1991

[Grimmas]

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

[Boss Rock]

Jumbo or Kawada. Kobashi, Misawa, and Taue were looking like world beaters as well, but Kawada seemed the furthest along at this point and Jumbo was still playing a huge part in helping establish them.

[DylanZero]

Much like 1990, there were a lot of great wrestlers in AJPW, but none of them stood above Jumbo. Every match he was the glue and made everyone else better.

[SmartMark15]

Definitely see the case for Jumbo and I think it's pretty close, but Kawada takes this year for me. Rapid ascension in quality and the booking supporting him as the guy to watch out for while Misawa recovered from various injuries throughout the year. Kawada always stood in his big matches, being one of the highlights of the classic 4/20/91 six-man, and gets to end the year with a real great Triple Crown match against Jumbo as well. I think Taue should get a look too for just how much variety he was able to pull off in his work especially in tag settings but it's an especially close race between Kawada and Jumbo.

[Microstatistics]

El Hijo del Santo and Naoki Sano would be my Top 2. 

[kas]

Bull Nakano

[elliott]

Bull no doubt. Smack in the middle of her prime as the best wrestler & coolest person on Earth. 

Runner Up - Fuerza Guerrera has an amazing year with big matches against Misterioso, Gallo Tapado, and a GOAT performance Octagon. Fuerza is just insanely great. 

[Mr JMML]

Toshiaki Kawada had a great year too.

[cad]

Mex. '91:
1. Fuerza Guerrera
2. Atlantis
3. Brazo de Oro
HM: Pirata Morgan, El Hijo del Santo

Finally, we get something besides just CMLL footage this year, and it comes from... Monterrey? The UWA TV show started in October to provide another alternative. Last year's number one, Dandy, began the year in Japan and then I think took some time to heal from injuries. By the time he got back in March, last year's number two, Fuerza, had already laid down his Octagon classic on his way to leaving the rest of the promotion in the dust. I'd say Fuerza had the top spot on lockdown all year. Atlantis was no longer the top flyer in the world as he'd been in 1989, but he had enough facets to his game that he was just as good overall anyway. He finally got his excellent showcase match, against Blue Panther, and it remains one of his signature performances today. I've always found Brazo de Oro fairly uncharismatic, but his match with Santo is a classic, and there is a LOT of terrific technical work from him in 1991. For the last four months of the year, Pirata was performing at the same level as Fuerza. I just can't in good conscience rank him with how his tecnico run, which made up half his year, provided no real highlights and finished up quickly, almost as if everyone admitted that it had been a mistake. Hijo del Santo had some brilliant performances and probably was better than at least Brazo de Oro. There isn't enough of him to know what kind of a year he really had, though, especially given that Santo did sometimes have a tendency to coast a bit.

I don't really think that Atlantis or Brazo de Oro could hang with the true best in the world candidates for 1991, but Fuerza? If you can accept a world number one who spends half his time falling on his ass, you'll see a guy who had a classic with an unremarkable opponent, built up an exciting match with a forty-nine year old who had never been a big name, and basically turned Misterioso from a flashy undercard worker into one of the promotion's young stars. There can't be a lot of years like that, where a guy is tasked with good hand duties and churns out superstar performances.

My top ten:

Spoiler

1. El Hijo del Santo vs Brazo de Oro
2. Fuerza Guerrera vs Octagon
3. La Fiera vs Jerry Estrada
4. El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (May 17, if they have more than one this year)
5. Fuerza Guerrera vs Misterioso
6. El Hijo del Santo, Mascara Sagrada and Misterioso vs Fuerza Guerrera, Emilio Charles Jr. and Fiera
7. Atlantis vs Blue Panther
8. Mascara Sagrada vs Pirata Morgan
9. Satanico, Pirata Morgan and MS-1 vs El Brazo, Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata
10. Cien Caras, Negro Casas and Arandu vs Panterita del Ring, Black Magic and Centurion Negro
11. Javier Cruz, Kato Kung Lee and Mogur vs Tony Arce, Vulcano and Sultan Gargola

Astute observers might be thinking, "That's eleven, you stupid shit." This is almost certainly true, but I'm not 100% sure that #10 took place in 1991. An ideal top ten is about 50-50 between 1 vs 1 matches (the big climactic blowoffs) and 3 vs 3 (which are like 80-90% of all matches). If it's dominated by the latter then your big matches aren't delivering, too many of the former and your house style is probably a little weak.