GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[MasterJonBurr]

21 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

Jdw impact tremors

[Kadaveri]

36 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

Refusing to stop booting his opponent's tag partner off the apron is deplorable behaviour.

[Ma Stump Puller]

42 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

On a serious note I don't think anything on his part in terms of like people realising his stuff was somehow ass, there's just more varied taste with the people voting now as opposed to in prior editions where it was almost unilateral gospel that AJPW was the greatest thing on Earth, Manami Toyota was the biggest female star of the 90's and NJPW had far worse matches than them. Tastes have branched off over the last decade or so and there is no one single line of thought that the majority subscribes to. 

There's also maybe the possibility that people might have been burned by his post-90's work because Kawada is quite spotty after the early 2000's, idk I don't remember people being crazy for him and Muto in like 2005 botching nearly every big spot they were trying to do.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

13 minutes ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

On a serious note I don't think anything on his part in terms of like people realising his stuff was somehow ass, there's just more varied taste with the people voting now as opposed to in prior editions where it was almost unilateral gospel that AJPW was the greatest thing on Earth, Manami Toyota was the biggest female star of the 90's and NJPW had far worse matches than them. Tastes have branched off over the last decade or so and there is no one single line of thought that the majority subscribes to. 

There's also maybe the possibility that people might have been burned by his post-90's work because Kawada is quite spotty after the early 2000's, idk I don't remember people being crazy for him and Muto in like 2005 botching nearly every big spot they were trying to do.

 

His post-exodus work isn't the best, aside from a few bright spots. I know I became actively disinterested in his work while going through stuff from the 00s. That said, I would weigh his peak more heavily. I'm curious to see who's risen above him.  

[KB8]

Perhaps our boy Elliott has significant sway with the new voters! The yoots, as you might say. 

[Control21]

Aja missing out on the Top 10 is a bummer. I should have ranked her higher

[Boss Rock]

I had Aja at 15, so not too far off from where she landed. From barely clearing the top 50 to almost breaking the top 10, it's awesome to see. And that's because Aja is awesome. Despite being only 5'5", she has the presence and energy of a force of nature. One of the greatest powerhouses of all time and has some of the highest peaks of any wrestler. The Yumiko Hotta match might be the most violent I've ever seen.

[Tetsujin]

Aja just outside the top 10 hurts the most, specially with Stone Cold making it (Bret and Rey are boring picks too, but they were far better than Austin). GWE redeemeed itself with joshi this time, I don't think anyone can complain.

Eddie repeating at #12 is cool, but holy shit that amount of votes. Crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if Austin, Bret and Rey rank above everyone else except Danielson.

Glad Tenryu made the top 10 this time.

So: Kobashi, Misawa, Hansen, Tenryu, Flair, Funk, Rey, Bret, Austin and Danielson. Not a bad top 10 at all (even with one big intruder imo). Prediction: 10. Tenryu 9. Austin 8. Bret 7. Misawa 6. Rey 5. Hansen 4. Flair 3. Kobashi 2. Danielson 1. Funk 

[Boss Rock]

I was starting to think Tenryu would drop today due to Jumbo's placing. And Austin was great no doubt, but his placement feels particularly high. A respectable top 10 though. It's funny, when this started not a lot of people thought Flair would make it this far.

[Microstatistics]

#11

Aja Kong

I like Austin a lot but it should really have been her if it wasn't Eddie for the Top 10. My #28 and second highest joshi wrestler. Her 1994 is one of the all time great individual years, though she has 30 years of good work now.

I ranked 8 out of the 10, but only 2 were in my Top 10.

[Boss Rock]

Voted for all 10, 6 were in my top 10.

[Tetsujin]

I ranked Kobashi at #1, Danielson at #2, Flair at #9, Misawa at #10, Bret at #23, Hansen at #27, Funk at #30, Tenryu at #32, Rey at #42 and Austin at #72.

[Reel]

So, is anyone brave enough to talk about Bret being way too high? 

[Boss Rock]

He was my 51. I'll have more thoughts when he drops.

[Grimmas]

12 minutes ago, Reel said:

So, is anyone brave enough to talk about Bret being way too high? 

I had him 5th, so no.

[Control21]

12 minutes ago, Reel said:

So, is anyone brave enough to talk about Bret being way too high? 

Ehh...I don't think so. I ranked him #1, so I might be biased, but not many wrestlers had the same run he had from 1991-1997, and even the stuff before that was pretty good.

[Matt D]

Bret is too high. He's a peak case as strange as that might sound. I think the work that has been done on him in the last ten years has primarily been people going through the Hart Foundation matches and overall finding them lacking and his inputs in them not necessarily better than Neidhart's. It's a great peak, but that gets you more to 30, not 10, given the overall strength of the pool.

But what are you going to do right? The work done on him probably doesn't equal the influence of FTR and Punk in pushing for him. Punk's AEW run was the height of Neo-Bret-ism and it was great for it. I love Bret from a nostalgia level and I love his peak work certainly. I had him at #30 this time around and if my list had been more robust, he probably would have been closer to #40. 

[ZubazKid]

Was really hoping Aja would’ve made the top 10, but I suppose the difference between 10 & 11 is more symbolic than substantial. As someone who discovered a lot of different styles over the past 5 years prepping for this project, I really enjoyed seeing the top joshi stars. I was always impressed by the athleticism, violence & presence. Aja was my #9 & Hokuto my #10.

My top 7 are still alive in Danielson, Kobashi, Misawa, Flair, Hansen, Tenryu & Funk. Kawada was my #8. Had Bret at #40, Austin at #23 & Rey at #17.

[jihadidas]

Corrected version for interested folks.

[MasterJonBurr]

57 minutes ago, Reel said:

So, is anyone brave enough to talk about Bret being way too high? 

Bret did not make my list, so sure. I like Bret plenty and enjoy the Bret match and even the character work, but found him pretty terrible in multiple eras when he wasn’t running shit. He’s in my top 250 but not amongst my top 100, nor was he fighting for one of the last spots. I do love his endless hate parade, however, and am currently re-reading his book and can’t wait for the one by Snowden. 

[Reel]

40 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Bret is too high. He's a peak case as strange as that might sound. I think the work that has been done on him in the last ten years has primarily been people going through the Hart Foundation matches and overall finding them lacking and his inputs in them not necessarily better than Neidhart's. It's a great peak, but that gets you more to 30, not 10, given the overall strength of the pool.

But what are you going to do right? The work done on him probably doesn't equal the influence of FTR and Punk in pushing for him. Punk's AEW run was the height of Neo-Bret-ism and it was great for it. I love Bret from a nostalgia level and I love his peak work certainly. I had him at #30 this time around and if my list had been more robust, he probably would have been closer to #40. 

So, I was born in 1990, started watching wrestling as a little kid in 1993, Bret Hart is sort of the platonically great wrestler in my mind, in the way that Flair I assume is for a lot of people, and Cena for younger people.

But yeah, he just really doesn’t have a resume to beat out the very tippy-top guys. If we are being very liberal, it’s what 91 to 99, which is being as kind as possible to him, and then the tag stuff and whatever we have from Stampede. I mean, shit, I could see an argument for Moxley, who I’ve said my piece on, having an argument as ranking higher. 

[MidasGloves]

Vader's placement was pretty predictable (pretty much confirmed the best at his brand of wrestling to do so well across 20 years) but Kong missing Top 10 hurts so much since I would've bet she'd make it. 11th is nothing to scoff at, but it would've been a nice thing to see the clear best woman to ever do it (IMO) make that Top 10.

I had Bret 64th, I think he's definitely a peak case but it's quite a strong one with a few all-timers and some solid stuff scattered in his Hart Foundation and WCW days. Bret's just kind of canonized as one of the greats and because of Bill Goldberg he's also a "what if" case at the same time (disregard his 2010 run where he barely bumped and had to work Vince, Miz & The Nexus; Steamboat in 2009 was at least able to work with the best version of WWE Jericho).

[EnviousStupid]

Bret ranked 42nd for me. Maybe a tad low in hindsight, although I think I'm at the stage of believing he just wasn't head and shoulders above his predecessors or contemporaries in WWE. I had Savage, Steamboat, Austin and Foley all higher. His best work is right up there with all those names, but I find him lacking in comparison when it comes to volume and versatility to some degree. The tag work with Anvil has really never impressed me like I hoped, nor the TV/house show matches outside of those already canonised (vs 1-2-3 Kid, vs Perfect in 89, etc.). If anything, his case is largely about who he worked against in his classic matches, and how he got so much mileage out of your Diesels and Bulldogs than anyone else. 

[Tetsujin]

I see Bockwinkel did in fact rank higher than Cena. Justice.

[Garbage]

I do think almost all of Bret's case is about a collective five year period between 1992 and 1997 (accounting for the time off in 96). I may have had him too low, somewhere around #60 I think, but I'm not sure he looked like an all time great wrestler to me outside of those years.