Current Top 10 Contenders GWE2026

[joeg]

Right now gun to my head?

1- Daniel Bryan

2- Terry Funk

3- Ric Flair

4- Stan Hansen 

5- Kenta Kobashi 

6- Tenryu

7- Misawa

8- Kawada

9- Hijo Del Santo

10- Austin

Cena, Rogers, Rey Jr., Eddie, Casas, Akiyama, Okada, Hokuto, Liger, Bret Hart, LA Park, Rose,  Piper, Tamura, Andre, Lawler, etc would all have a shot at the top 10.

 

None of the great workers from the 60s or 70s really did well in 2016 because of a lack of footage. It would be interesting to see what footage from that era pops up online in the next 5 years and how it shapes the outcome in 2026. 

[brockobama]

Steve Austin, Bryan Danielson, Aja Kong, Shinya Hashimoto, Negro Casas, and John Cena are the only ones who feel like strong contenders at the moment. The back half of the top ten is a real fluid thing for me. Mick Foley and Antonio Inoki are probably the most likely picks after that. The more I watch Andre the higher I want to put him, which seems sort of wild.

[Cap]

My current top 10....

1. Daniel Bryan
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. Stan Hansen
4. Terry Funk
5. El Hijo Del Santo
6. Ric Flair
7. Shinobu Kandori
8. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
9. Bull Nakano
10 Minoru Suzuki

Folks that are outside the working top 10, but in that next big tier of wrestlers and could have a chance (in no particular order)

Kiyoshi Tamura
Eddie Guerrero
Akira Hokuto
Randy Savage
Devil Masami
Volk Han
Jushin Liger
Chingusa Nagayo
El Satanico
Mick Foley
Mitsuharu Misawa
Billy Robinson
Jumbo Tsuruta
Genichiro Tenryu
Jaguar Yokota
Nick  Bockwinkel
Brock Lesnar
Bret Hart
Ricky Steamboat
Aja Kong
Samoa Joe
LA Park
Negro Casas
Meiko Sotomura
Toshiaki Kawada

[urbanecowboy]

In no particular order my Top 8

- Bryan Danielson 

- Bull Nakano

- Stan Hansen

- Terry Funk

-Bret Hart

-Genichiro Tenryu

-Jumbo Tsuruta

- Ric Flair

 

Lawler, Bockwinkel, Chigusa Nagayo, Shinobu Kandori and el Satanico are getting real consideration at the moment, though. 

[elliott]

7 hours ago, brockobama said:

Steve Austin, Bryan Danielson, Aja Kong, Shinya Hashimoto, Negro Casas, and John Cena are the only ones who feel like strong contenders at the moment. The back half of the top ten is a real fluid thing for me. Mick Foley and Antonio Inoki are probably the most likely picks after that. The more I watch Andre the higher I want to put him, which seems sort of wild.

If you ranked Andre like 3rd overall I'd look at your list and say "they ranked Andre 3rd! That's cool as fuck!" and then I'd be super pumped for the rest of your list

You won't regret ranking Andre ridiculously high. The only mistake with Andre is leaving him off. 

[mjp7798]

Only my top 4 is a lock (Funk, Hansen, Tamura, Casas).  The following names have all have a shot at my top 10 in no particular order: 

• Hijo del Santo
• Satanico
• Misawa
• Fujiwara
• Flair
• Steamboat
• Danielson
• Nagayo
• Yokota
• Masami
• Chicana
• Kobashi
• Tenryu
• Kawada
• Bockwinkel
• Ishikawa
• Rose
• Liger

[Alex]

I'm not quite sure of my top 10, but here's what I have so far (not in order):

Jaguar

Hokuto

Eddie

Hansen

Bull

Rey

Flair

Santito

Tenryu

Casas

[Control21]

This is my current top 10. I might have Kohsaka pretty high, but looking back on his career recently, he really didn't miss that often. He's sort of like Volk Han in that regard, just a smaller sample size. Might be one of the best pure wrestlers I've ever seen.

1) Bret Hart

2) Volk Han

3) Blue Panther

4) Akira Maeda

5) Mitsuharu Misawa

6) Billy Robinson

7) Kiyoshi Tamura

8) Kenta Kobashi

9) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

10) Yoshiaki Fujiwara

 

The rest of my top 25 -

11) Tatsumi Fujinami

12) Negro Casas

13) Antonio Inoki

14) Nobuhiko Takada

15) Karl Gotch

16) El Hijo del Santo

17) Jumbo Tsuruta

18) Owen Hart

19) Kazushi Sakuraba

20) Eddie Guerrero

21) Toshiaki Kawada

22) Satoru Sayama

23) Nick Bockwinkel

24) Villano III

25) Minoru Suzuki

[highflyflow]

GOAT Contenders (all wrestlers I think I could realistically see voting at #1; doesn't necessarily mean they will be my 1-10):

• Aja Kong
• Bryan Danielon
• El Hijo del Santo
• Genichiro Tenryu
• Kenta Kobashi
• Mitsuharu Misawa
• Ric Flair
• Shinya Hashimoto
• Terry Funk
• Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Wrestlers who could potentially crack my top 10:

• AJ Styles
• Akira Hokuto
• Buddy Rose
• Chigusa Nagayo
• Devil Masami
• El Satanico
• Hiroshi Tanahashi
• Jaguar Yokota
• Jumbo Tsuruta
• Jun Akiyama
• Jushin Liger
• Kiyoshi Tamura
• Negro Casas
• Nick Bockwinkel
• Rey Mysterio Jr.
• Stan Hansen
• Tatsumi Fujinami
• Toshiaki Kawada
• Vader
• Yuki Ishikawa

 

[HeadCheese]

My current top 10

Bryan Danielson

Chigusa Nagayo

Dr. Wagner Jr

HARASHIMA

Jumbo Tsuruta

Kenta Kobashi

LA Park

Mayumi Ozaki

Minoru Suzuki

Ricky Steamboat

 

Wrestlers I could see making my top 10

Aja Kong

Akira Taue

Ricky Morton

Yuji Nagata

[ZubazKid]

My current top 10

Danielson

Kobashi

Misawa

Flair

Hansen

Tenryu

Funk

Kawada

Aja

Hokuto

 

The rest of my top 25 though this still fluctuates some

Jumbo

Akiyama

Tanahashi

Styles

Liger

Steamboat

Mysterio

El Hijo del Santo

Negro Casas

Bockwinkle

Bull

Vader

Austin

Savage

Eddie Guerrero

[DMJ]

1. Steve Austin

2. Terry Funk

3. Bryan Danielson

4. Bret Hart 

5. Ric Flair

6. Rey Mysterio Jr.

7. AJ Styles

8. Eddie Guerrero

9. Shawn Michaels

10. Ricky Steamboat

 

However...these are not "locked in" as I have a number of wrestlers I haven't ranked yet, including Misawa, Kawada, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Bull Nakano, Liger, and Aja Kong. I don't think every one of those names will land in the Top 10, but I could see 1 or 2 getting there. I also could see the ten already in there switching places.

I think I wrote it somewhere else but I have really only started watching Japanese wrestling (Mexico is still a huge blind spot) in the past 12-18 months. I have a GWE Playlist I'm working through on YouTube and documenting all that I'm watching on my blog (Kwang The Blog) on top of continuing to play catch-up with the AEW PPVs and also the full TNA PPVs available on YouTube (I've basically dropped watching any WWE content at this point, though I'll probably feel the itch and watch the Rumble) and I mention this because I've sworn myself to only vote for wrestlers who I've reviewed 20 or more matches of.

Now, at this point, I've seen 20+ Misawa, Hashimoto, Nakano, and probably Kawada matches...but I'm still going to hold out another few months before ranking them just so I can have as complete a picture as I can (ideally, anyone in my top 10 is someone who I've seen at least 40 matches of, good and bad). Ditto for La Parka and Tully Blanchard and some of the newer guys that I think are actively building a case or strengthening a case - Hangman, Swerve, Ospreay, Darby, Mercedes Mone, Takeshita, Zach Sabre Jr. - to be on my list. 

[Grimmas]

Based on my formula and method, I currently have: 

1 Akira Hokuto
2 Bull Nakano
3 Bret Hart
4 Genichiro Tenryu
5 Chigusa Nagayo
6 Aja Kong
7 Stan Hansen
8 El Hijo del Santo
9 Terry Funk
10 Kyoko Inoue

[El McKell]

The mortal locks for my top 10 are:
 

·         Bryan Danielson

·         Hiroshi Tanahashi

·         Kenta Kobashi

·         Ric Flair

·         Shawn Michaels

 

And the people most seriously vying for the other 5 spots in my top 10 are

·         Akira Hokuto

·         Bret Hart

·         Kazuchika Okada

·         Jerry Lawler

·         Jumbo Tsuruta

·         Manami Toyota

·         Mitsuharu Misawa

·         Rey Mysterio Jr.

·         Toshiaki Kawada

·         Will Ospreay

[Microstatistics]

Eight out of 10 seem like certainties at this point (alphabetically arranged)

- Eddie Guerrero, El Hijo del Santo, El Satanico, Jushin Liger, Kenta Kobashi, Kiyoshi Tamura, Shawn Michaels, Yoshiaki Fujiwara

The ones below appear to be in contention for the remaining spots (so would be Top 20-25 locks)

- AJ Styles, Akira Hokuto, Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar, Bryan Danielson, Daisuke Ikeda, Gunther, Jun Akiyama, Kenny Omega, Mitsuharu Misawa, Tatsumi Fujinami

[Boss Rock]

In some form it will be:

Kenta Kobashi

Mitsuharu Misawa

Toshiaki Kawda

Stan Hansen

Bryan Danielson

Genichiro Tenyru

Akira Taue

Jun Akiyama

Jushin Liger

Terry Funk

[NotJayTabb]

My top 10 is still fluid, but at the moment it looks like:

Bret Hart

Rey Mysterio

Jushin Liger

Terry Funk

El Hijo Del Santo

Stan Hansen

Daniel Bryan

Randy Savage

Mitsuharu Misawa

Negro Casas

[Tetsujin]

Pretty confident at the moment:

1. Kenta Kobashi

2. Bryan Danielson

3-5. Aja Kong/Hiroshi Tanahashi/Shawn Michaels

6-7. Nick Bockwinkel/Jushin Thunder Liger

8. Akira Hokuto

9-10. Mitsuharu Misawa/Ric Flair

[EnviousStupid]

Terry Funk

Yoshiaki Fujiwara

El Hijo del Santo

Jumbo Tsuruta

Genichiro Tenryu

Rey Mysterio

Kenta Kobashi

Ric Flair

Bryan Danielson

Jun Akiyama

Others who might break in are Hiroshi Tanahashi, AJ Styles, Shinya Hashimoto, Bull Nakano, CM Punk, Nick Bockwinkel, Sangre Chicana and Antonio Inoki.