How will you see today's Superstars in 30 years?

[Radical Canadian Goose]

1985 was the first WrestleMania. Over 30 years ago now. Most of the wrestlers on the card are considered legends and fondly remembered by fans.

We remember Roddy Piper as the greatest heel of all time. Ricky Steamboat as a man who put on legendary matches with the likes of Ric Flair and Randy Savage. Tito Santana is considered one of the best midcarders ever.
Hulk Hogan is widely considered as the face of pro wrestling and despite everything that has transpired in his life, you can't change that.

I'm curious how we will regard today's current crop (Cena, Orton,Rollins,Owens,Cesaro,etc.)

30 years from now I see Cena in the same ilk as Hogan, Sammartino, Flair, etc. He has done everything to become a legend and deserves that respect in the future.

Orton can be seen as the Andre to Cena's Hogan IMO.

I could go on and on but I will stop. How does everybody else feel?

 

[Slash-LN]

I was going to start a similar thread recently.
Only I was going to wonder how we talk about these wrestlers in 20-30 is going to affect the opinions of the younger generation who didn't live through seeing them.

I think guys like Orton, as much as I don't like him, and Cena are going to be looked upon fondly in terms of what they were for their generation. You could probably throw Edge in there too.

I do think it's going to be interesting to see what we think of these wrestlers in hindsight.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

I believe that the people around my age will look on the crop of stars from the AE so on as some of the greatest ever. The reason I say this is because the AE is when I started watching so it's definiely nostalgia.

Nostalgia takes me onto my next point. When Hulk Hogan returned in 2002 and all the adults lost there shit I just didn't understand why they would turn on The Rock. I wasn't aware of Hulkamania and so on. To this day all my favorite wrestlers are from the AE onwards minus one person. Shawn Michaels. Now obviously the only reason Shawn is up there for me is because I have witnessed the 2nd half of his career. No Jake Roberts, Bret Hart or Ultimate Warrior for me.

So to summarise. I believe that in 30 years time wrestlers such as The Rock John Cena Triple H Steve Austin etc will genuinely be looked upon as the greatest of all time until another 30 years passes and they fade away into the past and the legends die down a little.

The only thing that could potentially stop your Andres and your Hogans and your Brunos stars fading, the fact the network keeps there memory alive.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

People tend to associate the things they fell in love with as a child or teenager as the most revered. So how will "we"—you, really—feel about wrestlers from today thirty years from now? The same way you felt about them when you first fell in love with them. You've already made up your mind.

The same way I made up my mind twenty years ago that Piper and Hart and Savage and Steamboat and Flair and Sting are all the greatest ever. It doesn't matter how long I watch. No one now is ever going to hold a candle to them, because the guys coming in now don't have the same benefit they did then — the innocence of my ignorance.

 

[Rayne]

Well, if past trends keep up, I'll probably see them at early funerals. The drug use isn't anything like it was in the '80s (although I'm sure there's quite a bit that doesn't get public), but we're still talking about a career where serious injuries affecting long-term longevity is part-and-parcel.

FiveThirtyEight- Are Pro Wrestlers Dying at an Unusual Rate?

That being said, IDR of course nailed it. You'll remember the performers from your childhood most fondly.