Most Underrated Wrestlers Of All Time

[Laz]

In those scenarios, do we still get Sarge beating the shit out of Serpentor?

[shodate]

Hulk Hogan is an easy answer here. He still gets treated like he sucked in the ring. I could understand that back in the early 00s when footage was less available. But in this day and age there are tons of good Hogan matches out there. I'm not saying he was an all time great or anything but he was a more than competent worker that could hold up his end of a good to great match.

he did lacked technique skill and realism th three things i rate on

[shodate]

Yatsu.

single most Obvious one so much so i did not even put in my underrated list since i though every one would agree

[TheBestThereNeverWillBe]

Kenta Kobashi

Terry Daniels

John Quinn

Vincente 'Argentina' Apollo

Johnny Barend

Pedro Morales

Moondog Mayne

[GSR]

Kenta Kobashi

Terry Daniels

John Quinn

Vincente 'Argentina' Apollo

Johnny Barend

Pedro Morales

Moondog Mayne

 

Kobashi? What is it with this board at the moment? The sooner I'm done with my commitment to PWO2K the better.

[shodate]

Volk Han

Andrei Koplov

Ogura Yumi

Shimoda Mima

Monster Ripper

Super Delphin

Morgan

Atlantis

MS1

Joe Melenko

-------------------

my list could be as long as your arm here

-----------------------------

[TheBestThereNeverWillBe]

 

Kenta Kobashi

Terry Daniels

John Quinn

Vincente 'Argentina' Apollo

Johnny Barend

Pedro Morales

Moondog Mayne

 

Kobashi? What is it with this board at the moment? The sooner I'm done with my commitment to PWO2K the better.

 

 

Did I mention I think Misawa is the most overrated Japanese wrestler of all-time?

[SomethingSavage]

Adam Pearce.

 

I know I'll likely get next to no agreement on that, but no shits given. I'm a big fan of Pearce. He falls into the same category as Corino for me - in that he looks, feels, and functions like a man out of time. He's plucked from another era and dropped into a new age. His style stood out like a sore thumb among alot of the Indy workers he faced for a time, but the guy kept up fairly well.

 

Even so, his greatest appeal never came from his "work rate" or whatever. The guy's greatest strength came in some of those killer promos. YouTube's littered with some fine examples. The "One Last Ride" interview always springs to mind immediately, but there are plenty others.

 

His ring work wasn't all bad though. He was slower and more plodding than most by modern Indy standards, but he could hang in there. His lariat packed a wicked punch, and he was constantly coming up with neat new ways to "lure" guys into it.

 

For a long time, his go-to finish was a Piledriver, and that was equally glorious. Pearce would just FLATTEN and ruin guys with it. Once he started transitioning more toward the Lariat, he would alternate back and forth - using one as a fake out to lead into the other. It was something I'd love to see more guys do. Pearce could charge a guy with the arm loaded for the Lariat. Naturally, they would duck. So Pearce would stop short, pull them in, and just DRILL 'em with the Piledriver instead.

 

Pearce deserves more credit for being such a smart worker, for sure. I think he was fully aware of his limitations as his athleticism began to falter, as he seemed to focus more on thinking of new things to do and how to do them sensibly.

 

Oh. And his Seven Levels of Hate tour with Colt Cabana was just fucking aces. It's absolutely the highlight of Colt's career, and it was the last time the NWA Championship really felt like anything halfway significant. Their rivalry spanned two years and featured everything - fireballs to the face, stretcher jobs, neck braces, sportsmanship, betrayal, dog collars, steel cages, and everything else imaginable. Fantastic stuff, and Pearce's promos remained stellar throughout.

 

So yeah. That's my outside the box pick for underrated guy. I realize he's far from anyone's favorite, and he's not necessarily my favorite *anything* either - but it'd be cool to hear him talked about more than he is, if nothing else.

[Loss]

I love Adam Pearce. The main strike against him was always that he was doing fake Crockett or whatever but I dont look at it like that at all. Thats far more true for The Revival, whom I love, than it is Pearce.

[Mad Dog]

He actually made the NWA Title feel important for a couple of years. I thought his feud with Colt Cabana felt big time and made the title seem important. I also thought his feud with Brent Albright was also really good.

[Stiva]

I also thought Pearce was great in the ROH vs CZW feud. He cut some good promos when the feud needed a mouth piece and he knitted the arena brawls and Cage of Death together really well without distracting from the guys that needed the spotlight in those matches.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I dont know, at Ring of Homicide, Pearce called out Cide to represent ROH during the CZW fued and I was thinking why is this guy doing that? He came off as a lame white guy in an old fashioned white guy singlet who just got there, telling a bad ass and cool guy who had been there since the beginning what to do. 👎

[EricR]

I went to a Los Angeles indy show a couple months after 9/11, and after working a long match and cutting a promo, sucking wind, he apologized to the crowd for being "blown up like the Twin Towers". It completely killed the crowd and his brother was sitting front row howling the whole time.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I went to a Los Angeles indy show a couple months after 9/11, and after working a long match and cutting a promo, sucking wind, he apologized to the crowd for being "blown up like the Twin Towers". It completely killed the crowd and his brother was sitting front row howling the whole time.

Thats hilarious. 😀

[El-P]

I went to a Los Angeles indy show a couple months after 9/11, and after working a long match and cutting a promo, sucking wind, he apologized to the crowd for being "blown up like the Twin Towers". It completely killed the crowd and his brother was sitting front row howling the whole time.

 

Holy shit !

[shodate]

both Volk han and Yoshiaki Fujiwara are underrated going by there cm Rating han is no even in there and Fujiwara is far fsr to low rated imo

[WingedEagle]

I went to a Los Angeles indy show a couple months after 9/11, and after working a long match and cutting a promo, sucking wind, he apologized to the crowd for being "blown up like the Twin Towers". It completely killed the crowd and his brother was sitting front row howling the whole time.

 

That's enough for me to wish the worst upon him, his brother and the rest of the family.

[Microstatistics]

Volk Han

Andrei Koplov

Ogura Yumi

Shimoda Mima

Monster Ripper

Super Delphin

Morgan

Atlantis

MS1

Joe Melenko

-------------------

my list could be as long as your arm here

-----------------------------

 

I can understand the temptation to rate Volk Han as underrated since he is a Top 10-20 wrestler ever for me. But for fans of shoot style, he is almost universally praised as one of, if not the best in the style so I don't think he really qualifies as underrated. Same for Fujiwara.

 

Mima Shimoda is a great pick. A transcendently great heel.

[Mrzfn]

If he hasn't been mentioned, I want to throw Koko B Ware out there, simply for the fact that ever since his HOF induction the average fan rates him as a punchline. The narrative is that he was complete shit or a joke, when he was honestly one of the low key best wrestlers in the WWF for a lot of his run, to say nothing of stuff he did outside of there.

[Cap]

Shinobu Kandori would be one of my top picks for "underrated". I know she is praised for some of her high end work and is generally well regarded, but she is my favorite female wrestler ever and I see her as legit in that top tier of joshi workers. I think the balance she was able to strike between legit bad ass to hang with your Ajas and Bulls and the vulnerability she could show because of her stature to sell for anyone when needed was singular really. She can put her foot on the gas and elevate the intensity of a match, she can let others shine, she can be the glue that holds stuff together. I also think she excels at stoic, nuanced selling in a way akin to Misawa at times. That isn't always my thing, but it isn't always her game either.

[Microstatistics]

Shinobu Kandori would be one of my top picks for "underrated". I know she is praised for some of her high end work and is generally well regarded, but she is my favorite female wrestler ever and I see her as legit in that top tier of joshi workers. I think the balance she was able to strike between legit bad ass to hang with your Ajas and Bulls and the vulnerability she could show because of her stature to sell for anyone when needed was singular really. She can put her foot on the gas and elevate the intensity of a match, she can let others shine, she can be the glue that holds stuff together. I also think she excels at stoic, nuanced selling in a way akin to Misawa at times. That isn't always my thing, but it isn't always her game either.

 

That's funny because I was considering rating Kandori as overrated. But then I stopped myself because she is awesome, has produced a ton of quality work. I basically agree with all of the points made above. But I think the pendulum effect is in full effect with her, in certain circles atleast. The narrative years ago was that she's very limited and Hokuto carried her in Dreamslam (which is obvious bull) but now some people are stating that she actually smokes Hokuto and has always been one of the only worthwhile joshi workers in history.

[shodate]

 

Volk Han

Andrei Koplov

Ogura Yumi

Shimoda Mima

Monster Ripper

Super Delphin

Morgan

Atlantis

MS1

Joe Melenko

-------------------

my list could be as long as your arm here

-----------------------------

 

I can understand the temptation to rate Volk Han as underrated since he is a Top 10-20 wrestler ever for me. But for fans of shoot style, he is almost universally praised as one of, if not the best in the style so I don't think he really qualifies as underrated. Same for Fujiwara.

 

Mima Shimoda is a great pick. A transcendently great heel.

 

im not talking just around these parts i more talking about as general rule if you get in ot debate in wrestling fans not around here about best technical workers of all time Volk will never get mentioned

 

when to me there id very little debate there he should be very high than that list and very high on any overall list im technique realism and execution mark not work rate mark and volk tick all these scores 10 9 .5 and 10 in my three main ratings wile not main people mentioned him

i also go by og via cage match rating vs my own

[Microstatistics]

 

 

Volk Han

Andrei Koplov

Ogura Yumi

Shimoda Mima

Monster Ripper

Super Delphin

Morgan

Atlantis

MS1

Joe Melenko

-------------------

my list could be as long as your arm here

-----------------------------

 

I can understand the temptation to rate Volk Han as underrated since he is a Top 10-20 wrestler ever for me. But for fans of shoot style, he is almost universally praised as one of, if not the best in the style so I don't think he really qualifies as underrated. Same for Fujiwara.

 

Mima Shimoda is a great pick. A transcendently great heel.

 

im not talking just around these parts i more talking about as general rule if you get in ot debate in wrestling fans not around here about best technical workers of all time Volk will never get mentioned

 

when to me there id very little debate there he should be very high than that list and very high on any overall list im technique realism and execution mark not work rate mark and volk tick all these scores 10 9 .5 and 10 in my three main ratings wile not main people mentioned him

i also go by og via cage match rating vs my own

 

 

By that logic, you can rate Jerry Lawler as underrated too. Because he is not rated very highly outside of here (due to lack of awareness to be fair) even though he finished #10 on GWE. PWO is quite different from the rest of the internet wrestling community. Han is always rated near the top for matwork/technique here.

[shodate]

 

 

 

Volk Han

Andrei Koplov

Ogura Yumi

Shimoda Mima

Monster Ripper

Super Delphin

Morgan

Atlantis

MS1

Joe Melenko

-------------------

my list could be as long as your arm here

-----------------------------

 

I can understand the temptation to rate Volk Han as underrated since he is a Top 10-20 wrestler ever for me. But for fans of shoot style, he is almost universally praised as one of, if not the best in the style so I don't think he really qualifies as underrated. Same for Fujiwara.

 

Mima Shimoda is a great pick. A transcendently great heel.

 

im not talking just around these parts i more talking about as general rule if you get in ot debate in wrestling fans not around here about best technical workers of all time Volk will never get mentioned

 

when to me there id very little debate there he should be very high than that list and very high on any overall list im technique realism and execution mark not work rate mark and volk tick all these scores 10 9 .5 and 10 in my three main ratings wile not main people mentioned him

i also go by og via cage match rating vs my own

 

 

By that logic, you can rate Jerry Lawler as underrated too. Because he is not rated very highly outside of here (due to lack of awareness to be fair) even though he finished #10 on GWE. PWO is quite different from the rest of the internet wrestling community. Han is always rated near the top for matwork/technique here.

 

alot people who he his though and alot atlest from the us know who he is and hes in atlest one HOF non-WWE Volk is not pWHOF WON HOF ect n not not think Volk will ever be in either

[Cap]

 

Shinobu Kandori would be one of my top picks for "underrated". I know she is praised for some of her high end work and is generally well regarded, but she is my favorite female wrestler ever and I see her as legit in that top tier of joshi workers. I think the balance she was able to strike between legit bad ass to hang with your Ajas and Bulls and the vulnerability she could show because of her stature to sell for anyone when needed was singular really. She can put her foot on the gas and elevate the intensity of a match, she can let others shine, she can be the glue that holds stuff together. I also think she excels at stoic, nuanced selling in a way akin to Misawa at times. That isn't always my thing, but it isn't always her game either.

 

That's funny because I was considering rating Kandori as overrated. But then I stopped myself because she is awesome, has produced a ton of quality work. I basically agree with all of the points made above. But I think the pendulum effect is in full effect with her, in certain circles atleast. The narrative years ago was that she's very limited and Hokuto carried her in Dreamslam (which is obvious bull) but now some people are stating that she actually smokes Hokuto and has always been one of the only worthwhile joshi workers in history.

 

That is interesting. I just got into Joshi about two years ago and in that relatively short time I have always felt like I was the high vote on her in any conversation I was in, including around here. It wasn't that anyone was actually down on her, but the implication was always there that it was the Hokuto show (and to a lesser extent the Devil show, or the Bull show... basically whoever she was facing or teaming with in high profile match), So I just assumed that was the tone on her. I haven't run into people who see her on that top tier. I am not saying they don't exist, of course, just commenting on how a lot of this what circles you are discussing wrestling in. I an definitely see her being "overrated" is people are touting her like you described.

 

Obviously I am somewhere between the two extreme examples given, but she always felt like the stand out performer to me (remember, relatively limited exposure).

 

Now I want to go watch Kandori matches.