Sundays with no wrestling PPVs tend to equal no wrestling news. Because of that, I’ve decided I’ll start a new tradition here at PWB: the Sunday Debate.

Let’s start off with a simple topic that we always like to debate: who is the greatest professional wrestler of all-time?

This is really a tough one. There have been great wrestlers in every decade: guys like Lou Thesz, Gorgeous George, Buddy Rogers, Freddy Blassie, Bruno Sammartino and Harley Race and Andre the Giant eventually gave way to guys like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes in the 1980s. But who can forget Ricky Steamboat, “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bret Hart? And what about a guy like Shawn Michaels, who rose to prominence in the late 80s and early 90s and is still wrestling? The Undertaker falls in that category, as well. So does Sting.

Then, of course, you’ve got the new stars of the mid-90s and the Attitude Era: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Booker T, DDP, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Then there’s the newer crop of top guys: Kurt Angle, Edge, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero (R.I.P.), Jeff Hardy and The Miz (OK, just kidding on that one). But seriously, one of those guys might be on their way to being one of the greatest of all-time.

There are a lot of different things that go into this debate: wrestling ability, persona and drawing power have to be the most important things to consider. Also, you have to look at it from this angle: is the guy a household name?

Those are just names off the top of my head. I know I’m leaving some big names out. But let’s get the debate going: who do you think is the greatest professional wrestler of all-time?

I’ll give you my top 5:

1. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin - As if I would choose someone else. He made the WWE relevant and cool during the hottest era of professional wrestling.

2. The Rock - He also made the WWE cool during the Attitude Era and early 2000s. In fact, he was so popular, he cut his career short and became a bona-fide movie star. His rise to stardom is so unique I think you have to put him near the top.

3. Hulk Hogan - Wow, I hate to do this, but you can’t deny the guy’s star power. He wasn’t much of a wrestler, but then again, he never really had to be thanks to his persona.

4. (Tie) Bret Hart - Simpy the best technical wrestler ever. This guy could make any stiff look good.

4. (Tie) Ric Flair - I think it’s only fitting that these two guys who didn’t really seem to like each other tie for fourth place. Flair was the man, especially in the Southern United States.

5. Undertaker - Just look at this guy’s longevity and drawing power–it’s ridiculous. Also, his ability as a big man is truly unmatched. I’ve never seen such a big man wrestle so well. I put Undertaker at number five instead of Shawn Michaels simply because he can make any feud popular, with or without a championship belt inovlved. Like it or not, more people seem to be interested in a random Undertaker feud than the greatness that was Chris Jericho and HBK earlier this year. That definately counts for something in my book.

There are really some tough choices involved in deciding who’s the best–I always have to throw a lot of my personal biases out the window. Granted, I’ve got Stone Cold first, but I actually put Hulk Hogan on this list, and that pains me. It also pains me to leave HBK and Mick Foley off, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

You might remember me blogging a while back that the WWE had indefinately cancelled a “Best of Starrcade” 3 DVD set. There’s good news for all you Starrcade fans: PW Insider is reporting that the Starrcade DVD set is back on, and will be released on January 13, 2009.

Now if we could just get a “Best of WCW” DVD, I’d be happy. Or even a “Best of Halloween Havoc.” That was always my favorite WCW PPV.

In other news, today marks the release of the WWE’s “Hell in a Cell” 3 DVD set. If you’ve always wanted nearly all of the Hell in a Cell matches on one DVD set, I guess this is for you. Unfortunately, there’s no Bossman v. Undertaker from Wrestlemania. Perhaps the WWE figured that it wouldn’t be prudent to show the Undertaker “hanging” someone who later ended up passing away.

Personally, I won’t be purchasing this collection. It does have all the good HIAC matches on it, but I have every single one of those on DVD or VHS (even Foley’s “retirement” match against Triple H), and I’ve watched them all countless times. Plus, some of the cell matches are actually not very good.

The match listing is located below the break, courtesy of High Spots.

(more…)

PW Insider reported yesterday that the WWE has canclled a planned “Best of Starrcade” 3 DVD set. Instead, we’ll get some kind of a Kane DVD in November. PW Insider speculated that the cancellation might have something to do with Ric Flair’s recent departure from the WWE.

This is hugely disappointing news. I heard about the Starrcade DVD a while back, and was really looking forward to it. The WWE owns footage of so many historic wrestling matches now, but unless you subscribe to WWE 24/7, you really don’t get to see any of it. Why is that? I actually subscribed to WWE 24/7 for a while, but if you’re not interested in the theme that they’re doing for that particular month, it’s kind of a waste of money.

The WWE needs to capitalize on all of the WCW and NWA footage that they own. I guarantee you the Starrcade DVD would have been insanely popular, especially down South. But no, instead, it’s cancelled and replaced with a Kane DVD. Boy, oh boy! That should be awesome. Hellfire and brimstone, yippee.

I think part of the problem is that Vince McMahon likes to pretend that WCW never existed. They did do the “Monday Night Wars” DVD, but that was to show how WWE ended up defeating WCW. Vince needs to drop it and just put out some WCW DVDs. Hell, I’d even go for a “Best of Sting” DVD set at this point, IF they could get him on board for it. Or what about a “History of the NWO” set? That would be fun to watch.

Does anyone think we’ll ever get some kind of WCW DVD series release, or will it be relegated to WWE 24/7 status for eternity?

The WWE.com has posted that the recently-retired Ric Flair has amicably parted ways with WWE this is due to Flair wanting to make appearances at non-WWE shows and events. After his retirement at Wrestlemania 24 the WWE and Ric Flair came to terms on an agreement to keep Flair with the WWE in a public relations capacity. But because of he had an on going contract with the WWE Flair was unable to take outside bookings or make public appearances without WWE approval. This lead to Flair canceling several appearances the most notable of which was with the NWA All-Star wrestling show in June 2008. Now that Flair is free of his contract the Wrestling Observer is reporting that several independent promoters have been told today by representatives of Flair that he has parted ways with WWE and will be available for independent bookings.

-sideshowRaheem

The “Scrap Daddy” Adam Pearce was the guest on the latest edition of PWB’s Official Podcast Hotline. Pearce discussed his upcoming NWA Title v. ROH Title match against Nigel McGuinness, as well as his widely traveled career in professional wrestling.

Go check the interivew at the Podcast Hotline site today!

The sideshowRaheem Rant is new and improved, so improved in fact that I renamed it and created a new intro. From now on it will be myself sideshowRaheem and fellow PWBite Jade discussing the latest news stories from the world of pro-wrestling and MMA. In our first episode together Jade and I talk about last weeks much improved episode of TNA Impact, Dana White’s “Big Announcement”, Ring of Honor’s “Big Announcement”, the controversial statements Carlito made during an interview oversees, the WWE’s mid-card, the upcoming daft and a bunch of other stuff too. It’s a packed hour of wrestling talk which I think is what a lot of you wanted so enjoy.

P.S.

YOU TO COULD BE APART OF THE PWBITE RANT. How you ask? If you’ve been apart of this blog for awhile just shoot me an email at “sideshowRaheem at yahoo dot com”(I spelled it out to prevent spamers from grabbing it) and put “PWBite Rant” in the subject or you can contact me through my Official Facebook Page. I’m looking to add 2 more people to the podcast so we have 4 people every week in a round table discussion if I get more then 2 emails we will have to rotate guests. Please keep in mind you have to be available to record on Tuesday or Wednesday probably between 6pm and 8pm EST.

-sideshowRaheem

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