SmartMark15

Definitely see the case for Jumbo and I think it's pretty close, but Kawada takes this year for me. Rapid ascension in quality and the booking supporting him as the guy to watch out for while Misawa recovered from various injuries throughout the year. Kawada always stood in his big matches, being one of the highlights of the classic 4/20/91 six-man, and gets to end the year with a real great Triple Crown match against Jumbo as well. I think Taue should get a look too for just how much variety he was able to pull off in his work especially in tag settings but it's an especially close race between Kawada and Jumbo.

Definitely a very tough year to judge. In my own list, I went with Minoru Suzuki just cause of how consistent he was in New Japan through the pandemic plus how much I enjoyed his highest of highs. I still think he has a strong case given all his matches in New Japan that year basically cutting through all the problems that promotion saw in the pandemic setting. However, there are several people worth taking a look at for this year that have just as strong cases. Moxley probably deserves a shout for how he anchored the AEW main event scene. It wasn't always bangers but there's some real highlights there with the match against Brodie and the pair of matches against Kingston. He also benefits from some of the pre-pandemic stuff like having fun US Title matches in the Dome and the dream match with Suzuki as well. I thought Shingo was incredibly consistent in New Japan in a similar way to Suzuki but with much lower peaks. I think Eddie Kingston also might be worth considering for how hot he came onto the national television scene while also having really great matches against Cody and Mox.

Definitely Jumbo but there's some very good competitive picks for this year. Feel like Satanico and Dandy both deserve a shout from Mexico. Even outside of their feud with each other which is the crux of their case, they both do a whole lot of really strong stuff in EMLL throughout the year. Dandy probably gets the nudge for those great title matches with Azteca but Satanico is a joy in trios and tags all year long. I think Jumbo holds down All Japan in one of its most important years and he was the one that really helped bring all the Pillars up to his own level. Misawa and the rest all improved rapidly to meet the challenge but I don't know if they put everything together quite as well without Jumbo being an anchor throughout the year.

It's Danielson and I don't think any of the real popular candidates really come even close to the case that he built up through the year even with the time off that he took. I could certainly see some arguments for Akiyama, Garcia, maybe even Roman Reigns. I thought Shingo had a much better 2020 than he did 2021. Having the IWGP Title meant he had to drag out his matches to suit the needs of Bushiroad booking when it was being much more direct and concise that made him so enjoyable last year. As for Omega, he really didn't do anything at all this year that I thought was great, with the sole exception being when he wrestled the WOTY.

The last truly great Okada match was against Naito in 2020 with only a surprisingly strong Cobb match last year to show for over two years of work since then. One of the most rapid and vicious declines in recent memory.

My 2021 year end awards including a Top 20 WOTY list and a Top 20 MOTY list!

Given that I don't even think Misawa is the best of the Pillars and I have Bryan as my #1 ever, I think Bryan takes this one pretty easily. I don't think Misawa ever really developed particularly interesting mat work throughout his career, especially in the much lauded King's Road classics. I find myself far more inclined to watch the opening act of any random Danielson match than I am to watch the opening act of a Misawa match. For tag team work, it's true that Danielson was never placed into too many positions to make that shine for him with a lengthy run. But if you look at his individual performances in things like the feud vs. The Shield in 2013, you see some real excellent understanding of the fundamentals of American tag wrestling. Through much of his most notable TV run in the WWE, he demonstrated the ability to not only play face in peril but had one of the best, most compelling hot tags anywhere in the world at the time. He might just have the best hot tag from any performer not primarily known for their tag team work. A lot of people have brought up Danielson's versatility and I think that's a huge factor here. Could I see Danielson making elongated championship-style matches work? Absolutely. Could I see Misawa having a real competitive brawl with the Necro Butcher? I don't know, probably not. I could say Kawada might, I could even see it for Akiyama, but Misawa never really demonstrated that ability to me for various reasons that aren't always in his control.

I dug into the indie career of Jon Moxley before he came to the WWE.

Well WWE already fired a whole bunch of people last year in the midst of the pandemic taking hold so I don't think they're particularly waiting on anything before firing anyone.

Daniel Bryan is my working #1 and while there's a few people that I'm looking to dig into further, I highly doubt anyone's going to be able to shake him from that spot. The immense versatility and longevity he has in his career is his strongest suit and I felt so strongly about it that I made this video last year detailing my thoughts on Bryan's case for GWE. It might be a helpful starting point for those looking to join in on the discussion that either have questions/doubts or aren't familiar enough with his work of yet.

Big megadrop since I last posted here! Two videos I did for the official ROH YouTube channel covering the Joe vs. Nigel rivalry and the original ROH Supercard of Honor and then two episodes of Walking the King's Road!

A brand new video making the case for Orange Cassidy as one of the best in the world.

Chris Panzer vs. Robbie Eagles from PWR last February.

Finally back with my year end lists for 2020! Fina

First time checking my account on here in a while. Thanks for this!