1995

[Grimmas]

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

[Tetsujin]

Misawa, definitely. Kawada is close, but Misawa's peaks are undeniable both in singles and tags. It's probably his best year ever.

[Boss Rock]

Gotta be Misawa.

[DylanZero]

I think you could argue this was Misawa's best overall year, or at least the year he's most comfortably the best wrestler of the year. I loved 1995 Misawa.

[Microstatistics]

I agree with the Misawa pick. Arguably his peak year. Volk Han, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and Toshiaki Kawada would be the rest of Top 5.

[elliott]

Manami Toyota - the Hokuto match the June Aja match, the Shimoda match, the Hotta match, the Kansai match, tag & multi person matches. Just an undeniably awesome year. 

Runner Up - Kiyoshi Tamura is horribly booked with limited opportunities & the Albright debacle but still manages an awesome match with Yamazki & passes the eye test in otherwise short matches or against boring opponents. 

[Mr JMML]

29 minutes ago, elliott said:

Manami Toyota - the Hokuto match the June Aja match, the Shimoda match, the Hotta match, the Kansai match, tag & multi person matches. Just an undeniably awesome year. 

Runner Up - Kiyoshi Tamura is horribly booked with limited opportunities & the Albright debacle but still manages an awesome match with Yamazki & passes the eye test in otherwise short matches or against boring opponents. 

Manami's year is awesome, her match against Aja Kong in June was the first joshi match I saw.

[Control21]

Misawa probably, but Volk Han has a good case here as well. Had some great matches with Yamamoto, Maeda, and Kopylov.

[cad]

My top three for Mexico:
1. El Hijo del Santo
2. Rey Misterio Jr.
3. Felino

Santo's tough to rate for these things because he doesn't really change. Some years his matches are better, but he's always the same guy. What stood out for me in 1995 wasn't any particular performance but how the balance of power in terms of match quality shifted the moment he jumped. Just about marked the end of the AAA golden years for workrate fans, and suddenly CMLL TV became good after months of their TV presence consisting mostly of condensed matches. Not that it was all his doing (mostly it was that they stopped with all the clipping), but it helped for a narrative in my head if nothing else. Misterio was a genuine phenom. I've never found him interesting as a character and I prefer more grounded workers, but he had the year's preeminent big match and didn't totally reject the classic tecnico style. Felino's a guy I haven't always taken seriously. What I didn't understand was that 1992-94, which is more in my wheelhouse, represented his Stunning Steve years, when he was a clear talent who was maybe 75% of the way there. No one thinks of Felino when they think of 1995, and no one thinks of 1995 when they think of Felino, but this was the year that he seemed to mature and find the right balance (for him) between comedy and wrestling. He was a pure background character this year, and normally I try to list guys with more prominent roles, but, um, I guess didn't this time.

Misterio Jr. actually was considered a best in the world candidate at the time. I think Santo was better, and he actually has a really strong case if you're high on his title matches with Psicosis and Casas, both of which have gotten strong reviews at one time or another.

My top ten:

Spoiler

1. Psicosis vs Rey Misterio Jr. (September 22)
2. Hijo del Santo, Rey Misterio Jr. and Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther and Psicosis (March 17)
3. Hijo del Santo, Parka and Octagon vs Eddy Guerrero, Santo Negro and Psicosis (February 19)
4. Hijo del Santo, Parka, Rey Misterio Jr. and Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera, Jerry Estrada, Pentagon and Psicosis
5. Hijo del Santo, Parka, Rey Misterio Jr. and Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther, Pentagon and Psicosis
6. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera and Jerry Estrada vs Super Astro, Volador and Transformer
7. El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (September 29)
8. Torneo cibernetico (December 15)
9. Eddy Guerrero, Emilio Charles Jr. and Felino vs Atlantis, Pantera and Hector Garza
10. Sangre Chicana, Dr. Wagner Jr. and Mano Negra vs Dandy, Fiera and Silver King

[Grimmas]

This is my next year to focus on! I don't know if I can get behind Misawa, but we'll see!

[Mr JMML]

Manami had a career year, I think she'll be your wrestler of the year.

[fxnj]

Not sure if he had a better year than Misawa, but I've always been impressed by Taue's 1995 for the Carnival run and the Kobashi singles from July.

[Mr JMML]

25 minutes ago, fxnj said:

Not sure if he had a better year than Misawa, but I've always been impressed by Taue's 1995 for the Carnival run and the Kobashi singles from July.

I agree with you but I know Grimmas and he isn't AJPW 90's biggest fan.

[Grimmas]

2 hours ago, fxnj said:

Not sure if he had a better year than Misawa, but I've always been impressed by Taue's 1995 for the Carnival run and the Kobashi singles from July.

Going in, Taue is someone I am considering for #1

[kas]

Toyota is my #1, but the 4 pillars, Aja Kong, Chigusa Nagayo, and Dynamite Kansai all had fantastic years. I'd imagine Hashimoto would be in that tier but I just haven't seen enough.