GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[MoS]

2 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I liken him to Randy Savage as much as anything else. 

They were both certainly forces of nature 

[El-P]

Rush, people. Rush.

[Reel]

Ikeda and Ishikawa in Battlarts, outside of Ishikawa being positioned higher, are pretty equal in my mind. The differentiator for me between Ikeda and Ishikawa is what they did when they branched out. Ikeda went to NOAH and was OK. Ishikawa went to Canada and trained Santino's students and had better matches with trainees than pretty much Ikeda did in NOAH. 

[ohtani's jacket]

While it's true that Ikeda was disappointing in NOAH, it's just NOAH. 

[Boss Rock]

I recall I think a Morishima match in Noah Ikeda had that was really good.

[El-P]

Morishima. Talk about a forgotten name these days. I really liked that Terry Gordy looking mofo. Apparently life has not been kind since he had to retire. Kind of a big "what if" case.

[Control21]

35 minutes ago, El-P said:

you and your odd tastes

I mean, he's right to an extent 

[El-P]

3 minutes ago, Control21 said:

I mean, he's right to an extent 

I'm not sure you got that reference...  I don't remember if you were around during the shodate days.

(I was a huge Volk Han fan btw)

[ohtani's jacket]

Man, if only shodate had voted. Maybe he did. 

[Garbage]

Ikeda/Morishima/Rikio vs. Akiyama/Saito/Izumida 3/16/03 is a shockingly good show case for Ikeda in NOAH imo. Pours a drink from the vendor on Akiyama, obvious great time.

[Control21]

26 minutes ago, El-P said:

I'm not sure you got that reference...  I don't remember if you were around during the shodate days.

(I was a huge Volk Han fan btw)

Ahh, I've heard of him, and I've seen his posts, but I wasn't there. 

Carry on 😂 

[Control21]

Ishii getting the honor of being Mr. 6-7 is quite fitting if you think about it

[Boss Rock]

15 minutes ago, Control21 said:

Ishii getting the honor of being Mr. 6-7 is quite fitting if you think about it

I still have no idea what 6-7 is and I don't think I want to. All I know is that Scottie Pippen is 6'7"

[Matt D]

Shibata is doing so well because people were able to vote for both him and his brain separately.

[Tetsujin]

Ishii is a Claudio-like king of consistency but with several MOTYC to his resume, incredible pro wrestler. Nothing pops me more than seeing him as an underdog taking main eventers to their absolute limit. And that's just his NJPW run. Sometimes he gets autoparodic when combined with other fighting spirit guys like Goto or Shingo or Eddie Kingston or Shibata, but most of the times he rocks my world.

[Tetsujin]

Shit I didn't realize Asuka dropped as well. Holy shit, almost 47% of total ballots for her. Joshi's top names might end up being reaaaally high.

[El-P]

Asuka & Iyo Sky back to back. This poll is so rigged.

Tomohiro Ishii. Choshu + Animal Hamaguchi + Tenryu - a neck, rolled into a modern package = a never ending shitload of great matches for 15 years.

[Boss Rock]

I had Asuka at 95. Has been one of the best wrestlers in WWE since the day she debuted in NXT. Has had good to great matches with everyone from Dana Brooke to Charlotte to Becky Lynch. I've only dipped my toes a bit into her earlier work but she was really good then too.

Ishii was my 28 and I stand by it. Consistently one of the best in the world for almost the entirety of the 2010’s and the early 2020’s. I know he’s quite polarizing and a lot of people hate the bullmoose elbow exchanges and fighting spirit no sells, but honestly I think Ishii could do it better than almost anyone else today. Despite being a rather short guy, he still has a great deal of presence and just exudes toughness. And he’s an incredibly compelling underdog face against guys higher up on the card like Okada, Omega, Tanahashi, and Jay White.

[Boss Rock]

Did not vote for Mistico and am shocked he made half the ballots. That's probably on me as apart from his aspuestas match with Black Warrior, his Triplemania match with Rey, and maybe a few trios matches, I only know his disastrous WWE run. I know he all but revitalized CMLL last year, so big ups to him on that.

Iyo was my 58. One of the best workers of the 2010's and has managed to thrive in WWE as one of the best big match wrestlers in the company. A great high-flier and face but also an underrated bully to smaller folks like Mayu.

[Reel]

Has there been some sort of grand re-evaluation of Mistico, or is it really just the last 4 years at the top of CMLL? 

[El-P]

The later.

People waxing poetic about Bruno, Dusty, Inoki and the likes is cool and all. Watching it happen in real time is better.

Also, that mofo would take stupid apron bumps on an MLW show, just because, so that makes him more like a Terry Funk. He doesn't need to do what he does. But he does it. And that's the beautiful part.

Aura, uh ?

[Control21]

24 minutes ago, Reel said:

Has there been some sort of grand re-evaluation of Mistico, or is it really just the last 4 years at the top of CMLL? 

I think his initial + current run in CMLL added together has really opened up a lot of eyes with regard to his contributions 

[Boss Rock]

If there are Mistico recommendations I'd love to check them out.

[Microstatistics]

#80

Jay Briscoe

The 04 Samoa Joe match is great. Haven't seen any of his 2010s stuff.

#79

Jaguar Yokota

That #1 blurb is excellent and captures her case well. Her 90s stuff is worth checking out too.

#78

"Beautiful" Bobby Eaton

Impressive tag specialist. Ahead-of-his-time offense.

[Control21]

8 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

If there are Mistico recommendations I'd love to check them out.

Mistico vs MJF - 9/19/2025

Bandido vs Mistico - 6/27/2025

Mistico vs Barbaro Cavernario - 1/9/2026

Mistico vs Templario - 10/13/2023