KB8

I've also never been a Minoru Suzuki guy. I like some of his shoot style stuff a lot - a couple of those bouts are tremendous - and he has a couple 2010s New Japan matches that I thought were fantastic as well, but there's so much of his stuff that I want to actively switch off that it tips the scale entirely. Back in 2021 when we started revving this thing up again, I made a point of subscribing to New Japan World (is that still a thing?) to watch some of his more recent stuff, maybe kill a few birds with one stone and watch some Shingo, Ibushi, etc., the folks who'd made a real case since 2016. I hated pretty much all of what I watched (Shingo and Ibushi included) and gave up after like four matches. The modern strike exchange is what it is and those guys are far from the only offenders, but Suzuki doing it was even less fun than usual. I'm all for snarling demented goblin looking bastards clonking people in the head now and then, but I'd have Suzuki significantly lower than 00s Kikuchi if that's what we're looking at. I also maybe haven't seen the right stuff, but he's never struck me as the proper evil sadist people often talk him up as. Is this coming from matches where he's stretching people out and working guys over? Or is it him throwing elbows, sticking his tongue out and asking to be elbowed back? Because I'd take recommendations for the former, but the latter I've seen enough of and it's not making me forget a Murakami or a Kurisu. Yeah, Owens is one of my least favourite wrestlers ever. Outside of the Austin match at Wrestlemania I don't think I've enjoyed one Kevin Owens match since he's been in WWE, and there really aren't that many before that I remember liking a whole lot. He's just never resonated with me on any level.

I already do! The French Catch stuff I took to pretty much immediately and I've gone through a solid enough chunk of it, but not really enough of one person specifically - other than Le Petit Prince, I guess - to feel like I knew where to vote for them. I love the French stuff. WoS is sort of the same but I've probably seen less than the French Catch stuff, which is kind of silly considering I probably watched my first WoS match 20+ years ago on The Wrestling Channel while the French Catch footage only really hit our demented corner of fandom like six years ago. Some of the top WoS I've seen is incredible. Like the French Catch stuff though, I haven't seen enough of anyone in particular to really feel comfortable ranking them. I'd say that's a 2036 task but then in 2016 I said it was a 2026 task and I shit the bed on that as well, didn't I. I'm like 400 spots behind at this point but I'm still determined to talk about everyone who ranked.

I'm down to 52. 38 of my top 50 are left and 21 of my top 25. Only Yoshida is gone from my top 10 so far. I'm pretty similar to Boricua in that there are still gaps I want to fill, but they're mostly gaps around wrestlers who've fallen already, like the WoS and French Catch guys, and on the right day maybe some modern joshi or Japanese indies. 2010s New Japan will be well represented in the top 100 and I'm okay with that not being a gap I'll try to fill because for the most part it's a gap by design. I've tried to fill it already and it didn't take. But you're not going to love EVERYONE in a top 100 so...shut up and eat your cereal and stop complaining, I guess.

Yoshida's the first of my top 10 to drop. An ungodly pro wrestler. I thought she might crack the top 100 given the surge in joshi support this time around. To quote Aristotle: "get fucked, I hate you all."

I think Tenryu v Lulu Pencil could've been a mighty swell time.

Yes! I don't know where I got Fantastics from. It's the Fabs match that made the Mid-South set.

I would probably rather watch HHH than Seth Rollins, for whatever that's worth (not a lot, I'm sure).

I'm like 200 names behind at this point and I'll get caught up eventually, but for now I'll just talk about the people I actually voted for: #455 Le Petit Prince He was my #98 but only because I didn't feel like I'd seen enough to put him higher. I couldn't leave him off, though. It's insane what he was doing 60+ years ago. STUPIDLY agile, rapid fast, graceful, everything - like prime Rey Jr. and Tiger Mask rolled into one, only two decades before the latter. Could also thump you under the chin with forearm uppercuts. An absurd pro wrestler. Might be 50 spots higher if we do this again in 2036. #444 Mocho Cota I had Cota lower this time around (#95) because I hadn't really seen him in years, but he's probably always going to be a lock for me with something like this. A one-of-a-kind shithead stooge who could beg off and look completely irredeemable with the best of them. Could absolutely go on the mat as well though, and the Americo Rocca matches are sensational, the first being one of the best lucha title matches ever. At some point I need to watch the Casas apuestas from '94. #436 "Crusher" Jerry Blackwell My #80. One of the best fatboy wrestlers there's ever been. Blackwell is also in that absolute elite tier of morbidly obese bump freak lunatics and might actually be #1. A man of his size taking the sort of wild cage match bumps he took is insane and he'd do it about three times every outing. Any time Jerry Blackwell was put in a cage match you were guaranteed at least one moment where you ask yourself how a man of such portliness can do what he does. For such a bump freak though, I think he was exceptional at timing and milking those bumps. Also involved in a handful of the best brawls of the 80s. #428 Yoji Anjoh Anjoh was my #55. He's one of my favourite wrestlers ever and an incredible temperamental prick. Even in a pure shoot style sense Anjoh always had a flare for the dramatic, which I think makes him pretty easily accessible to those who are far more pro-style-leaning. There was something relatable about Anjoh. You could prod him, push his buttons, and inevitably he would fly off the handle. We all knew someone like that (maybe we WERE that someone). Whenever he'd waltz into WAR or New Japan he operated with an amazing arrogance, someone who acted like they were above this pro wrestling slop and played it to the point where he drew some pretty awesome heat. The Tamura match from '91 and the Sano match from '93 are amongst the best shoot style matches of the 90s. He was awesome and him dropping over 200 places is brutal. #402 Yoshihisa Yamamoto Another shoot style master who had a temper. Fun as a promising young talent in the early RINGS years, great by '95 going toe to toe with Han, a demon in that '96-'99 period stepping to Tamura and Kohsaka. When Yamamoto cut loose he was a whirlwind. #99 feels too low but like a bunch of the other folk who fell down my list this time, I just haven't watched that much of him over the past 10 years. #366 Naoki Sano I had Sano at #36 - 11 spots higher than where I had him in 2016 - so seeing him drop almost 250 places compared to 10 years ago is a real bummer. Fujiwara would top my own list, but Sano has a legit case for being the best wrestler ever to do both pro and shoot style. He was amazing at both, with some of the best matches ever in those styles. The Liger feud is obviously iconic and we even got at least one more handheld from that feud a few years ago. The Shamrock and Anjoh bouts are among the best ever shoot style fights and Sano was better than just about anybody ever at integrating pro style moves into shoot style bouts without them feeling hokey. So it makes sense that he could show up in Battlarts and be amazing there too. He had a long and varied career and I'm not having this idea that he spent most of him time in NOAH coasting, which was a talking point floated around during the 2016 vote. Did goodhelmet ever make that Naoki Sano comp? #357 Michael "P-S" Hayes I'm actually shocked Hayes was just outside the top 100 in 2016. He was my #94 this time and probably about there 10 years ago as well. Very few wrestlers were as good as Hayes at working the wild out of control barroom brawl. Insanely charismatic and a vicious animal when cornered. 20 years ago it felt like he was definitely considered the weakest of the Freebirds, then 10 years ago - or maybe 15 as we were fresh off the Texas 80s set - he might've had a good shout as being considered the best, and now it looks like the pendulum has swung back to Gordy as consensus best. I like Gordy a ton but for me it's still Hayes. #327 Masanobu Kurisu My #89. One of the most deeply unpleasant little bastards in the history of the game and I could watch him all day. The sort of guy who worked like he was ready to drag the match off the rails into a legit shoot at any point and made his opponents earn absolutely everything. There are few things in wrestling I find more fun than Kurisu being determined to smash someone in the head with a folding chair. #316 "The Natural Hacksaw" Butch Reed One of my three favourite wrestlers ever. I had Reed at #47. Could work heel or babyface at a high level and he's got the awesome brawls, the awesome tag work, the awesome long "technical wrestling" contests, the super fun studio work - it's a tremendous resume. A great walking tall badass and an equally great bumping stooge. For me the 9/85 Murdoch match is a contender for best US match ever. #306 Negro Navarro Had Navarro at #91. I haven't watched more than two Navarro matches since the last vote and I almost left him off, but I couldn't do it. The hold-release-hold style of lucha grappling isn't always my favourite, but he might be the master of it and when he does it I find it captivating. He's also the sort of guy who carries an aura of bad motherfucker so even in his 60s there's a sense he could turn around and just as easily take your jaw off with a forearm as he could take your arm off with a kimura. #305 La Fiera Fiera dropped a bit down my list this time, and again it's because I haven't really thought about him in years. I watched a ton of Fiera leading up to the last deadline so he got the bump then, but either way he's exceptional and was never falling off the list entirely. An ungodly terror when someone earned his ire and pretty excellent at garnering sympathy for someone who looks like he'd steal your car then go with you to the police station to report it stolen. #301 "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer I never voted for Sawyer in 2016. Since then I've watched probably 80% of the Buzz Sawyer we have on tape, voted him #69 this time around, and let me tell you, Buzz Sawyer was incredible. Someone worth watching against basically anybody, whether it's a two-minute squash on TV, a wild 10-minute dog collar match in the arena, or anything in between. An awesome tag wrestler who would always inject some sneaky brutality into proceedings, including just biting a guy in the shoulder if they happened to wander too close to the corner he was in. The WWE Vault dropping Omni cards has helped massively because he's looked awesome in basically all of it. Especially the recent Piper dog collar match, which was a true holy grail for me and it lived up to the expectations. #296 Takeshi Ono Well a jump of seven places is still a jump, I guess. Ono was my #20 this time around. One of the greatest violent tsunamis in history. #291 Fuerza Guerrera Fuerza dropping 150 spots is another kick in the teeth. Whoever said everyone outside of maybe the top two or three lucha candidates are going to take a hit this time was probably onto something. One of the greatest shtick wrestlers to ever do it, but also someone who could throw the bullshit out the window and brawl like his life depended on it. The Pantera II match also showed his grappling chops and guess what, he was fucking awesome at that too. A true rudo, one who was never interested in being cool or having his pockets of fans. My #38. #280 MS-1 Even if Satanico never exactly needed a second in command, MS-1 was a spectacular second in command and almost an equal as a badass. What MS-1 would show a little more of though, was MAJOR ASS. An unreal brawler and an unreal stooge, sometimes both in the same match. Someone who'd add all sorts of nasty little touches to a rudo mugging and an amazing "little things" wrestler in general. My #72. Also part of one of the three greatest matches in wrestling history so maybe that counts for something. #279 Austin Aries I'm actually sort of shocked Aries made it this high. I'm also shocked he made it even higher last time. I'm ALSO also shocked I voted for him again. Since the last vote I've gone back and re-watched a bunch of 00s indies and Aries has held up better than almost anybody. He was an offensive dynamo but it very rarely felt like he was just doing stuff because it looked cool - the offence was focused and a lot of his more dynamic stuff came off as an organic part of the match, where he was responding to a situation rather than manufacturing one in order to hit something specifically. In that sense I guess he was pretty great at positioning and actually setting those moments up. There's a lot of wrestling today that does nothing for me because the wrestlers are doing all this stuff that is clearly rehearsed and you see them going through the steps to do it all. You could make the argument Aries was doing it 20+ years ago, only you never really saw the strings. He was my #92 and I remain shocked at how much I like him as a worker.

Darby v Takeshita was outstanding and even better than their 2024 match, I thought. I actually watched Dynamite live tonight, which I never get the chance or really have the inclination to do, and it was basically for the main event. It delivered big time. Takeshita looks like the second coming of Takayama at points when he's in there with Darby. A couple mind-blowing spots but they worked so well because they fit completely with the story. This Darby title run is a hoot.

Yeah, that's the stuff right there. I hadn't a clue who Lulu Pencil was two days ago and now I want to check her out. 2026 GWE has been a success already! (for me, anyway. I don't care about the rest of you)

Oh shit, it's the new one? Yeah, I subscribed to the CMLL youtube a few weeks ago and I've been watching a lot of the last couple years. There are naturally times where he shows his inexperience and honestly, modern CMLL isn't always for me (at least their singles matches), but this batch of young tecnicos they have is pretty damn strong and Dorada is absolutely spectacular when he's on song.

Sano's the first from my top 50 to drop. I'm surprised he fell as far as he did, even though on the other hand I never really expected him to have a great run in this and certainly wouldn't have figured he'd make the top 100. A real shame.