Check out the rest of the countdown here and here.
#5. Bret “The Hitman” Hart
Bret Hart edged out Shawn Michaels in my rankings simply because he was a champion longer. Bret started out the ‘90s in The Hart Foundation with his partner, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, but by 1991, he was wrestling for the Intercontinental Title.
In 1992, he beat Ric Flair (a man left off of this list for being MUCH bigger in the ‘80s) for the world championship. There he led the “New Generation” movement throughout the early-to-mid ‘90s. He was the guy that ended Yokozuna’s long title reign in 1994, and had a huge rivalry with brother Owen throughout that summer. He was constantly in the main event picture throughout the decade. As the mid-‘90s became the later ‘90s, he began a real-life feud with Shawn Michaels, where they would reportedly fight backstage and lob personal insults at each other onscreen. Their feud directly led to the aforementioned “Montreal Screwjob”, where WWF owner Vince McMahon tricked Hart into losing the title to Michaels against his will. Hart stormed out of the WWF and to WCW, where he kinda floundered around because monkeys were sitting at typewriters backstage in WCW.
In 1999, Goldberg kicked Hart in the head during a match and gave him a legitimate concussion. Then, in another match with Goldberg, he struck his head on the concrete floor when Goldberg took a move improperly. The moral of the story is nobody should ever be in a match with Goldberg. Ever. He developed post-concussion syndrome and had to retire.
Today: Hart fell off his bicycle, hit his head and suffered a stroke from it in 2002. He has since recovered from complete paralysis in the left side of his body and is reportedly emotionally imbalanced from the incident, which is a common side effect from many stroke survivors. He was able to bury the hatchet with Vince McMahon enough to both help produce a DVD documentary of his career and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He has also written a killer autobiography detailing his career.
#4. The Rock
The Rock had a horrible start. In 1996, he debuted as Rocky Maivia, a goody-two-shoes good guy in the start of an era where good guys were hated. People chanted “Die Rocky Die” while he wrestled. Not exactly the type of reaction you’re looking for when you’re a good guy. So, he went bad and joined the black militant group The Nation of Domination and changed his name to The Rock.
He grew more hated by the day, and his cockiness became more and more entertaining as well. He began to start spouting catchphrases, including his now-famous “Do you smell what The Rock is cookin’?” He was an Intercontinental champion, and at the end of 1998, he won the world title.
Rocky wound up as one of the most famous and entertaining wrestlers in history. In fact, in 2000, he hosted Saturday Night Live, which he has done twice more since.
Today: You already know. The guy is now Dwayne Johnson, actor extraordinaire. He makes millions of bucks making mostly pretty good movies.
#3. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
I understand that I’m going to start taking some flack here. “Austin as #3?!? He was the biggest star EVER!!!” That may be, but not the top star of the ‘90s. Not by my logic.
Austin was “Stunning” Steve Austin in WCW in the early ‘90s. In 1995, he joined the WWF as The Ringmaster, and later changed it to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. His popularity shot off in 1996 after winning The King of the Ring tournament in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After the tournament, he coined “Austin 3:16”, which graced more t-shirts than any other slogan in wrestling history. He became the ultimate representative of every guy who wanted to beat up his boss in his feud with Vince McMahon. He flipped middle fingers, cursed, and made everybody laugh.
I wasn’t a HUGE fan of Austin during his run in the WWF, but looking back, I miss how entertaining he really was. He’s not the top star of the ‘90s because it too until the second part of the decade for him to really emerge. However, he is widely regarded as the most successful wrestler in history – making more money and drawing more people than Hulk Hogan in his prime.
Today: Austin’s bad neck forced him to retirement in 2003. He came back briefly in 2004, but that was about it.
#2. The Undertaker
When I think of ‘90s wrestling, I think of The Undertaker. He made his debut in 1990 and was one of the most consistently popular wrestlers of the decade.
The Undertaker had probably one of the least believable gimmicks in history: he was a dead guy. He was dead. A walking, wrestling, dead guy. But he played it to such perfection and wrestled well on top of it that people bought into it.
He beat Hulk Hogan for the world title at Survivor Series 1991, only to lose it a few days later. Then he began a streak of wrestling really tall and big guys, culminating in his world title feud with Yokozuna, where he lost the casket match at the Royal Rumble in 1994. He returned at SummerSlam (beating a fake Undertaker that ran around for a few months) and continued his streak of popularity. Finally, at WrestleMania 13 in 1997, he won the world title again and kept it for the summer. He ended the ‘90s as one of the most hated men in the WWF after starting the Ministry of Darkness and becoming all demonic and stuff.
Today: In 2000, Undertaker dropped the dead man gimmick for a few years and wrestled as a biker, riding a motorcycle to the ring. In 2005, he came back as the dead man once again. He’s won numerous world titles and is arguable still the most popular wrestler around today, as well as one of the most respected. He is also now known as the man with the undefeated WrestleMania streak, which currently sits at 17-0 as of this writing.
#1. The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall)
And here comes the hate mail!
Here’s my argument: there were no two guys that impacted ‘90s wrestling like The Outsiders. They were at the top of the WWF and WCW throughout the decade.
Scott Hall (on the right) started in the WWF in 1992 as Razor Ramon, who was a mainstay in the Intercontinental Title picture from 1993-1996. Kevin Nash joined the WWF in 1993 as Shawn Michaels’ bodyguard, Diesel. Diesel would win both the Intercontinental Title and then the world championship in 1994. He spent 1995 as the world champion before losing it to Bret Hart at Survivor Series.
Then, in 1996, they joined WCW. But instead of just showing up and wrestling, Hall came out of the crowd during a match on Nitro and pretty much implied that he was from the WWF and he was invading WCW. Nash followed suit a week later, and they became The Outsiders. Joining with Hulk Hogan, they formed the nWo.
The nWo made being a bad guy cool. They kicked around pretty much everyone throughout the late ‘90s in WCW. They rocked the wrestling world by pretending to be invaders and coming in through the crowd. WCW looked like it was going to die at their hands.
They wound up overdoing the whole nWo thing, and it ruined WCW’s shows to the point where they wound up folding in 2001 and being bought out by Vince McMahon.
Today: They’re old. Really old. Nash still looks to be in shape, but after a brief run in the WWF again, he got all gray-haired. Here’s a Polaroid of me with Nash at a small wrestling event from last December:
He’s really tall.
Hall would also have a short run in the WWF in 2002, but then he let his “personal demons” get the better of him and put on a bunch of weight. He can now be seen worldwide on the internet getting kicked out of various bars and generally being a disorderly drunk.
So that’s it! Those of you who are non-wrestling fans are incredibly excited to see that this week is over, and those of you are are wrestling fans are probably upset because my list is different from your list.
