Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling

[Alsacs]

He's simply a personal favorite of mine.

How about 1996 onward mt Rushmore of best in ring wrestlers? I put Angle in that with HBK, Jericho, and Benoit. I could swap in Guerrero and Mysterio too.

If we want post attitude era- CM punk, Bryan, Styles, (?)

I think Benoit would have to be DQed.
As much as I don’t like HHH he has to be on that 96 onward worker era IMO.
HHH, Jericho, Michaels, Angle.
For best workers.

 

[Chip]

there are two distinct eras

pre-wrestlemania (when wrestling was still territorial):
strangler lewis
lou thesz
andre the giant
ric flair

wrestlemania and after (when mcmahon had destroyed the territory system):
vince mcmahon
hulk hogan
the rock
john cena
i hate to do this one because i hate what mcmahon did to wrestling, i hate hogan's style. also, in the later years, i prefer hbk & austin (and for that matter cm punk) but the money says its rock & cena

international wrestling
antonio ioki
giant baba
el santo
carlos colon

my personal mt rushmore
the sheik
bruiser brody
superfly
rick rude

Couple other honorable mention pre-Wrestlemania era guys that haven't been mentioned, but spent a lot of time with major belts around their waist are Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel.

 

[MikeSU02]

I've had this discussion with friends a few times.

My locks are always Andre and Hogan. I don't know how you could have any wrestling mt rushmore without them.

Then you have a pool, imo, of Flair, HBK, Rock and Austin.

Then you have Undertaker, Bruno, Cena, etc.

Just my 0.02.

Can we extend this to tag teams?

 

[NineOneSeven]

I think Benoit would have to be DQed.
As much as I don’t like HHH he has to be on that 96 onward worker era IMO.
HHH, Jericho, Michaels, Angle.
For best workers.

Yeah screw that guy. He can rot. But can't deny his ability... Unfortunately that psycho had some serious, serious issues.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I've had this discussion with friends a few times.

My locks are always Andre and Hogan. I don't know how you could have any wrestling mt rushmore without them.

Then you have a pool, imo, of Flair, HBK, Rock and Austin.

Then you have Undertaker, Bruno, Cena, etc.

Just my 0.02.

Can we extend this to tag teams?

Hardys, Edge and Christian, and the Dudleys from the attitude era given the historic TLC matches they had.

 

[moqui]

Couple other honorable mention pre-Wrestlemania era guys that haven't been mentioned, but spent a lot of time with major belts around their waist are Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel.

and buddy rogers

 

[KaiserUEO]

Couple other honorable mention pre-Wrestlemania era guys that haven't been mentioned, but spent a lot of time with major belts around their waist are Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel.

Last post before Yankees here, but the Junkyard Dog is one of the main reason I liked wrestling.

RIP JYD

 

[moqui]

Gotta have Bruno?

its before my time so i'm going just on the histories i've read, but i think compared to the four i mentioned bruno was a little more of a regional draw. the money followed lewis thesz andre & flair regardless of the territory

 

[MikeSU02]

its before my time so i'm going just on the histories i've read, but i think compared to the four i mentioned bruno was a little more of a regional draw. the money followed lewis thesz andre & flair regardless of the territory

Thoughts on Sting?

 

[cliftonparksufan]

its before my time so i'm going just on the histories i've read, but i think compared to the four i mentioned bruno was a little more of a regional draw. the money followed lewis thesz andre & flair regardless of the territory

I'm not an expert but I believe you are wrong about Bruno. This article puts some perspective into this thread's argument.
The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time Reviewed In Wrestling Perspective

 

[Chip]

and buddy rogers

I'll always remember him as hosting that corner show that turned Snuka from biggest heel to biggest face in an instant. (and a couple Ray The Crippler Stevens piledrivers on the concrete).

 

[moqui]

the thing with austin was he was a mid-carder for almost his entire career until he hit it big with austin 3:16. that gimmick lit the wrestling world on fire, but it was like a shooting start, burning bright but short. he got injured fairly early in that run and was relegated to a special event wrestler. if he had hit on that gimmick earlier or stayed healthier longer, he would certainly have topped the rock.

 

[Alsacs]

I've had this discussion with friends a few times.

My locks are always Andre and Hogan. I don't know how you could have any wrestling mt rushmore without them.

Then you have a pool, imo, of Flair, HBK, Rock and Austin.

Then you have Undertaker, Bruno, Cena, etc.

Just my 0.02.

Can we extend this to tag teams?

Edge and Christian
Road Warriors
Dudleys
Demolition

My Mt. Rushmore of tag teams.
Honorable mention: Nasty Boys, Brainbusters, Hardy Boyz.

 

[moqui]

I'm not an expert but I believe you are wrong about Bruno. This article puts some perspective into this thread's argument.
The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time Reviewed In Wrestling Perspective

that article basically certifies his regional popularity
i think he's a very important character, but i don't think he quite makes mt rushmore

 

[Alsacs]

Thoughts on Sting?

Sting is definitely top 10.

It’s just he never worked with all the top guys. He had to carry Vader, Lex Luger types.
Flair-Sting was a great feud.

Sting is the WCW Undertaker equivalent.

 

[moqui]

Thoughts on Sting?

i thought wcw missed the boat with him. he & luger could have spent a decade trading the title back and forth and led wcw to competitiveness with mcmahon. instead, when wcw finally overtook the wwf, it was with the ex-wwf stars.

 

[Chip]

Edge and Christian
Road Warriors
Dudleys
Demolition

My Mt. Rushmore of tag teams.
Honorable mention: Nasty Boys, Brainbusters, Hardy Boyz.

Rock n Roll Express, Midnight Express, Hart Foundation, New Age Outlaws. Old school 80s or before, throw in Ole & Gene Anderson (I guess Ole and Arn too), The Samoans, The Moondogs, Fuji & Saito, Anyone & Tony Garea.

 

[Alsacs]

With all this talk of all time greats I just gotta say how bad the product has become.
I haven’t been able to watch anything but Royal Rumbles or Wrestlemanias these last 5 years.

The soap opera writers they have hired have killed my interest.

 

[OrangeDW]

Sting is definitely top 10.

It’s just he never worked with all the top guys. He had to carry Vader, Lex Luger types.
Flair-Sting was a great feud.

Sting is the WCW Undertaker equivalent.

Vader was awesome IMO.

 

[Alsacs]

Rock n Roll Express, Midnight Express, Hart Foundation, New Age Outlaws. Old school 80s or before, throw in Ole & Gene Anderson (I guess Ole and Arn too), The Samoans, The Moondogs, Fuji & Saito, Anyone & Tony Garea.

I forgot New Age Outlaws they could definitely be top 4.

 

[OrangeDW]

With all this talk of all time greats I just gotta say how bad the product has become.
I haven’t been able to watch anything but Royal Rumbles or Wrestlemanias these last 5 years.

The soap opera writers they have hired have killed my interest.

I think of how when I used to be really into wrestling, the pace things moved at. Some guys were stars in the same company for years and rarely or never crossed paths. Feuds just felt like a bigger deal.

Now there’s so much televised content, that guys wrestle each other 5 times on TV before the PPV match.

It feels like nothing matters and almost all the matches are pointless.

 

[Alsacs]

Vader was awesome IMO.

He was a good heel monster.

Sting and Vader had a great program.

 

[OrangeDW]

I think of how when I used to be really into wrestling, the pace things moved at. Some guys were stars in the same company for years and rarely or never crossed paths. Feuds just felt like a bigger deal.

Now there’s so much televised content, that guys wrestle each other 5 times on TV before the PPV match.

It feels like nothing matters and almost all the matches are pointless.

And to expand on this, I recently watched Royal Rumble ‘93 on the Network. That was a time when I was really into wrestling so I knew who won, but I’d never seen actually seen that event.

I think the match started with Bob Backlund, Flair, and Dibiase. 3 veteran legends at the time who I don’t think I’d ever seen really cross paths before. Felt like I came across gold. Then Virgil came in and went after Dibiase hard, even though their angle had ended well over a year before this event. You just don’t get stuff like that as much anymore.

If you had three veteran stars in the ring together at the Rumble now, they’d probably have had multiple different feuds against each other with every combination of who was the heel and who was the face exhausted. And then if someone else came in that had prior beef with one of them, you/they probably wouldn’t even remember.

 

[moqui]

With all this talk of all time greats I just gotta say how bad the product has become.
I haven’t been able to watch anything but Royal Rumbles or Wrestlemanias these last 5 years.

The soap opera writers they have hired have killed my interest.

there is a lot of good stuff happening on the independent circuits

i posted this in the entertainment section a while ago: my new fave, shayna baszler

 

[MSOrange]

With all this talk of all time greats I just gotta say how bad the product has become.
I haven’t been able to watch anything but Royal Rumbles or Wrestlemanias these last 5 years.

The soap opera writers they have hired have killed my interest.

I'm the same way. I still read pwinsider.com on a regular basis and watch Raw if it looks like something big will happen. But it's mainly Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania for me too.