Nominees

Control21 said: Might be the best wrestler to come out of Georgia? I can't think of many other examples. That's probably not a good headliner by itself, but he was a very fine shoot-style wrestler and really helped RINGS define its unique, state-of-art style through the years as he introduced a Georgian wrestling style that many hadn't seen before. Guys like Zaza really helped develop the RINGS house style I think, because flashy and highly technical matches became the expectation among the fans due to the level of work seen from some of the eastern European grapplers. He was able to have a good match with almost anybody. Maybe a top 25 shoot-style guy? I would put …

Jetlag said: Seems like one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time. Badass girl brawler who wrestles like a pissed off, kendo stick wielding Taue. Will boot you in the face, chop you in the throat and has a cool finishing hold. Really good in both a face and heel role, consistently entertaining in both undercard tags and main events. I think she only wrestled for 10 years in niche promotions but she has a few all time level performances under her belt. Recommended Matches: w Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino, LLPW 2/15/1998 vs. Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 12/6/1997 vs. Michiko Nagashima, …

Control21 said: Another Russian SAMBO guy who made a name for himself in RINGS. His career was limited to RINGS like the other Russian guys in RINGS, save for one match in U-Style against Kawada which was decent. Like Zouev, Han, and Kopylov though, he was very good from a pure technical standpoint. I don't think he had any bad matches either. He was a crowd favorite in RINGS by 1998/1999, and he really put together some late RINGS classics with Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. In terms of shoot-style, it's hard not to consider him one of the top 25 guys in the style. Recommended matches - Ilyukhin vs Kiyoshi Tamura (1/28/98) Ilyukhin vs Tsuyoshi…

Jetlag said: The story of Hiroshi Watanabe is that he was an incredibly talented wrestler whose lack of size denied him success or exposure beyond Z-level indies. That said if you come across him, he is an incredible discovery. The most apt description I can come up with is that he's a sleazier, shorter Osamu Nishimura. A guy who has a knack for working lengthy, extremely technical, brainy matches. Fortunately for us the fed called MUMEJUKU allowed guys like him to do their thing and work the niche 70s throwback matches our hearts long for. I'd say Watanabe is easily one of the best pro-style matworkers outside of lucha of the 21st century. Given how rare quality pr…

kas said: " Her strong babyface energy makes her easy to root for, but she can believably snap and be more heelish when the situation calls for it. She's an amazing tag worker - with a particularly stellar tag run with Arisa Nakajima - she's consistently good to great in singles matches, even when working with rookies, and she is really great at elevating her opponents. Offensively she can be a little clunky and slow, but her strong striking along with her creativity more than make up for it - she has this one move which I can only describe as a body scissors hurricanrana roll-up which I had to replay about 10 times the first time I saw it just to understand what jus…

Discuss here. Jetlag said: "extremely unique with a surprising number of epic matches under his belt. Excellent ragdoll bumper, always forces his opponents to snap out of their usual routine, and of course, spectacular with the constant barrage of stiff punches and kicks on his opponents. I imagine boxing purists won't like him, since some of his punches are obviously showy, but his stuff works for me. Great tag worker who has a cool dynamic with MIKAMI, has a handful of really cool singles. I hope to unearth more under the radar DDT to showcase him."

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Elliott said: "Epic brawler with a knack working psychological masterpieces. On the short list of most interesting characters in wrestling history and the definition of the wrestler you want to see vs anybody. Ken the Box vs Brock Lesnar? Ken the Box vs Lou Thesz? Ken the Box vs Jaguar Yokota? Ken the Box vs Sabu? Ken the Box vs Shinya Hashimoto? Ken the Box vs Abdullah the Butcher? Ken the Box vs Kenta Kobashi (Battle of the Kens!)? These are all guarateed 5 star matches. I challenge anyone to come up with an opponent for Ken the Box that wouldn't be a 5 star match. He's the only wrestler in history you could say that about. Ken the Box is the ultimate cheat code. He sol…

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Ed. said: "I think he has a claim of being the best Junior Heavyweight in Japan of the 2010s. I don't think anyone of his generation was equally reliable in both the singles and tag divisions as he was in multiple BOSJ and title reigns. Timesplitters were probably underappreciated at the time because they were often always a first hour act on shows, but I'd take their matches over what the Jr tag division has served up for the past 3-4 years. I think he has the best Jr title run of anyone in the 2010s in his 2016 reign and he helps establish Will Ospreay and Hiromu Takahashi as new stars of the division with the series of rivalries he had with them. His final night wi…

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El-P said: "Because she spent most of her career in TNA, she's one of the most overlooked great worker of the last 20 years. In 2007 TNA made her their first woman champion, and she had a bunch of great matches against Awesome Kong, which were basically the first time women's pro-wrestling was taken and treated seriously in the US in decades. That was the real women's revolution, if you will. Gail Kim is great at everything she does. She's an *incredible* bumper, a quality that is less talked about now that most pro-wrestler do much more big athletic stuff, but Gail still is striking in how she would bump in really brutal and explosive ways (without looking like she would…

NotJayTabb said: "May seem an odd choice on the surface of it, but he's got a near 20 years career at this point, and he's been good for the vast majority of it. Probably tied with Kingston for the best Chikara graduate, he's an interesting case where we've pretty much got his whole career on tape, especially in his formative years and he just gets wrestling very quickly. He has good matches with the likes of Mr ZERO in his first year, and managed to get a rare good match from Joey Janela in 2019, with plenty of good stuff in between. Good tag worker, reliable singles wrestler, and still one of those names that interests me when he'll pop up on a random indy card. Not say…

NotJayTabb said: "It was highlighted in tonight's watch party that Pedro doesn't have a nomination, which is nuts when you consider we have a bunch of fun 80s Pedro performances, especially because Baron Mikel Scicluna is nominated, and he was never fun. I don't know how much footage there is of him in his prime, but his 80s stuff and his status as a former WWF champion suggests he's worth investigating. 80s Pedro is still great as a fired-up babyface, his comebacks are amazingly fun and his backbreaker gets huge height, look great. " Recs W/ Davey Boy Smith & Danny Spivey vs Beefcake, Valentine & Valiant (WWF Prime Time 16/6/86) Vs Barry O (WWF Pri…

Makai Club #1 said: "Mayu Iwatani is one of the modern Joshi wrestlers that can really hold a candle to some of the older names. What may hold her back is the lack of powerful or innovative offence that you'd get from an Aja Kong or Manami Toyota but her selling and bumping is at a high level. Her small frame and uncanny ability to get slammed on her neck and survive make her a terrific underdog who can garner crowd sympathy, who can turn that into heat for a big comeback at the end of the match. I'd almost compare her to Rey Mysterio in how perfect she is for that role. You can't imagine her as a heel because she is so rootable. Mayu has had plenty of great matches again…

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El-P said: " *in-ring only* people. She's apparently nuclear, but people still enjoy the work of people who are without a shadow of a doubt, terrible human beings. One of a kind pro-wrestler. She would outwork any woman in WWE, AEW or IMPACT (if she went back). Unmatched intensity, great as a babyface as showed by her feud against Sami Callihan (two MOTYC in a row for the promotion) and oh yeah, she is the first woman who actually won a man's world title and made it work. Great heel also, and not just IRL. Awesome at pretty much every aspect of the game (offense, selling, bumping, she can do it all), has the presence of a star, works like one. Probably won't eve…

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Discuss here. Clayton Jones said: "One of the best technicians in the world with a deceptively deep career. Works around his size exceptionally well. He's the type of wrestler that will make me tune into a show I had little to no interest in otherwise. He also only seems to get better with age and could still have some of his best stuff to come."

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