Jmare007

HHH started it with his reign of doom in 2003. Then Batista and Cena went back to face dominant runs. The 2010s was mostly heels running it though: Punk, Orton, AJ and of course, Brock. Considering there's no more PPVs to worry about and that ratings are what they are, this wouldn't be that big of deal if WWE wouldn't make it their mission to fuck over any babyface that gets any momentum. Oh well...

I think his case has gotten way stronger in the last 5 years. He basically made a switch and decided that in most singles matches he was going to slow the fuck down, work holds and make every move matter, and it has worked wonderfully with people like Hideki Suzuki, Ryota Hama, Yuji Hino and Kodaka (and most of his Strong Climb matches tbh). Of course he still has more traditional bangers like the ones against Kento Miyahara, Zeus (which caps a really good Champions Carnival run) and trying to kill each other with Kohei Sato. You add to that the fact that he remained an incredible tag team worker, to the point I think he is the best tag worker of this century. Sure, tag teams have been mostly shoved aside since the early 2000s, but I honestly think the only one that can rival Daisuke is Cesaro. His team with Okabayashi is basically the best tag team of the decade with The Young Bucks being their only competition (that's such an interesting conversation btw). I think a lot of the negatives @Jetlag made 7 years ago have been answered in the last 4 to 5 years, at least to warrant a second look.

Don't take this as a definitive list but I'll throw you some matches. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya - AJPW 3/21/11 This is Yuji in year 2 (well, three if we are being technical about it) of his career. It's a long match but it's impressive how they were able to take some of the excess these four had in a previous match and make it better. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs Manabu Soya & Ryota Hama - BJW 4/28/11 A heated inter promotional tag in Korakuen. You might come out of this more interested in Hama as I think he delivers the performance of his career but I think it worth to watch it for Yuji because it's a great match and they later have a singles match that makes you appreciate Yuji more. Daisuke Sekimoto, Shinobu & Yugi Okabayashi vs. Yoshihito Sasaki, Shinya Ishikawa & Ryuichi Kawakami - BJW 6/27/11 To be completely honest with you, I could recommend literally dozens of fun 6 man tags from Big Japan. I'll give you just a couple so you can get a taste, if you like them, tell me and I'll go all in with them. Yuji Okabayashi vs Yoshihito Sasaki - BJW 6/21/2012 I think this is Yuji's first big singles match in terms of quality, it does help Yoshihito is with him though. The last couple of minutes are ridiculous. Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yuji Okabayashi - BJW 8/27/2013 Yuji Okabayashi, Hideyoshi Kamitani & Ryuichi Kawakami vs Daisuke Sekimoto, Kohei Sato & Shuji Ishikawa - BJW 5/22/2015 More 6 man goodness, this is trying to build up to an eventual match he would have with Sekimoto in Sumo Hall. Yuji Okabayashi, HARASHIMA & Yuji Hino vs. Daisuke Sekimoto, Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura - BJW 6/30/2015 We keep build it up and now we had better wrestlers to the mix. Yuji Okabayashi vs Daisuke Sekimoto - 7/20/2015 I think this is the best match against each other, though it's not as good as it could've been. Yuji Okabayashi vs Ryota Hama - BJW 1/24/2016 Yuji gives Hama the best singles match in his career. Yuji Okabayashi vs Hideyoshi Kamitani - BJW 7/24/2016 Yuji gives young Kamitani to what this day still is the best singles match of his career. Yuji Okabayashi vs Daichi Hashimoto - BJW 4/9/17 Yuji gives young Hash the best singles match of his career up to that point. Yuji Okabayashi vs Hideki Suzuki - BJW 5/5/2017 Suzuki is fucking great but he has a big problem in that he not always is able to jell with his opponents, so his mat based stuff sometimes kills a match. Well, not here. This is a game of human chess between a technical master that was taught by Billy Robinson, and the brute force and fire that is Yuji fucking Okabayashi. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama - BJW 1/13/2019 I'd think you could've seen this one already but if you haven't, please do. Yuji Okabayashi vs Shuji Ishikawa - AJPW Champions Carnival Day 1 4/4/19 Good example that even if he normally plays the monster, he can also be an underdog an deliver a pretty great match. Yuji Okabayashi vs Zeus - AJPW Champions Carnival 4/21/19 More than a hoss battle, this is basically a damn kaiju battle, so be advised. There's TON more stuff and I have no doubt Winged Eagle will bring the goods too with more matches. Hopefully he also includes the ones building up the Nomura match in 2019 that I'm too sleepy to search for the dates right now.

I agree that the "personal history" playing a part (or not) in how people rank wrestlers should be a entire different thread because I have no doubt there's gonna be a good number of participants like Grimmas that feel that way about a number of wrestlers. I'm not on that group at all, I tend to side with Phil on this one. To be honest, this business has been too fucked up for far too long to the point that I kinda expect almost everyone that works to have some "problematic" history in some form of fashion. But I understand that not everyone feels that way and that separating the art from the artist is not something everyone can do. In regards to Lawler, I think he might fall on my list because I'm not sure I'll be able to revisit him and "recency" bias might knocl him down a peg. Same might happen with a lot of territory dudes tbh.

To add to the "dominance" of pinning both guys at the same time. Roman survived the LeBell Lock, which he previously tapped to AND a Crossface + LeBell Lock combo. They made him look strong as hell AND keep heat on him with Jey's interference. Pretty damn good booking, for once.

@elliott@Quentin I get what you guys are saying but I don't think any wrestler on the planet has a "Jordan" case, at least I can say that confidently from 1988 to 2021 (I don't want to say before that because I'm mostly limited to territories and Japan before 88'). No matter what n°1 GWE contender you pick you will always end up in a "Duncan" case discussion because there's always a run from another wrestler from another promotion/country that can be put head to head against that n°1 contender. Specially in a setting like this one when we share and debate with so many different people whose tastes vary greatly. Like, to me, Bryan absolutely runs with BITW from 2006 to 2010 and I could make a case from 2012 to 2014, and from 2018 till now. But I can't say that shit with complete confidence because of course there's other wrestlers that you can make cases for each of those years too, the fact that Bryan still wins in my view doesn't make it a Jordan case. And neither should make it for any other wrestler too, imo. As for the question of when does Bryan becomes a wrestler always mentioned in BITW discussions by a big group of people, it's from 2006 till this day, I think.

WOW! I did not expect that kind of finish. I wanted Roman but I didn't see him getting to pin both guys (regardless of Jay's assist). Bring the Cesaro feud! Very good triple threat.

Jay Uso talking shit for like 2 straight minutes in the background was outstanding.

Edge winning this and the crowd is going to go nuts.

God damn brothers, this video package is up there with the best. I'm pumped as fuck.

What the fuck....

From match 3 on, every match has had at least 1 insane bump.

They always go long if they want/need to ever since the Network started though.

?

Not a good look for the main event and the ultimate opportunist.

Save it for Summerslam so Big E can take the belt in front of a crowd.

Of course Vince books the face to lose in his hometown.

That was a better bombfest than Sami vs Owens. I thought it was a really great showcase for Riddle.

This feud is about a scooter?

These two continue to be insane.

Over/Under on him pulling his hair gotta be what, 10 times?

The layout of the match fine, but not a lot you can do with Nattie and Tamina.

Nia with the Peter Griffin!

After the piped in noises from yesterday I have no clue when the live crowd is actually reacting.

LMAO!!!