Alright, you jabroni marks? Let’s see if there are any legs in this. Think it’s worth doing as separate threads so that those with nostalgic memories of wrestling but don’t watch anymore can get involved if they like as happened when we did the TOP 100 list.
Could be an absolute shit-show, could be a bit of fun, could be both! Let’s find out. I’ll mostly be working off that TOP 100 list going forward if this goes well and continues, but feel free to suggest me others, not on that list.
We’ll start with the original suggestion from @thesewoodenideas from a semi-joking post in a thread about how good Black Sabbath are really, BRET “THE HITMAN” HART who I reckon is a good place as any to start.
One of my favourites so had to give top marks. Obviously, not the greatest on the mic, but in the ring and the amount of work that goes into his matches, even before he gets in there is amazing.
One of the masters of selling (an art that is totally lost in the current generation) and I love him for it.
this is a niche joke and it got me worried I hadn’t seen a film about Bret The Hitman Hart there.
Wrestling With Shadows is however a fascinating film if people haven’t seen it, was the first time it really got exposed what pieces of shit Vince and (at the time) Shawn Michaels were
5 for his 1997 run alone. I’d say he was a 4 prior to then as wasnt a very compelling character but that heel run was incredible and tips him over the line
Absolute clinician and along with Shawn and Eddie probably the biggest influences on today’s style. Groundbreaking when it came to smaller, more athletic guys wrestling believably. Also some of the best tag matches ever with Hart Foundation, especially the 2 out of 3 falls match with Demolition. Passing him up for Hogan at Mania 9 was one of the worst decisions Vince ever made, but he was maybe underdeveloped at that point - he really brought it all together with the mic skills for his heel run. He’s a 5.
Admittedly he was before my time but I’ve always found him a bit overrated. He was boring on the mic and I don’t think he is particularly exciting in the ring. Everyone goes on about how good he was technically but I feel the likes of Benoit and Angle surpassed him a few years later and there are loads of current stars who are much better. Still giving him a 4 though for his look and the fact that he was clearly a lot better than most of his peers aside from Shawn.
My two cents: Bret’s my favourite wrestler of all time but it took a long time for him to get there. He was already out the door by the time I got into wrestling (though I remember he was a character on WWF War Zone and being confused by him not being on TV only to then find out he was on WCW now) and on the verge of having to retire. When I got back into it I filled in the gaps of the Wrestlemania era and the decade or so I had tuned out (2002-2012) and slowly realised just how good Bret is. An amazing look, a gifted technician, involved some of the greatest matches of all time, has to be a 5. Sure he takes himself too seriously and wasn’t always the greatest talker (except for 1997) but he backs it up by being consistently amazing and safe, pulling good matches out of people like Diesel ffs.
Love him, hope he scores well which I’m sure he will. I have a little story related to him but it’s more about Owen, so might save it for then.