Scarletlikesounds

God I love these two. Dempsey gets shit because he has to work his style in front of PC crowds, but he's maybe one of the best wrestlers on the planet right now, and Thatcher being as good as he is (like 77 or something on my GWE) and spending this decade basically dedicating himself to lifting up and training as many young workers as possible and doing so by giving them actual real life reps is a thing of beauty. Also, I think Norman Smiley & Timothy Thatcher have gotta be like the best trainers you could ask for in 2026.

The match is soooooo loooong but man is it just the definition of good work, the test of strength spots that went on for like 20 minutes somehow had me locked in the whole time. Really just the definition of classic pro-wrestling to me.

God what a delicious match. Roland Bock having this as his one signature match is the best one match example you could ever ask for. Take the most popular wrestler on the planet and just toss him around for 10 rounds like a ragdoll. It's just a thing of beauty, even when you watch the real thing it feels like witnessing mythology. And Inoki turns in a pretty strong performance of his own working from under. The fact that he's constantly struggling for a hand up and gets nowhere makes Bock look that much better.

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm curious as this means Roman is like 2 great mania matches in a row. The reviews for this have been REAAAALLY good even from people who don't enjoy the company.

Vice evolving from basically just there to shake her ass into a submission specialist was not on my card for 2026, but good for her- Id say shes evolved from like a 3/10-to a 5 or 6/10 which is strong improvement really. I desperately want to see Kendal Grey vs. Seri Yamaoka, although some of her mannerisms (the hulking up and taking the straps off) and general attitude actually remind me more of Senka. The big three way with these two and Jacy Jayne at S&D seems to have overshadowed this one, and fairly enough because Jacy does pretty solid work there.

Yeah, IDK I feel like he's getting a bit much adoration for tolerably booking something where the bar is literally in hell thanks to the bar being set by modern AAA and current WWE.

The Pillars all still make it and in high positions except for Taue who's in jeapordy but prob still makes it.

Too Cold, Pillman, Owen & Waltman are for sure not cracking 100 and probably not 200 for a couple. Wouldn't be surprised to see Jericho get hurt by his aew run too. Lucha definitely gets less rep than 2016, we were pretty spoiled for lucha rep back then. I agree with shoot getting basically just Han, Tamura & Ishikawa. From what I've seen Breaks will absolutely crack top 100 but a good bit lower than last time and nobody else will come close from WoS. I imagine Claudio makes it or is a hard cut. Roddy places in the 100-200 section or just out of it. Briscoes both make top 200 but dunno if they make the list proper, Jay probably will at least. Low-Ki doesn't. If this poll had been a year ago Sami Zayn would've made the overall list but sentiment has turned against him hard in late 2025/2026 for some reason.

Its hard not to take anything coming out of WON with enough grains of salt to cure pork for the winter, but there were some really great results here. Mortos as most underrated is a wonderful and slightly unexpected result. Seri as rookie of the year is awesome to see. Harley Cameron as most improved is very deserved.

It seems the two big matches that are making their way around the community this year from mania week are both intergender matches, Chris Hero vs. Senka Akatsuki & Eddie Kingston vs. Charlie Evans. Haven't seen either but both sound cool and have been getting rave reviews. The only show I've seen was New Texas Pro's which was great. Adam Priest mocking Dustin Nguyens karate moves was wonderful heel shit, Charity King & Gabby Forza had a very fun lighthearted hoss match, & it was really dope to see Orion work a big main event match in a more grounded way with a little less high spots, Bryan Keith presented a wonderful obstacle for him that really let him shine. Danny Orion is one to watch.

Marigold's been tryna fake it till they make it in terms of becoming a major promotion since day 1 off of basically just rookies and like 4 veterans, and its had remarkable success for that and it has a ton of great talent, but they're all still in development and at the end of the day they draw like a big indie not a major promotion. If they just accepted theyre an indie they'd probably get less flack from joshi fans.

And good for MIRAI too because she went to TJPW and immeadietly got belted up and got straight to kicking ass

Meant mainly as a rhetorical I don't blame you at all, but you gotta watch some Daiki Odashima. There's plenty of people I like in the company but he's the only one I'd classify as someone you really gotta keep an eye on.

Many such cases.

I love Trevor Lee but I'd never put him in arena mexico lol

There was that really nothingburger mysterious Lucha Underground is back teaser that came out recently, wonder what that's about. If they were truly reviving it I have no idea who would be in it. And yeah, MLW getting its own fantasticamania is hilarious and apparently (didn't watch) as bad as expected.

God that fucking killed me, I don't think I've ever heard sounds like that in my life lol

I really liked the tag leading up to it, AMAKUSE & Haste vs. Bane & Inamura

It doesn't sound good until you see the matches and honestly he feels pretty kickass. Is he doing great work by this boards standards? Probably not. But he definitely feels credible with the presentation he's been given and the matches have felt really solid and methodical while having that big main event puro feel but without being too tropey. I would've preferred more Inamura but its a nice change of pace. It does help I've like barely ever seen him before so I don't have a negative image of him built in.

I really enjoyed the recent Shane Taylor vs. Mance Warner match, had such a great natural progression to it. Really made me wanna see Shane Taylor vs. 1 Called Manders, Manders can be a little dry for my taste but I bet he would bring the energy out for that one. Taylor is really damn good nowadays, which is funny because going back to his supposed earlier peaks in the company they're actually not anywhere near as good to me.

The energy here is really infectious, I feel like you can really tell these two are having fun creating the match. Not perfect or a match of the year candidate like some had said it was but I would say a must watch if you're going through the year.

I think the next catch guy I wanna look into is Ben Chemoul, I saw only one of the tags with Cesca and he blew the already incredible Cesca out of the water.

I joined here from the discord and as a very new wrestling fan who would've loved this place in it's heyday, I wouldn't mind sticking around as long as there's someone to see

Oliver vs. Royal is such a wonderful glimpse into a world we don't have. BTW, has the German footage unlocked any of these guys? I keep hearing there's new German footage about but I haven't heard where or what it's got.

For 2036 I'm curious about all of the DPW guys. Kozone, Tankman, Manny Lo & Andrew Everett will all be looking to make their cases on the indies and in MLW. Jake Something & Adam Priest in AEW, and Lucky Ali, Jay Malachi & maybe even Jackson Drake in WWE.