HaShem Bless streaming Netflix! Last night, my pre-wife had a girls night, which gave me free reign over the Roku. While searching for stuff to watch, I took notice of all the WWE titles that were available. Time was was on my side, so I watched all of them (except for the John Cena titles. He may draw mucho dinero for WWE, but all he draws from this guy is vomit from the mouth. He is so f'n bubble gum!). The one title that got my opinion juice flowing was the "Top 50 Superstars of All Time" special. Here is the list minus all the mental masturbation time for each wrestler (I'm sorry if this spoils it for anyone):1. Shawn Michaels
2. The Undertaker
3. Steve Austin
4. Bret Hart
5. The Rock
6. Harley Race
7. Ricky Steamboat
8. Andre the Giant
9. Rey Mysterio
10. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper
11. Eddie Guerrero
12. Triple H
13. Gorgeous George
14. "Macho Man" Randy Savage
15. "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig
16. Ipecac Syrup personified aka John Cena
17. Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair(tied)
19. Edge
20. Jerry "The King" Lawler
21. Lou Thesz
22. Terry Funk
23. Hulk Hogan
24. Bruno Sammartino
25. Chris Jericho
26. Ted DiBiase
27. Fabulous Moolah
28. Classy Freddie Blassie
29. Randy Orton
30. Pat Patterson
31. The Iron Sheik
32. Jimmy Snuka
33. Mick Foley
34. Kurt Angle
35. Buddy Rogers
36. Gorilla Monsoon
37. Junkyard Dog
38. "Superstar" Billy Graham
39. Jake "The Snake" Roberts
40. The Big Show
41. Jack Brisco
42. Sgt. Slaughter
43. Kane
44. Nick Bockwinkel
45. D.A.R.E. program advocate Jeff Hardy
46. Dory Funk Jr.
47. Bob Backlund
48. Rick Rude
49. Batista
50. Killer Kowalski
For the most part, the list is not bad. For the minority part:
-I would rearrange the order a little. I'm sure if Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair were not signed to TNA, they'd be higher, but for business reasons, they were all lower than they should have been (any higher, and it would basically be free advertising for TNA). Angle and Foley should be in the top 15, while Hogan and Flair should go in the Top 10. Rey Mysterio is great, but he's not a Top 10 all time talent to me. I would put him maybe in the 30's. Eddie Guerrero was great, but 11? I actually remember when he became the Champ, and having a conversation with someone about how it was a bit of a headscratcher. I just never saw him as a top-card, main event wrestler. I'd put him in the 30's or 40's.
-The one omission I would make is Batista. He's a big guy, has a good look, drew money, and had some great matches, but here's the deciding factor: can you tell the story of pro wrestling without him? If they were writing a book about pro wrestling, everyone on this list, in theory, would have to be mentioned in the book. Batista is not all that special to me. Again, he's got some great attributes, but when WWE brings in a wrestler who looks just like you, has a similar move set, and is just about as good as you were, you aren't that special.
-WWE stole a lot of ideas from ECW, yet there is not one pure ECW talent on this list. No Tazz? No RVD? Those two were/are phenomenal in the ring. Tazz's promos made you want to run and hide, and he murdered anyone who he wrestled. RVD cut these great, laid-back promos that had crowds eating out of his hand, and he had such a great skill set in the ring. If the Big Show and Kane are on this list, then they could have found room for these guys.
-WCW was good enough to buy, but two of their biggest stars aren't good enough to be on this list? You can't seriously tell me that Big Show, Batista, Kane, Edge, and Eddie Guerrero are better than Lex Luger and Sting. Holy Shit.
-No Ultimate Warrior? I know he was a very polarizing figure (not great in the ring, some wrestlers questioned his love for the business, hard to work with) but WWE tagged him as the wrestler who they were going to build their product around for the 90's. The butts that were in the seats at Wrestlemania VI were there to see Hogan v. Warrior. Come on. To quote Christian, "like it or not, people will always remember The Ultimate Warrior."
-This wasn't a shock, but Chris Benoit was not on this list. If this DVD was released by someone other than WWE, he goes on this list somewhere.
That's my take.
I watched it over the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThere was most definitely a slant towards to current crop of talent, and the slights to Hogan and Flair was fairly obvious.
I thought Edge should've been near the bottom, if he even made this list at all. Batista had no place on the list. Same for Rey Mysterio. There were plenty of flyweights that were much more interesting to watch than he ever was.
Some notable omissions, in addition to those you already listed:
Antonio Inoki
Verne Gagne
Antonio Rocca
Owen Heart
Scott Hall
Great Muta
Vader
Bam Bam Bigelow
As far as John Cena goes, he never impressed me, either as a face or a heel. He's big and in great shape, but so was Batista. He's only on the list because he's basically the face of the WWE today ... for better or (most likely) for worse