GW1997

[Grimmas]

On the Maybe Not Taue podcast I am going through each year and figuring out my top 25 list in order to make my GWE list much easier. I will be recording my 1997 list within the next week or so.

Who are the greatest wrestlers of 1997 for you? Who is an under the wire person you want to give some praise. I think a little thread discussing each year and debating them could be fun over time. We'll start with 1997 for now.

[Grimmas]

I am still working on my list, but..

I started thinking Bret Hart was the easy choice, but damn the more you watch of El Hijo del Santo from that year the more you are blown away. It's also the year of the NJPW Jrs being fucking awesome!

Scott Norton has been a HUGE amazing surprise. Every match in NJPW has him being great, and the little WCW stuff is pretty fun too.

[Jetlag]

GAEA was pretty great in 1997. Chigusa, KAORU, and probably Hokuto all warrant Top 20 consideration, along with the young girls. BattlARTS was mad strong, too. Tarzan Goto had those crazy feuds against WAR, WYF, and Masashi Aoyagi. Obviously, CMLL was at an all time high level with Casas, Santo, Felino, the minis and a bunch of others looking amazing. On the Japanese indy scene, Masao Orihara and Tadahiro Fujisaki were quietly some of the best guys going.

[Microstatistics]

Other contenders not mentioned yet (in no particular order). I would probably go with Tamura as WOTY at this stage though.

Kiyoshi Tamura, Jushin Liger, Megumi Kudo, Jaguar Yokota, Eddy Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, Daisuke Ikeda, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Volk Han, Shinjiro Ohtani

[joeg]

Dick Togo, Taka Michinoku and The Great Sasuke deserve a mention. 1997 was the year the Michinoku Pro guys took their act on the road. They had standout matches in ECW, NJPW, WWF, BattlArts, FMW, etc.  

[Boss Rock]

Boring pick, but I think it has to be Misawa or Kobashi.

[elliott]

Tamura is firmly in his "easily the best in the world" phase. 

Runner Up - Santo feels like a good pick here. Kudo if she didn't retire. Funk if he didn't retire are other notables. 

[El McKell]

When does Funk actually retire in 1997? I know he spent the whole year basically doing last hurrah type stuff, the Bret match is presented as a kind of retirement but he just goes straight into an FMW tour, then does another FMW tour in December and is in WWF again by the end of the year. I don't think Terry Funk does enough really good stuff to be wrestler of the year in 1997 but he never actually takes any serious time off

[Mr JMML]

 Kiyoshi Tamura might be the wrestler of the year.

[cad]

For Mexico:
1. Damiancito el Guerrero
2. Cicloncito Ramirez
3. Blue Panther

The most important wrestling footage development for 1997, for me, is that rnrwrasslin stopped uploading TV shows midway through the year, limiting the stuff I got to see. I suppose that if I were truly dedicated I could get a hold of some of that stuff for myself, but that's not the kind of person you're dealing with here. Besides, I got no stomach for that kind of life anymore. As a result you get a pretty generic list for this year of minis and ciberneticos. Virus and Cicloncito are more of a 1/1A scenario than a true first vs second. Virus was a more interesting character I guess, so I placed him first with no real conviction behind it. I thought that the minis were pushing things with their work more than the big men. Blue Panther's 1997 work had the same flaws that it always did, but he did seem to want to establish a strong footing for himself upon his CMLL return. I also respected his attempts to brawl with a nextgen Mascara Sagrada and to wrestle on the mat with Apolo Dantes, who was solid there but not really a guy who saw the thrill in that type of work.

What Virus and Cicloncito lack in (filmed, available) quantity, they make up for in an outstanding hit rate. They're definitely more pure work candidates than well rounded personalities, so you'd have to be okay with guys whose abilities lean more towards that side.

An attempt at a top ten:

Spoiler

1. Damiancito el Guerrero vs Cicloncito Ramirez
2. Torneo cibernetico (April 18)
3. Damiancito el Guerrero and Pierrothito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito (March 14)
4. Damiancito el Guerrero, Pierrothito and Fierito vs Cicloncito Ramirez, Mascarita Magica and Bracito de Oro
5. Atlantis vs Blue Panther
6. Hijo del Santo, Satanico and Bestia Salvaje vs Shocker, Fiera and Felino
7. Torneo cibernetico (December 30)
8. Damiancito el Guerrero and Pierrothito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito (April 29)
9. Hijo del Santo, Blue Panther and Black Warrior vs Atlantis, Fiera and Felino
10. Negro Casas and Felino vs Hijo del Santo and Black Warrior vs Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr.

I just want to say that this is a boring list and I don't take any pride in it.

[fxnj]

Forgot Santo/Casas?

[cad]

Eh. In my mind felt more like some kind of statement that they were trying to make than the culmination of a yearlong, promotion dominating program and a careerlong rivalry.

But this wasn't something that I rewatched this time around and I'm going off old memories. It's a universally praised match, even somewhere like Cagematch, so I'm likely either remembering it wrong or offering a goofy opinion.

[Mr JMML]

So I'm not the only one that liked the minis stuff, Virus' best year.

[ohtani's jacket]

The minis stuff from '96-97 is among the best lucha matches of the 90s, but for peak VIrus I would still go with the World Lightweight title run.