THIS LIST HAS NO CREDIBILITY~! (aka everyone makes their own list about the PTBN WWE 100

[Brian Fowler]

1.) Austin. Nobody combines in-ring, character, and drawing like him.

2.) Hogan. For all the obvious reasons.

3.) Bruno. Again, obvious.

4.) Cena. The longevity at top is just stunning.

5.) Eddy. Because he's the best wrestler that ever lived.

[The Natural]

14 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

PTBN is doing a top one hundred WWE wrestlers list and they are taking nominations.

Who would be your snap top five were you putting together a list for this?

Austin, Hogan, Cena, Bruno and Undertaker.

7 hours ago, Sammo~! said:

I think 6-10 is a more interesting discussion. A lot of people will have the same top 5. Hogan/Cena/Rock/Austin/a 5th. But I get the impression that this board's 6-10 would vary wildly. Guys like Savage, Warrior, HHH, Foley, Jericho, DiBiase, Andre, Taker, Hart, Michaels. Lots of choices there.

Agreed. Bret Hart, Michaels, The Rock, Savage and Foley.

[The Natural]

In the ring/quality of matches: Bret Hart, Undertaker, Michaels, Cena and Bryan.

[Jenalysis]

My top 5 are Bruno, Hogan, Austin, Rock, Taker

Next 5 would be Cena, Bret, HBK, Savage, Backlund

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Yeah, Cena does kind of have to be on there the more I'm thinking about it and reading everyone else's stuff. My personal thought, and I may be wrong, I think there's a kind of parallel with Cena and guys like Bret and Shawn where they're on a lot of people's GOAT lists, but maybe don't get looked at quite as fondly as a lot of 80s or late 90s guys because a good chunk of their peaks came at a time when the WWF/WWE was at a creative nadir.  In my initial list, I spoke about how I look at Bret/Shawn/Taker as guys who are as synonymous with the promotion as Hogan and Bruno were before them. But if you wanna talk about someone ten years younger than me, then Cena is probably that guy. Maybe even Randy Orton, to a degree. Or even a Batista.

[S.K.o.S.]

I can definitely understand taking drawing power into account, but pop culture relevance is a very strange metric to be using to rank the top 100 WWE wrestlers imo.  What they did outside of wrestling seems irrelevant.  Why would it matter that Rock became a movie star?  Might as well take into account Cena's Make-A-Wish charity work or something.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 minute ago, S.K.o.S. said:

I can definitely understand taking drawing power into account, but pop culture relevance is a very strange metric to be using to rank the top 100 WWE wrestlers imo.  What they did outside of wrestling seems irrelevant.  Why would it matter that Rock became a movie star?  Might as well take into account Cena's Make-A-Wish charity work or something.

Yeah, I see your point. My bad for the confusion. Maybe I shouldn't have phrased it in such a way, but I didn't mean it in terms of what they did outside of wrestling. What I meant for example, when I said Austin was relevant in pop culture, I didn't mean because he did an episode of Nash Bridges, I meant because I saw Austin 3:16 shirts everywhere I went from 1997-2001. Or like with Rock, I didn't mean to refer to his post WWE movie career, but stuff like doing SNL in 2000 or having "smackdown" admitted into the dictionary

[JohnnyJ]

Savage, Bret, Austin, Cena. That number 5 is almost impossible. Playing around with Eddy, Brock, or Bryan. 

The hard thing with these type of lists is everyone is weighing the key metrics (i.e. drawing ability, longevity, work and promo) slightly differently.

Another factor is continued enjoyment. For example, I don't watch very many Hulk Hogan matches but I still seek out Savage matches. The same can be said for Austin and Rock. I can appreciate everything the Rock is but I can't recall the last time I didn't fast forward through one of his matches. Austin's stuff just holds up better.

 

 

 

[tbarrie]

Enough of this "top five, bottom five" nonsense. Whom do you have at eighty-seven?

I think it's clearly Owen Hart.

[Kuetsar]

I just have to say that PTBN is the dumbest, most pompous name for a website imaginable. Having said that I go 1.Hogan 2. Austin 3. Bret 4. Savage 5. Bruno.  A mix of personal favorites with historical relevance. . . . 

[Matt D]

Based on their criteria, which as I understand it is: 

N: Nuance (Longevity, Flexibility, Intangibles)
J: Jump Up Factor (Memorable Peak Matches, Moments and Storylines)
P: Promo Skills & Character Work
W: Workrate

Can anyone make a coherent argument for Hunter? I'm likely not doing this, but were I to, I don't think he'd make my top 100. The Bryan match is the exception that proves the rule. He's the absolute King of Bloat, both in his promos and his matches (things like the Last Man Standing with Jericho really haven't aged all that well because of it), and for every Batista turns on him moment, he's got a Katie Vick or Hunter Beats Booker after leaning on the racism or whatever. I'm pretty sure I'd put 100 WWWF/WWF/WWE guys over him without too much trouble. 

[tbarrie]

4 minutes ago, Kuetsar said:

I just have to say that PTBN is the dumbest, most pompous name for a website imaginable.

What is PTBN, anyway? Googling the acronym doesn't turn up anything wrestling-related.

[Kuetsar]

Place to be Nation. . . .LOL

[Sammo~!]

31 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

Enough of this "top five, bottom five" nonsense. Whom do you have at eighty-seven?

I think it's clearly Owen Hart.

Owen is top 40 at least.

My #87: Irwin R Shyster.

[Matt D]

 

7 minutes ago, Sammo~! said:

Owen is top 40 at least.

My #87: Irwin R Shyster.

Rotunda is definitely lacking in the "matches" department. There's some US Express stuff (including a Spivey/Rotunda vs Hart Foundation match I quite like). I think his Royal Rumble 94 match with Razor's a little underrated, and there are probably tag matches during the Million Dollar Corporation era that are worth a look. The Steiners vs Money Inc series maybe hasn't aged so well. #87 doesn't seem unreasonable. I'd hear the argument for him vs Hunter, if only because he didn't drag down matches on the same level. Also, the vignettes with him in an office are great. 

 

[Technico Support]

1. Razor Ramon (Rick Bogner version)

2. Melina (Bret Hart asked me to cast this vote for him)

3. The Big Dog Roman Reigns

4.Bryan Adams (the singer, not the wrestler)

5. Batista's dick

[Craig H]

The first five, like others basically said, is easy: 1. Austin, 2. Hogan, 3. Bruno, 4. Cena, 5. The Rock.

The next five to round out the top ten gets a little more dicey: 6. Savage, 7. The Undertaker, 8. Eddy, 9. Bret, 10. HBK

Placing Eddy above Bret and HBK likely raises eyebrows, but Eddy was pure perfection as a wrestler. I also thought that Brock deserved a spot in the top 10 just because he's arguably the best monster in WWE history unless you count Taker as a monster. Brock just had so much time off though, and up until his series with Goldberg, his suplex-suplex-suplex-F5-suplex-suplex-F5 style got really boring. It's still physically impressive as hell, but the Cena squash was probably the worst thing to happen for Brock and that style. Instead of that being something super special, it just turned into something that would get run into the ground.

So on that note, my next five would be: 11. Brock, 12. Jericho, 13. HHH, 14. Ted DiBiase, 15. Mr. Perfect

From this point and beyond it just gets so hard to pick and choose. Basically everyone good feels like they have some kind of equal footing as far as importance and best ever goes. Honestly, everyone from HHH and beyond could easily be 16 to 30. And for something like this, only the top 20 really matter. How much does it matter if someone is 37 instead of 36?

[Ace]

1. Bruno

2. Austin

3. Hogan

4. Rock

5. Backlund

[Matt D]

I'm tempted to do this just to put Mark Henry one spot over HBK (who, frankly, is hugely problematic in output, influence, selfishness in promos and ringwork, etc, with his best work being with the Rockers and that generally being despite himself at times). The problem with that, however. is that it puts Henry way too low on the list. 

[AxB]

1 hour ago, tbarrie said:

Enough of this "top five, bottom five" nonsense. Whom do you have at eighty-seven?

I think it's clearly Owen Hart.

You have the wrong member of High Energy. Koko B Ware #87, innit?

[Matt D]

My favorite Koko matches in WWF:

vs Harley Race on PTW (draw!)

vs Tito Santana MSG (Koko plays borderline heel)

Uh.. High Energy vs the Beverly Brothers?

Koko's great but it kind of gets hard after that.

[SirSmUgly]

17 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'm tempted to do this just to put Mark Henry one spot over HBK (who, frankly, is hugely problematic in output, influence, selfishness in promos and ringwork, etc, with his best work being with the Rockers and that generally being despite himself at times). The problem with that, however. is that it puts Henry way too low on the list. 

For every HBK/Diesel at WM XI, Michaels has a match where he gives a surprising amount to a guy like Mick Foley. 

Top five was too high for him, though.

I think that I'm going to just do a full list and then put it here, fuck it. Mark Henry definitely makes my top 100 though. Between 2006 and 2011 or so, he was the best superheavyweight on the roster by a significant amount, and I'm not a Big Show hater or anything. 

[Matt D]

Just now, Smelly McUgly said:

For every HBK/Diesel at WM XI, Michaels has a match where he gives a surprising amount to a guy like Mick Foley. 

By that logic, he'd make a fairly fitting #50?

(Henry could be 49)

[Curt McGirt]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

2. Melina (Mick Foley asked me to cast this vote for him)

FTFY

Pretty ironic that the criteria for their WWE list spells out "NJPW"

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, Sammo~! said:

Owen is top 40 at least.

You think? I'm a huge Owen fanboy, so maybe I was overcompensating for my bias.That or overestimating the number of great workers who were also draws in WWE, all of whom I'd have to put above Owen.

1 hour ago, Sammo~! said:

My #87: Irwin R Shyster.

My instinct is that Shyster doesn't make the list. Fine worker, but I don't see him on a "best ever" list.