The best of the (w)rest(lers)

With all apologies to Sportsbyfletch's wrestling correspondent Brian Jones, I decided to compile my own list of the best grapplers and wrestlers of all time. Everyone can agree that Hogan and Flair are at the top of the list with either of the two in either position. They are the Hall of Famers so I won't even include them in my list of the next best 19. Now remember, this is my list of the ones I have seen and I admit that there were probably much better wrestlers going at it before I was born. But they won't make my list. Why? Because I don't go back and watch the old stuff because it isn't as fun. So this list is can be viewed as MY best since 1987ish.

19 Batista. The Animal himself is still going at it and while it took him a while he is the most dominant wrestler out there ever since Brock left to pursue the NFL and MMA. The Batista Bomb is unstoppable. If wrestling were real, he'd never lose. Pure dominance. And he's getting better on the mic, at least he was when I stopped watching on a regular basis.

18. Jake the Snake Roberts. After this guy DDT'ed you (devastating BTW) he threw a snake on you. I remember when he was blinded by Rick the Model Martel's perfume and had to fight him blind. I remember crying when Earthquake sat on the snake. I keep going back to the DDT though. You were done.

17 Kevin Nash/Diesel. The Jacknife powerbomb ruled the WWF right after he stopped Bob Backlund in about 8 seconds at MSG. Diesel started out as a valet and moved up and became a champ. a real rags-to-riches story there. And let's not forget that when HE went to WCW and created nWo, it changed wrestling FOREVER.

16 Brock Lesner. The next big thing would have owned the WWF if he had stuck around but he tried football and then MMA. Oh well. The unstoppable force rules the wrestling video game "Here Comes the Smackdown." You cannot stop him on that game.

15 Lex Lugar. He ruled the WCW then came to the WWF and, once he turned into "The All-American" he made me proud to be an American. He was able to bodyslam Yukozuma when NO ONE ELSE could. Amber Waves and Lex Lugar. You cannot get more American than that.

14 Sting. Whether it was fueding with Lugar for the US Title in WCW or turning into The Crow or the Wolfpack Sting, he was intimidating with the black bat, dropping from the rafters. In the WCW/nWo game for N64, Sting is simply badass. STINGER SPLASH!

13. Jimmy Superfly Snuka. When he jumped off the cage at MSG (is that right?) that earned him a place in my heart.

12. Macho Man. Ooooooooooooooooooooo, yeeeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhhhhhhh Randy Savage. I dig it. The Macho King/Man was always competing for championships and was always a fan of sunglasses at night. I don't care that he aged faster than the guy from the second episode of Fringe.

11. The Rock. He would be higher, but the early part of his career was stupid and after a while he became a bit like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura 2; he was just amping up what worked and ignoring everything else. PLUS he LEFT wrestling for movies. Come on.

10. HHH. Time to play the game! The Game is the biggest thing IN wrestling right now and is the franchise as we speak. He can go against ANYONE, play any angle and is willing to go the distance for the company. By the end of his career after his battles with Mankind, Stone Cold, The Rock, HBK, this guy could be mentioned in the same breath as Flair and Hogan.

9. Goldberg. When he was in his prime (too short or he would be higher) Goldberg was a beast, a machine, he was lesner and batista before they were. You couldn't stop him. That entrance. That finisher. Everything about Goldberg was intense. He was a supernova that burned out too quickly.

8. Stone Cold. He raged against the machine and for that people love him. But he wasn't a good wrestler, he was just good on the mic. For that, he is #8 and not #2.

7. Rick Steamboat Dragon. I don't remember much about him, just that he was one of the first wrestlers that got me hooked.

6. Ultimate Warrior. The way this guy would run into the ring....wow. He owned the WWF until he got popped for roids and came back a shell of his former self. I never got over that. WHO IS THIS IMPOSTER?

5. Andre the Giant. Anybody got a peanut? He didn't do much, but you couldn't bring him down. He ONLY lost matches when he wanted to. I guess this was when I realized it was fake. NO ONE could have beaten him.

4. Shawn Michaels HBK. With his skills in the ring and on the mic, he was hard to top. He was the sexy boy, NOT your boy toy. He was pushed for good reason and despite all of the injuries, I was a fan. I guess he gets penalized because it wasn't believable.

3. The Undertaker. This guy was impossible to stop early on. What grace he had when he climbed the rope. The tombstone piledriver. The white eyes. The Urn. The streak at wrestlemania. The only thing that bugged me was when he came back as a biker. What was that?

2. Mankind/Mick Foley/Cactus Jack. One of my co-workers Damian thinks that he should be #1. He wasn't good on the mic, but boy could he take a hit. I think he MIGHT have been a one-trick pony (all he did was take falls) but BOY could he take a fall. He probably is in 9 or 10 or the greatest matches if I were to put together a top 25 matches list. Remember when the Undertaker threw him off the Hell in the Cell? They created matches and a belt for this guy? He gave us Mr. Socko!

1. Bret the Hitman Hart. The excellence of execution. Nuff said.