GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[KB8]

Spoiler

#740

Crazy Crusher

I can't say for certain that I've never seen a Crazy Crusher match. But I'm about 90% certain I've never seen a Crazy Crusher match. 

 

 

#739

Steve Veidor

Well I've seen at least one Steve Veidor match It was against Tony Charles. It was good. I should probably watch more. 

 

#738

"The Genius" Lanny Poffo

Poffo was fun as fuck. Some ridiculously entertaining shtick and his gymnastics always made semi-squash matches a blast. The Funk match in WWF rules and Poffo is amazing as this crazy flexible and agile enigma that Funk can't get to grips with. Also a wordsmith. Love this pick. 

 

 

#737

Mr. Fuji

I went through a bunch of early 80s Fuji years ago and it was a hoot. Such a fun little dirty cheat and now and then he'd basically put his opponents in a nipple cripple, which is certainly a cool take on the nerve hold. 

 

#736

Kohei Sato

Every Sato match I've seen has featured a spot where he shows zero regard for his own brain by absolutely walloping someone with an unprotected headbutt. 

 

 

#735

Horst Hoffmann

I've said several times - to myself, usually - that I should just watch every Horst Hoffmann match on tape. There's not that many and to be honest I think I've watched about 75% of them already anyway. He was really good. 

 

 

#734

Yoshiko Tamura

I haven't seen a ton of Tamura, but I've had the Toshie Uematsu match from 97 that everyone loves on the to-watch list for ages. The Yoshida match from 2006 is really good based on what we see of it (like 14 minutes of 27 or whatever) but my main takeaway from that is Yoshida still being tremendous in 2006. I didn't love the Azumi Hyuga match I watched. Maybe 2000s joshi is a task for 2036. 

 

 

#733

Baron Mikel Scicluna

Didn't Parv hate Scicluna? Great pick. 

 

 

#732

Konnan

At his worst, one of the most obviously gassed (as in exhausted, not roided, although maybe that too) wrestlers you'll ever see. At his best, a perfectly good foil for Sangre Chicana. 

 

 

#731

Jey Uso

I do not think Jey Uso is better than Konnan. Well maybe some of the mid-2010s Usos tag stuff is fine. But any Jey Uso I've watched over the last six years or so has not been my idea of a party. 

 

 

#730

Seiji Sakaguchi

Sakaguchi is good. I like Sakaguchi. A near-top 30 pick is cool. 

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

5 hours ago, highflyflow said:

Yoshiko Tamura fucking ruled, sad she's dropped already.

I considered her for a bit but I hadn't watched her early JWP work (including matches that are only available on fancams). Maybe her weird 2020's comeback where she shows back up for one good match a year might swing her forward in 2036?

 

[donsem43]

I think you have Tamura confused with Shinobu Kandori.

4 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Was it Joshifans?

Yes, thank you!

[Scarletlikesounds]

30 minutes ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

I considered her for a bit but I hadn't watched her early JWP work (including matches that are only available on fancams). Maybe her weird 2020's comeback where she shows back up for one good match a year might swing her forward in 2036?

 

With all the joshi fans I've seen I'm slightly surprised she didnt make it slightly further up, but not particularly surprised given shes not exactly a big name.

[ohtani's jacket]

If you're going to watch one Steve Veidor match, make it Veidor vs Gwyn Davies. One of the best matches of the 70s. 

[gungan]

Jack Gallagher ruled. He was an excellent TV worker and one of the highlights of 205 Live when it was a top tier C show. He would've easily made my list if he didn't go into forced retirement because he did the UK indie wrestler thing of getting outed as a gross pervert.

[Microstatistics]

#867

Johnny Ace

Hmm, only one #100 vote. A harbinger for potential decline of 90s All Japan?

#822

Alberto del Rio

His offensive performance in the Dolph Ziggler Payback match was a thing of beauty.

#810

René Ben Chemoul

One of my favorites from the French footage, glad he got votes.

#776

Mickie James

I like her more than a lot of the newer generation.

#730

Seiji Sakaguchi

New Japan legend of the 70s and 80s.

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

2 hours ago, donsem43 said:

I think you have Tamura confused with Shinobu Kandori.

 

Oh no she does show up quite a bit during the early 2000's for JWP, this was just when they didn't have television slots so everything we have of that era is fancam, including a 30+ minute two out of three falls tag that reputation has it as a near-classic if memory serves.

 

 

[oldcasper]

Nice to see PUNQ mentioned in the thread.  Their tapes were an absolute goldmine back in the 00s - used to pore over the lists.

What I'll say about Hoffman is that whilst there is only a smattering of matches in 75 and 77 watching him is like watching him is a beautiful experience.  Intuitive, organic, like a dance but not choreography.  There's only a little but it's captivating.

[NotJayTabb]

If you thought PUNQ was active when they were reviewing tapes on DVDVR, you should see them on Letterboxd, over 42,000 films logged with over 20,000 reviewed

[El McKell]

Hard for me to understand what makes someone consider Mr. Fuji, Baron Scicula or Jet Uso a top 50 wrestler of all time. I would love to see these people post about what it is they love about these guys

[ohtani's jacket]

49 minutes ago, oldcasper said:

Nice to see PUNQ mentioned in the thread.  Their tapes were an absolute goldmine back in the 00s - used to pore over the lists.

What I'll say about Hoffman is that whilst there is only a smattering of matches in 75 and 77 watching him is like watching him is a beautiful experience.  Intuitive, organic, like a dance but not choreography.  There's only a little but it's captivating.

There was a Horst match from the 60s in the French footage, fwiw. 

[club]

8 hours ago, KB8 said:

 

  Hide contents

#743

Sid Cooper

I can only apologise again to the WoS folks. 

 

I was the lone Sid Cooper vote. Regal's childhood favourite wrestler.

Surprised to see Konnan and Sakaguchi so low. Figured they had a bigger niche.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Sid was on my short list but was culled. Deserves more recognition. If people like Breaks, they should check out Cooper as well. 

[El-P]

10 hours ago, Makai Club #1 said:

It's really cool to see that Jey, Jimmy and Rikishi all voted. That's awesome

😄

The fact he's one spot above Konnan makes it even funnier, considering how awful Konnan is. And I don't mean just as a human being.

[NotJayTabb]

His solo run has been bad, but I can see someone chucking him a low vote just based on the Usos being an all-timer tag team.

[El-P]

The Usos are probably the most overrated tag team in history. The mere fact they only worked WWE should disqualify them, or anyone else, from even being discussed anyway.

[Jetlag]

The ranking of japanese indy talents such as Taro Yamada and Yuiga are garnering some happy reactions even among Japanese speakers:

 

[Garbage]

Never would have guessed Sho Funaki would get a vote anywhere near #35. 

Ouch for Tamon Honda finishing this low, but I can't be too shocked. His case might ultimately be a little thin considering every highlight of his on tape now seems to be between 2001 - 2003. Still he was a beast in 2003 and the Ikeda and Akiyama matches are great. Dork ass Marty Scurll shouldn't be anywhere near him. If we somehow get all the Fu-Ten matches Honda had this next decade I would bet it would lock him onto my own list. Hoping there are more gems from his outside of that 01 - 03 range we already that I've not seen, too. 

I need to dive more in Ran YuYu because she's pretty great in GAEA in my viewing. The September 2003 match vs. Meiko is one of my favourite matches of that year. 

 

Side-note, pretty cool the reveal thread has already hit 10,000+ views.

[Grimmas]

19 minutes ago, Jetlag said:

The ranking of japanese indy talents such as Taro Yamada and Yuiga are garnering some happy reactions even among Japanese speakers:

 

I've seen some spanish posts by Mexicans too. It's really cool to see GWE talked about in different languages.

[El-P]

Probably voted for Kanemura in 2006. Shame on me.

100% voted for the Bloody in 2006. Yeah me.

Not surprised either would end up pretty much forgotten by 2026. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Alas poor Caswell Martin, I knew him. 

I am kinda happy that he was sandwiched between WING Kanemura and Mami Kumano, though. I mean that's pretty cool. 

I always felt as though Kumano laid the groundwork for bitchy wrestlers like Mima Shimoda and Takako Inoue. 

[club]

Tamon Honda only receiving 4 votes - from 8% to <1% of ballots - feels the most sign of the times result yet.

 

[highflyflow]

Oof, Tamon Honda drop hurts. Excellent pro wrestler even if I didn’t really consider him.

Was Funaki nominated in 2016? Him not getting a single vote feels crazy to me if so. Another very good worker 

[Stephen-]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

The Usos are probably the most overrated tag team in history. The mere fact they only worked WWE should disqualify them, or anyone else, from even being discussed anyway.

I do not think WWE lifers should be disqualified entirely, but I do struggle to see the argument for Jey as a top 100. I thought his title run was okay for WWE television, I mean it was better than Cena's heel title run at the same time. And there are a handful of good tag matches, but spanning across ten years makes it a lot more barren. I second them being overrated, not the most because Bully Ray and D-Von have that locked down, but they are up there. Their entire shtick was seeing how successful the Young Bucks were and being a total ripoff of them, but only 1% as talented as the Bucks and not even a full percent as innovative as the Bucks.