Wrestler of the Decade: 1990's

[Ruthless-RKO]

I think this decade was great, soo many great wrestlers to choose from as well, you had both WWF/E and WCW wrestlers and everyone was at the top of their game! Now the decade is from the years 1990 to 1999..

Who would you have to say was the Wrestler of 1990's???

Please vote in the poll and Verify your Answers!!

(My answer will appear shortly)

P.S. Please keep this on topic and don't judge on who should be in the poll and who shouldn't, if the wrestler you pick is not on the poll, then tick 'other'..I warn you now so the Moderators don't have to and start handing out infractions...thank-you..

 

[bighaas1]

im going to say the undertaker because he went though the hell in a cell match with mick foley and he went though the ministry of darkness gimmick and the wrestlemaina streak started.

 

[litarock82]

austin, hbk, hogan, sting, rock all had their brief shiining moments
BUT THE UNDERTAKER WENT THROUGH THE WHOLE DECADE AS A MAIN EVENT PLAYER!
Undertaker had key feuds with everyone, hbk, hogan, hhh, mankind, austin, rock, undertakers character was a stroke of genius, he made the decade what it was, intense and powerful

 

[RickRockwell]

There's no doubt that it's Stone Cold Steve Austin.. He redefined an era and became a mainstream sensation in the 90's... Nobody was more popular...

 

[ChiefAlot]

all wrestlers put forth are all amazing. Even the others.
But my choice by far would be hogan.
He was on top in the late 80's and brought wwf/e into the 90's.

 

[ButYouAlreadyKnewThat.]

HBK..He had the best matches eg vs Razor Ramon WM 10 and vs Bret Hart WM XII. I mean this is the decade that Michaels became the showstopper, the heartbreak kid and Mr.Wrestlemania. The decade that made him, the legend he is today.

 

[Megadeth]

I have to go with the Hitman, Bret Hart. He pretty much carried the WWE for most of the 90's, during a time when the WWF was struggling, and it's reputation hurt by the steroid scandal of the early 90's. Even when Bret wasn't the champion, he was usually heavily featured, and more than once was asked to do multiple matches on PPV. Not to mention, he was so instrumental in getting several of the other guys on this list over. He helped to make Shawn Michaels a true main eventer, with their epic Iron man match. Stone Cold Steve Austin really began to get over when he started to feud with Bret. Razor Ramon even had a short feud with the Hitman, fighting him for the WWF title at the Royal Rumble in 93.

Here is why I think Bret wins out over some of the others:

Sting - I just always felt the surfer gimmick that Sting had for most of the 90's was just so generic. And when he became the crow gimmick, I liked it, but the fact is he didnt wrestle for almost a year, so really his prime time was only from 98 and on in my opinion, and two years isnt enough time on top to be the wrestler of the decade.
Hogan - I never really cared for Hogan up until the formation of the nWo, like Sting I felt the red and yellow was to generic. Plus, in ring, Hogan definately started slipping through the 90's, and by the time of the nWo, it seemed like his move set was pretty basic, cheap heel stuff.
Flair - Again, just not as good in the 90's as he was in the 80's. While still as entertaining as ever on the mic, his matches throughout the 90's became slower and shorter, and more predictable.
Undertaker - Probably the hardest to argue against, but he really spent a large part of the 90's in the mid-card. He came in strong, had a very brief title reign, then from 92 to 97, dropped back down to mid-card, fighting in a lot of pointless, forgettable feuds. Plus, in the ring, while the Undertaker was never bad by any means, I feel he didn't really start to hit his stride until 96/97, when they started to loosen up on the more gimmicky aspects of his character.
Shawn Michaels - again, hard to argue against, but like Taker, he spent most of his time in the mid-card. Plus Michaels was well known for his attitude problems in the 90s, and really only had 2 solid years on top (96-98), before retiring for the first time. Not to mention he almost never dropped a belt to anyone, forfeiting most of his titles instead of loosing them.
Stone Cold - again spent most of the 90's in the mid-card, he jumped for WCW to ECW to WWF, getting stuck with the ringmaster gimmick for the first part of his WWF career. And like many of the others, really only had a couple years on top.

Most of others I feel are pretty obvious, so I wont go into detail, but Bret, IMO, was truly THE wrestler of the 90's, having classic feuds with the likes of Mr. Perfect and Roddy Piper over the IC title, his rise to the main event beating Ric Flair for the WWF title (which he would hold a total of 5 times throughout the 90s, which at the time, I believe tied Hogan for most reigns ever), to the King of the Ring, the PWI #1 on the top 500 list for both 93 and 94, to his feuds with Michaels and Austin. And even his run in WCW, while not as good as it should have been, he still was a multi-time US Champ, a Tag-Champ, and a 2 time WCW World Champion.

(Didnt mean to go on for so long, but before anyone decides they want to go through my arguments and dissect them and debate them, feel free to argue why you disagree but I dont plan on coming back here and arguing every little fact, I am just stating my opinion, you are more than welcome to do the same)

 

[superkick522]

HOGAN...uh excuse me HOLLYWOOD HOGAN! you can not deny it even if you are a hogan hater....think about it in the 90's it was hogan in wwf then wcw then nwo! i mean who wasnt a hulkamanic in 92 when he pulled out sid and let flair win the title?!? then it was transition to wcw...then NWO....think about it who wasnt throwing up the wolfpack sign and who didnt have a NWO shirt on NUFF SAID!

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

I give the nod to Stone Cold Steve Austin because he went from being fired from WCW, to a very brief but memorable stint in ECW, to the Ring Master , to becoming one of if not the most popular wrestlers in the history of the industry. Austin redefined wrestling in the 90's like Hogan did in the 80's. He became the face of the industry that everyone knew, he was a multimedia freight train, he was all over everywhere, no matter where you looked there was Austin. If there had been no Austin 3:16, there would be no DX, there would be no nWo, there would be no Attitude Era, there would be no Monday Night Wars. Austin was the firing pin for the explosion of popularity that wrestling saw in the mid to late 90's. And he pretty much came out of nowhere. No one saw it coming and that made it that much more special to me. It just happened and everyone loved it. HBK, Taker, Bret, Sting, Hogan, etc had all been in the main event spotlight, and while very successful there they did not generate the excitement that Austin did during this time period. He was at what could have been the end of his career when he was fired from WCW because they didn't see anyway to promote him. Then Vince was smart enough to see letting Austin be Austin was the best way for him to get over and let him run with the character that is still to this day the biggest money making wrestler that the WWE has ever seen.

 

[Defekt]

I think the only 2 serious competitors for that title are Austin and Hogan. Guys like Shawn, Bret, UT, etc, all had great matches, but none ever reached the level Hogan and Austin did.

With that said, my pick would have to be Hogan.

Austin was massively over, and arguably as big a star as Hogan was in his prime, but his big run didn't start until 1997. He spent almost half of the 90's in WCW, delivering solid matches in the mid-card, but not getting a proper push.

Hogan's star status in the WWE didn't start fading until around 1992 give or take (fan wise), and even then he was still at the top of the card. He was the face of a struggling WCW from 1994 to mid 1996, then reinvented himself and became bigger than ever during the NWO years.

Based on those factors I give it to Hogan, due to his longevity.

 

[EastCoastFan]

I'm going to split up my answer a little, so here goes.

For the first half of the 90's, I'm going to go with Bret Hart. A lot of fans like myself were getting sick of Hulkamania and wanted a change. Bret was often the guy who had the best match on the card. Shawn Michaels was also a great performer at that time, but it took a little longer for him to rise to the top (he didn't win his first WWF title until 1996).

The second half of the 90's belonged to Stone Cold Steve Austin, no two ways about it. Once he got to the WWF and had a persona he could work with, there was no stopping him. No matter what the WWF had him do to get heat, people just cheered him even more. He was the guy who led the WWF back to retake the lead in the Monday Night Wars.

Between the two of them for the title "Wrestler Of The 90's", I give it to Austin over Bret. People just couldn't get enough of Austin and he drew money like nobody else.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

HELLOOOOO this is the biggest star of the decade! Where was Steve Austin from 1990-1994? Oh yeah, not making the kind of money that Undertaker Bret Hogan and HBK were making during that time. We get it, by the end of the 20th century Austin was one of the biggest draws ever, but he was not a consistent star in the 90s the way Undertaker Bret Hogan and HBK were.

Who should win this award? Bret or Hogan. Undertaker and Shawn both floated back and forth between the midcard and main event too many times in this decade. Taker and HBk both had too many injuries in this decade to be considered. Hogan and Bret, however, were both around during the whole decade and drawing more money than anybody else during those years.

I'm only giving it to Bret because he was a face for more years during the decade than Hogan was. Usually the number 1 top guy is face, like the face of a company is never a heel. Therefore, the face of the decade is none other than the Hitman, who feuded with bully after bully while Hollywood Hogan was trying to take over WCW with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Who had the most drawing power in the 1990s? Hulk Hogan. Who was the biggest face of the 1990s? Bret Hart. Anyone who says Austin is just too ignorant to answer the question.

 

[CleverName51]

I picked the Undertaker.

Taker was a main event caliber superstar for most if not all of the 90s. He won his first WWF title in 1992 a year after debuting, he also won that same title in 1997, and again in 1999. Also, the WM Streak began.

Why I didn't pick others:

Bret Hart: Bret Hart was my second choice; had he not been so horribly misused by WCW from 97 on..I probably would have picked him

Stone Cold Steve Austin: SCSA was a nobody and an irrelevant thought before 1996's KoTR shot him into the legend he became...because he did nothing before 1996 I could not bring myself to pick him.

Sting: Sting was my third choice; and I came VERY close to picking him. What stopped me was the fact that his surfer gimmick was rather bland and boring. So while the Crow gimmick was great; once again; he lacked the staying power of Taker IMO.

Mick Foley: Foley was a close 4th choice for me when I thought of this poll. Foley was in main events for the majority of the 95-99. He also had many epic matches (HIAC vs Taker 98, I quit vs the Rock 99, Mind Games vs HBK 96) What stopped me was the fact that he was constantly jobbing to the legends (Taker, Austin, Rock...)

HBK: Great performer, great skill, leader of the attitude era...yes...Also missed 98 on because of the back injury. I deducted points for the fact that he was also part of the Kliq and had a backstage personality/drug problem.

 

[theHeadliner]

Shawn Michaels called himself the wrestler of the 90s as part of his character, and that's what I think too. Michaels and Hart were my 2 top favorites in the 1990s, and those are the guys I think of when I think 1990s wrestling. They worked their way up from the bottoms of cards in small territories to the bottom of the card in WWF, to becoming the 2 biggest starts in the company and part of probably the most important event in wrestling history. Their intense feuding both on and off screen brought back realism to wrestling when the WWF had gotten into those corny gimmicks and characters.

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

HELLOOOOO this is the biggest star of the decade! Where was Steve Austin from 1990-1994? Oh yeah, not making the kind of money that Undertaker Bret Hogan and HBK were making during that time. We get it, by the end of the 20th century Austin was one of the biggest draws ever, but he was not a consistent star in the 90s the way Undertaker Bret Hogan and HBK were.

Who should win this award? Bret or Hogan. Undertaker and Shawn both floated back and forth between the midcard and main event too many times in this decade. Taker and HBk both had too many injuries in this decade to be considered. Hogan and Bret, however, were both around during the whole decade and drawing more money than anybody else during those years.

I'm only giving it to Bret because he was a face for more years during the decade than Hogan was. Usually the number 1 top guy is face, like the face of a company is never a heel. Therefore, the face of the decade is none other than the Hitman, who feuded with bully after bully while Hollywood Hogan was trying to take over WCW with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Who had the most drawing power in the 1990s? Hulk Hogan. Who was the biggest face of the 1990s? Bret Hart. Anyone who says Austin is just too ignorant to answer the question.

Hogan was barely getting over with anyone anymore for most of the early 90's. He only got over in the late 90's because of the nWo and that came about because WCW had to have an answer for Vince's Attitude Era which was brought about by Stone Cold. Bret Hart did carry the WWF for most of the early 90s but know one during that time was making the kind of money for WWF that Austin made when he got there. I bet Hart, HBK, and Undertaker combined in the early 90's didn't bring in as much cash as Austin did alone during the late 90's.

 

[steinerscrewdriver]

first the contenders then my answer

-HBK: Great Wrestler and had a great decade but spent the 1st 2.5 years in a lower-mid card tag team and was basically a non wrestler in 99

-Austin: Was the face of the WWE for a few years but was a mid-carder at best for half the decade

-Taker: Taker was my number 2. He missed out on number one b.c at times he seemed like he was just taking out unentertaining big men (Giant Gonzalez/Yokozuna) and stuck in limbo

So I voted Hogan. Started the 1990's as the biggest star in wrestling, moved to wcw in 94 or late 93 correct me if im off i apologize and was the focus of all of their programming. Then he took part in the best heel turn and biggest swerve making him enemy number one in many fans eyes while still selling a ton of merch and always remaining the most important man.

For those reasons I chose Hollywood Hulk Hogan.

 

[TommLew10]

I think that Sting isn't getting enough credit for his staying power and the impact in which he had. He was essentially the Hogan/Ultimate Warrior type guy in the early 90's of the WCW. I know it may seem as though it was bland to many of us looking back, but as a kid the two superhero type guys I always wanted to see wrestle was Hogan vs Sting.

I do however feel as though you can't go wrong with any of Bret Hart, Hogan, or Sting. The only other guy that has an argument besides those three would be the Undertaker.

The thing about Sting is that he was the face of his company for the majority of the 90's. In the early 90's he had great feuds with Flair and the four horsemen. Not to mention his feuds with Ravishing Rick Rude were quite legendary. Then his feuds with Big Van Vader were probably the best at least up until the feud with the NWO.

Sting and Hogan are the two guys that weren't a part of the mid card during the 90's period. Hart, Taker, and Michaels all were a part of the mid-card at some point during the 90's. Although from a pure in ring wrestling standpoint you could never leave out Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart.

In the end it comes down to which criteria you favor from most important to least important to determine who would come out on top. I personally feel as though from beginning of the 90's to the end the guy has to be Sting.

 

[DirtSheet]

Well I started watching wrestling when WWF was entering the Attitude Era and it was Stone Cold that caught my attention. Its fair to say he arguably single-handedly won WWF the war with WCW. He started the Attitude Era and his feuds with HHH, The Rock, Vince McMahon etc were outstanding

 

[The Rob]

Perhaps I'm biased but I voted for Shawn Michaels.

He began his rise to the top as a singles wrestler in the early 90's, winning the Intercontinental Championship I believe in 1992 from Davey Boy Smith on Saturday Night's Main Event. He was able to establish his on screen character over the coming years, becoming the heartbreak kid. He worked with Sensational Sherri on TV which was very important because beforehand, she had only worked with top singles wrestlers. All of this is relevant because it explains just how important him winning the WWE Championship was. At WrestleMania X, he stole the show pretty much by himself against Razor for the IC title and that pretty much immediately marked him out as one of the companies finest. He was in the WWE title match at WrestleMania XI and finally, after winning two Royal Rumble matches back to back, he won the WWE championship at WrestleMania XII. This 6 year climb to the top of the company was truly remarkable, especially considering he was far from the biggest guy in the company in terms of size and weight.

But what in my opinion makes Shawn Michaels the wrestler of the 90's is that he was an amazing champion at a time when the WWE seriously struggled against WCW. He became the biggest star in the WWE all by himself and just down to the amazing performances he'd put on night after night. He was also very innovative. He was one of the first major high-flyers in the WWE, hitting Moonsaults like they were wristlocks and his match with Razor is still creditable even today. In 1997 he would continue to be a top star, forming DX alongside Triple H. DX were again innovative as far the WWE is concerned. The NWO had been around for over a year before DX but DX were much more entertaining and funny, whilst the NWO were more serious in their approach. During this DX phase, he took part in the first Hell in a Cell match and was able to do some truly amazing things, some of which were just unheard of at the time.

Then of course is the Montreal Screwjob. Whilst this doesn't exactly help Shawn's cause, it's important in Shawn's story because he became one of the biggest heels in history because of this. People were legitimately pissed. He then injured his back and still managed to put on a classic with Stone Cold at WrestleMania XIV. He wrestled with a broken-back?! Fucking brilliant! When Shawn went away, he was still remembered as one of the all time greats, if not the greatest, despite Stone Cold being the name and face of the WWE. Despite Stone Cold being 'the man' during the biggest phase in WWE's history, Shawn was still regarded as one of the best ever, despite the face he was no longer wrestling.

I just think Shawn's rise, his stay at the top and even his downfall in 1998 all adds up to him being the wrestler of the 90's.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

It has to be Stone Cold Steve Austin for the impact he had on the business, taking the struggling WWF and raising it to previously unseen heights. Austin was catalyst in the WWF revival which eventually saw them purchase WCW and end the Monday Night Wars, when just 4 years earlier they were being destroyed by WCW on a weekly basis.

The Austin character revolutionised the WWF, bringing the company into the Attitude era, and his feud with Vince McMahon will be remembered as one of the greatest of all-time, as it allowed fans who wanted to beat up their own, evil boss to live this through Austin as he was able to make Vince's life hell on a weekly basis. No other wrestler in the 1990s, not even Hogan, Michaels or The Rock was able to make the transition to national superstar, and achieve anywhere near the popularity of Stone Cold. He was a phenomenon and without him, WWF may not have survived.

Honourable mentions include Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart (who were the best actual WRESTLERS of the decade), Undertaker for his longetivity at main event level, Sting for reinventing himself as The Crow character, and Hulk Hogan for his shocking heel turn and joining the nWo, which was one of the most important angles of the decade.

But if I had to choose just one? It would have to be Austin

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think that it is a tossup between Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin. I know that Bret Hart was in the main event for a longer time than Stone Cold Steve Austin but he wasn't an earth shattering draw like Austin. In the three years following Austin's rise WWE saw better days than it had seen in the entire decade.

Guys like Undertaker, HBK and Sting played importatnt roles and made good contributions to wrestling during the decade but I do not think that their contributions match up to those of Austin and Hogan. HBK was a midcarder upto 1996 and even when he rose to main event status, he made for a poor draw. Undertaker won the world title in 1992 and then again in 1997 but never came close to main event status in the intervening 5 years. He participated in the Austin-Mcmahon storyline as a support player and did his job rather well. Sting was a main eventer for the entire duration of the 90's in WCW but the only time he really set the stage on fire was during the nWo angle and that too for a brief while. A year later he was no longer the hot commodity in WCW as he had been in 1997.

So it does come down to Hogan and Austin. Some might choose Hogan stating that he was a main eventer for the entire decade but I for one will choose Austin. Hogan was perhaps more responsible for the second wrestling boom than Austin but he is the reason why wrestling had reached a period of stagnation in the mid 90's. He refused to pass the torch in the earlier part of the decade in the WWF and kept resurfacing in the WWF even though his gimmick was way past it's expiration date. Then he went to WCW and stunk up the product their with politicking and some god awful feuds there as well. So while he did make a huge positive contribution to wrestling in the 90s he made a pretty big negative contribution as well. Austin made only a positive contribution in the 90s and so he is the wrestler of the decade for the 1990s.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

For me, this comes down to two people, and neither ranks ahead of the other. Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin.

I can't pick one or the other. Hogan dominated the WWF from 1990 through WrestleMania VIII. He came back a year later, and won the belt at WM IX, then dropped it back to Yokozuna. When Hogan went to WCW, they automatically had a chance of becoming a powerhouse.

Hogan didn't have the immediate impact WCW was hoping for, but it paid off eventually. After being the hottest babyface..ever, Hogan became the biggest heel..ever. The nWo was hot heading into Bash at the Beach in 1996, but Hogan joining (that night) was the biggest story in wrestling. That storyline, with Hogan in the drivers seat, took WCW past the WWF.

Enter Austin. His war with Bret Hart made him the hottest babyface in wrestling, and he wasn't a "good guy." He changed the way we look at babyface wrestlers, and in doing so, changed the business. WWF was cutting edge at that time, while WCW continued with the nWo far past it's expiration date. Austin went from nobody, to the biggest name in wrestling. If Austin hadn't turned into the star he was, who knows how the WCW/WWF war would have ended.

For all of these reasons, I can't choose one or the other. But, these two men are definitely #1 and #2, and there is no denying that. Bret Hart, HBK, The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Goldberg, Nash, whoever..none of them stand with Hogan and Austin.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Hogan was perhaps more responsible for the second wrestling boom than Austin but he is the reason why wrestling had reached a period of stagnation in the mid 90's. He refused to pass the torch in the earlier part of the decade in the WWF and kept resurfacing in the WWF even though his gimmick was way past it's expiration date. Then he went to WCW and stunk up the product their with politicking and some god awful feuds there as well.

Hogan was incredibly stagnant in the WWF before he left, agreed. When he went to WCW he still stale.

But when he turned heel and formed the nWo with Nash and Hall, Hogan was once again the hottest thing in the business and that faction was the reason why WCW was kicking WWF's ass for over a year in the ratings. WCW was doing awesome business at that point and Hollywood Hogan- the 1st time Hogan had ever turned heel- was a major factor in that.

Granted that by the end of the decade the angle had overrun and Hogan was back to using politics to get his way backstage but in the mid-late 1990s Hogan was still a HUGE draw as Hollywood.

 

[nwocongo]

austin, hbk, hogan, sting, rock all had their brief shiining moments
BUT THE UNDERTAKER WENT THROUGH THE WHOLE DECADE AS A MAIN EVENT PLAYER!
Undertaker had key feuds with everyone, hbk, hogan, hhh, mankind, austin, rock, undertakers character was a stroke of genius, he made the decade what it was, intense and powerful

Thats why I went with Undertaker, while HBK and Stone Cold could be considered the faces of WWE Undertaker came in on top and stayed there. Sting was also at his peak for pretty much the whole decade. I think Hogan was already getting a little tiresome in the early 90's. Scott Hall was always my favorite wrestler but he was never able to do any better than IC title or tag team, so he's not really a valid choice, even though he had a great gimmick. If Scott had stuck around and behaved himself backstage he probably would have been World champ and been a mainstay, we would have seen HBKvRazor at ppv main events more than Cena and Orton or Stone Cold and Rock. Like I said Undertaker started at the top and he was able to put a lot of wrestlers over and he was a part of some of the most memorable moments of the decade, not to mention he also had matches created pretty much just for him.