The 411 Wrestling Top 5 8.08.12: Week 183 – Top Five WWE Stars

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions.

So, on to this week’s topic…

TOP 5 WWE STARS

Staff were asked to name who they thought were the top 5 most important stars in the history of the “WWWF – WWF – WWE.”

Jake St-Pierre
HM: Shawn Michaels – He’s the best in ring performer of all time, which was proven throughout his career. So was his Diva-esque personality, but we didn’t have to worry about that in the 2000’s fortunately.
HM: Triple H – Say what you will about his politics, he’s been apart of some of the most important moments in wrestling history.
HM: Chris Jericho – One of the best of all time, whether he was putting over Evan Bourne or beating Steve Austin to become the first Undisputed champ.

5. Bret Hart – I debated the number five spot for a while, so I decided to go with Bret Hart mainly out of bias. He’s one of the best wrestlers to ever step in the ring and he helped carry the WWF through a tumultuous 1997 until Survivor Series, where he was infamously screwed by Vince McMahon and the Clique. He also had an excellent heel run as the American hater and he helped make Steve Austin into the juggernaut he would become. He was also a very good ambassador for the WWF during the steroid trial and one of the first WWF champions to ever let his ring work speak for itself. A lot of his career is marred because of the feud with Shawn Michaels and that’s not fair, because one, that reconciliation became one of the best Raw moments ever and two, he was one of the best, most loyal wrestlers in WWE/F history.

4. Hulk Hogan – I think the guy is a major cock in real life but when it comes to wrestling in the 80’s, no one came close to the Hulkster. He had unmatchable charisma and his catchphrases are still (unfortunately) said today, mostly by Hogan himself. He almost single handedly brought pro wrestling to the mainstream and honestly, the dude (see what I did there?) would be number one if he put more guys over. But as it is, he still has a big fanbase that remembers what he was in the 80’s and early 90’s and for that, he deserves a spot on this list.

3. John Cena – Understandably this is more than likely an unpopular choice, but let’s be real here. This guy carried the ‘E through some uninteresting periods of time whether it be the Benoit tragedy or just general disinterest in the product. No question that Cena is a polarizing figure but there’s also no doubt that he works his ass off every single time he goes out there. You may not like his character or in-ring flaws, but outside the ring Cena is one hell of a guy, evidenced by the hundreds of wishes that he’s granted for sick children and the way he carries himself overall. John Cena is extremely important to the landscape of WWE and has been for years. It’s too bad a lot of wrestling fans are too stupid, stubborn, or shallow to see that.

2. The Rock – It’s quite hard to argue that The Rock wasn’t one of the best talkers of all time. He could have the crowd in the palm of his hands any time he wanted and nearly based on that, he became the WWF’s number 2 guy during the height of the Attitude Era. He wasn’t the best in the ring by any means, but Rocky’s charisma was almost enough on its own. He also never had a problem putting anyone over, as evidenced by his clean losses against Brock Lesnar, Steve Austin, and others. He’s also a pretty decent actor. Not something many wrestlers *coughCenaSteveAustincough* can say.

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin – The leader of the era that brought more new wrestling fans than ever before, Stone Cold should be in every wrestling fan’s top 5. He had tremendous charisma, he was excellent on the mic, and even with a career shortening neck injury he was one of the best wrestlers to ever step between the ropes. He had the best feud of all time with Bret Hart in 1997 which made him in the ring, he cut that famous promo at KOTR ’96 that made him outside of it, and his spot atop the company was cemented with his feud with the insane one himself, Vince McMahon. I guess you could argue Hulk Hogan in this spot, but I wasn’t even alive during Hogan’s peak so I feel Stone Cold was more important to me as a wrestling fan and I also believe wrestling as whole, just because of how deep in the doldrums WWF was before Austin really blew up.

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Shawn S. Lealos
HM: Ricky Steamboat – Dumb people like to throw around the term “vanilla midget.” Ricky Steamboat (5’1″0) made it possible for these men to make it in the WWE today. Without Steamboat, Shawn Michaels might never have gotten his shot.
HM: Macho Man Randy Savage – Randy Savage set the template for every colorful bad guy wrestling today.
HM: Rowdy Roddy Piper – Without a great villain, there cannot be a superhero. Without Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan could never have rebuilt the WWF.

5. Shawn Michaels – I mentioned “Vanilla Midgets” and a lot of people just like to call smaller wrestlers who actually put on great matches as a vanilla midget. Guys like Daniel Bryan (5’10”) and CM Punk (6’2″) get labeled this all the time. People who make those claims are idiots. Shawn Michaels is not a little guy, at 6’1″, but he is small compared to a lot of the men he has beaten. He is smaller than The Undertaker, Triple H, Kevin Nash and more but he always found a way to beat them. Sure, the WWE was going downhill while Shawn was carrying the ball but that does not diminish his accomplishments in the ring. Shawn proved that a high flying, technical wrestling little guy could win any match. Shawn changed wrestling from a big man’s sport into an exciting one.

4. The Rock – The Rock was pretty much the most popular wrestler in the WWE, whether he was a good or bad guy. He made people tune in just to see what he was going to say and could really go in the ring. He was also charismatic and brought in non-fans, who loved everything about the guy. Since “retiring” from pro wrestling, he has become a pretty great movie star, has an entire new legion of fans and brings new fans to the WWE every time he appears. He broke out of being just a ‘rassler and is a good reason people still tune in to wrestling today.

3. Bruno Sammartino – The WWF was growing as a federation and was getting bigger and bigger as time went on. While names like Superstar Billy Graham were there to add color, it was world champion Bruno Sammartino that put the butts in the seats. Bruno helped bring in the same kind of people who loved Steve Austin years later, regular guys who loved to watch a real man fight. Yes, Hulk Hogan was the reason it finally exploded but I don’t think the WWF could have competed at that level if not for the groundwork set by Sammartino.

2. Stone Cold Steve Austin – WCW was kicking the crap out of the WWE every week until something magical happened. Stone Cold Steve Austin caught on with the crowd after he fought Bret Hart at WrestleMania and suddenly there was something in the promotion worth watching every week on TV. I love Shawn Michaels but when the nWo showed up in WCW nothing in the WWE mattered anymore. Then Austin showed up and changed the landscape of wrestling. If Eric Bischoff had never fired Austin, WCW might have been the one to buy the WWE.

1. Hulk Hogan – Yes, the Attitude Era did a lot for the WWE in terms of helping them be the company they are today but it would not have been possible without Hulk Hogan. Hogan took the bull by the horns in the ‘80s and made professional wrestling cool and fun to watch for the first time in history. He main evented the biggest event in company history and then set an outdoor attendance record two years later. If not for Hulk Hogan, there would not be a WrestleMania today and the NWA might have even overtaken it. Hulk Hogan, like him or not, is the reason we watch wrestling today.

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MICHAEL WEYER
HM: Bruno Sammartino – His seven-year reign as champion put WWWF on the map and forged the company’s future success.
HM: Pedro Morales – He brought in huge business as a minority champion and became an icon to fans in the process with his great style.
HM: The Rock – He boosted his wrestling fame to Hollywood stardom but his recent return proves how fans never forget his place in the company.

5. The Undertaker – What looked to be yet another stupid 1990’s gimmick has become one of the true icons of WWE. The Undertaker may be mocked at times for his ring work but his charisma and fame more than make up for it. Nothing gets a crowd popping like the sound of that bell going off and the arena going dark. He has dominated in various shows, won numerous titles and become a major face of the company in promos and video games. The Streak just adds to it as every year, people buy Mania to see if someone can finally crack it and his wins just make it better. His loyalty to the company is also notable, never tempted to leave and is the backbone of the locker room. From Dead Man to American Bad-Ass and back, the Undertaker has become a huge force for WWE that may never truly die.

4. Superstar Billy Graham Never doubt how much Superstar shook wrestling up when he debuted. The colorful tights, the wicked energy and those stunning promos, you’d never seen anyone like him before. In the staid 1970’s, he was the shot in the arm WWF needed, a great heel but one fans still loved to see. His reign as champion had him taking on all comers and doing it in great style with the promos that so many after him would copy. One way or another, every heel champ has emulated Graham but the Superstar remains in a class by himself that showed how WWF was ready to give fans a show the smaller territories couldn’t quite match.

3. Shawn Michaels – The Rockers brought an energy to the tag team scene that had been lacking, a style few since have touched. When Shawn broke into singles work, he was rough but soon managed to show himself with incredible skill. He was terrific as he went from heel to face and back, wicked humor and while he could be an asshole off-stage, he made it worthwhile in the ring. His legacy has only been enhanced since his comeback, even better than ever in the ring and a better attitude. He has turned in multiple MOTY battles, kept fans entertained and helped WWF as champ in the tough time of 1996. The Heartbreak Kid was truly the heart of the company and deserves a place among the best.

2. Stone Cold Steve Austin – He elevated wrestling in a key time, destroying the idea of classic “good guy/bad guy” by being a rule breaker the fans cheered for massively. He changed promos with his in-your-face style and the war with McMahon that made WWF the champion at last in the war with WCW. Austin brought an edge to WWF that has never gone away, one that changed the landscape of the business and remains an icon to so many. Should he be regarded as one of the biggest of the company? Oh Hell Yeah.

1. Hulk Hogan – WWE today wouldn’t exist without Hogan. That is simple fact. He was the biggest star of the era, transcending simply wrestling to become a media icon and brought wrestling to the mainstream big time. In his heyday, Hogan brought the money to house shows, TV shows and the beginning of the PPV era. There is no underrating his importance as he paved the way, so many stars of today saying they got hooked onto wrestling because of Hogan and whatever his ego or politics, the fact is, he earned his place at the top and deserved to be recognized as such.

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Gavin Napier
HM: Triple H – He was a key part of the Attitude Era, but his worth will either increase or plummet over the next 10 years, for obvious reasons.
HM: Shawn Michaels – WWE’s greatest pure in ring performer ever. Politics and time away lessened his impact somewhat, but still a vital part of things.
HM: Bob Backlund – He wasn’t a minority champion like Bruno or Pedro, but this all American boy bridged the gap between their era and Hulkamania flawlessly.

5.The Undertaker: The Undertaker is, without question, WWE’s franchise player. He is what Sting was to WCW, what Tommy Dreamer was to ECW, what AJ Styles is to TNA. For over 20 years, the Undertaker has been a constant in WWE. There have been periods of inactivity, there have been years where he’s only been around for one match. Those matches, though, have been events unto themselves. How many memories stand out for the Undertaker during his tenure in WWE? Tombstoning Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship, getting blasted with a chair while dragging a casket on the Brother Love segment, locking the Ultimate Warrior in a coffin, Undertaker vs. Undertaker, the American Badass, throwing Foley off the cell, Kane’s debut, inferno matches, crucifying Stephanie, Summerslam 98 with Austin, The Streak, retiring Shawn Michaels, and those are just off the top of my head. When the gong hits and the lights go out, everyone knows what it means. WWE could have survived without The Undertaker for the last 20 years, but it would have been a much less interesting place, to be sure.

4.John Cena:Regardless of how you feel about John Cena’s wrestling ability (which is much better than he gets credit for), or whether you believe anything Ken Doane says (maybe 5% is true), or you just don’t care about the guy one way or the other, his importance can’t be denied. Much like his promo directed at The Rock during the build to Wrestlemania said, John Cena is the guy that’s there every day. Being “the guy” for a promotion isn’t something that’s easy to do. There’s a lot of pressure and a lot of extra work involved and a lot of guys just aren’t built for it. I feel pretty confident in saying that Randy Orton couldn’t handle doing what John Cena does. Triple H admitted on camera that he couldn’t do it. While not to the magnitude of The Rock or Andre The Giant, John Cena has become a familiar name outside of wrestling, simply by being a wrestler. He’s made appearances here and there, but those came after he made a name for himself as a wrestler. He’s had one of the longest babyface runs of the modern era, and he’s still selling a ton of merchandise. What gets Cena on this list, though, is his charity work. It’s been hyped ad nausea, but that’s the type of PR any company wants. The fact that he brings it to WWE by the bucket is irreplaceable.

3.Steve Austin: Had it not been for Owen Hart and a couple of bum knees, odds are good that Steve Austin would still be a force in WWE. Odds are good that at this point his schedule would be greatly reduced, but if he were still capable of performing in the ring, he would be. There’s no doubt that Austin’s run as the top dog in WWE is among the greatest that anyone has ever had. There are plenty of people that will argue that Austin drove WWE from an economic standpoint like nobody else in history, and it would be very difficult to prove those people wrong. Make no mistake; without Steve Austin, WWE doesn’t win the Monday Night Wars. Without Steve Austin, The Rock’s climb to greatness is much more difficult. Without Steve Austin, there’s likely no Mr. McMahon character. As mentioned with John Cena, though, being the top guy takes a toll. Austin handled it very well for a long time before he had to walk away for a bit. That doesn’t diminish what he accomplished in any way, it just shows how difficult that spotlight can be to endure.

2.Bruno Sammartino: You can’t ask for much more from your first megastar than to carry the ball for 15 years or so. When all is said and done, nobody will have had the run at the top of one promotion like Bruno had. His ethnic appeal was a draw to the melting pot of New York and the surrounding areas as the WWWF was centered in the northeastern United States. He transcended that and became an icon of the 60’s and 70’s. His matches with Zbyszko, Stan Hansen, Ivan Koloff, and others propelled those men to successful careers, making Bruno one of the first true superstars responsible for building other stars. During his time in the WWWF, Bruno defeated Buddy Rogers (while Rogers was the NWA World Champion), wrestled NWA World Champion Lou Thesz to a draw, became the only man to ever slam Haystacks Calhoun, and enjoyed a private audience with The Pope. It’s easy to gloss over just what Sammartino meant, particularly because of his feud with Vince McMahon, Jr. that results in his part of the history of the promotion being omitted. Sammartino was a bonafide superstar, though, in an era that didn’t feature national or global television deals, pay per view, or mass marketing that would be enjoyed by Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and John Cena.

1.Hulk Hogan: I’m not a huge Hulk Hogan fan, and I never have been. Without Hulk Hogan, though, the Rock n Wrestling era never happens. Without Hogan, Vince McMahon, Jr. doesn’t have the star power or momentum necessary to kill the territories. Without Hogan, there’s no foil for Andre the Giant that draws 93,000 (or however many were actually there) to the Silverdome for Wrestlemania III. There’s nobody to make the Ultimate Warrior a legitimate superstar. There’s no Megapowers. Real American would remain a forgotten theme song used by the US Express. Removing Hulk Hogan from WWE’s history would make for a fantastic episode of Fringe. Whether you like him or not, there’s no way to overstate his importance to the history of this company or to the wrestling industry in general.

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Jack Bramma
Disclaimer: I limited mine to most of my viewing experience with the WWF/E, so basically it’s WrestleMania I to the present.

HM: John Cena – You can say a lot about Cena, but it’s hard to argue that he’s not the most “important” performer of the last 7-ish years, carrying the company through the dog days before the next eventual, hoped-for boom period.
HM: The Undertaker – A legend in the WWE and the fed has smartly decreased his working dates the last few years as the Streak is a bigger draw and has more prestige than any belt they’ve had in the last 15-20 years.
HM: Rowdy Roddy Piper – Piper was a pioneer in many ways. He was so witty and a quick thinker on his feet that he was given his own talk show just to trash his opponents. Vince’s vision and Hogan’s popularity are rightly credited with Wrestlemania’s initial success, but without Piper as the villain, the show isn’t as successful.
HM: Macho Man Randy Savage – It pained me to leave him off the top five but I just couldn’t find a slot above the others. Maybe the best heel in the company ever. He made being a heel and a flamboyant badass, cool for an entire generation. RIP.

5. Bret Hart – The fan-made desire video (seen here — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cxrAX1W5ho) perfectly explains why Bret Hart is an indispensable part of WWE history. When I look back over the course of the fed’s history, I see a lot of guys that were good, but no Bret Harts. He’s arguably the best technical wrestler of all time having good to great matches with everyone he was ever in the ring with, but here to me is the most amazing thing about Bret Hart: he held the WWE strap multiple times in an era when hardly anyone not named Hogan or Flair got a run with any world championship and he did it while being an average interview without a lot of charisma. Think of it this way, remove Bret himself from the picture and just look at his WWF/E accomplishments: 5-time world champion, 2-time IC champ, 2-time tag champ, 2-time King of the Ring, Royal Rumble winner, headlined 4 Wrestlemanias in a 5 year period. If anyone else had that resume, everyone would fall in line admitting them as one of the most important performers in WWF/E history.

4. Shawn Michaels – The best in-ring performer in WWF/E history and maybe of all-time anywhere. Only Shawn Michaels could retire after a first-ballot HOF career in 1998 and return four years later and have an even better second half career run. Also a co-founder of DX, one of the main groups responsible for spearheading the shift into the Attitude Era and transforming the business forever. Shawn gets the slide nod over Bret due to being a better wrestler and having that decade-long stretch since 2000.

3. The Rock – If Austin had never become Stone Cold, Vince and co. still would have been in the capable hands of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. Other than Flair, Rock was the only other wrestler able to effortlessly switch between face and heel and not only not lose a degree of heat, but keep his character the exact same. Not once, not twice, but three times in Rock’s career, he’s had to shut up the detractors by edging into Heel Rock to remind them why they worshiped him in the first place. It’s hard to justify putting Rock higher than this, because during his entire run, he has only been the number 1 guy for a small stretch when Austin was out with a neck injury in late 99-mid 2000.

2. Hulk Hogan — For a significant part of my life, Hulk Hogan was pro wrestling. Of course he needed good antagonists and Vince’s marketing machine and Rocky III to put him through the stratosphere, but Hogan is quite possibly the most charismatic wrestler ever. No one got more of a crowd reaction through doing less than Hogan. Without him, Vince may not have won the war of the territory days.

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin – The never-ending debate. Who was the bigger star for WWF: Hogan or Austin? Hogan was on top longer, but Austin drew more money. Hogan started the Rock’n’Roll wrestling boom, but Austin ushered in the Attitude Era. Hogan held the belt longer, but Austin’s fans never turned on him like they did Hogan in 93-94. Hogan was in more movies, but Austin sold PPVs. Hogan had his own Saturday morning cartoon, but Austin’s “3:16” t-shirt was the highest selling wrestling t-shirt in history. I give the slight edge to Austin here just because he was the better wrestler and because I never entirely bought into Hogan’s mythos as I was more of a Macho guy, then a Warrior guy as a kid, but you can’t go wrong with either choice at the top.

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Csonka’s Quick Five
5. Superstar Billy Graham
4. The Rock
3. Steve Austin
2. Hulk Hogan
1. Bruno Sammartino

YOUR TURN KNOW IT ALLS
List your Top Five for this week’s topic in the comment section using the following format:

5. CHOICE: Explanation
4. CHOICE: Explanation
3. CHOICE: Explanation
2. CHOICE: Explanation
1. CHOICE: Explanation

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