KB8

Terry was my number 11 in 2016 and, to quote our good friend elliot, I fucking blew it with that one. In fairness, any wrestler I have at number 11 is someone I think ridiculously high of, but in 2016 Terry probably suffered a little from a case of out of sight, out of mind. I've watched and re-watched a decent amount of Funk since the last deadline and he is neither out of sight nor out of mind at this stage in the 2026 project, and right now he feels top 5 with a bullet. People have covered the points about him as an all-time level babyface and an all-time level heel, and of course I agree with those people. Versatility out the wazoo - great in singles, tags, basically every style of match he was ever involved in and he was involved in plenty, from long, technical title matches for the NWA title to propfest brawls where he gets powerbombed into a literal dumpster. Wrestled everywhere and seemingly everyWHEN. Probably my favourite maniac in the history of wrestling and if he wrestled his whole career in Puerto Rico he would've been my number 1 (assuming he never had to leave for his own safety, anyway). I honestly get why some folk wouldn't dig the jelly-leg bit, but I love it and thought he walked that cartoonish line perfectly. Plus his shtick is unmatched and nobody could go from stooging to wreaking havoc more seamlessly than Funk. I suppose the counterpoint to him as a number 1 contender is a relative lack of seven star superclassic matches. Or just, like, "great matches" or whatever terminology we're using. It's kind of hard for me to actually articulate this, but I completely understand that point and it's one I probably would've agreed with once. Like, I think Terry has lots of great matches, but they're not necessarily the sort of matches I could see other people thinking are great. They don't feel "conventionally great" or whatever. That's not me trying to sound galaxy brain or smarter than your average fan, because in reality I'm pretty much a dipshit and I have awful taste in everything and nobody should listen to me anyway, but, for example, I could see someone thinking something like Terry/Hansen (pick one) doesn't qualify for classic status because it's only about 13 minutes long and doesn't really have a finishing stretch and ends in a riot. In comparison, Flair has tonnes of matches that have all the hallmarks of what would typically qualify as a great match. I'm not even explaining this very well but basically I understand why people would think Terry doesn't have as many great matches as, say, Flair. Especially not guys like Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, even Jumbo or Tenryu or Hansen or a Daniel Bryan. Same goes for any of the modern New Japan folks. I've seen the argument that he doesn't have as many great matches as Samoa Joe, and even if I disagree I get where that argument is rooted and think it's perfectly valid. It's just that I have a very different idea of what a great match is now than I did 15 years ago and in keeping with that idea Terry Funk has lots of matches I'd happily call great. He has a fucking bazillion performances I'd call great, even in random throwaway house show matches against Lanny Poffo or Rick McGraw or fucking Sal Bellomo. He's pretty much the ultimate "input" candidate, but I'm one of those folk who thinks he does exceptionally well on the output end of things as well. So yeah. A pretty good wrestler. TERRY FUNK YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 6/11/76) v Harley Race (Houston, 7/1/77) w/Dory Funk v Billy Robinson & Horst Hoffman (All Japan, 12/6/77) w/Dory Funk v Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 12/15/78) v Mark Lewin (Houston, 4/27/79) w/Dory Funk v Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (All Japan, 7/15/79) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 3/23/81) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 4/25/81) w/Dory Funk v Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka (All Japan, 12/13/81) v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 9/11/82) v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 4/14/83) v Bob Orton Jr. (Southwest, 5/26/83) w/Dory Funk v Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (All Japan, 8/31/83) v Barry Windham (Puerto Rico, 9/19/86) v Rick Martel (Puerto Rico, 9/20/86) v Ric Flair (NWA Great American Bash, 7/23/89) v Ric Flair (NWA Clash of the Champions IX, 11/15/89) v Atsushi Onita (FMW, 5/5/93) v Sabu (WWN, 2/28/94) w/Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck & Col. Parker v Nasty Boys, Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/18/94) w/Mike Awesome v Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (FMW, 9/24/96) v Tommy Rich (ECW Crossing the Line Again, 2/1/97) v Sabu (ECW Born to be Wired, 8/9/97) v Mick Foley (WWF RAW, 5/4/98) w/Tommy Dreamer & Beaulah McGillicutty v Edge, Mick Foley & Lita (WWE/ECW One Night Stand, 6/11/06)

I had yer man Roberto Gutiérrez El Dandy at number 12, and he'll be there or thereabouts again in 2026. Dandy is one of my three favourite Mexican wrestlers ever and probably the one most responsible for shaping what I like in lucha when I was first properly getting into it. I started with AAA because of the Eddie and Rey Mysterio links. I'd already seen plenty of Psicosis and Juventud. I knew who El Hijo del Santo was. So it made sense to start there, and while it was a fine gateway there were still things I kind of struggled with. Then I started checking out more CMLL and oh boy THAT was the lucha libre I wanted to watch. Dandy was the guy I gravitated to more than anyone else and from that point on I haven't looked back. I think part of what makes him such a good intro guy is that he has a bit of everything. He has the singles matches, whether it's title matches that showcase the best of lucha matwork, or the apuestas that showcase the greatness of filthy blood-drenched lucha brawling. Those matches came against a wide variety of people -- Javier Cruz, Pirata Morgan, Emilio Charles Jr., Angel Azteca, Satanico, Negro Casas, Bestia Salvaje, Javier Llanes, Black Warrior, El Hijo del Santo (the triangle match was effectively a Dandy/Santo singles match), Negro Navarro, LA Park. He's been involved in some of the best trios matches in lucha history, from the brawling spectacles to the more mat-based, graceful exchange-driven trios. He even has the 2 v 2 tags. He's an incredible mat wrestler, a wonderful flier and a great brawler. He has stupid versatility, basically. I guess the significant knock on him (or significant relative to the other top 10/15/20 contenders) is that he maybe doesn't have the longevity. That probably becomes more striking when you put him next to his peers from Mexico; guys like Casas, Satanico, Santo, Panther. Dandy doesn't have that consistency over four different decades like a Casas or Satanico (not to say those guys were great that ENTIRE time). In that sense he's more of a peak candidate, but that peak is fucking tremendous and at this point I think he has better longevity than he sometimes gets credit for anyway. '89-'91 he was at the very peak of his powers and in 1990 he was the best wrestler in the world. In 1992 he has the Casas program and the July title match is the best match of all time so maybe you extend that peak to then as well. He has great stuff in '94 with the Javier Llanes feud and then in '96, going through the yearbook I thought he was a best in the world candidate that year, right there with guys like Casas, Santo, Hashimoto, etc. Every other week more weekly CMLL TV pops up and there's Dandy, not looking as washed as we maybe thought. He then has the Negro Navarro feud in 2001 and it produces one of the best title matches of the decade. Footage seems to dry up a bit after that and I honestly haven't seen that much of him the last 10-15 years. To me that holds him back more than anything to do with his peak being short, because some of his peers were (and still are) doing great stuff during that period. Maybe he's been killing it on untaped indie shows or whatever, but if there's hardly any footage of it then it's hard to judge him, so it is what it is. Either way I think there's more than enough great Dandy for a top 15 case. At his very best there weren't many better. Never doubt him. EL DANDY YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Javier Cruz (EMLL, 10/26/84) v Pirata Morgan (EMLL, 9/23/88) w/El Texano v Atlantis & Angel Azteca (EMLL, 3/31/89) v Emilio Charles Jr. (EMLL, 7/28/89) w/El Satanico v MS-1 & Masakre (EMLL, 8/11/89) v Angel Azteca (CMLL, 3/23/90) w/El Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr. v Angel Azteca, Javier Cruz & Atlantis (CMLL, 5/11/90) v Angel Azteca (CMLL, 6/1/90) v El Satanico (CMLL, 10/26/90) v El Satanico (CMLL, 12/14/90) w/Apolo Dantes & Black Magic v Blue Panther, Javier Cruz & Pierroth Jr. (CMLL, 8/16/91) v Negro Casas (CMLL, 7/3/92) v Bestia Salvaje (CMLL, 9/3/92) w/Atlantis & Pierroth Jr. v La Fiera, Emilio Charles Jr. & El Satanico (CMLL, 11/13/92) w/Atlantis & Ringo Mendoza v Javier Llanes, Mano Negra & Black Magic (CMLL, 2/15/94) v Javier Llanes (CMLL, 2/22/94) w/El Hijo del Santo, Lizmark & Atlantis v Negro Casas, Blue Panther, Dr Wagner Jr. & Felino (CMLL, 3/15/96) w/Lizmark & Silver King v Negro Casas, El Satanico & Felino (CMLL, 6/28/96) v Black Warrior (CMLL, 11/2/96) w/Negro Casas & Hector Garza v El Hijo del Santo, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL, 11/22/96) w/Negro Casas & Hector Garza v El Hijo del Santo, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL, 11/29/96) v Negro Casas v El Hijo Del Santo (CMLL, 12/6/96) w/Ultimo Dragon, Atlantis, Negro Casas, Shocker, Mascara Magica, La Fiera & Brazo de Oro v El Hijo del Santo, Felino, Black Warrior, Silver King, Dr. Wagner Jr., Satanico, Kevin Quinn & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL, 4/18/97) v Negro Navarro (IWRG, 11/18/01) v LA Park (Enesma, 10/15/04)

I had Tamura at in 2016, but he'll most likely be be top in 2026. Since the last poll I've gone back and watched most of the UWF/UWFi stuff, so that along with the RINGS stuff and there's no way he finishes outside my top 10. His peak is truly phenomenal and he'll naturally get the bonus points with me personally because your high end RINGS might be my favourite type of wrestling ever. I know some people are iffy on the idea of tag matches in shoot style, but UWFi is what it is and it gives us a chance to see him work tags, and of course he was good in them. We have his full career arc on tape. He was fun as a scrappy underdog getting his ass beat in his second or third match ever. He was great punching above his weight a year into his career, clearly working with a chip on his shoulder. He was great as this ridiculous athlete who was starting to come into his own and gain momentum by picking up wins. He was great as a man at the absolute peak of his powers against his peers. He was great as promotional ace running the gauntlet against all comers. He was a great mat worker and a great striker. His explosiveness was often stunning. He was a wonderful pro wrestler. And I still haven't seen the bout with Yamamoto from 6/99 (but I'll add it to the list anyway because everyone and their granny has said it's awesome). KIYOSHI TAMURA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Yoji Anjoh (UWF, 9/30/89) v Masahito Kakihara (UWFi, 5/10/91) v Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 7/3/91) w/Yuko Miyato v Yoji Anjoh & Mark Fleming (UWFi, 3/17/92) v Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 8/28/92) v Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi, 10/23/92) v Nobuhiko Takada (UWFi, 2/14/93) v Naoki Sano (UWFi, 5/6/93) v Vader (UWFi, 6/10/94) v Kazushi Sakuraba (UWFi, 5/27/96) v Volk Han (RINGS, 9/25/96) v Volk Han (RINGS, 1/22/97) v Nikolai Zouev (RINGS, 6/21/97) v Bitsadze Tariel (RINGS, 7/22/97) v Volk Han (RINGS, 9/26/97) v Mikhail Ilioukhine (RINGS, 1/21/98) v Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 6/27/98) v Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 9/21/98) v Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 1/23/99) v Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 6/24/99) v Wataru Sakata (U-STYLE, 2/15/03) v Dokonjonosuke Mishima (U-STYLE, 4/6/03) v Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (U-STYLE, 2/4/04) v Hiroyuki Ito (U-STYLE, 8/18/04) Josh Barnett (U-STYLE, 11/23/05)

What I will say about Helmsley is that he had very good corner shoulder blocks. If he'd decided to be a Shoulder Block Guy rather than a High Knee Guy he may have had an outside shot at the bottom 5. But he didn't and I'm sure he'll cry himself to sleep about that every night.

Bockwinkel was my number 14 in 2016. As with a good few of the people just outside my top 10, 14 feels too low, because Bock was incredible and I wouldn't argue with anyone voting him as outright #1. It's just that the wrestlers ahead of him are incredible too and there's only so much space to go around. It's sort of insane that the majority of Bockwinkel footage we have is of him in his 40s. He was still amazing even in his 50s and there's more than enough footage there for a #1 case to be made (Matt D already did it, after all). He very well could've reached his peak as a wrestler late, not unlike Tenryu, and what we have of Bock is the Bock you need to see. But there's all that stuff of him in his ATHLETIC prime (assuming, you know, his physiology works the same as every other athlete or person ever) that hasn't seen the light of day, if it even exists on tape at all. I'm interested in how he even MOVED in his 20s and 30s. What did Nick Bockwinkel matwork look like when he was 32? Because It looked fucking sensational when he was 52. Anyways, the merits of Bock as a top candidate have been outlined already, so I'll just rattle off the matches. NICK BOCKWINKEL YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Blackjack Lanza v Terry & Dory Funk (All Japan, 12/5/78) v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 12/13/78) v Verne Gagne (AWA, 2/10/79) v Jumbo Tsuruta (Hawaii, 2/14/79) w/Jim Brunzell v Terry & Dory Funk (All Japan, 12/9/80) v Billy Robinson (All Japan, 12/11/80) v Jim Brunzell (AWA, 7/16/81) v Ricky Morton (AWA, 7/2/82) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 10/25/82) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 11/8/82) v Chavo Guerrero (Houston, 2/25/83) v Terry Funk (All Japan, 7/12/83) v Wahoo McDaniel (AWA, 8/28/83) v Rick Martel (AWA, 8/16/84) v Rick Martel (AWA, 9/20/84) v Rick Martel (AWA, 3/28/85) v Larry Zbyszko (AWA, 2/23/86) w/Brad Rheingans & Steve Pardee v Buddy Rose, Doug Somers & Col. DeBeers (AWA, 5/31/86) v Curt Hennig (AWA, 11/15/86) v Curt Hennig (AWA Superclash II, 5/2/87)

Eddie was my number 15 in 2016 and I think he'll be there again in 2026. There's something about 15 that just feels right. Comfortably top 20, but not enough meat on the bone for me to put him top 10. 15 is the happy medium. Look, cards on the table, Eddie Guerrero is my favourite wrestler ever and I quite simply cannot be impartial about him. We can try to be as objective as we like during this sort of project, but at the end of the day, "I really like watching this wrestler and doing so is more enjoyable to me than watching any other wrestler" will - and should - inevitably hold some weight. Honestly, when I get right down to it and dig into my "process" or whatever, that's maybe the most important thing to me when ranking anybody for this and I'll just figure out all the other shit around it. It's supposed to be fun and we watch footage because we enjoy it so the wrestlers we enjoy are always going to rise to the top one way or another (even in Parv's quantitative system, for example, there's still built in subjectivity). If I was ranking everyone based on how good I thought they were at their absolute very best then Eddie would be a number 1 contender. Take out longevity, length of peak, whatever; I really think Eddie in that 6/05 Smackdown! match against Rey was about as good as any wrestler has ever been. As a heel there are very few wrestlers ever that I think can put together as compelling a workover, knowing when to bring the match down with holds, knowing when to bring it up for air, when to throw in bombs or highspots, when to feed for hope spots and comebacks, staying as focused as possible if that workover is built around limb work. As a babyface he was as sympathetic and charismatic as you could ever need, sold like a motherfucker, had an awesome intensity to his comebacks, was as creative as you could want. So on and so on. His frog splash was beautiful and still to this day nobody can seem to hit the triple vertical suplexes like Eddie hit the Three Amigos. He was an amazing stooge, an amazing slimebag and a vicious bastard. He had shtick out the wazoo and genuinely funny comedy stuff. He was great in singles matches and tags and so on and so on. I think he was good at doing the pro wrestling. All of that said, he's not at that PEAK level for particularly long. I actually think he hit that level at two separate points (1997 and 2004-05), which is impressive in and of itself, but ultimately those peaks were short and he has a pretty thin resume when you put him up against guys with similar peaks that lasted longer (and while I think he died as the best wrestler on the planet, I can't very well sit here and say, "I'll have Eddie top 5 because I'm pretty sure he'd have been able to wrestle at that level for another 5-6 years"). I actually think that whole run from his return to WWE in 2002 until his death is incredible and he was as consistently great as anyone in the world during that period. He didn't have the same volume of great matches in 2002 and 2003 as the following two years, but from an input standpoint I thought he was pretty clearly working at a level above nearly everyone else in the company. I say that as someone who's recently gone through every single match he was involved in from that period, from the five-minute TV matches against Booker T where he's working over Booker's kidney to the ten-minute Rock match where he's hitting ridiculous armdrag escapes out of the Rock Bottom or the lengthy Smackdown! Six stuff where he's a major focus of the show. He was always awesome in tags with Chavo, and the brief team with Tajiri in the Spring of 2003 is like the greatest two-week tag team in the history of our great sport. His 2004-05 stretch has been talked about plenty of times before and I've done that myself in this thread, so there's no point going over it again, but I still think it's amazing. He has lots of great matches and lots of great performances in that period and hits maybe the most insane blade job ever seen. I guess it then becomes a question of how highly I think of the stuff outside of the 1997 and 2002-05 runs. I like the AAA run fine and prior to the heel turn in WCW I thought he was clearly very good, but hadn't put everything together as a character and pretty often felt sort of vanilla. He was still comfortably awesome in '98 and good in '99, but he mostly got to show that in short Nitro or Thunder bouts rather than focused programmes like the Rey or even Jericho feuds of '97. Unfortunately he was mostly stuck with Chyna in 2000 and after that you could see he was struggling with his demons before his release in 2001, but there was never a point where I thought he was less than good. I think he was pretty much always reliable at worst in Japan and at his best he was phenomenal, like in the Benoit match from the '96 BOSJ. His UWA run is a hoot, btw. For the most part he was really only put in the position of flashy tecnico, but all of his stuff looked gorgeous. What I'd REALLY want is more Juarez footage (if he even worked more than one match), because that tag with Santo against Casas and Panther is balls to the wall great and, while being in there at 20 years old with three of the best luchadores in history wouldn't have hurt, he looked like a fucking prodigy and worked way closer to what I want to see in lucha than what he eventually did in AAA. If there's more of that lying in someone's garage somewhere and it shows up and he looks that good in other stuff then, well, I guess I'll have no choice but to put him top 3. EDDIE GUERRERO YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/El Hijo del Santo v Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Gimnasio Josue Neri Santos, 1987) w/Chavo & Mando Guerrero v El Satanico, MS-1 & Masakre (CMLL, 8/23/91) w/Love Machine v El Hijo del Santo & Octagon (AAA, 11/6/93) w/Blue Panther, La Parka & Psicosis v El Hijo del Santo, Jushin Liger, Octagon & Tiger Mask v (AAA Triplemania, 5/15/94) w/Great Sasuke v Wild Pegasus & Shinjiro Ohtani (New Japan, 10/18/94) w/El Samurai & Gran Hamada v Shinjiro Ohtani, Koji Kanemoto & Dean Malenko (New Japan, 2/25/96) v Wild Pegasus (New Japan, 6/11/96) w/Chris Jericho v The Faces of Fear (WCW Nitro, 2/24/97) v Chris Jericho (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/14/97) v Rey Misterio Jr. (WCW Halloween Havoc, 10/26/97) w/Juventud Guerrera v Rey Misterio Jr. & Kidman (WCW Nitro, 12/28/98) v Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown!, 11/14/02) w/Chavo Guerrero v Rey Mysterio & Edge v Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit (WWE Survivor Series, 11/17/02) w/Chavo Guerrero v World's Greatest Tag Team (WWE Backlash, 4/27/03) w/Tajiri v World's Greatest Tag Team (WWE Smackdown!, 5/22/03) v Brock Lesnar (WWE No Way Out, 2/15/04) v Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown!, 3/18/04) v Big Show (WWE Smackdown!, 4/15/04) v JBL (WWE Judgment Day, 5/16/04) v JBL (WWE Smackdown!, 7/15/04) v Kurt Angle (WWE Summerslam, 8/15/04) v Rey Mysterio (WWE Judgment Day, 5/22/05) v Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown!, 6/23/05) v Rey Mysterio (WWE Great American Bash, 7/24/05) v Batista (WWE No Mercy, 10/9/05)

Cool, glad they might be useful to somebody! Also, while I'm here: Herodes I mentioned this in the #100 thread, but Herodes right now might be mine. In some ways he's a bit of a Mexican Arn Anderson who will go from total stooge to a burly bastard that'll just stomp your head in. At times - at least in the early 90s - he almost comes off as a comedy act as he leans so far into being a complete buffoon, but he always flips it and reminds you that once upon a time this guy might've been the sort of enforcer you would not fuck with. And on that note, Herodes could brawl like a motherfucker and the Salazar match is a bloodthirsty vampire's dream. Tony Salazar v Herodes (EMLL, 3/2/84) Herodes, El Faraon & Mocho Cota v Lizmark, Ringo Mendoza & Tony Salazar (2/24/84) Herodes, Emilio Charles Jr & Espectro Jr v Ringo Mendoza, Kung Fu & Popitekus (CMLL, 2/4/90)

Rey was my number 16 in 2016 and I'm still happy with that. It's actually been a minute since I've watched any Rey, so if I binged a bunch of his stuff next week he could just as easily shoot into my working top 10. I would probably agree with the idea that he's the best TV match wrestler ever, or at worst he's in the discussion. He had a formula he could plug anyone into for any length of time he had to work with, though that doesn't mean I think he was formulaic in the sense that he was any more repetitive than most wrestlers who worked a million TV matches over the last 20 years. Obviously one of the best babyfaces ever. The AAA and WCW runs had some good stuff and some amazing stuff, though it's been a long time since I watched any of the former. I'd also agree that his best run as a complete worker was in WWE, even though he was by no means some spot monkey scrub before that. The 619, the setup to it, some of the kinda-sorta contrived stuff he did in WWE; none that bothers me. If anything I actually think the way he clearly tried to fit the 619 into his matches in plausible fashion is a feather in his cap. Whether you think those attempts were successful or not is a different story, but I've never bought this idea that he would lazily set that move up or have his opponents lie around for it just because it needed to be a part of his matches (and I don't really blame him specifically for that last part anyway). Rey/Eddie is also one of my personal top 5 match-ups in wrestling history and he gets bonus points for having one of the very best matches in the history of two separate companies with the same wrestler (Eddie gets those bonus points as well). REY MYSTERIO YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/El Hijo del Santo, Octagon & La Parka v Blue Panther, Psicosis, Pentagon & Fuerza Guerrera (AAA, 6/18/95) v Psicosis (AAA, 9/22/95) v Eddy Guerrero (WCW Halloween Havoc, 10/26/97) v Kurt Angle (WWE Summerslam, 8/25/02) v Brock Lesnar (WWE Smackdown!, 12/11/03) v Eddie Guerrero (WWE Smackdown!, 3/18/04) v Chavo Guerrero (WWE Great American Bash, 6/27/04) v Eddie Guerrero (WWE Judgment Day, 5/22/06) v Eddie Guerrero (WWE Smackdown!, 6/23/05) w/Batista v MNM (WWE Smackdown!, 12/23/05) v Mark Henry (WWE Smackdown!, 1/20/06) v Randy Orton (WWE Smackdown!, 4/7/06) v JBL (WWE Judgment Day, 5/21/06) v John Cena (WWE RAW, 7/26/11) v Low-Ki (JAPW, 11/14/15)

I had Fujinami at number 17 in 2016 and I figure he'll be about there again in 2026. I think we're pretty well past the idea that Fujinami wasn't any good in the 90s, but even still, his case is predominantly made in the 80s (and maybe even the 70s more than the 90s) and by christ was Fujinami amazing in the 80s. There's no point repeating what's already been said in this thread, but he was a great singles, tag and multi-man wrestler. A great mat worker. A great juniors ace and a great heavyweight ace. An outstanding babyface. A metric fucking boatload of good matches. One of the 10 best wrestlers from Japan, one of the 20 best wrestlers from anywhere. TATSUMI FUJINAMI YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Mando Guerrero (LA, 8/11/78) v Ryuma Go (New Japan, 11/30/78) v Dynamite Kid (New Japan, 2/5/80) v Riki Choshu (New Japan, 4/3/83) w/Antonio Inoki, Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kengo Kimura v Riki Choshu, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Kuniaki Kobayashi (New Japan, 4/19/84) w/Antonio Inoki, Kengo Kimura, Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki (New Japan, 3/26/86) v Akira Maeda (New Japan, 6/12/86) v Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 1/2/87) v Antonio Inoki (New Japan, 8/8/88) w/Keiichi Yamada, Shiro Koshinaka, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kengo Kimura v Hiro Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Super Strong Machine, Masa Saito & Riki Choshu (New Japan, 9/12/88) v Vader (New Japan, 4/24/89) w/Takayuki Iizuka v Steiner Brothers (WCW WrestleWar, 5/27/92) w/Masa Chono v Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara (New Japan, 7/14/93) v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 6/5/98) v Osamu Nishimura (MUGA, 9/25/06)

I had Ikeda at number 18 in 2016 and that'll probably be about where he ends up in 2026 as well (maybe a couple spots higher next time). He's one of the greatest ass-kickers in history and the rivalry with Ishikawa is amazing. I already talked a bit about Ikeda in this thread so there's no point going over that again, but he's probably one of my five favourite Japanese wrestlers ever and I should properly jump into more of that NOAH run. DAISUKE IKEDA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG, 8/12/95) w/Takeshi Ono v Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts, 10/30/96) w/Katsumi Usuda v Takeshi Ono & Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts, 1/21/97) v Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts, 11/5/97) v Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts, 5/27/98) v Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts, 8/29/99) v Tamon Honda (NOAH, 9/1/01) v Yuki Ishikawa (FUTEN, 4/24/05) w/Katsumi Usuda & Super Tiger II v Yuki Ishikawa, Alexander Otsuka & Munenori Sawa (Battlarts, 7/26/08) w/Takeshi Ono v Manabu Suruga & Takahiro Oba (FUTEN, 4/9/09) v White Moriyama (FUTEN, 4/22/10) v Takeshi Ono (FUTEN, 9/26/10) w/Takahiro Oba v Makoto Hashi & Kengo Mashimo (FUTEN, 10/24/10) w/Takeshi Ono v Hikaru Sato & Kengo Mashimo (FUTEN, 1/22/12) v Yuki Ishikawa (wXw, 3/7/20)

I should've put at least something from the Murakami feud on that list. Because yeah, that shit was awesome and the singles match from 2000 rules (the 2001 match is good too, but not quite at the same level).

I had Ishikawa at number 19 in 2016, but I think he makes my top 10 next time. It's not that I've necessarily learned anything new about him in the last five years; I think he's awesome now for the same reasons I thought he was awesome in 2016, it's just his volume of great matches and performances keeps going up with every new match of his that I watch. He was still amazing as of last year, so he has crazy longevity. The eternal Ikeda rivalry is obviously incredible and I'd put it up there with Tenryu/Hashimoto Lawler/Dundee, Santo/Casas, basically any all-time legendary match-up in wrestling history. Could probably count on one hand the number of wrestlers who are more - or even as - compelling when taking a beating than Ishikawa, but the real beauty of Ishikawa is how he can flip it and be the dirtiest mauling bastard on the planet just as effectively. I guess how high you'll consider ranking him will hinge on how much you like the Battlarts/FUTEN style of wrestling. If you love it then he's a top 10 contender all day. YUKI ISHIKAWA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Kazuo Takahashi (PWFG, 7/27/97) v Carl Greco (PWFG, 6/1/93) v Bart Vale (PWFG, 7/21/93) v Duane Koslowski (PWFG, 9/23/93) w/Katsumi Usuda v Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (Battlarts, 4/14/96) w/Alexander Otsuka v Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono (Battlart, 10/30/96) w/Takeshi Ono v Daisuke Ikeda & Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts, 1/21/97) v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 5/27/98) v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 8/29/99) v Takeshi Ono (Battlarts, 6/18/00) v Daisuke Ikeda (FUTEN, 4/24/05) v Hiroyuki Ito (Big Mouth Loud, 4/19/06) v Carl Greco (Battlarts, 6/1/08) w/Alexander Otsuka & Munenori Sawa v Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda & Super Tiger II (Battlarts, 7/16/08) v Daisuke Ikeda (wXw, 3/7/20)

I legitimately think every single Volk Han match I've ever seen - and I've seen nearly all of them - are worth watching for at least SOMETHING he does, so I agree with that.

Santo was my number 20 in 2016, which is probably about where he'll land again next time. I get the point about formula, but I'm with everyone saying he might be the best formula wrestler ever, and I'm not against wrestlers using a match formula anyhow. And besides that, it's not like you can formula your way into being one of the best mat workers in lucha libre history. A stupidly graceful wrestler who could brawl and bleed like a total freakshow bastard, so you get the best of both worlds with Santo. Laundry list of great matches, from singles to trios, title matches to apuestas, over the course of four decades. EL HIJO DEL SANTO YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Atlantis v Fuerza Guerrera & Lobo Rubio (EMLL, 11/25/83) v Espanto Jr. (Monterrey, 8/31/86) w/Eddie Guerrero v Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Gimnasio Josue Neri Santos, 1987) v Negro Casas (Los Angeles, 7/18/87) v Espanto Jr. (UWA, 4/10/88) v Brazo de Oro (UWA, 1/13/91) v Negro Casas (WWA, 5/17/91) v Espanto Jr. (UWA, 5/14/92) w/Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr v El Dandy, Negro Casas & Hector Garza (CMLL, 11/29/96) v Negro Casas v El Dandy (CMLL, 12/6/96) v Negro Casas (CMLL, 9/19/97) v Felino (Monterrey, 10/18/98) v Blue Panther (Monterrey, 4/9/00) v LA Park (Monterrey, 12/23/01) w/Villano IV v El Hijo del Solitario & Angel Blanco Jr (TXT, 2/25/12)

Han was my number 21 in 2016 and I'm okay with that. He might even climb a few spots into the top 20 next time, but I can't see him dropping any at the least. I can see why his number of career matches being so low (relatively speaking for pro-wrestling, anyway) might limit how high some people can put him, but it's not as if he only has a handful of them. Plus, we have footage of literally every single one that he did have, so from that perspective we can judge him pretty much completely in a way we can't for the vast majority of wrestlers, and I feel pretty good about saying I've never seen an actively poor Volk Han performance. Not one, not his very first, not his very last, not one in between (though I haven't seen ALL of them yet so I guess I'll hold off on committing to that statement?). A god of matwork but also a game and sort of underappreciated striker, especially when he went to his favourite spinning backfist, and nobody could sell a gut shot like Han either. He was also an amazing carny at heart because he'd whip out all of these ludicrous hapkido throws through joint-manipulation and pressure points and somehow made all of them look plausible. Han was one of a kind. VOLK HAN YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Akira Maeda (RINGS, 12/7/91) v Gennadi Gigant (RINGS, 3/5/92) v Akira Maeda (RINGS, 4/3/92) v Andrei Kopylov (RINGS, 7/16/92) v Dick Vrij (RINGS, 8/21/92) v Mitsuya Nagain (RINGS, 4/24/93) v Dick Vrij (RINGS, 7/13/93) v Nikolai Zouev (RINGS, 11/18/93) v Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 12/14/94) v Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 4/28/95) v Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 6/17/95) v Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 8/24/96) v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 9/25/96) v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 1/22/97) v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 9/26/97)

His trailer park karate bit with Smothers at the 1990 Great American Bash is also the apex of bullshit martial arts bits in wrestling history. I will once again be considering Lane for a spot on the ballot come 2026.

I had Kobashi at number 22 in 2016. He'll most likely drop a bit in 2026, but not too far. I'd guess he'll finish around the #30 spot rather than the #20 spot. Look, I have nothing new to add on Kobashi at this stage of the game. People much smarter than me have written many millions of words about him for the last 20-odd years. He's great but not a favourite and he has some tendencies that I don't like, but at the end of the day he probably has as many great matches on tape as anybody in the history of wrestling. He's Kobashi and you know the drill. KENTA KOBASHI YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Jumbo Tsuruta v Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen (All Japan, 7/15/89) w/Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada v Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (All Japan, 10/19/90) v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 9/4/91) w/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi v Cam-Am Express (All Japan, 5/25/92) v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 7/29/93) w/Mitsuharu Misawa v Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (All Japan, 12/3/93) w/Mitsuharu Misawa v Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (All Japan, 5/21/94) w/Mitsuharu Misawa v Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (All Japan, 6/9/95) v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 1/20/97) v Jun Akiyama (All Japan, 7/24/98) w/Jun Akiyama v Stan Hansen & Vader (All Japan, 12/5/98) v Tamon Honda (NOAH, 4/13/03) v Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH, 4/25/04) w/Go Shiozaki v Genichiro Tenryu & Jun Akiyama (NOAH, 4/25/05) v Kensuke Sasaki (NOAH, 7/18/05)

I had Steamboat at 23 in 2016, and that's probably a little higher than he'll finish in 2026, but he's still Steamboat and still awesome and still arguably the greatest long-time babyface in US wrestling history. I'm kind of surprised that some of his goofier selling has never really bothered me, but it hasn't and I rarely find it hammy. Or at least too hammy, I guess. Even if it's over the top I can get a kick out of Steamboat EMOTING all day. An amazing face in peril and a bit of an underrated hot tag, plus he has one or two decent singles matches on his resume as well. The WWF run that was maybe right in his prime probably wasn't as good as it would've been had he stayed in Crockett, but I like the Jake feud a lot and the Savage stuff is great. The Japan run has some good stuff, but is probably a bit disappointing on the whole. Retired as one of the best wrestlers in America; maybe the world. Doesn't have as effective karate as Stan Lane but I suppose it's not a big deal. RICKY STEAMBOAT YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Jay Youngblood v Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle (JCP, 3/12/83) v Tully Blanchard (JCP Starrcade, 11/22/84) v Jake Roberts (WWF, 6/27/86) v Randy Savage (WWF, 2/14/87) w/Eddie Gilbert v Ric Flair & Barry Windham (NWA World Championship Wrestling, 1/21/89) v Ric Flair (NWA Chi-Town Rumble, 2/20/89) v Ric Flair (NWA Clash of the Champions VI, 4/2/89) v Terry Funk (NWA Clash of the Champions VII, 6/14/89) v Lex Luger (NWA Great American Bash, 7/23/89) w/Dustin Rhodes v Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko (WCW Clash of the Champions XVII, 11/19/91) w/Dustin Rhodes & Nikita Koloff v Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko (WCW Saturday Night, 5/23/92) v Rick Rude (WCW Beach Blast, 6/20/92) v Steve Austin (WCW Clash of the Champions XX, 9/2/92) w/Shane Douglas v Hollywood Blonds (WCW Clash of the Champions XXII, 1/13/93) v Steven Regal (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/19/93)

Bryan was my number 24 in 2016 and I'm pretty happy with that, though I'd guess that next time he maybe cracks the top 20. Many people in this very thread have covered him and why he's good. He'll probably be the overall number 1 in 2026 and I don't really have any complaints about that. He's never been a personal favourite and there are periods - or at least highly-regarded matches - from his career that I'm not too high on, but for every 60-minute draw with Colt Cabana there's a Low-Ki match where they do maybe the best US mat wrestling ever. He also has a pretty okay resume of good wrestling matches, if that sort of thing matters to you. DANIEL BRYAN YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Low-Ki (ROH Round Robin Challenge, 3/30/02) v Low-Ki (JAPW, 6/7/02) v Paul London (ROH Epic Encounter, 4/12/03) v AJ Styles (ROH Main Event Spectacles, 11/1/03) w/Samoa Joe v Austin Aries & Jack Evans (ROH Third Anniversary Celebration: Night 2, 2/25/05) w/Jay Lathal v Austin Aries & Roderick Strong (ROH Tag Wars 2006, 1/27/06) v Samoa Joe (ROH Fight of the Century, 8/5/06) v Necro Butcher (PWG, Giant-Sized Annual #4, 7/29/07) v Takeshi Morishima (ROH Manhattan Mayhem II, 8/25/07) v Nigel McGuinness (ROH Sixth Anniversary Show, 2/23/08) w/Kane & Ryback v The Shield (WWE TLC, 12/16/12) v HHH (WWE Wrestlemania 30, 4/6/14) v Brock Lesnar (WWE Survivor Series, 11/18/18) v Kofi Kingston (WWE Wrestlemania 35, 4/7/19) v Drew Gulak (WWE Elimination Chamber, 3/8/20)

Sangre Chicana, Fabuloso Blondy & Satanico v Perro Aguayo, Lizmark & Ringo Mendoza (CMLL, 6/8/90) This whole thing was great. Maybe as an actual match it was only really good, but I don't think it was ever intended to be great *as a match*. For a match-slash-angle that set up a bunch of other things though, it was pretty fantastic. It had lots of great STUFF in it. It had several great performances. I don't know man, it was fucking great in one way or another and you can figure out which way that might've been at your leisure. There's a decent bit of history here that will enrich the experience if you're aware of it, like Satanico and Chicana being on the same team despite trying to kill each other the previous year, or that Chicana and Perro have been at each other's throats for years, but even if you DON'T know all of that stuff they do a pretty decent job spelling out the important parts. Satanico being amazing doesn't hurt either. He was outstanding in this and got to show a little bit of everything he's great at (which is a lot). The main takeaway is that El Satanico is, forever has been, and forever will be his own man. Even with the Infernales there was a sense the group was made in his image, maybe evident by the fact he was the constant through its several incarnations. Here he was teaming with two guys he clearly didn't care for, but not necessarily because his philosophical approach to wrestling was diametrically opposed to theirs. There are probably similarities between Satanico and Chicana even if you'd need to dig below the surface a little. You just know that above all else Satanico's a warrior. There's no such thing as a fight he'll shy away from and we saw that in the primera. His exchange with Ringo was brief, but it was a proper wrestling exchange and for thirty seconds there it was everything you wanted. When Blondy came in to throw a chapshot you could see that Satanico wasn't best pleased. Then Perro wanted a go and neither Chicana nor Blondy were in the mood to give him one, so Satanico stepped in and basically told everyone else to fuck off out the way. That he followed it up by dropping Perro with a hook and beating his chest triumphantly was pretty much perfect. After his side drop the first fall you can see him shift gears. In the primera, when Chicana or Blondy looked for him to get in on a mugging he wasn't interested, almost dismissive of the need to even go there. Then early in the segunda Chicana grabs Ringo and Satanico doesn't even hesitate. There was nothing underhanded about it, really. It didn't feel cheap and it's not like he wouldn't have hit him if Chicana wasn't holding him, but sometimes needs must and Satanico is a competitor to the end. The finish - or the ending, I guess - ruled. Satanico and Lizmark are in together and Lizmark is up top in the corner, then Blondy shakes the ropes and Lizmark takes a scary fall on his neck. Satanico immediately checks on him and it's clear straight away that Lizmark can't continue. Then all hell breaks loose. Ringo and Perro start fighting with each other, then Blondy sides with Perro so Chicana sides with Ringo because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Fittingly, Satanico removes himself from the fracas and tends to Lizmark, a man above such petty quarrels at this stage of the game. Beyond the Satanico stuff there was lots to like about this. Chicana wasn't all that interested in going at it with Perro but on the occasions he did it was awesome. His running dropkick at the intros, some of the punches, the way the crowd were hyped for all of it - I don't think it led to a hair match but I can only guess they'd have packed out Arena Mexico again if it did. Blondy was a hoot in this as well, just bumping and stooging to the back row and being a slimy prick. And Ringo got to do his thing, which will always be fun. Not really a showcase Sangre Chicna performance, but a great bit of wrestling all in all. Villano III, Gran Hamada & Eddie Guerrero v Shu el Guerrero, Scorpio & Scorpio Jr. (UWA, 6/5/92) This was good fun. I've watched a couple Scorpio Sr. matches recently and I'm not sure how good he is, but he captures an aura of scumbag rudo pretty well. The first fall was largely a rudo beatdown as they tried to rid Villano of his mask. In the segunda the tecnicos come roaring back and Villano tries to bludgeon all of them with a stick. The rudo stooging and chickenshitting was pretty fun, and in fairness to them if I'd tried to steal Villano's mask and he came at me with a big stick looking for revenge I'd probably bolt as well. Eddie was the perfect flier for his role here, getting major height on springboards and hitting everything gracefully. There was one headscissors that I'm pretty sure was half a botch, but he managed to turn it into a gorgeous takedown and then later one of his armdrags was sensational. There was also this great moment in the tercera where Shu, who'd had his mask torn by Villano, tried to scurry away from him, begging off on the floor, so Eddie shifted the remnants of his mask aside and casually poked him in the eye. I can't imagine there are too many Eddie Guerrero matches readily available out there that I haven't seen by now, so it's cool to come across one that gets decent time and delivers the goods.

The background part to Murdoch/Kox is cool as fuck. I had never really read into their rivalry before but now I want to see every single bullrope, blindfold and Texas death match they ever had in the 70s. Maybe some day a couple will show up...

I've felt this way for a while now as well. Like, I watched the 6/85 match with Terry Taylor a few years back and I didn't LOVE it, but I did love the stretch of the match where he got fed up with Taylor and tried to clean his clock. There was nothing underhanded about it, he just beat the brakes off him and the shift from him begging off earlier was completely convincing. He'll often have brief spells in matches where he rises above the hubris and looks like a total killer and they're routinely my favourite parts of Flair matches. It's why I like him so much as a Garvin opponent, because the majority of their matches are like that, but over the course of the whole match rather than a short segment of it. Then there's the Funk matches from '89 that are my favourite Flair matches ever. Flair in full "fuck it" mode is the very best. And psychotic old man Flair working ECW brawls was a hoot. (Of course I understand why he never worked like that every time)

I had Flair at number 25 in 2016 and I'd guess he'll be about there again in 2026. Many, many words about Flair have been written on this board. Many, many words have been spoken about him in 12-hour podcast series. He had lots of good wrestling matches and I have nothing new to add on the man. RIC FLAIR YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Angelo Mosca v Greg Valentine & Hussein Arab (Maple Leaf Wrestling, 9/6/80) v Kerry Von Erich (WCCW, 8/15/82) v Chris Adams (WCCW, 2/3/84) v Ricky Steamboat (JCP Boogie Jam, 3/17/84) v Jake Roberts (Mid-South, 11/24/85) v Ron Garvin (JCP World Championship Wrestling, 12/28/85) v Ricky Morton (JCP, 7/5/86) v Barry Windham (JCP WorldWide, 1/20/87) v Lex Luger (NWA Starrcade, 12/26/88) v Ricky Steamboat (NWA Chi-Town Rumble, 2/20/89) v Ricky Steamboat (NWA Clash of the Champions VI, 4/2/89) v Terry Funk (NWA Great American Bash, 7/23/89) v Terry Funk (NWA Clash of the Champions IX, 11/15/89) w/Barry Windham, Larry Zbyszko & Sid Vicious v Sting, Brian Pillman & The Steiner Brothers (WCW WrestleWar, 2/24/91) v Mick Foley (WWE Summerslam, 8/20/06)

I had Dundee at 26 in 2016, which I'm not kicking myself over, but he's probably more likely to land in that 30-40 range next time. Or, you know, I go on a Lawler v Dundee binge and he ends up 20 spots higher. I get the knock that he never had any amazing stuff with someone other than Lawler, but to some extent I think the fact he had SO MUCH awesome stuff with Lawler even it up a bit. Sure, it would've been cool if he had a Dutch Mantel or an Austin Idol, but it is what it is. The four or five amazing Lawler matches are still amazing matches, and it's not like they're all the exact same. Dundee is also an unbelievable 'little things' wrestler and I put a ton of stock in that. Great tag wrestler (sneaky great Mid-South run with Terry Daniels and then Dutch), arguably the best studio match wrestler ever, almost certainly the best scaffold match wrestler ever. He's the Superstar and he ruled. BILL DUNDEE YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 8/22/77) v Tony Charles (Memphis, 6/16/79) v Tojo Yamamoto & Wayne Farris (Memphis, 3/7/81) v Sweet Brown Sugar (Memphis, 6/21/82) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 6/6/83) w/Terry Daniels v Dirty White Boys (Mid-South, 5/11/85) w/Dutch Mantel v The Fantastics (Mid-South, 9/22/85) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 12/30/85) w/Buddy Landell v Jerry Lawler & Dutch Mantel (Memphis, 3/10/86) v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 7/14/86)

I had Jumbo at number 27 in 2016. He was someone I had a difficult time placing then and he's someone I'll probably have a difficult time placing in 2026. Part of it might because he's a bit of a boring pick now, even if I try not to let that colour my thinking. Part of it might be because there's some Jumbo himself that I find boring. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I've seen so much of him, similarly to guys like Flair and Liger and the 90s All Japan crowd, who were the first wrestlers I really sought out footage of when Scotland discovered the internet for the first time in the 2000s and I wound up on a wrestling message board and ruined my life with this stupid hobby. Those other guys have suffered as well, replaced by wrestlers I haven't watched to death for the last 15 years. So it's worth thinking about, I guess. On the other hand there's a bunch of Jumbo that I just don't like very much. Dylan was in this thread six years ago talking about how he'd rather take a hammer to his own testicles than watch Jumbo (perhaps he was being dramatic; I couldn't possibly speculate), and while I'm not quite as against the idea of watching Jumbo as that, I'd still just...kind of want to watch lots of other wrestlers instead. It's a pretty common talking point now that he was good as a rookie and then sort of inconsistent and then Choshu rocked up and lit a fire under him. I don't know if I'd really argue that he was inconsistent in the first half of the 80s, though. If anything I'd argue the opposite - it's just that he was consistent in working a house style that bores me to absolute tears. Unless Terry Funk or Stan Hansen is involved I really just can't be bothered with most pre-Choshu 80s All Japan. I would probably consider the testicle-hammer before watching any Jumbo v Flair matches again. No interest in watching Jumbo v Race. I've actually re-watched some of the 70s stuff over the last few years and I liked it more than I expected to, but I'm not sure Jumbo himself was *amazing* in that stretch (though can you knock the guy for not being the driving force of amazing matches three, four years into his career? That seems sort of harsh). That ~5-year period from 88-92 is fairly unimpeachable and if I'm being honest, the number of great matches he has in that run is probably longer than the number of great matches some of the people I had above him managed in their entire career. So if Great Match Output (or whatever the hell) is a big part of your criteria then Jumbo knocks it out the park (Parv has a list of many, many star ratings in Jumbo's favour somewhere in this very thread). I don't know. He's a guy who had an incredible high and I low that I probably find lower than a lot of people. He was better than Terry Taylor but maybe not better than Sangre Chicana. Prolly. JUMBO TSURUTA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Terry Funk (All Japan, 6/11/76) v Billy Robinson (All Japan, 3/5/77) v Nick Bockwinkel (Hawaii, 2/14/79) v Kerry Von Erich (All Japan, 5/22/84) w/Genichiro Tenryu v Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 1/26/86) v Genichiro Tenryu (All Japan, 6/5/89) v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 9/1/90) w/Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi v Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 4/20/91) w/Akira Taue v Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan, 11/29/91) w/Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi v Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 5/22/92)