Yep. Kurt Angle is the quintessential pro wrestler. Could play every role to near perfection, face or heel, comedy or serious, and to top it all off has actual legitimacy as one of the greatest amateurs of all time.

The odd part is that some wrestlers are set up to be a face all the time.....and never a heel....and that has made them less famous.

Ricky Steamboat for one....John Cena for the other.....although he did have a heel time period, brief as it may have been.

Every wrestler these days has to have 2 sides of the coin and be able to flip from heel to babyface or they become just another name on the roster

The only problem with Macho Man is that his persona was the same inside and out of the ring.

Even when you are a heel you have to have time to "turn it off" or you burn yourself out mentally. I think that happened to Mach Man.

I'd agree to an extent but it's better than 5-10 years ago overall.

Pretty disappointing that HHH seems to have completely lost interest in the tag team division. Belts are just props for whatever faction is hot at the moment. Really odd because NXT had such a fantastic pipeline of tag teams when he was fully in charge down there.

Macho Man and Flair are great choices. Neither was muscled up in their primes, though Savage was in his later years. Despite that, their look was unique with their costumes and Ric's white mullet haircut. Both great on the mics and in the ring.

Austin isn't far off. His look was great with the shaved head, goatee, and black skull jackets. Arguably the best ever on the mic. Good in the ring before his injuries (maybe not a 10 though).

Kurt was a 10+ in the ring. Probably a 9 on the mic at his best (his Olympic cheater character was epic).

His look is probably an 8. Good physique but nothing spectacular in his appearance or costume.

Rumor is the Lucha Bros. and the Motor City Machine Guns are both headed in so maybe we'll start to see it pick up...

I'd rate him closer to straight 9s, but I get why Bret would say that. It was also much easier to rate higher on the promo scale back then because so many things were taped. Still, his turn on Hogan at SNME was perfect mic work.

I also think people hand out too many 10s on that scale.

Like, if you're going for a 10 on looks and physical charisma, 1984 Kerry Von Erich is probably it, Hollywood Rock is a 10 on the mic, and 1994 Bret is a 10 in the ring.

Great discourse, guys.

Who do you think, on an active roster of any promotion, has the potential to be remembered as a "10"?

Overall? Bron Breakker.

Breakker and Ilja are certainly the future right now.

If the average chiefs fan lifted weights, they would look like stone cold

FYP


https://www.wrestlecrap.com/app/uplo.../09/bbc-02.jpg

Gunther/WALTER...I mean he's already there for me but he's got so much more he can add on to his career.

Indeed, Kurt would give Brock Lesnar a run for his money (if he didn't outright beat him) in a regular wrestling match (NCAA or Olympic rules match).

I think that happened to quite a few guys back in the day....because of kayfabe the wound up living their gimmick (Flair is another case in point).

If Gunther had better skills on the mic then I might agree with you....

The problem with many of today's WWE stars is that they are horrible on the mic.....very few have the charisma to carry and opening segment like Cena, Austin, Shawn Michael's.

The closest to really working the crowd into a frenzy are guys like Seth Rollins.

Gunther needs someone to help him learn to be better on the mic.

I think this is due to decades of McMahon micro managing what wrestlers said. It's gotten better since HHH took over and should only get better as time goes on.

I heard that's because more promos are scripted than before. There's less trust placed by the company in today's stars to improvise on their promos. Not sure if that's true.

Yeah it's not a bad point...I think he's improved big time in that regard though and will continue to get better.

It would be cool to see him as this stoic just badass heel with a mouthpiece like a Heyman or someone like that though.

Bastion Booger should have been heavyweight champ

Oof, hard disagree on Rollins having mic skills. He floundered for literal years trying to find a compelling character and eventually settled on completely superficial crap like dressing like a Prince cosplayer and having a song that's fun to sing along to for the crowds.

He's constantly playing second, third, or even fourth fiddle in his feuds nowadays.

Let’s just talk about the greatest years in wrestling, specifically 1997-1999

undertaker
stone cold (pre-injury WWF version)
hbk
angle



maaaybe HHH and rock


later on, Eddie was getting REALLY good

We'll just have to hard disagree then...I see it differently.

If we are going to bag on people because of their attire you really have to discount half of the roster champions...and many of the best from the past.

Heck...go back and look at Austin's early version of himself...Stunning Steve or whatever name he would use in that era. He was not good on the mic...at all.

I see it as Rollins learning to find his groove much like LA Knight has after living in obscurity in the lesser know wrestling organizations.

Perfect example of a dude who would be a midcarder 20 years ago.

I thought heel Bret in 97 was frickin awesome.

I'm not bagging on him because of his attire. I'm baggage by on him because his character almost entirely revolves around how goofy his attire can be and his song.

Best work by far that Bret did on the microphone.

Too bad he didn't stay in WWF during the Attitude Era. Would have been epic to see him vs. Angle, Stone Cold, The Rock, Mick Foley.

Wasn't that whole situation effectively the catalyst for the attitude era? Without that you don't get heel Vince McMahon on TV.

Honestly.....Triple H was at his best when paired with Michaels....

Yeah...the Montreal Screwjob led to the "Bret screwed Bret" promo and the birth of the Mr. Mahon character.

WCW fumbled Bret so bad it's not even funny...not that one should be surprised but still.

Imagine if he did stay in the WWF and heel Bret ended up teaming with heel Vince to take on Stone Cold.

That would have been epic

Yes, but with Stone Cold's anti-authority rise I think we get it anyway.

LMAO That's the point. Anti authority Austin doesn't become nearly as iconic without Vince McMahon as the foil.

Austin vs Bret at WM13 is my favorite match ever. Such perfection.

He was already feuding with Slaughter when he was the Commish.

In due time it most likely he would have feuded with the boss.

Every one of those guys, except for Angle and HHH, had a LOT of wrestling experience either in the territories, or at least WCW before getting to the WWE and had to learn a LOT the hard way early in their careers. HHH was with the WCW briefly before going to WWE, and Angle is just a natural. Taker and Austin started in the WCCW in Dallas and worked their way up from there. The Rock started out in Memphis (I think). I'm old enough to remember when HBK was in a tag team with Marty Jannetty in Kansas City.

Correct me if I'm wrong but didnt WWE essentially buy up all of the territories? The biggest issue for the longest time before AEW is there was no alternative to WWE.

I don't recall. I know most of the best wrestlers and managers left for WWE or whatever territory it was that was featured on the TBS wrestling show that later become WCW because they could get more money (Slick, the manager, started out in Kansas City and went to the then WWF after only a year or so in the business).

Central States in Kansas City was bought by Crockett Promotions in 1986 from Bob Geigel, but Geigel bought it back in 1987 and went out of business in 1989. I stopped watching their show when the WWF/E was popular AND I could watch a better NWA show on TBS (All Star Wrestling was low budget and couldn't compete with the quality of what was available elsewhere)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">RIP Sid Vicious ���� <a href="https://t.co/cDpCc8y1nN">pic.twitter.com/cDpCc8y1nN</a></p>&mdash; 90s WWE (@90sWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/90sWWE/status/1828150275569275388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Built up this one pretty well.

Welp. That's probably a career for Bryan Danielson.

I met Chelsea Green at an airport security line on Friday. She was super cool, even at 6:00 AM.

And man, isn’t wrestling great these days?

Eh, haven't even bothered watching any AEW recently outside of checking to see if the shit that's made me quit watching is still happening.

The whole Blackpool Combat Club thing with Moxley, Claudio and Wheeler trying to destroy everyone is a little over the top for me....

The product in AEW as a whole has really gone downhill...I used to hope it would at least give some moderate competition to WWE but has since just faded.

It's genuinely awful. They have somehow managed to create two insufferable top heel groups that have changed the channel heat for me.

I see Vince and WWE are being sued again by more people coming forward about the ring boy scandal..that shit is disgusting.

Excellent. Hold him accountable for all the heinous shit he's done and make his last days on Earth as miserable as possible.

Unfortunately some of the people are dead now.

You never know when another shoe could drop in regards to all those NDAs Vince had signed. If my math is mathing Jenele Grant only accounts for 3 million of the roughly 18 million paid out. And those are the ones that were paid for with company finances.

Her lawyers are literally encouraging it.

I believe in Joe Hendry!!

He's definitely showing up in the Rumble

I believe in joe hendry.

That would be sick! I’d absolutely mark out.

I'm still hoping Big E returns at the rumble. I know it's unlikely but a man can dream.

Cause they love him in London and Paris and Tokyo
America, Scotland and Canada and Mexico

The theme music, entrance, and the spin are all better than the wrestling. ROFL

The pop when that theme hits at the Rumble will be amazing.

Sorta like when “I Am Phenomenal” appeared on the titantron for AJ.

Definitely. I'm so pumped in anticipation.

Seeing Trish was great. She still looks amazing. Charlotte winning was [emoji91]. Glad it wasn’t Nia.


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I believe in Joe Hendry!!!

Charlotte and Rhea had the best women’s match I’ve ever seen a few years ago.

Hopefully more of that.

How do you **** up the most entertaining part of Joe Henry?!? WWE as a whole has been way better under Lee Fitting, but that was probably the worst misstep yet

Now, that’s a surprise.

Jey would’ve been one of the last I would’ve guessed based on those final 10 or so.

Jey is an entrance merchant. His in ring work and promo work is average at best.

Yeah. He should have gotten his full entrance. At least they let him hit his spots.


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Good on Cena for putting young talent over. Jericho could take some advice from JC.


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Bottom 5 Rumble IMO

Lacking in surprises that moved the needle, **** off Charlotte, other matches were pretty mid, Jey is a mediocre singles wrestler.

The star power in the 20's really kept it from being the worst one.

Not sure why WWE wants Jet in a Mania main event after that Uso vs Uso match last year.

Jey vs Cody or Gunther is kinda meh.

I wanted Punk. Punk vs Cody could’ve been something different and finally gets Punk that main event.

Do you see an angle that has Jey going after Gunther again and opening up a match for Punk v Cody?

Seth v Reigns is almost guaranteed.

Jey is 39, he isn't young.

So we doing it i guess YEET!

Wow. I thought he was late 20s-early 30s. Rikishi must’ve had the boys when he was really young.


Or I am just old, and in old denial :)


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Usos and Tamina debuted in like 2010. Probably mid-20’s then.

So yeah, late 30’s is right.

They actually debuted before Roman.

For how hyped that Rumble was it was pretty mediocre, agreed. And Jey? I'm sorry, that dude is an entrance and nothing else.

Can't wrestle
Can't talk
Has a gimmick even wrestling fans cringe over
Not a great look (even has a twin brother for lack of originality)
Career midcarder and/or tag team wrestler

This goof shouldn't be anywhere near the main event.

Who is he even going against? Gunther? They literally just wrestled last weekend and I can't believe they're going to have him challenge Rhodes when Cena has been the rumor for a long while now.