I didn’t vote for any of these guys. But they’re all great so whatever. I have nothing to add. I don’t even know why I’m writing this.

I know being some contrary wank is your thing but the idea that Rey Mysterio is/was a boring wrestler is probably the worst take I've ever heard.

Guys, Lionheart only knows of 2010+ WWE Rey. Nothing prior. So of course his opinion is wrong!

But he's dead on re: TNA's Sting.

Jun 4, 2020 0:01:12 GMT @admin said:

I know being some contrary wank is your thing but the idea that Rey Mysterio is/was a boring wrestler is probably the worst take I've ever heard.

Rey Mysterio was Spider-Man brought to life for kids in the late 90s. I was a full grown teenager during that time and even my sarcastic, “fuck society and everything fun” bullshit ass was like “this is pretty cool.”

6. Terry Funk

I consider Terry Funk to be the conscience of pro wrestling, very few embody what can make the business great like the old Funker. He's possibly the best total package of all time working everything from the classic NWA style to ECW's more maverick ways. He was also an incredible promo but excelled at maybe the most important aspect, blurring the lines between real and kayfabe. He would go out of his way to get into near physical confrontations with fans, use whatever he could get his hands on to get an angle over and sell both the pain and seething hatred of his feuds during matches. Both his matches with Ric Flair in 1989 and his great run in 1997 ECW will forever be some of my favorite memories. I had a lump in my throat at the end of Barely Legal with Funk draped in ringsiders when he became ECW champion. His roles in Over the Top and Road House make him even more endearing. He had the great range of a true actor as he could be the "aw shucks" country bumpkin or a maniacal madman on the flick of the switch. His empty arena match with Jerry Lawler is also highly recomended and encapsulates what Funk is all about in one match.

I'll let the videos do the rest of the talking. I could go on forever posting legendary Terry Funk videos.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

17. Curt Hennig

Another tremendous all around talent who got both sides of the business as both an athlete and entertainer. He just gave off that aura that he was perfect in his promos and had all the chops down as a wrestler. He could be guilty of overselling at times but for the most part his bumps added just the right amount of a comedic flare to his matches. Going back he was a great AWA World Champion and was the "perfect" replacement for Nick Bockwinkel. This run groomed him for the Mr. Perfect role as he dressed to the 9's and made like he was above everyone else. He had an all time great introduction with those vignettes and a long winning streak in the WWF. His matches with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels speak for themselves. WCW did him wrong by making him just another NWO number and betraying the Horsemen. At least he was paired with old buddy Rick Rude and later made magic with the West Texas Rednecks. If there is any doubt about Hennig's talents it was getting that "chicken shit" gimmick over and turning it into chicken salad. He got a nice little final appearance in the WWF before his untimely death. He was also solid on the commentary booth, Mr. Perfect truly came close to that moniker in all aspects.


18. RVD

RVD was the other big revelation in that legendary stretcher match from The Doctor Is In. At first through the Apter mags I immediately thought he was an arrogant wannabe. He was a dead ringer for JCVD and yet he had the gall to go all the way and use the Van Dam name? His talents lived up to the billing however and I was sold after seeing him use a stretcher, guard rail and anything else he could jump off of as a weapon. He was one of the finest natural athletes I ever saw with insane agility and leaping ability. He also had a charisma that many in the ECW audience could relate to as more of a laid back stoner which got him hugely over. For better or worse his matches with Jerry Lynn were revolutionary and would set the template for what was to come nearly 20 years later. What separates their matches from more modern fare though is there was an innate grittiness and realism that still suspended your disbelief. He transitioned exceptionally well to the WWF in 2001 and was one of the most popular wrestlers in the company for most of that in initial run. Politics and some of his own doing kept him from truly reaching his potential however and he had diminishing returns with me as time wore on. Still that period from 1996-2002ish was a special time for one of the most special talents to grace the squared circle.

39. Rey Mysterio

Like RVD he came on like a lightning bolt but as time wore on his athleticism diminished and he was engrossed in the white bread ways of the WWF philosophy. I can easily see where@lionheart is coming from if you have just seen most of the last 10 years of Rey's career. Basically Rey's run from 1995-1998 put him on my list as he was the one who truly made WCW's cruiserweight division special. From his diminutive frame to his larger than life aerial abilities he made that division tick. His matches with Dean Malenko, Ultimo Dragon and Eddie Guerrero are the finest examples of Rey at his peak. His matches in ECW with Psychosis are also highly recommended. I will say seeing spotty examples of this latest return the downward trend has leveled off and he looked pretty good keeping up with AJ Styles and the like. 

Edge

While he is on my massive favorites list I find him to be pretty overrated (did I see top 15 GOAT somewhere?!) He was great as a role player during those early days and added to the show as a part of The Brood and his tag team with Christian. Once he became a main eventer though I found I'm to be just average as a worker and solid but nothing spectacular when it came to being a heel champion. Maybe it was because I connected more to his comedic styling in E+C he just seemed more bland as a heel. His retirement in 2011 though was an emotional moment but his promos like his career are mostly hit and miss. He's basically a mention from me for his tag team work. I have huge respect for all the hell he went through in those TLC matches. 

Roddy Piper

When greatest of all time comes up Roddy Piper is a guy I could easily put in a top 15 spot. He was what early Hulkamania WWF revolved around for that critical growth period as Hogan's most hated enemy. He was the other side of all those coins being drawn when the WWF needed them most in 1984/85 to prove the new business model worked. Whether it was Vince or someone else spotting talent they couldn't have poached a better heel who could incite a crowd like Piper. Whether it was abusing women in Portland or going insult for insult with Ric Flair Piper proved his worth and was perfectly placed as the WWF's new antagonist. His ring style worked for him as well as very few could pull off Three Stooges routines during matches and still have the fans invested. I find him to be highly underrated in ring wise, he pulled off what he needed to be whether it was to piss off a crowd or step up and have an all babyface classic with Bret Hart. I will admit like the athletic talents of Rey and RVD, Piper's gift of gab went downhill as time wore on and I can see why a lot of people think he's overrated. At the end of the day though he passes that all important Baker test, I could never see him being a 9 to 5er.

Jun 3, 2020 19:50:15 GMT Todd said:

What's your earliest recollection of Mysterio?

I don’t even have one. That’s how boring he was. All I remember is him slowly trotting into a slight foot tap called a 619 that made everyone fly back like being hit with a cannon, destroying all realism from the match beyond repair, a hundred times.

To be fair, I don’t recall any first memories of most wrestlers. Pretty much just Morrison, Punk, Jericho, Miz, and Naito.

Jun 4, 2020 0:17:25 GMT 🤯 said:

Guys, Lionheart only knows of 2010+ WWE Rey. Nothing prior. So of course his opinion is wrong!

2007+ but that was pretty close.

If you honestly think it’s the worst take ever, watch any 619 from him after that period. If you don’t think it looks completely ridiculous and fake and it doesn’t take you out of the match completely, you have a lot more imagination than I do.

I found his 'Rana set-ups to the 619 even more fake. Turning his cool spin-out move on the ropes from WCW into an actual move in the WWF just added to his more contrived match style.

Jun 4, 2020 1:58:36 GMT Lionheart said:

Jun 4, 2020 0:17:25 GMT 🤯 said:

Guys, Lionheart only knows of 2010+ WWE Rey. Nothing prior. So of course his opinion is wrong!

2007+ but that was pretty close.

If you honestly think it’s the worst take ever, watch any 619 from him after that period. If you don’t think it looks completely ridiculous and fake and it doesn’t take you out of the match completely, you have a lot more imagination than I do.

No complaints from me. I was out on Rey post-2003.

Lionheart's anti-Mysterio shtick never fails to amuse me. And it's not even his best gimmick! While I would never call Rey "boring," and 'heart really should watch Rey's pre-WWE stuff, I too hate the 619 with a passion. One of my least favorite moves of all time.

Rey Mysterio- My intro to Rey Rey came circa the Apter Mags in late 1995. My first thought was one of disbelief. "Surely those 5'3 140 lbs. stats must be a misprint." There was NO WAY my scrawny teenage self of average teenage boy height was taller and approximately the same weight as an actual professional wrestler. Why he was 72 pounds lighter than the previous lightest wrestler I had ever seen! Then I saw the same 5'3 140 dimensions in the following month's Apter Mag and figured it had to be true. I immediately wrote East Coast Wrestling and its midget roster off as the bush leagues. 

Fast forward a few months. Rey was announced as my man Dean Malenko's opponent for the Cruiserweight Title at Great American Bash '96. "What, was Dink not available? LOL"- 1996 me. But the laughing stopped when Rey blew the minds of my friends and I with the craziest high flying any of us had ever seen in an instant classic. Rey flew. Dean threw. And also tied Rey up in knots. Rey/Dean was to me what Tiger Mask/Dynamite or Liger/Pillman were to other fans. Simply put, the most state of the art wrestling I had ever seen. Rey also had a cool look with the mask and fancy pants. Cool theme too, though it's rather slow and ominous nature didn't really fit him imo.

The Rey/Dean encounter(s) caused a major rift in my wrestling fan clique. Up to then we had all been unified Malenko supporters. It was extremely rare for all of us to agree on a single wrestler. Dean had been one of the very few. But now about half of them defected to Team Rey. I stayed loyal to Team Dean. So that gave the latter Rey/Dean matches added heat with the Team Rey and Team Dean factions arguing and hanging on every nearfall. Good times.

Rey was honestly always pretty lousy on the mic, but he cut an awesome promo about being heartbroken when Hogan turned heel. Rey had another innovative, high flying match with Psicosis at Bash At The Beach.  Then I quit watching WCW.

But caught up on his famous WCW matches and also his ECW work later on. Loved Rey's WCW & ECW matches with Dean, Eddie, Juvy, Psicosis, and Ultimo. 95-97 Rey will always be peak Mysterio in my eyes. It's weird how I still love those matches today (or at least the last time I watched them), yet have little time for the modern matches they so clearly influenced. Is it just old man nostalgia or did Rey and company really do it better than anyone else? Probably a little bit of both. Anyway, Rey was miles above any other flyer I had ever seen up to that point.

By the late 90s the buzz around Mysterio was wearing off (at least in the corners of the internet I frequented). He was stupidly unmasked. I think he already had injury issues. And didn't they try turning him heel? If so, YIKES! Kidman & Juvy were the new flavors of the month. Then WCW folded and Rey worked Mexico + the indie circuit for a while. I thought he was "washed up" at like 26, and wasn't all that excited when WWE hired him.

While it's true he wasn't the transcendent once in a lifetime high flying talent he had been, Rey still brought the goods and had a bunch of killer matches with the likes of Angle, Benoit, and Eddie. He settled right into WWE. 

My big idea around 2003 was to book Rey as the Ace of the Cruiserweight division and bring in outsiders from the indies, Mexico, and Japan to be Rey's "opponent of the month." Still think this was a BRILLIANT idea. It obviously didn't happen, but the Matt feud was a lot of fun, and I got my dream Cruiserweight feud in Rey/Tajiri, which was also fun. 

WWE Rey was...fine. He regularly had good matches as yet another Smackdown workhorse. I liked how he'd do the springboard frankensteiner as his finisher in "big matches." It sold the importance of the match and was WAY cooler than his usual springboard splashes, straddles, and leg drop finishers. He also had some nice bumps, in particular that belly flop under the bottom rope to the floor he would sometimes do. Loved that 'stiff' splash he'd do as well. I don't know how to explain it, but he'd fly rigid....or something. Rey is like the anti-Low Ki in that I always thought he would be just the most fun guy to wrestle.

But he was a little too white meat babyface for me to ever fully get behind. He didn't have much of a hook beyond "THE ULTIMATE UNDERDOG!"....who usually won. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of being an underdog. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, I loathed the 619. Particularly the frankensteiner set up Shootist mentioned. 

I had high hopes for his feud with Eddie. It had a great build. Plus their Halloween Havoc '97 bout is a Top 5 WCW match of the 90s for me. I knew they wouldn't be able to match the athleticism of the Havoc match due to age and weight gain, but I was expecting some good old fashioned ultraviolence to make up for it since this was a blood feud. Instead of the wild bloodbaths I wanted/expected, they wrestled.....slightly more aggressive than usual matches? At least the ones I've seen. Idk. I seem to like their WM 21 match more than most people. But my lasting memories of this feud are Eddie's initial turn/beatdown (YAY!) the (fake) blowoff match on Smackdown being a long, bloodless encounter with Eddie going down to Rey's usual finishing sequence, and the Dominic crap that followed, which I HATED. That feud was basically the WWE version of Punk/Daniels to me. Fwiw my favorite Rey/Eddie WWE match was an Eddie title defense in early 2004. BUT!

CONTROVERSIAL OPINION: I remember liking Rey's Smackdown brawls with Chavo in May '05 and September '07 more than any Rey/Eddie WWE match  :$

Wasn't into Rey's title reign at all. Thought it was one of the worst championship reigns in WWE history. In fairness to Rey, it was booked like crap.

Don't remember much Rey did after that aside from the Chavo match I mentioned and stupidly getting wrecked by Umaga in Rey's hometown of San Diego.

Oh, one of my favorite things about the Golden Age of Smackdown (did I just coin a phrase?) was how they'd randomly trot out another Angle/Rey match every 6 months or so. They had great chemistry. Loved their matches. Angle is definitely my favorite WWE Rey opponent. I feel like they wrestled a half step faster than any other 2000s WWE pairing. Fwiw my favorite matches of theirs are from June or July 2004 and the February 2005 match in Japan. Both on Smackdown. Great stuff!

Final Thoughts- Mid-90s Rey is the best high flyer I ever saw. Later guys did more flips, but nobody was smoother in the air than Rey. Plus he was the first guy I saw do like a dozen different aerial maneuvers. He's also either the best or 2nd best (along with Liger) traditional Cruiserweight. Clarification: I don't really consider Cruiserweight wrestling a thing anymore, and haven't for like a decade now that practically everybody is a Cruiserweight. I think it's stupid that WWE even bothers with a 205 title.

*Perfect & Funk tomorrow....probably. They finished back to back in my Top 10. Just how high did they finish? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

I had Mr. Perfect on my list at #24 which is about right. I highly enjoyed his character and his wrestling ability. I must admit to being more of a fan of the 'technical' wrestlers over say high flyers and Curt Hennig fit the bill. Not just could he talk the talk, he walked the walk. I believe Hulk Hogan was the one who said 'no one could outwork him'. Bret Hart often gets the title of Excellence of Execution, but I truly believe Curt was on par with Bret at the top of his game, which is saying something as Bret hart is my #1 all time fave. I get sad thinking of his last years and the last years of so many wrestlers who have travelled that same road of addiction.

I did not have Rey Mysterio on my list, but I remember highly enjoying him in WCW and his earlier WWE days. He still years later can out work younger guys in much better shape and they've never been able to capture the hearts of the Latino crowd with anyone since Rey and Eddie. I think they were close with Del Rio but he got up his own ass.   That being said, I LOATHE the 619.  I get that in watching wrestling you have to suspend disbelief so much, but the set up of it is so insulting to my intelligence that I just can't enjoy it.   

9. Mr. Perfect (#22)- Made my list for being....perfect. Two sets of GOAT level vignettes (behind only Goldust imo). Great look. Gold in the ring. Cool finisher. Charismatic. Epic theme. Oozed swagger and coolness. Excellent squasher. Great bumper and seller (your mileage may vary here). Top tier IC Champ. My favorite wrestler in 89-90. One of the few wrestlers from back in the day that I missed whenever he wasn't around and always wanted to see come back (it was usually "out of sight, out of mind" with most wrestlers up until 95-96).

I knew who Curt Hennig was before he entered WWF. I'm just not sure how I knew of him. Maybe I caught some AWA tv when he was champ? Or maybe I came across him in a rare pre-95 encounter with a wrestling mag? He was just plain ol' Curt Hennig for his first few months in WWF. Then he became....

Perfect. I was all in on Mr. Perfect from day one. He was my kind of wrestler/character. Then he got even cooler when they paired him up with my man The Genius and had him feud with Hogan. I wanted him to beat Hogan for the WWF Championship so bad. Like even more than usual when it came to Hogan opponents.

After inevitably losing his feud to Hogan, he was given the IC Championship and Bobby Heenan for a manager as consolation prizes. Awesome! Had a killer match or two or with Tito. Then lost the belt to a (Texas) Tornado outta nowhere. But he soon recaptured it with a little assist from Ted Dibiase. He had another lengthy run before losing it to midcard tag team specialist Bret Hart in what was a real 'wtf' decision to 1991 Baker. He then transitioned from a wrestler to a commentator/manager executive consultant.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Perfect trademarks such as the behind the back towel toss and swatting his gum. Both were huge on Baltimore area playgrounds. And I still do them from time to time 

Flair/Perfect is a Top 10 wrestling duo. Loved those two together. They had great chemistry. But then Perfect became flawed for the first time in his glorious life when he turned on Flair and Bobby. Say it ain't so! Mr. imPerfect then defeated Flair in a famous Loser Leaves Town match (which is actually super overrated imo) before entering into a new feud with my latest wrestling hero- The Narcissist.  

I wanted to turn on Mr. Perfect for his dastardly deeds. And I guess I did. But only a little bit. Because I could never truly hate on the man highlighted in The Perfect Vignettes. What a legend! Mr. Perfect was cooler than the other side of the pillow.

Mr. Perfect was so cool he was even over with non-wrestling fans. My brother had been off wrestling for 2 years by 1993. But even he loved The Perfect Vignettes and would frequently bring them up in later years. My friend Matt The IRS Fan had a wrestling hating twin brother we'll call Dan The Wrestling Hater. Yet Dan too loved Mr. Perfect. "I would actually watch this fake crap if there were more guys like Mr. Perfect."- Dan The Wrestling Hater.

LOVED Perfect's 3 match KOTR Qualifier series with Doink. They were some of the best matches I had ever seen up to that point, and among the first matches my sports entertainment loving self thought of as a cut above the rest. Mr. P then had another classic confrontation with Bret- this time at KOTR 93 in my WWF MOTY.

I thought for sure he was going to take the IC Title from HBK at Summerslam 93 but Michaels managed to retain. Then Mr. P disappeared again

He resurfaced to screw Luger out of the WWF Championship at WM 10 in a great bit of continuity. But he didn't stick around

Mr. Perfect was one of only a handful of wrestlers who I missed when he was gone. I didn't even realize Warrior had left in 91-92! But I always felt the absence of Mr. P. I would also always talk myself into "He'll be back soon. Why he's gotta come back! Any day now....any day..." 

Attending Survivor Series '95 changed my life. And that show kicked off with Mr. Perfect making his triumphant return. OK, only to the commentary booth. But still! 

Perfect then became a commentary fixture on my beloved Superstars. I thought he was good. Though of course I was biased in his favor. They were forever teasing his in ring return, usually against Michaels. Those jerks.

Speaking of jerks, I was SOOOOOO hyped for Perfect's in ring return against Hunter Hearst Helmsley in October 1996. I guess this was to me what Brock or Bryan's returns were to modern fans. Swerve! It was all an elaborate ruse concocted by Perfect & Triple H (a name Perfect coined, by the way) to get one over on Marc Mero. I was sort of bummed out, but also thought it was sort of cool that Mr. Perfect now had a protege. Then he left again. Dammit!

But he didn't just leave. He had signed with The Evil Empire. I was gutted and conflicted. 

Not gonna lie. Perfect was one of the only wrestlers who could have brought me back to WCW. I would've had no choice but to return to watching if Hennig had come in with a super babyface push as the Horsemen's secret weapon and the Hennig-lead Horsemen started picking up some wins on the NWO. I mean, good wrestling is good wrestling, and good wrestling was always going trump ideological differences for me, even in the heated days of 1997. But nah. Stupid WCW turned him heel and made him like the #8 guy in the stupid NWO. Mr. Perfect was now dead to me (poor choice of words?).

But I still followed him online enough to know the West Texas Rednecks had a rabid cult following and he got a nice "Thank You" ovation after losing a Retirement Match to Buff Bagwell. Then WCW folded and Hennig plied his trade in a few of those failed start up feds before.....

Returning to WWF at Royal Rumble 2002. I agree with @ness in this being one of the all time great one night returns. My friends and I were marking out so hard for the returning legend handing out PerfectPlexes and making it to the Final 4. I was hyped for one last great Perfect run....

But it never happened. Royal Rumble 2002 was the only good thing to come from this run. He was soon released for either drugs or Plane Ride From Hell shenanigans. I forget which.

Then he tragically passed away about a year later after a cup of coffee in TNA. He was only 44.

I haven't seen much of his pre-WWF stuff. I know about the famous matches with Bockwinkel in AWA, but there long run times have always been a turnoff. Did love his AWA Title loss to Lawler in Memphis though. What a moment!

What Might Have Been?- Perfect had a legendary Hall of Fame worthy career. He is fondly remembered by fans. But I think it's often overlooked just how much bigger he could/should have been if not for injuries. People forget injuries cost him 5 years(!) of his career during what should have been his prime. I genuinely think he would have been as successful as Bret or Michaels had it not been for the injury bug. Hell, I'm not even sure Bret & Michaels reach the status they do if Perfect stays healthy. I think we'd be talking about him today as a multiple time World Champion, Wrestlemania main eventer, and a Top 10 PW Favorite. 

*Might be back later to post some Perfect videos and also to cover Terry Funk.

BREAKING NEWS for intrepid reporter @ness of PW News. The countdown will be updated before I go to sleep tonight. It's going to be 2 entries at a time from here on out as we finally limp towards the conclusion of this months-long PW extravaganza.

Just finished recording PW News and when I clicked on PW I saw you tagged me here and I was "AH SONOFABITCH" It was me Austin style.

Jun 4, 2020 23:15:26 GMT @ness said:

Just finished recording PW News and when I clicked on PW I saw you tagged me here and I was "AH SONOFABITCH" It was me Austin style.

Aww nuts. Well, onward we march....

10. Terry Funk (#21)- Shootist called Funk "the conscience of pro wrestling." @ness went with "he will be the last one standing when the business collapses." And I had already written "Terry Funk is the heart and soul of professional wrestling" when I began writing this post the other day. All of these are factual statements.

There was a blurb on Funk in the 1996 PWI Wrestling Almanac that went something like "You can't call yourself a real wrestling fan until you've seen Terry Funk live." Words my brother and I took to heart. By our own admission, we didn't become "real wrestling fans" until seeing Funk at a Raw taping in May 1998.

My intro to Terry Funk came via his LJN wrestling figure. He had already left WWF when I started watching in January 1987. So I just assumed he had been a jobber. I may or may not have seen Wrestlemania II before his 1989 NWA run. If so, he made no impression on me there.

Then he piledrove Ric Flair on a table and it was off to the races. This dastardly deed and made me love Flair for the first time. But there was just something about the middle aged and crazy Terry Funk that appealed to me in spite of his abhorrent behavior. He had IT. I'd sit there transfixed through Funk squashes and promos. He played the psycho veteran character so well. There was this one promo where he compared himself to fellow middle aged Texas legend Nolan Ryan that was just *chef's kiss* I've told the story before of how this feud got me to watch NWA religiously for the first time. Before Flair/Funk NWA viewing had been a sporadic thing. If I was home and remembered, I'd definitely watch NWA tv. But it wasn't a priority the way WWF tv had been. Until now. This was also the first feud where I loved both guys. To this day it is my 2nd favorite feud in wrestling history (behind only Bret/Austin). I remember BEGGING my parents to get tickets to Great American Bash 89 in Baltimore so I could see Flair vs. Funk live. It was almost a Hogan/Warrior level match in terms of hype for me. Honestly, that one feud alone would have put Funk in my Top 25 for this countdown even if he had never done anything else.

He was only there for 6 months. But the Flair/Funk feud always stuck with me as something special. So when I started renting wrestling tapes every weekend in late 95, Great American Bash 89 with Flair/Funk was one of the first tapes I sought out. Oh. My. God. What a match! It was even better than I had imagined. It immediately became my favorite match. Then came the nearly as awesome Flair & Sting vs. Funk & Muta Thunderdome Cage Match at Halloween Havoc 89. Then I learned about the Flair/Funk I Quit Match, which became my new Holy Grail.

Funk had a run in 1994 WCW that I don't really remember at all. He even teamed with Arn Anderson! I would have been all in on this. Which leads me to believe I watched even less WCW than I thought during this period. I had always remembered not watching much WCW around this time. But didn't realize the extent of how little I watched until researching Funk's run there.

All that Apter Mag reading in 1996 put the idea into my head that Flair-Funk-Lawler were the 3 Greatest of All Time in that order. With the passage of time, I am more convinced than ever that my teenage mark self was spot on. Fwiw most of my friends shared similar views. Even the ones who didn't like Flair & Lawler all that much (we all loved Funk). 

Funk was a huge draw for my friends and I going into Barely Legal and we all marked out when Our Hero became the ECW Champion at 52 years young. He was one mid 90s old guy I was NOT tired of seeing.

Then I learned about his Death Match stuff in Japan. The Cactus/Funk "Bomb Match" was on the first Japanese wrestling tape I ever watched. Due to the popularity of Funk & Cactus in the US, that show (IWA King of the Death Matches) was right up there with the 1994 J Cup as the most common introductions to Japanese wrestling for American wrestling fans.

Then he came to WWF as.....Chainsaw Charlie?  :eyepop:  O...K?  I guess? Alright, Chainsaw Charlie was weird and stupid. But I pretty much just ignored the gimmick and continued referring to him as Terry Funk. And it's not like he was any less middle aged and crazy. I LOVED his team with Cactus and was SUPER into their feud with the hated New Age Outlaws in a white hot heat "it's still real to me" kind of way. Their big Dumpster Match was right up there with Kane/Taker as the big draw for me at Wrestlemania 14. And I popped huge when my hardcore heroes won, only to be gutted after the travesty that transpired the next night on Raw. 

Then Cactus & Funk had a GREAT brawl on Raw (probably still a Top 10 Raw match for me tbh) supplemented by some stellar Austin commentary. Then Terrific Terry got phased out in teams with Scorpio & Bradshaw that went nowhere before leaving the company.

He briefly returned to ECW for a stupid angle that went nowhere. Then he wrestled at my local indie (MCW) right after I finally got my license, but I missed that show for reasons I forget. Then he showed up in WCW to renew his epic rivalry with Ric Flair. That was the WCW thing I followed the most online since....I can't even remember when. But it was definitely a long time. 

Around 1998 I finally watched the Funk/Flair I Quit Match for the first time. It was good. Maybe even great. But not the OMG GREATEST THING EVER my mind had built it up as. Great American Bash is better! But the Barbed Wire match with Sabu was most certainly NOT a disappointment. It is, in fact, my #1 ECW match. The Funk/Lawler Empty Arena Match was another legendary bout I finally got around to watching in 2000-01. It featured an all time great Funk performance. Lawler was honestly a broomstick in that match. Jerry f'n Lawler- A broomstick! This happened! More proof of The Funker's greatness. In recent years since joining PW, I watched his first retirement match in Japan. And learned he even made an album! Speaking of music, Funk had at least two great themes in Ennio Morricone's Man With A Harmonica and The Eagles' Desperado. He was also one of the better Hogan opponents. And I'd be a lousy Terry Funk fan if I neglected to mention his appearances in Baker favorites Roadhouse and Quantum Leap.  Terry Funk: A True Renaissance Man.

Funk worked a whole bunch of those early 2000s start up feds to lend them some credibility. The one that stands out in my mind is a September 2003 ROH match with CM Punk in Philly that I REALLY wanted to see live, but didn't for reasons I forget. Probably work or car related. Too bad. That would have been a ton of fun to see live with an all time Baker Guy going up against the hated CM Punk. Of course I bought the tape when it came out.

Then I finally did see him live again at the ECW Arena Hardcore Homecoming tribute show. Now I would never, ever boo The Funker. But Sabu was my/our guy that night for having recently overcome health issues. A year later the 62 year old Funker tore the house down at One Night Stand II in a mixed tag also involving Foley, Edge, Dreamer, Beulah, and Lita. 

Final Thoughts: Terry Funk is as Pro Wrestling as it gets. He wrestled from 1965-2017. He was revered on two continents. He was a top tier technician and a wild  brawler who had bloodbaths all over the world. He was a beloved face and a hated heel. He was a classic NWA Champion in the mid 70s and hardcore legend who epitomized ECW in the mid 90s. He wrestled in both Hulkamania Era and Attitude Era WWF. He was big in Memphis and had a classic feud with Flair 1989 NWA. He started doing moonsaults at age 50. Simply put, Terry Funk has seen and done it all in his career as an absolute legend.

#19 Triple H
11 Votes-308 Points
One #1 Vote
Last Time: #15



#20 William Regal
12 Votes-279 Points
High Vote: #11
Last Time: #88

Jun 5, 2020 3:51:31 GMT Baker said:

#20 William Regal

Dammit, PW. Just when I thought you had turned the corner after voting JBL your 27th favorite wrestler of all time, you give me this...this....NONSENSE.

Kilgore It looks like we have lost this fight. I fully expect midcard for life and boring for a decade Regal to be PW's #1 Favorite Wrestler if we do this again in five years.

Fine. I'll take SOME of the blame for this debacle. I felt obligated to include Regal on my list because of his awesome run as an annoying midcard heel in mid 90s WCW, and also his 2000-01 WWF run which was more or less a continuation of what he was doing during his WCW prime. So I threw him on the bottom of my list at #49.

For that reason, I suppose I could have lived with His Lordship finishing #49 overall. Better yet, everybody should have had him at #49 on their lists. Then he would have ended up with 40 points and well outside the Top 100. That I could definitely live with.

But #20! Above.....I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN! SO MANY MORE DESERVING LEGENDS! GRRRR!

William Regal didn’t even cross my mind when making my list.

But I also get it. I like him, always have. I understand why he would be high on a person’s favourites list. He’s not on mine, but I get it.

Wrestling is an art and art is subjective.

Unless you like Nia Jax or don’t like Finn Balor. Then you’re wrong.

Jun 5, 2020 4:01:15 GMT Baker said:

Kilgore It looks like we have lost this fight. I fully expect midcard for life and boring for a decade Regal to be PW's #1 Favorite Wrestler if we do this again in five years.

This world is bullshit. Honestly preferred the days when internet favorites were just dudes who would do flips until almost paralyzing themselves because the flavor of smarks that have elevated this mediocre bore to legend status is an outrage, and I will pretend the riots happening all over the world right now are because of this.

Kinda wished he finished a point up on Triple H to be honest. I would have enjoyed seeing this part of the thread go up in flames.

I do like Regal, he was great at what he did but his authority roles which I'm sure most people got exposed to weren't that incredible. A sure fire spot as a top five all time great TV champion would be the only list I would put Regal high on.

Regal boring? Why because he doesn't do flips and try to kill himself on the daily? He's a brawler and has a great character that he plays to perfection. He's the precursor to Wade Barrett, Pete Dunne, Walter and so many others.

I was the high vote for Regal and I don't regret it. This is a list of favorite wrestlers which as RT said is subjective. I've long admitted to not caring for the high flyers and backing the technicians and Regal is a technician and an underrated one at that. A great mind for the business (which is why he is still around) and also has great on air presence. Never at the top of the card, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's had a solid career full of classic matches. His feud with Benoit, 2009 feud with Christian and let's not forget the FCW feud with Ambrose that set Dean up for the Main Event. Not everyone is meant to be HBK.

EDIT: And just to blow your mind I had HHH under him at #26. 

Jun 5, 2020 6:12:21 GMT RT said:

Wrestling is an art and art is subjective.

Unless you like Nia Jax or don’t like Finn Balor. Then you’re wrong.

This feels like a personal shot directed at me.

-_-

I never understood how Baker, fan of old school wrestling and outlandish gimmicks, has nothing but disdain for Regal who often played a comically snooty British guy, and did it very well, while being a very competent brawler and technician in the ring.

We went through this a few years ago. Bake was all on board the Regal express from WCW circa what? 1993-96? Then he quit the WWF because that no good Hollywood Hogan triumphed over Ric Flair under questionable circumstances and Baker swore off the promotion for good. Fast forward to 1998 and through the grapevine learns his excellency is coming to the WWF. Marvelous! Then they turned him into the real man's man...and he didn't have the foresight to grow a curly moustache. Horrendous! Regal was gone but Bake is a charitable guy and was willing to write it off as Russo nonsense and perhaps one too many binges. We still have Regal vs. Ice Train to look back on. (Okay, maybe this came years later, but you get the gist)

Fast forward to 2000, Regal is all cleaned up and he's a dapper British person. Jolly good, imagine all the great Regal matches. Regal vs. Angle - now THAT'S cricket. Regal vs. Tazz? Why not? Regal vs. The Rock - choice! Except none of it was choice, not by a long shot. See Regal was just this authority figure and not a particularly interesting one. When he finally did wrestle, well he didn't wrestle at all. See he developed the power of the punch, a brass knuckle strategy and it bored Baker into submission. I'd like to think young Baker is a very patient guy, but after such a long build, it occured to Bake that it had been six god damn years since Regal had done anything of note. Six years too long and time just kept ticking.

Unamericans - zzzz
Eugene's caretaker - zzzzzzzz

OK so maybe in 2006, Regal had his moments as King BOOKAH'S liege, but they were BOOKAH's moments. Sure, Regal was there, but the Roadie was there with Double J, that doesn't make you a Baker favourite. Throw in some Pirate nonsense and a tag team with Dave Taylor that Baker can only just vaguely remember and none of that resonated.

2007-09 things are getting dicey. Regal has a brief flirtation as a top guy, but he lets his personal demons ruin it and by 2009 Bake hardly watched any ECW outside of Goldust.

Bake took a sabbatical and by the time he came back, Regal was semi-retired working matches in FCW. Bake acknowledged they were probably good matches but he had more pressing matters like washing his hair.

So in the wash, it's just three years of being a Baker favourite. Sure, you could add WCW in retrospect, Bake may grant that depending on which YouTube rabbit hole he's been down, but in real-time it was just three years followed by years of disappointment. This notion of Regal being an all-time great is completely lost on Bake. It's like coming out of a bomb shelter only to find the world has been brainwashed into thinking Oasis was the greatest rock and roll band of all-time.

It's utter bollocks and at best, they had a couple of good records before they pissed it all away. It kind of reminds you of somebody, right?

Is that right, or is this all just a projection?

:eyepop:

Either Pete is taking the piss or Baker and Big Pete are the same poster?

It just really stayed with me.

Bake tell the fine folks that 95% of that post is accurate and if anything I was being nice.

HHH I always thought was cool up until the reign of terror. The mist, the taking over the show with promos, going from pants to undies is always a right move and his music was always really great. Even the pre-my time instrumentals were "on point" as the kids say. He fell down my list a fucking lot (not that I submitted lmao) over the years, so I was expecting him somewhere towards the end but this seems fitting.

Regal I'm surprised and I'm kinda not. His KOTR throne image (click) is always a contender for post-title wins for me. It never went anywhere due to drugs, but at the same time it could've been a King Barrett-esque run so there's that. His matches with Cesaro and Ambrose were also really good. I like him, but not love. Was kinda weird how Ezekiel Jackson was the one to win the ECW title and not him, but I understand he was there to lead from the back.

William Regal (#27)
I think Regal is great, but I must admit, I'm a bit shocked at some the names I ranked him above. My British bias must have been strong when I wrote my list. Generally whatever Regal does is gold, but on the whole, I can't say I enjoy Regal in the same way that I enjoy Jay White or Toru Yano, who were both significantly further down my list. Then again, I've not liked either White or Yano for that long compared to Regal. Regal has been in my wrestling fandom for much longer.

However, I will present my case.

William Regal is one of the most versatile performers in history. He can play a vicious heel, a technical wizard, a snooty Englishman, a fiery babyface, a wily veteran, all to great effectiveness. Name a character archetype, and it's likely Regal has excelled at it. Sure, he was a career midcarder, but so were many great wrestlers. Regal was on the cusp of stardom sometime in the late 2000s. If my memory serves, he won King of the Ring, beating rising star CM Punk in the final, and was being poised for great things. Then he fucked it all up when his demons came back to haunt him. I'd like to imagine that if that never happened, he would have received a legendary JBL-esque push to stardom, and would have ranked even higher in PW's top wrestlers list.

While I am disappointed at how Regal's push turned out, I am far from disappointed at PW ranking him at #20. Bravo, bravo. Even I don't think he deserves to be ranked quite that high, but neither will I complain about it.

Here is a small sample of his comic genius. Decades before Zack Sabre Jr. was spreading the greatness of British slang to the global pro-wrestling audience, here's William Regal deriding the "fifty-pence tarts" and "bloody pillocks" of the world, the fans of that rubbish wrestler who placed #30 or something.



If you're not ready to fork out your US dollars, Aussie dollars, British pounds, Mexican pesos, Icelandic kronas, whatever, to watch William Regal vs Hulk Hogan after that piece of salesmanship, then you're deluding yourself.


Triple H (#31)
A lot of people give Triple H a hard time for his supposed backstage politicking, and his burials, and his big nose, but none of that matters to me. Even if that were true, it's a non-factor just as Benoit's actions does not factor into my view of him as a wrestler.

I honestly think Triple H is phenomenal as a character, as a worker, as a promo. He's never going to be the top star, but he is always going to be the top foil of the top star, as he has been throughout most of his career. He's a very believable worker, in the same way Regal is. He has great execution and lays his shit in. That's not to say he's stiff, just that his stuff looks good. He never does anything spectacular but he knows how to build a match, he knows how to let the babyface shine, and he has an incredible ability to keep himself looking strong, even in defeat. It is these exact same reasons I find Triple H to be a poor babyface. He essentially works his heel style, but he does a lot more offensively because he's the face, and he wins a lot, so he basically looks like a god, but not a very endearing one because his personality is super serious and not very likeable.

He has the GOAT entrance. The music, the wet hair, the spotlight, the perfectly-timed water spray, the pose. It's a perfect concoction of everything that makes a great pro-wrestling entrance.

Whatta post by Big Pete! He is mostly spot on. I'll probably still cover His Lordship in depth later tonight. Basically, he is the ultimate "tale of two halves" wrestler....

Loved him from 93-96. Liked him only slightly less during his early WWF run in 00-01. He was my absolute favorite WCW wrestler for over 2 years. GOAT TV Champ. WCW's Honkytonk Man. Great gimmick. Great sports entertainer. Gold on the mic. That theme! Those outfits! Those funny faces! The Blue Bloods! I rooted for him over Flair! I used to go around doing The Regal Walk while humming his theme! Would have made my Top 25 had he retired in, say, mid-2001, and I'd probably be PW's biggest Regal fan, even over iron maiden. 

Hated him with a passion after that. You ever meet a person where every single thing they do annoys you? That was Regal for me from some point in 2001 on. One of my absolute least favorites from about mid 2001-2009. Regal wouldn't crack my Top.....800 if he only wrestled from 2002-Whenever.

Kilgore is honestly the true Regal hater here. I'm a bipolar half-lover/half-hater. But I do tend to side with the haters these days since my more recent memories of Regal are sour ones (fwiw Michaels is the complete opposite). Regal is also the so-called "great wrestler" I get the least. Even when I liked him, it was 100% for sports entertainment reasons. I ALWAYS thought he was rubbish in the ring. His in ring "shittiness" is what made his TV Title reigns so brilliant to 90s me in much the same way "sucking" worked for the HTM. 

Jun 5, 2020 20:32:59 GMT Baker said:

Kilgore is honestly the true Regal hater here. I'm a bipolar half-lover/half-hater. But I do tend to side with the haters these days since my more recent memories of Regal are sour ones (fwiw Michaels is the complete opposite). Regal is also the so-called "great wrestler" I get the least. Even when I liked him, it was 100% for sports entertainment reasons. I ALWAYS thought he was rubbish in the ring. His in ring "shittiness" is what made his TV Title reigns so brilliant to 90s me in much the same way "sucking" worked for the HTM. 

Absolutely, and this is why I've always been more baffled at Regal's reputation than like even mad about it. He was Honky Tonk Man. I fucking hated the Honky Tonk Man. Whatever. I barely thought about it. I just knew to avoid Regal TV title matches because they would be boring and end in a time limit draw. I get it, the heel running the clock out, one might even say it's clever. But it sucks. Stunning Steve Austin is the GOAT TV Champion. 

But then I started reading that Regal was thought of as like a technical wizard. And versatile. And it felt like some elaborate internet prank. Is this ironic? No, people really think this? I think Regal is outright bad in the ring. He spams strikes, is super sloppy at mat wrestling (while often on the mat in a rest hold because his cardio is terrible), has by-the-numbers psychology (what Baker saw as solid sports entertainment, I saw as outdated cliches) and bumps like absolute shit. The fact that he's a great teacher makes sense to me. He's the 101 version of a wrestler, the absolute perfect teacher. Someone more advanced than him would be a horrible teacher. But this does not make a compelling wrestler to watch.

People that love Regal, that's cool. I don't mean to roast your guy. I just don't get it. I think he sucks. He's a good promo, horrible wrestler. No big deal.