KB8

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)

I had Yoshida at 69 in 2016, and I've said it already but she'll be a good bit higher than that next time. I don't really have much more to say about her right now, because I sort of covered it up the page a bit already, but one of the most exciting things is that I have three or four of her most highly-regarded matches still to watch. So there's scope there for her to keep shooting up the ballot. Probably my favourite female wrestler ever, and definitely someone I imagine even non-joshi fans would be able to get into without much problem. Yoshida was amazing. MARIKO YOSHIDA YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Takako Inoue v Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa (AJW, 4/25/92) v Mikiko Futagami (ARSION, 5/5/98) v Yumi Fukawa (ARSION, 9/26/99) v Carlos Amano (GAEA, 4/30/04) v Yoshiko Tamura (NEO, 11/3/06)

There was indeed no way I wasn't not voting for Koko in 2016, but having him at number 70 was definitely too high. Koko ruled, he just didn't have the resume to really justify that. Still, he was awesome in Memphis and I'm planning on running through every Eaton/Koko tag I can find, because those guys were the Midnight Express we never had. Like basically every Memphis guy he was an incredible puncher, but the dropkicks might've been even better. Was responsible for the best scaffold match ever, which I actually put a ton of stock in because that is not a very easy gimmick to do well (Bill Dundee (his dance partner on the night), Chicky Starr and Invader III being the only other guys I'd want to see work several scaffold matches), and also responsible for maybe the best squash match of all-time when he took alllllll the liberties and just obliterated some racist jobber on tv. The tag with Eaton against Mantell/King Cobra and the Flair match are a couple matches that I think hit that absolute top tier, so he has the high-end output as well, even if there's not much volume (maybe PYT v Rich/Gilbert as well, but I haven't watched that recently enough). I can't justify having him so high next time though, even if he is one of my personal favourites. KOKO WARE YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Bill Dundee (Memphis, 6/21/82) w/Bobby Eaton v Dutch Mantell & King Cobra (Memphis, 7/19/82) w/Bobby Eaton, Rick McGraw & Sabu v Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Dutch Mantell & Terry Taylor (Memphis, 12/4/82) w/Norvell Austin v Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert (Memphis, 5/18/84) v Ric Flair (11/18/85)

La Fiera was my number 71 in 2016 and I'm pretty happy with that for now. He could move up though, because there's still some gaps I need to hit, chief among them the Casas and Dandy apuestas. What I have seen, at least, is the lead-in trios (or some of them anyway) to those hair matches, and man was Fiera an extraordinary sleazeball maniac in the early 90s. Just a supremely gritty brawler who'd routinely try and murder someone/garrotte them with a chain, drink their blood and revel in spectators' horror. The Estrada match from Monterrey is one of the best matches ever of its ilk, the Babe Face feud is great (and I don't *love* love the hair match, surprisingly) and the trio of Fiera/Chicana/Cota is scumbag perfection. He has a sneaky deep list of awesome trios and regularly stands out in them whether he's the main main or in a supporting role. That stretch in early '92 where he was hanging about with Estrada and Bestia Salvaje and making Hijo del Solitario's life a living nightmare was unbelievable, but he was capable of being a wonderful tecnico as well. And he has the fun stuff from Japan. Does he have anything in the 00s or was he actually retired then? Or maybe in jail again? LA FIERA YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Tiger Mask II (All Japan, 8/26/84) w/El Faraon & El Egipcio v Los Infernales (EMLL, 3/29/85) v Babe Face (EMLL, 8/15/86) v Jerry Estrada (Monterrey, 1991) w/El Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr. v El Dandy, Atlantis & Pierroth Jr. (CMLL, 11/13/92)

I had Christian at number 72 in 2016, and it's one of the placements that felt crazy high going over my list recently, but reading through the thread again maybe I never had him too high after all. If I'm honest he probably falls off in 2026, as I'm kind of whatever on the period he was great in. That said, he was GREAT for a minute there and worked as veteran gatekeeper about as well as anybody, producing awesome stuff on a weekly basis. Actually, fuck it, he might get back on after all because he was having those great tv matches built around amazing body part work/body part selling that nobody else in the company was, so they usually felt unique and I don't think there's any question he put a ton of thought into laying out those matches. Like, I'm a nerd who places a lot of value on strong transitions and nobody was working better transitions into their matches week to week than Christian. The tag run with Edge is more fun than great - or even particularly good - but I can still throw on one of the ladder/TLC matches and enjoy it for a wild propfest. I also liked that Taka match from Judgment Day 1998 that I haven't seen in about twenty years. Don't know anything about the TNA run. I'd say I might check some of it out but I respect each and every one of you too much to lie straight to your faces like that. CHRISTIAN YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Edge v The Dudley Boys v The Hardy Boys v Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (WWF Smackdown!, 5/24/01) v Jack Swagger (WWECW, 2/24/09) v William Regal (WWE Breaking Point, 9/13/09) v Drew McIntyre (WWE Smackdown!, 7/30/10) v Randy Orton (WWE Over the Limit, 5/22/11)

I had DiBiase at number 73 in 2016 and I feel like I've written enough about him in this thread/on this page. I may vote for him again, I may not vote for him again. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, who can tell what the future holds? TED DIBIASE YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Matt Borne v Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia (Mid-South, 10/27/82) v Hacksaw Duggan (Houston, 3/22/85) v Ric Flair (Mid-South, 11/6/85) v Dick Murdoch (Houston, 12/27/85) w/Stan Hansen v Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (All Japan, 12/12/86)

Tajiri was my number 74 in 2016 and he almost certainly won't land that high again, but I'd like to keep him on somewhere. The ECW run is tremendous as he morphs from a super slick kickpad junior doing amazing extended sequences with Super Crazy into a deranged psychopath trying to pull his teeth out with pliers. Really can't think of another wrestler who came across as such a dangerous maniac despite having no size whatsoever. Gets ten thousand bonus points for being able to make indie parity/standoff exchanges not feel cliche, and he's also the master of the low blow. Seriously, there are about ten matches in the ECW run where he blasts someone in the balls in different and vicious ways. The WWE run has more fun or good than truly great, but the short-lived tag team with Eddie was brilliant and their match with Haas and Benjamin is one of my favourite WWF/E tag matches ever. I feel like there's way more stuff from the last ten years that I should watch because the match with Finlay was the bomb. TAJIRI YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Shinjiro Ohtani (New Japan, 5/20/97) v Super Crazy (ECW on TNN, 1/15/00) v Steve Corino (ECW Hardcore Heaven, 5/14/00) w/Eddie Guerrero v World's Greatest Tag Team (WWE Smackdown!, 5/22/03) v Finlay (SMASH, 2/19/12)

I had Hector as my 75 in 2016 and that's probably too high, but at the same time it could be 50 spots too low. Who can really say for sure? Look, he got the Favourite Bump. He's my avatar, fer cripes! I watched as much Hector as I could find on the run up to the deadline and there was never any chance I wasn't voting for him, but everything I watched was fun and he kept leapfrogging people on his way to that #75 spot. I'll tell you what, though -- Hector Guerrero fucking ruled. He was basically Eddie before Eddie. Seriously, this was 1997 Eddie Guerrero plucked out of time and dropped into the 1980s. I don't even know if Eddie's talked about who he emulated before, and I guess it would be a safe bet that he'd be emulating one of his brothers anyway, but watch enough Hector and it's clear as day where he borrowed his shtick. The way he moves, how he scoots across the mat on his knees to the safety of his corner, how he stooges, how he bumps, everything -- it's Hector Guerrero. That all sounds like I voted for Hector because he reminds me of my all-time favourite wrestler. That's not the case because that would be stupid (but then again it might've been the case. How well can one truly know their own mind?). What I'm trying to say is that Hector at his best was pretty damn similar to Eddie at his best and that is ridiculously high praise. The Guerreros team was awesome and the Mid-South/Houston footage gives us a lengthy look at that. As heels and babyfaces, they were great in both roles. Could work straight tags or stipulation tags and they brought tonnes of nifty offence to everything. Not only that, you could tell they were all about variety, because just about every Guerreros match, whether it's a four minute studio match against Mike Jackson and a teenage Shawn Michaels or a showcase arena match against the Fantastics, has SOMETHING unique, SOME play on the norm. And the feud with Jose Lothario is just the greatest thing ever and the Mexican Death Match is honest to god one of my five favourite matches of the 80s. If we get some Florida arena footage at some point over the next five years then he might end up top 5. HECTOR GUERRERO YOU SHOULD WATCH: w/Adrian Adonis, Ron Starr & George Wells v Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski, Roddy Piper & Killer Brooks (Portland, 4/7/79) v Jose Lothario (Houston, 6/8/84) w/Chavo Guerrero v Rock n Roll Express (Mid-South, 2/13/85) w/Chavo Guerrero v The Fantastics (Houston, 1/24/86) w/Chavo Guerrero v The Sheepherders (Houston, 3/14/86)

I had Navarro at 76 in 2016 and I'm fine with that, though I think with more footage his ceiling is probably about 30 spots higher. Watching that Black Terry Jr.-shot IWRG stuff in 2009-2010 was such a blast and Navarro was having good-to-awesome stuff basically every other week. Obviously he's an amazing mat worker. If you're not so hot on the type of hold-release-hold stuff they were doing in IWRG around the start of the last decade then he might not always be for you, but then again I don't know if any of that stuff is even available anymore so I guess we'll just say you had to be there. He made Angelico compelling! The Dandy feud is maybe a more accessible version of him working the mat at his best, and to me the title match from 2001 is a low-end MOTDC. That 12/11/04 old guys trios is the perfect representation of him going in the complete opposite direction and having a proper blood-and-guts-fest where by the end all six guys are crawling around like a building fell on them. I haven't watched any Navarro in a few years now (2017 was the last time I checked in and he ruled then) and I still don't know if we've gotten any peak Misioneros that will blow anybody away, but he's too good to leave off. And Jetlag already covered the match recs but I'll retread that ground for the sake of consistency (and throw in a later rec for originality). NEGRO NAVARRO YOU SHOULD WATCH: v El Dandy (IWRG, 8/11/01) w/El Texano & El Signo v Los Villanos (IWRG, 12/11/04) w/Villano IV & Villano V v Solar I, Dos Caras Jr. & Heavy Metal (AULL, 2/11/06) w/Black Terry & & Dr. Cerebro v Solar I, Zatura & Suicida (IWRG, 1/28/10) w/Caifan v Hechicero & Solar I (AULL, 2/4/17)

I had Joe at number 77 in 2016 and that feels okay to me. It might even be a little low, as last year I went back and watched some of his peak run and it held up much better than I would've expected. Running through my list up to this point I've mentioned a few times that I'll favour a strong peak over a relative lack of longevity, and if I'm voting for Rick Rude then I'm voting for Samoa Joe. I don't know if he was the flat out best wrestler in the world in any of the years he was at his peak, but he was at least close and I think he has a solid case for being the #1 over that cumulative 2-3 year period (~'04-'06). I don't really have much interest in going back to the Punk broadways, but I did watch the hour-long match with Danielson from 2006 (Fight of the Century) a while back and thought it was shockingly great. He came off like a legit badass with genuine star power in the ROH/CZW feud and he might've been the star of the wild six-man from The 100th Show, which is just about the best match in ROH history. And then there's stuff like the Necro match where he feels like a Terminator set loose in a crack den, which sort of speaks to a broader skill of being an indie invader rolling into IWA-MS or PWG as modern day touring attraction (or modern day for the mid-2000s). I haven't watched much of the TNA run after he left ROH and I can't see myself changing that any time soon, but he has some stuff from the WWE run that bolsters his case. He probably stays on the list in 2026. SAMOA JOE YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Jay Briscoe (ROH At Our Best, 3/13/04) v Necro Butcher (IWA-MS, 6/11/05) v Kenta Kobashi (ROH Joe vs. Kobashi, 10/1/05) w/Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer v Chris Hero, Super Dragon & Necro Butcher (ROH The 100th Show, 4/22/06) v Bryan Danielson (ROH Fight of the Century, 8/5/06)

I had Tully at 78 in 2016 and gee willikers Batman did I fuck up on that one. For context, I don't think I've watched more footage of a single wrestler over the last five years than I have of Tully Blanchard. I've watched as much as I could find of his 1985 and I'm halfway through watching his 1986, and I'm not sure there's ever been a better studio match wrestler than Tully. Of course he has the classics to his name as well, both in singles and tag environments, multi-man environments, regular match and stipulation environments, the whole lot. I hadn't watched much of the Houston stuff before the last vote either, and shockingly enough Tully was awesome at least as far back as 1981. That team with Gino was a hoot and I can honestly see a case for it being on par with the BrainBusters run. Obviously people think of Tully as a conniving little weasel, and he was, and he was amazing at being that, but I think it's way underrated how great he is at flipping the switch and turning into a rabid maniac. It's the old adage about cornering a wild animal. Tully's first instinct might be to flee, or to at least look for ways of navigating around potentially harmful altercations, but when pushed to the brink he can border on the psychotic and I don't know if there's ever been anyone better at portraying that. It's a real shame we never got much 90s Tully because that '94 match with Funk at Slamboree is an absolute treasure, so I figure he could still go at a high level, but as it is there's about 10 years of killer stuff for his case in terms of output. I love Tully and he might make my top 25 next time. TULLY BLANCHARD YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Tiger Conway Jr. (Houston, 1/9/81) w/Gino Hernandez v Mil Mascaras & Tito Santana (Houston, 12/18/81) v Wahoo McDaniel (Houston, 5/14/82) v Ricky Steamboat (JCP Starrcade, 11/22/84) v Magnum TA (JCP Starrcade, 11/28/85) w/Arn Anderson v Dusty Rhodes & Wahoo McDaniel (JCP, 3/29/86) v Ron Garvin (JCP WorldWide, 5/3/86) w/Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger & JJ Dillon v The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff & Paul Ellering (JCP Great American Bash, 7/4/87) w/Arn Anderson v Lex Luger & Barry Windham (JCP World Championship Wrestling, 4/23/88) w/Arn Anderson v The Rockers (WWF, 1/23/89)

Henry was my number 79 in 2016 and I'm pretty much fine with that. I can't say with any certainty if he'll make it back there in 2026, but then I could say the same about a goodly amount of people in that 75-100 range considering I have about 60 candidates for 25 slots. One of the common knocks on Henry was that he didn't get really good until about 2006, or some would even ague 2011, but with the Network I think it's pretty easy to refute that and I wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted to go as far back as 1998 to point to him starting to get at least decent. He was certainly good by 2002, it just feels like they never really spotlighted him until the Smackdown! run in 2006 as MNM's bodyguard (enforcer, muscle, whatever). I honestly think as well that some of the pushback he gets is because of that "Mark Henry is a better worker than Shawn Michaels" talking point (was it TomK?) a while back. I was talking pretty regularly with people on other forums back then who thought the idea was ludicrous, but after a while it became pretty clear that, hey, Mark Henry fucking rules, guys! And maybe the notion that he's better than Shawn Michaels isn't insanity after all! Matt has brought up the negative space thing before and if that just means he's great at filling the time between moves or whatever then yeah, he can do that as well as anyone. Amazing in-match shit-talker and it's really an extension of how well he portrays his character in the ring. I saw him live at a house show in Newcastle 15 years ago and he spent most of the match verbally abusing Kurt Angle really loudly and it was very amusing. He's also great at showing progressive vulnerability while maintaining the aura of a brick wall. A brick wall who will squash you dead. I still haven't deep dived the ECW run and I really should at some point. In fairness I completely understand why he's not for everyone, but I think he rules and he'll be in contention again next time. MARK HENRY YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown!, 1/20/06) v The Undertaker (WWE Smackdown!, 2/10/06) v Randy Orton (WWE Night of Champions, 9/18/11) v CM Punk (WWE RAW, 4/2/12) v John Cena (WWE Money in the Bank, 7/14/13)

I literally just watched their match from May '79, and it's not in the same stratosphere but it's a super fun accompanying piece. The dynamic is actually flipped and Hansen works overtly heelish, even loading up the elbow pad and lariating Andre right in the forehead, which leads to Andre bleeding and Hansen biting the cut. Hansen's mouth and moustache are covered in blood afterwards so he looks like some zombie redneck unleashed upon the world. The post-match is exactly what you think as Hansen launches furniture and Andre stalks him down with a chair and Blassie shouts along waving his cane like a crazy puppeteer. What a match-up.

Andre was my number 80 in 2016, and as of right now I'm okay with that. I didn't have him at 80 rather than 60 or 50 or 30 because I watched a bunch of shitty Andre matches from Vince Sr. era WWWF and decided to penalise him. I'm not saying those matches don't exist, it's just that running through that stuff is not and has never been particularly high on my list of priorities, so I can't exactly scrutinise Andre with those shows in mind. Maybe in the interest of being thorough I SHOULD watch them...but then who the fuck has time to watch everything of everyone and stay even remotely sane? On the other hand, I didn't have Andre higher because I just haven't seen a lot of the footage that would build THAT case. That's not me saying it's not out there - I'm saying I just haven't watched it yet (and I have a pretty good idea of the stuff I need to see). So for the time being 80 is a spot for Andre I'm content with. He was awesome, of course. Maybe the most impressive aura of anyone in history and how he projected that was amazing. Early 80s Andre on the New Japan set was mind-blowing holy shit level great and his highest highs are just crazy. A terrifying presence as a heel but could garner a ton of sympathy as a babyface, which is quite astonishing when you consider the fact people believed he'd rip just about anybody's head off given the impetus. And yeah, I'm one of those weirdos who has a soft spot for broken down damn near immobile Andre. ANDRE THE GIANT YOU SHOULD WATCH: v Franz Van Buyten (French Catch, 1/20/68) v Harley Race (Houston, 1/7/79) v Stan Hansen (New Japan, 9/23/81) v Killer Khan (New Japan, 4/1/82) w/Hulk Hogan v Nick Bockwinkel, Bobby Heenan, Bobby Duncam & Ken Patera (AWA, 11/7/82)

This was pretty nifty. I watched it late last night when I was half asleep, but for 6 minutes they got to look slick and it was nice to see Espectro in that sort of match. No shithousery, no nonsense. I dug it.

Shit, I didn't even know the Fujinami match was a thing! I also subscribed to NJPW World for a month and the tag is on there as well, so that's cool.