Historically Speaking: Thoughts on the Top 100

“If history is a collection of events which come to life for us because of what some actors did, some recorders recorded, and some previewers decided to retell, a clinician attempting to interpret an historical event must first of all get the facts straight.” – Erik Erikson

The Opening Chapter
I’m going to break from my regular format this week to give my own two personal two cents on the controversial Top 100 Wrestlers feature that has become all the rage around these parts. I was a big part of compiling and writing up the list and am very proud of the final results. Granted I don’t agree with all the placements either, but as you can see there was a large pool of us voting at the time.

So just for fun I’m going to pull back the curtain a little bit to see a little of my thought process that went on with the entire thing.

My Personal Top 10
By the time you read this you will see that our staff voted Terry Funk, Kurt Angle, Ricky Steamboat, The Rock, Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan & Stone Cold Steve Austin in slots #10 – 2, and anyone reading this shouldn’t be surprised who our #1 pick is by process of elimination.

By that list alone (and the rest of the Top 25) it’s a clear indication that we the voters really favored athletic ability, good in-ring quality and “marking out” of our old favorites sometimes over overall logical impact. But that’s why making this list was fun, and why re-voting would produce vastly different results if done by the same group once again.

In fact for fun, here’s whom I put for my personal Top 10. (Warning: severe WWE markdom ahead.) From 10 – 1: Sting, Randy Savage, The Undertaker, The Rock, Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. I’m not a Hogan fan at all, and never have, but you cannot deny his impact on the concept of professional wrestling, especially for the era we defined. I also think Andre the Giant’s impact was severely underrated but by our voting timeframe he was already on the decline so I can understand his lower rating.

As for Funk, Steamboat, Angle and Benoit; they would make my Top 20 but I do question their placement here. But I know with Funk and Steamboat it’s just the WWE mark in me coming out.

Mainstream Top 10
Now on a completely different tangent, the Pulse list was created by wrestling nerds for the enjoyment, debate and controversy of other wrestling nerds. But if this were a list for Top mainstream wrestlers (i.e. walk down the street and ask someone to name a pro wrestler) I think the list would be much different.

I think a Top 10 in that regard would probably go something like this. From 10 – 1: The Ultimate Warrior, Goldberg, Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, “The Macho Man,” Andre the Giant, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, The Rock and finally Hulk Hogan. Of course this list would feature those names for a variety of reasons, from fan markdown (like Warrior and Macho Man) to big-time popularity (like Goldberg and Austin) to industry transcending fame (like Andre, Hogan and The Rock) and of course to morose (Benoit).

Honorable mention would have to go to team concepts like the nWo, DX and The Four Horsemen, depending on your age an/or geographical location.

Quite a different list than what us smark snobs came up with.

Honorable Mention
And now to pull back the curtain I want to give you all a look at those “honorable mentions,” those wrestlers mentioned in the voting process but didn’t quite garner enough support to make the elite list, and maybe a little insight into why.

Antonio Inoki – would’ve made the list easily, but it was decided to limit the nominees to wrestlers who made the most of their impact on US and Canadian soil. This also explains the absence of other such puro legends like Tiger Mask I, Misawa, Kobashi and the others you can think of.
Bruiser Brody – Sadly he was murdered too soon to make a huge national impact, but probably should have still been included in the bottom rung over guys like Paul London, Kidman or Homicide.
Chyna – I was all for her inclusion, but was pretty much laughed out of it. She definitely made it further actually playing with the boys than any other female did; despite the trainwreck she has become. Trish Stratus was the gal that our staff got behind for inclusion here, which actually surprised me greatly.
Dory Funk, Jr. – Most of his best stuff was before our voting period, which also explains guys like Sammartino, Jack Brisco and others.
The Iron Sheik – Although his usefulness was pretty much over by 1985, he was partially responsible for helping to usher in the “Hulkamania” era and he should be remembered for that; if not for his insane Internet ramblings of today.
The Junkyard Dog – See Sheik above in regards to usefulness within the timeline.
Ken Shamrock – Wasn’t the big star that everyone hoped/expected/wanted him to be in the wrestling business.
The Ortons – Bob was one of those who was always good, but never got the push and kind of was always in the background. Randy was overlooked because a lot of guys dislike him, and we knew he still had a lot of career left in him so that he would be included later. In hindsight it was absolutely stupid that he wasn’t included at all, especially being guys like Cena and all the top Ring of Honor guys of the current era got slots.
Sean Waltman – I also personally think this one was a glaring oversight. As the Lightning Kid he and Jerry Lynn brought some crazy cruiserweight sh!t to Midwestern audiences and then was a part of the revolutionary backstage Kliq, the nWo and DX. Talk about always being in the right place at the right time. I think the rampant hatred of him got the best of people’s voting logic.
Sid – Another Internet punch line that sadly got gravely overlooked for smark favorites like Homicide, Paul London or Lance Storm.
Stevie Richards – An Internet fanboy fav but really didn’t deserve a spot here.
Tajiri and Ultimo Dragon – Two puro stars who did make enough of an impact on US soil to get nominations, but Jushin Liger and The Great Muta were our “token Japanese guys who made good in the US.”

There was also a lot of ‘80s and ‘90s WWF and WCW guys that we all grew up with and got nods from nostalgia and their varying levels of success but rightfully weren’t included; guys like The Big Boss Man, “Earthquake” John Tenta, Fatu, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, JBL, The One Man Gang, Mike Rotunda (or is it Rotundo), Perry Saturn, Terry Taylor and Yokozuna. Even in that list a strong case for at least some of them could have been made for getting a low spot here.

As for tag teams, we also decided early on that we would look at wrestlers as individuals and perhaps explore the idea of a tag team list later. Hence why Ax & Smash of Demolition, Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley, Road Warriors Hawk & Animal and The Road Dogg & Billy Gunn were nowhere to be found. Although Road Dogg, Gunn and either Road Warrior probably could have argued their way into the bottom of the list.

Some teams were a little more successful in gaining a foothold, including both British Bulldogs (who were admittedly much greater separate than together), The Brain Busters, The Hardy Boyz, two Von Erich brothers, two Freebirds and surprisingly both Eaton & Lane of the Midnight Express, although I really, really question Lane’s induction. Not surprisingly only Scott Steiner made the list as he easily became the “Shawn Michaels” of the Steiner Brothers, as well as only Ricky Morton of the Rock ‘n’ Rolls, as his ability to sell is so good that the formula was unofficially been named after him.

Trust if a tag list surfaces sometime expect all those above-mentioned teams to be right there at the top.

The Perspective
For me this list was incredibly fun for me to be a part of. The concept and voting and everything began shortly after I joined IP and was incredibly excited to be a part of it. The list has been a labor of love for me and I think I can speak for the staff that the comments and heated discussion from the readers has made it all worth it.

For this week the vault is closed…

Linked to the Pulse
It’s the Top 5 of the Top 100: #5, #4, and #3.

This Day in History
I figured if we are talking history around here we should pay homage to what has happened on this very day in the years gone by. It will either make you long for the old days or be happy for what we have now.

1988 – Andre the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF Heavyweight title
1988 – Andre the Giant was stripped of the WWF Title for attempting to transfer it to Ted DiBiase
2000 – Johnny Kashmere & Robby Mireno defeated Midknight & Diablos Macabre for the Combat Zone Wrestling Tag Team Titles
2001 – Rick Steiner defeated Shane Douglas for the WCW U.S. Heavyweight title
1975 – JL Storm was born
1984 – El Santo died of a heart attack at 67

The Assignment
It’s important to know your history to know where you have come from and where you are going. Back when Nova was in charge of the WWE developmental system he implemented mandatory history assignments for the students of the developmental territories so they would know pro wrestling’s history and they would learn just how many moves Nova created and apparently the best ways to get on-line prescriptions. I feel Nova had a great idea there and every week I will assign a book or DVD for you to check out and learn from. They are not only educational, but very entertaining.

Yeah I kinda forgot all about that “Canadians” book. You might get a review of it next time. (I literally just kept that there from my article two weeks ago; going on a month of promises now.)

For more relevant, exciting and interesting wrestling information from your truly, check out my paying gig over at Examiner.com.