Tetsujin

He has definitely looked worse each year since 2018. Sometimes he just wrestle in autopilot mode and sometimes he has looked like he couldn't go anymore, just a broken guy. His big matches are basically the same since 2019 with only a couple of exceptions, and no, the Shingo and Ospreay matches this year aren't those exceptions. He has become so much boring and predictable, It is just not fun to watch him.

His matches with Seth Rollins are amazing. A really well made trilogy. Probably the best rivalry of the business in the pandemic era. I've always loved him and think he's painfully underrated by these kind of circles around the IWC. He has a much larger resume of pretty good to excellent matches that you may think at first, has some really good performances as a chicken shit heel or bastardly hardcore heel, really great gimmick match worker and tag team guy, was great as a babyface midcarder in SmackDown and as the top heel of the company. He helped make John Cena like no other. His rivalry withw Taker is among the greatest of all time. And this recent run of his is being mindblowing, seriously. He looks even better than at his prime.

The thing with Misawa is that he's a peak contender, but his peak happens to be one of the longest and highest of anyone ever. But outside of, I would say, 94-03, he's not that consistently great. His 80s stuff is not remarkable outside a couple of matches, it's really surprising how little he looks like the next big thing. His early unsmaked Misawa run is definitely a big improve, he's really good by then, but I think it's a kind of overrated part of his career when it comes to ringwork: the Jumbo matches are pretty good, but no one can compete with all the other 90s AJPW classics, and his role in the big six-man tags is usually little, only there yo make his signature moves, have a brief clash withw Jumbo, and taking the win or getting distracted to allow his team to lose. He's never one of the best performers in those matches. His old Misawa NOAH run is pretty good and something I've learn to appreciate more with time, but there are still more wrestlers with a stronger post-peak careers. I would say all three other Pillars are better than him in these late 80s-early 90s, and mid-00s runs. It's Misawa's legendary peak stuff what gives him a chance of being ahead of them in an overall list, imho. With that in mind, I find far more easier to chose between Bryan and Misawa than, let's say, Bryan and Kobashi. Bryan has been consistently great throughout his whole career, in far more different scenarios and styles. He isn't an all-time level seller like Misawa, but he definitely is toe to toe with him on offense, and I would say offense is the strongest Misawa trait for his case (other than his ridiculous peak), while for Bryan's I wouldw say versatility, ande there's no chance for Misawa to close the gap between them for that (as with most japanese contenders). Right now both feel like top 10 locks. But Misawa feels "just" a top 10 lock, while Bryan is challenging for the top spot.

Yeah Cash has becoming better. He's in better shape, also. I think both are pretty great wrestlers that deserve nomination.

Wyatt's 2014 Rumble and Miz's 2018 SummerSlam are both definitely great matches. And Bryan also has really good stuff with The Fiend years later, something nobody else did.

For WWE, it has to be Undertaker.

I have no issue with people arguing against anyone's case for the top 100 at their threads, if it's done with respect. I don't think James has enough high ceiling to be considered (the same happens with some of the most memorable knockouts like Awesome Kong or Gail Kim), but I'm totally on board with the idea of reivindicate her as a good bridge between the awful USA's womens wrestling situation and the horsewomen booms (again, same with the knockouts division); she's definitely a much more interesting wrestler to remember and focus on than Stratus and Lita.

Micahels had a really strong year with his Rumble performance, his Mania match against Flair, the Jericho rivalry and being super consistent on TV. I don't know if he'd be my choice but that has to be his best year since 1997.

It's probably HBK for me as well, but most of the people Micro mentioned are pretty god damn close, and I would add the Pillars (specially Taue).

I'm going with Hiromu. First of all, this year was stupid and probably the less modern wrestling I've seen since I'm a grown up fan. So, I'm not an expert here. But Hiromu had a great match with Ospreay, then the super fun Liger retirement match, then he participated in the New Japan Cup and carried Tomoaki Honma to shades of his lost greatness before his fatal injury, a fun comedy match with Yano and a blaster with Ishii. Then he carried fucking EVIL to his best singles match ever, and his performance was so good that he managed to make the japanese crowd go insane for his nearfalls, not able enough to resist their cheers for him even with the COVID restrictions and all that bullshit. Hell, it was obviously a transition title match, and Hiromu was a Jr (and the Jr Champ!), there was no freaking way he would win... but when the match happened, Hiromu bursted his ass of to make us believe he could. And the match itself is pretty strong, which is shocking considering everything else about EVIL's heel run has been from mediocre to absolute disgusting. His matches with Ishimori were pretty good, his team with BUSHI was great and had a really fun match with Desperado and Kanemaru (forgot the date and/or event, though), and then he finished his year with an amazing BOSJ run and a BOSJ Finals with Desperado that... Well, we all know that match was an instant classic, the best COVID-era match of the year.

Aja Kong. Three near perfect all-time classics against Hotta, Toyota, and the Queendom tag (the Hokuto rivalry might be the best of this year to me), nobody peaked higher than her in this year excepto Hokuto the few shows she worked. Bret Hart had a really strong year too, even working with low-level guys at WWE most of the time.

Yeah his NJPW run has made him amazing. He always brings so much fresh air to the New Japan formula, both in singles and tags, against elite level workers like Tana, Naito, Ibushi and Ishii, but also carrying less talented workers like SANADA, EVIL, Fale or YOSHI HASHI. Also, his promos are hilarious.

Misawa, definitely. Kawada is close, but Misawa's peaks are undeniable both in singles and tags. It's probably his best year ever.

Flair. I mean c'mon.

I would say Satánico. Not a big fan of the Cochisse match, but his fights with Atlantis, Súper Astro and Shiro Koshinaka are extremely fun.

It's pretty god damn close between Kobashi, Hokuto and Hansen. I wanna include Aja Kong, Tenryu and Kandori on the conversation as well, but those other three had all-time great years.

Shibata had a killer NEVER Championship reign with great stiff matches against Ishii, some WOS-NJPW hybrid cool matches with ZSJ (helping him to achieve his peak in New Japan), both reDragon members, the Third Generation (gotta LOVE the first Nagata match the most), Riddle, Hero, giving EVIL his best matches, an amazing G1 match with Naito... A really, really strong year. Underrated WOTYC for 2016.

Now that the year is over, I can 100% sure say that Bryan Danielson is my WOTY. Shingo, Reigns, Tanahashi and Rollins (maybe Desperado as well) all came close, but what Dragon accomplished both in his last WWE run and in his absolute banger of current AEW run is just something else. He excels at every situation and environment you throw at him, wheter you put him at the main event of WrestleMania in a triple threat match, or a short tv match with Evil Uno. And, boy, this "cocky-to-asshole living legend" gimmick he's been developing lately is the cherry on top. The GOAT.

Maybe one of the big Portland boys like Buddy Rose, Roddy Piper or Rick Martel.

This is maybe the strongest Kobashi year. Absolute blast.

Even with the legendary Okada's reign, I'm still going with Naito. The Tanahashi trilogy is better than the Okada-Omega one, crazy good G1, amazing matches with Elgin, Ibushi, Juice, Omega, ZSJ, and he was at the peak of his popularity. He looked as good as anyone else in history.

WALTER.

He was cool before NXT. Not super great, but for a guy of his age and size he built a really strong aura around him, and the guy has undeniable charisma that can carry most of his matches to make them look better than they actually are. Once NXT turned him into an epic main eventer, I fucking started hating him. The Gargano trilogy will always be one of the worst series of matches I've ever seen, he has nothing matches against other guys too... He's just not a good big match worker. Cole is at his best when working 15 minutes on tv (take a look at the Daniel Bryan match in SmackDown, that happened in the middle of his horrible NXT title reign but he had such a great performance against Bryan. The Jungle Boy match at Dynamite is also a proof of this). Not a contender for my list, but has some cool stuff when working small.

I just watched the Tamura and Hideki matches for the first time ever and I'm hyped as fuck for watching more of his stuff. The MiSu and Moxley matches are amazing as well. Hell, the Hideki match might be the true 2011 MOTY. At his best, Barnett seems like one of the most talented ever. But gotta watch more, how many pro wrestling did he do?

The guy is building his case as we speak. Let's see what he manages to do in these next five years. 2026 will still be super early to compare him to the greatest pro wrestlers of all time, though.