Top 100 (Predictions, regrets, how many fallen soldiers do you have?, etc..)

[cubbymark]

By my count, Superstar Bill Dundee made it? As bummed as I am Colon just missed, this kind of softens the blow.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I have 78 left. I'm happy Dusty made it. I thought he was a goner for sure today.

[Bierschwale]

Kurt Angle made the top 100. But so did Virus. That's a distinct win.

[Childs]

Right now I'm rooting for an impossibility in Virus to make the top 100 and Angle to not.

 

They both made it, right?

[Bierschwale]

Yeah, I was 10 back on HMs.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

By my count, 33 of my picks have fallen off as we head into the top 100. Here is a long-ass post about my fallen soldiers along with where I had them ranked and why.

 

100. Bobby Heenan
Ignore those who push the “Heenan didn’t have enough matches” talking point. He did, and he was excellent in most of them.

 

99. Kamala
A personal pick, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought Kamala legitimately belongs. He got over in several territories and on the big WWF stage. Solid matches with Hogan, Andre and Lawler. Kamala cemented himself on my list while I was watching him beat the Moondogs with a door in ’92 Memphis. My 2 year old – who had never paid attention to wrestling before – took notice and sad, “Bang! Bang! Bang! Man fall down! Hit him with door big man! Hit him with door!”

 

98. Taka Michinoku
A 180 overall finish for an amazing junior? This one was disappointing.

 

95. Sabu
Sabu’s gotten shit on a lot in recent years, and I don’t get why. A fun and innovative talent, who actually finished higher on the overall list than I thought he would. No. 149 seems fair for Sabu.

 

94. Rick Steiner
Rick Steiner > Scott Steiner, in my not so humble opinion. I have recently watched everything on tape from the NWA in 1989 and Rick is outstanding. Also, he was insanely over as a single and that didn’t change once he teamed with Scott.

 

92. Dennis Condrey
You want a scummy wrestler? Look no further than Condrey. On top of the scumminess, he was also underrated as an ass kicker.

 

91. Jake “the Snake” Roberts
One of the best promos of all time and a guy who knew how to work despite his limitations.

 

90. Masa Fuchi
The greatest six-man tag worker of all time.

 

88. Sean Waltman
Damn. I regret not ranking Waltman higher to see if he could’ve cracked the top 100. I think he deserves it.

 

87. Masa Saito
The AWA set bumped Saito up to the top 100.

 

86. Norman Smiley
Always kept me entertained, whether I was watching him on a throwaway match on Nitro or on some random comp tape I had lying around.

 

84. Koko B. Ware
His work in Memphis alone in both the 80s and 90s gets him a spot on my list. An underrated talent.

 

83. Col. DeBeers
Ignore the weird racist gimmick in AWA. While all the buzz about Portland revolves around Buddy Rose (as it should), Wiskowski was an outstanding No.

2. He was great as both Rose’s tag team partner and sometimes foe. Did I rank him a little high? Probably. But I definitely think he belongs in the top 100.

 

82. Butch Reed
If you watched the Mid-South set and don’t have Reed in your top 100, I don’t know what to tell you.

 

79. Dick Slater
Whenever Slater hit the ring, you knew at the very least you’d be getting an interesting match. I can’t name any Slater matches that blew me away, but I also can’t name any that put me to sleep.

 

75. Akira Maeda
A big fall from 61 in the 2006 to 105 this time around. Oh well.

 

74. Buddy Landell
No one else could cut a promo about someone owing him money for new car tires quite like Buddy. But seriously, I thought we’d see Landell get closer to the top 100 given the recent love for Memphis and the podcasts that covered Landell’s career in-depth following his death.

 

73. Ultimo Dragon
Another super talented junior that kept me entertained no matter where he worked.

 

70. Great Sauske
One of the workers who got me hooked on tape trading and exploring different styles of wrestling beyond WWF/WCW.

 

69. Tommy Rich
Would’ve liked to see Tommy finish higher than he did, but No. 141 isn’t bad. I’m sure Rich bladed himself to celebrate once he saw where he finished.

 

68. Ivan Koloff
With more footage, I think we would’ve seen Uncle Ivan finish higher than he did.

 

65. Dutch Mantell
The Lawler feud alone makes Dutch an all-timer, in my opinion.

 

63. Michael Hayes
Hayes > Gordy. Yeah, I said it.

 

60. Adrian Adonis
Whether he was in shape in Portland or Japan or out of shape in WWF or AWA, Adonis would always go and go hard. An outstanding worker and top-of-the-line bumper.

 

61. Masa Chono
Oye. I thought Chono would fare much better than he did. Oh well.

 

57. Eddie Gilbert
I can see the argument that Gilbert was more about angles than work, but he has plenty of good matches on his resume to warrant a top 75 ranking on my list.

 

56. Carlos Colon
The Hansen feud sucked me into exploring more of Colon’s work and I’m glad I did. Super over in his home territory and a great brawler.

 

53. Tracy Smothers
Smothers’ work in the FBI piqued my interest. The more I dug into his work in WCW and Smokey Mountain, the more I loved it. A versatile and extremely consistent talent.

 

50. The Rock
Is this too high for the Rock? Probably, but the biggest mainstream star in wrestling history has to mean something, right? Rock also has some outstanding Wrestlemania main events and good to great work against Lesnar, Foley and others. That said, Rock finishing at No. 101 seems fitting.

 

48. Yoshiaki Yatsu
What? WHAT? WHAAAAA? Seeing Yatsu fall off at 172 was a shocker to me. I had him pegged as a lock for the Big List.

 

45. Wahoo McDaniel
Post-prime AWA McDaniel kept me entertained as a kid. Anything I’ve dug up on Wahoo from his earlier years was still post-prime Wahoo, but all of it was outstanding. The chops, the presence, the respect he commanded in the ring and outside of it – I’m glad Wahoo had a decent showing at No. 115 overall.

 

31. Ken Patera
A huge draw in both the WWF and territorial circuit, at MOTY candidate with Backlund in 1980, outstanding run in the AWA with Blackwell and others, and fun post-prime AWA run that kept 9-year-old me entertained. Is 31 a little high? Maybe, but a 220 overall finish is definitely too low.

 

21. Jerry Blackwell
Did I rank Blackwell too high? Hell no. Blackwell is a badass worker who deserved to finish in the top 100. That said, realistically, finishing over HHH and at No. 118 is really damn good.

Biggest regrets: Not voting for Manny Fernandez, Necro Butcher, Adrian Street, Killer Khan, Ernie Ladd, and Super Porky. Who would I have removed from my list to fit those guys in? I have no idea.

 

Who did I probably rank too high? The Rock and Ken Patera.

 

Who did I probably rank too low? Sean Waltman and Taka Michinoku.

[Microstatistics]

39 fell. Shoot-style, joshi and lucha the biggest victims.

 

Biggest regret is not watching enough Euro/WOS before the deadline.

[victory]

I have 38 down total.

 

I regret not having Dustin on my list. He originally was. I took my list to work to go over and somehow I misplaced his name when I brought it back home. I realized it later in the day the ballots were due when I turned in my singles and didn't want to edit it as I was afraid Steven might not catch the edit so I didn't do it.

 

Good news is at least 3 of my favorites made it in Kerry, Taker and Savage. I figured Savage would, wasn't sure about the other 2.

[Childs]

I have 74 left, 48 of my top 50 and all of my top 25. So not too bad, I guess. I was most heartened to see Ishikawa and Ikeda get in despite all the shootstyle carnage. Grey and Sano are my two highest out at 28 and 29, respectively. I really do hope more people dig into the British footage going forward, because I think Grey blows away so many of the remaining workers on skill level, output and consistency.

[Eegah]

My future viewing is definitely going to be leaning to WoS and more shoot style. Ive seen smatterings of both but going to do a full deep dive since both styles have many things I value highly in wrestling.

[El Boricua]

After tallying up who dropped this weekend, I'm at 54 from my ballot that made the final 100. Carlos Colon made quite the improvement, although at the moment I'm bummed since he came so close to getting in the final 100.

[Danish Dynamite]

Might have overlooked someone, but I believe I have 21 down, 79 left. Highest drop for me was Bob Orton Jr. at #59.

Had a good day with 0 drops between 110-101 (even though I did feel for Colon not making it. I would have been very ok with him in the Final 100).

 

Am just looking forward to every day of reveals. It's finally time for the top 100 we've been working towards for two years. It won't be definitive, I know. A snapshot of this group of people at this time. But it's a damn strong top 100, more well balanced than any other I know of and certainly better than the 2006 list to me :-)

[El-P]

Nobuhiko Takada is the only worker in my top 30 that has fallen, which suggests I am a more boring person than I give myself credit for.

 

You can't possibly be boring if you had Nobuhiko Takada is your top 30 in 2016.

 

From my top 30, Takada, Ozaki, Yoshida and Sano are gone, in that order.

[jamesie_2015]

Personally, just thrilled Joe, Tajiri, and Zayn hot in.

Yes!

[JerryvonKramer]

100 Magnum TA

181) Magnum TA (813 points, 35 ballots, 77.77 avg, high: 20 - MikeF, 2006: honorable mention)

 

99 Mr. Saito

160) Masa Saito (944 points, 35 ballots, 74.03 avg, high: 34 - anonymous, 2006: honorable mention)

 

98 Rick Steiner

292) Rick Steiner (222 pts, 7 ballots, 69.29 avg, high: 48 - Beast, 2006: unranked)

 

97 Ivan Koloff

188) Ivan Koloff (745 points, 21 ballots, 65.52 avg, high: 27 - anonymous; 2006: honorable mention)

 

95 Wahoo McDaniel

115) Wahoo McDaniel (1838 points, 53 ballots, 66.32 avg, high: 15 - Dean Rasmussen, 2006: 166)

 

94 Dean Malenko

124) Dean Malenko (1554 points, 36 ballots, 57.83 avg, high: 13 - anonymous, 2006: 90)

 

93 Tommy Rogers

215) Tommy Rogers (532 points, 19 ballots, 73.0 avg, high: 38 - Tim Cooke, 2006: 93)

 

92 Sean Waltman

106) Sean Waltman (2073 points, 68 ballots, 70.51 avg, high: 23 - topropepodcast, 2006: honorable mention)

 

91 Ken Patera

220) Ken Patera (503 pts, 15 ballots, 67.47 avg, high: 16 - Scott Bernard, 2006: honorable mention)

 

89 Scott Steiner

162) Scott Steiner (925 points, 28 ballots, 68.86 avg, high: 1 - Jack Webb, 2006: honorable mention)

 

88 Jose Lothario

276) Jose Lothario (262 pts, 11 ballots, 77.18 avg, high: 41 - Dr Ackermann, 2006: unranked)

 

87 Tommy Rich

141) Tommy Rich (1138 points, 36 ballots, 69.39 avg, high: 10 - anonymous, 2006: unranked)

 

85 Dennis Condrey

199) Dennis Condrey (616 points, 24 ballots, 75.33 avg, high: 51 - goc, 2006: honorable mention)

 

80 Sting

113) Sting (1909 points, 52 ballots, 64.33 avg, high: 7 - Lisa Lewis, 2006: 127)

 

78 Jerry Blackwell

118) Jerry Blackwell (1732 points, 46 ballots, 63.35 avg, high: 21 - Cross Face Chicken Wing, 2006: honorable mention)

 

77 Adrian Adonis

165) Adrian Adonis (886 points, 25 ballots, 65.56 avg, high: 16 - chris horcasitas, 2006: 78)

 

74 Bob Orton Jr

157) Bob Orton Jr. (976 points, 25 ballots, 61.96 avg, high: 21 - John Steffy, 2006: honorable mention)

 

72 Antonio Inoki

132) Antonio Inoki (1426 points, 37 ballots, 63.14 avg, high: 1 - anonymous, 2006: 71)

 

71 Michael Hayes

166) Michael Hayes (885 points, 35 ballots, 75.71 avg, high: 43 - Gus_Mcrea, 2006: honorable mention)

 

69 Johnny Saint

122) Johnny Saint (1608 points, 45 ballots, 65.27 avg, high: 30 - JRGoldman, 2006: 134)

 

68 Masa Fuchi

111) Masa Fuchi (1963 points, 54 ballots, 64.67 avg, high: 8 - stunning_grover; 2006: 106)

 

64 Yoshiaki Yatsu

172) Yoshiaki Yatsu (852 points, 30 ballots, 72.60 avg, high: 32 - supremebve, 2006: honorable mention)

 

63 Pat Patterson

121) Pat Patterson (1663 points, 39 ballots, 58.51 avg, high: 5 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: honorable mention)

 

60 Steve Grey

108) Steve Grey (2017 points, 42 ballots, 53.02 avg, high: 7 - Frankensteiner, 2006: 135)

 

54 Low Ki

107) Low Ki (2046 points, 58 ballots, 66.00 avg, high: 2 - Mando>Eddie, 2006: honorable mention)

 

53 Dory Funk Jr

112) Dory Funk Jr. (1930 points, 44 ballots, 57.14 avg, high: 14 - John Steffy, 2006: 69)

 

43 Carlos Colon

103) Carlos Colon (2185 points, 56 ballots, 61.98 avg, high: 12 - El Boricua, 2006: honorable mention)

 

40 Mocha Cota

189) Mocho Cota (727 points, 23 ballots, 69.39 avg, high: 21 - Dean Rasmussen; 2006: unranked)

 

My 28 brave soldiers.

 

 

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

 

Personal regrets:

 

1. I wish I'd called more audibles to intervene in BIGLAV findings.

 

2. I wish I'd been more selfishly personal and cynically tactical in pushing my own agendas, instead of producing a list that was "fair".

 

Sting, Low Ki, Inoki, Chris Jericho, HBK -- these fucks didn't need my votes. Bruno Sammartino did. I could have pushed Dory into the top 100 also with a higher finish. I could have high-balled Pat Patterson.

 

These are the regrets of someone who treated the idea of doing a GWE list with too much respect ... respect it probably never warranted.

 

3. I regret ranking a single guy whose career started after 1990.

 

Regrets on the rankings:

 

1. Yatsu at #172 is criminal. Can't get over that.

 

2. Was a shame Dory couldn't make it.

 

3. I am surprised Steve Grey didn't make it despite a lot of vocal support.

 

4. Pat Patterson on 39 ballots is something I hope I played a small part in, but I wish it could have been more

 

5. I am disappointed at the number of "generic WWE" 00s guys who are going to end up in the top 100. The Takers and the Angles. Disappointed more because I feel like A. It isn't very characteristic of the PWO I've known for the past 4-5 years, and B. it's going to be something used to try to denigrate the overall voter-base when the main man Ric Flair finishes in the top 2. I feel like Angle, in particular, making it is seriously going to damage the credibility of the list WITHIN the board, although outside of the board I suspect the reverse will be true (if anything, they will wonder why he's so low).

 

Things I'm pleased about

 

1. Jack Brisco made the top 100. Again, I hope I played a small part in that.

 

2. Bob Backlund made the top 100. This pleases me more for my fellow Titans, but I ranked him too.

 

3. Ted made the top 100.

 

4. Harley Race made the top 100.

 

5. Jim Breaks made the top 100.

 

oh and

 

6. HASE!

[jackwebb]

Looks like I have 67 still standing.

 

Ended up the high vote on 7. Jackie Fargo, Silver King, Sandman, Ricochet, Super Dragon, Steiner and Smothers.

 

Guys in my top 50 that I lost were Ricochet, Super Dragon, Buzz Sawyer, Low Ki, Smothers and Steiner. Smothers and Steiner from the top 25.

 

Other notables I lost were Lothario, Colon, Guerrera, Psicosis, Aries, Henry, Rich, Luger, Wahoo, Grey, Zbyszko, Villano III, Christian, Matt Hardy and Patterson

 

There was only 1 person on my list I would have really been disappointed to see miss the top 100. The person I voted #2. Fortunately they made it. The increase in voters put that in doubt toward the end.

[The Russian Daydream]

When the reveals were happening, it felt like my guys were dropping like flies, so now, counting them I'm surprised to find I've 'only' lost 31 and that 69 made it to the final 100.

[Danish Dynamite]

Regrets: Not many. I'm sure my list will look a little different soon, but as of now, I'm really ok with all of it. Even the vanity picks that I have no solid argument for making. The only thing I might regret is that I spent time watching shoot instead of joshi. I could have guessed that I'd not get into shoot even though I gave it a reasonably big shot, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna really dig joshi when I get to it. I have two joshi workers on my list, and I'm not sure they would get much higher than their solid rankings now, because I've seen a good bit of them. But I just haven't seen enough of the others to really form an oppinion.

 

Sad that: Looking at the 21 I've "lost" I hadn't really expected too many of them to make it all the way, so I'm ok with it. A little surprised that I as not that strong a supporter of lucha had more lucha than the final list (I lost MS-1, Pirata and Aguayo), but I still feel most areas are fairly represented (except joshi, where I'm also a guilty party).

 

Pleased about: Looking at the 79 I have left, I'm so pleased to be part of a community where someone must share at least some of my values when it comes to wrestling :-) Happy that people haven't forgotten Tully. That Andre made it. That Piper made it (I will forever redirect people to KrisZ and his arguments for Piper on his GWE Part 1 reveal podcast with Dylan if someone questions the Rowdy ones inclusion!). That I managed to get around to Jim Breaks in time for this. That I took the time to see even more Akiyama and Buddy Rose. And I've really started to get a clearer picture of who of the posters on the board I tend to agree with, who I disagree with but still completely value the oppionions of and the way they present them, and who I probably won't ever get to understand.

 

Looking forward to: Watching more of the wrestlers that made it to the top 100 that I didn't vote for. That'll be a top priority for me. Also really looking forward to the rest of the reveal and the probably very heated debate that will go along with it.

[Matt D]

I regret not voting for Jerry Estrada. Not that it would have mattered.

[Gregor]

I might be wrong, but I think that the last wrestler in the top 100 to get nominated was Samoa Joe. That was on page seven of the 24-page nomination thread, and it was on September 28, 2014, 17 days after the thread was started.

[The Man in Blak]

74 left for me, with four taken out of the top 50:

_____________________

 

31. Jaguar Yokota (#114)

...

41. Chigusa Nagayo (#110)

...

47. Shinobu Kandori (#146)
48. Naoki Sano (#126)

...
59. Dynamite Kansai (#125)
60. Yoshihiro Takayama (#123)
61. Yoji Anjoh (#214)

...

67. Carlos Colon (#103)
68. Devil Masami (#135)
...
72. Yoshinari Ogawa (#184)

...

74. Low Ki (#107)

75. Chris Hero (#104)
76. Emilio Charles Jr. (#193)

77. Jerry Blackwell (#118)

...
78. Sabu (#149)

...
81. Perro Aguayo (#140)

...
85. Megumi Kudo (#195)
86. MS-1 (#192)
87. Antonio Inoki (#132)

...

90. Pirata Morgan (#117)

...

92. Mayumi Ozaki (#133)

93. Christian (#102)

94. Masaaki Mochizuki (#194)

...

96. Steve Grey (#108)

...

99. Wahoo McDaniel (#115)
100. Animal Hamaguchi (#375)

_____________________

 

I regret ranking Ric Flair as high as I did.

 

I'm torn on the WoS contingent -- I only ended up getting two WoS guys on my list, with a half-dozen guys being just on the outside in the 101-125 range, and I don't feel like that's truly demonstrative of my appreciation for the style. At the same time, I also had a really hard time ranking and distinguishing them within the style (which is something that continued exposure to the style will hopefully remedy after GWE wraps up). So, in the end, Breaks and Grey made my ballot, but the Cortez/Saint/Roberts/Roach/Jones/Rudge jumble ended up getting left off as a whole.

 

EDIT: After seeing that Sano dropped from the 2006 Top 100, I regret not ranking him higher. Versatility is something that I tried to account for as a primary criteria so, in retrospect, Sano barely creeping into the Top 50 really feels like a lowball vote on my part.

[KB8]

I regret not voting for Jerry Estrada. Not that it would have mattered.

He finished at 432. You might have rocketed him into the top 425.

 

That one's on you.

[TheU_2001]

Here is my list of fallen soldiers thus far (31). I wish I could've made some changes to my ballot after listening to some of the great podcasts about some others. I've gone back and watched the footage on a few more people and I would've made a few changes to my ballot. I didn't watch enough Lucha and have only seen some Joshi, which I guess this project has caused me to want to see more of it for sure. Either way...I still had 69 on my ballot make the list.

 

My fallen list: where I ranked them is in parentheses

 

Triple H (20)

The Rock (29)

Sean Waltman (52)

Larry Zbyszko (74)

Dory Funk Jr. (56)

Akira Maeda (89)

Sting (50)

Great Sasuke (67)

KENTA (91)

Dean Malenko (69)

Jake Roberts (96)

Nobuhiko Takada (68)

Kazuchika Okada (61)

Lex Luger (73)

Bruiser Brody (51)

Bam Bam Bigelow (76)

Tiger Mask (63)

Ultimo Dragon (47)

Scott Hall (64)

Kensuke Sasaki (92)

Austin Aries (79)

Kevin Owens (84)

Edge (74)

Psicosis (81)

Christopher Daniels (55)

Seth Rollins (70)

Nigel McGuinness (93)

Stan Lane (94)

Ron Simmons (98)

The Barbarian (99)

One Man Gang (100)

[joeg]

24 down. Most of them were guys from the golden age, from the 70s, shoot style, midcarders in 90s AJPW, or guys whose careers were very short.

 

I think that with the newer found footage on NWA classics and the WWE Network, if this is done 10 years from now, guys like Ray Stevens, Gino Hernandez, Magnum TA, Pat Patterson, Buddy Rogers, The Sheik, Wahoo, etc will end up placing much better than they did this go around.

[Jimmy Redman]

I have 34 down, 66 alive going into the Top 100.

 

Only 6 guys in my Top 50 have bit the dust, and my highest fallen soldier so far is my #32.

 

The guys I'm most sad didn't make the Top 100, ones who I thought had realistic shots, are Colon, Grey, Kansai, even Fuerza. There are a lot of guys who I thought had no chance and are still alive though, and a lot of guys who did better than I imagined, so overall I'm not upset with the list so far.

 

I don't think the 100-75 range will be kind to my ballot though.