As both Mac and Leah have done their 10 Favourite Wrestler lists, I thought that I would do mine. I have been watching wrestling since I was 4 years old, which was 1988 for the record, and in that time I have seen more wrestling than I can even begin to recall. These 10 wrestlers are the ones that have given me the most enjoyment during that time.
First of all, a few honourable mentions are due. There were a number of wrestlers that for various reasons just missed out on this list. Some of them missed out due to having their careers shortened (Brian Pillman, Bruiser Brody, Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero), some of them are current wrestlers that may well make this list in future (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii), and some of them are wrestlers that may have made this list if I had written it on another day (Randy Savage, Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Hiroshi Tanahashi, William Regal, Akira Hokuto). The one person that doesn't fit any of those parameters is The Undertaker. The reason he didn't make this list is that for a large portion of his career he had the gimmick but his matches were never good, partially because he moved at 2 miles an hour. With that out of the way, on with the list.
10. AJ Styles
When both WCW and ECW shut their doors in early 2001 it left wrestling fans, and a 17-year-old me, with a big gap in their wrestling lives. Two brand new promotions took up the mantle and those promotions were NWA-TNA and ROH. A massive part of the early years of both of those companies was AJ Styles. Sure, in those days he couldn't cut a promo for shit but the things he was doing in the ring were unbelievable, and as this was my first real exposure to independent wrestling, it was eye-opening.
In the 16 years since I first saw Styles wrestle he has gone from strength to strength and he has a legitimate claim to being the best wrestler of the last decade. He has had superb matches in TNA, New Japan, PWG, ROH, and even on a rainy Friday night at the Doncaster Dome, and has picked up the world titles that he deserves. He has also improved greatly on the mic and is now one of the most well-rounded workers in wrestling.
10. Daniel Bryan
Yeah, I've got two number 10s, what of it. The reason Bryan is here is much the same reason that Styles is. When I started watching ROH I didn't immediately take to the then Bryan Danielson but at some point, he changed my mind. The more I watched his matches, the more I appreciated just how fucking good he was. I think the moment I realised that he might be the best pure wrestler on the planet was during his title unification match with Nigel McGuinness at ROH Unified in Liverpool, and he has done very little to dissuade me since.
When he signed for WWE I was worried he would get lost in the shuffle, or worse, and for a while, it appeared that would be the case. He spent a lot of time busting his ass while Michael Cole ripped into him at any given time, and having to deal with being jobbed out in 18 seconds at WrestleMania. In the end, though, his class was too much to ignore and he provided us with one of the best feel-good moments in recent times when he beat all the members of Evolution in a single night to end the show as champion.
9. Chris Jericho
In the history of wrestling, there are very few people that have consistently reinvented themselves as frequently and successfully as Chris Jericho. In WCW he was the cocky heel that did what the fuck he liked because nobody booking the show really gave a shit. Him reading out the list of 1004 holds he knows was gold, especially considering tons of them were armbar. When he debuted in WWF he went right after The Rock, and every time he took a sabbatical he came back with a slightly tweaked gimmick. He managed to get a list over huge. Now he is part-time in New Japan as a violent dickhead. The man is a chameleon.
This wouldn't matter too much if he wasn't also an excellent wrestler. It was clear that he was a step above from his run as Cruiserweight champion in WCW, and to be honest from his early run in ECW. His feud with Dean Malenko over that title was a joy to watch. In WWE he put on a ton of great matches, including what might be the best one-on-one ladder match ever against Shawn Michaels at No Mercy 2008. Now he is managing to put on great matches in New Japan by changing his style. A fantastic wrestler.
This wouldn't matter too much if he wasn't also an excellent wrestler. It was clear that he was a step above from his run as Cruiserweight champion in WCW, and to be honest from his early run in ECW. His feud with Dean Malenko over that title was a joy to watch. In WWE he put on a ton of great matches, including what might be the best one-on-one ladder match ever against Shawn Michaels at No Mercy 2008. Now he is managing to put on great matches in New Japan by changing his style. A fantastic wrestler.
8. Edge
I fucking love Edge. Always have. He was as entertaining as a tag wrestler as he was as a singles competitor. The Brood was the coolest thing to a 14-year-old me, and when that group split up he and Christian formed what may well be the most entertaining tag team of all time. The 5-second poses, the use of the kazoo, and their feud with Commissioner Foley were some of the best bits of TV in the Attitude Era. Then there was the quality of their matches. They were integral in popularising a higher pace, higher risk style (along with the Hardys and Dudleys) and their TLC matches are some of the most memorable in WWF/E history.
His singles career took off when he won the King of the Ring tournament in 2001 and he never looked back. He picked up titles regularly and developed his character into one of the sleaziest heels in recent memory. The sheer amount of memorable moments that Edge was responsible for in his career could fill a book, from cashing in on John Cena to live sex celebrations to returning at the Royal Rumble to his feud with the Undertaker. He ended his career as a 7-time World champion, 4-time WWE champion, 5-time IC champion, 1-time US champion, and 14-time tag champion. He also won the King of the Ring and the Royal Rumble. During WWE's forgettable period Edge was the most entertaining aspect of the company.
7. Mitsuharu Misawa
There have been a number of great rosters in wrestling but in the mid to late 90s none were close to that of AJPW, and at the forefront of that was Mitsuharu Misawa. He started his career as the second iteration of Tiger Mask before wrestling under his own name and becoming one of the rising stars in Japanese wrestling. His ring style is part of what first attracted me to Japanese wrestling and is a style I look for in wrestlers today. During his 90s All-Japan run he had more classic matches than it should be possible to put on against the likes of Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama and Steve Williams.
In 2000 he, along with most of the AJPW roster, left the company to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. It was during his time in this company that he had what I consider to be his best match ever, a GHC Title match against Kenta Kobashi on March 1st 2003. I could make a strong case for this being the best wrestling match I have ever seen. Misawa unfortunately died on June 13th 2006, at the age of only 46. He was involved in a tag match and lost consciousness following a belly-to-back suplex. He died later that night.
6. Mick Foley
It is a scientific fact that it is impossible to dislike Mick Foley. He is one of the most charismatic wrestlers that ever laced up a pair of boots and regardless of which of his personas he was using, he was always wildly entertaining. What makes him so special, though, is that all of his personas were wildly different from each other. Cactus Jack was the violent, relentless hardcore icon that lost half an ear in Germany and won the IWA-Japan King of the Deathmatches title. Mankind was the troubled mind that was willing to put himself through great pain and even appeared to enjoy it. Dude Love was the carefree hippie, and Mick Foley was just the man.
What is most impressive is that he managed to have great matches in each of his gimmicks. For me, the best matches in his respective gimmicks are the hardcore match against Randy Orton (as Cactus Jack), the WWF Title match against Shawn Michaels at Mind Games (as Mankind), the hardcore match at WrestleMania against Edge (as Mick Foley), and the criminally underrated WWF Title match against Steve Austin (as Dude Love). What may well be his best moment was his first WWF Title win on Raw, a moment that started turning the tide to WWF during the Monday Night Wars. That is a moment that I vividly remember watching at the time and is one of my fondest memories of watching wrestling.
5. Manami Toyota
To put it bluntly, Toyota is the best female wrestler of all-time. She also wrestled at a time when most of the other women I would consider to be in the all-time top 10 also wrestled. In the early 90s, All-Japan Women were producing the best wrestling on the planet. Some of the shows they put on during this time are still among the best I have ever seen, and the seemingly non-stop procession of classic matches they put on has rarely been equaled. Toyota was front and centre for all of this.
Toyota, along with many others on the AJW roster, was doing things that wouldn't really be part of mainstream wrestling until many years later. The intensity of many of her matches was off the charts too. If you aren't familiar with her work you should check out her matches with Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Dynamite Kansai, Megumi Kudo and others. She was a singular talent during her career.
4. Ric Flair
Flair may well have been even higher on the list if he had retired following his loss to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania. That would have been the perfect end to his career, and it was a hell of a career. He accrued world titles like nobody had before or has done since (I know Cena and Flair are both credited with 16 but Flair has won at least 3 more than that). He was also one of the best mic workers in the history of the business and was one of the best technicians inside the ropes. He knew how to tell a story both inside of the ring and out.
In 1989 Flair put together what may well be the greatest year in wrestling history. In that year alone, he had his historic trilogy of matches against Ricky Steamboat, a pair of classics against Terry Funk, a great Starrcade match against Sting, and a couple of really fun tag matches with Sting against the Great Muta and Dick Slater/Terry Funk. As if that wasn't enough he was also responsible for one of the best performances in WWF/E history. His 60-minute ironman performance in the 1992 Royal Rumble (the best one) is a thing of beauty, as is his post-match promo. Nobody personified a promotion in the 80s more than Flair, with the exception of Hulk Hogan. Unlike Hogan, though, Flair wasn't shit.
3. Kenta Kobashi
That picture is the perfect representation of Kenta Kobashi, chopping people in the neck. At this stage of the list, there is very little separating the top 3. Kobashi is my favourite in-ring competitor ever and the only reason that he isn't top of this list is that, as I don't speak Japanese, I can't understand any promos that he may cut. That isn't a big issue though as he did his talking in the ring, as cliche as that sounds.
From the moment Kobashi hit the main event scene in All-Japan in the 90s, I'm not sure that he had a single bad match. His years-long feud with Misawa resulted in some of the best matches in the history of wrestling, and that is only the start of it. He also put in classic matches with Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue, Kensuke Sasaki, Steve Williams, Samoa Joe, Stan Hansen and even Johnny fucking Ace. Whether it was in AJPW or NOAH, Kobashi always put in everything he had. What is even more remarkable is that the style is famed for only came about after he suffered knee injuries that forced him to make a change. The man is living legend.
From the moment Kobashi hit the main event scene in All-Japan in the 90s, I'm not sure that he had a single bad match. His years-long feud with Misawa resulted in some of the best matches in the history of wrestling, and that is only the start of it. He also put in classic matches with Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue, Kensuke Sasaki, Steve Williams, Samoa Joe, Stan Hansen and even Johnny fucking Ace. Whether it was in AJPW or NOAH, Kobashi always put in everything he had. What is even more remarkable is that the style is famed for only came about after he suffered knee injuries that forced him to make a change. The man is living legend.
2. Shawn Michaels
There are a few people on this list that had to adapt their ring style due to injury but Shawn Michaels is the only one that had two distinct careers. In the first of those careers, he was young, cocky, and arrogant. In the latter, he was a reformed man. What didn't change between the two careers was Michaels' ability in the ring. He was fucking brilliant throughout.
When the Rockers were at their peak they were my favourite tag team, hands down, and Michaels was the star. Their break up is an iconic moment in wrestling. During the early to mid 90s, Michaels was the best part of most shows he was on. That trend continued right up until he was forced to retire after WrestleMania XIV. Considering the retirement lasted over 4 years it would have been expected that he would have some ring rust upon his return, but he showed none of it. In his unsanctioned match with HHH, he didn't appear to have lost a step, and his second career may have been even better than his first. The two matches he had with the Undertaker may well be the best in WrestleMania history.
1. Steve Austin
The Attitude Era was a mix of great wrestling and storytelling, and things from Vince's wet dreams. Thankfully Austin always fell into the former category. I can't remember ever seeing a wrestler that filled every second of screen time they had as well as he did. There weren't really any wasted promos with Austin, and even in the more reserved moments of his matches, he would throw in little things to fill the void.
When people think of Austin, they think of his run as Stone Cold, and well they might, but he was great before that. In WCW he was a great singles wrestler and was even better as part of a team. His tag team with Brian Pillman, the Hollywood Blondes, is one of my favourite teams ever (partially helped by what might be the best theme music ever), and he was also part of the Dangerous Alliance. That faction was absolutely stacked, featuring at various stages Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, Paul Heyman, Madusa, and Michael Hayes. Despite being one of the brightest stars in WCW, Eric Bischoff decided to let him go.
After a brief stop in ECW, where his promos were awesome, he was signed by the WWF. The Stone Cold era nearly never happened though, as when Austin pitched the idea of a cold-blooded character, Vince McMahon wanted to call him Chilly McFreeze. Thankfully that didn't happen and we got the greatest wrestling feud of all-time between Austin and McMahon, a feud that both started and ended the most profitable era in wrestling history. Austin was a large part of the reason that Raw and Smackdown were so enjoyable during that period, and he is responsible for my favourite Smackdown moment ever, beating up Booker T in a supermarket. Oh yeah, he also had a ton of fucking great matches. An absolute legend that went out at the top of his game.
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