GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[Makai Club #1]

Okada was better for longer. Okada has the Tanahashi feud as well as the Omega feud, two feuds that are both untouchable for that era of fans. Plus Okada has the 700+ days title reign where every match was a mile high MOTYC or just shy of it. And until Okada went to AEW, he was still producing better work than Omega even in his money clip days. 

[Tetsujin]

11 minutes ago, MoS said:

Really surprised Omega ranked lower than Okada. For fans of that style, surely Omega has accomplished more? Especially given his AEW run. I voted for Okada and not Omega but that's because I actually like mid card AEW Okada, which I know is a minority opinion.

Okada has the Tanahashi series and a big case for BITW years before Omega received his main event push. Omega's case benefited more from Okada than the other way around.

[MoS]

7 minutes ago, Tetsujin said:

Okada has the Tanahashi series and a big case for BITW years before Omega received his main event push. Omega's case benefited more from Okada than the other way around.

 

11 minutes ago, Makai Club #1 said:

Okada was better for longer. Okada has the Tanahashi feud as well as the Omega feud, two feuds that are both untouchable for that era of fans. Plus Okada has the 700+ days title reign where every match was a mile high MOTYC or just shy of it. And until Okada went to AEW, he was still producing better work than Omega even in his money clip days. 

I personally agree but it felt like there was a period of time when Omega was being hyped by the usual tastemakers as the GOAT in a way I don't think Okada had ever been. My impression had been that Okada was always hyped as an overall package (including stardom etc) while Omega's hype was more "This guy is Flair and Shawn combined, GOAT!!" 

[Makai Club #1]

Just now, MoS said:

 

I personally agree but it felt like there was a period of time when Omega was being hyped by the usual tastemakers as the GOAT in a way I don't think Okada had ever been. My impression had been that Okada was always hyped as an overall package (including stardom etc) while Omega's hype was more "This guy is Flair and Shawn combined, GOAT!!" 

Oh yeah I certainly agree there. The Omega praise was pretty mythic. Even die-hard WWE fans had him as their canon non-WWE choice for best wrestler. But I think with a long reflection (almost 8-9 years now), people may have softened on that praise as such. 

[El McKell]

21 minutes ago, MoS said:

Really surprised Omega ranked lower than Okada. For fans of that style, surely Omega has accomplished more? Especially given his AEW run. I voted for Okada and not Omega but that's because I actually like mid card AEW Okada, which I know is a minority opinion. 

Casas is at least 25 spots too low

I think Okada's work from 2012-2015 adds way more to his case than Omega's AEW run does to his.

And no, Kenny Omega wasn't doing anything great in 2012-2015 

[tcg91]

According to the Observer, Kenny Omega was involved in 15 ***** matches and had 14 matches where the rating was higher than *****. Overhyping something to this extent is ridiculous and counterproductive. Kenny is a competent, athletic wrestler that can get over with a specific crowd. He's not suited for long matches and he's got very annoying habits.

[tcg91]

9 minutes ago, El McKell said:

And no, Kenny Omega wasn't doing anything great in 2012-2015 

His run with the All Japan Junior Heavyweight Title is actually kind of underrated. Probably my favourite Omega era.

[NotJayTabb]

Omega feels like a more divisive wrestler than Okada. I suspect Okada will feature on a higher number of ballots - if you voted for Omega, you'll almost certainly vote for Okada too, but it's possible to like Okada and be put off by the usual criticisms of Kenny's acting and embellishments.

[Matt D]

I would have believed you if you told me that Lawler would have dropped anywhere between 50 and 20. I've heard from a number of people that given limited time, they simply don't want to watch him. That was going to cap his ceiling, even without stylistic distinctions. 

I think the interesting questions now are: 

1. How high do Okada and Tanahashi get? What about Austin?

2. How well do the remaining three pillars do vs the "ROH Pillars" of Danielson, Styles, Joe, and Punk?

3. How high does Aja get? How far can Santito possibly make it?

4. Is Rey the ultimate coalition candidate dark horse?

[pto]

Re: Omega blurb: "Greatest wrestler ever at portrayal actual cruelty as a heel and being a dickhead..."

Gotta call bullshit on this one. I'm sure everyone in this thread has their own pick for who wins and no one is going to say Kenny Omega. For me, the most poison-blooded, genuinely cruel little shit of all time is Shawn Michaels on ten million somas; Kenny has yet to take off someone's knee brace and then chuck it at their cancer-riddled sister in the crowd before he slaps on the figure four. While pulling off a needless political hit in the meta, at that.

[Matt D]

Welp, that answers the Okada question.

[Tetsujin]

Lawler landing in the middle of Okada and Omega is so fucking funny, I love it.

[Boss Rock]

Lawler at 28 is still a strong finish when you consider the rest of the territory folks. I had him at 36. I think finishing at 10 last time around was a little too high, but he was genuinely great at what he did. The best puncher and one of the best at getting the most out of less.

I had Okada at 22, just one spot below Omega. I think Kenny having a bit more variety in match styles to his name and (in my opinion) having a more consistent AEW run is what put him ahead. I was also not entirely convinced he would make the top 100 given how polarizing his thread had been. That being said, Okada has a legitimate claim to not only being the best big match worker of the 21st century, but one of the best overall workers. He's also been my favorite active wrestler for the last 10 years. His strengths are arguably as a dickhead, hot shot heel but he was a terrific babyface ace, particularly during his 2016-2018 run. He kinda had an uncanny ability to create drama in his matches where you thought maybe just for a split second he would lose, even though the result was never in doubt. Not only the king of the finishing stretch, but also the king of the near-fall kickout. His last year in NJPW also saw him embrace a bit of the grumpy veteran role, specifically against Kiyomiya, Narita, and Umino. I would especially recommend checking out the Kiyomiya match, one of his finest matches and a glimpse as to what he could have done with an invader run (ironic considering CyberFight just bought the company).

He got good to great matches out of lesser workers like Fale, Elgin, and Makabe. And as much as I love Tenryu, he was in no shape to wrestle in his retirement match and yet he and Okada put on something genuinely compelling. I would never argue he's perfect, though. Sometimes his NJPW run saw him stick to formula a bit too much. And as good as his main event epics could be, he was usually a slow starter in those first 10 minutes. His strikes can be hit-or-miss and his mat and submission game has always been bad. And his AEW elbow drop sucks. But his execution on virtually everything else: DDT, dropkick, neckbreaker, tombstone, flowsion variation, NJPW elbow drop, is fantastic. His AEW run has been a bit of a mixed bag, specifically if you expect G1 Okada every single night. Some of it has been due to a more character-driven TV style, some of it due to treating matches as Road to events. But I think he has more good AEW matches than one might think. He had a recent string of matches on Collision with Myron Reed, Kevin Knight, Adam Priest, and teaming with Fletcher with Top Flight that are quite a bit of fun. And he's proven he can still be "New Japan Okada", most recently this past Sunday against Takeshita.

[Tetsujin]

44 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I would have believed you if you told me that Lawler would have dropped anywhere between 50 and 20. I've heard from a number of people that given limited time, they simply don't want to watch him. That was going to cap his ceiling, even without stylistic distinctions. 

I think the interesting questions now are: 

1. How high do Okada and Tanahashi get? What about Austin?

2. How well do the remaining three pillars do vs the "ROH Pillars" of Danielson, Styles, Joe, and Punk?

3. How high does Aja get? How far can Santito possibly make it?

4. Is Rey the ultimate coalition candidate dark horse?

1. Austin and Tanahashi will both drop tomorrow.

2. I can see Joe dropping first because of the consensus idea of "didn't do anything worthwhile in between ROH and AEW", while the other indie guys + Pillars all have pretty well recognized consistency. If he dropped today, I wouldn't be surprised the way I would be for any of the other six guys. I can see Kawada dropping next (by far the Pillar with the most backlash I've read recently) and him and AJ will be near the top 10. Punk and Misawa will surely make it. Bryan and Kobashi probably (hopefully) top 5. So both groups of guys I expect them to go toe to toe against each other.

3. Aja hopefully top 10, but if not, she shouldn't be far away. I would be (gladly) surprised if Santito survived today.

4. Sneakily getting into the top 10 again due to basically being loved by every wrestling fandom there is, yeah, I can see it. I would say the same for Eddie... It's a duel of "peak vs consistency" between those two, let's see who wins.

[Boss Rock]

55 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I would have believed you if you told me that Lawler would have dropped anywhere between 50 and 20. I've heard from a number of people that given limited time, they simply don't want to watch him. That was going to cap his ceiling, even without stylistic distinctions. 

I think the interesting questions now are: 

1. How high do Okada and Tanahashi get? What about Austin?

2. How well do the remaining three pillars do vs the "ROH Pillars" of Danielson, Styles, Joe, and Punk?

3. How high does Aja get? How far can Santito possibly make it?

4. Is Rey the ultimate coalition candidate dark horse?

I've been wrong about so many things so far, but:

1. I think Austin drops this round. Tanahashi makes the top 20 and possibly 15.

2. Bryan finishes at number 1 or 2 ahead of the pillars. I expect the remaining three to finish above A.J, Joe, and Punk.

3. Aja dropping today wouldn't surprise me, but I still think she has a good shot at the top 20. My initial prediction was Santito making the top 10, but I think Casas dropping means he's coming up soon.

4. I think Rey barely misses the top 10.

[Boss Rock]

1 hour ago, tcg91 said:

His run with the All Japan Junior Heavyweight Title is actually kind of underrated. Probably my favourite Omega era.

It was indeed a really good run.

[Hollinger.]

As I said on Twitter, I fully believe Negro Casas is capable of teleportation. This morning’s results are disgraceful. 

[Boss Rock]

Biggest question: does Hashimoto improve by exactly one spot again?

[MasterJonBurr]

Lawler dropping is against god. 

[Tetsujin]

10 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Biggest question: does Hashimoto improve by exactly one spot again?

Man, you doomed it.

[Boss Rock]

1 minute ago, Tetsujin said:

Man, you doomed it.

Oh for the love of Christ

[Boss Rock]

Hashimoto was my number 18 and I feel pretty good about that. He was just so intense and could bring the fire like no other. Admittedly Hashimoto is someone I did not immediately click with. The first matches I watched of him were more mat-oriented technical affairs and I wasn’t blown away. But I kept at it and when I came across him squaring off against guys like Choshu and Tenryu, I finally saw the light. I’ve never really agreed with the “less is more” mindset, but I absolutely subscribe to “getting more out of less” because that is something Hashimoto really thrived at. He could make 10 minute matches feel like epic spectacles, thanks in no small part to his impressive presence and physical charisma. He was also an all-time striker, giving Kawada a serious run for his money as wrestling’s best kicker. And he was a tremendous ring general as well. There’s a four-way iron man match for the NWA title he’s in that’s genuinely really good because he pretty much holds the whole thing together.

[Grimmas]

3 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Hashimoto was my number 18 and I feel pretty good about that. He was just so intense and could bring the fire like no other. Admittedly Hashimoto is someone I did not immediately click with. The first matches I watched of him were more mat-oriented technical affairs and I wasn’t blown away. But I kept at it and when I came across him squaring off against guys like Choshu and Tenryu, I finally saw the light. I’ve never really agreed with the “less is more” mindset, but I absolutely subscribe to “getting more out of less” because that is something Hashimoto really thrived at. He could make 10 minute matches feel like epic spectacles, thanks in no small part to his impressive presence and physical charisma. He was also an all-time striker, giving Kawada a serious run for his money as wrestling’s best kicker. And he was a tremendous ring general as well. There’s a four-way iron man match for the NWA title he’s in that’s genuinely really good because he pretty much holds the whole thing together.

I didn't realize it was time to post until I saw your post.

[Boss Rock]

Just now, Grimmas said:

I didn't realize it was time to post until I saw your post.

Ha!