dylan 's 10 Favorite Wrestlers thread inspired me to get back to this. Told you guys I would finish it "some time in 2020" and I am a man of my word. 

*One of the reasons I put it on hold is because I started this list before discovering NWA Powerrr. Meaning I'd either have to slip Powerrr wrestlers in, which would lead to a lot of time consuming edits, or ignore them entirely. Maybe I will go back and edit them in at some point, but for now...

Eli Drake would be somewhere in the 100s
Tim Storm would likely be in the 70s or 80s. 
And recency bias would carry The Resplendent Real World Champion, Slick Nick Aldis all the way up to somewhere between #26-50. Without further ado...

101-118

101. Beth Phoenix
102. Victoria
103. Hiroshi Tanahashi
104. Austin Aries
105. Demolition Smash
106. Andre the Giant
107. Sgt. Slaughter
108. King Harley Race
109. Sting
110. Santino

111. MVP
112. D'Lo Brown
113. Blue Meanie
114. Ring Crew Express
115. Ricky Steamboat
116. Amazing Red
117. DDP
118. AJ Styles

Mar 7, 2020 3:18:20 GMT Baker said:

dylan 's 10 Favorite Wrestlers thread inspired me to get back to this. Told you guys I would finish it "some time in 2020" and I am a man of my word. 

*One of the reasons I put it on hold is because I started this list before discovering NWA Powerrr. Meaning I'd either have to slip Powerrr wrestlers in, which would lead to a lot of time consuming edits, or ignore them entirely. Maybe I will go back and edit them in at some point, but for now...

Eli Drake would be somewhere in the 100s
Tim Storm would likely be in the 70s or 80s. 
And recency bias would carry The Resplendent Real World Champion, Slick Nick Aldis all the way up to somewhere between #26-50. Without further ado...

101-118

101. Beth Phoenix
102. Victoria
103. Austin Aries
104. Demolition Smash
105. Andre the Giant
106. Sgt. Slaughter
107. King Harley Race
108. Sting
109. DDP
110. Santino

111. MVP
112. D'Lo Brown
113. Blue Meanie
114. Ring Crew Express
115. Hiroshi Tanahashi
116. Ricky Steamboat
117. AJ Styles
118. Amazing Red

I see we are kind of far apart on Sting and Ricky Steamboat. Beth Phoenix, Andre, Sarge, Race, DDP and AJ are nearly guaranteed top 100 spots for me I would think.

Mar 7, 2020 4:17:12 GMT Shootist said:

Mar 7, 2020 3:18:20 GMT Baker said:

I see we are kind of far apart on Sting and Ricky Steamboat. Beth Phoenix, Andre, Sarge, Race, DDP and AJ are nearly guaranteed top 100 spots for me I would think.

I'm not going to write out super lengthy blurbs anymore, but I will explain some of these picks.

Sting was the most tolerable of the hyperactive, muscle-bound, face painted babyfaces who ruled wrestling in my childhood. I was basically a Sting respecter from an early age. But the only time I ever loved him was when he was aligned with babyface Ric Flair and feuding with the Great Muta in 1989. The rest of the time Sting was "ok" or "tolerable." With that being said, he would almost certainly have cracked the Top 100 had I been watching 1997 WCW in real time. The same goes for DDP. Down with the NWO! #ItsStillRealToMe

Steamboat did not enthrall me as a youngster. Remember, I was predominately a heel fan. Steamboat was just a guy....a guy who retired in 1994. I didn't become a Steamboat fan until 95-96 when I watched his classic series with Flair. Due to the admittedly weird criteria I set for this list*, Steamboat made it on the strength of his 2004 ROH run, where he feuded with the hated CM Punk, and his handful of 2009 appearances opposite Jericho. By the 2000s I was all in on cheering the legendary "Dragon." 

*These arbitrary rules forced me to leave Dusty Rhodes off entirely since I didn't come around on him until like a decade after he retired.

I initially had Beth (and Victoria) at #99 (& #100) but had to bump them out of the Top 100 for two other wrestlers I had forgotten.

AJ is like another Jay Briscoe in that he spent a long time as a 7/10 "pretty cool" guy. I liked AJ. He was a good wrestler. And he got just enough criticism that I didn't feel too guilty about liking him (I had a bit of an anti-"smark" streak even when I was hardcore into ROH/TNA/indie wrestling). But he's another guy I never really loved. Simply because he never had much of a hook. There wasn't much there beyond Good Wrestler Guy. And by that time, Good Wrestler Guys were a dime a dozen. Anyway, my favorite period of AJ's career was when he was the goofball "Pride of Gainesville Tech" in a stable with Christian & Tomko.

Speaking of goofballs, I have zero regrets over the placements of Santino, Blue Meanie, and The Ring Crew Express. Those guys personify sports entertainment. And they all had hooks.

76. Earthquake/John Tenta
77. Vince McMahon
78. New Breed (Champion & Royal)
79. Salvatore Sincere/Tom Brandi
80. Prince Nana <>

81. "Dangerous" Danny Davis
82. Rick Rude
83. Steve "Mongo" McMichael
84. James Storm
85. Michael Hayes
86. Kane/Fake Diesel
87. Brian Christopher
88. Hardcore Holly
89. Buddy Landell
90. Steve Austin/The Ringmaster

91. Great Muta
92. Randy Savage
93. Chris Harris
94. D-Von Dudley
95. Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart
96. Ron "Faarooq" Simmons
97. Henry Godwinn/Shanghai Pierce
98. Hakushi
99. Jake "The Milkman" Milliman
100. The Gambler

A couple of shockers, did Hiroshi Tanahashi make the list based on his air guitar skills? Who in the hell is the Ring Express Crew? Did Blue Meanie really make it that high based on his fat man flying and parody shtick? I thought you were unequivocally anti-DDP and were turned off by his 1997/98 push? What's the story behind Aries? I presume this is purely on his ROH run, unless you heard about him coming through the grapevine alongside Kennedy and Daivari around the Minnesota region? How did the Glamazon out-rank Santino? I thought the Honkey Tonk Metre would have given Santino the edge? Did Santina really knock him down that many pegs?

The Gambler is the perfect #100, just enough to receive recognition without being too ridiculously high.

Austin feels right, an acknowledgement of his star presence and numerous highlights but also your disdain through out. Surprised Mongo featured this highlight, I thought he was a one and done wrestler for you? One great match at GAB and then nothing. Watching a Shawn Stasiak/Debra segment the other got me thinking, did you ever see Debra McMichael when she was a part of the Horsemen? I feel like you would have loved her, she was cutting all these ridiculous promos. She was probably the best WAG on TV around that time.

Some pretty big guns in that list. New Breed, Nana, Salvatore Sincere definitely Baker Boys.

Mar 8, 2020 5:10:15 GMT Big Pete said:

did Hiroshi Tanahashi make the list based on his air guitar skills? Who in the hell is the Ring Express Crew? Did Blue Meanie really make it that high based on his fat man flying and parody shtick? I thought you were unequivocally anti-DDP and were turned off by his 1997/98 push? What's the story behind Aries? I presume this is purely on his ROH run, unless you heard about him coming through the grapevine alongside Kennedy and Daivari around the Minnesota region? How did the Glamazon out-rank Santino? I thought the Honkey Tonk Metre would have given Santino the edge? Did Santina really knock him down that many pegs?

Austin feels right, an acknowledgement of his star presence and numerous highlights but also your disdain through out. Surprised Mongo featured this highlight, I thought he was a one and done wrestler for you? One great match at GAB and then nothing. Watching a Shawn Stasiak/Debra segment the other got me thinking, did you ever see Debra McMichael when she was a part of the Horsemen? I feel like you would have loved her, she was cutting all these ridiculous promos. She was probably the best WAG on TV around that time.

Hiroshi Tanahashi's glorious air guitar skills are just the cherry on top. I was a Tanahashi guy from Day One*. He's great at basically everything. Great look. Oozes charisma. Great babyface. Smart enough to wrestle heel if the crowd is against him. Cool moves without getting ridiculous. For fan fic enthusiasts, is a great Dream Match opponent for dozens of guys.

*OK, so I might have him during seen his brief TNA run, or maybe made a failed foray into New Japan at some point in the 2000s. If so, I do not remember. The first Tanahashi match I do remember watching is his masterful IWGP Championship defense against Yano from....2011(?). That's the kind of wrestling I like gravitate towards in the 2010s. You've got an outclassed heel who stays in the game with more tricks than El-ahrairah himself up against a "better" babyface who is all heart and manages to overcome the odds in the end. That match sold me on both guys. I basically viewed Tanahashi as a cross between Michaels & Steamboat,, but with cooler moves than both. Years later I read a translation of a Tanahashi interview and it turns out HBK & Steamboat were two of his major influences. Gave myself the old Barry Horowitz pat on the back for that one. 

Damn. Now I feel like I actually underrated Tanahashi. Will bump him up to.....#103 after this post.

The Ring Crew Express were Dunn & Marcos- a lovable loser early ROH jobber team who happened to be huge hair metal enthusiasts. It was the right gimmick at the right time for me. I loved those guys. And was soooo jealous of their top notch hair metal band t-shirt collection. They were right in that sweet spot between homage and parody of all those rockin' 80s babyface teams. They were also genuinely my favorite ROH act in between Daniels choosing TNA over ROH in the aftermath of the RF incident and Jimmy Rave becoming JIMMY f'n RAVE. ROH had Joe, Punk, Bryan, and Homicide at the time. Plus the Briscoes & Ki from time to time. Yet I'm over here like "Meh. To hell with those guys. The Ring Crew Express is where it's at."   And this lasted like a year! I came *this close* to buying a Ring Crew Express 2004 Tour shirt one time before opting to buy a tape or three instead. ROH never giving the RCE a fluke tag title win has always bothered me. The pop would have massive. Plus they were better and/or more over than a whole lot of those lousy early ROH tag champs- Carnage Crew, Backseat Boys, Special K, Mamaluke & Rinauro, probably a few more. Dunn & Marcos smoke them all. 

Yep. You pretty much nailed it on the Blue Meanie. He made it primarily for fat man flying and parody shtick. I was a huge BWO fanboy. It's really quite ridiculous in hindsight. Again, right gimmick at the right time. I'll also add that he had some cool double teams with Nova. They broke out a few things I had never seen before. And maybe he got a 5 spot boost because the first time I ever saw his name in an Apter Mag I laughed for a really long time. The name Blue Meanie was hilarious to me in 1996. Not knowing about its Beatles origin I just thought it was so random and weird. Meanie is a funny word to begin with. Why a Meanie? Why Blue? Cracked me up.

You've got the dates wrong on DDP. I did dislike him immensely for a few years. His 1995 TV Title push and especially the '96 "Lord of the Ring" push was a major turnoff. I didn't get the appeal of this sleazeball. Thought Zicky Dice Sr. was crap. He made the list mainly because of his fun motivational speaker gimmick in late 2001-early 2002 WWF. That's where DDP finally won me over. His feud with "Crybaby" Christian was a fun little midcard thing. I was genuinely bummed out when an injury forced DDP to retire a short time later. Around that same time I checked out some of the big WCW matches I had missed and soon did a complete 180 on DDP. Peak DDP was the hardest working main eventer WCW had. He was also great as a working class babyface heroically fighting the hated NWO. I dig the Jersey Triad as well. The Motivational Speaker gimmick gets him on the list. But, much like Sting, Page would have been a near lock for the Top 100 had I been watching late 90s WCW in real time.

With that being said, there is no way he should be above the Amazing Red. Don't know what I was thinking there. Will have to edit another one.

I wish I could say I was following Austin Aries in the Minnesota indies. But that would be a lie. You were right. It's his ROH run that got him on the list. I mentioned how London and to a lesser extent Lethal were Philly favorites. Well, Aries is another one. Within a few months he went from a complete unknown to a top tier indie star right in front of myself and the other Philly faithful. Let's take a look at some highlights of his ridiculous Philly hot streak....

May 2004- Generation Next debuts. Aries is a member of the quartet. They win a "MOTYC" 8 Man Tag on their very first night as a faction.
-Aries is now established as a guy to keep an eye on. But he's still just one of 3 (Shelley was the clear "star" of early Gen Next).

June 2004- Aries pushes Bryan to the limit at Survival of the Fittest. 
-Aries is now a made man. Oh, SOTF was a mini-tournament. There was a first round with the winners qualifying for the 6 Way "Survival of the Fittest" elimination match. Aries & Bryan were the last men standing. They basically had a 20 minute match featuring state of the art wrestling after the other 4 guys had been eliminated. Bryan won, but Aries got a huge rub even in defeat. I missed the previous show, but attended this one. And it's here where Aries became one of my guys. This is both a Top 10 live match and a Top 10 ROH match for me.

August 2004- Aries beats Bryan in a 2/3 Falls 74 minute match. I actually did not like this one. I was turned off before the match even began when the ring announcer basically said something like "Please refrain from chanting 'boring.' If you do not feel like watching a long match, we suggest you go home now." I swear this happened! And it was a major turn off. I did stay, and wasn't quite trollish (or ballsy) enough to start up a "BORING" chant, but I was never going to like it after getting that pre-match scolding. See, I hate being told what to do, and I am also one of those assholes who will often do the exact opposite just to be That Guy. It's one of my many character flaws. Plus, as a wrestling fan, it made the match seem "inauthentic" to me. Anyway, I distinctly remember questioning my life decisions halfway through this snoozer. It was quite the "come to Jesus moment." Even 2004 me thought a 74 minute match was hella masturbatory even without the pre-match scolding from that douchebag ring announcer. But most people did like it! And Aries getting a win here over Bryan just furthered his super push.

December 2004- Aries ends Samoa Joe's legendary 21 month ROH Title reign. I was at this one too, and rate it as my all time favorite live match + my #1 ROH match. There were literally people crying when it was over. Not making this up either! 

He peaked there. But good stuff like the Generation Next feud culminating in STEEL CAGE WARFARE was still to come. I also thought Aries had the best moveset of any mid 2000s wrestler. And he hit everything with pinpoint precision. Shame he turned out to be a flaky malcontent. And not even an amusing one like Teddy. But we'll always have 2004.

Santino vs. Beth- Santino definitely had higher highs than Beth (Austin feud, Honkameter, etc. etc.). But his lows were terrible. Whereas Beth was consistently "good" from 2005 OVW through her WWE career. You already mentioned Santina. That's where I lost all interest in him. But I also wasn't into his flukish first IC Title win. Haven't seen much of the Cobra stuff, but what I have seen is also very bad. Typical WWE in that when they find a guy who is good at comedy, they beat it into the ground until it's not funny anymore. And that's why most comedy gimmicks have a short shelf life. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with comedy in wrestling. Check out this list for proof! But even the "good" comedy acts tend to get old after a while. Anyway, peak Santino really did rule though. His taunts....that diving headbutt....balls of steel dissing Austin right to his face....interactions with Beth and Maria....the HONK-A-METER. If WWE were smart, they'd have booked Santino to approach (or even surpass) HTM's record, and turned Santino/Beth (or even Santino/Maria) into the Savage/Elizabeth of the modern era.....or at least a parody of Savage/Elizabeth for the modern era.

No gimmies for Steve Austin. He earned his spot. Yeah, I've got no time for the jerk who beefed with St. Bret d'Alberta, and feuded with "Second Daddy" Vince McMahon. But the Ringmaster ruled! Superstar Steve Austin in ECW ruled. 2001 Austin ruled. (Has there ever been something else that was so great, yet so bad for business?) Early Hollywood Blondes were cool.....until they went too far by picking a fight with Flair & Arn. (Fun Fact: I frequently find myself doing the Hollywood Blondes taunt these days....when nobody else is around, of course) I would also pop for Austin's rare "pure babyface" moments like saving Stephanie from the Black Wedding, helping Foley win the title, and coming to Team WWF's aid against the Alliance that one time. 

I thought you knew of my Mongo love? Far from being a one day wonder followed by a multitude of meh, The Great American Bash '96 Swerve was the beginning of something beautiful. My friends and I were all HUUUUUGE Mongo fans in the summer of '96. He was seriously one of the most popular wrestlers in our little clique (the 8 or 9 of us rarely shared a unanimous opinion on anything, yet we all loved Mongo). Who could ever forget the immortal Mongo/Joe Gomez feud? Or that time all Four Horsemen teamed up for an 8 man showcase tag on Nitro. I also thought it was cool that an actual well-known football player had become a full time wrestler. This wasn't just somebody coming in to work one show for the $$$. Uh uh! Mongo was out there on the road night after night like a right proper pro wrestler. It gave WCW a little extra credibility in the eyes of 1996 me (and my clique). I've told the story before of how I went on vacation to North Carolina that summer with my brother, cousin, and best friend Rick where we flashed the four fingered sign of the Horsemen in practically every photo. The four of us also had homemade 4 Horsemen shirts*....which were tie dye for some reason. 

*I was Flair. Rick was Arn. Cousin was Benoit. Brother was Mongo. 

I went down a Mongo & Jarrett w/ Debra rabbit hole a few years back. The three of them had a nice little act going. Debra could have been the mother of Lana Star or Lacey Evans (next fan fic project?). She was way better in WCW than WWF. Anyway, my big takeaway from those JJ/Mongo tags was the overness of one, Steve "Mongo" McMichael. The people loved him! 90% of those matches have Jarrett getting booed out of the building, while Mongo gets cheered like the bonafide superstar he is. It's a neat dynamic. Check out the match where Mongo finally turns on Jarrett (think it's against Norton & Buff). The place explodes! 10/10 pop. Mongo had this undeniable charisma. To this day I don't know how anybody can hate on the big goofy galoot. Late 90s WCW fans and I were right. It's Meltzer and the internet who were wrong. Steve McMichael was just the perfect Mongo...

Love that Baker is wandering around the living room doing the Hollywood Blonds taunt to inanimate objects. When I did Steve Austin Month in 2016, I found myself doing the Stone Cold walk around the apartment constantly, which always made me consider I might be having some sort of psychotic breakdown, but I made it through, so Baker too, will make it through.

Mar 8, 2020 22:46:18 GMT Kilgore said:

Love that Baker is wandering around the living room doing the Hollywood Blonds taunt to inanimate objects. When I did Steve Austin Month in 2016, I found myself doing the Stone Cold walk around the apartment constantly, which always made me consider I might be having some sort of psychotic breakdown, but I made it through, so Baker too, will make it through.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. But I've been a lost cause since I first began doing the Lord Steven Regal Walk in 93-94. Oh sure. I might manage to keep this bizarre affliction at bay for years. But I will always relapse in the end. It is known. 

51-75

51. Eddie Gilbert
52. Dr. Death Steve Williams
53. Stevie Richards
54. Jimmy Rave <>
55. Damien Sandow/Aron "Idol" Stevens (Powerrr Surrrge up from #83)
56. Dean Malenko
57. Jeff Hardy
58. John Morrison
59. Johnny Jeter
60. Alex Shelley <>

61. Mr. Bob Backlund
62. Toru Yano
63. Jimmy Jacobs
64. IRS/Mike Rotunda
65. Papa Shango/Godfather
66. Dino Bravo
67. Lex Luger/Narcissist
68. Rick "The Model" Martel
69. Bill Dundee
70. Barry Horowitz

71. Bray Wyatt
72. Billy Gunn
73. Barry Windham
74. Tajiri
75. New Jack
=====================
Dean Malenko is the one I feel obligated to explain here. Throughout this, and other projects, I have been dismissive of bland Good Wrestler Guys. It's no secret I gravitate more towards the sports entertainment spectrum of wrestling. Give me colorful characters, over the top gimmicks, stellar promos, and oodles of charisma over a bland Good Wrestler Guy 99 times out of 100. I can already hear the questions...

"How can you have Dean Malenko so high when he's the poster boy for bland Good Wrestler Guys?"

The thing is, Dean Malenko was the first of his kind. That made him unique. You never forget your first. His gimmick was literally "guy who is good at wrestling." They even aired these segments on WCW Saturday Night(?) where Malenko would demonstrate one of his Thousand Holds on some ham and egger. I ate all this stuff up. Deano Machino was something different. Plus, being unfamiliar with even the Apter Mags, I had no idea who Malenko was, or that he already had a cult following. To me and my friends, Malenko was just this neat little wrestler with no hype who we discovered slumming it on WCW's B & C Shows. To use a recent Powerrrism, I viewed him as the best kept secret in professional wrestling.

So he immediately became one of my guys in both a "good wrestler" sense and also in a "root for the underdog" kind of way. I NEVER expected him to make it big. I would have been happy with just one singles match on PPV, and seeing him do the occasional job on Nitro, before inevitably disappearing forever. So when he finally did make it big as the first Ace of the Cruiserweight division, nobody was happier than me. My man had made it!

Dean f'n Malenko definitely influenced what I thought made a good wrestler, and a good match, for well over a decade. So I've got nothing but love for the original Good Wrestler Guy.
==================
*I have an interactive idea in mind related to this project. Will share the details tomorrow. 

#50.5 Scott Norton

*Big Scott Norton was my original #50 when I made this list way back in August. However, another wrestler has since surpassed him (and many others who are now all technically one spot lower than I have them listed). Therefore, "Flashjack" Norton will not be making my upcoming 50 Favorite Wrestlers countdown list. So I will give him a standalone post with pic as a consolation prize for bumping him off. 

Just because they'll never be another opportunity to drop this tidbit, most of us are aware that Scott Norton was an arm wrestler, and even a successful one, but I recently found out to what degree. You see, there was this arm wrestler named John Brzenk, who was the Michael Jordan of arm wrestling. They made a documentary about him called "Pulling John" which is the only reason why I know anything about John Brzenk, and it's one of those fun documentaries specifically of the aughts about a subject that you absolutely are convinced you have no interest in and by the end you're like, "Fuck yeah, Johnny. Pull that motherfucker's arm out!" It's not quite King of Kong, but it's closer than you think. Anyway, upon further research of John Brzenk I had discovered that before his dynasty, there was one man who had multiple (right hand) wins against him, and NO LOSSES to boot, and that was our boy, Scott Flash Norton. So, the John Brzenk dynasty might have only happened because Scott Norton had a calling to hoss it up in the world of professional wrestling, an absolute legend of a man.

Mar 11, 2020 5:54:30 GMT Kilgore said:

Just because they'll never be another opportunity to drop this tidbit, most of us are aware that Scott Norton was an arm wrestler, and even a successful one, but I recently found out to what degree. You see, there was this arm wrestler named John Brzenk, who was the Michael Jordan of arm wrestling. They made a documentary about him called "Pulling John" which is the only reason why I know anything about John Brzenk, and it's one of those fun documentaries specifically of the aughts about a subject that you absolutely are convinced you have no interest in and by the end you're like, "Fuck yeah, Johnny. Pull that motherfucker's arm out!" It's not quite King of Kong, but it's closer than you think. Anyway, upon further research of John Brzenk I had discovered that before his dynasty, there was one man who had multiple (right hand) wins against him, and NO LOSSES to boot, and that was our boy, Scott Flash Norton. So, the John Brzenk dynasty might have only happened because Scott Norton had a calling to hoss it up in the world of professional wrestling, an absolute legend of a man.

I went down a rather fascinating arm wrestling rabbit hole during another Scott Norton deep dive a few years back, and now you've got me doing it again. Here are some links...

www.thearmwrestlingarchives.com/top-25-pullers-of-the-1980s-men.html (Norton #20)

armwrestlersonly.blogspot.com/2013/05/over-top-icon-of-armwrestling.html (the full story of arm wrestling's Wrestlemania III)

Norton's arm wrestling claims to fame include...

-Beating Cleve Dean & John Brzenk, which is apparently the armwrestling equivalent of beating The Rock & Austin Hogan & Warrior, though Norton did not actually do it on the same night as I had erroneously thought.


*Only got about 5 minutes into this so far.

-Winning the 1986 Over The Top World Championship: Super Heavyweight Division, which seems to be the arm wrestling equivalent of winning the main event of Wrestlemania III.
====================
Now I want to write a little blurb about The Flashman (TM Jesse Ventura)....

In all honesty, Norton was a vanilla hoss....the Dean Malenko of superheavyweights. He lacked overt charisma. His promos were generic, shouty, 80s style "I'm gonna beat ya up!" stuff. But he just LOOKED and wrestled like such a badass. Growing up, I was a fan of everything Norton did....

-"Flapjack" Norton: pancake-loving Lumberjack in dying day AWA. Fun Fact: I liked Scott Norton before I even knew it was Scott Norton! See, for years I just remembered The Lumberjacks as Yukon John and "The Pancake Guy." Turns out The Pancake Guy was....

-The same badass who memorably wrecked jobbers for a month in 1993 WCW. This time he was Scott "Flash" Norton, and for that month I believed he was the baddest dude on the planet. During this blink and you miss it run, he hit some jobber with the hardest clothesline I had ever seen, or would ever see until Bradshaw came along. This run sadly ended after only a few weeks when Norton opted to go back to Japan rather than job to Sting on PPV. But it made enough of an impact on me to where I always remembered Scott Norton (this time). It also lead to a years-long "Flash" Norton action figure league push. Pretty sure I wrote about every single match from this run in the old PW Match Review thread.

*It's a shame Norton left. One of my favorite fan fic/draft ideas I've never pulled the trigger on is booking Vader & Norton as Masters of the Powerbomb 2.0. How great would that have been?

-His WCW return in late 95. "The Potato Shaped Warrior" (TM my friend Boo) was back, bigger and badder than ever. I remember him actually getting some hype....for like a week or two. Then he disappeared for a few months. That's the way I remember it anyway.

-His feud and team with Ice Train in 1996 WCW. This was peak Norton for me. The Ice Train matches were evenly matched epic hoss fights. Rather than continue to wreck one another, the two badasses decided to form a super hoss team. They had a bunch of awesome hoss fights on tv with the Steiners which often ended in draws. The implication being Norton & Train were on par with the legendary Steiner Brothers. Fire & Ice finally jobbed to them (BOO!) in the blowoff at Great American Bash '96. Sadly, this marked end of peak Fire & Ice because they would stupidly break up like two months later when that jerk Scott Norton went full heel on Train. Not gonna lie. Still bummed out about that. Why, Scotty, why? 

-I quit watching by the time Norton joined the NWO, but he would have been my favorite NWO guy by a country mile. Norton & Buff have been a fun team in my admittedly limited viewing. They had a cool dynamic with Buff being a shit stirring "little" heel and Norton being the big badass he hides behind. Norton also had another awesome hoss fight during this run against The Giant at Fall Brawl '97. Which reminds me, I really need to check out the Norton/Goldberg matches one of these days.

EDIT: Norton's greatest success came in New Japan. I've only seen a few of his matches from there. But what opponents they were! Norton vs. Muta! Norton vs. LUDVIG BORGA!!! Incredibly, both matches were disappointing, with the Muta match being downright bad. Also watched a Norton & Herc tag match against....Savio & Brad Armstrong? Some weird team like that anyway. This one was alright up until the lol finish featuring AIR NORTON~! And that's when I discovered why Scott Norton never again flew. His Superfly Splash was Sandman's flying elbow levels of ugly.

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We should give Salvador the Iron Man title for surfing the internet one whole hour longer than Isla.

This Salvador is not sincere. First he blatantly rips off Isla. Then I have it on good authority he was the one who corrupted #100 The Gambler.

Once upon a time The Gambler was a hungry young Arn Anderson wannabe known as Jeff Gann. Until Salvador lead him down the dark path to online casinos. Young Mr. Gann soon became obsessed with gambling rather than becoming the Next Arn Anderson. A lifetime a jobbing ensued.

So, yeah, I'm gonna blame Salvador Not Sincere for killing WCW. Jeff Gann could have been The One had it not been for Salvador Not Sincere leading him astray.

Since it was brought up in today's PW news.....

My Top 50 will be revealed at the end of PW's Favorite Wrestler Countdown.

Also, Repo Man finished #105, not #49.