Current Top 10 Contenders GWE2026

[Garbage]

Rough estimate at the moment

1. Terry Funk
2. El Satanico
3. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
4. El Hijo del Santo
5. Negro Casas
6. Stan Hansen
7. Genichiro Tenryu
8. Mitsuharu Misawa
9. Jerry Lawler
10. Kiyoshi Tamura

[KB8]

On 4/18/2026 at 8:05 PM, Chess Knight said:

Rough estimate at the moment

1. Terry Funk
2. El Satanico
3. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
4. El Hijo del Santo
5. Negro Casas
6. Stan Hansen
7. Genichiro Tenryu
8. Mitsuharu Misawa
9. Jerry Lawler
10. Kiyoshi Tamura

The order isn't the same, but swap in Hashimoto for Misawa and that might end up being the exact list of names in my top 10 as well. 

[El-P]

IF I voted, it would probably look like something something like this :

1 : Hiroshi Tanahashi

2 : Kenny Omega

3 : Akira Hokuto

4 : Kazuchika Okada

5 : Genichiro Tenryu

6 : Will Ospreay

7 : Manami Toyota

8 : Kenta Kobashi

9 : Terry Funk

10 : Brian Danielson

Ya know...

[Matt D]

You guys have no concept of just how much the kids hate even the idea of watching Lawler for moral reasons.

[highflyflow]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

You guys have no concept of just how much the kids hate even the idea of watching Lawler for moral reasons.

This isn't a prediction thread, though; this is just what the top of our lists look like.

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, highflyflow said:

This isn't a prediction thread, though; this is just what the top of our lists look like.

Ah, got it. My list looks a lot like it did last time, but with Tenryu and Fujiwara inserted. Ironically, that might knock Lawler out, but more likely, it knocks out Flair.

[Microstatistics]

This was the Top 10 of the list I submitted, including shifts from 2016.

1. Kenta Kobashi (6 --> 1, +5)

2. Shawn Michaels (37 --> 2, +35)

3. El Hijo del Santo (15 --> 3, +12)

4. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (22 --> 4, +18)

5. Kiyoshi Tamura (7 --> 5, +2)

6. El Satanico (2 --> 6, -4)

7. Bryan Danielson (26 --> 7, +19)

8. Eddie Guerrero (12 --> 8, +4)

9. Jushin Liger (3 --> 9, -6)

10. Gunther (New)

Only Kobashi, Tamura, Satanico, and Liger remained, with further rearrangements. For the ones that dropped down:

Genichiro Tenryu (1 --> 22, -21)

Negro Casas (4 --> 40, -36)

Tatsumi Fujinami (5 --> 13, -8)

Akira Hokuto (8 --> 16, -8)

Jun Akiyama (9 --> 19, -10)

El Dandy (10 --> 75, -65)

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, Microstatistics said:

2. Shawn Michaels (37 --> 2, +35)

Fascinated by this. What footage, new or reevaluated by you, would cause this between 2016 and now? Past some Rockers reevaluation (positively), there hasn’t been much shift in overall Shawn discussion.

and poor Dandy and Casas.

[Microstatistics]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

Fascinated by this. What footage, new or reevaluated by you, would cause this between 2016 and now? Past some Rockers reevaluation (positively), there hasn’t been much shift in overall Shawn discussion.

and poor Dandy and Casas.

To be fair, 37 was a severe underestimation of Shawn to begin with. I regretted it almost immediately, he should have been closer to 20. But uncovering two distinct all-time great singles peaks (1994-1997 and 2005-2009/10) and the universally lauded Rockers run, coupled with intrinsic fundamentals and intangibles, made a place in the Top 5 the bare minimum.

Casas was hit by a relative lack of high-end output (the inverse was true for Santo, hence the ascension). His case also felt exceedingly Santo-centric for me at first, but great work vs. the likes of La Fiera and Rush ensured a respectable Top 40 finish.

[Matt D]

16 hours ago, Microstatistics said:

To be fair, 37 was a severe underestimation of Shawn to begin with. I regretted it almost immediately, he should have been closer to 20. But uncovering two distinct all-time great singles peaks (1994-1997 and 2005-2009/10) and the universally lauded Rockers run, coupled with intrinsic fundamentals and intangibles, made a place in the Top 5 the bare minimum.

Casas was hit by a relative lack of high-end output (the inverse was true for Santo, hence the ascension). His case also felt exceedingly Santo-centric for me at first, but great work vs. the likes of La Fiera and Rush ensured a respectable Top 40 finish.

I'm excited for your 2036 ballot, if only for your clear flexibility of mind and growth/learning mindset.