1983

[Grimmas]

Who is the greatest wrestler of the year?

[EnviousStupid]

Hard to say with how much we don't have footage of certain territories. With that said, it's probably Terry Funk.

[elliott]

Jerry Lawler - matches with Dundee, Idol, Kaufman, and Randy Savage, awesome tag matches. One of the great years of all time. 

Runner Up Buddy Rose - Has the Hennig feud, the babyface turn and feud vs Dynamite, Rip Oliver & Assasin, the awesome Chris Adams match. A bunch of tags & 6 man matches you should absolutely see if you haven't. One of our strongest runners up in any year. 

 

[Mr JMML]

21 minutes ago, elliott said:

Jerry Lawler - matches with Dundee, Idol, Kaufman, and Randy Savage, awesome tag matches. One of the great years of all time. 

Runner Up Buddy Rose - Has the Hennig feud, the babyface turn and feud vs Dynamite, Rip Oliver & Assasin, the awesome Chris Adams match. A bunch of tags & 6 man matches you should absolutely see if you haven't. One of our strongest runners up in any year. 

 

 1983 is the year of Jerry Lawler.

[tcg91]

10. Dynamite Kid
His stuff with Tiger Mask in New Japan wasn't outstanding, but had a few good ones in Europe, especially against Marty Jones in England. However, the best work of his year was the heel run in Portland and the great matches against Buddy Rose.

9. Stan Hansen
Solid year, with a few disappointing performances, but he also had a few remarkable performances in All Japan, of course against Terry Funk in singles and tag action. This is also the year he starts tagging with Terry Gordy, such an upgrade from Brody.

8. Riki Choshu
Most of his year's highlights were his series against Fujinami, but I got Choshu so low because I felt Fujinami was the one that made the matches great. Choshu had his best year yet though and he would keep on getting better.

7. Terry Gordy
I can't put him higher, as he didn't shine in singles bouts, but he was part of great matches with the Freebirds in World Class and with Hansen in All Japan. The dude was barely 22 at the time and that is incredible.

6. Buddy Rose
He had a very fun series with a young Curt Hennig, before finally turning babyface and doing great stuff against Dynamite Kid in Portland. He made Billy Jack look passable, for crying out loud!

5. Tatsumi Fujinami
As mentioned earlier, I think he's the one that deserves most of the praise for his good matches against Choshu, especially the ones in April. He went from being a top junior heavyweight to a very competent main eventer.

4. Greg Valentine
I wish we had more footage, but it looks like Valentine had an excellent year. A few good matches in St. Louis, then of course some great stuff in Mid-Atlantic against Flair and Piper (their iconic Starrcade match).

3. Ric Flair
Another good year for Flair, who had an excellent bout against Jumbo and a series of good bouts in other territories. I don't think he did as well as a title chaser, his matches against Harley Race were good but a tad disappointing.

2. Kevin von Erich
I think Kevin is the unsung hero of the von Erichs vs Freebirds feud and did amazing in their series of tag and trios matches. Also, he was more consistent of his brothers in singles matches against Flair, Race and Garvin.

1. Terry Funk
He just couldn't stay away and was as good as ever, especially against Hansen. Dory was clearly declining and Terry still did his best to bring their tag bouts to a good level. His match against Bob Orton in Southwest is a hidden gem and Funk put on an amazing performance there.