El-P

From what I saw, he was just as bland and boring as Masked Superstar as he was as Ax. No idea how that gimmick ever worked in the 80's actually. Really, "Masked Superstar" sounds like something that would get over in the 50's or 60's (it's like Super Strong Machine. What the hell is this supposed to mean ?).

Probably the 93 version, because the first one I saw was 92 and it didn't had any actual Survivor Series match. So it was cool to see that gimmick for the first time. Plus you had the Owen turn, step one, which was totally awesome and unexpected to me. And Savage as a surprise member. And the Quebecers in the main event. And life was easy.

Excellent gimmick match worker.

I think Eddie is one of those guys people really got bored of talking about since he was such an internet darling in pre-Benoit Workrate Guilt era. He had his share of brillant stuff and his share of not so good stuff too. It's sad he got mentally at his best when his body fell apart. Ill take a dive in this poll I'm pretty sure.

I loved the pirate gimmick. Yeah. Oulette was a bit of a spot monkey although a very impressive one, but he was still green when he showed up as a Quebecer. Never got the opportunities he should have to me.

Going through WCW TV, Pillman looked like one of the most underrated guy ever. From 89 to 95, he was easily a top 10 US worker on average. The injuries really destroyed him, it's sad to watch him after that point. As far as character goes, the Loose Cannon stuff was a bit too forced, although it had its moments, but slimy working heel Pillman in 92/93 was excellent.

Two MOTYC : G1 Climax final vs Mutoh in 91 (I think. Or was it 90 ?) G1 Climax final vs Rude in 92. (what the hell was I thinking ?) Chono in the very early 90's was a terrific worker. Didn't last, but hey, there's still a bunch of stuff to enjoy.

Of course, people are gonna think first and foremost about the Montreal screwjob, but I was watching the entire Big Van Vader debut in New Japan thingy, and man, what a complete booking debacle. I have litteraly no idea what was planned and what wasn't, as everything seems so fucked up. People starting throwing shit in the ring as soon as they announce Vader won't be part of the tag match, then Choshu getting them back by challenging Inoki, then the Hase run-in and the shit finish, then of course the quicky Inoki job to Vader, getting a very negative reaction from the crowd (although you don't really get the feeling of a riot at this point, unlike earlier during the tag match, it looks like it killed the crowd more than anything else, and they seem to leave rather quietly). What a mess. People are gonna throw out the infamous "We want Flair" Great American Bash 91, or the last two years Royal Rumble (especially this year where they managed to have the Rock booed out of the building), but what are some of the most infamous debacles in pro-wrestling history ?

Stephy.

First thing I think about when this name pops up is : most emotional retirement ceremony ever. Then super cool comeback in ARSION. Then she got kinda goofy and retired. Super little worker when she was on.

Nominated more than one year ago, and no pimping. Again, old favourites of mine. Solid worker, underrated, but not great. Could play sympathetic hot babyface and more edgy bitchy veteran too. One of the anchor of JWP, so she was always dear to my heart. Was part of tons of great matches, and she was a better worker than Kerry von Erich.

My favourite wrestler ever from 99 to 01. Then I pretty stopped watching current joshi. The female Volk Han, with the added bonus of hot spider outfit. Classiest of them all, really.

Coolest gimmick ever. The most graceful wrestler I've seen this side of Barry Windham. A personnal favourite of mine. His best stuff is in FMW actually. That Gannosuke match, oh man...

Sad times, no one care about Megumi Kudo anymore. Terrific worker who could have coasted and relied on looks, yet had it tough working in the godforsaken FMW with awful opposition, becoming one of the best wrestlers in the world in the mid 90's. The "female Onita" part of her career is incredible.

Watching post-prime Morton both in WCW and SMW in the last few years convinced me that he was one of the best worker ever indeed when you add it to the Rock'n Roll Express prime in the 80's. Should have saved some money though.

One of the best wrestler anywhere in the world from 88 to the time he went into semi-retirement. Amazing as a junior, as a tag guy, as a heavyweight taking on NJ's opposition, amazing pretty much in any kind of role (not to mention assistant booker to Choshu during NJ's hottest period ever). And he's the Minister of culture and communication of Japan now. Certainly beat everybody on the political field.

After diving a bit more into the 80's and 70's than I did before, I can say this without second guessing myself : without question, the best pro-wrestler ever.

I'll admit it, sometimes, I find his overdramatic selling totally ridiculous (and I'm an Onita fan). I mean, like HTM once said, he does act like he's been shot by a gun after taking a single chop, and at times, it's just looks stupid. And I don't buy the "playing to the cheap seats" argument, for the simple reason he's the only great babyface from the era that went to those extremes in term of overracting. Ricky Morton, arguably the best babyface ever in the US, didn't overact like that. Rick Martel didn't overact like that. It was just Steamboat's thing. The other criticism I have is that some of his "martial art" offense looks like goofy cartoon shit. Once you accept it, it's like Tenryu's enzuigiri or the People's elbow, you don't pay attention and pop for the comebacks, but if we have to be fair… doesn't look very convincing. That's the two criticism I'll have for Steamboat, who's obviously is an all-time great, that goes without saying.

The epitome of "solid" as opposed to "great". I can't recall one single performance by DiBiase where I thought "this guy is amazing". I can recall hundreds of performances by DiBiase where I thought "this guy is always so solid". I can recall tons of times where I was supposed to get a great match (either in WWF, Mid-south or Japan) and I got a "good solid match". To me there's a reason why he looked at its best in WWF (yeah, I never thought he was anything special in Mid-south, although again he was super solid), because the gimmick, which he was great at working, was one of the best and most memorable of its era (and of all-time as far as this kind of stuff goes), and because the promotion was so light on super string workers that DiBiase obviously came off much better in this environment. Put him in Japan next to Stan Hansen and against guys like Jumbo, Tenryu, Yastu or Choshu, and he looks "solid" but kinda bland in a Dick Slater way. If he had gone to the NWA next to the Ricky Morton, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Ric Flairs or the territory, I think he'd have been exposed the same way. He's really the counterpart of Brad Armstrong, the difference being Ted was much better at projecting a character, which he did like a king in WWF when he got one of the best gimmick ever, and was an excellent promo. In a way, he's kinda the greatest solid worker ever, or the worst great worker ever. Always been a fan, but he wouldn't do that well on a top 100 with me.

Yeah, Hara was just not very good. Limited worker, who worked stiff and that's about it. I'm not sure which period I like the most, the earlier version in All Japan were he was just an inferior version of Ishikawa, or the later version in SWS/WAR era where he came back as an old fuck who would just stiff the fuck out of everybody because that's all he knew. The match where Tenryu beats the living shit out of him until one bodypart becomes as purple as his trunks (and quite disgusting looking) is probably is glory hour. That and the infamous tag match against Onita and Tarzan Goto which had nuclear heat. So yeah, I probably like the older version the most. Going from Tenryu & Jumbo against Ishin Gundan to Jumbo & whoever vs Tenryu & Hara was a big step down in quality and intensity because of inferior tag partners (not that high on Misawa Mask BTW).

He had a bunch of really good matches with some great workers, but man, he was also quite a bad worker on average. Shit selling, awkward execution, no sense of pacing (those overlong matches going nowhere).

Sadly, some people around here had predicted just that after Mania, even before the end of the Cena feud. Yeah, pretty pathetic.

Sorry to say that, but as I'm going through a bunch of NJ stuff, pro-style Fujiwara is taking a severe plunge with me. As great as he was in UWF and UWF 2.0 (mostly), I'm not feeling his pro-style work at all. Overreliance on goofy as fuck headbutts. And not doing it once or twice during a match. No. Five, six, ten times, sometimes in a row. None of which looks any good. Lots of choking, which is thrilling and compelling stuff. Dubious selling (at times terrific, at times downright shitty with mind-blowing no-selling big shots like Inoki's enzuigiri's or being thrown head first on metal wrenches that hold the ropes). His Boston crab counter is cool as hell the first time you see it, but by the seventh time, you realize it's just another "you can't powerbomb Kidman" spot, although and to be perfectly fair, the Boston crab was a much more common spot for everybody in NJ, but still, it's basically a cool spot that means nothing except look cool and pop the crowd (aka, a Ric Flair trademark spot). He can go from some terrific looking counters and some cool as hell striking moments with his dickish old fuck character to some Keiji-Mutoh-on-crack goofiness moments in the same match, which renders him really frustrating to watch, as you get the feelling he could be absolutely great, but rather relies on shortcuts which the crowds admitedly loves (those stupid looking headbutts, no-selling spots). It can still be fun thanks to his great personnality, but to me he goes straight into Mutoh territory when he's doing pro-style (I'm a Mutoh fan, I'm even a Muta fan, but I know where to put him). So yeah, as much as I love his UWF work, his pro-style body of work just doesn't cut it for him to be considered an elite worker overall. Despite all his shortcomings, I think I'd have Choshu ahead of him actually. I dunno, since Fuji in UWF was just terrific most of the time and I'm a shoot style fan, so...

Bill Dundee is like the Gran Hamada of Memphis.

"Hey Pillman, how about you carry that albatros like Rick Martel used to do ?" "Okay" So yeah, they had some really good stuff to their resume, because Pillman was that good, and Zenk only had to not fuck things up.