Segunda Caida 100 for 2008!
Alright, so it took us a 100+ days into 2009, but we here at Segunda Caida have finally completed our list ranking the top 100 wrestlers of 2008. There's going to be some bitching, and there's going to be some people thinking we put certain people on just to get the internets' ire up, but that's not true. We're all grown men with day jobs and these are the 100 wrestlers we most enjoyed watching in 2008. Is Trik Davis better than Shawn Michaels? Maybe, or maybe not, but I had way more fun watching Trik Davis matches in 2008 than I had watching Shawn Michaels matches.
Over the next few days/weeks/months/rest of decade we'll be going through the top 25, analyzing each worker, talking about why they are among the top 25 GREATEST WRESTLERS IN THE HISTORY of 2008, and recommending matches to check out from this past year, and others you need to see from the rest of their career.
Here is 26-100:
26. Ephesto
27. Evan Bourne
28. Sami Callihan
29. Randy Orton
30. Bull Pain
31. Super Astro
32. Valiente
33. Virus
34. William Regal
35. Chris Hero
36. Eddie Kingston
37. Ian Rotten
38. Nigel McGuiness
39. Atlantis
40. Carl Greco
41. Pequeno Damian 666
42. Fuerza Guerrera
43. Arkangel de la Muerte
44. Festus
45. Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
46. Bam Bam
47. Chris Michaels
48. Officiale AK-47
49. Tamon Honda
50. Satanico
51. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
52. Johnny Saint
53. Joey Matthews
54. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
55. Homicide
56. Tracey Smothers
57. Austin Aries
58. Low-Ki
59. Jaime Dundee
60. Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
61. Damien Wayne
62. Mike Quackenbush
63. Yoshihiro Takayama
64. Erick Stevens
65. Jun Akiyama
66. Hijo del Perro Aguayo
67. Yujiro Yamamoto
68. Dave Taylor
69. Undertaker
70. Mitch Ryder
71. Jerry Lawler
72. Mascara Ano Dos Mil
73. Officiale Fierro
74. Pimpinela Escarlata
75. Osamu Nishimura
76. Trik Davis
77. Villano IV
78. Averno
79. Chuck Palumbo
80. Naoya Ogawa
81. Shu El Guerrero
82. KENTA
83. Felino
84. Jay Briscoe
85. John Cena
86. Pierrothcito
87. Great Sasuke
88. Dixie
89. Rayo de Jalisco, Jr.
90. Preston Quinn
91. Trauma II
92. Teddy Hart
93. MVP
94. Dick Togo
95. Takeshi Morishima
96. Manabu Hara
97. Super Tiger II
98. Mascarita Dorada
99. The Miz
My personal favorite ranking is Super Astro one spot ahead of Valiente, as Valiente need only look one spot ahead to see HIS FUTURE as a chubby guy who is super fast and does great flying. If future Valiente/past Super Astro ever happen to cross paths...God help us all.
posted by EricR @ 11:30 AM
11 Comments:
You want a good idea of what a nerd I am...a while back I actually tried to predict what an SC100 for '08 would look like based on how you, Phil, and Tom voted in the WKO100. Comparing hypothetical list with actual list, seems to match up closer to the top than the bottom, which actually has a lot of picks not on the original lists (though here I guess we have input from Lee and Nick, which would obviously change things, plus there's been a few months to reflect and wonder why Villano IV got left off of the WKO100 lists).
A few observations based on my oddsmaking:
-Guys surprisingly high:
66. Hijo del Perro Aguayo
72. Mascara Ano Dos Mil
I don't think I had either guy on mock list, but both seemed like guys who could reasonably make it. That said, had them both pegged as guys who might make 80's or 90's, not 60's and 70's. Thought for sure that Rayo would be the highest ranked luchador that Meltzer arbitrarily hates.
-Guys surprisingly low:
85. John Cena
I don't think I'm making a contentious statement by saying Cena's 2008 wasn't nearly as good as his '07. Still, figured he would make the top half, or at least somewhere in the 50's.
-Guys who were just where I thought they would be:
46. Bam Bam
I thought he would also be the highest ranked mini, though, but Pequeno Damian was within the margin of error anyway.
-Guys surprisingly on the list:
80. Naoya Ogawa
87. Great Sasuke
88. Dixie
90. Preston Quinn
91. Trauma II
93. MVP
98. Mascarita Dorada
99. The Miz
100. Shockercito
What has Ogawa been doing this year, anyway? Sasuke is always cool, as is Dixie. PQ didn't seem to get the hype this year that Damian Wayne did, but I'm sure that doesn't preclude him from being good. I thought Trauma II was a strictly '09 discovery. Did he have good '08 stuff of note? MVP started out 2008 looking like it was going to be his year, and then it just didn't happen at all. The Miz is a totally fine wrestler. And I liked that one Shockercito match where he tried to do an Asai moonsault suicida but got dropkicked off of the ropes and just died.
All in all, a fine list so far, although my actual viewing of a lot of these guys in '08 is way behind the curb, so I can't actually prove it's a fine list. But I'll go with my gut and say that it is.
Both Tomk and I saw some Preston Quinn and Trauma 2 in between turning in the WKO100 and doing the SC100 list. Here is a 2008 IWRG Trauma 2 match which impressed me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvHTMO6rTfE
I'm Lucha illiterate, haven't really paid attention to any shootstyle in years, and didn't bother with much ROH last year, but I still think Bourne should have been higher.
64. Erick Stevens
66. Hijo del Perro Aguayo
67. Yujiro Yamamoto
I think you overrated Stevens and underrated the other two. Please explain.
Freelance is gonna be way up there, huh? :)
Randy Orton doesn't have a single match on Phil's 2008 list, but he's the 29th best wrestler in the world? Does that mean Tom would have had him #1?
To answer some questions:
Evan Bourne being this "low" was because of Tom. I had him at 12, Phil and Parties had him at 24, and Tom had him at 66. Bourne finished 2 points behind Ephesto, and 5 behind #25. He was very close to the top 25.
As far as Cena's low ranking, that was partly my fault, as I was the only one who didn't have him on his ballot. He was on my 110, but didn't make it to my 100. Tom and Phil had him in the 90s.. I thought his '08 kinda sucked compared to his '07. He had no amazing matches like the Khali series or the Umaga LMS. Almost all of his TV matches were short and didn't play to his strengths. They required lots of offense and minimal selling, which is opposite the awesome Cena match formula.
MVP was only on Parties' ballot. I thought MVP was looking really good through about March of '08...and then...it stopped. I think only a couple MVP matches even made perm tape after that. Part of it was his losing streak, but his matches got a little bland and his offense got a little more indy.
Naoya Ogawa was a case of a guy looking really good in so-so matches. No standout matches, but IGF is worth getting just to see him work.
Stevens over Perro/Yamamoto was merely a case of 3 of us voting for Stevens (I had him at 48, Phil had him at 58, Tom had him at 87) vs. two of us voting for Yamamoto (Parties at 57, Tom at 36). I thought Stevens was really awesome this year and loved his feud with Roderick. Yamamoto very well would've gotten on my ballot, but I did not have any of the BattlArts shows so didn't get to see his undercard matches.
Yamamoto ended up tied points-wise with Perro Aguayo Jr., but since Perro got the highest individual ballot placement (Parties had him at 22, I had him at 71), Perro got listed above him.
And there's a chance Freelance could end up in the top 25.
Orton was a unanimous decision. Everybody had him within their top 40.
As far as matches go, he had the Raw matches against Matt Hardy and William Regal, the Backlash 4-way, the No Way Out match against Cena, and others.
Plus I'm of the opinion that you don't need blow-away 4 star matches to be ranked high. I view individual performances in matches as more important than overall match quality. Sometimes guys get stuck married to bad opponents or booked to not wrestle as frequently, but as long as he looks awesome in the matches he does work, he should be high.
I probably should have had Yamamoto on, after watching the Feb 2009 BattlArts match I imagine he will be really high on a 2009 list. Both Tomk and I really enjoyed Erik Stevens run in the 2008 Jeff Peterson memorial, which along with some of the FIP Strong matches, is what got him on my list
101. r0b3rt0x3L14S
I dunno about 2008, but keep uploading lucha like you have been doing, and you got a shot at the top 10 in 2009.
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