GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[El-P]

1 minute ago, Stephen- said:

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.

Pretty much exactly this. 

[KB8]

A few surprising drops this time around. Interesting to see where some of them were compared to 2016 as well.

 

Spoiler

#729

Jimmy Uso

Top 40 is wild. That the same voter never had the Tonga Kid on there is a travesty. Was this you, Rikishi???

 

 

#728

Pimpinela Escarlata

Oh damn, it's been a hundred years since I've thought about Pimpinela Escarlata. Or at least 10. 

 

 

#727

Sho Funaki

Actually watched the 12/16/96 M-Pro 10-man tag the other night and I'm pretty sure Funaki got legit injured in it, but if he didn't then he sold the leg like a total king. Kind of shocking it's taken 20 years for him to receive one single vote and then he goes and gets one in the top 40. 

 

 

#726

Herodes

Man I love Herodes. Really wanted to find a spot for him but he dropped off late in the game. I actually rejigged my list in 2021 and he was there as my #100. I haven't watched one Herodes match since so I guess he was out of sight, out of mind. Super fun bruiser even into the early 90s, pit pull brawler and grade A stooge shtick. The Tony Salazar match is also a classic if we're looking for the output. Awesome wrestler, glad he got a vote and I love that it was just outside the top 30. 

 

 

#725

Spiros Arion

I'm pretty suer I've seen the Baclund and Bruno matches. It was closer to 20 years ago than yesterday. 

 

#724

Pierrothito

Look, the '97 stuff alone is probably worth a vote. 

 

 

#723

Candy Okutsu

Really fun wrestler. 

 

#722

Zoltan Boscik

The WoS stuff is out there, I just need to get to it!

 

#721

Arik Royal

I know who this but I couldn't tell you with confidence if I've seen him wrestle. 

 

 

#720

El Brazo

The Brazos rule. If you asked me for my perfect representation of a lucha trios, Los Brazos v Los Infernales from 11/91 might be it.

 

#719

Hombre Bala

Great pick. Can be easy to think of him as being a rung below Pirata Morgan (and Jerry Estrada if you're so inlined), and I suppose he is, but Los Bucaneros were great and Hombre Bala was never just a third wheel. When the Bucaneros decided to reel off a match full of spectacular horse shit and stooge to the back row for a trio of tecnicos, you'd be hard pressed to find three guys better at it. 

 

#718

Debbie Malenko

A great Mariko Yoshida opponent and I don't say that because it's all I think of her as, I only say it because I haven't seen her against anyone other than Yoshida in probably 15 years. 

 

#717

Konaka

Can't say I know who Konaka is. 

 

 

#716

Hector Guerrero

My #78. Would've bet no small sum of money on me being the high voter but I love that I wasn't. Hector was so great. He was basically Eddie before Eddie and you can tell it was Hector who Eddie modeled himself after. The similarities are sort of crazy; the mannerisms, the way they even move. Hector and Chavo Sr. are one of the most fun US tag teams of the 80s as both heels and babyfaces. Had some awesome offence and could work a guy over with just the right mix of style and heat-garnering that made you want to see them get punched in the mouth. Hector is someone I could watch against basically anybody, for three minutes or 30, and he has a pretty damn stellar resume when you comb through the footage. The Lothario feud in Houston is tremendous and the Mexican Death Match is one of my five favourite matches of the decade, and Hector is incredible in it, going from faux sportsman to inevitably flying off the handle and brutalising Lothario. Has a STUPID deep bag of stooge tricks and shtick. I wouldn't spend too much time arguing with anyone who thought Chavo (the elder) was better, but for me Hector is the second best Guerrero. 

 

[El-P]

Oh, I missed Okutsu. Back in the days, her first retirement in JWP before her comeback in ARSION (because, pro-wrestling) was one of the most emotional thing you could watch. 

[Control21]

Zouev and Grom Zaza are off the board. I'm glad to see they got multiple votes.

[Microstatistics]

#714

Tamon Honda

#693

Brazo de Oro

#689

"La Galáctica" Pantera Sureña

These dropped surprisingly early. I know Honda has his fans so really thought he'd be closer to the Top 200, but I guess those voices are niche.

But Brazo and Sureña falling this soon is disappointing. Brazo was legit one of the best luchadors of the late 80s/early 90s and Sureña's work across AJW and EMLL was substantial. 

#684

The Miz

This is rubbing salt in the wound.

#674

Axel Dieter

My #86. Glad he got five votes. A European legend, that Morowski LLT is absolute must-see.

[ohtani's jacket]

Nice to see Pimpi and Cassandro getting some votes. 

KB('s write up about Hector Guerrero has me fired up. 

 I didn't know that cad is a WoS fan. 

 

[Reel]

The longer we wait for Megumi Fujii to drop, the more I regret the nomination. I nominated her purely so that I could put at 100 on my ballot, as a sort of comment on the small sample size shoot-style cases, Han and Tamura namely. The more wrestlers we get that rank above her, the more I think it was misguided to include someone who we know only had three matches. 

[Ma Stump Puller]

33 minutes ago, Reel said:

The longer we wait for Megumi Fujii to drop, the more I regret the nomination. I nominated her purely so that I could put at 100 on my ballot, as a sort of comment on the small sample size shoot-style cases, Han and Tamura namely. The more wrestlers we get that rank above her, the more I think it was misguided to include someone who we know only had three matches. 

I had her low so I'm the opposite, pretty sick that so many were inclined to throw her on based on such a small sample size.

 

[Reel]

Oh, I still put her at 100, but I just think the farther it goes, the more absurd it becomes. We’re already at a point where there are too many wrestlers below her that I hold in a fairly high esteem. I’m just a little bit uncomfortable with playing a part in that. 

[Kadooboo]

I am shocked I'm not the Gedo high vote

[KB8]

I imagine there'll be plenty of wrestlers you could argue are not as good as Megumi Fujii finishing above her, so I wouldn't stress too hard about her still being there. 

 

Spoiler

#715

Stalker Ichikawa

I remember him as the comedy guy on Dragon Gate/Toryumon undercards who dressed like a bumblebee. And hey, maybe sometimes that's enough. 

 

 

#714

Tamon Honda

Pretty significant drop, but also maybe not totally surprising. Maybe in 10 years people will be jumping back into early 00s NOAH again. 

 

 

#713

Ran YuYu

Watched a bit of her a couple months back, mostly using Jetlag as a reference. She's fun.

 

 

#712

MAO

I do not have a clue who this is, brothers and sisters. 

 

 

#711

Salman Hashimikov

The '89-'90 New Japan stint is super fun.

 

#710

WING Kanemura

Been forever since I watched a WING Kanemura match. I think he had something decent with Mike Awesome once?

 

 

#709

Caswell Martin

Another WoS candidate I must ask for forgiveness. 

 

 

#708

Mami Kumano

Okay Kumano is awesome. The Black Pair are awesome. SHE is not quite as awesome as her partner, but that's no slight at all. Love the pick. 

 

 

#707

The Bloody

I honestly don't know if I've seen a Bloody match. It feels impossible that that could be the case, but I'm drawing nothing. 

 

 

#706

Hardcore Holly

Nice dropkick. Decent enough tag worker. Bob Holly almost receiving a top 50 vote is not something I would've had on the cards, though. 

 

 

#705

Rambo

Really fun bruiser and not the least bit afraid to look like a fool. Nice pick. 

 

#704

Villano V

I'm not as high as a lot of people on the Panther mask match and I'm struggling to think of much that's stood out elsewhere. I will take the word of the five voters, however. 

 

#703

Doug Furnas

Better dropkick than Bob Holly. Nice leapfrog. Has a few outstanding tag matches under his belt too. 

 

 

#702

Daniel Garcia

Yeah I like Garcia well enough. I should watch the stuff against Danielson from a few years ago. 

 

 

#701

Makoto Hashi

Absurd headbutter. That October 2010 FUTEN match where he and Ikeda try to crack each other's skull might be enough for a top 25 vote on its own.

 

 

#700

Drew Gulak

I haven't seen a lot of Gulak honestly, but what I have seen is usually damn good. The Danielson match before we all went into lockdown was badass. 

 

 

#699

Gedo

THIS one is the New Japan booker. Like Jado, the last time I actually saw him in a match was getting beat up and down the place by Tenryu. He was fun in that role so yeah why not.

 

 

#698

Kengo Kimura

My GUT feeling is that this is too low for our boy Kengo. Always really good in any inter-promotional wrestling, brings the hatred and animosity and aggression and will flying knee you in the face. Has a pretty deep resume of top drawer matches too. Yeah c'mon, there aren't nearly 700 wrestlers in history better than Kengo Kimura. 

 

 

#697

Takashi Ishikawa

Lumpy WAR dude who walks the road of Tenryu. Probably deserves higher but then who am I to rail against anything when I never voted for him either. 

 

 

#696

Kotaro Suzuki

His best SUWA impression against KENTA one time was pretty fun. Not sure it was enough for him to finish about 100 spots above the actual SUWA. 

 

 

#695

Kantaro Hoshino

I really wanted to find a spot for Hoshino again this time around, but he fell off late. Hoshino is awesome, though. Will pick a fight with anyone, no matter if they're two feet taller than him, which is everyone because everyone is two feet taller than him. Killer punches. Great wrestler. 

 

#694

Titán

I've been watching a lot of modern CMLL through their youtube subscription the last few weeks and Titan is pretty okay. He's usually no worse than the fifth best guy in any trios match, so there's that. Before watching that stuff I hadn't seen him in probably 12 years when Virus walked him through a great title match. 

 

 

#693

Brazo de Oro

The Santo apuestas is a classic and he's another guy who could work a fun trios match in his sleep. 

 

 

#692

Akebono

I haven't watched Akebono in maybe 15 years but he started to get pretty fun as a big portly boy. 

 

 

#691

SANADA

Do not know a thing about SANADA. Can't imagine I've seen him wrestle. 

 

 

#690

Grom Zaza

Any time he'd show up in RINGS it was a fun time. 

 

#689

"La Galáctica" Pantera Sureña

I should watch more Surena, but what I've seen has been really good and the stuff with Jaguar is tremendous. Honestly, most of the 80s AJW heel stuff doesn't do a ton for me, but of everyone running the rampant cheating she might be the one I'd be most okay watching on the regular. 

 

#688

André Bollet

Another guy I haven't seen enough of.

 

 

#687

Tetsuya Endo

There have been a whole lot of wrestlers across the aeons and some of them I may never watch. I'm sure they're just great. 

 

#686

Derrick King

I've seen Derrick King wrestle, but I could not tell you anything about those experiences now, in the year 2026. 

 

#685

Norman Smiley

Very nice. UWF Smiley is fun, CMLL Smiley is fun, WCW Smiley is preposterous but also fun. There's at least one match against Terry Funk that rules and Funk smashes a laptop over Smiley's head. 

 

 

#684

The Miz

At least he only finished this high. 

 

#683

Brian Maxine

He's a WoS guy so you already know I'm not the one to be doing a deep write-up.

 

#682

Shigeo Miyato

Really fun shoot style guy. Definitely better than The Miz.

 

 

#681

Yumi Fukawa

Man Yumi Fukawa was fun. An exceptional Mariko Yoshida opponent and a good time whenever she pops up on random ARSION cards I throw on. 

 

 

#680

Masao Orihara

Wanted to find a spot but couldn't quite do it. An exceptional inter-promotional wrestler bringing the hate. A screwball bumper of the highest order. That Ohtani match is a juniors MOTDC and if all juniors wrestling followed the Orihara/Ohtani blueprint...well, that would've been cool. 

 

 

#679

Hans Schmidt

A guy you see footage of and think, "man, it would be cool if we had like 14 hours of this stuff."

 

 

#678

Nikolai Zouev

Get all the eastern European RINGS lads on the list, I say. 

 

 

#677

Kengo Mashimo

A blast any time he'd show up in FUTEN. Not sure about anywhere else. Maybe some of the Big Japan or K-Dojo stuff holds up. 

 

#676

Genki Horiguchi

I'm not a high voter on the Toryumon guys but Genki is usually pretty fun. 

 

 

#675

Mikey Whipwreck

He'll certainly take a shit-kicking. 

 

 

#674

Axel Dieter

I guess I need to watch this Moose Morowski match. 

 

 

#673

Maki Itoh

I actually sort of know who this is somehow but I'd be full of shit if I said I'd ever seen her wrestle. 

 

 

#672

Espanto Jr.

Maybe the best Santo opponent and that is an astronomical bar, but also just a quality pro wrestler when not matching up with one of the 10 best wrestlers to ever live. 

 

 

#671

Alan Sargeant

Okay, I've seen enough Sargeant to know he's good, just not enough to know how to actually rank him. 

 

 

#670

"IRS" Mike Rotunda

IRS getting a top 25 vote might be the most bonkers thing I've seen so far. Was this a Parv burner?? I have nothing much to say about Rotunda other than being routinely astonished at how profusely a man wearing office attire in a wrestling match can sweat. 

 

 

#669

Super Rider

I'm not 100% sure I know who this is but there was one Takeshi Ono match against some sort of Super Rider where Ono kicked him in the willy so maybe it was this one. How many Super Riders could there really be?

 

 

#668

Cassandro

Absurdly fun wrestler. Love the top 30 pick. 

 

 

#667

Dick Slater

Never LOVED Slater and the idea he was a bit of a Terry Funk cosplayer felt pretty accurate, but I've come around on him some more the last few years. I watched one of the Reed matches from Mid-South again semi-recently and he was great in it. And really, if you're going to cosplay anyone then why not Terry Funk?

 

 

#666

Buh-Buh Ray Dudley

I do not think Buh-Buh Ray Dudley is very good. Tough landing spot.

 

 

#665

"Dragon Soldier B" Kendo Kashin

Some of the 90s New Japan juniors stuff is alright but I can't say I've seen him much outside of that. 

 

 

#664

Melina

I always remember the match against Beth Phoenix where Beth put Melina in a half crab and made her kick herself in the back of the head with her own foot. That sort of flexibility will take you right up to the door of a top 10 finish. Apparently. 

 

 

#663

Rip Rogers

I remember when we did the Smarckchoice greatest WCW match ever poll and whatshisname voted Rogers v Brian Pillman from TV as the #1 WCW match in history. So Rip Rogers being the 16th best wrestler in history isn't the wildest thing you'll see. Probably. 

 

 

#662

Raymond Rougeau

The Rougeaus were definitely very fun. 

 

 

#661

Eddie Edwards

Eddie Edwards is not my sort of pro wrestler but I'm glad he's someone else's. 

 

 

#660

Dr. Tom Prichard

The Heavenly Bodies were pretty awesome. 

 

 

#659

Kuniaki Kobayashi

Sort of shocked he finished so low. There's some Kobayashi that does nothing for me, where he and his opponent are just running through stuff, but other times he'll headbutt you in the face and stomp on your neck and that Kobayashi I'll get behind. 

 

#658

Ciclón Ramírez

A Ciclon Ramirez tope is a sensational thing and the Felino matches are excellent. 

 

 

#657

El Texano

Texano rules. If you ask me this is about 400 spots too low, but then you didn't ask me so we can only accept our lot in life. 

 

 

#656

Rika Tatsumi

No idea.

 

 

#655

Gilbert Cesca

Figured he might be higher. That first match with Catanzaro dropping on the internet feels like a lifetime ago, but even going through the French stuff that's been made available since then he still feels like a spectacular wrestler. 

 

 

#654

Jimmy Golden

I like Golden. The Dustin match is pretty amazing. 

 

#653

Miguel Pérez Jr.

I'm not massively familiar with Perez Jr. and I should probably rectify that. 

 

 

#652

Chris Colt

The last Chris Colt match I watched I thought he looked like one of the most incredible scumbags I'd ever seen. Just purely on aesthetics. I should watch more, maybe.

 

 

#651

Trevor Lee

He had a bunch that went like 70 minutes, right? I would be a bare-faced liar if I said I'd ever sit down and watch those but I like that enough other folk love them. 

 

[Control21]

Dick Vrij being the lowest-ranked wrestler with double-digit votes is pretty funny (in a good way)

[highflyflow]

Dick Vrij getting 10 votes rules

[cad]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I didn't know that cad is a WoS fan. 

That was my big branchout for this project.

[cad]

Ciclon Ramirez fell today. A couple of months ago I watched a match from 1994, Kung Fu, Felino and someone vs Trueno, Ciclon Ramirez and someone. The focus of the match was a rivalry between Trueno and Kung Fu, 1994 Kung Fu. It was as exciting as it sounds. Somewhere in there Ciclon Ramirez took the greatest post shot I have ever seen, and now I'll remember that match for as long as my memory functions. This is the appeal of Ciclon Ramirez.

Here's that post shot.

 

[KB8]

I still can't figure out if that smack was a sound effect or his actual head hitting the post. 

 

Spoiler

#650

Bob Sapp

A top 25 vote! The last time I watched Sapp was PRIDE Sapp but I do remember the Muta match being fun. 

 

#649

Yuka Sakazaki

Another name, another person I couldn't pick out of a line-up. 

 

#648

"Spanky" Brian Kendrick

London and Kendrick were a super fun team. Watched some of the 2005 ROH run as Spanky a few years back and there was at least one really good match against Alex Shelley. Had that cool resurgence in the late 2010s. 

 

 

#647

Mr. Niebla

The Niebla/Wagner Jr. title match from '97 is something I wanted to see for years after reading about it in one of the old DVDVRs. It wound up not being all that great but one disappointing match does not define a career and Niebla had some good stuff around '97-'98. 

 

 

#646

Kamala

Honestly I'm shocked he made it into the 300s back in 2016. One of Hogan's best opponents and I love his tag match shtick where he doesn't understand the rules so when someone tags him in he tries to kill them. The Duggan feud in Mid-South/Houston was pretty awesome. 

 

 

#645

Manny Fernandez

Another middle of the pack 80s territory guy drops 300 spots lower than 2016. Manny was pretty great. The Abdullah match from Starrcade 85 is a great little brawl and Manny roaring like a lion for his comeback is always a good time. Really strong tag worker and the run with Rude produced some good stuff. Great bleeder and would always sell the blood-loss during comebacks. He's probably better than #645 but what can you do. 

 

 

#644

Fred Yehi

People were talking up Yehi in 2016 as someone who could make a strong run in 2026. I still haven't seen more than one Fred Yehi match so I won't be the one to make that case. Well, evidently nobody was. 

 

 

#643

Les Kellett

I wish we had a bunch more Kellett because of the small handful of matches I've seen he was a genuinely funny comedy worker. Apparently a real-life maniac. 

 

 

#642

Mad Dog Vachon

I think the only Mad Dog Vachon footage I've seen is old man Vacon where all he can really do is punch and sell, but you know what, old man Vachon who can only punch and sell was involved in two of the best brawls of the 80s so how loudly can I complain? Someone I wish we had a boat load of footage of. 

 

 

#641

Stan Stasiak

The smatterings we have are okay. His heart punch looks pretty good, if I remember right. Or Buddy Rose just made it look so. 

 

 

#640

Espectrito

He was in consideration for me. An unbelievable base and a super fun rudo. 

 

 

#639

Otto Wanz

There's a whole lot of Wanz footage out there that I haven't seen and I should probably get to it after the WoS stuff and the rest of the French footage and every other thing I said I should get to. 

 

 

638

"Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin

A top 15 vote is pretty cool. Lots of good stuff in the WCCW run and there's at least one Kevin Von Erich match that is tremendous. Him and Ron nearly starting a riot against the Rougeaus in Montreal is pretty great too. 

 

 

#637

Masahito Kakihara

Could watch him and Tamura slap the teeth off each other every day. I don't know how much peak Kakihara I've actually seen but earlier days Kakihara is good. 

 

 

#636

Eric Embry

Has some real top level stuff in Puerto Rico and World Class, though I haven't watched the World Class stuff since we did the Texas set. Which was 16 bastard years ago! 

 

 

#635

Tommy Dreamer

I can see why people might vote for Tommy. I'm not one of those people but there was an authenticity about him that I can appreciate. 

 

 

#634

Dick Vrij

I'll tell you one thing - when Vrij was on one he was on one. I never really considered him for this, but there was one Vrij fight from RINGS that I had on my GME 100 last time and as a big mad buzzsaw bastard he was sure believable. 

 

 

#633

Don Frye

Honestly some of the late 90s/early 00s Frye kinda rules. 

 

#632

Shuji Kondo

Not really for me, but the Kaz Hayashi match from '06 was one that I loved at the time as I was just starting to really follow some Japanese promotions in real time. My tastes have since shifted, shall we say. 

 

 

#631

Adam Priest

I've seen one Adam Priest match but Matt D has written about a bunch of Priest matches on SC so naturally I feel like I know him like a son. 

 

 

#630

Tank

I haven't really seen much Tank. I do want to watch that 2006 Wargames, though. 

 

 

#629

Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

I like Rayo fine. I'll never complain about lucha representation on this list. 

 

 

#628

Slim J

Another guy I should watch more of, but what I've seen is really fun. Has a knack for adding cool wrinkles to every match.

 

 

#627

"The Red Rooster" Terry Taylor

Feels sort of low, but again I never voted for him so it's hard for me to complain. Re-watched the Adams feud from Mid-South and he was onto some pretty great stuff there. 

 

 

#626

Sakie Hasegawa

I don't have a ton to say about Hasegawa, but I probably like her more now than I did 10 years ago. Not someone I'm in a hurry to deep dive either way.

 

 

[Reel]

I would love to hear from the person who ranked Stan Stasiak 15. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Nice to see Les Kellett get so many votes. 

I'm pretty sure every luchador that's dropped so far is better than Niebla, and Rayo for that matter.

I'm surprised that Cesca is so popular. Not only did he get more votes than Ben Chemoul, Billy Catanzaro didn't even get nominated. 

[ohtani's jacket]

#681

Yumi Fukawa

Did she get nominated? I can't find a thread. 

 

[Shrike02]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Nice to see Les Kellett get so many votes. 

I'm pretty sure every luchador that's dropped so far is better than Niebla, and Rayo for that matter.

I'm surprised that Cesca is so popular. Not only did he get more votes than Ben Chemoul, Billy Catanzaro didn't even get nominated. 

I meant to vote for Cesca and forgot. Pretty sure I voted for Catanzaro; forgot to check whether he'd been nominated. Their match really was a harbinger of quality for the French catch archive.

[Grimmas]

11 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

#681

Yumi Fukawa

Did she get nominated? I can't find a thread. 

 

They got votes in 2016, so automatically nominated.

[Kadooboo]

I am proud to be the Super Delfin high vote, I genuinely wasn't expecting to be the high vote at #66

 

[ohtani's jacket]

28 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

They got votes in 2016, so automatically nominated.

OK, I see!

[Makai Club #1]

Gabe Kidd getting voted as high as 32 is an interesting one. Even if you are a fan, his ascendancy is so recent. 2023 onwards considered max. Unless someone is really into Rev Pro. 

[Control21]

Someone ranked Bas Rutten #14. That's beast