GPWT Round 1: Ricky Steamboat (8) -vs- The Rock (9)

[Veritas]

Who is the Greatest Professional Wrestler of All Time?​

Round 1
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Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat -vs- The Rock

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Ricky Steamboat

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- 1x NWA World Heavyweight Champion
1x WWE Intercontinental Champion

Ricky Steamboat finished 8th in the IWF 50 Greatest Wrestling Superstars of All Time with a score of 287/450.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Steamboat

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The Rock
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- 7x WWE World Heavyweight Champion
- 2x WCW World Heavyweight Champion
- 2000 WWE Royal Rumble Winner

The Rock finished 9th in the IWF 50 Greatest Wrestling Superstars of All Time, scoring a 277/450.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_Johnson​

 

[Hometown Kid]

Now for personal tastes I much prefer watching Steamboat's best matches over Rock's, but considering the criteria you said in the master thread, The Rock wins literally every other category. I guess i'm voting for Rock, but Steamboat is still one of the top 10 wrestlers of all time in my opinion. Fudge I hate this matchup.

 

[Veritas]

Yeah, I kinda have to agree with you.

But you can also consider the intangibles.

For instance, for his entire career, Steamboat portrayed a classic white meat babyface whereas The Rock not only couldn't succeed in that role, he was literally hated in it. Rock had crowds chanting "Die Rocky Die" at him during this period, to the point where the company had no choice but to make him a bad guy. Later in his career The Rock was able to play the babyface role, but it wasn't a Steamboat level babyface that people loved - he was the smartass class clown that people loved to laugh with.

Rock's 11 World title runs are also certainly inflated. When comparing stars of the late '90s accomplishments with those of any other generation, you have to take into account that the titles where literally bounced around on a monthly basis, and at times weekly. The Rock's 11 World titles certainly trump Steamboat's 1 but, in another era, how many World titles do you think he'd have held? The argument of how does Triple H's 13 World title reigns compare to Ric Flair's 16 is the best example I can think of.

The criteria I listed is certainly important, but it's not the only thing to base your decision on.

I haven't voted here yet. Someone convince me, one way or the other.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

As much as I love the Steamer, and believe me he makes my top 10-15 depending on my mood, it's the Rock. The Rock has so unbelievably transcended wrestling it's not even fair to compare him with Steamer. If this is solely on the classic sense, it's Steamer. But Rock's charisma, drawing ability, promos and his legacy just trumps Steamer's superior in ring talent. Rock is one of the top five most important wrestling personalities ever. Not best wrestlers, but personalities, he, Gorgeous George, Andre the Giant, Rikidozan and Ed "Strangler" Lewis are something beyond wrestling for their time periods. And to top everything off Rock was no slouch in the ring, he was in probably the greatest WWE match of all time at the peak of the industry's hottest period, against Steve Austin at Mania 17. Throw that in with the incredibly under rated Ironman against Triple H on top of their ladder match and other classics, his series with Foley and Rock is just incredibly remarkable as a talent.

 

[Luke Flywalker]

Steamboat probably has more truly classic matches than anyone who has wrestled in the past 30 years. Your favorite current under 35 wrestler more than likely idolizes someone who either had their best match with, or idolizes Steamboat. It honestly says a lot that Ric Flair actually believes Steamboat to be the GOAT, and it also says a lot that the man put on classic matches with a LOT of people in this tourney.

However, as great as Steamboat ever may have been in the ring, the Rock trumps him in nearly every other category. I mean, we can talk the greatest in-ring performers all we like (The Rock truly isn't a slouch in that regard either)... but we're talking a bona fide icon in The Rock. We had standards set with guys like Hogan and Flair... but (along with Austin) we saw even those standards raised to an entirely new extreme.

 

[Montana]

The Rock

 

[1chiban]

Again hard choice - if we're going on wrestling ability then, although The Rock was a pretty good worker, Steamboat wins. However, unfortunately for Steamboat, The Rock was a far bigger star in terms of the mainstream and breaking cross-cultural boundaries. He was also responsible for many fond memories for me as I grew up watching Attitude-era WWF and was my favourite at the time. Rock all the way on this one. Bit harsh on poor Steamboat that he got drew against Rock in the first round!!!

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

Steamboat probably has more truly classic matches than anyone who has wrestled in the past 30 years. Your favorite current under 35 wrestler more than likely idolizes someone who either had their best match with, or idolizes Steamboat. It honestly says a lot that Ric Flair actually believes Steamboat to be the GOAT, and it also says a lot that the man put on classic matches with a LOT of people in this tourney.

That is simply not true. Steamer is great but doesn't stack up with HBK or Flair in terms of straight classics. List me five honest to god truly classic Steamer matches. Not calling you out, but 3 of Steamer's best 5 are against Flair and his classic with Savage equals four. Steamer is an excellent, excellent worker, but HBK 02-10 had more straight classics than Steamer, and that's honest truth. Flair... bests Steamer by a mile as well.

 

[monkeystyle]

Damn. I came in here to make some troll posts and have some fun with the mass Steamboat love in but this was not what I expected at all.

Just gonna slowly back out. I was never here.

 

[Luke Flywalker]

That is simply not true. Steamer is great but doesn't stack up with HBK or Flair in terms of straight classics. List me five honest to god truly classic Steamer matches. Not calling you out, but 3 of Steamer's best 5 are against Flair and his classic with Savage equals four. Steamer is an excellent, excellent worker, but HBK 02-10 had more straight classics than Steamer, and that's honest truth. Flair... bests Steamer by a mile as well.

I'm also accounting for a lot of his tag-team matches, many of which involved none of the likes of Flair or Savage...

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

What tag matches? His tag matches with Jay Youngblood where he wrestled Flair and random Flair partner A or B a thousand times, or you talking about his tag team in his late WCW run with Shane Douglas? Steamer is not known for his tag work, his Mid-Atlantic tags with Youngblood are good stuff, but he's know for his singles stuff and none of his tag matches stack to his singles stuff. Even with his tag work, it doesn't stack to HBK or Flair.

 

[ThomC]

Damn. I came in here to make some troll posts and have some fun with the mass Steamboat love in but this was not what I expected at all.

Just gonna slowly back out. I was never here.

I'm surprised by this too. When Veritas ran this somewhere else Steamboat made the final 4 (Steamboat vs Flair, and HBK vs Jericho). Here he got bombed out in the first round.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

What forum is that? That's a bunch of fools. Ricky Steamboat is NOT a top 5 performer ever, but Jericho made the final four too??? Good lord.

 

[ThomC]

It was right after Mania 25, everybody had hard-ons for Steamboat's return. I believe Hogan got eliminated in the first round too, but I can't remember who took him out.

Edit: Hogan lost to Jake Roberts

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

Hogan lost to Jake in the first round? Steamer and Jericho get to the finals?? This wouldn't be WrestleClique or WrestleZone? Those are two of the forums filled with dumbass poser smarks that would do something like that.