MoS

Man, today has been brutal for my list. Colon, Christian, Waltman, Hero and Grey out in one fell swoop. I was the no. 100 on Waltman, so has Grimmas stopped naming the low voters? I am asking because I never intended to make my ballot anonymous, and I just want to check if I made a mistake.

I get that but a little harshness is part of the deal. I don't see it verging into incivility very often. And the tone is so much gentler than it was in earlier days of internet wrestling discussion. I remember reading the Smarkschoice threads and my god there were some vicious exchanges. This. No one has told anyone in seriousness to drink bleach in this thread. No one has started a separate thread suggesting that a specific poster has a mental illness. If someone mentions a poster that hasn't been around in a while, no one else has responded that they hope they are somewhere in a hospital bed dying of AIDS. All of those things happened as part of the 2006 countdown. I now have a morbid curiosity to check out those threads, just for the trainwreck potential of it.

I am sure all the highly pushed WWE legends will get no. 1 votes, with the possible exceptions of Triple H and Rock.

I think Jingus makes a good point about the selling of those HHH-Taker matches. Many people think of no-selling when y comes to modern epics, but the ridiculous exhausted over-selling is also something that irritates me. In a weird way, I think that is round-about no-selling; Triple H getting up, grinning, giving Taker the tombstone, and then both of them lying on the mat for 10 minutes after that takes me out of my suspension just as much.

The reactions to the lucha names make me feel guilty. I did not have the time to check luha eyond the consensus GOATs, so I was too ignorant to rank them. Lucha and WoS will be my priorities; hopefully, there is a 2026 poll as well.

So, how will we decide whose ballots should be included in the "PWO-only" selection? For example, I don't post often, but I have been a member for 3 years now, have participated in discussions, and would like to think that I have done my research with due diligence. This is not an infomercial for myself; I know I am not even close to being one of the most knowledgeable fans here. I am saying this just to point out that a lot of the anonymous voters might be people who have lurked around these forums a lot, and have also used GWE as a spring pad to increase their knowledge and vieweing of different styles of wrestling. Of course there will be some who've made a list of just their favourite people and submitted strategic votes, but that was always going to be the case.

I also think that since Jimmy has taken full responsibility of the Triple H ranking, in case he makes it into the top 100, she should be asked to watch every Hunter promo and main event from 2003 for introspection. I am also curious where Shawn will end up. I am now thinking it is increasingly likely he cracks the top 30.

So, who will rank higher, Hogan or Bruno?

There is a very famous online reviewer with a book out whose criteria once upon a time - haven't read him in years - for a great match was "total number of nearfalls". As in, more the nearfalls, better the match was the rule of thumb. To me, that school of thought and the people who adhere to it - and quite a lot do - are the reason why "self-conscious" epics exist; they are targeted to that group. I may hate Shawn, but he can work a great match with almost no nearfalls if he wants to; Mind Games is a prime example of that. But he is smart about how he wants his legacy to survive, burnish and perpetuate, and he chose to do those matches. Then again, Jimmy is right when she says that it is a matter of investment. I love Austin and prime Rock, so I mark out like crazy whenever I watch the WM 17 main event, despite the fact that it probably has more nearfalls than HHH-Taker, a match I loathe. I will say that the logical reason for those nearfalls in WM 17 was that it was a story of how Rock had caught up to Austin, making Austin paranoid and making him agree to a Faustian deal. But I am sure such arguments can also be made by fans of HHH-Taker.

I am curious about how Bruno ranks. I didn't vote for him in the end, but I strongly considered it, and while I did not take drawing ability into context, as far as drawing a huge number at the same arena week after week for decades go, he has to be amongst the top, if not at the very top. Lawler and The Sheik are the only other ones I can think of with the same consistency and longevity.

I guess I shouldn't be too angry at people who don't like Hunter but voted for him in the top 100 bevause they thought he deserved it objectively. I fucking hate Shawn Michaels and his stupid face, and I still put him on my ballot for the exact same reason. That said, fuck Triple H. I can't think of a single wrestler who has disappointed as many times as he has in important main egents and on big shows.

I love Kana/Asuka; pretty sure I have watched her entire pre-nxt career, and I am surprised that a) someone had her at No. 7 and she is ultimately ending below Sasha, whom I did not vote for. I had Asuka at No. 80, I think. Unless Sasha's name has come up already, and like a total goof, I have missed it.

I think most of HHH's most touted matches range from very good to great - in the 3.75-4 stars, if you want to quantify it - which is very good, even if they are not the mythical epics that the WWE machine pretends they are. However, my issue is, to put it simply, that they are great despite HHH being in them. I love the Triple Threat at WM 20 (and Backlash 2004), yet I struggle to remember anything HHH did in that match, beyond tapping out very very slowly. The only time I can think of Hunter actively contributing to make a match excellent was the Daniel Bryan WM match.

I second 'Taker and Kane v. Kronik. Jesus that match was abysmal. Those Undertaker-Kane matches during Kane's 2010 world title run were awful as well.

I had Bret as my number 30, I think, and I actually thought that was a quite generous rank for someone who I think was somehow alnost always a little less than the sum of his parts. (I had Kobashi at 11.)

I would be interested in the reasoning behind ranking Bret above Kobashi too.

The first person that came to my mind was Triple H. In his case, I think a lot of his great matches have been a result of institutional support and good dance partners. Even then, I think his performances have managed to drag down even his best matches, with very few expectations.

Okay, we have reached the stage where I am starting to think that Triple Goddamned H will place way too high for my liking.

Pretty sure the Quack one is from a friend who has been lurking here for years, and whom I convinced to form an account here. Unless I am much mistaken, he also would have another crazy high Chikara dude in his ballot. He does plan on defending them publicly, so it would be interesting. I never got too much into Chikara myself.

I didn't vote for her, but I am glad Sasha hasn't come up yet. Even if she is tue next one, 375 is a very good placing for someone who was almost unknown 1.5 years ago.

I would laugh if the answer to this turns out to be Triple H.

So, mine is the highest vote on Chris Masters, I see. It was probably a vote driven more by emotion than rationality, admittedly.

I just want to say that I am absolutely loving the slow roll-out, and we haven't even reached the top 500 yet. I know many are happy and relieved that the whole thing is over, but I will be very sad once the curtains come down on this project. It has been insanely fun and educative for me. If someone had told me 4 years ago that I would one day be actively seeking out and marking out for pervy, horrible, mute-worthy WWE commmentator Jerry Lawler matches, I would have recommended them to get a good antidote for their essence of insanity. Shows how little we all know.

Since my list is not anonymous and was submitted before I watched WM, can I ask for Chris Jericho to be knocked the fuck out of my list and be replaced by literally anyone the organisers want? Fuck that dude.

Couldn't submit the tag team ballot, but I have submitted the singles ballot. Hopefully, it is not past the deadline yet. This has been an amazing ride.