Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - The greatest wrestlers of the modern era
Submitted by Pt2 on Friday, December 14, 2007 at 1:40 PM EST





Welcome to the column that rides a sleigh into an arena as a Christmas version of vehicular assault, Take up thy wrestling boots and walk. I’m the columnist who is asking for a Greg ‘the MC Hammer’ Valentine doll for this Christmas, Pt2, back once again to examine the sleigh bells ringing in the winter wonderland that is professional wrestling.

Are you fed up with traditional wrestling ranking columns? Rankings based on nonsense factors like ‘work rate’ or ‘technical ability’? If you are, then you are about to get the Christmas present of a lifetime, because I have compiled a ranking system of the top 100 wrestling stars of the modern era based on the one thing that we all know really matters in professional wrestling; results.

After all, how many times do the commentators actually have to say that the W in the book is all that matters before we on the internet finally take the hint? Just like in any other sport, the best wrestlers win matches, and the only way to tell who is the greatest is to look closely at their win loss records.

I’ve done that – based on their performances at the top events in wrestling. Let’s face facts here people, great stars perform on the greatest stages, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to win when the world isn’t focused so intently on your match. With that said, I’m only going to be considering one on one singles matches that take place at either Wrestlemania, Starrcade or Summerslam (the two biggest Pay Per View’s on the WWE calendar, and the biggest on the now defunct WCW calendar). You also need to have competed at more than one of those events to register, and you also need to have registered a victory in at least one contest. At the risk of sounding sexist, you also have to be male.

Without any further ado then, allow me to kick off the first of a four part Take up thy wrestling boots and walk special – numbers 100-76 of the greatest wrestling superstars of the modern era!

#100: Terry Taylor 1-4-0: Terry Taylor barely makes it in, and wouldn’t at all were it not for a win against Bobby Heenan at Wrestlemania V. Other than that, Taylor’s record is pretty weak, suffering defeats to Nikita Koloff, Mr. Perfect, Buddy Landel and Mike Rotunda. Still, getting to the top cards isn’t easy in pro wrestling, and the fact that Taylor competed on five cards and picked up a victory is enough to get him the final spot in the rankings.

#99: Greg Valentine 1-6-0: Greg Valentine is as tough as leather, but unfortunately that didn’t translate into wins all that often for him. He would return to the big matches time after time, but lost to such luminaries as Randy Savage, Mike Rotunda and Roddy Piper. He keeps himself off the bottom spot with a big win over the much higher ranked Ricky Steamboat.

#98: Tito Santana 1-4-0: Santana picked up a big win at the first Wrestlemania against Buddy Rose, but from then on out it was all downhill, suffering defeats to Jacques Rougeau, and both members of the Powers of Pain at various stages in their careers. Santana’s skills would keep him returning to the top level cards until Wrestlemania VIII, where he lost to Shawn Michaels.

#97: Paul Wight 1-4-0: When Paul Wight was working for the WWE as the Big Show, there was always talk about him having all the potential in the world, but needing to find a way that he could fulfil it. Looking at his record, it would suggest that he fell short. Though the people he has lost to are all highly rated in this list, a record of 1 win and 4 losses is clearly not good enough for a seven foot tall, five hundred pound giant.

#96: One Man Gang 1-3-0: Either using this gimmick or as Akeem, the Gang managed to return to the top level on four occasions. On three of those occasions, he was defeated, by Randy Savage, the Big Boss Man and Kensuke Sasaki. He manages to get into the top 100 with a victory over Bam Bam Bigelow, who fails to make the list since he failed to record a single victory at the 3 top tier events, despite several attempts.

#95: Dr. Death Steve Williams 1-2-0: Williams made only three appearances, and only a win against Barry Windham gets him any place on this list. Defeats to Vampiro and former world champion Ron Simmons (who misses out through only having one contest) keep him ranked in the lower portions.

#94: ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan 1-2-1: Jim Duggan has been a mainstay in pro wrestling for as long as most of us can remember, but his championship cupboard is very empty, and this is no surprise when you look at his record in the biggest of matches. He has won one and lost one against Dino Bravo, battled Bad News Brown to a no contest, and lost to the rated Ted DiBiase. While most wrestlers would certainly take the legacy of the Hacksaw, it isn’t much of a haul for twenty plus years of work.

#93 Don Muraco 1-2-1: Don Muraco is a name that has gone down in legend, but his record in the modern era seems sparse. His record reads very similarly to Hacksaw Jim Duggan, with the only exception being his draw with Paul Orndorff (as opposed to Hacksaw’s with Bad News Brown).

#92: Sid Vicious 1-4-0: Sid has suffered more defeats than either Steve Williams or the One Man Gang, but has a higher place on the list due to the level of the man he has beat, and the people that have beat him. Sid beat the British Bulldog, and only lost to four men who have all worn World Championship gold at some point, including Hulk Hogan.

#91: Honky Tonk Man 1-3-0: The Honky Tonk Man may call himself the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time, but his record suggests that is anything but the case. Other than a win against Jake Roberts, he is entirely in the L column, being defeated by Brutus Beefcake, Dusty Rhodes, and the Ultimate Warrior. He may be cool, he may be cocky, but he clearly isn’t bad enough for the top level.

#90: Vader 1-3-0: If you are scheduled to wrestle Vader and you don’t know how to beat him, try to schedule it for a big PPV. The seemingly indestructible Vader apparently has a mental block that prevents him from winning at the biggest shows, since he has been beaten by Shawn Michaels, Sting and Ric Flair, and his solitary win comes against Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

#89 Rick Martel 1-2-1: Can Rick Martel feel aggrieved that he never got more attention at the top level? Sure, his record isn’t particularly impressive in terms of figures, but look who they came against – defeats by Jake Roberts and Tatanka (who is undefeated at the highest level), and a draw against multiple world champion Shawn Michaels. Perhaps if he could have turned it into a win to join his solitary victory over Koko B. Ware, we’d be sitting here talking about the multiple time world champion Rick Martel.

#88 Brian ‘Crush’ Adams 1-2-0: Brian Adams made his name as part of Demolition, and it is only fitting that his victory comes against Barry Darsow, another member of the Demolition triad – clearly the evolution of professional wrestling at work. However, he was outclassed by Randy Savage at Wrestlemania X, and a defeat a year earlier to Matt Bourne (as Doink the Clown) followed by years of underachievement result in this low rating for the once incredibly popular Kona Power house.

#87 Junk Yard Dog 1-2-0: The Junk Yard Dog picked up what was no doubt a hard pushed win against Greg Valentine. Following that, his time in the modern era seemed to be short. He followed it up with only two more appearances at the top level, losing to former NWA champion and king of wrestling Harley Race at Wrestlemania III, and then losing to Rick Rude. Certainly a great wrestler, but a product of an earlier era.

#86 Matt Hardy 1-2-0: Matt Hardy makes it into this column, unlike his brother Jeff. Hardy has a big win over former WWE Champion Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania XIX pushing him up the list, and is hardly hindered by defeats to Kane and Edge, both of whom we will be seeing later on in this column. With his career still in full bloom, there is plenty of chance for Hardy to move up in the rankings, and for his brother Jeff to join him. If tag team contests were taken into account, Matt and Jeff would certainly rank much more highly – but still not as highly as major rivals Edge and Christian, who beat them in several big ladder and TLC matches.

#85 Bad News Brown 1-1-2: Bad News only lost one contest to Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts on the grandest stages, but putting away matches seemed to be a problem. He only won one match, against Ken Patera, with the other two drifting away into draws. Both Jim Duggan and Roddy Piper couldn’t beat Bad News; but conversely, Bad News couldn’t beat Jim Duggan or Roddy Piper.

#84 King Kong Bundy 1-2-0: The walking condominium is probably most famous for appearing with Hulk Hogan in the main event of Wrestlemania II – a contest in which Bundy lost. Bundy would also lose to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania XI, and it is only a victory against SD Jones at Wrestlemania I that makes him eligible here. However, we find it hard to penalize Bundy too much for losing to two men who we will doubtless see again in this list, especially when they have almost twenty world championships between them.

#83 Butch Reed 1-1-0: Before Butch Reed went on to be a part of the tag team Doom, he appeared as a singles wrestler and threatened to break out as a singles star. That threat was extinguished by the gifted Macho Man Randy Savage, but his record of 1-1, with a victory over Koko B. Ware, is good enough to get Reed into this list at #83. Many wrestlers have lost to Randy Savage over the years, and there is certainly no shame in Reed doing so as well.

#82 Abdullah the Butcher 1-1-0 Big Abby’s big win comes against the father of current WWE superstar Carlito – he beat Carlos Colon at the very first Starrcade in 1983. Unfortunately for the cult hero Abdullah, he goes down on the list as one of Manny Fernandez victims, and the record of 1-1 means that he ends up down in 82nd place. Though I wouldn’t tell the madman from Sudan that I’d ranked him so low myself, I would definitely get someone else to do it.

#81 Barry Windham 1-1-0 Barry Windham is ranked lower than some people might expect, and that’s because the favourite of this column rarely got the opportunity to show case his talents at the highest level – perhaps because on one of the occasions he was given that opportunity, he managed to lose to Dr. Death Steve Williams. He managed to correct that somewhat with a win over Bam Bam Bigelow, but it has to be said that the incredibly talented Windham’s career certainly looks to have paid the price for the one night’s poor showing against Williams.

#80 The Barbarian 1-1-0: The Barbarian is perhaps one of the most famous members of the Heenan family from his WWF years, and he racked up his biggest victory at Wrestlemania VI, getting the win against Tito Santana. His one previous chance at the big time had been with the NWA, and a few years earlier he had lost to a superstar of the previous generation, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. Barbarian would form a tag team with Haku and compete in WCW for much of the rest of his career, before reforming the Powers of Pain with the Warlord more recently. His singles career never got any higher than that night in Toronto in 1990.

#79 Kensuke Sasaki 1-1-0: Sasaki is the first person on the list to actually rack up both his win and loss in the same night. At the 1995 Starrcade, he was defeated by Sting who won the World Cup of Wrestling. However, later in the night, he would return and defeat One Man Gang to retain the WCW US Championship. There were complications over the championship, but the result in the book is a big W for Sasaki. If he were facing anyone other than Sting, perhaps he might even have won the World Cup of Wrestling for NJPW.

#78 ‘Adorable’ Adrian Adonis 1-1-0: Adonis loss to Rowdy Roddy Piper in Piper’s retirement match (the first of many) is now certainly legendary. What is probably less famous is Adonis victory over Plowboy Frazier, wrestling under the name of Uncle Elmer, a year earlier. Adonis beat Frazier despite giving up almost a foot in height and 150 lbs in weight.

#77 The Warlord 1-1-0: The Warlord was considered to be a World Championship contender for a short period in the early nineties, and a big win over Tito Santana at the 1990 Summerslam. However, a defeat to the British Bulldog at the following year’s Wrestlemania seemed to halt his momentum, while catapulting the Bulldog to new levels of Stardom.

#76 Sam Houston 1-1-0: The half brother of Jake Roberts and the son of Grizzly Smith, made his name in the old NWA, and despite a brief spell in the WWF in the late eighties, his big chances came at the older Starrcade events. At the 1995 Starrcade, he was beaten by Barry Darsow (Pre-Demolition), but he picked up a win a year later against Bill Dundee to retain the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship. A win against now 40 year veteran Bill Dundee is enough to see Sam Houston pick up the final place in this instalment.

Don’t miss the next instalment of the greatest wrestlers of the modern era, when we’ll be counting down the names from number 75-51! You won’t want to miss it, and you may even be surprised – and remember, it’s results that count!

<./kayfabe.>

Hey guys. I didn’t write at all through either March or August of this year, so I thought I’d come up with this little four-parter going into Christmas to make up for it. I hope you enjoy it. It’s a little bit of a new experience for me, trying to write from a kayfabe perspective, but hopefully it’s working out OK. I hope to get all four parts posted by Christmas, with the last one hitting the page around Christmas eve, so keep your eyes peeled for the next 25 wrestlers. I think you’ll probably find there are some surprises on the way. I was certainly surprised at what I found when I was putting the lists together!

Anyway, any comments can be sent to takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com and I’ll make every effort to get back to you.

Until next time

Take care

Pt2









***DIRECT LINK*** Very Rare Shots of The TNA KNOCKOUTS PARTYING!! Karen, Velvet, MORE!

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