Loss

I don't think he was discounting the indie guys as much as he was pointing out that he has lots of viewing gaps and was trying to figure out if there's anything he doesn't see on the surface that makes this group of guys worth prioritizing over his other viewing gaps. There may have been some value judgment, but that wasn't really what his post was going for.

When Bryan returns, his popularity will be undeniable, so I'm not too worried about it. I don't think WWE will ever quite get behind him the way fans want them to do it, but I think he's pretty safely in a top spot now. Not the top spot, but a top spot. Cue the Arn Anderson jokes.

This is tremendous and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

I just meant it as simple as that. Do well, as opposed to doing bad. I didn't want to give the idea that just travel alone is enough to make a wrestler a contender. I can think of a few wrestlers that went to quite a few places but still never put it together.

Can a guy who is almost exclusively a great brawler do well on your list, or do you need some good traditional wrestling matches to go with it? For guys who have mostly traditional wrestling matches with a slow build to a hot finishing stretch on their resume, do you need a great brawl? If someone's peak is focused within a very narrow style, do you need something that shows they can step outside of their comfort zone too? I'm just curious what everyone values. For me, I need anyone I'm voting for to have at least one longish main event epic to their name in order to be considered. It's hardly the only factor, but it's hard for me to consider someone great until they have one. I also tend to lean toward guys that have wrestled well in many places, although there's something to be said for doing it well in the same place repeatedly too, so I'm more flexible there. I realize there are different ways to look at all of this, hence the thread.

Dylan, have you written about the Bret match anywhere? I was curious what you thought of it. If anyone is looking to see Terry Funk do more wrestling and less brawling as an old guy, that's the match to see.

These are Funk's best singles matches of the 90s in my opinion: Terry Funk vs Eddie Gilbert (01/23/93, ECW/WWA Battle of the Belts) Terry Funk vs Atsushi Onita (05/05/93, FMW) Terry Funk vs Eddie Gilbert (06/19/93, ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular) Terry Funk vs Sabu (02/28/94, WWN) Terry Funk vs Cactus Jack (01/08/95, IWA Duel of the Wilds) Terry Funk vs Sabu (08/09/97, ECW Born To Be Wired) Terry Funk vs Bret Hart (09/11/97, Wrestlefest) I wouldn't call any of them MOTYCs, but the Sabu matches and the Bret Hart match are only slightly below that level for me.

Serious question - was Jon Moxley getting any buzz before he became Dean Ambrose? I had never really heard anyone talk about him at the time, so maybe I just missed it.

Who was his partner in Team Uppercut?

I haven't, but I do have them on my to-watch list.

Can I finally have that pony? A white one that sparkles?

I just realized that my man Yoshinari Ogawa doesn't have a thread. A travesty!

Feel free to start a thread and ask for suggestions.

I think Fuerza approaches every match by asking himself the question, "What's the least amount of credibility I can retain and still have a good match?" I love the guy. Here's what I'd recommend off the top of my head as far as singles matches go. There are more than this though. Fuerza Guerrera vs El Pantera (05/04/90) Fuerza Guerrera vs Octagon (11/01/91) Fuerza Guerrera vs Misterioso (12/08/91) Fuerza Guerrera vs Octagon (01/31/92)

Here's something else I'd like to recommend. Follow the links for the rest. Kudo and Kandori are two wrestlers that I think should merit top 100 consideration and this match reflects well on both. Just Part 1 posted, but follow links to continue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QugEq-Czkq4

Does Sheamus have one signature match that really captures him at his best?

I'm not looking for a full list of every match on tape, but I'm looking for a full list of everything he has ever done that is worth checking out and that was important to his career, even if it wasn't great necessarily. I want to see how he became what he is now, the specific points along the way that he showed the most improvement, that sort of thing. I did something similar for each of Flair's title reigns in his thread.

He does not, but Onita has a way of elevating subpar guys around him in tag matches by virtue of creating such a chaotic atmosphere. If a guy is a decent brawler or is even willing to try to be one, he can probably have a good tag match with or against Onita, even if he doesn't have much else in his favor.

Just because I don't think one has ever been done, could we get a mega matchlist of doom for this guy? Preferably divided into the following categories: - American Dragon (matches under the mask) - Indy run prior to becoming the ROH champ - Indy run after becoming ROH champ - International matches - WWE run through 2012 - WWE run from 2013 to present The guy is going to do well on my list, but I need a better concept of how to rank him in comparison to everyone else.

The Joshi picks I want to make would likely feature wrestlers that I don't think have any shot of making a top 100, so that's why I haven't nominated anything yet. I want to be strategic.

Agreed that Japanese wrestling was way ahead of U.S. wrestling by that point, which is why I graded on a curve of top 10 versus top 30. There were also far more promotions running monthly shows that were usually good for at least a five year period if not longer. We can talk about Flair in the 90s and how he compares to his peers in each year in the Flair thread if it interests you, but just to bring this back to Fujinami and what I think is more relevant regarding his career, in 1980-1981 I think he is pretty easily the best mat worker out there, and I've watched almost all of the praised Joint Promotions stuff in the same time period. His role in that time taking on all comers - some guys I'd never heard of before or since - is really incredible, and I haven't even gotten to the peak of his heavyweight run yet. The guy was a phenomenal talent and was pulling off athletic spots that I think would still pop a crowd today that I wish someone would steal. The first one that comes to mind is doing the criss-cross off the Irish whip and catching the guy while he's running in a bodyscissors from an upside down position, but there are plenty more spots like that. If his whole decade is full of matches that good, even if he deviates from that specific match type, he can spend the 90s picking his nose for all I care (not that I think Fujinami was *that* bad in the 90s ... it was more that he was just there). He's still a GOAT contender.

I like Fujinami a ton, but I don't think comparing Flair and Fujinami in the 90s is a solid comparison. Flair slipped to the point that he wasn't in the best in the world conversation anymore after the middle of 1990, but I don't think you could say he dropped out of the top ten in the U.S. until probably 1995 or 1996. As for Fujinami, I don't know that he had even 10 good matches in the 1990s, and I definitely don't think he even had a year where he was a top 30 guy in Japan. He may have been a part of a few good tags in isolation, but it's rare. As for Fujinami's ranking in his country in the 90s, you'd have the AJ 4, but also Fuchi and Kikuchi. Then in New Japan you have Hashimoto, Hase, Muto, Chono, Liger, Otani, Kanemoto ... all the way down to where I'm not even sure he beats Shiro Koshinaka or Kazuo Yamazaki. Maybe not even Sasaki, Tenzan or Kojima. Add in the shoot style workers and the wrestlers in MPro, and even the veterans who peaked in the same generation he did like Choshu and Tenryu (although Tenryu peaked again). The FMW guys probably come down to style preference, but the best of the garbage style certainly peaked higher than anything Fujinami did. I don't say all of this to disparage Fujinami because I could see myself voting him in the top five and that's just based on watching 1980-1981 and using that as a predictor for how I imagine the rest of his decade will go. I suspect he'll be comfortably there after I finish up 80s New Japan. Maybe even number one, since I'm not as gung-ho on guys having to contribute something after their prime as many people. But he slipped far more after 1989 than Flair did, with nothing really to hang his hat on except for that one off with Nishimura in MUGA in 2006.

Probably his Memphis matches with guys like Lawler, Savage and Jarrett, along with complete matches from All Japan, Houston and Southwest.

Excited to hear these shows. Great name too! Listening now.

Hell, it could even be someone like Cornette overestimating himself and thinking he could take him.