more disseminated SMW, some early Memphis and some late Memphis? A bit more Crockett?

I feel like this is a dangerous statement, probably an ignorant one, so bear with me. I'm trying. One thing I discovered in learning to watch lucha is that my preconceived notions were wrong. Why were they wrong? Part of that was due to my exposure being mainly WCW. Part of it, however, was the tradition of lucha fandom that I had encountered in the past where 90s AAA was the pinnacle and it was the pinnacle very much for the spots and "workrate" and dives. Obviously in circles such as this one, or Segunda Caida, other elements were lionized and valued. Maybe with a deeper read of old Observers starting from a point of knowledge instead of ignorance, I would have seen that as well. In starting to watch joshi earlier in this project (albeit with incomplete results), I came in with similar notions, that it was about workrate and movez and go-go-go or whatever. I think I got that from the same sources, including going through all of Herb's wrestling tidbits, (http://rspw.org/tidbits/) and old Observers and just having this 20 year old understanding. I think some of the shifting about of specific luchadores in the list relative to ten years ago was due to people coming to it in the last five years and valuing storytelling and character work differently than in years past. I know that's a talking point for me in general, but I think things certain specific results bear it out up and down the list. I think that the 90s sets have done some of that reevaluation with joshi, but that it's a relatively early process, and that there will be gains in years to come as people continue to tackle it with different preferences and from a different angle than was done in the 90s into the early 00s. I could be wrong about any part of that, though.