"Nobody's favourite wrestler" - or are they??

[SaitoRyo]

Hey @JLM, I too loved Susumu Yokosuka during the 2000s to mid-2010s. I got big into DG around '06 and he stood out to me for many of the reasons you mentioned. I specifically remember an Open the Dream Gate Title match he had with Ryo Saito that year being an absolute belter.

[organizedkaos]

3 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

The New Age Outlaws were a great team. Road Dogg & Billy Gunn were not great wrestlers.

Road Dogg or Mick Foley would've been my favourites when I first got in to wrestling (circa Corporation vs DX feud). He was definitely a fave of some friends too, and apparently was a super merch seller (specifically Road Dogg, not Billy Gunn) around that time.

He was cool, had loads of charisma and the hardcore stuff seemed absolutely bonkers to my very new to wrestling eyes. He genuinely came across as this underdog "everyman" who was fighting the system (that cursed Big Bossman) and was also the coolest guy in the room. Catnip to a teenager

Edited January 22, 2025 by organizedkaos
Tita's Edits 003 x One Day

[Callum1993]

When I got into wrestling in 1998 when I was 5 there were a few random wrestlers who were my favourites for short periods of time. 
 

Going into Woolworths I was allowed to buy any figure I wanted. Did I go for Stone Cold? The Rock? The Undertaker? No I went for Thrasher. Specifically this Thrasher in Deep Sea Diving gear:

 

He went over all the other Hasbro figures in my Nan’s house until I bought some other modern figures. 
 

Around this time I also started player WCW/NWO Revenge on my Uncle’s N64. I thought Mortis was the coolest looking wrestler I’d ever seen. Soon after Kane and then Brock became my favourites but in the early days it was Thrasher and Mortis. 

[Carbomb]

All the talk about DG reminds me of how much I loved the entire promotion back in 2005. Because of them, I really like the stables system - back when I briefly entertained the idea of promoting (yes, I know), I planned to make my promotion unique by basing it along the same lines. 

On topic, I liked everyone from the Italian Connection - though I didn't come to appreciate Anthony W. Mori until he was in Pos. Hearts. But I was blown away by how state-of-the-art it all was, particularly Milano Collection AT, YOSSINO, K-Ness, Second/Naruki Doi, pretty much everyone in Blood Generation, BxB Hulk, and Tozawa.

(DragonGate in general was just amazing to me as a wrestling fan - not just the stable system, but also the intelligent marketing: promoting all these young pretty boys and leaning into Japanese pop culture to draw an audience comprised majorly of young Japanese women, not to mention the short-lived, but extremely clever, DragonGate Prestige fashion range [instead of just doing t-shirts, this was a stylish fashion line that incorporated the very cool DragonGate logo, but without the "pro-wrestling" bit, to make it universal]. Also, they showed exactly how to use a six-sided ring: they made it a special feature of the Toryumon 2000 Project, again making it part of the presentation of this style of wrestling as slick and state-of-the-art.)

Edited January 22, 2025 by Carbomb
Zvonimir Boban

[Chili]

On the WCW side of things, I adored La Parka. Just a brilliant physical charisma to him, especially with that hilarious strut or when he'd pose on the chair. Ridiculous that didn't actually try to do anything with him because he was just another one of the mexicans in WCW that wasn't Rey or Juvi.

[Arch Stanton]

@air_raid honest mistake I'm sure, but you missed Mark Henry off your massive long list of obvious favourites.

[mim731]

As a kid I was convinced that Max Moon was going to be the next big thing. The fireworks, the gear, the weird arm cannon. Should have been main eventing. Like a Bill and Ted villain come to life. 

Edited January 22, 2025 by mim731
To add something, or maybe nothing...

[air_raid]

8 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

@air_raid honest mistake I'm sure, but you missed Mark Henry off your massive long list of obvious favourites.

Sadly my entry about Mark for this challenge seems lost to the ages....

 

[Devon Malcolm]

At least nobody's said Enzo Amore, I guess.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

9 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

At least nobody's said Enzo Amore, I guess.

He's not even his mums favourite wrestler. 

[Carbomb]

Kerwin White. Only time I've ever enjoyed anything by Chavo Guerrero. Was such a clever heel gimmick, I still think it's such a shame it never got to really run, or has never had any similar versions to it years later.

[Hannibal Scorch]

I loved Shane Helms in WCW. Of course, The Hurricane turned into a great gimmick, but 3 Count, Sugar Shane Helms and the dying days of WCW, he was great!

Also loved Kanyon, always looked crisp in the ring, but obviously his WWE run was disappointing.

My mate, whose one of the biggest and most knowledgeable fans I know told me in 2000 that Mike Sanders was going to be bigger then The Rock.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

2 hours ago, wordsfromlee said:

Purely from that game Ahmed Johnson became my go to guy. I loved the look and thought the Pear River Plunge was cool as fuck. 

I came here to say this. The music, the earrings, the red and black attire, the 4 pairs of knee pads. I loved him. Thankfully I never saw him in WCW where I gather he put on a fair amount of weight. Injury prone or not, he has one of my favourite looks in wrestling. 

I’m also not buying that Jim Duggan is anyone’s favourite. Madness.

Edited January 22, 2025 by Dr. Alan Grant

[Supremo]

4 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

In 1999 Test  was the best wrestler on Earth and no one could have convinced me otherwise. 

The work rate era of the last twenty five years has just been guys trying to reach the level of Test vs. Shane McMahon at Summerslam 1999.

[davertfnewman]

Bret is my absolute favourite and the greatest wrestler of all time, but the best heel I ever saw wrestle live was "Gentleman" Jimmy Ocean at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cannock. Second to him, Fit Finlay when he was the nastiest bastard you could find.

A guy who I would always give a look to was Hercules. Beyond that, the greatest heel who never had a run against Hogan in the glory days was Spiros Arion.