KB8

Yeah, this was the business. For a sub-five minute match I couldn't have asked for much more. Like, sure, I guess it would've been cool if they'd kept going for a little while longer, but like GOTNW I don't think it actually felt incomplete at what we got. The Suzuki/Nakanoue relationship has deteriorated even further and their hatred towards one another can't be constrained by the rules of a pro-wrestling match. Suzuki was pretty much the world's best potato-farming crowbar bastard imaginable in this. Loved it when he just started laying into his own partner for getting in his way. Then Uto decided he'd had enough and smashed him back, but Suzuki doesn't even give a shit because all he wants to do is jump on Nakanoue's head and who needs a tag team partner anyway? Match kind of reminded me of a Hashimoto v Ogawa tag and if you're successfully aping Hash v Ogawa then you're alright with me.

This was my first taste of the Suzuki/Nakanoue feud and it felt like a pretty great place to start. Fairly short, super intense, buckets of hate, etc. Good grief, Hama is even fatter than the last time I saw him. It's like Dusty Rhodes absorbed Rikishi Phatu Dragonball Z style and this was the outcome. His fatboy splashes all looked very lung-squashy and I pretty much love his twist on the duelling lariat trope by just diving onto Uto with a cross body. Suzuki/Nakanoue is of course what you come to see, though. No idea what the context of this feud is or why they hate each other to death but I'm fine just sitting back and watching them try and maul each other. Constant cheap shots, looks of disgust, flurries of violence - it was all there. The WAR comparison certainly feels apt and considering WAR is just about my favourite promotion in history I was all the way behind this. I don't actually know if I've seen Suzuki before but I liked him a bunch here. He was pretty Tenryu-ish in the way he'd sort of react to Nakanoue's strikes with condescension early on, to later being thoroughly fed up with them and absolutely plastering him in response.

That Cyber Sunday match against Big Show was actually pretty good. I mean, I think. Maybe?

Placements on the overall list are in parentheses because I was editing them into a word document as the countdown progressed, and now I can't be bothered editing them all back out again. 1. Stan Hansen (3) 2. Genichiro Tenryu (13) 3. Negro Casas (22) 4. Jerry Lawler (10) 5. Satanico (37) 6. Toshiaki Kawada (9) 7. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (40) 8. Mitsuharu Misawa (4) 9. Shinya Hashimoto (23) 10. Buddy Rose (36) 11. Terry Funk (2) 12. El Dandy (35) 13. Kiyoshi Tamura (62) 14. Nick Bockwinkel (16) 15. Eddie Guerrero (12) 16. Rey Mysterio (7) 17. Tatsumi Fujinami (20) 18. Daisuke Ikeda (100) 19. Yuki Ishikawa (70) 20. El Hijo del Santo (29) 21. Volk Han (60) 22. Kenta Kobashi (8) 23. Ricky Steamboat (15) 24. Daniel Bryan (5) 25. Ric Flair (1) 26. Bill Dundee (57) 27. Jumbo Tsuruta (11) 28. Dick Murdoch (53) 29. Arn Anderson (19) 30. Riki Choshu (41) 31. Akira Taue (26) 32. Randy Savage (18) 33. Barry Windham (25) 34. Bobby Eaton (28) 35. Ricky Morton (33) 36. Virus (99) 37. Blue Panther (69) 38. Rick Martel (43) 39. Sangre Chicana (95) 40. Dustin Rhodes (32) 41. Vader (14) 42. Jushin Liger (6) 43. Dick Togo (71) 44. Pirata Morgan (117) 45. Steve Austin (24) 46. Fuerza Guerrera (155) 47. Naoki Sano (126) 48. William Regal (21) 49. Fit Finlay (48) 50. Jun Akiyama (27) 51. Tito Santana (80) 52. Alexander Otsuka (127) 53. Chris Benoit (34) 54. Butch Reed (136) 55. Shawn Michaels (31) 56. Masa Fuchi (111) 57. Aja Kong (49) 58. Yoji Anjoh (214) 59. Bret Hart (17) 60. LA Park (96) 61. Jerry Estrada (432) 62. Emilio Charles Jr. (193) 63. Greg Valentine (54) 64. John Cena (30) 65. Black Terry (151) 66. Bob Backlund (93) 67. Tommy Rogers (215) 68. Chavo Guerrero Sr. (247) 69. Mariko Yoshida (187) 70. Koko Ware (250) 71. La Fiera (164) 72. Christian (102) 73. Ted DiBiase (42) 74. Yoshihiro Tajiri (81) 75. Hector Guerrero (452) 76. Negro Navarro (179) 77. Samoa Joe (59) 78. Tully Blanchard (44) 79. Mark Henry (156) 80. Andre the Giant (51) 81. Shinobu Kandori (146) 82. Curt Hennig (55) 83. Jerry Blackwell (118) 84. Sgt. Slaughter (64) 85. Atlantis (74) 86. Mocho Cota (189) 87. Masa Saito (160) 88. Rick Rude (77) 89. Jim Duggan (218) 90. Tama (520) 91. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (320) 92. Takeshi Ono (303) 93. Dennis Condrey (199) 94. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (148) 95. Yoshihiro Takayama (123) 96. Michael Hayes (166) 97. Jose Lothario (276) 98. AJ Styles (39) 99. Austin Aries (176) 100. Kazunari Murakami (341)

Honestly, I'd still have Hansen ahead of Jumbo, though probably behind Misawa and Kawada. But then, I still like old man Hansen trying to hang onto his place in the world by thumping the ever loving dogshit out of folk more than the Pillars working King's Road (that's a broad, fairly simplistic take on things, but I'm on an iPhone at work), even if the latter produced more great matches. I had Hansen ahead of all those guys, but things like Hansen/Andre and Hansen's stuff in America absolutely played a part in that.

It's already been touched on as well, but people are naturally going to be less likely to harp on about the flaws of a guy/girl they're trying to "push" as a top tier candidate if that guy/girl is a relatively new discovery, never to have REALLY been pushed at that level in the past. Work on getting Buddy Rose or Satanico or even Bockwinkel the same exposure as Flair - if that's even possible - first, THEN break it down some more and scrutinize things (similar to what Matt did with Hansen, for example). I'm guilty of only really highlighting the positives of my favourites as well, especially if they're fairly new to me. I wrote something in the threads for Tenryu and Jumbo, but I never said anything about Tenryu being a nondescript mat worker in the Tenryu thread. I did write about how I find a lot of pre-'89 Jumbo uninspiring in the Jumbo thread, though. Maybe it's because Tenryu is a real favourite of mine and Jumbo isn't, or maybe it's because Tenryu-as-GOAT-contender is a relatively new take on things that hasn't quite reached the point where people want to seriously pick it apart. Maybe we just haven't had the time to get bored of Tenryu yet. I'm not sure, but either way, if we do this again in ten years I hope we have 16 page threads for Buddy Rose and Nick Bockwinkel and Satanico and Casas with people going back and forth about how great or not great they truly were, because if that's the case then I would say the fans of those guys have succeeded in getting people to seriously consider them.

I know some folks have been down on him a bit in recent years (I had him at #27, so I guess I'd fall into that category even though I'd still say he was absolutely excellent at his best), but Jumbo dropping out of the top 10 surprised me. Who saw him picking up less #1 votes than Bret?

Man, Eddie is my all time favourite wrestler and he was in my top 15, but even I can't go to bat for him ahead of Tenryu. Tenryu was my #2. Longevity out the wazoo, hugely consistent, greatest grumpy old bastard ever, tonnes of good matches, more than a couple great ones, and I always find him entertaining no matter who he's in there with.

I hope Eddie finishes top 1. Bret is the last guy from my bottom half to drop, while Bock was my number...14, maybe? Hey, imagine we had all that Bock footage from his physical peak? That would be cool.

I don't think it's possible to do something like this and have everyone come out the other side of it completely happy with the overall list, anyway. The only comprehensive list I'd be satisfied with is one that I compiled myself after watching every piece of available wrestling footage known to man So yeah, "the journey" and all that. Of course I wanted Casas to finish top 3 and for Fujiwara, Satanico and Hashimoto to finish top 10. But part of the reason I wanted that - and for people like Mariko Yoshida, Hector Guerrero and La Fiera to do really well - is because I came to the conclusions I came to on those folks during this whole process. My top 20 honestly didn't end up being THAT different to what it would've been before the project started, but those twenty guys were certainly solidified as being fucking transcendently great in my mind over the last couple years. My bottom sixty was where I felt like things were turned upside down, and I mean that in the absolute best way possible. If not for this project I probably wouldn't have dived into a lot of those guys' work to the extent I did. Someone would've asked me if the Tonga Kid or Tekeshi Ono is one of the top 100 wrestlers ever and I'd probably have said "almost certainly not." This project showed me that I was dead fucking wrong and that the correct answer to the question is "you better believe Tama and Takeshi Ono are top 100 wrestlers ever!" And, like, we all have our Tamas and Takeshi Onos now that we're at the end of this, right?

Well, shit. There goes my #3 (Casas). Hashimoto was my #9. I love Regal, but I'm stunned he's still standing. I'm not necessarily stunned that Bret is, but it's, like, whatever.

I'll cop some shit for Akiyama as well. I watched some old grumpy Akiyama performances in the week before the deadline (they were good, of course), but I just haven't seen enough of him from the last ten years or so to feel comfortable ranking him up in the top 20, which is about where it feels like he could go if I had a better picture of him from around '06 through to the present day. I'll throw it on the to do list for 2026.

Yesterday's rundown took a bite out of my top quarter. Dandy (#12), Rose (#10), Fujiwara (#7) and Satanico (#5) all went down. Honestly, I think I would've gone higher on Rose if I'd managed to get to his Portland babyface run (well, I say that as if I never started Will's Buddy comp about six years ago and haven't just been lazy about finishing it). He might be the most versatile wrestler in U.S. history. Five years ago Dandy might've been in my top 5. Still think his absolute peak (around '89-'92, though '89-'90 especially) is as strong as that of just about anybody else that's dropped so far, but he's a step below Satanico and Casas.

Yeah, he was my #13, and I said in the countdown thread that if I'd watched some more of the early UWFi stuff you'd written about in your C&A thread I could see myself bumping him into the top 10. I sort of wish I did now, because really good RINGS might be my all-time favourite kind of wrestling and Tamura was better at that than anyone else ever was.

It really, really is.

Tabe actually made a Tamura comp as well (which I bought). I'm on a phone right now and my internet is shitty, but if you plug "best of Kiyoshi Tamura" into google it shouldn't be too hard to find.

At least Tamura moved up one spot since 2006! I'm pretty gutted he dropped in the sixties, although at the same time it's not totally surprising. He was my #13, but once I get around to more of the matches in Elliot's Complete & Accurate thread I could see myself wishing I put him top 10. He might not have the same "where the fuck did he pull THAT submission from?" quality as Han, but I don't think anyone ever was as good at bursting into rapid spurts of such impressive grappling as Tamura. Possibly having the best cardio of any wrestler in history didn't hurt, I suppose. Also voted for Slaughter, though much lower. As a "greatest hits" guy, there aren't many better.

Had Ishikawa top 20, right next to Ikeda. Jumping a hundred spots up the list is pretty damn good going. Tajiri, Santana, Rude, Atlantis and Togo were all on my list as well. I watched the Tito/Valentine feud again to see where I'd rank Greg and I wound up binging a ton of Tito and eventually ranking him higher than Valentine (though not by much). Rude obviously isn't a longevity candidate and is probably too high, but I still think his run in '92 is outstanding. Greatest sell of an atomic drop in history, and I always love the spots where he'll do his gyrating hips bit while selling his tailbone or ribs or back, or in some cases his arm by only putting one hand on his head. He may be hurt, but he WILL gyrate. The Beach Blast match with Steamboat is also an absolute all-timer.

Parv's line about him being the best ever at sitting up was one of the funniest one-liners in the history of this website. I kind of see Undertaker as a guy who evolved from a guy you'd wish would go away to a guy who was better than we thought he was. Somewhere along the way he started thinking he was even better than we thought and devolved into a guy you'd wish would go away. I imagine the next stage in the odyssey as Undertaker on his death bed and this monolith-type thing appears before him with the WWE insignia on it before suddenly and inexplicably he appears in the Gobbledy Gooker's egg on Thanksgiving Day 2090, boom, boom, boom, boom. I dunno, he wears makeup and thinks he's John Wayne. Outstanding.

Fuck man, I agree with the sentiment that Ikeda making it into the top 100 is a pretty outstanding achievement, but him and Virus dropping back to back straight away might be the biggest gut punch of the whole countdown so far (though, on the brighter side, Virus jumping up about about 260 spots from 2006 is awesome as well). Ikeda was my #18 and the first guy from my top 30 to drop. I know he's stiff as a bastard, but that's certainly not the only thing he has going for him (basically agree with everything Jetlag said) and I don't really get the idea that he used the stiffness as a crutch of some kind. Him and Ishikawa is probably one of my top three pairings in wrestling history. Park, Chicana and Virus were my 60, 39 and 36, respectively. I wanted to vote Chicana sky high, but I couldn't really justify it without more footage. Then again, what we have is phenomenal. Might be the best ever at taking an absolute shit-kicking, selling that shit-kicking like death, and milking it for absolutely everything it's worth before making the perfectly timed comeback. Shit, maybe 39 is too low. That LA Park picture in the countdown thread is utterly spectacular, btw.

Ishikawa not making it ten years ago is kind of stunning to me, but yeah, as disappointing as it is that Sano dropped out, Ishikawa and Ikeda making it in makes up for it a little (though of course I'll be greedy and say all three should've been there). Ikeda (who I might be the high voter on) and Virus are probably the two guys I'm most happy about finishing top 100 considering I had them pegged to just miss out and drop somewhere in the 150-101 range. Togo getting in this time is fitting as well. That veteran run was really fantastic and no doubt gave him the bump he needed to get him over the hump.

He finished at 432. You might have rocketed him into the top 425. That one's on you.

I've lost 34, so roughly two thirds of my top 100 (and my entire top 35) making the overall 100 is..well, it's a thing, and I'm glad those guys/women have stuck around long enough to make it to the big dance. Of those that have fallen off my list, Fuerza, Yoshida and Anjoh are probably the ones I wish had made the top 100 more than any others that have dropped. Fuchi as well, probably. I mean, I would've geeked like a fucking lunatic if Tama and Koko Ware and Hector Guerrero made the overall 100, but I was about 99.9% certain they wouldn't, thus I had no expectations. Part of me knew Yoshida and Anjoh wouldn't either, but I thought Fuchi was almost a lock and...well, Fuerza is one of my three favourite wrestlers ever so I guess I was holding out hope that he wouldn't go down along with the other lucha "fringe" candidates. I see now that I was a fool and the world is forever a glass half empty. Honestly, I'm really happy with my list, at least in terms of ranking guys I felt comfortable enough TO rank. I wish I'd gotten my shit together and dived into WoS and Puerto Rico, because it's not like I never had enough time to, so in that sense it feels like I have glaring omissions that I'll need to rectify if we get around to this once more down the line. But other than that there's really only one guy I kind of regret leaving off, and that's Takada. I'm not a big Takada guy and I wouldn't have had him high, but thinking about the number of Takada matches I'd call great that he himself has been at least good in...yeah, I'll cop to that being an oversight on my part.

Pirata Morgan as the latest guy to drop isn't really helping this hangover (which, maybe ironically enough, was brought on by Captain Morgan himself). Black Terry Kikuchi Kandori Reed Otsuka Sano Takayama Blackwell Pirata Morgan All names from my list that dropped since last night, some of whom landed in my top 50. I never really expected Reed to make the top 100, but he's my favourite wrestler ever behind only Eddie Guerrero and I hoped that he would make it to the big dance. He had a good run, though. 32 soldiers from my list have fallen now. Doubt I'll have more than 60 left by the time we hit the top 100. Also, the HHH reveal was great.