From 1992 to 1996, this was a whole new era of professional wrestling that tries it’s best to differ away from relying on Hulk Hogan and many of their old stars for the purpose of creating a new image for the company and try to keep up with the times. This was the era of wrestling that started Monday Night Raw and went in a televised rating competition against WCW Monday Night Nitro. This was also an era where they delivered more pay per views than ever before with the awesome and underrated “In Your House” PPV’s. At first, this was going to look like World Wrestling Federation’s path in the right direction, but unfortunately, this short lived era of wrestling has dealt with the worst characters, story lines, and even booking decisions that really damaged the company’s popularity and finance. The audience was not interested in super clean and G-rated materials that almost had the company go out of business. WCW really kicked WWF’s ass by using WWF’s former stars against their own stars, storylines were more tasteful, and the product was more appealing to the wrestling fans. But for some odd reason, I just have a great appreciation for what is known to be the WWF’s worst era. I started to become a wrestling fan in this era with Wrestlemania X being my first ever wrestling viewing, but it’s not just nostalgia that this era has over all the other eras in wrestling. When you focus on the good from this era, this was actually a time where wrestlers delivered a more physical, technical, and high flying style of wrestling as opposed to the slow-paced wrestling seen in the Golden Era of Wrestling. All of the sudden, the new generation era offered a much more diverse roster instead of a line of wrestlers that were jacked with steroids. We had matches that were all about more than one signature move, strategies of how to win matches to make the experience varied, and even the spectacle felt down to Earth. I can easily say that this is the most underrated and underappreciated era of wrestling and you should watch some of the best matches that came from this era to realize what wrestling today lost that this era had. With that being said, here are the ten wrestlers that help made this era special to many wrestling fans around the world!
Number 10-. – Macho Man Randy Savage
Macho Man was my number 2 pick as the best wrestler in the Golden Age and it’s a shame that he didn’t have that many great moments in the New Generation Era, even though he stuck around. One of the biggest mistakes Vince McMahon has ever done has been putting Macho Man in the commentary. Admittedly, I love to hear Macho Man’s voice all day, but he was born to perform. However, Macho Man did indeed contributed to the New Generation by putting new talents over like Yokozuna winning the Royal Rumble 1993, Shawn Michaels, Crush, and many more. To show some importance to the New Generation era, he was WWF Champion when the era started. Even though we didn’t get much to see him and Miss Elizabeth like we did in the Golden Age, Macho Man Randy Savage was still the same hero that we all know and love. Hell, he even made those famous slimjim commercials that made him an icon in the wrestling world. But for the fact that Vince McMahon put him in the commentary (and issues with the Kliq), is one of the big reasons why he never came back to the WWF and made better matches in WCW. But for the fact that Randy actually did help some of the talents to make this era stand out, he deserves to be on the list.
Number 9. – “The British Bulldog”
Davey Boy Smith
Where do I even begin with the late, great Davey Boy Smith? He was built like a freight train and was as strong as an ox. He was EVERYTHING Vince McMahon looks for in a World Champion. He had the look, power, charisma and he was over in a big way. People loved The British Bulldog. Once he branched out of his tag team with the Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith was thrown into the upper mid-card almost immediately. He had some great feuds with Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, and most notably Bret Hart and their incredible match in England at Summerslam in 1992, where Bret would drop the Intercontinental Championship to The Bulldog. If you get a chance, you must watch the crowd’s reaction, it was AMAZING. Needless to say, that match was the highlight of The Bulldogs career which is really just sad to say. Even though he never got a better spot in the wrestling world, he did contribute to the New Generation Era by giving some of the best mid-card machos in the mid-90s. If you have seen how he wrestled, it made watching all of his matches worth your time. Such a talented, athlete, and a guy with a phenomenal physical presence. In the end, his internal demons got the better of him and Davey Boy has since passed. However, that won’t tarnish his legacy as one of the top WWE SUPERSTARS of the 90′s.
Number 8. – Mr. Perfect
Mr. Perfect was the best intercontinental champion and one of the best technical wrestlers the WWF has ever had. Even his name lives up to his reputation even despite the fact that he never won a WWF Championship. Mr. Perfect is the wrestler that introduced technical wrestling to the golden age and that opened door to the New Generation Era with a similar style and attitude. As one of the most famous in-ring technicians, everyone loved working with Curt. He could have a great match with anybody. His charisma shined through every time you saw him. Not only that, Mr. Perfect had one of the best personalities that suit incredibly well for a heel. He always constantly love to brag about how perfect he is just to anger everyone. Whether that’s true or not (and most likely isn’t), it makes for a good story. What makes it so interesting is trying to picture anyone else as Mr. Perfect. It didn’t matter if it was baseball, basketball, or bowling, he was simply the best. Perfect could have been an all-star in any sport, but he came to the WWF to show off his skills. While he had a great run in the AWA, it was Hennig’s cocky Mr. Perfect persona in the WWF that truly made him worthy of the Hall of Fame. It’s almost sad to write about such an amazing man, athlete, and competitor who is no longer with us. Especially knowing he deserved to be treated so much better while in the WWE. Mr. Perfect is easily one of the most underappreciated talents in wrestling history. Hopefully, by reading this, you can get a glimpse of just how good he was. One thing’s for sure, the 2007 WWE Hall of Famer will never be forgotten.
Number 7. – The Undertaker
The Undertaker was all spectacle that everyone wanted to see. He was that character that haunted our nightmares, but we couldn’t stop watching because the believability was all in there. However, the reason why I can’t put him any higher on the list is that he didn’t have that many good matches in the New Generation Era. We’ve seen the most basic and straightforward series of squash matches during the character’s era and the character needed an upgrade towards the attitude era. But we forgive Undertaker’s slow pace wrestling that didn’t get physical till the Attitude era because his character was so precise and demeaning that we put our fullest attention upon him. What he brought in the wrestling world is the bizarreness and unusual storytelling in his matches. Such as Paul Bearer losing his urn to control the will of the Undertaker, dealing with creeps like Mankind, and even doing untraditional gimmick matches like bury alive matches & casket match. This was the first time ever where a wrestler could ever stay so much into character and made all of us believe that he was from beyond the grave. It scared all of us fans of WWF and little did fans know the terror he would unleash for over two decades. He has a long-lasting streak in Wrestlemania and brought satanic references in pro-wrestling, which is all innovative. In his early days, he almost looked as he was impervious to pain. When he was ambushed by Yokozuna and half the roster in Royal Rumble 1994, he was put in a casket, but the whole arena blacked out to show a titan-tron of Taker still in the casket saying that he’ll return and then he popped out of the screen ascending over the crowd was actually the scariest moment in pro-wrestling.
Number 6. – Yokozuna
Yokozuna has got to be that wrestler that’s under everybody’s radar. This is the heel that DESTROYED Hulkamania after Hulk Hogan departed to WCW and reigned as WWF Champion. Whenever somebody defeats Hogan for the WWF Championship, it really means that this guy is a big deal. Let’s also not forget that Yokozuna also made Lex Luger’s Lex Express hype look more like a whimper by retaining the WWF belt at Summerslam 93 for losing by count out. The dude squashed (figuratively not literally) Lex Luger’s push as the number one babyface and dominated as WWF’s biggest heel from 1993 – 1994. It was incredibly amazing what the guy could do in the ring early on in his career with his enormous size. The only huge wrestlers that can move as much as Yoko can is Bam Bam Bigelow and Big Van Vader, but Yokozuna has more significance than any large man since Andre The Giant. He won the Royal Rumble in 1993, won the WWF Championship twice, main evented Wrestlemania twice, and even squashed countless opponents using the best finisher of all time; The Banzai Drop! Yokozuna is an important figure to the New Generation Era where he displayed culture to the mainstream wrestling. Even though he was Samoan in real life, Yokozuna embellished the Japanese culture with his manager, Mr. Fuji by showing what Sumo Wrestling training is all about, the behavior of an honorable Japanese athlete, and even shows a unique style of intensity only seen outside of North America. But what I really admire about Yokozuna is for a guy that large, he has moves like sidekicks, running leg drops, belly to belly suplexes, and of course, the feared banzai drop that nobody has ever broken out of it. The fact that he was so massive and could still keep up with Bret and The Undertaker and make the matches interesting proves he was good in the ring. Whenever he collapses from a big move, it really has a huge impact on television as it was on in person. And unlike any other heels, he didn’t always Mr. Fuji interfering in his matches to save the day all the time; Yoko carried all of his matches and he was not a chicken-shit heel that we constantly see in wrestling. He deserved to be the main heel spot for that period of time and one of my favorite times with Yokozuna was when he partnered up with Owen Hart, making it one of the most underrated tag teams of all time. He deserves to be on this list because he was inspirational that not all wrestlers need to be jacked or close to 7’feet tall. Because he showed that even obese wrestlers can even make it to the same spotlight is why he’s this high on the list!
Number 5. – Owen Hart
Who really knows what Owen never got the push that he long deserved since he was stuck behind his big brother Bret (at least, storyline wise, it was to Owen). but critics often look past Owen when mentioning the major stars of the 90s and right to the older Hart. He was an amazing heel, was involved in some of the greatest matches of the mid-’90s with Bret, HBK, and Bulldog, and could cut a great promo to boot. His style in the ring was also detrimental to the evolution of the quality of matches in professional wrestling. His natural sense of humor also took his on screen character to new heights (stealing slammy’s was priceless). Let’s not forget his achievements in the ring; 2 Time Intercontinental Champion, 4 Time Tag Team with Yokozuna (my favorite underrated tag team) and British Bulldog, 1 Time European Champion, King of the Ring Winner, Match of the Year with brother Bret in 1994 in Summerslam 1994 Cage Match, and 2 Time Slammy Award winner. He was also involved in huge storylines with The Hart Foundation and Nation of Domination. He went toe to toe with HBK, Bret Hart, Stone Cold, The Rock, and pretty much any other big name in WWF during his time with the company. I honestly cannot recall ever seeing a bad Owen Hart match. He was a high-quality wrestler, a high-quality worker, and an overall great superstar of the 1990s that got overlooked by far too many critics while he was alive. I miss Owen with great passion. Seeing him wrestle against Bret in Wrestlemania X was the first wrestling match that I’ve ever seen and it got me emotional to see two brothers fighting each other, while I was watching the whole storyline with my younger brother with me. I always blame Vince’s decision to make it an on and off a decision in deciding to put him as Owen or the Blue Blazer. Either way, Vince had the perfect opportunity to make Owen a star, but he had too many bigger fishes in the pond with him. I will alway honor and remember what Owen delivered in the wrestling world and without him, the New Generation Era wouldn’t be a special as it once was.
Number 4. – Alundra Blayze
Whether she’s called Madusa in WCW/demolition derbies or Alundra Blayze in WWF, Debrah Ann Miceli is a trailblazer if I ever saw one. Today, we’re exposed to a lot of feminism and women’s opportunities to be displayed properly well in entertainment today. However, back in the mid-1980s, Miceli came in not just a pretty face; she actually wanted to wrestle. Though she was portrayed as a femme fatale in her time in WCW as Madusa, her time as Alundra Blayze in All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation and all the other Japanese promotions, she became the most dominating American female wrestler of all time. The Alundra character came in the perfect time when Vince McMahon wanted to return the women’s wrestling division to the New Generation era. She was the perfect fit because her athleticism and attitude gave women’s wrestling a new identity and stir away from Fabulous Moolah’s reign of terror. Even though Vince made the women’s division all about her, Alundra Blayze displayed some of the most athletic and impressive wrestling that I’ve seen from a female wrestler. Even female wrestling viewers saw a pretty face like Alundra and said, “Woah! A woman just did that?!” From her crossbody dives, spinning kicks, Corner Headstand Head Scissors, missile dropkicks, to her excellent Bridging German suplex finisher, to her selling, he was ahead of her time. It’s no wonder Alundra Blayze was a three-time WWF women’s champion, thanks to her excellent rivalries with Bull Nakano, Birtha Faye, Luna Vachon, and so many more that made her look so damn good in the ring from 1993 – 1995. It’s such a shame that the most memorable moment in her wrestling career is trashing the WWF’s Women’s belt on WCW Nitro because she was much, much more than that. Her return to WCW still made her a tough gal that no guy should mess with, but she was incredibly underutilized. By every definition, her time as the face of WWF’s women’s wrestling from 1993 to 1995 was well deserved. Sure the material given to Alundra wasn’t as good as the boys (thanks to the sexism in wrestling) however the fact that she showed American wrestling fans that women other women can wrestle as well proved how innovative, revolutionary, and inspirational Debrah Ann Miceli really was.
Number 3. – Shawn Michaels
I’m really conflicted about Shawn Michaels during the New Generation Era. On the one hand, he was the most talented and best in-ring worker in the whole company. On the other hand, he was a spoiled brat that got away with almost everything thanks to Vince McMahon’s privilege and the Kliq’s bullying backstage. Back when he took the name Heartbreak Kid and departed his ways with Sensational Sherri, he was one of the coolest bad guys since Razor Ramon. His streetwalker gimmick attracted a lot of female audiences to tune into Monday Night Raw and see him dance and move around. His team up with Kliq member Diesel was some of the best wrestler-body guard partnerships that I’ve ever seen in wrestling. Though I refuse to put Diesel in the list because having him as WWF Champion in 1995 was both selfish and stupid, his team up with HBK was highly entertaining. Not only that, but HBK was an innovator by being the first to win the Royal Rumble more than once, being in the WWF’s first Ladder Match, and so many more! As a fan, I really enjoyed watching Shawn Michaels with my family because he did high flying technical wrestling like nobody else. It’s amazing that he’s able to wrestle this style throughout the rest of his career in the 2000s which is proof why he’s arguably one of the best of all time. But his personal rivalry with Bret Hart and harassment of other wrestlers is what I find most uncomfortable to go back to. Names like Bam Bam Bigelow, Tatanka, Adam Bomb, Shane Douglas, Mabel, Mo, Jean Pierre Lafitte, Owen Hart, British Bulldog, and Big Van Vader were victims of Michael’s reign of terror and burial of WWF talents. Even I knew that Shawn Michaels heel to babyface transition as “Heartbreak Kid” to “Boyhood Dream” was all bullshit. I despised how WWF tried so desperately to make us sympathize with Shawn so much that it was pandering from his fake injury in 1995 to losing his smile, it was just him not wanting to let others go over. Shawn Michaels was getting really spoiled with demanding a lot of attention, getting all credit, and putting a lot of guys down in the roster. It’s no wonder why Kliq’s backstage politics is infamous among all the wrestlers who suffered during their reign. If you don’t believe me, look at Shawn when he defeated Bret Hart in Wrestlemania 12 and told him to get out of my ring, or when he faced Vader in Summerslam 1996, he kept shouting him “Move” like an immature man-child. Nevertheless, Shawn Michaels just had everything that you can consider talent and it’s the reason why people watch wrestling today! Shawn Michaels just continues to live on the legacy giving us terrific matches many years to come.
Number 2. – Razor Ramon
One of the biggest things that the New Generation Era that wrestling today doesn’t have is great characters. I can’t name a better character in wrestling that had the coolness factor to the max. Razor Ramon’s personality was similar to Scarface and his fake Cuban accent was none other than priceless whenever he spoke on the mic. Even the look of this guy was like an idealized version of a real man come to life. He made being a heel or “The Bad Guy” the coolest position in wrestling and it’s no wonder why he grew so much popularity. It was like Star Wars fans loving to route for the villains because they were so much cooler than our heroes. Throwing toothpicks at his opponents, feel relaxed whenever he speaks, and had a hard-hittle style, that even influenced The Rock to copy his style, shows how significant Razor really is. To me, Razor Ramon is the embodiment of The New Generation era. I still will always remember how mind-blowing his match against Shawn Michaels in Wrestlemania X is still one of my favorite matches of all time. They even had another ladder match together in Summerslam 1995 which was the best match in that horrible year in wrestling. Hell, his rivalry with his Kliq colleagues with Diesel, 123 Kid, and Shawn Michaels was some of the most entertaining things in wrestling! As a kid, I always routed for Razor Ramon to defeat the “Dudes With Attitude” because it was so much fun seeing the way they wrestled and handled the intense rivalry. To even show even more importance to Razor Ramon, he even made wrestling history in the Madison Square Garden Curtan Call Incident when he came in and hugged the Kliq members to establish the backstage faction. Sometimes I really wished that Razor Ramon can continue his journey to winning the WWF Championship instead of making history of the NWO in WCW, but whatever the case, Razor Ramon remains one of the best gimmicks of all of wrestling!
Number 1. – Bret “Hitman” Hart
“The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be” truly lives up to the name. Bret Hart is the milestone for the new direction for the WWF after the Golden Age has ended. It started when Bret Hart departed his ways with Jim Neidhart from the Hart Foundation and became one of the best solo wrestlers of all time. He began to win the Intercontinental Championship, win the first-ever King of the Ring, won the WWF Championship multiple times, and even told the best storylines the WWF has had during this era. Bret Hart’s style really separated 80’s to the ’90s and he earned that spot to become the face of the company. Bret Hart was a really fantastic storyteller where he showed a lot of emotion whenever he gets hurt that caused the entire audience to sympathize with him. It’s wondrous to see that when his character evolves, the company evolves along with him. He told really personal storylines such as Davey Boy Smith’s relationships with his sister, Owen Hart’s brotherly jealousy, and so many more. Not only that, but Bret Hart’s matches were the best parts of the New Generation Era. I don’t ever recall seeing a bad Bret Hart match from 1993 to 1997, even despite the fact that some of the storylines he’s been involved in were badly written. Heck one of the reasons why there was an attitude era, to begin with, was because of his involvement with Stone Cold Steve Austin knocking him out cold. Part of his in-ring storytelling being so good is that Bret has the best versatility of this era. Bar none while I think Bret’s best years were occurring when the WWF was not at its very best commercial success-wise. Bret was a competitor that made the WWF a watchable program even in the WWF’s dark ages where you had garbagemen, plumbers, and hog farmers as the staples of the Federation. Bret Hart while in today’s WWE gets a lot of praise for his contributions it wasn’t until 2010 when he’s truly been given the acclaim he’s deserved. To me Bret Hart made every match just look like an all-out actual fight, no matter who he was wrestling be it Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Diesel, Shawn Michaels or Razor Ramon, Hart had a flare to show just how his style was a breath of fresh air after Hulk Hogan left the WWF and the title scene needed new faces. Bret brought the title scene back to something it had not seen since Bob Backlund’s days as the champion. People who might knock The Hitman’s lack of personality I implore to just watch his body language in the ring and the way he would perform his move set that is always different in every one of his matches. Everything Bret did had a reason and a method and the way he’d react to a loss in the ring just spoke better than any words he could ever say. That combined with the fact that he wrestled three different matches at King Of The Ring with three very different opponents and they all ended in their own unique way. This led to him winning the tournament and in my mind, this legitimized him just as much as his World Title win over Ric Flair if not more so, to be honest. WrestleMania X was another showcasing of Bret’s resourcefulness in the storylines, he goes from losing one match to Owen (and showing the best reaction I’ve ever seen a wrestler display after a loss) and afterward in the same evening avenging his loss from the year before by beating Yokozuna in a rematch to win back the strap. His subsequent World Title feud with Owen in a cage match was a great showing too and I remember those days just like they were yesterday. For this alone I don’t think there’s anyone better at working within different dynamics than Bret Hart, yes I do indeed hold in high regard individuals like Shawn Michaels and all the others from the New Generation Era, but when it comes to this category I don’t think anyone touches Bret Hart. I can only wonder what things would have been like had he stayed with the WWF further into the Attitude Era instead of leaving during its transition point. Bret Hart has always been my biggest hero and there hasn’t been another individual that did more for me as a wrestling fan than Bret Hart!
Now you know who are the best wrestlers of the New Generation Era, be sure to check out the Top 10 Matches of the New Generation Era!!
The Top Lister 