Top 10 wrestlers

[Thumper Moore III]

Here’s my top 10 Jobbers of all time, since there weren’t clear instructions:
10. The Mulkey Brothers
9. Dangerous Danny Davis
8. Gillberg (Duane Gill)
7. James Ellsworth (what a fantastic run out of absolutely nothing)
6. Mikey Whipwreck (prior to him, you know, having any offense at all)
5. Iron Mike Sharpe
4. Al Snow
3. Disco Inferno
2. Barry Horowitz
1. Could it be anyone other than... the Brooklyn Brawler?

[souldaddy]

I'll go the personal favorite route:

1. The Rock
2. Sting
3. Stone Cold
4. Jeff Hardy
5. RVD
6. Rey Mysterio Jr
7. Goldberg
8. DDP
9. Kane
10. Tazz

[Thumper Moore III]

Top Ten Strangest Looking Wrestlers Ever
10. Luna Vachon in any of her incarnations
9. The Shark (John Tenta in WCW)
8. Abdullah the Butcher
7. The Gobbledy Gooker
6. Mantaur
5. The Shockmaster (John Tenta’s friend Tugboat in a bedazzled stormtrooper mask and fur vest)
4. Giant Gonzalez (7 1/2 foot tall, flesh colored bodysuit with airbrushed muscles and fur)
3. Golga from the Oddities (John Tenta in a leather mask)
2. Aldo Montoya (dressed like the Portuguese flag, with an upside down jock strap for a mask)
1. Bastion Booger (incredibly fat guy in a bedazzled Demolition-style bondage outfit)

[Another 8MWR Tag Champion]

10. Vintage Kane
9. Gail Kim (WWE treated her like trash)
8. Mick Foley
7. Randy Orton
6. Bono
5. Robbity Vannity Dammity
4. MISTERRRRR KENNEDYYYYYYYYYY
3. Stone Cold
2. The Rock
1. Undertaker

[Stanley The Weeb]

My 10 personal favorite wrestlers, in no real order.

The Crusher: He is from Milwaukee. I'm from Milwaukee. Nuff said.

Gangral: He named himself after a vampire clan from the World of Darkness rpg world. And I'm a role-player.

Roudy Roddy Piper: He's Scottish and proud, yet his ethnicity has nothing to do with his style (except for bagpipes and kilt wearing).

Andy Koffman: Ok. He is NOT really a wrestler. Sue me.

The Iron Sheik: The best heel in the buisness.

Baron Von Ruski: Wielder if the Claw.

Hulk Hogen: As a child of the 70's and 80's, I would not dare leave him off this list.

Macho Man Randy Savage.

Blue Meanie: Best jobber ever.

The Rock: My only 90's guy.

[Dyno]

All Timers
1. Chris Jericho
2. Bret Hart
3. Dynamite Kid
4. Owen Hart
5. Eddy Guerrero
6. Mick Foley
7. Davey Boy Smith
8. Edge
9. Ric Flair
10. Dean Malenko

Current
1. AJ Styles
2. Daniel Bryan
3. Adam Cole (baybay!)
4. Aleister Black
5. Pete Dunne
6. Tomasso Ciampa
7. Seth Rollins
8. Tyler Bate
9. Jack Gallagher
10. Johnny Gargano

[Deleted]

If we are talking all time:

1. Edge
2. Kurt Angle
3. Steve Austin
4. Jake the Snake
5. HBK
6. Roddy Piper
7. Rick Rude
8. Ted Dibiase
9. Randy Savage
10. Sting

[Magnifico jr.]

My favorite wrestlers are
10. LA parka
9. Blue demon jr.
8. Pentagón jr.
7. Shark boy
6. AJ styles
5. HBK
4. blue demon
3. El Santos
2. Eddie guerrero
1. Rey mysterio jr

[subvert69]

1 - CM Punk
2 - Sting (anything before the Crow look)
3 - Arn Anderson
4 - Undertake
5 - Bret "The Hitman" Hart
6 - Owen Hart
7 - Dynamite Kid
8 - The Road Warriors
9 - Dustin Rhodes (not so much Goldust, but WCW Dustin)
10 - Pete Dunne

Honorable Mention - Chris Benoit - anyone else have issues with him? When I got back into wrestling he easily became my favorite and I loved him up until his heinous crime. I hate what he did and I didn't watch any of his matches for years but a few years ago I rewatched his Rumble victory, and I remember why I loved him.

[Magnifico jr.]

Jan 10, 2019 10:00:13 GMT -5 subvert69 said:

1 - CM Punk
2 - Sting (anything before the Crow look)
3 - Arn Anderson
4 - Undertake
5 - Bret "The Hitman" Hart
6 - Owen Hart
7 - Dynamite Kid
8 - The Road Warriors
9 - Dustin Rhodes (not so much Goldust, but WCW Dustin)
10 - Pete Dunne

Honorable Mention - Chris Benoit - anyone else have issues with him? When I got back into wrestling he easily became my favorite and I loved him up until his heinous crime. I hate what he did and I didn't watch any of his matches for years but a few years ago I rewatched his Rumble victory, and I remember why I loved him.

yeah what he did was terrible the only justifications I can make is him being on some medication that made him do that
He's easy to love as a wrestler but not as a person
I personally wanted him in the game (I called him winter wolf but it started controversy so it got deleted) but I wouldn't blame the creators for not putting him in the game

[Thumper Moore III]

Jan 10, 2019 10:00:13 GMT -5 subvert69 said:

1 - CM Punk
2 - Sting (anything before the Crow look)
3 - Arn Anderson
4 - Undertake
5 - Bret "The Hitman" Hart
6 - Owen Hart
7 - Dynamite Kid
8 - The Road Warriors
9 - Dustin Rhodes (not so much Goldust, but WCW Dustin)
10 - Pete Dunne

Honorable Mention - Chris Benoit - anyone else have issues with him? When I got back into wrestling he easily became my favorite and I loved him up until his heinous crime. I hate what he did and I didn't watch any of his matches for years but a few years ago I rewatched his Rumble victory, and I remember why I loved him.

Its funny— after more than a decade of hearing folks talking about CTE, the effects of repeated micro-concussions, and having a litany of evidence that athletes in high impact sports like wrestling, football, and hockey are suffering from dementia as early as their 40’s, his actions are not excuseable, but are more understandable. The guy gave 1000% every night, and his finisher before the crossface was thebdiving headbutt— he literally would jump from six feet high and land on his head 200-300 nights per year. Not to mention chair shots to the head, the fact that he worked extensively in Japan where their style is not as protective of the head/neck area... I’m willing to bet if he was born 10 years later, he’d have been told much earlier in his career that his style would shorten his life and career, and we would have had a different result.

The moments he created were special. I had tears in my eyes when he and Eddie celebrated with both titles at Wrestlemania XX. Through my 2007 eyes, Benoit was irredeemable and a horrible human being. Through 2019 eyes, I can appreciate that there were probably a ton of factors that lead to the murder-suicide, and if we had known then what we know now, things might have turned out differently.

[Skullgore]

Given that I was the one who made the most noise about how poor of a decision it would be to pay homage to him in the game, I'll give my thoughts on the matter.

Chris Benoit was one of the greatest wrestlers of his time and of all-time. Before 2007, he would have easily been in my top 10 favorite wrestlers of all time. If you look at how he did things in the ring, I think what really stands out is the snap he put on everything. He made professional wrestling look legitimate and to me those are always going to be the best wrestlers.

At the end of the day, Chris Benoit is also a murderer. I'm not going to discount the fact that there were many possible contributing factors that could have played a factor in what he did. I think it is safe to say that his mental health was in poor condition. There's the CTE piece. There is the mounting grief he felt around losing so many of his friends and colleagues. There is the issue of what substances he was putting in his body that would have detrimental side effects.

A lot of people like to say, "Well, he obviously just snapped." Maybe that's true. We'll likely never know if Chris Benoit premeditated everything he did that weekend, but the evidence suggests it likely was not accidental. What we do know is this: Chris Benoit understood what he did was wrong. The fact that he placed bibles next to the bodies of his family indicates this. Moreover, he was able to make calls to WWE employees where he gave a cover story - a story that progressed fluidly - as to why he was unable to show up for work. From the medical examiners findings, Nancy was already dead at this point and there is a high likelihood Daniel was as well. Faced with what he had done, whether intentional or not, Chris Benoit realized there were only two ways out: face the consequences of his actions in the criminal justice system or commit suicide; he obviously chose the latter.

There is some important information that gets overlooked by many because it came to light a few years after the event. The most important of which is that there was a note left behind in a separate bible that was sent in his belongings for his first wife, with whom he had two children. Chris's father Michael has publicly stated that Chris had handwritten, "I'm preparing to leave this Earth." The bulk of the other relevant information comes from those who were close with Chris Benoit, the most notable being Nancy's sister Sandra on her "Talk Is Jericho" appearance. While the news that Nancy had previously filed for and withdrew for a divorce a few years earlier came to light quickly, it is Sandra who revealed that the domestic violence was an ongoing problem. The comments from her and various others suggest that at the time of the murders, there was significant marital strife between Chris and Nancy.

At the time, many of Chris' colleagues said that the idea of the man they knew doing what he did was unfathomable. However, the more I have learned over time from the accounts of others and findings in the investigation, the more I've come to the conclusion that there were many red flags that tell me, "No, this actually fits the bill with the kind of person Chris Benoit was." I'm not suggesting that people knew Chris Benoit was this monster who would kill his family. What I'm saying is based on the circumstances, Chris Benoit was a very troubled human being by the time of that fateful weekend in June of 2007. It is unlikely that Chris Benoit ever realized how troubled he was and hence he made no effort to address those problems. It seems that his closest confidant was Eddie Guerrero and Eddie's death seems to have been the catalyst that sent Chris Benoit into the that fateful spiral.

The story of Chris Benoit's life and death is on the level of a Shakespearean tragedy. He deserves our empathy as someone who lost touch with reality and was driven in his madness to commit such an act of almost unimaginable horror. There is a difference between empathy and sympathy, however. Does Chris Benoit deserve our sympathy? No.

A lot has been said of the idea that the world, particularly WWE, has sought to erase the legacy of Chris Benoit from existence. WWE's response at the time of the event was quite disastrous and certainly is a case of poor PR management - something they still struggle with to this day. However, I agree almost entirely with their stance as far as how they treat Chris Benoit's legacy. You can't go promoting or celebrating the life and career of a man who, despite the mastery of his craft, is ultimately defined as a man who murdered his family. You can't erase his presence on past WWE programming and they have not sought to do that. If you watch Royal Rumble 2004, the Rumble is still there and Chris Benoit still wins. They haven't Poochied him out or anything. The first defining moment of Randy Orton's career is his victory over Benoit to win his first World Heavyweight title. If you are doing a career retrospective on one of the biggest stars you've had over the past decade-and-a-half, show him defeating Benoit.

There are two items which I would wish WWE would do for me to be completely satisfied with how they handle his legacy.

One: honor the legacy of Nancy Toffoloni Benoit. She spent around 13 years in the business and not once have they ever acknowledged what she did in wrestling independent of her husband's career. I don't think that career merits a Hall of Fame induction, but there should at least be some recognition that one of the victims in this was also a part of the industry. Create something that says, "We recognize Nancy's contributions to the business and honor her as a victim of domestic violence." In this boom of women's wrestling, surely there is something you could attach her name to. I'm not talking a Battle Royal or a tournament, either. Create a fund for issues that effect women in her name. If there's something in the company at headquarters or the Peformence Center that is a benefit to their female employees, christen it with her name. It is such an easy PR slam dunk which is something they could absolutely use right now.

Two: Face the tragedy head on. Not once in the past 12+ years has WWE ever made any programming that offers a chance for the fanbase to understand what happened and explain why they treat Benoit's legacy the way they do. There were a lot of young fans who could have benefited from such an opportunity to guide them through the feelings they may have as a result. Do you know how many Chris Benoit conspiracy theorists you could have nipped in the bud by taking the responsibility to have professionals come on and discuss the tragedy? Not everyone is going to have the parent or any equivalent figure in their life they can go to who will work with them about how world issues make them feel. Most of them also aren't going to be wrestling fans who understand who Chris Benoit was to fans before the murders. Obviously, this would have been most effective had they done relatively soon after it happened, but you have a whole new crop of fans the age of which that Chris Benoit has always been "That wrestler who killed himself and his family." You have the WWE Network now, so you actually have a channel you can release it through. Why is it that I can do a better job at public relations than WWE currently does? Because I took one "Intro to PR" course? Because I'm a human being that has their heart and their head properly balanced? Oh, right. Heart. PR hates that.

Obviously, if we were to exclude every scumbag who ever was involved in the wrestling business, we'd have a very narrow pool of people to pay tribute to. In the case of Chris Benoit, he unequivocally murdered his family and that's just not someone you can celebrate. There are other figures who I wish didn't get such honors, but there is more ambiguity in their guilt and I can't control how people choose to treat them. Besides, you've got a Dynamite Kid analog, isn't that enough? They're essentially the same guy. If anything, until the murders, ol' Tom Billington probably had the worse end as far as character goes. DK was just a lot more aware about how garbage of a human being he was.

[Thumper Moore III]

Skullgore, that was well thought out and well stated. I agree with 99% of everything you said, and I’m not even going to point to the 1% because it’s a completely valid point of view. I especially like that you gave a solution to how things could be handled, and again, it’s a perfectly valid point that now, given the decade that has passed, they have the opportunity to release a documentary on the network so their spin on things can be made public. That probably won’t happen until VKM steps away from the business.

I also like how you stated it was about sympathy and not empathy. Empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes— and murdering my own wife and children is something I would never do, no matter how many blows to the head I took, or how many painkillers I needed to survive on a daily basis. It’s not in my nature to harm others. In real life I’m an RN— I heal people. But given his history, if I were in as much daily pain as these guys must be, and seeing no way out, and having my brain scrambled from repeated blows to the head, I might be tempted to end things based on how many of those unfortunate situations play out. (I want to be clear— I do not suffer from CTE, take pain meds, or suffer from depression. I don’t know what any of that feels like, and I don’t wish that on anyone.)

Benoit was wired differently than you or I. I do stand by my statement that had we known then what we know now, things may have turned out differently for himself, Nancy and his children. I also think as a society we’ve gotten more aggressive about dealing with domestic abuse head on (unless you’re Urban Meyer), and that may have caught the issue earlier, leading to a far less tragic result.

[Skullgore]

As I said, the CTE element is a valid part of the conversation. I think no matter how you look at it that it's safe to say he wasn't in his right mind to be able to have done something so heinous. I am someone who has dealt with mental illness and am very much aware of what having an unwell mind can do to a person. There is also much to be said about how there's been a shift in how we look at traumatic brain injury in general. Maybe in some twisted way, Chris Benoit has indirectly saved lives by being a case study in what happens when you suffer repeated concussions. WWE is certainly being more cautious about allowing performers back in the ring. Of course, it's mainly driven by liability issues, but if the end result is keeping people safer, I'm not going to squabble about intentions.

In the end, we can't change what happened and can only try to learn from it. Paying homage to his legacy is incongruous with being a society that learns from the mistakes of history. It's unfortunate because he was certainly one of the best pro-wrestlers of all time. It's a tragedy in every sense of the word.

[Magnifico jr.]

Top 10 royal rumble performers based on how hard it is for them to get elimination, their amount of eliminations, and overall in ring royal rumble ability
10. Big show
9. Kofi Kingston
8. Ric flair
7. Randy ortan
6. HHH
5. Undertaker
4. John Cena
3. Stone cold
2. HBK
1. Kane
Some honorable mentions
Hulk Hogan, the rock, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, John Morison, and cm punk
Forgot to mention their competition too