#63: The Fabulous Moolah

Real Name: Mary Lillian Ellison

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon

The Fabulous Moolah was the first female inductee to the WWF Hall of Fame, in 1995. It's no surprise that she makes such a high appearance on our list then. With five NWA Women's Championships and four WWF Women's Championships to her credit, Moolah's total time as world champion exceeds thirty years! It is unlikely that anyone will ever come close to equaling that mark.

The Fabulous Moolah, like so many of the superstars on this list, played an intricate role in the 1980s wrestling boom. She was involved in the feud between Cyndi Lauper and Lou Albano, waging an in-ring battle on behalf of Albano against Wendi Richter, protégé of Lauper. Their feud culminated on MTV at The Brawl to End It All in the summer of 1984 where Moolah's lengthy title reign came to an end in the main event.

Moolah would eventually recapture her title in 1985, disguised as The Spider Lady, pinning Richter with the help of a fast count from the referee. Wendi Richter wasn't aware that she would be losing the title, and continued to fight her opponent after the bell, tearing off her mask and revealing that it was actually Moolah in disguise. Richter would never wrestle in the WWF again.

The Fabulous Moolah won her fourth WWF Women's Championship in 1999, at age 76, which has to be some sort of record. She continued wrestling beyond her eightieth birthday, competing in the ring during seven different decades overall. Sadly, this unequaled career came to an end when The Fabulous Moolah passed away in 2007. It is unlikely that anyone will ever forget, though, the years of excitement she provided to wrestling fans everywhere during her superstar career.

#64: Doink the Clown

Real Names: Matthew Osborne, Barry Darsow, Steve Keirn, Steve Lombardi, etc.

Biggest Fan: Jon Baltos

It's really quite surprising that it wasn't until 1992 that an evil clown wrestler debuted in the World Wrestling Federation. So, when Doink the Clown finally arrived on the scene in 1992, playing pranks on fans and wrestlers alike, the crowd was more than ready to root against this heel in face's clothing.

Doink has been involved in some important matches and memorable feuds over the years. He defeated Crush (with help from a second Doink) at WrestleMania IX, feuded with Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Jerry Lawler and more; a pretty impressive resume for a children's entertainer.

Doink the Clown has been portrayed by many different wrestlers over the years, primarily and originally by Matt Borne (who fought Ricky Steamboat at the first WrestleMania). Later on, Smash, Skinner and the Brooklyn Brawler took turns underneath the clown makeup; more recently, the wrestler known as Eugene put on the costume.

But the person underneath isn't what matters, because nobody cares who you are on the inside. It's your outward appearance that makes you a superstar. Remember that, kids.

#65: Tito Santana

Real Name: Merced Solis

Other Aliases: El Matador

Biggest Fan: Jesse Reardon "I've always considered 'Chico' Santana to be an underrated superstar. He was incredibly popular and put on great in-ring performances. His matches were also special because of the subtly racist hilarity that would come out of the mouths of Bobby Heenan and Jesse Ventura. I consider him a Top 5 Intercontinental Champion."

Merced Solis got into wrestling after the conclusion of his football career. Solis played tight end in the CFL after a solid collegiate career at West Texas A&M University. It was his quarterback in college, Tully Blanchard (one half of the Brain Busters), who recruited Solis to become a pro wrestler. After wrestling in smaller promotions from 1977-79, the newly-named Tito Santana spent the next fourteen years in the World Wrestling Federation, participating in each of the first eight WrestleManias. Only Hulk Hogan can make such a boast. But Hogan can't say that he won the first match in WrestleMania history; Tito (who defeated The Executioner in the first contest) alone can say that.

The career accolades of Tito Santana are almost countless: ECW World Champion, WWE Hall of Famer, 2-time WWF Tag Team Champion, King of the Ring tournament winner and 2-time WWF Intercontinental Champion. In fact, only three men have ever held the Intercontinental Championship for as long as Santana. There is no disputing that Santana is one of the most successful superstars in the history of the sport. The only real debate is how high on this list should Tito be? According to our experts, the answer is #65.

#66: Bushwhacker Butch & Jeff Hardy (tied)

Real Name (Butch): Butch Miller

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon

Real Name (Hardy): Jeffrey Nero Hardy

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "High flyer risking his lives."

Tied at #66, we have two tag team specialists whose partners have already appeared on this list: Butch's partner Luke appears at #69, Jeff's brother Matt appears at #75. There's not much need to rehash the previously-discussed tag team exploits of these two superstars, so I won't.

Jeff Hardy, more than his brother Matt or either of the Bushwhackers, has had a tremendous singles career that deserves mention here, though. Jeff is a two-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion, two-time World Heavyweight Champion and a former WWE Champion. Twice he has been elected by PWI readers as Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (2008 & 2009). Jeff has certainly parlayed his seamstress/tag team specialist gig into an impressive Hall of Fame-caliber career.

Aside from the previously mentioned Bushwhacker exploits, it would be a travesty to avoid mentioning a pair of Butch and Luke's more memorable matches. In 1986, the Sheepherders accomplished a rare feat after their match with a team called The Fantastics. The tag team contest was awarded a 5 Star rating by Dave Meltzer (editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter). Only sixty-three matches since 1983 have received this highest rating, and it is considered a great honor. Another great honor? Wrestling Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel in a tag team match on Family Matters. Yup, Butch Miller is the third (at least) superstar on this list to have wrestled on a show from ABC's TGIF lineup.

Jeff Hardy and Bushwhacker Butch: Superstars in every sense of the word.

#68: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine

Real Name: John Wisniski, Jr.

Biggest Fan: Jane Picard "He made my list because he’s my mom’s favorite. And if an 88 year old lady has an opinion about a wrestler it needs to make the list."

This WWF Hall of Famer's career has been long and distinguished. He debuted in 1970, initially reluctant to wrestle under his eventual Greg Valentine name. His father, Johnny Valentine, had already established the name with his own successful career. But eventually he did brand himself Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and began wrestling as his father's tag team partner (although, he was purported to be Johnny's brother instead of his son).

Between 1970 and 1984, Greg Valentine shuffled between various independent promotions, the NWA and the WWWF. He feuded with Wahoo McDaniel (breaking his leg) over the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship, held the NWA Tag Team Titles (with Ric Flair), feuded with Chief Jay Strongbow (breaking his leg), and battled WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund to a one-hour draw.

In 1984, Valentine landed in the WWF once again and quickly became the eighth ever Intercontinental Champion, a title he would put on the line at the very first WrestleMania. Altogether, Valentine's reign as the champ was the fifth-longest in the history of the title and the first to end in a steel cage match.

"The Hammer" soon developed a reputation for being a "slow-starter". He didn't get warmed up until the match had been going for fifteen minutes but he possessed unparalleled stamina, giving him an advantage the longer the match would last. Additionally, Valentine's specialty was going to work on the legs and ankles of his foes, crippling them with his figure four leglock routinely. The combination of these unique skills made Valentine a force to be reckoned with in the WWF for nearly an entire decade.

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine is exactly the type of superstar who deserves to be on this list, probably even a little bit higher than he is. He had success that most wrestlers could only hope for, he had a unique style that made him stand out amongst his peers, he joined the WWF at the perfect time to become a superstar, and that's just what he did.

#69: Bushwhacker Luke

Real Name: Luke Williams

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon

For 25 years The Sheepherders trampled opponents from New Zealand to Calgary and nearly everywhere in between. Then the tag team joined the World Wrestling Federation and began calling themselves The Bushwhackers.

The Bushwhackers were one of the most popular and entertaining tag teams in the WWF during the late eighties and early nineties. While their win-loss record might not be the most impressive, they routinely scored moral victories over their adversaries.

Cousin Luke was the slightly younger member of this duo, and he continues to wrestle, on occasion, to this day. In fact, Luke's singles career has been successful enough to get him ranked #363 on PWI's list of the top singles wrestlers of all time, pretty impressive for a tag team specialist.

Bushwhacker Luke really knew how to put the entertainment into sports entertainment, and it's no surprise that such a memorable character appears so high on this list of top superstars.

#70: Papa Shango

Real Name: Charles Wright
Other Aliases: Kama, Kama Mustafa, The Godfather, The Goodfather
Biggest Fan: Jon Baltos

Charles Wright was working as a bartender with no particular ambitions to become a professional wrestler, but professional wrestling found him. Terry Funk, Scott Norton and other superstars were frequenting his bar while working on the Sylvester Stallone movie, Over The Top. They convinced the 6'6", 330-pounder to embark on a career in sports entertainment. As a result, Wright didn't debut in the ring until he was already 28 years old.

Thankfully, Wright's unique look, athleticism and charisma allowed him to make up for lost time and develop into a wrestling superstar very quickly. By 1991, after just a couple of years in the business, Wright was in the World Wrestling Federation. Papa Shango, as he was now known, was the catalyst for one of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history. After Hulk Hogan's "final match" against Sid Justice at WrestleMania VIII, Shango stormed the ring and attacked the Immortal One. The only reason the Hulkster survived the evening was because of the electrifying return of the Ultimate Warrior.

The Ultimate Warrior paid dearly for intervening, though, as Shango, a master of the voodoo arts, tormented him with dastardly magic. This feud raged throughout the summer of 1992 until the Ultimate Warrior, possibly out of fear, departed the WWF. Eventually, Papa Shango retired from his career as an evil spellcaster and joined Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation as "The Supreme Fighting Machine" Kama.

Kama would eventually end up in a pair of other factions, the Nation of Domination and the Right to Center. He also enjoyed a wildly successful career as a pimp, known as The Godfather, and made it to the semifinals of the WWF's Brawl For All, losing to eventual tournament winner, Bart Gunn.

Charles Wright's 14-year career came to a conclusion in 2003, a brief career by most standards. What everyone will no doubt remember about Charles Wright is his ability to portray and really inhabit a character. His time as Papa Shango, one of wrestling's greatest gimmicks ever, will not soon be forgotten, and neither will this superstar of the squared circle.

#71: Chief Jay Strongbow & Kofi Kingston (tied)

Real Name (Strongbow): Joseph Luke Scarpa

Biggest Fan: Jane Picard "Chief Jay Strongbow was the first real wrestling 'character' that I can remember. I think that if I didn’t have an attachment to the wrestlers of the 80’s and 90’s I probably would have ranked him higher. He entered the ring in full Chief fashion dancing around the ring for the entertainment of the audience… would there really be an ULTIMATE WARRIOR without the Chief?"

Real Name (Kingston): Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "A Hawaiian person. He has a sign called SOS which means save our ship."

When deciding on a wrestling gimmick, an always popular tactic is to embrace one's heritage. And these two superstars have both become hugely successful by doing just that.

Kofi Kingston debuted exactly five years ago today, but he has already made enough of an impression on our panel to crack the Top 100 Superstars list. He is the current United States Champion and is a three-time WWF Intercontinental Champion. At only 29 years old, the thoroughly entertaining Kingston no doubt has many years of wrestling ahead of him, which is very exciting considering that this young man has really started to come into his own recently: Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him #26 on the PWI 500 for 2010.

That same publication honored Chief Jay Strongbow with an award, as well. In 1973, eight years before Kingston was even born, PWI named Strongbow the most popular wrestler in the industry. A four-time WWWF Tag Team Champion and Hall of Famer, Chief Jay Strongbow paved the way for many of the superstars of the eighties and nineties. Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior, not to mention Tatanka, probably wouldn't have had their famous adrenaline surges had Strongbow not first "gone on the warpath" whenever the crowd cheered him on. A true innovator and one of the biggest superstars in the pre-WrestleMania era, this Native American had no reservations about laying down a beating on his opponent, whether it was Superstar Billy Graham, Mr. Fuji or Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.

Although the peaks of their careers were separated by nearly six decades, these two superstars are on this list because they've been true to themselves and their heritage, and being true to yourself is cool, boys and girls.

#73: Randy Orton

Real Name: Randal Keith Orton
Biggest Fan: John Rohner "He was called the Legend Killer. He was an icon."

As a third-generation superstar, professional wrestling is quite literally in Randy Orton's blood. The son of "Cowboy" Bob Orton, himself #87 on this list, Randy was destined for great things in World Wrestling Entertainment upon his debut in the year 2000. Randy's ascension to dominance was swift indeed. At age 24, he became the youngest wrestler ever to hold the WWE's World Heavyweight Championship, a title he recaptured just last month and currently holds.

Nicknamed "The Legend Killer" for his proclivity for beating up retired, much older wrestlers, Orton's list of WWE accomplishments is nearly unparalleled. A six-time holder of the WWF/WWE Championship, only nine men have held that title for more total days than Randy Orton.

Clearly, this superstar's story is one that is still being written, and a decade from now the name Randy Orton could rank much higher, perhaps near the top of this list. But even if his career ended today, the latest member of the Orton wrestling dynasty is clearly a superstar in the sport.

#74: Big John Studd

Real Name: John William Minton

Other Aliases: Executioner #2

Biggest Fan: Joe Reardon "Won a Royal Rumble. Took Andre the Giant to the limit several times. His Rumble victory came long before a Rumble victory sent you to the Main Event of Wrestlemania. The lack of title shots for Studd has caused many to believe he was not an upper echelon competitor."

Big John Studd was one of few competitors in his day who could believably stand toe-to-toe with Andre the Giant. Billed to stand 6'10" and weigh 364 pounds, Big John Studd learned to be a professional wrestler by training underneath Killer Kowalski. The two of them then went on to become WWF Tag Team champions together, as the Masked Executioners, in 1976. Studd also battled "Nature Boy" Ric Flair for the NWA Heavyweight Title on several occasions in 1982, before joining the World Wrestling Federation and hiring Classy Freddie Blassie to be his manager.

Studd's time in the World Wrestling Federation saw him feud with two of wrestling's most famous superstars, Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. He also teamed up with the massive King Kong Bundy, forming perhaps the most terrifying duo in wrestling history. At WrestleMania 2, Studd eliminated from a 20-man battle royal one of the favorites to win the whole thing, Chicago Bears' defensive lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry! Studd might have won the match himself, but The Fridge yanked him out of the ring during a friendly handshake between the two.

Perhaps the greatest moment in this superstar's career, though, was at the 1989 Royal Rumble. This was the first Rumble to air on pay-per-view and the first to feature thirty entrants. Big John Studd outlasted them all, eliminating Ted DiBiase at the end to become the winner of the match and cementing his status as a legendary superstar of wrestling.

#75: Matt Hardy

Real Name: Matthew Moore Hardy

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "Jeff Hardy's tag team partner. He was cool."

The quote from our expert pretty much says it all for Matt Hardy. He was Jeff Hardy's tag team partner. Having a more-talented brother in the same profession as you might seem to be quite frustrating at times. Say, for example, Hardy Family Thanksgiving: "Oh, Jeff, I hear you won the World Heavyweight Championship. That's the same belt that Ric Flair had for so many years, right?" "Oh, Matt, I hear that your girlfriend, Lita, broke up with you for real and started dating Edge. Keep at it, buddy, you'll get there!"

But Matt Hardy isn't on this list because he is easy to make fun of. He's on this list because our panel of experts clearly award bonus points to superstars who design and sew costumes and ring attire for all the other wrestlers.

Again, it's just so difficult to write about Matt Hardy without ridiculing him. But in all seriousness, Matt is a former WWF/WWE tag team champion eight times over. He counts the ECW championship amongst his list of singles titles, and he has been a consistently popular performer in the squared circle for well over a dozen years. Such a hit with the fans is Matt that he was brought back to the WWE in 2005 after an online petition from the legions of Mattaholics demanded it.

Additionally, Matt has twice been involved in the PWI's Match of the Year, at WrestleMania 2000 and WrestleMania X-Seven (during a time when the WWF evidently thought that simple roman numerals weren't exciting enough for its audience and started naming WrestleManias like a bunch of idiots). His feud with Edge and Lita also took home Pro Wrestling Illustrated's award for Feud of the Year in 2005.

Truly, Matt Hardy falls into a category with Owen Hart, The Genius, Raymond Rougeau and Hoss Funk (who, coincidentally enough, trained Matt to be a wrestler); they may not have been as good or successful as their brothers, but sometimes there is room on a list for two members of the same brood, and Matt is definitely worthy of being called a Top Superstar of Wrestling.