KB8

Sort of the same. There are a bunch of these wrestlers who've dropped so far where I'm like "I don't think I've ever seen a match with this person" while still having at least some idea of them, but relatively speaking there's really only a small handful where I truly don't have an idea who they are, and almost all of them are prominent names from about 2010 onwards. I've been watching this stuff for too long.

We're getting #1 votes now! A Russian deathmatch wrestler, a giant pencil (I assume) and Mr. Wrestling II would be a hell of a top 5 in some order or another.

10 have fallen off of my list now. A travesty. I am very raging, let me tell you.

A few folks I'd have expected to finish higher dropping now.

I still can't figure out if that smack was a sound effect or his actual head hitting the post.

I imagine there'll be plenty of wrestlers you could argue are not as good as Megumi Fujii finishing above her, so I wouldn't stress too hard about her still being there.

A few surprising drops this time around. Interesting to see where some of them were compared to 2016 as well.

I'm guessing Judy's early 80s AJW run played a part. Without checking I'm not sure there's substantially more early 80s Martin in AJW than there is of Leilani Kai from whenever she was over there, but the match with Sherri against Hagiwara and Omori is pretty great and maybe gave her that bump into the vaunted top 800.

I remember reading PUNQ's reviews back in the mid-00s on DVDVR. He watched eeeeeeverything for a minute there.

The podcasts were great. I can't say we needed a five-podcast series going into depth on Ric Flair's usage of the knife edge chop, but at the same time I can't say I'd scoff at the idea of someone talking for several hours about Koko Ware's dropkick so it's whatever.

I went to school with a Kincaid and he was a wee prick as well so maybe I should just watch all the Johnny Kincaid. Some pretty surprising names dropping now!

Yeah fair enough, I can see why someone would have the username Waldo > Fritz. Being pinned by a relative no-name and still garnering that sort of reaction is quite something.

During the GME project I decided to be a stupid idiot and comment on every one of the matches that received a vote so I'm going to engage in more stupidity and do the same for this. I apologise in advance. #865 Chris Hamrick Anyone who has a particular bump named after them deserves at least one vote. Big fan of this as a #100 pick. #865 Darius Lockhart Would be lying if I said I know who this is. #865 "Cuban Assassin" Fidel Sierra Amazing hair and beard combo. #865 "Iron" Mike Sharpe I've seen more fun Iron Mike performances than bad ones. Worthy of a singular #100 vote. #865 Jado Last Jado match I watched he got beaten up and down the place in his gold pajamas by Tenryu. Who books New Japan, him or the other one? #865 Johnny Ace Oh boy. #865 Killer Karl Kox Surprised he only got one vote. Watched his match as The Spirit v Destroyer a couple months ago and he was really fun. A very, very decent pro wrestler. #865 Ronda Rousey That rookie year is still one of the best rookie years ever. You know, maybe. The debut match is the miracle of all miracles, but also maybe not a miracle because she was pretty great for a minute there. Then I don't know what happened, really. #865 Taro Yamada I don't know who this is, I'm afraid. #865 Yasha Kurenai Yasha rules. Not afraid to bring a stick to a gunfight and just hit people repeatedly with the stick. A great cheapshotting lower-ranked partner to a Kandori - the Kitahara to Kandori's Tenryu - during inter-promotional matches but also has a few truly awesome underdog babyface performances where she's getting stabbed in the head with a sickle by Shark Tsuchiya and those deviants. A great pick. #860 Wellington Wilkins Jr. The Fujiwara match ruled. #860 Waldo Von Erich I don't think I've seen a Waldo match. #860 Scott Lost The PWG guy? Boy it's been a while. #860 "No Class" Bobby Bass Deserves a vote for the name alone. #860 Antonio Koinoki Can't say I've seen the feller. #859 Jeremy Wyatt Did he bounce around with the lantern and goat mask too or is he from a different Wyatt family? #858 Frank Shamrock Yeah fuck it why not. #855 "Tennessee Stud" Robert Fuller I haven't watched a Fuller match in forever. Always had a cool hat. #855 Michel Saulnier A late cut, based purely on two matches. The Rabut match from 6/65 is a MOTDC and he's a sensational base for Le Petit Prince. I should've made time for more Saulnier over the last few months. #855 Kim Duk I can't remember anything about a Kim Duk match but I must've seen at least a couple when he was teaming with Fuji. #854 Andreza Giant Panda No clue. #852 Osamu Kido Kido rules and I'm glad he got at least one vote. Has a sneaky long list of awesome matches across singles, tags and multi-mans. Bit of an unassuming fella but one who'd twist your head 180 degrees and make you watch and he booted you up the arse. Maybe I should voted for him, actually. #852 Chavo Guerrero Jr. Not as good as his old man, or perhaps anybody else in his family who decided to do the pro wrestling, but being the worst Guerrero is hardly a knock (probably). The Rey match from 2004 Great American Bash is stellar and he has a bunch of really good stuff. I'd list him higher than 852, put it that way. #851 Trauma I Los Traumas were still awesome the last time I watched them and I loved the 2010 stuff when BTJr was putting it on youtube back then. He was actually one of my favourite wrestlers in the world around that point, and the Canis Lupus apuestas match from a decade back is sensational. Might've considered him for a 200, or even 150. #850 Muhammad Ali Sure, go for it. #847 Phil Hickerson Always a fun time in Memphis. #847 Joey Ryan The sex pest? #847 Kazuki Niimura Do not have a clue. #847 Huracan Castillo Jr. I could not tell you the last time I watched Huracan Castillo Jr. Probably the Puerto Rico 80s set. #846 Bobby Fish I liked the AEW match with Punk. #845 Tadao Yasuda Seen maybe one match. #844 "Polish Power" Ivan Putski His reckless energy is pretty spectacular. Knew what he was about and the crowd bought it 1000%. #840 Trauma II I like his brother more but the Zatura match from 2009 is terrific. #840 James Mason Not sure who this is. I apologise deeply. #840 Chris Harris I liked at least one American's Most Wanted match. Unless that was another guy. #840 Dennis Koslowski I can't remember a thing about the UWFi run but I know I watched some of it. Did he work PWFG? #839 "The Z-Man" Tom Zenk I liked the Can-Ams for a minute there. #836 Duane Koslowski Maybe it was Duane who worked PWFG. #836 Arkángel de la Muerte Really fun mat worker. Been a minute. #836 Albert Sanniez Another French Catch guy I should see more of. The Petit Prince match from 77 ruled and Sanniez turning into a cheapshotting prick was great stuff. #835 Steve Wright Should probably watch more. #834 Takaku Fuke Pretty fun midcard shoot style guy. #833 Johnny Kincaid I can't even pretend to have a handle on the WoS guys. #832 Andrei Kopylov Every Kopylov match is a treat and he has at least one corker against Han. Cool pick. #831 "Kangaroo" Al Costello I've been meaning to watch the Jesse James match for ages. Okay that's enough for now. I'll spoiler tag it next time so it doesn't leave the page running for seventeen miles.

And that's that for another 10 years! 1. Negro Casas 2. Genichiro Tenryu 3. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 4. Terry Funk 5. Kiyoshi Tamura 6. Shinya Hashimoto 7. El Hijo del Santo 8. Jerry Lawler 9. El Satanico 10. Mariko Yoshida 11. Stan Hansen 12. Shinobu Kandori 13. Yuki Ishikawa 14. El Dandy 15. Mitsuharu Misawa 16. Buddy Rose 17. Daisuke Ikeda 18. Nick Bockwinkel 19. Eddie Guerrero 20. Takeshi Ono 21. Tully Blanchard 22. Roddy Piper 23. Dick Murdoch 24. Volk Han 25. Tatsumi Fujinami 26. Blue Panther 27. Bryan Danielson 28. Virus 29. Sangre Chicana 30. Rey Mysterio 31. Ricky Morton 32. Pirata Morgan 33. Randy Savage 34. Riki Choshu 35. Aja Kong 36. Naoki Sano 37. Ricky Steamboat 38. Fuerza Guerrera 39. Arn Anderson 40. Ric Flair 41. Jushin Liger 42. Akira Hokuto 43. Barry Windham 44. Bill Dundee 45. Kenta Kobashi 46. Vader 47. Butch Reed 48. Akira Maeda 49. Meiko Satomura 50. Rick Martel 51. LA Park 52. Toshiaki Kawada 53. Bobby Eaton 54. Alexander Otsuka 55. Yoji Anjoh 56. Jumbo Tsuruta 57. Andre the Giant 58. Devil Masami 59. Shawn Michaels 60. Akira Taue 61. Jim Duggan 62. Sgt. Slaughter 63. Steve Austin 64. Black Terry 65. Greg Valentine 66. Kazunari Murakami 67. Bret Hart 68. Hechicero 69. Buzz Sawyer 70. Low Ki 71. Finlay 72. MS-1 73. Emilio Charles Jr. 74. Dick Togo 75. Dustin Rhodes 76. Jerry Estrada 77. Rick Rude 78. Hector Guerrero 79. Invader I 80. Jerry Blackwell 81. Magnum TA 82. Tito Santana 83. Necro Butcher 84. Samoa Joe 85. Koko Ware 86. William Regal 87. Tonga Kid 88. Tarzan Goto 89. Masa Kurisu 90. Yoshihiro Takayama 91. Negro Navarro 92. Austin Aries 93. Atlantis 94. Michael Hayes 95. Mocho Cota 96. Shinjiro Ohtani 97. La Fiera 98. Le Petit Prince 99. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 100. Yumi Ikeshita

Our boy Tenryu might actually take an honest to goodness run at this top 10! I knew I wouldn't be the only Yumi Ikeshita voter, but cool to see another couple people having her on their list either way. Also another Tama vote! Hot damn!

I haven't finalised my list yet, but he's in that 18-21 bracket right now with Roddy Piper, Tully Blanchard and Takeshi Ono so depending on how I'm feeling when I finally submit the thing on Saturday or whatever, he will be...one of those four numbers. Probably.

The Sasha Banks/Mercedes Mone Battlebowl Final! Eddie is my favourite wrestler ever so I can't be impartial on this one, but I will say Ozaki has grown on me a lot over the last five-six years. I thought she was exceptional in that Devil Masami match from '93 where Devil is in her method acting Undertaker bag, she was my favourite part of the Dream Rush tag that I liked more on re-watch than I ever have before, she was really fun in all of the mid-90s GAEA stuff she popped up in, has the perfect sort of reckless violence and attitude for inter-promotional wrestling, etc. I haven't watched any post-2000s Ozaki other than one match from a few years ago, but obviously she has Eddie beat on longevity. I'll also say that while I'm not an Ozaki voter, I did at least consider her when going through the joshi candidates whereas 10 years ago I probably dismissed her in a heartbeat. She was nowhere near my list in 2016 while in 2026 she was...somewhat in the vicinity?

I'd be absolutely astounded if Danielson isn't the overall #1. Funk as #2 feels about as good a shout as any.

I've been watching a decent amount of 2010s Virus lately and he's made strong late case for jumping properly into my top 20. He was already hovering around the 21-35 bracket anyway, but the Hechicero match from 2016 gave him a nice jump and then I watched the Dr Cerebro match from 2015 (another one @cad mentioned a while back) yesterday and I came out of it thinking he might be the best ever at giving me exactly what I want in one of my three favourite styles of wrestling (the weird and wonderful lucha matwork~).

The order isn't the same, but swap in Hashimoto for Misawa and that might end up being the exact list of names in my top 10 as well.

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.