Top 10 of all time.

To avoid the podcast thread getting derailed, I thought we could have a discussion here about our personal top 10's.

Picking a best of all time is difficult as the industry changes so much each generation. It may be easier to whittle down a top 5 of each era than just 10 of all time, but I like a challenge.

You can base your pics on whatever criteria you want; mic skills, in ring ability, crowd interaction, story telling, drawing power, or even haircuts or theme music. Opinions are all subjective, dont be afraid of ridicule. Its all opinion based. You dont need to give any reasons either.

Mine (in no order).

The Undertaker
Stone Cold
Shawn Michaels
Bret Hart
Kurt Angle
Ric Flair
Brock Lesnar
The Rock
Hulk Hogan
Mr McMahon

The only one I feel the need to explain is Vinny. Wasnt good in the ring, but he'd get my vote for best heel of all time.

It seems like this is a WWE list, or at least athletes who had their best / biggest run in WWE.  But it feels wrong for me just to have a WWE list.  So, I'm going to do a short personal "others" list and then a "WWE" one.

Others

Dynamite Kid
Tiger Mask
Sting
Vader
The Steiners

WWE

Steve Austin
Chris Benoit
Brock Lesnar
Bret Hart
HBK
Eddie Guerrero
Kurt Angle
Edge
The Undertaker
The Rock
HHH

EDIT: Selections purely personal, based on how much I enjoyed their in-ring work.

Depends if you're tlaking just personal preference or overall best ever 10. Cos Flair doesn't hold a massive place in my heart, nor do many from WCW, yet I'd recognise Flair as a contender for #1

Bret Hart
HHH
HBK
Stone cold
The Rock
Goldberg
Ultimate Warrior
Mr Perfect
Rick Rude
British Bulldog

Personal:

1. HBK
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin
3. Chris Jerico (pre jobber)
4. The Rock (original run)
5. Dean Ambrose
6. Brian Pillman
7. Roddy Piper
8. CM Punk
9. Undertaker (when full-time)
10. ManKind/Cactus Jack (not Dude Love)

Wow not a single mention of Randy Savage.

Mine in no particular order –

Randy Savage
Shawn Michaels
Stone Cold
Ultimate Warrior
CM Punk
The Undertaker
Brock Lesnar
The Rock
Triple H
Chris Jericho

Mr H wrote:Wow not a single mention of Randy Savage.

Mine in no particular order –

Randy Savage
Shawn Michaels
Stone Cold
Ultimate Warrior
CM Punk
The Undertaker
Brock Lesnar
The Rock
Triple H
Chris Jericho

 
Ws gonna say Randy Savage.
he would probably be 11 for me.

Kurt Angle
Randy Savage
Ted Dibiase (sr!) (not everyone has to be a main event player to be great)
Stone Cold
Vader (best monster heel ever imo)
Hulk Hogan
The Ultimate Warrior
The Undertaker
Edge & Christian (as a team)
HHH

This is based on a variety of reasons. Some are for all round, contribution to the business, being better than their gimmick and position merit etc)

Most are interchangeable in their position other than the top 2

Adam D wrote:Kurt Angle

Vader (best monster heel ever imo)

Absolutely. He looked like he could hurt you and apparently frequently did. When I was young and innocent in the ways of how wrestlers got a push, I can remember being peed every PPV that he didn't have a title shot.

Savage just missed my top 10. He'd make top 12 handily.

Jericho is another who just missed my list. The only person better than Jericho on the mic at the time was The Rock.

In no particular order:

Steve Austin
The Rock
Bret Hart
The Undertaker
British Bulldog
Triple H
John Cena
Randy Orton
Eddie Guerrero
Bray Wyatt

Its that grey area of how you define 'monster heel' again. If you can accept Brock Lesnar in that category then he wins every day of the week for me.

Bray Wyatt?!

Sting
Orton
The Rock
Rob van Dam
Chris Jericho
Eddie Guerrero
Shawn Michaels
Brock
Angle
Christian

Orton, RVD, Christian?!

Bray Wyatt?!

WTF is life.

I can kinda understand Orton or Christian being in someone's personal preference top ten, especially someone of 19 years, but Wyatt is a bit early, isnt he?

That's not to say I like Christian, in fact both him and Orton were in one of my least favourite feuds ever. One this forum seemed to love.

But, who am I to judge when I havent posted my own.

Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E
Big E

Ok maybe it is a bit early for Wyatt but I f*cking love him!!! All he has to do is stay in the WWE and he will end up being one of my fave of all time...

Foley
Taker
HBK
The Rock
Stone Cold
Hogan
Punk
Bret Hart
Lesnar
Savage

Half of that is mixed with how much I enjoyed watching them when I was a kid. I hate it, but I was a Hulkamaniac as a little one. I have had 3 stages of watching WWE. Watching tapes as a kid of the late 80s early 90s/Late Attitude Era/2011 to now. I'll edit this later with a top ten from each period

EARLY:

Hogan
Taker
HBK
Bret
Savage
Bulldog
Piper
Andre
Jake
Woryah

Late 90's early 00's

Foley
Taker
Rock
Austin
Jericho
Kane
The Hardy Boyz
The APA
Kurt Angle
HHH

From 2011

Punk
Ziggler
The Shield
Taker
Lesnar
Bryan
Cody Rhodes
Cesaro
Orton
Kane

Mankind/Cactus Jack
Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley
Kurt Angle
Chris Jericho
Stone Cold Steve Austin
CM Punk
Shawn Michaels
Brock Lesnar
Undertaker
Triple H

Poopie I forgot about Foley. My list might need revised.

I nearly went with Scott Steiner instead of Christian, but I'm pretty sure I only liked him because he looked like a cartoon, and had a cool beanie

Stone Cold Steve Austin
HBK
The Rock
Bret Hart
HHH
The Undertaker
Ric Flair
Hulk Hogan
CM Punk
Edge

John Cena
The Rock
Chris Jericho
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Shawn Michaels
Triple H
CM Punk
The Undertaker
Brock Lesnar
Edge

The Rock
Ric Flair
Kurt Angle
Shawn Michaels
Vader
Brock Lesnar
Steve Austin
Christopher Daniels
Rick Rude
Mr Perfect

Mine would be in no particular order from the times ive watched wrestling

Rowdy Roddy Piper
Mr Perfect
The Rock
Stone Cole Steve Austin
Owen Hart
Kurt Angle
HBK
Eddie Guerrero
William Regal
The Dudley Boyz ( technically cheating but the best team ever imo)

Not Goldust?

I was very tempted to have Goldust in my top ten since 2011. Think his comeback work has been exceptional

Tugboat - drew huge gates in the early 90s
Kofi Kingston - similar influence on wrestling that Muhammad Ali had on boxing
Sid - set Wrestlemania buyrate records
Mike von Erich - redefined standards in modern pro wrestling
Headbanger Mosh - 27 NWA world title reigns
Michael Tarver - Wrestling Observer hall of fame inductee five years in succession
Sonny Siaki - trained Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Lou Thesz and Grandmaster Sexay
Dino Bravo - only man to headline both Starrcade and Wrestlemania
Georg Hackenschmidt - former ECW tag team champion with Sign Guy Dudley
Jimmy Wang Yang - it was really funny because he was chinese or something but he thought he was a cowboy

Randy Savage
Shawn Michaels
The Ultimate Warrior
Roddy Piper
Brock Lesnar
Jake Roberts
Kurt Angle
Bret Hart
Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Rock

crippledtart wrote:Tugboat - drew huge gates in the early 90s
Kofi Kingston - similar influence on wrestling that Muhammad Ali had on boxing
Sid - set Wrestlemania buyrate records
Mike von Erich - redefined standards in modern pro wrestling
Headbanger Mosh - 27 NWA world title reigns
Michael Tarver - Wrestling Observer hall of fame inductee five years in succession
Sonny Siaki - trained Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Lou Thesz and Grandmaster Sexay
Dino Bravo - only man to headline both Starrcade and Wrestlemania
Georg Hackenschmidt - former ECW tag team champion with Sign Guy Dudley
Jimmy Wang Yang - it was really funny because he was chinese or something but he thought he was a cowboy

Adam emailed you his list then

In no order

Randy Savage
Undertaker
Eddie Guerrero
Shawn Michaels
Bret Hart
Sting
Ultimate Warrior
Hulk Hogan
The Rock
CM Punk

Obviously when it comes to looking at the best of all time, clearly drawing is the be all and end all, and you're looking at the likes of Hogan, Flair and Austin at the top, but that's dull and the many convolutions of scale and time periods make my head hurt, so disregarding drawing power my top 10 would be

1) Ric Flair
2) Shawn Michaels
3) Randy Savage
4) Steve Austin
5) Terry Funk
6) Kurt Angle
7) Kenta Kobiashi
8) Mick Foley
9) Eddie Guerrero (I'm biased as you'll see later)
10) Daniel Bryan Danielson

In terms of my top 10 favorites though

1) Eddie Guerrero
2) Kurt Angle
3) Mick Foley
4) Daniel Bryan Danielson
5) Tomohiro Ishii
6) Ric Flair
7) Edge
8) Samoa Joe
9) Shinjiro Otani
10) Mad Man Manson

entirely personal and by no means the greatest performers in WWE/wrestling history

-HBK
-Stone Cold
-Taker
-Goldberg
-Y2J
-The Rock
-Kurt Angle
-Mick Foley (and all incarnations thereof)
-William Regal
-Goldust

most of these are people who i grew up loving, a few are ones whose abilities and love of the business i have come to admire within the past couple of years, and in that latter catagory are the likes of Lance Storm, Guerrero, Jamie Noble and more

In no particular order,

Shawn Michaels,
Eddie Guerrero,
Edge,
Undertaker,
HHH,
C M Punk,
Kurt Angle,
Daniel Bryan,
Randy Savage,
Stone Cold Steve Austin,

HBK
Kurt Angle
HHH
The Rock
Jericho
Lesnar
Punk
Stone Cold
Original Masked Kane
Mick Foley

Personal Top 10

1. Shawn Michaels
2. Stone Cold
3. Undertaker
4. Kurt Angle
5. Ric Flair
6. HHH
7. Chris Jericho
8. Daniel Bryan
9. Edge
10. Eddie Guerrerro

Adam D wrote:Kurt Angle
Randy Savage
Ted Dibiase (sr!) (not everyone has to be a main event player to be great)
Stone Cold
Vader (best monster heel ever imo)
Hulk Hogan
The Ultimate Warrior
The Undertaker
Edge & Christian (as a team)
HHH

This is based on a variety of reasons. Some are for all round, contribution to the business, being better than their gimmick and position merit etc)

Most are interchangeable in their position other than the top 2

NO ECW ZOMBIE???

I have Vickie just above Eddie at number 324

My personal top ten, in order, off the top of my head. Although 2nd to 5th could all be swapped round with each other at certain points in their careers.

1 - Shawn Michaels
2 - The Rock
3 - Triple H
4 - Stone Cold
5 - Kurt Angle
6 - Undertaker
7 - Eddie Guerrero
8 - Chris Benoit
9 - Mick Foley
10 - Brock Lesnar

My top ten, in no particular order:

1  Bret Hart
2  Mr Perfect
3  Owen Hart
4  Randy Savage
5  Stone Cold
6  The Rock
7  Chris Jericho
8  The Undertaker
9  Ted DiBiase Snr
10 New Age Outlaws (technically cheating with a tag team, but I loved them!)

In no particular order:

Triple H
Shawn Michaels
Edge
Bret Hart
Mick Foley
Ric Flair
Terry Funk
Harley Race
Ricky Steamboat
Undertaker

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Not Goldust?

i love golddust but in my top 10 the 10 ive picked were/are better than him

Good to see Lesnar making many of your top 10 lists. My favourite of all time. Was the rock but didn't really enjoy his last run. My top 3 personal favourites at their peak who've really drawn me into and 'back' into wrestling:

The Rock
Lesnar
Punk

No Dink and Doink from anyone?!

in terms of how big they were and how important they were to the buisness i'd say

Hogan
Flair
Sting
Savage
Rock
Austin
HHH
Michaels
Bret Hart
Undertaker
Dusty Rhodes