Top 50 WWF Singles Wrestlers of the 90s

[muzzington]

Not sure how he stacks up in the promo department but I thought he had a great voice.

 

[OG]

He sold the hell out of the Johnny B. Badd gimmick. Even if his promo skills weren't great, his energy and charisma made up for it. One of the more underrated dudes of the 90's for my money. His match against Pillman at Fall Brawl 95 may have been the best WCW match that year.

 

[strummer]

Yeah, it was weird because when Mero went to wwf the locker room thought he was a terrible worker. HHH was actually credited with "carrying" him in the ring during their feud by those backstage.

His offense looked much better and crisper than most in wwf at the time but I think one of the reasons the other workers looked down on him was he liked to layout his matches beforehand and he was "lost" when he had to think on his feet

 

[SFH]

Hindsight, I feel like his heel run with Jackie was better than the "Wildman" stuff. At the time I was middle teen years, but still a bit influenced by what commentary told me to think.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

His feud with Sable and the character work that entailed was, IMO, pretty underrated stuff and just as integral in getting Sable over. It didn't help he was stuck feuding with Tom Brandi of all people (imagine that angle going on with a Billy Gunn or Val Venis instead) but he was just such a pure dick to Sable that it was highly entertaining in retrospect. Unfortunately, as noted by others, his knee injury really robbed him of his ability to work in the ring and the 'boxer' gimmick didn't offer enough to get around that fact.

 

[Valeyard]

Marvelous Marc hitting the shooting star press out of nowhere on an episode of Raw was great, though. Right down to surprised JR's "Well we haven't seen THAT in a while!" I never thought he and Jackie meshed as well as they should've. Just more of Mero becoming third wheel in more Sable stuff, which could've spun off for him in a lot of positive ways. Mero and green Edge would've been some interesting disasters. He deserved at least a brief run with Shamrock, just because.

Dude couldn't really catch a break. Being a legit boxer and losing in the first round of Brawl For All might've killed him for good to the office.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

didn't he lose because he got taken down a bunch? I can't remember.

 

[Valeyard]

Blackman beat him pretty easy if I remember. Just takedowns, Mero had no idea what to do. But I can see Vince seething about how a boxer should be boxing or something.

 

[alfdogg]

I don't remember all the rules but I feel like Blackman probably would've won the whole thing if he didn't get injured.

 

[Valeyard]

Blackman better be on this list. Talk about a guy time has been really kind to.

 

[geniusMoment]

I think a lot of the Mero backlash started with Foley's first book. I never got why Foley seemed to be so against him, as it wasn't personal, even Foley said he was a good guy. Hell, Foley even went up to Mero and told Marc that the office proposed a feud between them but Foley declined and Mero didn't hold it against him.

And some of the more recent backlash has been because of the Bruce Prichard podcast. Where he basically calls Mero a piece of shit in the ring. I think Bruce is just pissed about Mero being on the other side of the Benoit stuff.


I don't think he deserves the shit he gets. I saw a ton more shitty guys and workers in the business in mid 90s WCW and WWF.

 

[Master Thrasher]

I thought the locker room was against Mero because he was the first with a guaranteed contract.

 

[AA484]

48. Dusty Rhodes

Televised debut: Pre-1990
Final televised appearance: 1/19/91 (Royal Rumble; w/Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase & Virgil)

Recommended match: w/Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase & Virgil (1/19/91, Royal Rumble)

During his early time in the WWF, Rhodes was embroiled in a heated storyline with "Macho King" Randy Savage and his manager/partner Sensational Queen Sherri, who in turn found a rival in Sapphire. After a confrontation between the two couples, Savage's ex-manager Miss Elizabeth allied herself with Rhodes and Sapphire and was instrumental in helping them win the WWF's first mixed tag-team match during WrestleMania VI. Sapphire, however, left Rhodes during SummerSlam for The Million Dollar Man's money. Afterwards, Rhodes dropped the polka dots and feuded with Dibiase and Virgil, which also resulted in the national debut of his son Dustin at the 1991 Royal Rumble. Both departed the WWF shortly after, marking the end of Rhodes' career as a full-time in-ring competitor.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I think Bruce is just pissed about Mero being on the other side of the Benoit stuff.

What do you mean by this?

I vaguely remember Marc being one of the few to call out the industry after the Benoit murders and place some responsibility on the meat grinder. He would be praised for that now. I might have that wrong.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Considering how insular the WWF/Wrestling in general was at the time, anybody speaking ill of it especially in relation to Benoit and/or Steroids was probably ostracized so that's why there's bad blood towards Mero after the fact.

Dusty at 48 feels like the right spot for him considering his briefness in the actual 90s. Memorable feud and character (for good or bad) but shouldn't be higher IMO.

 

[tekcop]

49. Marc Mero

49 is probably about right. Strong competitor who looked to have a pretty high ceiling coming into the company. Especially if you were aware of his work in WCW. Between his knee injury and his relationship problems with his wife, he was kept from reaching his peak. Sometimes a big change in attitude can really push a guy forward, but his turn seemed to have more to do with wanting to control Sable than wanting to win titles.

 

[tekcop]

48. Dusty Rhodes

Looking at his career, he was one of the most dominate wrestlers of all time. But maybe he came into the WWF too late in his career. I see alot of parallels with Fedor and UFC. It's easy to write him off as having been a big fish in a small pond, but he came onto the biggest stage in the business while way past his prime. With his body type, it was clear he was going to burn out pretty early.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Dusty as #48 would make sense if this was Top 50 WWF Singles of the 80s but I don't think he would make cut for my list. He was really prominent for six months or so in the decade before he started getting phased out.

I think only argument to be made for him over Mero and Doink is that his feuds with Macho King and Ted DiBiase were way more prominent than anything those two did. But the Macho King feud was arguably the worst feud in his WWF career and DiBiase resoundingly won his feud with Big Dust.

 

[909]

Dusty makes it on mine. The guy was mega over and had the second most prominent feud at a WrestleMania. He never could work all that well, but I feel like people have totally misunderstood him as a wrestler because he used to book himself. The guy booked himself on top because the fans literally begged for it, and even the WWF's fans wanted him booked prominently.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

He's borderliner, for sure. Not totally crying foul over him being #48. He'd definitely be in the #51 to #55 range IMO.

I'm not just trying to earn points for the next POTY tournament but I think Billy Gunn should have snuck in this tournament. I'm assuming AA is only taking singles stuff into account but even then our man King Ass won p. much every title there was to win besides the World Title and had the 2nd biggest match on a SummerSlam in WWF's most popular year. I'd put 'em in over Mero tbh.

Plus he is Top 5 maybe Top 3 greatest WWF tag team wrestler of all time. But then again, it is befitting of a WWF list to be biased against tag team specialists. SMDH!

 

[Baby Shoes]

THE GREATEST PURE ASS CLUB IN THE HISTORY OF THIS SPORT

 

[Valeyard]

Him selling for Taker when he debuted was huge for me.

I mean, I don't know about him being on the list for just a year in the company. The Savage stuff was disappointing, and while the Dibiase feud had much more potential booking-wise it never felt like it went past first gear. It felt like a placeholder for both guys until Dusty left.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'm watching Prime Time Wrestling's from the Summer of 1989 and I really really think they should've STARTED Dusty's run with a DiBiase feud instead of ending it. It just makes total sense when you juxtapose DiBiase getting the Million Dollar Belt and Dusty's Common Man vignettes. It's not like what those guys did for SummerSlam 1989 was any better (plus their opponents there were feuding with each other so to me it makes total sense)

 

[Valeyard]

That's exactly what they should've done, really. I was thinking taking Piper's spot with Rude and give Dibiase to Piper.

 

[geniusMoment]

What do you mean by this?

I vaguely remember Marc being one of the few to call out the industry after the Benoit murders and place some responsibility on the meat grinder. He would be praised for that now. I might have that wrong.

Honestly, it's been so long I might not be remembering it perfectly. But, I remember at the time Mero was one of the few guys who was pretty outspoken about the WWF/WWE culture, and the toxic mix of steroids, concussions, life on the road etc...

And I think Bradshaw (Prichard's good friend) was one of the guys who came out and said he was just a no talent who couldn't make it, and was bitter. I think Bruce continued the narrative on his podcast, and that's why Mero is unfairly painted with a no talent brush now.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

yeah, time is definitely making Marc look better on this one...

 

[tekcop]

Breaking kayfabe for a moment, any idea that Marc Mero had no talent seems to be wildly at odds with the fact that I've seen him wrestle and he was pretty good.

 

[Valeyard]

Dope.

 

[AA484]

Mero had the cleanest shooting star press I ever saw in wrestling.

 

[strummer]

That's exactly what they should've done, really. I was thinking taking Piper's spot with Rude and give Dibiase to Piper.

Agree with most of the fantasy booking discussing 89 but Piper/Rude was an awesome program. There were some incredible segments with them on prime time in summer of 89 that no one really talks about because they weren't on the weekend syndies.

Maybe save Piper/Rude for early 90 and Mania 6. Bad News/Piper was terrible and Rude was directionless at that point. Of course if Rude was challenging Warrior that summer he has to look strong and I doubt Piper would have jobbed at Mania but it could have worked