These guys have had less attention than other high-end GWE guys.

Don't make me pick. This two are both going to be super high on my list.

 

Man.... I guess Liger, for the longer varied career, but Rey has been so great for so long as well.

Liger is a top 10 candidate. Rey is top 50. The end.

Liger is a top 10 candidate. Rey is top 50. The end.

Both will be in my top 5-15. The end.

Jushin Liger would get strong consideration from me as the best wrestler of all time. I think Rey would fall somewhere in the 10-15 range for me.

 

What's amazing about Liger is how versatile he was. He was an amazing high flyer in his day but also adjusted as his skills started to decline. His charisma is off the charts even with his entire body covered. My wife's first exposure to him was at the last NXT special and she instantly saw how good he was.

 

I've also wondered if his odd body type has helped him have such longevity in his career.

Voted Rey. I prefer the structure and smarts of his TV bouts over Liger's bomb dropping and repititive matwork. It's close though.Their best matches are close but Liger has more. Rey wins based on "average" matches though as he has ton of great average matches and Liger's best run (probably the NOAH tags) doesn't touch that.

Both are great, but Mysterio is in consideration for my top 10, while Liger is not. This is a case, for me at least, of the high highs of Mysterio trumping anything that Liger has to bring to the table. Liger is consistent more than anything else, and while I highly value that, Rey is almost as consistent, but better in hi high watermarks.

That's an interesting take, because I don't know that Rey has anything that touches Liger's best matches with Sano, Otani and Samurai. I would actually see them in the opposite way, where the consistency argument goes to Rey (except for the brief unmasked period) where the high point argument goes to Liger. I think about Eddy-Rey in 1997, which seems like the hallmark match of the cruiserweight style, but when I think about Liger-Sano, it transcends that.

I agree with Loss. I love Rey a lot, but today I was thinking of a great American Rey match that could match Rey-Eddie and couldn't think of much. I need to rewatch the Jericho and Punk stuff. While I can rattle off 5 matches maybe 10 matches of Liger around the level of Rey-Eddie.

 

Ok let's see if I can,

 

Sano '90, Sammy '92, Sasuke '94 x2, Ohtani '97, I'm lower than most on NOAH tags, but at least one I thought was a MOTYC. I feel like I'm missing other high end Liger matches.

 

Liger and Rey Rey will probably be both in my top ten.

It's not all about great matches, sometimes it's about performances

So, Rey is a guy I don't get and have never got. See my review of Eddie vs. Rey from 97 for the sort of things I can't stand about him. I would be cool for someone to walk through what they like about him. He seems like Ricky Morton + a load of irritating fireworks to me. Sell me.

Have you seen his Super J Cup 95 match with Psicosis? I'm sure you'll say you have but I think he's excellent in that match.

Rey in WWE is his best run for me.

So, Rey is a guy I don't get and have never got. See my review of Eddie vs. Rey from 97 for the sort of things I can't stand about him. I would be cool for someone to walk through what they like about him. He seems like Ricky Morton + a load of irritating fireworks to me. Sell me.

 

I think given your tastes, and strong dislike for Rey's offense, there is almost no way you would ever like him.

 

Funny enough this is a bit like the criticism of Flair - if you hate the 619, or Rey's "fireworks" offense, you can probably appreciate him to a point, but you will never be a super fan of his. Those things are just too central to his act. By the same token, if you object to the idea of staple comedic bumps in every match, you can appreciate Flair up to a point, but you will probably never be a super fan of his.

 

I actually think Liger v. Rey is very tough. I had Liger top 5 in 2006, but he's a guy who almost slip through the cracks when I think of top level guys nowadays. In all honestly he's probably in my top three or four Japanese guys ever, which puts him in top ten discussion. Instinctively I think of Rey as more of a number one contender than I do Liger, in part because I think Rey is the most consistent and capable television worker in history by a healthy margin. That said I do agree that Liger's best work is superior to Rey's, and he has a longer run of being a better than average worker (Not sure I'd argue he has a longer run of being a great wrestler, but it's possible). This is something I'll have to think about more.

I have still liked the Liger I've seen in 2015, even if he's no longer in the best in the world conversation. Do other people like him as much as me as he's gotten older?

I don't hate him but I've been following New Japan regularly since 2002 so I'm more just bored by him.

I enjoy old man Liger, but he's very much a guy who has a greatest hits schtick, and will turn it on a for a great match or two once a year. Hardly a major negative for a guy his age.

Rey in WWE is his best run for me.

Ditto. I'm not sure exactly how to describe what he did to change his style, other than working in more catchmoves (not catch-wrestling, but like the movez equivalent to catchphrases that are hit the same way every week; is there even a designated term for that concept?). And he tended to spend a bit more time down selling. But it's one of those deals where "simplifying" and "toning down" what he does actually made him into an overall better storyteller.

 

I think Rey was better at working David-vs-Goliath matches than Liger was; all too often when Liger's wrestling a heavyweight, he just hits a few of his signature moves as hope spots and then lets himself get squashed.

I think you also got better stuff out of Liger when he would step out of NJPW. I enjoyed his DragonGate stuff in 2007 and he's always fun in CMLL when he pops up.

 

Rey in WWE is his best run for me.

Ditto. I'm not sure exactly how to describe what he did to change his style, other than working in more catchmoves (not catch-wrestling, but like the movez equivalent to catchphrases that are hit the same way every week; is there even a designated term for that concept?).

Signature Spots? Probably a better phrase for it but I'm drawing blanks.

 

Sell me on Rey Mysterio is something I never thought I'd see on a message board but I guess there's a first time for everything. Not even sure where to begin.

I agree with Loss. I love Rey a lot, but today I was thinking of a great American Rey match that could match Rey-Eddie and couldn't think of much.

 

I really love the Eddie-Rey SD match from '04 for the title, even more than their '05 SD match in the middle of the legitimate epic that was that feud.

So, Rey is a guy I don't get and have never got. See my review of Eddie vs. Rey from 97 for the sort of things I can't stand about him. I would be cool for someone to walk through what they like about him. He seems like Ricky Morton + a load of irritating fireworks to me. Sell me.

 

i think this speaks to something more fundamental: your love of extraordinary violence & hatred, your idea that this is what wrestling *should* be about.

 

you seem to have a hard time buying the stiffest, hardest-hitting motherfucker losing to someone relying on quickness/athleticism and smarts and timely moves in the clutch. having been a fan of the NFL for a lot longer than you have, it's easier for me; that league has undergone a similar transformation over the past couple decades, where teams that fly in the face of old-school ideals can win it all. i basically see someone like rey as equivalent to the peyton manning colts, and they DID win a super bowl eventually...

 

really, as i think about it, it makes a ton of sense that it took the legion of boom to get you into that sport!

So, Rey is a guy I don't get and have never got. See my review of Eddie vs. Rey from 97 for the sort of things I can't stand about him. I would be cool for someone to walk through what they like about him. He seems like Ricky Morton + a load of irritating fireworks to me. Sell me.

Beginning with Ricky Morton as a base is a great start. Rey's fireworks are well-executed, timed on point, make sense and are something he needed to stay over and credible with his size an frame. Don't tell me he would've been better if he used Flair's offense being a 1,60 tall cruiserweight... so I'm not sure what is there to sell. If you hate fireworks in general there is no selling him to you.

 

As for Rey's best, I think the two Eddie matches (1997 and 2005) are up there with Liger's best. I may be a little biased towards the 05 match though because that feud was one of the first things I saw when I started watching wrestling. I'm also a big fan of the entire series with Psicosis, especially their title match in AAA. He doesn't have the hate-filled, intense wars like Liger but that stuff is here and there, like a pretty brutal match against JBL or a smugly worked sprint against Drew Mac And like said earlier he has a number of great performances, like making an Elimination Chamber match watchable by bumping himself to pieces, or having a legit great, elevating series with CM Punk.

Do people like Amazing Red too?