GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[KB8]

1 minute ago, El-P said:

😅

I can't say I'm familiar with all of these names, much less say I watched their stuff, but I know way too many of them to really ask myself what the hell have I done with my life. Which is a question I also asked myself 10 years ago, except the underlining mood was a whole lot darker then. Today it's more like, fuck me, I'm such a geek. Oh well.

 

Sort of the same. There are a bunch of these wrestlers who've dropped so far where I'm like "I don't think I've ever seen a match with this person" while still having at least some idea of them, but relatively speaking there's really only a small handful where I truly don't have an idea who they are, and almost all of them are prominent names from about 2010 onwards. 

I've been watching this stuff for too long. 

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm specifically talking about the 300s. Maybe it's the pictures messing with me. 

[El-P]

That Chuck Taylor pic is certainly messing with me. BTW, I never expected Chuck Taylor of all people to get that "high". You gotta give people what they want.

(I realize I totally forgot Bobby Fish when he dropped. A shame, it was the easiest punchline of them all)

[Childs]

3 hours ago, El Dragon said:

I feel good for predicting that Junior Heavyweights from the 90's were about to die a death in this, but man, don't feel good about that Sano drop at all. 

Yeah, Sano and Marty Jones dropping 240 spots each are my biggest bummers so far. Sano was such a great, versatile wrestler; I wonder if his peak work being spread across styles and promotions has led to him being less distinct for younger generations? I'm sorry, there's no world in which Abyss was better than him. 

[KB8]

Sano's the first from my top 50 to drop. I'm surprised he fell as far as he did, even though on the other hand I never really expected him to have a great run in this and certainly wouldn't have figured he'd make the top 100. A real shame. 

[DMJ]

With the 400s and 300s, I've finally seen some names of mine drop but I'm not too bummed or surprised. They've all been in the 80s-90s range. I know I've stated it multiple times over the past year, but I'm an admittedly "generic" US wrestling nerd who grew up with WWE/WCW/ECW, some TNA, a lot of AEW now...blah, blah, blah, I'll spare the details.

So, yeah, you can expect to see Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre on my list. The "pool" of wrestlers I could even consider for a list like this is probably something like 150-200, not 500 or 1000 like some of the other voters.

That being said...

Even if I had to list 200, folks like Kane and Abyss wouldn't make my list. Even if we're talking about getting carried to great matches, I'd put the Ultimate Warrior above them. At least Warrior has the Savage matches, WM6, and the Rude matches plus he was a better promo. Hell, I might put Warrior above Adam Cole too, which is probably crazy to some folks, but Cole is kinda like a one-man Young Bucks to me. With the Bucks, I can overlook that they are two small dudes doing lots of high-energy offense because two cruiserweights doing a dizzying array of high-impact, high-flying moves creates chaos and unpredictability and it can wear down a team of heavyweights. Its not totally dissimilar psychology to the Rockers or Rock n' Roll Express. But Adam Cole is just not my thing. I'm probably splitting hairs but I just find him less believable than a Rey Mysterio or Danielson or Darby Allin.

 

[El Dragon]

I can’t believe I’m coming to Abyss’s aid, but Abyss was quite good in his athletic prime. Awesome AJ opponent, and was legitimately pretty fantastic in the Embassy/Generation Next feud in RoH

[BackToBionic]

Today is the first day I had anyone drop and I had 4 go today, including my all-time favorite wrestler, Chris Candido. I guess I remove some level of emotion from my ranking (as much as possible) and try to think about metrics when ranking. He is my favorite wrestler and has been for almost 30 years now but I'm aware that there's a little bit of nostalgia as well as personal interactions with the man that make him my favorite. I know he isn't the "greatest" if I'm being non-biased. But seeing other people's lists, I'm sorta bummed I didn't just rank my favorites, or at the very least rank them much higher. I do wonder if the 06 and 16 lists weren't slightly more "vote with your head and not your heart" but then I do remember the 2016 reveal having some really wacky stuff too. Not quite Russian backyard wrestler wacky, but wacky nonetheless.

[Ricky Jackson]

I hope the head/heart aspect is more balanced this time. 2016 definitely had a lot of "vote with your head" gatekeeping that was a huge turnoff for me. My list was, in my mind anyway, at least partially a protest against that mindset. Of course it's all so silly looking back, both the strict objective view and the emotional one. It's all for fun, nothing more

[Matt D]

It does really feel to me like 2026 has been much more about people's personal journeys. 

[KB8]

Spoiler

#500

Chad Gable

I'd love to read some of the cases for a guy like Gable being top 5. I don't want that to sound snooty or because I think it's a DISGRACE, a TRAVESTY, an INSULT TO INTEGRITY OF THE PROCESS or whatever. "Making a case" sounds like I think there should be a defence or some such and that's not what I mean. This shouldn't be a chore. Just a rundown or something would be cool. A window into what you enjoy about a particular wrestler. I mean, about 75% of the fun in these projects is in people going to bat for obscure candidates as high finishes. I want to know what it is about Chad Gable that someone loves and I'm asking as a person whose curiosity is born out of not having watched a ton of Gable myself. The same even goes for people I'm familiar with. I know why I think Mr. Wrestling II is awesome, why do you think he's top 5 all time? What can we all appreciate about Mr. Wrestling II or Lulu Pencil? Like Matt says, the journey is the fun part and it would be cool to hitchhike on someone's journey to voting Chad Cable top 5. Ah whatever, do what you like, I'm not your granny. 

 

 

#499

Shinya Aoki

I haven't watched Aoki in a long time. I think it was against pensioner Fujiwara and that was not yesterday. 

 

 

#498

Akitoshi Saito

Ealry 90s Saito was a hoot in the WAR/New Japan feud, although most people were a hoot in that feud so take that for what it's worth. There's some good 00s Saito as well. The '04 Kobashi match is good and Kobashi's apron brainbuster bump might be one of the five most ludicrous bumps I've seen in a regular match.

 

 

#497

Emilio Charles Jr.

An amazing wrestler and my #73. Amazing trios wrestler in either the A, B or C position, pretty underrated as a mat worker, incredible stooge and can cut loose to brutalise a man when the situation calls for it. His consistency as a rudo in trios is pretty astonishing. Maybe doesn't have crazy longevity, at least not relative to his peers, but what's there rules. If I'd watched more of him over the last 10 years he'd probably have been higher, but there's only so much time in the day and all that. 

 

 

#496

Franz van Buyten

I really should watch more Franz van Buyten. 

 

 

#495

Jesse "The Body" Ventura

I guess we can consider this a jump? From no placement to #495? Jesse's okay from what I've seen, but most of it is late-career. 

 

 

#494

"Bullet" Bob Armstrong

Another guy I've really only seen late in the game. 

 

 

#493

Davey Richards

No thank you. 

 

#492

El Mesías

The Park matches are legit MOTDC so fair play to the fella. 

 

 

#491

Canek

A super fun mat worker, but I feel like most of the Canek I've seen is enjoyable in the ironic sense rather than the actually good sense so I should definitely see more (of the actually-good). 

 

#490

Matt Sydal

Man, Sydal's been going for a while. The initial ROH run was pretty fun and he had some good stuff in WWE, but honestly I've probably watched him twice since then. Well there's the AEW Punk match and that was good. 

 

 

#489

Kevin Sullivan

One day I'll sit down and watch that Satanic Florida run in one go. 

 

 

#488

Dr. Cerebro

Love the top 20 vote. I considered him and never wound up pulling the trigger on it, but Cerebro is great and has a pretty awesome resume. Brilliant mat worker and one of the few guys I could sit and watch trade holds for an hour straight. That Virus match is a stone cold classic. 

 

 

#487

Kyoko Kimura

I've seen one Kimura match that I know of. And it was good! But one match does not make a GWE case, as they teach us. 

 

 

#486

Mascarita Dorada

I don't think I've seen anything. That sounds wrong but after a good 30 seconds of thought I'm drawing a blank. 

 

#485

Mascara Dorada 2.0

Is this the WWE one?

 

 

#484

Cien Caras

Man I love some Cien Caras. As charismatic as you'll get. At times almost feels like a lucha Roddy Piper.

 

 

#483

MIKAMI

I don't have much to say about a lot of the Japanese indie guys, I'm afraid. DDT is a rabbit hole I've never gone down.

 

#482

King Haku

I would contest that he's several hundred spots better than his Islanders tag team partner. STRONGLY contest, as we would say in a court of law. But also really fun and I like Haku anyway so whatever. 

 

#481

Clive Myers

Feels like it's been a little while since I've had to sheepishly confess to not having seen nearly enough of a particular WoS guy. But here we are. 

 

[Grimmas]

@KB8 Mascara Dorada 2.0 is the new CMLL one and is one of the best wrestlers in the world the last two years. Feels like the next Rey.

[KB8]

Oh shit, it's the new one? Yeah, I subscribed to the CMLL youtube a few weeks ago and I've been watching a lot of the last couple years. There are naturally times where he shows his inexperience and honestly, modern CMLL isn't always for me (at least their singles matches), but this batch of young tecnicos they have is pretty damn strong and Dorada is absolutely spectacular when he's on song. 

[MidasGloves]

So far Big Show & Awesome Kong are my only Top 50 votes out and most of the rest are from the bottom of my list so I guess I'm doing well. Can't say I expected Show or Kong to go super deep so Top 400 placements work just fine for me, especially since I wasn't the high vote on either.

On 5/12/2026 at 5:27 AM, El-P said:

Here's a resume from Cagematch for ya : 

"Has a career outside of wrestling, decides to train as a wrestler to see if she can, manages to have one of the best feuds of 2020s pro wrestling, appears in AEW in a butler outfit which pops Eddie Kingston, makes the cover of PWI despite being last on their list, wins literally zero (0) singles matches, retires before the 2nd anniversary of her debut match, refuses to elaborate. Might be the GOAT."

I had to go back and check, this is my rating lmao. To better explain the appeal of Lulu, let me try this:

Lulu Pencil to me is the babyface equivalent of Andy Kaufman (A comparison I made in her nomination thread that came to me as a realization just recently). She's an outsider to pro wrestling, she is NOT built for pro wrestling, she's in way over her head and can get crumpled by a simple suplex or hold, but the difference is that she loves and respects pro wrestling instead of Kaufman trying to make a mockery of it, and she's anything but a quitter. Her main story throughout her short career was just trying to be seen as a pro wrestler by her peers at ChocoPro and how that ends up rubbing Chris Brookes the wrong way. The feud has nothing tangible on the line, at most Chris steals her hat and Lulu wants to win it back, and you never in a million years expect Lulu to beat this big tall dude with exponentially more experience in the ring, but she's TRYING, and all of this means the world to her. That's what makes Lulu Pencil's run so magical to me: rooting for someone who believes in their improvement in the face of failure over and over again. The Iron Man match she has with Brookes manages to tell an incredible story that the final result wouldn't imply, and this is before her other work in Gatoh Move/ChocoPro comes into play. Her tag team with Emi Sakura as Pencil Army (as well as her brief time tagging with Brookes before their feud) always results in some fun matches, and the Tag Team I Quit match between Lulu/Emi and Brookes/Mizumori is excellent. She even has other good standard singles under her belt during her long defining losing streak against the likes of Mei Suruga, Ryo Mizunami, Emi Sakura, Antonio Honda, etc.

Would I put her #2 all-time? Nope, she was basically locked in as 100th on my ballot from the get-go. But I respect that #2 vote because when I first watched some of her big matches I was more invested in her than I've been in most matches I've ever seen. Also she was willing to get RAGDOLLED in that little ChocoPro room good lord.

[Microstatistics]

#425

Azumi Hyuga

Put her at #97. Honestly, if you value enough of her JWP ace run during the Dark Ages of Joshi, those Top 25 votes are sound.

#408

Jim Londos

Had him at #87. Can't argue with #2 placement on historical importance.

#388

Miu Watanabe

Best wrestler of 2025? That was enough for a #91 spot for me. One to watch for by 2036

#366

Naoki Sano

I'll echo the disappointments of others regarding the fall. My #76 and that's likely an underestimation.

#363

Marty Jones

My #63. A top 10 vote is awesome.

 

[KB8]

Yeah, that's the stuff right there. I hadn't a clue who Lulu Pencil was two days ago and now I want to check her out. 

2026 GWE has been a success already!

(for me, anyway. I don't care about the rest of you)

[NotJayTabb]

Pleasantly surprised Adam Cole has dropped this early, had visions of him cracking the top 200. Apparently a lovely fella, but my word that Cole/Ciampa/Gargano era of NXT was absolute death to the point they had to totally rebrand to wash the stink away (this probably isn't Adam Cole's fault, but it's my thesis and I'm sticking to it)

[Makai Club #1]

The NXT main events jumped the boat almost immediately after the Andrade/Gargano hype. It went straight to their heads and they confused epic matches with just kicking out of everything. And it's a shame to reduce it to that, but that's essentially what it was after a while. A shame because they were just on the cusp of something special and a star rating (which they claim not to care about) made them froth at the mouth for more. The only matches that might still hold up to any degree are the tag matches with the rest of Undisputed Era and Moustache Mountain. Those remain terrific. 

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm pretty selective about the Mark Rocco I like, but even as a non-fan I find his slide a bit troubling. If a guy like Rocco can't do well, it doesn't bode well for other Euro workers. That said, his 2006 rating was overinflated by Smarkschoice being started by Brits, IRC. A lot of the Brit-adjacent forums at the time were championing Rocco as a British workrate god.  

[El-P]

So many people triggered by Adam Cole, it's kinda crazy... He really is one of the litmus test worker.

Pat Patterson. Oh yeah.... Good ole Pat. Discourse has kinda changed on the inventor of the Royal Rumble and the genius finish man, uh ? *yuck*

Etsuko Mita. She invented the Death Valley Driver. What have you done with YOUR life ? (she was also one half of one of the GOAT tag team. LCO will remain one of my all time favorite, as they should)

Amazing Red. He invented the Code Red. What have you done with YOUR life ? (he's also one of the most influential an respected figure and legit indie wrestling legend of the last 25 years and is still terrific to this day)

Mark Rocco. Goofy-ass Black Tiger

A. Kong. Got given a racist name in Japan (who could have predicted ?), ran with it and become this Awesome and Amazing monster worker. Her and Gail Kim in TNA in what, 2007 or so, was the REAL women's revolution of US women's wrestling on TV. She was just as great in GLOW (fuck you Netflix for not giving me the final season, trash streaming with your shitty interface and crappy documentaries). Her coming back for a short while in early AEW was so cool even though she was thrashed physically. Some time ago she told she was under contract for a long time, much more than she appeared on TV. TK just paid her. That's respect being earned. 

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

That said, his 2006 rating was overinflated by Smarkschoice being started by Brits, IRC. 

Some New-Zealand / United Kingdom heat right there. Who was British on SC ? I have no recollection of this !

Wasn't this the fact the Tiger Mask stuff was (rightfully) super popular still and the Rocco matches were quite good. And back then, you'd vote for stuff seen as classic if pimped enough. I mean, I probably voted for El fucking Faraon on the basis of one match in 2006. 

[MoS]

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

Her and Gail Kim in TNA in what, 2007 or so, was the REAL women's revolution of US women's wrestling on TV. 

This feud was so tremendous. I ranked Awesome Kong and I wish she could have hung on for a bit more but it is what it is. 

The bottom quarter of my list has taken some beating in the last couple of days. I had Sara Del Ray as my #76 while it was more of a vanity pick, I wish I had actually ranked her higher haha. SDR ranking below Abyss sucks. Plus if someone can have Shane McMahon as their 19th Greatest Wrestler Ever, then all bets are off. 

I am really happy Chuck Taylor made it. Have always liked him a lot. 

[ohtani's jacket]

5 minutes ago, El-P said:

Some New-Zealand / United Kingdom heat right there. Who was British on SC ? I have no recollection of this !

Wasn't this the fact the Tiger Mask stuff was (rightfully) super popular still and the Rocco matches were quite good. And back then, you'd vote for stuff seen as classic if pimped enough. I mean, I probably voted for El fucking Faraon on the basis of one match in 2006. 

I thought Rob was British. There were a contingent of Brits involved somehow or another. I remember they all made the trip to Japan for the 2004 NOAH Tokyo Dome Show. I can't remember ever coming across someone who championed Rocco as Black Tiger, though such people may exist. They were high on stuff like Rocco vs. Keiichi Yamada, and the WoS stuff that was filtering through The Wrestling Channel. 

I like British people. Just not their sports teams. Rocco is fine when he wrestles the way I want him to. Actually, Rocco at his best is a brilliant worker. He just preferred to work a style I didn't care for. It earned him notoriety, though. But not enough to stop his descent on the GWE list.

 

[NotJayTabb]

4 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I like British people. Just not their sports teams. 

As a Welshman who still hears about how the All Blacks cheated against us to win in 1978, the feeling is mutual 

I do regret not giving WoS a deeper dive on this GWE. I've got 5 guys on my list, but I could probably have watched a bit more. Jon Cortez was one of my last cuts because I didn't feel I had enough of a grip on him yet.

[El-P]

Anyone else wanting to pile on British people while we're at it ? I mean, now seems like a good time too... (ZSJ is never coming back to Britain)