10 Wrestlers With The Most Five Star Matches

10. Jumbo Tsuruta - 7

Jumbo Tsuruta was a towering pillar of a man. Standing at 6'6" and tipping the scales at close to 300lbs, the former Olympian didn't just bring immense size to the table, but outstanding athleticism, technique, and a staggeringly high ring IQ.

His feud with Genichiro Tenryu was instrumental in dragging All Japan Pro Wrestling towards its 1990s heyday, and also formed the basis for one of the most important matches in puroresu history. AJPW's shift away from the plodding NWA-esque grappling of the '70s towards the bruising King's Road style it'd become famous for was gradual, but Tenryu & Tsuruta's June 1989 clash rubber-stamped the promotion's changing identity.

It was the third five-star match of Jumbo's career, and he'd follow it up with another top-rated singles bout against Mitsuharu Misawa the following year, with the rest of his ***** awards coming in tag action.

Match quality aside, Tsuruta was the man who unified AJPW's three major championships to create the company's famous Triple Crown belt, and a wrestler who always adapted with the times, whether grappling with Jack Brisco as a fiery rookie in the '70s or putting Misawa over as the next guy up in 1990. He was a pioneer, and deserves to be remembered as such.