Microstatistics

He has a chance of making my 85-100 based on his 2001-2004 stuff which I liked quite a lot. But I do agree with some of the criticisms, especially post 2004 where his over reliance on finishers and suplexes rendered a lot of his matches kind of boring because of the lack of psychology. I actually think his selling is pretty good even in the finisher fest matches but the most frustrating thing (something many people have observed) is that he rarely wrestles on the mat or does any amateur stuff and his style eventually became mostly about non stop action with little flow or story.

Originally thought he would be definite Top 20 but now he is most probably in the 25-30 range. I actually really liked a bunch of his post-comeback matches (or atleast performances) which boosted his longevity case.

The more I watch of him, the more I am convinced that he was the best wrestler of the 1980s ahead of Jumbo, Flair, Fujiwara and the other usual suspects.

Been watching a lot of his stuff recently and he is skyrocketing up my list. He is some kind of super worker to me: a fantastic heel champion, incredible on the mat, awesome brawler, can even high fly in his 50s, vicious when on offense and a really brilliant seller who makes all of his opponents look like a million bucks. I could see him finishing in my Top 5 in the final cut. It's either him or Terry Funk as my best US born pro wrestler.

I agree that for DreamRush, even though Kansai and Yamada were incredible, Ozaki stole the show with her heel mannerisms. I would rank the performances as Ozaki-Kansai-Yamada-Toyota with the first three being at an all time great level while Toyota's being very good. Toyota was the best one in the Dreamslam 2 rematch though, IMO.

The first time I saw this I thought it was great but I wasn't blown away. However it has become one of my favorite brawls after rewatching it. Morgan ambushes Faraon in the first fall and viciously beats and bloodies him. Faraon does manage to fight back with fire but he has been weakened and Morgan bags the fall. I thought the second fall has a cool bit of storytelling as Morgan slows the pace down and works many submission holds. This backfires though because Faraon turns out to be better on the mat and reverses one of the holds to get the submission. Morgan has lost control of the match and now the crowd wants to the rudo to get what's coming to him as Faraon assaults him to exact revenge for the first fall beating. Then there is another twist after Morgan does that gory bladejob (literally his entire upper body is just drenched in blood) and now he has trouble defending himself (or even standing). Still he shows guts and determination to continue fighting but the match is eventually called as Faraon continues beating on him and you almost feel bad for him for losing his hair in that manner. Just fantastic brawling coupled perfectly with, like Loss mentioned, matwork and dives as well as the superb story. Brilliant selling from both guys as well. ****1/4

I thought both worked extremely hard to overcome the lukewarm and disinterested crowd and tell a great story. They initially tried Flair as heel and Fujinami as face but switched roles as the match progressed in a really cool way with Fujinami relentlessly targeting Flair with vicious and focused offense while Flair sold fantastically and made himself a sympathetic figure.

Shinjiro Ohtani Ohtani/Wild Pegasus vs. Black Tiger/Great Sasuke 10/18/1994 vs. El Samurai 1/21/1996 vs. Jushin Liger 3/17/1996 vs. Ultimo Dragon 8/5/1996 vs. Jushin Liger 2/9/1997 Jun Akiyama Akiyama/Misawa vs. Kawada/Taue 1996 feud vs. Kobashi 7/24/1998 vs. Ogawa 9/11/1998 vs. Misawa 2/27/2000 vs. Tenzan 8/17/2003 vs. Kobashi 7/10/2004 vs Masao Inoue 4/23/2006 vs. Marufuji 9/9/2006 vs. Suwara 10/23/2011 vs. Kai 4/29/2013

Great match with cool matwork, stiff strikes and a great story with Hashimoto restoring New Japan's honor by beating the UWFi invader at his own game (submissions and strikes) and regaining the title. Not to mention incredible crowd heat with the two pops for the brainbuster and the finish being among the loudest ever. **** 1/4

One of the best WWE matches of the 2000-2009 decade. A simply incredible heel performance by Austin. His mannerisms and facial expressions were out of this world. Angle also gave a great performance as the tough underdog babyface. Tons of hate, intensity and blood and the non-finish with Austin taking out all those referees and the DQ worked perfectly with the story as it emphasized his frustration and desperation while protecting Angle. **** 1/4

Mima Shimoda http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/20398-etsuko-mita-mima-shimoda-vs-tomoko-watanabe-kumiko-maekawa/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/20472-etsuko-mita-mima-shimoda-vs-kaoru-ito-tomoko-watanabe/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/11496-manami-toyota-mima-shimoda-vs-kaoru-ito-mariko-yoshida-ajw-092896-23-falls/?hl=mima

I have been looking for more pre-1993 Akira Hokuto stuff when I found this match. Fantastic performance by her, full of urgency and focus, with a really good selljob of her bad leg. She looked very impressive even this early in her career. Chigusa continues her excellent 1980s run with another great performance as well. Terrific match and a hidden gem. **** 1/4

My Top 10 (in order) at this point 1) Genichiro Tenryu 2) Jushin Liger 3) El Satanico 4) Negro Casas 5) Kenta Kobashi 6) Terry Funk 7) Yoshiaki Fujiwara 8) Tatsumi Fujinami 9) Jumbo Tsuruta 10) El Dandy

I honestly thought the transitions worked well because of the high risk nature of the offense. The guy in control hits a series of big moves but because the offense involves an element of risk (eg. coming of the top rope), is likely to make a mistake or have the move countered so loses control of the match to other person. Now, the second person manages to hit a big move (eg. Sasuke's Asai Moonsault or Liger's Shotei) out of desperation but is still selling the previous damage/injuries and can't immediately go 100% and take full advantage, which is what differentiates this from a spotfest. Hope that makes sense.

vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (8/8/1993) is a good match too.

If I was ranking solely based on peak (regardless of duration), she would be #1. 1993-94 Akira Hokuto is the best pro wrestler I have ever seen, possibly excluding only 1984 El Satanico.

Completely agree with all the praise here and in other places on the site. He just might be the most universally accessible wrestler ever (except maybe for people who just don't get/like Lucha) mainly because he is absolutely amazing at literally every facet of pro wrestling. My highest ranked luchador and a lock for Top 3.

If you are taking suggestions, I would recommend Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (4/30/1992) from New Japan. The hate and general storytelling in that match are incredible.

Hello, I have been a pro wrestling fan since 2004 with Wrestlemania 20 being my first wrestling memory. I thought the matches were the coolest medium of storytelling I had ever seen. I was basically a WWE fan for the first few years and then I discovered WCW and ECW matches. I knew Benoit, Liger, Eddie etc. so I watched Benoit vs. Sasuke from Super J Cup 94, which was my gateway to Japanese wrestling. At first it was only New Japan Juniors but then I discovered All Japan with Misawa vs. Jumbo 6/90 being my first match. From there I diversified with Joshi and some shoot-style (RINGS). I found this site in 2013 and have been lurking until now. Even though I knew Santo and had seen the When Worlds Collide Tag match, I was almost completely unfamilar with Lucha until I saw how highly Dandy, Casas, Satanico matches were ranked on this site. I checked them out (and was extremely impressed) and so this site is what got me into Mexican wrestling. I wanted to participate in the 2016 GWE poll so I signed up.

Removed my list for now. Have to rework ratings.

Yes the 10/2009 Misawa tribute tag is a great choice. Tons of emotion and the HDA teaching KENTA a lesson for being such a prick was really fun. Kawada, especially, gave an exceptional performance.

Some matches I would recommend for Taue in the 2000s Akira Taue vs. Yuji Nagata (6/6/2003) Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (8/1/2004) Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi (9/10/2004) Akira Taue/Kenta Kobashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Jun Akiyama (9/18/2005) --> Taue's performance is the best one in the match, IMO Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/5/2005) Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama (1/22/2006) Akira Taue vs. Naomichi Marufuji (3/5/2006) Akira Taue/Go Shiosaki vs. KENTA/Katsuyori Shibata (9/9/2006)

"Easily surpass" is probably the wrong choice of words by me (it refers more to match quality than individual performances anyways, which might not be the right criteria). Still, I would have ranked Misawa and Kobashi above him anyways regardless of everyone's post-prime work. The 2000s boost mostly applied to Taue, who I always thought was only a little bit below the other three in their 90s matches.

I don't know I thought this had practically no down time at all and the submission stuff worked because of Miyato's selling. Watching the 5/88 match just added to the story of this for me, because it showed Miyato's growth. In that match he got almost no (non-kick based) offence at all but in this he is going toe to toe with Takada at various points and has the crowd more invested.

Very fun match with stiff strikes, cool matwork and great selling from Miyato but this was essentially a squash. The 7/89 match is much better and way more "competitive" (even though realistically Miyato had no chance of winning in either one).