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Locks for the Top 100: Strong consideration for the Top 100: Chavo Guerrero Sr. Carl Greco Some consideration for the Top 100: Chigusa Nagayo CM Punk Ciclon Ramirez Curt Hennig Chris Benoit Chavo Sr. is right on that cusp of being a lock, but there are really very few people I'm considering for the 75-100 range of my list where I'd be 100% sure of them being there. I'm not a massive Chigusa fan but with each match of hers I watch the more I'm thinking she belongs. The Dump feud doesn't do a ton for me but as far as spectacles go they're all pretty crazy. While some of her peak 80s stuff falls a bit flat for me - basically a stylistic preference - there are times where she absolutely does jump off the page looking like one of the all-time great babyfaces. I really like most of the GAEA run in the 90s and honestly, that might be my favourite Chigusa. She could easily be in the strong consideration group, tbf.

Locks for the Top 100: Buddy Rose Blue Panther Barry Windham Bill Dundee Bobby Eaton Black Terry Butch Reed Strong consideration for the Top 100: Bret Hart Buzz Sawyer Billy Robinson Some consideration for the Top 100: Bob Backlund Bull Nakano Brock Lesnar Brian Pillman Rose is a top 10 contender and Panther won't be too far behind him. I could even see the order of those two switching because there's still a few big recent Panther matches I need to see. Hart will almost certainly be there in the bottom third but he's not quite a lock. Sawyer is a personal favourite and if I was going to 100% vote for someone based on squash matches alone he'd be close to the top of that pile. He was also a rabid maniac brawler and that doesn't hurt either. There are a handful of guys I want to revisit a bit more thoroughly before the deadline and Billy Robinson is one of them, so he has a decent shot of being there. If we had a ton of footage from his prime he feels like a no-brainer, but then we could say that about a goodly amount of people. Bull is someone who's just never quite resonated with me. The Dump's army stuff has never been my cup of tea but even after that there's been very little from her peak that I've properly latched onto. When that stuff does land it lands big though, and post-92 as she starts to wind down a bit I think she's pretty great. She wouldn't make the list today but if I catch a few more things she might sneak on.

Locks for the Top 100: Aja Kong Arn Anderson Andre the Giant Alexander Otsuka Akira Hokuto Akira Taue Strong consideration for the Top 100: Akira Maeda Atlantis Antonio Inoki Austin Aries Some consideration for the Top 100: Atsushi Onita Austin Idol The only one there from the Locks cluster that'll definitely land outside the top 50 is Taue. Hokuto might, but she's been trending upwards every year since the last vote, when she didn't even make my list. I think Otsuka landed dead on 50 the last time and he'll be about there again, probably. I had Austin Aries at 99 last time and I've actually watched a bunch of 00s indies since then, and his stuff has held up remarkably well. If anything I enjoy him more now than I did then, and at that point there was most likely a bit of nostalgia pushing me to vote for him based on how much I liked him 10 years before THAT. Maeda is about as close to a lock as possible without actually committing to him being a lock. The late 80s/early 90s Onita I've re-watched over the past few years has him in consideration more now than he was in 2016. Obviously he's a big time spectacle wrestler and great at it, but my favourite Onita might be the one getting his head caved in by karatekas before he barrels them into barbed wire ring ropes.

I reckon he's top 20 for me as well. I've re-watched the New Japan stuff Matt is talking about since I last posted about Murdoch in 2021 and he was like top 3 in the world in '86-'87. He's in that very top tier of wrestlers I'd be interested in watching against practically anybody.

I don't actually know who that fella is but apparently he has (or at least had) a wrestling school in the town 20 minutes away from where I grew up. So technically I got my Wrestlemania Moment.

The match against Jean Rabut from '65 is incredible as well. One of the best "pure" wrestling matches (whatever that means, I guess) ever. Of course the stuff with Le Petit Prince is mind-blowing too. He was awesome.

Hell of an opener with an absolutely tremendous nearfall. Rhea v Dom will outdraw Andre/Hogan from the Silverdome.

He's wanted to do that to those DC folk ever since they told him Black Adam couldn't hang with Batman.

I watched the February '96 match with Mascarita Magica towards the end of last year and it really is excellent. I wouldn't put it quite on the level of Damiancito/Cicloncito the following year, but it wasn't a million miles off it either. I also don't think I've seen that particular Fuego match so that's cool as well. I'll still likely have him around my top 20.

Orton's skin tone is somewhere close to that Liver King maniac on instagram. Although the latter is definitely natural and attained his physique from living the ancestral lifestyle, so I guess maybe Orton is just eating a bowl full of raw pig hearts and bull testicles. A true Primal has no need for Tren!

Mariko Yoshida v Yumiko Hotta (AtoZ, 11/9/03) - GREAT I guess these joshi promotions of the 2000s really liked running one-night tournaments. We know Tony Khan was a DVDVR poster back in the day, can we be sure he wasn't also one of the three dozen people still following joshi during those dark years? You'd assume he watched a lot of IWA Mid-South but do we know for a fact he didn't develop his fetish for wrestling tournaments from places like AtoZ (which I did not realise before was just a rebranded ARSION) and Ice Ribbon? This was relatively short and compact and had a real nice sense of escalation running through it. The first few minutes weren't anything special, because Hotta isn't the most compelling mat worker, but it didn't feel like they were simply going through the motions either. It got really good when tempers flared, though. I've watched enough 2000s Yoshida recently to figure that eventually she'd punch Hotta in the face at some point, and I've watched enough Hotta from any time period to know how she would respond to that. Yoshida was absolutely clobbering her with shots and Hotta would just punt Yoshida in the face, almost casually which somehow made it even more callous. It wasn't personal for Hotta, no more than the torturer cutting a confession. She just is what she is and this was no more than business. I don't remember ever seeing Yoshida take a shot like the roundhouse kick to the face while she was on her knees. Maybe that made it personal for her and the moment she ripped her glove off and fucking nuked Hotta with a straight right was biblical. You could literally hear this thing. Mariko Yoshida v Sakura Hirota (GAEA, 11/3/04) - FUN This was a comedy match and a pretty whimsical six minutes all told. I would assume Hirota is a comedy wrestler by trade, like your Kikutaro who does impressions of other wrestlers. She was dressed in a spider suit getup and credit where it's due, her Yoshida impression was highly amusing. She had the swagger down, did the perfect double biceps pose, and the moment where even Yoshida broke into a chuckle felt legit. 2004 was also a very different time than 2023 so I guess Hirota doing a bunch of creepy weirdo pervert stuff was less frowned upon. She tried to plant the lips on Yoshida at several points and then she broke a submission hold by jabbing her in the butthole with a finger, which is the sort of thing many a 90s message board poster would've paid obscene amounts of money for. Yoshida didn't even punch her in the face once but in the end she did tie her up in enough of a knot that Hirota couldn't sex pest her way out of it.

I haven't dug THAT deep into post-2003 Yoshida yet, but I'd agree with the notion that she was ultra consistent way past her actual peak. I guess there's a paucity of her later career out there relative to some other joshi candidates, but either way I don't remember watching her in the late 2000s or so and thinking she was anything other than good (and fairly often I thought she was still REALLY good). At this point I'm pretty okay in the knowledge that I'll generally value peak more than longevity anyway, and I probably was in 2016 if maybe not to the same extent, but I feel like I still undersold the length of her peak during the last vote. She's incredible in that '98-'01 period and four years of that quality will go a long way with me. Throw in the stuff before and after that period to bolster her case and she's probably landing in my top 20. She'd be top 10 if it were a pure favourites list.

Mariko Yoshida v Mika Akino (ARSION, 1/17/99) - EPIC An absolutely ferocious Yoshida performance. If you're Akino, a whole six months into your career at this point, you almost need to wonder what you can even do. Go head first at Yoshida and she'll catch you and tie you in knots. Hang back and let her come to you then Yoshida WILL come to you and that might be even worse. Yoshida is just about the greatest swarm in wrestling history and she was all over Akino from the bell, twisting her every which way while Akino had to frantically scramble to keep her head above water. There was an absolutely spectacular exchange where Akino managed to finally buck Yoshida off and they went into kneeling switches for waist control, then when they got up to their feet I thought they were going to do a show of respect and instead Yoshida just kneed Akino in the face and monkey flipped her into a cross armbreaker. The greatness of Yoshida's grappling doesn't necessarily lie in how much cool and inventive shit she does as opposed to the intensity with which she does it all. That said she had at least three holds here that I can't remember ever seeing before and the reverse figure-four thing had my jaw on the floor. None of those holds looked contrived though; they all had logical setups and felt organic. You couldn't see the wheels turning, couldn't see her working through the components in her mind as she was doing them, no "this crosses over this and I do this to put this limb here" or whatever. She snapped into them as quickly as she'd snap into any basic hold and they actually felt like appropriate responses to what the situation gave her at the time. It wasn't a fancy armbar setup just to be fancy, she did it because Akino's proximity and body position made it the most feasible at the time. Just because 95% of wrestlers ever couldn't think of it doesn't mean it's not the smart thing to do. Most of Akino's offence came in bursts but she got to look spunky and explosive and that's about all you can ask for. She also got to look resourceful at points with how she'd attempt one thing and Yoshida would counter it, then if she went back to it a second time she'd switch it up and connect on it. The cool part was that if she went to it TOO often Yoshida would inevitably bring it back around and find yet another solution. That's what Yoshida does and I guess if you're Akino you live and learn. I thought for sure the kid was tapping on at least two choke attempts so she got to look tough as nails by hanging in there and eventually making the ropes. Yoshida was a monster in '99 and I'm looking forward to watching all of it, some for the first time and some for a second time. This was a great way to start off a banner year.

Mariko Yoshida v Aja Kong (ARSION, 10/17/00) - GREAT This was a semi-final bout of a one-night tournament (the final of which I talked about a few days ago). It was also an ARSION tournament in Korakuen Hall and not a seven-hour All Japan Women Tournament in the Tokyo Dome, so it wasn't likely to be a lengthy affair. For 10 minutes of brute force against dexterity it'll be hard to go wrong with these two, and this was a badass 10 minutes. At some point in the year 2000 Yoshida started incorporating more striking into her arsenal, and by striking I mean absolutely walloping people in the face with her fists. It meant this had an extra layer to their usual dynamic, where Yoshida didn't have to rely on JUST the grappling and could throw hand grenades when she had openings. She had several openings and threw a goodly amount of hand grenades. Obviously Aja tagged her back and there was one incredible sequence where Yoshida was throwing lefts and rights to the head, Aja standing there out on her feet, then from nowhere she unleashed a back fist that about ripped Yoshida's face in two. In the end though, if Yoshida was going to win she'd need to do it with what she did better than anyone. It was just a question of whether she could do it to someone with as much BEEF as Aja. Or if she could do it before Aja caved her head in. Mariko Yoshida & Yumiko Hotta v Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita (AJW, 11/3/02) - GOOD I initially came across this when trying to find the Yoshida/Hotta singles match from November 2003 (in a promotion called AtoZ, which I honestly had never heard of in my life). Yoshida and Hotta teaming together seemed interesting if nothing else, and that team against a couple girls who'd only been wrestling for about five years was an interesting spot for them to be in. I figured Hotta would do what she usually did against lower-ranked opponents and I've watched enough peak Yoshida against wrestlers like that to know it's probably going to be good. And this was decent enough, mostly for those reasons, but also for the infighting between Yoshida and Hotta. While it's probably a stretch to assume they used this to build to a singles match a whole year down the line, it must've at least whet the appetite. Hotta was in a sprightlier mood than usual here and I don't think she full force punted anybody in the face even once. She was more condescending than anything else, hooking Sakai in an armbar while grinning up at Yabushita on the apron. The young girls threw a few stiff shots and not once could you say Hotta flew off the handle in response. Yoshida wasn't in as jovial a mood, nor was she particularly interested in playing with her food. The first thing she did when entering the ring was kicking Yabushita in the head and she was very businesslike the whole way. There was one exchange in the middle between her and Yabushita that was excellent, really snappy grappling with Yabushita holding her own admirably. I knew Yabushita was a kickboxer but I didn't know she could bring the MATWORK~ like this. As the match goes on the more cracks between Hotta and Yoshida start to form. Yoshida held one of the youngsters for Hotta to smack, but the youngster moved and Yoshida took the shot instead. It didn't sit well with her and when the shoe was on the other foot later you almost wonder if she wasn't outright aiming for Hotta. They didn't come all the way to blows, but they were close and when Hotta told Yoshida to move so she could put a ribbon on things at the end you know Yoshida wanted to fucking kill her. Luckily I do not have to wait a year before seeing a singles match, although knowing me it'll be a decade before I actually get around to it.

Mariko Yoshida v Ayako Hamada (ARSION, 10/17/00) - EPIC This was the final of a one-night tournament and only went 11 minutes. A tournament final, even of one held on a single night, going 11 minutes and not 52 today feels damn near inconceivable. Shit even for 2000 it feels inconceivable, but then ARSION were all about doing things differently for a while there. A great little promotion. For a while there. These two were in a tournament final from '98 that I watched about a year ago now and at that point Ayako Hamada was in a very different place. That match didn't even last 11 minutes and Yoshida basically mopped the floor with the poor lass. I think she even beat her with a foot on the chest and then Hamada got carted out by three people like she was a carcass left in a ditch. Two years later and Hamada is now the grand old age of 19. I guess in pro wrestling terms you grow up quick because she handled herself much better here and at least felt plausibly on Yoshida's level. Yoshida was so fucking good. I don't just mean here, I mean in general. She can demolish you in a dozen different ways and she started this by jumping all over Hamada and trying to yank her into armbars and chokes and anything else she could think up. When Hamada tried to catch her in a bodyscissors, maybe just for a tiny bit of respite if nothing else, Yoshida applied the fucking STOMACH CLAW and then threw some of the greatest body shots she's ever thrown. For a glorious 90 seconds she then worked the midsection with gutbusters and body blows and this was looking like a legitimate 12-star affair. Pretty quickly Hamada made a comeback and they never returned to the body work, but it was amazing while it lasted. You also make peace with them moving past it as Yoshida very soon punches Hamada in the face so hard she starts selling her own hand like she broke it. Yoshida's arm is already taped up so I'm guessing this plays off a previous tournament match, but even on its own it ruled. This was also just about the greatest punch Yoshida's ever thrown. It was largely a sprint from there, but they absolutely blistered each other and I never felt like they went fully into spotty territory. It felt frantic, like two people who've just wrestled twice on the night know the adrenaline is going to wear off pretty soon. Some of the striking was exceptional and you had Hamada recklessly spin kicking Yoshida in the face and neck and Yoshida throwing haymakers. Hamada in particular worked with a real urgency, probably because she knew Yoshida needed to be put away with some haste. She tried one preposterous rolling submission thing that she definitely learned from her old man and Yoshida reversed it into a fucking kimura and I fell out the bed. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't vote Yoshida top 10 in the '26 GWE.