GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[ohtani's jacket]

30 minutes ago, El-P said:

Regal is divisive in that he's like the greatest wrestler who never had a legit great match. Quite a feat.

KENTA is divisive because he's a top 2 most influential wrestler for the pro-wrestling of the last 25 years probably (or at least the two previous decades). And a lot of the older generation began starting hating on wrestling with the 00's Japanese tropes and the US indies tropes. KENTA (and Marufuji, who did not make it, oddly enough, when he didn't drop like KENTA did when he got to WWE and was still awesome at worst in 2016) is all over this.

Mercedes making it feels exactly right. She was the best of the WWE bunch from the start, and was never surpassed. And has peaked last year (thus far).

I'm pretty sure every person who voted for Regal can point to a match they thought was great. 

The number of older voters who hated 00s Japanese and indie wrestling is miniscule. The number of old voters in general was miniscule. I don't this holds much water in this year's vote.

 

[NotJayTabb]

9 hours ago, HeadCheese said:

Hope to watch more Baba, the Fritz from December 1966 match is awesome!

Giant Baba still lands at great but, not all time great to me. He is a really cool interesting guy even in the the 90s AJPW/IWE dads matches. It's really cool he made it to 74 though.

My liking of him might grow

 

There's another Baba/Fritz match from the 70s under Texas Death Match rules that's really good as well

[El-P]

8 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I'm pretty sure every person who voted for Regal can point to a match they thought was great. 

The number of older voters who hated 00s Japanese and indie wrestling is miniscule. The number of old voters in general was miniscule. I don't this holds much water in this year's vote.

The number of people influenced by older voters and outdated (yes ! I'm the one dropping it this time !) notions is not, as showed by some of the results. As far as the demographic goes, I have honestly no idea, but "new voters" doesn't mean "only young voters" either. Because you are active on X doesn't mean you're not a 40 years old yelling at clouds about "lack of psychology in today's pro-wrestling". (well, being on X in 2026 for anything other that professional reasons is *yuck*, but I don't even wanna get into this one)

FTR, I voted for Regal I believe in 2006 and (for sure) in 2016. Not sure I would have voted for him this time around, but maybe. He was always an old favorite of mine.

[donsem43]

8 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

And since leaving the Fed, she's really hit the ground running in AEW and Stardom.

This is mainly how Mercedes worked her way onto my list. Remember in the Horsewomen era when people knocked her because they felt she wouldn't be any good outside of the ultra rehearsed environment of NXT. Now, in the last few years, she's had very good if not great matches with a wide variety of opponents in a wide variety of places.

 

1 hour ago, HeadCheese said:

I sometimes Ospreay can be a bit checklist epic matchy and/or feeling he is a 100 overall create a wrestler.

I wrote this in his nomination thread but I'll repeat it here. He's a pro wrestling Mary Sue.

[Makai Club #1]

I'll say this, it's not a boring list. It has a healthy number of surprises as well as scares. And it showcases that not everything is so uniformed to that one point of view. Just because the leading journalist say one thing, it doesn't mean it reflects on the wider audience. And whether or not you agree on the specific examples, it's no doubt healthy in combating echo chambers and unproductive discussions. 

[El-P]

List is pretty fun.

I predict it will be a boring top 10 with an expected winner.

[El McKell]

I think seeing Yuki Ishikawa ahead of Riki Choshu is the first time I’ve felt that real visceral disappointment with a reveal other people posting have clearly felt with some other reveals.

Choshu is a charisma and vibes machine who made everything he was involved in feel more exciting & important 

[El-P]

Riki Choshu : he walked so Davey Boy Smith and Misawa could run (I have no idea if anyone if gonna get that one). 

I'm sure some older salary men were complaining about Choshu "working too fast" in the early 80's. I don't agree at all about the notion of "timeless", because everything ever if a product of its time, but if there's anything close to it in pro-wrestling, that Riki Choshu in plain black tights and no knee pad throwing the lariat. Worked then. Would work now.

(and it just occurred to me that the closest thing to Choshu these days is Rush, of all people)

Kota Ibushi : Kenta Kobashi on crack.

(that's a praise, btw)

[DMJ]

- To echo what El-P wrote, with Darby, Christian, Jericho, Swerve, MJF, etc. not making the top 100, I think the "AEW dominated the list" talking point can be put to rest a little. Theoretically, guys like Jericho and Christian should've done better because, while Jericho lost a lot of...appreciation (dammit)...over the past couple years, its really only because he stayed on TV too long. I feel like Christian is as beloved as ever. I would assume AEW-centric voters would have voted for them as essentially "the legends" of the company the same way a WWE-centric voter might vote for The Miz. 

Darby not making the top 100 is a big blow to the argument too. Darby is arguably the most AEW of AEW guys, for better (if you like AEW) or worse (if the mere thought of AEW makes you puke). High work-rate, plenty of false finishes, gore, crazy bumps, every match being treated like its an epic - all the stuff that the AEW critics point to as negatives, Darby does it. If there really were 100s of AEW-centric voters casting ballots, there's no way Darby doesn't make the top 100. 

And then we have Will Ospreay. As El-P wrote, if the voting base was overwhelmingly pro-AEW, its hard to imagine Ospreay not cracking the top 50.

- Speaking of Ospreay, I'm one of those people who voted for him but not in my top 25. I had him at #49. As someone posted above, my appreciation for Ospreay (right now) is based on my opinion that he is the best fireworks show in wrestling. Still, I tend to see greatness as more than just physical/athletic prowess. I like character depth and breadth and longevity and to see how a wrestler adapts over time or changes style to match changes in character or setting. To be honest, seeing how Ospreay adapts post-injury is very intriguing to me and is arguably more important than what he accomplished at his physical peak. donsem43 called him a pro-wrestling Mary Sue, but now we have the neck injury, which means, to sustain his career, Ospreay is going to have to figure out how to maintain match quality while also respecting his own physical limitations. The truly great workers, the all-timers, the people who made my top 10 and top 15, were generally able to do that, shifting their style without losing their greatness.

[Matt D]

31 minutes ago, El-P said:

The number of people influenced by older voters and outdated (yes ! I'm the one dropping it this time !) notions is not, as showed by some of the results. As far as the demographic goes, I have honestly no idea, but "new voters" doesn't mean "only young voters" either. Because you are active on X doesn't mean you're not a 40 years old yelling at clouds about "lack of psychology in today's pro-wrestling". (well, being on X in 2026 for anything other that professional reasons is *yuck*, but I don't even wanna get into this one)

The best part about Twitter is all the young people you get to interact with who have different viewpoints and are working things out for themselves.

The second best part about Twitter is that you're not there to be a performative whiny little bitch about literally everything like you've been in this thread. My god, man, give it a rest.

I've found it to be a pretty nice place overall. You just have to curate a little bit and take people on good faith.

Anyway, big thing with Choshu is that he's gated. I think people would love him on clips and gifs and would track down more things but they're impossible to post.

[Grimmas]

I/ve spent weeks hearing people whine about Ospreay being so high, knowing where he'd drop. It was interesting times.

[El-P]

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

The best part about Twitter is all the young people you get to interact with who have different viewpoints and are working things out for themselves.

You also get that on Bluesky, ya know. With the advantage being it's not hate mongering app.

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

The second best part about Twitter is that you're not there to be a performative whiny little bitch about literally everything like you've been in this thread. My god, man, give it a rest.

😂

80% of this thread is basically  "OMG I'm afraid of (insert wrestler from the 80's) is not getting higher than (insert people from the 2010'), OMG I'm so happy (insert wrestler from the 2010's) is not making it higher".

I just drops some stuff about wrestlers from the list, trying to be creative and kinda funny, with yes, sometime a little dig on the "pro-wrestling was better back in the days" mentality. I don't have an overinflated sense of self-importance. 

I'll let the insult slide, because I'm good like that.

[Control21]

RINGS > BattlArts confirmed 

(I kid, I like both!) 

[Matt D]

I post Choshu gifs on Bluesky all the time.

https://bsky.app/profile/mattd-sc.bsky.social/search?q=choshu

The great thing about Bluesky is since no one's actually there, TV Ashii has no idea I'm doing it.

[El-P]

5 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

I/ve spent weeks hearing people whine about Ospreay being so high, knowing where he'd drop. It was interesting times.

I'm sure for some people, Ospreay even making the top 100 is abhorrent.

Now I'm quite interested in the % for Omega. I have my doubts it gets higher than 40%. 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

24 minutes ago, DMJ said:

And then we have Will Ospreay. As El-P wrote, if the voting base was overwhelmingly pro-AEW, its hard to imagine Ospreay not cracking the top 50.

Ospreay was clearly boosted by his fans though. He had 9 people give top 3 votes, and 25 people voted him a top ten wrestler in HISTORY. He got to #75 with just 161 votes. That less than both the person before him and after him. He slaughtered them in Top 3 votes as well. It indicates diehard fans, rather than a broad consensus on him. 

Will Ospreay is an extremely polemic wrestler who would be much much lower without a legion of diehard fans. Whether those fans are deserved is entirely subjective, depending on how you feel about his style. 

[El-P]

5 minutes ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

Ospreay was clearly boosted by his fans though. He had 9 people give top 3 votes, and 25 people voted him a top ten wrestling in HISTORY. He got to #75 with just 161 votes. That less than both the person before him and after him. He slaughtered them in Top 3 votes as well. It indicates diehard fans, rather than a broad consensus on him. 

Oh for sure. But then again, we're not really taking about the "wider crowd" here, as it was referenced earlier. If you look at the actual landscape, it's obvious how Ospreay is viewed by the pro-wrestlers and fans today.

In 2036, who knows. By then he may still be active and still be great, with ten more years to his case and a status that will only have grown. The thing is, he indeed only is 33, which is crazy when you think about it. 

[El-P]

By the way, I just realized something, unless I'm completely off the loop. Keith Lee did not make the list, right ?

Talk about someone who, likewise Matt Riddle, was thought of as one of the best indie wrestler and future huge star. And for completely different reasons, he has seemingly disappeared from people's mind.

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

If Ospreay can figure out how to work entertaining matches even as his body inevitably begins to break down, then yes, that would be impressive. But looking at Omega and Ibushi, I wouldn't bet on it. 

Choshu should have been much higher. One where the cultural and business impact really should have some weighting.

[El-P]

1 minute ago, Mantaur Rodeo Clown said:

If Ospreay can figure out how to work entertaining matches even as his body inevitably begins to break down, then yes, that would be impressive. But looking at Omega and Ibushi, I wouldn't bet on it. 

I've seen him work a mat wrestling classic with ZSJ. I've seen him being an awesome dipshit blood-thisty heel against Micheal Oku. So he absolutely CAN do it, and especially now that he has had neck fusion he may adapt on a broader level. We'll see what path he chooses. From the previous generation, Ibushi and Naito are the people he should look at and learn, what to NOT do (I love both, but... you know).

[Tetsujin]

Completely forgot about Ibushi. Him landing at #69 is funny. I was never an Ibushi guy, he has very good peak performances through his whole career and in very diverse settings, but there's something about him that doesn't click with me at all. Maybe too reliant on neck bumps (as I say that as a 90s All Japan fan, maybe too overdramatic sometimes (and The Elite brings the worse of him in that regard), maybe the fact the he doesn't take himself very seriously sometimes, or too seriously others (same with Kenny). An interesting career to explore, for sure, and his best stuff is really impressive regardless. But not really one of my guys.

Choshu dropping now is intriguing. It kinda gives me a concern for guys like Jumbo or Tenryu.

And someone please explain to me, as a casual BattlArts viewer, why Ishikawa always ranks much higher than Ikeda.

[EnviousStupid]

Choshu... my glorious king. Can't work long singles matches well for my liking, but once he starts cooking there's hardly anyone who can match the heat he brings. Awesome catalogue across NJPW and AJPW that absolutely hold up.

[El McKell]

I think Ospreay has a better shot to be able to adjust to his body breaking down than Ibushi. Ospreay is dumb, but he’s not “I don’t like reading because I don’t like the idea that other people are putting thoughts in my head” dumb

[El-P]

I'm shocked no one dropped the David Finlay classic already by this point. It's really not like it used to be... 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

3 minutes ago, El McKell said:

I think Ospreay has a better shot to be able to adjust to his body breaking down then Ibushi. Ospreay is dumb, but he’s not “I don’t like reading because I don’t like the idea that other people are putting thoughts in my head” dumb

Will Ospreay would kick out of vehicular manslaughter at 2. Absolutely no sense of pacing himself. Matches like his cage bout against Kyle Fletcher actually veer into surreal Lynchian comedy at a certain point. His body already looks shot by the way. He's in terrible shape right now.