Who would be on your Mt. Rushmore of pro wrestling? Biggest names in the business in your opinion. You also get two honorable mentions. Also, who are your person top 4, or your personal favorite Mt. Rushmore with two honorable mentions. I still watch but for me 80s through Ruthless aggression is my favorite time as a wrestling fan and I'll be rewatching matches from that timeframe forever. For me it is:
Hogan, Austin, Rock ,Flair
Honorable Mention: Undertaker (never the face but top guy in multiple eras) and Bruno Sammartino
Personal Rushmore:
Hogan, Macho Man, Undertaker, Bret Hart
Honorable mention: Sting and Andre the Giant
Never watched wrestling in my life but Rowdy Roddy Piper earned his spot there imo, based purely on They Live
I actually saw that movie for the first time earlier this year. He was a wrestler I didn’t appreciate until I got older. They Live is a very good movie. Really makes you think
I'm surprised given your retro nerdness that They Live came into your world so late.
I had always seen the whole sunglasses meme and have heard the bubblegum quote for years but yea it was one of those things I didn’t see until recently. Similar to how I didn’t see Friday or Weird Science until a few years ago. Some things slip through the cracks. I used to watch the USA tv show weird science when it was on
So Keith David is your second favorite wrestler?
Yes, I call those two Arby and The Chief
The Rock, Jericho, Mick Foley and whomever. WWF - then shortly, WWE - peaked with those characters in my era.
That's what my friends and I watched...and the T&A, of course, but we were especially retarded back then, didn't know about things like "implants" or the magic of "makeup", so our babe choices were not the best with hindsight.
Fun fact: Chris Jericho is not only a Trump supporter, but has donated thousands of dollars to the man.
So has Mark Calaway, AKA The Undertaker.
I think Kurt Angle is as well.
Macho Man, Jerry Lawler, Tennessee Stud, Mick Foley.
Honorable mention: Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper.
It's been a few years since I've watched. I'll just put in a couple of 'mangers' I enjoyed. Jim Cornette and Captain Lou.
I don't really have a personal favorite, there were so many solid workers over the years.
Cornette used to make me so mad as a kid smacking the opponents with the tennis racket. Tennessee Stud is a territory guy right? Captain Lou is legendary
The Tennessee Stud was one of the best territory guys. I watched a lot of the attitude era growing up, a lot of my opinion on these guys is informed by that and also listening to many good Wrestling podcasts 10 5-10 years ago, then rewatching the classic matches on YouTube.
I was born in 80 so my first wrestling memories were WWF/Hulkamania. I’ve been going through old school NWA like Flair and Terry Funk and will deep dive into the territory content that’s on the WWE network
The short-lived Smokey Mountain Wrestling is a real hoot.(I watched the whole run on YouTube) then there is old ECW, Southeastern, Portland and Memphis wrestling are gems as well.
Every episode of SMW
Which Sting. The Flashy one or the one dressed like the Crow?
If it's faces anyone would recognize or had an impact, Hogan, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, and the Rock.
Actually, Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump could be on it as well.
Sting Crow is peak Sting. It's a shame Hogan ruined a year buildup of Crow Sting. Flashy Sting is colloquially known as Surfer Sting.
I think Lincoln is in the amateur HOF and Trump is in the WWE HOF.
I mean, both were involved in actual civil war while being president. That's two nickels of weirdness.
I thought NWO was weird for doing the change to Sting.
Yea I love Hogan but that match was a “cluster f”. I loved his NWO red and black run. Great theme song
The original surfer sting. I liked the Crow version but Surfer sting is the one I was a huge fan of as a kid
If we are talking just biggest stars of all time I would say Hogan, Austin, The Rock, and Cena.
Only because they transcended just being a pro wrassler and became pop culture stars. Every kid knew who Hogan was. Austin 3:16 shirts used to be everywhere in public. Now Rock and Cena are big movie stars. If getting over is the ultimate goal becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood is certainly more over than a guy with a great work rate that only wrestling fans know about.
Gotcha. I respect Cena and he is an all time great but I guess since I didn’t have the same interest in wrestling as I used to for most of his career (loved him when he was edgier during ruthless aggression) so I have no arguments with your list.
Funny thing is I stopped watching wrestling in early ‘01 before I graduated. I missed the entire Ruthless Aggression era and didn’t start paying attention again until a few years ago. Just through cultural osmosis I knew who Cena was even though I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full match of his.
He was definitely the face of his era.
Ranking wrestlers is difficult because what are you judging workrate, drawing power, merch sales? There's an old saying in baseball that the players that played when you were a kid become your favorite and standard used to judge future teammates. That being said my Rushmore is
Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold, The Rock, Hulk Hogan
Not a bad list. To this day I watch old Saturday Night main events and watch Mean Gene interview Hogan and I still get pumped like I was a kid again
Not including Randy Savage would hurt too hard, gonna have to add a head to mount rushmore
Hogan, Flair, and Cena or Rock. The reason it's not Cena and Rock is that Vince has to be on there. Man changed wrestling, for better and for worse, forever, was an amazing on-screen character and is defintely one of the most recognizable wrestling figures ever. He's also easily the most financially successful individual in wrestling of all time.
Honorable mentions are Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Macho and Stone Cold.
Personal favorites is really hard. But I always liked Big Show. Foley would probably be there. And throw HHH and HBK up there, too! I obviously have a bias for a certain era of wrestling.
Same here. Like I said, I’ll be watching 80s through ruthless aggression til I die. No issues with Vince. Won’t be inducted until he dies now. Unless they give him the Benoit treatment but it sounds like all the gross stuff he did was consensual
I don't think Vince ever wanted to go into the HOF and has famously said he doesn't want to be mentioned during speeches. People will probably be fine with him in 20 years, but who knows if he'll still be around. And the gross stuff is pretty gross if you assume it's true. WWE sure acted like it's true, but who knows.
I like the current WWE stuff a lot. Are you keeping up? I'm hoping the Vince stuff fades off Brock because I really want Brock vs Gunther before Brock can't wrestle anymore!
Definitely gross but it seems like she agreed to do it for money.
I still watch and enjoy but 80s to Ruthless Aggression is my sweet spot for wrestling. For me personally nothing will be better than that time frame. Wrestling now is much better than pg era and I like the collaboration with TNA. Imagine if the appearance of Hall at Nitro was actually a collaboration between WCW and WWF
Even if it was all consenting adults, it's so beyond the pail disgusting that it's best for him to be gone until everyone forgets.
I should pick a start date and just watch from there. I relived a lot of stuff with OSW a few years back and that was a lot of fun. I don't know how it would have worked if the Outsiders were originally a collaboration. Probably not as well. Remember how awfully the WCW invasion was handled?
Also I’m currently going through all the Clash of Champions
I was fifteen when it happened and it was before I started going online so I hen I saw Scott Hall acting like Razor Ramon I first thought it was some collaboration. The invasion angle would’ve been better had they just bought out the contracts. I think if you book it right you more than make up the money.
Agree about Vince. People will forget over time. Not so much with Benoit. I can still watch his matches but can’t help but think about what happened
I can't narrow it down to four, but I will say this.
The reason I don't put the old-timer legends like Georg Hackenschmidt, Jim Londos, Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, El Santo, Mildred Burke and the like on mine comes down to one simple reason:
There's not enough footage.
I can't judge ability and the power to work a crowd based solely on second-hand accounts. I have to see how they wrestled in the moment, in context. This is also why I don't put Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Pettit or similar old-time greats on my basketball Mount Rushmore, but will put Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. More of their games were televised.
By contrast, we have boatloads of video to show how much of a master Ric Flair was, or Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada are now.
I'm a geezer, so I vote for Dick the Bruiser, The Crusher, The Assassins, Moose Cholak, Verne Gagne, and, best of all, Baron von Raschke, the man with "Da Claaaaaaaw."
Honorable mention The Iron Sheik
Before my time but definitely respect those names
Mine would probably be Bruno, Hogan, Austin, The Rock, with honourable mentions to Andre, The Undertaker and Lesnar.
Andre, Hogan, Austin, Rock, and I'd try really hard to squeeze John Cena and Undertaker in too. There are just too many great guys at the top to pick from.
Macho Ma'am Trandy Savage
But seriously, I watched during the Attitude era so Austin, Rock, Foley, Undertaker, Triple H, Jericho, and Kurt Angle.
Mavin, goldust, shockmaster, and China