ALAN 4L: A Higher Standard – Ten active wrestlers who show an attention to detail exhibited by Eddie Guerrero in his career

Earlier this month on the ProWres Paradise podcast right here at PWTorch VIP, in the midst of discussing Eddie Guerrero, Case Lowe and I took a detour into a topic that we’re both very passionate about. Through the lens of Eddie’s work we mused on how standards and attention to detail are at a worryingly declined level in 2025 and how so much of what made Guerrero great has been forgotten, ignored or even gone over the head of modern wrestlers in favor of mimicking his two or three most Pavlovian spots.

Throughout the show, as we analyzed four somewhat unheralded Guerrero bouts, we remarked on one thing after another that Guerrero did that made us ask the question of why we don’t see that anymore. The simplest of things from the way he staggered selling a move, to the most beautiful baseball slide you’ll ever see, and countless others. Sequences with La Parka and Jushin Thunder Liger which left us in awe. There was so much on display that made us frustrated about what we see in the wrestling rings of the world as we turn the corner to 2026.

While I think all our points were valid, and I stand by everything I said, I also think it probably came across as unfairly negative. I think the care we have for wrestling and the standards we hold it to took a hold of us. We certainly don’t think all modern wrestling is degenerative slop, and I wouldn’t want people to think that. If it was true, I wouldn’t be watching, talking or writing.

Amidst the muck, there are a whole lot of wrestlers who I think are going about things in a better way. Wrestlers, who might not be shimmying their shoulders before doing a terrible frog splash, but are actually doing far more justice to the spirit of Eddy Guerrero in ways people probably don’t realise.

These are wrestlers who clearly hold their work to a high standard, put thought and effort into the details of what they do, and try to present as a unique, not just copying the dozen guys beside them who are all doing the same tropes and achieving mixed versions of the same results.

In an effort to win back some positivity points, in this piece I want to showcase some of these wrestlers. Some obvious, some maybe not.

Zack Sabre Jr.

If one modern pro wrestler sums up the essence of what I’m trying to convey it’s Zack. He is the gold standard. He has a (well-founded) confidence in his base as a technical wrestler that it allows him to explore many different avenues in his work. Whether it’s counters or holds he’s coming up with on the fly, or reacting to big strike in a way that adds a new layer of intensity to a match, he always knows if things go wonky, he’s got the skills to put things back together and get the match back on track.

Darby Allin

Obviously it’s the wild stunts that get Darby most of his attention but what I enjoy most about him as a performer is the unique snappy way he moves around the ring when on offence and of course the way he moves when dying a thousand deaths during heat segments. There have been so many wrestlers with Darby’s frame that could have never been credible main eventers, but he can as he’s found a really special way of physically working between the bells which works perfectly for a character whose central core is his relentlessness.

Mad Dog Connelly

If you’ve never seen Mad Dog Connelly, he’s an experience. A throwback brawler who does it in a way that would make Buzz Sawyer proud (if he were not a miserable piece of shit…. RIP Buzz). Check out his recent match with Dom Garrini in Deadlock or of course the incredible Dog Collar match with Demus on the first Action: DEAN show in April 2024. Visceral, aggressive and more serious than a lot of fans are comfortable with in modern wrestling (good!).

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Chihiro Hashimoto

In this piece I’ll probably speak about movement to an annoying degree. But to me it’s such an integral part of being a professional wrestler. It was integral to what made Eddy Guerrero the wrestler he was. But it’s so undervalued in terms of discussing what makes great wrestlers great and terrible wrestlers terrible. Chihiro Hashimoto has better movement than all but a handful of wrestlers walking the earth. The heiress to Meiko Satomura in Sendai Girls, Hashimoto came into wrestling a decade ago with an accomplished amateur background and a skill-set that made her a natural. She was one of the best women’s wrestlers going within three years of her debut and I would argue she’s been the best for a while. It’s Hashimoto’s power and suplex technique which she makes her name off, but her speed and ability to change levels which most impress me. She’s so fluid, but always in an aggressive and intense way. When she takes hold of an opponent for a move, it never looks co-operative. It looks like she’s snatching a tree out of the ground by the roots. I love watching her work. The recent match with Sareee on Hash’s 10 year anniversary show is one to seek out if you want to see her operating at full throttle.

Adam Priest

Maybe the person in AEW who I’m most wanting to see get an opportunity to spread their wings in 2026. This year’s Continental Classic was always going to be too soon for the Alabama native given his current station in the promotion, but one of my biggest wishes for 2026 is for Priest to make next year’s field. He’s the definition of a thinking man’s wrestler and I feel like he’d put more mental effort into his match to match storytelling than anyone else. But it would be simple stuff. The calling card of Adam Priest isn’t wild, crazy, outside the box ideas. It’s smart, little things which make you think “wow, I can’t believe nobody’s ever thought to do that before!”. The guy just sees things that others don’t and when he shows them to you it’s eye opening. A joy to watch him ply his trade. And for such an effective dirtbag heel on the indies, he’s been a shockingly great plucky babyface thus far in AEW.

Yuya Uemura

Out of all the wrestlers I’ll write about here, there’s one who has essentially openly expressed what I’m talking about. That’s NJPW’s Yuya Uemura. Prior to his G1 match with his contemporary Ryohei Oiwa, Uemura spoke about how he wanted to display a style of wrestling that was in his mind what wrestling should be. He didn’t explicitly say “simple” or “more thoughtful” but you could read through the lines, and you certainly saw what he was talking about when he and Oiwa put it on display in front of a Korakuen Hall crowd which ate it up. One of my favourite matches of 2025, and I hope Yuya gets to show this on a main event stage on a more regular basis next year.

Pac

For one of the most spectacular and innovative high flyers of all time, Pac has done one hell of a job of remodeling himself as a mat based mauler. He’s taken this to another level since coming back with his new look in September. The package just works so well now. I’m not breaking any news by telling anyone Pac’s execution is elite level, but I like how he’s still put new wrinkles into his arsenal. A fine example is the recent lariat he’s been doing where he runs the ropes back and forth as his opponent slowly finds his feet. Nobody was doing that. But it’s so simple. I want more young wrestlers thinking like that.

Callum Newman

Okay, Callum haters, calm down. Hear me out for a second. I too would have never considered the young Brit for a list like this a year ago. For many he was the stereotypical “Will Ospreay clone”. I would have pushed back against that to a degree given that he was Ospreay’s actual protégé but I’ll concede he wasn’t a great example of what we’re talking about here. However, what I’ve been seeing very recently from Callum is EXACTLY what I want to see, and he’s an example of a young wrestler actually adapting and adopting a more interesting way of going about things. Newman’s at a real crossroads, in his early career and there’s a lot of question marks about where he stands in New Japan. But the way he’s wrestling, with an aggressiveness and a chip on his shoulder to me is the best route he can go to make people take notice. Now I’m not one of his co-workers, and I could certainly believe it if I was told he might actually be over-stepping his bounds (see his crazy slap on a Young Lion ring attendant a few weeks ago). Maybe he’s doing himself no favours professionally, but as a fan I sure am enjoying what I’m seeing!

Jacky Kamei

Before it essentially became the seeds that bloomed into the globalised wrestling style worldwide, Dragongate’s wrestlers regularly blew the minds of fans who were seeing them for the first time. Guys like Masato Yoshino, Dragon Kid, CIMA and Genki Horiguchi left a trail of jaws on the floor in their primes, but as good as the modern Dragongate roster is, it’s very difficult for them to have the same impact. If there’s one guy who I think you could put on Dynamite or into a Best Of Super Juniors and have him become the talk of wrestling (for as long as the modern news cycle allows anyway) it’s Jacky Kamei. I would describe him as a blend of 1996 Rey Misterio Jr. and 2011 PAC. I’m not sure I can come up with a better complement for a babyface high flyer. Only problem is we can’t let him out of the house unless he dresses himself properly. Jacky’s gear is as bad as his top rope frankensteiner is majestic.

Kushida

My man can’t get no respect! I feel like the last man standing when it comes to Kushida fans. Every discussion of him since like 2018 seems to be coated in this idea that he’s stale and boring. While I get that in terms of character and presentation, I just don’t see it when it comes to his work. He is always doing little things that make his matches interesting all while being able to flow seamlessly from underdog babyface to an aggressive bully at the drop of a hat. I thought he looked world class in his Super Jr. Tag League match with Yuki Yoshioka against Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita. Kushida won’t just put a guy in a hold, he’ll grind his knuckles in, he’ll switch positioning and he’ll plot ahead to whatever’s coming next in terms of his opponent countering or continuing on offense. I take great comfort knowing that he’s the head trainer in New Japan’s LA Dojo.

I could probably list a dozen more wrestlers, but maybe that’s for another day. There’s plenty of guys and girls out there doing good work. We just need more of them (you can never have too many), and we as fans and observers need to have higher standards to encourage this. So next time you’re watching a match, put the phone away, stop waiting for the next “familiar” spot that has a pavlovian response attached to it and reward the wrestlers putting in the effort to give you as a fan an authentic experience. Conversely, realize when you’re being fed interchangeable slop and don’t be afraid to call it out for what it is.