GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[Tetsujin]

I thought Otsuka already dropped! What an unbelievably underrated wrestler, by me as well. Him and Mariko Yoshida (omg she's still alive, isn't she?) are my top two priorities when the project finishes. I've only watched a handful of matches of his, but every single one of his performances mesmerized me. Glad he retained a huge spot this time, with x4 the amount of voters.

[Jetlag]

The list feels like a collection of random names mostly so far. I am amazed Ultimo Dragon has barely moved an inch and RVD has even improved, while someone like Virus who actually added to his case in the last 10 years drops. Hirooki Goto almost a 100 places over Masahiro Chono after not even ranking at all in 2016? That IWGP title win sure did wonders for him. The #1 vote for Ultimo even mentions AEW. Without Ultimo Dragon, we wouldn't have AEW! Preach it.

[dokomoy]

I think it's trivially easy to make a case for a PAC vote. If you enjoy the style of wrestling he does then you could argue he's been very good for almost 20 years, in a world where there are a ton of high flying guys PAC's stuff looks better than the vast majority of wrestlers doing similar stuff and he has a lot of range past that - he traded in most of his high flying for more power based offense in his most recent run and is still having awesome matches. On top of that he's shown a lot of range during his career being excellent as both a heel and a face while working everything from American TV to the indies to DragonGate and working very well both as a singles competitor and in tags/trios. 

With all that being said it's obviously fine to not vote for him(hell, I didn't vote for him) but I wanted to make his case because I want to say, yes PAC(and a bunch of other wrestlers) benefited at least somewhat from recency bias or people not being super familiar with older stuff, but when people act like these wrestlers votes are illegitimate or requiring some sort of special belief to rank them as highly as you did they're being at least as ideological as the people who's votes your rallying against.

By the way, you obviously don't need to believe in AEW supremacy to vote for PAC since he received votes in 2016 and when I was in 8th grade I went from knowing maybe 2 Radiohead songs to thinking they were the greatest band in the world in the span of like an hour - not because other people told me they were but because I listened to Kid A for the first time and it completely blew my mind. Sometimes people will think something is great that you don't not because they have some weird special belief or recency bias but because an artist speaks to them in a powerful way

[NotJayTabb]

A lot of the drop so far has made me feel like the living embodiment of that Seymour Skinner "Am I so out of touch? No, it's the kids that are wrong meme". Seeing the breakdown of "When did you start watching wrestling?" and being part of the small fragment of 2016 voters who took part this year should have informed me that "a lot of the voters wont have the same cultural touchpoints as you, old man", but it still jarred a little to see people I see as obvious greats ranked so low. But if I was 20 years younger, it would probably feel obvious for Toni Storm to rank ahead of Tito Santana, as obvious for them at it feels preposterous to me. But that's just taste evolving. I wouldn't be surprised to enter a "100 Greatest Actors" poll and see Tom Hardy rank ahead of James Cagney, even if I disagreed, so I don't know why it's surprised me with wrestling. 

(This is my pre-emptive coping mechanism for when someone like Jericho or Moxley finish ahead of Bret )

[El McKell]

On the point that there's so many AEW wrestlers left to come, I think that says more about the fact that AEW assembled a roster made up of wrestlers who were perceived by fans as the best in ring performers on earth before they came in. In a world where AEW never existed of course Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe, Kazuchika Okada, Young Bucks & Will Ospreay all make the top 100.

[El McKell]

And just cos I finally checked I've lost only 12 of my ballot so far.

Wrestler	My Rank	Overall Rank
Dynamite Kansai	34	163
Pirata Morgan	46	174
Verne Gagne	68	231
Koji Kanemoto	72	269
Kyle O'Reilly	79	281
Steve Grey	85	210
Clive Myers	87	480
Ricochet	88	204
Seth Rollins	89	241
Christopher Daniels	92	232
Satoshi Kojima	94	224
Naomichi Marufuji	97	159

[NotJayTabb]

I've lost 36 of my ballot so far. Very surprised Owen Hart hasn't dropped yet. Nor Necro Butcher, some people must have had him very high.

[ohtani's jacket]

F--king Nobuhiko Takada. That's about 700 places too high. 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

25 minutes ago, El McKell said:

On the point that there's so many AEW wrestlers left to come, I think that says more about the fact that AEW assembled a roster made up of wrestlers who were perceived by fans as the best in ring performers on earth before they came in. In a world where AEW never existed of course Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe, Kazuchika Okada, Young Bucks & Will Ospreay all make the top 100.

 Isn’t this a fairly banal observation though? WWE has consistently had one of the best rosters, if not the best roster, in the world since the 1980s. It’s natural a company paying seven figures in US dollars will have this. The argument is more if AEW wrestlers are overrepresented because of internet smark fandom.

I honestly don’t know the answer, but I assume 2006 was much more full of ROH/TNA representatives for similar reasons

[HowtobeaMark]

There is no phrase I hate more than "before my time" there is certainly an element of that going on here

[ohtani's jacket]

10 minutes ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

 I honestly don’t know the answer, but I assume 2006 was much more full of ROH/TNA representatives for similar reasons

It actually wasn't. None of the ROH/TNA guys made the top 100. They may have done if there had been a wider voting base. It was mostly a tight knit group made up of voters from several different boards. Most of the trends reflected the tape trading that was popular at the time. I remember there was some discussion about how guys like AJ Styles and Danielson would do in the future.  

[NotJayTabb]

In 2016, there was a lot more talk about it being "too soon" for wrestlers, that it was hard to judge someone who was still in the middle of their career.

[ohtani's jacket]

1 minute ago, ohtani's jacket said:

It actually wasn't. None of the ROH/TNA guys made the top 100. They may have done if there had been a wider voting base. It was mostly a tight knit group made up of voters from several different boards. Most of the trends reflected the tape trading that was popular at the time. I remember there was some discussion about how guys like AJ Styles and Danielson would do in the future.  

I should add to this that there were generations of fans before us that would have voted very differently had the list been done in 1996. We were reacting to collective internet wisdom as much as the 2026 list is. We just tended to go backwards into the past instead of focusing on the now. 

[ohtani's jacket]

How does a wrestler like Hayabusa stay in the discussion? That's not a knock on Hayabusa, I'm just curious to know.

For some reason Terry Gordy popped into my head. Either he's in the top 150 or not on the list at all?  

[The_Padraig]

12 hours ago, El McKell said:

Matsunaga also received a number 1 vote and I think he’s not as good as Reigns but the person who put Matsunaga first wrote something that made it sound like they understood what we’re doing here.

So your suppose to rank the wrestlers you like? am i getting this right. 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

14 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

It actually wasn't. None of the ROH/TNA guys made the top 100. They may have done if there had been a wider voting base. It was mostly a tight knit group made up of voters from several different boards. Most of the trends reflected the tape trading that was popular at the time. I remember there was some discussion about how guys like AJ Styles and Danielson would do in the future.  

That’s interesting, but tracks with what I was saying regarding the change in the fanbase, and of internet wrestling culture over the past 20 years. More focus on learning and discovering vs a focus it seems on having your in-group wrestlers “win” and beat the out-group wrestlers. 
 

Again, I also understand it’s also the widest voting pool yet this year, so that probably influences it too.

[El McKell]

27 minutes ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

 Isn’t this a fairly banal observation though? WWE has consistently had one of the best rosters, if not the best roster, in the world since the 1980s. It’s natural a company paying seven figures in US dollars will have this. The argument is more if AEW wrestlers are overrepresented because of internet smark fandom.

I honestly don’t know the answer, but I assume 2006 was much more full of ROH/TNA representatives for similar reasons

It is a banal observation in a sense, because it does seem like it's stating the obvious but the suggestion seemed to be being made that AEW wrestlers were doing well because people like AEW. So, I think it's worth pointing out these people were incredibly highly regarded before working for AEW, that working for AEW is not the real reason for them doing well in this poll. 

I don't know what it means to be overrepresented because of internet smark fandom. Everyone voting should be a "smark" because it should be a voter base of people who have watched a lot of wrestling from different places and times. 

Your point about ROH in 2006 probably would've been true if the poll happened in 2010, but when the 2006 poll happened ROH had been around less than 4 years and unlike AEW it built a roster of people who did not have long successful careers before they ever got there. The early ROH guys didn't have the longevity to do well in that poll.

 

[El McKell]

17 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

For some reason Terry Gordy popped into my head. Either he's in the top 150 or not on the list at all?  

Gordy and Williams both in the top 150, Miracle Violence is alive and well in 2026 

[ohtani's jacket]

There were people who watched ROH and the indies in '06, but you had to buy those tapes. At the time, it was the equivalent of people who bought ECW tapes during the Monday Night Wars. A lot of us were spending our money on Japanese tapes instead. 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

11 minutes ago, El McKell said:

It is a banal observation in a sense, because it does seem like it's stating the obvious but the suggestion seemed to be being made that AEW wrestlers were doing well because people like AEW. So, I think it's worth pointing out these people were incredibly highly regarded before working for AEW, that working for AEW is not the real reason for them doing well in this poll. 

It probably helps to delineate between "AEW guy" and "guy who has wrestled in AEW". I don't think anyone considers Okada an AEW guy, despite him being there for years. Same too with say, Punk as a "WWE" guy when technically he's been all over. The overrepresentation comes from guys who I don't think have pedigree at all to be in the conversation, but have just happened to work at AEW throughout a hot period. Like Jungle Boy or Kyle Fletcher et al.

Quote

Your point about ROH in 2006 probably would've been true if the poll happened in 2010, but when the 2006 poll happened ROH had been around less than 4 years and unlike AEW it built a roster of people who did not have long successful careers before they ever got there. The early ROH guys didn't have the longevity to do well in that poll.

This also so tied to the fact that it was much harder for people around the world to access ROH in 2006. You're putting in serious work if you're trying to watch that as someone in South Africa or Brazil etc. Whereas even people in the developing world can watch 1080p highlights of AEW Dynamite from the comfort of their toilet. So that obviously influences voting more. If those ROH DVDs were easy to access, maybe the vote would have looked different.

  

5 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

There were people who watched ROH and the indies in '06, but you had to buy those tapes. At the time, it was the equivalent of people who bought ECW tapes during the Monday Night Wars. A lot of us were spending our money on Japanese tapes instead. 

Ah well you've just said it

[Tetsujin]

34 minutes ago, NotJayTabb said:

In 2016, there was a lot more talk about it being "too soon" for wrestlers, that it was hard to judge someone who was still in the middle of their career.

I believe the issue with this in this year's edition is that wrestlers have become mure durable and gained more longevity. Before, a wrestler in their thirties was in the middle of their peak and only time would tell when they would be compared to other all timers. A wrestler in their forties was already too old to keep adding to their case. Now, a wrestler in their mid thirties has almost ten years of going at a good level, and wrestlers at their forties are still among the best at the moment.

[El McKell]

4 minutes ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

The overrepresentation comes from guys who I don't think have pedigree at all to be in the conversation, but have just happened to work at AEW throughout a hot period. Like Jungle Boy or Kyle Fletcher et al.

 

Do you think that the overrepresentation you're talking about exists when your two examples of that type of wrestler, don't appear on the overall list?

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

1 minute ago, El McKell said:

Do you think that the overrepresentation you're talking about exists when your two examples of that type of wrestler, don't appear on the overall list?

They were just names pulled out of thin air. I could just have easily have said Mike Bailey or MJF or Swerve Strickland , all of whom fit in the same category of being beneficiaries of wrestling in AEW, and none of whom I believe are warranting of a top 100 vote in a conversation about the greatest of all time.

[El-P]

This thread has been thoroughly entertaining. It's kinda funny that the DiBiase drop and the realization that so many "AEW" guys were still alive (including the Elite) did this. Just enjoying my coffee reading this stuff. I am currently very entertained. 

2 hours ago, dokomoy said:

Sometimes people will think something is great that you don't not because they have some weird special belief or recency bias but because an artist speaks to them in a powerful way

This. 

The whole "recency bias" isn't a thing anyway. If there was any recency bias, how do you explain that a guy like Marufuji, who has been an awesome worker for more than 20 years, and is 

10 hours ago, Microstatistics said:

Unquestionably one of the most influential wrestlers of modern era.

indeed, doesn't make it to the top 100 by 2026 ? Even with the "recency bias" going on, Marufuji can't make it to the top 100 ? Seriously now. 

PAC : the same.

Oh, Takada, what have you become : 

10 hours ago, Microstatistics said:

I remember the rabid backlash in 2016 that contributed to him getting catapulted out of the Top 100.

Oh, I remember. I REMEMBER. I did my best. Well, the result was me being shunned and mocked for having "dated opinions". Which is ironic considering most of the people in those circles are now old men yelling at clouds, having their brains being broke by AEW like a random Jim Cornette podcast listener. Karma being a bitch and all...

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

F--king Nobuhiko Takada. That's about 700 places too high. 

😂

Clap clap clap. This was legit funny.

Hiro Hase : funny how the Muta scale was really jumpstarted by Hase. Anyway. Kinda like Tomohiro Ishii, but in the 90's.

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

How does a wrestler like Hayabusa stay in the discussion? That's not a knock on Hayabusa, I'm just curious to know.

In retrospect, he's been very influential on wrestlers of today. Will Ospreay of all people once wore a Hayabusa inspired outfit. The Falcon Arrow is everywhere. There is a thing about Hayabusa that has transcended his work. And yes, it makes me happy, as an old FMW fan. (although I loved Gannosuke more)

No idea how RVD could actually win spots though. And I like RVD (kinda).

Slaughter dropping. Another one bites the dust. Like I said, I am currently very much entertained.

Syuri. Here's another one. If there's anything like "recency bias", how does Syuri doesn't make it to the top 100 ? Anywoo. She's got one of the best modern Japanese theme this side of the old Naito one too.

 

[El-P]

2 hours ago, El McKell said:

In a world where AEW never existed of course Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe, Kazuchika Okada, Young Bucks & Will Ospreay all make the top 100.

This.