Who's your "Mount Rushmore" of wrestling?

[Jaysin]

US/Canada: Sting, Kurt Angle, Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Jericho

 

Mexico: Vampiro, Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera, Eddie Guerrero

 

Japan: Shinsuke Nakamura, The Great Muta, Ultimo Dragon, Yuji Nagata

[Rone Rivendale]

<p>old school: Flair, Hogan, Bret, Savage</p><p>

modern: Bryan, Jericho, Okada, Omega</p>

[JJArocho]

<p>US / Canada: Race, Flair, Thesz, Hogan</p><p> </p><p>

Japan: Rikidozan, Inoki, Tanahashi, and Hashimoto. A case could be made for Muto as well.</p>

[CptHowdy]

flair, andre, hogan and im going to throw in a tag team and put the road warriors. yes there were better wrestlers but these guys are icons. i would venture to say that non wrestling fans would have heard of them or known them by sight.

[Questlove]

Kenta Kobashi, Eddie Guerrero, Mitsuharu Misawa, Chris Jericho.

 

I honestly haven't felt the same about wrestling since Eddie and Misawa passed.

[Sco xY2Jx]

Difficult to call? My personal top 4, like all-time favourites?

Jericho, Guerrero, Piper & Dusty... But that's, ironically, not set in stone.

 

Absolute all-time 4 of game changers? Rikidozan, Buddy Rogers, Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold. All of them changed business in different ways but you can't underestimate the impact each had.

 

Top 4 workers? Kobashi, Flair, HBK, Okada... Maybe Okada maybe Tanahashi...

 

Top 4 promos? Flair, Dusty, Savage and Piper. Guys could talk you into an arena. Hogan, Rock and Austin are honourable here.

 

So many variables, so many options.

[Dalton]

Obligatory "well it depends on the critera"

 

For USA/Canada, promos/skill/drawing power: Hogan, Austin, Rock, Flair

 

Same critera in Japan: Rikidozan, Inoki, Tanahashi, Mutoh

[LoganRodzen]

Hogan, Austin, Rock, Undertaker

[Eisen-verse]

I'll bite. If anything, this will show what era you watched wrestling more religiously.

 

Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, The Rock

[Alan James]

Hogan, Austin, Bret Hart and The Undertaker

[Texas_Forever]

Austin, Hogan, Flair, Rock

[James Casey]

My favourites: Warrior, Bret, Jericho... I probably need a third, but Jericho's stayed relevant for the better part of 25 years. Ridiculous. I'd probably have Michaels on there, maybe, but it's tough to choose. Warrior and Bret were my favourite as a kid, anyway - maybe Jericho twice, separate entries for 1997-2005 and then 2008-present?

 

But for an American Mount Rushmore of wrestling I'd only have four names to go on: Hogan, Austin, Flair and Undertaker.

 

Hogan transcended wrestling and truly took it beyond the niche market - twice. He was 'done' in 1993 when he left WWF, a shadow his Rock n Wrestling self, and then he reinvented himself by going Hollywood and kicked off the second of the great wrestling booms.

 

Austin was the man who topped Hogan - the biggest draw ever in wrestling, a merchandising machine, he scratched and clawed his way to the very top of the business and took it even further into the mainstream than Hogan did in the 80s. Austin 3:16 overtook the nWo and those shirts were everywhere.

 

Flair is the greatest wrestler we've ever had - even if you have to take shifting expectations into account. He captivated audiences nationwide for a decade, was the NWA's true figurehead, working anything up to an hour per match night after night, mastered storytelling in a way no-one before him did and set the bar very, very high for those that followed. Take 1985 Flair and drop him into today's business, and I'm certain he'd adapt and be as big a deal as anyone.

 

Undertaker has had unparalleled longevity, turning a cartoon gimmick into something with astonishing longevity - and that simply wouldn't happen if he weren't a fantastic wrestler and entertainer. Think of wrestlers like IRS, Nailz or Berzerker who also debuted in WWF in the early 90s - no-one has come close to the same last impact that Undertaker has, and he only seemed to get better with time as his character developed, as he had his very best matches in his 40s, when most wrestlers are winding down their careers.

 

Of course you have to consider someone like Sting, but he never broke out the way Hogan or Austin did. Rock was huge, and charisma-wise tops Austin, Hogan, Flair - and everyone else! But his full-time career was barely 4 years. Cena would be in the running for longevity, but again hit a ceiling way below Austin or Hogan. Bret had the quality, but wasn't really trusted as The Man either in WWF or WCW. Michaels was just too unreliable first time around, and second time around preferred to be the man behind the man, as it were.

 

Angle would be the other name in the running for me - multiple world titles, possibly the most natural wrestler I've seen in 30 years as well as being ridiculously entertaining as a character... but like Bret he was never really The Man, and he spent so much of his career doing his best to elevate TNA which is laudable, but kept him away from the brightest of spotlights.

 

And while he was before my time, Bruno Sammartino was a massive draw for the WWWF in two long, long reigns. Like Flair, you have to adjust for the time - there's no way of really knowing how he'd have played outside the northeast, and the business has changed so much since his time it's hard to say how he'd have done today. But he drew so well for so long (more than 11 years as champion), he certainly deserves to be in the discussion.

[franticloser]

I'll do this in two sections my personal Mount Rushmore and one for who had the most impact on the business.

 

Personal:

Sting, Terry Funk, Raven, and Eddie Guerrero

 

Business Impact:

Lou Thesz, Hulk Hogan, Austin, The Rock. Lou Thesz helped morph the business into what it became during the infancy of the NWA, Hulk Hogan made the business a global phenom, Austin was very much the reason the WWE is alive and well today, and The Rock is probably the biggest star to ever come out of wrestling.

 

I will do one more, which is impact on wrestling on a slightly smaller scale.

 

Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart. Flair influenced so many guys from Michaels (who inspired Jericho), Triple H, Austin, the list goes on, his legacy can never be disputed he carried the NWA in the 80s and there is a reason he is The Man. Michaels and Bret are two sides of the same coin, they both carried the WWE when times where hard, showed that you didn't have to be huge to be on top, and proved work rate is just as important as charisma, also much like Flair inspired a host of the early 2000s indie workers, Dusty had charisma like no other, was the perfect face for Flair to go against (the every man vs The Man) and his creative influence and wisdom has had a lasting impact on the business as well as his work with the first few crops of NXT stars as well as Cody and Dustin with AEW, his legacy will forever be there.

[scmurph01]

Flair, Dusty, Eddie & HBK

[ShaunGBD]

Rock Austin AJ brock