Tetsujin

Nick is definitely better than Matt.

Realy liked the opener. It's been a while since I enjoyed an Adam Cole match, but he and Jungle Boy were good at manipulating the crowd into cheering the right guy and booing the right guy, and they build up a great last couple minutes. Fast-paced 15-20 minute matches are exactly what modern pro wrestling needs more, and specially what Cole can be good at, so yeah, the match worked pretty well. Then we had a cringy Elite segment, and I gotta say, I HATE all of these guys. I hated them before they turned heel, you know, but that was serious hating, now I can appreciate they're trying to be hated. Then Bryan came in and gave Omega a nickname that I hope stays with him for the rest of his career. It is so cliché but so hilarious I can't help it, wrestling needs to be silly sometimes. I would have appreciated some direct confrontation between Danielson and Nick Jackson, because, you know, Nick is the one who's gonna face him at Rampage, and I would have prefered a set up to it instead of just randomly announcing the match later on the show. But well, Nick is probably the best singles worker of The Elite if you think about it (I know, I know, sounds crazy but I can't see it otherwise). Andrade's promos were disgusting to watch, but now he went full circle and is absolutely hilarious. I just can't take him seriously when he talks, but I want more of his shit. Anyway, whatever he does with the Lucha Bros should be awesome. Arn Anderson destroying Cody on the mic was golden. Glad to see the crowd is still turning on him. It was funny how Lee Johnson got the pin and basically the whole match all by himself, but when the interview comes it's Cody the one at the front page. Wtf Tony man INTERVIEW THE ACTUAL WINNER of the team. Set up some jealousy from Cody or something. But anyway, Double A dumped him so I guess they're still going somewhere with this storyline. I just hope it's a turn heel instead of another redemption arc, but at the same time Cody was a horrible (horrible, horrible) heel back in the day so... It also bothers me the fact that the story is about Cody, when in my opinion they should give more screentime to Black and continue his push doing his stuff with other notorious guys on the roster. Give Cody some holidays, let him focus on his stupid reality show or something, and then when he comes back he can turn heel and later explain his new motivations. But right now, I feel the focus should be more on Black than on him. But that's Cody Rhodes for you all. Dark Order reunited again was cool. This company knows how to build earned, satisfying feel-good moments (more on that later in this post) for every single part of their roster, being main events, midcard, women division, tag team division, comedy guys... ALSO, I'm so excited for Lio Rush. He's huge and kinda underrated if you ask me. I also like Lambert, Sky and Page, and hope they get more protagonism on the tag division, but I don't care about all the other guys that attacked Jericho last week. And I don't really care about the Jericho feud itself, either. Give me a Lucha Bros vs Men of the Year series! Still no much screentime and development for the womens division. Whenever I see there's a womens segment in this show, I just can't help but think "they're doing womens segment because they feel forced to do them, but they're not giving them any strong storylines, directions, gimmicks, etc". AEW is not trying with their women, and I know they in ring level is not that good, but fuck they are obssesed with signing cool male wrestlers to reinforce their roster, why not cool female wrestlers!? Why are they not trying to give their actual female roster more interesting stuff to do, other than the obligatory 10-minute match, maybe two matches, per show? I can see the potential in that division (Baker is a great character and it's only a matter of time she gets actually good in the ring, Soho too, Nyla is great, Thunder Rosa is fun, I want to like Anna Jay too even though I haven't see her in great performances yet...), and I'm sure the company does it too, so then why it feels like the company is not fucking trying to build a more interesting scene with all of them? The MJF/Darby rivalry can be great. I love how AEW is stablishing the "future four pillars" in Guevara, Jungle Boy and those two, I can see them all having very succesful careers if AEW becomes huge for a long time. But man I hate MJF promos. He just screams all the time. I also don't like how he always goes for black humour, because I remember the Moxley feud and all the "MJF 4 champ" campaing, and that was fun as hell and didn't need MJF to be screaming and talking about AIDS and/or dead relatives. Darby didn't look good at all at the mic this time, so I hope this feud focuses more on backstage stuff and the actual matches instead of regular promos at the building, because I don't want neither of them doing those. The segment also finished kinda akwardly... But hey, a very promising midcard rivalry, I'm in! The main event was great. Not because the match itself was (it was very good, specially Miro's performance, but not *that* good), but because the segment as a whole felt totally earned. After all the bullying Miro has done to Fuego del Sol and him, Sammy finally got his moment. I loved Sammy's high flying comebacks, dude is a magnificent athlete and a such a sympatethic babyface, and Miro. Man, what a guy. He looks better than ever. He has one of these kind of bodies you just can't look away, the same happens to me when I look at Cesaro or Kiyoshi Tamura, they're just... physically perfect. And he looks more motivated than ever too. This Miro is completely different from early-AEW Miro, and I'm so glad he regained his wrestling passion because he's that. Damn. Good. If you ask me, AEW would be much better if The Elite goes away and Khan puts Miro as one of their main heels (with PAC and Malakai). As for Sammy, he now has to prove he can be a great babyface midcard champion, and it feels exciting to be part of this new phase of his career. If Eddie Kingston wasn't gonna win the TNT Title, then I'm glad Guevara was the one.

I don't know who Jimmy Valiant is. I also voted for him.

The fhing with Cody is that, when he has to lose, he can't lose without some bullshit. He should have lost to Black clean again, but I guess two times are too much for him, so let's throw Arn Anderson and black mist to the equation. Same happened when Darby won the TNT title from him, they've been building that victoy since the very beginning of the company, but when it was time... He lost because he was a prick and got himself into a craddle, not because Darby earned that victory. And I completely disagree with him being heel being his best version: just look at his heel work at New Japan and ROH. He was ATROCIOUS, to the point of killing matches. Best non-WWE Cody was fired up babyface against Jericho, and that lasted like two months or whatever. He's awful, and he has got to a point where he doesn't fit anywhere in AEW. I can't stand Omega and the Bucks, but at least they have a clearly defined role in the company. Cody seems like he always needs to have something because he's Cody Rhodes you know... but everything he gets is boring, repetitive and/or with low stakes. They created the TNT title for him to have something to win (because he booked himself to not wrestling for the world championship even though he still treats himself as a super main eventer and doesn't put over almost anyone, what a humble guy!), but now that championship has found it's place in the company because they have a pretty fucking good midcard and that championship doesn't need Cody anymore, so... What now? Where's Cody's character going? Who cares, honestly?

Danielson/Omega was a great match, and even better, it was a great TV match. To me, a great tv match must be a very strong match that also leaves the audience engaged wanting something even better for a rematch, and they both did exactly that. They didn't went all out (no pun intended) giving us a MOTY, but, by wrestling this TV match the way they did, they made clear to everyone that they're gonna have that BIG match soon. This is very difficult to attain in modern pro wrestling imo, because of the "giving it all every single match" mentality current generation is. I hate Omega, but damn did he worked well here. Not counting both hardcore matches with Moxley, this was the best Omega match I've seen since leaving New Japan, by far. Glad he's a heel now, because that way he can be cringy as fuck for a reason, and glad he has Danielson against him to make the crowd actually boo his stuff. It all felt so organic and armonic. I want MORE! Rest of the show was cool. Punk's promo was great, obviously, and the right choice to follow that hell of an opener. I'm hyped for his match against Hobbs, should be a star-making match. In fact, I missed more promos in this episode, something like Baker trashtalking after retaining the title, or Black making fun of Cody, idk, more mic stuff between matches to help develop the stories and characters. When Cody/Black finished I was like "bro wth happened gimme some clues for where is this story going now". A Black minipromo after the match could have helped to establish that, idk. Black/Cody was something. Cody moved horribly, and the overbooking with Arn and the mist and whatever was bullshit, I don't like the fact Black has passed from being able to squash Cody clean to be a chickenshit heel in just two matches. But that's the Cody effect for you all. Black is over as fuck and a very good pro wrestler still, so he carried the whole thing, and the crowd turning on Cody was very satisfying to hear. Hope he makes a turn heel and stops trying to be wrestling Jesus, because I'm tired of him. Sting/Darby vs FTR was cool, every one of them played their roles pretty well. Sting truly still gets it, and I'm so happy for him, but I hate the fact that he overpowered FTR at the same time the whole match. If you asked me, this was the perfect match for FTR to make some kind of a comeback in their career and destroying these two, teaming against Darby and leaving the old, fragile Sting in a handicap match he couldn't win. That would've been awesome, the crowd heat would've been nuclear, you set up another chapter in their rivalry, and prepare the atmosphere for the main event, because now the crowd would have wanted a happy ending even more. Speaking of the main event, it was kinda dull sadly. Baker is over and she portrays her character amazingly in promos and backstage segments, but she's still green when wrestling. Soho suffers from the same. The match lacked rythim, neither of them were specially fluid while moving through the ring, and the crowd was losing interest because of it. The feeling of "Bryan/Omega should have been the main event" didn't helped either. But, if you ask me, I loved the choice of it being the main event: I'm a fan of title matches being the most important match of a TV show card... but the women division needs stronger ringwork if they want their big hyped matches to pay off.

You can have Eddie get his big moment, give him a two-three months title reign, and the. Miro winning the belt back and finishing the rivalry. I agree Miro should be defeated by someone younger that needs that push, but that doesn't mean Kingston can't get a run first.

That would've been AWESOME, ngl

Gotta give credit to Matt, who I think always managed to reinvent himself and is a great pro wrestler... When it comes to character work outside the ring. When the bell rings, Matt is pretty solid but he almost always wrestles the same, he doesn't portray those gimmicks in his actual ringwork. Christian is the better worker, no doubt. His consistency is crazy, and he also have more elite-level matches than Matt (Matt has The Final Deletion though, that's a fucking 5* to me).

No love for this one? I would have love a match between the two in, let's say, 1995. They feel like perfect foils for each other. As the comparison goes, I guess Flair has the volume and variety of opponents on his side. But Kobashi's highs and lows seem much higher to me, and the way he approached offense and selling feels more "complete", more polished, than Flair's, who is a bit cartoony (and he's great at it).

Last time's #1 vs the guy I want to be next time's #1. One of the all time great babyfaces against one of the all time great heels. The two greatest masters of the chop. Two iconic, passionate workers with great championship reigns, and two of the best users of formula to approach their big matches. Who ya got?

I watched the MSG 1989 match against Ronnie Garvin. It also was the first Garvin match I've ever saw. And holy shit, the strikes and overall offense in that match has aged extremely well. You can show random clips of these two fucking bastards destroying each other here, and nobody would dare to say it's an 80s WWE match. Crazy fight, and I'm very interested in discovering more of both of these lunatics.

Yeah great post Elliot, gonna check some of those recommended matches asap because Sarge is a wrestler I've always been interested in but never dedicated enough time to as a fan. Funnily enough, and not related to GWE, Sarge was BY FAR my favourite wrestler to pick in the Legends of WrestleMania videogame, and I fantasy-booked entire storylines around him as the ace of the company. His all time great theme song was everything I needed to push him

Bret's absolute best demolishes Rey's absolute best. Rey still have some really great matches and he can compete against almost anybody in that regard, but Bret is one of the few guys that have too many absolute classics in my eyes (the Owen matches, the two first Austin matches, the Ironman with HBK, the Piper match, the Diesel match, the KOTR Mr Perfect match...). He also have great matches against a lot of guys, and he was able to bring the best out of much lesser opponents. He is just like Rey in that regard, althought I guess Rey did it more often because of his crazy longevity. Both are all time great bumpers and overall sellers to me, and while Rey's offense was revolutionary and crazy good, Bret's mastery of the bassics and how good he was at looking stiff while absolutely not being stiff at all, kinda gives him the edge for me in the offense category. Man, this is hard. I guess Rey, because of his insane volume and consistency, and while Bret's 1992-97 is insane, even in that run you can find some kinda dissapointing matches and/or stupid WWE booking ruining potential great bouts. I have pretty clear Bret's best day is better than Rey's best day, but overall Rey has the strongest and more enjoyable career. He also delivered in a big way in different promotions and contexts, while Bret's case is absolutely 100% his WWE main eventer run.

Another relatively new wrestler to me I wanna focus on. I love the tag match with AA against Dustin and Steamboat and the first Bruno match from 1980, but for some reason I've never considered to dive deep into Larry Z's work before. I'll start by checking the Bockwinkel matches, more of his Enforcers run, the Sting match and the Regal series. For what I've seen, he has the potential to be one of the greatest chicken shit heels ever.

The more I watch of Devil Masami, the more I think she's a top 25 contender. She has a very unique aura, like she's the queen of the joshi jungle, and as everybody says: her facial expressions are top tier. She could sell the importance of everything she wanted: holds, bumps, nearfalls... A very creative offensive worker as well. And it seems she's incredible consistent throughout more or less 20 years, so yeah. She's one of the best joshi wrestlers ever and right now I can only think about Aja, Hokuto, Satomura and maybe Kandori and Ozaki being ahead of her on my 2026 list. As far as her Taker gimmick, I've only watched the Ozaki 93 match and that was fucking amazing so idk. Does she have more recommended matches working that gimmick?

I've been thinking about Kawada recently. While last time's GWE talk was about Kawada-Kobashi, I would say, to me at least, Kobashi is pretty confortable ahead of him, and Kawada is a lot closer to Misawa in my provisional list. They both feel like top 10 contenders that might be right outside of it.

Valentine is one of the guys I definitely wanna focus on when searching for new boys on my list. I've only watched the two Piper matches (the dog collar one being fucking phenomenal) and some random WWE stuff he was in (some Rumbles, SVS, those kind of things). I've heard he has some classics with Backlund (still on my to do list), but I don't exactly know where his case resides apart of those couple of matches against Piper and Bob. Any recs?

Bryan was always great, yeah, but he wasn't always as great as he was at his very best, so calling his entire career his prime sounds a bit too much if you ask me. 2006-09 Bryan is by far a better period than, idk, 2010-2011 Bryan or 2003-05 Bryan. What's crazy about Bryan is that he can have a very good match, or even something definitely great, at any point in his career, but most of the times those matches are just "another very good/great Bryan match". That's his day in the office. When you look at his absolute best work, more often than not you'll have it at 2006-09, 2012-14 and/or 2018. Those are his prime years.

Right now I'm focusing more on joshi, not because I'm following any planned agenda or something, but because I'm enjoying almost every single match and/or wrestler I'm encountering and always want to watch more. I'm sure that, not only the most clear GWE joshi contenders will rank pretty high on my 2026 list, but also the last half of it will have more joshi wrestlers that I've ever expected before. Three new girls (new to me) that I'm specially enjoying their work are Devil Masami, Mariko Yoshida and Megumi Kudo.

These two are neck-to-neck to me too. Misawa's case is definitely peak based, as he wasn't as good or outstanding as a Jr and didn't aged as well as other GWE top picks, but he happens to have one of the longest and highest peaks ever. Hansen is kinda different, because he was awesome since he was very young and retired while still being awesome. He can be hit or miss with some opponents (and some great opponents), but his consistency overall is quite remarkable. You could argue Hansen didn't had a singular, elite level run that we could easily identify as his peak, but he had mini-runs at that level throughout different parts of his career. Both are two of the absolute best offensive guys ever, and also two underrated great sellers imho. I will rewatch some of their classic singles matches to appreciate who did it better, but right now I would say Hansen is a lock for my top 10, while Misawa might be right outside of it.

These two are my current #1 and #2 as well, with Kobashi being slightly on top. I think Bryan is the most versatile wrestler ever, and Kobashi has the best peak(s) anyone ever had. Both guys are absurdly charismatic and have strong arguments for being considered the best wrestler of two different decades. I went with Kobashi because I believe his absolute best matches are a bit better than Bryan's, and Bryan doesn't have the all-time great selling Kobashi has (they both have every other all-time [insert any category you wanna bring].... But it's as close as any other comparison I'll ever see. I hope both guys finish at the top 5 in the overall thing by 2026.

I guess Steamboat is the right answer because he's basically an eternal babyface. His performance against Rude at Beach Blast 92 is the definition of a perfect babyface for me, and it isn't the only performance close to that level he has. But man, I fucking mark everytime peak babyface Martel fires up. He's like Lawler and Hogan, but less Superman and more Spiderman, if you get what I mean. It's a shame he didn't work as a face his entire career, but he was a pretty cool subtle heel too when it was needed, and the Model run is as good as it could have be, considering Vince's fetiche for ruining the big territory names he signed. I guess that, in my overall list, Martel has a strong chance to be a bit higher than Steamboat, but if the question is who's the most iconic babyface, Ricky's longevity gives him the edge here.

Yeah but something that both amuse me and annoy me is that it's almost always a low blow. Taker, Rollins, Bryan, Joe, Ambrose, Ricochet... It has become a running gag and I'm not sure I like it.

The thing with part-time Brock, to me, is not that he wrestled just a few times per year. It's that he only gave a shit when he wanted to. For each example of him being the best wrestler ever when he tries to be, you have another example of him not giving a single fuck about a match and/or opponent, finishing the bout and going home, ruining potential great matches and/or moments. I feel wrong placing Lesnar lower than top 25, because, honestly... He's so fucking good. He'll be the highest placed wrestler I don't like in my list. It's unfair how talented he is, considering he's not one of those workers who thinks about wrestling as their passion, just how they make a living. But that's also his main flaw, because he doesn't always care about wrestling and he produces atrocities when he feels like no trying.

I would argue Kobashi was BITW-level between 1992-2000 and then again 2003-05.