IWF's Best Wrestler Round 1

[He who knows more than Nation]

Tourney thing has got me thinking though.... Damn! ...How good would Steamboat vs Taker have been (especially with Taker as a sick, evil heel) ?????

Probably the best match up of all the pairings in the first round, followed by Misawa/Austin, Hennig/Dynamite, then Benoit/Angle, Bret/Jericho, Trips/Savage, Rock/Misawa then Hogan/HBK and that's just because Hogan is just so totally inferior to everyone's wrestling ability.

 

[straight_edge76]

Kurt Angle
Chris Benoit

Chris Jericho
Bret Hart (real tough choice though)


Randy Savage
HHH

HBK
Hulk Hogan

Kenta Kobashi
The Rock

Mitsuharu Misawa
Steve Austin

Dynamite Kid
Curt Hennig


Ricky Steamboat
The Undertaker

 

[...god...]

Kurt Angle
Chris Benoit

Chris Jericho
Bret Hart

Randy Savage
HHH

HBK
Hulk Hogan

Kenta Kobashi
The Rock

Mitsuharu Misawa
Steve Austin

Dynamite Kid
Curt Hennig

Ricky Steamboat
The Undertaker

I'm going off of best all-around PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER (the whole deal, which will obviously draw bias against the Japs but the tourny wasn't really clarified on who's had that greatest matches or what), btw. I could give a fuck less how well they can carry someone shitty in a match, because the fact is, is that all these guys on the list are phenomenal workers one way or the other. And yeah, there'll prob be a little subjectiveness involved in this too.

Also, Jericho/Angle will be the hardest for me, without any bias at all, since I feel I can only be biased with Triple H. :/

 

[Mike Chaos]

Kurt Angle
Chris Benoit

Chris Jericho
Bret Hart

Randy Savage
HHH

HBK
Hulk Hogan

Kenta Kobashi
The Rock

Mitsuharu Misawa
Steve Austin

Dynamite Kid
Curt Hennig

Ricky Steamboat
The Undertaker

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

I'm going off of best all-around PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER (the whole deal, which will obviously draw bias against the Japs but the tourny wasn't really clarified on who's had that greatest matches or what), btw. I could give a fuck less how well they can carry someone shitty in a match, because the fact is, is that all these guys on the list are phenomenal workers one way or the other. And yeah, there'll prob be a little subjectiveness involved in this too.

Don't lie, you're a racist cunt.

I took a little different route than some here. One thing I took into account was impact and influence. Misawa and Kobashi influenced an entire generation of AMERICAN wrestlers. Kaval, Joe, Dragon, Homicide, Punk and the such, their ringstyle is based off the Japanese strongstyle that these guys pioneered, perfected and did HUGE business that eclipsed everything that was being done in the states from 90-till mid 96 and they stayed neck and neck with Stateside business untill the E blew up in 99 and even then their business was not down.

And then there's Dynamite. I can not understate how influential he was. His awesomeness outweighs Hennig easily. People are over rating Hennig pretty badly. He was great, but of people who least belong here, it's Perfect by a far margin. I'm more than certain that no one except Airfixx has probably seen any of Hennig's best matches, which were in the AWA against Nick Bockwinkel and Rick Martel. He was good on the stic but the number of really good matches he had in the E can be counted on one hand and two of them were against Bret Hart. So basically a two year run get's him a spot here because he only wrestled a handfull of matches for the E after 1992 and one was against Bret. He's in the same boat as guys like Arn and Ted DiBiase, except if the boat sinks, he's the one not getting in the life boat. His run wasn't better then either of those guys, nor did he have the longevity.

And I really wanted to vote for Austin, if he were matched up with anyone except HBK or the Japs, he's getting as far as the draw allows him. I put Bret over Jericho in the toughest decision because Bret drew money, not so great in the states, but that's null as Jericho was never as big of a draw himself, but worldwide, few compare with Bret. Plus Bret's heel turn in 97 was so revolutionary as he was a heel stateside but was still seen as a face god all over the rest of the world. Seriously, had it not for Bret's drawing power overseas, and Vince has stated this before, the E might have really folded when shit was really bad in 97.

 

[monkeystyle]

Gonna add these up meow.