MoS

I am the resident Mox defender on this board and even I am now thinking he is very high haha Think he will be a part of the 40s, not above that

Not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but a look at how we discussed Sting pre-AEW (even when everyone was sympathetic to him for Vince still salty about a war he won 15 years before Sting debuted in WWE) and how much general praise for him started being seen much much more frequently after (and during!) his AEW run substantiate my point imo.

I am ready for the brickbats, but I think Sting is too high. I don't even think he would be in my top 50 90s wrestlers. I don't think there is anything great he did that I haven't seen others do better. He might actually be the guy who has benefited the most from AEW's existence, and from the fact that he has never been booked as well as he was in AEW, including the year he spent in the rafters in WCW.

Bit surprised that Hogan didn't just rise, but he reamined higher than Dusty this time also. Going by Matt's theory of babyface aces doing much better this time around, both Hogan and Dusty fit that bill, but Dusty's name was a part of Cody's story in both AEW and WWE main events as well as the rise of NXT, while Hogan in his last few appearances got booed by the audience who once considered him their God. Now, that was obviously because of out-of-ring reasons, but the point is that I had thought Dusty's rep amongst younger voters would be far stronger than Hogan's rep, because neither has ever been pushed or treated like some scientific genius at wrestling. This list is full of surprises. Very interesting list!

They were both certainly forces of nature

I had Choshu at 49. One of the very few wrestlers who makes everything he does feel the most important and high-stakes inthe world of wrestling by his charisma, his ring presence, and yes, his work. They are very different wrestlers with very different stories, but wrt the above, I find Choshu very similar to Steve Austin. I am very happy he didn't drop out of the top 75.

I love Mercedes/Sasha and I had her at 56. Very glad to see her make it so high. She was the one who completely opened my mind to what level (American?) women in US mainstream promotions could reach. Sasha v. Bayley NXT 2015 will forever be one of my favourite wrestling feuds.

I ranked Inoki over Baba. I think Inoki's sheer charisma and just, very honestly, the kind of weird shit he does in the ring, that only he can do successfully because has God-level charisma, gelled with his very nifty matwork and an almost sui generis sense of mat structure trumps Baba's watertight pysychology, his surprising athleticism, and his nifty matwork. Both of them are masters of understanding and leading the crowd, but that's a given and that is why there are two of the greatest wrestlers of all time. But Inoki trumps Baba for me, at least at this stage of my wrestling fandom. Peak Inoki just feels far more like a pinnacle of what pro wrestling can be than peak Baba.

Fair, this is actually very much true, I also felt the exact same when making my list haha

I am actually very surprised that there were 61 voters who voted for Ospreay but didn't have him in their top 25. Ospreay to me feels like someone who, if you love his "style" (interpretation?) of wrestling, he is undeniably top 25 *at worst*. Who are the people ranking Ospreay number 45 or 61 or whatever?

Oh he did, I just brought up Cain because Brock got his ass beat by him.

MJF still has his issues and his promos can still feel contrived and rehearsed, but goddamn he is so much better this time than he was in his last world title run. Darby is of course Darby. Hope Willow recovers soon. When she comes back, #WorldTitleWillow should become a thing

Man really burned his bridges because he thought Hunter totally understood and marked out for his stupid spooky shit

The blurb for Brock is great, but I just don't get the "he is also the most legitimate fighter to ever step foot in the ring". Technically, Cain Velasquez has had wrestling matches and he beat the everliving shit out of Brock when he fought, but notwithstanding that, that legitimacy is already reflected in his presentation and booking. Don't see why being a good shoot-fighter should enhance his GWE case. I voted for both Jaguar and Eaton. Wish Jaguar would have ranked higher but I am glad both made it.

Thanks, will check these out. A lot of people here seem to hold Strong in much higher regard than I do and I am interested to explore this a bit.

I also don't get the high ranking for Roddy. He is a perfectly good wrestler, he has a snap and aggression in his moves that I like, he has had a long career, but he has never stood out to me as anything more than very good. There are so many great, brilliant wrestlers. I don't think he is in the top 100 of the GWE; perhaps #250 would have been more suited for him in my opinion.

If we agree with the assertion that voters this time valued "aura" a lot, then arguably no one in American wrestling has had the kind of incredible aura he had throughout his career. I have personally always loved Bruno and ranked him last time as well. It's definitely not a case of new footage being unearthed, and everything he did great was already known in 2016 as well. But Bruno translates really well to TikTok clips and Twitter vids, so that might be the reason for his climb. EDIT - Matt explained better than I did.

Yes, I am also very interested in seeing where Mox, Omega and Ospreay land finally.

I think even if we run that poll now here, Reigns will win handily. Mox is quite polarizing on the board while Roman is generally very well-liked. But yes, I do think that generally, Mox has seen an upsurge of appreciation while Roman has come for more criticism in the last few years, at least from what I have seen on Twitter and the GWE discord, even though Mox's last world title reign got a lot more criticism than the last couple of years of Roman's mega-run with the world title.

None of us would have predicted Roman Reigns not making it to the top 100 in 2016 tbh. He had had his balls cut off by Hunter in the lead to WM, but he had given plenty of indication of just how good he could be if booked properly like an ass-kicking babyface against heels that are actually good. I wonder how much AEW being born has affected the rankings of modern WWE wrestlers. It's weird because pretty much no one who has made his career solely in AEW is going to rank in the top 100, but another major, successful American wrestling promotion showcasing a generally different wrestling style from the modern main event WWE style every week on prime time on their own internationally broadcast TV shows must have had an impact.

This thread is fascinating. None of us were expecting a major American wrestling promotion would be born and would become extremely successful. Will be interesting to see how much the birth and success of AEW ultimately impacted the 2026 list. I think all of us had expected Roman to be part of the top 100 for instance. If there wasn't another American wrestling promotion on prime time showcasing a generally different wrestling style from modern WWE main event style, I think he would have been a lock for top 50.

My top 25 is very boring so no one has dropped yet. I think I have lost at least half of my 51-100 so far.

Someone should book Goldberg v. Lulu Pencil.

But he comes out in glasses and cackles

He then called Sid and Batista "jobbers". I didn't rank Dax and Cash so who am I to complain, but them dropping so soon surprises me. They are guilty of cosplay sometimes, that time when they shoehorned in a bunch of Bret-Owen spots in their singles match stands out as a shiny example, but they are excellent excellent wrestlers. Great bumpers, good at getting across both cockiness and fire, and Cash is such a good FIP, while Dax works better as a hot tag. They have had such a huge variety of good matches against multiple opponents. The Briscoes trilogy is incredible and each match is different from the other. At least one YB tag is tremendous, and is tremendous in a completely different way than the Bucks tag. It's funny because I think while FTR is a better team, the Bucks can have good-to-tremendous matches (for fans of their style at least) with a wider variety of opponents, but FTR are no slouches by any means under that metric. But with the kind of names that have dropped, it's tough to say anyone was "robbed". TREMENDOUS bit by @Grimmas to reveal the name of everyone who voted for Triple H. I am getting a big kick out of the fact that Toni Storm is going to finish above Hunter and Freakin