Matt D

I‘m not sure it’s better than that one FTR match but I thought it was maybe one of the best matches I’ve seen all year. It was great and took me by surprise.

His rep has improved (as has Brody’s To a degree) due to a reexamination of footage and some historical work done around the Jumbo match. But my gut does say that some of this is on rep.

I think this is a little bit balanced by the existing pool and people influenced by them. A guy like Invader doesn’t get so high on this particular list on conventional wisdom alone. It’s a very interesting list overall. One that is a snapshot of active, engaged wrestling fans in 2026, including the demographic makeup of what that means. It’s a different sort of list with a different voter pool than 2016 or 2006 but I think it’ll be a worthwhile final product in understanding this moment in time.

200 is the new 100.

Pretty sure Will Ospreay is 12.

Will Ospreay.

Edge remains. A veritable nugget. Trips dropping so much and Rollins doing so poorly really throws the list on its head in some ways. The kids aren’t buying the WWE propaganda.

Weirdly, I think this trend may reverse itself in 2036 because of TV Ashii's draconian policies. Not being able to share clips on social media will blunt newer fans from getting into NJPW, be it the 1980s or the 2010s.

At this point, my biggest investment in results is that Jackie Sato (miraculously still alive given her 2016 rating) somehow beats Edge.

Athena's ROH title run is going to make an amazing google drive folder in a few years. As a direct comparison, I think she clears Mercedes almost solely for the fact that she feels so organic and alive and reactive in all the ways Mercedes feels poised and rehearsed. She's one of the only wrestlers alive today that feels honestly unpredictable and volatile and not just playing at the act. I'm down over 40 of my list at this point, but I went heavy with WoS, lucha, and French Catch, that really representing my own personal journey, so that would do it.

Very curious about Graham. There are people who went in on star power and their own criteria. Elliott argued strongly for 70s Graham in the last ten years. I think "aura" is far more important than it was ten years ago for various reasons, including how younger fans see wrestling (and all media) through a lens of anime.

I am pretty well resolved with whatever happens at this point, but I would like Edge to drop soon.

It does really feel to me like 2026 has been much more about people's personal journeys.

Let’s figure out a viewing path/process/guide for people less insane than me.

Ok, now where’s Rhea.

Counterpoint. Paul Wight is clearly better than Adam Cole.

I think the bigger issue is that there’s less of a progression. You can go through a feud between Hansen and Colon or Bret and Austin or Dump and Chigusa or Misawa and Kawada or Kingston and Hero and there are videos and podcasts and guides to take you though it but with WoS that underpinning doesn’t really exist. It feels like a sporting event which is part of its strength but it’s like watching a random Cubs vs Dodgers game from 1980 without context.

Adam Cole and Kofi Kingston are still on the board. Rhea's still on the board, right? Those are three of the more surprising ones for me, given who else have dropped.

Moving positions isn't a huge deal since the voter pool is so much bigger, but losing votes is. He went from 40-something ballots to 20. So that means it is possible. But it also shows that you could get very high with 40 ballots in 2016 and that won't probably be the case here. The people who make the top 50 or so will probably either have to have a lot of very high votes or pretty strong consensus. Last time around you could just make it into the top 100 with under 50 votes, if they were the right votes. I doubt that's the case here.

A goal coming out of this should be figuring out how to help people get into WoS footage. JR and i had that thought after it did so poorly in 2016 and we didn't really crack it.

I am down 21 wrestlers off my ballot at this point, by the way.

One thing that's abundantly clear is that there are just a LOT of wrestlers.

It’s funny because I could actually see someone who truly and deeply loves ChocoPro and what it represents as the height of pro wrestling and the wrestling that speaks to them the most ranking Mei that high. She actually has a pretty solid body of work across different styles, in different places, as different characters, against different opponents, in different roles, including some pretty good matches that hold up well. She commits fully. I could see a once in a blue moon argument for someone with limited watching or very niche personal preferences going so high on Mei. (Hell, I think Mei’s better than all but peak, peak 2024-5 Adam Page, and I bet someone goes #2 on him) Lulu feels like someone having too much fun.

So seeing who had dropped so far, how high do we think Adam Page gets.

That was us. I talked to her over the weekend as some people were asking whether she was going to vote. She’s both happy and perplexed to be remembered by the masses in this time of voting.