GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

Liger might have done better if sharing 2 seconds of New Japan footage on social media didn't get your account nuked.

It all makes the rise of Inoki fascinating. 

[El-P]

Inoki died. That's why.

[Tetsujin]

Kobashi being the most voted Pillar feels right. He's the most charismatic and the easier to get, after all. I'm shocked Misawa wasn't close to the top 5, but funnily enough I ranked him at #10 myself, so I can't really complain. He's one of the most subtle wrestlers ever and one of the biggest "final bosses" kind of wrestlers ever, if not the best one at that. And he managed to gain that aura not because of an overpowered gimmick like Streak Taker or Suplex City Lesnar or Hogan hulking up or stuff like that, no, he did it by just... Wrestling like the best guy in the match, with more stamina, the best strikes, the best reflexes for counters, more resilience, he just couldn't be beat in his best days.

Hurts to say it, but I would've sacrificed Misawa if that meant Aja making the top 10 instead. It's a symbolic difference, but an important one for a lot of people, I believe.

Bret and #9 and Rey at #8 feels kinda fair if both have to be on the top 10. Now I just want Austin dropping and I can rest, I will accept any order between the six remaining. 

[Microstatistics]

#7

Stan Hansen

My #33. So he falls out of the Top 3/5 but perhaps not surprisingly because there didn't seem much hype around him this time around. I didn't rank him in 2016 but have completely come around and think he was truly excellent. AJPW was his yard for the absolute best work of his career but he was effective in practically every territory, especially Puerto Rico with that wonderful Carlos Colon feud.

 

[MidasGloves]

I had Hansen 8th so this seems about right. I think KFG's blurb is pretty much on the money, he's a big bastard ready to fight no matter who, what or where and in pro wrestling having a guy who does that well is always a plus. Him being below Austin is a bit of a surprise given Hansen probably has more top-end matches to his name, but I also totally get why. Austin's a guy who understood how to carry himself in every match and every role he was in, that whole "he couldn't work after his neck injury" myth got buried, more people reevaluated his 2001 heel work as being fantastic despite doing poor business, and he had a comeback match this decade that was genuinely awesome. Hansen is always Hansen (which is the best version of what he was ever in all fairness), Austin was extremely multi-faceted. 

[TRMD]

PWO changed my life when I found this place. And the first guy to start that was discovering Hansen.

I talked about how Foley realized that actually getting hurt, if it looked good, was just as impactful as working. Hansen realized that actually beating the living dogshit out of guys was actually just as entertaining as a worked punch or chop.

He didn’t just work good matches, he pulled emotion out of every crowd he wrestled in front of. He forced every wrestler to survive. And when you feel like you’re fighting for your life, the best is gonna be brought out of you.

A top 5 guy for me. (I did not vote.)

[Boss Rock]

Hansen was number 4 for me. The exact ordering of him, Bryan, and Tenryu was subject to much deliberation. Ultimately, I believe his peaks surpass the latter two’s. I actually had him number 1 about a decade ago when I first started doing a deeper dive on wrestling but Kawada, Kobashi, and Misawa gradually overtook him. Still, he was the greatest brawler and greatest heel ever. There have been a lot of dastardly heels in wrestling, but no one could play a rotten, no good bastard like Hansen could. His ability to create chaos was untouchable and nearly every match of his is a glorious spectacle of violence. Easily one of the greatest sellers as well because he always knew exactly when and how much to sell. Whether it made more sense for him to walk through a weaker opponent’s offense like it was an annoying mosquito or whether to cower and mewl like a wounded animal, still one dangerous Lariat away from stealing a win. There was also no wasted motion in his game. Whether an opponent was down or he was the one on the mat, he was still able to throw an errant kick to create the sense he was in a real-life fight.

Heeeeeeeeeewwwww!!!!

[TRMD]

1 minute ago, Boss Rock said:

Hansen was number 4 for me. The exact ordering of him, Bryan, and Tenryu was subject to much deliberation. Ultimately, I believe his peaks surpass the latter two’s. I actually had him number 1 about a decade ago when I first started doing a deeper dive on wrestling but Kawada, Kobashi, and Misawa gradually overtook him. Still, he was the greatest brawler and greatest heel ever. There have been a lot of dastardly heels in wrestling, but no one could play a rotten, no good bastard like Hansen could. His ability to create chaos was untouchable and nearly every match of his is a glorious spectacle of violence. Easily one of the greatest sellers as well because he always knew exactly when and how much to sell. Whether it made more sense for him to walk through a weaker opponent’s offense like it was an annoying mosquito or whether to cower and mewl like a wounded animal, still one dangerous Lariat away from stealing a win. There was also no wasted motion in his game. Whether an opponent was down or he was the one on the mat, he was still able to throw an errant kick to create the sense he was in a real-life fight.

Heeeeeeeeeewwwww!!!!

Spot on. Spot the fuck on.

[Boss Rock]

1 minute ago, TRMD said:

Spot on. Spot the fuck on.

Just like you, Hansen was one of my first major discoveries when I first came here in 2016 and yeah, he blew my mind.

[Childs]

Hansen dropped from No. 1 to No. 4 for me, but that's no reflection on him. I just felt compelled to bump Tenryu and Fujiwara up while recognizing that Danielson was the one who kept me attached to the game over the last decade. But no one has ever expressed his character through his work better than the Bad Man from Borger Texas. He made you reckon with him, and those who met his fury produced some of the most stirring wrestling in history. 

[BackToBionic]

Well if there was any lingering doubts about an invasion of voters who only follow modern American wrestlers, Hansen appearing on 84% of the ballots should silence those fears.

 

I think this year's top 10 is pretty balanced and represents a lot of the best of wrestling. I do wish a woman could have appeared and I wouldn't have complained if that woman was Aja (she was certainly on my list). But I think if nothing else, we can reasonably expect one next time around.

[Tetsujin]

I remember my first experience with Hansen. A nerdy wrestling fan friend of mine told me about him as one of his favourites ever, and the name really captivated me. "Stan Hansen" sounds fucking dope, I don't know if we realize it enough. I searched him on YouTube and the first recommendation was the famous Kobashi match. Hey, I knew Kobashi, he was fucking awesome and rapidly becoming my goat. So I watched that match and my jaw was on the floor the entire time. That was more than ten years ago when I was a teenager.

I gotta admit, there are some Hansen matches and performances I do not enjoy, especially when paired with aces (Bruno, Inoki, Backlund, Baba, Jumbo...). I believe those big figures take away too much of his essence when fighting him. The only exceptions are Carlos Colón and, to a lesser degree, Misawa. That's what ultimately dropped him out of my top tier list of guys, and in a couple of months he went from #7 to #27 (also because I ended up thinking better on newer guys to me like Jim Breaks or Buddy Rose). But other than that, he's sensational, and with Bret and Kobashi I would say he's the wrestler who wrestles the most like "yeah, that's what THEY would do in that situation" ever.

[El-P]

The one thing I loved above everything about Hansen, is that this mofo never ever stopped doing stuff. He would fill every little space between spots with a petty kick here, a bitchslap there. Must not have been always fun working against him. And yeah, I used against on purpose. 

[Childs]

2 hours ago, TRMD said:

Misawa was an incredible pro wrestler. Bret Hart was an incredible pro wrestler.

if you wrung every ounce of charisma out of Misawa, and then wrung every ounce of charisma out of Bret, and you poured all that charisma into a glass, you could sit that glass on the beach next to Austin’s ocean of charisma. And that would probably explain why he’s ranked higher.

You're probably spot on in assessing why Austin has soared, though it's a little odd in the sense that his career was already well in the rearview the last time we did this. When I said earlier that he belongs nowhere near a top 15, it wasn't a judgement of his peak. He was incredible at translating that once-in-a-generation charisma from the mic to the ring. He just didn't do it for very long, which matters to me when we're sorting out the best of the best. So to me, Austin in this rarefied air is a bit of style over substance, great as the substance was for a few years.  

[TRMD]

17 minutes ago, Childs said:

You're probably spot on in assessing why Austin has soared, though it's a little odd in the sense that his career was already well in the rearview the last time we did this. When I said earlier that he belongs nowhere near a top 15, it wasn't a judgement of his peak. He was incredible at translating that once-in-a-generation charisma from the mic to the ring. He just didn't do it for very long, which matters to me when we're sorting out the best of the best. So to me, Austin in this rarefied air is a bit of style over substance, great as the substance was for a few years.  

I think the reason he didn’t do as well in 2016 is multifaceted.

I think a lot of the people on here in 2016 actually stopped watching wrestling during the attitude era, either because of the match quality or because it just coincided with the natural progressions of growing out of something for a time. And also, I mean, this place, as it should be, was and is kind of a place for wrestling hipsters. That’s the exact kind of person that’s gonna stop watching once they hear their coworkers or classmates talking about wrestling who they knew weren’t into it 3 months before. And in 2016, there was a fare bit of backlash against the era because of over saturation and WWE shoving it down your throat for 15 years after it ended.

So I think when they go back and watch Austin, instead of merely watching Austin, the wrestling supernova that he is, they get distracted by the format of the match. the run ins, Hunter, the crowd brawls, etc - and they aren’t able to focus on just how god damn insanely good he was.

Just like when I watch Gunther now. I can see that he’s awesome. But I hate everything else that’s going on around him. So I get it. I do.

As for the longevity issue, I get it. I‘m a massive longevity guy in sports. But I just think of wrestling differently. If you’re really good for 6 years and then absurdly good for 6 more years, and you have to retire because you broke your neck and your life was crumbling, that’s fine for me in wrestling. But I get why longevity matters more to some people. It takes some wrestlers 12 years to even get good.

[Jmare007]

4 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I don't think people preferring Kobashi to Misawa is anything new. It's always been difficult for people to appreciate what made Misawa such a phenomenal ace because the traits are typically viewed as boring in an American wrestler. 

Yup, I think my fondest memory of the 2016 vote was Misawa ending up higher than Kobashi because I was so certain that wouldn't be the case, lol. 

[Grimmas]

So, can anyone guess the order of the final 6?

[Boss Rock]

37 minutes ago, Childs said:

You're probably spot on in assessing why Austin has soared, though it's a little odd in the sense that his career was already well in the rearview the last time we did this. When I said earlier that he belongs nowhere near a top 15, it wasn't a judgement of his peak. He was incredible at translating that once-in-a-generation charisma from the mic to the ring. He just didn't do it for very long, which matters to me when we're sorting out the best of the best. So to me, Austin in this rarefied air is a bit of style over substance, great as the substance was for a few years.  

Sort of where I'm at with Austin. He was great, I just don't think there's enough for top 10 let alone borderline top 5.

[PaoloReaper]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

The one thing I heard about Bret Hart recently that was really interesting to me, was Meltzer mentioning how Bret Hart was the very first worker he heard referring to himself as an artist. And that's *really* interesting, especially considering when I came into pro-wrestling (just during the last legs of Hulkamania, when Bret was becoming the IC champ).

That is, indeed, REALLY interesting. It's also obvious from his book that he had/has quite a clear artistic sensibility. I'm an actor training to be a pro-wrestler, and reading his book opened my eyes to a lot of things.

[Microstatistics]

10 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

So, can anyone guess the order of the final 6?

6. Austin 5. Tenryu 4. Flair 3. Kobashi 2. Funk 1. Bryan

[Tetsujin]

29 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

So, can anyone guess the order of the final 6?

Heart: 6. Austin 5. Tenryu 4. Flair 3. Funk 2. Danielson 1. Kobashi

Brain (optimistic): 6. Austin 5. Tenryu 4. Flair 3. Kobashi 2. Funk 1. Danielson

Brain (pessimistic): 6. Kobashi 5. Flair 4. Tenryu 3. Austin 2. Danielson 1. Funk

[Boss Rock]

36 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

So, can anyone guess the order of the final 6?

6. Austin, 5. Tenryu, 4. Flair, 3. Kobashi, 2. Bryan, 1. Funk

I'm bracing myself for a potential Flair win for top 2 finish though.

[Jetlag]

4 hours ago, TRMD said:

Misawa was an incredible pro wrestler. Bret Hart was an incredible pro wrestler.

if you wrung every ounce of charisma out of Misawa, and then wrung every ounce of charisma out of Bret, and you poured all that charisma into a glass, you could sit that glass on the beach next to Austin’s ocean of charisma. And that would probably explain why he’s ranked higher.

 

The problem is, how do you quantify someones charisma? How is Austin  more charismatic than, say, Choshu, or Hashimoto, or Kandori, or Dusty Rhodes, or Dusty Rhodes, or Hacksaw Jim Duggan, or Chigusa Nagayo, or Inoki..? Yes, Misawa is the more stoic type, but I think the stoicness can be quite charismatic too, as evidenced by him regularily bringing Japanese audiences to a boil while hardly showing any emotion. Also, this list was supposed to center around in-ring work, and while charisma does factor in it shouldn't be the major deciding point.

[Hollinger.]

6 minutes ago, Jetlag said:

 

The problem is, how do you quantify someones charisma? How is Austin  more charismatic than, say, Choshu, or Hashimoto, or Kandori, or Dusty Rhodes, or Dusty Rhodes, or Hacksaw Jim Duggan, or Chigusa Nagayo, or Inoki..? Yes, Misawa is the more stoic type, but I think the stoicness can be quite charismatic too, as evidenced by him regularily bringing Japanese audiences to a boil while hardly showing any emotion. Also, this list was supposed to center around in-ring work, and while charisma does factor in it shouldn't be the major deciding point.

It may be a bigger factor with a guy like Austin re: his ring work because so much of his charisma was physical. I know a guy like Foley resonates with me more than some more technically proficient wrestlers because he doesn’t move the way everyone else does. Austin has a lot of that in him. 

[Jmare007]

Austin gotta be the highest "peak candidate" to ever place in GWE, right? I'm reading the 06' and 16' polls top 10s and I think Bret in 06' at #8 was the prior highest.

Though Misawa has always felt like a "peak" wrestler as well, I'm not sure a 8-12 years isn't considered as longevity, lol.