Lothario would be even higher a year from now, I bet. Maybe even a couple of weeks from now after the Patera match hits. That's how new his footage is. Every match moves the needle.

Dean not being the high vote for Mr. Gannosuke might be the most stunning thing about this reveal so far for me.

 

Unless Grimmas got a vote for Mr. Gannassekke

Now I want a Bob Armstrong, Mr Gannosuke, and Jose Lothario six man tag team in FMW. What a fun little run here

Dump Matsumoto was the first off my list to drop off. She was #288 and I was the #100 vote for her. I have a feeling that after going roughly 270 spots without a drop, that the next 280 is going to have them dropping like flies.

 

*A little behind ... only seen the list up to #286.

 

Killer Khan is my 4th guy on the list Poor Killer Khan.

 

Poor Killer Kahn should have had 40 great matches instead of four if he wanted to make the top 100.

 

 

He was still in plenty of great tags. He'll be on the WWF redo. Even when a match wasn't great, I found him to be pretty great. The nerve hold can hurt a guy though.

I voted for Gannosuke, though not as high as I thought I would before making my ballot.

Lothario, Ono and Mesias are all off my list. Matt is right about Lothario, the NWA classics stuff is a revelation, every time something new drops his rep improves. I would assume there is more out there, he was just an awesome ethnic regional babyface with classic brawl after classic brawl all appearing in the last six months or so.

I also voted for Lothario. Somewhere around the 60-70 range. Unfortunately the PC I have my list on is sharing the room with a tree that fell through the roof so it could be quite a long time before I see that list again.

 

11 votes for Jose is awesome and really speaks to the power of the new NWAClassics footage. Seems like it helped Gino Hernadez a ton as well since he hasn't shown up yet and I know I voted for him.

Five favorite guys who've gone down so far: Carl Greco, Katsumi Usuda, Espanto Jr., Kantaro Hoshino, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

Finally on the board with Lothario. Disappointed to see him so low, though.

Has any voter still not had a guy drop as of #276?

Finally on the board with Lothario. Disappointed to see him so low, though.

Eh, I wouldn't really look at it that way. Considering that this time a year ago no one would have considered Jose for a list like this and he made 11 ballots pretty much solely off a slow trickle of new matches from NWAClassics, it's pretty impressive. Tells me that a large number of voters who have been watching NWAClassics decided to vote for him. Tells you just how valuable NWAClassics is that guys like Jose & Gino who probably would not have gotten any votes at all have done this well (with Gino still to come)

Has any voter still not had a guy drop as of #276?

 

Yeah, my army is still 100 strong. Though I'm sure I just jinxed some poor bastard.

Mr. Gannosuke is the first person who I really regret not ranking. That was an oversight on my part.

Lothario supporters should be proud. That's a hell of a showing for such a new discovery. Nothing at all to be sad about.

 

Finally on the board with Lothario. Disappointed to see him so low, though.

Eh, I wouldn't really look at it that way. Considering that this time a year ago no one would have considered Jose for a list like this and he made 11 ballots pretty much solely off a slow trickle of new matches from NWAClassics, it's pretty impressive. Tells me that a large number of voters who have been watching NWAClassics decided to vote for him. Tells you just how valuable NWAClassics is that guys like Jose & Gino who probably would not have gotten any votes at all have done this well (with Gino still to come)

 

 

The NWA Classics footage certainly gave Lothario a huge bump on my own ballot (from "never would've given him a second thought" to making it onto the ballot, period), but it also bolstered cases for other guys I voted for like Chavo Sr., Reed, Tito, Andre, Hector Guerrero (I think the TDM with Lothario was what 100% solidified both guys' spots on my list, actually) and the Midnight Express. Also bolstered cases for a number of other guys that wound up just missing out, like Wrestling II, Wahoo and Gino.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say I think I voted Lothario too low on my own ballot, but when it came to the final draft I kind of wanted to be careful not to end up overrating him due to the dreaded recency bias. The same went for Hector Guerrero, Mariko Yoshida, Tito Santana, Daisuke Ikeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Kiyoshi Tamura and Shinobu Kandori, who were all wrestlers I watched a bunch of footage of in the last couple months for the purposes of ranking them (the last handful of candidates I looked at closely, more or less). In the case of Hector, Yoshida, Lothario and Kandori, I was blown away by just how good I thought they were and saw them as personal "new discoveries" of sorts (though Lothario is a relatively new discovery for almost everyone who's watched the Classics footage), while in the cases of the others I was reminded of just how awesome those guys were. Would I have voted Hector Guerrero higher than someone like Sgt. Slaughter if I'd watched all of that Hector footage before, say, the AWA set? Maybe not. Would I have ranked Mariko Yoshida higher than Ted DiBiase if I'd watched the ARSION footage a year ago and spent the last month going through the Mid-South set again? Who knows. I guess my point here is that Jose Lothario was awesome and the case for him is only growing and fuck it, I should've voted him top 5.

Gannosuke just missed the list for me, only because I didn't do enough diving in to later stages FMW. Oddly enough I still think Gannosuke is really good working a small indie like GUTS World.

I'm mildly surprised Ron Simmons got any votes at all.

I voted for him but I think my vote was really for that kid who jumped up and down when he won the title.

Bob Armstrong is the first from my ballot to show up -- I have to agree with Loss that his role in SMW was a perfect fit, and ultimately is what got him a spot. There is something sublime about a clip-on tie being the line of demarcation between 'I have a job to do, and I'm going to give it my all, even if I don't agree with what I have to do' and 'OH HELL NO, THIS WILL NOT STAND' that is what always brings me back to wrestling.

I'm just surprised at the number of people who've said "I've only had two people drop so far". I have at least ten or twenty people from my ballot who've already made the Honorable Mentions list.

 

Guilty. I have no idea how many of mine have popped up.

I don't remember parts of mine very well either. I don't think I saved a final copy of it, and the link doesn't let you see the list anymore.

 

Ha! I vaguely remember the name Chris Coey from the DVDVR days but it couldn't have been me, unless an effeminate male valet called Fancy Lad was to strike fear in your heart! I wanted to be called The Artful Dodger but NAWA promoter Playboy Phil Hefner wasn't into Dickensian references. I actually showed up to film my friends Stephen Taylor (who worked as Dr. Bighed Hansen) and Stuart Minshew (who worked at Psycho Stu), as I was in film school at the time, but was pretty much thrown into the ring, as I was taller than pretty much every other trainee. I ended up talking for Stu, as I could always run my mouth, for what amounted to a very brief "career" - if you can call it that - of maybe five matches or so. This was all in the Rome, Adairsville, Calhoun, GA area. I remember mostly rolling around in a fairgrounds-type setup that had been appropriated by bluegrass pickers just outside of Rome. A helluva way to put my film degree to use right out of school. Stu found God and quickly disappeared, while Bighed wrestled for probably 5 years (here he is vs bull buchanan - http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YRBoClEusr4) before becoming a car salesman. He did pop up in this Patrick Sweany music video about wrasslin I produced last year, though, that I think y'all will love -

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KgB2936NZI4

 

He's the guy wrasslin the fellow under the hood, who is just LT Falk working double duty.

Now THERE'S a guy I'm familiar with, I've known Lil' Tony since he was thirteen years old. And, good video, by the way.

 

I could swear that I attended a NAWA show once, around maybe 2004 or 2005-ish, hanging out with Dan Wilson one time... that was the one in Rome, right? Was Iceberg ever the booker or promoter for that one? I might be getting my greater-ATL-area indies all mixed up, it's been a while.

I've only had Heenan and Dump so far on my list. Hogan and Trips are getting some big time voting love from some people, it looks like.

I voted Hogan in my top 25. Didn't vote HHH at all.

Now THERE'S a guy I'm familiar with, I've known Lil' Tony since he was thirteen years old. And, good video, by the way.

 

I could swear that I attended a NAWA show once, around maybe 2004 or 2005-ish, hanging out with Dan Wilson one time... that was the one in Rome, right? Was Iceberg ever the booker or promoter for that one? I might be getting my greater-ATL-area indies all mixed up, it's been a while.

 

NAWA was indeed in Rome and was closely affiliated with Wildside so I wouldn't be surprised. I think I vaguely remember Iceberg being around but can't really be sure. I got into music right afterwards and 10 years on the road has done in my memory a la stone cold Steve Austin (isn't flair's memory amazing? He's inhuman.).

 

Lil Tony is a national treasure and, living in Nashville, I see him and his dad (my avatar, presently) all over the area at shows.

 

Ahhhhh southern indies, you are THE best.

 

Yours,

JHHBjr

I've only had Heenan and Dump so far on my list. Hogan and Trips are getting some big time voting love from some people, it looks like.

 

I can almost guarantee that I am the high vote on Hogan. And HHH is also on my list.

Shiro Koshinaka is a mediocre pro-wrestler so I'm not surprised about that.

 

Dump was viewed as one of the all-time great heels back in '06. You could maybe argue that the lack of a DVDVR Joshi set hurt her, but the matches on YouTube and elsewhere. She just doesn't get talked about enough because I figure a DVDVR set would have really only uncovered some hidden gems.

 

People sometimes act like the 2006 list is some kind of relic from the past. It may be antiquated, but we were savvy enough to have Kohsaka higher than he was here.

 

I've seen exactly one great Adrian Street bout (vs. Breaks) and then a stream of disappointment. If we had more of his WoS stuff that might change, but he left for the indies during his physical peak. I don't think he was as good as his partner, Bobby Barnes, who did the exact same gimmick. I don't think Bobby Barnes was even nominated.

 

I keep waiting for Mocho Cota to drop. How on earth did he get such a crazily high ranking?