Who had/has the best ring charisma?

[Miko]

So we've got threads dedicated to great mic work and great promo skills but after an incredibly limited amount of searching I couldnt find any threads dedicated to peoples in ring charisma.

I consider in ring charisma to be a mans ability to draw you into a match, the ability to make you cheer for a signature move or taunt, to make you really care if they win or lose. Or the reverse, the ability to make you hate everything they did in the ring, to make you frustrated when they were dominating.

For example, some people make me laugh on the mic, but once they get in the ring I lose interest. Some like Goldberg were shit on the mic, but I wanted to see him dominate anyway.

My examples of people like this would be;

The obvious Hulk Hogan, the man who kept a crowd entertained all throughout the match despite the fact he spent 90% of it getting his arse handed to him. The roars that he used to get when he Hulked up were tremendous. Or when he was a heel, people hated it when he started to dominate, really, really hated it.

Ultimate Warrior the guy used to get mega cheers for simply pumping his arms up and down, enough said.

*insert great heel here* probably Dibiase, or Piper or someone, a guy that just made the face that much more likeable because they were so hateable. Maybe even JBL. Someone who pissed you off in the ring.

So yeah, who would you consider to have the best charisma of all time?

 

[TimetoShine]

Only one name comes to mind as having the best charisma of all time, that man being none other then The Rock. As a heel or as a face, this man had millions of people wrapped around his little finger, hanging on every word, hoping that his promos would go on forever. To this day I go to Youtube every now and then to check out his great promos, and there are a TON of them. This guy was so far above his peers in talent and charisma, it was not even fair, as they were fighting for second place, and they could only hope to be half as good.

 

[smalltownfan]

Without question, the Rock had the best charisma. He was THE BEST on the mic and always had the crowd in the palm of his hand and NOBODY could talk trash better.

 

[supersayian]

well for charisma i will go with Austin instead of the Rock. Austin could really get you to love him by the gestures he made and the way he handled Vince and other opponents to get in there head was just great. he did crazy things that got the crowd to go nuts. driving beer trucks into arenas to pouring cement in million dollar cars to making the boss look like a jackass. one who can get into Vince head that much is insane. he did things that i will never see again or forget.

 

[Tenta]

I'm actually going to go with a name that gets largely unrecognized in some circles, yet really defined what it meant to be a cocky, arrogant heel. Not only was this man a superior worker on the mic, but he was able to exude said confidence into the wrestling ring, with a strut that made you want to hate the man in the ring. He was the type of guy you'd never mess with, due to how muscular he was, but you wanted to kick his ass so badly every time he referred to you as a "Sweat Hog"

Ravishing Rick Rude

Simply put, this man got heat in any promotion he went to, and was exactly the type of heel that was able to aggravate the fans. Yet, even in the ring, he was absolutely cocky, and we hated every minute we saw him strut around the ring in confidence. The man knew exactly how to draw jeers from every type of fan, and how to suck up all of the fans hatred. And yet, when he needed to, he sold like absolute gold. I don't think, with the exception of Ric Flair and Curt Hennig, that you'll find a wrestler that sold nearly as well as The Ravishing One. He knew when it was time to sell to his opponent, and how to make you feel that the man was destined to have his ass kicked.

Still, when he had the match in his favor, everyone in the arena knew it, just by the smug look that appeared on his face. If any wrestler understood the importance of facial expressions, it was Rick Rude. The condescending look he gave to all of the "sweat hogs" in the arena was just absolutely perfect, and personified exactly how you wish a hell would look at all of his opponents. Hell, even the way he took his robe off was absolutely perfect, and he did so in a manner that he felt everyone wanted to watch him strip naked, and given his character, you know he would if he was ever given the chance. The man just had such a swagger to him, that it was completely infuriating, and you wished that the face would come, and smack the Hell out of Rick.

I'm going to portray two matches on this footage, with one match being against a jobber, and personifies his cockiness in the ring. Then, I'll show a match between him and The Ultimate Warrior, in which he sells like gold for Warrior.

[youtube]uTK-p1Xm2w4&feature=related[/youtube]

Here is his selling abilities personified in this match with The Warrior and Rude at Wrestlemania V

[youtube]buL7m2AuhDo&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]Gk4j3hshC5k&feature=related[/youtube]

The 80s and 90s was loaded with cocky heels that you would pay hundreds of dollars to watch that man get his ass kicked. And not character was better at having that appeal than the late great "Ravishing" Rick Rude

 

[SavageTaker]

Since people have already mentioned Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and others I’m going to mention someone else. That man is none other than:

Randy “Macho Man” Savage

When Randy Savage came out through the curtains, everyone payed attention immediately. Whether he was playing the role of a babyface or a heel, he always got a reaction.

People always reacted to his antics as a heel. If he jumped out of the ring when one of his opponents was going to attack him, people would boo and think he was a coward. If he was getting chased around the ring, he would stand behind his woman: Miss. Elizabeth. He avoided getting attacked by the heels by getting behind her and the fans would boo him and think he was a coward.

Those were some of the reasons why people reacted to him: because they thought he was a coward. But they also watched him when he was wrestling. He always tried to put on the best performance from all of the wrestlers on the card and he gave the people their money’s worth. He was a great wrestler that could draw you in and make you watch one of his matches. He was very entertaining, as both a heel and face.

When he played the heel role in a match, people wanted to see him get his arse kicked by the babyface. They couldn’t stand it when he was dominating a match. But he continued to get boo’s, but people loved booing him. The same goes when he was the babyface in a match. People loved cheering for him when he was getting dominated.

Randy Savage is definitely one of the most charismatic when he was inside of a wrestling ring. He did a great job at garnering a reaction from the fans, whether he was playing the role of the babyface or the role of the heel. He never disappointed in his matches and I will remember him as one of the most charismatic inside the ring.

 

[The Decrypter]

Randy Savage is definitely one of the most charismatic when he was inside of a wrestling ring. He did a great job at garnering a reaction from the fans, whether he was playing the role of the babyface or the role of the heel. He never disappointed in his matches and I will remember him as one of the most charismatic inside the ring.

I believe the thread creator asked for the "most" charismatic in the ring, not just a simple "one of."

 

[The Decrypter]

Only one name comes to mind as having the best charisma of all time, that man being none other then The Rock. As a heel or as a face, this man had millions of people wrapped around his little finger, hanging on every word, hoping that his promos would go on forever. To this day I go to Youtube every now and then to check out his great promos, and there are a TON of them. This guy was so far above his peers in talent and charisma, it was not even fair, as they were fighting for second place, and they could only hope to be half as good.

Just by lookin' at this reply, I can tell that reading the first post is very unpopular around here. >_>

There's a complete difference between "charisma" and "in-ring charisma".

 

[Reddannihilation]

In-ring Charisma is undoubtedly one of the more difficult aspects of wrestling to judge (imo) but if I had to pick I'd probably say The Rock, mainly because of the people's elbow. At it's simplest form it was an elbow drop but the reactions Rock got when he peeled off the pad and the overall execution made it so interesting. The Rock was incredibly entertaining to watch, I think one of the best things about him as a wrestler was that even when he was playing the heel or in the case of Wrestlemania X8 when people just felt like cheering Hogan, he still got a massive reaction for what Michael Cole would call "vintage Rock". Everything about the man was entertaining and I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find any wrestler whose charisma outside the ring translated so well into his in-ring work as well.