Rating: 
Summary: Um , it's down hill after 1.
Review: Being a professional wrestling fan for over 30 years as a young child, I have always wanted to see who the top wrestling journalists thought were the greatest of all time. I think they did a credible job, although this list will always stir up controversy. How do you rate wrestlers from the early 20th century? What is the most important aspect when rating wrestlers? workrate, drawing power, or importance to history? Casual fans will dismiss this list because Hulk Hogan, Austin, or the Rock aren't #1. People that take workrate too seriously and neglect the entertainment value to the casual fan would probably want all the old time wrestlers such as Thesz, Lewis, and Gotch in the top spots. Others will say there are too many Japanese and Luchador wrestlers ranked too high. Putting this list together will not please everyone, but it is fun all the same. I think they did a great job. The stories, while short are very imformative. The photos are great also. This would rank fourth on my list of favorite wrestling books behind Meltzer's Tributes, Foley's first book, and Dynamite Kid's. Just for fun, here is my top 10 list:
1. Ric Flair- Great in all aspects of the business.
2. Antonio Inoki- I knew who he was as an 9 year old kid. Even though he got the rub from Ali, his fame and impact were far reaching.
3. Hulk Hogan- Even though he is terrible in the ring, he is most responsible for wrestling's expansion.
4. El Santo- Learned more about him from the book than any other wrestler. Really was a fascinating cultural icon.
5. Lou Thesz- Great for his time, however was too negative towards the wrestling of today. Should have evolved with the business.
6. Andre the Giant- Wrestler I was most fascinated with as a kid.
7. Bruiser Brody- Most influential brawler of all time.
8. Bruno Sammartino- WWWF champion for 7 years straight.
9. The Sheik- Best heel of all time.
10. Giant Baba- Along with Inoki, most influential Japanese wrestler and promoter.
Remember this is only one man's opinion, don't beat me up too much.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: Being a professional wrestling fan for over 30 years as a young child, I have always wanted to see who the top wrestling journalists thought were the greatest of all time. I think they did a credible job, although this list will always stir up controversy. How do you rate wrestlers from the early 20th century? What is the most important aspect when rating wrestlers? workrate, drawing power, or importance to history? Casual fans will dismiss this list because Hulk Hogan, Austin, or the Rock aren't #1. People that take workrate too seriously and neglect the entertainment value to the casual fan would probably want all the old time wrestlers such as Thesz, Lewis, and Gotch in the top spots. Others will say there are too many Japanese and Luchador wrestlers ranked too high. Putting this list together will not please everyone, but it is fun all the same. I think they did a great job. The stories, while short are very imformative. The photos are great also. This would rank fourth on my list of favorite wrestling books behind Meltzer's Tributes, Foley's first book, and Dynamite Kid's. Just for fun, here is my top 10 list:
1. Ric Flair- Great in all aspects of the business.
2. Antonio Inoki- I knew who he was as an 9 year old kid. Even though he got the rub from Ali, his fame and impact were far reaching.
3. Hulk Hogan- Even though he is terrible in the ring, he is most responsible for wrestling's expansion.
4. El Santo- Learned more about him from the book than any other wrestler. Really was a fascinating cultural icon.
5. Lou Thesz- Great for his time, however was too negative towards the wrestling of today. Should have evolved with the business.
6. Andre the Giant- Wrestler I was most fascinated with as a kid.
7. Bruiser Brody- Most influential brawler of all time.
8. Bruno Sammartino- WWWF champion for 7 years straight.
9. The Sheik- Best heel of all time.
10. Giant Baba- Along with Inoki, most influential Japanese wrestler and promoter.
Remember this is only one man's opinion, don't beat me up too much.
Rating: 
Summary: my top 5 wrestlers of all time
Review: didn't read the book, just wanted to offer my opinion of who the greatest 5 wrestlers of all time are.1. Ric Flair
2. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels (tie)
4. Hulk Hogan
5. Andre The Giant Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: VERY NARROW MINDED OPINIONS
Review: I'm just dumfounded that Dave meltzer of the Wrestling Observer newsletter and website could be a part of a list that is so skewed. I don't know much about the author John Molinaro beyond the fact that he's ONLY 30 years old and OBVIOUSLY didn't do a heck of a lot of research into the history of wrestling prior to the mid-1980's. His top 10 goes like this:
Rick Flair
Lou Thesz
Rikidozan
Antonio Inoki
Hulk Hogan
Andre the Giant
El Santo
Shoei Baba
Steve Austin
Buddy Rogers
Sorry, but perhaps other than Inoki, I'd have to toss out the other Japanese stars along with El Santo and Rogers. I just don't see them as having a world-wide impact on professional wrestling. Milinaro contends in interviews that all of his top 4 wrestlers all had more historical impact than Hogan. Oh really? i guess I must have missed the Ric Flair Lunch boxes and Lou Thesz Saturday morning cartoons. Where was the appeal of El-Santo outside of Mexico?
Look, I'm no Hogan slappy, but there's no doubt that Hogan was the MOST important wrestler in history and the most important person second only to Vince McMahon. Hogan made Wrestling mainstream. Hogan's name got wrestling back on network television and sold PPV events. Flair, while perhaps a better wrestler never had nearly the name recognition of Hogan.
As far as the rest of the top 10...Where is Bruno Sammartino? How about the Original Shiek, perhaps the all-time greatest heel? Molinaro is an obvious wrestling snob who can barely contain is disdain for "American-ized" pro wrestling and wants to show just how smart he is by the inclusion of El-Santo and many other Luchadores despite the fact that, to use an old Hogan line, they "couldn't draw flies at a flea market".
Rating:
Summary: Sloppy work
Review: I've been a hard core professional wrestling fan (as well as a wrestler for 13 years) for 44 years. I'm not even going to argue over who belongs on the list or not and who belongs at what ranking. That's all subjective and nothing more than a matter of personal opinion. There are some VERY OBVIOUS omissions & the rankings are ridiculous on many levels, but again this is just the author's opinion.Maybe that's why the title is so hard to swallow. This work isn't even very close to living up to it's name.
I have a very hard time believing that Meltzer edited this book. His work is consistantly excellent and without reproach, as evidenced by his weekly Wrestling Observer Newsletter.That's why I can't believe Meltzer had much at all to do with this disaster.
This book is filled with errors and misinformation from cover to cover. Names are wrong. Many facts are in error.The old term "error by omission" is blatantly prevelant to anyone who genuinely knows their pro wrestling history.It's evident that Mr Molinaro does not.
Is this a good book for a casual fans wanting to learn more about pro wrestling's history? Not really. While they may learn something about the wrestlers on Molinaro's list, there are too many important facts that have been left out. I don't know if the author doesn't know these facts, or perhaps he just glossed over them or left them out completely. This is unacceptable.
Is this a good book for the longtime fan to perhaps find out some new insights into the history of the business? Definately not.If you already know your wrestling history, this book is a slap in the face. It's not even good for a laugh. It's just plain annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Another Top 100 list
Review: If you go to PWInsider.com and click on the Columns section, Glenn Harrison is doing a list of the 100 Most Influential Figures in wrestling. I think this is superior to Meltzer's list in that it also includes promoters, managers, announcers, etc. Plus, it's not caught up on workrate and it looks at which wrestlers were really more important (i.e. Hogan is probably going to be ahead of Flair). It's a daily countdown and he is at #82 as of today (7/1/04).
Rating:
Summary: How can Hogan not be number 1?
Review: Lets get one thing strait. Since wrestling is fake, physical talent doesnt matter too much and draw power, popularity, and fame is a lot more important. That being said the top 5 who fit those charicteristics are: 1. Hulk Hogan(There can be no doubt unless your a bitter, angry person. the most famous wrestler of all time, amde the business what it was at its height)
2. Ric Flair
3. Steve Austin
4. The Rock
5. Roddy Piper Unfortunately this book acts as if wrestling is real and therefore contains an extremely anti-Hogan biased list.
Rating: 
Summary: Best of the Best
Review: There is no other way but to put Ric Flair the number one wrestler of all time and probably forever. I agree with most that any thing beyond that is simply an opinion. However, there are several greats, past and present, that don't get the true recognition (and titles) that they should due to an enormous amount of 'character wrestlers' that makes the industry look 'silly' (the Hulk Hogans, Buff Bagwells, Honky Tonk Man, so on and so on). With that, here is my list for the real mat wrestlers: 1. Ric Flair
2. Chris Benoit - THe most underrated wrestler of all time!!!
3. Bret Hart
4. Triple H
5. Sabu My honorable mentions are Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley (gutts!), Harley Race, the Great Muta, and Greg Valentine.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Best
Review: There is no other way but to put Ric Flair the number one wrestler of all time and probably forever. I agree with most that any thing beyond that is simply an opinion. However, there are several greats, past and present, that don't get the true recognition (and titles) that they should due to an enormous amount of 'character wrestlers' that makes the industry look 'silly' (the Hulk Hogans, Buff Bagwells, Honky Tonk Man, so on and so on). With that, here is my list for the real mat wrestlers: 1. Ric Flair
2. Chris Benoit - THe most underrated wrestler of all time!!!
3. Bret Hart
4. Triple H
5. Sabu My honorable mentions are Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley (gutts!), Harley Race, the Great Muta, and Greg Valentine.
Rating:
Summary: Not the top 100 wrestlers of all time
Review: While I appreciate the fact that there is such a book out there, the number of omissions is appalling. with all of the Japanese wrestlers named - and there are far too many - where was Toru Tanaka? Where was Gorilla Monsoon? Where was Dr. Bill Miller? Where was Wild Red Berry? Where was Bulldog Brower? Where was Hans Mortier? Where was Spiros Arion? I think this could have done better, although of course it's all subjective judgement.
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