What puzzles me is why so many industry guys are willing to ignore that aspect of Shawn (along with his terrible selling and some other aspects) while they proclaim him as the best "professional" wrestler they ever saw.

People are easily won over by flashy. They remember the cool things that Michaels did and forget the flaws. It's why people regard the Taker/Mankind match so well. They remember the two big spots but don't remember that the rest of the match sucked.

Shawn's gimmick is that he's a great wrestler. They are keeping kayfabe

Shawn Michaels is Vince McMahon's favorite wrestler ever. Vince is the most powerful guy in the industry. They're either sucking up, or. like most wrestlers, simply incapable of looking at things from an audience perspective.

 

If I had been Nash I would have picked him up and whispered "I can give you 20 of these things if you want, but you're taking one right" with a lot of swear words thrown in.

Kobashi to me is really overrated. One of those "active" wrestlers that doesn't work as smart as people think he does. Tanahashi is the same way. If this board were more into joshi, Toyota would be right there. Vader as overrated is ridiculous. He might be talked about too much, but that doesn't make him overrated. Misawa is the same way.

 

Taue is forever underrated. Also, after watching the Warrior DVD, I'm not about to call him underrated because that would make him out to be way better than he actually is, but I actually enjoyed a lot of what was on there, even if it was hit or miss. He's a good big match wrestler at the very least.

I always find this an impossible question because it's so dependent on who's doing the rating. Somebody mentioned Lawler, for example, and I think it's entirely possible he's underrated by many hardcore fans. But it would be ludicrous to say he's underrated on this board, where many longtime posters have him in their all-time top 10s.

 

Shawn is probably overrated by casual fans but not on this board, where he's reviled by some and viewed as a mixed bag by most.

I wouldn't say he is here, but Akiyama stands out as underrated. He often gets left behind the big four of All Japan among many others from the 90s and 00s. He's been my favorite guy on the 00s best of Japan project and he's still killing it today.

I agree Akiyama seems stuck with his reputation as the "not quite pillar" when in fact, he's now been a very good/excellent worker for 20 years, which is pretty unusual. I haven't thought it out, but I suspect he might have the best body of work of any Japanese wrestler from the 2000s.

There is no point in their respective careers I wouldn't rather watch Akiyama than Kobashi or Misawa.

On the Sting point, could anyone point me to good stuff he did outside of 1992? I've honestly thought he's been pretty shitty 87-91, not awful, but not good at all. Beyond the triangle match I mentioned earlier, I can't think of any really good Sting matches that have stayed in my memory.

 

NB. I'm on record by the way, as saying that I don't like the Sting vs. Flair matches at all, and Sting is probably my least favourite regular Flair opponent.

Sting's '93 was just as good as his '92 with the Vader strap match being the high point of his work during those two years. From '94-96 he was a good worker, but didn't have a marque feud like the Vader series (aside from the times he faced Vader again that is.) His feud with Meng was fun and produced at least one good PPV match. I also love all of his stuff with Regal where he's outside his comfort zone on the mat and just goes for it.

Sting had two randomly good matches with DDP on Nitro in 98 and 99.

 

That Bound for Glory match with Hogan was better than it had any right of being. He also had good matches with Jarrett and Lethal in TNA.

I'm going a different route here...

 

Most Overrated = Attitude Era WWF, ECW 1998-00, Ring of Honor 2005-current, Chikara (the entire time)

 

Most Underrated = Continental Championship Wrestling, St. Louis Wrestling TV shows before the split, Mid 90's USWA, World Wrestling Council house show matches

Not so much on this board, but I can't imagine a more underrated wrestler by the general public than El Dandy.

Not so much on this board, but I can't imagine a more underrated wrestler by the general public than El Dandy.

 

Who are they to underrate El Dandy?!

 

Most Overrated Dream Match: The Undertaker vs. Sting

 

Most Underrated Dream Match: The Rock vs. Triple H

Is Attitude era WWF really that loved in terms of matches? I dunno. I watched the Austin saves Stephanie episode and while the matches were terrible and short there was a strong feeling of fun and energy and must see TV throughout. I'd say the era is rated as lousy wrestling, sometimes great, sometimes lousy TV.

 

I just watched an episode of Continental (my first, Missy Hyatt's debut I think) that had so little wrestling in it Vince Russo called and said "dudes you need more wrestling". Having said that everyone cut a heck of a promo.

I know it isn't the case on this board, but I really think Barry Windham is underrated by a lot of people these days, mostly because they only remember post 1993 Barry. Between the unmotivated Barry of 93, and the shitty WWF gimmicks, to the Rap is Crap stuff, I don't think people realize just how fantastic he really was.

 

Another guy who I don't think gets his due (again, not here but elsewhere) is Arn Anderson. Newer fans see him as the second banana to Flair, and remember the Kevin Nash impersonation more than the performer. I easily put Arn in my personal all time Top 5, and given the choice between watching his complete work, or Flair's...I choose Double A every time.

 

 

As for overrated.....I have to agree with Bret Hart. He was a fine all around worker, but for a guy who complains that all of Flair's matches were the same, man is he the pot calling the kettle black.

I think the Gilbert era Continental is overrated actually....compare it to the promotion two years earlier and it isn't close IMO.

 

I have a lot of non-internet wrestling fans who constantly wax poetic about the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars in general wondering why wrestling now can't be as fun as it was back then.

Kobashi to me is really overrated. One of those "active" wrestlers that doesn't work as smart as people think he does. Tanahashi is the same way. If this board were more into joshi, Toyota would be right there.

No way is Kobashi overrated on that when he has 3 of the most brilliantly laid out matches ever to his name between 6/9/95, 1/20/97, and 6/12/98. If anything, I think the intelligence behind his work is underrated. You can pop in any decent random AJPW or NOAH 6 man like, say, the 9/03 one against Takayama, and you'll see a level of crowd interaction and character work far beyond anything in WWE tags that follow the same awful formula every damn time.

I would agree on everything said about Akiyama. He just never had his own big rival to make his place special. Both Misawa and Kobashi had Kawada there to really push them hard to (in Misawa's case) never let up despite being on top or (for Kobashi) keep doing more and more to get the fans on his side.

 

Overrated I would go with Kobashi, for many reason I feel no need to repeat.

 

Underrated, I'm gonna go a little off the beaten path and say Katsuyori Shibata. The guy brings a completely different dynamic to every match I've seen him in and tends to get the other workers involved fired up one way or another. He's probably not a great worker, but what he brings to the table has made my limited viewings of him entertaining.

Most Overrated: I am going to have to go with Tomohiro Ishii. I've been playing catch up in terms of viewing New Japan as a promotion and all I read and hear about Ishii being the best wrestler in the world and I just don't see it. Maybe it is the headbutt offense but I'm not blown away by him at all.

 

Underrated: If we are talking about all time, then I'm going with either Butch Reed or Too Cold Scorpio. Watching the Midsouth DVDs made me realize that Butch Reed was really good and could've been a world champion. Same as Scorpio. The Flash Funk gimmick killed him but he was in the group of early juniors with Eddie, Benoit, Malenko, 123 Kid and Jerry Lynn that were kind of pushing the limits of working in every promotion they went to. Scorpio should've got a legit shot as a top guy somewhere.

Overrated: Brody, still

 

Underrated: probably Baba

 

Not saying Baba is a great, great, great worker. There are plenty of mediocre matches of his out there. But we've spent 30 years letting his "awkwardness" get in the way of the fact that he was a pretty good worker, knew what he was doing in there, and worked pretty well within the limitations of his body.

As long as there are people, any people, willing to defend Brody, he'll remain overrated.

We all know that there are people who will defend Brody to the end of time, such as Dave.

I was gonna say, Brody will always be overrated when he has a best brawler award named after him.