10 Wrestlers Who SECRETLY Elevated The Stars

There’ll always be room in wrestling for a performer who could very easily tear your arm off. Before Lesnar and Rousey, there was Ken Shamrock, a major figure in the nascent UFC. Billed as the world’s most dangerous man, his gimmick was super simple: if he lost his temper, you were going to die.

His acquisition was a huge boon to the booking of Vince McMahon’s corporation, to that point a stable that made sense - they had the boss at the helm - but didn’t exactly pack a lot of fear factor. Shamrock was a major step up from the Big Boss Man (a legendary worker in his own right but not exactly someone who won a lot of matches).

Suddenly, the whole stable made a lot more sense. Vince McMahon was far more effective as the company’s top heel with someone like Shamrock at his beck and call, allowing the Corporation to feud with the Undertaker by way of sending the MMA man to take on swathes of ‘Taker’s spooky goons.

Shamrock never quite got his due in WWE, but should be celebrated, among other things, for giving one of the craziest times in company history a sense of reality.