4. Tie - Ricky The Dragon Steamboat & Macho Man Randy Savage
Which one of these two was the better wrestler? Frankly, I cant decide. Savage enjoyed a greater level of career success, for sure, but Steamboat was probably the superior athlete. Savage had more charisma by far and delivered way better promos, but Steamboat was a true artist in the ring, delivering everything with such knife-like precision and crispness. Put simply, its a draw. Randy could more than hold his own in a technical bout, but was equally comfortable wrestling in what Chris Jericho has referred to as a greatest hits style that is pretty much demanded by major Pay Per View events. His style wasnt especially mat heavy, although it would be a complete fallacy to assume that Randy didnt use an impressive array of manoeuvres, holds and reversals in his matches. However, Savage makes this list largely because his in-ring work, even though not especially mat centric, was just so damn good. His piledrivers, suplexes and back body drops were so textbook that it would be ludicrous not to consider him as one of the companys all time best technical wrestlers. For his part, Ricky Steamboat was a wonderful talent also. A bodybuilder in his spare time, Steamboat had the Million Dollar look that would have made him a star even if he couldnt wrestle. ...But he could wrestle. He could wrestle extremely well. Steamboats arm drag, to cite just one example, should be required study for everyone that wishes to be a professional wrestler (or, for that matter, a fan of professional wrestling). So lightening fast were his hands and reflexes that he could even clap his hands in midair before executing the move. In addition, Steamboats abdominal stretches, chickenwing holds and leg locks were a sight to behold and he threw maybe the most perfect suplex of all time. When this pair locked up at WrestleMania III, it made for arguably the most technically accomplished WrestleMania matchup of all time, which should be evidence enough for just how great these two were in their respective primes.
Chris Quicksilver
Contributor
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
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Latcho Drom,
- CQ
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