Best Tournament Wrestlers

[concrete1992]

Doing a wrestling podcast talking about tournaments, I felt like I should make a thread to discuss some of the thoughts that come from that in the context of Greatest Wrestler Ever. Being a great tournament doesn't necessarily take a unique skillset, but it does put wrestlers in a position where they have to carry a throughline across a variety of opponents versus a feud where they can build off one another. The format is something I value though as it creates something that is more self-contained. Ideally it gives you a glimpse of a wrestler against a few different folks and how they approach in a somewhat condensed period of time, in a specific context. Now that might be one night or a couple months but usually we are looking at something that spans a whole year or something. It creates a quasi-snapshot of a wrestler as well. I won't expect folks to put huge stock in being a good-great tourney wrestler but it I'll continue to value it throughout the process.

I'm interested in who folks think are among the best at crafting tournament performances, I also want to use the space as I see folks in different context's and head they end up stacking up. But first, the folks I consider immediately, most being modern:

• Necro Butcher - Too many deathmatch tournaments to name and his precence nearly elevates every single one of them
• Chris Hero - Someone that has had the opportunity to be in All The Tournaments. That also leads to him being fundemental to the history of certain tournaments such as TPI where he goes from participant to then into a couple of the more modern versions, The Guy. Similarly with 16 Carat, became the crux of that. Then have to mention his SCI 2015 performance which is nerdball stuff but one of the great little tourney runs.
• Shibata - Defined a style for the G1 with Ishii but also managed to work bigger epics in that tournament structure. There is a limited amount of work here but I don't think any one wrestler has defined an annual tournament quite like him.

[Thrifty]

I'd nominate for consideration:

- Toru Yano: perfect for injecting a tournament with a change of tone, pace, and potential spoiler energy; you know he will never win enough to actually win a tournament (at least on his own) but you also know he's perfectly capable of stealing a win from anyone and ruining expectations; also gets bonus for being able to work vs both faces and heels

- WALTER: was great relatively in using 16 Carat to first establish himself as wXw's Guy and then subsequently establishing himself as the main tournament hurdle to overcome for up-and-comers; bonus for memorable Tag Team League showings and for doing well in the shoot-style AMBITION tournaments too

- Eddie Kingston: most famous example being 12 Large but not the only one, Kingston's ability to work a "gravitas" match and also work a no frills slugfest at whim is perfect for tournament wrestling; also his perception of being someone who can lose regularly while still maintaining his aura and spectator interest helps a lot when booking tournaments

- Nick Gage: hard to find wrestlers who have consistently gotten folks to root for them to win tournaments as often as Gage has in his career

[El McKell]

Interesting to me that two modern G1 guys have gotten a mention and neither of them were Tomohiro Ishii. To me Ishii is the most obvious case of someone who has consistently for years stepped up his game in the summer for G1 and been the best performer more than once in some of the best tournaments ever 

[CheapPop1999]

I'll throw Taue out as an older name. His 95 Carny run might be one of the best runs in a tournament in the history of the sport, and the Carny final against Misawa is one of the best All Japan matches ever. Similar to the others that have been mentioned, he's a guy who's style ported over really well to having tighter-paced, no-frills slugfests with shorter run times in that context.

[concrete1992]

15 hours ago, Thrifty said:

I'd nominate for consideration:

- Toru Yano: perfect for injecting a tournament with a change of tone, pace, and potential spoiler energy; you know he will never win enough to actually win a tournament (at least on his own) but you also know he's perfectly capable of stealing a win from anyone and ruining expectations; also gets bonus for being able to work vs both faces and heels

- WALTER: was great relatively in using 16 Carat to first establish himself as wXw's Guy and then subsequently establishing himself as the main tournament hurdle to overcome for up-and-comers; bonus for memorable Tag Team League showings and for doing well in the shoot-style AMBITION tournaments too

- Eddie Kingston: most famous example being 12 Large but not the only one, Kingston's ability to work a "gravitas" match and also work a no frills slugfest at whim is perfect for tournament wrestling; also his perception of being someone who can lose regularly while still maintaining his aura and spectator interest helps a lot when booking tournaments

- Nick Gage: hard to find wrestlers who have consistently gotten folks to root for them to win tournaments as often as Gage has in his career

Love the Yano shoutout as one of the great tourny tools. Has a role and just crushes it. Watched him in the NJPW Intercontinental Title tournament recently and there he was by far the standout. Not just a goofy wrestler but also clearly the one who cared the most about building things up. Wish MVP had done the same but what are you going to do.

[Ma Stump Puller]

I'm going to shill for Osamu Nishimura more, because some of his best matches came out of tournament structures: he's also really good at building up stakes when the chips are down and he needs a definitive win or avoid a loss to remain a potential winner. He's also a great all-rounder that can make the big heavyweight seem even bigger with his bumps and selling (Kojima, Tenzan, Nagata, Takayama) or increase value (Kenzo Suzuki, Sanada). He's also one of the few guys who managed to smash it out of the park in BOTH the G1 and the Championship Carnival respectfully. He's a MVP at building value in all of his matches regardless of who is there or what he has to deal with, even way into his career where he has less stock. 

Vader is also great for something like this given his matches are generally rather short and explosive, which is always good in a tournament setting given the sheer amount of matches at points. Either as a domineering giant or a giant to be chopped down to size, his G1 work, his (underrated) late 90s AJPW stuff and even his (really underrated) NOAH stints could all arguably be career highlights by themselves, let alone all in successive order stacked on top of each other. He's not the longest or the one with the most versatility, but you don't always need to be to be a memorable wrestler in this format. One of the few who can have big main event outings sub-10 minutes long and still feel satisfying.

 

 

[Phil Schneider]

Danielson really broke out at the Super 8 and King of the Indies. He won a BOLA too

[Thrifty]

17 hours ago, El McKell said:

Interesting to me that two modern G1 guys have gotten a mention and neither of them were Tomohiro Ishii. To me Ishii is the most obvious case of someone who has consistently for years stepped up his game in the summer for G1 and been the best performer more than once in some of the best tournaments ever 

Someone was gonna likely mention Ishii within the first 5 posts so I decided to leave it to whoever will feel obliged

[Carlosa]

2 hours ago, Phil Schneider said:

Danielson really broke out at the Super 8 and King of the Indies. He won a BOLA too

Danielson has never won BOLA. 

[Control21]

Immediate names that jump out to me are Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and Minoru Suzuki

[EnviousStupid]

Surprised that Shinya Hashimoto's name hasn't popped up. Had an incredible run in the 98 G1 Climax, with plenty of great matches spread across other G1s that decade. That's not including the big IWGP Heavyweight Title Dome Show in 1989.

Recommended matches include:

• vs Victor Zangiev & Big Van Vader (24/04/89)
• vs Masahiro Chono (11/08/91)
• vs Hiroshi Hase (03/08/93)
• vs Kensuke Sasaki (12/08/95) & vs Keiji Mutoh (15/08/95)
• vs Riki Choshu (02/08/96)
• vs Genichiro Tenryu (01/08/98) & vs Kazuo Yamazaki (02/08/98)

 

[Mr JMML]

 

What about Chigusa Nagayo? She was always a big factor when in like every tournament AJW held in the mid 80's from Tag League The Best 1985 to Japan Grand Prix 1987. Chigusa was never outside the finals. She brought a lot of energy to those matches and made an impact in every match we have on tape. 

Tag League The Best final: 

 

 

Grand Prix 1986: 

Grand Prix 1987: