Mikes Top 50 Favourite Wrestlers – 40 to 36

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We continue on from last week as we pick up the countdown of my Top 50 Favourite Wrestlers. I should reiterate here that this isn’t supposed to be an objective list on who I think the best wrestlers are but rather a subjective list of the wrestlers that I personally find entertaining for one reason or another.

For those of you who weren’t here last week, please check the archives to get yourself updated on the first 10 selections if you feel like doing so.

Number 40
Super Crazy
The Match: Vs Yoshihiro Tajiri, ECW Guilty As Charged 99 (10^th January 1999)

I think I’ve said in the past that I first really became aware of ECW in 1999 and then went back to hoover up as many shows from its prime years as I could due to how much I enjoyed it. One of the reasons I became such a big fan of ECW so quickly was the cracking matches held between Super Crazy and Yoshihiro Tajiri. Sadly ECW would end up running the feud into the ground by making them wrestle almost every week, but there’s no denying that the two had fantastic chemistry as opponents.

Really the story of Super Crazy’s ECW career was that he was over due to his talent and ECW were happy to push him to a certain level, but whenever it looked like they might try something new with him they would always drag him back into feuds with the likes of Tajiri or James Maritato. The matches with those two would always be good, and sometimes even great, with Crazy managing to mix in American styled showmanship with Lucha styled submission and high-flying , with a dashing of hardcore style on top of it as well. However, if you have cake for dinner every day then you soon won’t want any more cake after a while.

Crazy did have a few sojourns out of the Tajiri/Guido/Crazy Division, including a pay per view Main Event with Rhino in March 2000, and some surprisingly good matches with CW Anderson. However, when you look at the majority of his ECW matches he was usually in there with one or both of Tajiri and Maritato. When ECW died in 2001, Crazy headed back to Mexico whilst doing indie dates in both Japan and the United States, including an appearance in the early days of ROH.

ECW’s revival in popularity following the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD led to Crazy finally getting a chance in WWE in 2005, when he came in as part of the Mexicools stable with Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis. Crazy and Psicosis formed a decent tag team paring during this run and had a very enjoyable match with MNM on the December 2005 pay per view, but they always had a ceiling as an act and eventually Crazy found himself to be the only surviving member of the crew once Juvi and Psi were given their papers.

Crazy ended up in a wacky pairing with Jim Duggan, but fans enjoyed his high-flying and comedy segments backstage and he actually became a pretty over guy in the lower mid-card that WWE could have perhaps done more with. Shockingly the tandem with Duggan actually worked pretty well, as Duggan is perennially over due to his bombastic pro-American character and Crazy was a good seller with some exciting moves in his locker, so they meshed better than you’d think and they probably could have given them a bit of a run, especially as the tag division was hardly stacked during that period.

Crazy also had some matches with Chris Masters that were better than you would expect and it once again felt like Crazy had potential as more than just “wacky Mexican who loses the majority of his matches”, but WWE just didn’t see it. It was a marked difference from ECW, where Crazy came in and got over thanks to being a good worker and ECW decided to actually push him a bit. WWE was less of a meritocracy though and Crazy’s goose was cooked due to having a non-traditional WWE body and in-ring style, which meant it didn’t matter how over he got he was always going to be rooted to the lower reaches of the card.

Crazy wrestled for many years following his post-WWE career and even showed up in All Japan Pro Wrestling recently to win their Junior Heavyweight Title. Crazy really is one of those wrestlers who perhaps should have been pushed more than he was in ECW and certainly more than he was in WWE. Crazy’s ECW run did hit a roadblock in 2000 due to visa issues and ECW had wanted Crazy to defeat Sabu at one stage (a request that caused Sabu to end up getting fired when he refused to do it) so had he not had to leave for a while they might have perhaps moved him higher. ECW still did far more with Crazy than WWE did and he at least had a run with the World TV Title at one stage. It was frustrating to see Crazy get over in WWE against the odds and WWE just stubbornly not do anything with him, but there are many people you could say that about when it comes to them.

Number 39
Naomichi Marufuji
The Match: Vs KENTA, Pro Wrestling NOAH (29^th October 2006)

Naomichi Marufuji was getting bigged up as a potential top talent very early in his career due to his combination of exciting high-flying moves and charisma. Ironically, despite being one of the best Junior Heavyweights/Cruiserweight wrestlers of his era, Marufuji only held NOAH’s Junior Heavyweight Title once in his career and he only successfully defended it once as well, although the match with Juventud Guerrera where he defended the belt was one of the best matches of 2002. Marufuji ended up having his best success in the NOAH Junior division as a tag team with fellow highly rated up and comer Kenta “KENTA” Kobayashi.

KENTA and Marufuji were an exceptional team, with the two of them having a slew of fantastic matches. The two would even defend their Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles in the Main Events of smaller NOAH shows. They were a unique act in that they were big hits with the ladies due to being darn handsome young men, but they were also so good in the ring that the dudes in the crowd didn’t resent them for it for the most part, meaning they were pretty much universally liked and respected. They really were two of the most exciting young prospects NOAH had at the time, which says a lot when you consider the likes of Takeshi Morishima and Kotaro Suzuki were around at that same time and were no slouches themselves.

Marufuji’s incredible high-flying skills were complimented with some impressive technical abilities on the mat, which made him genuinely one of the most entertaining total packages on the scene at the time, especially when combined with his notable charisma and good looks. Marufuji had success coming over to America to wrestle for ROH and also had success in the Heavyweight tag ranks when he formed an odd couple tandem with Minoru Suzuki that was very effective and led to some enjoyable bouts for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles, including a great one here in the UK against Too Cold Scorpio and Doug Williams at FWA NOAH Limits.

Eventually NOAH decided to roll the dice on Marufuji as the GHC Heavyweight Champion, as he defeated Jun Akiyama with his dreaded inside cradle (yes that was Marufuji’s finisher at one stage, not unlike when Bryan Danielson did similar with the small package) to win the Title in what was a major upset. Marufuji sadly was not a big draw out of the gate as Heavyweight Champ, with his match with KENTA at Budokan Hall in October of 2006 not doing very well at the box office, even though the contest itself was a contender for match of the year and featured some superb action. Marufuji even came over to ROH to defend the Title against Nigel McGuinness and the two actually managed to out shine a match between Danielson and KENTA for the ROH World Title.

However, NOAH decided they needed the belt to come off the unproven Marufuji onto a proven top star, which led to Mitsuharu Misawa bringing the Title reign to a premature end. Marufuji continued to be one of the best wrestlers in the world in any weight class though, and won the 2009 Super J Cup following some superb matches with the likes of Jushin Liger and Prince Devitt. As NOAH fell from its previous heights, Marufuji remained one of its few shining lights as he won two more GHC Heavyweight Titles during the dark ages and even appeared on New Japan shows in order to have some excellent matches with Kazuchika Okada. To this day Marufuji is still a presence in NOAH, and he recently held the GHC Heavyweight Title for a fourth time, defeating Keiji Muto in the process.

Even today I find Marufuji entertaining to watch and his body has held up surprisingly well when you take into consideration the high-flying style he has worked over the years. One thing about Marufuji that makes him stand out is the smoothness and fluidity of his work overall, with him hardly ever having any wasted movement. He really is a gifted all-rounder as well, as he can mix in high-flying with technical wrestling and more traditional strong style Japanese elements in order to have great matches with a variety of opponents. I think he’s genuinely one of the greatest wrestlers in NOAH history and it’s oddly comforting that he’s still there plying his trade.

Number 38
AJ Styles
The Match: Vs John Cena, WWE Royal Rumble 2017 (29^th January 2017)

I think the first time I ever really saw a full AJ Styles match was from an ROH show in 2003 where he teamed with The Amazing Red against The Briscoe Brothers in a wild outing filled with flashy big moves. I was suitably impressed and when I started getting tapes of NWA:TNA (It wasn’t shown on TV here in the UK until 2004 on The Wrestling Channel) it was during Styles’ run as NWA Champion when he was working against the likes of D’Lo Brown, Raven and Jeff Jarrett as a Heel. Styles wasn’t just having good matches in TNA but he also was showing some good Heel charisma and I enjoyed his act beyond just his wrestling which highlighted to me that Styles was more than a mere “spot monkey”.

Styles would continue to improve as a wrestler, and by the mid-00’s he was legitimately one of the very best in the world, capable of having great matches not just in the X Division but also in the Heavyweight ranks with a varied list of opponents. Whether it was against someone like Jonny Storm in a high-tempo spot-fest, Bryan Danielson in a technical struggle, Jeff Jarrett in an old school southern style Main Event, Raven in a more story based narrative match, or even a monster like Abyss in a brutal cage contest, AJ Styles could conceivably have a good match with anyone in any setting.

Styles’ versatility and desire to always improve his character work contributed to him becoming a legitimate Main Event level star not just in ROH and TNA, but in New Japan and also WWE. Styles’ success in WWE is still kind of amazing to me, as back in 2003 you could have never predicted that a guy his size who wrestled the way he did would ever get a chance to wrestle WWE’s top guys and have multiple reigns as the WWE Champion. Styles’ initial IWGP Heavyweight Title win even took people by surprise at the time, as there was a heavy dose of cynicism out in the online world when Styles came in to New Japan as to whether he’d be able to hang in that environment. Not only did Styles hang, he thrived, having numerous great matches with the likes of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada and Minoru Suzuki.

The Suzuki match in the G1 particularly caught my eye as I hadn’t seen a lot of Styles in New Japan yet and I was hugely impressed with how well he was fitting in, especially as a battle with Suzuki would be such a styles clash (pun only marginally intended) and they really made it work. That run in New Japan helped set the table for Styles’ eventually WWE debut, but for many people Styles and TNA/IMPACT will always be synonymous with one another due to how Styles was a huge part of the company for many years, wrestling on the first ever show in fact, and ended up winning multiple World, X Division and Tag Team Titles there before finally moving on.

I’m hardly the world’s biggest IMPACT fan, but when I did watch the product when Styles was still there I would always look forward to his match because it would invariably be good regardless of who he was wrestling or what sort of match he was wrestling in. Styles just had that innate ability to deliver, whether he was wrestling Christopher Daniels or Shane McMahon. In recent years Styles spent a decent chunk of time tagging with the gigantic Omos and wrestling most of the match on his own, and he STILL somehow managed to make that work as well and I actually found the act entertaining whenever I saw it. AJ Styles is simply put one of the most versatile in-ring performers of his era and I really enjoy his work.

Number 37
Doug Williams
The Match: Vs American Dragon, FWA Vendetta (22^nd June 2003)

I first became aware of Doug Williams when I started watching the FWA and ROH in the early 00’s, as Williams was a pushed commodity in both companies. In FWA he was the home nation hero who would regularly take on foreign stars such as Christopher Daniels, American Dragon and Steve Corino, often defending his FWA Title in the process. In ROH he was promoted as an international wrestling wizard, who would come over and baffle his American foes with traditional style British wrestling. Williams excelled in both roles and soon found himself going on tour with Pro Wrestling NOAH, where the Japanese enjoyed his wrestling style also.

Williams lacked the standard “WWE Height”, but he had a fantastic physique and was great at wrestling a believable match. Williams was mostly a technician, but he was also capable of mixing it up with things like strikes and even moves off the top, including his Bomb Scare Knee Drop. Perhaps the move most associated with Williams is the Chaos Theory rolling German Suplex, where he would bundle an opponent into the corner in a waist lock before rolling back and powering them up into the suplex. It’s was brutally efficient move that usually elicited a pop whenever Williams would deliver it.

Williams’ peak in the United States was probably when he worked for TNA for a while, wrestling in both the tag team ranks with Nick Aldis and in the singles ranks, mostly in the X Division. Williams would often find himself mixed in with the X Division wrestlers when in TNA due to his height making him a tad bit too small for the Heavyweight ranks in some people’s eyes. TNA didn’t really bother with weight limits in the X Division though, so it led to Williams getting to work as a bit of bigger bully wrestler in that division, using his technical skills to pick apart his more high-flying based opponents. It was a run that worked well and Williams had a number of good matches.

Williams remained a big star over in the UK, working for all the major promotions, including runs in places like PROGRESS in the latter stages of his career. Williams was presented as the aging gun slinger for the most part in PROGRESS, and he supposedly retired after losing to Trent Severn at Wembley Arena in September 2018. However, Williams kept wrestling and he’s still going to this day, working for the NWA as well as across Europe in places such as the UK, Germany, Denmark and Italy. Williams’ best days may be behind him now, but he remains a solid worker who can still apply holds with aplomb.

It’s just a shame that there wasn’t an AEW or NXT 1.0 during Williams’ peak years, as I could have easily seen him getting over in either of those settings. He would have made an excellent member of the Blackpool Combat Club for instance if you could transport the 2008 version of him into 2022 somehow. As a British based wrestling fan, I’ve always taken great pride in Williams’ forays into international waters as I feel he flies the flag well for British wrestling and I’m glad he’s still getting bookings, not just in the states but across Europe as well. He seems to very much still be in demand.

Number 36
Bam Bam Bigelow
The Match: Vs Taz, ECW Living Dangerously (1^st March 1998)

If you want to talk about agile big men then Bam Bam Bigelow has to be near the top of the list. Bigelow first came to prominence on a national stage in the late 80’s when he came into the WWF as a tag team partner for Hulk Hogan. One of my favourite Survivor Series matches in the finale from 1987, where Bigelow managed to bravely defeat both One Man Gang and King Kong Bundy in a handicap situation before finally falling to Andre The Giant after a keen effort. Bigelow was so over in 87/88 that they could have put any of the major belts on him and the fans would have accepted it.

Bigelow was also a star over in Japan, wrestling in New Japan Pro Wresting as Crusher Bigelow, where he teamed with Vader and fought all of the top stars and even competed in the first ever G1 Climax back in 1991. What made Bigelow such a captivating performer was that he could do all of the power stuff you would expect from a huge wrestler like him, but he was also deceptively light on his feet and could do things like cartwheels and moves off the top rope. The only thing that really let Bammer down was that he didn’t really have much of a gas tank the longer his career went on, leading to some tough outings when he’d get worn out in longer matches.

Possibly the period of Bigelow’s career I enjoyed the most was his time in ECW in the late 90’s, where he competed in a number of great matches with the likes of Taz, Rob Van Dam and Masato Tanaka. The feud with Taz led to two entertaining pay per view battles, with Bigelow getting the win at Living Dangerously when both men went quite literally through the ring, whilst Taz got his revenge at Heat Wave when both men went through the entrance ramp. Both spots were shocking for the time and the matches built around them were good heavyweight brawls. The feud went a long way to legitimising Taz as the top guy in the promotion and Bigelow entrenched his reputation as one of the better big men in the business as well.

The match with RVD in April 1998 from Buffalo was also an excellent contest, with RVD winning the World TV Title and going on to have a near two year reign where the TV belt legitimately started to rival the World Title for importance. Bigelow helped make both RVD and Taz bigger stars by putting them over in good matches, and he also had time for a fun David Vs Goliath feud with Little Spike Dudley where Spike was made for life in the promotion with one upset win courtesy of a victory roll. Bigelow of course destroyed Spike in rematches, but it still helped Spike immeasurably and started his “Giant Killer” gimmick.

Bigelow jumped to WCW following his ECW run and the fans were jazzed into seeing him wrestle Goldberg. Sadly WCW dropped the ball on that one (I know, how unthinkable) and it meant the match didn’t mean what it could have done when they finally got to it. By the time WCW died in 2001 Bigelow’s general health had diminished and his work went along with it, but for most of the 90’s he’d been one of the best big men in the business and his WrestleMania Main Event with Lawrence Taylor will be remembered forever.