KB8

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.

I actually wanted to touch on that a couple days ago myself, but yeah, the Jericho discussion was really great and probably my favourite bit of part 1 (that WAS still part 1, right)? Loss: "My #__ was Chris Jericho. Did you vote for him at all?" Childs: "Nooooo."

Fuerza biting the bullet is the hardest one to take so far. One of my five favourite wrestlers ever and my favourite luchador. He's also the first guy from my top half to fall. This is not fun for me. Henry falling last night as well takes my total up to 23 casualties now.

Hayes and Fiera were mine. Hayes is one of the kings of wild and out of control sub-ten minute bar fights, and Fiera's run during the Dandy feud in 1992 was a gigantic load of sleazeball rudo fun that turned him from a "possible" guy into a "definite lock" guy. Hayes actually did better than I expected him to. I guess Fiera did as well. Outstanding. EDIT: and Saito is another of mine to bite the dust.

Navarro and Aries were both mine. I gave Aries a bottom ten vote because he was one of my two or three favourite wrestlers in the world from about '06-'08, though even that wasn't enough to get me to watch TNA consistently so I have no idea what he was like there. Glad he's in NXT now because it means I'll probably get to see him from time to time.

I'm not a huge joshi fan at all, but I watched a pretty big chunk of Yoshida footage in the couple weeks leading up to the deadline, and for someone I really had no intention of seriously checking out for this project she wound up becoming my favourite (well, probably) joshi worker ever. Of course her case hinges largely on the ARSION run, but I dug her in matches as far back as 1992. There's a trios on the '92 yearbook where she's teaming with Hotta and Yamada against Aja, Bull and Kyoko, and I genuinely thought her performance was the most impressive part of the match. She basically bumped around huge for Aja and Bull for the most part, but her timing on hope spots was good and she was certainly easy to root for. In her peak she would hit the mat and at times burst into life with almost Tamura-esque speed, grabbing limbs and sprawling and shifting position. She also had a knack for milking a ton of drama out of submissions; sometimes being stuck in one for a couple minutes yet constantly struggling and frantically trying to make it to the ropes. There was a sense of desperation in those moments that I don't think too many of her peers could capture (that's also to say I thought she was a much better seller than most of them). I have no real connection to any other joshi worker and wouldn't particularly care if Hokuto, Bull, Kansai and whoever else never made the top 100, but I really hoped Yoshida would. I also had a pretty good idea that El-P would be the one leading the charge to get her there.

Going from being absent completely to top 200 is an admirable climb all things considered, yeah.

I'm part of the problem since I never voted for him myself, thus I really have no grounds to complain, but MS-1 is another guy that probably should be a good deal higher. I left him off because I felt as though I hadn't seen quite enough footage to get a proper handle on him, but he was still involved in maybe the greatest match of all time. So, you know, he had that going for him. He was a late cut (I was forced to cut a lot of luchadores late), but it still stung to do it. Him and Emilio dropping one after the other is a kicker. Did you vote for him, Matt?

Emilio finished somewhere around the middle of my ballot. I get OJ's point about him not exactly having a litany of superb singles matches, but as a trios worker I can't think of many guys I'd rather see in a rudo unit than Emilio Charles Jr.

Condrey making it into the top 200 feels like a pretty damn good run, even though he absolutely deserves to be there. He landed in my bottom quarter.

Seth Rollins ahead of Tommy Rogers? Who is responsible for this madness? Duggan, Rogers and Anjoh were mine. Duggan as walking tall caveman brawler is awesome. Anjoh as pouty, quick-tempered shoot style cheapshot artist is awesome. Rogers as face in peril is awesome. I love all three guys.

Solar was literally one of the last three people I cut from my list.

I actually toyed with the idea of putting Sasha as my #100. Had I gotten around to watching another of her big NXT title defences I might have, but as it was I didn't really feel like I could justify it. Cracking the overall top 250 after a run of only a couple years (more or less) is pretty good going, anyway.