El-P

Ironically, I had AJ Styles just behind Fujiwara in my list, at #28. His peak in New Japan has been terrific, and as I'm going threw early TNA, he strikes me as a great wrestler already in 2003. Filling the holes and he gets pretty fucking high in my book. Like CM Punk and another contemporary candidate, I'd have to actually watch more in-beween to see if he goes up or down, but AJ Styles is one hell of a talent.

He was, like many, a shoot-style guy was also worked in pro-style promotions. As a shoot-style guy, he also used quite a bit of pro-style stuff. Did I mention his horrible headbutts ? He also wasn't that great working outside of shoot-style environment, unlike Yamazaki or Takada. He was fun, but not that good, especially past his peak. Yes.

I didn't expect Fujiwara to show up that soon after years and years of hardcore pimping, some warranted, some not. I had him at #27. Great worker in the 80's, up to the end of the second UWF. Although he had his ups and down, I'm not fond of his work in New Japan during the UWF feud for instance. Great mat technician and submission wrestler, but could get goofy with no-selling and silly headbutts too. That he's the highest shoot-style guy ranked at #40 is telling, both of the fact he's been pimped like crazy over the last 10 years, and also that shoot-style really didn't fare well.

Enjoying the details people are adding to this thread. Makes it more fun to me, and everyone I'm sure. PPV 43 Hey ! Finally, TNA goes into the shitter again. What a dumb as fuck show this was. *Glen Gilberti, N°1 contender after beating up Jarrett like no ones business and winning a complete clusterfcuck Royal Rumble-like match (with pinfalls counting anywhere too). Ok, I think Gilberti is a pretty good worker and did well on the mic. But really, Disco Inferno main eventing against Jeff Jarrett ? What is this ? USWA circa 96 ? *Talking about this mess, the matches during the show were qualifyers for that Rumble-like fiasco. Expect, of course, the vast majority of the participants didn’t have to qualify at all, so every JTTS gets automatically into the thing while AJ Styles has to earn his spot, for instance. Dumbfucks. *A bordeline disturbing angle with Kid Kash beating up Trinity in front of people while nobody around moves an inch. Great babyface locker room. Kash had been established already. Trinity won their grudge match. This was needless and gratuitous. Russo is a dipshit. BTW, Tracy Brooks threatens a sexual harrassement lawsuit yet acts like she’s gonna whore herself to the commisionner at the same time. Vomit. Desire vs Tracy was closer to softporn than a pro-wrestling match. Oh, then Tracy gets into the Royal Rumble match and Kid Kash beats the shit out of her too. From simple « complete jerk jealous of his valet » he’s now « woman beater ». Fuck that shit. *Surprise entrants in the Asylum-whatever match : Rick Steiner & Buff Bagwell. Star power. No comment. *Harris Boys sounding like racist homophobic pigs on the Interrogators segment. I guess it’s allright since they’re heels right ? Well, they sounded a bit too genuine to me. *Tag Team titles being defended one against two and changing hands on a DQ. The match of Lynn & Red vs Daniels was actually quite good until the shit finish, they made it work. Daniels is great, definitely. A top 5 worker in the company already. *Storm (James) vs Harris (Chris) having a decent qualifyer match playing on familiarity (although a little bit too choregraphed to me), settling their differences yet teasing problems again during the Royal Cluster. Fuck me… No one wants to see this, as showed by the tepid reaction to their match at first. Ultimately, only the opener XXX (Low-Ki & Skipper) vs AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown was a good match without any shit booking. Brown keeps on looking strong in the ring. The other qualifyers were a bad ECW match with New Jack diving to his death. He cuts a good promo before the three way against Sandman & Sabu though, as old ECW issues seems to be the new thematic now. Yeah. Complete shit show. Only thing that made sense was Raven showing up at the end to screw Sabu. And frankly, Sabu vs Raven is sort of an ECW dream match to me. I'm sure they'll find a way to ruin it though. 2003/05/03 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs XXX (Skipper & Low-Ki)

Had Choshu at #79. I'm a Choshu fan, but I do think people only got to see the best stuff of his and not the mediocre stuff, and really didn't take in accounts his flaws. Seems a bit too high. That being said, nice that he got higher. I have 33 left, which is not surprising since I didn't rate any luchadors (5 are left ?) and I rated some women and shoot-style guy pretty high.

Hey, DiBiase, I forgot about him. Didn't vote for him this time around. Most average greatest wrestler ever and greatest solid wrestler ever. Yeah, that recommended match list... Struggling to find something really special ? I still love Teddy, of course, but he ain't all that. Million Dollar Man gimmick still helps him a whole lot for perception I think.

Going through his AWA stuff, Rick Martel's stock went way up with me. What a great worker he was in the 80's. I just love his stuff over there. Of course the tag work in WWF is also really strong. And then he shows up past his prime in WCW in 98 and looks like one of the better guys, although working an old-school style which wasn't going to get over (like Backlund showing up in 93 in WWF). I just wish the 80's Montreal footage would show up, preferably with Carpentier/Hauray's commentaries, I would just go crazy for that kind of shit. Anyway, Martel was my #48. Glad he gained so much spots in the final list. Quebec Love !

Fujiwara footage was available for ever. Mike Lorefice was selling PWFG footage 20 years ago on mixed tapes. The UWF stuff was always widely available to anyone interested in buying it. It's just that Fujiwara had probably been forgotten about in the 90's, it's not like his work then was anything special at all, to say the least. The shoot-style was dominated by UWF-I and RINGS, so Takada & Tamura were the big names while Maeda was considered past his prime. But let's wait for Fuji to show up, he deserves a high ranking.

Pretty much. That's why I didn't get into him right away, as it's easier to enjoy a striker at first. Tamura was going for the hardcore approach right away. But once you get used to it, you're in for a treat.

Yeah, Tully… Not sure he warranted that #65 slot from me, really.

Holy shit ! Harley Race doing George Brassens ! Awesome ! I actually forgot to vote for Harley. Never got the backlash, especially the "Harley Race is the Kurt Angle of the 70's", which seems really exagerated. Yeah, Harley was a go-go-go worker. So what ? So was Flair. His matches with Baba are terrific. Damn ! I just forgot. There's another one coming actually.

Ditto. Loved the character. So I had him at #36, since I really loved some matches I've seen. Whereas he's too high or too low is something I'll only know once I'll have to revisit his career as a whole. One of the 00's guy that had *it*.

Thanks for reminding me that Akira Hokuto used a cheesy synth-ladden latin pop song for a music theme ! I missed hearing that. Hey, Hansen is mostly an AJ guy. But yeah. I'm betting on Flair.

Just to point out the constant trolling. But I don't care about arguing with this troll. I couldn't care less.

Again, you're the one who are stuck in 2000, as showed by the way you're consistently trolling me for no reason. You think I give a flying fuck about you in *2016* ?

I've seen the last three. I'd consider none as great matches. Good to excellent. Not great. Ok, sorry for the Brock ranking. I voting him #37, I have no idea why, and when I saw that match at Mania, I just felt like an idiot for doing so. Brock has no business in my top 100. I like him a lot, but he just doesn't have the resume thus far.

Objectively.

Worked in WCW. I guess. I rated both, Aja six slots above Vader.

Since you called me on Bull's great matches, what are those great matches in 4 decades in several different styles ? I'm asking simply one per decade.

I really enjoy Finlay, but this is someone who never struck me as that great of a worker. Super solid, yeah. Even more than that. But he never put it together to have special matches, whereas Regal did (despite being put more or less in the same position). I had seen some of his most vaunted WWE match, and I was not that impressed. His WCW work is excellent, but he also never found a way to get himself over. And it's not a matter of not getting a push. Finlay winning the TV title early in one PPV in 98 deflated the crowd hard. His New Japan sting in the 90's is mediocre. Way overrated on this list. Would have made my top 150 or 200 without an issue, but I don't see him as a Top 50 guy ever at all.

Yes. It's all about mainstream US wrestling taking over this time around. Let's not kid ourselves, if a guy like Tajiri did really well, it's because of his US career. If Regal and Finlay (who's WWE career is ridiculously overrated from what I've seen) are so high, same thing. I guess I'm guilty of this as much as anyone since I never dig into lucha and WoS, but I did rate a bunch of women and shoot-style guys, including at very high spots. Anyway, really curious to see how the top 50 will be put together, especially some specific guys.

This list was not kind to anything but mainstream. It's ironic that with all the footage explosion, the Top 100 is more centered than ever on mainstream US guys. I think Post Benoit Workrate guilt and criticism relativism (with the awful "he played his role well" arguments which led to stuff like "Kamala was very good" and other absurd way of thinking of that ilk) played a part in this, since Japan was always seen as "workrate territory", as was lucha in a way. The only japanese guys who will gain from this are the ones who have been pimped hardcore over the last few years, by that I mean the two Fujis (who did deserve better than their spot of 2006), same thing for one or two territory guys (Lawler & Rose). Like I predicted early, a very conservative list. Ric Flair should win. So yeah, Aja Kong is #49 and the last woman to make the list. Kinda embarrassing for such a great wrestler.

Santo, Casas, Cena (fuck me)... I believe Aja is the last remaining woman.

Late 80's Andre was getting the most out of zilch. Which in the end of the day, meant zilch. And shitty, boring matches with a guy in pain who could barely move.

I had him at 72... that feels like a mistake now. Don't even want to talk about it... he's the one I regret ranking actually. But. Talking about regrets, at this point, Andre above Hokuto feels like a complete joke. Pendulum effect gone insane. Andre was good, but not that good. I had him at #99 because I wanted to represent him, but really, people got carried away when they discovered than young Andre was really good. Oh, and Andre after the mid-80's wasn't very good. And Andre in Japan in the late 80's/early 90's sucked and was painfull to watch. Just sayin'.