Moonsault Marvin

This was an okay match. I liked Violencia's mask and hair. Solar seemed like he was having an off night compared to matches that I watched him in for GWE. Zumbido really stood out with his high flying and corkscrews. They all kept the pace really fast. I haven't watched any lucha in about 6 months, and it always takes me several matches to adapt to it. Everybody getting pinned or submitting all at once always bugs me. I also never understand the pin where they hop up and down, but the ref keeps counting, even with the shoulders leaving the mat.

Fun match. It had a couple of stilted sequences, but you could see both of these guys had potential and were quite good for the short time they had been wrestling. Kendrick might have more personality here than he currently does.

1. Ric Flair 2. Bret Hart 3. Lou Thesz 4. Jumbo Tsuruta 5. Terry Funk 6. Mitsuharu Misawa 7. Steve Austin 8. Randy Savage 9. Jushin Liger 10. Genichiro Tenryu 11. Ricky Steamboat 12. Buddy Rogers 13. Stan Hansen 14. Shawn Michaels 15. Jerry Lawler 16. Riki Choshu 17. Nick Bockwinkel 18. Daniel Bryan 19. Andre the Giant 20. Toshiaki Kawada 21. Verne Gagne 22. Hulk Hogan 23. Shinya Hashimoto 24. El Hijo del Santo 25. Arn Anderson 26. Jim Breaks 27. Jack Brisco 28. Dusty Rhodes 29. Bruno Sammartino 30. Buddy Rose 31. Tatsumi Fujinami 32. The Destroyer 33. Negro Casas 34. Kenta Kobashi 35. Bob Backlund 36. Harley Race 37. CM Punk 38. The Undertaker 39. Giant Baba 40. Curt Hennig 41. Tully Blanchard 42. Jaguar Yokota 43. Mick Foley 44. Vader 45. Satanico 46. Bobby Eaton 47. Billy Robinson 48. Hiroshi Tanahashi 49. Eddie Guerrero 50. Antonio Inoki 51. The Rock 52. Bill Dundee 53. Steve Grey 54. Rey Mysterio Jr. 55. Pat O'Connor 56. Dick Murdoch 57. Chris Benoit 58. Dory Funk Jr. 59. Jun Akiyama 60. Atlantis 61. Akira Hokuto 62. Volk Han 63. Barry Windham 64. Ultimate Warrior 65. Atsushi Onita 66. Kerry Von Erich 67. Owen Hart 68. Brock Lesnar 69. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 70. Johnny Saint 71. Akira Taue 72. Perro Aguayo 73. Akira Maeda 74. Roddy Piper 75. Keiji Mutoh 76. Dynamite Kid 77. Aja Kong 78. El Dandy 79. Rick Rude 80. William Regal 81. Chris Jericho 82. Sgt. Slaughter 83. Shinsuke Nakamura 84. Greg Valentine 85. Tito Santana 86. Marty Jones 87. Chigusa Nagayo 88. Wahoo McDaniel 89. Ricky Morton 90. Carlos Colon 91. Jake Roberts 92. Blue Panther 93. Shinjiro Ohtani 94. Ted DiBiase 95. Abdullah The Butcher 96. LA Park 97. AJ Styles 98. Christian 99. Sabu 100. Virus

I think those are the same match. Ted mistimed the Japan match and they called time on him. Ted always claims he didn't get any offense, but his heat section takes a good bit of the match.

I have 78 left. I'm happy Dusty made it. I thought he was a goner for sure today.

At the beginning of the project, I hated Dory, but after watching all those '70s Funks tag matches, I came to appreciate him. Besides losing Dory today, I lost Wahoo, Jaguar, and Chigusa.

It's more that I love the '50s style of wrestling. I like watching the matwork. Compared to today's wrestling with no sense of space in the match, the older wrestling gives the selling more meaning to me.

My ballot has been a bloodbath today. I was the high vote on Thesz. I love to watch Thesz because wrestling history seems to flow through him. He looks like he could be a neighbor on "Leave It To Beaver," but he transforms himself in the ring into a dastardly heel that's willing to bend the rules to his advantage, presaging the NWA Championship heels to come. He uses his backdrop suplex, which becomes the cornerstone of the All Japan style. Jumbo, Misawa, Kawada, etc. just wouldn't be the same without Thesz's existence. Bret Hart's signature counter that he uses to beat Piper and Austin is being used by Thesz in the early 1950's. On the mat, Thesz always stays active. He cranks the holds and will move to a variation to keep things interesting. When he is trapped in a hold, Thesz is always moving the feet, which gives the needed impression of trying to escape. Others that I lost today: 12. Buddy Rogers 29. Bruno Sammartino 50. Antonio Inoki 72. Perro Aguayo 86. Marty Jones 91. Jake Roberts 99. Sabu

I had Verne Gagne at #21. He did a lot better than I was expecting.

I had Pat O'Connor at #55. I really wish we had more footage to propel him higher.

I had Abdullah at #95 and he was my second guy to place so far. His matches with Colon and his tags with the Sheik against the Funks are really fun.

I highly value charisma and think it drives wrestling in a way that the traditional view doesn't always appreciate. I voted Hogan, Dusty, and Bruno in the top half of my list, so Warrior in the back half doesn't feel out of place to me. I started watching WWF and NWA at about the same time, so I also don't have the anti-WWF bias that some have. I see WWF's character approach to wrestling as a valid way to wrestle. Warrior obviously has technique flaws, but I still enjoy going back and watching the matches and character. I was extremely pleased that there were other voters for the Warrior. I'm not sure what you mean by the process, but I watched hours and hours each day for this project and totaled 3888 matches. I tried really hard to shore up my knowledge of Japanese, Mexican, and British wrestling, so I would be a competent voter.

I had Mad Dog Vachon on an early draft of my list but dropped him off. I feel bad for costing him a Top 500 spot.

Great job on the podcast.

I thought both Van Buyten and Lasartesse looked like really good wrestlers, but some of that '80s European footage was the most difficult watching in all of this project. The extreme closeups and weird repeating effects that were edited in made my head hurt.

I turned in my top 100.

Something notable about that match is Rogers's complete revamping of his wrestling style from the 40's to the 50's. He goes from being a brawler with a couple of dropkicks in his arsenal to the well rounded "Nature Boy" who can work holds on the mat with the best of them.

I'm probably voting for Buddy Rogers. He doesn't have a ton of full matches on tape, but I'm convinced that he was one of the all-time greats.

Keeping you and your family in my thoughts.

Luger always seemed like a natural heel and was charismatic as one, especially back in 1989. He would lose his charisma every time they switched him to a face and was bland and awkward in that role.

Nice upload, JvK. I really liked the teamwork between Andre and Ted. I'm in the middle of watching '90s All Japan matches, and I've missed the double team moves that are more frequent in American wrestling.

Dusty was in the main event of the first show I ever went to. He was one of the greatest and will be missed.

Verne also looked good in the match against Red Bastien from the Chicago Archives. Rest in peace.