Pro Wrestling Power

I’d like to start off with this first post being a list of my top 10 favorite pro wrestlers of all time.

Now, this is not an objective list of who I think are the top 10 greatest pro wrestlers ever. I’ll do that sometime down the road. But this list is my own personal favorites throughout the years, with a description of why I like each wrestler. So without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite pro wrestlers ever:

10. Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase

I loved his feud with his former bodyguard Virgil in 1991 over the Million Dollar belt, his involvement in the Hogan/Andre feud in 1988, his main event match at Wrestlemania 4 with Savage and his run with IRS in the tag team Money Incorporated. Even his later work as a manager for the NWO was good stuff. Dibiase is a legend who should one day be in the hall of fame. He was solid in the ring, excellent on the mic and was a major player from the late 1980′s through the late 1990′s.

9. Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig

There weren’t many guys who were better in the ring than Hennig, especially in the late 80′s and early 90′s. With the exception of Shawn Michaels, I’ve never seen anyone able to sell a beating so well, and his offensive arsenal was impressive too. His match with Bret Hart at Summerslam 91 is one of my top 5 favorite matches ever. I even enjoyed his work in WCW and the NWO in the late 90′s.

8. Ultimate Warrior

He may be a wacko in real life, but the character was very popular and fun to watch from 1988-1992. Sure he was limited in the ring, but he did have some classic matches with Hogan, Savage and Rick Rude, and he had the charisma and a unique promo style that captivated audiences, especially younger kids, during his first WWF run. His 1996 run was nothing too impressive, and his 1998 run in WCW was a total debacle, but overall Warrior’s career warrants a hall of fame selection just based on his sheer popularity.

7. Ric Flair

Arguably the greatest professional wrestler of all-time, and definitely the greatest world champion ever. I hated Flair during his first WWF run from 91-93, but that was kind of the point. He was the greatest heel in history. I really started to respect his career and enjoy him as a performer around early 1999 during his feud with Hogan.

I don’t believe in such a thing as guys hanging on too long, so however long Flair and all the other 50+ or even 60+ legends like him want to stick around, as he is now active in TNA, I believe they have a right too, as long as a segment of fans want to see them. Flair is one of the best ever on the mic, one of the best ever in the ring and nobody ever looked better with the big, gold NWA/WCW world title belt than the Nature Boy.

6. Scott Steiner

Big Poppa Pump is one of the most underrated characters and pro wrestlers in history. Many fans legitimately hate him, especially since his transformation in early 1998, with the dyed blonde hair, even more pumped up appearance and cocky heel persona. I liked him with his brother Rick in the Steiner brothers tag team in the early to mid 90′s, but it’s actually the character he has portrayed since 98 that got me to follow his career more closely.

One of the few bright spots, at least in my opinion, of the sinking ship that was WCW 2000-2001 was Steiner’s main event and world championship run. His semi-shoots were sometimes hilarious and often controversial, his ring work was very good for a man of his size. And speaking of that size, I don’t know of another wrestler in history that had the huge, chiseled physique and legitimate “I can kick anyone’s ass” look that Scott Steiner had. And in pro wrestling, that’s important.

5. Bret the Hitman Hart

The excellence of execution, arguably the best in ring technician ever, and the guy who helped the WWF stay above water from 93-97, when they had very little else to offer except for Michaels and Undertaker. Although I won’t really remember Hart for the mid 90′s or the U.S.A./Canada feud of 97, and definitely not his WCW run from 1998-2000, but rather his work in the Hart foundation with Jim the Anvil Neidhart from 1985-1990 and his early singles career from 90-92.

The aforementioned Summerslam 91 match with Hennig was definitely a high point of that era, but he had so many good matches and really developed his character and mic skills during that time period as well, which continued to get better and better, culminating with his heel run in 97. I don’t think he was the best there is, the best there was, or the best there ever will be, but he’s pretty damn close.

4. Undertaker

The best gimmick in pro wrestling history, and no one could have pulled it off better than Mark Calaway in my opinion. His early matches were slow paced and could even be considered boring, with lots of punches and choke holds, but it fit the character perfectly, with manager Paul Bearer clutching the urn and screaming in his high pitched, ghastly voice outside the ring. The evolution of the character, and of Taker as a wrestler continued throughout the 90′s, with the awesome satanic version of the character in 1999 and his Ministry of Darkness stable.

Personally, I hated the American Bad Ass/ Biker Taker character he played from 2000-2003, but many fans loved it and that’s all that counts. His return to his old, and current gimmick at Wrestlemania 20 was a great moment in history, and his undefeated streak at Wrestlemania and overall accomplishments inside the ring will allow him to go down as one of the greatest of all time.

3. Shawn Michaels

The best worker of all time, and to me it’s not even close. He may not have been the technical wrestler that Hart and some others were, but he could do it all in the ring, including sell better than anyone in history, including Hennig. He had good charisma and mic skills even at the start of his singles run in December of 1991 after turning on Rocker’s tag team partner Marty Jannetty, but they only got better as the decade went on.

As amazing as he was from 92-98, I have appreciated his current run from Summerslam 2002 until now much more, mainly because I witnessed much more of this part of his career as it was happening. He has a list of absolute five star classic matches that can’t be matched by anyone in the business, and most of them took place at Wrestlemania or other big pay per views like Summerslam, the Royal Rumble and Survivor Series. Some of his greatest matches and feuds were with Jannetty, Razor Ramon, Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Flair and Undertaker. HBK is one of the major reasons why I still watch the WWE today.

2. Macho Man Randy Savage

The fact that this man is not in the hall of fame, along with Bruno Sammartino, is the biggest embarrassment to Vince McMahon’s collection of legendary superstars. When you talk about the Hulkamania era in the WWF from 1984-1993, Savage was probably the number 2 guy in the industry during that entire time period and when you add in his WCW run and even his pre-WWF work, you’d have to consider Savage on a list of the top 10 greatest pro wrestlers in history. He was always above average to great inside the ring. He was one of the most charismatic wrestlers ever, and his promo skills were off the charts as well, as he put an incredible amount of passion and energy into his interviews. His extremely unique, raspy voice didn’t hurt either.

His match with Hogan at Wrestlemania 5, “The Mega Powers Explode,” is still my favorite wrestling match ever. He had numerous other classic encounters and often lifted lesser wrestlers to above average or even great matches. He had a memorable run in the NWO and recreated himself in 1999 with “Team Madness” in a short but successful run. Quite possibly the most colorful character in wrestling history, the Macho Man was a six-time world champion and is one of the most popular wrestlers ever. Ooooooh, yeah!

1. Hulk Hogan

What more can be said about the Hulkster that hasn’t been said already? He is the Babe Ruth, or Michael Jordan of the wrestling business. He is the best of all-time in my opinion, and inarguably the most popular professional wrestler who ever lived. Sure, for a three year period, no one was as hot as Steve Austin, but when you factor in Hogan’s entire career, no one, including Austin, Rock, or Flair, have sold out more arenas, sold more merchandise, garnered higher TV ratings, attained higher pay per view buyrates and drawn more money than Hulk.

Pro Wrestling was pretty popular in the 1950′s, and it had its moments in the 60′s, 70′s and early80′s as well, but it was Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan who took the sport into the mainstream after Hogan’s first WWF championship win in 1984. Hogan led the WWF to enormous success throughout the rest of the 80′s, then revitalized his career and the entire WCW promotion with his heel turn in the summer of 96 and creation of the NWO. Finally, he had a triumphant, nostalgic return to the WWF in 2002, and other short but successful runs in 2003, 2005 and 2006. He is currently trying to create another wrestling boom period with TNA, as one of their lead bookers and on-air characters.

You can criticize his in-ring skills all you want, even though I’ll always contend that he wasn’t that bad, and you can complain about the backstage politics and point out his family life problems. But pro wrestling is all about entertainment and as a business, it’s about making money. Hogan had the perfect charisma and look to take wrestling to another level and transcend the business by crossing over into movies and TV. Without him, the business wouldn’t be even close to what it is today. He is a 12-time world champion, has had some of the biggest and most important matches in history, put the business on the map in the 80′s, revitalized it when it was floundering in the 90′s and is now attempting to jump start it again. For all these accomplishments and so many more, Hulk Hogan is the greatest professional wrestler ever, and certainly will always be my favorite.

What’s your opinion on the matter? Give me your top 10 favorite wrestlers ever or share your opinion on my list in the comments section below.

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