classic Dusty Rhodes pic

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams

Now that's a lot of hardware.

Record setting wrestlers

Super Bowl 51 is in the record books. Tom Brady has set a record for having the most Super Bowl Championships as a quarterback. To my knowledge, not too many quarterbacks come close to this record, though I could easily be wrong.

This has me thinking. In pro wrestling, who would be considered the most successful wrestler(s)? There are a lot of people that could fall under this category.

Hulk Hogan

6x WWE Champion

6x WCW Champion

1x WWE Tag Team Champion

2x Royal Rumble Winner

Beaten the likes of Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, and many others. His first few title reigns lasted 1 year, or longer. If I'm not mistaken, his first reign went three years.

Considering Hogan was a box office draw for a better part of a decade, just in WWE, I'd say he's a record setter.

Ric Flair

If you listen to WWE, The Nature Boy is a 16x World Champion. Unofficially, he's at 21 World Title Reigns.

9x NWA World Champion

8x WCW World Champion

2x WCW International World Champion

2x WWE World Champion

This is only his recognized world title reigns. This doesn't include other major title reigns.

2x NWA Television Champion

6x NWA/WCW United States Champion

3x NWA World Tag Team Champion

1x WWE Intercontinental Champion

3x World Tag Team Champion

If my math is right, this is 36 major championships. This doesn't include territorial titles, like the Mid-Atlantic titles he held.

Considering how many big name matches he's been in over the years, Flair has a reputation that can't be beat anytime soon.

John Cena

13x WWE Champion

3x World Heavyweight Champion

2x World Tag Team Champion

5x WWE United States Champion

2x Royal Rumble Winner

Twenty three title reigns in the course of his roughly 14-year stay in WWE. Depending on how healthy he remains and how long he chooses to keep his career going, Cena can easily add to these numbers.

Probably the biggest name in the company during the last seven years. Cena is a cash cow that I haven't seen in a long time. This goes back to the Attitude Era, at the very least, when we had several wrestlers that were bringing in ratings, buy rates, merch sales, etc. His success could even rival (potentially) the success Hogan had during his heyday.

Cena is easily "da man" currently. That isn't going to change anytime soon, unless something drastic changes. With his reputation for hardwork & giving to charity, John Cena could easily be viewed as one of the most successful wrestlers yet.

Triple H

For the sake of not repeating old arguments, I’ll avoid the standard pissing and moaning about The Game. Triple H is another one of the more successful performers in wrestling.

9x WWE Champion

5x World Heavyweight Champion

5x Intercontinental Champion

2x European Champion

3x WWE Tag Team Champion

1997 KOTR Champion

2x Royal Rumble Winner

There aren’t many titles Triple H hasn’t won. Easily one of the most dominant performers during the last 20+ years. If it wasn’t for the Curtain Call incident, I have to wonder what else Triple H could have done.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Another legend from an era where you could work for at least two international promotions. Austin made his success like many other performers at the time. When opportunities dried up at one promotion, he went elsewhere. Best known for being the bird flipping, foul mouthed, beer drinking SOB, Steve Austin has done just about everything one individual can possibly do.

6x WWE Champion

2x WWF Intercontinental Champion

4x WWF Tag Team Champion

2x WCW United States Champion

2x WCW Television Champion

1x WCW Tag Team Champion

1x NWA Tag Team Champion

1996 KOTR Champion

3x Royal Rumble Winner

One of the few people in the business that could make a reputation for being anti-establishment, fighting with the boss. I can probably count on one hand the number of people who’ve successfully pulled this off.

The Rock

While many wrestlers have had roles on the big & small screen, Dwayne Johnson has easily been the only one that’s had such a great transition into acting. I know, Hogan did a lot of acting, as have many others. None of the wrestlers you can name have went on to the success The Rock has had with acting.

His in-ring success is just as impressive. One of the rare people in his generation to make his success in on company.

8x WWE Champion

2x WCW Champion

2x WWE Intercontinental Champion

5x WWE Tag Team Champion

Rock had “it” where it counted the most: charisma, actual speaking ability, and looks. You can say the same crap over and over again and somehow make it seem cool if you have charisma. Having actual speaking ability is a whole new subject. If you can say a variety of different things and still make it seem cool, that’s real talent. If you’ve got a certain look, that can be highly useful.

Sure, having great looks, in and of itself, doesn’t do much. If you have talent or speaking ability, having a certain look will certainly help. Take a look at guys like Arn Anderson, back in the day. If he had to rely purely on looks, he wouldn’t of succeeded as much as he did. Since he had in-ring talent and speaking ability, fans were able to accept him as a working class wrestler….someone you’d see as a neighbor, if you’re neighborhood involved mechanics, construction workers, and whatnot.

Rock had the look of a real superstar, someone that was going places. With the right combination of talents, it was only a matter of time before he was going to see success outside of WWE.

Sting

The painted one has enjoyed a highly successful career, as well. Damn near everywhere Sting has gone, he’s enjoyed some level of championship glory.

2x NWA World Champion

2x WCW International World Champion

6x WCW World Champion

4x TNA World Champion

2x WCW United States Champion

1x NWA Television Champion

3x WCW World Tag Team Champion

1x TNA Tag Team Champion

There’s been a bunch of other minor glories, winning a variety of tournaments and whatnot. Sting’s one of those guys that isn’t known for being highly talented, per se, but can somehow be worked with. The right look, the right character, a certain level of speaking skills, and the ability for fans to identify with him….Sting’s been able to make a great career for himself in wrestling.

Bret Hart

The Best There Is. The Best There Was. The Best There Ever Will Be. Bret “Hit Man” Hart has made a hell of a career as a wrestler. The accolades are highly impressive, IMO.

5x WWE Champion

2x WWE Intercontinental Champion

1x WWE United States Champion

2x WWE Tag Team Champion

2x WCW Champion

4x WCW United States Champion

1x WCW Tag Team Champion

KOTR Champion-1991 & 1993

Royal Rumble Co-Winner w/Lex Luger-1994

There have been many great matches & feuds over the years, including those with Jerry Lawler, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, and so many others. If it weren’t for some health issues, including a mule kick to his head by Goldberg, as well as a stroke (if I remember correctly), Bret could’ve ended his career on a far better note….potentially.

I know there’s a laundry list of people that could be counted on this list. HBK has won it all. Scott Hall’s had an impressive streak, himself, as has Kevin Nash. It could be argued that Lex Luger could be mentioned somewhere along the lines.

There are plenty of who could be the “Tom Brady” of wrestling. In wrestling, it’s hard to accurately determine what true success is. It’s not like the “legit” sports in many areas. You don’t “legit” win championships like you would in a sports game. If an injury happens to one member of a team, someone else can fill your spot until you come back. The team can keep moving forward. A wrestler gets an injury and their momentum stops.

Who’s truly the most successful in wrestling? Beats me.

Hulk Hogan (opinions)

I realize Hogan has many flaws, including a racist comment several years ago about his daughter dating black dudes. I know there are plenty of reasons for knocking the guy. I can’t disagree with the reasons for hating the man. I truly can’t.

Yet, he still manages to be a favorite of mine. Probably will be one of my all-time favorites, no matter how old I am. No matter how flawed certain people are, all of us still manage to have fond memories of certain people. Hogan is one of those guys that I have a hard time hating on too much.

Perhaps it’s all those memories I’ve built up, over the years. Maybe I realize that we all screw up hard and try my damnedest to judge him too harshly.

As far as entertainers are concerned, he was huge at a time when wrestling didn’t have nearly the TV time that it has now. Since the internet wasn’t exactly available, we didn’t exactly get to see guys like Hogan on TV on a never-ending cycle. Made it a lot easier to hide his in-ring flaws.

Personally, I feel WWE officials were a lot smarter back then. They used people as agents, bookers, and whatnot to help develop their talent in such a way that they could look good on television.

Hogan was no different. He was pushed in such a away where his strong points were emphasized. Quite simply, Hogan had a certain charisma. Kids seemed to love him. When kids love certain performers, promotions are foolish to not take advantage of that. WWE was no different. You need younger fans, those less jaded, to help sell tickets. When younger fans want to go to a show, the parents buy tickets for the kids, themselves, maybe bring along a few friends. It could be a parent and the interested child. Maybe it’s the whole family.

Either way, you’ve got several people going to the event. Merchandise is bought at the event. A buddy of mine from Middle School used to get all the Pay-Per-Views, back in the day. This was when the major companies only had 4-5 major shows a year. Didn’t matter if we were talking WWE or NWA/WCW. Dude use to get them all.

Stuff like this was huge. Took guys like Hogan to keep drawing in the revenue.

Somehow, he managed to do it. Even as a kid, we knew it was the same, worn out, tired shtick. Said the same thing when he was on TV. His matches followed the same format. I suppose it was forgivable, considering the generation. Hogan had so many talented opponents, all of whom seemed more then capable of working an entertaining feud, nobody seemed to care all that much.

Wasn’t until a few years into the 90’s when anyone gave a damn. Wrestling was gaining more exposure on TV. We had a fresh crop of talent available to us. Tastes were changing. While the business was slowly changing, beginning with the New Generation, guys like Hogan were still operating under the old ways of doing business.

Took the formation of the New World Order to give Hogan a fresh image, something that allowed fans to look at him in a new light. If you didn’t grow up in this generation, you can’t completely understand how big of a deal this was. Personally, I feel this kept Hogan’s career alive. There’s a strong possibility that Hogan’s career would’ve ended in the mid-90’s if he failed to change with the business.

Hogan’s ability to change with the business was probably his biggest asset. Playing politics, no matter your line of work, is always a high priority. I don’t care if you clean toilets for a living. If you have the ability to play ball convincingly, you’ll always be poised to get the best returns for your investment, in a manner of speaking. That’s what kept Hogan going for so many years.

Sure, he had the look. He had the gift to gab. He could keep your attention when you’d otherwise stop caring. Hogan had the ability to make you believe he was in deep crap, during his matches. Each match could be the match where some monster heel, such as King Kong Bundy or Andre the Giant, would take him down. When he face a technically sound opponent, he had a way of making them look strong as well, despite the size advantage he had over them.

We don’t get that like we used to. Perhaps one day, we’ll go back to the basics. Perhaps we’ll return to the days where you had to convince the fans that shit has gotten real.

Lance Storm & Christian

Why was Christian in possession of the Women's Title?

Barbarian circa 1984