Your Favorite 80's star other than Hogan

[Jackal960]

If you watched wrestling in 80's hands down Hogan would be the most popular wrestling star in that era for most of us. He defined wrestling. I don't need to say what is already said in countless threads about how big Hogan was. However, Hogan being that big, sometimes shadows others who were very popular as well. These are the guys which were not the best wrestler in 80's but the ones that you rooted for the most. My question is: With many faces from 80's who was your favorite wrestler other than Hogan?

I want to go with Paul Orndorff. Although he was famous for his heel days, one of my best memories from 80's was when he become face and stood by Hogan's side against Piper and Orton for the save. That was really a classic moment for me. He had memorable feuds with Piper and the Heenan Family. He was in great shape comparing to other wrestlers from his era. He also had a great finishing maneuver considering 80's which he executed perfectly. He was very popular and a genuine star. I always thought if there were no Hogan, he would be one of the top guys in WWE for long years. As a heel, he had one of the greatest feuds in 80's with Hogan. Unfortunately, the feud that made him a top star prepared the beginning of downhill for his career as well. His injury from his Hogan feud resulted in his semi retirement. After his return to the rings, he was not the same guy that he was in 80's.

Honorable mention: Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Junk Yard Dog

So, who is your favorite?

 

[Davi323]

Can I have 2? Their careers are forever woven together, so maybe lets call it 1a and 1b.

1a: Randy Savage. The Macho Man spent most of the 80s as a heel, but my brothers and I loved him. We were young, impressionable, and got to imitate that one of a kind gravely voice. The dude was fantastic in the ring, and you absolutely had to pay attention to his promos. (not that you could understand them anyway, they were just that compelling) But, the story of Randy Savage cannot be told without mentioning my other favorite wrestler of the 80s not named Hogan.

1b. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Like Savage, an incredibly gifted technical wrestler, perhaps even better. When the man wrestled against an opponent of equal ability, it was more than a wrestling match, it was art. Never was this demonstrated more than Wrestlemania III against Savage. Just a brilliant performance by both men. One of the most memorable times of my life was when I had the chance to meet him. One of the nicest, most gracious guys on the planet. I am forever a fan of the dragon.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

"The Macho Man" Randy Savage - Plain and simply put the guy had such a great flare for theatricality and just a crazy disposition on camera. This guy was just "too hot to handle and too cold to hold" as he used to quip. How can you NOT love that?! As a kid growing up in the 1980s I put him right up there with my other wrestling idols like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. I have to admit that I am not as savvy about Savage's days in his father's outlaw territory ICW, but I have gone back and watched some stuff. Very entertaining and the seeds were definitely planted for The Madness to reign supreme later on in WWF and WCW. Him and Ms. Elizabeth were my favorite wrestling couple then, now and forever. Also when people list the greatest IC Champions I put him ahead of Honky Tonk Man as my personal preference for that title. I also put him up there as one of the greatest WWF World Champions too. Plain and simply put.

Randy Savage mixed it up with so many greats in the business...Steamboat, Hogan, Flair, DiBiase, Andre, The Ultimate Warrior, Jake The Snake, Roddy Piper, Bret Hart. The list goes on and on. To me it was a shame that he and the WWE brass never came to a reconciliation of some kind, Savage would have been a great addition to the announce team. He sure as hell showed he had the chops in the 90s when Vince shifted him over to the table.

It's sad to know that will never be and that an HOF induction will only be a posthumous one but just the same I can't and won't forget Randy Savage as one of my favorites of the 80s generation.

 

[boozinjedi]

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat,withut a doubt!!

IF some say that Sting is Flair's greatest rival,then Ricky comes in a close second...maybe even first in some eyes.

Ricky went 60-90 minutes..night after night,gving everything he had.

He is arguably,the greatest technical/chain wrestler of all time.

They still hold Savage/Steamboat from WM3 in rarified air.

It's a shame he never got a title in his WWF days...he deserved one.

 

[wrestling fan 666]

Mine has to be:

Roddy Piper:You can't have a good face without a great heel to work off of. Piper was the ultimate antagonist and still the best on the mic.

Ric Flair: Who else could pretty much single-handedly control the NWA being a heel in one territory and a face in another. He had the talent to make any wrestler look good. He had the look, the attitude, and the talent.

 

[#hamler]

Ric Flair
Being born a decade later, I've watched a lot of Ric Flair throughout my life. From his amazing matches with Sting, to his many classics with Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair was the measuring stick of Champion in the '80's. I absolutely love Ric Flair type gimmicks. The way the World Championship meant everything to him and the way he would bleed or perhaps die to retain his belt. The was he carried himself while holding the World Title and the way his life revolved around the prestigious strap.

My favorite match involved him and Ricky Steamboat at the Chi-Town Rumble 1989. A classic match which featured Steamboat who was basically a family man going against the Stylin' and Profilin' Ric Flair. I believe this was their first encounter and gave many of us a glimpse of what was to come over the years; one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling history. Ric Flair throughout the '80's was the only reason NWA was mainstream and the reason it hit hard like it did. I loved how the announcers back then would say something along the lines of "Ric Flair's opponent has been training in conditioning to keep up with Ric Flair," because Flair had always went well over the 45 minute mark in his matches. Never have I seen so many classics from one human being.

Magnum TA
The debate whether Magnum TA is over or underrated will never end, but that doesn't stop him from being one of my personal favorites from the '80's. Probably one of my favorite matches of all time featured Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard in an amazing first blood steel cage match. Blanchard is a fine wrestler in his own right but Magnum T.A., in my opinion, might be one of, if not the most underrated wrestlers of all time. This match was the definition of brutal. Here, I witnessed both men bleed like hell all the while tearing each other apart and this is where Magnum TA earned a lot of respect from me.

I really wish the WWE would produce a dvd on Magnum so I can see a little more from him. His matches with Mr. Wrestling II, Ted Dibiase and even his NWA match with Ric Flair for $1000 are underrated matches. When people look at Magnum TA, they see a wrestler who's had one good match with a very solid in ring worker. What I see, is a phenomenal wrestler who doesn't get enough credit from today's wrestling historians and most of today's fans. And what a horrible wrestling tragedy when he crashed in '87.

An honorable mention would go to Kerry Von Erich. Had I seen more of him, I'd probably be able to include him. But damn was he good for a guy with one foot.

 

[GameOver]

Randy Savage hands down. he did it all, though he was better as a heel and time after time he made Hogan look inadequate in all areas while still allowing him to appear the dominant force. He also had that inate ability to be able to work with anyone and make it look half decent. The only person i could say was a better heel would be Ted Dibiase with Piper in a close third but Savage was the overall package

if i had been able to watch WCW/NWA during that era more i'd probably say Ric Flair, the little i got to watch he was a great allrounder too

and between the 2, 2 great simple catchphrases

OOOOOOHHHHH YEAAAAAAHHHH !!!! WOOOOOOOOOO

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

Lot of good choices already picked, I'll be honest though, one of my favorites growing up was the Ultimate Warrior! Looking back the guy was out of his fuckin mind, but as a kid he was bad ass, and exciting to watch. I remember cheering for Hogan at WM 6 but any other time I was just as big a Warrior fan... WM 6 was actually the first pay per view i got to watch, even though I saw it the next day since we had to have my dad's friend tape it for me since my town didn't have PPV access yet. Ok that was totally off topic, but I just remembered that. I think Warrior has since tarnished his legacy, but really, as kids didn't you all used to enjoy him? When that music hit weren't you jumping out of your seat excited to see what would happen next.

 

[relentless1]

Macho Man, gotta be Macho, he had the look, the ability plus that way of talking... OOOOHHHH YEAAAHHHHHH, plus that elbow drop was phenominal.

 

[HollywoodLuthias]

"The Rock" Don Muraco - The original Rock was definitely one of the better wrestlers the WWF had to offer in the 80's, many people could learn from him. He was good in the ring and excellent on the microphone (before it was necessary to be excellent).Muraco helped make the Intercontinental Championship one of the most important in the wrestling world. He had fantastic feuds with Pedro Morales and Tito Santana for that championship. He is one of my all time favorites.

 

[WolfNyte]

With no question in my mind I have two in the 80's.

Rowdy Roddy Piper - amazing on the stick and in the ring he made things even more fun. The legendary eye poke of doom, The killer coconut among other signature piper moves he was the king of all heels. I hated Hogan and Hogan couldnt work with many cause he couldnt carry an opponent where Piper could carry ANYONE.

I know he didnt have many matches and the ones he had were more goofy than anything but ....BOBBY THE BRAIN HEENAN....need I say more?

 

[Lowdown]

I probably have to go with Rowdy Roddy Piper. As mentioned before he was arguably the best on the mic whether he was a heel or face. And his matches were good for the most part, ranging from comedic to damn near brutal (the dog collar match with Greg Valentine comes to mind). He brought from what I've seen on his DVD a real life tough guy attitude to the ring, and was very respectful of the business as well. Another wrestler that never failed to impress me looking back was Macho Man. Most folks only talk about his WM3 match with Steamboat, but he put on other great matches and feuds like Ted DiBiase and the Honky Tonk Man. I was also a fan of JYD in the mid 80's being that I was just starting to get into wrestling and he was appealing to kids and adults. While not the greatest ring technician, he had quite a bit of charisma.

 

[brochester8]

Jake Roberts: I have to go with Snake. His mind games made for many very interesting match ups. The Snake Pit was classic. He was the master of psychology of the 80's.

Roddy Piper: Also Piper, His feuds with Hogan will always be known as classic. He was good in the ring and awesome ont he mic. The Piper's Pit can still be seen today.

 

[stitchface247]

My favorite wrestlers when I actually was watching WWF in the 1980's were Brutus Beefcake, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts and Sting.

I was in elementary and middle school in the late 80's so I was drawn in by marketing big time. I loved wrestlers that were colorful and exciting.

Brutus Beefcake: My all time favorite as a kid. I loved his personality and gimmick. He was always upper mid-card so I got to see him wrestle on the weekly show but he was popular enough that he also wrestled big time wrestlers on pay-per-views. When he beat Mr. Perfect at Wrestlemania, I lost my mind.

Sting: I really put Sting at #1 if you include the early 90's. After GAB 1990, I was a Sting fan through and through. In the 80's, I never really watched NWA/WCW but what little I did see I rooted for him. Bright colors, bleach blond hair, loud personality and athletic. How do you not love this guy. He wound up being my favorite the longest.

Hulk Hogan: He was mythical to me. My parents almost never let me buy pay-per-views so it was special when I got to see him wrestle. Wrestlemania VI was the most excited I have ever been about a pay-per-view match. If you were a kid in 80's, you remember how awesome it was to see a Hulk Hogan Match.

Ultimate Warrior: I bought into this hype completely. I loved the outfit, facepaint, energy, and crazy interviews. I could care less about how technical a wrestler he was, I just wanted to watch him.

Jake the Snake Roberts: My second favorite WWF wrestler. I dug him for the same reasons I dug Beefcake.

 

[lexlugersting3325]

I would definitely say either macho man randy savage, sting, or the most misunderstood wrestler of all time...Lex Luger. I don't get what so many people have against the man. He started out not so good and green, but he took the effort to learn and made himself better. Definitely was WAY OVER and should have beaten Flair for the world title at least once not just settle for the US title. He was my favorite of the 80's and still is my favorite star. Trust me Lex Luger is not half as bad as most of the guys out there now and not half as bad as the internet percieves him to be. He faught Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff and had great matches....Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson....He is the greatest

 

[EB112177]

All of great mentions of 80's stars. But I'm going to go with Mr. Wrestlemania himself, HBK. I remember watching Shawn Micheals as a member of the The Midnight Rockers, back in th AWA. I was always wanting them to join the WWF at the time. And well I guess the rest is history.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

JYD - his time was short in WWF but there is no one other than Hogan that I consistently wanted to be successful during their WWF run. Andre was a specimen but he turned heel. Macho was entertaining but also a heel. I was too young to give Steamboat the appreciation he deserves.

JYD was just a blast with the dog chain and facial expressions. Not to mention I used to like to headbutt things as a kid.

 

[RicoLen]

Other than Hogan? As if everyone's favorite 80's star was Hogan? On this website? lol

On this website it should be "other than Randy Savage". He's got my vote too.

Savage is the guy that brought me in to wrestling back at WM3. Macho Man & Liz were so great together and their overall story in the WWF was amazing.

Other than Savage (and Hogan, and Warrior) though...

I would say probably Jake the Snake Roberts. His feuds with Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, & Honkey Tonk Man were awesome. I was such a mark for Jake when I was little. Gah, he so badly deserved the IC championship title from Honkey. Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts was epic.

It's just another reason I had a hard time giving the attitude era it's fair shake, because I was old enough to have seen Roberts in his prime being awesome, but too young (in an era without mainstream internet usage) to really get that Roberts was passing the torch to Austin, one snake to another. I still get pissed off when I watch the Austin 3:16 promo. It's pretty awesome, I'll give it that, but at the end of the day Austin was an uppity little bitch for the way he treated Roberts.

6 years earlier Jake Roberts would have owned pretty boy Steve Austin with his long golden locks.

 

[HeenanGorilla]

"The Macho Man" Randy Savage - Plain and simply put the guy had such a great flare for theatricality

Haha! If "theatricality" is your idea of "plain and simple", I can only imagine a conversation with you would be death by thesaurus.

My favorites growing up were always those that weren't the most popular. (Not He-Man, or Mickey Mouse, or Hulk Hogan---I didn't like to go with the crowd and root for the face of a certain brand.) I always found more satisfaction when a secondary character had their moment in time (Stratos, Goofy, JYD). If I was a kid today, I would not own John Cena memorabilia. I didn't like to root for the person or character that would most likely win or be the hero. Which makes my pick here a little contradictory.

My vote goes to Mr. Perfect. I know..."How can you say you didn't want to root for a likely winner, but choose a man with a long-lasting perfect record?" That's fair. But, I think because he was a heel (and, most likely, would eventually lose to Hogan) this allowed me to follow Mr. Perfect. (I was never a Tatanka fan, so there you go haha) I loved the vignettes that brought heat to a heel before his in-ring debut. (I also liked The Million Dollar Man for this reason and, to a lesser extent, Razor Ramon...heck, even Nailz had some hype due to this tactic--although his story made no sense and went nowhere) Perfect came off as cocky, but great. I liked how they showed his "perfection" in other sports, his towel toss and gum slap, and his look. And, in the ring, he completely backed up the hype. It was a great gimmick and, in my opinion, he was the perfect guy to play it. I thought his perfect record, and the ending of it, could have been done better; but, I am not sure how injuries and other factors may have swayed original plans.

Nonetheless, it was still done superbly. I found it to be a gimmick that wasn't gimmicky. A smart idea. Great job, Curt Hennig!

 

[JWGunslinger]

For me two names come to mind instantly, Macho Man and my choice for number 1, Jake The Snake Roberts. I grew up watching wrestling in the mid 90's and one of the guys that I watched alot of tapes of was Roberts. The dude carried around a fucking snake, that's already a plus, but he was just such a badass and he was a guy that I was enthralled by as a kid. My favorite thing about him was he didn't have to say alot, but when he did the few things he said held alot of weight and that was the definition of a man to me growing up so ofcourse I idolized The Snake, he is and always will be one of my favorite legends from the 80's.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Randy Savage was my favorite by leaps and bounds. His WWE career was so connected to Hogan's, it makes one wonder what Macho Man's path would have been had Hogan not been there.

If Hulk Hogan had never joined WWE, was Savage a strong enough character to lead the whole company? If he was the leader and hadn't had the series of matches with Hulk, who would have opposed him? He had the ability to work a fine match with anyone, but who would have stood out as his greatest foe?

Personally, I liked Savage as an in-ring performer much more than an actor outside the ropes. His interviews sounded like a man fighting a bad case of constipation......and he sometimes went off rambling so much you wondered what he was talking about. Still, his regal presence carried him over even when his interviews left us confused.

But in-ring, there was no one like him. He moved like no one I've ever seen, and he had the kind of presence that made you love him in his face role.....and absolutely detest him as a heel.

And let's not forget his interaction with Miss Elizabeth. The whole "Beauty and the Beast" dynamic of their relationship was more unique than any male/female pairing seen since.

 

[Rockerz]

The 80s were a great time. My favorites were the Ultimate Warrior and the Rockers both because of their energy. As a child then I was pulled in more by the energy than technical ring skills. I loved how quick the Rockers moved around and how Warrior would press his opponent over his head before throwing him out of the ring. I was especially psyched when he won both the heavyweight and intercontinental championship at the same time.

Honorable mentions: Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, Jake the Snake, Brutus Beefcake, Piper, DiBiase (that was cool seeing DiBiase Jr. bring back the million dollar belt and Virgil not too long ago), Legion of Doom, and though not wrestlers... Jimmy Hart and Mr. Fugi.

Ahhh... memories.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

No doubt it was Randy Savage. I first started watching wrestling about the time he was feuding with George the Animal Steele and I remember my Dad absolutely hating Savage. For one, because of his normal heel tactics, but for another George Steele was my Dad's P.E. teacher in High School(no joke, Madison High School in suburban Detroit) so he had a soft spot for Steele. Anyway I was one of those kids that would do whatever to spite their parents so I started to root for Savage just to go against my Dad. No matter if he was a face or a heel he was always my favorite wrestler as a kid.

 

[lowandmighty]

I really liked million dollar man he was just such a cartoon character. I always felt he was pretty much the main bad guy even though he probably wasn't. He could buy anyone with his millions which were worth even more in the 80's.
I also really liked king kong bundy cause so big and gross when he jumped on someone you just cringed.