It’s time to update the Greatest Wrestler Ever project.

When writing my introduction piece for my plans to determine my “100 Greatest” of all time, I promised a follow up around Christmas time. Well I’m a little late on that, but screw it, my Christmas tree is still up so I’m saying it’s okay.

The goal of this piece is essentially to conduct a baseline test (to coin a phrase du jour). I want to establish my starting point after roughly 24 years of wrestling fandom, and then see exactly where my next 12 months of reassessment and research takes me. So with that in mind, here’s a couple of points that I want to preface the list with.

• As you’ll see from the list, it skews strongly in certain areas. For anyone unfamiliar with my tastes and wrestling watching history, I would say that I’m most familiar with 2000s Japan, WWE post-Hulkamania, WCW and modern US Indies. I would say 90s Japan also but there is admittedly a few holes I need to fill there.
• My exposure is weakest when it comes to Lucha Libre, Joshi, 80s territorial wrestling, 80s Japan and the World Of Sport era European scene. I have certainly dipped my toe in all of those pools and would have pretty solid opinions on many of their biggest stars but there’s A LOT more I can watch and I will focus a lot of my 2015 viewing on filling those gaps. There are more than a few candidates who I think will have a very good shot at finishing high on my list when the year is done.
• There are a few modern wrestlers who will undoubtedly climb the ranks with another good year in the books. Guys in their prime (Okada is a perfect example) will almost assuredly add to their candidacy over the next 12 months. Heck Okada added to his candidacy in a big way during the two weeks between me initially drafting this list and writing this right now.
• And yes, before I get lynche, I don’t think Ric Flair is as great as most do but top 20 shouldn’t be considered a slap in the face to The Nature Boy. I think he was one hell of a performer but as it stands right now, I think there have been 16 guys better.

So with all that out of the way *drumroll* here’s my list!!!

1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Bryan Danielson
3. Toshiaki Kawada
4. Mitsuharu Misawa
5. Shawn Michaels
6. Jun Akiyama
7. Masaaki Mochizuki
8. Rey Mysterio
9. Jushin “Thunder” Liger
10. Steve Austin
11. Bret Hart
12. Terry Funk
13. Hiroshi Tanahashi
14. Genichiro Tenryu
15. CIMA
16. El Generico
17. Ric Flair
18. Randy Savage
19. Dick Togo
20. Stan Hansen
21. Big Van Vader
22. KENTA
23. Daisuke Sekimoto
24. AJ Styles
25. Minoru Tanaka
26. Masato Tanaka
27. Koji Kanemoto
28. Hiroshi Hase
29. Eddy Guerrero
30. Dustin Rhodes
31. Tomohiro Ishii
32. Yuji Nagata
33. Minoru Suzuki
34. Gran Hamada
35. Shingo Takagi
36. Mick Foley
37. Chris Hero
38. Keiji Muto
39. Steve Regal
40. Arn Anderson
41. Jumbo Tsuruta
42. Shinya Hashimoto
43. Tatsumi Fujinami
44. Cesaro
45. Susumu Yokosuka
46. Kota Ibushi
47. Virus
48. Shinjiro Ohtani
49. Chris Benoit
50. Masato Yoshino
51. Prince Devitt
52. Kensuke Sasaki
53. Dr. Wagner Jr.
54. Kurt Angle
55. Satoshi Kojima
56. CM Punk
57. Ted Dibiase
58. Negro Casas
59. Naomichi Marufuji
60. Ricky Steamboat
61. Shinsuke Nakamura
62. Kazuchika Okada
63. Sean Waltman
64. Seth Rollins
65. Owen Hart
66. Yoshihiro Takayama
67. Chris Jericho
68. Takashi Sugiura
69. Ryo Saito
70. Akira Tozawa
71. Kevin Steen
72. Hirooki Goto
73. Mr. Perfect
74. Sting
75. Samoa Joe
76. PAC
77. Alex Shelley
78. Ultimo Dragon
79. Danny Kroffat
80. Low Ki
81. Steve Williams
82. Kaz Hayashi
83. L.A. Park
84. YAMATO
85. Akira Taue
86. Austin Aries
87. Gary Albright
88. Katsuyori Shibata
89. Edge
90. TAKA Michinoku
91. The Undertaker
92. Yoshihiro Tajiri
93. Brian Pillman
94. Barry Windham
95. Go Shiozaki
96. The Rock
97. Satoru Sayama
98. Masanobu Fuchi
99. Dean Malenko
100. Ricochet