Top 100 Countdown – WRESTLERS – Part 4 – #25-01

Good evening, wrestling fans. Welcome to the

GCRN Podcast Arena for the Geek Cast Radio Top

100 Wrestlers Countdown. Coming to the ring are

your hosts, representing the GCRN, Kevin, up

the solo, Thompson. Money isn't everything, it's

the only thing. And representing BravingHipster

.com, TV's... Mr. Leon. The whole wrestling world

is going to stand up and take notice. And from

the Great White North, representing This Week

in Geek, Alex, White Heat, Richie. I'm on! And

finally, from Hearts Unknown, representing Simplistic

Reviews, Matthew. No nickname needed. Hello and

welcome back. to Geekcast Radio's Top 100 Wrestler

Countdown. We have come to the penultimate episode

here. We're finally to, I don't even know what

that word means, but it sounds good, to 25 through

1 today is what we're going to be revealing.

So we've already revealed 100 through 26, so

there's only 25 men left standing. Before we

get to that, let me introduce everybody. I am

your host, Optimus Solo, and joining me for today's

section of the countdown, back from Simplistic

Reviews, Mr. Matthew Stewart. Hello. I'm just

a sexy boy, a boy toy. Oh, Geekcast Radio, you

must see me in this boiler room. I might be sweating

a little bit here for you guys tonight. That

was Paul Bearer in the boiler room. I thought

it was the creepy old guy from Family Guy that

likes the paper boy. He's a little bit like that.

Also joining us is, representing this week in

Geek, Alex, how are we doing? Pretty good. Quickly,

for anybody that might have questioned why I

was harsh on Seth Rollins, did you watch this

weekend's show? No, I'm getting the heat for

us being harsh on Randy Orton. Yeah, I saw that.

Randy Orton and Owen Hart is where I'm getting

the heat. Okay, well, you know, take the heat

for them. I'll take it over. But as far as the

Rollins, ooh, harsh on Rollins. Really? Really?

Or were we prophetic on it? Yeah, basically.

We were telling the future. And running out this

fatal four -way is TV's Mr. Neil. Hello. Hello,

Noggers. Did you say penultimate episode? That

would be the second to last. I know. That's why

I was like, I knew I had messed up, so I was

trying to make a funny out of it. I will not

delete that. All right. So we are going to be

counting down 25 through one, just so everybody

knows that's been listening to the past three

episodes. I've been doing a lot of breakdowns

of everybody's belts that they've won and stuff

like that. I'll probably try to do that a little

bit less in this episode, just because we're

getting to the cream of the crop, and most of

these guys have had a lot of belts. So I don't

want to waste too much of your time talking about

belts and spend a little bit more of that time

debating the merits of these individuals. This

is we're way past the point of does this person

belong in the top 100 or not? You really cannot

make an argument against any of the people we're

going to talk about today that they shouldn't

be in the top 100. So now it really is about

where they rank and if you guys agree or disagree.

And I have a feeling we're going to have some

disagreements along the way here. It should be

interesting. Alex, what are you most looking

forward to or any thoughts before we start revealing

the names? I'm looking forward to trolling anybody

that gave Cena number one or two. There might

be, not a surprise, but there might be a surprise

or two in the order that they arrive in. I mean,

we pretty much know who the top five are probably

going to be. Don't count on that. No, just kidding.

Yeah, if you're at home, you probably got a pen

and paper out there and you're jotting down the

25 names you think we haven't talked about. Maybe

you could get them all. There might be a few

that you're forgetting, though. Speaking of number

ones or number twos, so far nobody's number one

has been revealed. So all of the different people

that contributed to the list still have their

number ones yet to be named. And we have one,

two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight different

wrestlers that at least got a number one vote.

Matthew. We kind of ended last week's episode

with a bang. I know you weren't here on the record,

so I'm going to give you a chance to kind of

react to the names that were revealed last week.

And some big ones that we saw kind of fall there,

especially towards that final 10 or 11. We had

the Million Dollar Man, Goldberg, CM Punk, Harley

Race Vader, and then the big guys at the end,

Big Show, Kane, Kevin Nash, and Mr. Perfect.

What did you think of the names we revealed in

that episode? And kind of give us your reactions.

It's kind of funny seeing Kevin Nash so far up

the list, like definitely within the top 50.

I mean, I love Kevin Nash. I love Diesel. I love

Christmas Creature, whatever you want to call

him. You know, the Yeti. Well, he was a Yeti

as well, too, right? Yeti? No, I forget who the

Yeti was. He was a Yeti. Okay. He was somebody

else, yeah. I believe it was Giant Gonzalez.

Was it Giant? Maybe. Why doesn't he have the

top one? Oh, God. A guy in a giant onesie. I

don't even know if he could make it if we were

doing the top 107 -foot wrestlers. He still might

not make it. I mean, we are getting, like you

said, Kevin, to the cream of the crop. So, I

mean, I like seeing Goldberg up there, CM Punk,

things like that. Still haven't really gotten

that one wrestler who's like the new school wrestler.

We haven't really gotten that new wrestler, which

I thought we would have got maybe some recency

bias, like maybe out of nowhere a Kenny Omega,

who knows, or an Okada. I don't know. Maybe those

guys are a little too still green around the

gills or something like that to get in the top

100. But good seeing Neil Goldberg up there is

great. And seeing Vader up there is cool too.

I love Vader. Faders, so rad. A lot of big men.

A lot of big size guys that went out last time.

Big guys with big personality type things. But

see the top 25. I think we know what we're going

to get in the top 25. And, you know, I'm seeing

Mr. Perfect like right outside that top 25. But

I'm still happy he's on the second half of the

countdown because let me see Mr. Perfect. To

be in the top 25, you had to be on almost all

of the lists. The most anybody has been omitted

is three lists. If you were not on three lists,

you had a chance of getting in here, but no less

than that. Basically, we're getting to some sort

of unanimous consent, even though it might differ

into where people put stuff or put people on

the list. The weird thing is there is a lot of

omissions. There's only eight people that we're

going to talk about today. were unanimously on

every single list. Everybody else was left off

of at least one person's list. So that's kind

of some crazy stuff that we might have to get

into. TV's Mr. Neal, last second thoughts before

we start revealing the names. What are you most

surprised about so far or most looking forward

to? And give us your preface here before we start

revealing the first name. Not too surprised at

what's come up so far. It's mostly about where

I expect everything to land. I'm trying to remember

who was actually on this list. I probably would

have expected Goldberg to be maybe a little higher.

Maybe Mr. Perfect a little higher. I'm just kind

of looking forward to who's on the list. I've

got about three guys that I'm kind of thinking

are going to be in the top spot. Is it going

to be the real world champion? Is it going to

be the best there is? Is it going to be someone

with... Is it going to be... The guy for whom

the bell tolls, you know, we don't know. Yeah,

and not until later on in this episode. So let's

get the ball rolling here with our number 25.

Might be another interesting one to talk about

in lieu of recent events. So we will have to

see what your guys' take is on this gentleman.

He's never gone by any other ring name. He was

trained by Kurt Henning, Dean Malenko, Doug Basham,

and Nightmare Danny Davis, among other people.

We could also put him on the list of people that

tried to play football, at least. We're talking

about the one and only Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar

coming in at number 25. We haven't talked about

a whole lot of current wrestlers, a smattering

of maybe half a dozen or so throughout the countdown.

Obviously, he is very present today, having just

won the belt in recent times here. Alex, what

do you think of Brock Lesnar being in the top

25? I think he gets a lot of shit for doing the

same move in recent memory. But if you're one

of the people that was there when he first started,

he had a pretty phenomenal first couple years.

The thing to consider is, does he break out as

a mainstream star? He's somebody who crossed

over into multiple things. It doesn't hurt being

world heavyweight champion of a legit fighting

company, the biggest in the world at the time.

he was basically the baddest dude on the planet

for a good year or two for real. Then he brings

that legitimacy back. You see, he's probably

the only person on the roster now that like everybody

knows wrestling is fake in quotes, but he's not.

So even if he, you know, even if it might look

a little hokey or what some things he doesn't

occasionally here and there, you know, that.

At any given time, he could snap. Have you seen

him when he gets mad when somebody doesn't do

what he wants in the ring? Like when Braun Strowman

hit him in the head by accident, those couple

punches where he snapped for a second and you're

like, oh boy, he's going to knock this guy out

real fast. And then that would basically kill

his gimmick. Or hard weighing open Randy Orton's

head just with an elbow or two. The dude did

a backflip and landed on his head, and he was

fine. Yeah. He has a couple different things

that are of note, maybe. Obviously, he ended

the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak. His first

title reign for the Universal Champ was 504 days,

which is... white a long time um and obviously

he's done a lot of stuff as far as belts king

of the rings money in the banks world rumbles

etc so definitely has the the belts and the the

success i guess in the ring um you could uh maybe

debate his technical in -ring ability or his

uh mic skills maybe i would i don't know what

you guys think i would i would not say he's great

on the mic well his technical skills i mean he

was uh like collegiate wrestler you know first

class mic skills way better when he was completely

you know not handcuffed in ufc well by better

i mean like uh promos about how he's he's you

know gonna go home drink a different beer that

uh drink a different beer because the the sponsor

of ufc isn't paying him nothing and then he's

gonna get on top of his wife yeah like go have

such a sable it's all good yeah it's like it's

like he's great when you you know, don't, when

he's just like R rated, he can do that. He just

can't do anything else. I've got to go home and

have sex with my wife. Or ones where he'll, he'll

just, you know, call somebody an MRF or, and

all this stuff. You're like, Oh, you, you, you

really, you, you only work on pay -per -view.

You don't, you're not somebody who can work a

promo on television. There's a reason you have

a handler. Yeah, for sure. Has had some famous

feuds with the likes of Kurt Angle, Undertaker,

et cetera. So, Matthew Stewart, what do you think?

Is he deserving of being in the top 25? I think

so. And to go back to what Alex said, I mean,

early in his career, he was a wrestler. I mean,

he just also happened to be a freak of nature

with a crazy back tattoo and everything. This

guy looks insane. And he had scary music. And,

you know, he became, I mean. It's weird now to

see him only do the suplex city bitch type thing.

I think people get so fed up with that. It's

like, damn, we know you're a good wrestler, man.

We know you could do more than fucking German

suplexes in the ring and everything like that.

Why don't you do that? And then when he does

do that, you're like, oh, okay. Well, that's

the Brock Lesnar we like. But, I mean, I don't

know. It's one of these weird things where I

think he's definitely deserving to be. Top 25

is tough, but, I mean. considering the fact that

he crossed over and became a super bad man for

about one or two years. And then it came, I mean,

it always bothers me to be, to see a wrestler

go in the ring sponsored by Jack links. So that,

that kind of bothers me a little bit where it's

like, Oh, you're sponsored by beef jerky. That's

weird. Cool. At the same time, I guess, but I

mean, the fact that he teamed up with Paul Heyman,

Paul Heyman became the mouthpiece for. All he

really had to do in the ring was like smirk,

do his weird jumping thing that he would do all

the time. But I think people just give him the

bad rap now where he's just become the guy for

Vince. He's Vince's big, meaty man that he wants

a belt around all the time. And that kind of

is sad because the guy is talented and does really

cool things in the ring. But, you know, I mean,

that doesn't take away from how good he is. I

mean, top 25, I'd still say he's. Right on the

cusp, so fair thing for him right there. He doesn't

like taking punches, though, let me tell you,

from his UFC time. He does not. Well, he'll take

them or he'll get knocked out and be like, oh,

we're... TV's Mr. Neal, what do you think of

Mr. Brock Lesnar? Oh, God, yes, he belongs in

the top 25. You had him rank 25, by the way.

I did? There you go. How about that? I don't

even remember. But he comes off as a legit badass,

and I think it's because he is one. I would be

afraid to cross this man. You take someone like

Big Van Vader, and I think Big Van Vader looks

like he's really tough, but I think you could

make Leon cry. But like Brock, I would just get

out of the way. I don't even want to cross you.

And he's got the theme song that like, it's like

one of the guys that just the opening sting of

his theme song will just bring everyone on their

feet instantly. Everyone knows who's coming to

the ring and what's going to happen. So I like

him. All right, well, Brock Lesnar starts off

today, our number 25. Let's move on to our number

24 and see if everybody is in agreement with

him as well. This man has had, and some of these,

if I give belts and dates and stuff like that,

if it's anybody current, it might be a little

out of date. But this man, according to what

I looked at once upon a time, has had 28 different

belts, has had been a champion for almost 1 ,300

days, once went by the name of Black Snow, also

went by the name of Cole. um or gi bro um or

king booker we're talking about the one and only

booker t can you dig it Booker T is number 24.

Obviously had a huge. Tag career early on with

WCW and Harlem Heat for like most of the 90s.

Then became a singles wrestler, got the WCW belt,

and then obviously was part of the alliance and

different things in WWE. Kind of after that,

also spent a little bit of time in TNA, some

time in Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc. So Booker T

is number 24. Start with you, Matthew. Do you

think that we got this one right as well? Is

he top 25 worthy? King Booker. Oh, man, I love

Booker. I love Booker T. I mean, talk about a

guy who was like super athletic and do everything

in the ring. He's he knew he knew how to get

to the mic and like cut a promo, except if he

was talking about Hulk Hogan. But that's a whole

different thing altogether. But I love I love

Booker T. I mean, sure enough, like near the

end of his. WWE career, where he pretty much

got jobbed out to Steve Austin in a grocery store.

He got to let that go a little bit because of

how talented the guy was, and he crossed over

from being... Wasn't Harlem Heat top two or top

three tag teams for us when we did the Wars episode

two? I mean, they were really up high there,

too. super talented guy i loved booker t and

he redefined himself i mean he was the one guy

from like wcw that was able to go over to wwe

and like actually have some sort of post career

after that too i don't i don't know much about

his you know tna career and everything else he

did but and he's still working with the wwe and

doing commentary and he's got like a really good

like back it's it's not a man bun but he's got

that good like back bun during the WWE pre -shows

and stuff like that, too. I love Booker T. That

guy is definitely, for me, top 24 or top 25 because

he's athletic as hell and a great wrestler and

everything else. Few people that has been inducted

into the WWE Hall of Fame multiple times, obviously

individually, as well as a member of Harlem Heat.

Look at all the different people he's had tag

team gold with. Stevie Ray, obviously the most,

dozens of times there, but he's also had in different

companies tag team belts with Scott Steiner,

with Test, with Gold Dust, with Rob Van Dam.

So a lot of success both in the tag world and

in the singles world. Very good in the ring.

Pretty good on the mic as well. is he kind of

a little bit of the total package there or what

do you think uh hulk hogan we coming for wait

wait no i shouldn't do that i got myself right

there uh he should probably be part of me is

like he should be lower than brock but then part

of me is like he's a better entertainer than

brock uh even when he went a little insane and

i think he got a little uh i don't know maybe

a little early onset alzheimer's with the shucky

ducky quack quack crap that he's been doing His

commentating stuff. Oh, boy. His podcasts are

interesting. But, yeah, he a little one too many

hits to the head, I think. Now, entertainment

factor off the charts. Yeah, he should definitely

be. And I guess some of this, I think, is playing

into him being more recent. Yeah. But top 40

for sure. We were all over the map on Booker

T. We had people that ranked him in the 70s,

people that ranked him in the 50s, people that

ranked him in the 40s. Four people had him in

the top 20 TVs, Mr. Neal. Where do you think?

Did we get it right or should he be lower or

higher? What do you think? Well, he's the five

-time. I'm doing the hand, the five -time WCW

champion. God, this guy's amazing. You know,

Booker T. He demonstrates the difference between

WWE and WCW. In WCW, he was like a working man

wrestler. Very solid matches. Good on the mic,

but not really as memorable as a lot of the other

guys. But when he came to WWF, WWE, completely

transformed. Like, WWE has this... has this way

of like building up a wrestler where it's just

like amplify yourself. And he just developed

this personality, you know, the thing with the

five time, you know, tell me you didn't just

say that his hungry man commercial was hysterical.

He did chef Boyardee commercials. Great, great

in ring stuff, both in WCW and WWF. Yeah. Maybe

a little bit higher, but God, I love Booker T.

The other thing that's always fun to think about

as we talk about who should be higher and who

should be lower, anybody that you're saying should

be higher, we then have to take somebody out

that we're talking about later. So it's always

hard when we start naming off all these names.

So let's go to our number 23. He was in two people's

top tens. Left off of three lists, though. I

don't know how you do that, but this guy was

definitely very good on the mic in a completely

different way. He was once gone by the name of

El Diablo. He also went by the name of The Texan.

One time he had a ring name called Fred Platt.

Anybody got a hint yet? How about at one point

he went by just plain old The Snake? Jake Smith

Jr.? Or Jake the Snake Roberts. The Snake Roberts

comes in here at number 23. You know, he had,

the thing I always remember about Jake the Snake

Robert is he was good on the mic, but in a completely

different way than anybody else had ever been

good on the mic. It was so calculated, very intellectual

and soft -spoken, but like, man. He listened,

and his words carried a lot of weight to him.

Obviously, he has had a lot of famous moments

with the Snake, with Macho Man, and some various

feuds, obviously, throughout his time. But he

is our number 23. I'll get your guys' take now.

So, Alex, what do you think of Jake the Snake

Roberts? Probably somebody with a more interesting

and complicated real -life history than anybody

we've talked about before. Deceptively tall.

He doesn't look it compared to like the land

of giants, but like I'm six, four and he's like

six, six. And he doesn't look like it until you

get near him. Um, uh, we have a bit of a weirdo,

but, uh, you know, that's what years of substance

abuse and everything will do to you. Uh, but

the quintessential soft -spoken, like almost

like it's like Satan whispering to what he's

going to do to you, but then giving a wink and

a smile to your family and shaking your hand.

Like sort of what I got from him. And there's

not been really anybody else that's done anything

like that since, at least not on that level.

And you hear more about him training psychology

with all like the generation just after him and

being so influential on all of them. And it's

nice to see that he's been sober for quite some

time now. So yeah, he definitely deserves it.

I think would have. Might have been one of the

top two or three heels of all time had he not

had a 12 or 13 year stint of serious issues in

the 90s. Right. He was inducted into the WWE

Hall of Fame in 2014. And now I'm going to go

over a list of all of the WCW and WWE belts he's

had. We're done with that. So prove positive

that you don't have to have all these belts to

make it into our top 25. Matthew, what do you

think? That's the incredible thing. It's like

this guy was like a workhorse. Like this guy

could go into a program with anybody, no matter

who it is, and just do exactly what he needed

to do. If he needed to be the, you know, the

pseudo baby face or just the heel of all heels,

especially with the whole macho man thing. I

love because it was just the guy with a bag.

Like, I mean, if you didn't know who Jake the

Snake was. It's like, okay, he takes a snake.

Yeah, he looks like an oily guy. He looks like

a reptile -type fella. But he has a big bag with

him. And if you didn't know anything about him,

it's like, hey, why is he carrying a bag? I'm

like, oh, don't worry. That's just his thing.

He just carries a bag with him. It's a bag of

garbage. Who knows? And then he whips out a snake

that is terrifying. It incredibly either grosses

people out or just scares them to death. At one

point, it literally did bite a wrestler. It did.

A cobra. Granted, it was defanged. And on a Saturday

on children's television. Yes. Because they're

like, what? Oh, my God. And then he's laughing

with the snake. And he's, like, sitting by the

snake, like, hey, what's up, guy? Oh, just bite

somebody's arm? Oh, that's cool. I do that on

a regular basis, too. You just picture Macho

going, get that off! Get that fucking off! Get

off! This fucking snake is on my arm! I'm going,

you're dead! Like, I imagine, like, he got the

snake off and probably had to run out of that

building. Yeah, it's like, that's when heat was

real. That's called atomic heat, everybody, or

nuclear heat, if you will. But, I mean, he was

great in that. And then he came back, like King

of the Ring era, like 96, 95, and, of course,

created one of the best wrestling. Like, he was

the harbinger of one of the best wrestling gimmicks

ever in the history of probably wrestling, I

would say, too, that I'm sure we'll get into

later down in the countdown. And then he got,

you know, he was. full of substance abuse and

then he got sober because of ddp's yoga and then

now i guess now he's working with aew in some

way because i know he was doing some promos for

like the battle battle royal so but it would

be nice if he was just there for like if he was

their promo coach oh good lord oh boy like the

heel promo coach specifically oh yes if he's

doing the promos for mjg or mj his name is i

love that guy anyway Let him work with Jake the

Snake because he would have the best promos if

he doesn't have them already, too. So Jake the

Snake definitely in top. I mean, I would say

top 15. All right. So move for maybe him being

even a little bit higher. Also, the originator

or the master, I guess you could say, of the

DDT TV is Mr. Neal. What do you think? Is this

good? You had him much higher. I know that. Yeah.

Thing about Jake the Snake is that you mentioned

the way he talked. That guy. He could be intimidating

without yelling. He's like that father. When

you're in high school and you're dating the hot

chick and she's got this scary dad, he doesn't

have to yell at you. He's like, you're going

to have my daughter home by 8 o 'clock. You're

like, yes, sir. Absolutely, sir. Snake reminds

me of that guy. Had the DDT. Before the diamond

cutter, that was the move that would instantly

end the match at any time. You never knew when

it was coming. Bruce Pritchard once said that

guys like Jake the Snake and Ted DiBiase never

got the belt because they didn't need it. They

were over. They didn't need to put a belt on

them. He's probably the prototypical person,

too, when it comes to... psychology, in -ring

psychology, as far as working that angle in a

match, even if he might not have been the most

physically fit person or intimidating person.

But he was someone who could go, though. I remember

him early on, kind of like Ted DiBiase. He could

go a long time in Royal Rumbles or a different

thing and still be around. Obviously, he has

a wrestling family. His father, Grizzly Smith,

not a good person, but he was a wrestler. And

his half -brother, Sam Houston, and his half

-sister, Rockin' Robbins. A lot of wrestling

in that family. So Jake the Snake Roberts comes

in at number 23. Let's move on now to number

22. This guy ranked the following on people's

list. The lowest anybody had him ranked was 53.

Everybody else, 31, 26, 22, 21, 16, 14. So everybody's

in agreement that basically I'm going to say

he should be in the top 25. Who am I speaking

of? Well, at one point he went by the name of

Starship Coyote. Another time he went by the

name, this one we'll give it away. Well, no,

let's do Texas Scott first. How about the Diamond

Stud? Talking about machismo here, Razor Ramon.

Scott Hall, number 22. So we saw his longtime

NWO partner, Kevin Nash, at 27. Scott Hall fights

his way up to number 22. Is he more deserving

than Nash? And what do you guys think of him

being in the top 25? We'll start with Matthew

Stewart since I heard you react there. What do

you think? It's funny. We're getting all these

wrestlers who were resurrected by the DDP yoga

training. I find that amazing. It's like the

resurrection of all these wrestlers into the

top 25. I mean, Reza Ramon was... Man, oozing

machismo, man. I mean, I'm from Florida. I'm

from Miami originally. So when I first saw this

guy coming to the WWF, it's like this Scarface

wannabe guy with like gold around his neck and

everything. And just like, oh yeah, Chico. I

mean, I don't know what it was about it, but

I found it very funny. It was like this weird

caricature of everything that was like South

Florida living, like drugs, gold. power, sex,

everything. This guy would steal fruit from the

fruit vendor at his promos. It was the most hilarious

thing I've ever seen in my life. Innovator of

the ladder match with him and Shawn Michaels.

He won gold, so he won some IC championships.

Between him and Kevin Nash, they created one

of the biggest factions in the history of...

I would say one of the biggest factions about

the biggest faction in the history of wrestling

too. So, and it was, it's good seeing him like,

you know, I mean, great wrestler. And then, you

know, he had his demons and then it came back

and he's still kind of involved in the business

too. But man, I mean, Scott Hall was great and

it was sad to see him in the ring and WCW on

his, when he was having his issues and they kind

of exploited him a lot of ways, but I mean, great.

I love Scott Hall. He is, I mean, Top 25, that

might be tough, but definitely in the conversation

to be on this list. I'd say at least top 40 to

top 50 for him. For me, he's one of the last

guys that I remember really getting the vignette

treatment as far as coming up before he actually

debuted. I know they've probably done it after

that, but for me, that was the last person. That

was like one of the last ones I remember because

they did all these little vignettes. And I was

like, oh, I just want this guy to finally wrestle.

And I didn't like him at first, but then he grew

on me big time over his time with WWE. And then

obviously when he came into WCW, definitely has

the gold to back up being here. He's been a champion

of one form or another in just the main. for

at least 14 times, almost 1 ,200 days as a champion.

He had a match of the year in 1994, according

to both PWI and the Wrestling Observer newsletter

for his Shawn Michaels ladder match at WrestleMania.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in

2014. I mean... He's voted the most improved

wrestler in 1992, tag team of the year in 1997,

best gimmick 1996 for NWO. So he definitely had

his impact on the business. Alex, is that enough

to get him a spot in the top 25, or do you think

he is too high? He's my favorite wrestler. And

underrated rapper, if you've ever seen, was it

the AWA, was it something Rock and Rumble? Oh

my God. Oh my God. Watch that. Get the audio

clip from that. Cause you know, not too many

guys had those kinds of rhymes back then. I guess

I, well, actually everybody on that show was

amazing, but he's one of those guys where the

more and more you hear about him, you hear like

he was part of the groups that would play pranks

and stuff, obviously, but you hear about in -ring

psychology. and the influence he had he was one

of those big steroid guys in the 80s and you

know when he cleaned up off the steroids he actually

had a better look in the 90s not being on roids

uh and like just the right size right look uh

you know could get the crowd behind him uh his

finisher was cool i mean and it looked devastating

even though now you look at you're like oh they

land properly they land on the flat of the back

and hurt nothing but if he didn't like you You

could land on your shoulders pretty rough. He

did have the best move to recreate with your

friends, by the way. Oh, yeah. I used to do that

shit all the time. I don't know how many people

I've given the razor's edge into a swimming pool

in my life, but it's a lot. And I know it wrecked

his arms when he was trying to do bigger and

heavier guys. When you're on big steroids and

you're huge and you're working out every day

and you don't have bad knees or anything, it's

easy to do that move. Try doing that when you're

in your 40s and entering into your 50s. But great

example of maybe not handling somebody so well

is look it up on YouTube. It's Jeff Hardy's debut

when he was 16 and lied about his age. There's

a video of him as Razor. Think about this. It's

Razor doing this. That's how long ago it was.

And Jeff Hardy is, well, I guess he might not

be wrestling anymore. Who knows? But it's just

him throwing the 16 year old kid around and he

just tosses him like, like a rag doll. And that

was what was expected. You, you had the squash

matches and he could just, he would do the squash

matches and make you pissed off and like him

because you'd be pissed off at all. Look, he's,

he's hurting these, these small guys, but then

he would just give you a, you know, a look and

you'd be like, Oh, you son of a bitch. Oh, that's

so good. I used to love that. Yeah. He had so

many. The toothpick. I mean, there was a lot

of different stuff that he did well. I mean,

come on. He made the 1 -2 -3 kit. Without Razor,

there would be no Sean Wallman. He got surveys

over. Like, survey does. How about a catchphrase

of hey -o? Hey -o. He gets that over. The only

other person that does that is Stone Cold with

what? The least amount of words that you can

get over. Yeah, it's Steve Austin and Ric Flair.

They're the only ones that can do one word, and

he's one of the only guys that can get two words

over. TV's Mr. Neil Weigh -In on Scott Hall.

Do you think he's deserving of the top 25? Yes.

I love Scott Hall. Came in just an average episode

of Nitro. Didn't see it coming. Started the whole

NWO thing. He was the first guy. going back to

his WWF days when he debuted as Razor. Didn't

know what to think of him at first because he

was so big, but he was so lanky. He wasn't really

like the big, muscly guys like you're used to

seeing in WWF. He was kind of different. He was

the perfect Intercontinental Champion. Yeah,

he was. And like you guys said, he made the 1

-2 -3 kid. That was interesting because that

factored into his face turn. Like, they wanted

to do a face turn totally different. They didn't

want him to, like, run in and save somebody.

Instead, it was, like, him getting tricked by

the 1 -2 -3 kid and then all the other heels

just making fun of him. And that got him over

somehow. He was already over. Fans were already

cheering him. But that was enough to push him

over the edge and become a babyface. So that

was an interesting kind of, like, little change

of pace for WWF that they did that. Um, it's

really sad about where things went, uh, later

in his WCW career. Uh, didn't like to see him

go downhill like that. And even like later appearances,

I've seen him, uh, in other promotions or just

kind of sad, but, uh, yeah, I, I really love

Razor Ramon Scott Hall. One of the best. Absolutely.

I also forgot to mention he was trained by Hiro

Matsuda. We should have made a list of all the

people trained by him as well. All right, let's

move on now to our number 21. That means the

last guy that didn't make the top 20, I guess

you could put it that way. He has had a lot of

belts over his career, at least 15 -time champion

over 1 ,000 days, carrying at least one or another

belt to the ring. Ring names are going to give

it away, so I can only give maybe one. I don't

know if anybody remembers him being called Richard

Blood. Or Rick Blood. But at one point he went

by both of those names. At one point he went

by just The Dragon. At one point Sam Steamboat

Jr. We're talking about, obviously, Ricky the

Dragon Steamboat. That is our number 21, trained

by Vern Gagne and the Iron Sheik. Did the Iron

Sheik train people? I didn't realize that. He

yelled at them. That's what he did. He made them

humble. That's about it. Some interesting moments

as far as memorable things here. Tag team of

the year, according to the Wrestling Observer

Newsletter in 1983, that would be with Jay Youngblood.

So we did have some tag. gold and some success

there match of the year 1987 versus macho man

at wrestlemania obviously a lot of people talk

about that match of the year 1989 versus rick

flair at clash of the champions obviously had

the famous series of matches with rick flair

and wcw slash nwa um most inspirational wrestler

of the year once upon a time rookie of the year

tag team of the year uh inducted into the WWE

Hall of Fame in 2009, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat.

Neil, you had him ranked a little bit higher

than this, so what do you feel about Ricky the

Dragon coming here at 21? He's one of those guys

whose better days, like Rick Rude, his better

days were in WCW and NWA. Only got a little taste

of him in WWF and really got to know him a lot

more just through seeing older matches later

on. Really, really amazing wrestler. Actually,

didn't he come back to WWE fairly recently? And

he was still just as mobile in more recent times

as he was back in the day? Yeah, I saw him last

year. I only saw him twice in matches. I saw

clips of him in the eighties. Um, like the, well,

Jake, the snake planting his head into the ground.

Um, yes. Yeah. And it sounded bad. And I think

that's the match where he had to go to the back

and they beat him up for real so that he would

come out looking way worse. And it would be like,

I think it was, it was a dusty or somebody. They

went back there. No, it was, uh, uh, what's his

name? Um, uh, Harley race, I think scratched

up his face. It must have looked worse. So I

saw that, and I only ever really saw it when

he came back in, like, 08 or 09. 09, he had the

big feud with Jericho. Yeah, when they bring

out all the old people, and Snooker looked like

he was going to die up there without an IV. And

that's when Roddy had his cancer scare but hadn't

told anybody, so he looked deathly thin. And

then Ricky the Dragon comes out after not wrestling

for 15 or 20 years and just does crazy... forward

flips, he could still go in his 50s. Right. The

last time he appeared on television would have

been this last year in February during Ric Flair's

birthday. That was the last time that he was

seen on TV, I think. And he still looks like

he looks in better shape than Jerry Briscoe when

he won the 24 -7 champ. Bring him back? Oh, God,

don't get me started on that. He could do it.

He's the one guy. But we were a little all over

the place with Ricky the Dragon, too. People

not quite sure where to rank him. We had people

as high as the 60s, some in the 40s, some in

the 30s, 20s, some in the teens. So a little

bit all over the place. Matthew Stewart, what

do you think? What's the verdict on Ricky the

Dragon? I always liked him because I liked the

way he looked, and he was different than a lot

of wrestlers. Because he also didn't have a lot

of Asian -American wrestlers, too. So I don't

want to say it's a novelty, but he kind of was

in a lot of ways. But he was like that. baby

face of all baby he was like in the same like

you know kind of prism is like you know a tito

santana or like a junkyard dog where people just

liked him to like him like they everybody just

loved him because it's like damn this guy's one

he's a really good wrestler and two he just had

a good look good body good wrestling technique

and everything i i'm gonna have to go back and

watch the 87 match with uh macho man because

i haven't seen that match in a long time but

that's the match that everybody points to as

being like top what three or five of all time

i want to watch that one back to back with the

the one with flair or at least one the one that

gets the most note from flair to see which one

i like better because everybody says like this

is the best match like either they they planned

it all ahead of time they call it part of the

ring or they did this did that but it was like

just the ultimate in wrestling acumen There's

nothing better than this match if you just want

a straight -up wrestling match that was done

excellently. Badass real name, too. His real

name is Richard Henry Blood. God damn, that's

awesome. That's so good. Why didn't he just go

by that? Yeah, Steamboat. Come on. Steamboat

sounds like halfway racist. Well, he was a little,

like, sort of ambiguous. It's some form of, like,

I thought he was part native or he was part...

a Pacific Islander. There's a whole bunch of

different things that he could be. I've never

actually looked him up. He was born in New York.

I always thought they marketed him. He's basically

like, we wanted Bruce Lee to be a bodybuilder.

That's who we marketed him as. That's what it

seemed like. He was born in West Point, New York.

That's not where I would think he would be born

at all. Um, obviously it was billed as being

from Honolulu, but that's not the case. Um, well,

I think it was built by being in Charlotte though,

too. So do you guys remember when he came back

to WWF in 1991 and he was dressed as the dragon

and he had the whole time he was, whole time

he was there, they never mentioned his name.

It was the weirdest thing. It was like, do you

really think we don't remember this guy? Two

years ago, he was kicking their butts as far

as quality goes. Basically. Alright, so that's

the first five that we've talked about today

if you're crossing off names that you expected

to see in today's episode. So Brock Lesnar, Booker

T, Jake the Snake Roberts, Scott Hall, and Ricky

the Dragon Steamboat. Interesting five set of

names there. Let's see where we go from here

with our number 20. Again, a little bit all over

the place. People had them ranked in the 40s,

the 30s, the 20s, the teens. Many time champion

for sure. 31 different? championship reigns over

1 ,100 days as a champion. See if we can get

some ring names here. He was trained by Sweet

Daddy, I can't even say it, and Sweet Daddy Siki

and Ron Hutchison. Ring name at one point was

Damon Stryker. Also went by the name Sexton Hardcastle.

Had an impact. Or Adam Copeland. That's his real

name. Oh, I should have gone with Conquistador

Uno. It Is Edge is our next one. Edge makes it

into the top 20. You think you know me. On this

day. to get edged top 20 with. Definitely. I'm

just tired of WWE billing people from Toronto

if they're from anywhere else other than Toronto.

It's the only area we know of Canada. Well, it's

like Orangeville. He's from Orangeville. And

like, you know, him and Christian, he's from

Kitchener. Oh, he's there from Toronto. No. Close

enough. No. It's like you're allowed to be from

Calgary, Montreal, or Toronto, and that's it.

Or Quebec. You're either from Quebec, too. I

think those are the only three cities. in uh

canada i don't know anything about canada you're

allowed you're allowed to be from winnipeg if

you're chris jericho that's it you gotta realize

that you could say anything in canada and and

all of us people in the states just don't know

what you're talking about so it's like well they're

like we literally have a road to nowhere and

like it's a road that goes to a place called

nowhere and then it goes out into the icebergs

so it exists um i would say yes uh he He might

have also been elevated high again because having

to retire early, that always sticks out in people's

minds. He's not better than Rick of the Dragon.

He was super hot for a short period of time.

Let's go with all the five people we mentioned.

Which of those five would you put him ahead of?

If any. None. I think I'm with you. If you go

on my rankings, I have Edge ranked in the 40s,

comparing none of these other guys I did. He's

great, but he's not there. Would he have ranked

above Christian, then? Do you still think he's

ranked above Christian? Christian's from my hometown

here, but I have to say yes. Because he hurt

his neck, whereas Christian was, let's get hit

in the head again, over and over and over again.

Yeah, I mean, he does have all the awards to

go behind him as far as that goes. He had somewhat

of a lengthy career, even though it was cut a

little bit short. He was still around for a couple

decades there. Had some very famous, memorable

moments as far as feuds with Matt Hardy, with

John Cena. Obviously some tag feuds with the

Dudley Boys and the Hardys, etc. when he was

with Christian. So definitely some memorable

moments, some belts to go along with that. How

would you guys rate him with some of the other

stuff? as far as charisma, mic skills, and things

of that nature? Matt or Alex? Well, he wasn't

Captain Charisma, I'll tell you that much. No.

He's somebody who's had crossover appeal. He

has a fairly decently successful career doing

cable TV shows now. And not like... not like

uh steve austin's like reality tv show bullshit

uh like actual you know like haven he was a main

star of that there's he's been on multiple shows

that are you know real tv if that makes any sense

uh he he's weird he's he's he's handsome but

i still want to punch him in a stupid face so

it's like i don't get it now one of the most

genuinely naturally funny guys uh out there who

can take some of the stupid BS that Vince would

give him and actually make it funny. I would

say that I would have no problem with anybody

putting him in the top 50. I don't know if I

can say, and I'll get hate for this just like

we did with some of the other guys, but I don't

think I can put him in the top 20. Not in my

top 20. Don't worry. We'll get the hate now,

and then he'll show up at LNSL next year and

ruin it for everybody. No, it'll be one of the

Kuwait or the Saudi Arabia shows. He'll just

show up and be like, give me all the blood money,

please. Give me all your blood money. anybody's

team. Neil, any thoughts on Edge before we move

on to 19? You mentioned that he was naturally

funny. I did like him as a comedy heel. Edge

is one of those guys where certain incarnations

of him I like, certain incarnations of him I

don't like. I thought he was very funny as part

of Edge and Christian when they were comedy bad

guys. I never really bought that he... He did

the spear. I think if your name isn't Rhino or

Goldberg, you don't do the spear. Correct. He

never had the right upper body size or Rhino's

legs are thicker than his entire body if he folded

himself in half. It's a gore if your legs are

giant and it's a spear if your chest is giant.

That's basically how I looked at it. It's more

like a football tackle. I always called his the

running hug. Yeah. I would put him above the

other five or I would put him not above the other

five that we talked about today. I'd also put

the likes of Mr. Perfect Million Dollar Man.

A couple of those guys probably ahead of him

as well. But Edge comes in here at number 20.

Let's see where we go from here with our number

19, which is also going to be the first of our

wrestlers that was number one on somebody's list.

So he falls here at number 19. Again, though,

all over the board with everybody else. Somebody

had him in the 60s, 30s, 20s, and a couple people

in the teens, a couple people in the top 10.

Obviously, one had him at number one. You can

go by a whole bunch of ring names, but most of

them are going to give it away. He was trained

by Dominic DiNucci. At one point, he went by

the name, let me see if I can find one that's

not going to recognize, Manson, Saint Mick. The

rest are going to give it away. Dude Love, Cactus

Jack, Mankind, or just plain old Mick Foley.

Was he ranked like four times different? No matter

what name people put it. Now the question is,

because if we added up every point he got for

all his different incarnations, wouldn't he just

be number one? Basically, no. If anybody ranked

him, I went with the highest version that they

had ranked, and that's the one that counted for

him. Billed from a lot of places. He was billed

from Bloomington, Indiana at one point. He was

billed from the Boiler Room at one point. Long

Island, New York. And at one point, truth or

consequences, New Mexico. Obviously, Mick Foley

has been around for a long time. Debuted in 1983

and has basically... Was going past the 2000s,

if you want to count the TNA and I guess the

last little return to WWE, which was all the

way until like 2000, just a couple of years ago,

honestly. But early days in WCW, NWA, Smoky Mountain,

ECW. A lot of time, though, mostly in WWE is

when most people are going to remember him from.

He comes in here at number 19. Matthew Stewart,

do you think that is a good spot for him or how

do you feel about Mick Foley? I mean, the fact

that I quoted a scene from something he was a

part of to start the show. I love Nick Foley.

I love Mankind. Mankind was, for me, I mean,

I was like, not an adult. I was kind of like

an adolescent when Mankind first came out. wwe

or wwf at the time and he scared the big shit

out of me like there was no other wrestler i

had seen not even undertaker maybe papa shango

because he did voodoo so that scared me a little

bit as a kid but this guy would stick his fingers

down people's throat and like make them throw

up and do they ever kill anybody on air not that

we know of and throw up blood either but he also

never fought Not Dean Ambrose, but Seth Rollins.

So we'll never really know what will ever happen

with that. But this is a guy who was so scary.

I want to say, was he one of the first? He was

probably the first and only wrestler that I knew

that had an intro theme and an outro theme. Nobody

else really had that. Are you talking about when

he had the porno theme that they took away because

it was in porno? Well, no, when it was Mankind.

Yeah, that's right. He had two separate ones.

He had two separate themes. He had an opening

that was very scary. Using the porno. See, I

don't remember that. I've got to go find that.

You can easily find it. You'll find the porno,

too. not only did he have so many gimmicks that

we all that they got over um but he also did

a little of everything like he had a lot of tag

stuff he had a lot of hardcore stuff he had some

actual you know WWF championship gold. Look at

the people that he had tag team belts with at

one point or another. The Blue Meanie, Tracy

Smothers, Mikey Wiprek, Kevin Sullivan, Stone

Cold, Kane, The Rock, Al Snow. A lot of tag stuff.

Interesting if you look at the newsletters and

stuff that they gave him. Inspirational Wrestler

of the Year in 1993. Two -time Match of the Year,

according to PWI. Once in 98 with Undertaker

and Hell in a Cell, obviously. Man, that pay

-per -view has dropped off from sense then, hasn't

it? Match of the Year 1999 versus The Rock in

an I Quit match at the Royal Rumble. Wrestling

Observer Newsletter, get this, voted the best

brawler In 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98,

99, and 2000. Best on interviews, 95, 2004, and

2006. Few to the year 2000 with Triple H. most

disgusting promotional tactic. I find this thing

hilarious that this newsletter does this. 1993,

most disgusting promotional tactic for his cactus

check amnesia angle. Oh, okay. I was going to

say, like, I thought it was disgusting because

he got his ear chopped off. Oh, yeah. Could have

been that, too. So, obviously, they're making

a big case for him as being one of the best brawlers

of all time. Alex, what do you think? Brawler

is another way of saying can't wrestle technically.

So, I mean, yeah, like it's funny when you think

about Vince not wanting to even use him because

he thought he was ugly and not realizing what

kind of talent he had is still a part of the

absolute best produced from a production values

segment that WWE has ever done, which is when

they reintroduce him as Cactus Jack, where he's

interviewing himself. with like the whole forest

gump uh playing multiple people inserting him

into footage and stuff like he's three different

people in there and the green screen doesn't

even look bad i don't know how they can't do

it now but could do it 20 you know 20 years ago

and part of the biggest pop i've ever seen on

ww tv uh that night that he wins uh the championship

and then stone cold comes out the crowd they've

not had a crowd that hot ever since then No,

yeah. He definitely has had some of the most

memorable moments both on regular TV and on pay

-per -view. TV's Mr. Neal, what do you think

of Mick Foley showing up? You did not have him

ranked quite as high, so do you think 19's too

high for him? They put the belt on Mick Foley?

That'll put butts in seats. You know what? When

you're in the ring with Mick Foley, I think the

person who's most in danger is Mick Foley. He

never killed anybody, but he almost killed himself

a couple times. Falling through the... the hell

in the cell that, that I quit match with, with

the rock was scary. Cause he's taken his, his

arms, his hands are handcuffed and he's taken

shots right to the head. It's like, Oh, it's,

I tried watching that. It was hard to watch.

And they, they, they showed that on behind the

mat and WWF, let them be there to film that.

And then they totally disavowed it after that.

They didn't even want to mention it on air. just

because of how bad it made it look. But that's

also the documentary where they showed the one

guy being hired because he could puke on command,

and then he crippled himself a week later. Oh,

God, yeah. What a documentary. The one and only

time where Vince was like, sure, we can go behind

the scenes, and then he's like, never again.

He's got to puke. But I just love that him winning

the world title is the opposite end of the finger

poke of doom. That was the same night. Alex,

do you agree that he should be top 20? To be

honest, again, he's never been the greatest wrestler,

but maybe top 10, if only because he was the

first wrestler. He played the characters that

were the most crazier out there. almost carny

-like out of anybody at the time. But then he

was one of the most articulate people. He had

the first wrestling book that was a bestseller

on the New York Times. And this is back when

that actually mattered and made a difference,

like selling at least a million copies. I don't

believe he had a ghostwriter, I don't think.

No, he wrote it himself. He was the first guy

to write it completely himself. And then had

several more hits and has been a public speaker

and all the charity work he does. Genuinely a

good guy. Like staying, WWE would leave the arena

and he'd be there two to three hours sometimes

still signing stuff. And then he'd bum a ride

off somebody and sleep at their house for free.

Because he's that cheap. And then you see the

documentary on him. being obsessed with santa

claus he's probably the most famous like santa

claus out there can you think of anybody more

famous now that like embody santa claus watch

the the twisted sister i saw mommy kissing santa

claus music video he's in it as santa claus he

would be All right. Another thing that's interesting

as we go through is what era these wrestlers

all wrestled at. Because so far we had Brock

Lesnar, you know, mainly in the 2000s. Booker

T kind of turned up the century there. Jake Roberts,

more old school, 80s, 90s. Scott Hall, back to

Ricky the Dragon, back up to Edge, back to Mick

Foley. So we've kind of been bouncing around,

you know, a certain era, which is probably representative

of the voters and what age they are. But for

our number 18, we're going to go back to somebody

that debuted in 1967. Also, it's been quite a

while. It's been since we talked about Curt Henning

at number 26 that we had to talk about somebody

that's no longer with us. This man was the highest,

I guess. I always forget which way you go there.

The lowest he was rated was 43, and the highest

was 10. So everybody that voted for him had him

between 10 and 43. He comes in here at number

18. Can I already make a guess? Sure. Is it Dusty?

is Dusty Rhodes. American Dream He's just a common

man Working hard with his hands He's just a common

man Working hard for a man Mr. Ichiban, the Midnight

Rider I thought I'd get you guys because I was

going to say some of his relatives. He was related

to Tugboat, is his brother -in -law. So is Jerry

Sags. I was going to do that and not go with

the obvious Dustin Runnels and Cody Runnels.

But Dusty Rhodes, trained by Joe Blanchard, no

relation to Mike. Obviously, real name was Virgil.

Born in 1945, died in 2015. I don't really need

to talk a lot about the accolades because they're

all over the place. So, Alex, Dusty Rhodes, number

18, good spot or not for him? Good. I don't think

I saw him wrestle once ever. Oh, wait, didn't

he do something when he was already almost sick?

Oh, no, they were setting up something for him,

Goldust and Stardust, and they never followed

through. I've seen clips of him here and there.

Everybody's seen his promos. He's probably most

important nowadays for starting NXT. I didn't

realize he started that. It was his baby getting

it wrong. He was the promo coach. That first

class of people that graduated out of there and

made it to the main roster, they're the only

ones that have had any bit of success. And you

hear about everybody there talking about how

great he was, how he did this, and all the weird

stories about him walking around backstage with

just his cowboy boots on, completely naked, giving

orders around for people. It sounds like an interesting

fellow. A bit before all of our times, as far

as his in -ring, his heyday was from like 74

to really like 81. Yeah. Some of the stuff I'll

talk about right here kind of signifies that,

too. He was voted most popular wrestler of the

year in 1978, 79, and 87. Match of the year 1979

against Harley Race. 1986 match of the year against

Ric Flair in a cage match at the Great American

Bash. Feud of the year 1987 with Nikita Koloff

and the Road Warriors versus the Four Horsemen.

Obviously, he had a lot of feuds with... the

Four Horsemen as far as his time in NWA and WCW.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Best Babyface,

1980. Best Booker, 1986. Most Charismatic, tied

with Ric Flair, 1982. And then some worse stuff.

Most embarrassing wrestler, 1990. Most overrated,

1987 and 88. Most obnoxious, 1988 and 89. Reader's

least favorite wrestler, twice in the 80s. Worst

feud of the year versus Tully Blanchard. Worst

gimmick, worst television announcer. Good Lord.

But then they did induct him into the Wrestling

Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 96. Yeah,

he was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

He has a bronze statue in 2016. I haven't seen

that one. Matthew, what do you think of Dusty

Rhodes and is 18 a good spot in your opinion?

Hard times, baby. Hard times. I mean, I only

really remember Dusty Rhodes from the polka gimmick

when Vince gave him the polka dot outfit and

he looked like a... clown in the ring but I know

that was because of NWA and Vince was like well

I hate you anyway so guess what if you want to

join WWF you're going to have to wear this ridiculous

looking polka dot outfit Hold on. I got to interrupt

you. I got to interrupt you. I was going over

some more stuff and I don't even believe this

is a thing. Cause I was looking to see what kind

of people he had belts with and stuff like that.

Cause he had tag team belt with, with under the

giant with Dick Murdoch. He had already Dick.

Yeah. Baron Von Raschke with a six man tag with

the road warriors, Nikita Koloff. And then out

of nowhere, hold on. Magnum TA. He was a tag

team champion, NWA Mid -Atlantic Tag Team Championship

one time with Buff Bagwell? Why not? Buff Bagwell.

What time was that? I don't know. Remember, he

joined TNA right away. It might have been in

those years where the first two years where TNA

was weekly pay -per -views. because buff bagwell

didn't really wrestle anywhere before wcw right

and i don't think so so this would have been

in the dying days of the end like because when

tna came out it was basically the last nwa promotion

that had any clout so i'm guessing this is like

2002 or something like that it was or it would

have been right it was probably right after buff

2005 Okay, so it's after Buff showed up on WWE,

got fired the next week. Hold on, hold on. They

defeated somebody named Ricky Nelson and Terry

Taylor. I know Terry Taylor. Okay, so Terry worked

for years at TNA. These were all TNA people going

to small little indie shows. That's funny, though.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to derail everything.

But, Matthew, continue your thoughts on Dusty.

I don't really have any other thoughts. Okay.

TV's Mr. Neal. What do you think of the American

Dream coming in here at number 18? The first

time I saw him was when he came into WWF and

he just, this big. You look like a big beach

ball. Never saw him when he was in shape. If

he was ever in shape, I don't know. I was like,

what the hell is this? He was the American dream,

baby. I'm a son of a father, whatever it was.

Son of a mechanic. I'll get over pretending that

I'm talking jive talk. That's basically it. The

thinnest he ever was was in the last couple years

when he was at NXT, and that's because he had

the cancer. He was always a big, big man. Like

he was like always pushing 400. I mean, I've

seen some of his old stuff just through, I have

the DVD of the four horsemen and they broke his

arm. And I think they, they broke another bone

in a cage match or something. And that's the

most I've seen was of his NWA days. I, I. I like

Dusty. I think he's funny, but in the ring, I'm

just like, what the hell even is this? And he

was popular. Yeah, he was over. He had charisma,

had the mic abilities, had the belts to back

himself up, the longevity probably. I guess that

blue collar thing just shot him right to the

top. Was he a babyface his whole career? He was

a heel with Murdoch back in the 60s and early

70s. And he did join the NWO for no conceivable

reason. As everybody else did. He was basically

the southern version of Bruno Sammartino, I guess.

He just did cultural appropriation. But it was

for the south, he was the... their version of

a Bruno. Only uber white. And probably better

on the mic. Ric Flair, I think, in a lot of ways.

Where Ric Flair was like, the jet flying, let

me see. Whereas Dusty Rhodes was like... Bitch,

I grew up at a fucking farm. I'm a working man.

I'm a working man. I'm going to hitchhike, take

the bus, work hard every day, and then party

every night with all of you because I love everybody.

That was his attitude. Yeah, basically. And hit

with the ladies for some reason, too. All right.

Let's move on. I'm interested to see what people's

reaction here is to number 17, because we've

already had one number one person fall, because

we had Mick Foley, who was ranked number one

for somebody. Now we're going to have somebody

at number 17 that was ranked number one for somebody,

and that somebody happens to be on the record.

So our number 17, he was trained by Dory Funk

Jr. and Tom Pritchard. One time he went by the

name of the Conquistador. We are talking about...

Kurt Angle at number 17. He debuted in 1998.

Technically, I guess, retired this last year.

Obviously, ECW right away at the beginning in

1996, and then it was all WWE and TNA at the

end of his career sometime in New Japan, Lucha

Libre stuff and independent circuits. So, Alex,

let's let you go first. What do you think? Are

you disappointed that Kurt Angle falls here at

number 17? I can see why. If you rank him, he...

I mean, on technical prowess, he should be number

one. There's never been a gold medalist heavyweight

champion at the Olympics. He's literally in the

90s. This was the best wrestler ever because

there's no weight class higher than his. So potentially

he could wrestle everybody below him and win.

So as far as pure wrestling, he's the best in

the world. And then to come over and adapt to

the industry within six months and, you know,

at the top level heel baby face, uh, he, like

he and sting kept the lights on at TNA for 10

years. And then to go like, and after multiple,

like he won gold at the Olympics with a broken

neck. Frickin' neck. Without any Tylenol or anything.

And then works through all his crazy injuries.

Has clearly had some spinal issues because you

can see the way he can't turn his neck anymore.

Wrestled matches on the indie circuit making

money after he left TNA. Comes back. Does pretty

damn well for a guy who's his age and can still

move around. He could have a five minute match

here and there. And then Baron Corbin? Really?

If anything, I feel like he dropped a few points

for letting his career end the way it did. Right.

A lot of feuds of the year and matches of the

year. Feud of the year with Triple H, with Brock

Lesnar, with Samoa Joe. Match of the year with

Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels. Wrestler of

the year in 2003. Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Best gimmick. Best on interviews. Best technical

wrestler. most improved, most outstanding wrestler,

reader's favorite wrestler. So wrestler of the

decade from 2000 to 2009. I think that's what

hurts him on my ranking is because that was probably

the one time period that I wasn't watching much

wrestling was when he was at his peak. He won

wrestler of the decade while at TNA. Think about

that. He was that tiny cowboy hat. He was all

over the place from rank. all the way to 62.

A lot of people had him in the 20s or in the

teens. A couple people in the 40s. Matthew Stewart,

what do you think of Kurt Angle coming in here

at number 17? I liked Kurt Angle a lot. I also

think him and Brock Lesnar had the best match.

I mean, I think he allowed Brock Lesnar to have

the best match Brock Lesnar ever had with him.

as well too so that elevates him even higher

i mean both they're both great you know one's

a great wrestler one's like good amateur wrestler

of course but i mean he had the mic skills he

was stupid he was funny he allowed himself he

embraced the you suck chance because even now

i mean maybe he doesn't maybe his ears don't

work anymore and he's like yeah you suck You

know, that type of thing. It's one of these things

where, like, Alex's point where, like, his neck

is so thick now where he can't really look at

people anymore. He's like, oh, no, I have to

move my whole body. I mean, I feel bad for the

guy because, like, he's done a lot for the business

and he's, you know, suffered the consequences,

unfortunately. And I know he's also had some

battles with substance abuse, too, and some other

things as well. Well, think about this now. with

all the blood money fights they're doing now

overseas, fully expect to have him face Hogan

and watch their bodies collapse. I don't know

if I want to. I mean, great. I mean, I have no

conscience and I'm an immoral asshole, scumbag,

son of a bitch. Would I want to see that? Probably.

But do I really want to see that as a human being?

Probably not. Go for it. There's a lot of Saudi

oil money and blood money to be made, so why

not do it? It'll be a better match than what

we saw recently. It's almost 1 ,600 days as a

champion of one form or another. TV's Mr. Neal

will give you the last thought here on Kurt Angle

at 17. I've seen a lot of guys from other sports

come into WWF, guys from football, guys from

MMA. Nobody seems to have gotten it. as quickly

as Kurt Angle did. He came in and just immediately

knew what was up and knew how to make people

boo him, laugh at him. He knew that he was going

to come in as the obnoxious Olympic hero and

act like the guy who expects everyone to cheer

him but is instantly going to get booed. He just

completely embraced it. So I loved him in his

early WWF career. Didn't follow him in TNA, unfortunately.

All right, well, let's move on to the last person

outside of the top 15. I always like to frame

it that way. So the last guy just sitting outside

of the top 15. He was ranked in the top 10 for

two different people. Let's go with some ring

names of El Caliente, Mascara Magica, Black Tiger.

We're talking about Gorey Guerrero Jr., also

known as Eddie. Guerrero is coming in here at

number 16. Eduardo Gori Guerrero Llanes is his

real name. So obviously a lot of time as a champion,

started off doing some Lucha Libre stuff, went

to New Japan, ECW, and then really found a home

in WCW. all throughout. He had actually three

different stints in WCW, 1989, 1991, and then

95 through 2000, really, before obviously going

on to WWF, and then a few other independent things

along the way. Alex, we'll let you start off.

Eddie Guerrero, is he deserving of a spot at

number 16? Hot take, I'm not sure. I feel this

is another case of somebody dying young, and

then we're like, turning him into a saint uh

i saw things i never thought it was that great

i mean maybe i'm out of the demographic for it

like i know it was like latino pride and everything

it just didn't see it i saw that he was a good

like i don't know it's i'm gonna i'm gonna catch

a lot of heat for this but like i always saw

i always saw him has like a cruiser weight who

then took a whole bunch of like he was a cruiser

weight that just took a whole bunch of steroids

to get a little bigger It's true. It's the Chris

Benoit thing all over again. Also, I don't know

if we should be praising people who died because

of substance abuse. I don't know. That's just

me personally. I feel like if we're not allowed

to include Benoit in pretty much anything, if

they don't allow that, they always make him out

to be a saint. And it's like, let's forget how

he died. let's let's forget all this stuff and

it's like and if you forget how he died if you

forget or when he died was he that great like

he got the one like people were behind him i

think it's because he died as he was peaking

he never plateaued and never went downhill he

didn't have a chance to be misused at that point

that's true he was misused so much at the beginning

of his career ups and downs ups and downs and

then he was like he climbed everest and died

at the top So it's like, oh, okay. So if we go

by that, then yeah. But like top 50, maybe. 15

-time belts, 991 days as a champion. For me,

I, again, wasn't watching when he kind of reached

his pinnacle with WWE. So I can mainly go off

the WCW stuff. And when he was in the cruiserweight

division with the likes of Dean Malenko and Rey

Mysterio and Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho,

I mean, that. group was so talented but he was

my least like he was my lowest draw out of that

group like i was much more into jericho benoit

mysterio etc so i was never like a huge eddie

guerrero fan um and i missed when he kind of

reached his peak with wwe so that's why i didn't

quite have him as high i had him in the 40s um

but a lot of people most people had him in the

40s 30s and 20s but a couple people had him in

the top 10 which kind of bounced him up a little

bit here um so i mean i can see both sides of

it but i personally was not a fan but i think

he was a good wrestler um and he also like we

talked about with some of the other wrestlers

previously does have that impact culturally as

well. You know, like maybe not to the level of

like an Al Santo or something like that, but

still within his, you know, like demographic.

If it's, you know, Latino pride or whatever,

one thing, but Al Santo should be higher than

him based on what, if that's what your argument

for him, it's like, oh, he did great. Well, for

the American audience or for that, but what about

every Latino in the rest of the world? And it's

like, he was big down in Mexico, but he's nowhere

near El Santo big. Matthew, where do you fall

on this debate? Wow. I mean, it's an interesting

thing because, I mean, when I was watching ECW

back in the day, Mike Tenet was always the guy

who would bring the, like, cruiserweight bouts

or Lucha Libre bouts. And I was talking about,

like, oh, the Guerrero family, the Guerrero family,

Guerrero family. Yeah, Eddie, I mean, and I will

say, when I saw Eddie Guerrero fight, he had

one of the best suplexes. I ever saw. Like when

he did his snap suplex, it was like, oh my God,

this guy is incredibly strong and also very good.

But it was also, you know, I don't know, on the

juice and doing other things too. And to Alex's

point, could this be the thing where it's like

you want to rank higher because he died young?

what was he like 41 40 years old i mean he was

like it was it was young like like you know we're

all approaching that age like it was like oh

my god i don't know how much time left i think

it was like 38 or 39 yeah it was young and and

to your point again too with like the bed and

wallet debate always comes up with eddie guerrero

because they were such good friends and they

died almost concurrently in a lot of ways. They

died at the same time. He was 38. Shit, I got

three years. I got two years left. I'm going

to die soon. It's almost like because we can't

praise Benoit, they throw everything onto him.

The story of their success is intertwined together.

It is in a lot of ways. Of course, I mean, nobody,

nobody wants to talk about it, but like Benoit

was, he murdered his family. I mean, that's,

but I mean, and that's, that's why everybody

wipes him from the records. But if you go from

a wrestler perspective and you know, to your

point, I mean, yeah, you might catch heat for

praising Benoit. I'm not going to, I'm not going

to praise Benoit for what he did outside of the

ring. Like Benoit was a fucking incredible wrestler.

Oh yeah. Like dynamite kid. Incredible in a lot

of ways. Maybe I'll articulate it a little better.

The reason I don't rank him high in my own mind

is 90 % of the matches that we know him for for

being great and the angles we know him for are

the ones he did most recent that we're not even

supposed to talk about because they involved

Benoit. So if you took Benoit out of it, would

he have even had these feuds or had these? We

have Benoit ranked at 44, and we have Eddie Guerrero

ranked at 16. Is Benoit strictly ranked that

low just because of what happened? If you flipped

these two, you'd probably have a more accurate

list. I don't see the gap being that big between

them almost, though, is what I'm saying. I'm

sorry. You said he was at 40 -something? 44.

If you put him at 34 and Guerrero at 44. you'd

probably be more accurate. I'd be okay with that.

Mr. Neal, where do you weigh in on this? Well...

Or just talk about it. We're getting deep on

this right now. Well, I don't think I have anything

to add to this conversation. I do remember him

from WCW. I kind of enjoy his WCW stuff more

than his WWF. As with Booker T is like one of

those guys from WCW kind of changed when he came

over to Vince's side. He was kind of like this

workhorse in WCW. And then he kind of became

more of the entertainment guy in WWF. And he

became a lot bigger. And I didn't really enjoy

him nearly as much when he got bigger. I liked

him more as one of the cruiserweight guys in

WCW. Of course, there was the whole thing with

the glass ceiling. It couldn't really go anywhere.

So that's why he left suddenly in like what,

early 2000. I'm kind of like talking in a circle.

I don't really know what to add. He was good.

I did love him, but I do see your point that

maybe he's getting praise just because he died

so young. Yeah, I just don't see the gap between

him and Benoit being as big. I like Benoit better,

and I think they should be closer together in

the countdown, I guess is my point. Because like

Alex said, just because one person... involve

somebody else, but he did kill himself basically,

so I don't know. Guerrero also did have the gimmick

with WWE with the Latino heat, which I think

probably garners him more attention where Benoit,

despite what Benoit did, Benoit was literally,

I'm a wrestler. I don't really have anything

else to offer you besides the fact that I'm a

wrestler. He was like a Terminator. He would

come to the ring like a robot. Yeah, he would.

But for a smaller guy. If you stood up next to

Ben White, he wasn't very tall. He wasn't even

the thickest guy, but you'd be like, I'm getting

out of his way because this guy could murder

me for lack of a better term. This guy is scary

as shit. So far, we've only angered the Edge

fans and the Eddie Guerrero fans. Okay, let's

go from one cruiserweight to another. Interesting,

this guy comes in. This is our top 15 territory

now, so number 15, and he was ranked on every

single person's list except for one. And the

rankings go from 63 to 56 to 41, 34, 38, 29,

24. Two people had him ranked at 15, and that's

the highest anybody had him ranked, and that's

where he comes in, at number 15. Ring names,

Colibri. Probably said that wrong. El Nino. Super

Nino. All the rest are just variations of Rey

Mysterio. Rey Mysterio coming in here at number

15. Debuted in 1989. Obviously has had quite

a few accomplishments along the way from the

cruiserweight stuff that we were just talking

about with WCW, then into the WWE with all those

different belts. Some interesting things here

as far as the Wrestling Observer newsletter and

whatnot. Best Flying Wrestler in 1995, 1996,

1997, 2002, 2003, 2004. Match of the year 2002

with Edge versus Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle

for the Tag Team Championship, Most Outstanding

Wrestler 1996. A lot of interesting things here

going from what we were just talking about with

Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, and now we have

Rey Mysterio at number 15. Matthew Stewart, is

he deserving to be higher than those other guys

we talked about? I mean, for his longevity and

the programs that he's been involved in, Can

we all agree, though, that he should be done

now? He was not bad in that Raw from last week,

right? Oh, was he? He can still get the ring.

Well, his son is like a foot and a half taller

than him. He's losing the timing is the problem.

Yeah, yeah. Well, after you kill a guy in Mexico.

Oh, you beat me to it. We have people that killed

themselves. We have people that killed their

families. Now we have somebody who killed another

wrestler in the ring. Yeah. And it's never really

talked about. So we're going to bring it up here.

He's 6 '9 and dialed him right to hell. There,

that's the sound clip for the show. Oh, it's

so sad. I think he's the smallest wrestler that

deserves to be here because we're not getting

Hornswoggle now. I'm telling you. Not yet. We

don't know. Hornswoggle number two, would three

people just make him number one just to piss

everybody off? It's rigged. No. But it's interesting,

too. We were getting a lot of these guys that

were probably made famous in WCW that then went

to WWE. We had Booker T, and then we've had Eddie

Guerrero, and now we've had Rey Mysterio. So

that's kind of an interesting trend, too. TV's

Mr. Neal, you did not have Rey Mysterio in the

top 50, so do you think this is too high? Yeah,

I wasn't really a fan of his. I don't know. I

think he's just a little too small. He always

seemed to be... be outweighed by everybody and

i didn't you know what it was when he came to

wwf and these 619 became uh an offensive move

and i was like what the what the hell is that

is it what they used to do is they used to like

try to throw him out of the ring and then he

would swing back in they're like oh look at that

that's kind of cool now it's like the wrestlers

just kind of like hang out by the ropes like

their days they don't know what's going on and

then he like runs and swings his feet into them

and i'm like yeah that that's kind of that's

kind of silly I mean, it's not as silly as the

worm, but it is silly. It's like, how do you

end up on the second row? It's like, how great

do you mean for you all the time? Only in your

matches do people end up on this row. Why has

nobody tried to catch his legs as he doesn't

swing them into the crowd? See, that's what I

want booked. I want something booked like that.

It's like, ha ha! That's the last match for Rey

Mysterio. The only thing I want to add, I agree,

top 100 for sure, but here's the thing. He is

insanely popular with little kids. Ridiculous.

There's nobody that connects to the under 10

crowd like he does. Maybe because of size or

because he looks like a superhero with a mask

on, but there's those videos. You see him going

to the ringside and kids yelling, I love you

to him. So he's there probably for that. And

he's the only... They've screwed him around a

bit here and there, but he's the only Latino

star that they've ever really kept as a star.

Well, what other masked wrestlers have we had

on the list besides El Santo? We had Jushin Thunder

Liger on there as well, right? You're allowed

to have one Japanese masked wrestler. You're

allowed to have one Mexican masked wrestler.

We had Ultimo Dragon as well. Okay, so we're

allowed to have three. That's it. We're done.

Different nationalities. Well, wait. Sorry, sorry.

Mr. America might show up. Oh, yeah. The Patriot

might show up. All right, let's move on here.

Well, we had Vader. He had kind of a mask. He

did have like a gift mask. He had like a jock

strap strapped to his head. All right, well,

let's continue to our next one, which would be

our number 14 ranked wrestler. And this is one

that I'm going to have a major problem with.

Here's the rankings that some people had him

ranked. 13, 10. 5, 5, 2, 2, and 1. Oh, boy. I

did not have him ranked 1, but I was one of the

two people that ranked him number 2, and he falls

here at 14. I think this is a little bit... I

think he deserves to be higher. Let's go and

see if anybody can pick it out. I can't give

any other ring names because it would be too

obvious. He debuted in 1984. Should I name his

trainer? That's also obvious. Did he debut in

84 and not 75 or 6 or something like that? No,

debuted technically on here. It says 1984. He

trained by Jose Lothario. Oh, boy. I'm talking

about the heartbreak kid. Yeah, okay. Wow. Who

in the hell is that? Some mid -carder? I think

he's cute. He's so sexy. He's got the look. This

rise and go. Number 14, guys? Number 14? Maybe

it's his fake, pretentious, religious bullshit

that he's pretended to be for the last 15 years.

I don't believe a word of him being born again.

If we go by the criteria, though, has he had

a lot of Belts, yes. Okay, has he had longevity

as far as being around for multiple decades?

Yes. He should be top five, if not for his attitude

and his bullshit. Has he had impact? Yes. Has

he had charisma and mic skills? Probably top...

Well, where would you rank his mic skills? Like,

just alone? Gotta be near the top. Pre -DX or

during DX? He has the deepest voice for any 12

-year -old I've ever seen. Entering technical

ability, he's way higher than some people that

we haven't named yet. So I'll go on my soapbox

and then I'll let you guys talk. But before I

do that... It was really only with one promotion

too. Yeah, that's true. That's holding him back.

Listen to this. This is PWI, so it's not Dave

Meltzer. It's Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Match

of the year. Hold on here. 1993. 1994, 1995,

1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and

2010. Match of the year in every one of those

years. We're talking about fighting people like

Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit,

John Cena, Ric Flair, The Undertaker. Man, like...

That's a lot of matches of the year. I didn't

even know that going into this. Feud of the year

in 2008 against Chris Jericho. Feud of the decade

for 2000 and 2009 against Chris Jericho. A lot

of... Hall of Fames. And Wrestling Observer agreed

with some of those. Match of the Year in 94,

2008, 2009, 2010. These are Razor Ramon, Chris

Jericho, Undertaker. Feud of the Year with Triple

H versus the McMahons. Tag Team of the Year with

Marty Jannetty as the Rockers. A lot of different

decades this guy had an impact on. I think he

should be higher, but I'll let you guys either

agree or disagree, starting with Alex. What do

you think? I think he had an advantage in the

ring because he could keep one eye on you and

one eye on the guy behind him. Oh, come on. Oh,

come on. Like, look at me when I'm talking to

you. I am. Sure. I would say the thing he has

held against him is I don't believe, and anybody

smart enough doesn't believe a word of him being

a changed person. He changed himself so that

he wouldn't be blackballed. And he still comes

across as a bit of an ass. can you be the best

in the world if you've only worked for basically

one company in the last 30 years and you didn't

really wrestle internationally very much at all

uh and talk about a whole bunch of people that

are gonna get that mold i know but like but like

he was never at that level it's like okay here

you're the best when everybody else sucked That

was somebody else that we haven't talked about.

You leave the industry because you fake a back

injury and then magically are cured. He lost

his smile. You lost your smile. I will give it

one thing. When he came back, the best thing

to ever happen was that he lost a match with

god as his tag team partner where they had a

whole entrance music and they even had a spotlight

showing god entering the ring i'm glad i did

so maybe he wasn't that born again and remember

this this is right before the pg era and this

is when they were trying to be more friendly

look that up I'm not asking for him to be number

one. I'm not even asking. He should have been

top five probably based on what he can do. He's

like, what if you took the crazy work rate bumping

around of Dolph Ziggler, took him seriously,

gave him slightly better mic skills. He's always

come across as disingenuous and goofy. I don't

know. He plays second fiddle to everybody else.

uh he plays off of the people he's with which

is great he's probably amazing to work with in

the ring but that's your vader but could you

could you have him lead your company for real

like he was never going to lead no but no he

he let the company in their worst time period

ever that's not true well okay worst time period

ever as far as viewership at the time yeah there

was somebody that came right before him that

was that yeah Matthew Stewart, what do you think?

We got him at number 14. Is he at least deserving

of a top 10? God, it's difficult because I know

who we're going to probably get in the... He's

knocking on the fucking door. He's knocking right

now. I mean, he's enjoying some sunny days. I

mean, Bret Hart's not enjoying sunny days. Come

on, we all know this right now, people. Come

on. Give me a break here. I mean, yeah, to Alex's

point, he was a guy that did... selfish fucking

shit and but nobody really gave him crap about

it i mean until until now until you discover

now it's like oh he was kind of a fucking asshole

most of the time and did a lot of things selfishly

and of course you know god came to his rescue

Not Jose Lothario. It was God. He was rescuing.

Talk about somebody that could get away with

anything. He has to be one of Vince McMahon's

favorite people. This guy was in a gorilla position.

I'll give you a gorilla position without Michaels.

He was in that position all day for Vince. I

guarantee you. face down ass up that's how vince

likes to oh that's how he likes and sunny but

you know what i almost feel like i feel like

vince could see through the bs of him being born

again because he doesn't behave that way unless

he's in public i feel like that whole he goes

oh you're born again you want to come back you

really screwed me for years we almost lost this

big wrestling war okay you're gonna have a tag

team match you know it'll be me and my son against

you and God. That was his penance. And also,

I feel like him accepting that kind of proves

he's not a born -again Christian. Because if

he was really that devout, he would have been

like, I'm not doing this. I will not besmirch

my maker. If he left because he was tired last

time, and you're telling me he won't leave based

on... No, he left because he didn't want to.

go with what they were going to have him do.

Exactly. So I'm sorry, but he was okay with this.

So something tells me for him, it's not about

God. It's about money. He is Mr. Neil. I know

you're not a big Shawn Michaels fan based on

your rankings. So unlike these guys, I'm not

going to, I'm not going to blast him for what

he did outside the ring or even in the back.

But what I, what I will say is that, uh, you

know, he would come out and he'd be like, he'd

come out and he'd be like, I'm the showstopper.

And I'm like, yeah, you're all right. What it

really is, is it's the finisher. I've talked

about silly finishers before. Even stuff like

the DDT, how overtime has just kind of become

a regular move. It's not really a finisher anymore.

By the time the super kick came around, it was

not a finisher. There were like a half dozen

guys who did this stupid super kick. And it's

just like a normal move. It's like suddenly he

stops on the... On the ground and suddenly it's

a finisher? What the hell is that? He's too small

for that to be his finishing move. I didn't buy

it. He's so small. You want a finishing move?

Sid's kick can basically break his own leg. That's

a finishing move. You know what I mean? If you're

going to get stomped by somebody, if I got super

kicked by Rhino, I'm dead. You get super kicked

by him, why doesn't anybody just catch the damn

foot? It doesn't make any sense. It's like Big

Show's punch. I'm going to stand here and take

this 30 -second slow -mo punch and die. His move

before the super kick was better. He had a move

before that? Yeah. It was like a back suplex

or something. It was like some weird suplex thing

he did before that. It was never a big thing,

though. that was Shawn Michaels with the super

kick or sweet kid music, whatever the hell you

want to call it. He could have developed another

move. I feel like he could have done something

cooler, either off the top rope or... I don't

know. He could have done anything else. He could

have done a leapfrog and land on somebody's shoulders

and put his crotch in their face and knock them

to the ground. And it would have played into

his whole, like, first of all, after he left

the Rockers, what was his gimmick? I'm a stripper,

a male stripper. Like, why didn't he play girl?

Yeah, he's a sexy boy. He's a boy toy. Exactly.

Then why didn't he play that up and do like some

sort of, you know, sexualized? It becomes like

the famous, like the proto, like famous dick

wrestler. He becomes, what's his name? Yeah.

I mean, like how many times was it like, he's

the best wrestler in the world. How many times

did his pants fall down in the ring? Falling

down, pull him down. It's like, I don't need...

London Bridge is falling down, whatever you want

to call it. I feel like anybody could have picked

him up and wedged him and thrown him across.

It was weird that he was listed as a heavyweight.

Yeah, because he wasn't. My favorite Shawn Michaels

finisher is when he moonsaulted into the tombstone.

There you go. That's the kind of moves you have

to do with him. His job should be to make your

moves look better. Or when he broke his back

in the casket. Either one. That was a great move

too. I thought I hated him. I'm not going to

stop though. He's better than 14. Let's go to

number 13 then. Someone who apparently is a better

wrestler than Shawn Michaels. He debuted in 1992.

We're going to get way more heat for this. Yeah,

the heat is hot. He debuted in 1992. For the

record, I was the one defending Shawn Michaels.

All right. Ring name of Terra Rising. Here we

go. Terra Rising. Okay, you know what? Yes, I'm

going to say this. It should be higher than Shawn.

Triple H coming in here at number 13. So we're

rounding out our generation X faction of the

countdown with Triple H. Somebody that's still

believable when he wrestles. Somebody that has

benefited greatly over the last 20 years of being

so far out of Vince McMahon's ass that he is

not allowed to do anything that he doesn't want

to do or lose or do anything. It's so boring.

I'm sorry. I had him ranked number nine, though.

Triple H coming in here at number 13. Matthew

Stewart, what do you think? Oh, the golden shovel

himself right there. This guy's buried more people

than I can point. I mean, all because of Vince,

of course. It helps when you're married into

the family and boning the owner's wife. I mean,

this guy, I mean, I loved him as Hunter Hearst

Hemsley because he was like the dick pompous

guy. And then when he got put in the mud by Henry

O 'Godwin, I liked him for some weird reason.

But I always liked him. And then he went into

DX. I mean, it sucks because he was the one that

got all the shit. after the curtain call thing

with Scott Hall and Shawn Michaels and him and

everybody else. Shawn Michaels was untouchable

because Vince was like, well, I can't fuck two

people over. Hey, Triple H, you're the one that's

going to get screwed over the most by me. He

paid his dues and did his thing. Then he did

his daughter and then he couldn't get screwed

over anymore. He basically raped his daughter.

My type of guy. Remember all those matches of

the year that Shawn Michaels had. Let's go through

here. Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling

Observer Newsletter for Triple H here. Hold on.

Most hated wrestler of the year, 2003, 2004,

2005. Most hated wrestler of the year, 2013,

2014. Most hated wrestler of the decade, 2000

to 2009. Let's go to Wrestling Observer Newsletter

here. Most disgusting promotional tactic in 2002

for accusing Kane of murder and necrophilia.

Most overrated wrestler in 2002, 2003, 2004,

and 2009. Reader's least favorite wrestler, 2002

and 2003. Worst feud of the year, 2002 with Kane.

Worst feud of the year, 2006. Worst feud of the

year, 2011. Worst worst match of the year, 2003

and 2008 and 2018. But they did put him in the

Hall of Fame in 2005. Okay. Good feuds here with

Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Daniel

Bryan, The Undertaker. The list goes on. I don't

know. I think he's definitely top 25 worthy.

I don't know where exactly I would put him. I

ranked him nine, but I could see arguments going

anywhere from nine to 19. I don't know. Alex,

what do you think? Uh, this is where he deserves

to be because for all the stuff we joke about,

and I'll get into that, uh, what he's done, basically

taking the reins of NXT sort of from dusty. And

then NXT has been good. He hasn't buried anybody

that he's, you know, when he's in charge of that

roster where he's not wrestling on it, he's great.

They didn't work for WCW before, though. Until

he starts wrestling and then... Now, this is

a wrestler that in the last few years, my family

would get together and I'd have friends over

to watch WrestleMania and different things. If

I had family members, my mom would walk by and

she'd go, like, what? She goes, I don't like

that ugly -faced guy with the big nose. She goes,

how much... booze does he drink she goes oh the

ugly man why would anybody like him so ugly so

ugly i show a picture when he's younger and she's

like he was so ugly then so i was like okay well

sure uh she's like she goes he looks like he's

in shape but how much steroids is he i'm like

well i don't know he doesn't have to be tested

when he's the boss uh i've got a story about

that the the oh is it the steiner one uh no no

okay well he The one match I've seen him in that

I've actually liked in recent memory is one of

the only matches in WWE I've liked in recent

memory. And that was the one with all the fake

blood with Roman Reigns. Because he actually

looks like a star when he comes to the ring because

he can produce himself to look like... He always

looks the part. His entrance is one of the best

ever, by far. It's more exciting to watch him

come to the ring with... I'm not talking the

gimmicky crap. The gimmicky crap that we see

on... you know, mania where he's like the Terminator

or the Conan one was great where he's on the

throne with all the laser lights and all that.

But when he did the, the, uh, WWE network special,

the, was it, was it roadblock? The one they did

in Toronto when they first were promoting the

network. And I think it was him versus Dean,

um, that his entrance, the crowd was over. Like

he came to the ring for what was essentially

a house show. and was moreover and looked better

about the psychology of how you come to the ring,

the presence you give, how you react to the crowd,

how you move, just how slow you move, how fast

you move. Everything was better than anybody

on the roster. And I'm like, it's not that he's

even at this point actively trying to bury anybody.

It's just that everybody else kind of sucks that

didn't come from that era that he came from.

They just kind of do for the most part. You have

your AJs that are cool in that. He still gets

it, even though he's in his forties, he'll be

like the undertaker and he'll do a match a year

for the next 10 years. Interesting thing. Nobody

had him ranked higher than nine. So nobody had

him in the top eight. Um, TV is Mr. Neil. What

do you think? Triple H 13. Good spot. Uh, I would

have him lower, uh, lower than Shawn Michaels,

right? Uh, well, I'd have to think about that,

but, uh, he, I never really found him very thrilling

at all. But the one time, I think the point where

I was just like, screw this guy, was when he

was wrestling Booker T at WrestleMania. And he

knocks Booker T out with the pedigree. And it

takes him a long time to do the cover. And he

kind of crawls over there. And you think Booker

T is going to kick out. It's like, one, two.

You should be kicking out there. No, he pins

him. And I'm like, what the hell was that? He

just made Booker T look like a lightweight. And,

okay, the story I was talking about was Lance

Storm was being interviewed on WrestleCrap .com.

And he was telling them that if you get a quad

injury, that's typically a steroid injury. He

wouldn't name any names. We kind of knew who

he was talking about. Triple H tore both quads.

And so did Vince McMahon. And I don't know if

Steiner did, but I know... A couple other guys

did. Steiner did too many roids to have that

happen. He ripped his quads, or not quads, I

think it was a bicep, and he's messed up his

pecs pretty bad. Yeah, but typically, what Lance

Storm says is that a quad tear is typically a

steroid injury, and I'm like, well, that sounds

about right, because I don't believe for a second

that Triple H wasn't juicing. Well, and the Steiner

one that I alluded to was where, he said this

when I met him, he repeats it over and over again.

When he was told to pee in a cup, he said, has

Hunter's been done? Oh, we can do it together.

And then he was never asked to go. All right,

so Triple H at number 13. Let's go to number

12, another one I'm going to have a problem with.

But rankings were all over the place from 84

to 20, 22, 20, 18, 15, 14, 11. Only two of us

had this guy in the top 10. If I didn't give

it away yet, I was one of them. He debuted in

1985, went by the ring name of Blade Runner before

he became just known as Sting. A man called Sting.

Sting at number 12. I think he's top 10 worthy,

guys. I don't know about you guys, but I would

put him in the top 10. Obviously spent most of

his career in the WCW and was literally the face

of WCW along with Ric Flair for most of its existence,

I guess you could say. Pro Wrestling Illustrated

match of the year in 1991 with Luger versus the

Steiner Brothers. Most popular wrestler of the

year 91, 92, 94, 97. Wrestler of the year 1990.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave him the most

charismatic in 1988 and 1992. Match of the year

1988 versus Ric Flair. Best babyface 92. Obviously,

he's been inducted in a lot of Hall of Fames,

including the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016. I think

he's top 10 worthy. He comes in here at number

12. Alex, what do you think about Sting? Did

he lose Alex? I think somebody went to the bathroom.

Was that him? Sorry, no. My mic got cut for a

second. Alex, what do you think about Sting?

Top 10. His stupid rat tail thing that he had

going for a while. his surfer gimmick was just

to scream yeah or woo or something no no like

you know what um no this is another case of like

i don't really okay i get why he's there and

i probably i don't remember where i ranked him

but i had him at 11 okay sure i get him up i

get why he's up in the top and that's why i would

have ranked him where i ranked him But I never

saw the appeal until Crow's thing. And even then,

it's like, is it gimmick infringement? How did

they not get sued by the creator of the comic?

I think because they were both Warner Brothers.

WCW was Warner Brothers. I think Crow was also.

And eventually, they changed the makeup enough,

I think, that they got away with it. Okay, yeah.

Like, I mean, is it going to sound weird that

I actually kind of liked him as Joker Sting in

TNA? Because, I mean, he tried something different

when he was like 50. so like why not um and i

mean he was great and he could have probably

gone a couple more years if some terrible wrestler

named seth rollins hadn't crippled him uh so

i would say when you compare him to the ultimate

warrior the fact that he actually was willing

to learn and when he when he split off from him

and like I think it's weird because he never

really hit the super duper ridiculous highs that

you thought he was going to. He was just consistently

an A performer. I think he checks off a lot of

the boxes as far as the criteria goes that we

were talking about. Impact, longevity, in -ring

ability, a little bit of the charisma aspects.

He didn't really cross over to the mainstream.

When they tried to put him in movies, they were

really bad. Wasn't he in Paradise? uh probably

i know he did a couple like direct -to -video

action movies in the late 90s and then he did

some like those weird like detective movies but

they're christian detective movies and it was

like oh and encounter and you know nothing much

after that for longevity's sake alone like can

you think of anybody other than rick flair that

wrestled basically full time into their mid -50s

Not from the old days where you do a wrestling

hold for 5 -10 minutes and that's your wrestling

match. As far as the modern era, it's basically

him and Flair that made it to 54 or 55 or more.

I think he was 57. He looks way better than most

people his age as far as wrestlers go. He aged

a lot better than quite a few people we saw in

our heyday. He's age 60 right now. And he's one

of those guys where he is a fairly religious

guy. Doesn't brag about it, doesn't talk about

it, and is sort of actually living the values

he's supposed to be living up to. Right. I think

that's what I give him a little bit more credit

for, though, is because he avoided all of the

nonsense that so many people of his day succumb

to, I guess. And he always just seemed like he

was actually the good role model. He was actually

the one that was doing it the right way. He admits

to doing steroids and everything, but he'll come

right out and say, it wasn't illegal. It still

isn't illegal. And he's like, as soon as we knew

that it was bad for you, he stopped doing it.

And he was never somebody trying to hide it.

He never lied about anything. He just genuinely

seems like a decent person. Neil, what are your

thoughts about Sting? I have conflicting views

on Sting. On one hand, like you said, he was

the face of WCW for pretty much the whole run.

To the point where when WWF bought WCW, I thought

that they should have moved Heaven and Earth

to get Sting. It's the one thing that was obviously

missing. On the other hand, Sting's in -ring

performance, he was good, but some of the stuff

he did, I didn't really buy. The Stinger splash,

he's not really that big of a guy. In fact, he

would beat his chest, and I'm like, you don't

have that. Those moves were from when he was

in the 80s, when he was in the Blade Runners.

He was not quite as big, obviously, as Ultimate

Warrior, but he was a good 75 pounds bigger of

muscle back then. Yeah, it just looked weird.

And plus, when you think about when Sting was

at his most popular, when he was at the highest

height, his biggest year was 97 when he was up

in the rafters. It was like, okay. And then he

came back and it was just like... That match

with Hogan pissed me off so much. That fake finish.

It destroyed WCW. I'm convinced that was the

beginning of the end. Yeah, you have a point

there. Matthew, any last second thoughts on Sting

before we move into our number 11? It's just

funny. I mean, I guess you're still maybe...

Are you a... pre -crow sting lover or are you

a colorful like no taggy looking get rid of that

stupid scorpion tail uh bs tail thing that was

that was the only thing holding him back for

me was that hairstyle wasn't funny or cool even

like As a kid, when you were five, the kid that

had it, it was okay. You say that now. And then

you realize that people were like, Oh, you're

that redneck kid that has the stupid rat tail.

Yeah. I was that kid. Sorry, everybody. And nobody

was making funny, but people were like, Oh, every

school, every class had that one kid where who

had the rat tail and it went a little too long.

Yeah. And so I stopped that for a certain point

when people were beating me up and everything

or trying to tear off my rat tail or something.

but i mean i like sting during the crow phase

it was cool i mean but i was never a huge sting

fan i mean i thought he was interesting enough

he was a face painted character that was interesting

and he existed in the world and he he always

kind of carried that kind of like mystique about

him though because he never kind of he never

sold out wcw for a super long time until Whatever

money, I don't know what money Vince gave him.

I'm sure he paid him quite well. He was always

that one holdout. The rumors at the time were

that he was getting paid $5 million for a three

-year contract. God, that's crazy. Because the

reason was when they were selling the DVD libraries

and on the shows and everything, they could not

put his face on the boxes of the box arts because

they owned everything but his likeness. And what

he basically sold them was his likeness and a

few marquee matches, and half of them he wasn't

even able to do. I guarantee you they were going

to set up some sort of tag match against Taker

with him. Guarantee. Had he still been wrestling

and not, you know, injured when the Saudi stuff

came around? Yeah. If you still have it, baby,

you know it. Yeah. So, like, he would have been

around, like, I think, or here's the question.

Is some of the allure of him, is he so high up

on everybody's list? Because he was in the news

so long of, is he ever coming to WWE? Not for

me. Because he was away for so long and was never

there. Was it always like, oh my God, what if

Sting comes? You built it up in your head bigger

than it ever could have been? Maybe. For me,

it was just based on the WCW stuff. I could care

less what happened after the year 2000. For him,

I would still have Sting on every one up top.

Top 10 for looking of disappointment on his face

when you see him wrestling Jeff Hardy. That was

awful. Let's move on to our number 11. Someone

that is not a better wrestler than Shawn Michaels

or Sting. Someone that has a very good reputation

as far as being part of the thing that ignited

wrestling for a lot of people. I don't know.

I think this is I love him as an actor. Not as

big of a fan of him as a wrestler, I guess. Debuted

in 1964. He was undefeated from 1973 to 1987.

We're going with somebody that once was known

as Monster Eiffel Tower. I know who this is,

yeah. We're going with, or the Giant Machine.

We're talking about Andre the Giant at number

11. Obviously, like I said, the undefeated streak

from 73 to 87, and obviously most of his time

spent in WWF with a little bit of time in Japan

and the likes. But, I mean, it's Andre and Hulk

Hogan, right? I mean, that's the thing. That

was the thing, I guess. And that's why Andre

the Giant is number 11 on our list. I don't know.

Like, what? I liked him in Princess Bride. It's

one of the best movies of all time. Andre the

Giant is so high because... He held out his fist

and let the Ultimate Warrior run right into it.

I think, you know, if we had all seen him wrestle

in the 70s, in the 70s, he could move around

like Big Show in the 90s, if that makes any sense.

Okay, no, no, sorry. He could move around before

he got heavy, like pre -79. He was moving around

like Braun Strowman. And he was doing backflips

and like somersaults off the top rope, like crazy

shit in the 60s and early 70s for a guy who's

like eight feet tall. So I think he's ranked

so high because he is like, when you're in the

Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest

person alive, you get notoriety outside of just

wrestling. I don't even remember. Voted most

popular wrestler of the year according to PWI

in 1977 and 1982. Match of the year 1981 versus

Killer Khan. Match of the year 1988 versus Hulk

Hogan. Most hated wrestler of the year 1988.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter most embarrassing

wrestler 1989. Worst feud of the year 84 against

Big John Studd. Worst feud of the year 89 versus

Ultimate Warrior. worst work match of the year

1987 versus hogan worst work match of the year

1989 versus ultimate warrior worst tag team with

giant baba worst wrestler 1989 91 and 92 um here's

here's a good thing my brother's wife didn't

know anything about wrestling until like they

were dating and we started watching stuff and

she'd come by to watch like the rumble and mania

and she's like i don't know any wrestlers and

then we would say okay well can you name any

wrestlers you can think of and literally like

she didn't even know like hulk hogan really like

she's that young and not into it in at all she

knew under the giant because of because of princess

bride she goes oh wait that's right i do know

a wrestler and it would be like and there are

many people out there that like i i never here's

the thing i've never seen princess bride ever

wow yet everybody else i've ever met has and

i mean everybody i've never met anybody i'm just

that i was like everybody's seen it at least

once i feel yeah and i'm like i've seen clips

of it i've never actually watched it from start

to finish but i feel like it's weird that he

basically did one movie and had bigger crossover

appeal with a young generation of people than

he ever had as a wrestler yeah Neil, you and

I are on the outside because we had him ranked

at 25 and 50. Everybody else has him 17, 16,

15, 14, 13, 11, 9, 5. Neil, what do you think?

Andre the Giant deserving of being number 11?

I don't know. I think he deserves to be on the

top 100 just for the fact that he's such a spectacle.

He's such an icon that he's got to be on there

somewhere. I don't know. I don't think he deserves

to be that high. just because his best days were

well over by the time WWF became a big force

in the 80s. And so a lot of us really didn't

get to see those matches where he was doing backflips

and somersaults and all those amazing moves that

he could do back then. What's more fun about

Andre more than watching his matches is just

listening to the other guys talk about him. From

what I understand, he either liked you or he

didn't and you couldn't do anything about it

either way. Most of the time he didn't. There

are some guys like Big John Studd and Jake the

Snake Roberts where he just didn't like you and

he just didn't give a shit. He hated the Ultimate

Warrior. What were you going to say to him? And

it tells you that he was only ever afraid of

two men. Ever. Harley race and King Haku. Yeah.

So if that man is scared of you, you have to

be tough, but he also watch his bloopers and

outtakes from his promos because he'll start

and he'll start speaking in French and he'll

catch himself and he'll be like, and he'll go,

Oh shit, that was French. Let's start over. We're

live. We're live. It's like that. But I mean,

he'll do those. It was multiple times. He would

just forget that he's speaking French. And you

can see the people around him like. Oh, who wants

to tell him? And they just let him complete the

entire promo? You couldn't understand what he

was saying anyway. But do you want to be the

person that tells him or do you want to let him

figure it out himself? Because if you're the

one that tells him and he's not in a good mood...

Legendary fart, apparently. The guy could pass

gas. Among other things. All right, let's keep

this countdown moving. Let's go to number 10.

We're in our top 10, guys. This is also the first

wrestler on the list that was on every single

person's list. Highest he got ranked was number

two. Lowest he got ranked was 51. He debuted

in 1999, trained by Christopher Daniels and Dave

Finley. Not a better wrestler than Shawn Michaels

or Sting, but he is the prototype. Oh, boy. Oh,

God. And his name is John Cena! Here we go, everyone.

Here's how we enter our top ten. John Cena, number

ten. He was ranked number two by one person.

Can we guess who? Yes, you can. Do I even have

to ask? No. That is who ranked him number two.

Boston Pride. Boston Pride, I guess. John Cena.

He's a guy. No, I like John Cena. Don't have

anything against him. I had him ranked number

13. Stand -up dude. A little OCD and a little

quirky, but stand -up dude. You know, good in

the movies and whatnot. Does that. Probably,

sorry, probably like the biggest contribution

to the world is like how many hundreds of make

-a -wishes he's done. Yeah. He holds the record

officially, I guess, at this point now for Make

-A -Wish. Feud of the Year in 2006 with Edge.

Feud of the Year 2011 with CM Punk. A bunch of

matches of the year against Shawn Michaels, CM

Punk, Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt, and AJ Styles.

Most popular wrestler of the decade for the 2000

and 2009, according to Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

I mean, we don't have to talk about him too much

as far as that goes. We all know who he is. Matthew

Stewart, now it's the time of the countdown.

Are you top 10 worthy? Is John Cena top 10 worthy?

We just talked about people like Sting, Triple

H, Shawn Michaels. Where did I put him in my

ranking? You had John Cena at 23. Okay, so not

bad. He was in my top 25. I think his... Oh,

man. I liked John Cena when he was the rapper

a lot. That's like my guilty pleasure. I don't

care about this, like, never give up, never surrender.

I give wishes to all these kids and everything

like that. I like when he's in the ring with

his stupid, like, lock around his neck with the

chain and, like, rapping at people. And it was

hilarious. So I thought that was funny. Obviously,

the thing that helped him in this countdown,

though, like I said, nobody left him off, which

is the first time that we've had somebody that

wasn't left off completely. And good, I mean,

good worker. I mean, this guy, he didn't have

the biggest, like, the most broad moveset, which

I think everybody gets lost on. I want an expansive

moveset that can do a lot of different things.

But, I mean, what was the one thing? He, like,

lifted up the big show, and he had the big show

on his shoulders for, like, an AA and somebody

else on his shoulders for it. So he had, like,

about 700 pounds lifted and went to, like, the

top, like, the second rope. I mean, he's a beast.

I mean, he's a super strong guy. And, of course,

you know, he does all the colorful things for

WWE. He's a big earner. And he's pretty funny

in all these movies. I mean, he was pretty good

in, you know, Blockers and all these other movies

he's been in. He's an entertaining dude. That

firefighter movie that's coming out looks like

crap, though. I mean, it will win some loot,

right? But he's going to be in, what is it? Is

it Fast and the Furious? Probably. Why not? He's

going to be the next villain. Why not? He's going

to be the car that everyone's going to ride in.

He's going to turn into a car. He's going to

be the new kit from Knight Rider. He's had a

belt at least almost 1 ,900 days in his life.

He's had at least one belt or another. Alex,

what do you think? Is John Cena top 10 worthy?

He looks like he's shaped out of an action figure

mold. like him and him and bobby lashley it's

like it's like i made the mold for him and then

they just changed the dye and made bobby lashley

like they have the same body it's insane he's

a weird guy where it's like he's 90 torso and

then tiny little short legs yeah he's like exactly

but that being said he he had a period like when

i started watching in 2013 He had a period from

what I could see other than like the matches

with Sam Punk. He had about seven years where

he was putting in boring matches. And then I

would say things changed when the Daniel Bryan

stuff started. And when he started doing the

open challenges for the United States belt, he

really started putting in like fun stuff again

or when AJ came over. Like he started doing some

cool stuff. And now guess what? like has disappeared

for like almost a year and has anybody noticed

like it's i never thought we'd get to a point

where we wouldn't be reminded constantly of him

coming back like whenever he was gone previously

for a movie or anything it was always about when's

john cena coming back it's like he's gonna become

the like undertaker kind of guy where he comes

back and does a match here and there And I'm

okay with that because then he won't make us

mad that he's here being pushed down our throats.

Might be because somebody's watching WWE. Oh,

my God. How crazy would it be if he showed up

on AEW? Oh, my God. The crowd might not even

be mad at him. They might just be happy. They

might be like, thank God, finally. He could show

up as, I don't know, The doctor of rugonomics

and he's selling rugs or something. Who knows?

Or he could show up as like, who is he? We've

got a new tag team partner for Chris Jericho.

It's the company man. And he just shows up under

a mask or something one night and just blows

people's minds because you can't mistake that

torso. TV's Mr. Neal. What do you think? John

Cena, number 10. As far as him being in the top,

I can't see him in the top 10. I kind of get

it, but I don't. He's got, what, four moves?

He's kind of like a modern -day Hulk Hogan in

that respect, I guess. Would you say that Sting

and Shawn Michaels are better? Yeah, I think

so. I don't really have any reason to hate the

guy. It's just that I think I got tired of him

after a while because he just never went away.

He was always winning titles. I'm walking through

the cereal aisle one day. He's on a box of Fruity

Pebbles. I'm like, what am I not getting? That's

his cereal. All right. In the UK PG, he's the

only one that sold merch to kids. probably him

and him and ray mysterio and that was it that's

why they won't turn him a heel well yeah they

can't yeah and and it's like i feel like vince

went well okay we'll get somebody else we'll

just turn roman reigns into john cena and then

maybe he can turn heel and then when that didn't

work they're like well you're faced forever yeah

all right let's move on to number nine this man

was also left off of somebody's list. We're only,

we only have two more guys that are going to

be mentioned that were left off of somebody's

list. And this was one of them. So it cost him

a few spots by being left off of that list. Cause

everybody else had him ranked the following 42,

12, 12, 10, nine, six, five, five, four, and

one. And that makes him fall at number nine here.

Guess who had him at number one, guys? That would

be me. A little bias here. I let my personal

feelings get in the way, I guess, probably a

little bit by ranking him number one because,

yeah, whatever. One time went around the name

of Destroyer. One time he was known as Executioner.

One time he was known as Big Geno. One time he

was known as the Spider. Let's be real. Everybody

really knew him as the Macho Man. Randy Savage.

Wait, somebody left him off the list? Yes, somebody

left him off. Wow. Somebody left him off and

then we had a 42 and then two people at 12. Otherwise,

everybody had him in the top 10. Macho man, Randy

Savage. I'm not throwing anybody under the bus.

I'm wondering if it's a case of, because we had

a lot of names in there, if somebody just wasn't

thinking about them and just forgot them and

didn't see them in the list. Possibly. Let's

see. Do we need to talk about his accolades too

much? Not really. He's a macho man. Come on.

I have two shirts that have his face on them.

The question is, when he had his heart attack,

when he had his heart attack, was it from the

steroids hardening his arteries? Or was it from

all the Slim Jims? Snap into a Slim Jim. Single

-handedly brought that to WCW, by the way. That's

the only mean thing I'll say at all about him

because he was just glorious. Yeah, a lot of

Hall of Fames. Some of them I don't even know

how to say them, though. Professional Wrestling

Hall of Fame in 2009. He was obviously inducted

into the WWE Hall of Fame. Did I say that too

many Ws? 2015. I mean, come on. He was... the

craziest like I don't know like he had a different

kind of mic skills because he was almost like

as crazy as you see like from Sid or from like

Scott Steiner at times but then at the same time

it was like coherent and you somehow understood

it even though he was just going berserk like

he has to have the most mimicked voice though

right in all of wrestling like there's more people

that try to do macho boys him and dusty more

than yeah him and dusty like if he's what if

you gave scott steiner a hat and cocaine you

mean he didn't give like scott steiner cocaine

oh he would have been dead he would have been

dead by now thank you that heart no heart can

withstand that It's more of a meth type thing.

I mean, he didn't have belts as much as maybe

some of the other people that we will still talk

about, about 980 days as a champion. But talk

about being in the picture, like being relevant

for as long as he was compared to maybe some

other people. Because he debuted in 1973. So,

I mean, the 70s, and then obviously big time

in the 80s, the 90s, kept that going, kind of

reinvented himself a couple different times.

But he's always been my favorite wrestler, so

I can't speak unbiasedly about him. But, Matthew,

what do you think of the Macho Man? The Macho

Madness, yeah. The Macho King, if you will. The

Macho King. I mean, the promos with him and Mean

Gene are classic, and the things he would just

come up with. I don't know if he rehearsed these

things or I don't know if Gene worked on them,

but they were just, they were as incoherent,

but as coherent as you could possibly get for

a wrestler. And I mean. Miss Elizabeth? I mean,

I was about to get to that. Oh, my bad. I mean,

that was like one of the most iconic things I

think of the 80s. It's like them. There's never

been another. valet with a wrestler that mattered

to people i mean people were crying when they

got together after the um what was it after sensational

sherry came in i mean and elizabeth came out

and like defended her man it was like god this

is a down ass woman this woman does not care

what happened probably also part of one of the

most subtle um um but like most detailed turns

or just storylines in general. They were doing...

brilliant work with him and Hulk Hogan as the

superpowers and as the jealousy between Elizabeth.

They were just putting in little tiny pieces

into pay -per -views or into matches. It would

just be like a look or a weird statement or whatever.

That was so genius. They can't do anything like

that these days, it seems like, because everything

has to be boom, boom, boom. It's got to be boom,

boom, boom. You can't build anything. It was

such a genius story. Everything about macho and

then even when he went over to wcw macho man

then he went over to wcw and it's sad because

when he went over to wcw he almost became more

of a lackey he wasn't a headliner anymore but

he was like the madness oh yeah and he was crazy

and then he put him in a straitjacket or something

like that everything or slapping women around

on television yeah so you can't really do that

anymore dude pomp and circumstance he made that

about me He did make Poppin' Circumstance the

most downloadable song of maybe a year, maybe.

I don't know. But Macho Man, I mean, everything

about that guy, from the glasses to the hair,

which was really bad, but it was still really

good. Don't touch his hair, though. Don't touch

his hair. And, yeah, one of the best matches

ever, Rocky Steamboat, who we talked about earlier,

Countdown 2. Right. TV's Mr. Neal will agree

that he's top 10 worthy. Oh, yeah. I talked earlier

about Razor's face turn and how unique that was.

Macho Man Randy Savage at WrestleMania 7 after

the Warrior match, that career -ending match

after Miss Elizabeth comes to the ring, he's

face down on the mat and he turns face. That

was genius. The whole performance was Liz and

Sherry. God, you know how weird? Everyone in

that match is gone. Yeah. God. But, God, I love

the Macho Man. He just knew how to command your

attention, like whether he was winning or losing

or whether he was face or heel. He just – you

just couldn't help but pay attention to him.

He was just always on. And even in WCW, I agree

that he was kind of like Hulk Hogan's little

– he was just kind of like his lackey and like

every now and then. Macho Man would win the belt,

and Hulk would be like, ha -ha, that's cute,

and take it back from him. And that was kind

of sad. But even then, I liked his feud with

Diamond Dallas Page. That was basically the highlight

of him in WCW. And really sad, sad the way he

went. Really wish he would have stuck around

just a little bit longer so he could do more

stuff with WWE. Just because he was gone for

so long. And he comes back, he does one promo,

and he's done. That just sucked. Alex, last word

on Macho Man? Okay. He basically said everything.

He had that one pay -per -view match at TNA where

he had looked deflated because he hadn't really

been working out. That was in 2003 or something

like that. Anyway, what about Bonesaw? That's

what they said at his autopsy. Bonesaw is ready.

Bonesaw is ready or ready to rumble. Now you're

going to get it. Or even Powerpuff Girls. And

I will be completely honest. I genuinely actually

love his rap record. It came out when I was in

high school. Yes. We would laugh. We would play

it. Like this is the early days of MP3s. We would,

we bought the record at a store. It was new and

I had it for 97 cents, like a month after it

came out and we brought it to school, ripped

it on the computer at school and we were sharing

it amongst each other. laughing and i'm like

he was more over with us with his rap record

because he was he was legitimately trying to

take it serious he thought this was a new avenue

for him for real not like as a gimmick and we

were loving it we were hoping he was going to

tour and like because like he would he where

would he go he would have to go to like medium

-sized cities and we were so happy like it was

like forget the terry funk album from japan that's

just crazy japanese weird shit this is you can

today go and buy this album and go and buy this

album it's an album of diss tracks to hulk hogan

and it's amazing and he has love songs on there

if he hadn't been left off a list he probably

would have been closer to the fifth or sixth

spot but he falls at number nine he he basically

oh like to give you an idea for anybody who hasn't

listened to that music on that album you know

the like rebecca black friday song Everything's

like that, but with him laughing. This was the

proto -Friday. All right, we got to move on to

keep the countdown going here to number eight

on our list as you cross names off that you're

waiting to hear. Nobody had this gentleman higher

than number six. So six, eight, and nine. Everybody

else was outside of the top ten, actually, but

he was on every single person's list. So he shows

up here at number eight. Debuted in 1990, another

one of the people trained by Stu Hart. Ring name,

how about Super Liger? or Corazon de Leon, the

Lionheart, Chris Jericho. It should be top five.

Nobody had him in top five. The highest he got

ranked was six. Remember, when we submitted these,

when we submitted our list, was AEW a thing?

Probably not. It was pre -AEW. It started on

the independent circuit in the early 90s. Went

to Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, Mexican promotions,

had some Smoky Mountain time, ECW, then finally

kind of broke in WCW in the late 90s, mid to

late 90s, before jumping over to WWF and then

the rest was history. Obviously made a big splash

with AEW here this last year. So Alex, what do

you think? Chris Jericho coming in here at number

eight. The best example of a wrestler that has

the stereotypical Canadian accent. That pisses

me off because people don't really talk like

him. And he thinks they do. Although he does

say the word, he does say things like knob. And

I laugh every time he says knob, because apparently

knob is not a common thing to say in a lot of

parts of the States and around the world. But

knob means dick. He found ways to call people

names and different things like using Canadian

slang that you wouldn't necessarily get. And

like you would not normally get over any other

way. One of the best talkers. probably the best

talker uh oh should i say of his generation because

what is his generation he was sort of in between

people yeah he's too old he's too old to be considered

any of the guys he's not attitude era he but

he he's weird he sort of is he's like he's a

wcw attitude era he's technically part of the

new generation yeah um but at the same time like

he's too old to be considered part of the attitude

era with like edge and christian Kind of bridges

the gap. But he's too young to be considered

part of Hall and Nash's era of the guys in the

mid to late 80s. So he's in this weird spot where

it's like, what, him and Stone Cold? And like

Taker? But Taker's technically older. So he's

sort of in this weird spot where maybe he had

a hard time adjusting to things because he was

not in with the cool people at the time, but

found a way to like... international rock star

we all laugh at it because i mean let's be real

his first few albums were hilariously bad his

new album his new album is like he's tolerable

it's like radio friendly but it's like it's annoying

as shit when they play it but i mean let's be

honest like it's not hard okay it's not as hard

to get a number one album nowadays as it was

back in the day but he is getting actual radio

play he is he has international hits he's probably

the closest to the timeline yeah you know what

yeah you're probably right like uh him well i

guess like him mark henry maybe like yeah like

a mark henry goldberg those types of guys started

around 90 like i guess christopher daniels like

they started like the exact same time so like

there's a few of them still kicking around but

he's in that even at now he's not that old but

he's not that young so he's 48 Yeah. So he's

actually, I guess actually Triple H is probably

about the same as him then. Okay. So he's by

far one of the top five talkers of his generation.

He can make you hate him. He can make you like

him. He loves to make you hate him. Willing to

take pay cuts to be a heel. Not afraid to stand

up to people. He basically said, fuck you to

Vince and got away with it. And Goldberg. And

not only got away with it now, and yet he's still

technically on good terms with all these people.

He finds a way to weasel his way in and around

things and still put on great matches. His body

has looked like shit the last couple years. I'm

a little rough right now. I'm one to say something,

right? Who are we to judge? I mean, he looked

like somebody scooped out an organ or two and

then sewed him back up. And then they're like,

let's leave that part hollow right in the center

there. And he had been putting out some sort

of weird matches here and there. And then, bam,

this past week, he looked better on AEW's debut

show than he did at the pay -per -views. I don't

know what happened. It's like they, I don't know,

sucking stem cells out of people or something.

He took off like three years in the last few

weeks. Like maybe he's just properly rested now

that he's not touring with the band or anything,

but he proves being on TV week in, week out now

that he's better than really pretty much anybody

out there. Yeah. He's definitely checking off

a lot of the boxes when it comes to the criteria

that we talked about. Matthew Stewart, what do

you think of Chris Jericho being at number eight?

It's just reinvention over the course of what,

since 1990, almost 30 years now of just stellar.

wrestling stellar promos and kind of doing whatever

he wants and to alex's point still being able

to tell people to fuck the fuck off but then

people like ah okay it's chris jericho and he's

like yeah i am and i mean the guy can the guy

can do pretty much anything and get away with

it i just liked on the last on the first episode

of aw he literally just flipped somebody's bird

i love that Like, you can't get away with that.

You wouldn't be able to get away with that in,

like, a WWE thing. But, like, AEW's like, oh,

I'll give a shit. Do whatever the hell you want.

And the commercial break when people threw the

hot dog in there at him, he picks it up and says,

who the fuck threw this? Like, he's getting away

with saying stuff like that. It's so great. I

love it. He can be this, like, you know, not,

you know, safe for kids sort of guy. And then,

like, a couple years ago, he played, like, Canada

Day in my city here he played a free concert

downtown and it's like why like why did he pick

like my city has like a couple hundred thousand

people but like why did he come here who paid

him he apparently did it for free he just was

gonna be I guess traveling between cities and

they closed down like our main street and he

played a concert for free and I was like what

I didn't even know he was in a band Fonzie's

still a thing I didn't know that It's weird.

He's sort of weird. He can fit into any PG anything.

He's best when he can be cheeky and be a little

crass. He got a notebook over. He got a clipboard.

The list. Nobody can do a thing like that. He's

getting that stupid jacket over he's wearing

now. Or the weird pseudo... Blade Runner's makeup

that he's wearing now. Yeah, I'm not a big fan

of that. He's even getting over that bald spot

he has. He's allowing them to film him from above

and you can see the bald spot. It's like, if

I was him, I wouldn't be letting him film that.

It's like Macho Man. TV's Mr. Neal. Last thoughts

on Chris Jericho. Well, you forgot a couple of

his names. Let's see. The Master of a Thousand

Four Holds? Yes. Your Paragon of Virtue? And

of course the Ayatollah of rock and roll. God,

talk about a guy who can just reinvent himself

over and over again and tried so hard in WCW.

That was, that was the biggest crime. Like almost

as bad as what they did to Stone Cold when they

just let him go. They didn't know what the hell

they had. They did not know what they had with

Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho tried so hard in

WCW and was consistently the most entertaining

person in the entire company. And every time

he tried to do something, they were just like,

nah. From his first match in WCW, I was interested

in him. The first time he showed up, I'm like,

ooh, who's this guy? Come on, baby! Best. His

original babyface music. Perfect. I love that

music. I was really hoping that when he came

to AEW, they would play that to mock him. He

should own that. All right, let's move on to

our number seven on the list. People are getting

nervous. Names are disappearing. There's only

a few names left on everybody's list, probably,

of who should be coming up. All right, let's

go to number seven. He debuted in 1969, once

went by the name of The Masked Canadian. Most

people just know him as the rowdy one. Rowdy

Roddy Piper number seven. All right. So we had

no problems with this. You had him right. Number

five. Okay. I have small problems with this.

He has a minor problem. Excuse me. I have a few

minor problems with this, sir. Go ahead. Voice

your opinion. Is this just because he's from

Canada? No. He came across as incoherent sometimes

or by that a lot of times. If you want to talk

about frenetic energy, nobody liked him ever.

He was one of the most entertaining people ever.

He was Robin Williams as a heel wrestler. Small

guy, not the best wrestler in the world, but

you could not take your eyes off of him ever

for one second. Also listed as being trained

by Stu Hart, by the way. Just have to throw that

in there. He's from anywhere west of Ontario.

He's in the Toronto area. From Saskatoon, get

it right. Okay, sorry. He's one of those guys

where I almost feel like he started too young.

and when you hear some of the like talk about

nuclear heat like where people like he was at

stabbing attempts like a good dozen times um

starting riots for like making the entire latino

community in in southern california try to find

him and kill him uh sing uh saying he was going

to sing the mexican national anthem and singing

la cucaracha Like, wow. Yeah. He, he came to

the ring, uh, one show with, uh, I think it was,

uh, one of the Guerrero's in the seventies and

then said, uh, he was going to, um, you know,

serenade or I think it was serenade their mother

and he brought a donkey in and then he painted

it up like a zebra. And then he, he, he said,

Oh, don't you want to give your mother a kiss?

That sort of stuff. And then they, they were

ripping apart the chairs and throwing them at

him. So he leaves, goes on the radio station

to apologize, says, don't worry. At the next

show, I'm very sorry. I'm going to come apologize.

He shows up, says, I'm going to, I'm so deeply

sorry. And to know how, you know, how much you

all mean to me, I'm going to sing the Mexican

national anthem. And then he goes, he gets about

one line through and they start throwing their

shoes at him and batteries. And like he gets,

they try to stab him two or three. You cannot

get away with that now. And for that alone, like

the nuclear heat, like I love that. Just not

caring. Like, like literally had to carry a gun

on him at all times because people would try

to kill him until like the mid eighties. We can't

go without mentioning Piper's pit being a very

memorable thing. And then all of his great TV

and movie appearances, maybe not so much, but

they live. He was great in his few appearances

on it's always sunny in Philadelphia. Yes. He

was very good at that. Matthew Stewart. What

do you think of the rowdy rowdy Piper coming

in here at number seven? I mean, this guy was

as. I mean, he was a pot stirrer. This guy likes

to stir the shit up. And to Alex's point, you

can't get away with stuff like that anymore.

I mean, in this culture anymore, you can't do

it. It was a different era. I mean, he was like

a, after what, Classy Freddy Blassie was probably

the closest to him in terms of guy that would

just get heat. It would try and get murdered.

Like people were trying to kill. wrestlers this

is still the day and age of like kayfabe and

everything so i mean this is a guy that smashed

a coconut over jimmy stuck his head um he painted

himself black and white to make a point yeah

i mean home like that yeah like i was like what

the fuck are you doing dude and then i mean mr

t hated him but i think that was the point which

was fantastic no fuck mr t And he wanted to fight

Mr. T for real, so they had to pull him off.

He did. I mean, the boxing match was a horrendous

match, but it was still super iconic. And that

was like one of the big crossover parts of like

wrestling and team and everything as well. But,

I mean, this guy, I mean, he had the answer to

everything. I mean, you couldn't befuddle him.

You couldn't trick him. And the thing he did

with Hogan was... I mean, I thought that was

really great during WCW because he came out and

everybody was super stoked about, you know, Rodney

Piper coming out, even if their match wasn't

that great during, what was that, during Halloween

Havoc? Yes, it was. Is he one of, he's like one

of only two people to never lose to Hogan. It's

what, him and The Rock, and that's it? Him and

The Rock. Yeah, and what, The Rock, how many

times did The Rock fight? One, once or twice.

I think it was just the one time. It's one time.

One to know. Excellent. But I mean, yeah, I mean,

I, I liked Piper a lot. I mean, he's iconic and

the bagpipe music coming out. My God. Neil, I

want to get your, get you to jump in here because

you didn't have him ranked quite as high. You

and I both had him in the twenties. Would you

flip -flop him in maybe The Million Dollar Man,

in your opinion? Yeah, yeah, I think so. See,

I had a whole list of things about him, but you

guys mentioned them all. Like, I was going to

bring up the half -black thing from WrestleMania

VI, and I'm like, well, that's not what I know.

Bring it up again, because it's definitely worth

re -mentioning. Yeah, and how that stuff didn't

come off. Like, that stayed on his body for,

I think, a couple weeks. I would hate to be him

walking around with that, even in the 80s, I

don't think. to be very popular walking around

like that. Just totally politically incorrect.

He said some things about Mr. T at WrestleMania

2. I don't think I can repeat. Wow. I almost

think I have to watch his matches and his interviews

with the curtains drawn in a soundproof room

so nobody can hear it. Just very, very charismatic

from a different time. Don't forget Cyndi Lauper.

That's true. Yes. All right, we're going to keep

the countdown chugging along here. Let's go to

number six, the last guy not to be in the top

five here. All right, everybody had him on the

list. They ranked him anywhere from three to

31. One, two, three, four, five people had him

in the top ten. He comes in here at number six.

Another guy that you could put down in the ranks

of being trained by Stu Hart. Debuted in 1976

as a referee and then debuted in 1978 as a wrestler.

Ring names? Well, just one really. And that is,

well, unless you want to count Buddy. But it

is Brett the Hitman Hart. Number six. Number

six. I hear a lot of sound effects, groans, and

words coming from the panel. TV is Mr. Neal.

Since you didn't get to go first last time, let's

let you go first on this one. One person had

him ranked three. Nobody else had him ranked

any higher than this. We're talking about six,

seven, nine, and ten, and he comes in here at

number six. So did we get it right? I think he

belongs in there, right in that area. Maybe higher.

See, I loved the way he would just compose matches.

He would just control every match. And he made

guys that were terrible look great. Like, he

made Kevin Nash look outstanding. British Bulldog.

British Bulldog is fantastic. Shut your damn

whore mouth. He made British Bulldog look like

a million dollars. British Bulldog looked like

a million dollars. He didn't even know where

he was. There was one time he was on some drugs.

Come on. One time. I talked earlier about him

and Owen at SummerSlam that one year when they

went overtime and I didn't really care that it

took off half of the Undertaker versus Undertaker

match. Him and his brother were basically the

only two guys in WWF for the first half of the

90s that were worth a damn. Everyone else, you

had the career guys. I'm a race car driver, but

I'm also a wrestler. Just like, what the hell

is even going on in this company? And then you

had Bret Hart just saving the day, having outstanding

matches with Owen, with Jerry Lawler, with Bob

Backlund, and raising their own. Yeah, I'll throw

Shawn Michaels in there too. Rick Flair took

the belt off of Rick Flair and they didn't even

show it on TV. I was ecstatic on Saturday morning

when they announced it, but I'm like, why don't

we see that match? What the hell? Oh, and the

match that pretty much solidified him as my favorite

wrestler for at least a good long while was Bret

Hart versus Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam. 91, I

think it was, when he took the belt off, the

Intercontinental title off of Mr. Perfect, who

was injured at the time and still put up a five

-star performance. Only flaw in that match is

that Bret Hart only has the sharpshooter on halfway,

and Earl Hebner goes for the bell, and it ruined

the match. Not really ruined it, but it was like,

oh, come on! You're sure it was Earl? No, I'm

just kidding. I'm pretty sure it was Earl. All

right, Alex, what do you think of Bret Hart coming

in here at number six? Good spot. Would be higher

if Goldberg hadn't given him a stroke. I thought

you were going to say it would be higher if he

hadn't become a whiny, complainy baby. Here's

the interesting thing. I'm going to play the

devil's advocate here. You're the best you can

whine. Stroke victims also a lot of times can

have their personalities change a significant

chunk. So I can also emphasize. So I honestly

think he has some brain damage. Absolutely. And

that is what's contributing to it because he

wasn't really like that when he went over to

WCW. Yeah, like part of that was gimmick for

his character. But when you watch the behind

the scenes videos they're making of him, he was

always a serious guy. But he was not somebody

that was hypercritical of everything and lashing

out at everything. And I feel like. the kick

to the head did it. So, um, because you hear

that apparently he's still great with his family

and everything, but he's a guy who could have

made it top three. Had he had another 10 years

in the industry, but can you do that when you're

the best at a company, when it's in its worst

time? That's an argument I heard earlier. What

if you had taken him and, you know, taken and

plucked him out of his time and had him have

matches with Kurt Angle? What if you plucked

Shawn Michaels out of his time and had him have

matches? He could have had matches with Kurt

Angle, though. If you plucked him out and put

him with... If you plucked him out and put him

now, he would be just as good as half the people.

Basically, isn't that exactly what Ziggler is?

He's Ziggler if people liked him. Shawn Michaels,

yeah. I think Shawn Michaels is Ziggler now.

I'm just kidding. Sorry, I've never been a Bret

Hart fan. I had Bret Hart ranked number 10, so

I do think he's top 10 worthy. And I think he,

you know, from the tag team with the Hart Foundation,

the singles run, he tried to carry the WWE and

failed miserably. And they had to revert course

and try to give it to Shawn Michaels and then

hope that Steve Austin came and saved it, which

he did. But I mean, Bret Hart's good. He's probably

the best in -ring technician. I mean, I know

you mentioned Kurt Angle, but I think you could

put Bret Hart above that when it comes to actually

professional wrestling, not actual wrestling.

Think about the matches he could have had with

a Daniel Bryan or somebody. He was basically

a wrestler out of time. He would have done better

in the 70s or 60s. Or in the late 90s and 2000s.

I think the one mark maybe against him in my

book is I don't feel like he's quite as good

on the mic as a lot of these other guys. Here's

the thing. If you wanted to make him a bad guy,

you should have stuck him with Cornette. Right.

Yeah. But I think you can't argue Bret Hart being

in the top 10. You can argue where he should

be placed, but I don't think you can take him

out of the top 10. That seems foolish to me.

So I think six. Good spot for me. Some people

might have him a little bit higher. Some people

might have him a little bit lower, but he is

in the top 10 and everybody else is in the top

five. So let's move on to that. And good Lord,

if we haven't had any hate or grief or hate mail

or anything like that, we're about to get it

guys. There's only five names left. So let's

start with number five, who was left off of one

person's list. And I will throw him under the

bus. All right. So he ranked not on one person's

list. 36 on somebody else's list. And then let's

just listen to the following. 643333111. Oh,

wait. Oh, God. I think I know who it is. He comes

in here at number five. Debuted in 1972. At one

point, he was known as Ricky Rhodes. At one point,

he was known as the Black Scorpion. Ah, yes.

The Nature Boy, Ric Flair. direct your hate mail

to TFG1 Mike for leaving him off on his list.

I thought you were going to say Taker. We're

talking about Ric Flair. He was number one on

three people's lists. But I knew who was going

to leave him off. I knew it was going to be Blanchard.

TFG1 Mike does not believe that Ric Flair is

in the top. Can I explain why I think he left

him off? Because he's not here to defend himself?

Go for it, Ethan. He didn't like him. But he

will be editing the show. Okay. He didn't like

him because he was a heel and therefore does

not deserve to be on the list because he didn't

like him, not understanding that he wasn't supposed

to like him. I can get that. I can get that.

That's a complicated thing. I'm calling him a

mark. So three people had him ranked number one.

I'm calling him the guy that probably gave Cena

number two or one. He did give Cena number two.

So take with that what you will. You know, number

two, Ric Flair, not on the list, but everybody

else basically got it right. Three people had

him ranked one, three people had him ranked,

or four people had him ranked three, a four,

a six. So, I mean. We don't need to talk much

about anything except for we're about to get

a bunch of hate mail for him being right, number

five. Okay, you want more hate mail? He should

not be on TV anymore because he sounds like...

No, no, no. I thought he was going to die. You

know what? When you make Hogan have better promos

than you because you sound like you're an Alzheimer's

patient, you should not be on TV anymore. I thought

he was going to die on TV. He looked confused

as to where he was. When he started hitting his

chest. I was like, oh, please don't do that.

Please, please, please don't. Your heart is about

to rip out of you. When Hogan gives a good promo

compared to you, you need to stop talking. Yeah.

Just go be with your family. and enjoy what time

you have left. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm

not trying to be morbid or whatever. The reason

he's there, he can't give it up. He can't give

it up. He still hasn't given up the drinking,

and that's what sent him into the hospital last

time. He's there because he's got four ex -wives

he's got to pay. He is a wrestler. Well, he just

got married, what, like three years ago? Remarried

or something like that? He refers to the other

wives as number one, number two, number three.

He is more married to wrestling than any other

person that we've talked about. Him and Terry

Funk, yeah. Not to take away anything, but he

is and was fantastic. He just needs to remove

himself from anywhere where he could be in a

competition. The only way I would watch him in

a wrestling match ever again is if he was wrestling

Bret Hart and then it's like Alzheimer's versus

stroke. I would watch. the shit out of that.

Bret Hart comes out of the motorcycle and falls

down halfway. And then have it refereed by Magnum

TA from his wheelchair and just make it the biggest

disastrous show you could ever imagine. That

sounds like a TNA show. But in reality, most

people are going to be expecting him to be one

or two, right? Or three. I'm shocked. And we

have him here at number five. So we apologize,

but we can't speak for Mike too much because,

I don't know. I fucking guarantee. That's not

a misstep. That's a purposeful move. He did it

on purpose. So Ric Flair is your number five.

We'll talk more about these guys kind of as we

keep going, but I don't want to make this too

much resembling a WWE pay -per -view length.

But let's go with our number four here then coming

up next. He was not left off of anybody's list.

He was also ranked one by two people. 1, 1, 2,

3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, and a 72. All right. That's

why he comes in here at number four and not higher

because one person had him ranked at 72. He debuted

in 1989. At one point, he went by the name The

Ringmaster. Oh, God. We're talking about Stone

Cold, Steve Austin, number four. Okay, sorry,

but you're telling me then the top two are...

There's three people left. There's three, so

we have two more. No spoilers. We've got to go

one at a time. We're talking about Steve Austin

here at number four. Obviously spent his early

career in the 89 -90 range kind of just floundering

around in independence and whatnot. 91 was when

he started with WCW, ECW in 95. And then from

there on, it was the WWF starting with the Million

Dollar Corporation. And then, of course, 316

changed the world. Austin 316 and the Attitude

Era, etc. I mean, when it comes to these top

five guys, it all depends on who you talk about.

what your criteria is, what day of the week it

is. But we have Ric Flair at number five. We

have Steve Austin here at number four. This was

number one on TFG on Mike's list, by the way.

So Matthew Stewart, start us off here. Steve

Austin, number four. Glass shattering ringmaster.

By the way, you had him ranked at number four

on your list. I did. All right, sweet. I think

I had Ric Flair at number one. Did I have Ric

Flair? You did. I did. God damn it. All of our

number ones are gone, guys. They're all gone.

Nobody's on the panel. Now we know who's going

to be in the top three. It's just a matter of...

God damn, Stone Cold. I don't know. What can

you say? I will say this. I did not like Stone

Cold in the latter part of the what. I was not

a fan of the what. I really hated it. I thought

it was really stupid. And it created this entire

culture of... I feel like Stone Cold is the decline

of Western civilization when it comes to wrestling.

With the whole what thing, it ruined a lot of

wrestling past that because it became a mocking

idea of what wrestling is. So, fuck Stone Cold.

Wow. People I had ranked higher than Stone Cold.

But still. I had Ric Flair higher. I had Macho

Man higher. I had Sting and Shawn Michaels higher.

I had Steve Austin at number eight. But I know

most people would put him in the top three. So

I have no problem with it. TV's Mr. Neal. What

do you think? Well, the thing about Stone Cold

is that the amount of time he was around, it's

like the Stone Cold era was like 97 to 2001.

And then he kind of came back sporadically after

that. He was basically done by the end of the

Alliance era. So that character wasn't even around

that long. And even before that, when he was

in WCW, like I said earlier, they didn't even

know what they had with him. I mean, he was a

Hollywood blonde. Yeah, they didn't really use

him right. They didn't use him right. He was

clearly more talented than what they were doing

with him. They had him job to hacksaw Jim Duggan.

To get the U .S. title off of him, which was

ridiculous. And, you know, I don't know if he

belongs this high. I don't even remember where

I ranked him. But, like, it's just that small

amount of time where he was, like, really hot

is, like, really the only thing going against

him. I think he's a great entertainer, excellent

in the ring. About 1 ,300 days with a belt. I'm

going to go fairly quick through these top five

guys because then I kind of want to just talk

about them in general as we kind of go through

because we'll be able to kind of debate them

against each other a little bit. But Alex, real

quick, a thought on Steve Austin before we move

on. Not a good wrestler. Right. That's why I

didn't rank him higher. As far as being important

to the business, he was a supernova. He was so

hot that he burnt out his star quickly. insane

moneymaker insane for getting eyes on it um uh

single -handedly got the skinhead look uh i guess

to be popular oh god you know great as far as

connecting with people awesome cool but like

really his career was a bunch of garbage and

then five years of supernova heat Probably the

biggest five years almost of anybody. Absolutely.

Or the biggest short period, you know, type thing

going on. He also might be, like you said, the

decline. He might be the reason that WWE has

sucked for the last 20 years. Because they're

trying to recapture that. They're trying to recapture

that without going, you know, TV 14 or TVMA.

All right. So we had Ric Flair, who was ranked

number one by three people. We had Steve Austin,

who was ranked number one by two people. Next

up, number three, he was ranked number one by

one person. Let's go through the rankings. They're

all over the board for this one. We have a one,

a two, a two, a two, a three, a four, a four,

a five, a six, and then it goes to 27 and 62.

So number three on our list, the immortal Hulk.

Oh, wow. Number three, the immortal Hulk Hogan.

Mainly because of the 27 and the 62 ranking,

because everybody else, like I said, had him

in the top six. So quick thoughts, and then we're

going to go right on to the next one. But start

with Alex. Just kind of a quick thought on Hulk

Hogan here. Yeah. Okay, good. He's all right.

Love the guy for ridiculous reasons, and that's

about it. Okay. TV's Mr. Neal. Your thoughts.

You had him ranked at 62, so not a big fan? I

like him. It's just that his in -ring work is

not so good. Biggest hero of the 80s, biggest

heel of the 90s, probably could have turned heel

a lot sooner because, like I said, they were

booing him at the Royal Rumble of 92. Good time

to turn him a heel was in WCW because he was

kind of the invader and was good for a little

while and then just kind of fizzled out. All

right, Matthew Stewart, what's the best thing

about Hulk Hogan? The mustache. All right. In

revealing number two, we're also obviously probably

going to be revealing number one because there's

only two names I think that anybody would be

expecting to hear. So our number two wrestler

ranked the following. 58, 13. Then we have 8,

7, 7, 7, 6, 2, 2, 1. So everybody had him in

the top ten except for two. And then our number

one ranked, just real quick. It's interesting

because our number 5, 4, 3, and 2 were all on

somebody's list at number 1. The number 1 ranked

wrestler was on nobody's list at number 1. But

the lowest he got ranked was 20th. And then everybody

else is 10, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 3, 3, 3, 3. Nobody

had him ranked number 2 either. So nobody had

him 1 or 2. It's just everybody universally liked

this person a lot. Correct. So our number 2 wrestler.

Rock. If you smell what The Rock is cooking.

Okay. Our number one wrestler is The Undertaker.

Makes sense. Okay. All right, so we're going

to go around for all of you guys, and we're going

to talk about the top five in a group and kind

of how you rank them and how you separate them.

So five, Ric Flair, then Steve Austin, Hogan,

Rock, and then The Undertaker. TV's Mr. Neal.

What do you think makes that happen? Why is Undertaker

number one? And what does each person have either

going for them or against them in that group?

Well, the first thing you got to do is tell these

fans to shut up if you want to hear what I got

to say. I just think that all these guys have

killer charisma, and that's what got them up

so high. I think Ric Flair belongs on top of

them because he's the actual workhorse. He's

got the best wrestling in ring work. Rock is

probably my least favorite wrestler out of all

of them just because, I don't know, whenever

I think of his moves, it's like... Punch, punch,

punch, punch. Rock bottom. He's got the people's

elbow, and then he's got the worst sharpshooter

of all time. Yeah. Oh, my God. I call it the

pea shooter. Undertaker is just, well, as his

nickname. As his nickname says, he's the phenom.

He's just got this presence. I remember when

he first showed up and kids were afraid of him.

That bell would gong and the whole arena would

just shudder. Run from the scary redhead. Survivor

Series, when he fought Hulk Hogan for the first

time, listen when the match begins, his bell

rings out, and the whole place just erupts. I

guess they thought he was just going to be this

monster heel for a long time, and then people

just immediately started loving him. I missed

out on being able to say all the good nicknames

for the last three. So obviously Hulk Hogan,

we had Sterling Golden, Terry Boulder, the Super

Destroyer, Mr. America. Yeah, we would have gotten

all of those. We got all of those. The Rock's

only been really Rock. Well, no, Flex Cabana.

Die, Rocky, die. But Undertaker would have had

some fun ones. He was Dice Morgan. He was Mean

Mark Callous. He was the Master of Pain, the

Punisher, Texas Red, and Kane the Undertaker.

That's right. For me, just real quickly, I had

Macho Man number one, and then Shawn Michaels,

and then Ric Flair, then Sting, then Hogan, then

Undertaker, then Rock, then Austin. For Undertaker,

I think it's the longevity, but I think he's

hurting it the more he sticks around. I think

he's hurting his legacy the longer he stays around.

He should have just retired at one point, left

his stuff in the ring, and we'd never see him

again, and that would have been great. The Rock

probably has the most... charisma out of all

of them in the top five that we talked about.

Ric Flair is easily the best in -ring technician.

Hogan and Austin, they have that part that they

really changed the game when they were at their

peak. So I don't know which of those things works

or should make them the best wrestler ever. If

we're just talking those five, I'd probably go

Ric Flair if I can't. If I can't go Macho Man

or any of those guys. I don't know. I gave way

more credence to people that could actually wrestle

in the ring. Like the in -ring technicians versus

some of these other guys who were just as important.

But is Hogan really a better wrestler than Ric

Flair? I don't think you can say that. Is Rock

a better wrestler than Ric Flair? No. Is Steve

Austin a better wrestler than Ric Flair? No.

And this is top 100 wrestlers. So for me, Ric

Flair deserves to be higher than those other

guys. But Alex, what do you think? The only thing

Taker has against him, other than what you said,

is he's a terrible speaker. Yeah. But what it

shows is he was such a big guy that could actually

work. And he did reinvent himself bit by bit.

Even the stupid Limp Bizkit biker gimmick thing

worked for him. For whatever reason. And I mean,

even his sporadic appearances lately haven't

been great. But actually, was it the last one

he did? No, no, it wasn't the last one he did

that was good. Was it the one before that he

did that was decent? Yeah, the Goldberg one was

awful. Yeah, and that you can actually chalk

up to the heat and other crap going on and concussions

and everything. But can you say, even Ric Flair

and all these people, can you say about anybody

else that they were a consistent draw in the

top three of a company? over 25 years right and

i mean rick flair you probably could say that

with 25 years of of being of drawing the kind

of crowds like wrestlemania not the kind of i

mean he wasn't well that's not fair because his

peak was in the you know 70s 80s really um as

far as you know what i mean like he wasn't around

when wwe was making the amount of money and drawing

the the most popular wrestler in the country

for 25 years. Probably. Question is, would anybody

now pay to see him wrestle other than us to make

fun of it? No, I wouldn't, but I was just thinking

about that right now that the rock or stone cold

was going to have a match with undertaker. I'd

rather see the Rockets don't call him. I'd pay

money for that. You would pay money. I'd want

to see that. You would pay money. You would pay

money. At least $10 for the month on WWE. Yeah,

like even having, or having Rick and, like they're

doing the Ric Flair thing as a team, whatever.

But you could put Hogan with Taker and there'd

be some way they could make the match work as

like a tag team. There'd be something they could

do. They would figure something out. Any of these

guys in the top five, even at their ages now,

would find a way to make things work. Interesting.

If you look at the top 10 that we just talked

about, I'm just real quick and I'll run it down

again. Think about Mike's skills and think about

this top 10, because there's really only three

guys that don't have great Mike skills. We have

John Cena, Macho Man, Jericho, Piper, Bret Hart

would be one of them. Then you have Ric Flair,

Stone Cold, Hogan would be one of them, Rock,

and then Undertaker would be one of them. Even

Hogan can kind of go on the mic and kind of say

the few things that make sense. I would say two

out of the 10. And also, I think one thing to

ask, too, is how many people, if every single

person in this top 100, if you were asking them,

they were alive, would say, who were your favorite

people to work with? You're looking, or would

you like to work with? And they'll all say, other

than for money reasons, they'll say Ric Flair

and Taker. And then probably Bret Hart. Yeah.

Yeah, because you know you'll look good in the

ring. And Macho Man. Macho Man had a thing of

making people look good. He always cared more

about the draw. He might be stressful to work

with, but... But he was the one on the list that

didn't care about losing. All he cared about

was what's going to be the best thing to make

the money and maybe best for business. And Flair

would lose sometimes, too. Yeah, but I'm just

saying Macho Man regularly didn't care about

the booking as much as some of these other guys

like Hogan or, you know... Bret Hart to a point.

I am glad The Rock didn't make it to number one

because let's be real. No. It was interesting.

Other than Hogan making his Gawker money, he's

the richest wrestler has ever been. He's the

only person making the money he makes. He could

have put in a bid to take controlling shares

from Vince if he truly wanted to. Or he could

have made his own wrestling. The dude's making

$100 million a year. So, like, he's making more

money in profit than WWE does in profit. Well,

it's interesting what turned out here is basically

the Undertaker was the one amongst all 100 wrestlers

we talked about that had the universal appeal

that nobody ranked him outside of the top 20.

Everybody else did not have that. Rock, somebody

had him at 58. Hogan, 27, 62. Austin, 72. Ric

Flair, 36 and off the list. So everybody else

had at least one person that wasn't in agreement

compared to Undertaker. Everybody across the

board. um put him in the top 20 um so that's

kind of why he ends up at number one well it

comes down to like i mean if we're going to go

top 100 wrestlers it's it makes sense for some

of these people to be left off because i mean

i guess he took the probably countdown a little

bit more serious some of us or something like

that where it's like oh they're not a wrestler

they're an entertainer thing. I do like the fact

that some people were like, well, this is a wrestling

countdown, not an entertainer or not a movie

star or not this type of thing. Question, if

somebody had ranked, if said person that did

not rank Ric Flair had ranked him even at 100,

would that have bumped him in? 100 would have

only moved him one point. He needed to gain about...

So he would have had to be in the top 90. be

number one overall he would have had to be mike

would have had to rank him in the top 10 oh okay

so it wasn't so close that we could just ignore

it yeah if he would have ranked him if he would

have been in mike's top 11 or 10 or 11 he would

have been right up that undertaker undertaker

was undertaker was 37 points ahead of the rock

oh see i expected it to be personally uh rick

and top spot then Taker, and then like a Steve

Austin, then Rock, and then it would flow wherever

it flowed. Right. There was one point separating

Ric Flair and Bret Hart. Then we jump up about

35 to 40 points for Austin. There was five points

separating Austin and Hogan, two points separating

Hogan and Rock. And then another, like I said,

37 jump to Undertaker. That was a landslide for

Undertaker. Yeah, I was surprised. So what we're

going to do, guys, I know this is we've already

been going at it for quite a while, and that

is the top 25. I'm going to give everybody a

chance here to talk about it one more time. Here

is kind of their reactions to the 25 we listed

today. I am going to have we're going to have

a very short episode, kind of a wrap up, follow

up episode where we kind of get everybody's feedback.

And then we're also going to go all the way back

to the other end of the list and talk about some

of the people that just missed it. Just to give

everybody a chance to get their moment in the

sun that people. that got a significant amount

of votes but didn't quite make the top 100. So

we'll have one kind of fun, quick, shortened

version, like a follow -up, wrap -up episode

at the end. But just kind of going around the

horn here, guys, you heard the 25 names we talked

about today. Most surprising thing, do you think

we got it right as far as everybody we listed

here? Biggest surprise or just overall reaction

to the list, we'll start with Matthew Stewart.

What did you think of today's episode? It was

a fun one because this is... Literally where

you see the cream rice at the top. It's interesting

to see Undertaker number one and also number

one in a surprisingly like landslide type victory.

I mean, I like The Undertaker a lot. Do I think

he's number one? Wow. I mean, I don't know. I

guess when I think of wrestling, I think of a

Hulk Hogan. I think of a Ric Flair. I think of

a Steve Austin. I think of a Rock. When I actually

think of the greater idea of wrestling and the

pageantry and what it's become. The Undertaker

has been around for so long that, yeah, of course

you think of The Undertaker. Because he's had

so many matches. He's had such longevity. Sadly,

near the end of his career, it hasn't been as

great as it's been. But I'm a little surprised

by seeing The Undertaker number one. I would

have probably seen a... Ric Flair, I mean, I

picked him as number one. I would have loved

to have seen him as number one. I think it's

also so crazy that the number one guy is the

only guy in the top five that was not ranked

number one by anybody. Yeah, so I find it a weird,

interesting concept, but he got the popular vote

wins with The Undertaker. I love The Undertaker.

He's great. I love Undertaker when he's, like,

fucking throwing people on the cross, like, crucifying

them and doing crazy shit, too. But, I mean,

it's like, that's my favorite Undertaker. Basically,

Ric Flair won the Electoral College, but Undertaker

won the popular vote. Popular vote, yeah. So

he used to Hillary on this countdown. So good

job, Taker. Good job, Redhead. TV's Mr. Neal.

What do you think of this group of 25 and the

countdown overall? I think it's a good group.

The way I rank these is just... based on overall

entertainment value because even as we're talking

about wrestling skill it's you know wrestling

is a work so it's all entertainment as far as

i'm concerned like whether you're making tom

mcgee look good like bret hart magician the way

that he was to even do that or you're some like

shimmy in a shaking uh comedy act like the like

the honky tonk man you know it's all it's all

good to me it's just like different flavors of

the same thing whether it's like a technical

wrestler or like just some guy who was like good

on the mic and okay in the ring, you know, it

was just a matter of like how, how that all meshed

together. And I really wasn't going to like,

I really wasn't going to like boot Andre off

the list just because, you know, you can barely

walk. Andre was still important to the, to the

business of wrestling. So that's basically how

I, how I looked at it. Alex, what do you think

of this group of 25 and how it all shook out?

I actually agree with most of it. And the way

you have to look at this now is not, this is

like the definitive, they are better because

of this, blah, blah, blah. This is more of like

Metacritic. We're basing it on our own values

and our own critiques. And then it's being tabulated

in a popularity contest, but not a traditional

popularity contest of, oh, they're liked by most

people. But this is more like, you know, everybody

in these lists, we all like. but at different

degrees and it sort of shuffles around obviously.

But with Taker, the way of looking at it is everybody

loves Taker. That's the takeaway. It doesn't

matter where he ranks necessarily, but this is

to show there was no hate for him. Everybody

loves him or some iteration of him universally.

And then it's like, that's why he's number one,

not because he's the best, but because every

single person that's seen him likes him. Yeah.

I think that's a good way to put it. So we want

your guys' feedback because we're going to talk

about it in our wrap -up episode and kind of

get all your guys' opinion. I know we've gotten

some on the website and some through Twitter.

So you can go to geekcastradio .com and find

the episode post and comment there, or you can

just tag any of us on Twitter, and we will respond

to that and bring it up in the wrap -up episode

as well. You can tag me at OptimusSolo on Twitter.

Alex, how can people comment to you? I'm at DeathFaceTwig,

or you can get me... feedback at this week in

geek .net i love i'll debate with you uh and

i will respond excellent i will respond as well

um tv's mr neil how can people uh get in touch

with you uh just through my website to cn .com

all of my social media stuff is there also ravinghipster

.com you can get me through there as well right

and matthew stewart how can people get in touch

with you or your one -time tag team member dj

valentine You can reach us through either at

Twitter. It's probably the easiest way to follow

us or whatever you want to do on the Internet.

At Simple Tweeters, that's S -I -M -P -L -E -T

-W -E -E -T -E -R -S. Or my cohort in crime,

DJ Valentine. At trying to be DJV, both of us

will probably go back and forth. DJ probably

a little bit more ferociously because he's an

animal. I like it. Maybe we'll be able to get

him on the wrap -up episode. So that does it

for our Top 100 Countdown. All the names have

been revealed, so now it's just time to cry about

it or argue about it. kind of sum it all up in

our next episode so we look forward to hearing

your comments on the website and until next time

we will be wrapping it up we'll talk one more

time about the top 100 and one more time about

who didn't make it so until then tune in for

another chance to talk one more time about wrestlers

before mike takes back over and talks about who

knows what all right it's been fun guys we'll

talk to you next time you know what you just

made the list