GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[ohtani's jacket]

13 hours ago, Reel said:

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. 

I think lucha needs more people involved like cad who offer takes. I might not always agree with the things he says about lucha, but it's always interesting and always thought-provoking. If there was more discourse surrounding the lucha candidates, you could start comparing them to the top guys on the list instead of simply comparing them to other luchadores. In my mind, there's very little that separates Negro Casas and Terry Funk as wrestlers. You should be able to have a discussion about which of them is better, but we're not there yet because I don't think we've full distilled what it is that makes Casas a great wrestler. 

The other thoughts I have about lucha is that I think because its been dismissed in the past, I think there's a tendency for people to try to shield or protect it. I can understand where that instinct compares from, but I think the mentality of "don't say anything bad about lucha" prevents the discourse from growing.

Access wise, it would be great if there was a way for fans to find out that you need to watch these three lead-in matches and the apuestas, or that these half a dozen matches showcase a particular rivalry. I don't think that information is easy to pin down. Just having a quick and easy list of the best matches from 1993 AAA or 1992 CMLL would be helpful. 

Then, I think you have to acknowledge that lucha, at least the classic lucha that I love, is closer in spirit to the US territories than a lot of modern stuff, and since those workers took a dip, there's nothing to suggest that people would necessarily love old-school lucha. There's also a problem with fans who like to see a laundry list of four star matches and above. That was always a problem with lucha. You had matches that showcased the artistry of lucha and lucha in its purest, most beautiful form, but there wasn't a list of all of the four star matches that El Hijo del Santo had. 

That said, i don't really know how people consume wrestling these days. This is simply based on what I've seen over the last 20 years. 

[ohtani's jacket]

I think Terry Funk is a great wrestler. One of the best ever. However, it would be nice if one or two matches dropped from his prime because when I see people comment that other people aren't volume workers it always makes me wonder why Terry gets a past on this. To me, he's a total performance-based candidate (including promo ability, if I'm being honest.)  I know we have great Terry Funk matches on tape, but I wonder if I'm the only one who raises half an eyebrow at this. 

[El McKell]

Terry Funk has tonnes of volume of stuff though. What do you think is his prime and why doesn’t AJPW stuff from 76-77 count as part of it?

[ohtani's jacket]

29 minutes ago, El McKell said:

Terry Funk has tonnes of volume of stuff though. What do you think is his prime and why doesn’t AJPW stuff from 76-77 count as part of it?

I would consider the mid-70s to be Funk's prime, at least athletically speaking. The AJPW stuff adds to the volume of footage, but I'm assuming that volume of work refers to the number of great matches we have from a worker. I should really have said one or two more great matches from his prime. A quick glance at cagematch (for argument's sake) tells me that Funk only has around 25 matches rated over 8.00 for his entire career. That doesn't seem like a lot for a top 2 guy of all-time. Quite possibly the lowest of anyone in the top 10. There are other reasons to love Funk, and perhaps a lot of his stuff is underrated, but if Bret isn't a volume guy (as has been stated) then how is Funk any better? 

[Matt D]

You should go out and see what it's like out there for a couple of weeks. Not right now since the top of the list and the whole list will make things rough, but maybe in a month. Don't stay there, but just dip your toes. 

Current wrestling is very cagematch/star rating oriented maybe with arguments about specific spots. Old wrestling tends to be more performance based/clip based/attribute based/summation driven in how it's discussed. (Unless you're talking about Kurt Angle never getting a five star match which comes up once every three months and is very painful).

[TRMD]

5 hours ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

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. 

Do you guys I think I wanted the entire match to be a Hansen style brawl? Can you read, bub? I’m talking about the start of the match. Literally the first minute.

And I’d rather be curb stomped by Doug Furnas than watch one Ospreay match, let alone 2 in the same night. That’s one of the most absurd correlations I’ve ever seen. The person who wanted BRYAN DANIELSON to brawl a little at Mania is also the same guy that wants to watch two Ospreay avengers style epics? What in the absolute hell is the through line there?

Itd be like saying “there are really idiots that want Wemby to get in the post and bang? I bet those same idiots love when the Celtics shoot 60 3’s in a game.”

[Grimmas]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

Anywoo. Just drop the 1-2 already.

Around 6 pm est

[EnviousStupid]

I said a few years ago somewhere that on the basis of his All Japan work alone, Terry could sneak into the top 30 of my GWE, and I'd still stand by that. Plenty of great matches for my taste, whether across singles or tags, working technical or brawling, sub-10 minutes or going much longer.

[ohtani's jacket]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

You should go out and see what it's like out there for a couple of weeks. Not right now since the top of the list and the whole list will make things rough, but maybe in a month. Don't stay there, but just dip your toes. 

Current wrestling is very cagematch/star rating oriented maybe with arguments about specific spots. Old wrestling tends to be more performance based/clip based/attribute based/summation driven in how it's discussed. (Unless you're talking about Kurt Angle never getting a five star match which comes up once every three months and is very painful).

I read Twitter a bit, but it's hard to follow the discussions. Reddit is easier for this old man to follow. 

[El-P]

21 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Around 6 pm est

Probably gonna see it tomorrow. End of an era coming up.

[Robert S]

Re. the Lucha discussion: I have struggled to get into Lucha for maybe 25 years now, at one point I just gave up. Thing is, stylistically it (and I realize that is a very broad generalization) is just such a big outlier to every other style of pro wrestling (or at least surviving style, Europe obviously also was drastically different from the USA/Japanese spectrum we have got basically everywhere but Mexico (and I guess Central America) for the past 30+ years). Looking at the different facets, I have always found the "title match" to be the most approachable kind of Lucha (something that could happen very closely in other places of the world as well) with trios matches being the most inaccessible one. Seriously, after all the trios matches I have seen, I am still struggling to get (or maybe enjoy) even basic psychology of those matches (besides basically every match ending up in a terciera caida). And I just assume I am not the only one having such issues.

That is one reason why I never participate in these kind of polls, I find it hard to vote knowing that I am not fair to a big (and somewhat mainstream) portion of pro wrestling. 

[Tetsujin]

3 minutes ago, Robert S said:

That is one reason why I never participate in these kind of polls, I find it hard to vote knowing that I am not fair to a big (and somewhat mainstream) portion of pro wrestling. 

If you watched it and didn't like it, why would you have the need to vote for it? It's not about being unfair, it's about you not enjoying it. 

[TRMD]

6 minutes ago, Robert S said:

Re. the Lucha discussion: I have struggled to get into Lucha for maybe 25 years now, at one point I just gave up. Thing is, stylistically it (and I realize that is a very broad generalization) is just such a big outlier to every other style of pro wrestling (or at least surviving style, Europe obviously also was drastically different from the USA/Japanese spectrum we have got basically everywhere but Mexico (and I guess Central America) for the past 30+ years). Looking at the different facets, I have always found the "title match" to be the most approachable kind of Lucha (something that could happen very closely in other places of the world as well) with trios matches being the most inaccessible one. Seriously, after all the trios matches I have seen, I am still struggling to get (or maybe enjoy) even basic psychology of those matches (besides basically every match ending up in a terciera caida). And I just assume I am not the only one having such issues.

That is one reason why I never participate in these kind of polls, I find it hard to vote knowing that I am not fair to a big (and somewhat mainstream) portion of pro wrestling. 

Exactly me. The single biggest reason I didn’t vote in 2016.