GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[DR Ackermann]

Bret could be great. Bret usually wasn't great. Bret was close minded, temperamental and arrogant. That was part of what made him great and what usually didn't. Bret either couldn't or wouldn't go out and have a good or entertaining match with no notice. It had to be on Bret's terms. He had to have time to plan. He had to feel he had something to gain from it. 

From 89-97 here are so many more great Brian Pillman performances than Bret Hart performances. Better Pillman matches. You can say this about a lot of wrestlers in comparison to Bret. His peak is minimal and overblown. The dude wrestled for over 20 years and we have so much of it on tape and it is such a small window of greatness. 

[El-P]

Oh, so this is actually not over yet. But kinda is, since the top 10 is now established, and me not caring about rankings of the top 100 is every more true of the top 10. And as much as the top 100 is much better than last time, the top 10 is kinda boring and shows how conservative this pool of voter still is (although really, I would have voted for half of it : Funk, Danielson, Tenryu, Kobashi, Hansen), as demonstrated by Tanahashi not cracking it. Nor any women (seriously now, Akira Hokuto). 

Also, for all the previous talk (and fear and whiny bitching™) of AEW influence, in the end it's actually quite heavily WWE oriented, as showed by *gasp* Cena doing so good and *gasp for other reasons* Austin being in the top ten. Cena is quite a fascinating worker when you think of it, because he's the best wrestler ever at the worst style ever. Which in the end, makes him kind of a zero. Also, he doesn't think Taiwan is an actual country and can even tell it to to in mandarin. How great is that ?

Some of these results *scream* X too (you can guess which ones, really). And yeah, that's a diss. 

So there. 

[ohtani's jacket]

I always got the impression that Bret was happier wrestling the Isaac Yankems of the world than wrestlers of his own caliber, and the reason for that was that he got to stay in his own little bubble where everyone could see what a great worker he was for carrying guys to a better match than they usually had. That's why I never get that excited over the talk about Bret jumping to the NWA in the late 80s. I don't think he would have truly fit the wrestling culture there. Having said that, Bret spent his prime working in a company that wasn't exactly a hotbed for great wrestling. It was a miracle that we got as many good Bret matches as we did.  He was one of the driving forces behind the WWF delivering great main events during the 90s. Bret has a solid resume of work from his prime. Someone said Pillman had better matches/performances, but I can't agree with that. 

I like the discussion, though. At least people talk about Bret's strengths and weaknesses not like Vader or Aja where nobody points to a single flaw. 

The countdown was more interesting than the top 10 (unless the order of the top 10 is particularly surprising), but that's usually the case with these things. 

[Suplex-12]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

Oh, so this is actually not over yet. But kinda is, since the top 10 is now established, and me not caring about rankings of the top 100 is every more true of the top 10. And as much as the top 100 is much better than last time, the top 10 is kinda boring and shows how conservative this pool of voter still is (although really, I would have voted for half of it : Funk, Danielson, Tenryu, Kobashi, Hansen), as demonstrated by Tanahashi not cracking it. Nor any women (seriously now, Akira Hokuto). 

Also, for all the previous talk (and fear and whiny bitching™) of AEW influence, in the end it's actually quite heavily WWE oriented, as showed by *gasp* Cena doing so good and *gasp for other reasons* Austin being in the top ten. Cena is quite a fascinating worker when you think of it, because he's the best wrestler ever at the worst style ever. Which in the end, makes him kind of a zero. Also, he doesn't think Taiwan is an actual country and can even tell it to to in mandarin. How great is that ?

Some of these results *scream* X too (you can guess which ones, really). And yeah, that's a diss. 

So there. 

i mean, you could have just voted but whatever, that's your decision to not vote and I won't be too judgemental. I will say this though, I don't fully know why you act like you don't care, I think it's obvious you do and you're pissed off now that it didn't go the way you fully wanted.

It's kinda pointless to have an argument with you so this reply is all I am going to say back to you because i have lurked for a couple of years here beforehand and know how you can be at this point, see ya.

[El-P]

🙃

[TRMD]

What is this imaginary top 10 that you guys had in mind that wouldn’t be “boring”?

the top 10 should be boring. If the top 10 isn’t boring, you’re doing a list wrong. It should be pretty obvious who the 15 or so best of anything are. Can you guys believe that this best musical artists of all times list is gonna have Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and Stevie Wonder in the top 10? Borrrring.

and the irony is, it’s only boring to people who have been PWO’d. The average wrestling fan would be mortified at this top 15. You’re telling me Vader is better than Shawn Michaels? Some short, fat Japanese lady is better than Kurt Angle? Eddie Guerrero is better than Kenny Omega? Steve Austin is better than Will Ospreay? ALL HE DID WAS KICK AND PUNCH!

This top 15 has been fantastic. There’s not a single wrestler in this top 15 who isn’t top 15 caliber. And that’s how it should be.

[cad]

6.    Fuerza Guerrera
7.    Bret Hart
8.    Virus

I had Bret way up there, way, way up there. It's better to be great for longer, and it's better to have more great matches than to have fewer. But in 2026 I think that it's clear that hidden gems and weekly disposable classics are a road to nowhere, and that the hardest thing to do in wrestling is craft a match that people remember years later, that people talk about years later, and that people care about years later. Bret's great matches changed the landscape of his promotion. I'm not talking about improving the overall workrate or anything but in the way he made guys like Austin and Bulldog. You could probably point to some great Bret matches that didn't really matter or that were forgotten shortly after they happened and needed to be rediscovered. Those are more the exception than the rule with him. He wasn't out there just trying to impress people. He wanted to hit the audience in the gut and accomplish something on a larger scale.

Of course I'm an American dude in the second half of my thirties. I'm basically the perfect age for Bret Hart's greatness and importance to have been backbones of the formation of my pro wrestling knowledge.

[DMJ]

2 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I always got the impression that Bret was happier wrestling the Isaac Yankems of the world than wrestlers of his own caliber, and the reason for that was that he got to stay in his own little bubble where everyone could see what a great worker he was for carrying guys to a better match than they usually had. That's why I never get that excited over the talk about Bret jumping to the NWA in the late 80s. I don't think he would have truly fit the wrestling culture there. Having said that, Bret spent his prime working in a company that wasn't exactly a hotbed for great wrestling. It was a miracle that we got as many good Bret matches as we did.  He was one of the driving forces behind the WWF delivering great main events during the 90s. Bret has a solid resume of work from his prime. Someone said Pillman had better matches/performances, but I can't agree with that. 

I like the discussion, though. At least people talk about Bret's strengths and weaknesses not like Vader or Aja where nobody points to a single flaw. 

The countdown was more interesting than the top 10 (unless the order of the top 10 is particularly surprising), but that's usually the case with these things. 

Some good points here, but I was also under the impression that for much of that time in the 80s and early 90s - at least up till Bischoff takes over and Turner really starts competing with Vince - the WWE guys were making more money than their WCW counterparts, a major reason why Bret would've never left in the 80s or early 90s.

Based on the little I know about the house show circuits each company ran, didn't the WWE wrestlers presumably make more money because WWE's house show business was better than WCW's too? Along with WCW's merchandising being notoriously mismanaged and weak compared to the WWE's marketing and merch machine?

Feels like Hall, Nash, and others were "leveling up" when they came to the WWE, while Jake Roberts and British Bulldog and the like going to WCW was a step down in the early 90s. As noted earlier, that does seem to change a bit around 94'-95' when both companies start throwing more money around to sign guys like Hogan, Savage, Mero, Dustin, Vader, Pillman, etc. but prior to that I don't think WCW was offering Bret anything close to what Vince was willing to do for him financially.

[El-P]

17 minutes ago, TRMD said:

What is this imaginary top 10 that you guys had in mind that wouldn’t be “boring”?

More recent workers, basically. Okada, Tanahashi, Omega. The other two in the top 10 I managed to do for shits and giggle would have been Tamura (the shoot-style guy, not Yoshiko) and Hokuto. And then the other "boring" 5 I mentioned. 

17 minutes ago, TRMD said:

the top 10 should be boring. If the top 10 isn’t boring, you’re doing a list wrong. 

From the list I've seen, there's plenty of non-boring top 10. Hell, I think my imaginary top 10 is actually a lot more boring than a lot I've seen. But less so than the end result. 

17 minutes ago, TRMD said:

the top 10 should be boring. If the top 10 isn’t boring, you’re doing a list wrong. It should be pretty obvious who the 15 or so best of anything are. Can you guys believe that this best musical artists of all times list is gonna have Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and Stevie Wonder in the top 10? Borrrring.

Well, establishing a canon and a norm is indeed boring. The individual experiences of people are much more interesting.

[TRMD]

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

More recent workers, basically. Okada, Tanahashi, Omega. The other two in the top 10 I managed to do for shits and giggle would have been Tamura (the shoot-style guy, not Yoshiko) and Hokuto. And then the other "boring" 5 I mentioned.

 

Personally, I thank all of the gods that we did not get your exciting top 10, but it certainly would have made for more discussion.

[El-P]

From what I've browsed rapidly, the one week of reveal when I was off was 80% whiny bitching™ about modern names making it too high, so I'm not sure the discussions would have been really interesting during the process, really. 😎

Then again, let's be real. The reveal of every GWE has been about bitching about the results, dating back to 2006. That's kinda always been the modus operandi of this sorta thing, really.

[Reel]

Complaining about people complaining about people complaining

[ohtani's jacket]

Bitching about the results is the fun part. 

[El-P]

That too. 

The one thing I heard about Bret Hart recently that was really interesting to me, was Meltzer mentioning how Bret Hart was the very first worker he heard referring to himself as an artist. And that's *really* interesting, especially considering when I came into pro-wrestling (just during the last legs of Hulkamania, when Bret was becoming the IC champ).

[El-P]

2 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Bitching about the results is the fun part. 

These kids these day don't know how to have fun anymore. It's all toxic positivity.

[Control21]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

Oh, so this is actually not over yet. But kinda is, since the top 10 is now established, and me not caring about rankings of the top 100 is every more true of the top 10. And as much as the top 100 is much better than last time, the top 10 is kinda boring and shows how conservative this pool of voter still is (although really, I would have voted for half of it : Funk, Danielson, Tenryu, Kobashi, Hansen), as demonstrated by Tanahashi not cracking it. Nor any women (seriously now, Akira Hokuto). 

Also, for all the previous talk (and fear and whiny bitching™) of AEW influence, in the end it's actually quite heavily WWE oriented, as showed by *gasp* Cena doing so good and *gasp for other reasons* Austin being in the top ten. Cena is quite a fascinating worker when you think of it, because he's the best wrestler ever at the worst style ever. Which in the end, makes him kind of a zero. Also, he doesn't think Taiwan is an actual country and can even tell it to to in mandarin. How great is that ?

Some of these results *scream* X too (you can guess which ones, really). And yeah, that's a diss. 

So there. 

I don't think the top 10 signifies a conservative list. It just signifies that the English-speaking wrestling fanbase consistently ranks 10-12 guys as the greatest of all time. I think the 2026 list has been much more balanced overall than 2016, which was the most conservative and American-centric of the three GWE rankings, if you ask me. 

Obviously, certain styles like Lucha and World of Sport suffered,  but you always risk having things get overlooked when you open balloting up to the wider public. I expected the list to be way worse, though. 

 

 

[El-P]

4 minutes ago, Control21 said:

I think the 2026 list has been much more balanced overall than 2016, which was the most conservative and American-centric of the three GWE rankings, if you ask me. 

Oh yeah, like I said, this Top 100 list is most probably the best and the most "balanced" of the three.

I said conservative in the sense none of the all time great of the last 15 years made the top 10. I thought Tanahashi had a good shot. (but on the other hand, I'm surprised Omega actually made it this high considering the landscape of the voters)

[El-P]

Wow. Misawa hanging by a thread.

Hope Eddie Kingston doesn't see this.

[EnviousStupid]

Just watched his two singles matches in 92 with Masanobu Fuchi today. I'm more partial to how the sly junior worked those matches, but Misawa's great qualities and that audiences' love for the man can't be understated. Few ever elicit that kind of a reaction, for as long over the course of their careers as he managed to, all while being relatively expressionless.

[ohtani's jacket]

Well, Misawa at 10 certainly isn't boring. 

[Boss Rock]

Was not expecting that at all. Thought Misawa was a pretty safe top 5.

[Matt D]

I think it fits the trend. Misawa is an ace but Kobashi is more open and effusive. Maybe more accessible as well. Easier to drop in on. All Japan fell overall, even the other two pillars. While he got a big chunk of the vote, I don't see him as big of a coalition candidate as someone like Rey. 

[El-P]

Kobashi was the ace of NOAH. It's more "recent" too. 

[Matt D]

Kobashi also has a more modern presence. He posts big smiling pictures like this all day every day.

[El-P]

Kawada would never.