The Greatest Wrestler of All Time
The Wrestling Blog will shortly be having a 64-man ‘best wrestler ever’ tournament, running in concert with US college basketball’s March Madness tourney.
I think this is a great idea. This kind of thing is almost always a lot of fun. I know, however, that before it is over this March Madness poll is going to end up ticking me off.
First of all, there’s no fair way of determining the Greatest Wrestler of All Time, simply because there is very little easily available footage of some of the genuinely great wrestlers of the past. The task is further complicated by the simple fact that the majority of fans participating in the poll have seen far more footage of US-based corporate-owned mainstream wrestling than of lucha libre, puroresu, European, old school, or indy wrestling. I’m pretty crazy about many different kinds of wrestling, and I think that it’s a damn shame that the Final Four – and probably the Sweet Sixteen – is likely going to be composed entirely of names familiar from WWE, WCW, and TNA TV shows. I’m sure that everyone reading this column is already well aware that there have been many great wrestlers who have never worked for any of those promotions.
My Sweet Sixteen
When I really think about it, I am able to come up with only 18 wrestlers that I believe deserve serious consideration for the title of Greatest Pro Wrestler of the Modern Era. These are not my eighteen favourite wrestlers, rather, they are the group that, in my opinion, best exemplify the qualities that I feel go into making a wrestler great. The categories people might consider here would include things like historical importance, great matches, varied skill sets, longevity, audience connection, innovation, and so on. Most important to me, though, is an intangible quality that I think of as the aura of greatness. I’d rather look at wrestlers who were the very best at one aspect than at wrestlers who were merely excellent at several aspects.
Each of the following wrestlers has, in one way or another, been the very best at what they do over a significant period of time. Each has had a profound effect on the wrestlers who have followed after them. The two runners up were Jaguar Yokota, the greatest Joshi wrestler of the 1980s, and the late Eddie Guererro.
In alphabetical order:
Chris Benoit: It’s actually possible that no one, in the entire history of Pro wrestling, has been more totally dedicated to being the best than this man. He has been so good, and so widely praised, for so long that it’s become easy to take him for granted. People may criticise Benoit for not being a super-charismatic cartoon character, but few will even try to deny that he is the greatest North American in-ring wrestler of his generation.
Dynamite Kid: This is the man who first successfully combined European, Japanese, Mexican, and American styles. His stiff, hard-bumping style took a tremendous toll on his body, but he kept going until he was literally unable to go any more. Dyno’s innovation, dedication, and willingness to take risks set a new standard that few others could even attempt to match.
Ric Flair: He was the consummate NWA World Heavyweight Champion back when that really meant something. Flair toured the world for years on end, making every wrestler who stepped into the ring with him look like a million bucks. His look, his character, his charisma, his promos, and his in-ring excellence exemplified everything that his title belt stood for.
Terry Funk: He has been everywhere, and he has done everything. He was a great pure wrestler, a great brawler, and an innovator of the Death Match style. He was one of the very first Americans to wrestle as a hero in Japan. He has managed to remain a relevant and compelling star no matter how the wrestling landscape changed around him for almost forty years.
Volk Han: The mat wrestling connoisseur’s choice, Han wrestled relatively few matches in his career but very nearly every one of them was a gem. He was the star of Akira Maeda’s worked shoot style promotion, RINGS. Not everyone gets his style of wrestling, but those who do consider Han the world’s most sublime master of the art of working towards a submission.
Bret Hart: His in-ring greatness was what took WWF wrestling out of the cartoon era and into the place where a wrestler who looked like a normal human being could be taken seriously as World Heavyweight Champion. Like his fellow Stampede Wrestling alumni Chris Benoit and Dynamite Kid, Bret Hart had a real gift for bringing out the best in other wrestlers. He was an absolute master of subtle in-ring storytelling.
El Hijo del Santo: There have been marginally better in-ring wrestlers in the history of Lucha Libre. Santito’s sometime rival and partner Negro Casas, for exmple. No other modern luchadore, however, can touch the mystique and crowd connection of the man in the silver mask.
Hulk Hogan: His star power and charisma helped wrestling cross over into mainstream American consciousness in the 1980s. He was never a great ring technician, but he never needed to be.
Akira Hokuto: She is probably the very best female wrestler of all time. Her peak period was relatively short, as the high-risk style that she worked ended up taking a terrible toll on her body. During that brief period, however, Hokuto put on a lifetime’s worth of great matches.
Toshiaki Kawada: A huge number of people, myself included, prefer 1990s All Japan Kings Road Style to any other kind of wrestling. Kawada was the best heel, the best striker, and for many people the best wrestler who ever worked that style.
Kenta Kobashi: A huge number of people, myself included, prefer 1990s All Japan Kings Road Style to any other kind of wrestling. Kobashi arguably has the most exciting offense of anyone who has ever worked that style, and he’s still putting on great matches in 2006.
Jushin “Thunder” Lyger: However you spell his name, there is no debating that Liger was the king of 1990s NJPW Jr. Heavyweight. Style wrestling. He is a great flyer, striker, mat wrestler, seller, bumper, and in-ring storyteller. He does everything as well as it can be done, and he’s able to adjust his style to match almost any opponent or circumstance.
Mitsuharu Misawa: A huge number of people, myself included, prefer 1990s All Japan Kings Road Style to any other kind of wrestling. Misawa was the best face, the biggest risk-taker, and for many people the best wrestler who ever worked that style.
Nobuhiko Takada: he was one of the very best of the 1980s style NJPW Jr. Heavyweights, then he went on to become the absolute king of worked shoot style. Yamazaki might have been the greater striker, and Han was better on the mat, but nobody combined the two with charisma and presence as well as Takada did.
Lou Thesz: There’s quite a bit of footage of Thesz around, you just have to know where to look. As far as I can tell, he damn near deserves his untouchable reputation for greatness. He was certainly the definitive champion of his generation.
Jumbo Tsuruta: For me, it’s a no-brainer. Tsuruta is without question my personal pick for The Greatest Wrestler of All Time.
For me, it’s partly in the way that Jumbo handled the responsibility of being AJPW’s ace at a time when the promotion’s fans took their wrestling with a deep kind of seriousness. If I can recommend one match that demonstrates this to perfection for me, it’s Jumbo vs. Terry Funk from 1976, when Jumbo had assumed the mantle, but arguably had not yet proved that he merited it. The connection between Jumbo and his fans in this match is profound, and, to me at least, profoundly moving. The people really believe in Jumbo, and he understands that. It’s not just that they want a Japanese guy to hold the NWA title, it’s that they truly believe that Jumbo is on his way to being the best, and they believe that he can prove it with a win, and they believe that Jumbo is capable of fulfilling his destiny and all of their dreams by taking the title on this night.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s about belief.
What makes this match more than just another good, old school, two out of three falls match is that, through his facial expressions and body language, Jumbo clearly communicates that he is giving absolutely everything that he can possibly give to make the dream come true. It helps, of course, that he has Terry Funk in the ring with him, and Terry apparently understands what this match means to the fans, and he finds subtle (and then, later, less subtle) ways of showing that he, the champ, needs to go beyond the bounds of what is entirely fair and sporting in order to hold on to his belt. It’s not about a heel vs. a face, it’s about doing everything one can to either get or keep the belt, which at that point still meant (not just something but) everything.
At the end, the silence of the crowd mixes with the expressions on the wrestler’s faces, and the way they carry themselves, to tell a complete story that is full of very real human emotions.
What it is about Jumbo is that he had that level of connection with the crowd, and with it that kind of responsibility and pressure… and instead of melting down he handled it with grace and alacrity. It’s the sense that one is watching someone do what they were born to do.
Then, when the time comes to begin passing the torch to the next man to carry it, there is a very right and genuine of manliness about the way it is all handled. Misawa needs to slap Jumbo right in the face, in the same way we all need to stand up to our own fathers one day. Jumbo needs to knock Misawa down and hurt him back, because a real man does not just roll over and accept the inevitable in such a situation. When Misawa wins, Jumbo doesn’t throw a tantrum, nor does he hug Misawa and raise his hand. He doesn’t need to grab his share of the spotlight. His expression speaks of being unhappy with the result but acknowledging like a man that it had to happen some day.
Jumbo Tsuruta the wrestling character is not a superhero, he is a real man that was strong enough and gifted enough to challenge himself to be the very best, to live up to his own expectations, and to get an entire generation believing in him. He isn’t Superman, he is Frank Miller’s Batman: If we had the same drive and the same motivation, the same opportunities and advantages, we could have been him, even with our flaws and our dark side.
On top of that, there is the legendary stiffness, the gift for telling stories in the ring, the superb bumping, the combination of grace and fluidity with raw-boned toughness…
For me, though, the key to Jumbo going beyond mere greatness is in the depth of emotion that he could communicate through his stance and expression, and in the palpable sense that people believed in him absolutely because he believed in himself absolutely.
I would love to show you all the Terry Funk vs. Jumbo 2/3 falls match, but youtube is no longer allowing clips that last longer than ten minutes. As a special treat, though, here is a Jumbo vs. Bruiser Brody match that I posted before those limits went into effect. It’s not a great Jumbo match, but it is a wonderful brawl that shows how well Jumbo could adjust his style to accommodate other wrestlers, and it does tell a similar story to the Funk match, in a way. I’m pretty sure David Ditch, who is definitlely another writer who has long held Jumbo Tsuruta in high esteem, has the 2/3 falls match posted on his site. Read the always-excellent Puroresu Pulse for more details.
If you enjoy the match (or this column), or even if you don’t, I’ve got a couple of things to ask of you.
Please write to me here. and tell me about it…
And PLEASE vote for Jumbo once The Wrestling Blog’s March Madness Tourney begins!
Thanks for reading!
