GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[MasterJonBurr]

21 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

Jdw impact tremors

[Kadaveri]

36 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

Refusing to stop booting his opponent's tag partner off the apron is deplorable behaviour.

[Ma Stump Puller]

42 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

What did Kawada do to piss people off?

On a serious note I don't think anything on his part in terms of like people realising his stuff was somehow ass, there's just more varied taste with the people voting now as opposed to in prior editions where it was almost unilateral gospel that AJPW was the greatest thing on Earth, Manami Toyota was the biggest female star of the 90's and NJPW had far worse matches than them. Tastes have branched off over the last decade or so and there is no one single line of thought that the majority subscribes to. 

There's also maybe the possibility that people might have been burned by his post-90's work because Kawada is quite spotty after the early 2000's, idk I don't remember people being crazy for him and Muto in like 2005 botching nearly every big spot they were trying to do.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

13 minutes ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

On a serious note I don't think anything on his part in terms of like people realising his stuff was somehow ass, there's just more varied taste with the people voting now as opposed to in prior editions where it was almost unilateral gospel that AJPW was the greatest thing on Earth, Manami Toyota was the biggest female star of the 90's and NJPW had far worse matches than them. Tastes have branched off over the last decade or so and there is no one single line of thought that the majority subscribes to. 

There's also maybe the possibility that people might have been burned by his post-90's work because Kawada is quite spotty after the early 2000's, idk I don't remember people being crazy for him and Muto in like 2005 botching nearly every big spot they were trying to do.

 

His post-exodus work isn't the best, aside from a few bright spots. I know I became actively disinterested in his work while going through stuff from the 00s. That said, I would weigh his peak more heavily. I'm curious to see who's risen above him.  

[KB8]

Perhaps our boy Elliott has significant sway with the new voters! The yoots, as you might say. 

[Control21]

Aja missing out on the Top 10 is a bummer. I should have ranked her higher

[Boss Rock]

I had Aja at 15, so not too far off from where she landed. From barely clearing the top 50 to almost breaking the top 10, it's awesome to see. And that's because Aja is awesome. Despite being only 5'5", she has the presence and energy of a force of nature. One of the greatest powerhouses of all time and has some of the highest peaks of any wrestler. The Yumiko Hotta match might be the most violent I've ever seen.

[Tetsujin]

Aja just outside the top 10 hurts the most, specially with Stone Cold making it (Bret and Rey are boring picks too, but they were far better than Austin). GWE redeemeed itself with joshi this time, I don't think anyone can complain.

Eddie repeating at #12 is cool, but holy shit that amount of votes. Crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if Austin, Bret and Rey rank above everyone else except Danielson.

Glad Tenryu made the top 10 this time.

So: Kobashi, Misawa, Hansen, Tenryu, Flair, Funk, Rey, Bret, Austin and Danielson. Not a bad top 10 at all (even with one big intruder imo). Prediction: 10. Tenryu 9. Austin 8. Bret 7. Misawa 6. Rey 5. Hansen 4. Flair 3. Kobashi 2. Danielson 1. Funk 

[Boss Rock]

I was starting to think Tenryu would drop today due to Jumbo's placing. And Austin was great no doubt, but his placement feels particularly high. A respectable top 10 though. It's funny, when this started not a lot of people thought Flair would make it this far.

[Microstatistics]

#11

Aja Kong

I like Austin a lot but it should really have been her if it wasn't Eddie for the Top 10. My #28 and second highest joshi wrestler. Her 1994 is one of the all time great individual years, though she has 30 years of good work now.

I ranked 8 out of the 10, but only 2 were in my Top 10.

[Boss Rock]

Voted for all 10, 6 were in my top 10.

[Tetsujin]

I ranked Kobashi at #1, Danielson at #2, Flair at #9, Misawa at #10, Bret at #23, Hansen at #27, Funk at #30, Tenryu at #32, Rey at #42 and Austin at #72.