GWE Non-Thread Worthy Comments

[HeadCheese]

One of my favorite things about GWE research so far is going to watch a match expecting to watch more of one and then unexpectedly, someone I was not considering shows out and inspires me to check out more of their work.

The unexpected wrestlers are so fun to deep dive on

I did not have many thoughts about Rambo and Mighty Inoue last week, but they gripped me so much with their perfomances that they feel will probably make my list too..

[HeadCheese]

Passed 800+ matches watched for GWE/GME research this year. It's been so cool to discover and watch things for the first time. 

My list doesn't feel close to final yet but, there are some great wrestlers that I didn't know of/know much kc last year who will make my list with new all time favorite matches.

Not sure if I have shared this here but, here's my spreadsheet of matches watched with links to most of them and my list progression.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zjmhE5bpN9Iiog8_4Z1BC1jEfWDYGyeywmOSg8vGISY/edit?usp=drivesdk

[Matt D]

If I could avoid making a list at this point, I would.

There was a certain purity to my 2016 list based on what I haven't seen but I've spent the last five years or so trying to rectify some of the missing spaces and it's like when you clean a room by taking out all of the mess first. I've got ten years before I'm going to be done. If ever. And in general, that's great because life long learning is the way to go. It's terrible for this list though. 

I am going to lay down some ground rules for myself that everyone will hate however.

1. No active competitors unless they were wrestling in the 90s. I don't want to deal with it. I'd love to not have to deal with Danielson too but I probably have to. Hero too. That means no Moxley, no Mistico. I want a more absolute picture of their career I guess? Mainly I just don't want to deal with it. Most of these people wouldn't have made my list anyway. The Omegas of the world aren't making it certainly. I don't particularly like their matches. But I'd have to think about people like Darby or Joe or Kingston or Hechicero and I don't really want to. The Dustins, Christians, Blue Panthers, Fujinamis, etc. are ok.  

2. I can't rate someone unless I have at least a 50-75% understanding of their career (footage dependent) to my standards. I don't for Hashimoto. I'm doing the work now. I don't for Chono. I don't for Liger. I don't for Tamura, at all. I don't for Devil Masami. I don't for Dump. I don't for Yokota. I did a ton of extra work to fill in gaps for the people I was close to being able to rate in 2014-16. I'm not doing that this year. I'm just continuing on with my projects. Borderline people will be UWF 1 guys like Maeda/Takada/Yamazaki even though I'm limited into their 90s, people like Vader where I have big gaps still. someone like Yumi Ikeshita. Pillars are real borderline but I do have a sense of them even though I haven't seen much of their 00s and am limited after 92-93 in general. But I'll probably just rank them lower on the basis of incomplete comprehension. I won't rank Akiyama for instance, however.

I'm making a list out of obligation but I take no joy from it this time around. I do feel like I'll be in great shape in 2036 though.

[DMJ]

I have similar thoughts -

My 2016 list was primarily WWE and 80s NWA/WCW with a smattering of ECW and TNA guys because, at the time, that was basically all the wrestling I had seen. 10 years later, I've watched most every AEW PPV and a good bit of the TV, I've watched all of the ECW PPVs I'd never seen before, have watched much, much more of the TNA PPVs that are on YouTube, and, a few years ago, created a playlist of recommended matches and then turned it into a "catch all" to help me in the GWE process. 

At this point, I'm looking at almost an entirely new list with at least 20 workers who were not on my 2016 one. 

My biggest rule is that I'm not putting anyone on the list who I haven't watched and reviewed 20 matches from. I don't want to vote for anyone based on "rep." This basically means I'll have very few lucha guys and almost no modern Japanese workers.

In the case of the former, lucha is such a huge blind spot and I haven't been "bitten by the bug" yet so there's just no way I'll watch enough of it in the next 4 months to really rank anyone other than the guys that I know and love already (La Parka, Psicosis, obviously Rey, maybe Pentagon Jr.). 

In the case of the latter, my international focus for the past few years has been 80s and 90s Japanese wrestling and I have fallen in love with so many workers from those eras that I'm just not going to make it to more modern stuff - which is also much, much harder to find on YouTube.

I'll admit this does lead to almost shameful results on my list as someone like Konosuke Takeshita will probably make my Top 100 based on the strength of his AEW case and a handful of non-AEW YouTube matches I've watched, while Tanahashi and Okada will probably be absent just because I simply haven't seen enough of their stuff and, based on cursory searches, most of their most-hyped matches are not on YouTube (I'm guessing they're on NJPW World? Is that still a thing?). 

 

[HeadCheese]

On 1/28/2026 at 9:18 AM, DMJ said:

In the case of the latter, my international focus for the past few years has been 80s and 90s Japanese wrestling and I have fallen in love with so many workers from those eras that I'm just not going to make it to more modern stuff - which is also much, much harder to find on YouTube.

I'll admit this does lead to almost shameful results on my list as someone like Konosuke Takeshita will probably make my Top 100 based on the strength of his AEW case and a handful of non-AEW YouTube matches I've watched, while Tanahashi and Okada will probably be absent just because I simply haven't seen enough of their stuff and, based on cursory searches, most of their most-hyped matches are not on YouTube (I'm guessing they're on NJPW World? Is that still a thing?). 

 

Yep, are on NJPW World (Dailymotion and VK too). If you have the money, something that has helped me is buying a streamer for a month and binge a researched wrestler, checking out tge current stuff than cancel.

Wrestle Universe (what I feel is the best Wrestling streaming service) is free for the first week if you want to go deeper into Konosuke Takeshita.

It's not Tanahashi's most hyped stuff but, GAORA has a good amount of Tanahashi AJPW matches.

 

[HeadCheese]

Does anybody else have wrestlers who are like "this wrestler is for sure one of the 100 best/favorite I've seen but, I'm not sure where to rank them"? 

I'm kind of feel like that with Stan Hansen and a few others. Stan Hansen felt/feels like like an oddly difficult wrestler to compare to other wrestlers.

[Boss Rock]

I felt that way with Cena, Shawn, and to a certain extent, Bret.

[Justtxyank]

On 2/10/2026 at 2:56 PM, HeadCheese said:

Does anybody else have wrestlers who are like "this wrestler is for sure one of the 100 best/favorite I've seen but, I'm not sure where to rank them"? 

I'm kind of feel like that with Stan Hansen and a few others. Stan Hansen felt/feels like like an oddly difficult wrestler to compare to other wrestlers.

Well I can help you out with that one. Put Stan at #1 and then figure the rest out from there.

[TheBean]

That's actually why I probably won't be submitting a list. I just can seem to rank anyone except like a top 10-15. Also I feel confident in my top 50 but anyone past that I wonder, "am I putting them on the list out of some sort of obligation?" without knowing enough. Probably over thinking. Still super interested in the process and the final results especially in comparison to 2016. It sounds like there's a whole new batch of folks voting. I get a vibe that they're will be some BIG jumps. Also think there's going to be some big drop offs.

I'm curious if anyone has any predictions. 

[Ricky Jackson]

My main predictions, which I've been saying for a while, are Danielson #1 and Flair taking a serious drop, a flop if you will

[Grimmas]

26 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

My main predictions, which I've been saying for a while, are Danielson #1 and Flair taking a serious drop, a flop if you will

I can't wait to see the discussions from the reveals.

[Justtxyank]

2 hours ago, TheBean said:

That's actually why I probably won't be submitting a list. I just can seem to rank anyone except like a top 10-15. Also I feel confident in my top 50 but anyone past that I wonder, "am I putting them on the list out of some sort of obligation?" without knowing enough. Probably over thinking. Still super interested in the process and the final results especially in comparison to 2016. It sounds like there's a whole new batch of folks voting. I get a vibe that they're will be some BIG jumps. Also think there's going to be some big drop offs.

I'm curious if anyone has any predictions. 

I don't know how other people would respond to this, but my take is the list is very personal and everyone is going to build it based on very different criteria. Don't let other people's lists intimidate you. Make a list of what you think. 

I put Larry Zbyszko on my list and I am not bothered at all if anyone else thinks that's ridiculous. 

[Ricky Jackson]

I put Andy Kaufman on mine

[El McKell]

My predictions are a huge drop in general for US wrestlers who peaked between 85-94. Big improvement for joshi wrestlers. And yeah big improvement for wrestlers people don't think of as wrestlers or serious workers, your Andy Kaufmans, Bobby Heenans etc.

[club]

3 hours ago, TheBean said:

That's actually why I probably won't be submitting a list. I just can seem to rank anyone except like a top 10-15. Also I feel confident in my top 50 but anyone past that I wonder, "am I putting them on the list out of some sort of obligation?" without knowing enough. Probably over thinking. Still super interested in the process and the final results especially in comparison to 2016. It sounds like there's a whole new batch of folks voting. I get a vibe that they're will be some BIG jumps. Also think there's going to be some big drop offs.

I'm curious if anyone has any predictions. 

You should totally submit a ballot! Don't feel obliged to put anyone on based on obligation/rep or anything of the sort. A list like this will never be finished.

 

[donsem43]

I'm submitting a ballot knowing full well that I'll probably hate it in as little as two days after sending it in. I'll also end up forgetting to have at least 2 wrestlers on it that I wanted to vote for like I did in 2016. I have no regret voting in 2016 but still regret not voting in 2006 when I could have. In fact, I'm 99.98% sure that I wouldn't be voting this time if I didn't vote last time. If you're already planning to vote in 2036, putting in a ballot now will make it much easier to put one together then. Some people are either completely forgotten or willfully ignored that this should be a FUN exercise. This should be treated as escapism, it's not going to have any microscopic impact on culture or the economy.

 

1 hour ago, El McKell said:

Big improvement for joshi wrestlers.

There be a much larger number of joshi wrestlers who get votes but I don't think it will be concentrated in any way where any single one has a notable increase in her ranking. People underestimate how many hardcore wrestling fans don't watch joshi, with some outright disliking it for valid, or even invalid, reasons. In fact, if social norms weren't what they are now, there would more of an active backlash against joshi wrestling in general.

[highflyflow]

I don’t agree, I think Aja and Hokuto in particular will climb even higher and Devil, Jaguar, Meiko, Chigusa and Ozaki will all make the list at least.