GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[BackToBionic]

MJF was my #99. Even if he stops wrestling tomorrow, he's still done enough to be looked at as a great wrestler. The versatility is really refreshing, plus I value the ability to talk people into the building which is really at least half of what pro wrestling is, imo.

[Microstatistics]

1 hour ago, Microstatistics said:

Also, to the initial point, nice to see MJF (another of my nominees) still kicking.

#167

MJF

Speak of the devil. I put him at #68. I agree with the versatility and heel work assessments, moreover the work with Darby, Bryan, and Mistico is some of the most compelling from this decade. I thought his obnoxious heel act worked if incorporated into the in-ring product, otherwise I don't personally care for his promotional work.

[WingedEagle]

I love that we're out here shaming people for voting HHH (undoubtedly an awful human being and likely a mediocre pro wrestler, which makes him pretty much the median in both categories) while defending every other vote that somehow ranks Scott Steiner (despite losing a #1 vote from 2016 that must be respected) ahead of Massaki Mochizuki. Make it all make sense.

[WingedEagle]

4 hours ago, Reel said:

So here’s a sort of serious question which I’ll admit is sort of a troll: Based on these results, and the people still left to drop, in 6 years has AEW assembled the greatest roster of talent ever assembled while also producing enough great matches to significantly boost, if not form the entirety of, the cases of the majority modern wrestler in the top 200? Is the output of that company that great?

Yes, very much so. The angles, promos and attention given to feuds and stories can leave one wanting. Perhaps a lot of the work gets lost to the reality of media consumption in this era where something 12 hours old practically qualifies for an 80s DVDR set. But, yes. Maybe the company could do more before, during and after such classics to have them resonate more? Maybe its not even possible. But the work is very much there.

 

4 hours ago, El-P said:

Yes. And will probably be underrated still because of the circles in which GWE has been promoted (and I shall say no more).

Although I must say, I'm pretty shocked (in a good way) that the Elite (the real members, sorry Cody) are still alive. 

Amen. 

4 hours ago, oldcasper said:

I started to type a somewhat sarcastic comment, but I felt that wouldn't do the question much justice.  Recency of footage is a big part of it, and also I think there is a perception in the modern wrestling fandom to constantly defend the wrestling they watch as the greatest thing ever.  It doesn't help that taste makers continue to tell fans that they are watching the greatest matches of all time each week.

I own my biases, but I am feeling that the wrestlers in the lower hundreds feel much more interesting from a curiosity basis than I think 150-300 will.  At the same time, with so many to vote from and hundreds of ballots we will a homogenisation of the middle leaning to those most known.

It also reflects that tastes somewhat change and there is little value in feeling sad about it.

 

We all have biases. Its not just kids today. Hopefully everyone is capable of acknowledging their own. 

Mania 4 was the first PPV I saw. I grew up on Hogan and Savage and thought Mania 6 was the greatest match ever for a while. Then I didn't. All of that stuff still holds a soft spot for me, but that doesn't make it the greatest media ever.

[Boss Rock]

50 left to the top 100. This is where things really get interesting. We could potentially see a couple active AEW wrestlers make the cut. Maybe WWE veterans like Sheamus or Christian. Does joshi (apart from the usual suspects) hold on? How many 2010's NJPW guys make it?

The anticipation is real.

[WingedEagle]

2 hours ago, Matt D said:

So, AEW wrestlers left.

 

That is indeed one way to label them. 

[Makai Club #1]

MJF is an interesting one. Because there is a wrestler there, but he just reeks of inauthenticity to me. And I mean that in the sense, I never believe he's in a match. It's too much of a performance on his part. I can't invest when I seen the strings being pulled so obviously. The Punk series was good though. But that'll always be countered by him and Cole actively making me come out of the live experience in real time. 

[donsem43]

I have 76 left but there's about 15 or so, including 4 in my top 50, that I'm genuinely surprised that they have last as long as they have.

[Mattsdmf]

I had Nobuhiko Takada at #95.  One of my favorite all around workers and especially one of my all time early shoot style wrestlers.

[El Dragon]

14 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

50 left to the top 100. This is where things really get interesting. We could potentially see a couple active AEW wrestlers make the cut. Maybe WWE veterans like Sheamus or Christian. Does joshi (apart from the usual suspects) hold on? How many 2010's NJPW guys make it?

The anticipation is real.

I don’t know if this is a legit thing, but Steven mentioned in passing there is one wrestler who made the top 100 with no top 10 votes, which is crazy. When asked, they said that person’s high vote was 12.

 

I voted Christian 12 and have been unable to stop thinking about it since.

[Monch Wrestling]

With Toni Storm and MJF dropping today I think Sareee is the youngest wrestler left, 30 years old, born in 1996.

Unless I'm forgetting someone?

[Matt D]

11 minutes ago, WingedEagle said:

That is indeed one way to label them. 

A pretty reasonable one too. I tend to label them that way every week. 

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/AEW?m=1

but then I can see why you might be so concerned about biases. 

[Microstatistics]

#159

Naomichi Marufuji

My #64. Unquestionably one of the most influential wrestlers of modern era. I think the theory is sound that a bunch of modern wrestling (for better or worse) is just attempts to replicate Marufuji and KENTA. His peak was the early 2000s but I have found him compelling pretty much his whole career, including the recent physically broken down performances.

#155

Nobuhiko Takada

I remember the rabid backlash in 2016 that contributed to him getting catapulted out of the Top 100. I guess his standing has never really recovered since. I thought he was second tier to the absolute greats of his styles (shoot-style/NJPW hybrid) but that doesn't mean he wasn't exceptional. #42 was a reasonable placement I feel.

 

[Reel]

PAC getting over 100 votes has sort of crystallized my thoughts on all of this. In 2026, the biggest portion of people who are heavily engaged in wrestling are AEW fans. I’m being a bit hyperbolic here, but to watch AEW regularly sort of requires a belief that what you are watching is not just good, but exceptional, it was similar with New Japan before this, it’s this way with a lot of modern wrestling depending on what circle your in, and it’s this way with a lot of things, like you can’t just like Radiohead, you like Radiohead because it’s the greatest music ever released. This is what it is, is it a bias? I suppose so, but ranking anything is to expose your bias, bias in inherent and integral to this.

I am pulling an example from 2016, and perhaps it’s cherry picking, but he was the name that stood out to me as illustrative, Brian Pillman. We have hundreds of more voters this time around, and yet Pillman got less total votes and dropped precipitously. Now, I didn’t vote for Pillman, I barely considered him, but nothing has changed for Pillman since the last vote, he’s been dead the entire time. I don’t even think we’ve uncovered much of anything Pillman in that time. In 2026, he lost votes, and lost an even greater percentage. So why?

Part of it is that there were bound to be new wrestlers, part of that is that his biggest boosters aren’t really around this time, But is it just that? I don’t know, that’s sort of the heart of this. My sort of working theory is this: in 2016 the people who watched the most wrestling were not that engaged with modern wrestling, they may have watched it, liked it, but it wasn’t the main thing they were invested in, they were more backward looking. In 2026, the average voter is more actively engaged with modern wrestling, chiefly AEW, and in a forward looking or at least current way.

When I watch AEW or modern wrestling on the whole, I don’t particularly like it, I think the modern popular style has drifted too far from what it is I like about wrestling. I certainly don’t see it as the greatest era in the history of pro wrestling. That’s a me problem, but it does explain how Dean Ambrose is gonna crack the top 100 and Kikuchi won’t sniff the top 300. 

[ZubazKid]

58 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

50 left to the top 100. This is where things really get interesting. We could potentially see a couple active AEW wrestlers make the cut. Maybe WWE veterans like Sheamus or Christian. Does joshi (apart from the usual suspects) hold on? How many 2010's NJPW guys make it?

The anticipation is real.

Sheamus was #286. I had him as my #87. But otherwise, yes the anticipation is real.

[El Boricua]

It's what I said before, focused on 2010s onwards with the only the visible accepted wisdom of who the legends are surviving this go around and the exceptions that come from pushes within GWE circles.

One thing I think may have been more prevalent last time is the thought that the 'now' of the time was too new to properly put in perspective in such a vote. The opposite is seen now, heavier focus on the present and what should be paid attention too based on what exists in their now. It feels like the Boss Baby meme in a way. 

[Shrike02]

So many guys off my list now. Perhaps I'm most surprised by the latest casualty, Sgt. Slaughter, falling off now. He's just in so much great stuff.

[ZubazKid]

3 minutes ago, Shrike02 said:

So many guys off my list now. Perhaps I'm most surprised by the latest casualty, Sgt. Slaughter, falling off now. He's just in so much great stuff.

Slaughter was the one I’m most bummed didn’t make the top 100, so far.

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

1 hour ago, Reel said:

PAC getting over 100 votes has sort of crystallized my thoughts on all of this. In 2026, the biggest portion of people who are heavily engaged in wrestling are AEW fans. I’m being a bit hyperbolic here, but to watch AEW regularly sort of requires a belief that what you are watching is not just good, but exceptional, it was similar with New Japan before this, it’s this way with a lot of modern wrestling depending on what circle your in, and it’s this way with a lot of things, like you can’t just like Radiohead, you like Radiohead because it’s the greatest music ever released. This is what it is, is it a bias? I suppose so, but ranking anything is to expose your bias, bias in inherent and integral to this.

What you are describing is normal, natural and unavoidable. In the same way that someone born in 1975 might naturally think 80s JCP was the greatest wrestling ever put to tape. Humans have a natural inclination to mistake the novelty of things they consume in their youth for profundity, and must argue towards its historical import in order to justify their own positions. If the wrestling I like is the best ever, it must reflect well on me for having superior tastes. (No I am not referring to YOU with this post, you narcissist. Not everything is a personal attack, you are on this website. You are clearly an autist too.) I have said previously, For someone born in 2005, which might well be the median voting age, AEW's rise represents the first time in their entire lives there has been something resembling competition in the North American market, it's understandable that would excite them.

What you are missing is how the wrestling community, and society at large has changed from 2006 to 2016 and onwards to now. This forum is a fine example. An absolute husk of a website that is buoyed by this project, but otherwise only a vestigial tumor that is referred to obliquely on the actual dominant forums of X, Discord, Reddit. All of these platforms boost the dominant group-think opinion, and more importantly, stifle genuine criticism and argument. Whereas in 2006 one could have long, detailed conversations over the course of day or even weeks on wrestlers, with thoughtful replies and research, this has been replaced by a frenetic "I must dunk on my interlocutor" culture limited to three sentences or less.

This works in tandem with a sort of toxic positivity that has pervaded the space in the past decade or so. Previously, on a forum such as this, another person would tell you that "actually no, Lulu Pencil isn't a better wrestler than Chris Adams you fucking [Eugene], watch some more wrestling, mark". That simply does not happen on modern social media platforms, everyone wrapped in swaddling clothes in their echo chambers. In fact the most engagement I've ever got on this forum was a PM telling me I had said a nasty word. The GWE discord is horrific with this, full of parasocial weirdos with strange Freudian psychosexual hangups about joshi. (No, I'm not talking about you and your GENUINE love for Aja Kong, stop making this about YOU.)

As El Boricua rightly points out, there is no pushback against the recency bias that infests so much criticism, because anyone that would have coherently offered an argument is a) normal and has kids to raise or b) shouted down by the teeming masses who think Bianca Belair is worthy of being 400 places above Dan Kroffat. No, you're all wrong, and you're all [Eugene].

So when you are a young impressionable teenager, and you think AEW wrestlers (or Ice Ribbon or whatever the fuck) are the best of all time, and no one is disavowing you of that notion like they used to, it becomes a universal truth. As such, it is natural that other wrestlers will fall, with no sustained campaign for them. The only ones to really survive are the types that have been Ned Flanderized into WHOLESOME HECKIN CHUNGUS GRANDPAS like Terry Funk or Negro Casas. There are many, many sub-95 IQ slop posters online who must prove their bonafides, and thus choose to blindly swallow narratives about an obviously great wrestler who importantly has no problematic moral issues or ties to current doubleplusnotgood ideologies that can be used as signifier of someone with taste. "It doesn't matter my shitty opinion on such-and-such because I like Terry Funk, and this proves my knowledge". I would say they have all watched about four Terry Funk/Negro Casas matches collectively. 

The list is actually a fairly accurate reflection of the fanbase (the semi-orgiastic celebrations after Rollins and HHH appeared spring to mind), not any reflection of actual talent or canon.

[Matt D]

Counterpoint: this is all a wonderful needs analysis to figure out how to work on blind spots moving forward in positive, constructive ways.

[Reel]

I read all of that, I promise, I don't know what all the direct address and neurological talk was all about, really, but I think we more than likely have pretty similar views of the thing. 

It has never been about the final list, really; it is about watching the footage to make your own list, about watching a ton of stuff so as to get a better picture of wrestling, to identify what it is you like about wrestling, what you value, so on and so forth, but at the same time, I can't help seeing some of these reveals and the general trend and think 'are we really all doing the same thing here?' And again, thats a ME thing, not a general thing. 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

24 minutes ago, Reel said:

I read all of that, I promise,

lol

18 minutes ago, Reel said:

I can't help seeing some of these reveals and the general trend and think 'are we really all doing the same thing here?' And again, thats a ME thing, not a general thing. 

It’s evident that is NOT what everyone is doing. People are voting on different lines, be they cultural, political or social, animal, vegetable or mineral. You will never be able to control how or why people vote. But certainly I think the excitement or discovery aspect is not prevalent. All the reactions I have seen online have been about rankings, about who voted for who, and how high. “Oh thank god so-and-so dropped! I can’t believe this person isn’t ranked higher!” It’s quantitative discussion, it’s stats, it’s become analytics and taken as fact. It is very much about the list first and foremost, even if as you say, that’s not what it should be about. 
 

Maybe there are posts out there asking for Mad Dog Vachon recommendations, I don’t know. But the list is a reflection of where a certain subsection of the community is at, how they view wrestling, and how they believe it should be discussed. 

[El Boricua]

29 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Counterpoint: this is all a wonderful needs analysis to figure out how to work on ind spots moving forward in positive, constructive ways.

Certainly, I think of how different my ballot this time was compared to 2016 because of the gaps I have filled since then (with more to go). Others are on their own journeys.  It's a question of how open or curious people will be outside of the mindset that now is the greatest wrestling ever with no need to contextualize. Used to be 90s All Japan that had that mindset around it but its only relevance now is the Four Pillars and those wrestlers that orbit them. I'm enjoying the highs and lows of the reveal from my point of view, which is unique to me and different from others highs and lows. The good thing is that there are some results that show there are people willing to have curiosity on checking certain wrestlers or styles out. As you say, we just need to figure out how. 

[donsem43]

24.5% of the people who voted started watching in 2010 or later. You're not going reach these people in ways that were common ten years ago. Twitter engagement has been replaced by TikToks/IG Stories/YouTube Shorts. Blog posts have been replaced by video essays. Podcasts have been replaced by interactive streams. You also have to find a way to package it in an attractive way plus find a catchy way to sell it. You can't just plop it in front of people saying "Watch this it's great!" That won't work these days.

[HowtobeaMark]

4 hours ago, Shrike02 said:

So many guys off my list now. Perhaps I'm most surprised by the latest casualty, Sgt. Slaughter, falling off now. He's just in so much great stuff.

Put me in the Sgt Sad camp. My highest ranked wrestler I have lost so far. Had him at 37