#83: Eddie Guerrero

Real Name: Eduardo Guerrero

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero was born into a famous wrestling family, so it was no surprise to see Latino Heat wearing the WWE Championship Belt around his waist. With a good balance of high-flying attacks, technical wrestling prowess and unexpected charisma, Guerrero could electrify a crowd like few others.

Guerrero is yet another entry on this list who was present during the exciting mid-90s heyday for Extreme Championship Wrestling. Guerrero immediately used that promotion as a springboard to a contract with WCW in 1995. Although his time in WCW was marred by poor relations with management and unrealized potential, Guerrero was involved in several interesting angles and matches. He was the leader of the Latino World Order, which was a formidable group of wrestlers that feuded with Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman.

In the year 2000, Guerrero and three other disgruntled WCW superstars (Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn) jumped ship to the WWF. The foursome were called The Radicalz and their defection to the WWF was yet another key victory for the company in the war against WCW. Unfortunately, Guerrero injured himself performing a frog splash almost immediately upon his arrival in the World Wrestling Federation. Once healed, he began a humorous angle as "Latino Heat."

As entertaining as Guerrero was, his substance abuse and subsequent DUI arrest led to his release from the WWF. When he made his return, a mere six months later, Guerrero began to really put things together. His biggest career highlight arrived in 2004 when he defeated Brock Lesnar to become WWF Heavyweight Champion. His reign included a successful title defense at WrestleMania XX, a night where his good friend Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship.

Looking back on their celebration in the ring that night, one can't help but feel a little wistful. Few could predict what the not-so-distant future held for these two champions. On November 18, 2005, the WWF had planned for Batista, nursing a back injury, to drop the World Heavyweight Championship to Eddie Guerrero. Sadly, five days prior to the title match, Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room, a hauntingly familiar end to the life of yet another professional wrestler. A superstar at the height of his career, who knows how high Guerrero may have climbed on this list had he been able to steal life and cheat death a little while longer.

#84: Isaac Yankem, DDS

Real Name: Glenn Jacobs

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "Jerry 'The King' Lawler's dentist."

So memorable was this villain, that he gets a spot on this list separate from Glenn Jacobs' other iconic character, who may or may not appear elsewhere on this list.

Dr. Isaac Yankem was brought into the WWF to feud with Bret "Hitman" Hart in 1995. In a 16-minute slobberknocker that stole the show at SummerSlam, Bret Hart emerged victorious only because Yankem was disqualified by the referee. Yankem continued to be a thorn in the side of the Hitman and other wrestlers for months after that impressive debut, but in the fall of 1996 the wrasslin' dentist went away for good, as Glenn Jacobs had bigger roles on the horizon (like Fake Diesel).

#85: Gangrel

Real Name: David Heath

Other Aliases: Vampire Warrior

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "He is a vampire. He has a special match called the blood bath match."

Gangrel will forever be remembered in the WWF for being the leader of The Brood, a trio of vampire wrestlers known for leaving opponents incapacitated in a pool of blood. The Brood was also the faction that first paired Edge and Christian together in the WWF, and their future success must be credited in part, or in whole, to the tutelage of their vampire mentor, Gangrel.

Gangrel is also a noteworthy superstar in that he was married to Luna Vachon, one of the most fearsome female sports entertainers. Can you imagine what a couples dinner with those two might be like? You might end up being the main course! Anyway, Gangrel and The Brood were involved in some interesting feuds and were even a part of the Undertaker's Ministry for a while, in some kind of stable merger. Later on, Gangrel would turn on Edge and Christian and form The New Brood with Matt and Jeff Hardy. This group didn't have as much success as its predecessor.

Gangrel's singles career reached its peak at the 1999 Royal Rumble. Not only was he an entrant in the Rumble match, but he also challenged X-Pac for the European Championship, and if not for a slow count by Teddy Long, he might be the reigning European Champion today. Unfortunately, Gangrel never captured championship gold in the WWF. He continued to work off-and-on for the WWE, even forming yet another vampire-themed stable in ECW as recently as 2006. Sadly, the WWE has been reluctant to bring this Dean Malenko-trained superstar back full-time due to ongoing weight problems.

#86: Jim Neidhart

Real Name: James Neidhart

Other Aliases: Who

Biggest Fan: Joe Reardon "One half of one of the greatest tag teams ever. His greatness is overshadowed by Bret, which is why many have him so low on the list. The Anvil certainly carried Bret during nearly all of their promos."

Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart is almost like professional wrestling royalty. He's like the Prince Philip of the Harts, not technically part of the bloodline, but one of the most famous members of the family. In fact, it was Helen Hart who first called Neidhart "The Anvil" after he won an anvil-throwing contest.

Like many superstars of the era, Neidhart started out as a football player, but when he wasn't able to catch on with either the Raiders or the Cowboys, he went north to train under Stu Hart. While working for Stu's Stampede Wrestling promotion, Neidhart met and wed Stu's daughter, Ellie.

In 1985, The Anvil went to the WWF, along with Stu's son, Bret, as a result of Vince McMahon's purchase of Stampede Wrestling. Neidhart and Bret "The Hitman" Hart would end up forming one of professional wrestling's most successful tag teams of all time, the Hart Foundation. The pink-clad duo would wear tag team gold on two separate occasions, for a combined 483 days. Only Demolition (Axe and Smash) and the team of Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka reigned over the tag team ranks longer. Eventually, Bret went on to a magnificently successful singles career, and Neidhart teamed up with another brother-in-law, Owen "The Rocket" Hart. The Anvil and The Rocket would call themselves the New Foundation, although their success never matched that of the Hart Foundation.

Neidhart disappeared for a while from the WWF, wrestling in Japan and for WCW, but he reemerged around the time of the second King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1994. At the event, Neidhart allied himself with Owen Hart, helping him win the tournament and become the "King of Harts." This alliance with Owen led him into a feud with his former partner that culminated in a vicious attack perpetrated by Owen and The Anvil, where they pounded the crap out of the Hitman inside a steel cage.

By 1997, the entire Hart family had put their differences aside and formed one of the WWF's most impressive and memorable stables, also called the Hart Foundation. This group of five Stu Hart-trained wrestlers was immensely popular in Canada and the United Kingdom, but were reviled in the United States. It was one of the more unique phenomena in wrestling history. At one point, this stable held every one of the WWF's championships at once. After the events of the 1997 Survivor Series, Neidhart left the promotion for WCW.

Sadly, Jim Neidhart was arrested three days ago for operating an unregistered motor vehicle with no license to operate a motor vehicle anyway. Other than that, and his various other legal troubles, Neidhart's legacy lives on in the form of his daughter, Natalya, who wrestles in the WWE. Will she be able to live up to her legendary father and become a Top 100 Superstar like The Anvil? Only time will tell.

#87: Bob Orton & Raven (tied)

Real Name (Orton): Robert Keith Orton

Other Aliases: "Cowboy" Bob Orton

Biggest Fan: John Rohner

Real Name (Raven): Scott Levy

Other Aliases: Scotty Flamingo, Johnny Polo

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

"Cowboy" Bob Orton began wrestling in 1972. At the time of the professional wrestling boom of the 1980s, he was perfectly positioned for national exposure as a top heel in the WWF. Orton was bodyguard to Rowdy Roddy Piper, which led to him being in the corner of Hot Rod and Paul Orndorff at the first WrestleMania, billed as "The Greatest Wrestling Event of All Time!" In fact, it was Orton's interference that resulted in Orndorff being knocked out and pinned by Hulk Hogan in the main event. Shortly thereafter, Orton and Hogan headlined the first ever Saturday Night's Main Event. Orton might have won the championship, if not for the interference of Piper, which got him disqualified. Orton continued to be a force for evil in the WWF during the mid-eighties before fading into relative obscurity for several years. And that might have been the end of Orton's story, if not for the tremendous success that his son has had in wrestling. Now, a younger generation knows all about "Cowboy" Bob Orton, thanks to his many appearances in the corner of his son, Randy, The Legend Killer.

Few people could have expected, watching WWF programming in 1993, that part-time television host and Quebecers' manager, Johnny Polo, would end up becoming a heavyweight champion. But that's just what Scott Levy became when he ditched his old surfer and preppy gimmicks and joined ECW sporting a new, brooding character that he based on Patrick Swayze in Point Break. But then, ECW did wonders with wrestlers that they plucked off of the scrap heap, so maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise after all. As Raven, Scott Levy captured the ECW title twice and, upon returning to the WWF, would hold the WWF's hardcore championship 26 times!

These two superstars are perfect examples of people being in the right place at the right time. When the WWF was expanding and needed a villain, Bob Orton was there. When ECW was about to catch fire and needed an extreme wrestler with legendary mic skills to become one of the faces of their promotion, Raven was there. And when our experts needed to make a list of the top superstars of wrestling? Of course, they had to be there.

#89: Goldberg & Hercules (tied)

Real Name (Goldberg): Bill Goldberg

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

Real Name (Hercules): Ray Fernandez

Other Aliases: Hercules Hernandez

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "He has a steel chain. He and Paul Roma beat the Rockers at Summerslam."

This tie for 89th place makes a lot of sense. In many ways, these two superstars are quite similar: both were big, powerful guys who would use their strength to batter opponents. They were fairly similar in size, Goldberg being just three inches taller and outweighing Hercules by nine kilos. Of course, when Herc was carrying his signature steel chain, he probably outweighed Goldberg by a healthy margin. Neither of these behemoths was big on talking, either. Yes, they had a lot in common. They did diverge, however, when you look at the types of careers each man had. Hercules had a solid twenty-year run as a professional wrestler, many of those years spent working with major promotions, after paying his dues on the independent circuit, of course. Goldberg, on the other hand, burst onto the scene with an unprecedented undefeated streak, fanfare and hoopla galore and no dues-paying to speak of. Goldberg's career barely lasted one-third of the time that Hercules' had, and his biggest success and popularity was primarily relegated to his first two years in the business.

Ray Fernandez began using the name Hercules Hernandez (then later on, just Hercules) almost immediately upon beginning his career in 1979. His early career was spent wrestling in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, and he was fortunate to be involved in a feud with Harley Race, who was quite famous. The exposure that came along with feuding with a former NWA Champion helped Hercules win a spot on the card at the first ever Starrcade in 1983, albeit wearing a mask as one half of a team called The Assassins.

In 1985, Hercules ditched the mask and went to join the WWF. He didn't arrive in time to compete in the first WrestleMania, but he did participate in WrestleMania 2, losing to Ricky Steamboat. It wasn't until Bobby Heenan began to manage Hercules that he received his biggest push. Hercules even had a shot at the WWF Heavyweight Title on a late-1986 Saturday Night's Main Event. He battled Hulk Hogan for six-and-a-half minutes before the champ eventually defeated him. Hercules continued to appear at all the biggest pay-per-views, the highlights would have to be defeating King Haku at WrestleMania V and lasting over forty minutes in the Royal Rumble match in 1991. Near the end of his WWF career, he formed a well-respected tag team with Paul Roma called Power & Glory. From 1992 on, Hercules wrestled mostly in independent promotions before retiring in 1999.

Goldberg was at the height of popularity at this time. Although his miraculous streak of 173 victories had been broken the previous year, Goldberg was still very much a force in WCW. He captured the WCW Tag Team Championship in tandem with the legendary Bret "Hitman" Hart, although their union was short-lived and during an ensuing feud, an errant Goldberg kick concussed the Hitman and effectively sent Hart into early retirement. Things didn't get much better after that, as WCW was sold to the WWF and Goldberg's contract kept him from competing there. When he eventually did arrive in the WWF, the shine was off the apple for Goldberg. He wasn't the most exciting thing in sports entertainment like he was in 1998, and his WWF tenure seemed like a grand opportunity gone to waste. By 2004, the former Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle retired from wrestling, focusing his talents on acting and color commentary.

Without a doubt, Bill Goldberg had an impact that few athletes have ever had on their sport. He dominated WCW like nobody had before, and he captured the attention of people outside of professional wrestling's normal audience. If his career hadn't been so disappointingly short, he likely could have been in the Top Ten on this list of superstars. As it stands, though, a special three years for Goldberg is roughly equal to a workmanlike two decades for Hercules who, sadly, died in 2004.

#91: Vader

Real Name: Leon Allen White

Other Aliases: Big Van Vader

Biggest Fans: Joe Reardon & Joe Timmins

"The Man They Call Vader" is one of the most fearsome superstars in recent memory, just ask Bassam Al Otham the Good Morning Kuwait interviewer who Vader assaulted after he asked if wrestling was fake (it isn't). That altercation cost the "big, stinky Kodiak bear" (Jim Ross's words, not mine) $164 in fines. But it taught the rest of the world that this 450-pounder was not a man to be trifled with.

Leon White was originally intending to embark on a football career. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1978 as a center. Unfortunately, he would never end up making a snap in the NFL due to a knee injury. But in a story that isn't particularly unique amongst professional wrestlers, this failed football star was spotted at a gym and convinced to begin a career in sports entertainment. This career really took shape in Japan, where White would develop his new identity as Big Van Vader, taking the name from a warrior in Japanese Folklore. In New Japan Pro Wrestling, Vader would go on to become a 3-time Heavyweight Champion over the five year period he spent abroad. He also captured their tag team titles with his partner Bam Bam Bigelow.

Vader had actually been signed to a contract with World Championship Wrestling since 1990, but had mostly stayed wrestling with New Japan for the first couple years of that contract. In 1992, though, WCW thrust him into a feud with Sting for the World Heavyweight Championship. He eventually got the best of Sting, winning the belt, but could only hold onto it briefly, losing it to Ron Simmons and then undergoing knee surgery. Vader wasn't through, though, as he'd claim the title on two other occasions. Vader was a major force in WCW through 1995, striking legitimate fear in the hearts of his opponents with his track record of inflicting devastating injuries on his opponents: he broke Sting's ribs, Mick Foley's nose, and the back of a no-name jobber (who was paralyzed for hours). When you got into the ring with Vader, your odds of going out on a stretcher were very high.

In 1996, Vader joined the WWF, although he was already a major superstar, at the Royal Rumble where he eliminated four of the participants in the Rumble. Vader immediately feuded with all of the WWF's biggest names: Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and more. Unfortunately, the WWF didn't use Vader as effectively as other promotions had, and the only thing he ever won was a Slammy Award for his attack on Gorilla Monsoon. The remainder of his career would be split between wrestling in Japan, making brief appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and making brief appearances in the WWE.

Vader also made many memorable guest appearances on Boy Meets World in the mid-1990s, playing a character based on his own wrestling persona. Leon White is currently a high school football coach, terrifying teenagers on football teams across Colorado.

#92: Koko B. Ware

Real Name: James Ware

Biggest Fan: Jamie Andrews "He is the only man that had a license to wear bright colors in the 80's because he was genetically proven to be a bird (This statement was evaluated by the WWF - World Wildlife Foundation)."

As one of our experts points out, Koko B. Ware was one of the most colorful wrestlers in WWF history, in every definition of the word. Koko was named Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Rookie of the Year in 1979, but he would achieve his highest level of fame and success (in that order) once he joined the WWF in 1986. He began his Hall of Fame career with a victory over Nikolai Volkoff on Saturday Night's Main Event. From there the energetic high flyer, cheered on by his faithful friend Frankie, an equally colorful macaw, battled to the limit many of the federation's top names, becoming a fan favorite in the process. Koko also has the distinction of being the first opponent the Undertaker ever took on in the WWF, at 1990's Survivor Series. Koko easily defeated him.

When Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart departed the WWF, leaving Owen Hart without a tag team partner, Koko B. Ware was right there to help. The exciting duo, known as High Energy, for obvious reasons, injected the tag team ranks with, you guessed it, unparalleled energy, winning matches with panache and whipping capacity crowds into a frenzy. A couple of years later, Koko hung up his tights and his birdcage and called it a career. But with a character like Koko B. Ware, you never know when he might pop up. In more recent years he's been spotted wrestling Disco Inferno on pay-per-view and fighting Ted Dibiase on tosh.0. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this superstar.

#93: Kamala & Shane Douglas (tied)

Real Name (Kamala): James Harris

Other Aliases: The Ugandan Giant

Biggest Fan: Joe Reardon "The 1st man brave enough to challenge the Undertaker to a casket match. Also, two managers!"

Real Name (Douglas): Troy Shane Martin

Other Aliases: Dean Douglas

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

At #93, our experts, statisticians and mathematicians were unable to determine a way to break the tie between Shane Douglas and Kamala. So, from this day forward, the two shall forever be linked. Each of these men will be remembered for different things, no doubt. Kamala was a cannibal from Africa who stood 6'7" tall and weighed 375 pounds. Douglas was a 6'1" ECW champion with no outlandish characters or gimmicks. One similarity they share, though, is that they both got their names from wrestling colleagues born in Tennessee. Jerry Lawler (and Jerry Jarrett) helped Jim Harris develop his character and name, while "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert (with Missy Hyatt) bestowed upon Troy Martin his wrestling moniker, naming him after actor Michael Douglas.

Shane Douglas was trained by Dominic DeNucci, whom you may remember shared the tag team titles with Dino Bravo in the WWF, at the same time Mick Foley was training with him. After his training, Douglas wrestled many big superstars under his real name, including Randy Savage, Terry Taylor, Paul Orndorff and Gilbert. He formed a tag team with Johnny Ace (brother of Road Warrior Animal) called The Dynamic Dudes during his first stint with a major federation, WCW in the late eighties. Douglas bounced back and forth between the WWF and WCW, even appearing at the 1991 Royal Rumble, where he lasted in the ring for more than 25 minutes. In 1993, after ending another stretch with WCW, Douglas altered his career trajectory significantly by signing on with Eastern Championship Wrestling.

While 1993 saw Douglas beginning a new career, putting the "Extreme" in ECW, Kamala was changing professions as well: he began working as a professional truck driver and songwriter. Jim Harris has written over a hundred songs, many of them dealing with his dissatisfaction with the wrestling industry. He felt that during his many brief stints in WCW and the WWF, he was unfairly compensated for his efforts. Despite feuding with some of the biggest names in wrestling, Andre the Giant, Jake the Snake, Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker, most of the time Kamala was paid just a fraction of his opponent's wages for the very same match. Kamala didn't appear in the ring with any amount of regularity, from that point on, but continues to pop up in the WWE and other independent federations when the time is right for Harris's unique blend of belly-slapping, backhand chopping and hilarity.

Shane Douglas and Kamala are like professional wrestling journeymen. They both seemed to bounce around from promotion to promotion, Kamala providing nearly four-hundred pounds of comic relief and Douglas showcasing the extreme grappling skills that he used to help launch ECW to the top. Which makes for a better superstar? That's something that not even our experts could decide.

#95: Abdullah the Butcher

Real Name: Larry Shreve

Other Aliases: Madman from the Sudan

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

Abdullah the Butcher is one of the more unique personalities in a profession know for its bizarre personalities. Weighing somewhere between 350 and 450 pounds, Larry Shreve was actually from Ontario, but created the persona of a crazed Arabian who didn't speak English. Abdullah's career began way back in 1958 and over the course of the last half-century, he has feuded with such legends as Ivan Koloff, Johnny Rougeau (uncle of the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers), The Sheik, Terry Funk and Sting.

Abdullah was famous, not only for his size, but for his brutality and violence in the ring. His head bares the deep scars of years of devastating hardcore matches, and these wounds only add more to his intimidating persona. Perhaps the most terrifying thing about Abdullah the Butcher, though, was his trademark move where he would gouge the crap out of an opponent with a fork!

Abdullah the Butcher didn't hold many titles during his career, but his impact and trailblazing in the field of hardcore wrestling has had a lasting impact that will go on forever. In recognition of his influence in the sport, World Wrestling Entertainment inducted him into their Hall of Fame (even though he wrestled in the WWF only briefly in the 1970s) two weeks ago today. If you've never seen Abdullah the Butcher digging into a foe's forehead with a fork, you really haven't lived.

#96: Dino Bravo

Real Name: Adolfo Bresciano

Biggest Fan: John Rohner "World's Strongest Man in Canada. A great weight lifter."

Actually born in Italy, Dino Bravo was one of the WWF's most famous strongmen. Billed as "Canada's Strongest Man" the moniker probably wasn't too far off the mark. Although his televised bench press of 715 pounds at the 1988 Royal Rumble occurred amidst questionable circumstances, Bravo by all accounts was amongst the most powerful men in wrestling.

Over his career, Bravo was a very accomplished tag team wrestler as well. He teamed up with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, King Tonga (later named Haku) and captured tag team gold in the WWF with Dominic DeNucci (way back in 1978). As a singles competitor, Bravo was such a formidable force that he appeared in WrestleMania IV's legendary championship tournament for the vacant WWF title.

Sadly, Dino Bravo was found murdered in his Quebec home at age 44. It appeared that the man who finished off opponents with his signature sidewalk slam had angered the mafia with his illegal cigarette smuggling.

#97: CM Punk

Real Name: Phillip Jack Brooks

Biggest Fan: Joe Timmins

Unlike many of the superstars on this list, CM Punk first made a name for himself wrestling for much smaller promotions in the independent circuit. Phillip Brooks first developed his CM Punk character, though, in an even more modest backyard wrestling federation that he was in with his friends and brother. When one half of the federation's tag team, the Chick Magnets, called out sick, Brooks had to quickly step in alongside another wrestler named CM Venom. So, yes, the "CM" in CM Punk originally stood for "chick magnet." Soon CM Punk had attracted the interest of Ring of Honor, a smaller promotion headquartered in Bristol, PA. It was here that CM Punk really began to develop into an exciting wrestling superstar.

In ROH, he got the opportunity to work with ring veteran Raven, as well as A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe. During 2004's feud with Samoa Joe for the ROH Championship, the two men battled each other to a 60-minute draw that famed wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer rated as the best match in North America since the first Hell in a Cell match (between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker) in 1997. Shortly thereafter, CM Punk was offered the opportunity to audition for the WWE, by wrestling Val Venis on Sunday Night Heat. Apparently, things went well as the WWE offered him a contract.

CM Punk began wrestling in ECW in 2006, but occasionally appeared on Raw and Smackdown, as well. He was a constant contender for the ECW Championship and found himself involved in matches and storylines with ECW legends like The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. In 2007, the 222-pound wrestler, who started out competing for Lunatic Wrestling Federation in people's backyards and abandoned warehouses, was a participant in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 23. It was an amazing testament to this young man's drive and determination.

CM Punk continues to compete for World Wrestling Entertainment. He has held the World Heavyweight Championship three times, the Ring of Honor World Championship, the ECW Championship, the Intercontinental belt and countless other titles in smaller promotions. This heavily-tattooed, straight edge wrestler is still only 32 years old. It's entirely possible that his best years of superstardom are still ahead of him.

#98: Tatanka

Real Name: Chris Chavis

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon

Maybe you could say that Tatanka was largely derivative of earlier Native American wrestling gimmicks. You would be right. Chris Chavis brought nothing unique to the table as far as his wrestling persona was concerned. Chief Jay Strongbow and Wahoo McDaniel had both been very successful in warpaint and headdresses in the past. Perhaps, though, in 1992 there was a void that needed to be filled. Perhaps America needed a wrestler to dress up like an Indian.

In late 1991, WWF fans will recall seeing a seemingly endless stream of Chris Chavis vignettes. They hadn't even settled on his ring name yet, but started playing up his heritage, size and athleticism anyway. This lasted for quite some time, but it wasn't until February of the following year that Tatanka made his long-awaited debut. And Tatanka did not disappoint. With a hilarious war cry that hit the speakers just before his entrance theme, fans were always excited to see Tatanka dash to the ring to defeat his latest opponent. He would go on a tremendous undefeated streak to begin his WWF career; he wasn't pinned by an opponent until losing a match to Ludvig Borga some twenty months after arriving in the federation. Along the way, Tatanka had a noteworthy feud with The Model Rick Martel, culminating in a match at WrestleMania VIII, and defeated Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels the following year, at WrestleMania IX (although, HBK retained the title). After his loss to Borga and the subsequent beat-down he received at the hands of Yokozuna, Tatanka vanished for a few months.

No longer riding a winning streak, Tatanka needed to become involved in some kind of interesting storyline, and after a brief feud with Irwin R. Schyster over unpaid taxes, he was thrust into the middle of a very memorable feud. The Million Dollar Corporation was a force to be reckoned with in the WWF at this time. They seemed to be recruiting financially-challenged wrestlers left and right. In the weeks leading up to SummerSlam '94, rumors were circulating that Lex Luger was Ted Dibiase's latest recruit. Tatanka, being a proud American like Luger was, denounced Luger for being a traitor. "You sold out! You sold out!" he would chant, getting the capacity crowds to join in. Ultimately, though, at SummerSlam, Tatanka attacked Luger and accepted a bagful of money from Dibiase himself. It was Tatanka who was the newest member of the Million Dollar Corporation! For the next couple of years, Tatanka was a villainous sell-out who served as one of Ted Dibiase's many underlings. In 1996, though, Tatanka retired from wrestling due to "spiritual issues".

He never held a major title, but his memorable feuds and impressive undefeated run to start his career made Tatanka an unforgettable superstar in a long line of proud Native American wrestlers.

#99: Giant Gonzalez

Real Name: Jorge González

Other Aliases: El Gigante

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon

We started the countdown with one of the slightest wrestlers of the 1990s, and being unveiled at #99 is one of the largest wrestlers from not just that decade, but all time. It all started in Argentina, where a 16-year-old Jorge González, already standing seven-and-a-half feet tall, took up the sport of basketball. His roundball skills led him and his countrymen to the 1988 Tournament of the Americas; Argentina finished the tourney in fifth place. More significantly, though, the exposure caused scouts from the Atlanta Hawks to take notice of him. Atlanta took him with the 54th overall selection in the 1988 NBA Draft, one spot behind future All-NBA forward Anthony Mason.

What may not have been the most savvy basketball decision, ended up being a good business decision overall. Hawks owner Ted Turner, realizing that while his new center was physically impressive his body probably wouldn't put up with the constant grind of an NBA season, made lemonade out of his new acquisition, or, whatever that phrase is. You see, Ted Turner owned his own wrestling federation as well, and soon WCW would get its very own "giant", El Gigante!

Standing "nearly eight feet" tall, El Gigante was an instant sensation with wrestling fans. He immediately began to feud with their world champion, Nature Boy Ric Flair. Though he never captured the gold in WCW, he did go on a televised date with Missy Hyatt, so that's something.

By 1993, his time in WCW had come to an end, but the WWF was quick to come clamoring for his services. At the 1993 Royal Rumble, Harvey Wippleman employed the services of Giant Gonzalez to eliminate the Undertaker from the Rumble. This set off an eight-month feud between the two enormous superstars. Unfortunately, Giant Gonzalez failed to defeat the Undertaker in either of their Pay-Per-View contests, at WrestleMania IX and the '93 SummerSlam.

González wrestled briefly in Japan, but by the end of 1995, his wrestling career was over. Size-related health issues hampered him throughout his retirement, which he spent on a ranch in Argentina. He was restricted to a wheelchair and was on dialysis for kidney failure. Sadly, at age 44, Jorge González passed away due to complications from diabetes on September 22nd of last year. And though he's gone, wrestling fans (and Argentinian basketball fans) will never forget the man known as Giant Gonzalez. And yes, this entry on the list ends on a bit of a downer, but a lot of these superstars are dead, so get used to unhappy endings.

#100: 1-2-3 Kid

Real Name: Sean Waltman

Other Aliases: Syxx, X-Pac

Biggest Fan: Barry M. Reardon "...because he obviously did not take steroids."

It's pretty fitting that our countdown of the Top 100 Superstars begins here. The 1-2-3 Kid first made a name for himself, quite literally as it were, by scoring some shocking pinfall victories over major WWF stars. At a mere 212 pounds, the 20-year-old Lightning Kid started out jobbing to jobbers. He lost his first match in the World Wrestling Federation to the exceptionally lame Rad Radford. A short time later, though, a surprise win in a match against Razor Ramon (a real life friend of Waltman) thrust 1-2-3 Kid into the middle of an ongoing feud between Ramon and the Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase. Further cementing his place in the WWF as the master of the upset, he notched a win over Dibiase shortly thereafter. From that point on, 1-2-3 Kid played the role of lovable underdog. He even became tag team champion on two separate occasions.

In 1995, the 1-2-3 Kid turned on Razor Ramon and became a member of Ted Dibiase's stable: The Million Dollar Corporation. This marked the end of 1-2-3 Kid's run as the plucky fan favorite and Waltman's career trajectory would never be the same. Less than a year later, 1-2-3 Kid was gone from the WWF. He began competing for World Championship Wrestling as a member of the revolutionary super stable, the NWO. Reunited with his old friends from the WWF, Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) and Kevin Nash (Diesel), and renamed Syxx (the sum of the numbers 1, 2, and 3), Waltman began wrestling cruiserweights like Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio. Syxx continued to wrestle alongside his friends, Hall and Nash, until 1998 when he was unceremoniously fired. Although he held a couple of minor titles, it could hardly be said that his time in WCW was a success.

WrestleMania XIV took place on March 29, 1998. Steve Austin had just captured the WWF Championship and Shawn Michaels had just departed the federation due to a major back injury. HBK's absence left a gaping hole to fill for the WWF. The "Monday Night Wars" with WCW were heating up and, although WCW still had the upper hand, things were about to change, and Waltman again would be in the mix. March 30, 1998 was a monumental night for professional wrestling. The 1-2-3 Kid, now called X-Pac, returned to the WWF to join his buddy Triple H in the revamped D-Generation X stable. It was a major momentum shift for the World Wrestling Federation, who up until that point had mostly watched talent flow in the opposite direction.

By the year 2000, X-Pac's popularity had waned considerably. He continued to compete for the WWF, TNA and XPW off and on for the next decade, although he never achieved the level of success that he did in the 90s. Looking back at his career, the 1-2-3 Kid always seemed to be where the action was. He was a supporting character in a number of popular and revolutionary wrestling stables, both in the ring and backstage. Although he never held a major singles title, his success despite his small stature was impressive enough to earn him a place amongst the Top 100 Superstars of Wrestling.

Good, Just Not Good Enough

The votes are in. The Top 100 Superstars have been determined. As we all know, though, sometimes, in life and on lists, there are a hundred other people better than you. These eighteen wrestlers are about to become all too acquainted with that feeling, the ones who are alive and read this blog, anyway. Without further adieu, here are the wrestlers who received votes from our experts, but didn't garner quite enough love to crack our Top 100:

a) b)

c) d)

e) f)

g) h)

i) j)

k) l)

m) n)

o) p)

q) r)

a) Andy Kaufman - b) Arn Anderson - c) Axe - d) Billy Gunn

e) Crush - f) Ernie Ladd - g) Flash Funk - h) Great Muta

i) Haku - j) Hawk - k) Jack Swagger - l) Red Rooster - m) Repo Man

n) Sabu - o) Scott Steiner - p) The Genius - q) The Miz - r) William Regal

Qualifications, Rules, Criteria

Briefly, while I wait for the last of the ballots to come rolling in, I'll go over the groundwork for creating this list.

Qualifications
By and large, I have left determining a wrestler's eligibility up to the list-makers themselves. If an expert thinks that Lawrence Taylor is one of the top wrestling superstars of all time based on his WrestleMania XI match against Bam Bam Bigelow, who am I to disagree? If somebody ranked Jameson in their top ten, well, I guess I won't argue, but I will roll my eyes.

Essentially, since the action word for this list is "superstar" and not "wrestler", I consider our experts to have a fair amount of leeway when constructing their lists.

For example, I didn't select anybody whose career was over by 1986, when the television program WWF Superstars of Wrestling debuted. I consider that to be the dawning of the "superstar" era in professional wrestling, and thus certain old timers (like Danno O'Mahony, left, whose finishing move was the Irish Whip, which was named after him) are sadly missing from my top fifty. Obviously, the next expert could populate their entire list with O'Mahony's 1930s contemporaries, if they chose to. To each his own.

Rules

As lenient as I decided to be with regards to the pool of superstars our experts got to choose from, I did have to put a couple of general guidelines in place. First, only one superstar is permitted in each slot. The goal is to keep tag teams from being ranked together. You'd get into a philosophical discussion about what constitutes a tag team if you let that happen. Could I rank the Rude Brood from Survivor Series '89 at #1? Well, if I did that, then I'd end up with a list of more than fifty superstars, and that's just wrong. The second rule wasn't ever explicitly told to the experts, it was more of a post-compilation decision on the part of the Excel Wizard (my super-intimidating wrestler persona). Many superstars have competed as different characters, or with different gimmicks, over the course of their careers. As I compiled the lists, I thought that it wouldn't be fair if one person voted for Sid Justice, another voted for Sycho Sid and a third voted for Sid Vicious to tally points separately for each of Sid Eudy's characters. So, if an expert voted for any of those, it all went into a big pot of points for Sid. And what if someone voted for the Orient Express's Kato and another voted for Maximillian Moon? All those points went to the same person, whether voters knew they were the same guy or not. And what if one ballot included both Kato and Max Moon in different spots of the same list? Well, I had to make a couple of judgement calls in cases like that.

Criteria

Again, this is similar to the qualifications section. The criteria undoubtedly varied from expert to expert. One member of our esteemed panel made a spreadsheet of his own, rating wrestlers in a variety of different categories and then used a weighted formula to determine how high on the list each person should be. I'm sure that there were others who just went with their guts, and still others that used wrestling action figures to construct an enormous double-elimination tournament to determine who the top wrestlers were. I won't ask any of these wrestling aficionados what their methods were, but I'll assume that they know what they're doing.

And that's your little peek behind the curtain at what went into the construction of this list of the Top 100 Superstars of Wrestling. And very shortly, the reveal will begin with the announcement of the 100th greatest superstar of professional wrestling!

The Beginnings

World Wrestling Entertainment continues to purport themselves as chief historian of professional wrestling throughout history. Their objectivity we cannot help but question. Their attempts to promote their current product and unique brand of entertainment can be seen in their every attempt to "honor" professional wrestling's storied past. From the seemingly random process for inducting wrestlers into the Hall of Fame to their agenda-driven DVD releases, the WWE has proven that they cannot be trusted to be an impartial chronicler of history. And so, our panel of nine experts has sought to right the WWE's wrongs. The most outrageous of the fallacies they have thrust upon us was the release of a DVD called Top 50 Superstars of All Time. So insulting was this DVD's choice of superstars, that it forced a young boy to defiantly create his own list. And soon, others joined this 7-year-old and created their own lists. And shortly after that, a man made an Excel spreadsheet compiling and computing data from nine different Top 50 Superstars lists. This data will be analyzed and soon a new, comprehensive list of Top Superstars will be revealed on this very site. Stay tuned, wrestling fans.

THE PANEL OF EXPERTS

Jamie Andrews, 29

Jon Baltos, 29

Lucas Keyes, 29

Jane Picard, 53

Barry M. Reardon, 57

Jesse Reardon, 30

Joe Reardon, 26

John Rohner, 7

Joe Timmins, 30