Your 2016 List Who's On Who's Off

[elliott]

Who are the people on your 2016 Top 100 you don't anticipate voting for this time around. Who are some folks you're now considering? 

[Grimmas]

BIG TOPIC!

100% off, sorry I don't have room: 

Bill Dundee, AJ Styles, Hulk Hogan, Dutch Mantell, Dick Murdoch, Jay Briscoe, Brian Pillman, & Curt Hennig.

These are locks to be added: 

Meiko Satomura, Sasha Banks, Mercedes Martinez, Goldberg, Devil Masami, Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka, & Shinobua Kandori.

I have another like of about 60 people I want to add to my list too, but that's going to take time to figure that out.

[WingedEagle]

Names that look unlikely to survive if my list were due today: Jeff Hardy, Isamu Teranishi, Rick Rude, Seth Rollins, Mesias, Edge, Triple H, Jerry Lawler.  

[NotJayTabb]

Taking a dive from 2016: Adrian Street, Matt Hardy, Doug Williams, James Mason, Terry Taylor, DDP, Zack Sabre Jr

Probable additions at this point: Cesaro, Bayley, Lex Luger, Eddie Kingston, John Tenta, and I want to nominate Iron Mike Sharpe for my #100 spot

[Cap]

LOVE to see that Eddie Kingston add. He is most certainly on my list.

[Witlon]

Off of the Lock List (Could still make, but not guaranteed for a variety of reasons): Andre the Giant, Brock Lesnar, Larry Zbyzsko, Manami Toyota, Shawn Michaels, Steve Williams, Samoa Joe, Fit Finlay, Chris Jericho, Curt Hennig.

Almost certainly making that didn't in '16: John Cena (I think I just missed him on the last one), Roman Reigns, Shinjiro Ohtani (Just didn't see enough last time as my big oversight). 

I currently have AJ Styles as my lowest ranked 'lock', so most of the new candidates are going to be compared to his career to see if they pass the test, so to speak. 

 

[KB8]

None of the Puerto Rico candidates were on my 2016 list. Right now the only one I'm sure will be there is Invader 1, but I might find space in the bottom quarter for a Chicky Starr or Carlos Colon (or Abby, as his Puerto Rico stuff was a hoot and primarily what shot him into contention). Hokuto will be there, and probably a few other joshi candidates I didn't vote for last time along with her. Probably Roman Reigns, who I wanted to throw a low vote to in 2016 but didn't. 

I'm not really sure who's definitely going to drop off yet. It might change again by 2026 anyway, but looking at my bottom 20 from five years ago as I try to put together an updated 2021 version, there are like 40 names I'd like to have in that 80-100 bracket and it'll mostly depend on how I'm feeling on the day for who gets in. I guess Austin Aries, who I had at 99 last time, falls off. He's about the only one that feels like a definite, though. 

[El McKell]

The people who are more likely than not going to be on my 2026 list who didn't make the cut for me in 2016 are (in order of likely ranking):

1. Will Ospreay
2. Walter
3. Kenny Omega
4. Nick Jackson
5. Dump Matsumoto (someone who I really failed to appreciate last time, I just wanted the workrate matches from 80s Joshi at the time)
6. Shingo Takagi
7. Katsuyori Shibata
8. Dax Harwood
9. Tetsuya Naito
10. Koji Kanemoto (As far as I recall he was a close call last time, one of the best wrestlers of the worst era of wrestling, the late 90s)
11. Verne Gagne (Someone who stands out to me more than anyone in the 50s footage, I was wrong to think of him as less than Thesz in 2016)
12. Jon Moxley
13. Antonio Inoki (Carried by unbelievable charisma & great vibes)
14. Matt Jackson
15. Sgt Slaughter (I'm still not sure about this one, it might be too short of a peak?)

The people who made my 2016 ballot who probably won't make it in 2026:

• Jeff Hardy
• Minoru Suzuki
• Owen Hart
• Davey Boy Smith
• Davey Richards
• Sting
• Bob Backlund
• Great Sasuke
• Yoshiaki Yatsu
• Cesaro
• Paul London
• Mistico
• Masato Tanaka
• Curt Hennig
• Kensuke Sasaki
   

I really can't see any clear trend to either of these lists tbh, other than the obvious case for people who peaked since 2016. So I feel like I can't construct a narrative around it.