10 Absolutely Incredible Wrestling Comparisons

7. Dolph Ziggler And Arn Anderson Tell Another Damning Story Of Wrestling's Evolution

Hogan Balor Thumb
WWE.com

WWE broke wrestling when they monopolised it.

Everything seemed to stand still. Jumps very rarely happened because there weren’t any promotions, plural, to jump between. Wrestlers didn't "jump" to WWE. Name indie acts got signed and for well over a decade were told they were skinny fat ass vegan nerds with no charisma who didn't know how to work. In parallel, they signed muscled, mostly useless greenhorns with no experience. Kurt Angle didn't jump willingly - he was released - and while Christian Cage did, he was the rule-proving exception. Otherwise, WWE released a wrestler, TNA said "Is for me?" and signed them all.

Another byproduct of this Black Lodge Era is that several wrestlers debuted in WWE, and those rare few that WWE actually rated hung around the place forever - in many cases, longer than any wrestler had spent in a single territory.

To put into perspective how little f*cking changed compared to wrestling before it got broken, Dolph Ziggler's entire WWE run (17 years) has outlasted Arn Anderson's entire in-ring career (15 years). Hammering home how wild this is, Dolph Ziggler looks younger now than Arn Anderson did when he debuted.

Ziggler remains in fabulous physical condition, without a single crow's foot, where Arn Anderson looked like a massively prolific "that guy" character actor when he was 16.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!