1996

[Grimmas]

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

[Microstatistics]

1. Volk Han

2. Shinya Hashimoto

3. Genichiro Tenryu

4. Shinjiro Ohtani

5. Shawn Michaels

6. Eddie Guerrero

7. El Hijo del Santo

8. Nobuhiko Takada

9. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 

10. Mick Foley

[DylanZero]

Akiyama. He was the sparkplug needed when added to Misawa's act continued his great 1995 and made his year elevate and prevent him from going stale as he would later in the decade. Of course I can buy Misawa as well but to me Akiyama was the most interesting worker in AJPW this year.

 

Ohtani would be my next pick as he solidified himself as one of the true best in the world at this point. 

[Boss Rock]

Probably lean Misawa. I agree Jun had a terrific year as well.

[Makai Club #1]

I'd actually go with Akira Taue, as an odd answer. I'm actually surprised that Akiyama is touted as a popular answer, actually. I just finished combing through about as much 1996 All Japan as possible, and while he has a lot of great matches, I feel like he never stood out as the best worker in that company. In fact, he wasn't even my #2 option (Kobashi). Akiyama had a great feud with Kawada but all the magical moments, for me, belonged to Taue and Kobashi. The Champion Carnival Final was amazing. The Kobashi match is a Budokan Hall classic. And of course, the Tag League finals. That's Taue’s match, for me. Outstanding work in a work rate and character sense. And if I'm out to lunch on that, Kobashi is right there also making a great argument. 

[El McKell]

It’s so clearly Shawn Michaels to me. 3 matches on PPV that in my mind are true classics, vs Diesel, Mankind & the iron man with Bret. He also had Sid’s best ever match at Survivor Series

[Tetsujin]

It's probably HBK for me as well, but most of the people Micro mentioned are pretty god damn close, and I would add the Pillars (specially Taue).

[elliott]

Kiyoshi Tamura - This is still in the middle of his peak. Some fun stuff to wrap up UWFi then he goes to RINGS and meets his soul mate (Han) & his nemesis (Yamamoto) while having great stuff with Dick Virj & Willie Peters. 

Runner Up - This is a loaded year with some good people mentioned (Hashimoto especially) so I'll give a shoutout to Steven Regal who has the Finlay feud, Sting match, Hashimoto match, a killer tag with Bagwell vs Hashimoto & Guerrero, and a host of other good stuff against everyone from Lex Luger to Psicosis. 

[Control21]

Volk Han is a strong contender here. Had the epic trilogy with Tamura and Kohsaka, and had a few other solid matches along the way.

[Mr JMML]

I really like Hashimoto's work in the NJPW vs UWF-I feud.

[cad]

Mexico's top three:
1. Negro Casas
2. El Dandy
3. Felino
HM: Mascara Magica, Black Warrior

I'd be lying to you if I said that I had a solid grasp on every Mexican group's 1996 matches. AAA fell victim to the throes of Konnan booking before eventually becoming an organization based on indistinguishable guys in bodysuits and Halcon Dorado Jr. Promo Azteca got TV at some point this year but never found its footing as a promotion. IWRG got TV too but I think the only ones who saved video of it are IWRG themselves. This is mostly just me rating CMLL stuff. They had a big bounceback year in 1996, and so did two of their biggest linchpins of the 1990s, with Casas at his most creative since early 1993 and Dandy at his best since 1992 or maybe even 1990. Like with Dandy vs. Emilio Charles in 1989, I thought that Dandy probably had the better list of matches but that Casas gave the stronger individual efforts. I will say, though, that over the last three months of the year, after Casas had turned tecnico, Dandy was outperforming Casas and might have had one final run as the top guy in the country. Felino gets third again. This year he actually got some spotlight matches, and we did see his overindulgent tendencies crop up, but his four fall title bout with Mascara Magica ranks as the banner outing of his career, to me anyway. Mascara Magica had a good six minute mat based match with Kung Fu Jr. this year. That's when I was sold that he was a real talent. He and Black Warrior both looked like future greats but never really built on what they had at this point.

I thought that Casas and Dandy were up there with anyone in the Western hemisphere in 1996. Japan I can't really speak to though.

Top ten matches:

Spoiler

1. Felino vs Mascara Magica
2. Negro Casas, Dandy and Hector Garza vs Hijo del Santo, Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. (November 29)
3. Torneo cibernetico (March 22)
4. El Dandy vs Black Warrior
5. Satanico, Bestia Salvaje and Black Warrior vs Lizmark, Shocker and Bronco
6. Negro Casas vs Great Sasuke
7. Super Astro, Mascara Magica and Olimpico vs Mogur, Scorpio Jr. and Arkangel
8. El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas vs El Dandy
9. La Fiera vs Kahoz
10. Torneo cibernetico (October 8)

[fxnj]

List needs Dandy/King/Lizmark vs Casas/Satanico/Felino 6/28/96. Epic 6-man that came out of nowhere.