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The turn around on Cody over the space of the last 13 months or so is nothing short of miraculous. He always seemed just fine in WWE, but him in New Japan was just utterly uninteresting, he was never around enough and yet kept getting fairly big matches which always ended up as disappointing or worse. Crowbarring him into the Kenny vs Kota match at KoPW because they wanted to save that singles match for a bigger occasion, but a second title shot. And here we are, 15th most beloved wrestler in this forum.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:05
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Hellblazer187 posted:I feel pretty bad for Kofi. The reigning WWE champion, in last place in our poll. as the lone allie kat voter, i enjoy watching her wrestle infinitely more than kofi goddamn kingston
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Oct 2, 2019 19:09
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forkboy84 posted:The turn around on Cody over the space of the last 13 months or so is nothing short of miraculous. He always seemed just fine in WWE, but him in New Japan was just utterly uninteresting, he was never around enough and yet kept getting fairly big matches which always ended up as disappointing or worse. Crowbarring him into the Kenny vs Kota match at KoPW because they wanted to save that singles match for a bigger occasion, but a second title shot. And here we are, 15th most beloved wrestler in this forum. He's benefitted so much from not being forced into another promotion's style. WWE style can make look anyone look bad and even in NJPW he didn't fit right cause he's not about amazing workrate. He's been able to present an oldschool style focused on psychology and emotion and he's got that nailed down to an art.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:14
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TV Zombie posted:I'm excited about where Ishii will be placed.  aja did not do bad for a 50 year old whose legs do not work
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Oct 2, 2019 19:19
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Great loving posts for the top 20 countdown. Top tier poo poo. Seth not being that high despite being a genuinely talented as gently caress worker I'll chalk up to not only his bullshit mouthpiece moments this year, but the very poor booking he's received. He should easily be a top-20 guy but being placed in heatless feuds instead of being let loose with the most talented people on the roster has really hurt his stock. If you replaced Baron Corbin, Brock Lesnar, and Braun with like....Aleister Black, Daniel Bryan, and Samoa Joe, guarantee Seth would rank better.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:20
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DLC Inc posted:Great loving posts for the top 20 countdown. Top tier poo poo. Even back to his indy days as Tyler Black he was a pretty divisive wrestler. Not really surprised he's still divisive, the last time I watched him his offence looked bad, he just doesn't come across as believable. But it's been a while.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:24
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Big Dave posted:as the lone allie kat voter, i enjoy watching her wrestle infinitely more than kofi goddamn kingston As someone who voted for neither, same. DLC Inc posted:Great loving posts for the top 20 countdown. Top tier poo poo. Ehhh, not really because him having good matches with better wrestlers than him at the bottom of a WWE pay per view card wouldn't make anyone care any more about him any more than having less good matches with better wrestlers than him (and a powerlifter).
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Oct 2, 2019 19:35
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 Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) GO ACE! For 20 years now Tanahashi has been wrestling, and in that time has suffered numerous injuries, been bruised and battered and hurt. He's been literally stabbed by his girlfriend when he tried to break up with her. His bicep has needed surgery he has put off to keep wrestling. Every opportunity he has had to take it easy or to take a break has been ignored or put on hold.... and he just keeps going. And going. And going. And it would be terrible if he was doing this and you could see it affecting his work, except... it doesn't. Sure he's a little slower now that he's in his 40s. Sure he has to take a little longer to set stuff up or work things through. But a worn down Tanahashi who isn't at full potential is still better than 90% of every other wrestler on the planet. It is incredible to see, he just keeps on being the best, including an incredible G1 victory last year and winning the title from Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome this year. Over twenty years he's seen the next big thing come and go a dozen times, but he's still here and going strong (that Okada fellow seems to be holding up too though!), he's still making women sob in delight when he wipes down his post-match sweat with their purchased Tanahashi towels. He's still putting on Match of the Year candidates regularly. It'll have to end eventually... but it hasn't yet.  Tetsuya Naito (3) The opposite of Tanahashi in many respects, Naito was one of those that New Japan thought might be a good replacement/follow-up to the Ace. But the "Stardust Genius" was a failure, most didn't buy into the character and Naito taking a beating only to just randomly win right at the end didn't do him any favors. The failed push lead to a humiliating event where Naito's World Title match at the Tokyo Dome was relegated down the card in favor of the Intercontinental Title match following a fan vote. But what happened next was remarkable. Naito went to Mexico for a tour with CMLL where he teamed with a faction called Los Ingobernables. When he returned to Japan, he declared that he was now representing that faction in Japan, and so Los Ingobernables de Japon was formed. This changed his entire career, as the now heel Naito embraced the ways of "tranquilo" and tapped into a growing sense of frustration and rebellion against the accepted method of doing things in Japan. The laidback, untroubled and often subversive group lead by Naito became hot favorites despite being heels, and ever since Naito has found himself embraced as the great hero he was always intended to be. While he still often falls at the final hurdle on particularly big matches (he finally got his Tokyo Dome main event, but lost to Okada), Naito's popularity remained undented both here in Rowdy Ringsports and more importantly in Japan and the New Japan fanbase. No matter how often he falls or fails, he just casually gets up, dusts himself off, shrugs and then goes back for another shot whenever he feels like it... and so far the fans are going along with him.  Zack Sabre Jr (1) Pro-wrestlers are all giant musclebound freaks or tiny little musclebound freaks or big fat freaks. That's a fact, that's canon. Except Zack Sabre Jr came along and decided he'd be a lanky beanpole-looking motherfucker who stretches the gently caress out of dudes while constantly talking poo poo about the British Conservative Party.... and everybody absolutely loves him. Hell, Vince McMahon offered him a contract when he tore it up on the Cruiserweight Classic along with Kota Ibushi, and he's essentially the physical representation of what Vince McMahon considers all the negative traits it is possible to have and still technically be a human being: skinny and left-wing. ZSJ of course has been around for a long time plying his trade, making a name for himself on the indies for a style and presentation very different from everybody else but still extremely entertaining. But despite his strong presence in what was a thriving British Independent scene until WWE came along, or his time in PWG, or even his Cruiserweight Classic run, it has been his run in New Japan that had really lifted his profile. Because ZSJ can not only survive Minoru Suzuki but thrives as a friend and ally in their shared glee for torturing other wrestlers with submission holds. Because he can go up against any wrestler and adapt them to his style, and he talks poo poo the entire time he's doing it, overshadowed in that department only by Switchblade Jay White. In the words of one poster, he's a beautiful Socialist Octopus, wrapping people up in holds while cheering on the British Labour Party and cursing the existence of the Conservatives (particularly Boris Johnson). Because he figured out what so many other wrestlers forgot: that it's not about being a big musclebound freak, it's just about being a freak. ZSJ is a character, a fantastic one, and the fans love him for it.  Shingo Takagi (1) The first graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo, Shingo worked for 14 years for that promotion, as loyal and steadfast as could be as he worked his way through membership of stables, feuded and fought with everybody, won titles and made the odd excusion to Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro, PWG and of course what was at the time Dragon Gate USA. But like SANADA before him, it was his sudden arrival in New Japan to join Tetsuya Naito's Los Ingobernables de Japon that took him up to another level. Laughably considered a Junior Heavyweight in spite of his clearly comparable to other Heavyweights size, Shingo enjoyed tag team success, before really taking off this year in a fantastic run through the Best of the Super Juniors, making it all the way to the final. After that he entered the G1 where the fans were treated to Shingo smashing up against a variety of opponents he didn't usually get a shot at. Announcing he was moving up to Heavyweight at last, Shingo marked the arrival with a big beefy match against Satoshi Kojima and a rematch againt Hirooki Goto, both of which clearly showed he was more than ready for the Heavyweight division. Now a huge range of new potential matches are open to him for all of us to enjoy, and it's going to be an absolute blast.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:36
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PSP loves capitalism
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Oct 2, 2019 19:42
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Rarity posted:PSP loves capitalism At least he beat Loser Naito
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Oct 2, 2019 20:05
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forkboy84 posted:At least he beat Loser Naito He beat Naito by almost 40 points. hell yeah. (gently caress capitalism)
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Oct 2, 2019 20:08
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 Pentagon Jr (6) He's been around for 12 years already, but for many people their first introduction to Pentagon Jr was in Lucha Underground, a peculiar hybrid wrestling/telenovela show with high production standards for the backstage segments and unbelievably contracts for the talent. LU helped make Pentagon an absolute star though, along with his brother Fénix, as he captured the imagination and delight of fans everywhere with his catchcry of CERO MIEDO, zero fear. Pentagon lived up to the saying, he was never afraid no matter what horrors he was facing (including a big scary fucker in a cage who ate people's faces) and exhibited a give-no-fucks, take-no-poo poo attitude that made him incredibly exciting to watch. With Lucha Underground grinding to a shuddering halt and then rasping out its death-breath over an extended period of time, Pentagon was still working hard to take advantage of his increased profile. Despite frequent issues over ownership of his name, Pentagon has remained in high demand all over the place, working in both AAA and CMLL, MLW, Impact, PWG and various indies, as well as significant and regular appearances in AEW's PPVs before their television show started. An accomplished singles wrestler, he has also had enormous success as a tag team with his brother, and they are arguably currently the most exciting and in-demand tag team in the world. No wonder he has zero fear, after all, with success like this what does he have to be afraid of?  Will Ospreay (3) He is arguably the most outstanding/best wrestler of the year so far, a remarkable feat given the promotion he works for and the talent they have on offer. Will Ospreay, who first rose to real prominence following a highly divisive match against Ricochet several years ago, has continued to push himself hard at such a young age, but has also grown immensely as a performer during that time. Sure, he still says and does some spectacularly stupid things, often putting his own foot in his mouth, but everything seems to indicate he's on a generally upward trajectory to be a smarter, more cautious and well-rounded person without losing any of the energy and excitement that makes his matches so infectiously enjoyable to watch. Competing in the New Japan Cup, winning the Best of the Super Juniors, taking part in the G1 Climax, being in the Super J Cup and clearly giving strong consideration to being in the World Tag League too, Ospreay may actually be gunning for replacing Tanahashi as the biggest workhorse in the promotion. Nobody is doubting Ospreay's commitment at least, as he's moved into Japan to live, and he's frequently pushed his desire to help grow other promotions around the world for the benefit of everybody concerned. If he could just learn to stop throwing out "sage" advice unasked for to other wrestlers and looking a little pretentious at times, Ospreay could be one hell of a role model. Even if not, at least the matches are great... and all this only covers THIS YEAR, let alone everything he's done before now.  Minoru Suzuki (3) The man with the worst personality in the world. Suzuki is over 50 years old and yet still moves with a speed and agility that would be frightening enough from a younger man, let alone a terrifying old villain like himself. With a career going back over 30 years, he is far and away the oldest person in the Top 10, but it's not nostalgia that makes him a favorite. It's the fact he's an astonishingly great wrestler, a legit badass, cuts incredible promos, has an incredibly compelling character and leads a gang of similarly weird asskickers everywhere he goes. Hell, the man made shaving his own hair after losing a Hair vs. Hair match look like the coolest thing in the world. In the ring he brings a malice and savage glee that is hard to look away from, but he doesn't just dish out pain, he can take it as well, and has a real knack for selling in exactly the right way at the right time to both make himself look great but also make his opponent look like a killer. His blistering, impotent rage at being too beaten down to stop SANADA hitting him with a Moonsault is only one of many examples you'll see in any given night where he wrestles. Even the stuff he does by rote is usually given a neat twist or wrinkle, like his constant attacks on the Young Boys at ringside responsible for cleaning up after the wrestlers/maintaining order at ringside. Throw in one of the best wrestling theme songs ever made and you have the recipe for one hell of a wrestler.  Kenny Omega (8) Kenny didn't have a great start in this thread. He was slow off the blocks and then kind of meandered in the middle, roughly the same as his run in AEW has been up to this point. Hopefully AEW will follow suit with what happened next, as suddenly he picked up big momentum and rocketed into the Top 10 and past wrestlers who had left him in the dust right from the start. Perhaps people just kind of forgot for a little bit that Kenny Omega is one half of perhaps the greatest wrestling rivalry of the modern age? A man who has broken Dave Meltzer's 5 star scale on more than one occassion, including the first ever 7 star match. A man who convinced New Japan to run (albeit, wonkily) with the real-life angle of his relationship with Kota Ibushi and sent fans into a frenzy of excitement to see "The Golden Lovers" reunited. Kenny Omega, who dropped out of WWE's developmental league of the time to work in DDT simply to get close to Ibushi, then shifted into New Japan and their Junior Heavyweight Division and eventually joined Bullet Club as the oddball "Cleaner" character. Who took over the reigns of leadership from AJ Styles (who in turn took them from Prince Devitt/Finn Bálor) in a move many thought was doomed to failure, only to lead into that incredible series of matches with Kazuchika Okada. Kenny is an integral part of the new AEW promotion, along with Cody and the Young Bucks, their EVP positions at times seeming to clash with their status as active wrestlers. But Kenny is already turning that around simply via promo work, as his loss to Chris Jericho and PAC seems to be driving him off the deep end, and people are already starting to remember that even when it doesn't seem like Omega has a plan... he has a plan.  Jon Moxley (5) This year Dean Ambrose decided he was done with wrestling. He didn't want to do it anymore, and WWE couldn't convince him to stay no matter how much money they offered him. But hey, he was done, he was burned out and tired so why not at least pretend to be giving him a big send-off (which he got paid standard jobber fees for, since it was for a show outside of his contract) and reap the benefits while Ambrose hosed off back home. Plus his wife was working for them, so he wouldn't pull anything, right? Right! Dean Ambrose was done. Jon Moxley... however. Returning to his original character name, Moxley immediately dove headfirst into New Japan and AEW, sending everybody into a frenzy, especially when he won the IWGP US Title and then announced he was entering the G1 (and also kidnapped a Young Boy, who became his protege/hostage). He attacked Kenny Omega at Double or Nothing, and was set to face him at ALL OUT until a MRSA infection had to take him temporarily out of the picture. But Moxley's point had been made. After years of smashing his head against a brick wall trying to work within the confines of WWE's system and Vince McMahon's insane fixations, Moxley proved that he could make HIMSELF a star in less than a day. Hell, he did it in a single promotional video he paid to produce. Now he's not only getting to enjoy the indy promotions/death matches he loved working so much in his younger days, but he's able to work for two big promotions and reap all the benefits of pro-wrestling that he loves without any of the bullshit he was constantly having to deal with. The best day of Jon Moxley's life was when Dean Ambrose decided he was done with wrestling.
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Oct 2, 2019 20:21
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J-ru, you are really good at writing. Though I shouldn't be surprised considering your CKII LP was what drove me to join this forum.
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Oct 2, 2019 20:28
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Ishii in the top 5 confirmed 
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Oct 2, 2019 20:36
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 Kota Ibushi (3) God's perfect wrestling idiot, a lovely and friendly and happy man who had the very good fortune to be born rich and also to have discovered the one thing on the planet he may be absolutely perfect for. Also to be spectacularly pretty. Ibushi is never going to accused of being one of the great strategic masterminds of pro-wrestling (he once got tricked into a fight he said he didn't want by his rival simply telling him he wasn't going to ask him for a match anymore) but anybody who says he isn't a wrestling genius is a fool, a damned fool! Every bit of intellect he has is funneled directly into figuring out how to elevate the art of wrestling, and the answer is usually by jumping off something high. Ibushi just wants to wrestle. Anything else good that happens on top of that is a bonus, anything bad is just getting in the way of more wrestling, but give him four sets of ropes in a square and an opponent and he'll be happy. Hell, he's wrestled an EXCELLENT match before with NO opponent, literally fighting a blow-up doll and making everybody believe the doll just might have the edge on him. He doesn't even need the ropes, he's gone campground wrestling before and shot fireworks out of his rear end. Why? Because wrestling is art and his wrestling is a bold and unpredictable new talent. How can you not love this man? This pretty, pretty man? The answer is clearly that you can't, because he's been voted in as Rowdy Ringsport's 5th favorite active wrestler in the world! Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 20:42
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Jerusalem posted:(he once got tricked into defending a title by his rival simply telling him he wasn't going to ask him for a match anymore) Wasn't it the opposite? I seem to recall Kota wasn't even the champion. I think it was Goto daring him to challenge for the NEVER belt until he got sick of being turned down and said "OK I'll stop" and then Ibushi went "nononoididntmeanit!"
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Oct 2, 2019 20:49
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 Chris Jericho (5) The master of reinvention has done it again in 2019. At 48 years old, no longer the trim figure of the late 90s and early 2000s, facing a roster of fresh young and exciting talent... Chris Jericho has once again shown everybody how it is done and turned himself into the hottest thing going. Embracing happily the Terry Funk portion of his career, Jericho's dalliance with New Japan while insisting he wouldn't work for any other American company but WWE is long behind him. Just like he once left WCW behind to go to WWE, he has ceased trying to make things work with Vince McMahon and embraced the new paradigm, and it has embraced him back. Not an old man overstaying his welcome, not a tired old has-been who didn't save his money, not a junkie desperate for one last adrenaline fix from the crowd. Chris Jericho is welcome. Chris Jericho is appreciate. Chris Jericho is one of the Greatest Of All Time. Adopting and then adapting the costuming of the stablemate of a rival in New Japan, Jericho has turned it into a mixture of Mad Max and aging 80s rock star and let his own character follow suit. Winning the AEW Title to become the promotion's inaugural Champion, Jericho immediately got the world talking after his deranged, off-the-cuff stream-of-consciousness backstage promo became the "A BIT OF THE BUBBLY!" meme. It was the kind of social media engagement WWE desperately dreams of/hunts for, and he did it all on his own without any input or direction: just a creative person being given the freedom to create. He even turned the loss of his belt into a gimmick and storyline that had social media and yes even the press following up and reporting on it. All naturally, all without forcing anything or overexplaining it to the audience. Jericho, who always had a modicum more freedom than others in WWE, is now enjoying a fully unfettered experience in AEW (in New Japan there was the language barrier to deal with) and they are reaping the benefits of his ability, experience and talent just like he is reaping the benefits of being at the forefront of yet another Wrestling War (he was one of the winners of the last one). But the biggest winners are us, the fans, and it's those decades of providing just that sort of thing which probably goes to show why Jericho is our 4th favorite active wrestler in the world right now. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 20:52
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Gaz-L posted:Wasn't it the opposite? I seem to recall Kota wasn't even the champion. I think it was Goto daring him to challenge for the NEVER belt until he got sick of being turned down and said "OK I'll stop" and then Ibushi went "nononoididntmeanit!" You're right, I remembered it the opposite way around. I've edited in a correction.
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Oct 2, 2019 20:55
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 Daniel Bryan (11) Daniel Bryan shouldn't be on this list. In 2016 his career ended. After his triumphant defeat of Batista and Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 30, Bryan was on top of the world after reaching the culmination of a lifetime's wrestling to main event and win the title at Wrestlemania. But injuries eventually lead to him being stripped of the title, and by the next Wrestlemania he was competing for the Intercontinental Title (which he won) only to discover shortly after that he could not be medically cleared to wrestle. Ever. His career was over. After a heartfelt and tear-filled goodbye, Bryan was shifted into the role of Smackdown General Manager, and began hosting an amazing television program called Talking Smack, in which he seemed to grasp that WWE was too scared to fire him in case he went and wrestled elsewhere... so he could pretty much say and do whatever he felt like without consequence. Talking Smack was too beautiful to live though and was unceremoniously canceled. Reduced to being a bystander in a feud involving Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and.... ughhh... Shane McMahon, Bryan suddenly arrived to Smackdown one day to declare startling news: He'd been cleared after all, and after two years he was going to come back to wrestling. It's been a mixed bag since then, feuds with Cass and the Bludgeon Brothers followed by excellent matches with AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar as Bryan turned heel and unveiled the amazing Hemp Belt. He played the perfect rear end in a top hat heel to Kofi Kingston, playing against type as Kofi played the role usually reserved for him as plucky underdog babyface. Even when WWE is at its worst, you can usually rely on Daniel Bryan to spin gold from straw, and it is telling that even as many other former favorites of Rowdy Ringsports dwindle in popularity or getting aggressively turned against, Daniel Bryan remains popular enough in spite of any issues with his promotion to make the #3 spot on our favorites list. Since his early days in ROH through PWG and into the first iteration of NXT and working his way up the card, Daniel Bryan remains an incredible wrestler and one hell of a human being.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:07
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he stinks
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Oct 2, 2019 21:08
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Super No Vacancy posted:he stinks That's just the weed.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:10
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I hope Ishii beats Okada because he is so much cooler.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:11
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Incessant Excess posted:I hope Ishii beats Okada because he is so much cooler. it is tense
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Oct 2, 2019 21:12
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Super No Vacancy posted:he stinks yes, Mr. Super No Vacancy, everyone stinks
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Oct 2, 2019 21:14
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Incessant Excess posted:I hope Ishii beats Okada because he is so much cooler.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:17
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Super No Vacancy posted:he stinks
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Oct 2, 2019 21:18
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I hope Okada and Ishii are tied and get married and live happily ever after as Best Wrestling Bros
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Oct 2, 2019 21:19
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Jerusalem posted:Daniel Bryan shouldn't be on this list.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:20
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Kevin Owens is not better than Daisuke Sekimoto you philistines
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Oct 2, 2019 21:24
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Super No Vacancy posted:he stinks gently caress off!
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Oct 2, 2019 21:25
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Hellblazer187 posted:I feel pretty bad for Kofi. The reigning WWE champion, in last place in our poll. It's because if you were gonna vote for Kofi based on his recent surge in popularity, you would actually be voting for Bryan instead. GEORGE W BUSHI posted:Taichi placing above SANADA is justice. Either one placing above EVIL is a travesty. I'm happy for Bryan managing to elbow his way past all our favorite AEW/NJPW boys. And I'm actually really curious whether it's Ishii or Okada at the top.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:31
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 Tomohiro Ishii (21) STONE PITBULL 141 TOUGH AND HARD! Ishii, this wonderful little fire hydrant of a man, came out strong from the start of this thread and never let up once the entire way through. For significant portions of the run between the first submission and the last he was within 2-3 strong votes of pulling level with number one. But unfortunately for his top fans (and there were 21 of them, far more than any other single wrestler managed to get) things went the same way as they do in his matches. Ishii looks great, he eats a lot of damage but doesn't give the slightest gently caress and keeps coming hard... but then when it is time for him to go down, he goes down. A master of knowing exactly when to sell and when not to, Ishii has consistently delivered some of the highest quality matches in the world over the last few years. In fact every single match of his entire G1 tournament this year was successfully nominated in our forum as a Match of the Year contender, which is unheard of. It seems unfair that Ishii has never won the IWGP Heavyweight Champions, not so much from a "gold watch" perspective as from the fact that there is no doubt that were he champion every single defense had had would be absolutely loving incredible. His popularity has only grown over the years, as despite his short stature he has proven the lie in the concept that people wouldn't buy a little guy beating the poo poo out of big guys (currently believed by only one person on the planet: Vince McMahon). He not only beat Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan to make it this far, he OBLITERATED their points total by over 100 points. Unfortunately, like Joe Frazier he has had the terrible misfortune to be around at the same time as George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. While Ishii managed to easily beat Tanahashi's score, and Shinsuke Nakamura's star has fallen low since his quasi-retirement to America, there is one wrestler that he was unable to best. There isn't a human alive who could beat Ishii.... but a God isn't human.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:37
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 Kazuchika Okada (14) I swear that I wasn't pretending things were close. Until the last day or so, Ishii was well within reach of Okada, but then he started to pull away, and then further and further until he was 60+ points clear and had hurtled past 500 points. Okada lead this contest from the first submission to the last, but while those 14 first place picks were important, they were less so than the EIGHTEEN second place spots he got. That was the story of Ishii's demise and Okada's triumph: every time Ishii got points, Okada also got points. If Ishii got 10, Okada would get 9 or 8 or 7 and take back a good portion of the lead Ishii had just clawed back. In the end less people chose Okada as their top pick over Ishii, but more people chose Okada in their Top Ten than Ishii got, and THAT made the difference. Every vote counts! Okada is something special, we all know it. The only people who didn't see it were TNA, who had him while he was on excursion and completely wasted him. When he came back to New Japan and got a rocket strapped to his rear end, there were those who doubted, but he got given the opportunity and he turned it into gold. The Rainmaker did just that, helping lead New Japan (who Tanahashi had hauled back from the brink of destuction) to increased profits and bigger houses (unless you count the faked numbers from the 90s). His feud with Tanahashi was a defining rivalry, and his feud with Kenny Omega is the stuff of legend, and will go down in history alongside Misawa/Kawada and Flair/Steamboat as arguably the greatest series of wrestling matches of all time. Plus who knows what the future might hold? Remember, he's been in New Japan for 12 years now but he is only 31 years old. His prime as a wrestler may still be several years away, and that's frankly shocking because he's already close to perfection now. How could he possibly get better? But then the same was asked when he finally defeated Tanahashi to close out their rivalry, and he stepped up to a whole other level beyond that. He is Kazuchika Okada. He is Gedo's perfect son. And he is Rowdy Ringsports' Favorite Active Pro-Wrestler in the world.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:38
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And that is that... for now. I'm gonna need a real solid break but in a day or two I'll start putting together various stats on different things that cropped up as submissions came in. Thank you all very much for taking part, I really enjoyed doing this but I remembered why it was 12 years between threads now!
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Oct 2, 2019 21:39
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Thanks J-Ru, this was good and my favourite boy Ishii doing better than expected but coming up short is so appropriate
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Oct 2, 2019 21:45
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you're awesome J-Ru, thank you
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Oct 2, 2019 21:49
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The outcome and the story of how it came to be as the points were counted are in a way perfect. And it confirms that Ishii is the best human wrestler right now.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:54
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Thank you for participating in the poll
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Oct 2, 2019 21:58
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Ishii knows to do the job even when it matters most
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Oct 2, 2019 23:40
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 22:05 |
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D-bry is OFFICIALLY in this forums fave five 
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Oct 2, 2019 23:41
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