Have to agree with Steenalized. One thing going through the 2000s taught me is that KENTA is about as overrated as a wrestler can be. Nothing changes unless he's forced to change it, and KENTA never gives up on homogenizing the match until the final bell. Not that he doesn't have interesting spots or any good qualities, but he's really lacking in any kind of storytelling skills or adaptability.

Sleeze actually hit it on the head in one of his reviews. He mentioned that KENTA is at his best when he's forced to slow down, work from underneath, and sell. Matches like his Takayama beat down or against Danielson. I sincerely mean it in the best way when I say KENTA could be an all time great enhancement talent/JTTS. Him as a top level babyface ass kicker? Don't care for it.

That's exactly what I was going to say. KENTA can work a great match, but you have to impose your will. Nakajima did that in the first match, but lost his way. The rematch was one of the most bizarre matches ever. Nakajima was trying to work his style and KENTA just did not give one single fuck. After that match, I fucking hate KENTA.

 

I would totally shit a brick if 2001 Minoru Tanaka wrestled 2009 Katsuhiko Nakajima. I believe it could be the greatest juniors match of all time. They really had it in them. Did they ever wrestle at any point?

Are Misawa/Ogawa vs Tenryu/Akiyama & Misawa vs Tenryu both from 2005 worth watching? They sound way more intriguing than most of the matches from 2008 & 2009.

So how we doing lads? How many of us are getting ballots in by end of year?

I'll have a top 100 in. Afterward I'm interested in going beyond the nominations list and trying to get an overall top 100.

 

What are the best matches not eligible for this poll?

Akiyama/Honda in 2001

The MPro six man with Jody Fleisch from 2003. Maybe some other MPro tags?

The Hashimoto/Honda tag from 2001.

I remember a Fujiwara/Ogawa match I saw years ago that I loved but haven't seen since.

 

All would rank very well if eligible. What else?

All of those were brought up in the year-by-year votes but couldn't get enough traction.

funny I was just looking to see if the Jody Fleisch tag was on there yesterday. Disappointed it didn't make the cut. I had it 7th in 2003.

 

I might just include a personal list of honourable mentions in mine (things that would have finished high if they were on there - mainly DG).

So how we doing lads? How many of us are getting ballots in by end of year?

 

Are there any minimum requirements?

 

I am going to watch a good sampling of the matches for the GWE project, but was planning only to hit those in bold and possibly some of those in italics if it features guys I'm assessing. This project is pretty awesome for someone just looking to get a feel for what was going on, and the spreadsheet is really great!

 

I wasn't planning on submitting a ballot because I don't want to be a Johnny Come Lately or skew results based on not having watched everything. Plus I'm hardly a 00s Japan guy. But I will try to turn something in if you want.

Jerry, check out the first post for details.

I stalled at 85 matches a couple months ago, gonna try and make the push for a top 100 in the last 2 weeks. How many are submitting lists?

I should be able to submit a list but I need to do some organizing first.

I'm going to submit one.

Already did. Watching 300+ 2000s matches from Japan was a little bit of a slog. Took me out of the wrestling mood for a few months actually.

Watching 300+ 2000s matches from Japan was a little bit of a slog. Took me out of the wrestling mood for a few months actually.

 

I know what you mean; wore me down eventually as well. It will be a long time before I voluntarily watch another NOAH main event tag, for example.

I going to submit one and I'll have watched a little north of 200 matches. The end is in sight. 4 more matches to watch for the first time and 5 matches to rewatch. I hear you. During this project I would take weird breaks to watch wrestling as different as possible from this like 1998 WCW.

So I am not saying everyone will have Misawa vs Akiyama as their match of decade for Japan, but do people think that their personal selection for Japan Match of the Decade is the Match of the Decade for the world. I can't think of anything in America from 2000-2009 that would break my top 5 here. I don't watch much Lucha, I know Atlantis vs Villano III could challenge it. So what do people think? Even though it is a down decade for Japan is their best still better than everyone else's?

So I am not saying everyone will have Misawa vs Akiyama as their match of decade for Japan, but do people think that their personal selection for Japan Match of the Decade is the Match of the Decade for the world. I can't think of anything in America from 2000-2009 that would break my top 5 here. I don't watch much Lucha, I know Atlantis vs Villano III could challenge it. So what do people think? Even though it is a down decade for Japan is their best still better than everyone else's?

Atlantis vs Villano III is definitely in the running. I haven't watched Santo vs Perro in a while but I remember thinking it was near that level.

Debating whether to extend the deadline. Wondering if anyone would need it at this point.

How many ballots did you end up getting?

I would LOVE if you extended this a little longer as I am finally getting into watching these in a quicker manner....

SO are the results ever going to see the light of day or did Ditch not get enough ballots.

I'm pretty sure there were enough ballots but Ditch seems to have disappeared recently. I sent him an email. Hoping he's ok.

Is Ditch alive? Whatever happened to this? I had a ton of fun doing it so I don't need to see the results, but it would be nice to know what they were.

I came into the community right after voting ended for this, so I would love to see the results. I've seen most of the matches at this point. Would be interested to see where some of the peak Toryumon and DG ended up.