GOTNW

Ibushi's G1 run would probably be enough for me to vote him over Joe but there's also his New Japan Cup run, a match vs. HARASHIMA and the AJ Styles IWGP Title match as well. I'm glad folks dig Joe now but I haven't really been impressed with his work. I mean. I like him but he's just so clearly past his prime that it's just kind of sad that he's finally getting this opportunity now that he's done as a great wrestler.

Considering someone like Minoru Suzuki has had no problem sustaining his character for more than ten years I see no reason why Naito couldn't as well, especially since his is much cooler anyway.

Naito should win this based on his New Japan World promos alone. Also. Look at this shirt: Wrestling. Gym. Protein. Travel. Money. Women. LOS INGOBERNABLES

I kind of want them to make it so that Catrina is actually the devil and runs the temple as her own Hotel California.

To be fair-Okada is probably better at posing.

I know who Okada is. Dragon Lee is better.

I can feel the spite overflowing in me.

One more reason to vote for Negro.

This thread infuriates me because it remind me I will never get to see Tanahashi job his hair in an apuestas match.

Do you even have any idea what you're talking about. Does anybody.

El Hijo del Santo That's why Paco got rid of him.

Much harder to find a great wrestler that does what Rush does than a great wrestler that does what Ospreay does these days and Rush is both much closer to being the best at what he does and a much better overall worker than Ospreay. And I will take Rush's Corner Dropkick over any flip highspot Ospreay can do.

I used to like Chris Hero a lot but my main takeaway from BOLA was that I never want to watch another match of his again.

Shibata doing stupid in the Ishii matches makes this a much easier vote than it would usually be for me.

Look, Kana is the champions of my heart but Negro Casas is the best wrestler.

As I mentioned in the previous thread Cena didn't exactly work the match he did vs. Owena versus Stardust or Kane (those would have zero AA kick-outs). Fwiw I could actually defend the majority of the finisher kick-outs in those matches if anyone wants to hear those arguments. Even in the Owens matches.

I don't really "get" Owens. I liked Kevin Steen fine but there aren't really any matches of his I particularly remember from the voting period. He's a fun promo though. Schneider and Eric shitting on last week's Lucha Underground ladder match but having the Owens-Ambrose Last Man Standing as a MOTY when it had pretty much the exact same problems was mind-boggling.

I voted for Honma because I don't like grapplefuck much (I mean. I love RINGS. I don't care for Chris Hero and Drew Gulak rolling around). For Busick the influences are just too obvious for me and his work doesn't really transcend that.

AEROSTAR: -spaceship REIGNS: -good punches You vote for what you value in wrestling.

There are at least five Strong BJ guys I would vote over Gable and Jordan but Sekimoto isn't one of them.

The Miz represent the lineage of great heels such as The Mighty Atlas and Hans Schmidt. Real, proper heels. No one wants to cheer The Miz. Who would want to cheer The Miz? He's The Miz. He goes out there, exists and is-by proxy-extremely annoying, gets REAL heat-and then gets punched in the face by Roman Reigns. Or kicked in the heat by Kofi. Or AJ Styles or or or OR. It's formulaic, but it's a wonderful formula pro wrestling is based on. You may like cool heels-maybe you gush over Ric Flair saying how many cars he has and how many women he's slept with. Maybe you love Shawn Michaels making goofy faces and doing crotch chops. Me-I need a Bill Dundee to piss of Jerry Lawler and make him punch him in the face. And that's what Miz does. No wonder his feud with Lawler ruled. Ishii was trained by Tenryu and Choshu, and if you couldn't guess I like Riki Choshu a lot more than The Mighty Atlas, Dundee or Lawler for that matter. Ishii kind of has an advantage here. For years he was this really good midcarder, occassionally popping up in awesome brawls in a Big Japan or a Big Mouth Loud. The Wataru Inoue carry jobs were incredible. Finally New Japan pushed him and he started having all these great matches and it seemed like he could do no wrong. Yet here we are. His matches never relied on hierarchy as much as, say, Honma's do now, but it was definitely there and it has been lost over time. That is most unfortunate as selling is one of his strongest suits and what made so many of his matches worked. He dropped stuff like that and replaced it with more modern puro tropes and now I'm somehow supposed to believe that is five foot tall guy is some incredible badass guys two heads taller than him can't beat in strike exchanges. I'm said to have seen it happen but I have really grown tired of the one type of match Ishii insists on working over and over again, and him doing stuff like no-selling during the entire WK match and trading suplexes in the rematch has done him no favours. Keep wrestling classic. Vote Miz.

Trying to figure out how the hell I ended up as #4 since I picked who I'd like to win in the pick 'em. Well that'll die soon anyway since I'm gonna start countering my own bracket in the next round (not spite voting, just didn't think through some votes enough).

I'm out of words. May he RIP.

He works in a way that showcases his weaknesses. He doesn't have good strikes but you're almost guaranteed to get several big striking exchanges in any Tanahashi singles match. He works like he has a chip on his shoulder despite being the ace. The crowd reacts to him with respect but not true admiration. He doesn't FEEL as important as someone in his position should. And he'll do stuff like insert YANO into a formulaic 20 minute Tanahashi match. YANO. He worked the Naito G1 match refusing to put over his new character and going "look at me I can be bad too" insert of presenting himself as a foil to him. Actually now that I think about him that's when he has his best matches. His G1 matches vs. Yano and Ishii were great because he actually let the contrast in their characters shine. When he tries to have these melodramatic 30 minute matches that display his version of great wrestling I think he sucks. But when someone reels him in or he accepts the role he should play I think he can be quite good. We've already established your opinion is wrong bye thanks. (for the record my problem with the Sliding Blade is that it's simply sold too much. It doesn't look good enough to be sold as much as it is. I vastly prefer the way Pentagon Jr.s opponents sell it which is more similar to how you'd sell an Armdrag. His Cloverleaf just sucks.)

He's just too frustrating for me. He is charismatic. He knows how to build a match. He isn't "objectively terrible" (if that is even possible in pro wrestling) or anything. But so much of what he does just doesn't interest me at all. His late match melodramatic selling is terrible, I wish I could find the GIF someone made but anyway it's Tanahashi and Okada waving their arms around late in the match and it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I could accept his offence if he knew how to work through it like Cena but he doesn't. While he does know how to build a match he doesn't deviate from his formula-ever-and it's not one I am high to begin with. I'm supposed to accept stuff like his Sliding Blade and Cloverleaf as serious moves but they look horrible and haven't won him anything since 2007 so why? He has to go through every single big move of his before the finish. And I often find his most ambitious work to be his worst. And all the filler in his matches....