CaptainCrunch's new list, his Rushmore of Wrestling
I thought I would try something new that a billion people have done before. But I'm a fan of Wrestling. Sort of. I'll be the first to admit that I really am not a fan of the modern WWE or AEW for example. The style has moved away from story telling, and psychology and technical skills and moved more over to a era of trampoline gymnastics, and getting all of your Sh%t in to use a Jim Cornette term.
So I have to ask the question at this time. Who's on my Mount Rushmore? Its a tough question as there have been thousands of wrestlers, and even the list of the true giants of the game is long and distinguished. How do I separate them out.
There are a lot of factors that wrestlers talk about when they talk about their top guys. Did they draw money. Could they tell a great story, Did they work well with their partners, or did they carry a shovel around to protect their position?
I mean its easy to build a Mount Rushmore for me with Flair and Hogan on it, but that just wouldn't be me, and I'll cover it later.
So, without further ado, and these aren't ranked in any way. I'll leave my virtual stone mason's and dynamiters to put the heads where they belong.
Today is part one, I'll go through all four in the week or so, and also throw up a side discussion on those that I didn't select as there should be some controversy.
1) Bret Hart
Now yeah, I have a bias. But out of all the wrestlers on the last lets say 50 or 60 years Bret was unique. He was extremely well rounded. He could work anykind of match. He was incredibly safe while working snug. He did draw during his championship reigns and helped expand the WWE's precence outside of the North American Market. Most importantly he was that guy who was good as a face and really good as a heel. He's under rated in a lot of key areas as well.
So, what makes Bret great? When he arrived in the WWE in the 80’s from a stint in his Dad’s territory Bret was seen as a capable but very bland, territory Babyface. He was more enhancement talent then he was even a mid rank talent. In fact at one point Vince wanted him to be Cowboy Bret Hart and ride a horse to the ring. I was excited when he got to the WWE, until I saw him basically fighting mid card players and losing.
That all changed when Vince decided that he had nothing for Bret teamed him with Jim “Anvil” Neidhart and gave them Jimmy Hart as a manager. Even then Vince was convinced that Jim was going to be the eventual break out star due to Anvil’s personality and size.
But a funny thing happened. Bret used his technical skills to stand out, and he actually worked as a natural heel. Of course he was still stilted and awkward on the mic.
So why is this guy on my mountain? Because unlike a lot of wrestlers, Bret’s improvement was through the roof, and he also became great at the small details. Go back and watch any match and watch Bret’s face. He’s amazing at selling a match with more then just moves. Then watch him work. His stuff had a realistic look to it. It looked like his moves hurt, and frankly other wrestlers said that Bret liked to work very snug (hard hitting) but he never took liberties, and didn’t hurt wrestlers. I love that style, I want a realistic edge to my wrestling, and I’m not talking about blood fests like ECW. I like the escapism of wrestling and being able to pretend that the wrestlers hate each other and want to beat people up. Bret makes you feel that.
Here’s another thing that puts Bret on the mountain. Everyone that Bret works with he elevates or makes them look like a million dollars. Look at the Tom Magee match.
Now anyone that watched Tom MaGee when he was in Stampede wrestling knew one thing. He was awful, stilted clumsy and barely mobile. Bret made him look like a million bucks.
Stone Cold has said many times that he owes his career to Bret and you watch the matches and feuds and Stone Cold while awesome looked like a Killer and the double heel turn shot Stone Cold to the top of the Wrestling game.
The 1-2-3 kid, he made a skinny lower mid carder look like a million bucks.
(go to 7 minutes to see that attention to detail)
Well, what about Drawing power. Did Bret Hart draw. There are arguments on both sides of the equation. However, it’s a unique discussion because Bret moved into the top spot in the company during what could be a rebuild period. Hogan was gone, Flair was gone from WWE, The WWE was focused on rebuilding its upper card. But Bret drew decent money. For example if you look at the Rumble in 1993, one of the first PPV’s not built around Hogan, but around Bret it drew 50,000 more buys then the previous WWE PPV. You can’t argue with Bret’s drawing ability outside of the US. Now I won’t sit here and say he was a great draw. But he was an ok draw. You could argue that Bret later in his career when he went to WCW should have been an amazing draw but WCW promptly threw that money in a hobo barrel and burned it.
What about his mic skills his ability to Promo and sell a match? He’s certainly not on a tier with Stone Cold, the Rock, Shawn Michaels or Flair for example. But I think he does get under rated. I will also argue that when he had the baby face constraints off of him, when he turned Heel that he was awesome on the mic. I think he stood up well in feuds with Austin and Michaels.
(go to 9 minutes for that attention to detail that I talked about)
Bret deserves a place on Mt Rushmore, he was actually very good for business, he was believable and he made crappy workers look amazing.
To be continued with number 2 in the next couple of days.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Bret was always my favorite being from Calgary, even though I don’t really think he is deserving of being on a Rushmore of pro wrestling.
I always thought he would be better served by not having to talk as much, or at least cut shorter promos. His popularity came from his look and his wrestling and talking kind of took a little of that mystique away.
He is considered to be one of the smaller wrestlers, and he was no Hogan or Warrior. But the guy was absolutely jacked by the end of his run in WWE.
That promo in WCW is one of the best promos of all time not just for El Dandy. "Hyponosis" and a "groin pull the likes you've never seen" are classic lines. I agree that Bret was severely underrated on the microphone when a heel.
Its always tough to create a Mount Rushmore. Some people state that old school wrestlers like Sammartino, Buddy Rogers, Larry Zybysko, and Nick Bockwinkle shouldn’t be included. Why? Because the wrestling was different. Kayfabe was a huge thing and Wrestling was portrayed as a legitimate shoot. That the matches were plodding and slow and not as athletic. But without wrestlers like Bruno, the modern era or wrestling doesn’t happen.
Bruno’s in ring career went from 1958 until 1988 with the majority of it being the then WWWF. He had two World Heavyweight title reigns. One from 1963 until 1971, one from 1972 until 1977.
Throughout his career he feuded with a lot of hall of famers and all time greats. He beat Buddy Rogers for his first title reign when Rogers got sick. He feuded with and lost his title to Ivan Koloff. He had his freaking neck broken in a match with Stan Hansen, and returned in 2 months. He took part in one of the best feuds of all time when his student Larry Zbyszko turned on him. The feud commutated in a cage match at Shea stadium in from of 36,000 fans. Bruno semi retired for 3 years, but returned to the WWE for a 4 year run as a commentator. While occasionally feuding with Randy Savage.
He had a real life feud with Vince McMahon Jr, sued Vince McMahon Sr and refused entry into the WWE Hall of Fame for 7 years.
So why is Bruno on my Mount Rushmore? First and foremost if one of the things is marketability, then he nails it. In the old days of WWWF as a regional territory. Wrestlers were judged on selling out Madison Square Garden. Bruno constantly sold out the Gardens. He also again drew 36,000 for a cage match at Shea Stadium. Of course Hulk Hogan tried to take credit for it as he had a match with Andrea. However Bruno and Larry had sold out everywhere during he build up to the feud. Hogan vs Andrea didn’t sell out shows in their leadup as the main event.
In terms of wrestling skills. Bruno would be considered to be a grounded power wrestler. He was immensely strong, and his style was extremely realistic for the time. He was a simple wrestler who preferred arm bars to drop kicks. His gimmick was as the blue collar working class Italian and it worked as WWE gained a lot of popularity in New York under his lengthy title reigns.
Bruno was the ultimate in ring story teller, he understood psychology and most important he like the wrestlers of his time understood protecting the business.
There’s no question that this is the first controversial choice by me, but it won’t be the last.
Next time we’ll look at number 3 on the CaptainCrunch Mount Rushmore of Wrestling.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The Following User Says Thank You to CaptainCrunch For This Useful Post:
There is nothing electrifying then the sound of shattering glass followed by the opening bass bars of his theme song. Steve Williams aka Steve Austin was a rarity, a wrestling prodigy born to the game. It doesn’t seem like it, but Steve Austin was on the rise far before he came into the WWE. Though it was the stupidity and blindness of Eric Bishoff and the WCW that put the final pieces of the puzzle together on one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time.
So why is Stone Cold firmly ensconced in the CaptainCrunch Mount Rushmore of wrestling? He had it all, the technical ability, the determination, the fact that to this day he still sells more merchandise then any other wrestler in history and that he was one of the great money generators in the game.
Trained by Gentlemen Chris Adams in the late 80’s Austin bounced around Texas with the independence establishing himself as a cocky heel who could work almost any style. He was big, strong, athletic, and understood the psychology of the game.
He gained attention when he joined the Dangerous Alliance with Paul Heyman in the WCW as Stunning Steve Austin. He quickly won the TV title, but bounced around the WCW lower card until he was teemed with Brian Pillman and they formed an amazing tag team called the Hollywood Blondes. If you go back and watch the Blondes in action, it was an exceptional heel tag team that had a very technical style combined with the ultimate dirt bag tactics. Unfortunately Bischoff not knowing what he was doing broke up the team for reasons that are still a mystery, and Austin started the WCW bounce around of terrible bookings and bad ideas and then was fired by Bischoff while on the shelf with a triceps injury. Bischoff thought that Austin wasn’t marketable and piled on later when Austin started seeing success in WWE by calling him a big fish in a small pool of talent. Austin would later help destroy WCW during the Monday Night Wars.
But what saved Stone Cold’s career? Or rather who? While on the shelf, he received a call from the mad scientist Paul Heyman who bought him in to do interviews and promos and not to wrestle for about $500.00 a night. So why did ECW save Austin’s career. There were two reasons. 1) At the time Austin was highly resentful of WCW and wrestling in general and his promo’s showed it. He blasted WCW, he blasted their workers and he blasted the industry. 2) We saw the development of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character in style. He became an incredible promo artist, we saw the blunt no nonsense somewhat caustic character that would rise to the Wrestling during the Attitude Era.
After Austin heeled from his injury he was bought on board with WWE during the great talent raids of ECW. But it was clear that WWE had no idea what to do with him, making him the bland Ring Master and teaming him with Ted Dibiase, as a technical wrestling assassin who didn’t say more then a few words and let Dibiase talk for him.
Austin asked to redefine his character, shaved off his hair, grew his goatee, and based his new character around Richard Kukinski and started his rise as WWE superstar Chilly McFreeze . . . . well if WWE had their way that would have been the name of his character. However Austin stumbled onto the name Stone Cold thanks to his wife at the time and a cup of tea and the rest is history. Sort of.
Austin still stumbled around the lower mid card for a while, until fate struck. That fate was the famous curtain call at Madison Square Garden that got HHH de pushed as punishment and shot Austin to the top of the card because he suddenly won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament, created the infamous Austin 3:16 catch phrase and never looked back.
From that point on, Austin rose to the top of the merchandising charts, became must see TV during the attitude era where the ratings were huge. Sold out everywhere he went and became the face of a new generation of Wrestlers.
But he needed one more thing to really happen. How do you take a top selling heel and make him a face. Enter the man and other Mount Rushmore entrant in Bret “Hitman” Hart. Anyone that’s anyone can go back to Wrestlemania and watch that double turn with Hart firmly becoming the companies top heel and Austin the companies top face and not marvel at it.
Austin continued to be the face of the company, though he hadn’t reached the stratospheric heights until Bret intervened again by leaving the company. Vince was forced into his villainous role and his natural feuding partner became the anti-authority, Steve Austin. Their feud propelled WWE past WCW in the Monday night wars and WCW never had an answer though they tried.
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Austin also showed an incredible ability to adapt. Due to a botched spike piledriver by Owen Hart, Austin was forced to change his style to the brawling without taking a lot of bumps and learned to rely even more on psychology and story telling then work rate. But his injuries were beginning to slow him down. A botched WCW invasion that had Austin calling WWE booking garbage created heat with McMahon until late 2002 when Austin was told to do the job to Brock Lesnar with no advanced build up or story, Austin instead went home and pretty much ended his full time career. Sure, he returned later on and every time it was an event, but he acted as the Raw GM or made special appearances to stun people and drink beer but the Austin era did end with more of a whimper then a bang.
But there’s no question that Austin changed the sport, or that he was a key reason for the death of WCW. Austin was incredibly adaptable and one of the best story tellers in the history of the business. He defined a era of wrestling and bought WWE out of one of its lowest points in its history.
And for that, he belongs firmly in the middle of the Mount Rushmore of Wrestling.
Next up the fourth and final member followed by some discussion on who I didn’t put up.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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It's kind of a weird discussion because you have the guys who had mainstream appeal and were mega-draws, and the guys who were the backbone of the industry or who put on the best matches, and I think there's very little crossover between the two.
In terms of who I'm tuning into see, regardless of who they're facing or what they're doing, this is probably my list:
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
2. The Rock
3. Chris Jericho
4. Kenny Omega/Kazuchika Okada
Absolutely nobody else broke ground like those guys. Sure there was the Andre the Giants or Roman's or Mankind's or or or or or or.
Look at Hogan, Hulkamania ran wild for close to 2 decades, that alone would cement his fixture on the mountain. But then, the greatest heel turn in rasslin history with the NWO. Then came ANOTHER decade. What's a guy gotta do?
Brett because he's the greatest Canadian and because he was literally the most technically advance rassler ever. That does it. Face on the mountain.
Stone Cold? Yeah, best all around? Yeah.
Then Undertaker. I've never personally felt my blood run cold outside of running up to see him wrestle in the old MTL forum. Demolished Koko.B Ware .plus 30 years of insane mythos.cant beat that.
Thats the 4. I really wanted to put others up there too.
But let's be honest, the Post HHH Era just doesn't add up. Theat generation had some serious HoF talent but somehow WWE lost their way.
__________________ "Everybody's so desperate to look smart that nobody is having fun anymore" -Jackie Redmond
Not sure if I can narrow it down to 4 or any number close to that. Any of the following (and more) could be considered as having such a huge impact on wrestling that they can't be left off an all-time-greats list. Just off the top of my head in no particular order:
Rock
Austin
Sammartino
Hogan
Warrior
Andre
Cena
Undertaker
Bret
Shawn
Flair
Triple H
Brock
Roman
Jericho
Orton
Angle
Edge
Styles
CaptainCrunch's new list, his Rushmore of Wrestling
