Best Wrestlers Who Didn't Get Nominated

[Dylan Waco]

I don't want to create controversy with this, but the nomination list and voting has been open for over a week so I think it would be a fun exercise to look at those who came up short and weren't nominated for whatever reason. When talking about this with my brother the other night the names we came up with were D-Lo Brown and Val Venis,but last night I noticed that Takako Inoue wasn't nominated which surprised me a bit. I also echo anarchistxxx's thoughts that it's kind of surprising, and maybe a hair disappointing, that Jack Evans wasn't put through.

 

Who else missed the cut?

[anarchistxx]

Jack Evans is my favorite type of ostensibly terrible wrestler. Cocky, punchable face, fun on the mic, doesn't take himself too seriously, takes insane bumps, crazy moveset, flips and dives that take your breath away even in this desensitized era, puts a smile on your face. Improved a lot as a worker as time went on also, figured he was a Special K type skinny stunt man at first but he has a lot of natural flair and bumped and sold wonderfully. Could usually find neat little spots and ways of making it believable such a lightweight guy could compete with bigger athletes.

 

Even made me enjoy Roderick Strong matches. They were the perfect foil for each other as tag partners.

[Benbeeach]

Any of the BJW guys. Ito, Mammoth Sasaki, Yuko Miyamoto, workers of that ilk. Don't really see a case for any of them, but then again, workers like Vince were nominated.

(Was Floyd? He's probably the best one off in history)

[soup23]

I will throw a vote Mitch Ryder's way. Great old school type heel that had some really great 10 minute brawls with Mark Wolf and also was a breath of fresh air in Chikara.

[bradhindsight]

Tazz was an interesting exclusion.

[Jingus]

(Was Floyd? He's probably the best one off in history)

Considering that the nomination process required writeups on three different matches involving the worker in question: no, Mayweather doesn't even come close to counting.

[Badlittlekitten]

Sara Del Rey would have made my list if I'd realised she was missing. Her monster heel run on the Indies murdering dollies and getting good stuff out of green future (nxt) stars was too fun to overlook.

[joeg]

The Blond Bombers for a tag team. You hear people like Austin hype Patterson and Stevens as one of the all time best tag teams, but they weren't nominated. I think there is just a lack of footage, when I went to nominate them I could only find 2 matches online.

[funkdoc]

Archie Gouldie for biggest territory star w/ footage not nominated?

 

Bix's podcast following his death mentioned that he had tape of lots of his title matches, but who knows if that'll ever see the light of day?

[Jetlag]

Ryuki Ueyama

Wataru Sakata

Hiroyuki Ito

Nikolai Zouev

Osamu Kido

Hiro Saito

Victor Zangief

Manabu Suruga

Universo Dos Mil

Angel Mortal

Bearcat Wright

Ayako Hamada

Mimi Hagiwara

Command Bolshoi

Carlos Amano

Lucy Kayama

Itsuki Yamazaki

Sumie Sakai

Alan Kilby

Sid Cooper

Robby Baron

Axel Dieter

TJP

Kengo Mashimo

Preston Quinn

Herodes

Tony Salazar

Ultraman

 

to be continued...?

 

It's also very surprising to me that Jorge "Skayde" Rivera wasn't nominated.

 

EDIT: added Hiroyuki Ito. Great shootstyle worker.

[NotJayTabb]

From a BritWres point of view (and not that any of them would make any lists), but the likes of Kris Travis, Mark Andrews and Dave Mastiff have resumes as good, if not better, than some other Brit indy guys named. Also Robbie Brookside feels like a notable omission.

[JerryvonKramer]

How about Randy Colley? For a guy who was in a lot of very good matches.

[anarchistxx]

Doug Williams would have made my list as well. Obviously he is a towering name in the BritWres scene who I grew up watching, but he can also back it up with a really strong body of work for at least a decade. So he fits both the criteria of a superstar attraction (relatively speaking - in a local sense) who needs to be on the ballot and someone who can definitely hold his own in the ring and has had some memorable matches. Missed almost his entire TNA run though so maybe that counted against him.

 

Jody Fleisch is also someone who might have come under consideration, especially since Jonny Storm randomly ended up on the ballot. Hung like a horse as well - one of my more bizarre wrestling memories is talking to Steve Corino in a locker room while Fleisch paced around naked, dick swinging up and down like a drawbridge.

[NotJayTabb]

Doug is nominated. I've currently got him nestled in the 80's on my list

[Dylan Waco]

TJP feels like a real omission and he came up in talking to my brother the other night as well. I wouldn't have voted for him, but I think he's had an interesting career, and depending on how much you value longevity on the indies I think you could make a reasonable case for him as a top 100 guy.

[anarchistxx]

Doug is nominated. I've currently got him nestled in the 80's on my list

 

Fuck, not sure how I missed that. Would have had him top fifty for sure.

[El Boricua]

I maybe would have given a nomination nod to Steve Bradley.

[InYourCase]

BxB Hulk, Human Tornado, and Jack Evans were guys that I thought about nominating but never got around to because I didn't think they were quite deserving enough. Seeing Evans' resurgence makes me think that next time something like this is done, I'll have to vote for him.

[MoS]

I can't believe I fucking did not realise Sara Del Rey was not nominated. I feel pissed at myself. She would have easily made my top 100.

[fxnj]

I'm kind of surprised no one nominated Yoshiko Tamura considering she had that match Loss rated at ***** and I thought she was one of the best performers in late 2000's joshi.

[PeteF3]

I would have put Horst Hoffmann on my ballot, and I blame myself for not thinking to nominate him.

 

Edit: From an old-school standpoint, I also didn't find out until putting my list together that the Spoiler and Don Leo Jonathan didn't get nominations. Not that they were necessarily going on my list but they were both worthy of discussion.

[Eegah]

I will throw a vote Mitch Ryder's way. Great old school type heel that had some really great 10 minute brawls with Mark Wolf and also was a breath of fresh air in Chikara.

Mitch Ryder is definitely an oversight. His run in the mid 00s made him one of my favorites at that time. Such an entertaining performer.

[cad]

Americo Rocca, El Texano, Villano V, Gran Cochisse

 

Of those, Rocca would have the best shot of making my list. If you asked me if Americo Rocca was one of the best hundred wrestlers ever and didn't let me think about it I'd say yes.

Texano would probably be on if there was more video of him from the Misioneros days through the early 1990s.

Other people have a better handle on Villano V than I do, but IV was nominated and I have a hard time separating the two.

I couldn't vote for Gran Cochisse with just the matches I've seen but I've always assumed he was just as talented as the other guys except for maybe Texano.

 

When I saw that Konnan Big had been nominated I thought about nominating Micro Konnan, standard Konnan, and Scott Putski, but I figured you wouldn't want a nobody poster clogging up the list of nominees for a crap joke like that. Also I didn't want to review Scott Putski matches.

[Timbo Slice]

I think on the tag team side, Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle should have been nominated and I take blame considering I watched the entire Final Conflict feud and didn't even think to put them on the list. Their TV squashes were fun to watch, they had heated build up matches to the blowoff, and have one of the all-time great tandem finishers. I could have seen them sneak into the bottom of my tag list.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I flirted with the idea of nominating Primo Colon, but in the end decided against it when I realised he realistically wouldn't make my list. There's an alternate reality where he's considered a lock for something like this though.