At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

[st0rmb11]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I don't know about "not that good in the ring" during that time. He put on some pretty epic matches with HBK after he came back.

Although now that you mention it I can't really remember anything all that remarkable that didn't involve HBK during Triple H's time as the top guy, so maybe that was more HBK than him.

He had really good matches with Chris Jericho (who it's hard to have a bad match with), Benoit (ditto), Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Stone Cold, The Rock.

As someone said earlier, he was a very good in ring performer prior to tearing his quad

[JiggidyJames]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Hogan is the most well known wrestler in America and laid the foundation for every other star the WWE has created, but the answer to this particular question is Austin.

The career draw argument can go either way. Hogan wasn't the sell out machine in every region that the Austin led WWF was, but he had double the amount of "peak" years ('84-'90 for Hogan, '98-'01 for Austin). Nobody at their peak made more money and drew more paying customers night in and night out than Austin. There's even the little known fact that Bruno Sammartino drew a higher sellout percentage at MSG than Hogan. That said, Hogan is far and away wrestling's most recognizable face and most enduring star.

[F0rl3fclov3r]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I'm the only one who selected Bret Hart? You guys are nuts! Bret was the king of the WWF almost throughout the entire 90s when wrestling was at its peak. Bret took on Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, Stone Cold, etc..he was always one of the main attractions in all of the PPV... He faced the best of the best. Hes the best there is the best there was and the best there ever will be.

[Santino]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I'm the only one who selected Bret Hart? You guys are nuts!

[55]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Bret was the king of the WWF almost throughout the entire 90s when wrestling was at its peak.

At its peak?

No.

[F0rl3fclov3r]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

At its peak?

No.

Peak...maybe not exactly the peak but he helped bring it to its peak. The peak was 1995-2000 easily and Brett brought the WWF to where it was. It's too bad that the creativity in the WWE isn't what it used to be when even guys like Arn Anderson were a commodity.

[Bellsprout]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I'm the only one who selected Bret Hart? You guys are nuts! Bret was the king of the WWF almost throughout the entire 90s when wrestling was at its peak. Bret took on Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, Stone Cold, etc..he was always one of the main attractions in all of the PPV... He faced the best of the best. Hes the best there is the best there was and the best there ever will be.

You mean the guy who was the face of the company when WCW was kicking their *** every week and WWF was as close to death as they've ever been in the last 40 years?

No, I didn't pick him.

[F0rl3fclov3r]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

You mean the guy who was the face of the company when WCW was kicking their *** every week and WWF was as close to death as they've ever been in the last 40 years?

No, I didn't pick him.

WCW as in the wrestling league that isn't?

WCW wouldn't have even been around if there was no WWF.

WWF was before, during, and after WCW existed. To claim it was winning the war is nonsensical. I liked both companies. During the 90s Nitro and Raw were awesome and I miss those days. Now WWF has really no competition so it lakes the creativity to excel like it used to. Competition is always a good thing.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Peak...maybe not exactly the peak but he helped bring it to its peak. The peak was 1995-2000 easily and Brett brought the WWF to where it was. It's too bad that the creativity in the WWE isn't what it used to be when even guys like Arn Anderson were a commodity.

You're giving Bret the credit? Shawn was carrying the WWF from about '95 to his back injury in '98. Granted that's nothing to be overly proud of considering that was the worst time finacially for them ever. If you had of said the Bret from immediately after Hogan left that'd be one thing, but to specifically list out 1995-2000? Really? Diesel was the huge deal in the WWF in '95. Bret was the second biggest babyface in the company at the time, so that year is automatically out. '96 Shawn was the biggest babyface and Bret missed over half the year after losing the belt to him at Wrestlemania, so I failed to see how we're counting that year. When '97 rolled around Shawn was still the biggest face in the company and Austin and Bret double turned at Wrestlemania and we know how '97 ended for Bret. So how exactly did he bring them where they were?

[King_B_Mack]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

WCW as in the wrestling league that isn't?

WCW wouldn't have even been around if there was no WWF.

WWF was before, during, and after WCW existed. To claim it was winning the war is nonsensical. I liked both companies. During the 90s Nitro and Raw were awesome and I miss those days. Now WWF has really no competition so it lakes the creativity to excel like it used to. Competition is always a good thing.

And things now become clear. You may wanna brush up on your wrestling history my man. No matter what WCW eventually became, in the '90s, they were dominating the WWF.

[Virtualc]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

For the guy who says WCW never had a chance he is stupid they were killing the WWF and were close to putting them out of business until the Austin Era.

Now onto who the top stars are.


I would have to choose Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock.

It's hard to say who was the top guy out of the 3 of them because they all did something completely different to help the WWF. Hogan is the most mainstream wrestler that everyone knows. Austin was arguably the greatest draw on TV ratings. The Rock too wrestling to the movies and reached another level.. HBK, bret, and all them were great to wrestling fans, but they will never touch what hogan, austin, and the rock did.

[55]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

WCW as in the wrestling league that isn't?

WCW wouldn't have even been around if there was no WWF.

WWF was before, during, and after WCW existed. To claim it was winning the war is nonsensical. I liked both companies. During the 90s Nitro and Raw were awesome and I miss those days. Now WWF has really no competition so it lakes the creativity to excel like it used to. Competition is always a good thing.

The WWF didn't overtake WCW in ratings until well after Bret Hart was gone.

In fact, once Bret Hart became a prominent part of WCW, the WWF took back over.

[st0rmb11]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

To flip it up a little bit...at their "peak", what heel was the most hated?

Ric Flair? Andre the Giant? "Hollywood" Hogan? Ted DiBiase?

[Suntan Superman]

So I learned in this thread, that even in the age of wikipedia, and multiple online sources, people still can't get their history right.

Anyway, the answer is obviously Hogan. And to anyone who says Hogan isn't still relevant, is kidding themselves. Granted he's still relevant for all the wrong reasons, but still, the man still has "it."

To the man who said the late 80's, early 90's was the best period of wrestling, I say you are a good man.

And did someone try to imply that Vader was hard to work with? If so, erm, what?!

[OSUFan_88]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

For the guy who says WCW never had a chance he is stupid they were killing the WWF and were close to putting them out of business until the Austin Era.

WCW never were close to putting WWF out of business. They were clearly beating them in the ratings, but not putting them out of business.

The problem was, even during the middle of WCW's run, their booking and management team just was full of incompetence. They never would have overtaken WWF for good, especially when Russo went to WCW.