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Greatest year ever by a wrestler


joeg

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I've seen it said (around here and other places) that the greatest calendar year ever by a worker was Billy Robinson from December 1975 to December 1976. Its truly a great run- multiple world title matches in Florida vs Funk, multiple NWA Florida championship matches against Brisco, a 5 month reign as Southern Champion, and time limit draws  in Japan against Jumbo, Inoki, and Dick Murdoch, and a GME candidate vs Baba. 

So my question for discussion is this, what wrestler(s) would you consider to have had the greatest year in wrestling?

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Flair's '89 has to be up there somewhere.  Goes from the all-time-great Steamboat series to an all-time-great feud with Funk.

Bryan Danielson probably had a year somewhere in the '00's that would be pretty damn great.  Same with Kobashi ('04, maybe?).

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We'll never know, but I'm amazed when I go through Lou Thesz's matches and not only see him wrestling in a different city, but wrestling a different opponent almost every single night. Given what we've seen of Thesz if he's getting good matches out of most of these guys, it's a heck of an accomplishment.

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15 minutes ago, Log said:

Flair's '89 has to be up there somewhere.  Goes from the all-time-great Steamboat series to an all-time-great feud with Funk.

Bryan Danielson probably had a year somewhere in the '00's that would be pretty damn great.  Same with Kobashi ('04, maybe?).

Trying to come up with 1 year as Danielson's best is actually pretty interesting.

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6 hours ago, joeg said:

I've seen it said (around here and other places) that the greatest calendar year ever by a worker was Billy Robinson from December 1975 to December 1976. Its truly a great run- multiple world title matches in Florida vs Funk, multiple NWA Florida championship matches against Brisco, a 5 month reign as Southern Champion, and time limit draws  in Japan against Jumbo, Inoki, and Dick Murdoch, and a GME candidate vs Baba. 

So my question for discussion is this, what wrestler(s) would you consider to have had the greatest year in wrestling?

We don't actually have those on tape, right?

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1 hour ago, Stiva said:

His 2007 has crazy highs with McGuinness and Morishima but his 2005 may have been more consistent?

I actually think his best matches were in 2006.

 

Some names I've been thinking about...

 

Mitsuharu Misawa in 1994-1995

Kenta Kobashi in 2004-2005

Samoa Joe in 2004

Kiyoshi Tamura in 1999

Nobuhiko Takada in 1996

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Some that haven't been mentioned (that are at least personal favourites, even if they might not be conventional picks):

 

El Dandy in 1990

Rude in 1992

Arn in 1992

Tenryu in 1993

Hansen in 1993

Ishikawa in 1998

Tamura in 1998

Austin in 2001

Guerrero in 2005

Finlay in 2006

Virus in 2013

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8 hours ago, Stiva said:

His 2007 has crazy highs with McGuinness and Morishima but his 2005 may have been more consistent?

 

6 hours ago, akira maeda said:

I actually think his best matches were in 2006.

 

That's why I think it's an interesting discussion. I feel his 2008 is fucking insane.

-A good tour in NOAH with the KENTA and Aoki matches.

-An all time performance during the whole 16 Carat Gold tournament (that has the incredible match against Hero).

-In PWG vs CIMA and Low Ki.

-In ROH you have:

6th Anniversary match vs Nigel

Rising Above vs Nigel

GBD vs Nakajima

The Claudio feud

The Tyler Black "breakout" feud.

Fight Without Honor vs Morishima

A bunch of good to great tag matches with Aries.

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1 hour ago, FMKK said:

How has Will Ospreay 2019 not come up already?

As much as I loved Ospreay in 2019, what drags him down, for me at least, is that a lot of his matches felt very similar. Not only that, I thought Shingo had better tournament runs, and was better in big match situations, even if he doesn't have the sheer volume that Ospreay has.

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Chigusa Nagayo 1985

Satanico 1984

Ricky Morton in 1986 is a darkhorse pick. He had the singles feud with Flair and classic tag matches vs Midnights, Andersons, Ragin' & Ravishin'. Watching a 1986 Ricky Morton match he certainly looks like he's the best in the world.

Invader I in 1986 is also a darkhorse pick. Awesome shit vs Al Perez, Ron Starr, Chick Starr, Eric Embry, Kamala, Brody, Sheepherders etc.

Buddy Rose 1983 - Watched a bunch of Portland recently and so I wanted to throw a year out for Buddy. 1983 has the end of the Hennig feud, the Rose babyface turn and then the feud with Dynamite Kid & Rip Oliver. There are some tags & 6 mans with combinations of Buddy/Hennig/Billy Jack vs Rip Oliver/Dynamite/The Assassin that are shocking borderline MOTDC. There's also an awesome match with Chris Adams early in the year.

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Have always loved Bret's 1997. There's a couple of great matches of course (Mania 13 vs Austin, the 5 on 5 Canadian Stampede, the Taker match at One Night Only) but I just love the character arc he goes through on screen (which in a way is also mirrored off screen) where you basically see one man's descent, if not into madness but a form of despair at his complete disdain for how the world is changing around him. It's one of those brilliant wrestling arcs where art imitates life, and Montreal caps off the true end for a fallen hero that had become so embittered and angry at the world. I think it's a really strong in ring year for him despite the injury layoff, but it's also all the promos and the angles as well - it's probably my favourite calendar year for any one performer.    

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4 hours ago, TonyPulis'Cap said:

Have always loved Bret's 1997. There's a couple of great matches of course (Mania 13 vs Austin, the 5 on 5 Canadian Stampede, the Taker match at One Night Only) but I just love the character arc he goes through on screen (which in a way is also mirrored off screen) where you basically see one man's descent, if not into madness but a form of despair at his complete disdain for how the world is changing around him. It's one of those brilliant wrestling arcs where art imitates life, and Montreal caps off the true end for a fallen hero that had become so embittered and angry at the world. I think it's a really strong in ring year for him despite the injury layoff, but it's also all the promos and the angles as well - it's probably my favourite calendar year for any one performer.    

Well put. 100% agree. Being a huge Bret fan, that was such a fun time. I ordered all the main ppvs, watched Raw every week and was also live for Canadian Stampede. Total investment. So much so, I remember being very pissed off that (of all things) Bret didnt finally win PWI wrestler of the year. I dont think he even placed! And then of course it all came crashing down in Montreal and my fandom has never been that intense for one wrestler and one promotion ever again. Great, great year

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I love Kobashi in 1993, 2004/05.  I love Bret in 97.  I watched the AWA set, but I wouldn't be able to place it - but, there has to be a year candidate for Bockwinkel no?  I agree Buddy was awesome in Portland as well.  I think I'd either go with one of the Kobashi years or a Bock year with some review.  However, this is all with a higher focus on in-ring work than anything else.  If you take the full package of "wrestler," I assume Austin or Hogan would have some pretty good arguments.  But, I wanted to throw out something a little unconventional I think for this question.  One of my favorite years for a wrestler is Randy Savage in 1991.  March of 1991 is highlighted by WrestleMania 7, and some would say Savage's match is one of the greatest in company history (some say the greatest).  You have to love the Liz/Randy proposal that kicks off the WWF in July. It's such a great and memorable moment. Savage/Piper/Vince are all pretty funny there.  In August you get the bachelor party and cobra or whatever at the reception ha.  Jake and Macho Man are on fire by November of 1991.  You have one of the most famous WWF segments ever with the King Cobra attacking Savage, and his performance is off the charts.  During this year he cuts some of the best promos of his career - I think the poolside promo with Gene is during this time, then you get the awesome match/moment/and post-match promo (maybe his best ever) from Savage at Tuesday in Texas... Just a fun thought of another way to look to at a wrestler's year.  Also, that being said - I'd probably consider Savage when thinking on this during his feuds with Tito and Steamboat... I'm also a big fan of CM Punk's 2013 run...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Keiji Mutoh in 2001 for sure. In the late 90's it was a forgone conclusion that Mutoh best days were behind him. With him balding and his knees being bad many wondered if he could produce like he did in the past. Then he comes back to New Japan (and debuts in All Japan) freshly shaved with a brand new maneuver in the Shining Wizard putting out some of the best performances that year with the likes of Nagata, Tenryu, Kojima, Kawada, and countless others. 
 

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  • 4 months later...

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