GWE 2026 Reaction Thread

[ohtani's jacket]

13 hours ago, Reel said:

It’s pretty much all there on YouTube, people just have to watch it, it’s not that it isn’t available. I do think as OJ has mentioned it doesn’t really have a discourse, but it’s not a matter of being hard to find. 

I think lucha needs more people involved like cad who offer takes. I might not always agree with the things he says about lucha, but it's always interesting and always thought-provoking. If there was more discourse surrounding the lucha candidates, you could start comparing them to the top guys on the list instead of simply comparing them to other luchadores. In my mind, there's very little that separates Negro Casas and Terry Funk as wrestlers. You should be able to have a discussion about which of them is better, but we're not there yet because I don't think we've full distilled what it is that makes Casas a great wrestler. 

The other thoughts I have about lucha is that I think because its been dismissed in the past, I think there's a tendency for people to try to shield or protect it. I can understand where that instinct compares from, but I think the mentality of "don't say anything bad about lucha" prevents the discourse from growing.

Access wise, it would be great if there was a way for fans to find out that you need to watch these three lead-in matches and the apuestas, or that these half a dozen matches showcase a particular rivalry. I don't think that information is easy to pin down. Just having a quick and easy list of the best matches from 1993 AAA or 1992 CMLL would be helpful. 

Then, I think you have to acknowledge that lucha, at least the classic lucha that I love, is closer in spirit to the US territories than a lot of modern stuff, and since those workers took a dip, there's nothing to suggest that people would necessarily love old-school lucha. There's also a problem with fans who like to see a laundry list of four star matches and above. That was always a problem with lucha. You had matches that showcased the artistry of lucha and lucha in its purest, most beautiful form, but there wasn't a list of all of the four star matches that El Hijo del Santo had. 

That said, i don't really know how people consume wrestling these days. This is simply based on what I've seen over the last 20 years. 

[ohtani's jacket]

I think Terry Funk is a great wrestler. One of the best ever. However, it would be nice if one or two matches dropped from his prime because when I see people comment that other people aren't volume workers it always makes me wonder why Terry gets a past on this. To me, he's a total performance-based candidate (including promo ability, if I'm being honest.)  I know we have great Terry Funk matches on tape, but I wonder if I'm the only one who raises half an eyebrow at this. 

[El McKell]

Terry Funk has tonnes of volume of stuff though. What do you think is his prime and why doesn’t AJPW stuff from 76-77 count as part of it?

[ohtani's jacket]

29 minutes ago, El McKell said:

Terry Funk has tonnes of volume of stuff though. What do you think is his prime and why doesn’t AJPW stuff from 76-77 count as part of it?

I would consider the mid-70s to be Funk's prime, at least athletically speaking. The AJPW stuff adds to the volume of footage, but I'm assuming that volume of work refers to the number of great matches we have from a worker. I should really have said one or two more great matches from his prime. A quick glance at cagematch (for argument's sake) tells me that Funk only has around 25 matches rated over 8.00 for his entire career. That doesn't seem like a lot for a top 2 guy of all-time. Quite possibly the lowest of anyone in the top 10. There are other reasons to love Funk, and perhaps a lot of his stuff is underrated, but if Bret isn't a volume guy (as has been stated) then how is Funk any better? 

[Matt D]

You should go out and see what it's like out there for a couple of weeks. Not right now since the top of the list and the whole list will make things rough, but maybe in a month. Don't stay there, but just dip your toes. 

Current wrestling is very cagematch/star rating oriented maybe with arguments about specific spots. Old wrestling tends to be more performance based/clip based/attribute based in how it's discussed. (Unless you're talking about Kurt Angle never getting a five star match which comes up once every three months and is very painful).