My Top 10 Favorite Professional Wrestlers

10. "Macho Man" Randy Savage 

I started watching professional wrestling in the summer of 1989 as a four year old with a vivid imagination. Along with professional wrestling, I also enjoyed shows like Superman and The Incredible Hulk. Professional wrestlers were to me real life superheros and super-villains and few were able to capture my attention like Randy Savage. Most of the time I didn't have a clue what he was saying as he would ramble on in his wild and crazy interviews where he often looked and sounded like he had been suffering from constipation for days. Nevertheless he got me excited before he even went out to the ring. Then in the ring, everything he did had meaning. From the way he delivered a punch to the way he would climb the ropes again and again with such precision, nailing one ax-handle after another, he was a tremendous showman in the ring. Looking back on what he did and what he achieved all these years later, it makes me appreciate the man even more. He was a one time intercontinental champion, a two time World heavyweight champion and a top draw in the WWE during a time when most men his size weren't given the time of day to even try. It was a big man's world back then with guys 6'5 285-330 lbs, yet at only 6'2 235 lbs, he paved the road for other smaller men to show that they could be every bit as electrifying and money making as the big guys.

9. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

As a worker in the business myself, I have to ask myself, "Was Roddy Piper a really good wrestler?"  The answer is no, he wasn't. His technique in the ring is often sloppy, his timing is often off and his arsenal of moves consisted of punches, kicks, a bulldog and a sleeper and that was about it. Yet, every single one of his matches he ever had was extraordinarily entertaining. Everything he ever did, from his interviews to his matches to his vignettes kept me hooked to the screen.  Why?  Because Roddy Piper had passion for this business. He created a character and he ate, slept, breathed and shit that character. Piper was known for hating the "f" word and I'm not talking about the "f" word most people think of. I'm talking about the other "f" word, fake. He hated it because nothing he ever did was fake. He made it so real and so believable that as a 30 year old man, when I sit down and watch old videos, I have no trouble at all suspending my disbelief. He's one of the best and he's one of my favorites.

8. Goldust 

I was a big fan of the flamboyant and bizarre one, Dustin Rhodes, even before he made his second appearance in the WWE. While in WCW he was one of my favorites there, as he feuded with "Ravishing" Rick Rude over the United States title in a series of very entertaining matches. Jake "the Snake" Roberts often gets a lot of credit as being the master of psychology, but I think Rhodes was every bit as good as Roberts if not better. He understood how to get the people to hate him, want to get out of there seats and kill him and he understood how to get the people to love him. Heel or face, he knew how to get reaction. I also loved the way he worked in the ring. His understanding and usage of tempo was amazing. He knew when to speed things up and he knew when to slow things down. His matches were like a 5 star film, climax, rising action and resolution all mixed up into one extremely entertaining match.

7. The Ultimate Warrior 

Yeah sorry, I don't have any pride to swallow and I sure as I am not going to try and convince anyone that I was too sophisticated and intelligent to have been a Warrior fan back in the day.  I was 5 years old in 1990, of course I was a warrior fanatic. Matter of fact in 1991, I was getting ready to attend my first amateur wrestling practice at Little Savage wrestling (and Savages was my school mascot...we didn't all dress up like little Macho men) and I wasn't real sure what I was going to. I knew that the wrestling I watched on T.V. and the wrestling that happened at the high school were different, but I didn't know how different. As a result I wanted to go in prepared so I grabbed my mom's lipstick out of the drawer and painted my face like the Ultimate Warrior. People, especially workers like to rag on Warrior because he wasn't a superb technician in the ring, but so what? The guy drew money and made millions of dollars as a professional wrestler. Hogan wasn't willing to job to anyone cleanly and he jobbed to the Warrior because he knew how good the Warrior was. He was intense and he had a character and a style that people resonated with. I still get pumped up when watching his interviews or his matches. If I don't feel like going to the gym, I go to youtube.com and type in "Ultimate Warrior."  Twenty minutes later I'm at the gym with burning biceps, trying to do one more curl.

6. Hulk Hogan 

Hell yes I was a Hulkamaniac! I'm STILL a Hulkamaniac!  Without Hulk Hogan, I doubt I ever would have gotten into professional wrestling. Even if I would have, I doubt I would have been as passionate about it and I doubt I would have fallen in love with it. Sure the real life Terry Bollea who plays the character has his own personal demons, but the character (especially from 1983-1995) is everything that is right about professional wrestling. It represents all of the reasons people love professional wrestling the way they do. Many people argue over who is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. Well many factors go into compiling a list and determining that answer. I think if we look at it strictly from a heel or face perspective, as a face Stone Cold Steve Austin would give Hogan a run for his money. However, ask this, was Stone Cold really all that big of a heel? I'd argue that his face run overshadows his heel run. Matter of fact his heel run can't hold a candle to his face run. Hogan on the other hand, had one of the biggest face runs AND one of the biggest heel runs of all time. He owned the WWE from 1983 to 1993 as a face and then he was hotter than the sun as a heel in WCW through the late 90's. Hogan single-handedly made fans out of millions and millions of people. I am one of them.

5. Owen Hart 

I made a compilation of my all time favorite matches the other day and two of them involve Owen Hart. One was where he lost to "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and the other was when he won his first Intercontinental championship from "The Rock" who was simply known as Rocky Maivia at the time. Owen was a jack of all trades in the ring and outside of it. He could be high flying and aerial, he could be technical and finesse and he could be roughhouse and dirty. While not as remembered and revered as his brother Bret, Owen was every bit as good of a technician. As a worker with an amateur background, I appreciate watching guys in the ring that I can tell have a background in amateur wrestling themselves. Owen was a tremendous amateur wrestler, having success at the Canadian provincials (similar to state tournaments here in the United States) and it shows in his matches. I've never seen a match of Owen's that didn't entertain me. It's a shame and it's a travesty that he was taken from us as soon as he was. Great wrestler, even better man. I miss him, he was one of my favorites.

4. The Patriot 

This one may surprise a few of you and I can understand that. Both his run in WCW and his run in WWE were rather short lived. Some fans don't even remember him. I was first introduced to The Patriot on ESPN's Global Wrestling Federation, where I would watch him battle in matches with The Dark Patriot and other GWF superstars. While I didn't find GWF to be nearly as exciting or entertaining as WWE or WCW, I watched it mainly because I liked The Patriot. A few years later, the Patriot showed up in WCW as Marcus Bagwell's tag team partner and I really enjoyed matches they had with Bunkhouse Buck and Dirty Dick Slater, Pretty Wonderful and Harlem Heat. When he disappeared from WCW I was quite disappointed. I wasn't even aware that he was coming to WWE a few years later when I saw him at a house show in Des Moines vs Billy Gunn. When his arrival became official, I was excited to see what the WWE would do with him. His run in WWE was excruciatingly short, but he did have some very good matches with Bret Hart, Owen Hart and Vader. Severe injuries and an addiction to prescription pain pills is officially what caused his career to come to an end, but I think he would have slowly been faded off television anyway. It was simply a matter of timing. The Patriot is a classic, wholesome American hero and when he came into WWE, they were transitioning into the Attitude Era which now condemned such characters as being weak and campy. I can't say that any other era would have been much better for him either. With Hulk Hogan often waving the red, white and blue and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan doing the same, I don't know if The Patriot would have been able to stand out on his own or not. Nevertheless, I always really enjoyed the character and his matches. I really wanted to incorporate "the Uncle Slam" into my arsenal of maneuvers when I became a professional wrestler, but unfortunately the move only works on wrestlers who are shorter than yourself.  At 5'7 that doesn't include many people.

3. Mr. Perfect 

When I think of myself as strictly a professional wrestler, as strictly a worker and not as a fan, hands down my favorite of all time is Mr. Perfect. From a strict fan perspective, he's still one of my favorites. The guys work rate was second to nobody's. He would go out into the ring and sell his ass off for anyone he thought would appreciate it. When I was working back in the day (and hopefully one day again in the future) I would watch hours upon hours of Mr. Perfect matches and pick them apart piece by piece looking for things that I could do in my own matches. They say that the best often beg, borrow and steal and if you're going to beg, borrow and steal why not do it from the very best? Why not do it from someone who was absolutely perfect? When I got to meet and work with his daughter Amy about 5 years ago, I was very happy to tell her the influence that her dad had on me and the way I performed. I've always prided myself as a guy that other workers can trust to make them look good and I learned that from Mr. Perfect.  Greatest Intercontinental champion of all time, and one of my favorites.

2. Bret "The Hitman" Hart

The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be, he believes it, I believe it and so do many others. When it comes to in ring work, no one was as good as Bret Hart. Much like what I said about Owen earlier, one of the appeals to me about Bret was his obvious amateur background that came out various times throughout his matches with his superior display of technique. All of his moves had clear precision and excellent execution. When I was in the business I was always picking the brains of guys who I thought were very successful asking them what I could do to make myself better. The best advice I was ever given was, "Make it real" and I think that's why Bret's matches were so good. It's why his interviews were so resonating and impacting. Nothing he ever did was phony. When he hit his patented side backbreaker, I would cringe because it looked like he was breaking the guys back. When he slapped on the sharpshooter I would wince in pain, because it looked like he was putting an immense amount of pressure on his opponent's lower back.  I met Bret many years ago in Missouri and I gave him a letter that I had written him. I told him in the letter that he was a major influence in my life and a hero to me growing up. I planned on being very successful in my life and felt having him as a hero of mine was one of the reasons I would be. I still plan on being very successful in life and I hope when that time comes I'm able to run into Bret again. I'm anxious to see if he remembers me giving him that letter.  Knowing how many people have looked up to Bret over the years and written him letters of appreciation, I doubt it.  Mine is one of millions. He's one of my favorites and I know for a fact that many other professional wrestling fans will say the same.

1. Marty Jannetty

Many fans and fellow workers are often shocked when I say, "Marty Jannetty" when they ask me who my favorite wrestler of all time is. Jannetty is my favorite because of how much fun I had watching him as a kid back in the late 80's and early 90's.  I think a lot of people were bigger Shawn Michaels fans than they were Jannetty fans during their time as The Rockers, but I thought Jannetty was so much better than Michaels. You'd think after all these years I'd be over the fact that Jannetty never ended up having the career that Michaels did, but I'm not. I still wish that I could go back in time and help Jannetty battle the demons, both personal and outside that he had to deal with during that time of his life. Do I think he could have been a world's champion to have carried the company? Yes, I do.  If he would have been able to concentrate and put all of his efforts into professional wrestling then yes I do. If not, then I see him being no less than a very successful two or three time Intercontinental champion. When he was on, he was on and his matches were exciting from start to finish. He always seemed like he was having such a good time out there in the ring. He's a lot of the reason I wanted to get into the business. He seemed to love what he was doing and he was great at it. That's why he's my favorite.