Top 20 Pro Wrestlers in the 1990s

Professional wrestling in the 1990s have always been famous for their storylines, and feuds, and (most of all) star power. This is an absent aspect in today’s wrestling and it’s one of things that make all wrestling fans feel right at home whenever they go back to this decade. Many of the most popular wrestlers (that are over the age of 50) had the best time of their lives from 1990 – 1999. As the wrestling industry got very fierce with competition, every promotion pushed their roster to go even futher (for ratings purposes). WCW, WWF, ECW, NJPW, AJPW, AJW, and FMW really made the most out of their wrestlers during this time. That means being charasmatic with promos had to be honed, making memorable moments to remain relevant, and in-ring psychology to keep people tuned and talk about for years to come. There are hundreds of favorite wrestlers in this decade, but I’m only including twenty different wrestlers based on one thing; greatness. By professional wrestling standards, greatness isn’t based on how good your gymnastics are (cough… cough… indie smartmarks), it’s based on the memorable moments that gets everyone talking about for many years to come. To get your audience continously bring up those moments, you need to have a great number of people knowing of those moments in time – whether if it’s winning the promotion’s most prestigious championship, making match of the night, creating feuds to get fans interesting, or have a segment that get people realize that there’s more to wrestling than workrates. What we’re judging here is the ammount of accomplishments during a wrestlers time in January 1st, 1990 to December 31st, 1999. Charisma, in-ring psychology, appearance, becoming a big selling draw, and accomplishments is what creates a true star, but we’re looking at those dates at what made wrestling as a whole truly special.

Top 10 Greatest Wrestlers of All Time

There has to come a time where a site that talks about wrestling has to make a good argument to who’s the greatest wrestler of all time. There just wouldn’t be wrestling without the wrestlers, but who really deserves all the praise? Every wrestling fan has their own personal favorite wrestling that they mark out to, so thetoplister has to make a credible pick in deciding who really is the best grappler/performer in professional wrestling. Here on thetoplister, we do really care about giving so many people recommendations, but it has to be the best recommendation, not the most popular one. Otherwise, having Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Shawn Michaels would have been too predictable to the point where we’re being dishonest. When you’ve been wrestling as long as we have (watching so many different promotions and all) you should know that there are better out there. So what really is the criteria to be an all-time great wrestler? Here are your criteria.

If a wrestler has three or more of these qualities, then they deserve to be on the list. Notice that we didn’t include number of victories here? Otherwise, Goldberg & Dr. Death Steve Williams would have made it on the list, but in wrestling, it’s not how many wins you make, it’s how many times can you get yourself back up in every defeat without losing relevance. It takes years to hone your skills, have the right booking to keep you relevant in your career, and the challenge of getting the fans’ approval in order to reach that level of credibility. This is a tough business to stay in but these ten wrestlers (and a few honorable mentions) managed to prove to us that they are deserving of such praise.

Top 10 Wrestlers of the Attitude Era (late 1990s/early 2000s)

There was never a better time to be a pro wrestling fan than during the period from 1996-2002, when WWF was in the midst of its legendary Attitude Era. This era of wrestling made it in number 4 of the best things of the 1990s and still to this day I can go back and watch any episode, segment, or match from the Attitude Era and remind myself why I am a wrestling fan. Though I do have a very soft spot for the New Generation Era, it was important for the company to change from the family-friendly image to keep up with the times. TV ratings were at an all-time high, it was cool to be a fan and you could find a good wrestling product on TV just about any time you wanted to.  Sit through one three-hour episode of Monday Night Raw, and you’ll be longing for the old days, even if you weren’t a wrestling fan in the old days. This era captures everything that I truly miss about wrestling; proper storytelling, amazing in-ring work, varied match stipulations, and outrageous character that definitely felt bigger than life.  Outlandish things were happening, but there was always a reason behind them, and the stories were most often very interesting.  These are not just story lines, these were epic sagas that was happening in wrestling and never again did we ever felt the same with the media again. If that’s not enough, the matches in this era took risks. In the Attitude Era, WWE climbed back to the top of the wrestling world by taking chances.  People got hit with chairs, set on fire, thrown off the top of gigantic structures and run over by cars on a weekly basis. All of these things kept my interest and mixed that up with a good story, you’re presented with the most awesome moments in life! Sure, The Attitude Era ripped off Extreme Championship Wrestling’s hardcore wrestling phenomenon, but for the fact that this single era brought the highest ratings that the WWE has ever had should tell you about the success and reception it deserved. And who do we have to thank for all that was given to us in the Attitude Era? None other than Vince McMahon. Sure, the man has done some of the most questionable decisions in the business, but starting this trend in wrestling was the best thing he’s ever done for the company and wrestling itself. This was an era of wrestling that was so innovative, captivating, and so entertaining, that it’s always worth coming back to. Wrestling fans to this day are still waiting for another era like this but unfortunately since WWE went back to the times of PG, not giving two shits about telling good stories, and over enthuses on pointless in-ring work more-so than anything else. As a result of seeing wrestling getting worse and worse, it makes going back to the Attitude Era a lot better than we remembered. And these are the ten wrestlers that are responsible for making the Attitude Era so great!

Top 10 Wrestlers of the Golden Age (1980s)

If you can go out on the street and tell anyone about any wrestler that’s currently in any wrestling organization, chances are they won’t even know who you’re talking about. However, if you instead talk about wrestlers that came from the 1980s to the early-1990s, chances are, people would recognize who you’re talking about. Just what is it that makes these wrestlers more iconic and recognizable than the wrestlers of today? How about the fact that each of them had a diversity of characters that felt bigger than life itself. Many of these wrestlers are the image and embodiment of professional wrestling and still to this very day we talk about each of their legacies.  Even WWE knows the impact that these wrestlers gave us for making wrestling as big as it is today. We call this the Golden Age of Wrestling because WCW and WWF were in big rivalry with each other and they did almost everything to beat the competition. Dusty Rhodes created the Super Bowl of Pro Wrestling called StarCade in 1983 and Vince McMahon wanted to make a bigger event calling it Wrestlemania. Since then, wrestling started to deliver bigger events like The Big Four PPV’s and many more. This was the first time professional wrestling went on the mainstream by getting celebrity involvement (Cindi Loper, Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, etc.) and also putting wrestlers in public appearances outside of the ring and backstage area. Each of these wrestlers really felt like real-life superheroes and it drew huge attendance records and television ratings. It’s all thanks to these wrestlers that made wrestling huge as it once was and it’s time for me to pay respects to ten of my favorite wrestlers of the Golden Age of Wrestling (from 1983 – 1991).