GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[Grimmas]

1 minute ago, Boss Rock said:

Holy crap. I do recall Grimmas saying the top 4 had been pretty much locked from the get-go.

To clarify, top 3 was. 

Austin was fourth for a LONG time, but Flair jumped him in the last 2 weeks.

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

I do not think Danielson or Funk are THAT much better than Kobashi or Flair. But not really a surprise. The top two have the advantage of being American white men who were fixtures on mainstream TV with plenty of tape while having relatively unproblematic personal lives. And they were also both extremely talented. Perfect for the voter base. Would like to see some more BIPOC and gender-diverse representation one day in the top ten, but probably a conversation for 2036/2046 and onwards.

[Stephen-]

32 minutes ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

I do not think Danielson or Funk are THAT much better than Kobashi or Flair. But not really a surprise. The top two have the advantage of being American white men who were fixtures on mainstream TV with plenty of tape while having relatively unproblematic personal lives. And they were also both extremely talented. Perfect for the voter base. Would like to see some more BIPOC and gender-diverse representation one day in the top ten, but probably a conversation for 2036/2046 and onwards.

Like whom?

I don't think there was some bias or even blind spot towards men's Japanese wrestlers from the voter base. Kobashi was on some 87% of ballots. Tenryu a much lower 76% if I recall correctly but those ballots mostly had him very high.

Lucha will always be a blind spot without more circulation, and I think they could have done better, but only Santito and Casas ever had a shot of being contenders for the top 10. Maybe in a better year, Satanico does better. It's not just blind spots but a lack of footage in some cases too.

Joshi did better than I anticipated, but ultimately women will always be undervalued by some audiences and thus, I agree with you there.

Also, I agree with your first sentence. Largely because Flair is the best of the four. And the only of the four to place in my top 10. 

[Stephen-]

I have no horse in the Terry Funk v Bryan Danielson race. I would prefer if Funk won, just because I think it's more fun that way, but I don't mind either result. Neither are my guys so there is no investment from me. The landslide victory is interesting, though. I thought Tenryu or Kobashi had a shot of upsetting the apple cart. Boy, was I wrong. Congrats to whomever wins. 

 

[Reel]

7 hours ago, Stephen- said:

Lucha will always be a blind spot without more circulation,

It’s pretty much all there on YouTube, people just have to watch it, it’s not that it isn’t available. I do think as OJ has mentioned it doesn’t really have a discourse, but it’s not a matter of being hard to find. 

[TRMD]

I think Funk is either the best or 2nd best wrestler there’s ever been. I don’t feel that way about Danielson, but he’s a guy that I fully understand why he is thought of so highly. Not that I don’t think of him highly, I do. He’s certainly the best wrestler to debut post 2000, in my opinion. I have some issues with his work, but not much. If this was a list of the full compass of what being a pro wrestler was, he’d be substantially further down the list. But if we’re talking the match, and everything contained in that time frame of the match, he’s incredible.

I still think the most pissed off I’ve ever been watching a wrestling match is HHH/Bryan at 30, and Bryan has a chance to fight a guy who has made his life beyond a living hell for a year, and Bryan decides to come out and..wrestle him. It’s rare that I lose that much respect for a worker in one match, but that really cooled me on him for a while. But he’s pretty undeniable as a worker. He gets it. 99% of the time, he gets it.

[Control21]

30 minutes ago, Reel said:

It’s pretty much all there on YouTube, people just have to watch it, it’s not that it isn’t availabl. I do think as OJ has mentioned it doesn’t really have a discourse, but it’s not a matter of being hard to find. 

I think it's a combination of people not knowing where to start and the footage quality generally being a bit worse compared to what is available with Japanese wrestling. 

[Boss Rock]

8 minutes ago, TRMD said:

I still think the most pissed off I’ve ever been watching a wrestling match is HHH/Bryan at 30, and Bryan has a chance to fight a guy who has made his life beyond a living hell for a year, and Bryan decides to come out and..wrestle him. It’s rare that I lose that much respect for a worker in one match, but that really cooled me on him for a while. But he’s pretty undeniable as a worker. He gets it. 99% of the time, he gets it.

I get where you're coming from and this is not the first time I've seen this argument. I personally always thought it worked in the context of Bryan wanting to prove he was a better wrestler. Shut down all the "B plus" talk and prove he was the best. And I recall the match still being rather heated for what it was. 

[TRMD]

5 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

I get where you're coming from and this is not the first time I've seen this argument. I personally always thought it worked in the context of Bryan wanting to prove he was a better wrestler. Shut down all the "B plus" talk and prove he was the best. And I recall the match still being rather heated for what it was. 

That’s always been the common argument, but that’s just people projecting their own story to the match. I don’t think Danielson has ever come out and said that’s why he started that way or that was the intention. It’s just what people HOPED his intention was because it was so jarring. At least, to a certain type of fan who thinks wrestling should be a certain type of way. Most fans didn’t give a damn. They love that match.

[tcg91]

58 minutes ago, TRMD said:

I still think the most pissed off I’ve ever been watching a wrestling match is HHH/Bryan at 30, and Bryan has a chance to fight a guy who has made his life beyond a living hell for a year, and Bryan decides to come out and..wrestle him. It’s rare that I lose that much respect for a worker in one match, but that really cooled me on him for a while. But he’s pretty undeniable as a worker. He gets it. 99% of the time, he gets it.

Not Danielson's fault. The guy he wrestled clearly wanted to prove that 'he is a technician' and he's the one that gets to call the shots after all.

[SirSam]

14 minutes ago, tcg91 said:

Not Danielson's fault. The guy he wrestled clearly wanted to prove that 'he is a technician' and he's the one that gets to call the shots after all.

Wouldn't be the last time he did this in a big Wrestlemania spot either.

[Gramsci]

1 hour ago, TRMD said:

I still think the most pissed off I’ve ever been watching a wrestling match is HHH/Bryan at 30, and Bryan has a chance to fight a guy who has made his life beyond a living hell for a year, and Bryan decides to come out and..wrestle him. It’s rare that I lose that much respect for a worker in one match, but that really cooled me on him for a while. But he’s pretty undeniable as a worker. He gets it. 99% of the time, he gets it.

That's a wrestling narrative I never understood. I don't get why we assume that when one wrestler hates another, they have to structure the match in a certain way where wrestler A goes on a rampage to kill wrestler B with punches and kicks. In a bloody rivalry, I suppose it makes sense, because the goal is to hurt your opponent, but in this case, why would Danielson have to go after Triple H like a madman? A world title shot in the main event of WrestleMania was on the line, plus he had to prove he was better than Triple H and therefore more than just a B+ player. It was never hinted to us as the audience that Daniel Bryan's character was a dumb wrestler or something to act out in such excessive rage.

The rollout of the list has been great, and the overall result is really interesting. Obviously, there are some things that bother me, like everyone else, such as seeing Chicana or Robison outside the top 100, or Satánico so far from the top 10, but I think it paints a very interesting picture for 2036, in what feels like a kind of transition to something we don't yet know.

I voted for Danielson at number 1, but for various reasons, I want Terry Funk to win all of this.

[Kadaveri]

Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H at WM30 was structured like any other epic Triple H match at Wrestlemania. We all know who is calling the shots for the match layout here. If you want to judge Bryan's performance here, it shouldn't be "did they have the correct type of match?", something he almost certainly had no say in, but rather "did he have a good version of the Triple H at Wrestlemania match?"

[Childs]

Would have been happy with any of the top three winning. Flair deserves his enduring spot near the top, but it's good to have a fresh No. 1. 

Hoped Tenryu would push a spot or two higher, but I take solace from him moving up and blowing away Austin on points per vote. He had my favorite wrestling career, even though he's not my favorite wrestler. 

Kobashi was never my favorite of the great Japanese heavyweights, but I have found him increasingly undeniable over time for all the reasons his No. 1 voters have eloquently stated. I don't think anyone has ever loved pro wrestling more than Kenta Kobashi, and if we can't celebrate that, what the hell are we doing?

[PaoloReaper]

So... #2 and #1 drops tomorrow? What a ride this has been. Thank you to everyone who voted, to everyone who has been reacting here everyday, to the team that organized this and, of course, to @Grimmas. In my book, this is one of the most important projects ever done on pro-wrestling. 

[Matt D]

It’s been a hoot, but let’s not do this again for ten years.

[TRMD]

2 hours ago, Kadaveri said:

Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H at WM30 was structured like any other epic Triple H match at Wrestlemania. We all know who is calling the shots for the match layout here. If you want to judge Bryan's performance here, it shouldn't be "did they have the correct type of match?", something he almost certainly had no say in, but rather "did he have a good version of the Triple H at Wrestlemania match?"

Hunter has a lot of terrible qualities as a wrestler, but refusing to get his ass whooped to start a match would not be one of them.

I’m sorry. Bryan Danielson is multiple times the wrestler HHH is, but since none of us know exactly what happened behind the scenes, I’m going to go with my gut here. It’s on Danielson.

What a scumbag I am. Turning what should be a celebration of wrestling and Bryan Danielson into a HHH hate fest. That’s actually kind of beautiful. The PWO I remember.

[urbanecowboy]

6 hours ago, Stephen- said:

 

Lucha will always be a blind spot without more circulation, and I think they could have done better, but only Santito and Casas ever had a shot of being contenders for the top 10. Maybe in a better year, Satanico does better. It's not just blind spots but a lack of footage in some cases too.

High end Lucha might be the easiest stuff to access. 

[EnviousStupid]

5 hours ago, tcg91 said:

Not Danielson's fault. The guy he wrestled clearly wanted to prove that 'he is a technician' and he's the one that gets to call the shots after all.

Second this. When he wrestled other older and larger guys like Undertaker, Lesnar, Sting, etc. you didn't get as much time put towards graps and holds like we see from him against Bryan, or Reigns a couple years later. Triple H working younger guys in marquee matches on the biggest show is a chance to remind everyone what he thinks he's still capable of at a high level. And while Bryan does seem the type to let his opponent get more say in how a match goes than they probably should, it's hard to tell your boss to follow your lead instead.

[MidasGloves]

Bryan & Funk as the Top 2 was both the safe and correct-feeling bet so I'm glad it shook out that way. I'm fine with either outcome since while I put Danielson 1st that's definitely my heart talking since if I looked at it objectively I'd probably say that Bryan is at BEST on par with Terry.

4 minutes ago, EnviousStupid said:

Triple H working younger guys in marquee matches on the biggest show is a chance to remind everyone what he thinks he's still capable of at a high level.

This definitely rings true. Look at the matches HHH had with the title before working Roman at Mania 32: a B-PPV title defense against Dean/Mox that was very grounded and technical as opposed to the plunderfest you'd think they'd have on paper, and a TV match against Ziggler who was still considered a big workrate guy at the time.

[Jmare007]

That HHH-Danielson match had a lot of stuff that I associate more to Bryan than Hunter (most of the cut offs, the pace, the tiger suplex, the finishing sequence). It's probably why I love that match, lol. If anything, it felt like HHH doing a "I can have a match like this too!". 

The notion that it had to be a heated brawl or some desperate match escapes me though. I don't think that was ever the expectation going into the match nor something they were building towards to (as in, a brawl).

 

Anyways, still think he's too high and hoping Funk wins but I ain't gonna complain about the best wrestler of the 21st century getting this kind of love. 

 

 

[Matt D]

All I’ll say about Bryan vs HHH is that it might be Hunter’s only match ever that feels shorter than it actually is.

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

The fact there are apparently “people” who think that Danielson should have come out and had some massive violent rage-fuelled brawl, in the opening match of the PPV, in that situation, with the storyline well established that he would have to wrestle again later that night and overcome adversity, goes to show how little people actually understand wrestling and booking a show. 
 

It made you “lose respect” for Danielson? What are you, a mark? His character is smart enough to try conserve his energy and start a match cautiously against a dangerous opponent, knowing he has to wrestle a triple threat match later if he wins. He even has a big bandage over his shoulder to scream to ROW ZZ: “hey folx, this guy is injured and the underdog!” Apparently you aren’t smart enough to watch a product that even 10 year old children routinely say is fake and gay. 
 

These are the kinds of cretins who I’m sure loved when Ospreay kicked out of 40 false finishes against Fletcher and then came back to wrestle another match against Okada and kick out of another 40 finishes to diminishing returns while looking like a used tampon. Hang on, I have a pair of keys around here somewhere I can jingle for you. 

[Tetsujin]

Guys I'm sorry but I'm far more interested in speaking about how to make more people watch/talk about lucha than if Bryan should've wrestled Triple H with a machete (yes).

[El-P]

Wait for the surge of lucha libre in 2036 with all these El Grande Americano votes...

9 hours ago, Matt D said:

It’s been a hoot, but let’s not do this again for ten years.

Maybe I'll still be around somewhere. 60 years old and shit, turning back into that old version of myself, raging about the good old days of when I was 40 something and the Elite and Tanahashi and Okada and Naito and Darby Allin and how those young punks don't know how to work these days and how they should watch old-school pro-wrestling like 2016 NJPW and 2021 AEW, you know, the old classic shit on low resolution (you know, the old HD 1080p). Hey, maybe the discourse will still be "Wow, AEW is do dead this time, they are done, this is the final straw". Would be funny. Whatever happens, TNA will still be around. Or not.

Who knows. Maybe. Probably not.

Watch pro-wrestling, people. It's awesome. Well sometime it's not awesome, it's actually really fucking stupid. Which can also make it awesome, in a way.

Anywoo. Just drop the 1-2 already.