Vince McMahon's list of the top 5 wrestlers of all time...

Would be interesting to see what his criteria was. As much as I dislike Hogan he was a huge star that put wrestling in the main stream in the 80's.

No surprise about #1. I heard him say in an interview once that Shawn Micahels is the best ring performer he has ever seen. It's a shame that Michaels missed the majority of the attiude era with the back injury.
 
kev8822 said:
Would be interesting to see what his criteria was. As much as I dislike Hogan he was a huge star that put wrestling in the main stream in the 80's.

No surprise about #1. I heard him say in an interview once that Shawn Micahels is the best ring performer he has ever seen. It's a shame that Michaels missed the majority of the attiude era with the back injury.
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No way should Shawn Michaels be rated above Hogan... And again, I'm not a Hogan fan... but come'on!
 
MichaelWinicki said:
No way should Shawn Michaels be rated above Hogan... And again, I'm not a Hogan fan... but come'on!
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That is why I asked what is the Criteria. On popularity you can make a case for Hogan/Austin/Rock/Andre. But Hogan was a average at best in ring performer. HBK was a in ring GOD before tha back injury. Even after he was still elite.
 
Hogan and Flair in the 80's as wrestling was gaining more main stream status, Then Sting, Hart, Savage, Undertaker, Arn Anderson, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin. The 80's and 90's made wrestling one of the most popular episodic TV shows.
 
kev8822 said:
That is why I asked what is the Criteria. On popularity you can make a case for Hogan/Austin/Rock/Andre. But Hogan was a average at best in ring performer. HBK was a in ring GOD before tha back injury. Even after he was still elite.
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Maybe in his prime then he went campy like flair. HBK had a good run of like 4-5 years but is no where the icon of Flair/Rock/Hogan, even Cena is probably more iconic than HBK. Most of the iconic wrestliers played a role either face or heel and stayed there with an occasional crossover to the otherside. HBK was a face or heel like every 6 months.
 
kev8822 said:
That is why I asked what is the Criteria. On popularity you can make a case for Hogan/Austin/Rock/Andre. But Hogan was a average at best in ring performer. HBK was a in ring GOD before tha back injury. Even after he was still elite.
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I have no idea what criteria Vince used...

But if I was rating them it would be based on the ability to draw (as opposed to popularity, because many heels had the ability to outdraw popular guys), work in the ring, the amount of time as world champion, the ability to put someone "over", mic-work and finally the ability to make what happened in the ring look real.
 
TO be fair to hogan and the others from the 80's wrestling was choreographed like a dance. you knew exactly what was going to happen move by move with each wrestler. The lead up to the signature moves was so easy to see. The Attitude and Monday night wars era changed this there was a lot of improv coming in so moves were choreographed but more general than I am going to do this, then this, then this and then hit you with the DDT. They added more steps and more back and forth in the "dance" so it seemed more real. Now if you look at guys like Rand Orton and DDP before him their in ring mastery and ability to "lead" the dance has made them into wildly successful based on the "unpredictability" or their matches DDP and Randy Orton took applying their finishing move from anywhere in the ring to an art form.
 
I saw an infomercial with this DDP guy you guys are talking about. He has a yoga program he sells & he talked about how bad his back was. There is a portion of the show with some other guy who is absolutely torn up from wrestling. I forget his name. He has a moustache & his body is torn up from head to toe from wrestling.

Anyway I gather he tries to help other wrestlers who I am sure are his friends. He actually is in very good shape from putting together this yoga program.
 
Yea they did show a pic of him wrestling & he had a snake around his neck. A BIG snake. :confused:
 
No one....and no one could work the mic like Ernie Ladd. This was back before VM saved{err I mean ruined}wrestling.
 
Achilleslastand said:
No one....and no one could work the mic like Ernie Ladd. This was back before VM saved{err I mean ruined}wrestling.
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Great clip!

Ernie would be in my top 50.

Andre, Bruiser Brody and Ernie Ladd are the three "wanderers" who, while never holding a world title, didn't seem to care and simply traveled from one territory to another drawing big crowds. If a promoter wanted an immediate big draw he would bring in one of them. I'd rate Andre above the other two because of his ability to draw anywhere. But all 3 would be in my top 50.
 
As I understand it that list was actually compiled from lists made by the current superstars at that time. There for a lot of the young guys who turned in lists didn't even have some of the older guys high on their lists and there for some of the people went way down the list.

That's why a guy like Rey Mysterio was so high on the list, and if I recall correctly was higher than HHH, because it was voted on by current wrestlers at the time. It's not an official list by Vince or anyone whose been around the business for that long.
 
These 2 guys could really work the crowd and work the mic as well


Also Dick Murdoch{aka Captain Redneck} was pretty good.
 
A classic interview by one of the best in the business and a certain top 50 wrestler, Nick Bockwinkle.

The first minute or so is an interview with Steven Regal... Then Bockwinkle and Heenan (another great interview) come on...



Bockwinkle wins the Internet by using the words "Humanoids" and "Simpletons" in the same interview. :D
 
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