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Wednesday WNS Column : Jeff Crosby's Top Five Greatest Wrestlers Ever

Posted By: Jeffrey Crosby on Oct 26, 2016

Wednesday WNS Column : Jeff Crosby's Top Five Greatest Wrestlers Ever

Jeff Crosby’s Top Five Greatest Wrestlers Ever

So here is my prelude: I am only including wrestlers that I remember or have researched... That means Lo nou Thesz and Bruno Sammartino etc..

I have a lot of honorable mentions... but I will save those until later. I had a few times where I could not figure out who to put in. If they are similar wrestlers or if I remember them as similar I only put one. For example: Hogan vs Flair; Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart; Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero; Stone Cold vs The Rock; Triple H vs John Cena.. I realize that it most cases both deserve to be on my top five and can probably be found on anyone’s top five, but that is not how I am doing my top five. With that said here we go:

 

As I alluded to earlier there will be a competition (in my head) for who should be on my list. We will start with the oldest two: Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair.

No one has ever done more for Sports Entertainment than Hulk Hogan, but I could also say that no one has ever done more for Pro Wrestling than Ric Flair. Hogan carried WWF and Flair carried WCW. Ric Flair holds the record for most heavyweight titles with 16.. Until Cena inevitably beats (or at least ties) that record.  The Hogan I remember is the WCW version. I remember NWO Hollywood Hogan. This is what actually made me get into wrestling. Despite being very young my first memories of Pro Wrestling was Hogan dropping that leg on Macho Man, turning into probably the first cool heel in the history of Pro Wrestling. The Flair I first remember was the 4 Horsemen version (with Benoit, and Steve McMichael ). I always liked Flair, but I did not really like him until he came to WWE in the 2000’s. My favorite version of Flair is the “dirtiest player in the game, evolution” gimmick. But, when I look at the most important aspect of my list I have to give the nod to Ric Flair. He has had far more great technical bouts than Flair. Hogan always had some great matches, but I appreciate Flair’s collective work much more than Hogan’s. They were both the most charismatic superstars of their companies. With respect to Sting and Rowdy Piper.. But I believe these two are in a class of their own from the time period where they hit their “primes.” My Choice for number 5: The Nature Boy Ric Flair.

 

Moving on to my favorite era of wrestling: The Attitude Era this Era was essentially defined by two characters: The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

Man, how could I leave either one of these guys off my list. I know this is a corrupt system, but it is either this or have half of my selections be a tie. I chose the former. These two had amazingly similar career trajectories... Kind of. We know that The Rock famously debuted as the sole survivor of survivor series 1996. This was not only his WWE debut, but his pro wrestling debut. Austin on the other hand had wrestled and had success in the WCW as one half of the Hollywood Blondes with Brian Pillman. He debuted as the Ring Master after winning the King of the Ring against what was as a shell of Jake Roberts.. he dropped one of the most famous promos of all time.. creating the character Austin 3:16. He would eventually go one to be the face of the company and pretty much save the WWF from losing the Monday Night Wars. Also he had arguably the greatest feud of all against Mr. McMahon. The Rock would go on to find success by turning heel and aligning himself with the Nation of Domination in a move that the Rock would want you to know had nothing to do with color.  They soon were feuded together over the Intercontinental Championship and then the WWF Championship. They were two great superstars that matched perfectly against each other and evened out the company perfectly. I am a huge fan of them both, but when it comes to charisma, the Rock is untouchable. That is a big part of him becoming a megastar in the movie industry. Also, I believe that the Rock could have great matches with almost anyone. The Rock could be a face or a heel and could sell out any building doing so. He also won 2 out of 3 WrestleMania matches against The Rattlesnake.  I personally prefer the third-generation sup1erstar over the Rattlesnake. That is ultimately why The Rock wins this fight for spot number 4 on my list. My choice for number 4: The Rock

 

This next selection was difficult for me. These are two of my favorite in ring technical performers of all time. Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero.

Both of these late, great, professional wrestlers deserve a spot on anyone’s top five. We all know about the Benoit tragedy, so I will not get into it. Both died and were taken from us suddenly, both were amazing in ring workers, both traveled the world and honed their skills while finding success in Japan, Mexico, ECW, WCW, and ultimately WWE. Both put on amazing matches. I believe that Chris Benoit probably had better matches than Eddie Guerrero, but Eddie had great matches with everyone. Also, he his biggest strengths was one of Benoit’s weaknesses: Charisma. Also, Eddie was more well-rounded than Benoit. On the mat there are very few people that could go toe to toe with Benoit. But, Guerrero could go toe to toe with anyone because he was so versatile. He could work the mat or he could fly around the ring like Rey Mysterio. Both were amazing wrestlers with eerily similar career trajectories. But I truly believe that our generation will never see a talent again like Eddie Guerrero. He is my choice for number 3: Eddie Guerrero

Spoiler Alert: number 2 is Kurt Angle

I feel like this is a surprise, but he has had the second most of my favorite matches. I also feel like his career is unparalleled. I don’t if you heard but in 1996 Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck! He went know on to debut at SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT. His transition was uncanny. He just picked up pro wrestling like nothing we have ever seen before. He could go like no one else before. He was charismatic and one of the funniest superstars we have ever seen. He was an amazing heel. My favorite matches were against  of course his WrestleMania match against Brock Lesnar, but he also had a great WrestleMania match against Shawn Michaels. He had great matches against Benoit and Mysterio… and he was has constantly put on great matches since moving to TNA… he even had a great match with Mr. Kennedy … Anderson… against all people. So Kurt is my second favorite wrestler of all time ( first being Jeff Hardy.) So he earns my spot for number 2: Kurt Angle

 

Honorable Mention Time!

Many of these would be included on a top ten list and others would have been considered.. So here we go:

Chris Jericho, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Sting, AJ Styles, Randy Savage, Edge, Mick Foley, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Kevin Nash, Harley Race, Big Show, Andre the Giant, Jeff Hardy, Curt Henig, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Antonio Inoki, Bob Backland, Lou Thesz, and Bruno Sammartino

 

 

Number one is the greatest in ring performer of all time! That is my opinion anyway… From tag team to single action he has got to be the best… Also, his nickname is Mr. WrestleMania for a reason. SHAWN MICHAELS.. Honestly this was between HBK and Bret Hart, but in all honestly I always knew HBK would win since I considered making a list… So I saved the “argument”. We all know he pretty much started as one half of the Rockers, turned on Marty Jennitty, Became the Heartbreak Kid, Formed DX, retired, came out of retirement.. and was better than when he left. He went on to have another decade of great matches. Both his bouts against the Undertaker at WrestleMania. The countless wars against Triple H, His WrestleMania matches with Y2J and Kurt Angle. This dude was just constantly having the greatest matches of all time. I could go on for hours about what Shawn Michaels has accomplished, but I do not really need to. He is my pick for the greatest professional wrestler of all time. He is charismatic, and amazing in the ring. So my pick as number 1: Shawn Michaels


Tags: #wwe #wcw #tna #jeff

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