GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[Control21]

Just now, Reel said:

The Snowden book? Or is there some other book, because like, that’s essentially self-published. 

The Snowden book. It received a lot of positive coverage in the WON and such.

[Control21]

1 minute ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Yeah, he deserves a spot for his pre-Pancrase work. I don't think his WWF work hurts his case, either. Has anyone revisited his boring, long ass fights with Funaki in PWFG? Those were nearly the death of me twenty years ago. 

The Funaki matches are good. It's like eating plain, dry turkey. Not for everyone, but it is a hearty meal, I suppose.

[Garbage]

14 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Yeah, he deserves a spot for his pre-Pancrase work. I don't think his WWF work hurts his case, either. Has anyone revisited his boring, long ass fights with Funaki in PWFG? Those were nearly the death of me twenty years ago.

Watched it last year and the 8/23/91 Shamrock vs. Funaki is not something I would recommend. Takes forever to get anywhere and then basically doesn't get there anyway.

[Ma Stump Puller]

1 minute ago, Garbage said:

Watched it last year and the 8/23/91 Shamrock vs. Funaki is not something I would recommend. Takes forever to get anywhere and then basically doesn't get there anyway.

Their trio of matches is interesting I think, they get progressively worse with each one because of their innate need to increase the amount of time with every match to the point where their last 40 minute affair is better in terms of the grappling but goes so long (40 minutes!) that you lose the will to live well before then

 

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm having flashbacks. Maybe he didn't deserve to be on the list after all. Actually, his brother was probably the better Shamrock. 

[club]

2 hours ago, Matt D said:

A goal coming out of this should be figuring out how to help people get into WoS footage. JR and i had that thought after it did so poorly in 2016 and we didn't really crack it. 

It's a tough sell. Looks drab and the pro wrestling physics feels jarring until one gets used to it.

[ohtani's jacket]

6 minutes ago, club said:

It's a tough sell. Looks drab and the pro wrestling physics feels jarring until one gets used to it.

It's quintessentially British, so if you didn't grow up exposed to that culture then yeah, it can be a tough sell. I grew up in New Zealand, so we were exposed to a steady diet of British television shows. There wasn't a single element of WoS that was a culture shock to me, even if some of the finer regional nuances may have been lost on me. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I doubt it will ever have the reach that other styles do. It's never going to have the appeal that Japanese culture holds for young people online. It will remain a niche genre like lucha, shoot style and French Catch. Maybe that's why those are my three favorite styles. 

[Jetlag]

Hasegawa, one of the guys behind Mutoha, is happy with Yasushi Satos ranking (making it above the likes of Gypsy Joe, Rusher Kimura and Jimmy Snuka) and wrote a little blog post:

https://ameblo.jp/itako1818/entry-12965979197.html

[Tetsujin]

Dick the Bruiser, man. I recently watched his match with Verne in 1955 for the first time and completely fell in love with his performance. Gotta watch more stuff of his.

[GOTNW]

Now that we've come to #451, I feel like I finally have enough data for an analysis. Even though I still think it's probably a bit too early to comment in too much detail, I believe there is some clarity on the general trend of the list to come.

The most important thing for the people in "our" circles, i.e. huge ProWres nerds who want to spread propaganda (which is really just get people into wrestling they consider truly) great, is what challenges we are going to be facing in the future.

It's an uphill battle against:

1) Temporal bias 

2) Brand bias 

3) Our own laziness

Whoever is in vogue right now (meaning they have either had a successful run in the last few years, a discovery of new footage or a focused enlightenment-project by a section of dedicated fans) is going to do better. Whoever wrestled for more successful companies is also going to have a starting advantage. The third point is the only one where we can actually do anything. But first let's look at the results for a second.

I've lost a fair bit of my list already, including my #17 (taking this time to express my joy about not being the high vote on Kintaro Oki), but no one really dramatic. The most annoying loss has been Emilio Charles Jr.; not because of some great structuralistic shift and changing voting demographic but because I think he is an obviously exceptional worker with a really strong case and I personally could have vouched for him more, even if it wouldn't have mattered that much in the end.

Both the temporal bias and the brand bias could be fought against with autocratic measures, but that is not the spirit of the GWE, and it is probably better that's the choice that has been made. A historical record of the spirit of the times is likely worth more than a failed pursuit of the final truth.

What this means, for this GWE and all future ones, is that "international" and "historical" candidates are going to have a really hard time without strong consensus and coalition-building. The best Luchador/Shoot-Stylist/Joshi/World-of-sportsman is probably going to do fine, but the third or fourth best one might have no chance at making the list. The candidates whom you'll see and go "yeah those into the style love him but I don't know if I'll rank him" - they are the ones taking a fall right now.

The good news is that the biases are temporary and will be neutralized by the time future generations of gigantic ProWres nerds come along (alas, with their own recency bias).

In the mean time, for this year's list I would be very satisfied if at least some of the obvious historical greats who didn't make it last time return, and the major candidates representing peculiar styles and eras stay. We'll see.

[El Dragon]

That Blackwell drop hit me with the same impact his splash on Shiek Al-Kaissey. What a devastating fall from within 20 of the list to outside the top 425.

[Ricky Jackson]

Andy Kaufman is still in play, or did I miss him?

Definitely going to be a different top 100

[Grimmas]

35 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

Andy Kaufman is still in play, or did I miss him?

Definitely going to be a different top 100

Still hasn't dropped!

[Ricky Jackson]

He's my #100, but a lot of folks obviously went way higher

[Boss Rock]

Toru Yano top 3 vote!

[Microstatistics]

#449

Dolph Ziggler

#446

Giulia

#444

Mocho Cota

I had them in the 89-93 range so funny they ended up near each other. I'll take a Top 450 finish I suppose.

[Control21]

4 hours ago, GOTNW said:

Now that we've come to #451, I feel like I finally have enough data for an analysis. Even though I still think it's probably a bit too early to comment in too much detail, I believe there is some clarity on the general trend of the list to come.

The most important thing for the people in "our" circles, i.e. huge ProWres nerds who want to spread propaganda (which is really just get people into wrestling they consider truly) great, is what challenges we are going to be facing in the future.

It's an uphill battle against:

1) Temporal bias 

2) Brand bias 

3) Our own laziness

Whoever is in vogue right now (meaning they have either had a successful run in the last few years, a discovery of new footage or a focused enlightenment-project by a section of dedicated fans) is going to do better. Whoever wrestled for more successful companies is also going to have a starting advantage. The third point is the only one where we can actually do anything. But first let's look at the results for a second.

I've lost a fair bit of my list already, including my #17 (taking this time to express my joy about not being the high vote on Kintaro Oki), but no one really dramatic. The most annoying loss has been Emilio Charles Jr.; not because of some great structuralistic shift and changing voting demographic but because I think he is an obviously exceptional worker with a really strong case and I personally could have vouched for him more, even if it wouldn't have mattered that much in the end.

Both the temporal bias and the brand bias could be fought against with autocratic measures, but that is not the spirit of the GWE, and it is probably better that's the choice that has been made. A historical record of the spirit of the times is likely worth more than a failed pursuit of the final truth.

What this means, for this GWE and all future ones, is that "international" and "historical" candidates are going to have a really hard time without strong consensus and coalition-building. The best Luchador/Shoot-Stylist/Joshi/World-of-sportsman is probably going to do fine, but the third or fourth best one might have no chance at making the list. The candidates whom you'll see and go "yeah those into the style love him but I don't know if I'll rank him" - they are the ones taking a fall right now.

The good news is that the biases are temporary and will be neutralized by the time future generations of gigantic ProWres nerds come along (alas, with their own recency bias).

In the mean time, for this year's list I would be very satisfied if at least some of the obvious historical greats who didn't make it last time return, and the major candidates representing peculiar styles and eras stay. We'll see.

Yeah, I agree with you about this project being a good snapshot in time of the fanbase. That's probably where most of the value comes from. 

Unfortunately, unless you are really dedicated as a wrestling fan, your tastes are going to be dictated by what you are exposed to on TV or social media. The "niche" styles will continue to suffer because of this. I think even the "major" candidates like Volk Han or Jim Breaks will fall. It's just a question of how much. 

[KB8]

10 have fallen off of my list now. A travesty. I am very raging, let me tell you. 

 

Spoiler

#580

Felino

I never considered Felino and I'm not sure why. I think there's a decent argument to be made that he's Santo's best opponent, even if I wouldn't personally make that case. They're an unbelievable match-up though and it produced at least one classic title match along with two others not far below that level. Any time I come across a new Felino title match I rejoice. A really good wrestler. 

 

 

#579

Jim Cornette

Nobody knew how to wrestle in a giant man-sized babygrow and get heat like Cornette. 

 

 

#578

Gypsy Joe

If his career had been longer he might've cracked the top 500.

 

 

#577

Black Buffalo

It has been many a year since I last thought about Black Buffalo. 

 

 

#576

Honky Tonk Man

I just wish he'd been able to hit a 450 splash.

 

 

#575

Gran Naniwa

The crab walk was over like crazy. A very fun part of some of the best multi-man matches ever. 

 

 

#574

Hiromichi Fuyuki

Give me every lumpy WAR guy. 

 

 

#573

Tommy Rogers

Love that he got a top 20 vote. I wound up not voting for him this time (he was in the bottom quarter of my list in 2016) but he's tremendous and one of the best babyface tag wrestlers of all time. If I'm talking US babyface tag wrestler Mount Rushmore he's right there with Morton and Steamboat. Brilliant dropkick. I should've voted for him and now I feel stupid. 

 

 

#572

Nicole Matthews

I don't think I've ever seen a Nicole Matthews match. 

 

 

#571

Crusher

Wish we had more of his prime. 

 

 

#570

Sami Callihan

People used to hate (or still do hate?) Callihan because of the facial expressions, right? Or, you know, maybe more than that but they definitely hated the facial expressions. I haven't actually seen that much but the Finlay stuff rules and there's one Necro match that's really good. 

 

 

#569

Rusher Kimura

I've seen so much beaten down old man Rusher Kimura that I'm beginning to question if I've seen any OTHER version of him. Or indeed if any other version ever existed. I'll tell you what though, beaten down old man Rusher Kimura who can only headbutt people is a major part of one of the 10 best tag matches ever. 

 

#568

Lulu Pencil

Oh no not Lulu Pencil anybody but Lulu Pencil (I have not a clue who this is and if you offered me one trillion dollars to guess every person who'd get a top 3 vote we could've been here until the 2036 poll and I would still not be one trillion dollars richer). 

 

#567

Don Fuji

He was pretty fun as the resident Toryumon/Dragon Gate bully. 

 

 

#566

Kazuki Hirata

Don't know this one. Possibly never will. 

 

 

#565

Lizmark

Would echo most of what has been said about him in this thread already. He feels like a proper traditional tecnico to me, though I'm not really sure how to express what that is. Sometimes you know it when you see it and I know it when I see Lizmark. 

 

 

#564

Mercedes Martinez

I watched Martinez v Satomura from that Mae Young thing. It might be the only Mercedes Martinez match I've seen, though that sounds unlikely. It's the only one I REMEMBER at least. 

 

#563

Ashura Hara

Another WAR bruiser. Give me him and Tenryu against anybody. 

 

 

#562

Invader III

Had an absolute corker of a tope. 

 

#561

Jimmy Snuka

I do not think Jimmy Snuka was particularly good. 

 

 

#560

Serena Deeb

Deeb was easily one of my favourite parts of AEW when I was watching it for a few months back in 2022. That's all I've seen of her so if she has more stuff around that level I'd be interested in checking it out. 

 

 

#559

"Nature Boy" Buddy Landell

The team with Dundee was responsible for some of the best TV studio wrestling ever. 

 

 

#558

Jimmy Jacobs

I think it might've been Schneider who said it years ago, but Jacobs for a little while felt like a 00s Eddie Gilbert. I don't have much use for BJ Whitmer and at times they leaned a little too heavily on props for my own tastes, but some of those 2007 ROH brawls were bonkers and the falls count anywhere match from Liverpool is one of the best indie brawls of the decade. A true lunatic. 

 

 

#557

Antonio Honda

The Dick Togo match is grade A phenomenal and by all accounts he was capable of that on more than just that occasion. Maybe someone I should seek out more of. 

 

 

#556

Yumi Ikeshita

My #100. Usually that spot gets reserved for a personal pick like a walking mummy or a Lulu Pencil but I can assure you I voted for Ikeshita because she is amazing and the lack of footage is all that holds her back (there's actually a decentish chunk out there but I haven't gone through all of it yet). A skinny menace you fully buy as being a legit ass-kicker, and if she couldn't kick your ass she'd stab you in the forehead with a broken bottle or hit you with a big stick. One of my favourite Ikeshita moments was mid-match when someone threw an empty can or something at her and she picked it up and clonked her opponent in the head with it. Had a vicious streak a mile wide and now and then she'd start working over someone's throat, grab them by the hair, stretch her own foot out across the mat, and drive that person throat-first into the toe of her boot. She could work a three-fall title match where the first fall was some sort of magical lucha-shoot style matwork hybrid, then she'd get frustrated and flip a switch and work the rest of it as a bloody brawl jabbing people with a fork like Abdullah the Butcher. She'd have been top 5 running away if she came through 15 years later. A sensational wrestler. 

 

 

#555

Jay Lethal

Some of the ROH stuff is okay. Actually the match from Tag Wars 06 where he teams with Danielson against Aries and Strong is one of the best ROH tags ever and partly because him and Danielson worked it as a pair of shithead Midnight Express cheating bastards. Low Ki would also routinely try to kill him with double stomps and that ruled. Holy shit I've got an episode of Collision from this year running on the background as I write this very post you're not reading and fucking Jay Lethal just came out to some weird Randy Savage entrance music. He's still wrestling?? Good for him, maybe.

 

 

#554

Akira Tozawa

I haven't properly followed WWE in close to 20 years but all I really think of when it comes to Tozawa is him being a WWE comedy guy and I'm sure that's a bit of a shame. 

 

 

#553

Jackie Fargo

A treasure trove of Fargo footage would be sweet. Even from the slim pickings we have you can tell he ruled. 

 

 

#552

Jerry Estrada

My #76. I know Estrada isn't for everyone, but the man has a magnetic quality that draws me to him in every match. He's an incredible shtick wrestler but I think in pointing that out it can be easy to underrate some of his other qualities. He's almost Murdochian in that you maybe forget he could do the actual Serious Wrestling too. He might not be a grappler on the level of Virus or Satanico, but he could still go and his charisma shone through in every exchange. The Lizmark match is maybe the prime example but it's not the only one. Also prone to being an absolute fucking screwball maniac in a mano a mano or apuestas or really just any throwaway undercard match if he shows up inclined/impaired enough. A Jerry Estrada tope is one of the ugliest things of beauty you'll see and he would 1000% die on someone else's tope and god help your grandmother if she's sitting front row behind him because he will smash her teeth through the back of her head with his skull. Give me Estrada doing punch-drunk blood-loss brawling and selling and falling face first into the ring post because he can't walk the apron properly any day of the week. 

 

 

#551

Marty Jannetty

He was a hell of a tag wrestler and the Rockers are still one of my three favourite tag teams ever. Also my earliest childhood memory - literally the earliest, not just about wrestling, I mean about anything - is Jannetty getting thrown headfirst through a window while Beefcake stands around like a pervert so I probably should've voted for him off the back of that alone. 

 

 

#550

LuFisto

I thought LuFisto was one of the Chikara folk who dressed like a beetle or something but I googled them and that is not who I thought LuFisto was. 

 

 

#549

Terry Rudge

Ah man, even I think this is too low and I could count the number of Terry Rudge matches I've seen on three fingers. 

 

 

#548

Leo Burke

The last time I watched a Leo Burke match he was almost 25 years deep into his career and it was on a 1989 All Japan undercard and honestly that might be the only Leo Burke match I've seen.

 

#547

Mick McManus

My dad's favourite wrestler. Maybe I'll ask him to vote in 2036. 

 

 

#546

Yasushi Sato

I've seen Jetlag talk about him a bunch. I'm extremely unsure if I've actually seen him wrestle. 

 

 

#545

Mickie Knuckles

Did her and Ian Rotten kick the shit out of that fan one time? 

 

 

#544

Kendo Nagasaki

The benefit of having a million ballots this time around means you're more likely to end up with top 15 votes for people like Kendo Nagasaki. Well, I say benefit. Perhaps you may have a different view. 

 

 

#543

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

A completely inoffensive wrestler. Unless someone tells me he's a deviant or whatever in which case I apologise. 

 

 

#542

Mighty Inoue

Should've wrestled Tenryu a thousand times. 

 

 

#541

Koki Kitahara

Another late cut. Kitahara losing the plot on some young lion for punching above their station is tremendous, borderline-uncomfortable TV. All of the WAR guys should've been top 100. Probably.

 

 

#540

Jonathan Gresham

I may have once seen a Jonathan Gresham match. 

 

 

#539

Hyper Misao

This isn't a real wrestler please behave (if I've never heard of them they're not real, there are the rules henceforth). 

 

#538

Ikuto Hidaka

I like some Hidaka. One of the first matches I downloaded from ditch was a Hidaka/Fujita v KENTA/Marufuji match. So there's a story for the grandkids. 

 

 

#537

Sanshiro Takagi

I know who this is but I'm pretty sure I've never seen a match with them in it. 

 

#536

Killer Kowalski

I'm trying to think of how much Kowalski footage I've seen and I can barely remember anything. Probably something with Bruno. Who knows.

 

 

#535

Mr. Wrestling II

Top 5 vote! Wrestling II was awesome and I really wanted to vote for him but just couldn't find a spot. 

 

 

#534

Harley Saito

Saito ruled. The Kandiro match is incredible but pretty much every time she pops up in something I walk away from it thinking she was really good. 

 

 

#533

Cutie Suzuki

I jumped deep into a 90s joshi revisit a few years back and I'm still in it right now, but Cutie is someone I haven't really thought about in a long time and I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a match with her in it. 

 

 

#532

Bison Kimura

Honestly the team with Aja doesn't do a ton for me, but any time they wrestled EACH OTHER was a hoot and Kimura was more than willing to get headbutted into a state of bloody horror. 

 

#531

Octagón

I could watch Satanico tie him to the ring ropes by the tassels on his mask all day. The last time I saw Octagon was maybe 10 years ago and he climbed the middle rope to hit en elbow or something and fell off. 

[oldcasper]

7 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

Dick the Bruiser, man. I recently watched his match with Verne in 1955 for the first time and completely fell in love with his performance. Gotta watch more stuff of his.

I heard someone say it was poor recently but I really like it.  I love the way they get over the football tackle and how Verne has worked him out.  Great stuff!

[Tetsujin]

6 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Toru Yano top 3 vote!

This is honestly one of the only insane votes that I can really understand. The guy has the longevity and consistency to keep his act great and fresh, and if you value comedy wrestling in the same way you value the rest of wrestling (and frankly, why shouldn't you?), he has to be one of the best comedy wrestlers ever and that has to mean something on a project like this. And, as the best comedy guys, he can also back it up with great serious stuff when needed.

[Boon]

For a long time member, with a very low posts count (Outside some stints from Fantasy Booking, which was bad mostly), Im so glad this is about again.

I watch it all unfold in 2016. Personally would never produce a list, feels far too intimidating for various reasons, but everyone does a great job with it. 

The bit I loved before was the cases built for wrestlers from the different views and perspectives, am I right in thinking Crusher Blackwell had a resurgence due to the AWA set back in 2016?

Whos been the wrestlers this time that have hit the same?

[ohtani's jacket]

The Blackwell result tells you the majority of the folks who voted in 2016 have moved on. 

[NotJayTabb]

Same is probably true of Bob Orton Jr

[El McKell]

20 minutes ago, Boon said:

 

The bit I loved before was the cases built for wrestlers from the different views and perspectives, am I right in thinking Crusher Blackwell had a resurgence due to the AWA set back in 2016?

Whos been the wrestlers this time that have hit the same?

The wrestler who I think is to 2026 what Jerry Blackwell was to 2016 is Dump Matsumoto. She finished 288th last time around appearing on 12 ballots. This time there was a lot of hype for her in the thread and in the discord, the results will show a big Dump resurgence. 

[Boon]

8 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

The Blackwell result tells you the majority of the folks who voted in 2016 have moved on. 

Thats what I thought, interestingly having 300 odd cases of wrestlers better than him than last time!