Think I'd have to go with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Piper's Pit was the best thing ever done in 'rasslin.

A few of the other greats considered were "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Andre the Giant, The Undertaker, Mick Foley, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, George "The Animal" Steele, and Steve Austin.

Piper's Pit was good, Jerry "The King" Lawler was good with his thing, too. Curt Henning (Mr. Perfect) and Ted Dibiase are great.
Brett Hart is up there, too. Funny story. When I was in third grade, I saw WWF on the European tour in Frankfurt (my father was in the Army and we were living there at the time). Brett Hart was wrestling against Yokozuna. Right as the battle was turning against Brett (a Canadian, of course), the arena started chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

My favorites go a little farther back.

When I was a kid, my 2 favorites were Flying Red Bastien, and Mad Dog Vachon.

I also remember a "villain" named Bronco Lubich who managed another villain named "The Spoiler"...only to see him change into a referee. I remember thinking, "Wait, this guy is a villain, and now he's....a referee???"

I really liked Mr. Perfect. And Psycho Sid now that I think about it. I saw the Heart Foundation with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and Bret Hart when I was a wee lad. That same event had Hulk Hogan and Tugboat vs. Yokozuna and I forget who. The Road Warriors also went up against the Bushwackers on that card. I loved the Bushwackers too. I still have the "Hulk Rules" bandana that I bought there.

The Bushwackers! Man, I saw them battle against the Beverly Brothers at the same event. Money Inc, too...don't remember who they were with on that bill...I think I'll go look up some of the classic 80s/90s matches up on YouTube. Money Inc against Road Warriors at Summer Slam 94 was a great one...coming to the ring in golden motorcycles at Caesar's Palace.

The blue Power Ranger....

Wow you guys are going back... The sad this is I remember them all... my favorite had to be George "the Animal" Steele. Those were good times

My agent had set up a 'brawn vs. brains' contest for a local wrestling show, pitting Wild Bull Curry's strength against my skill.
He was to try to break a heavy chain and, if he failed, I would be locked into the chain and attempt to escape.

Curry was gung ho for the idea, but died before it could be staged.

Roddy Piper, The Rock, The Missouri Mauler, Johnny Weaver, Argentina Apollo

When I was a kid my grand parents use to take my brothers and I to the wrestling matches at Cobo Hall in Detroit. My grandmother loved that stuff.

We saw the Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd, who had played professional football, Tex Mackenzie, Fred Curry, Wild Bulls son, even Bruno Samartino made an appearance and many others.

But, my favorite was Bobo Brazil with his coco bunt.

I'll go with Bruno Samartino.

Wow I would have to go with favorites here. Just cant name one.

Stone Cold Steve Austin
Ricky SteamBoat
Rick Flair- "There are two people in this world. There are weasle and weasle slappers. Im a weasle slapper; Whoooooooooo!"
GORGEOUS GEORGE
BRUNO SAMMARTINO
Buddy Rogers
Mr.Perfect
Dusty Rhodes

Motown-

Now we're talking! Those were some of the greats that I remember as a kid. When I was fourteen, my dad took me to the original Madison Square Garden where I watched Bobo Brazil, Bruno Sammartino, the great Buddy Rogers, Killer Kowalski, Carpentier, the Fabulous Kangaroos and Antonino Rocca. Even the legendary Hatpin Mary turned up once and stuck Killer Kowalski in the butt as he approached the ring.

Those were some great days and memories.

Good thoughts,

Bob

Have to give the ol' Iron Shiek a nod as well. That guy didn't even have to exaggerate, he's like that all the time!

'Course we could go all the way back to Gotch and Hack, but I've only read about them.

George 'The Animal' Steele, by day mild mannered English professor, by night, illiterate grunting caveman wrestler - no one could ever top that.

The 'kayfabe' was brilliant in the days when the wrestlers evolved their own characters without all the scriptwriters and stylists etc.

The Iron Sheik, in real life under death sentence from the Ayotollahs as a former bodyguard of the Shah, acting a character representing them and defiantly chanting 'Death to America'. Sergeant Slaughter - who else could he be with that jutting jaw?

King Kong Bundy makes The Big Show and other modern giants look like pussies.

For me it all seemed to go down hill round the Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage era.

Although TNT doesn't seem to show here now, I thought some of their talent had real potential with nice clear characters - OBD and Orlando Jordan.

Hogan still annoys me with his overacting, though I always loved it 25 years ago when he'd had the crap beat out of him for 10 minutes and just when you knew he could endure no more, he'd be slumped limp on the canvas, caught in a choke hold by his opponent and the camera would catch just a flicker of energy in one of his fingers, then slowly the hand would struggle to lift itself in the air, gathering strength as it rose, till finally it clenched in a defiant fist and Hogan went on to smash the other guy and win the match.
Cliches like that made wrestling great.

It was a different era then.

There were a lot of characters and they weren't all pump up on roids. When I saw Sammartino, I think he fought the Sheik, he was probably at the end of his career.

Do you by chance remember hearing about a fight between Alex Karras, who was suspended from the Lions for the season, fighting Dick the Brusier at Cobo Hall? Didn't turn out to be much. Lot of hype though. Boy, I wish I had some of those old programs from the matches.

Craig

Craig-

No, I don't remember that, but I do remember TV wrestling out of Bridgeport, Connecticut (then run by Vince McMahon, Sr.) often referring to big upcoming matches at Cobo Hall and the Garden.

They even had a semblence (albeit minor) of rules back then. Matches had time limits and were often two out of three falls.

Yes, it was indeed a golden age of wrestling.

Do you remember Johnny Valentine, Skull Murphy, Cowboy Bob Ellis, and Handsome Johnny Barend?

Bob

Bob,

I remember seeing Cowboy Bob Ellis and I remember the Johnny Valentine name, but the other two I don't know.

Craig

Bob,

You can read the story here:

http://perspectivesonwrestling.blogspot.......air.html

I made a mistake, the fight was at the old Olympia Stadium in Detroit, where the Wings played.

No one has mentioned my man Bob Backlund. Was he flashy? No. Was he a great microphone man? No. Was he a high flyer of a wrestler? No. Was he in phenomenal shape? Yes. Did he usually give a way a huge weight advantage and size advantage? Yes. Did he walk around the ring, holding the much larger Hulk Hogan over his head? Yes. Did he have an incredible arsenal of moves? Yes. Did he once wrestle Rick Flair for nearly the full hour and pin him only to have flair slug the ref and get disqualified? Yes. Did Superfly Snuka once do a big splash onto his chest off the top of a cage? Yes. Bobby, you are the man! He was the best at playing the underdog fighting back and he held the belt for years. He always wanted to come back and have a fair wrestling (not rasslin') match against Hulk Hogan for the belt. Backlund would have won.