DylanWaco

Was almost swayed by Rippa pointing out the idiocy of Galloway going to TNA, but I can't bring myself to vote for Bray Wyatt

I have to say this is the most mystifying result to me so far. I should probably come around here more often because I'm legitimately amazed people think Neville is great. I mean he's fine. He's not bad. He can have good matches with the right opponent. But I also think he's been badly exposed in the WWE system, and I don't think he's shown that he can lead a match from the top at all. I think he's one of the few guys who was better before NXT got him than after and I wasn't even much of a Pac fan. Meanwhile Pentagon Jr. is one of the absolute best asskickers in wrestling, with an awesome look, and really good matches to boot. This is probably the most "WTF?" result of the tourney so far.

One of the good things about so many of my favorite getting bounced early (Ishii, Hechicero, Thatcher, I assume Cavernario is fucked even though he was the best guy in the World last year), is that I can now concentrate on burying guys who I think are overrated. In other words my banning is probably imminent.

Suzuki was harmed by booking, and can be lazy. Sekimoto always works hard, and he's kind of a guilty pleasure of mine (not really because I don't have guilt about liking a wrestler, but in the sense that he doesn't fit the mold of what I normally go for), but I don't even think Sekimoto is all that good. I mean...if this was Suzuki v. Shuji Ishikawa, I could see voting against him, but Suzuki had arguably the two best matches of the G1 last year (v. Okada who I don't even like, and v. Styles). Hard for me to rank Sekimoto over that.

I have to qualify this be saying that I really liked Zayn last year, and I think he's better now than he's ever been. I also think he is the best babyface in the WWE, though it's worth noting that is a low hurdle to cross. Having said that I think he's probably trending toward becoming the most overrated wrestler in history at this point. The hyperbole surrounding him is so extreme that I almost wish I could shut off all discussion about him entirely and watch his matches independent of the rhetoric, as the absurd praise usually results in me rolling my eyes through legitimately good matches and performances. Zayn is a very good wrestler. Maybe even a great one at this point. He is not one of the best wrestlers of all time. Not yet anyway. He's also not as good as Hechicero. Zayn has been booked well and is a good face, but I don't think he's got the range Hechicero has as a worker. I have never seen Zayn save a match from imminent death the way Hechicero did in the En Busca de un Idolo Finals v. Cavernario. I consider Hechicero every bit as good a rudo as Zayn is a face, he's just not been promoted/pushed as a centerpiece the way Zayn has. Hechicero is one of the best matworkers in the World and a rare wrestling innovator who uses his powers for good and not evil. He's a deceptively good flyer, and excellent at weaving his big spots into his more general asskicking moments. This isn't really Sami's fault because of the nature of NXT, but I also think Hechicero had a higher volume of both good and great matches during the relevant time frame. Hell I thought his run during En Busca (and Cavernario's run too to be honest) were better than Zayn's NXT run. I figured coming into this that Zayn would crush him and I think Zayn has a very strong chance of winning the whole thing. That's fine, I don't hate the guy. But I don't think he's in Hechicero's class either.

Sad to see one of the two or three best workers in the World lose so badly to a guy who has a few tremendous matches every year in between doing nothing at all.* *I am a Nakamura fan, would vote for him over most people, but no way in hell I'd vote him over Thatcher even if he's going to get slaughtered.

I forgot about that awful match with Okada from last year. I still think Ibushi deserves to win, but man was that a piece of shit

I thought it was absolutely the right finish, and nothing else would have made sense given Omori's arsenal and the way the story was framed. But I do see how some would hate it.

It was all Omori had left in the tank. It's the only thing he had that could work and it was a last ditch effort after he'd tried non-arm based offense and it got nowhere. It was ten times more logical/better than the touted Tanahashi/Okada Invasion Attack match, where Okada didn't even try to do something that wasn't arm based, even if his selling was generally good throughout. Anyway, I got off the fence and voted Harper on the basis of volume. Still feel dirty about it, but there is something right about feeling dirty when you cast your lot with Harper.

One thing I will say for Cesaro is that as last years champion you could make the argument that the person who defeats him should be definitely and clearly better than him. This is sort of the argument you see in boxing/MMA fights where commentators and fans will sometimes argue that the challenger should win convincingly and not let it go to a close decision. I also think the Ishii backlash is in full swing now. Don't get me wrong. There are still people, myself included, who will champion him. But there has been an uptick in criticism of him and his style over the last few months. That combined with the fact that Cesaro is semi-relevant again for the first time in nine months or so, probably helps make this such a close race. All that said, the idea of fucking Okada advancing (and advancing over a legitimately very good opponent), while Ishii can't even get out of first round makes me shake my head.

Harashima should win the NIT

This is a pretty good summation. I will say that I think Kushida was hurt a bit by the fact that he didn't really get the Junior Title run some had hoped to see out of him. When he was in singles matches last year he looked really, really good, but he never got the chance to build on it long term. If he had six months of performances like his matches v. Ricochet, Liger (great match, borderline MOTY level) and Ishii, I'd have had no problem voting him over Casas.

Ask Batista

Agree with Nick. Kushida got dicked by the random draw here. Really he's your mid-major who if the brackets had fallen right could have gone on a run to the Sweet Sixteen or even the Elite Eight. And I think Casas' year last year was actually down from the prior years. But Casas is not someone I can justify voting Kushida over

Honestly if I'm voting "holistically" I'm not sure I can vote anyone over Rusev. If I'm voting purely on work, he'd still do well and beat Zeke

This is the hardest match up so far. I think Harper had a sneaky great year last year. It's easy to lose him in the shuffle of bad WWE booking, broken up stables, and start/stop pushes, but he was a guy who was arguably the best worker in the best WWE match of last year (trios v. Shield at EC), had great tag matches with Rowan v. The Usos that exceeded the expectations of many and were sometimes the only good thing on shows, and then had some incredibly fun and spirited singles matches against a wide variety of opposition. He is probably the best in ring performer in the WWE right this second, as he's been great on the C-Shows and any chance they give him on the bigger shows. Dude has a legit really good match with R-Truth this year for fucks sake. He's probably the best base in U.S. wrestling aside from maybe Cesaro, has really great offense, has my favorite look of anyone in any major promotion, and never seems to phone it in. The problem is that Akiyama is fucking great. Akiyama as the cranky old man, who hates the young whippersnappers and beats their ass with more violence and contempt than anyone around is one of my favorite things in wrestling. He Omori TC match from last June was an amazing vet v. vet performance, with better psych than just about any match I saw last year. He was also incredible in the Finals of the tag league, and his sprint with Miyahara - hell his entire feud with Miyahara -was brilliant. At his best he's better than Harper. At his best he might be better than anyone. But he's not at his best all the time, or at least isn't always in a position to show it. I will think about this more before I cast a vote. Right now I'm leaning Harper because his work this year has been better than Akiyamas. But voting on this in the first round makes me feel dirty

Voted for Titus, though I actually enjoy AR Fox for what he does. The problem is that Titus is probably the most underutilized guy I can think of, in the sense that if the WWE had a 6'7, ex-football player, white guy, with that charisma, and that physique, I don't think he'd be splitting wins with Jack Swager on Superstars

I have never been an Ibushi fan and I love Masters. But Masters is probably the least deserving guy in this tournament, and Ibushi - in terms of output at least - was probably the best worker in the World for the first 2 months of 2015. Yes he was the worst guy in both the Harashima and Nakamura singles matches, but those could be my 1 and 2 MOTYs at this point. He was also in arguably the best six-man so far this year (I don't rate it that high, but I've seen people do so), and some other underrated stuff along the way. Last year the Ishii match was better than anything Masters has done in years. And even though I thought it was overrated, the match v. Ricochet was probably the best Ricochet match I saw all year. If this was Ibushi v. Shaun Tempers, I'd vote for Tempers, but Masters didn't have anything close to a Tempers level year

I enjoyed Mastiff last year more than Show. Still doesn't feel like he had a super, great, amazing year or anything close to that, but I'll vote for him here.

I have loved Ishii for years and think it's awesome that he broke out so huge last year. Having said that Cesaro was the guy I championed so hard last year and I hate voting against him. Having said that, I have to vote against him. I do not think Ishii was the clear best in the world guy last year that a lot of people do. I agree with a lot of the criticisms I've seen of his work, but here is the thing - to me Ishii is the master of an admittedly flawed style. I don't mean that in the sense that he's the equivalent of being the best guy in DragonGate, who is lucky to have a few watchable matches every year. I mean that in the sense that he takes many of the elements of a style I don't love and at times hate, and churns out matches I think are great. And he does it against a wide variety of opponents. He was able to make the Never title feel like a relevant, big match title, and got to the point where he may have been one of the two or three most over guys in NJPW, almost entirely due to what he does in the ring. He's one of the only guys who I actually think can make the 1-count spot work. He breaks the rules and succeeds anyway. If Cesaro had not had a few months in the middle of the year where he looked like a broken man who didn't give two fucks (I can't blame him but still), I could maybe have justified a vote for him. And I won't care if he wins. But I couldn't vote for him here.

I didn't realize Titan wasn't in the field. Dragon Lee would easily be in my top 64 guys from last year, but Titan is a top twenty level guy. Oh well

I read the date on that as 2/2/14. My fault.

Gulak was one of the best wrestlers in the World last year. If someone said he was the absolute best I wouldn't argue it. 35 minute mat classics with fucking Joe Gacy of all people in a warehouse, MOTY candidate v. Busick on 4/27, the best series of matches all year v. Thatcher spanning multiple promotions, carrying overrated turds and frauds like Ricochet, Papadon, et. to good matches. Really good tag match w/Busick v. The Bucks. I like Del Rio/Patron but this isn't even difficult. Gulak is vastly superior in every way based on the time period in question

I think it's telling that the only disappointing/eh AJ match I can remember seeing last year was against Ricochet. I'm not saying AJ should win this whole thing, but I wouldn't have a problem if he did. And most of the guys I would be likely to vote for over him are going to get bounced early

I really like Rampage, but I didn't watch much of his work last year, and very little of it was hyped. If the date on that Ryan match is correct it's not even relevant to this tournament. I'm abstaining for now.