If You Removed Any Wrestler, Who Would Have The Biggest Impact On You?

[Calderownz]

This could be historically, this could be currently. It can either impact you in a good way or a bad way.

It doesn't have to be the biggest impact on the industry, either. It can have simply a personal effect.

Personally, two people come to mind for me.

The first guy that comes to mind is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He pretty much shaped the Attitude Era for me and millions more. Without him, I can't imagine how the "Monday Night Wars" would have gone. The Attitude Era may not even exist.

The other would be Bret Hart. In some ways, he had way less impact on the entire landscape then Austin did, aside from getting him over, but he forced me to look at wrestling differently. I began to appreciate storytelling during matches.

 

[Rasha]

This is easy for me; Hulk Hogan. I was born in 1982 so "Hulkamania" was at its apex exactly when I was still young enough to believe Hulk was larger than life. He was a living, breathing superhero and, to a kid who grew up on He-Man and Star Wars, was what it was going to take for me to be interested in wrestling. I probably would not be a fan today without him.

 

[El_Rey_del_Martinete]

For me, it would be Rey Misterio Jr. My first wrestling viewing experience was watching Lucha Libre AAA as a kid. I don't remember if it was the acrobatic moves or the his colorful masks, but I instantly became a fan. Once he began wrestling on this side of the border, I started paying attention to American wrestling promotions and have been a fan ever since.

 

[Low_Ki]

I would probably go with The Rock.

I think the impact would have been huge had The Rock not ascended to greatness. During the time of 'The Attitude Era' he was the yang to 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin's ying. Without a top heel like The Rock, I don't think Austin would have had such a great feud build up to WrestleMania 15. Vince would have chosen another top heel and I don't think that anyone can touch Rocky on his promo ability, and that is part of the reason why his and Austin's feud was so damn successful.

And lets face it, Chris Jericho's debut would not have been as epic without two of the biggest promo machines in wrestling duelling it out when the 'Millienium Countdown' came to a head during The Rock's in-ring promo about The Big Show.

So its a no-brainer for me, The Rock definately.

 

[nHoBoss]

I have to agree with Rasha...Hulk Hogan....the man built the wwf..In my opinion he's the only wrestler that was amazing as a Face, and even more amazing as a heel. I don't remember any wrestler that could be amazing as a good guy and amazing as a bad guy. I prolly would have never gotten into wrestling if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan. I was born in 1976 so I've been then with hogan since the begining..

 

[darthwwewwe]

My first post.Any way i belive that 3 people come to mind
Of course what you said,stone cold

John Cena:I am not a cena lover, however im a cena fan and i belive without him the pg era would not of usherd in and wwe would not be what it is today

Hul Hogano i even need to explain?.....yes.....well ok, i rekkon that hulk hogan was the true maker of wrestling he put wrestling on the map and he is the only person that without there would be no wwe or wcw or ecw or tna because wrestling would of died
but for goodness sake I HATE HIM..... haha

 

[TheLoneCharles]

Ultimately it is Hulk Hogan. I was born in 1982 so I was still young when he was in his prime, but without him the WWF sunk to some epic lows. Yes, I was a fan in the dreaded mid 90s and trust me the loss of Hogan was disastrous to the overall product.

In the modern era, John Cena is going to go down as legend and Randy Orton is well on his way. For me in the modern era it has to be Triple H. Although he can get tedious at times, he was and still is legit and entertaining in nearly everything he does. I'm glad that he will probably remain an on-air character probably until the day he dies. The current product needs more Triple H.

 

[jholcomb22]

I am going to go a little out of the box. Since I think the 3 biggest will be said over and over again (Hogan, Rock, Stone Cold), I will choose a different one.

Vince McMahon: Not as the CEO. But as the wrestler. Somebody said Rock was the yang to Stone Cold's ying. Early on, I would agree with that. But after Rock turned face, VKM took on the face role as well as anyone could have. He had all the power, but was willing to get his ass kicked to help the company grow. His feuds with Stone Cold and then HHH are some all time greats. It helped propel both those superstars to what they ended up being.

He didn't have the biggest impact (i'd give that distinction to Hogan), or the most electrifying (Rock), but to see the owner step out of the box and compete with the top stars like he did was great for business and led to great storylines.

Imagine if Dana White would do the same. Brock Lesnar vs. Dana White would be the highest grossing UFC PPV ever.

 

[douce1973]

Hogan would be a natural choice as for total industry impact, but I can't help thinking that if it wasn't for the backing (financial and marketing savvy) of Vince during that period, things may not have gone over as well.

For me it's got to be the Nature Boy. This man could wrestle a broadway with a broomstick and make the crowd think the broom has a chance. Most of the time as the NWA champ he was toiling for promoters who were definately not in the same league as Vince McMahon in terms of financial/marketing stability - but still managed to draw wherever he went.

When Hogan moved to WCW and continued on with is superhero gimmick, it eventually fell flat with the fans...... I have NEVER seen fans turn on Flair with shoot hate - even when his character was being destroyed during the Sullivan and Nash booking days in WCW.... hell when Jim Herd fired him and threw the belt on Lex Luger, the fans went apeshit and screamed "We want Flair" for the entire time he was with WWE in 91/92.

THAT'S IMPACT.

If Hogan wouldn't have showed up when he did, I'm sure Vince would've found Flair and rode his star a lot more than he did.

 

[Hit My Dutch]

The Undertaker. Just think without him there would have been no Ministry , Corporate Ministry , not to mention no Kane , Inferno Match and possibly even no Hell In A Cell match.

 

[Montague]

For me the Undertaker, because without Taker there would be no Kane, no Bearer, no Hell in a Cell, no Streak, no Baried Alive Match, no classic Mankind feud, it could go on and on and on

 

[WzTopHeel]

For me Id have to say JOHN CENA this guy has had the biggest impact on me as a kid without cena there would be no PG ERA. who else can pull off an attitude adjustment or a 5 knuckle shuffle like him? R Truth? come on John Cena is the man tho I misswatching the days of his gangta lifestyle dissin Jay Z gettin stabbed up by carlito then he joinedthe marines changed up his lifestyle up a bit becoming more serious stopped haning in the streets/selling cokain. WWE without John Cena would be disasterous and i simply would be heartbroken.

 

[JackGallow]

well there are two people that come to my mind

1) Kurt Angle- Kurt is a man that ive been following since before his entrance into Professional Wrestling, when I was doing intermural wrestling in Elementary school my coach would tell us stories of when he roomed with him in college and how he followed his dream and stopped at nothing to achieve ultimate success, and he translated that to Professional Wrestling. Kurt is my ultimate inspiration and without his entrance into Pro Wrestling I dont know that I would have the drive I do to one day make it as well.

2) The Undertaker- This is the man that I watched at Wrestlemania 14 make an entrance that forced me to follow wrestling every week from that point forward. His presence gave me chills and to this day I admire that man, like I said without him i dont know that I would have followed wrestling and grown to love it as much as I do so without him as well my life could be something completely different.

 

[danny_the_legend_killer]

By far for me, it would have to be shawn Micheals i still remember the day i first saw him it was summerslam 2002 he was returning to fight triple h, i was about to turn it off but JR talked about how younger fans "wont know shaun micheals and how he is an inspiration coming back after 4 years with a broken back" so i left it on and at the time hbk was like my idle i watched him every week and without him i dont think i would be a wrestling fan today.

 

[ccotreau1]

I agree with jholcomb22 when he said Vince McMahon...only difference is I would go as far as not just the wrestler, but the whole Mr. McMahon character. He created a perfect character for himself, feuding with Austin, both inside the ring and doing promos. What other owner can you say has done that? Take him out and I don't think WCW would have been bought out when it was, I think that it would have held on a few more years.

 

[The Five-Star Frog Splash]

First off, great thread idea! Very cool

If one wrestler was removed from my life that has affected me, it would without a shadow of a doubt be Shawn Michaels.

Arguably the greatest wrestler of all time, with the only other person to match and exceed him being Ric Flair of course. But he is still my personal favorite wrestler of all time. If it wasn't for HBK, I wouldn't be typing these words right here, at least, I don't think so. Maybe I would've gotten into wrestling eventually because of my uncle and his son Brian, but the point being, Shawn has had such an impact on me as a fan, that he has truly inspired me to become a wrestler one day and be better than him, Lord willing lol. Since my name first and middle name is Sean Michael, hearing that at 3, I turn around and see HBK on TV and immediately become interested in this dude with awesome hair, and I think it was a combo of wrestling/his cool look/hair that got me intrigued lol. He was the first guy I ever heard of, so I don't know what would happen if he was historically removed. Another two people are Stone Cold and the Rock, since they were so prominently featured in WWF at the time, they had an effect on me too.

 

[#hamler]

Let's see. There's a bunch of course.
Hogan/McMahon- they both deserve credit for forming the WWE into the international industry it is today. Transforming plain old wrestling into sports entertainment. Without these two, none of this would exist. Nothing at all.
Chris Jericho/Ediie Guerrero- made it possible for guys like Daniel Bryan, Kaval and AJ Styles to make it in the big man's business. Made it ok to be normal size and still compete for heavyweight titles and such. Rey Mysterio too.
Steve Austin- started the attitude era or at least perfected it. Made it last as long as it did. Without him, we would've never had the Mr. McMahon character I love so much. Without his inpact, we wouldn't habe Randy Orton punting authoruity figures.
Undertaker- established a gimmick and stuck with it for most of his career. To me it never got stale, never got boring or never got old. Made it possible for big man to be strong and at the same time agile and quick.

 

[trevor62794]

I would say Shawn Michaels because he was my role model, No great ladder match, No HHH success, but this list could just keep goin becuz every1 had sum1 to elevate their career, just my opinion

 

[Karnuj]

the most impactful wrestler removed changing the landscape i know as professional wrestling, Killer Kowalski, why you ask? the wrestlers he trained, imagine wrestling without the 9th wonder of the world, no triple H, no kenny dykstra(i mean if the spirit squad never happened would the shane vince and dx storyline really have been as good. shit without triple H to begin with would DX exist?) without harvard chris being trained by kowalski would he have come up with the concussion research that he is currently involved in? kowalski is probably a rare pick but I totally think wrestling as i know it would not be nearly the same if he never were around.

 

[michael.foulds]

For me, it has to be The Rock. I started watching wrestling properly in January 2000, The Rock was the main guy. If I never saw The Rock, I doubt I would have ever got into wrestling, because I'd watched it before and wasn't interested. Not interested at all. Then, one day my Uncle was watching it and I saw The Rock, I was only 9 years old and I thought he was hilarious and a tremendous athlete. Without The Rock, I wouldn't watch WWE ( I ocassionally watched WCW ) but was never really a big fan of it.

 

[Morpheus101]

Hulk Hogan, by far.

In the beginning, he propelled professional wrestling to the glitzy, sports entertainment level that it is now. He was the first wrestler to be a true megastar and household name. Hogan's character in the 80's made professional wrestling into the giant global phenomenon that it is today, where professional wrestlers became household names.

Hogan actually made just as much of an impact when he made the switch to WCW and joined the nWo. WCW's ratings were ahead of WWE's for a while, which lead to Vince pushing Austin/DX and bringing in the "Attitude" era, which once again changed the face of professional wrestling forever. The competition between WWE (then WWF) and WCW in the mid to late 90's created the best era in professional wrestling and spawned the likes of Rock, Austin, DX and the nWo.

 

[StunnaMan12]

Well mines goes like this...I remember I was in middle school and people would ask me my name and I would go to tell them(even though they should know my name already) and then they go"IT DOESN"T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS..JABRONI!" I was like that's not even funny...and what is a Jabroni?Found out it was from WWF started watching it...and lo and behold that stuff was freakin funny.I was hooked.It was the Rock who brought me into watching wrestling.I've never seen a character like him...who held the crowd in the palm of his hands.Without The Rock there wouldn't be a Smackdown.It would probably be called WHAT?. Ok maybe not that but ..my point he was innovative.Anyways my pick is the The Rock. What's yours? Write it down you like writing things down.

 

[peep4life]

I got 4
The Rock-When I was about 7 or 8(Im 15 now) My family would go to rent a Movie and I always got a wrestling movie and the place had old wrestling tapes and I LOVED Rock I cheered for him everytime against SCSA. He was one of the people that really got me interested and was a big part of the Attitude Era.

Eddie Guerrero-When I realized Wrestling was on TV I watched SD! and Eddie was one of the main reason I watched every Thursday. He was funnyI loved how he won matches and couldnt wait to see how he was gonna win the Next week.

Edge and Christian-They made Tag team wrestling exicting with the Hardyz and Dudleys. Being a huge Christian Mark anda Big Fan of Edge I first saw them as a Tag Team I loved the 5 sec. poses and everytime Christians Grandma called she talked to Edge more lol these 2 were funny as hell. and If these 2 had a big impact these 2 with Hardyz and Dudely's made the TLC match and great Tag Team Wrestlig

 

[dashing]

Shawn Michaels for me. A few people have stated this already but he was such a brilliant wrestler to watch, high flying, could wrestle on the mat too as the Iron Man Match at WM12 proved and also was great on the mic, he could be serious and also very funny, and great as both a face and a heel which you can only say about a handful of wrestlers. I think the likes of The Rock must of looked up to him in that respect, studied what made Shawn Michaels so good on the mic and took it up a notch.

What really made him great was how you almost suspended belief in wrestling being real/fake in the ring. With the exception of that infamous match with Hogan he was the absolute best at selling and making another man look good, you could almost feel every punch, slam or submission he took. I will never forget his Wrestlemania matches, they are the only matches that have me screaming at the screen like it's a football game or something. No other wrestler can make me act like such a douche, haha. His match with the Undertaker at WM25 had me going crazy everytime he kicked out of a near fall. His final match with Undertaker...where he pulls himself up, exhausted yet determined and slaps the Undertaker was incredible and just summed him up as a wrestler. I really think if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be posting here now.