Pro Wrestling Power

I’ve already done a list of my personal favorite pro wrestlers of all time. That was the first post I did on this blog if you want to check it out. You can read it at this link: My Top 10 Favorite Wrestlers

But this is an objective list of the top 10 best pro wrestlers of all time, based on the following factors: popularity, ability to draw, longevity, look, in ring ability and charisma. I will admit right off the bat of my bias towards the modern era (1985-2010) and my bias towards U.S. wrestlers. That being said, here’s my mostly objective look at who I feel are the 10 best ever based on the criteria above:

Honorable mention:

Rikidozan, Andre the Giant, The Rock, Gorgeous George, Harley Race, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Sting, El Santo, Giant Baba, Frank Gotch, Ed Strangler Lewis, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle

10. Bruno Sammartino

I can’t leave a guy off this list who held the WWF championship two times for a combined total of over 11 YEARS! He had critics even during the height of his popularity in the 1960′s and 1970′s for his matches being too boring and for his limited ability. But he was a huge draw, especially at Madison Square Garden. Vince McMahon Sr. wouldn’t have let Bruno hold the title for so long if he wasn’t capable of drawing money. For that reason alone, he needs to be on anybody’s top 10 list.

9. Antonio Inoki

Also a legitimate mixed martial arts specialist, Inoki is perhaps the most well-known and revered Japanese wrestler of all time. He has had several legendary bouts with American wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, and he is probably the most well-known Japanese wrestler among American fans for that reason. I’ve probably seen a grand total of about 5 of his matches, and I will say he definitely has an entertaining style, but really I just felt like this list needed some international flavor and he was the best way to go. But in all seriousness, from everything I’ve read and for how much the Japanese wrestling fans adore him, he belongs in the top 10.

8. Buddy Rogers

The original “Nature Boy” wasn’t as good as the second one, Ric Flair, but hey he was the original after all, so you have to give him credit for that. And being number 8 on a top 10 list of wrestlers in history isn’t too shabby either when you think about it. In many ways, he revolutionized the heel persona that so many other wrestlers would copy in later years. He is often praised as a fantastic in ring worker, especially for his time period (1950′s, 60′s). I’ve honestly never seen him perform on tape, except for maybe a brief appearance sometime on a WWF produced highlight package, but once again I have to go with what’s written in the history books and the compliments of his peers to put him at this spot in the rankings.

7. Bret Hart

The excellence of execution was just that: A fantastic in ring performer who got better on the mic as his career went along. Everything Hart did in the ring was so crisp and smooth. When he performed a move, it just looked like that was the way the move was meant to be done. Did he have a load of charisma? No, not really. But like I said, he did improve in that area later in his career, although he was still never a great talker. He’s also been criticized for not being a good draw, and if you just were to analyze the numbers on paper, that is pretty much true. But I give him more credit than criticism for leading the WWF during the new generation era (1993-1997), because the way I see it, if it wasn’t for him, Michaels and Undertaker, the company probably would have went under by 97. Besides that, he does have legions of fans around the world and is absolutely loved by his homeland country of Canada.

6. Shawn Michaels

I had to put Michaels ahead of Hart mainly because of his second WWE run (2002-2010). For a guy to perform the way he did from the age of 36 to 44 after having a serious back injury that put him on the sidelines for more than 4 years is just ridiculous. He was the best worker in the company from 1992-1998, and he was the best worker during his second run too, right up to his Wrestlemania 26 rematch with Undertaker. As technically sound as Hart was, I believe Michaels to be the overall best pound for pound worker in pro wrestling history. Plus, he had above average charisma and mic skills pretty much right from the start of his singles career and they only got better as time went on. He was also an awesome tag team wrestler in his earlier WWF days with Marty Jannetty as part of The Rockers. This guy will be missed from the current WWE product and is impossible to replace. If it wasn’t for the 4+ year layoff due to the injury, there’s no telling where he could have ended up on a list like this. It could have been at 3 or 4 at least.

5. Undertaker

Here’s another superstar who has defied father time, and continues to, by putting on great match after great match and gaining new generations of fans all the while. He has the greatest gimmick in the history of pro wrestling and no one could have pulled it off better. He’s not necessarily thought of as a great world champion, but the Wrestlemania undefeated streak is legendary, and if we were to keep track of such statistics in pro wrestling like win-loss records, I’m not sure anyone, Hulk Hogan included, would have a higher win percentage. To a real sports fan who doesn’t like pro wrestling, that may sound ridiculous, but to us hardcore fans and to the wrestlers themselves, they know what that really means. For a promoter to have you win almost every match, you have to be a pretty important guy to the company and a pretty good draw. Undertaker was and still is of course much more than that. With another solid year or two under his belt, he could still move up this list to 3 or 4 as well.

4. Lou Thesz

I once again have to rely on the history books and the Internet for this legend, who’s been ranked higher than this on many similar lists. You simply can’t ignore a guy who most respected writers put anywhere from 1-3 on their list of the best of all time. Thesz brought newfound popularity to the sport in the 1940′s and 1950′s and will go down as perhaps the third greatest champion of all time behind Sammartino and Flair. Many consider him to be the Babe Ruth of wrestling, although I’d argue that Hogan or Flair has taken that title from him in the past 30 years. Thesz was a legitimate tough guy and a great worker, and he revolutionized the sport and brought it to the attention of the American public like no had before him. You could make a very good argument for him at number 1, but once again, I’m 25 years old, and this is my list, so I believe the modern guys are better. Disagree? Let me know about it in the comments section below.

3. Steve Austin

Ironically, one of the moves Stone Cold performed was the “Lou Thesz press,” but I put Austin in front of Thesz at number 3 because for about a 4 year period, no one, and that includes Hogan and The Rock, has ever been as on fire with mainstream popularity than Steve Austin. The only think keeping him out of the number 1 or 2 position is sheer longevity. He simply wasn’t on top long enough, and didn’t have a strong enough finish to his career, to be placed at number 1. And by a strong finish, I don’t mean to diminish his awesome last match with The Rock at Wrestlemania 19, but rather the fact that his career was cut short due to injury when he probably could have had another 3 or 4 years near the top of the card to maybe move into first or second place all time. But as it is, he still had one hell of a career, and he sold an insane amount of merchandise. Not to mention record TV ratings, pay per view buyrates and sold out arenas all over the world. I was never a huge Austin fan, but I’ve come to really respect his work over the years and I can’t deny the popularity and money he drew, especially from early 1998 through late 2001.

2. Ric Flair

Let the debate begin. I know Flair is number one for most hardcore wrestling fans around the world, especially in the U.S. And I know he is probably the greatest world heavyweight champion ever. But even though he drew a lot of money throughout his career and has been perhaps the biggest name within the world of wrestling for the past 35 years, Hogan was right up there with him in that respect and he is much more well known around the world as a sheer pop culture icon. Hogan’s been in movies, TV commercials, on the cover of major magazines and had his own reality TV show. He is one of the most well known names on the planet, regardless of profession. Flair is only that well known to wrestling fans.

But enough of that argument, this spot is about Flair’s status as one of the best ever. The Nature Boy is probably the greatest heel of all time, and like I said before, probably the greatest wrestling champion ever. His longevity is outstanding. His ring work was consistently awesome, his mic skills and charisma are among the best ever, and he just looked like a wrestling icon, especially in the 1980′s. I have no problem with anyone ranking Ric Flair as the number one wrestler of all time. But I do have a problem with anyone putting either he or Hogan lower than 2.

1. Hulk Hogan

Besides him being my personal favorite, I do believe he belongs at number one on an objective list as well. Here’s the way I see it. Austin had a slightly hotter run from 98-01 than Hogan had from 84-89, but Hogan destroys him with longevity, and Hollywood Hogan was a much better heel than Austin was in 2001, or even 1997 for that matter. Hogan was a better champion, had more legendary matches, even if they weren’t as high quality in the workrate department, has sold more merchandise over the course of his career, sold out more arenas, sold more pay per views and gathered more people around the TV to watch him over the length of his career. If Austin had another three main event years attached to the end of his career and maybe two or three solid upper mid card years prior to his popularity explosion in late 1997, than maybe you could make a case for him at number 1. But like it or not, Hogan has had a bigger impact, long-term, on the wrestling business than Steve Austin.

Now Flair obviously matches and even exceeds Hogan in the longevity department, and he was a better world champion as well. He was probably even a better heel. But Hogan is the greatest babyface of all time, bar none, while Flair never really caught fire as a good guy like Hogan did as a bad guy. Yes fans loved to hate Flair, but it wasn’t as cool when he was pushed as a genuine face. Hogan beats Flair soundly in all the financial numbers and in the worldwide popularity contest. He has also had just as many, if not more, high profile and legendary matches as The Nature Boy. So I hope you can see my reasoning behind putting Hulk at number one in front of guys like Flair, Austin and Thesz.

Hulk Hogan will go down as the true Babe Ruth, or Michael Jordan, of pro wrestling. He won 12 world titles, and many of those were lengthy reigns. He changed wrestling forever with Vince McMahon in January of 1984 after winning the WWF championship and leading the industry to unprecedented heights throughout the rest of the 80′s.  He reinvented himself as a heel in 1996 in spectacular fashion as the leader of the nWo, arguably one of the top 3 wrestling factions ever created. Then he defied the odds once again with tremendous nostalgia runs in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. Whether the TNA experiment works or not remains to be seen, but he has already lifted them to much more notoriety and opened the door for superstars like Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Flair, who would have probably never set foot in the company if it wasn’t for Hogan’s presence.

No matter what your opinion of the man or his limited in ring work, the fact remains that he was one of the most charismatic, entertaining wrestlers ever, and when you combine all of the important factors together, with the most important one at the forefront, the ability to draw fans and money, Hulk Hogan deserves to be recognized as the greatest professional wrestler of all time.

So what do you think of this list: love it, hate it, somewhere in between? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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