GWE Non-Thread Worthy Comments

[HeadCheese]

On 5/10/2026 at 11:58 AM, Mattsdmf said:

I was about to make that joke.  I'm relistening to the Where the Big Boys Play episodes of their Top 100 and reminds me how much nicer the discussions are without someone like Parv being involved.  I don't think Chad has taken part in this which I always liked his opinions on wrestlers.

Those 400 podcasts that were reactions to the 2016 list seem to be lost to the ether which is sad as I'd like to have listened to them again.

@Kadaveri saved some of them

As well as the Alan4L/Case Lowe 2021 podcasts. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Z1Y0pB_2RPcqmgjlyVQ8WEjsbdiNNXbi?usp=sharing

 

[NotJayTabb]

Just been browsing the "Highest 2026 debut" thread in the 2016 folder, where 10 years ago we tried to guess who would be the highest placed person to make their top 200 debut in GWE26. Fascinating to see only one person picked the likely winner, Ospreay, but there was a huge swell of support for Matt Riddle. I can't see Riddle having a thread and he's not in the list of "not nominated but received a vote anyway" that Grimmas posted, so that feels like a huge fall from grace.

[Kadaveri]

9 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

Just been browsing the "Highest 2026 debut" thread in the 2016 folder, where 10 years ago we tried to guess who would be the highest placed person to make their top 200 debut in GWE26. Fascinating to see only one person picked the likely winner, Ospreay, but there was a huge swell of support for Matt Riddle. I can't see Riddle having a thread and he's not in the list of "not nominated but received a vote anyway" that Grimmas posted, so that feels like a huge fall from grace.

It's actually super weird that Matt Riddle had a great rookie year in 2015-16, and then that turned out to literally be his in-ring peak.

[Boss Rock]

27 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

It's actually super weird that Matt Riddle had a great rookie year in 2015-16, and then that turned out to literally be his in-ring peak.

Speaking Out and flaming out in WWE didn't help.

[Mattsdmf]

I relistened to the Where the Big Boys Play Top 100 the last couple days at work and listening to Parv being Parv for 5 hours was quite the task.

It's really interesting how few of the old DVDVR/PWO guard has taken part in this.  I'm really excited to see where the top results takes us.  I'm sure a lot of it won't be surprising but I'm sure there's going to be a lot of shuffling.  I remember so much of the discussion 10 years ago was "minimalist vs. maximalist" and that didn't seem to play a role in the discussions that I saw here.

[Grimmas]

4 minutes ago, Mattsdmf said:

I relistened to the Where the Big Boys Play Top 100 the last couple days at work and listening to Parv being Parv for 5 hours was quite the task.

It's really interesting how few of the old DVDVR/PWO guard has taken part in this.  I'm really excited to see where the top results takes us.  I'm sure a lot of it won't be surprising but I'm sure there's going to be a lot of shuffling.  I remember so much of the discussion 10 years ago was "minimalist vs. maximalist" and that didn't seem to play a role in the discussions that I saw here.

Will and Boricua voted

[TheBean]

For someone who's not keeping up with all of the drops & discussion, what's the general vibe with the 2026 list so far? Any big surprises? 

[Ricky Jackson]

If you're a big fan of the territories and WoS you may want to avoid looking

[donsem43]

Comedy wrestlers not just getting on lists but receiving extremely high votes.

[Boss Rock]

Becky and Bayley drop which means Mercedes is the last Horsewoman standing. Curious if she makes the top 100.

[Monch Wrestling]

41 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Becky and Bayley drop which means Mercedes is the last Horsewoman standing. Curious if she makes the top 100.

Was she ranked in 2016? If not she will probably be the highest ranked first timer in the 2026 poll.

Edit :

She was ranked : Sasha Banks - 238 (360 pts, 13 ballots, 73.31 avg, high: 22 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: unranked)

I wonder who will be the highest ranked first timer then, Sareee, MJF, Gunther, Darby Allin, Mayu Iwatani, Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, Toni Storm, Syuri...?

[Kadaveri]

I think the highest ranked first timer will be Gunther. If not, possibly MJF.

[El Dragon]

1 hour ago, Kadaveri said:

I think the highest ranked first timer will be Gunther. If not, possibly MJF.

Darby needs to be strongly in this equation.

[TheBean]

3 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

If you're a big fan of the territories and WoS you may want to avoid looking

 

3 hours ago, donsem43 said:

Comedy wrestlers not just getting on lists but receiving extremely high votes.

Thanks! There's a lot of "who the hell is this person?" right next to someone I'd consider a favorite when I've checked. 

[Reel]

Just wanted to take a second and thank @Grimmas for everything they are doing for this project. I'm sure the double ballot thing is frustrating, and making for some tedious and annoying work correcting the list, and I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have just handwaved it once we got this far into the thing. So, thank you for your commitment to this super nerdy thing. 

 

[Grimmas]

4 hours ago, Reel said:

Just wanted to take a second and thank @Grimmas for everything they are doing for this project. I'm sure the double ballot thing is frustrating, and making for some tedious and annoying work correcting the list, and I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have just handwaved it once we got this far into the thing. So, thank you for your commitment to this super nerdy thing. 

 

I'm too OCD to hand wave that.

[TheBean]

I put this in the reactions thread but it probably was the wrong place so I deleted, updated and put here instead:

I wonder, if it wouldn't be a pain in the ass, to sort the final results by the "started viewing" categories/demographic. Just the Top 100 ? After everything is revealed of course! I think that might be cool to see how each age/viewing group voted. 

I think there will be some interesting breakdowns with those groups. I guess I'm in the segment that's interested in 1) getting recommendations for new wrestlers to check out 2) seeing the intergenerational differences as that seems to be the BIG story so far.

Maybe this is something planned but wanted to mention it. Thanks!!

[Grimmas]

15 minutes ago, TheBean said:

I put this in the reactions thread but it probably was the wrong place so I deleted, updated and put here instead:

I wonder, if it wouldn't be a pain in the ass, to sort the final results by the "started viewing" categories/demographic. Just the Top 100 ? After everything is revealed of course! I think that might be cool to see how each age/viewing group voted. 

I think there will be some interesting breakdowns with those groups. I guess I'm in the segment that's interested in 1) getting recommendations for new wrestlers to check out 2) seeing the intergenerational differences as that seems to be the BIG story so far.

Maybe this is something planned but wanted to mention it. Thanks!!

That was my original idea... I'll see if I can make it work for areas and time started watching once the full list is revealed.

[TheBean]

That'd be pretty awesome. Hope you can! Thanks for your hard work with this project.

[Tetsujin]

Yeah @Grimmas thanks for all the hard work. This is being a blast.

[TheBean]

There's a really fun thread in the 2016 GWE folder where folks in 2016 make predictions about the 2026 list. Many are off the mark in a fun way. Great insights but also shows how much things can change booking wise, who's going to be a big star, etc. Fun read!

 

[NotJayTabb]

My Mark Andrews prediction aged like milk. At the time he was the better, likeable version of Will Ospreay, but he never really kicked on.

[MoS]

None of us would have predicted Roman Reigns not making it to the top 100 in 2016 tbh. He had had his balls cut off by Hunter in the lead to WM, but he had given plenty of indication of just how good he could be if booked properly like an ass-kicking babyface against heels that are actually good. 

I wonder how much AEW being born has affected the rankings of modern WWE wrestlers. It's weird because pretty much no one who has made his career solely in AEW is going to rank in the top 100, but another major, successful American wrestling promotion showcasing a generally different wrestling style from the modern main event WWE style every week on prime time on their own internationally broadcast TV shows must have had an impact. 

[NotJayTabb]

Even as recently as a few years back, there's a thread in the "Vs" folder to see who the best Shield member was, and Reigns won it quite handily. Yet Ambrose is the only one who's made the top 100, so opinions can swing quite quickly.

[MoS]

I think even if we run that poll now here, Reigns will win handily. Mox is quite polarizing on the board while Roman is generally very well-liked. But yes, I do think that generally, Mox has seen an upsurge of appreciation while Roman has come for more criticism in the last few years, at least from what I have seen on Twitter and the GWE discord, even though Mox's last world title reign got a lot more criticism than the last couple of years of Roman's mega-run with the world title.