10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Were HUGELY Influential
9. Colt Cabana
Colt Cabana's legacy is at this point inextricable from his role, whatever form that may or may not have taken, in the Brawl Out saga that completely altered the history of modern professional wrestling.
He is influential in that regard, even if he didn't actively do anything - or even if him not doing anything was the inciting incident.
Despite being available, a super-solid pro who knew how to get over and lighten up the undercard on virtually any show, Tony Khan didn't take the punt in early 2019. What would have happened, had he not relented when petitioned to sign him by the Young Bucks?
Did Punk directly or otherwise ban him from the buildings he also worked in? Despite working two cards alongside Cabana in late 2021, Punk hardly helped his "Don't care where he works" defence when, during his brief stint on Collision Island, caring where, amongst others, Christopher Daniels worked.
Colt is really only talked about in butterfly effect conversations these days, which is something of a shame: he was directly influential, once upon a time. The first notable pro wrestling podcaster, you can blame him for the bad faith grifters that followed - but countless modern wrestlers thank him for his role in building Pro Wrestling Tees, the rapid turnaround time of and agency provided by which allowed them to supplement their income without lugging around and hawking boxes of t-shirts that might have remained unsold.
Kevin Owens even believes that he might not have been able to keep going, before he made it in WWE, without Colt's inspired idea.