Pro Wrestling Love vol. 72: The Greatest 100 WWF/WWE Wrestlers of All Time

   Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 72:

The Greatest 100 WWF/WWE Wrestlers of All Time 

The Man

The year 2022 has been a great year personally for The MartMan. My girlfriend made it to our one year anniversary and have moved into together (the first time I am living with somebody). I could not be happier with the relationship. However, some things have to be sacrificed and one of those things was watching classic wrestling. I watch modern wrestling with a less critical eye. I will sometimes work during watching, talk to someone (family or my girlfriend) or just plain zone out. When I am watching classic wrestling I think about it critically trying to understand, appreciate and de-construct it and that takes far more concentration. While classic wrestling died a death, I did watch and immerse myself more in modern wrestling than I have in years past. 

It has been over a year since I published anything and I actually have a decent amount of free time here in Quebec where I am spreading the winter holidays. Thanks to the Place To Be Nation (https://placetobe.podbean.com/) for once again doing a bitchin' ranking project this time revisiting the Greatest  WWF/WWE Wrestlers of All Time. Only the WWF/WWE portion of the career of each wrestler was allowed to be analyzed as a factor for their ranking. This really hurt the 80s wrestler in particular and even some 90s wrestlers such as Ric Flair or Vader which would be normally much higher on a Greatest Wrestler of All Time List. This was a boon for 21st Century wrestler because they just amass so much work in the WWE that when comparing a Seth Rollins to an Arn Anderson you just have to admit as a WWF/E wrestler Rollins is better than Arn even if it churns my stomach to make such a decision. 

As I mentioned this ranking took place back in 2017 and we are revisiting it. I used my 2017 rankings as a baseline for this year. My Top 6 remained pretty much intact as no one made moves in the past 5 years that really threatened the Big Six. Upon further reflection while Backlund has more longevity and had more higher end matches than Austin, Austin burned brighter, had a better baseline style. As much as I like Backlund's unique "Anything you can do, I can do better" psychology, he did have some serious stinkers such as the one hour worst match ever with Don Muraco. Whereas Austin's perpetual motion style lent itself to always being good. 

Roman Reigns was the big mover and honestly that was in large part to the Bloodline angle which has led to many great matches and Roman finally cementing himself on the level of previous Aces such as Hogan, Austin and Cena. From 2015 through a very weak 2019 it looked like he could be the worse long-term Ace in company history (perhaps Pedro Morales, but I dont know enough about Pedro). The Bloodline has finally made Roman reach his potential. For the record, I always thought Roman was a great wrestler, but the lack of a compelling character and poor booking was greatly hindering him. 

The other two big movers were Sleeze's favorites that proved themselves worthy of big moves in the past five years. I was shocked to find that I ranked Becky Lynch so low in 2017 as she was my favorite Horsewoman it shows I was being objective at the time, but in 2018-2019 I was proven to have impeccable taste as she transformed herself into The Man and made herself a slam dunk Top 20 wrestler in WWE history. AJ Styles had the greatest debut year in WWE history and his 2016 which I put up there with Ric Flair's 1989 was enough to get him an insane 25th ranking off two years of work, but AJ continues to rock in the ring with major leagues matches against Undertaker, Daniel Bryan, Ricochet, Edge, and Balor to name a few. 

The Usos earned themselves Top 25 rankings due to being the greatest tag team in WWE history surpassing The Rockers with terrific feuds against New Day and their part in the Bloodline angle.

I feel bad leaving Sasha Banks out of the Top 25, but she and Becky have both eclipsed Charlotte Flair as the best women's wrestler. Charlotte has great matches but really great individual performances. I need to analyze her more, but my gut is rarely wrong. Belair had a monster debut, but she deserved it by having the best WrestleMania match two years running against Sasha then Becky. The Becky feud was some of WWE's best long-term booking. Belair is a fantastic power wrestler. I watched her live against Becky in Providence in November 2021 and at a house show in Boston in January 2022 and she is a great live crowd worker with tons of great power spots. Asuka was the major bright spot of 2020 and absolutely was the Queen of the Pandemic Era. Kairi Sane who I totally forgot to put on my list, damnit had some terrific bouts. I was a huge Kabuki Warriors mark. I LOVED Rousey's 2019 run, which is the greatest rookie year in pro wrestling history, but her weak 2022 caused her to be more middle of the pack.

One revelation I had in the past five years watching classic footage is how bland Jeff Hardy is as a pro wrestler. He is a formula wrestler with a boring formula. He works in the same five or so highspots and runs through the most basic of shine-heat-comeback formula. He still makes it high for his tag work with his brother and a couple high end singles. 

The other debuts were male wrestlers that I found middling back in 2017 that have grown on me in the past five years. They needed these extra five years to displace 80s wrestlers that I think are better but do not have the volume that a Kevin Owens or a Bobby Lashley possesses. 

I could not believe how high I had Paul Orndorff originally ranked as besides a random match with Slaughter he does not do much for me. He had a solid three year run and a big feud with Hogan, but he does not have much else going for him. In fairness, one of my biggest blindspots is the Orndorff/Piper feud in 1985. Adonis stays on because of his Backlund work and his fabulous 1986 which he deserves the MVP that year. Garvin stays on because thats how bitchin' the Valentine feud is. 

Dropouts: Iron Sheik (he was only in it for the Slaughter series), Arn Anderson (too short), Tully Blanchard (too short), Vince McMahon (not enough stuff to compete with the newer people adding to their resume), Bobby Heenan (see Vince), Shane-O (see Vince), Big John Studd (I like his look, I was shocked, I included him), Terry Funk (see Arn & Tully), Judy Martin (great front kick, but was only for Jumping Bomb Angels feud).

Wrestler	2022 Ranking	2017 Ranking	Change
John Cena	1	1	0
Shawn Michaels	2	2	0
Randy Savage	3	3	0
Steve Austin	4	5	1
Bob Backlund	5	4	-1
Bret Hart	6	6	0
Roman Reigns	7	21	14
Brock Lesnar	8	15	7
Undertaker	9	9	0
Hulk Hogan	10	10	0
Becky Lynch	11	52	41
AJ Styles	12	25	13
Greg Valentine	13	7	-6
Rey Mysterio	14	8	-6
Mick Foley	15	13	-2
CM Punk	16	14	-2
Daniel Bryan	17	22	5
Chris Jericho	18	16	-2
Andre The Giant	19	19	0
Bruno Sammartino	20	20	0
Chris Benoit	21	11	-10
Eddie Guerrero	22	23	1
Sheamus	23	31	8
Jey Uso	24	37	13
Jimmy Uso	25	38	13
Sasha Banks	26	33	7
Tito Santana	27	12	-15
Randy Orton	28	32	4
Charlotte Flair	29	24	-5
Sgt. Slaughter	30	17	-13
Ricky Steamboat	31	18	-13
The Rock	32	26	-6
Triple H	33	27	-6
Owen Hart	34	28	-6
Batista	35	30	-5
Marty Jannetty	36	34	-2
Mark Henry	37	35	-2
Bayley	38	42	4
Kurt Angle	39	39	0
Roddy Piper	40	40	0
Bianca Belair	41	NR	N/A
British Bulldog	42	36	-6
Christian	43	41	-2
Jeff Hardy	44	29	-15
Bill Eadie/Ax/Masked Superstar	45	43	-2
Matt Hardy	46	44	-2
Asuka	47	68	21
Scott Hall	48	48	0
Umaga	49	49	0
John Bradshaw Layfield	50	50	0
Ric Flair	51	51	0
Sean Waltman/X-Pac/1-2-3 Kid	52	47	-5
Finlay	53	45	-8
Pat Patterson	54	53	-1
Rick Rude	55	54	-1
The Big Show	56	55	-1
Goldust/ Dustin Rhodes	57	56	-1
Cesaro	58	56	-2
Big Boss Man	59	58	-1
Tama	60	59	-1
Kevin Nash	61	61	0
Ronda Rousey	62	NR	N/A
Rick Martel	63	63	0
Mr. Perfect	64	64	0
Ted Dibiase	65	60	-5
William Regal	66	66	0
Braun Strowman	67	67	0
Samoa Joe	68	76	8
Alexa Bliss	69	69	0
Sid	70	70	0
Sami Zayn	71	71	0
Luke Harper	72	72	0
Mickie James	73	73	0
Big E Langston	74	79	5
The Miz	75	77	2
Ken Patera	76	62	-14
Drw McIntyre	77	NR	N/A
Kevin Owens	78	NR	N/A
Kofi Kingston	79	NR	N/A
Matt Riddle	80	NR	N/A
Ultimate Warrior	81	81	0
Vader	82	82	0
Seth Rollins	83	NR	N/A
Rusev	84	88	4
Kamala	85	84	-1
Nikki Bella	86	85	-1
Lashley	87	NR	N/A
John Morrison	88	86	-2
Jeff Jarrett	89	87	-2
Trish Stratus	90	89	-1
Xavier Woods	91	NR	N/A
Jerry Lawler	92	92	0
Harley Race	93	93	0
Dynamite Kid	94	94	0
Yokozuna	95	95	0
Matt Borne	96	96	0
Paul Orndorff	97	46	-51
Adrian Adonis	98	65	-33
Ron Garvin	99	75	-24
Chief Jay Strongbow	100	100	0