This ended up being a little easier when I started to put more though into it and I'm sure will probably annoy people.
Top Matches - Morton. I had two Ricky Morton matches on my last top 100; the Cage match with Flair and the WrestleWar 90 tag against the Midnights. Next time around I will also likely be voting for the famous Russians tag match and the less famous Dirty White Boys tag. I could also see voting for other matches against the Midnights, Raging & Ravishing, Savage & Poffo, etc. I didn't have any Taue matches in my top 100 and probably won't again. If we did a Top 10 Singles Matches vs Top 10 Singles matches, then Taue would of course win. But the only time prime Ricky Morton got the opportunity to have really great singles matches comparable to Taue's opportunities, he had the Flair series which was a classic.
Versatility - Morton. Morton could have exciting 5 minute or 30 minute matches. He did well in long technical matches, brawls, sprints, etc. When he had the chance to work singles matches, he was awesome. In tag matches he was the GOAT FIP and one of the best guys outside of the ring too. His variety of opponents (different from how I read "versatility") is much bigger than Taue's. After a career as the GOAT underdog babyface, Morton's heel turn on Gibson was awesome. A lot of this has to do with opportunity and the nature of how AJPW was booked.
Consistency - Morton. A really tough one. I went with Morton though because a disappointing Morton match was probably because it was too short. Whereas a disappointing Taue match was likely because it was too long. I would say for both Morton and Taue that a match was more likely to be disappointing because of their opponent or partner than for Morton or Taue.
Charisma/"It" Factor" - Morton. Look at a picture of in his prime Ricky Morton. He was not an attractive man, but managed to get over as a sex symbol.
Promos - Morton. Not fair and I won't count it in the final tally. But Morton was a legit great promo.
Elevating Others - Morton. I'm an outlier in that I think Robert Gibson was actually a very good and at times great wrestler. But pretty much all of the RnR Express's bosses, peers, and fans agree that Morton was the star and made Gibson's career possible.
Offense - Draw. Ha! You were sure I was gonna go Taue here. Taue was an awesome offensive wrestler in general and just on a personal level one of my favorite offensive wrestlers ever. I love the Nodawa. His powerbombs, release germans, his sumo charge, the amazing boots to the face, his Baba chops etc. I think he had a super underrated lariat too, its just he had to work in a promotion with Hansen, Kobashi and Jumbo (maybe 3 of the top 5 lariat/clotheslines ever) so it didn't standout as much. Of all the "apron to the floor" moves, the Nodawa was by far the best. But it did influence his peers to start working those apron (and later ramp) spots into every big match and that is one of the worst things to happen to the style. So I feel like I kinda have to deduct some points there. Morton is a case of being one of the smartest wrestlers ever at knowing when to use his offense. I know everyone always said the Fantastics were better because they had better offense, but I'm not totally sure I buy that. Morton was doing a hurricanrana and tope in the early 80s. In terms of speed and execution of stuff like sunset flips, victory rolls, etc he was a head above everyone else from his era except for Jaguar Yokota. Morton is also one of the great punchers of all time. So yeah, he didn't have any neckbreaking moves, but Morton's offense was underrated and he was brilliant at using what he did to maximum effect.
Selling - Morton. Moving on.
Rewatch Valley - Taue. Shocking left turn here at the end. I've made no secret about my dislike of 90s AJPW and 00s NOAH. But I still find myself occasionally thinking "I wanna watch some Taue" and then digging the shit out of him when I do. With Morton, he worked a style in the promotions and era I love the most so he has an major advantage in this category. That Taue still draws me in while working a style against opponents and in promotions I'm sick of is a pretty amazing feat.
Bonus Elliott's Question (Brody vs Nigel or best work associated with a crappy wrestler) - Morton. Kinda difficult. Morton was so great it convinced a bunch of smart fans that the really good Gibson sucked for years. Then Taue was so good it convinced those same smart fans that the really crappy Kawada was the best in the world.
Just kidding. I thought of that and it made me laugh.
Anyway. This is tougher than it should be. Taue has that miracle match with Marafuji and the 96 match with Dr Death. Morton meanwhile has Gibson's rep to work with for 3 decades and made him a superstar for a time. You could also throw the RnR's in the ring with just about any piece of shit team for 25 years and get a solid match. There's also the legit classic against the Russians. And great matches with Ragin' and Ravishin'.
Morton - 7
Taue - 1
Draw - 1
When I first started thinking about this I was expecting to go with Morton but him lose the categories and then I'd make an argument about how there are more qualities to look at than just these things. Which there certainly are, I think Cap would agree. But the more I thought about it the more I was like "wait, Ricky Morton crushes this." I had him ranked 25th overall when we did GWE and Taue ranked 36th. Morton isn't a contender for the best wrestler ever. But he's a contender for the best wrestler I don't consider the best wrestler ever, if that makes sense.
