BEST OF 2001 RESULTS COUNTDOWN, Misawa! Mutoh! "JUNGLE" JIM STEELE!!!! Options

[Ditch]

98 nominated matches. 69 matches (2 not nominated) received votes. 10 ballots. The results are far more spread out than 2000. However, the top matches were still more broadly accepted than in the 2008 vote (albeit with a much smaller voting pool).

Random points:
-Nagata vs Nishimura 9/16 had the worst transition from the yes/no thread, not being on any ballots after getting 5 yes votes
-Kawada vs Kojima, Misawa vs Akiyama 7/27, and the Toryumon 3-way all had 5+ yes votes and got on more ballots than yes votes.
-No surprise, but the 10+ yes vote matches did best. After that it was somewhat of a toss-up.
-#1 had the most votes. #2 had the highest average of those on 3 or more ballots.
-8 different #1 matches

[Alan4L]

EXCITED

[Ditch]

59 (tie). WAVE vs Sternness 8-man tag, NOAH June 20th
1 18th place vote

59 (tie). Gran Apache vs Genki Horiguchi, Toryumon September 30th
1 18th place vote

61 (tie). Usuda vs Junji.com, Battlarts January 7th
1 19th place vote

61 (tie). Liger vs Silver King, New Japan June 1st
1 19th place vote

61 (tie). Mochizuki, Yokosuka & Darkness Dragon vs Tokyo, Dragon Kid & Saito, Toryumon October 28th
1 19th place vote

64 (tie). Liger vs Wataru Inoue, New Japan May 18th
1 20th place vote

64 (tie). Nagata & Makabe vs Kakihara & Nagai, All Japan June 8th
1 20th place vote

64 (tie). Tenzan vs Liger, New Japan August 4th
1 20th place vote

64 (tie). TARU vs Oyanagei, T2P November 13th
1 20th place vote


HONORABLE MENTION (voted for w/o getting nominated):
Nagata, Iizuka & Nakanishi vs Nagata, Fuchi & Araya, New Japan February 3rd
Chono & Hall vs Nakanishi & Yoshie, New Japan April 20th

[Ditch]

49. Ohtani vs Sekimoto, Zero-One September 10th
2 votes, 11 points

50 (tie). Kawada vs Nagai, All Japan March 3rd
1 14th place vote

50 (tie). Ogawa & Murakami vs Misawa & Rikio, Zero-One April 18th
1 14th place vote

50 (tie). Mutoh vs Hase, New Japan June 6th
1 14th place vote

50 (tie). Mutoh vs Williams, All Japan July 14th
1 14th place vote

50 (tie). Hashimoto vs Fujiwara, Zero-One September 8th
1 14th place vote

50 (tie). Wagner, Silver King & Samurai vs Kanemoto, Tanaka & Takaiwa, New Japan February 18th
1 15th place vote

50 (tie). Akiyama vs Morishima, NOAH May 25th
1 15th place vote

57 (tie). Sasaki vs Kojima, New Japan January 4th
1 17th place vote

57 (tie). Takaiwa vs Marufuji, Zero-One April 18th
1 17th place vote

[Ditch]

40. Ishikawa vs Usuda, Battlarts October 26th
1 vote, 18 points

41. Ishikawa vs Murakami, Battlarts May 10th
1 vote, 17 points

42. Akiyama vs Omori, NOAH April 1st
2 votes, 16 points

43. Tenzan & Kojima vs Kawada & Nagai, New Japan September 16th
1 vote, 15 points

44 (tie). Tenzan & Kojima vs Williams & Hines, All Japan April 14th
1 vote, 13 points

44 (tie). Ogawa vs Modest, NOAH July 27th
1 vote, 13 points

46 (tie). Osaka Pro 6-man, January 7th
1 vote, 12 points

46 (tie). Rikio vs Hashi, NOAH August 15th
1 vote, 12 points

46 (tie). Akiyama vs Honda, NOAH September 5th
1 vote, 12 points

[bloodstain]

59 (tie). WAVE vs Sternness 8-man tag, NOAH June 20th
1 18th place vote

This was mine. Was pretty high on it first time around but not as much upon rewatch. Too much nothing in the middle. Still, opening part with Marufuji was rocking.

64 (tie). Tenzan vs Liger, New Japan August 4th
1 20th place vote

Expected this to make my ballot but there was so much stuff that was "quite good" that it just got lost in the shuffle. Could have made my no. 15 but I just didn't feel like it.



So much harder to predict the no. 1 than the 2000 votes. I surprised as hell at what ended up in my top 5 just because I thought they were great but a big step down from 2000 and probably even 2009.

[Ditch]

31 (tie). Otsuka & Tiger Mask 4 vs Carl Malenko & Hidaka, Battlarts February 13th
2 votes, 29 points, 1 top 5 vote

31 (tie). Fujita vs Nagata, New Japan June 6th
2 votes, 29 points, 1 top 5 vote

33 (tie). Takaiwa & Hoshikawa vs Shiga & Kanemaru, Zero-One September 15th
2 votes, 26 points

33 (tie). Ohtani vs Tanaka, Zero-One July 13th
2 votes, 26 points

35 (tie). Hashimoto & Yasuda vs Honda & Inoue, Zero-One April 18th
1 vote, 24 points, 1 top 5 vote

35 (tie). Ito vs Toyota, AJW August 17th
1 vote, 24 points, 1 top 5 vote

37 (tie). Yossino & Yashi vs Mori & Iwasa, T2P November 13th
2 votes, 22 points

37 (tie). Takaiwa vs Kikuchi, NOAH November 25th
2 votes, 22 points

39. Rutten vs Malenko, Battlarts November 14th
1 vote, 20 points

[Ditch]

22. Takaiwa vs Marufuji, NOAH December 9th
3 votes, 41 points

23. Kong vs Satomura, GAEA December 15th
3 votes, 40 points

24. Kawada vs Tenzan, New Japan January 4th
3 votes, 39 points

25. Misawa vs Akiyama, NOAH April 11th
3 votes, 38 points, 1 top 5 vote

26 (tie). Tanaka vs AKIRA, New Japan May 28th
3 votes, 38 points

26 (tie). Ohtani vs Sekimoto, Big Japan December 2nd
3 votes, 38 points

28. Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Wagner & Silver King, New Japan February 3rd
2 votes, 31 points, 1 top 5 vote

29 (tie). Otsuka vs Sugiura, Zero-One April 18th
3 votes, 30 points

29 (tie). Tanaka & Gedo vs Ishikawa & Yone, Battlarts June 2nd
3 votes, 30 points

[Alan4L]

I so hope Mura/Tana makes the top 10.

[Ditch]

I was quite surprised by the lack of love for Kanemoto/Tanaka vs Wagner/King. I figured there was enough neat stuff early and enough big stuff late that it would at least pick up more low-end votes.

[bloodstain]

Watched it 3 times and every time I thought it was more "pretty good" than "GREAT". A lot of fun and entertaining stuff but lacking a certain passion or intensity or story for a real high-end match for me. Also thought Kanemoto's comebacks and the way he won was kind of weak in comparison to what Wagner and SK were doing.

[Ditch]

I'll give you that. I guess that's just the way 2001 was: lots of matches to tickle someone's fancy, very little that had the broad appeal. If I had to come up with 40 'pretty good' matches for 2001 I'd have a much easier time than I would for 2000, though a lot of that has to do with the HUGE increase in total TV time for the main feds.

-New Japan's 2 hour show and having SXW the whole year
-Zero-One begins
-Full year of NOAH on TV and comm
-All Japan has more TV time on Gaora than it had pre-split with NTV

I have a feeling that if 2000 AJ and NJ had lots of 2 hour TV blocks, lots more good stuff would have made air.

[Eivion Thanotos]

Thought the six-man tag with Takaiwa and El Samurai was much better, and I didn't have that one under consideration to vote for.

[Ditch]

14. Jado & Gedo vs Sasuke & Tiger Mask 4, Michinoku Pro August 19th
5 votes, 65 points

15. Honda vs Ikeda, NOAH September 1st
4 votes, 63 points, 1 #2 vote

16. Sasaki vs Kawada, New Japan January 4th
4 votes, 60 points, 1 top 5 vote

17. Momoe Nakanishi, Takahashi, Ito & Watanabe vs Toyota, Maekawa, Mita & Shimoda, AJW February 28th
2 votes, 60 points, 2 #2 votes

18. Pentagon, Sasuke the Great & Apache vs Hamada, Sasuke & Togo, Michinoku Pro March 10th
3 votes, 53 points, 1 top 5 vote

19. Misawa vs Taue, NOAH May 18th
5 votes, 52 points

20. Hokuto vs Satomura, GAEA April 29th
2 votes, 49 points, 1 #1 vote

21. Akiyama & Vader vs Kobashi & Taue, NOAH January 13th
3 votes, 47 points

[Ditch]

7. Tenryu & Fuchi vs Kawada & Araya, All Japan June 30th
8 votes, 130 points, 1 top 5 vote

8. Misawa vs Akiyama, NOAH July 27th
7 votes, 126 points, 2 top 5 votes, 1 #2 vote

9. Mutoh & Hase vs Akiyama & Nagata, New Japan October 8th
6 votes, 107 points, 1 #1 vote, 1 #2 vote

10. Mutoh vs Kawada, All Japan April 14th
7 votes, 104 points, 1 #2 vote

11. 3-way tag, Toryumon August 14th
6 votes, 102 points, 2 top 5 votes

12. Misawa & Ogawa vs Hashimoto & Otsuka, NOAH January 13th
6 votes, 88 points

13. Tanaka vs Murahama, New Japan April 20th
4 votes, 84 points, 2 top 5 votes, 1 #1 vote


Sorry Alan.

[Crew]

17. Momoe Nakanishi, Takahashi, Ito & Watanabe vs Toyota, Maekawa, Mita & Shimoda, AJW February 28th
2 votes, 60 points, 2 #2 votes

2 #2 VOTES! 2 #2 VOTES! YES!!!!!!!

That just happened.

Also glad to see someone else shared my unabashed love of the dream tag in the Dome.

[Ditch]

1. Hashimoto & Nagata vs Misawa & Akiyama, Zero-One March 2nd
10 votes, 239 points, 8 top 5 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 #2 vote

2. Misawa vs Takayama, NOAH April 15th
8 votes, 214 points, 6 top 5 votes, 3 #1 votes, 1 #2 vote

3. Tenzan & Kojima vs Barton & Steele, New Japan December 11th
9 votes, 186 points, 3 top 5 votes, 3 #1 vote

4. Tenryu vs Mutoh, All Japan June 8th
8 votes, 167 points, 4 top 5 votes, 3 #1 vote

5. Kawada vs Kojima, New Japan June 6th
9 votes, 160 points, 3 top 5 votes

6. Mutoh vs Nagata, New Japan August 12th
6 votes, 149 points, 4 top 5 votes, 1 #1 vote, 2 #2 votes

[Crew]

Not the least bit of a surprise @ the #1 vote, and an incredibly fitting choice. What's scary is, I think if it'd had gone 5 minutes more, it would've gone from 50% had it @ 1 to everyone.

[bloodstain]

Aww yeah, my number 1 and 2 in perfect place.

My ballot for those may or may not care:

1. Hashimoto & Nagata vs Misawa & Akiyama, March 2nd
2. Misawa vs Takayama, April 15th
3. Tenryu & Fuchi vs Kawada & Araya, June 30th
4. Kawada vs Kojima, June 6th
5. M2K vs CMAX vs Sekigun, August 14th
6. Tenryu vs Mutoh, June 8th
7. Misawa vs Akiyama, July 27th
8. Jado & Gedo vs Sasuke & Tiger Mask 4, August 19th
9. Kong vs Satomura, December 15th
10. Tenzan & Kojima vs Barton & Steele, December 11th
11. Misawa & Ogawa vs Hashimoto & Otsuka, January 13th
12. Kawada vs Sasaki, January 4th
13. Honda vs Ikeda, September 1st
14. Takaiwa & Hoshikawa vs Shiga & Kanemaru, September 15th
15. Pentagon, Sasuke the Great & Apache vs Hamada, Sasuke & Togo, March 10th
16. Tanaka vs AKIRA, May 28th
17. Sasaki vs Kojima, NJPW January 4th
18. Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Wagner & King, February 3rd
19. Takaiwa vs Kikuchi, November 25th
20. Ishikawa & Yone vs Tanaka & Gedo, June 2nd

Originally had Misawa/Takayama as my numero uno but after rewatched decided it took too long to get from good to GREAT and the Z1 tag had a better middle and the action was more sustained throughout. Both were pretty great though. Also had Kong/Satomura in my top 3 originally but it dropped on second viewing after a lot of nonsense in the first half.

[Eivion Thanotos]

17. Momoe Nakanishi, Takahashi, Ito & Watanabe vs Toyota, Maekawa, Mita & Shimoda, AJW February 28th
2 votes, 60 points, 2 #2 votes

2 #2 VOTES! 2 #2 VOTES! YES!!!!!!!

That just happened.

Also glad to see someone else shared my unabashed love of the dream tag in the Dome.

Your just lucky it was fresher in mind than Misawa/Takayama as they are somewhat interchangeable for me.


My list

1. Hokuto vs Satomura, April 29th
2. Nakanishi, Takahashi, Ito & Watanabe vs Toyota, Maekawa, Mita & Shimoda, February 28th
3. Misawa vs Takayama, April 15th
4. Hashimoto & Nagata vs Misawa & Akiyama, March 2nd
5. Fujita vs Nagata, June 6th
6. Kawada vs Kojima, June 6th
7. Takaiwa vs Marufuji, December 9th
8. Tenzan & Kojima vs Barton & Steele, December 11th
9. Honda vs Ikeda, September 1st
10. Misawa & Ogawa vs Hashimoto & Otsuka, January 13th
11. Misawa vs Taue, May 18th
12. Kawada vs Mutoh, April 14th
13. Rikio vs Hashi, August 15th
14. Tenryu & Fuchi vs Kawada & Araya, June 30th
15. Ohtani vs Sekimoto, December 2nd