Matt D

I'm going to do some sort of... thing on Twitter where I have everyone watch a match throughout the month of June and then post about it at the end. Just trying to get some more people into it and willing to give it a shot and discuss it. Twitter is obviously at terrible place to do it but i want to go to where people are. I had fairly solid traction on the post, 68 likes so I figure it's worth a shot. Even if a couple people give it a try and get into the style then it's a win. I was thinking starting with Steve Grey vs. Jim Breaks (5/12/81). What do people think of that as a starting point?

I think it's a little endearing that Foley is probably here because he's on so many ballots. He was on my 2016 ballot, even if not particularly high. The thing with Foley is that he really, really got pro wrestling. He understood the imagination of fans in a way that only someone that is a fan himself could. I think he thought about things years before his time. He thought about "What's the one thing that could capture someone's imagination in this match?" in a way that people weren't really thinking, not in those terms at least. I think he was more "objective" driven than a lot of his peers who were great in other ways that were more based on anecdotal evidence and the legacy of doing things because they've always been done. If everyone around him did what worked, he thought about what might work. Does that mean he's a top 20 wrestler of all time? No, but I do think he's very special in his own way.

Rey continues to feel like the ultimate coalition candidate to me. I don't think younger fans have the same connection to Eddie. We shall see.

Fair enough. It’s good things are still interesting down the stretch then.

I think this is very possible. We're in a year of charismatic aces doing very, very well. We're in a year where the territories are not. But we also saw some downstream dropping for All Japan guys like Kikuchi. I think I'd still lean for Funk over Kobashi but we shall see. There just seemed to be such a groundswell for Punk. But then it's clear there are a ton of ballots we didn't see.

The Super Indie Pillars have fallen save for Danielson. The Pillars remain save for Taue. Somehow, Foley persists. Jumbo's ranking probably tells us that Tenryu has a ceiling. Somehow, Foley persists. We're down to Danielson, Funk, Flair for the top. I'd argue that Lawler's ranking says something about Flair. Somehow, Foley persists.

The project is in-ring. If a wrestler can leverage out of ring aspects in their in-ring work, great. Otherwise, not great. If we did a bad job of disseminating that information, that’s on us, I guess.

We already have one too many of those for British wrestling though.

A bloodbath.

Sorry. We are all now Cactus Jack.

I misnumbered. Better I go nuts over this than someone else. Just Foley. Maybe multiple Foley faces?

I was just trying to do this in my head. Someone else can come in and finish it. Three Pillars: 1. Kobashi 2. Kawada 3. Misawa Four Indie pillars 4. Bryan 5. Joe 6. Styles 7. Punk NWA Champs 8. Funk 9. Flair 10. Steamboat Joshi 11. Hokuto 12. Aja NJPW 13. Tanahashi Rey and Eddy 14. Rey 15. Eddy Lucha 16. Hijo del Santo 17. Bret People on my list I forgot about. 18. Tenryu 19. Hansen 20. Jumbo 21. Savage 22. Austin 23. Vader And one other person? EDIT: It's Foley! Wow.

Low Ki is a tragic story. This could have been him.

Welp, that answers the Okada question.

I would have believed you if you told me that Lawler would have dropped anywhere between 50 and 20. I've heard from a number of people that given limited time, they simply don't want to watch him. That was going to cap his ceiling, even without stylistic distinctions. I think the interesting questions now are: 1. How high do Okada and Tanahashi get? What about Austin? 2. How well do the remaining three pillars do vs the "ROH Pillars" of Danielson, Styles, Joe, and Punk? 3. How high does Aja get? How far can Santito possibly make it? 4. Is Rey the ultimate coalition candidate dark horse?

There isn't a wrestler in all of history that makes me not want to look away from the screen more than Negro Casas. The most honest, interesting, engaging reactions in wrestling. I can't think of a wrestler today who makes me want to look away from the screen more than Kenny Omega when he's making his faces. I'm fine with him being here overall. I think he's very good at a number of things and I wouldn't begin to deny his importance to a generation or two. If Hulk Hogan was the guy that made wrestling accessible to the 80s Saturday Morning Cartoon generation, Kenny Omega is the one who did it for the streaming anime generation. And he did it not just through his backstage stuff but through making his work itself extremely accessible. He's one of the least immersive wrestlers I've ever encountered, but the fact that he somehow turns that into a strength is pretty remarkable. It just doesn't do it for me. So yes, he's certainly not good at all at the thing that Negro Casas is the greatest at, which is something I value as much as almost anything.

Somehow I blame @Jimmy Redman for all this Cena stuff even though she didn’t vote.

If nothing else, I am happy with my blurb.

I do not. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/05/aew-five-fingers-of-death-522-528-part-2.html

The New Four Pillars of Heaven: Danielson, Punk, Joe, Styles.

Didn’t Dax make a big deal about this last contract being their last one ever?

I'd argue, again, that classic NJPW guys are just hard to watch. And Inoki is much easier to just drop a gif with relative to Fujinami. It does make me wonder if we'll see Bret do a little worse relative to, let's say Shawn, this year.

Ha. I have 20.

One thing about the list I always love is how confusing it is to people not following along. I think we've been sort of pulling and prodding at it at as we go. It pretty much makes sense to us with a few surprises, but to most people it's going to be bizarre. So mission accomplished.

It’s a very cool, fairly diverse top 50. I think the other 49 should turn heel on Sting but it’s a very cool list.