Watching the Top 100

[ohtani's jacket]

#81 Kevin Steen

Kevin Owens Steen has a 9.23 rating on cagematch, so clearly you people failed to recognize that he is one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time voting him at a mere 81.

El Generico vs. Kevin Steen (ROH, 12/18/10)

This was a fight without honor match, and also mask vs. career. I watched these guys not so long ago tagging against the Briscoe Brothers. Spoiler alert, but they had a big falling out and a length singles feud. Watching the blow off to a feud without the build up is never a good idea, but basically this was a mish mash of generic hardcore wrestling, lucha apuestas wrestling, Puerto RIco, and Attitude Era main events. In other words, a perfect representation of the shit we were dissecting in 2010. It's a decent enough match. I was basically entertained despite the fact that it wore its influences on its sleeve. I kind of wish that ROH had better commentary. It's hard to take the big emotional moments seriously when it sounds like two guys doing a podcast together. I kind of hate how they point out all the call backs. I also hated the finish. First of all, they did a shitty Attitude Era type scenario where there are run-ins and the refs keep getting taken out. Then they had the big Shawn Michaels style moment at the end where Generico is looking at his old mask and weighing up whether to hit Steen with a chair, which was the same action that started the feud and would end Steen's career. I get that they thought it was poignant, but you can't rag on the WWE for their melodramatic shit and then pull the same crap in your own ring. You might as well be auditioning for a WWE spot by that point.

I don't have anything against Steen as a worker, mind you. He wasn't the most gifted athlete of the day, but he found a way to forge a career for himself. So not a terrible pick. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#80 Jay Briscoe

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH, 12/10/22)

The Briscoes look considerably different from the 2007 matches I've been watching. I guess they lived a little. This was a brutal, old-school collar match. One of the bloodiest bouts you'll see. It loses some charm due to modern production values, but the commitment to working a career ending brawl was outstanding. Probably the best thing I've watched so far. This was my first time seeing FTR. I've got to say I approve of Dax Harwood's Terry Rudge look. They had some kind of old-school Andersons thing going on. Pretty cool. 

This was great. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#79 Jaguar Yokota

I voted Jaguar #1 back in 2006, so I'm glad to see she's still hanging in there. Her cagematch situation is a hot mess, though. She has a 9.60 rating, but nobody can be bothered to watch or rank any of her matches. So, I get this:

Jaguar Yokota, Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid & Yuu (Stardom, 8/19/23)

I wasn't expecting to watch a match with Jaguar as an obasan, but she literally has five matches at 8 or above. Granted, she's pretty badass for an obasan. The cigarettes and booze have taken their toll, but she still has the same fire. This was an exhibition match so it was never going to be great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It overstayed its welcome and should have been shorter, however it was fun watching Momoe wrestling like she hadn't skipped a beat after eighteen years. This was another first for me -- my first Stardom match. Not for me. I'll keep my memories of old-school Joshi, thanks. I'm glad there's an avenue for women to become Joshi pro-wrestlers, though, as it was looking pretty dire for a while there.

Jaguar is top 50 at the least, but '79 isn't bad. At least she made the top 100. 

 

 

[MoS]

Fantastic countdown @ohtani's jacket, not least because it reminds me of someone saying on the GWE discord (with whose sentiments I fully concur) that they love all posts OJ makes despite him calling one of their MOTDs a "decent little match". 

I hope we get to read OJ's full and complete review of everything AEW at least from 2019-26 one day. 

Also, congrats for beating England and making Stokes retire, apart from getting your own McCullum to get fired. That was a tremendous stretch of play. 

[ohtani's jacket]

1 hour ago, MoS said:

Fantastic countdown @ohtani's jacket, not least because it reminds me of someone saying on the GWE discord (with whose sentiments I fully concur) that they love all posts OJ makes despite him calling one of their MOTDs a "decent little match". 

I hope we get to read OJ's full and complete review of everything AEW at least from 2019-26 one day. 

Also, congrats for beating England and making Stokes retire, apart from getting your own McCullum to get fired. That was a tremendous stretch of play. 

That was an incredible result against England, but it's forgotten about so quickly these days. When I was a kid, the things Hadlee did were legendary and continued to live long in the memory. I guess the world is a faster, busier place these days. 

I hope folks don't take my reviews too seriously. It's just me talking shit to myself. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#78 Bobby Eaton

Bobby has a 7.87 rating on cagematch, which is a clip under 8. I guess that's not so bad. He has a number of highly rated War Games and Midnight Express matches. I do kind of wonder what will happen to the legacy of guys like Bobby Eaton as we get further and further away from the era he worked in. I mean, you look at 50s matches and there are guys there who were the Bobby Eatons of their day and are all but forgotten now.

Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers (JCP, 4/26/88)

This was a great match. I can kind of see how it might appear dated or slow to fans who've grown up on modern wrestling. There is a nostalgia attached to it that takes you back to the late 80s. However, the part where the Midnights take over and start beating up Bobby Fulton was outstanding. Fulton took a hell of bump on the guardrail, and Lane was ferocious in the way he attacked Fulton, especially when he was throwing him around by the hair. The ref stoppage was the best teased finish I've seen in a long time, and a brilliant piece of booking. Giving the Midnights an out like that so that they can produce a billion promos about how the match should've been over was genius. Surely, it was Cornette who came up with that because it wasn't a Dusty finish. Early on, I thought Rogers out to be pissed at his partner because Fulton came across as so dumb, but man, Fulton was a hell of a FIP in this bout. 

This was a blast. Bobby was the fourth best worker in the bout, but it was a great match nonetheless. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#77 Brock Lesnar

Man, it's hard for me to give a shit about Lesnar. I'll admit I liked him during his initial run when he was a wrestling machine, but after he came back from MMA and hooked up with Heyman it was a different kettle of fish. I've never really liked monsters. Cagematch has him at a fairly low 8.08, so you can't claim that they're overrating him.

Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (WWE, 8/18/13)

Was Punk going for some sort of Hugh Jackman look around this time? It made him look old. This match was hurt by being a no disqualification bout. Since Punk was into MMA, I would have preferred to have seen a submission match. As it was, the only interesting parts of the match where when they worked submission holds. The rest of the match was uninteresting WWE style brawling. Any match that relies a steel chair this much is creatively bankrupt. I liked some of the Heyman stuff, and I realize Heyman was a great manager by modern standards, but I can't believe that super fan Punk would be suckered into losing the bout because he went after the manager. He should have been smarter than that. 

Lesnar was meh. I get why people like him, though. I dunno if I'm stealing this line from someone, but it's true -- I'd rather watch Dick Vrij RINGS matches than watch Lesnar try to be a faux MMA fighter in the WWE. Hell, the Undertaker fantasizing about being Randy Couture is more entertaining than Brock.  But I won't kick him out of the top 100. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

#76 Yoshiro Takayama

I get why people voted for Takayama. Would I put him in my top 100? Probably not, but he was a freak of nature, was tough, like to fuck guys up, and was in some incredible matches. 

Takashi Sugiura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH, 7/10/10)

This wasn't one of them. Cagematch completely oversold how epic this match is. There are some decent moments, but it's slow as fuck and doesn't have the wild offensive flurries I was expecting from the match descriptions. Apparently, it was Takayama's last big match, which account for the lack of speed. I pray I don't have to watch another Sugiura match for this project. I'd rather watch Kensuke Sasaki wrestle himself in a four way match than ever watch this Sugiura guy again.

I got no real beef with Takayama being in the top 100. I like that he's a spot above Brock. 

Next up, the one you've been waiting for -- Will Ospreay. As Screamin' Jay Hawkins once sang, "What's gonna happen on the 8th day?"

[ohtani's jacket]

#75 Will Ospreay

Will Ospreay has a whopping 9.26 rating on cagematch with an overwhelming majority of voters rating him a perfect ten out of ten. He's a popular lad.

Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW, 1/4/23)

This is Ospreay's highest ranked match on cagematch, though not his highest rated match in the Observer. it occurred as we were coming out of the pandemic and New Japan were allowed to have live attendances again.

What is up with these cosplay entrances? Give me a real entrance. Shinya Hashimoto, now there was an entrance. The commentary blows as well. It's not a fifth form English essay, buddy. 

I'll cut to the chase. I didn't hate Ospreay. It was difficult for me to get a gauge on him because this is the first time seeing him and he showed very little character. His deal,, outside of his millennial haircut, seems to be that instead of taking the simplest, most direct route to striking his opponent, he likes to twists and turns. I didn't feel like anything I saw was too egregious, but it was one match. It was also a match where he sold a lot. The only thing that I thought was stupid was how every move had a name and seemed to reference a video game. Your weird backhand chop is a backhand chop not some sort of hidden flame.

Omega is on an entirely different level with his goofy facial expressions and his stupid film references. I thought he did a phenomenal job of destroying Ospreay after Ospreay was cut open, and aside from some goof stuff, Ospreay did a great job of doing a glassy eye sell job. That part of the bout was engaging.  The jury is kind of out for me on Ospreay, but I didn't see anything that made me immediately hate him. Kenny, on the other hand, needs to learn that you cannot out ham Shawn Michaels. Not on your best day. Even if you had Michaels' lazy eye. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#74 Giant Baba

Baba being paired up with Will Ospreay is amusing. It's hard to imagine two wrestlers who are so far apart both physically and stylistically. Baba has a healthy 8.80 rating on cagematch, but his matches haven't been explored in any great depth. It's better than someone like Jaguar Yokota, but basically the greatest hits. 

Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW, 12/11/80)

I may, or may not, have seen this in the past, but I figured with Dory's recent passing now that all of the principles have passed away it was worth watching. I'm not a huge fan of All Japan from this era. I like 70s All Japan, but I feel like nothing really exciting happens in 80s All Japan until Choshu arrives. That may not be completely true, but it's the feeling I have. I'm also not a big fan of Jumbo Tsuruta during this era, though I'm willing to acknowledge that technically he's a decent wrestler. 

I kept waiting for some sort of hook that would pull me into the match, but the commentators kept mentioning that it was a marathon match, and it became obvious that nothing exciting was going to happen until the final ten minutes. In fact, you could edit this to the last 10 minutes and stick it on a RWTL commercial tape and basically lose nothing. Having said that, it's never boring. It's just not that special. If you're into All Japan legends, and the history and lore, then you'll enjoy it, but even the excitement towards he end doesn't get paid off in a satisfying manner. It ends with a ring out finish when Terry fails to make the count. The crowd don't care at this point because in 1980 ring out finishes were an accepted norm, but eventually they'd become Japan's version of the Dusty finish. 

Baba doesn't do a lot. Tsuruta works the bulk of the bout and occasionally the Funks oversell for Baba's weak offense. Whenever Baba is in peril, Tsuruta gets fired up and those moments provide some of the most exciting moments of the bout.

Baba's prime was in the 60s. The case for him being an all-time great was always based around ring smarts and overcoming physical limitations to be a good worker. By this stage, the focus was on seniority and hierarchy, and everyone was working around Baba's limitations to make it a good match. Baba isn't terrible, but I do question whether he should have been there. I think it would have been a far better match if Tsuruta had been the senior partner to a younger worker, similar to what All Japan ultimately did in the late 80s and 90s. I don't know who that partner would have been off the top of my head, but I feel that Jumbo had outgrown Baba by this point. 

As far as Baba in the top 100 goes, it's a tricky one. Can you really say that Takayama is top 100, but Baba isn't? If we're going to put Baba in the top 100 it needs to be the earlier Baba, who surprised everyone with his athleticism and wrestling ability rather than this Baba who does his signature spots while his opponents try hard not to hurt him. I lean towards no, but I could watch a match from the 70s tomorrow and swing yes. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#73 Mercedes Mone

Another new one for me. I've heard she's a highly regarded worker, but I'll admit my ignorance here, I had no idea that she used to work in the WWE as Sasha Banks.

Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (WWE, 8/22/15)

I was a bit skeptical about this after the entrances, but once they settled into the match, I was quite impressed by both women. There were a few little things that were amateur hour, but Mone struck me as a solid performer and a smart worker. She was a good heel, and showed plenty of swagger. She also sold well, and did cool things like unstrapping Bayley's hand and trying to rebreak it. Details that you don't really expect from modern day bouts. Her performance was part Hokuto/part Ozaki. The only thing I didn't see from her was some higher end offense. If Mone has another 10 years of this sort of work under her belt, then I can understand why people are high on her. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

#72 William Regal 

I like a good Regal match as much as the next guy, preferably if it's from the mid-90s, but I don't think you can justify him being ahead of so many British legends. It's not Regal's fault that his career coincided with the end of ITV wrestling, and he should be applauded for finding success in the US and keeping some of the traditions alive, but I feel he gets a similar sort of rub that Johnny Saint does among hardcore fans. It's tough because he's clearly a fantastic worker, but not one of the hundred best.

Dean Ambrose vs. William Regal (FCW, 6/7/12)

Dusty says that Dean Ambrose reminds him of James Dean, which I thought was kind of fitting because just like Dean you could accuse Ambrose of trying a little hard with his method acting. I like Dean, and I'm sure Ambrose has his fans, but a lot of the stuff they did in this match was too minimalist for a studio audience and wasn't going to get a reaction from all but the nerdiest of fans. Even Dusty and JR had difficulty talking around it. I'm talking about things like Ambrose ramming his own shoulder into the turnbuckle to fix a dislocation, or get it working again. It's a great idea in theory but doesn't play to an audience well. The match was kind of slow to begin with, and while there were small details that I liked, Regal generally had better matches than this on regular WWE TV where things are generally more formulaic. I honestly thought a wild brawl would have been more fun than the psychological  stuff they were aiming for here. 

I don't think Regal belongs in the top 100, but he's too good of a worker for me to kick him out. So, I'll call him iffy.