Hardtime #92: Top 10 Most Influential Wrestlers In WWE Modern History (1980's And Beyond)
Submitted by RIPbossman on Saturday, October 28, 2006 at 11:30 AM EST





Hardtime #92: Top Ten Most Influential Wrestlers In WWE Modern History History (1980's and Beyond)

Hey everyone, RIPbossman here with another column. My last column went over very well with the main page readers of LOP. It was actually my most read column ever. And to top it off, I had a blast writing it. Let’s see… I like writing list columns, and you guys like reading list columns. Seems like I’m going to write another list column to me.

This time I have come up with a list of the top 10 most influential wrestlers in WWE history. You might disagree with my choices, but hey, that’s the fun of it. If we all agreed on everything, what would the point of wrestling columns be?

If you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com You might not get a response, but I do promise to read every piece of feedback that I get.

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Before I get into my list of the top ten most influential wrestlers in WWE history, let me address a few concerns about my last column with the 5 most influential matches in WE history.

I received a number of emails regarding why I didn’t put the Austin/Hart from WM 13 on the list. Allow me to explain why I didn’t put that on there. I had already put the WM 14 match between HBK and Austin on the list, and I felt that that match had more of an impact on WWE. Yes, the launching pad for Austin was at WM 13, but if he hadn’t won the title and became the number one wrestler in the company at WM 14, what happened at WM 13 would have meant nothing.

Really, the influence of the two matches are one in the same, but at the time I made the list I felt that the WM 14 match had more influence, and there was no point in putting two matches with nearly the exact same influence on the list. If I could redo the list, I would probably put the WM 13 match on instead, because it had the additional impact of being the first time fans really started to prominently cheer a heel.

Also, I got a great piece of feedback from a feedbacker named t d who believes that the cage match between HBK and Diesel from a house show at Madison Square Garden in 1996 should be included. For those of you who don’t know, this is the match where the infamous Clique Curtain Call was made. He said it was ok for me to post his email in this column, so here it is:

“May 19, 1996 - Madison Square Garden - Diesel vs HBK - The "Curtain Call"

This was by far the most influential match in wrestling history for so many reasons. Everything wrestling is today can in one way shape and form can be traced back to that night. DX and the NwO were both born on May 19, 1996, so by default the Monday Night Wars began on that same day.

But the fact that the "Curtain Call" led to the creation of these two powerhouse groups is not the reason why it is the BIG ONE. The reason why it is by far the most influential match in wrestling history is that on May 19, 1996 WRESTLING BECAME "FAKE"!!! May 19, 1996 changes everything about the way we watched, followed, or talked about wrestling. Not only were DX and NWO born on that night but so were "marks", "jobbers", "works n shoots", "kayfab", and a whole lot of other terms we currently use when talking about wrasslin. Everything changed that night. The reason it is by far the #1 spot is simple. Yes, Hogan/Sheik did start a wrestling revolution, but Diesel/HBK ended that revolution!! And what it started is wrestling as we know it today. Before May 19, 1996 wrestling was all about "the show", after May 19, 1996 wrestling is all about "the business". Diesel/HBK is the reason your column and columns like yours exist today. It is the reason, the IWC exists today. It is THE BIG ONE, the #1 SPOT. By far...think about it!! Hopefully, I'll be reading your reply to this in your next column. And yes, I am a Clique mark and I know most people don't care for those guys too much. But regardless of the BS, the politics, the holding people back, and all of the other things that can be said about the Clique...you can't deny the fact that they changed wrestling from being about the show to being about the business. And you also can't deny the fact that the wrestling business is far more interesting and entertaining than any wrestling show in history.”

I personally disagree with this, and don’t feel that it would knock any match I had made off my top 5 list. I feel that even without this match, the IWC would have existed, and the curtain would have been pulled back on wrestling anyways. It took years for WWE to finally reveal that wrestling was pre determined, and to be honest, many people did not even know about this event happening until a year and a half after it happened, when they showed clips of it on the Titan Tron on Raw. I don’t feel this had much of an impact in the long run, but it was a very well thought out argument by t d. I thought I just had to include this in the column.





Before you start reading the list, let me make sure you know three things about this list:

1.This is based on wrestlers or on air personalities in WWE, and their impact on WWE only. Their impact on the wrestling industry as a whole is not considered.

2.This is based on the INFLUENCE that these wrestlers have had on the WWE product. Star power in and of itself does not matter when making this list. What matters is what kind of CHANGES they’ve made on the WWE product.

3.This is based on the impact they’ve had on WWE at the time or after Hulk Hogan won his first WWE Championship. I won’t lie to you. WWE has been around for several decades, and I have only been alive for a little over two. My knowledge of WWE before Hulk Hogan won the belt is sketchy. I have included two wrestlers on the list for his impact before this major event happened, but really, even that happened only a little bit before Hogan won his first WWE title. I apologize to anyone who expected names like Nature Boy Buddy Rogers and Ivan Putski to be on here, but the truth is I don’t know much about them, as I wasn’t alive to see them.

And with that being said, on with the list.

10. Tie: Andre The Giant/ The Rock

Andre The Giant at one point in time was the most famous wrestler in the world. The Rock is probably the 4th or 5th most famous wrestler ever in WWE. Their contributions to WWE were practically the same: they helped in a significant way to help WWE thrive during their respective time periods.

Andre was the second biggest baby face in WWE after Hogan entered the fray, and although people were mostly interested in seeing the Hulkster, one man couldn’t carry a company all by himself. Andre helped out in a big way, and I don’t even need to explain his contribution to Wrestlemania 3.

When Stone Cold Steve Austin went out of the WWE to get neck surgery, someone had to step up to the plate to be the next big baby face. I understand that the WWE product after Austin went down was revolving around a collection of wrestling characters and not just one superstar. But really, in order to keep the WWE thriving the way it had, they needed a baby face with the big name value that The Rock had. And if you remember correctly, The Rock was almost eclipsing Austin in popularity around the time of Survivor Series ’99.

Could Andre have revolutionized WWE? He had the opportunity to, and he didn’t. Could The Rock have done the same thing? Well, The Rock hadn’t really come into his own before Austin’s character really took off. The Rock possibly could have been as influential as Steve Austin if he had been in the right place at the right time. But as it turns out, he wasn’t in either position. And thus, we’ll never know what would have really happened if that situation would have taken place. I don’t consider keeping a company afloat, even for an extended period of time, that much of an influence, really. You can’t really say that these wrestlers saved WWE from going under, or were the ones who initially brought WWE to new found heights. That’s why these two wrestlers come in at number 10 on the list.

9. Shawn Michaels

The first ladder match. The first Hell In A Cell Match. The first Iron Man Match. The first Elimination Chamber Match. The first person to come in as number one in the Royal Rumble match and be there at the end. Yes, it seems like when ever Vince McMahon needed to introduce a new concept with male wrestlers that would require overwhelming talent, and Shawn Michaels was available, good old HBK would be chosen for it. Let’s face it, if Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man would have been the first Hell In A Cell match, there probably would never have been another one after that.

The first time a certain gimmick match takes place, it has to be very good, or else fans won’t care about it any time it takes place afterwards. WWE fans will think that a particular gimmick match won’t have potential to be any better than the original blue print. But there was no problem with that when Shawn Michaels was part of the original match. I would give Shawn Michaels a more important spot on the list, but I don’t feel the introduction of a few gimmick matches is THAT big of a deal. Shawn Michaels is talented, no doubt, but is he really THAT influential? Not in my opinion.

8. Sunny

No, Sunny did not open the door for female valets in WWE. That was done by the person that is number 7 on this list. But Sunny is the third most influential woman in WWE history (there’s two more women on this list). She was the first “sex kitten” of WWE. Sure, she’s had some personal problems with drugs in the past, and if you’ve seen a picture of what she looks like now, you know that she would have to pull an Anna Nicole Smith in order to get back into the shape she once was.

But regardless of her personal life, there’s no denying that Sunny opened the door for females to use their sex appeal in WWE. Even though all Sunny did was come out wearing tight, revealing clothing, she opened the door for future bra and panties matches, WWE divas posing in Playboy, and an overall “sexual revolution” in World Wrestling Entertainment.

7. Miss Elizabeth

Miss Elizabeth was the first woman who made it acceptable in people’s minds to have female managers in WWE. She didn’t have to interfere in matches to be a big part of the show. All she had to do was stand there and look pretty and sometimes happy or worried. I know it didn’t take much talent to do what Elizabeth did, and some people may say that she doesn’t deserve to be on this list.

But this is not necessarily a list of the most talented wrestlers or personalities in WWE history , it is a list of the most INFLUENTIAL wrestlers or personalities in WWE history. No one can deny the influence that Miss Elizabeth had had on WWE, as she opened the door for more female valets to have a real place in the WWE wrestling scene. Without her, there would be no Sables, no Sunnys, no Torrie Wilsons, no Stacy Keiblers, and no other pretty women inWWE.

6. Mick Foley

Mick Foley is probably most well known for being the “hardcore legend”. And rightfully so. He is the one who introduced hardcore wrestling into WWE on a regular basis. Sure, matches like Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel had out of control, no holds barred action. But really, it was Mick Foley who was getting thrown onto concrete floors time and time again. In my mind, it was Mick Foley who really started the trend of hardcore wrestling that went on during the Attitude Era.

But above that, Mick Foley had an even bigger influence on WWE. He was the wrestler who made it understandable in WWE fans’ minds that the wrestlers we saw on WWE programming were really characters and personas being played by real, down to earth people. The entire interviews that were done by Jim Ross with Mankind really put the idea into people’s minds that these wrestlers were not really who they said they were on tv, but really were playing “alter egos”. The fact that Mick Foley could come out as Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack, and the fact that we was the only wrestler in WWE who had his real name said on the air in ADDITION to his characters’ names, really made people realize things were not what they seemed with wrestling characters.

5. Super Fly Jimmy Snuka

Before Super Fly Jimmy Snuka, WWE did not really have much high flying action. When Jimmy Snuka came and started doing his high flying moves, it opened the door for a whole new kind of wrestling in WWE. Without Jimmy Snuka, there would be noone jumping off the top of cages. There would be dives through or over the ropes. There would be no elbow drops off the top rope. There would be no moonsaults, no top rope splashes, and no diving headbutts. It could even be argued that there would be no TLC matches, as that came as a direct result of high flying wrestling. Sure, someone else could have come along and introduced this new style of wrestling in WWE, but Jimmy is the one who did.

4. Trish Stratus

Back in the 80’s, the WWE women’s division was running full speed. However, it could never get above the status of being simply a side show in WWE. People didn’t care about it the same way the cared about the men’s matches. Then after the 80’s, the women’s division would come and go from time to time, always failing to make a comeback. Women like Bull Nakano, Alundra Blaze, and Bertha Faye just couldn’t get the job done.

Enter Trish Stratus. With Trish Stratus having received proper training for being a wrestling performer, she sky rocketed her career in WWE, and took the whole women’s division with her. Don’t get me wrong, she didn’t do it alone. She had Jazz, Victoria, Molly Holly, and Lita to help her out. But would all of those women’s wrestlers put together without Trish have made the women’s division as prominent as it is today? In my mind, that is a resounding no. With Trish, the WWE women’s division became more than just a division that was filler, more than just a side show, and into a division that WW fans actually cared about.

3. Bret Hart

You may not have expected Bret Hart to be so high on this list, but I personally feel he’s had a much bigger impact on WWE than most people realize.
Bret Hart’s first title reign began during an event that wasn’t even televised. But the aftereffects of this match would be felt for years to come. On that night the "Rockin’ Wrestling Era" was officially over and the "New Generation" began. Vince started to go with the younger guys such as Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon to be his stars instead of his long time veterans such as Randy Savage and Ric Flair
But that wasn’t the only revolution that started that night. With Bret Hart now as the champion, he was given a bigger platform to help mold the WWE. With Bret as champ, he lead the "small man revolution" for the lack of a better term and helped change the way fans saw a wrestler’s size as being important. I understand that there were small wrestlers before Bret, but I feel Bret is the one who really made it ok in people’s minds for small wrestlers to have large success in WWE. This is kind of like the Jackie Robinson concept. Was he the first black major league baseball player? Actually, he wasn’t. But was he the one who helped influence people in a major way that black baseball player were acceptable in the major leagues? In my opinion, yes. I think you understand the point I’m trying to make.
Also on this bigger platform he paved the way for technical wrestling to take precedence over power wrestling, which was the current trend that was dominating the WWE wrestling scene. Finally, on this bigger platform Bret helped to pave the way for the fans to care about the actual wrestling that went on inside the ring. Before Bret’s first championship reign the two biggest stars in the industry were Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant, two terrible wrestlers. Fans cared more about what happened outside the ring than what on inside of it. While that may still hold true to this day, Bret certainly helped WWE fans grow an appreciation for what went on inside the ring.



2. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Beer swilling. Finger gesturing. Foul mouthed. The toughest SOB in WWE. This man has done so much for WWE it’s hard to keep track. Where do we begin? It’s true that WWE had pushed the envelope a little bit here and there before The Ringmaster became Stone Cold Steve Austin. We saw Sunny wearing bikini’s and short skirts, we saw controversial characters like Goldust, and we even heard wrestlers curse here any there. But Steve Austin not only pushed the envelope harder than anyone else (save for possibly DX) he was the first to make it COOL to do so. Because of Austin, I firmly believe the product had been formatted to fit his character’s personality with the Attitude Era, and the remains of that era can still be seen today. Many characters have more aggressive personas, and push the envelope just a little bit with cursing and suggestive language.

On top of all that, Stone Cold, in my opinion, was the biggest factor that went into saving WWE from going under in 1998. When Mike Tyson was brought in for Wrestlemania 14, people tuned into see Iron Mike, but when they did, they were exposed to the phenomenon known as Stone Cold Steve Austin. When the belt was put on Steve, and he became the number one wrestler in the company, people started to stop tuning in exclusively to Nitro and started watching Raw. From there WWE began to steam roll when they needed to the most, and escaped almost certain destruction by WCW. And for that, you can thank a few people, but most of all, you can thank Austin. And on top of that, Austin was the first WWE heel to be overwhelmingly cheered (I understand heels have been cheered in the past, but never as prominently as at WM 13) in his now classic match against Bret Hart at WM 13. Austin basically made I ok for fans to want to cheer for whoever they wanted to, not just the “good guys”.

1.Hulk Hogan

Need I say more? I just bought the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Anthology dvd (and in case you’re wondering, Hulk would have been number one on this list even if I didn’t just buy that dvd) and there is a very good quote on there that sums up what Hulk Hogan has done for wrestling. “If you ask anyone in the world who Hulk Hogan is, everyone knows… he’s been the face of wrestling for years”. He revolutionized World Wrestling Entertainment. With Hogan, there would be no Wrestlemania, as there was no other star in WWE in the eighties who could have drawn in big enough crowds and big enough buy rates, save for possibly Andre The Giant.

Without Hogan, WWE would never have become as big as it did. WWE rode a wave of success for 8 years straight when Hogan first won the title in 1984. On top of that, he was one of the major factors in starting the trend of power wrestling in the eighties and the early nineties. When you look at a map of professional wrestling before 1984, WWE might not be there. But when you look at a map of wrestling after 1984, WWE will be there. Why? Because Hulk Hogan put them there for the long haul.

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There you have it. These are the top 10 (well, top 11) most influential wrestlers in the history of WWE. There’s no Ric Flair on this list, because he was not very influential to WWE history. He was influential to the wrestling industry as a whole, but not to WWE specifically. This is the reason that Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, and Sting, among others, are not on this list.

Once again, if you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com You might not get a response, (although I’ve been pretty good about responding to most of my emails lately) but I do promise to read every piece of feedback that I get.

Thanks for reading.









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