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

[SirSmUgly]

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?

[Burgundy LaRue]

Excluding part-timers: Styles, Reigns, Charlotte, Miz, Neville

I could easily work Naomi into that list with how she's improved in the ring and how she smashed the small window she got to fast-track her way to the SDL Women's championship.

[Dewar]

I assume that list is all-time, and not current.

Top 5 for me: Austin, Hogan, Rock, Cena, and number 5 gets tricky. Bruno for his drawing power, or Bret for carrying the company through choppy waters, and being my favorite wrestler of all the times?

[Burgundy LaRue]

Ah. THEN I SEZ NUTTIN! MOVE ALONG!!

[SirSmUgly]

It is all-time, and I'm an idiot for not specifying that originally. 

It's hard for me to balance work and drawing power, but I'd have to go Savage, Bret Hart, Cena, and as much backlash as this might get, Michaels for my top four. I don't even want to put him there, but he has too many great matches (and I'm not a Great Match Theory guy, but Michaels is like Flair for me in that I think many of the criticisms levied against him in isolation re: ringwork are more than fair, but then you look at how many classics he was in and it's undeniable that he's got to be high on the list. I don't know how to square that circle other than placing HBK top five on this thing).

I don't know who I'd have fifth. Austin, Rock, Tito, Backlund are all contenders.

And I confess that I'd definitely put Matt Bourne's Doink somewhere on my list. 

[Eivion]

31 minutes 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?

Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena, Undertaker

[MonteCarl]

I'd have to go with the top guys from each of the Fed's boom periods - Bruno, Hogan, Austin, Cena - and then for 5 a toss-up between Taker and Rock. Not saying they are my personal favorites, but as the top draws, they'd have to be right up there.

Personal top five would probably be: Savage, Roberts, Austin, Taker, Jericho.

[Victator]

1 hour 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?

Hogan, Austin, Bruno, Savage and Bret.

[Wyld Samurai]

Was Savage a major draw? 

[Victator]

9 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Was Savage a major draw? 

He drew very well as champion and did huge numbers with Hogan in 89. 

[SirSmUgly]

I personally put less emphasis on drawing than anything else, but yes, Savage drew well as champ and IIRC immediately after it.

This is a re-hash of something that I say every so often, but one of Vince's biggest booking errors was shunting Savage down the card and into the booth, especially when he had a dearth of legitimate superstars in 1993/94. 

At the very least, run Savage/Bret and Hogan/Yokozuna at WM IX (or, if Hogan refuses to do the job, 'Taker/Yokozuna) and that show is better for it. 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Don't know if I even have Austin in my top 5 based on longevity issues, and The Rock becoming the biggest star in the world from a similar platform.

Sammartino established the federation's credibility, Hogan was able to parlay that into mainstream exposure, The Rock used it to launch his own career/shed a tag of just being a wrestling guy. There's my 3-2-1.

Cena for being their second longest running draw behind Bruno with far more over-exposure at four. I'll throw Taker in at five.

[PetrolCB]

36 minutes ago, Victator said:

He drew very well as champion and did huge numbers with Hogan in 89. 

'86 too, to a lesser degree, or whenever that feud was. I remember Meltzer noting they sold out in a bunch of places. 

[Sammo~!]

26 minutes ago, RolandTHTG said:

Don't know if I even have Austin in my top 5 based on longevity issues, and The Rock becoming the biggest star in the world from a similar platform.

 

I'd argue Austin belongs simply by virtue of the fact that Rock wouldn't have had that platform if not for Austin/Tyson and Austin/McMahon exploding like it did.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

2 minutes ago, Sammo~! said:

I'd argue Austin belongs simply by virtue of the fact that Rock wouldn't have had that platform if not for Austin/Tyson and Austin/McMahon exploding like it did.

Becomes a difficult spiral though for me - you can't have Austin/McMahon without Bret, you don't have Bret without the Monday Night Wars, etc etc.

I think that Rock became such a big star on the basis of his stuff with Vince and Foley - to a lesser extent, HHH also. I'm not sure there's much Austin did for him that elevated him as a guy, so much as they co-existed the same main event space, in comparison to those 3.

I think arguably you could have had Tyson come in and do a deal with DX anyway, and it still gets similar attention.

[sydneybrown]

Hogan, Austin, Bruno, Rock, Cena.  The first three are absolute locks, two of them helped bring in boom periods, the other basically WAS the organization for eleven of the first fifteen years.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Taker/Foley/Austin/Bret/Michaels. Of course all the others mentioned so far belong, but that's my top of the dome list.

No Sgt. Slaughter or Bob Backlund feels worse to me than leaving off Hogan or Rocky or Savage somehow

[caley]

Current: Styles, Gallagher, Miz, Reigns, Strowman

All-Time: Hart, Austin, Guerrero, Undertaker, Mr. Perfect

At least those are the guys I generally enjoyed the most over the longest period.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Hogan/Savage/Austin/Rock/Andre would be the guys who were both the biggest draws and had the most pop culture relevance, in my opinion. I almost think you'd have to sneak Undertaker on there too since he has hands down the greatest gimmick of all time.

To me, though, any list of WWF/WWE all time greats isn't complete without Taker, Bret, and Shawn. To me, they are synonymous with the promotion in the way that Hogan and Sammartino were for those who might be 10-20 years older than me.

 

[Sammo~!]

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.

[sydneybrown]

6-10 for me would probably be Undertaker, Andre, HBK, Bret, and Backlund.  Andre is a tough one since he was probably without a doubt THE most household name wrestler of the 70s and early 80s but at that same time, he probably spent more time outside of the WWF during that time than in it.

[SirSmUgly]

It also might be more interesting to talk about your 96 through 100.

At a moment's thought, I am going Alundra Blayze, Big E, Rikishi/Fatu, Ted DiBiase, Sami Zayn.

I thought about using the last spot on a short-lived gimmick that I adored. Almost put Waylon Mercy on the list. Just couldn't in the end though.

[sydneybrown]

Since I was bored, Meltzer actually did a list of the biggest wrestling draws ever as of 2015 factoring in attendance when they were on top and their longevity.  If you base it solely on their WWE careers, the top guys are:

1) Bruno Sammartino

2) Hulk Hogan 

3) John Cena  

4) The Rock

5) HHH

6) Bob Backlund

7) Andre the Giant

8) The Undertaker

9) Steve Austin

10) Randy Savage

 

The rest are: Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Superstar Billy Graham, Batista, Bret Hart, Pedro Morales, Chris Jericho, Big Show, Kurt Angle, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Sgt. Slaughter, Ultimate Warrior, and Chris Benoit.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

10 minutes ago, sydneybrown said:

The rest are: Randy Orton

 

Please...  I just ate...  

[AxB]

If it's for the Top 100 WWE Wrestlers, what's how good a draw they were got to do with anything? Shouldn't it be more about how good a Wrestler they were?

Top 5: Bryan, Savage, Steamboat, Hart, Rude. 95-100: Warrior, Helmsley, Luger, Warlord, Hogan.