Greatest >>in-ring<< performer..

Muta can definitely be considered one of the GOATs because he did everything with panache. A true innovator. Tiger Mask is another good pick, people always credit Liger but without Sayama there is no Liger tbh. Fuck Kawada doe :> I just don't him :> My least favorite of the 4 pillars but it seems like everyone except me likes him... Maybe I'm wrong? I'm okay with that!
Muta was so incredible to watch. His feud with Sting was great.
 
I was never a huge Japanese fanboy and it was his later years but the fact that I can say that I've seen Misawa live? Yeah.
I'll take those street cred points.

Even as an oldster, he kept up pretty decent with the flippy doos.
 
Anyone saying Benoit needs to understand he copied the Dynamite Kid’s style move for move..

Billington ended up alone, broke, and miserable in a tiny apartment, confined to a wheelchair. It's too bad more people don't learn from the mistakes of others.

On a different note, it's interesting to see the demographics from which Sherdog pulls most of its members. You can tell that the typical poster on Sherdog is either too young to have grown up watching The NWA or The AWA, or they come from the northeastern United States or countries where the only American wrestling available to them when they were growing up was The WWF or WWE. Otherwise you'd see more mentions of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr, Jack Brisco, Ray Stevens, Verne Gagne, and Harley Race.

Prior to the nationwide expansion of The WWF in the mid 80s, most Americans grew up in areas of the country where the pro wrestling available to them was either NWA or AWA. You wouldn't think that if all you had to go on were the posts in this thread. If wrestling fans who grew up in the 60s, 70s and the first half of the 80s were asked this question, instead of the two main answers being Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, it would likely have been Flair and Steamboat. If you look at where these wrestlers spent most of their athletic prime, you have to conclude that few people who were big fans of pro wrestling and grew up on NWA wrestling post on Sherdog.

That doesn't surprise me considering that if someone liked the style of wrestling The NWA presented, and the way they always presented pro wrestling as a sport, making every effort to present a more realistic version of pro wrestling in general than The WWF did, they probably quit watching pro wrestling a long time ago. I don't know how many of them ever bothered to post about pro wrestling on the internet because by the time the internet came along, that type of wrestling wasn't being done anymore. People who like the 70s and 80s NWA style, if they use the internet for anything regarding pro wrestling, are most likely to use it for nostalgia purposes such as sites like Mid-Atlantic Gateway were made for.
 
Last edited:
WauZQdL.gif


Nobody named could've gotten a good match out of Great Khali.
 
Bret or Shawn

So many greats in my life to name , I could name a few dozen that have a special place in my heart , but end of the day it's these two
 
What puts Bret over the top for me is that he was "his own greatest mark" as some have put it. He never played a character. He was the hitman, he was the champ, he was whatever he was doing. I feel it made him put just that little bit more into what he did. He cared so much about every match he worked. Not saying others haven't but that's what puts him #1 for me. I always believed what the did and said.
 
Billington ended up alone, broke, and miserable in a tiny apartment, confined to a wheelchair. It's too bad more people don't learn from the mistakes of others.

On a different note, it's interesting to see the demographics from which Sherdog pulls most of its members. You can tell that the typical poster on Sherdog is either too young to have grown up watching The NWA or The AWA, or they come from the northeastern United States or countries where the only American wrestling available to them when they were growing up was The WWF or WWE. Otherwise you'd see more mentions of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr, Jack Brisco, Ray Stevens, Verne Gagne, and Harley Race.

Prior to the nationwide expansion of The WWF in the mid 80s, most Americans grew up in areas of the country where the pro wrestling available to them was either NWA or AWA. You wouldn't think that if all you had to go on were the posts in this thread. If wrestling fans who grew up in the 60s, 70s and the first half of the 80s were asked this question, instead of the two main answers being Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, it would likely have been Flair and Steamboat. If you look at where these wrestlers spent most of their athletic prime, you have to conclude that few people who were big fans of pro wrestling and grew up on NWA wrestling post on Sherdog.

That doesn't surprise me considering that if someone liked the style of wrestling The NWA presented, and the way they always presented pro wrestling as a sport, making every effort to present a more realistic version of pro wrestling in general than The WWF did, they probably quit watching pro wrestling a long time ago. I don't know how many of them ever bothered to post about pro wrestling on the internet because by the time the internet came along, that type of wrestling wasn't being done anymore. People who like the 70s and 80s NWA style, if they use the internet for anything regarding pro wrestling, are most likely to use it for nostalgia purposes such as sites like Mid-Atlantic Gateway were made for.
Verne Gagne WAS the AWA. Him and Nick Bockwinkle anyways. Being from Colorado, that was all we would get during the 70's and early 80's.

I loved the NWA/AWA style of wrestling (and later WCCW, Mid South, UWF) and spent most of my youth reading wrestling magazines and imagining how Flair, Race, Steamboat, Brody, Colon, Tsuruta, Martel, Lawler, Savage, etc would do against Hogan, Orndorff, Iron Shiek, Muraco, etc.

When WWE started running shows in Denver, it was cool to see some of these guys I would just catch on cable. NWA never toured the area, but we did get SOME cross over when ProWrestling USA came to be.

I got into ECW and most of the Attitude era stuff too (although I think both hurt the business long term) when they came into being.

It's why a I can find a Randy Orton headlock fest just as entertaining as a Hardys/Edge & Christian TLC match.

I post here often, because I love the "sport". I don't care about 5* matches, or who is getting buried, or (usually) bad booking, etc. I care if a match can make me go "wow", or "no fucking way" , then I consider it a good match.

If I find a storyline that amuses or interests me, great. If it doesn't, I ignore it and move on. Way too many people today give WAY too many shits about ratings, 5* matches, who is or isn't getting pushed, and WWE VS Indy (or NJPW). Like what you like, and let others do the same.
 
Verne Gagne WAS the AWA. Him and Nick Bockwinkle anyways. Being from Colorado, that was all we would get during the 70's and early 80's.

I loved the NWA/AWA style of wrestling (and later WCCW, Mid South, UWF) and spent most of my youth reading wrestling magazines and imagining how Flair, Race, Steamboat, Brody, Colon, Tsuruta, Martel, Lawler, Savage, etc would do against Hogan, Orndorff, Iron Shiek, Muraco, etc.

When WWE started running shows in Denver, it was cool to see some of these guys I would just catch on cable. NWA never toured the area, but we did get SOME cross over when ProWrestling USA came to be.

I got into ECW and most of the Attitude era stuff too (although I think both hurt the business long term) when they came into being.

It's why a I can find a Randy Orton headlock fest just as entertaining as a Hardys/Edge & Christian TLC match.

I post here often, because I love the "sport". I don't care about 5* matches, or who is getting buried, or (usually) bad booking, etc. I care if a match can make me go "wow", or "no fucking way" , then I consider it a good match.

If I find a storyline that amuses or interests me, great. If it doesn't, I ignore it and move on. Way too many people today give WAY too many shits about ratings, 5* matches, who is or isn't getting pushed, and WWE VS Indy (or NJPW). Like what you like, and let others do the same.

Great post! I agree with the reasons you give for why you love the "sport." There are people who try to defend a wrestler they like by saying how much money he drew. I'll usually ask unless you own stock in WWE, how does how much someone drew have any impact on you? They have no reply to that. That way of thinking makes about as much sense as deciding who your favorite rock band is based on how many albums they sold.

I was also into ECW and agree that there's a possibility it hurt the business in the long run by desensitizing the fans to violence but at the time, it was what they needed to do to survive. It gave the wrestlers another place to work, it gave fans an alternative to what the big two had to offer and it was a lot of fun to watch! Much of what The WWF presented during The Attitude Era were ideas they took from ECW. So in a way, ECW helped WWF win the Monday Night War.
 
I'm way in the minority but I don't think Bret was even the best in his family from a pure working standpoint. Owen had it all. He was only a handful of wrestlers who could produce great matches from any style. American, the rough Stampede, Lucha, Japanese and even european. Both British and Otto Wanz Catch style. Bret better overall because of persona drawing etc. But from a strict workrate..... Owen, all day.
 
Last edited:
It's a debate no one can win. Steamboat for me. Ray Stevens, Terry Funk. Dory.
Thesz is underrated. This guy fooled state athletic commissions many a times.
Flair in his prime was great but his overall package make him a GOAT.
Ricky Morton.
Rick Martel way underrated.
Not big on HBK.
Eddie was great! Man I miss his work.
So many......
 
Last edited:
One name that historically gets thrown in is Sonny Myers. Saku4me aka gspsaku is likely the only one here who knows of him but he is always on the list from historians as most of his peers and fans are gone.
He died in 2007.
 
Bret Hart and Kurt Angle are my favorites. I would definitely tend to listen to the wrestlers' "Mount Rushmores" since I just watch. Most of the guys wrestlers would put in their top lists are folks I don't know, however, since people like Jericho and Steve Austin are often asked and their era of idols is still from the territory days.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,234,816
Messages
55,309,473
Members
174,732
Latest member
herrsackbauer
Back
Top