This idea is inspired, which is to say "shamelessly ripped off," shinobimusashi 's Favorite Album thread. In all honesty I had toyed around with doing this project for years. Nobi's thread just inspired me to get off my ass and finally do it. He also gave me the idea to expand it from the originally intended 100 up to 200. 

This is a Favorites List, not Greatest. Those two words mean different things. Many great wrestlers and big stars failed to make the cut due to never connecting with me for whatever reason. And I'm sure many others will be deemed "too low," while other wrestlers who "suck" will be "too high." My tastes are arbitrary and capricious. Yet I will provide an explanation for why I connected with every single one of these wrestlers.

Stripped down to its core, this is a list of 200 wrestlers who I marked out for at some point in my life. Then there are sub tests like "Would I theoretically buy a shirt or bring a sign to the arena in support of this wrestler?" Or "Am I more likely to watch/attend/buy a show if this wrestler is on it?" Stuff like that.

Up to a few hours ago I had a lot of respected 'consensus' wrestlers I never truly loved or marked out for filling up spots from the 170s-195. It just didn't feel authentic when I looked over it this afternoon. So the last of my many edits came in rearranging that part of my list. Most, if not all, of those 5/10 respected consensus wrestlers got booted for gimmicky, flash in the pan types who were HUGE Baker Guys for....a week or two.

I definitely have a type. Gimmicky "annoying" heels tend to score high. I'm partial to 80s through 2000s US wrestling with peaks and valleys even in that rather narrow parameter. I absolutely favor certain eras and promotions. I can probably count the wrestlers who made this list strictly on in ring ability using just my fingers. Oh, sure it helps. A lot in some cases. It'll gives folks already on the list a boost. But I've always been more of a Sports Entertainment guy at heart. Character/Gimmick, mic skills, and charisma tend to rate higher for me than in ring ability in most cases.

This list is based on the entertainment these people brought me as a fan of professional wrestling. Real life actions had little to no bearing on my rankings. For example, this list includes a murderer or two, a wife beater, an accused pedo, criminals of various sort, plus a laundry list of bullies, con artists, and all around assholes. Look elsewhere if you want a list of 200 saints.

I actually did use a formula of sorts to aid in the development of this list because of course I did. I'm not going to explain it. And I'm not guided strictly by the formula. It was just a nice little tool to help me along in my quest. 

I plan on dropping 5 or 10 of these most days with pics and a little blurb. In the distinct possibility I happen to conk out before completing the list in slow reveal form I will drop a Listmania post just so those of you following along aren't left hanging. Oh, and there are also a few tag team entries. So this list is really more like a Top 205. 

Will probably post the first 5 before I go to sleep tonight. Enjoy! And feel free to comment throughout this journey.

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EDIT: Turns out I forgot a minimum of two wrestlers. So some guys are getting bumped. Since I already did the writeups I will move them here as Honorable Mentions...
EDIT #2: One of those wrestlers got bumped back on the list 

HM (#201) Jack Evans

The very first post in the Match Review thread has Kilgore writing "Jack Evans looks like a big league jobber. I'm pretty convinced I'm not going to like him. But he immediately does this." *insert gif of Evans doing a crazy flippity doo*

I mention Kilgore's post because it mirrors my own initial Evans experience. He looked like a obnoxious high schooler who was destined to be the latest Special K turd. But his wrestling was what those Special K turds aspired to be. For Jack Evans was the Lord and Master of indie flippers. Honestly, with the exception of a few freakishly athletic guys like AJ & Sydal, Evans kind of rendered all other high flyers obsolete because they were all weak sauce in comparison. Now Jack Evans is not the most natural or graceful high flyer I ever saw. That would be either a young Rey Mysterio or 2 Cold Scorpio. But Evans is the nuttiest high flyer I ever saw. No structure was too high for Evans to leap from and he'd add more flips, spins, and twists than anybody ever whilst doing so.

To this day I am also convinced Jack Evans is not made of flesh and bone, but of rubber. Dude was forever getting dropped on his head or tied up in knots by guys like Bryan Danielson with no ill effects to be seen.

Evans was one-quarter of a really cool stable in Generation Next but what finally got him over the hump and onto the list was his longtime association with Teddy Hart. Evans was Teddy's bff and I give Jackie Boy props for remaining true to the Tedster when that was not a politically expedient thing to do. It probably cost him a few bookings over the years. One of my all time favorite live matches was Teddy & Jack against B-Boy & Homicide in a cage on a JAPW show I saw at the ECW Arena featuring a Jim Neidhart cameo. Great stuff.

Since I'm on a roll I'll just throw one last Jack Evans related fact out there.....Last I heard Jack Evans lived off the grid and didn't own a cellphone. It's no wonder he gets along so well with Teddy.

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The List

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
HM (201.) Jack Evans

200. Shane "Dean" Douglas
199. Rikishi
198. The Hurricane
197. John Cena
196. Kevin "Diesel" Nash
195. Nikita Koloff
194. Vic Grimes
193. Loch Ness
192. Minotaur
191 Batista

190. Beer City Bruiser
189. Ryback
188. Sid Vicious
187. Mordecai
186. Big Daddy
185. The Patriot
184. Silver King
183. Chuck Palumbo
182. Ice Train
181. Colt "Matt Classic" Cabana

180. Joe Hendry
179. Akeem
178. Zeus
177. "Gentleman" Jack Gallagher
176. Kendo Nagasaki
175. Ta-Gar: Lord of the Volcano
174. Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz
173. Furnas & LaFon
172. Texas Hangmen
171. Destruction Crew

170. Silas Young
169. Kamala
168. Tim Horner
167. Hack Meyers
166. JT Smith
165. Too Cold Scorpio
164. Pitbull #2
163. 911
162. Erik Watts
161. Brian "Underfaker" Lee

160. Jay Briscoe
159. Val Venis
158. Hanson
157. Monty Brown
156. Mike Knox
155. Abyss
154. The Giant
153. Maxx Payne
152. Nova
151. Disco Inferno

150. "Gentleman" Chris Adams
149. Lacey Evans
148. Jerry Lynn
147. Eddie Guerrero
146. Brian Pillman
145. Jake "The Snake" Roberts
144. Paul London
143. Demolition Ax
142. John Kronus
141. King Kong Bundy

140. Colonel DeBeers
139. Matt Striker
138. Johnnie Stewart
137. Shelton Benjamin
136. Survival Tobita
135. Mean Street Posse (minus Joey Abs)
134. Jay Lethal
133. Ray Rougeau
132. Matt Cappotelli
131. Cheetah Master

130. Dick Togo
129. Austin Idol
128. Dolph Ziggler
127. Perry Saturn
126. Big Boss Man
125. Reggie Bennett (featuring Terri Power & Judy Martin)
124. Patti Pizzazz

*These 5 wrestlers scored well enough on my formula to warrant inclusion on the list. To use an album analogy since that's what inspired this project, these five men are like an otherwise awful album with one awesome song. They're the one hit wonders of my fandom.

#200 Shane "Dean" Douglas



If Shane Douglas had done nothing in mainstream or quasi-mainstream wrestling other than the Dean gimmick he'd be a lock for the Top 50 on the strength of being one of my five favorite wrestlers during one of my favorite periods in wrestling history. Unfortunately for him he sucked in completely different ways both pre Dean (Dynamic Dudes) and post Dean (being my least favorite important part of ECW) to the point where he would also make my Least Favorites list. 

But his run as The Dean was AMAZING. My man combined the powers of Mr. Perfect and The Genius (both of whom you'll be reading about later) to become like some kind of Baker Approved wrestling Voltron. Loved his vignettes in real time, though I'll admit they don't age well. He was an awesome shit stirrer in the Razor/Kid story and an exquisite dick when Michaels was forced to forfeit the IC Title to him. Plus there was that memorable moment where Mr. Backlund bestowed our hero with the sacred Board of Education. What a touching ceremony that was. The Dean also had an epic theme and an all time great "hometown" in "The University of Higher Learning." A few years ago on the old board I watched and reviewed every single Dean Douglas match I could find. Very few wrestlers have ever received such tender loving care from your author. 

He sucked. Then he became awesome. Then he sucked again. But for the purposes of this thread I prefer to remember those 5 months when he was one of the greatest things going during one of the greatest periods wrestling has ever seen. Class dismissed!

#199 Rikishi


Fatu was a journeyman who had bounced around mainstream wrestling for a decade without making much of an impact on me or anyone else aside from one tag title reign in a weak division. That's what made his transformation into Rikishi so memorable. I had never given a damn about any of his pre-Rikishi incarnations. Then he suddenly becomes awesome one day. Yep. I was all in on Rikishi from Day One. Saw him wrestle Crash live at a Heat taping and he instantly won me over with his cool fat guy offense. 

Things only picked up from there. In one of those weird "only in pro wrestling" things this guy who had never been over got paired with a tag team who was the opposite of over. They start dancing and all of a sudden they're one of the most popular acts in the business. It was so weird and random and awesome that I just went along with it. 

99-00 Rikishi busted his ample ass in a last ditch attempt to get over and it paid off big time. In addition to the dancing stuff, which was awesome (I will hear no arguments!), he was a really good super heavyweight wrestler with killer offense. I love his January 2000 Smackdown match with HHH. He was also in a bunch of good to great multi-man tags throughout the first half of 2000.

Of course he crashed and burned big time. He had honestly started to become stale even before an ill fated heel turn where he "did it for the Rock" sealed his fate as yesterday's news. Things just got worse from there. From the heel turn on he was one of my least favorite wrestlers.

But late 99-early 2000 'Kish was the man. *does the Rikishi dance*

#198 The Hurricane



I'm pretty shameless. Yet there are a handful of wrestlers on this list even I am a little embarrassed to admit I was ever a fan of. The Hurricane is one of those wrestlers. 

The Hurricane gimmick was so stupid. But that was part of its charm, I guess? For a few months in late 2001 I got a big kick out of this incompetent boob playing superhero. Donning a cape to fly.....trying (and failing) to chokeslam giants. It was all quite amusing. The alter ego stuff was also cute in a stupid kind of way.

Yet, as with Rikishi above, the gimmick got old real quick. They kept this jokey, one note gimmick going years after its sell by date. The SHIT stuff was shit indeed. Yet be careful what you wish for because even the played out Hurricane gimmick was better than "Boring" Gregory Helms.

I'll also give The Hurricane some bonus points for his run with Three Count in dying day WCW. I'll admit I haven't seen much from Three Count but it was a very 'of the time' gimmick that I almost certainly would have dug. Plus The Vertebreaker was a killer finisher.

#197 John Cena



John Cena was boring before Halloween 2002 and either boring, bad, or both from like early 2004-Today. But his run as the rapping Doctor of Thuganomics was one of the best things in wrestling during late 2002-2003. 

Cena was killing it every week on Smackdown. The raps....the swank throwback jerseys.....the occasional good match. He had "it" in spades. His character was ready made for feuds. All it took was one rap and voila! Instafeud. 2003 Cena also had balls of steel what with calling out Taker and Brock. I was in the building when he tore down the house with Angle at No Mercy and distinctly remember having a conversation with my friend Boo about how Cena was the Next Big Thing. Sometimes it sucks to be right.

He became boring again right after he turned face. I was done with Cena long before most people, and certainly before he became the face of the company. For a few years I hated Cena as much as anyone before growing to grudgingly tolerate him due to his performance against RVD at One Night Stand II and the awesome Umaga match from Royal Rumble 2007. Still, never again would I ever come close to being a true blue John Cena fan after 2003.

#196 Kevin "Diesel" Nash



My opening analogy isn't quite right when it comes to Nash. He was more of a 1 hit wonder with 2 other pretty cool songs in an otherwise awful career.

I probably would have been at least a mild Oz fan had I been watching WCW at that time, and Vinnie Vegas was alright as a low midcard heel having the occasional epic arm wrestling match with Van Hammer.

But it's his 1994 run as HBK's badass bodyguard where Diesel really earns his points. He rapidly went from boring to pretty cool, and officially became a Baker Guy when he beat the hated Razor for the IC Title. I liked HBK at the time and some of Shawn's cool points surely rubbed off on his mulleted bodyguard. Yet even I, 1994 Diesel Fan, thought it was a bit much to do a title vs. title match with Bret at KOTR. Hogan/Warrior this was not. Then he turned on HBK, squashed Mr. Backlund, and became one of my (all time) least favorite wrestlers for 12 unglorious years.

Only to have a fun resurgence in 2006 TNA where he played up fan perceptions. It was all very insider. It was also Actually Funny, and his alliance with the great Alex Shelley was a match made in heaven. They were my favorite non-Jarrett thing in TNA for a few months until Angle showed up. Nash would once again show off his comedic chops a few years later with some GOAT level commentary as Chet Lemon (I came *this close* to using a Chet Lemon pic for this post) alongside the great Black Snow.

#195 Nikita Koloff



I saw enough Nikita in the late 80s to know he was a big deal by the time he showed up a few years later for a cup of coffee in my beloved dying day AWA. Yet, as is often the case with those early NWA guys, I don't remember my initial reaction to the evil Commie turned hero. I wasn't watching 91-92 WCW when he returned due to availability issues in my area.

It wouldn't be until the mid 90s, long after Nikita had retired, where I formed a lasting opinion on him. He was a staple of all those NWA tapes I was renting (War Games I!) where the announcers always put him over huge. So I decided Nikita Koloff was "cool" and "badass." Unless he had hair. Then he sucked. (Nikita was very much the reverse Samson of wrestling) For some reason the mid 90s Apter Mags loved including throwback stories about Nikita. Then I got online a few years later where the 1998 nostalgia whore equivalents to current day me were all about Nikita Koloff. See, Goldberg was just a cheap Nikita Koloff ripoff without even the Russian gimmick or character growth to make him interesting.

Anyway, all that NWA tape watching and chatter turned me into a Nikita Koloff fan. He really was the Goldberg of the mid 80s when it came to dominant squashes. He had a great look and the Russian gimmick was a guaranteed heat generator which gave him an added 'hook.' Bonus points for Nikita living the gimmick 24/7. But what really puts him over the top was the awesome storyline where he turned face out of respect for his tragically injured former arch-rival Magnum TA. Dusty turning Nikita face during the height of the Cold War was a ballsy move that paid off. Nikita was even better as a face than he had been as a heel.

For over a decade Nikita (and Hansen) were the only guys to get away with using the common clothesline as a finisher. I guess calling it a Russian Sickle (or Lariat) somehow made it better?

I always associate Nikita Koloff with tragedy. Magnum TA was (perhaps justifiably) pushed by NWA as basically a martyred saint. Nikita was his bff. Then Nikita's real life wife contracted an illness and passed away. Then he suffered a career ending injury. Nikita was a big star for a short period of time. Yet if a few things had played out just a little differently he could potentially have become an all time great.
--------------------------
*Formatting is still a work in progress. May switch to smaller pics tomorrow.

That's what made his transformation into Rikishi so memorable. I had never given a damn about any of his pre-Rikishi incarnations.

Not even being one half of the Samoan Swat Team? They were awesome. Easily a top 5 tag team for me.

I'm genuinely surprised to see Douglas this low, but the explanation makes sense. There's only so many Dick Flair promos you can take before you start going the other way. I still think there's an alternative reality out there where the territory days remained and Douglas became more than just a cult hero. I really need to look into his career more because it seemed like he really wasn't out of place rubbing shoulders with the Steve Austins, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foleys, Bret Harts of that era.

Which does my head in a little because by the time he came into WCW, I saw him as nothing more than a glorified manager. I found him to be the annoying hype man of the Revolution, like you really needed somebody to tell you how good Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Saturn were. The ultimate knock came when he tried to make the jump to the WWF and they came back with 'no thanks'.

Another top 200!

You mofos are all crazy.

Lump me in with Big Pete over the shock of Double D just barely making this list.

Would've guessed at least Top 50. Stunned!

I'm all in for this ride especially if you use "just smelled a fart" pics like you did for Nash.

Now I wanna do my own '200' but I'm gonna see how you guys play out first.

Aug 7, 2019 13:37:34 GMT @ness said:

I'm all in for this ride especially if you use "just smelled a fart" pics like you did for Nash.

Now I wanna do my own '200' but I'm gonna see how you guys play out first.

Ditto on feeling inspired to work on my own.

My Top 100 will be pretty boring though... just Brock Lesnar listed a hundred times.

Aug 7, 2019 17:58:02 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 7, 2019 13:37:34 GMT @ness said:

I'm all in for this ride especially if you use "just smelled a fart" pics like you did for Nash.

Now I wanna do my own '200' but I'm gonna see how you guys play out first.

Ditto on feeling inspired to work on my own.

My Top 100 will be pretty boring though... just Brock Lesnar listed a hundred times.

Hopefully it evolves into a top 100 Brock matches as a spin-off here as I got a feeling he's totally getting top billing from Chef Baker.....

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

LT: I mostly ignored the SST in real time. Kiddie me just wrote them off as a 2nd tier NWA tag team. I like them more nowadays. They were good squashers. Bonus points for coming out to the theme from Halloween.

Douglas was a hard guy to rate. My Dean fandom is well known but I really, really do not like Shane Douglas. It would have been much easier if I could have pretended Dean and Shane were two different people.

Ness: I encourage more lists. Let's see how much or how little PW has in common.

*Next batch will be up before I go to sleep tonight. We're about to enter into the Gimmicks 'R Us portion of the countdown. Next two blocks will be heavy on the freak shows. Can't wait!

Absofuckinglutely honored to have inspired this. So awesome

#194 Vic Grimes



*I initially forgot about this scoundrel. It lead to major editing headaches. Stupid Vic Grimes...

Grimes first came to my attention as a West Coast indie star generating buzz in the 90 where he was hyped as a cross between Mick Foley & Vader. Say no more! You've got my attention. The Grimes hype was one of the reasons I started following APW online after initially looking into it because it was the indie home of Christopher Daniels. Fwiw APW was a popular late 90s California based indie doing a sort of proto ROH style. I was convinced they were going to be the next ECW.

Grimes' exploits in APW were already legendary among those in the know. He was a 350+ pounder with a death wish and a fully developed character (basically a maniac from a horror movie literally billed from the Backwoods of Arkansas who used the theme from Halloween as his entrance music). I spent entirely too much time waiting hours for 5 second Grimes clips to download on my ancient PC. To be honest, it was usually worth it. THE Vic Grimes moment came in an APW match against Erin "Crash Holly" O'Grady where future Crash ran into him with a car. Shades of Lawler vs. Eddie Gilbert! Grimes & O'Grady would later have "the greatest tryout match in WWF history." I saw it a few years back and have to agree. It was something else. These two unknowns had a previously dismissive crowd rocking by the time it was over. Grimes did a somersault dive onto the floor. Ouch! Both men were instantly signed and sent to Memphis developmental fed Power Pro Wrestling.

My big idea at the time was to debut Grimes as Mick Foley's brother Vic. Dammit! Stop laughing! This was money I tell ya! Foley was banged up. Putting him in a tag team would have allowed him to take it easy. Brother Vic gains instant credibility. Everybody wins!

Sadly Grimes' WWF career was a major flop. Rather than interacting with the great Mick Foley, Grimes showed up as a white clad weirdo called Key. Rumor had it he was going to be Droz & Albert's drug dealer. Ugh! But I think he was taken off tv before that storyline went anywhere.

WWF sent him to ECW for more experience. Now Grimes was a perfect fit for ECW. You'd think Heyman would have pushed him to the moon. This did not happen. I should have realized right then and there that Paul E. was losing his magic touch. Instead of a push Grimes got put in the awful Baldies stable. Now his ECW career actually looks pretty damn cool in highlight form. He made the most of his rare appearances. But it was forgettable in real time. He did a lot of jobs and was (in)famously almost murdered by New Jack.

There are a lot of "what could have beens?" on this list. Grimes is one of them. 

#193 Loch Ness

 I was sitting at home minding my own business on what had hitherto been an uneventful weekend night in the winter of 1996. Suddenly I heard frantic knocking at my door. It was my two best friends Rick & Brandon. Out of breath, they burst into my house. Turns out they ran to my house from Brandon's because they simply HAD to tell me what they had just seen on some WCW show. This is how I remember the ensuing conversation.....

Rick: "Baker! Oh my god! You HAVE to see this new WCW wrestler! His name is...

Brandon: THE LOCH NESS MONSTER!

Rick: He's the newest member of the Dungeon of Doom. Get this. He weighs...

Brandon: 700 POUNDS! BIGGER THAN YOKOZUNA!

Rick: Yep! But his fat is different. Like you know how Yokozuna's fat goes out to the side? Well, Loch Ness just has a huuuge belly (mimes having a huge gut).

*Then we talked about the different types of wrestler fat for a few minutes.

Now I'll admit I was skeptical. The Loch Ness Monster? Bigger than Yokozuna? It all sounded a little too good to be true. I was pretty sure I was being ribbed...

Until I watched some WCW show a few days later and OMG! IT'S REAL! THE LOCH NESS MONSTER EXISTS! HOGAN vs. NESSIE! TAKE MY MONEY!

Sadly Loch Ness did not live up to the hype. He was objectively terrible at pro wrestling. He struggled with such basic things as "moving" and "getting up" while also managing to be a botch machine. He honestly kind of killed the fat guy wrestler for me. Up until then I always bought super heavyweights as top heels. It had always been the WWF Way which meant it was Right and Proper pro wrestling. But because of Nessie's awfulness I would spent the next decade plus being skeptical of very large men in my wrestling. I actually felt sorry for wrestling's greatest lake monster when he got destroyed by The Giant at Uncensored only about a month after his debut. Even then I knew there was no coming back from that beating. I was like "What is this morbidly obese dude going to do now that he flopped in wrestling? There can't be many jobs available for a bloke like that." Sad.

I would later discover Nessie was one of the biggest stars in UK wrestling history as Giant Haystacks. His match with Big Daddy is the Hogan/Andre of British Wrestling. Once again, it is objectively terrible. Yet I have a soft spot for the Daddy/Haystacks stuff as a relic of a time gone by. The pomp....the pageantry....the belly wellies. It's like a Wrestlemania main event. Only better. Because more belly wellies. 

#192 Minotaur

The Minotaur had like 3 televised matches in early 1991 WCW. All it took was 1 to hook me. The missile dropkick was neck and neck with the superplex as the coolest wrestling move I knew of in 1987. By 1991 the missile dropkick had fallen off a little bit, but was still pretty damn cool. Then this badass straight from the pages of Greek Mythology no sold a Missile Dropkick! Oh. My. God. Sign me up! I joined the Minotaur bandwagon right then and there. That's all it took to convince me this guy was going be WCW's answer to the Undertaker. He was their next great monster heel. There was no doubt in my mind that the future of WCW would revolve around the epic Sting vs. Minotaur feud for the WCW Championship. He no sold a missile dropkick! What could possibly hurt this monster?!?

Plus I was already predisposed to liking him since I was a Greek Mythology enthusiast and a Minotaur was the final boss of one of my Top 2 favorite Intellivision games. Sadly my prediction of Minotaur dominance did not come true. WCW is now out of business. This is no coincidence.

Fwiw Minotaur was played guy a named Steve DiSalvo who also wrestled as Steve Strong. He was big in Puerto Rico and Stampede. His biggest claim to fame is probably being an early Internet Wrestling Community meme. Back in the early-mid 90s Steve Strong was jokingly claimed to be the guy playing practically every new Big Two gimmick wrestler.

In hindsight it really bothers me that The Minotaur LOOKS NOTHING LIKE A GODDAMN MINOTAUR! Stupid WCW....And what's the deal with the sleeve? My guess is the idiots in charge of WCW simply didn't know what a Minotaur was. Remember, these are the same geniuses who thought a Yeti was a Mummy.

#191 Batista

My first exposure to Batista came in the old AOL wrestling chat room. Some guy there was pimping an OVW wrestler named Leviathan. He shared a link to a pic of this OVW prospect. I remember everybody being blown away (including myself) by his 10/10 main event caliber look. I dug deeper and discovered he had an awesome gimmick and a backstory lifted directly from the 80s territories. So I became a Batista fan before I ever saw him wrestle. Before long I had concocted a fantasy booking scenario where Leviathan would debut in WWF as Undertaker and Kane's long lost brother. So. Many. Dimes.

So imagine my disappointment when Leviathan debuted cold as stupid Reverend D-Von's stupid Deacon. He carried a box and once clotheslined Randy Orton really, really hard. All the hype was gone. I soon wrote him off as another talentless roid monkey stuck in a dumb gimmick. Didn't think he'd last 6 months. His claim to fame was destined to be "once clotheslined Randy Orton really, really hard." 

Then he joined Evolution which would be like if Big Sky had joined the Horsemen in '93 (this analogy works doubly well since Randy Orton was already a spot on Paul Roma). Aside from electrocuting Goldust, which was stupid and awful, I had no idea what Batista did for like a year and a half. Pete told me he was out with injury most of that time.

Then something completely unexpected happened. Batista started getting good. He was suddenly becoming a most unlikely cult favorite on the internet's smarkiest message boards. This is when I was won over just because I thought it was neat that this big jacked dude was gaining a cult following since it was usually small guys or quirky gimmick wrestlers who garnered that kind of support. Then he started getting over with the masses. 2004 Batista was just "cool." There's no other way to put it. He was like a 1994 Diesel with infinitely better fashion sense.

I had a friend at the time who had never been a wrestling fan. And still wasn't. Except for Batista. This girl loved Batista. I'm sure the fact that he was a "hot Cuban" had a lot to do with it. "Batista isn't Cuban." I would say over and over. But Ashley would not dissuaded from this fantasy of hers.

Anyway, we all know what happened next. Batista wins the Rumble, gives HHH the thumbs down, and goes on to win a World Title at Wrestlemania.

I turned on Big Dave not long after that. Thought he was coasting. But I always did like him more than Cena & Orton. He was underrated on the mic and would have a few weirdly good TV matches every year. Plus that cool Undertaker feud.

I also rooted for him from afar when he returned a few years back just because everybody else hated him and I always have to be That Guy. 

Baker, were you watching or did you ever go back and see any of Batista's original Hollywood Dave heel turn stuff? Best version of Batista ever.

Aug 8, 2019 1:31:58 GMT 🤯 said:

Baker , were you watching or did you ever go back and see any of Batista's original Hollywood Dave heel turn stuff?

Prognosis Negative.

Oh yeah, Mordecai was definitely one of those "insta likes" guys for me. Was very disappointed he got sent down to developmental because I was all in. Wasn't the same when he was Kevin Thorn. Ariel was nice to look at though.

I expect to see her somewhere on this list. MY VAGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Bake you should definitely check out his heel stuff. I have to believe it would raise him a decent amount of spots on your list. So fucking good.

Mordecai is one of my favourite gimmicks ever. His quiet exit after that loss to Rey Mysterio shattered my dreams. He made such a strong impression on me that Mordecai was my username of choice for years. Unfortunately some years later a video game called Borderlands came out with a character called Mordecai and that was the end of that. I named myself Mordecai10 on some websites, but putting numbers on the end of names is tacky and now I have other usernames.

#190 Beer City Bruiser



As you can see, the Beer City Bruiser is an out of shape, cigar smoking, beer drinking, teeth missing throwback to the pre-Hulkamania era. He's also the antithesis of everything ROH once stood for. Naturally I loved this pudgester who wasn't afraid to let it all hang out. 

BCB debuted in the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament much to the dismay of the few people who still bothered to talk about ROH online. I was backing the man from Beer City right away. His 2nd match with the company was a pretty sweet big vs. little bout with bland Will Ferrara. BCB was surprisingly athletic. The 320+ pounder would do top rope frog splashes and cannonballs (sometimes off the apron!). He also took bumps that he really had no business taking. His alliance with fellow throwback Silas Young was the best thing going in an otherwise painfully boring promotion.

Like most (all?) of my short-lived 2010s ROH guys, BCB got stale pretty quickly. Yet I'd still have a lot more interest in modern wrestling if it featured more guys like The Beer City Bruiser.

#189 Ryback



When I joined PW in late 2012 I didn't want to feel out of the loop. So I decided to check out some then-current wrestling for the first time a few years. Ryback was one of the few guys I dug. He was another throwback. This time to the big, dumb, jacked, meathead babyfaces of yore. 20 years prior when that sort of thing was commonplace I'd have booed Ryback out of the building. But by 2012 I could get behind him as the last of his kind. He looked like Goldberg in RVD's gear, had a few catchphrases for the fans to chant, and had squashes against honest to god jobbers. It was great. You know what else was great? That spot where he'd hoist guys up for his finisher and proceed to march around the ring before wasting them. Stupid WWE should have given him all the belts rather than grow cold feet and job him out. 

For years I've had an awesome draft idea involving Ryback (and another similar wrestler from that era) that I simply have to do one of these days.

#188 Sid Vicious

Sid was a tough one to rank. I never, ever liked Sid as a singles wrestler. The best he could hope for was indifference. I'm fairly certain he was the first wrestler who I ever thought sucked at wrestling regardless of his push. This was during his Sid Justice run. Hated Sid as WWF champ. Shawn Michaels losing the belt should have been an all time great moment. Instead it was wasted on this hack.

Yet I loved Sid in tag teams. It's the weirdest thing. Sid as a singles wrestler= BOO! and/or YAWN. Sid with a partner= OMG! AWESOME! Every. Single. Time.

The Skyscrapers were a pair of powerbombing badasses. The Masters of the Powerbomb were....an even bigger and better pair of powerbombing badasses....with added mini-movie goodness. While Sid & The Kid had amazing chemistry and an all time great dynamic. 

So Sid is an odd duck. As a singles wrestler he's basically the Great Khali. (Sid's Powerbomb was cool. Khali's big goofy chop was cool. They sucked at everything else.) But give Sid a partner and BAM! You've got something special.

Greatest Tag Team Wrestlers of all time: Arn Anderson. Bobby Eaton. Billy Gunn.....Sid? Yep. Sid. 

Sid also gets bonus points for popularizing the Powerbomb, which was one of the coolest moves in wrestling, if not the coolest, for a really long time.

#187 Mordecai



Gimmicks had mostly become a thing of the past by 2004. Wrestling was pretty boring in 2004. There is a direct correlation between the two. Then one day I was half paying attention to another boring episode of Smackdown I taped(!) while waiting for JBL to appear when behold! A pale rider! This zealot in white rides into WWE and threatens to make wrestling interesting again. Yep. I was all in on Mordecai from his very first vignette.

Mordecai was a right proper gimmick. And it was done right! Vignettes. Catchphrases. Signature look. A prop. Cool theme. The whole nine yards. Mordecai was straight out of the New Generation Golden Age. Why he was like a white clad Undertaker! And an epic feud with Undertaker hearkening back to the Deadman's monster fighting days seemed inevitable. I couldn't wait!

Alas! Mordecai was a threat to the system. We couldn't have wrestling become fun and cool and interesting again. So Mordecai soon ran afoul of management, did an unceremonious job to Rey Mysterio in an unhyped match on a random episode of Smackdown, and rode back to the Ohio Valley upon his pale horse leaving behind nagging questions of "what might have been?"

He showed up a few years later in WWECW as Kevin Thorn: Vampire. Kevin Thorn was no Gangrel and Gangrel wasn't even that good. Thorn was my least favorite member of Other New Breed, who were actually pretty cool in a throwaway midcard heel stable sort of way.

#186 Big Daddy

I've developed this weird fascination with Big Daddy over the past few years. He is objectively terrible at the wrestling aspect of wrestling. But he's sooooo over! Like you have no idea.  Truly the Hulk Hogan of 70s & 80s British wrestling.

Like Hogan, the man was a cultural phenomenon. To an entire generation of Brits, Big Daddy was "the wrestling." I love the pomp and pageantry of his big matches. Plus I've gotten really into the art of crowd manipulation. Big Daddy and his handlers were masters in this field. Do yourselves a favor and watch a Big Daddy match. See how the crowd goes wild for the simplest of things, and downright explodes for his trademark belly wellies. Big Daddy 'epics' are very Wrestlemania-esque in presentation....years before Wrestlemania was a thing. He had entrance music, armies of children accompanying him to the ring, extremely British outfits, and even a priest from time to time. Big Daddy literally kisses babies! When it comes to Great British Heroes, he's *this close* to being Ace Rimmer's equal. Truly the highest compliment. EASY! EASY! EASY!

A few months back I was only half joking during an argument with my brother where I went to bat for Big Daddy (and another wrestler who will show up later) as the greatest babyface(s) of all time.

Bothers me that Big Daddy's singlet says Bic Daddy. Perhaps he was anti-Gillette before they went full retard.

Also glad to finally be able to put a face to BCB. Heard his name throughout the years (probably all from Baker if I went back and checked).

What's going on with Bic Daddy's package in that pic?

Dammit! I knew this was going to happen. Forgot a wrestler two wrestlers. Making some adjustments now.
EDIT: Adjustments made. Vic Grimes added to the list at #194. Nikita Koloff & Jack Evans bumped off the main list for weird and complicated reasons that only make sense to me. I added them to a new Honorable Mention section in the original post.

Aug 9, 2019 2:31:46 GMT 🤯 said:

What's going on with Bic Daddy's package in that pic?

Why do you think they called him Big Daddy?

I was vaguely aware of "Hollywood" Batista but had no idea he was such a PW darling.

I'm going to post the full list in the original post the way UT does in his countdowns. That way people can avoid having to scroll through all those walls of text.

What Baker, says about Big Daddy is absolutely true. If you ask anyone older than me over here about wrestling they'll respond with "Oh yeah, like Big Daddy?" No mention of Hogan or Flair or anyone else, it's all about the Big Daddy. He was legitimately a household name.

I’m glad someone else saw the potential in Ryback and is also upset he didn’t win the title. It would have been amazing if he upset CM Punk. Should have done it.

Aug 9, 2019 14:18:47 GMT RT said:

I’m glad someone else saw the potential in Ryback and is also upset he didn’t win the title. It would have been amazing if he upset CM Punk. Should have done it.

They should have just strapped the rocket to Ryback when he was hot and give him the title. He could have had a Goldberg like rise in popularity. But they already had planned for Rock/Cena 2 for the title and wouldn’t deter from that plan. It cost them a potential star IMO because it was all down hill from there with Ryback.

#185 The Patriot



I first came across the Patriot in 1991 GWF where I immediately had him pegged as the Next Hulk Hogan. Meaning The Patriot was literally my own personal Tom Magee. Jacked patriotic guy was the most automatic babyface gimmick in the world. Even dumb 1991 kiddie me knew The Patriot was $$$. 

I was weirdly ok with Patriot as the next Hogan. He won me over in this one GWF match with probably the purest babyface move I had ever seen up to that point. I forget the opponent and the details, but Patriot won a match in controversial fashion. He refused to accept the victory once he found out it was tainted, and demanded a rematch in the interest of fairness. What a guy! That one moment is honestly why he's on the list.

Patriot was Mr. Global. For like 20 years he was the only GWF wrestler I could definitely recall. Eddie Gilbert MIGHT have been there. And MAYBE Jeff Gaylord too. But The Patriot? Oh yeah. He was definitely there. He was the The Guy in Global. Next Hulk Hogan, baby!

Only The Patriot did not become the Next Hulk Hogan. He did not even become the next Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Instead he had to settle for being a perennial top babyface in my beloved action figure leagues and PW fan fic projects.

The Patriot resurfaced in early 1994 WCW. Uh oh. Here we go. WCW has their next main eventer. Dammit! His Lordship is gonna be Patriot's first victim. Well, there goes the TV Title. That sucks. But even dumb 1994 me knew Patriot is where the money was. Against all odds, my man Lord Steven Regal somehow survived the challenge of The Patriot. I'll take it! But this was still an LOL WCW moment. The Patriot just lost his first feud, meaning they killed their next top babyface right off the bat. Again, this was 1994 me. I was no smark or insider. But even then I knew The Patriot had waaaay more potential star power than Regal (and I loved Regal at the time).

Patriot had a forgettable year+ WCW midcard run mostly teaming with Bagwell. Then he went back to All Japan. I've always thought it weird that a guy whose whole gimmick was Mr. USA spent so much time in Japan. You'd think they'd have at least given him another character. From the admittedly little I've seen of Patriot in AJPW he doesn't seem terribly out of place and is fairly popular with the crowds. 

Patriot, the perfect Vince McMahon wrestler, finally makes his way to the promised land in 1997. By this point wrestling had changed. The Patriot was no longer destined to be an automatic success. But nobody told Vince. Vince gave Patriot a super push right off the bat. He beat Bret Hart in like his 2nd match! Wtf! I didn't mind The Patriot in 1997 WWF. It seemed sensible to me that a patriotic USA guy would be brought in to oppose the Harts. But it was too much too soon. From memory, crowds actually liked The Patriot. But they did not love him. Bret won the rematch. Patriot got hurt. His career was over. 

This list is filled with guys who never quite made it big. I can see that. A guy who has 6 good months (to me) and then disappears leaves few bad memories, whereas a longtime superstar vet with 1 great year and 9 boring or bad years leaves more bad memories than good. Out of all those guys who never made it, Patriot is one of the biggest head scratchers. He had the build and gimmick of a Vince McMahon wet dream. The mask could have been a merchandising cash cow. His in ring game was light years above Hogan & Duggan when it came to moves and athleticism. Yet by the time he got his big break wrestling had changed. At the very least he could/should have been the next Hacksaw Jim Duggan. But nah. Instead I had to suffer through 10 more years of HO! Tragic.

Of course, I also would have turned on Patriot the second he became a top guy. He may have been the perfect Vince wrestler. But he really wasn't my cup of tea (outside of that one epic Global moment)

#184 Silver King



I love Silver King. I can't really explain why. Maybe it's the fact that WCW recycled the epic Texicans theme for him? Or maybe it's because Mike Tenay drops the same "Silver King is deceptively quick." line in every Silver King match ever? I don't really know why I dig the King in Silver so much. I just do. Occasionally I'll watch a Silver King match on Youtube. They're never anything special. Yet I always get a kick out of seeing Silver King. Had I went to a late 90s WCW show I'd have popped harder for the King than all but like 5 or 10 guys.

The only proper, authentic Lucha match I ever saw on an actual television set involved Silver King as Black Tiger. This would have been around 2003. I was spending a weekend at my friend Lauren's family vacation house in Western Maryland. There were 7 of us there including myself if I remember correctly. 6 of us were wrestling fans. We were about to go out somewhere. I was flipping through the channels while waiting for those slow pokes to get ready when I stumbled upon some Lucha show. Naturally I stopped to watch. The match in question was Black Tiger vs. Felino. I knew Black Tiger was Silver King due to spending way too much time reading about wrestling online. Of course NOW everybody is suddenly ready to go. I wouldn't leave. Wrestling fans they may have been, but they were WWF (and one TNA) casuals. They did not want to watch Lucha. I was like "Come on, people! You see that guy Black Tiger? That's Silver King! Yes, THEE Silver King!" Luckily my friend Boo now came to my defense. I got my way. Our trip was delayed a few minutes because I just HAD to see THEE Silver King. I don't remember who won but Silver King hit this sweet snap Dominator move. It started out like a Canadian Backbreaker. Then Silver King whipped Felino down by the chin into a ring rattling Dominator. Just Silver King being the man. As usual. 
------------------------------
*Have plans. Must depart. Can't believe I wrote that much about The freaking Patriot and Silver bloody King   The plan was to do 6 in this block. Oh well. Will be back for the next 4 either later tonight or tomorrow. 

#183 Chuck Palumbo



Chuck Palumbo first came to my attention as one of those random young boys getting a push their talents did not warrant in dying day WCW. He did not have a good reputation online and WCW suddenly pushing a bunch of unknowns made it seem like the company really was dying. I doubt I would have remembered any of this if not for my friend Slothman. Palumbo was to 2000 Slothman what Buddy Landell was to 1995 me- a Worst In The World to So Bad Its Good type. Sloth even had a pet name for Chuck. Tarzan or Jungle Boy. Something like that.

Palumbo was one of the guys who made the jump when WWF bought WCW for pennies on the dollar. Lucky us *insert eyeroll emoji I can't find* Of all the WCW guys Chuck was the one I was least interested in. At least O'Haire had buzz, Storm had a good reputation, and I liked Hugh Morrus for a few minutes once upon a time. I just assumed Chuck would get sent down to developmental after jobbing out the WCW Tag Titles to whatever team WWF chose. Nope. They sent O'Haire down instead. "But he's supposed to be the good one!"- 2001 me.

Turns out WWF was right and I was wrong. O'Haire sucked and WWF struck gold when Chuck met Billy. Billy's is a story for another day but I came around on Chuck when he and Billy bought each other matching handbands as Christmas(?) gifts. Something wonderful had begun....

Billy & Chuck were great. Definitely one of my favorite acts of 2002 WWF. Why they were an even better Too Much! Better than Too Much, you guys! Who ever thought such a thing was even possible? They had a pretty long tag title run while being consistently entertaining. Before long I even started digging Chuck as a wrestler. He had a good big guy Superkick, and was great at 'spinning' moves like this Steineresque belly to belly dubbed the Chuck Deluxe, and the Discus Punch(!), which he pulled out of the mothballs. Plus he had probably the best regular punches in the promotion. And a 2002 or 2003 WWE Magazine article revealed his all time favorite band was Cinderella! How could I not be a fan of this guy?

Billy & Chuck's wedding is a strong contender for greatest wrestling wedding of all time, and that covers a lot of sacred ground. It's also one of the greatest angles of 2002 any year. I thought it was going to lead to a huge babyface run.

Alas. It was not to be. Billy soon suffered an untimely injury. The team quietly faded away. Chuck moved onto other, infinitely less cool things like another stupid non-JT Smith incarnation of the FBI. As much as it pained me, I soon lost interest in Chuck. His 15 minutes of fame were up.

The made him a mechanic on Heat for a minute before he was future endeavored. Then he came back a few years later chunkier and back to his 'Jungle Boy' look. I was mildly excited for about 10 seconds before realizing he just didn't have it anymore.

But we'll always have Chuck being awesome with Billy in 2002. 

#182 Ice Train

Kind of like Patriot 2.0 in that I thought he was WCW's Next Big Thing when I first saw him in 1993. He had The Look, a catchphrase (Choo! Choo!), a popular mentor in Ron Simmons, and seemed to be connecting with crowds. I thought it was only a matter of time before he was wrestling Vader for the WCW Championship on PPV.....and winning. I could respect Train as a future Big Deal but he was decidedly not my kind of wrestler.

For whatever reason Ice Train: Main Eventer was not to be. They turned his mentor Ron Simmons heel on him. I thought this was going to be the start of his super push. Instead that feud just sort of slowly fizzled out. Then both guys disappeared off to Parts Unknown.

Train resurfaced two years later in early 1996. By this point a guy like Train was no longer an automatic main eventer. But that didn't matter. Because his first matches back were killer hossfests with fellow jacked badass Scott Norton. They drew a couple times with neither hoss being able to best the other. Each acknowledged the badassery of the other. So they decided it would be better to mutually kick the asses of other men than continue pounding away on each other.

Enter Fire & Ice. Anybody who has read my posts knows how much I love this short-lived super hoss team. They had awesome matches with the Steiners. But they never got much of a push beyond being a mildly annoying speed bump on the Steiners latest road to the top. Then WCW stupidly split them up. I was so annoyed. They had a few matches but my interest was gone. I preferred them together rather than apart.

Now I always remembered Ice Train pulling his weight in Fire & Ice. But over the years I became gaslit into thinking that was a false memory since Ice Train had approximately zero (0) other fans on the entire internet. It got to the point where I just assumed Norton did all the heavy lifting. Wrong! I have watched entirely too many Fire & Ice matches since joining PW and I can tell you Ice Train brought the goods. I'm not gonna say he's as great as Scott Norton. I mean, that's SCOTT F'N NORTON we're talking about. But Fire & Ice's awesomeness is like 51% Norton & 49% Ice Train. If Ice Train "sucks" then wrestling needs more wrestlers who suck. He's a damn good hoss in my book. Check out his Nitro match with Chris Benoit for further proof. Good stuff! Damn. Now I wish he had Mark Henry's career.

CHOO! CHOO!

#181 Colt "Matt Classic" Cabana



Maybe the most unexpected guy on this list. I didn't even really know I was a Colt Cabana fan until I was trying to come up with 200 wrestlers I dug over the years. But yep. I am definitely a Colt Cabana fan.

My intro to Colt came via early 2000s IWA-Mid South tapes. He was basically just a generic good wrestler guy. But this was at a time when I was actually looking for generic good wrestler guys. He wasn't the greatest. But you could do far worse. The highlight here is Colt hitting one of my favorite 'one time only' moves in the Tornado Suplex. Loved it. Never saw it again. To this day I don't know why that wasn't jacked by every two bit ham and egger on the scene.

Then Colt made his way to ROH where he became the only Second City Saint who matters. Goofy, fun loving Colt and super serious CM Punk had a cool Raven/Stevie dynamic going on. Their backstage segments were frequently a hoot. They also had this one tremendous Clockwork Orange inspired beatdown of Raven & Daniels that went over the heads of the fans in attendance. It really should have been an all time great angle but it was in the wrong promotion at the wrong time.

Colt was never the greatest wrestler but he excelled as a comedian. Being one of the only light hearted wrestlers in a super serious promotion made him stand out all the more. Where he really won me over was in a match with BJ Whitmer at a rare ROH Baltimore area show. Whitmer accidentally(?) tripped over Colt while running the ropes. Pretty sure he got the dreaded "You Fucked Up" chant. But they made a match out of the botch. Rest of the bout was just Colt hilariously clowning on Whitmer. To this day I have no idea if it was a real botch or a planned spot. There's also a brilliant comedy tag match with Colt & Jimmy Jacobs against Jack Evans & Roderick Strong featuring Cornette & Heenan as managers. The whole thing is a blast. I've also seen Colt break out hilarious Dusty & Kamala imprersonations in the middle of matches. 

What solidified Cabana's spot on the list was his awesome run as Matt Classic in WSX. WSX was a crap promotion catering to people with even more limited attention spans than myself. Matt Classic was a true diamond in the rough. His gimmick was a spot on parody of Ye Olde School wrestling. He had the moves and mannerisms down pat. Brilliant stuff. 

#180 Joe Hendry

Hendry is a modern wrestler who came out of the UK scene. He's also a breath of fresh air. While all his peers were aspiring to be the greatest wrestler in the world, Hendry was dreaming of becoming the world's greatest Sports Entertainer. Now I don't know if he's THE greatest sports entertainer in the world. I mean, this is a world in which Toru Yano exists. But Hendry is definitely up there. 

I know him mainly for his "Local Hero" run a few years back in UK promotions. This gimmick was clearly inspired by early Kurt Angle with maybe just the tiniest dash of RTC era Steven Richards. Hendry had the same loveable goofball charm and charisma of classic Kurt. His big thing was custom entrances where he would sing reworked versions of popular songs relating to his opponent. Some of them were brilliant. The man might be a genius.

In addition to being a natural showman with more charisma than some entire rosters, he's also in good shape, and even has a surprisingly strong amateur wrestling background.  He's basically an ideal Vince wrestler. Hell, another thing I like about Hendry is he's an unapologetic WWE mark who makes no bones about his ultimate goal being to work for WWE. I feel like Vince already would have signed him years ago. Stupid Triple H..... Showmanship > Five Star Matches

The big flaw in Hendry's game is in ring wrestling. His style is very 2003 OVW and I don't think that's going to cut it these days. Hell, last time I checked his finisher was the Fallaway Slam....in like 2016! That had NEVER been a finisher. Not in 1996. Or 1986. Never. Hendry was unapologetic about his choice of finisher too. So, yeah, I guess he needs a bit more in ring fine tuning to really make it big in the Workrate Era. But this dude 'gets' pro wrestling better than just about anybody else to come along in years. I hope he fulfills his dream of being WWE Champion one day.

Last night I checked to see what he'd been up to the past few years (it's not as if I closely follow current wrestling. Not even the wrestlers I like). Turns out he had a brief run with Impact/TNA and just signed with ROH a few days ago. Hendry is definitely a potential draw for me. I could see myself going to an ROH show if they ever run Hendry (or PCO) vs. The ROH Champion in Baltimore.

*Going to work on shortening the blurbs. Otherwise I'll burn myself out long before I reach the Top 100.

#179 Akeem



I didn't get Akeem's gimmick as a kid. All I saw was a fun-loving dancing fat guy in brightly colored attire. He was the jolliest heel this side of Dino Bravo. I honestly didn't understand how anybody could boo this man. That wasn't even my usual heel fandom talking. I guess his associations with Bossman and Slick planted him firmly on the side of villainy, but he was at least a happy heel. I loved the Twin Towers. If I wasn't already aboard the Twin Towers bandwagon, you know I was the moment they eliminated Hulk Hogan from the 1989 Royal Rumble. YES! He also clotheslined a young Shawn Michaels really hard this one time.

I have less time for the One Man Gang. I'll admit to being a Gang respecter as a wee lad, but that's as far as it goes. OMG had a cool 'badass' look. I definitely bought into him as a top guy due to being a 450 pound longtime UWF Champ. Speaking of UWF, the Gang holds the distinction of being the first wrestler I ever saw jump ship from one promotion to another. He was UWF champ for ages. Next thing you know he's in my beloved WWF. The less said about his inexplicable WCW US Title run in the mid 90s, the better. His late 90s ECW run generated a similar wtf reaction.

Fwiw my brother loves the Gang. If he did a list like this OMG would almost certainly crack his Top 10. You guys may think I have weird tastes but believe me. I've got nothing on the brother. 

#178 Zeus



Another monster heel I totally bought into. Badass look. Badass presentation. I saw him as a worthy rival for the Hulkster. Kiddie me also had no idea he wasn't a 'real' wrestler. I just assumed he was Hogan's next big rival. Zeus no sold and only had two moves- the neck crank and what I called "The Zeus Attack." Both were big in house wrestling and on playgrounds in 1989. Zeus showing up as Z-Gangsta alongside the Ultimate Solution was the deciding factor in my friends and I deciding to order Uncensored 1996. Zeus is honestly the greatest per capita draw in wrestling history for me. He had 5 matches. I HAD to see at least 3 of them. Zeus=GOAT? 

I once read an interesting post or article on another forum where the writer made a very convincing case that early Undertaker borrowed a lot from Zeus.

#177 "Gentleman" Jack Gallagher



Modern wrestler who really stands out above his bland peers due to a quirky charm and charisma coupled with a unique look and style (think World of Sports with stiffer strikes). Had a legit great match with Neville a few years ago. Throws some of the sickest headbutts I ever saw. Uses an umbrella as a prop. As seen in the pic, occasionally uses said umbrella to fly a la Mary Poppins. Also has cool mannerisms and a fabulous mustache.

Apparently turned heel a while back. BOO! Some guys should never be heels. Jack Gallagher is one of them. Now I have never seen heel Jack Gallagher but I am almost certain he twirls his mustache. Jack Gallagher is that kind of guy. He gets it.

#176 Kendo Nagasaki



Rounding out the Holy Trinity of classic World of Sport is the mysterious masked man from The Orient (Staffordshire section). (Just realized the early part of this list is very Brit heavy) Anyway, Kendo Nagasaki (not to be confused with Other Kendo Nagasaki) is another guy who simply got pro wrestling. I first learned about him on my old go to message board around 2007 or 2008 when a poster there shared an article about this interesting character and the equally interesting man behind the mask. I was instantly hooked due to the theatricality of the Kendo Nagasaki character. He was definitely my kind of wrestler. He was a right proper character who never broke kayfabe and probably had the deepest backstory of any 70s wrestler in the entire world.

Kendo Nagasaki is behind only Big Daddy and maybe Giant Haystacks when it comes to the biggest stars in World of Sport history. His famous unmasking ceremony is one of the big moments in British wrestling history. Plus he did that cool Fit Finlay Rolling Samoan Drop way back in the 70s. Meaning he was ahead of his time as both a character and a wrestler. You guys should all go check out some of his stuff on Youtube. 

#175 Ta-Gar: Lord of the Volcano



Basically a classic series Doctor Who villain as professional wrestler. Nothing more needs to be said. Would almost certainly have been my favorite wrestler had I been lucky enough to get USWA on my tv during those glorious few weeks in 1991 when Ta-Gar terrorized Memphis with the awesome power of volcanism.

#174 Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz



A lot wrestlers on the lower end of this list were short lived characters who captured my imagination for whatever reason. I think Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz is the last of these for a while. I loved everything about the man called Knuckleball. For starters, he has one of the all time great ring names. Top 5 for sure. Secondly, his face is painted to look like a baseball. Awesome. Third: His theme was an ominous version of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. He also had the incredible backstory of a man who had been kicked out of every professional baseball league for excessive violence. The world's greatest baseballer-turned-wrestler spent most of his time standing in the crowd while holding an "I'M ON STRIKE" sign. I kept waiting for him to do something big a la Doink or Nailz. Waiting.....Waiting. Still waiting. It never happened. Poor Abe never did get that big moment which surely would have catapulted him to main event status. So I gave it to him myself by pushing dishonest Abe to the moon in multiple action figure leagues.

The Abe Schwartz character also worked on a propaganda level. I was a huge baseball fan growing up. How big? Well, I arguably liked baseball even more than wrestling. Like a lot of baseball fans, I was very annoyed/pissed during the MLB players strike of 94-95. They cancelled the World Series! The narrative was basically "Fuck those greedy baseball players getting paid millions to play a child game and still not being satisfied." The Knuckleball character was a shot at those "greedy assholes." Where it reached the next level as a propaganda piece was through a series of vignettes and commentary basically saying "Unlike those greedy MLB players, your beloved WWF wrestlers will never go on strike, because we care about our fans."  I bought into it hook, line, and sinker. 

As I'm sure you know, Knuckleball was played by "The Brooklyn Brawler" Steve Lombardi. Lots of fans from my generation love The Brawler. I never had a strong opinion on him one way or another. He was just a more memorable than usual jobber. Fwiw the best non-Knuckleball thing he ever did was the Lombardi Trophy shtick for the first Raw Bowl. That was a fun gag.

*I included about 5 tag teams on the list. All are cases where neither individual did much away from his partner, and there was no clear cut Michaels/Jannetty dynamic. Hopefully this won't trigger 🤯 's OCD.

#173 Furnas & LaFon



The first tag team to make the list are also the first entry to make it strictly on in ring ability. I vaguely knew who they were before their WWF debut at Survivor Series '96 due to the Apter Mags and this wrestling radio show I listened to. Yet I had no idea my mind was about to be blown. They wowed me in said debut to the point where they're probably the second greatest 'Day One' tag team I ever saw behind only The Eliminators. They had state of the art offense. Furnas was athletic freak who was basically the second coming of Scott Steiner while LaFon was a good all arounder with cool move after cool move.  Seriously one of the more underrated/overlooked debuts in wrestling history. It's got a good shot at cracking my Debuts List for the next UT countdown. On a show where Scorpio (and some guy named Rocky Maivia) also debuted, it was these two I left that show enamored with. Plus they pinned Owen & Bulldog to win a Survivor Series match in their debut! That's huge! Yet nobody seems to remember it, or care. I guess because they were a flop? Or maybe a lot of people just weren't watching since WWF was a cold promotion at the time? 

I was convinced Furnas & LaFon vs. Owen & Bulldog was the next great tag team feud. I had already penciled these guys in as 1997 Tag Team of the Year and what was bound to be at least one ***** encounter with Owen & Bulldog as 1997 Match of the Year.

Sadly it was not to be. Instead of becoming the next great tag team I had foreseen they were more like a 3 month wonder. Their push fizzled and it didn't take long to realize a wet blanket had more personality than the both of them put together. They just didn't fit into 1997 WWF. They were long rumored to be joining the Hart Foundation. I thought that might be just the thing to win me back. They finally did become associates of the Foundation in late 97. Then the Screwjob happened and these guys soon followed Bret, Bulldog & Anvil out the door.

The weird thing is they actually do have charisma in All Japan. LaFon in particular. Their style worked great over there. They also wrestled more heelishly in Japan, which I think suited them better than the babyface style they wrestled in WWF.

#172 Texas Hangmen



These guys were the dying day territories answer to Demolition. I'm cool with that. You can do far worse than be a blatant Demolition ripoff. They shared the burly physiques and clubbering style of the team of they emulated.

The Hangmen are the kings of AW_ tag teams. I first encountered them in dying day AWA where they honestly did make much of an impression on me. Where they really won me over was in AWF, where they wrestled in rounds. AWF revolved around squash matches and the Hangmen were the best squashers in the company. A few surprisingly cool suplexes and nifty double teams complimented the aforementioned Demolitionesque clubbering. I'd pop when they showed up in an "Aww yeah! Business is about to pick up!" kind of way. Along with Chris Adams, they were my favorite in ring workers in AWF.

They were probably the lone AWF act I actually wanted WWF to pick up. The weird thing is it wasn't even that big a stretch considering some of the other odd talent acquisitions WWF made in 96-97. They would have instantly become one of my favorite teams in the company. Alas, it was not to be. Instead they went to WCW where they pulled double duty for the company in the late 90s as both the Hangmen and Disorderly Conduct. I haven't seen much of them from this run, though DC is the kind of team I would have changed the channel on. Regardless of that, here's hoping they received some of those famously fat WCW paychecks as compensation for their work. 

They also spent time in Puerto Rico, Memphis, and I think Japan. Bonus points for having a custom theme song that just might be the most metal jam in pro wrestling history.

#171 Destruction Crew



Perhaps the reason I was indifferent to the Hangmen in AWA is because the Destruction Crew was right there. I loved these guys in dying day AWA. For starters, they came out to Queen's We Will Rock You. I also bought into them as total badasses. One of their big hooks was having a 'banned' finisher in the Wrecking Ball (Doomsday Device). See, the Wrecking Ball caused too many injuries. So the promotion decided to ban the move. Yet they still did it. Sometimes for a DQ. Other times behind the ref's back for a win. While everybody else in the world associates the Doomsday Device with the Road Warriors, it'll all be the Destruction Crew's Wrecking Ball to me. 

They were AWA tag champs seemingly forever. Their other big thing was an amusing interview routine. Every DC interview ever began with Mike Enos starting to speak only to be get off by Wayne Bloom. Every. Single Time. This was obviously going to lead to a split somewhere down the line. But we never got that far because AWA went out of business. Sad!

They would later become the Beverly Brothers in WWF. The Beverlys were ok but I did not love. I'm not really sure why. They check a lot of the Baker boxes- Sweet matching outfits. A catchy theme. The Genius(!) as a manager. Another killer finisher (almost literally) in the Shaker Heights Spike. Yet for whatever reason they never fully clicked with me. 

Mike Enos was a pretty big action figure league star who was famously in the ring when Scott Hall invaded WCW. He also had a really good match on Nitro with a young Chris Jericho this one time. Yet I didn't separate him from Bloom since it was Wayne "The Train" who did all the interviews during their peak in AWA.

#170 Silas Young



"The Last Real Man" immediately stood out when I returned to watching ROH in 2013-2014 due to being one of the very few guys in the promotion to have an actual gimmick/character. I initially wrote him off as "just a character guy" (as if that's a bad thing!) before soon realizing he was actually fairly explosive in the ring and good at stringing moves together. I think it was a killer little tv match with Ciampa not long after I discovered him that won me over on Silas the wrestler. He quickly became a Top 2 guy in ROH for me.

An injury sadly took him off tv for a really long time and would hamper his explosiveness when he finally did return. It took him a good while to get his in ring game back to where it had been. But I still dug him on the strength of his winning gimmick, stellar 'stache, and for sounding identical to Rick Rude when he speaks.

 Over time I grew to realize I like the idea of "The Last Real Man" character more than Silas' execution of the character. His wrestling style doesn't really fit the gimmick. He's too fancy....Too keen on popping the crowd with cool moves. Would Arn Anderson or Larry Zbyszko ever pander for "This Is Awesome" chants as heels? I think not! Still, the guy is trying. I give him credit for developing a character/gimmick, imperfect as his execution may be. He also does show glimpses of greatness from time to time. Parts of a promo here...Bits of a match there. Maybe he can harness it all together one day and become The Man he so clearly wants to be.

My OCD can tolerate this. You get a pass, Baker-man.

Matt Classic is a guy I always want more of but wonder if that would grow old. Nice surprise to see here. Big fan of all those wsx guys.