GWE Non-Thread Worthy Comments

[Ricky Jackson]

I regret not examining the nominees before the cutoff, because i would've nominated Sherri Martel, Bad News Allen and David Schultz if I'd have known they weren't eligible to be ranked 

[Matt D]

3 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I regret not examining the nominees before the cutoff, because i would've nominated Sherri Martel, Bad News Allen and David Schultz if I'd have known they weren't eligible to be ranked 

I was just thinking yesterday about having Sherri on the list. Oops. Barry Horowitz is the other one I regret.

[Reel]

So, Top 50 Tag Teams in 2031? 

[BigBadMick]

Really enjoying reading through all this. Can I just ask if anyone's planning a podcast? I know Jesse Collings on Gentleman's wrestling podcast said he's going to go through his list. Would love to hear some more

 

Thanks.

[Scarletlikesounds]

On 4/22/2026 at 1:35 PM, Matt D said:

I was just thinking yesterday about having Sherri on the list. Oops. Barry Horowitz is the other one I regret.

I think we're all kinda unanimous that Sherri is the one that got away this time, everyone I've talked to says they wish they'd gotten into her more beforehand and nominated her. 2036?

[Scarletlikesounds]

Also, since the two were mentioned, Horowitz & Schultz recs?

[Ricky Jackson]

1 hour ago, Scarletlikesounds said:

Also, since the two were mentioned, Horowitz & Schultz recs?

Here's a Schultz playlist I put together 

Admittedly his case as a great is based mostly on promos, which I know we are supposed to ignore. But he was in a lot of fun matches in 1984 WWF. My favorite, w. Piper vs the Invaders from Feb 84 MSG, isn't on YT

[TheBean]

With GWE excitement at it's zenith, definitely hope new members to PWO stick around afterwards & keep posting - lots of great opinions, info, etc. 🙂 Nice to see the board bustling again.

[Scarletlikesounds]

17 hours ago, TheBean said:

With GWE excitement at it's zenith, definitely hope new members to PWO stick around afterwards & keep posting - lots of great opinions, info, etc. 🙂 Nice to see the board bustling again.

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

[TheBean]

Welcome aboard! Definitely encourage you or anyone else who's interested to checkout and post in the Match Discussion Archives. It's like the GWE discussions/threads but for matches. It's a little buried but it'd be great to hear people's takes on new & classic matches and angles. Just putting it here for anyone interested:

https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/78-the-matches/

[Scarletlikesounds]

20 hours ago, TheBean said:

Welcome aboard! Definitely encourage you or anyone else who's interested to checkout and post in the Match Discussion Archives. It's like the GWE discussions/threads but for matches. It's a little buried but it'd be great to hear people's takes on new & classic matches and angles. Just putting it here for anyone interested:

https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/78-the-matches/

Awesome stuff, cool to see a thread on this match particularly, Inoki vs. Bock

[Control21]

I like the nomination system because it requires people to be engaged throughout the entire process instead of being passive voters at the last second. 

[Ma Stump Puller]

36 minutes ago, Control21 said:

I like the nomination system because it requires people to be engaged throughout the entire process instead of being passive voters at the last second. 

It doesn't take that much for nominations as well! You can just join the discord, ask someone to nominate with a mere 3 recommendations or post them yourself and that's it. You don't even need a account

 

 

[Reel]

I think at the very least the nominations keep people who don’t meet the footage requirement out, which is a good thing. I also think that being nominated and having a thread here leaves, in almost all cases, some record of the discussion about the wrestler, and not something ephemeral like, a couple discord posts back and forth.

[Stephen-]

I think the huge argument in favor of nominees is that one large thread of wrestlers really helps in making sure you do not forget anyone, and also in discovering wrestlers you otherwise would never know. Nominations good. Also, second (or third, or fifth) the comments about the low bar. Nominee name, three matches. Pretty simple. Everyone has, what, ten years to get off whatever names now. And the discussion can always help people on the fence. I think without the nominee process, a lot of the discussion surrounding the project becomes less detailed.

[ohtani's jacket]

Yeah, but you're incumbent on individual voters to take the time and effort to nominate candidates that they think are noteworthy (for whatever reason). Since you're relying on people's individual knowledge or preferences, you get oversights where someone like Megumi Fuji gets nominated but Hiromi Yagi doesn't. The nomination threads serve a great purpose in stimulating  conversation and introducing voters to new workers, but the pool of participants in the nominating process was much smaller than the voting group. Yes, it was 10 years, but it was a slow 10 years for this message board. In retrospect, this place probably wasn't the best to host the poll, which is no doubt why it spread out to Discord and Twitter, but I get the nod to the past. The people in charge were very inclusive and wanted as many people to participate as possible, which is great and lead to a large turnout, but I don't think you can blame the large pool for voting for candidates that didn't receive a nomination.

Personally, I would have given points to every wrestler that was voted for given that it doesn't make a difference to the end results, but the best answer is probably "You had 10 years."  I don't wanna make it sound lie a major complaint. I don't think I nominated anyone, and I only participated at the 11th hour because I'm suddenly interested in wrestling again after six months of not watching anything. At least it was better than last time. I don't think the board ever recovered from the last GWE. 

 

[Control21]

16 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Yeah, but you're incumbent on individual voters to take the time and effort to nominate candidates that they think are noteworthy (for whatever reason). Since you're relying on people's individual knowledge or preferences, you get oversights where someone like Megumi Fuji gets nominated but Hiromi Yagi doesn't. The nomination threads serve a great purpose in stimulating  conversation and introducing voters to new workers, but the pool of participants in the nominating process was much smaller than the voting group. Yes, it was 10 years, but it was a slow 10 years for this message board. In retrospect, this place probably wasn't the best to host the poll, which is no doubt why it spread out to Discord and Twitter, but I get the nod to the past. The people in charge were very inclusive and wanted as many people to participate as possible, which is great and lead to a large turnout, but I don't think you can blame the large pool for voting for candidates that didn't receive a nomination.

Personally, I would have given points to every wrestler that was voted for given that it doesn't make a difference to the end results, but the best answer is probably "You had 10 years."  I don't wanna make it sound lie a major complaint. I don't think I nominated anyone, and I only participated at the 11th hour because I'm suddenly interested in wrestling again after six months of not watching anything. At least it was better than last time. I don't think the board ever recovered from the last GWE. 

 

One of the good things about the 2026 GWE is that it wasn't as heated as 2016. It was a very liberal and open envrionment across social media, PWO, and Discord. You occasionally had your Twitter trolls and whatnot, but those guys were in the minority. 

[El-P]

🙃

[Ricky Jackson]

2016: "I saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by madness..."

[TheDuke]

To be fair, maybe if more voters had taken time to understand and use the BIGLAV system of ranking wrestlers, perhaps 2016 could have gone a lot smoother... 

[oldcasper]

I was on a long break from wrestling in the 10s so I am only going off what I read here.

Is it fair to say that 2016 was characterised by a quest for a 'truth' and an assumed degree of rigour and depth which in something as personal and subjective as wrestling led to heated discussions?

 

(By rigour and depth I mean strong confidence in every rank rather than attempts to score 'objectively' using arbritary scoring systems like BIGLAV)

2026 feels more like, 'an exploration of richness in discovery' and perhaps an awareness / reflection that 'this is where we are now'.

[Control21]

20 minutes ago, oldcasper said:

I was on a long break from wrestling in the 10s so I am only going off what I read here.

Is it fair to say that 2016 was characterised by a quest for a 'truth' and an assumed degree of rigour and depth which in something as personal and subjective as wrestling led to heated discussions?

 

(By rigour and depth I mean strong confidence in every rank rather than attempts to score 'objectively' using arbritary scoring systems like BIGLAV)

2026 feels more like, 'an exploration of richness in discovery' and perhaps an awareness / reflection that 'this is where we are now'.

I think you are spot on with that analysis. 

[El-P]

BIGLAV was the dumbest shit ever. And Parv was one reason among others the 2016 late discussions became unbearably toxic. Remember the "You can't comment on Ric Flair if you have not listened to my dozen of 4 hours podcast" argument. Oh, and the infamous "Younger fans have to be lectured to understand the genius of Greg Valentine". 🙃

2016 was a very reactionary time, with an agenda steaming from the remains of the DVDVR 80's project, where the romanticization of everything 80's, an especially the US territory wrestling days, was being pushed by an aging forum audience who had been passed by the current wrestling scene, in a very agressive way, with a sense of sourness steaming from 15 years of WWE monopoly on the US scene. It was an echo chamber of "Back in my days" shit, with an added posturing about "rediscovering" stuff that had either been known forever (Tenryu was a great worker, wow, no shit) either being ridiculously overrated to push the idea that "pro-wrestling was better in the territory days" (no names given to not trigger anyone, but yeah, should be obvious to anyone who was around). As fun as the 2006 project was, the 2016 one became an absolute chore and annoyance by the end. I think everyone was just relieved when it was over.

[ohtani's jacket]

It was a lot of strong personalities arguing about things that mattered to wrestling fans at the time but probably mean nothing to younger voters. I agree that it was a product of its time, much as the first list was. 

One of the benefits of this year's list is the availability of footage. These days if you hear people talk about a wrestler, you can easily watch a bunch f their matches and form your own opinion. Back then, opinion makers mattered more because the footage wasn't as readily available, and way back in '06, a lot of us weren't sure there were 100 great workers because only the hardcore tape traders had access to a decent amount of footage. 

[El-P]

18 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

It was a lot of strong personalities arguing about things that mattered to wrestling fans at the time but probably don't anymore. I do agree that it was a product of its time, much as the first list was. 

I admit the first list is way far to have very clear memories, but I only have the feeling that it was a very fun time. 

I'm 200% more chill about pro-wrestling now that I was back then. Probably because the last 10 years (and mostly 6 years) have been the best and most fun and satisfying to me as a pro-wrestling fan. As far as watching it at least. 😎 (and probably also because there is way more serious shit happening to get angry/worried about)

18 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

One of the benefits of this year's list is the availability of footage. (...) Back then, opinion makers mattered more because the footage wasn't as readily available, and way back in '06, a lot of us weren't sure there were 100 great workers because only the hardcore tape traders had access to a decent amount of footage. 

"Back in my days, you had to buy 2d generation VHS tapes to see TAKA Michinoku vs W*ING Kanemura on a random FMW comp" (true story, basically). In a way, I'm glad it was that way. If I was 23 now with the same availability, oh boy, poor me... I would never have left the house.

And yes, it is true of everything (music, cinema, TV shows). Why do I need to read a 2000 words "review" of something when I can just click and watch/listen to it for myself, usually for "free" too ?