So yesterday, The Rock answered everyone's favorite question: Who is on your wrestling Mount Rushmore?
And he kind of chickened out.
Anyway, made me think, who is on mine? After some thought and debate (and the rule that I had to see them perform in their prime, sorry Bruno, Rodgers, Graham), here is what I came up with, with a similar wrestler in my mind that could take that place:
- Ric Flair - greatest worker over 40 years. The greatest of the territory stars and huge in the modern big companies. Carried every company as some point. Amazing on the mic always. Look past the caricature of his later years and the multiple retirements. Forget everything past Flair losing to HBK at WMXXIV. "I love you, I'm sorry." (Wrestler that could most take this place: HHH, especially due to NXT)
- Chris Jericho - Jericho has had multiple Hall Of Fame runs in his career. Combine them all into 30+ years, and he belongs. Mexico. Japan. America. He fits. White meat Lionheart babyface. Top heel in the company. He fits. Unmatched on the mic. Intro on RAW. Armbar. The List. First undisputed champion. 5 star match at age 48. If I could only watch one wrestler's matches, it would be his. (Wrestler that could most take this place: HBK)
- The Rock - While Flair and Jericho get kudos for how long they did it, I give The Rock props for how much he crammed into basically seven years. In that short time he went from "Die Rocky Die" to having a two hour weekly primetime show named after a catchphrase. Biggest star during the biggest boom in wrestling. Face or Heel, serious or comedic, it was his show when he was on. You were never going to get a five-star match but always entertaining, and I think I will take his "five moves of Doom" over Hart's or Cena's. And yeah, then goes on to become the world's biggest action star. (Wrestler that could most take this place: Stone Cold Steve Austin, just my personal preference)
- Randy Savage - The MVP of wrestling's first boom. Not the other guy. In an alternative universe, Terry doesn't do Rocky III and fades away with the AWA, ending up as a Stan Hansen/Bruiser Brody type monster in Japan. Savage comes into the WWF a year early than he did and is the undisputed top guy. In WMIII, you could put Savage against Andre and had a better match. Putting Hogan against Steamboat would have been a train wreck. Everything we thought Hogan was good or great at, Savage was better. And Savage could do so many things that Hogan could never do. Top rope elbow >>> boot/leg drop. And no one would have bought a Hogan romantic relationship of any kind. People physically cried when Savage and Liz got back together. Simply the best during the Rock and Wrestling era (Wrestler that could most take this place: The Undertaker)
Apologies to this generation of guys: Kenny Omega, Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Okada. I had Cena in the Savage spot for a while, but felt that era needed representation.