Reactions to the Honorable Mention List Part One

[The Man in Blak]

I don't know that I would have taken advantage of it, but it would have been interesting, in retrospect, to have offered an option to submit a ballot of 150 entries.

 

I guess you could see it as an inverse of one of the questions from the original Smarkschoice poll, where there was an option (as I understand it) to only submit 50 entries on your ballot. Ten years later, so much more footage is available and the problem has evolved from "not enough great wrestlers" to "how can I fit all of these people onto one freakin' ballot."

 

There will always be cutoff casualties, though, no matter where the threshold is set.

[Danish Dynamite]

 

To me the biggest upset so far is someone seemingly intelligent claiming to have dropped Flair from his top 5 all the way to #9, not because of anything Flair did or didn't do, but because he was annoyed by JvK's five-part podcast on him. Good thing I know it MUST be a joke, Elliot ;-) ... If anything, that series confirmed my position for him :-)

 

You know it's ironic, all the 100s of shows I've done, and I put such genuine love into those five, and I don't think I've ever had heat like that before (or actually even heat at all!). I find it funny really. I also think that Marty, Pete and Loss each put forward damn good cases for him in their respective parts. And it is also clear that Will "lost" the debate episode

 

I know elliot is joking too btw, a wind-up merchant.

 

--------------------------

 

In other news, I'm offering a reward for anyone who can get me the name of the OTHER Tom Zenk voter!

 

 

Haha, yeah. When some people come up against a winning argument they get aggressive. It's hooliganism, I tell you! :-D

[Danish Dynamite]

Paul Jones has looked really good in the 70s Mid Atlantic film footage. It's been hard for me to view him as a wrestler and not a manager, which has probably made me underrate him. I also love Kakihara, and thought he did a good job making his style work in a post-shoot style landscape.

 

I hear you. I've been very impressed by his 70's stuff recently... Really wanted to not count the worst parts of people's careers against them, if they had great peaks, and I think this could help a lot of the 70's guys if I was to do this list again and got to see more footage of them. A lot of very cool stuff from that period, including Jones.

[Danish Dynamite]

I don't know that I would have taken advantage of it, but it would have been interesting, in retrospect, to have offered an option to submit a ballot of 150 entries.

 

I guess you could see it as an inverse of one of the questions from the original Smarkschoice poll, where there was an option (as I understand it) to only submit 50 entries on your ballot. Ten years later, so much more footage is available and the problem has evolved from "not enough great wrestlers" to "how can I fit all of these people onto one freakin' ballot."

 

There will always be cutoff casualties, though, no matter where the threshold is set.

 

Agree. Could even see an argument for the possibility of ranking every nominee. If there's some of the nominated wrestlers you don't know (I definetelye didn't know all of them...) or didn't feel like you'd seen enough of to rank, you'd just leave them off the list. Ditto if you don't feel comfortable voting for a Benoit or someone else. ... Doing a Top 100 was probably the right decision for this project, but we all seem to love these lists and rankings and the level of detail, so could have worked...

 

Still, this project is already so fucking awesome and so much fun :-D

[MasterJonBurr]

Ahoy, gents! Manning up and doing a ballot has forced me to take off my lurker boots, it seems. I've been following along in the same circles since the DVDVR days, but haven't posted anything in ages. Doing the ballot has been amazing, as well as amazingly difficult and time consuming. I'm a big fan of all of the PWOPTBN podcasts and will be checking the GWE status like it is my job until it ends.

 

Thrilled that someone else voted for UberJobber Mike Jackson, whom I've never seen have a bad match, and stunned that someone had him even higher than I. Between this nugget and hearing him say he had Big Bossman on his list, Matt D and I might have to get an apartment together after all of this is over! I am kind of doubtful that I will be the high or the low vote on many folks, although there are quite a few really heralded workers that I didn't rank at all: the Brets & Shawns of the world, etc.

 

Anyways, it's a pleasure to be aboard and I'll apologize in advance for my undying devotion to Jimmy Del Ray, who probably should've made my list, but did well on my tags list. But, seriously, look upon his works, ye mighty, and tremble:

 

Yours,

JHHBjr

[Danish Dynamite]

I love the text on the Hans Schmidt picture...

 

"Hans Schmidt... He can annoy you..."

[Loss]

How is post-Michinoku Pro Teoh?

[Jimmy Redman]

I love the text on the Hans Schmidt picture...

 

"Hans Schmidt... He can annoy you..."

 

Yep this has been my favourite so far.

[MikeF]

I love the text on the Hans Schmidt picture...

 

"Hans Schmidt... He can annoy you..."

That was great.

[Danish Dynamite]

Like you, Dylan, a number of my 101-200 guys have fallen off now. None of my top 100 yet (I must be boringly mainstream). ... Expanding the lists from 100 to 200 (or all the nominees) would change things a lot for this part of the total rankings. ... On the other hand, I found it increasingly hard placing guys in specific spots once I got past the first 40 or so. Can't imagine that it wouldn't be slightly random who would be my #175 and #184 say. Will be fun in 2026 though ;-)

[Cap]

I was a little surprised Gibson was that far down the line. Not that he is a world beater or anything, but I just assumed he would show up on more ballots.

[Eegah]

I was a little surprised Gibson was that far down the line. Not that he is a world beater or anything, but I just assumed he would show up on more ballots.

I was a bit surprised by this. Hes obviously not in Morton's stratosphere but I figured hed end up higher. Ol Brunzell looks like he went on a 3 day jaunt on old Laurence Maroney footage and snapped that picture.

[Mando]

A few of mine have popped up. I was the high voter on Maff, Hamrick, and Wolfie D getting them all in the rundown. I was high voter on Kaz Hayashi getting him to #499. Dug him in WCW, got to watch him up-close when HWA in Cincinnati was a WWE developmental territory absorbing all the WCW lower-tier guys after WCW closed, but most strongly from his terrific All Japan stuff. I had Milano AT at #100 always enjoyed him as a fun oddball and liked his IWA match with Chris Hero. I was the other guy that voted for Fujita Jr. Hayata. And I was the other guy (LOL) that voted for Abdullah Koabayahi. Thanks for that image. I wanted to give a nod to at least one guy representing every era/style I've been into over the last 25+ years of watching and he was my late-2000's BJW recipient.

[jaedmc]

How is post-Michinoku Pro Teoh?

The Men's Club stuff in BJW can sometimes be really good. Granted, some of the best matches were multi-man tags and the work load got divided up among guys like Makoto Oishi and Shinobu - both of whom I really enjoy.

[KB8]

Not surprised I was the high voter on Hector Guerrero, even at #75. I'm actually kind of surprised someone else voted for him. He was like an 80s Eddie so how am I not gonna vote for him based on that alone? He's been one of the best guys on the NWA Classics stuff and the Texas Death Match with Lothario is fucking incredible. Him jumping out of an egg in a multicoloured chicken costume was also the greatest moment in the history of our great sport: the Hogan Slamming Andre of egg-hatchings, if you will. Hector ruled.

[victory]

That pic of Chris Colt is fricken crazy. I personally just didn't see enough footage of Colt to even consider him besides a handful of Portland matches.

[Cap]

This makes me regret not voting kind of. The reveals are fun. Then again, it would probably be somewhat like fantasy football in that if I had the investment of my own list, seeing where my people pop up, I would probably be way too invested and wish I didn't have a dog in the fight.

[Cap]

Not surprised I was the high voter on Hector Guerrero, even at #75. I'm actually kind of surprised someone else voted for him. He was like an 80s Eddie so how am I not gonna vote for him based on that alone? He's been one of the best guys on the NWA Classics stuff and the Texas Death Match with Lothario is fucking incredible. Him jumping out of an egg in a multicoloured chicken costume was also the greatest moment in the history of our great sport: the Hogan Slamming Andre of egg-hatchings, if you will. Hector ruled.

I am a big Hector fan. I have really only seen the midsouth stuff and a few things here and there, but I am always drawn to him in those match.

[KrisZ]

CHRIS COLT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to put him on so bad but I didn't

 

Pete Roberts is the first guy on my list that made it

[jpchicago23]

I still haven't had anyone on my list make it. I guess that's good but damn it I want to see what picture is chosen for one of my guys

[goc]

Not surprised I was the high voter on Hector Guerrero, even at #75. I'm actually kind of surprised someone else voted for him. He was like an 80s Eddie so how am I not gonna vote for him based on that alone? He's been one of the best guys on the NWA Classics stuff and the Texas Death Match with Lothario is fucking incredible. Him jumping out of an egg in a multicoloured chicken costume was also the greatest moment in the history of our great sport: the Hogan Slamming Andre of egg-hatchings, if you will. Hector ruled.

I voted Hector & Chavo really high as a team but couldn't justify to myself putting him on my singles ballot.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Pete Roberts is the first one to drop that kind of hurts. There's no way there's 400 better workers than Pete Roberts in my world.

[Childs]

I worry about the placements of the British workers, because they just don't seem likely to appear on the majority of ballots. I expect Breaks to make the top 100, but I'm not confident about any of the others (not talking Regal, Finlay or Robinson).

 

I thought hard about Roberts. He would have made my 150 easily.

[Grimmas]

List changing, since one of Pete's edits did not save. Sorry Jackie Fargo lovers, he's dropping!

[Frankensteiner]

Surprised I was the highest voter for van Buyten given Jetlag's hard sell. He probably benefited from being the guy I binged on prior to submitting the list but, even with that, I figured others (and Jetlag especially) would have him ranked higher.