As it goes on, you should be able to understand what’s happening. And, for the record, all wrestling promotions are fair game here from modern companies (like WWE) to past companies (like WCW). I hope you’re as excited as I am to get this show on the road. So, let’s do it.

Best In-Ring Technician: Chris Benoit

As a wrestling fan, I love watching technical masterpieces. No one, and I mean no one, was better at that than Chris Benoit. Yes, I know his life didn’t end very well (to say the least), but his work in the wrestling world should always be praised. I’ll also give an honorable mention to all these different categories, and that would be Bret Hart here.

Best Highflyer: Rey Mysterio

Okay, this is going to be the easiest award on here. Rey Mysterio is far and away the greatest highflyer in the history of wrestling. On top of pioneering the art of highflying, he’s been able to adapt his move set for years and years. The fact that he’s still in the business and looking as sharp as ever, honestly, is just amazing. As for an honorable mention, I’ll go with AJ Styles.

Best Talker: Ric Flair

I’m going to break this section up into two separate categories. For simply talking purposes, nobody was quite like Ric Flair. His ability to create heat simply by talking was unparalleled, to be completely honest. Just go watch one of his vintage NWA promos and you’ll begin to understand. The honorable mention, this time, goes to The Rock. He was pretty good on the stick too.

Best Promos: Mick Foley

This is the 2nd part of the aforementioned two categories. Even though Flair was the best talker of all-time, Mick Foley was the best when it came to cutting promos. Yes, for the record, there’s a difference. Part of the reason why Foley was so amazing at it was his devotion to three separate characters (though he seldom used Dude Love). I’m going to go old-school with my honorable mention and give it to the great Roddy Piper.

Best Character: Undertaker

As if anyone else was really going to win this award. Now, certainly, there have been some great characters over the years, but to give this award to anyone else besides The Undertaker would be a disgrace. For 30 years, he adapted his character when he had to and somehow managed to stay fresh the entire time. That’s not easy to do. As for the runner-up, I have to go with Sting.

Most “Over”: Stone Cold Steve Austin

This one’s a little different, and it’s basically to recognize the superstar who was the most popular (or “over” as they say in the wrestling business). In terms of popularity, you could really either go with Stone Cold or Hulk Hogan. I’m taking Austin over Hogan just slightly, though it’s very, very close. It’s just that Austin was the most popular during the most popular era in wrestling history.

Best All-Around Wrestler: Eddie Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero could simply do it all. Whether it came to getting technical or flying all over the ring, there was pretty much nothing Eddie couldn’t do. Not to mention his natural charisma and his innate ability to get the crowd either behind him or totally against him. In terms of an overall package, it’s tough to get better than Eddie. Period. Shawn Michaels gets the honorable mention and that leads to this…

Best Wrestler of All-Time: Shawn Michaels

There are so many wrestlers that you could say are the greatest ever. When it comes down to it, though, many agree that Shawn Michaels is the GOAT. What more can you say about the Heart Break Kid? Charisma, check. In-ring greatness, check. Longevity, check. Admiration from his fans and peers, check. There will never be another one like him, you can rest your bottom-dollar on that. Also, for the record, I have Undertaker getting the honorable mention here.

As it is in wrestling, the wrestlers get older and eventually have to retire. This means that throughout the course of history, many top wrestlers have never had the chance to lace up their boots with some of the other all-time greats. As fans, we all have our personal dream matches. For me, I have four that always stand out in my mind. It would’ve been amazing had these matches happened in each of the wrestler’s respective primes.

Goldberg vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

If you were a wrestling fan during the Monday Night Wars, then you probably either preferred WCW over WWF or the other way around. During the peak, there were two guys (one from each company) that stood above the rest. Those two guys were Stone Cold (with the WWF) and Goldberg (with WCW).

Now, many people complain about Goldberg being a Stone Cold rip off, as he came after Steve Austin was already established. Regardless of how you feel about it, we can all agree that seeing the two square off way back in 1998 would’ve been one of the most hyped up matches of all-time.

Chris Benoit vs AJ Styles

Yeah, I know what Chris Benoit did. Given he’s one of my all-time favorite wrestlers, I know all about it. Now’s not the time or place to get into that, as I just want to talk about this dream match. No matter your opinion on Benoit, many agree that he’s the greatest technical wrestler that ever lived.

Then, we turn to the great AJ Styles. Talk about phenomenal, that word has best described AJ Styles for the last two decades, and he’s still going on strong. The technical and stiff style of Benoit would’ve meshed with Style’s high-flying and mat-wrestling style so perfectly. I just salivate thinking of the chemistry that these two would’ve had with one another.

Shawn Michaels vs Eddie Guerrero

The one that was so close to happening. The previous two matches pretty much never came close to happening, but this one’s a different story. As all fans of Eddie Guerrero are aware, he passed away in late 2005. It’s still easily one of the hardest deaths to get over for professional wrestling fans. The WrestleMania that was going to happen the next year (which would’ve been WrestleMania 22) was reportedly possibly going to be Shawn Michaels vs Eddie Guerrero:

On a recent Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard says Shawn Michaels Vs Eddie Guerrero was an idea being kicked around for WM22.

Sadly, Eddie would pass away the November before Mania' and HBK would end up facing Vince McMahon instead.

Eddie Vs Shawn would have been class.

— Alex McCarthy (@AlexM_talkSPORT) October 13, 2020

I don’t often guarantee that a match would be five stars, but that one probably would have gotten the full monte. Such a shame that we never got to see these two greats go at it.

Undertaker vs Sting

Come on, you all knew this one was coming. Easily, this is the greatest missed opportunity in the history of wrestling. Back when WCW was bought out by the WWF, Sting was one of the few that never ended up coming to the WWE (the name was changed in 2002). Finally, though, in 2014, Sting finally debuted in the WWE.

From that point on, we could’ve seen Undertaker vs Sting. Sure, by then, they were both out of their primes, but it still could have been phenomenal. Instead, the one WrestleMania that Sting wrestled at, he took on The Game, Triple H. It should’ve been the Deadman and we all know it.