KB8

I had Tito at 51 in 2016, and in hindsight that might be a bit high, but I don't regret it either. Like with many candidates proximity matters, and I watched a stack of Tito (and talked about it in this thread) before the last deadline, so he was fresh in the memory. I haven't watched much since then, but I'm not about to forget how good he was. I stand by the idea that he was better at showing a palpable sense of hatred or "babyface fire" (sort of a nebulous term, I know, but I think most people get the gist of what I mean) than many/just about all of his contemporaries. I said it five years ago, but I would have him above Martel and Steamboat in that regard without too much thought. He was a really good tag wrestler and pretty great in a brawl, which the Valentine matches KIND OF were even when they technically weren't (i.e. they kicked fuck out each other) and a couple of the Savage matches definitely were. I'm hyped about finally watching the Bockwinkel match from Houston and I should probably check to see if any substantial AWA stuff has surfaced since the DVDVR set. Tito ruled, man. TITO SANTANA YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Rick Martel v High Flyers (AWA, 8/29/82) v Greg Valentine (WWF 1/21/85) w/Ricky Steamboat v Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake (WWF, 4/21/85) v Randy Savage (WWF 4/21/86) v Mr. Perfect (WWF Saturday Night's Main Event, 7/28/90)

I had Otsuka at 52 in 2016 and he'll likely move into that top half in 2026. Probably my least favourite of the four Battlarts godkings (Ishikawa/Ikeda/Otsuka/Ono), but then that's like saying he's the least favourite of my four children (I have no children but I assume I would love them all very much and in actual fact probably wouldn't have a "least favourite" at all?). He's probably one of the most unique wrestlers ever, and while I get that some people might find him sort of kooky, especially for a shoot style or shoot style hybrid promotion, there's something about him in Battlarts that just feels right. I'm still not sure I've actually seen that Matsunaga match. ALEXANDER OTSUKA YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono (Battlarts, 10/30/96) v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 11/5/97) v Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts, 1/20/98) v Naoyuki Taira (Battlarts, 5/11/00) w/Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa v Daisuke Ikeda, Super Tiger II & Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 7/26/08)

I had Benoit at number 53 in 2016. I voted for him because I thought he was a great wrestler for parts of his career, and great at a number of aspects of pro wrestling. I don't really have a ton of interest in revisiting much of that stuff, though, and I certainly have no objection to people not voting for him on moral grounds. I don't really have a whole lot else to say about him at this point.

I'm glad you brought Reed up, because he was my number 54 in 2016 and if anything I'd vote him even higher next time. Cards on the table, Reed is one of my three favourite wrestlers of all time. I probably voted him lower in 2016 than I wanted to but at the same time didn't want to give him too much of a favourite bump. I've re-watched most of the stuff from the Mid-South set since the last poll and there's been plenty of stuff from the Houston footage to bolster his case. He was also really fun as far back as 1981 working studio matches in Georgia, which I'd never seen prior to 2016 either. Same goes for that Flair match from Florida. Then there are things like the Blackwell match from St. Louis, the Doom run, one or two high points during an admittedly disappointing WWF run (and I wouldn't argue with anyone who dings him for that run as a whole) and he has a pretty strong resume of quality work. To elliot's point as well, he has versatility to his case. He'll have a 45-minute traditional NWA Title style bout with Murdoch, an ACTUAL 60-minute NWA Title match with Flair (that I don't love but I know some do), a dog collar with with Buzz Sawyer, an established heel powerhouse v plucky babyface underdog match against Skip Young, work as big bully heel in a tag or babyface house o' fire, can brawl, work in and out of holds, bump like a motherfucker, etc. Reed was the business. Here's ten recs because fuck it. BUTCH REED YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Jerry Blackwell (St. Louis, 11/28/82) w/Jim Neidhart v Magnum TA & Mr. Wrestling II (Mid-South, 12/25/83) v Tito Santana (Houston, 1/13/84) v Junkyard Dog (Houston, 6/22/84) v Dick Murdoch (Mid-South, 9/22/85) v Dick Murdoch (Mid-South, 10/14/85) v Dick Slater (Houston, 11/22/85) v Buzz Sawyer (Houston, 12/31/85) w/Ron Simmons (WCW Clash of the Champions 10, 2/6/90) w/Ron Simmons v Arn Anderson & Barry Windham (WCW Starrcade, 12/16/90)

I had Michaels - ol' HBK, the ol' Showstopper and Main Event and Mr. Wrestlemania and all that other carry on - at number 55 in 2016, which will either be about 300 spots too high or 54 spots too low depending on who you ask. I like Michaels. I said it, I meant it, I'm here to represent it. I became a wrestling fan in the early 90s and the first proper event I have vivid memories of watching is the 1992 Royal Rumble. Maybe my earliest memory, period, is Shawn launching Marty Jannetty through a window, and from then on out I was a stupid huge dork for Shawn Michaels. I watched the ladder match at Wrestlemania 10 that my grandfather taped for me and I flipped at what I was seeing. I watched the Royal Rumble 1995 the morning after it happened, with no sound because our video recorder was a bucket of shit, and I flipped when he won the whole thing from number 1. I ran home from school to watch Wrestlemania 12 and I flipped when he won the belt. He was my favourite wrestler as a kid and even if I didn't want to be a stripper I absolutely wanted to be the WWF champion. Plus the superkick was just cool as fuck. But then scant few of you give a shit about any of that and that time he kipped up without selling 40 minutes of back work is enough for you to disregard my childhood memories. And as I head towards my mid-30s and impending decrepitude I can't say I blame you. I wouldn't really consider him a favourite anymore. I understood the criticisms of him even as a wide-eyed youngster posting on message boards for the first time, and many of those criticisms I've agreed with for a long time now, even if they don't really bother me. The kip up doesn't really bother me. His insufferable persona throughout the 90s doesn't really bother me. His knife edge chops were kind of crummy but they don't really bother me. Most of the post-comeback run I can sort of do without, to be honest. In fact, one of the things I'd like to do before the next deadline is give that stuff a shot again. But I voted for him the last time because he has a bunch of matches I love - including my favourite match ever, against Mankind at In Your House - and I think for all the sticks you can beat him with, he was an outstanding tag wrestler and a part of my favourite tag team ever. He was a lunatic bumper, even into his 70s or whatever age he was when he did that screwball moonsault into the table at Wrestlemania 24. His terrible (so terrible) acting at least made me laugh a few times. But mostly he had the matches that I love and he was my favourite as a kid. So he gets on the list and stays on the list. Thank you for your time. SHAWN MICHAELS YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Marty Jannetty v Buddy Rose & Doug Somers (AWA, 8/30/86) w/Marty Jannetty v Buddy Rose & Doug Somers (AWA, 12/25/86) w/Marty Jannetty v Power of Pain (WWF, 1/15/90) w/Marty Jannetty v The Orient Express (WWF Royal Rumble, 1/19/91) w/Diesel v Razor Ramon & 123 Kid (WWF Action Zone, 10/30/94) v Jeff Jarrett (WWF In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks, 7/23/95) v Diesel (WWF In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies, 4/28/96) w/Steve Austin v Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (WWF RAW, 5/26/97) v Mankind (WWF In Your House 10: Mind Games, 9/22/96) v Shelton Benjamin (WWE RAW, 5/2/05)

I had Fuchi at number 56 in 2016. He probably won't be as high next time, but he won't drop off the list just because he brings so much of what I love in wrestling even within a style I'm sort of over at this stage of the game. Basically, Fuchi brings the greatest aspects of angry disgruntled torturous lumpy wee old bastard WAR to the pristine All Japan. It's obviously a shame that he never had much of a singles run during the 90s, but I'm okay with the trade-off of having him in those tags and six-mans in the early part of the decade. You could always rely on Fuchi to be the one to just punch someone with the point of his knuckles dead in the nose, then mash those knuckles into that nose just to make sure it's properly broken. A spectacular cheapshotting prick of a man, and as he grew older and the younger heavyweights started to pass him by I love that he almost turned that into a means of generating sympathy. What else could he do against Kobashi BUT punch him in the eye or kick him in the throat? The run after the All Japan exodus is one of my favourite returns to form ever, as he more or less comes out of retirement to fight for the honour of All Japan against Chono, Nagata and any other New Japan folk thrown at him. I don't even like that 12/00 tag all that much but Fuchi coming in and standing on Nagata's face was one of the best moments of the decade. No matter how outmatched, Fuchi was the definition of first man into the breach. He's also involved in a couple Tenryu tags early in the 00s and at least one is sensational (I'll rec it down below). Part of me selfishly wishes he left All Japan with Tenryu to form SWS, as even though he wouldn't have been there for those aforementioned All Japan tags and six-mans, he WOULD have been there for WAR v New Japan and I can say with decent confidence that he would've been unbelievable in something like that. And yeah, the Memphis run was a hoot. Actually fuck it, 56 might've been too low. MASA FUCHI YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Mitsuo Momota (All Japan, 3/29/89) w/Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura v Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Ricky Fuyuki (All Japan, 9/24/89) w/Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue v Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 10/19/90) w/Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue v Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 4/20/91) v Genichiro Tenryu v Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya (All Japan, 6/30/01)

I had Aja at number 57 in 2016, which is probably too low, but I wouldn't put too much stock in any of my joshi picks from five years ago, because as a style (broad, I know) it'll be represented waaaaay differently in five years. Aja was always one of the joshi candidates that resonated most with me - as someone who had struggled a bit with joshi for over a decade - just because she did a number of things that I guess you'd call "outliers" stylistically. I've watched more joshi over the last year than I had in probably the previous twelve combined, and at this stage I'm not even sure how accurate that is, but I do think she's more accessible to people who otherwise don't love joshi at large. It's not even that I love joshi myself, I just feel like Aja stands out less now than she did before. All the things I liked about Aja before are still there, though. She's a wrecking ball and her peak was great. She has a shit load of good-to-great matches. She's more versatile than I think some would give her credit for. She's Aja Kong and I don't think there's a whole lot more than needs to be said about her. AJA KONG YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Bison Kimura v Manami Toyota & Esther Moreno (AJW, 4/29/91) v Yumiko Hotta (AJW, 1/24/94) v Manami Toyota (AJW, 11/20/94) v Meiko Satomura (GAEA, 9/15/99) v KAORU (GAEA, 2/13/00)

Anjoh was my number 58 in 2016 and honestly, I've watched enough new Anjoh in the last five years to put him higher next time. I absolutely love Anjoh and he's probably a top half guy for me at this point. In terms of shoot style workers who are great in a pro style setting he's not Fujiwara. He's not Maeda or maybe even Yamazaki, and if you're a Takada fan then there's another name. But he's a brilliant shoot style worker and even if he doesn't necessarily have a litany of amazing pro style matches, he certainly had all the tools to be great against guys like Chono and Tenryu. He was pretty much perfect for an inter-promotional feud, like has been mentioned already. Basically every time he was involved in something like that there would be rabid heat. His douchebag charisma is practically second to none and he had some of the best obnoxious pouty facial expressions ever. With Anjoh there was also always that lingering sense that he might get pissed off about something innocuous and the match would take a turn for the unpleasant. It helps that he has a handful of shoot style matches that are some of the best ever in the style. YOJI ANJOH YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Masakatsu Funaki (UWF, 6/14/89) v Kiyoshi Tamura (UWFi, 7/3/91) w/Kazuo Yamazaki v Gary Albright & Jim Boss (UWFi, 1/9/92) v Naoki Sano (UWFi, 8/13/93) v Genichiro Tenryu (WAR, 7/21/96)

I had the Hitman at number 59 in 2016. I'll probably have him lower in 2026, but he was very good at the professional wrestling and has lots of very good professional wrestling matches. He had excellent stompy punches and his backbreaker was very tidy. I like the pink and black colour scheme. I've long since felt the need to type many words about Bret Hart. BRET HART YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Owen Hart (WWF Wrestlemania 10, 3/20/94) v 123 Kid (WWF RAW, 7/11/94) v Steve Austin (WWF Survivor Series, 11/17/96) v Steve Austin (WWF Wrestlemania 13, 3/29/97) w/Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Jim Neidhart & Davey Boy Smith v Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, Hawk & Animal (WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede, 7/6/97)

Park was my number 60 in 2016, and like elliot that feels low to me now. He's bolstered his case since the last deadline as well by being the best brawler on earth for a minute there, working insane bloodbath spectacles with Rush in arenas where nobody is allowed to work insane bloodbath spectacles anymore (including them, which made it even better). His versatility is a huge plus for him, going from being a wonderful shtick-heavy rudo to the brawler we know him as today, all while finding time in the middle to work title matches with Dandy (what's the date on the Ultimo Guerrero match mentioned in this thread, btw? Their September '04 match is fun but it's pretty short and left me wanting something more). An exceptional trios worker and the stint in WCW is really enjoyable, even if you watch it thinking they should've done way more with him. One of the all-time great apuestas match workers ever. And the cool thing about Park from a personal standpoint is that there's still a decent handful of his highly regarded work that I need to see. Also he has like three matches that I could be talked into calling the best AAA match ever. So that's pretty neat. LA PARK YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Octagon, Rey Misterio Jr. & El Hijo del Santo v Pentagon, Blue Panther, Psicosis & Fuerza Guerrera (AAA, 6/18/95) v El Hijo del Santo (Monterrey, 12/23/01) v El Mesias (AAA, 6/18/11) v Dr. Wagner Jr. (TXT, 5/11/13) v Rush (Liga Elite, 7/14/16)

I had Jerry Estrada at number 61 in 2016, and on the surface that feels nonsensically high, but I'm not about to make a liar of myself and say I regret that for a single second, or that I won't just end up talking myself into having him this high again in 2026. I'm also not about to sit and tell you a story of how Estrada, along with Eddie Guerrero, El Dandy and El Hijo del Santo, is one of the people who became my proper gateway to lucha. I could tell that story and it would be true, because he was every bit as important as the other three in that, but I don't want it to sound like I only voted Estrada so high because of some nostalgia factor. Really I just love watching Jerry Estrada and his brand of absolute horse shit nonsense. He's a man who clearly gave not one fuck about anything, and I find that level of wanton disregard to be damn near inspirational. There are clearly times where he's stumbled into the arena already wearing his ring gear from the night or week before, clearly unfit for purpose, can barely run the ropes, and yet I find it mesmerising. Maybe that says more about me than I'd like to admit, but there are enough Estrada matches that I love for me to spend too much time arguing with myself over it. I love him in trios, whether he's the lead player or a bit part player, because inevitably he'll leave his scummy mark on everything and the match will usually be seedier (better) for it. When he hasn't pumped himself full of cocaine or whatever else he pumps himself full of he's even capable of having an awesome traditional title match. And I know OJ loves his apuesta matches, but I think I might love them even more, even if Estrada is probably too fucked up during every single one of them to actually register what's at stake. Maybe the greatest deliverer of a whiskey-fuelled tope outside of Sangre Chicana. Also, my favourite spot in wrestling is when Estrada tries to walk along the apron and falls flat on his face on the floor, and part of the reason why is because I'm never actually sure if he means it. Jerry Estrada is not for everyone, but by god Jerry Estrada is for me. JERRY ESTRADA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Ultraman (EMLL, 3/2/84) v Javier Cruz (EMLL, 11/5/89) v La Fiera (Monterrey, 1991) w/La Parka & El Satanico v Lizmark, Octagon & Mascara Sagrada (AAA, 6/4/93) v Lizmark (AAA, 6/18/93)

This was building to the Remo Banda/Comando Ruso hair match, and I can say they all did their job splendidly. It's actually been a fun feud whenever it's been showcased up to now, going from something in January I wouldn't have been immediately interested in to something I now want to see the climax to. The whole match itself was one big tease of Ruso getting his comeuppance. He wanted no part of Banda to start with and refused to engage, immediately tagging when they wound up in the ring together. A couple times he just left the ring and scurried up the ramp. Of course he threw his cheapshots and was fine to step on Banda's neck whenever the latter was mid-exchange with someone else. Banda got more and more pissed, but the coolest part of this was how they flipped the payoff. Banda did get some measure of revenge, except he took it too early and by the end the rudos had coordinated a total mugging. They went after the arm hard and I thought Banda sold it remarkably well. Long-term limb selling isn't necessarily something I associate with lucha, but Banda would even switch up submission attempts because he couldn't use the bad arm properly, and he at least drew attention to the fact it was bothering him right until the finish. Maybe he needs to pick better partners next time because he was a man on an island by the end and the rudos couldn't have been any more emphatic in putting him away. It was a cool way to book things and I'm interested in where they go with him and Ruso next. Fuerza was Fuerza here. Where Ruso was determined to avoid Banda, Fuerza was similarly opposed to any interaction with Mogur. He got humiliated more than once and more than once it ended with him Fuerza Flopping in the corner (the evolution of the Flair Flop, if you will). At one point he also got bounced off the ropes from the apron and it pretty much reinforces how you can't not watch him at any point in a match. Hijo del Gladiator probably deserves a bit more talk as an awesome rudo stooge. He was a hoot in this and absolutely did not take a backseat to Fuerza in the shithead sweepstakes. I hope he gets a singles showcase at some point during the year.

I had Emilio at 62 in 2016 and I'm happy with that. I guess you can ding him for not having a bunch of high-end singles matches, but as far as rudo trios workers go I'm not sure you'll find anyone more more consistent. Plus he has his share of singles matches that I'd call at least really good (with a couple that are awesome), so he's not there based on the trios output alone. I think he's more an input guy, anyway. Whether he's leading a team (doesn't feel like that was the case very often, honestly) or the third man, he was almost always worth watching for one reason or another. He had the amazing stooging and shtick, but he could go when the situation called for a bit more decorum. He'd almost inevitably slip into habit, sometimes subtly, sometimes blatantly, but the moment he did was never a let-down. It's legit been over a decade since I watched any of his 1989 stuff, but I remember that being arguably his best year and I really should watch everything he did with Dandy all over again. He was still having decent stuff up to at least 2000, so he has a nice longevity case there even if it might be a little short by the real high-end lucha candidates' standards. EMILIO CHARLES JR. YOU SHOULD WATCH: v El Dandy (EMLL, 7/28/89) v El Dandy (EMLL, 12/1/89) v Angel Azteca (CMLL, 1/12/90) w/Jerry Estrada & Pirata Morgan v Salomon Grundy, Super Astro & El Satanico (CMLL, 3/9/90) v Atlantis (CMLL, 8/11/92)

I had the Hammer at number 63 in 2016 and I'm happy enough with that. That said, while we haven't had a TON of new Valentine footage over the last five years, some of what we've gotten has been amazing and could probably bump him a few spaces. The Piper feud is just incredible and the July '83 match is a legit classic to add to his resume. I've also re-watched the Starrcade match since the last poll and its gone from a top 50 match in US history to a top 10 match in US history so that as well might bump him up. The Slater cage match is a cool look at him as a babyface (and another great match into the bargain). None of the singles matches against babyface Flair from 1980 have blown me away, but there's a tag match with Valentine and Hussein Arab/Iron Sheik against Flair and Angelo Mosca from Toronto that's completely fucking awesome (though Flair was the star of it). Obviously the Tito feud is outstanding. Him and Wahoo shredding each other to bits is everything I could've hoped for from reading DEAN gush about it in the old DVDVRs. Awesome mid-80s WWF tag wrestler and made Brutus Beefcake sort of compelling for a while there. Surly as the surliest bastard you've ever seen, strong hold worker, has the elite matches to his name...the Hammer ruled. GREG VALENTINE YOU SHOULD WATCH v Bob Backlund (WWWF, 2/19/79) v Roddy Piper (JCP, 7/9/83) v Roddy Piper (JCP Starrcade, 11/24/83) v Dick Slater (JCP Boogie Jam, 3/17/84) v Tito Santana (WWF, 1/21/85)

I had Cena at 64 in 2016, and honestly, at this point I have no real idea what to do with that. I don't think I could ever drop him off the list, but he's not really an exciting candidate to me in the year 2021 and I feel like that book has closed (the pendulum might swing back by 2026, I suppose). He certainly has the output. His matches regularly feel huge just by virtue of his participation, and even in the more homogenised modern WWE he would stand out as being a legit attraction unto himself. His execution on stuff isn't the best and his strikes don't always look great, but for a guy who had the label of being a Superman bulldozer who'd run through opponents, it was always his selling and ability to take a shit-kicking that was most impressive. I think his selling could be sort of inconsistent, but at its best he was super compelling and his limb selling especially was great (and at this point I'm not as bothered by someone dropping limb selling as I used to be). He's a pretty great "little things" wrestler. Like in the Punk match from MitB, where he's getting progressively frustrated and at one point nearly gets in the ref's face before restraining himself. It wasn't a huge moment, but it was a character moment that doesn't really happen often in WWE today (or for a while). I guess he has a lot of dreck over the years as well and you couldn't pay me to re-watch at least a dozen of the Orton matches, but outside of his experimental PWG run for a minute there you could probably drop me into any period of his career and I'd find SOMETHING to enjoy. I should revisit some of his best stuff. He wasn't half bad. JOHN CENA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v JBL (WWE Judgment Day, 5/22/05) v Umaga (WWE Royal Rumble, 1/28/07) v Randy Orton (WWE RAW, 8/26/07) v CM Punk (WWE Money in the Bank, 7/17/11) v Brock Lesnar (WWE Extreme Rules, 4/29/12)

He has the seedy brawl with Demus from 2017 that would definitely add to his case, but I haven't watched much Terry in recent years either, tbh. It's such a shame that the 2009-2011 stuff might never see the light of day again (unless Jr. is still selling stuff).

I think that's probably a good summation of where I'm at as well, actually.

Well fuck me. Where did this come from? I think by now everybody who's familiar with Virus knows what his bread and butter is. He's one of the best mat workers ever and for a while there we were getting a string of amazing title defences against guys who otherwise haven't done much of anything (with a few exceptions, like Dragon Lee). He's one of the best ever at leading young and unimpressive mat workers to impressive matwork without making it obvious that he's leading them. I really don't know enough about Fly Star to say with confidence whether this was another example of that. He looked fine during the mat section, honestly. But this was Virus at his very best, and not only that, it was Virus getting to stretch out on the mat AND attempt to mutilate someone. We've never really seen Virus in a proper blood-and-guts-fest. There are glimpses of it and I know it's unfair to expect some kind of Pirata Morgan/El Faraon in our current climate anyway, but it's hard not to wish something like that was out there (even just to see what he would do in the situation). This gave us about as good a look as we've ever gotten, even if he never did any of the bleeding and the brawling was mostly a destruction. It's mano a mano so everything is contained to the one fall, but structurally it was more or less three and that was reflected in how the match was segmented. The first third was on the level, nothing particularly tetchy, all very respectable. Again, I don't have much of a handle on how good Fly Star is as a mat worker but this was pretty great stuff. Virus is just incredible at feeding in subtle ways, then throwing a wrench into something and reminding you that he's not about to be schooled by anyone. Fly Star will take a second too long to grab a hold or move from one thing to the next, so Virus will wrap his legs around one of Fly Star's and drag him to the mat with a toe hold. It was all pretty even, but you knew Virus had another couple gears and I think Fly Star knew it too. Maybe he figured it would be a good idea to turn this into a fight then. There's no footage of Virus brawling so how good at it can he be? The bit where Virus checked to make sure the kid really wanted to do this before battering his brains out was unbelievable. There was a group of elderly women in the front row cheering for Star, so Virus purposely dragged him over there and beat on him while he was sprawled on their laps. He even tried stealing one of their walking sticks to use as a weapon (and in true lucha fashion the old lady refused to give it up)! He smashed a wooden board over Flay Star's head, stabbed him with a piece of broken plastic, punched him in the cut, bit him, lapped up the blood, revelled in all of it. It was a relatively brief segment, but it was amazing and there's not a single chance Virus wouldn't be a killer if he started engaging in seedy brawls across Mexico. Maybe when he reaches his 60s, who knows. After Fly Star makes his comeback they have a great dramatic run to the finish, really your high end Virus title match finishing stretch only worked in front of fifty people in a warehouse basement. It had the massive dive, the nearfalls and the perfect finish to tie it all together. And when the audience throw money in the ring at the end you know you've seen a humdinger. This was outstanding.

Terry was my 65 in 2016 and for now I'm pretty happy with that, but like about 200 other lucha candidates there's always the chance someone will discover a treasure trove of footage and he'll shoot up the list 64 places. We have very little of his "physical prime" years, or even the years when he was in his 40s...or a chunk of his 50s. Most of what we have is when he was at or around 60. It's just that, hey, this old guy here who's tougher than shoe leather and 58 years old is the best wrestler on the fucking planet. So that's pretty cool, right? That 2010 run was incredible and some of the most fun I've ever had following a wrestling promotion in real time. Every week some new footage shot by his own kid would show up on YouTube and it would range from fun to spectacular. I love him working holds and he's a brilliant maestro, but it's rabid old man brawling Terry that's truly life-affirming and he has some of the best lucha bar fights of the last decade-plus to his name. And he's even built on his case from 2016 with the Barbaro Cavernario, Demus and especially the Wotan matches. I'll do the match recs because I've done them for everyone else so far, but for Terry you should just go to the Segunda Caida Complete & Accurate. BLACK TERRY YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Multifacetico (IWRG, 4/17/08) w/Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro v Trauma I, Trauma II & Ultraman Jr. (IWRG, 10/29/09) w/Chico Che & Dr. Cerebro v Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco (IWRG, 3/7/10) v Chico Che (IWRG, 1/22/12) v Wotan (Chilanga Mask, 8/21/16)

I had Backlund at number 66, and that feels megastupid high because he's not really someone I love at this stage of the game, but I'll always have a soft spot for him. Part of that is because he was sort of a gateway to me properly deep-diving pre-Hogan WWF about 15 years ago, and that in turn led to my interest in jumping into other US territories I missed by growing up in the 90s. Honestly, I don't really know what to say about him as a worker now. It's been over ten years since I properly watched any of his best stuff, but I loved a decent amount of it then. Parv says in this thread that's he's a boring worker of holds, and maybe I'd think that as well if I re-watched all of that stuff today, but I certainly didn't think it when I watched stuff like the Valentine draw, or the Muraco series, or at least one of the Patterson matches, or a couple of the Inoki matches. The Slaughter feud was great and I thought the Philly cage match was exceptional. The Patera feud blew me away and I loved the Texas Death Match. I don't really have it in me to sit and watch all of that again, and I do think the point about him smothering opponents is more accurate than not, but I have really fond memories of that stuff and that'll always count for something. Just...maybe not enough for him to get back on the list in 2026. BOB BACKLUND YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Greg Valentine (WWWF, 2/19/79) v Pat Patterson (WWF, 7/30/79) v Ken Patera (WWF, 5/19/80) v Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 3/21/81) v Buddy Rose (WWF 8/30/82)

I've never wanted to vote for someone based on one paragraph more than I do now after that.

Nate Webb was crazy in that match, yeah. Lunatic bump after lunatic bump. I remember watching it the first time not really knowing much about the CZW guys and thinking I should watch every Nate Webb match ever just out of gratitude for him dying several deaths for our sadistic viewing pleasure. I could still probably count on the one hand the number of Nate Webb matches I've seen to this day, but the sentiment was real in the moment.

I don't have a clue how you even found this but my goodness it was badass. Where the hell did this even come from? Who is Fly Star? It's not quite the blood- and mucus-filled riot you REALLY want, but it's as close as I've seen with him and for a mano a mano I thought this just about perfectly captured all that's great about Virus. You had the matwork, you had the brawling, you had the big finishing run and, fittingly, as this is Virus after all, he did it with some random dude I'd never heard of before. What a pro-wrestler.

I had Rogers at 67 in 2016 and in hindsight that definitely feels too high, but he was an amazing tag wrestler and about as close to Ricky Morton as the best babyface tag wrestler in US history as you can get. I think the Fantastics have an absolutely stellar resume of great stuff, are neck and neck with the RnRs as a Midnight Express opponent and depending on when you ask me I'd maybe have them slightly ahead, and Rogers to me was for sure the best of the pair (I agree with Dylan that Fulton is better than he gets credit for, but his EMOTING can be super cringey and boy does he have some iffy facial expressions). That said, Rogers really needed the singles run to be this high and he just doesn't have it. I say that as someone who values tag wrestling super highly, so I wouldn't have needed the singles run to be better than the tag run. He wouldn't necessarily have needed a Flair cage match, just something more than...hell, I don't know what his best singles match would be, the Koko match from Memphis where Koko tries to kill him with fifty brainbusters? It's pretty slim pickings. Anyhow, the Fantastics were superb and Rogers' dropkick is an all-timer and he might make it on again 2026, even if it won't be this high. TOMMY ROGERS YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Bobby Fulton v Midnight Express (Mid-South, 8/9/84) w/Bobby Fulton v The Sheepherders (Houston, 6/27/86) w/Bobby Fulton v Midnight Express (JCP Clash of the Champions, 3/27/88) w/Bobby Fulton v v Midnight Express (JCP WorldWide, 6/25/88) w/Bobby Fulton v Joe & Dean Malenko (All Japan, 7/15/89)

I had Chavo Sr. at 68 in 2016, perhaps a wee bit too high, but he was pretty dang awesome and being the second best wrestler in his family is nothing to shake a jaggy stick at. I'd sort of forgotten his stuff from Japan before reading the thread again, but I liked a bunch of that and it's a cool - and very different - supplement to his run in the US. He also has some great stuff in Mexico, including the pair of wonderful trios from 1990 CMLL that Jetlag mentions. Brilliant in tags and singles matches and the Guerreros team, as brought up in the Hector thread, is one of my favourite tag teams ever and I loved them trotting out all sort of wild bits offence for 1985. He also has a couple absolute corkers of singles matches to his name, so that always helps. CHAVO GUERRERO SR. YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 9/30/80) v Nick Bockwinkel (Houston, 2/25/83) v Mr. Olympia (Houston, 6/24/83) w/Hector Guerrero v The Fabulous Ones (Houston, 1/24/86) w/El Dandy & El Texano v Angel Azteca, Americo Rocca & Javier Cruz (CMLL, 3/9/90)