GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[ZubazKid]

23 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I’m rooting for Eddie Kingston. I don’t think he’s a top 100 wrestler of all time but I still have a heart, you know. King of the Bums just has to survive the rest of the day.

Similar sentiments led Eddie to my #100 spot. There were a handful of others I wanted to cram into that last spot, but that was impossible of course and I just thought…screw it I want Eddie Kingston on my list. He can make you feel & believe like few others & that’s a rare & valuable trait today.

[SirSam]

I have Eddie right up there in my list.

Very few wrestlers are able to conjur the authentic, heart-on-their-sleeve passion and fire that Eddie is able to generate.

His offence is decent especially when he is working as a brawler and his selling is excellent.

He is an all time great promo.

Just look into that man's eyes.

If he makes it to the top 100 it will be because he earned it.

[NotJayTabb]

Eddie manages to feel incredibly real, despite coming from the world of CHIKARA, which is anything but. He's also one of a handful of wrestlers (Thatcher, Satomura) who's cases were helped on my list by live aura. Something about their presence just adds a bit of extra buzz.

[HeadCheese]

I have exactly 50 people left on my list,  which is fun and interesting.

[El McKell]

Mark Briscoe couldn't beat Jay Briscoe. I think that's the first long term tag team like that were the one I prefer did worse.

[highflyflow]

Shingo directly above Otani did instinctively make me want to vomit.

[Tetsujin]

Didn't expect Otani out ot the top 100. Atlantis I kinda expected it but I didn't wanna think about it, but hey it is what it is. Both did really well, all things considered.

Mark Briscoe is fucking awesome and I'm sad both him and Jay couldn't be together on the top. Hope Jay makes it though.

Now there's only 6 spots left before the top 100, and theres plenty of active wrestlers still alive: Mayu, Shirai, Asuka, Zayn, GUNTHER, Claudio, ZSJ, Omega, Ospreay, Okada, Naito, Nakamura, Eddie Kingston, Aja Kong, KENTA, Mercedes Moné, Místico, Ishii, Shibata, Low Ki, Joe, Punk, Suzuki, and I'm sure I'm forgetting people.

[Grimmas]

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

[Boss Rock]

Disappointing finishes for Atlantis and Otani. I appear to have been wrong about my lucha prediction, but I still expect Santo, Casas, and Satanico to finish relatively high. 

Impressive jumps for Mark, Nagata, Shingo, and Abdullah though.

[Boss Rock]

2 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

Sabu, Nakamura, Hero, Baba, Inoki, Takayama.

[Boss Rock]

3 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Sabu, Nakamura, Hero, Baba, Inoki, Takayama.

Forgot about KENTA but sticking with this. 

3 in my top 50 just fell with that last drop but 19 in my top 20 remain. 74 overall.

[Matt D]

19 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Baba, Inoki

There’s a world where both of these guys can be top 50. Hold on tight.

[El McKell]

4 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

How about Onita, El Dandy, Takayama, Mayu Iwatani, Ricky Morton & Jay Briscoe

[El-P]

Megumi Kudo : rejected by AJW, hired and pushed for cosmetic reasons by Onita, FUCKED PEOPLE UP. 

(she was also in the main event of the very first joshi puroresu tape I bought in 1998)

Kensuke Sasaki : first saw him in 1994 or so on Eurosport sporting a Legion of Doom (yeah, sorry, I only knew of WWF then) costume. Underrated. Overpushed at one time (people will still blame the collapse of the Japanese wrestling golden era of the 90's with him getting the IWPG title) but underrated, really. He's most famously known for being the husband of the GOAT.

Mr. Perfect. My second ever favorite wrestler. He was in the first really competitive match I ever saw, which was a house-show IC title defense against Hercules. Did I mentioned the French version of WWF TV was goofy as fuck ?

Christian Cage : fun fact, I realized he was better than Edge as soon as he debuted in WWF in 98.

Bob Backlund : the heel turn in 1994 remains one of my all-time favorite angle. When you think him and Bret had *that kinda match* on WWF TV, Superstars mind you, it's almost like a fever dream. Loved his 70's/early 80's stuff too.

Dick Togo : yeah, great wrestler and all, but responsible for House of Torture. Get fucked.

Atlantis : wait, he got *above* Villano III ? Da fuck is this ?

Yugi Nagata : better than any of the 90's generation heavys. And yes, that includes Hashimoto.

Shingo Takagi : thanks for ruining each and every one of the awesome matches I saw you have by posing with neo-nazis loving Sanae Takaichi. Ruined Natsupoi too in the process. Pro-tip : if you're a fucking idiot, just hide it.

Abby : amazing scary monster with the most lethal finisher ever. Hepatitis C ? No one is gonna no sell that shit....

[Tetsujin]

54 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

Let's do it:

Giant Baba, Kevin Owens, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura, Mayu Iwatani and (sadly) Tetsuya Naito.

[Troyvang]

I have 62 left. I’ve been the high voter on four (Toshiyo Yamada, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Super Astro, and Lizmark). I don’t regret any of those votes or really any of mine. I don’t think any of them were throw away or silly and I’m fine not fitting with the norm. Also, responding to another topic on the board today: this is why nominations are needed. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have watched much from any of these four and they all ended up in my top 40.

[MichaelZ]

I’ll try it: Yoshida, Ibushi, Low Ki, Kandori, Dandy, ZSJ

[El Boricua]

I was rooting for Abdullah to crack the top 100, heck of a placement.

[ZubazKid]

Oof that was a rough drop for my list. I had Atlantis at #50, Nagata at #94, Mark Briscoe at #86, Otani at #72 and Shingo at #49.

Bummed about Briscoe, but ready to see who makes the top 100.

[ZubazKid]

1 hour ago, Grimmas said:

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

I’ll say 

Low Ki, KENTA, Jericho, Nakamura, Onita & Eddie Kingston at 101 to narrowly miss the list which would fit his character perfectly (I really hope I’m wrong about that last part though.)

Had to edit because I only had 5 names. Counting is hard.

[El Dragon]

I’ll go Sammartino, ZSJ, Mayu, The Rock, Jay Briscoe, and William Regal as last 6 out. The last 2 purely because if I’m right at least something positive will come of the travesty.

[El Boricua]

1 hour ago, Grimmas said:

Whoever can nail the final 6 to drop out of the top 100 gets massive bonus points.

It'll probably be something like Sammartino, Dandy, Windham, Rose, Benoit and Low Ki.

[donsem43]

7 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I dunno where all these FMW fans emerged from, but they've been by far the most successful pool of voters.

The only thing that I can think of is people finding BAHU's work and really getting into it. It can't just be a deathmatch thing otherwise someone like Masashi Takeda would have done way better.

2 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

Didn't expect Otani out ot the top 100.

I thought I was being optimistic thinking he would making it past 250. It's extremely rare to see anyone talk about he in-ring work these days.

Reading the non-troll #1 votes it getting more and more clear to me that younger fans need to feel a personal investment with a wrestler in order to think of them as one of the greats. If you are someone bemoaning the drop of World of Sport and older territory guys and want to change that, you need to realize that just going "(Wrestler X) is great!" then listing a handful of matches that people need to watch isn't going to get the job done. You need to a more elaborate, involved sell job than that.

[Grimmas]

19 minutes ago, donsem43 said:

The only thing that I can think of is people finding BAHU's work and really getting into it. It can't just be a deathmatch thing otherwise someone like Masashi Takeda would have done way better.

I thought I was being optimistic thinking he would making it past 250. It's extremely rare to see anyone talk about he in-ring work these days.

Reading the non-troll #1 votes it getting more and more clear to me that younger fans need to feel a personal investment with a wrestler in order to think of them as one of the greats. If you are someone bemoaning the drop of World of Sport and older territory guys and want to change that, you need to realize that just going "(Wrestler X) is great!" then listing a handful of matches that people need to watch isn't going to get the job done. You need to a more elaborate, involved sell job than that.

I'm 45 and that's what I need to get into someone.

[club]

I'll go with Windham, Eaton, Rose, KENTA, Yoshida and Ki.