Top 5 Wrestlers Of The 1990s: Revisited

Originally posted on April 5th of this year, my widely-acclaimed article on the Top 5 Wrestlers of the 90s once again gained relevance when I stumbled upon this, which appears to be a link sent from God with a COMPLETE win-loss record for every WWE singles wrestler during the 1990s. Go to records, then scroll to the bottom and click on DDT Digest link to read this awesome piece of wrestling history, compiled by the one and only Nicolas Seafort.

I decided to scour the list and compare the statistical top ten to my top 5 and see just how close I was. To narrow down the list, I only included wrestlers that had at least 150 appearances. Here we go:

1. Ultimate Warrior (138-17) .890
2. Ahmed Johnson (167-32) .839
3. Bret Hart (490-113-8) .819
4. The Undertaker (609-196) .757
5. Stone Cold Steve Austin (252-82-1) .756
6. Shawn Michaels (300-113-6) .734
7. Lex Luger (148-55-1) .732
8. Razor Ramon (267-105-1) .719
9. Ken Shamrock (193-78) .712
10. Bradshaw (150-66) .694

Well, no big surprises here. 4 out of my top 5 appeared on the list (numbers 3-6...not bad if you ask me), with The Rock being the only exception (184-138-1, .573). Although perhaps Ahmed Johnson and Bradshaw don't deserve their listings, this top ten will be notorious (at first glance) for missing wrestlers, not including them. Triple H, for instance, seems like a lock for any top ten list. However, the numbers show that The Game really came into his own after 1999, holding a rather unimpressive record of 262-289 (.482) during the 90s. Similarly, Mankind batted a dismal .478 during the 90s with 180 wins and 199 losses. Yokozuna had a record of 150-161 (.489) during the stretch, constituting another underachieving champion.

Other wrestlers had records which would have put them in the top ten, but did not participate in enough contests to qualify. Kurt Angle, at 34-1 (.971), competed well enough to be number 1 on the list. Hulk Hogan's career in the WWE wound down in the early 90s and then picked up again after the turn of the millennium, leaving him with a 90s record of 76-17 (.817), not good enough to pick up the #4 spot he would've earned here.

There's not too much to be said about this list as it is purely numbers, but I do find it interesting that many of the early 90s wrestlers (Ultimate Warrior) easily make the list but are often overlooked while more popular late 90s wrestlers (The Rock) are usually put on lists like these but don't deserve the honor. Even I made the questionable pick of The Rock in my original top 5, but I did include the disclaimer that I based my picks on the overall quality of the wrestler and his ability to engage fans. Unfortunately, this general and consistent trend of snubbing older wrestlers does suggest that fans have a somewhat limited memory, favoring the more recent over the more distant. Few fans would choose Bruno Sammartino over Stone Cold Steve Austin, but Bruno would be the sagacious pick, by a mile.

Arguments like "Stone Cold did more for the sport" could be made, but since we weren't around in the time of Sammartino, it's hard for us to say. By learning more about the legends, we could be better equipped to make such decisions. Statistical rankings help us to effectively do just that.

Editor's Note: The picture of the Montreal Screwjob was selected because it features two of the statistical top ten as well as what is arguably the most iconic photograph of wrestling during the 1990s.

I plan to follow this article with another which will average my rankings, the statistical rankings, and PWI's Top 500, for which I'll devise an intricate formula to come up with a comprehensive set of rankings instead of studying Spanish or doing anything productive with my time.