Greatest Wrestler Ever

[FlairFan152]

Who would u say is the best wrestler ever? I would have to say its a toss up between Flair ,Hulk Hogan or Bret Hart.

[Colin Douglas]

Not with those three. Ric Flair is easily better than Bret Hart. Hogan is not even in that league unless you want to talk about self marketing. I would say it is between Ric Flair and Lou Thesz.

[Luds]

Hogan is by far the best ever. Of course I'm not talking about his wrestling ability. But he did make the business what it is today. No other man was ever as big as he was.

Ric Flair is by far the greatest heel ever. Don't need to add more to that!

Bret Hart is probably the greatest wrestler in a technical point of vue to wrestle in America. He was the best ever then, but now many great wrestlers deserve consideration. Angle and Benoit are 2 names that come to mind instantly, we'll see how the rest of their career goes...

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I can't answer this one because I've been active as a human only for 31 years and 3 months. Too short to decice who the greatest EVER is.

For wrestling, I believe the greatest was either Lou Thesz or Ed "Strangler" Lewis. For the entertainment value, the greatest (not the best, but for being a legend to make achievement) could be either Flair or Hogan.

In Mexico, the greatest EVER is obviously El Santo, but even their fans admit that he wasn't the best. In South Korea, longtime wrestling fans may still worship Kim Ill like some kind of ***, but obviously, he was no way close to the best (though he was said to be a legit tough guy).

....and if you go to Japan, whatever the US sheetwriters say, there are LOTS of people who would answer "Antonio Inoki" for any of these questions.

[OldSchoolFan]

Dynamite Kid and Ricky Steamboat.

[samoth]

Ric Flair. The man was consistently great in and out of the ring for over 20 years. I seriously doubt anyone will ever top his accomplishments, because nobody has any reason to wrestle that long anymore, what with all the downside guarantees and merchandising cash.

[Cincinnati Kid]

There is a difference between greatest wrestler and greatest showman. Lou Thesz was a wrestler. Hulk Hogan is a showman. Now days, it seems that showman get most of the attention because that's what people want to see.

[DangerousBD]

Heavyweights: Toshiaki Kawada, Bret Hart, Jumbo Tsuruta

Juniors: Dynamite Kid, Owen Hart, Jushin Liger, Ultimo Dragon

[Colin Douglas]

For juniors I would have to put them in this order

1. Tiger Mask (the original)
2. Dynamite Kid
3. Jushin Liger
4. Great Sasuke
5. Chris Benoit
Honourable mention to Owen Hart, Ultimo Dragon and Dean Malenko

Heavys

1. Lou Thesz (the smoothest transition from move to move ever)
2. Ric Flair
3. Harley Race
4. Jack Brisco
5. Dory Funk JR
Honourable mention to Angle (for advancing so quickly) and Triple H (who is the best bumping heel today)

[RoaringElbow25]

Greatest Sport Entertainer by far w/o a doubt in my mind is Hulk Hogan he made wrestling nothing more needs to be said.
Starigh Wrestling ability best is I think Bret Hart, he did it all, technical, brawling, a little bit of garbage, and he could go off the top when he needed too and he made his name as a heavyweight weighing only in the area of 240

Overall if I had to narrow it to one- Hogan is my choice

[Colin Douglas]

Here's the real question you should be asking. Was it Hulk Hogan who made wrestling that big or Vince McMahon's marketing machines at Titan?
Or better still was it because of Cyndi Lauper's influence as a rock star?

[habfan111]

My greatest wrestler ever was Edouard Carpentier. He was a masterful wrestler, knew a thousand holds and along with Antonino Rocca was one of the very first high flyers. He could sell the story perfectly, made you belive it was real, and his matches with Wladek Kowalski are truly legendary

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Since we are talking about the greatest one ever, here's an
interesting(?) information.

There was a poll among longtime Japanese fans on one of Showa Puroresu
websites for the "wrestler and tag team that you wanna hand down to
the 21st century". Here's the Top 5 Japanese Wrestlers:

1: Antonio Inoki
2: Giant Baba
3: Tiger Mask (original, Satoru Sayama)
4: Jumbo Tsuruta
5: Tatsumi Fujinami
6: Akira Maeda
7: Seiji Sakaguchi
8: Shozo "Strong" Kobayashi
Mighty Inoue
10: Michiaki Yoshimura

and here's the Top 10 Gaijin Wrestlers:
1: Fritz von Erich
2: Stan Hansen
3: Don Leo Jonathan
4: Andre the Giant
5: Harley Race
Nick Bockwinkel
7: Abdullah the Butcher
Crusher Lisowski
9: Bobo Brazil
10: Tiger Jeet Singh