Professional Wrestling's true Mt Rushmore

[ThatPayPhoneGuy]

The true Mt Rushmore of Wresting has nothing to do with popularity, ticket sales or, necessarily talent, although I'm sure these folks had all of that. It is about laying the foundation for what made the Professional Wrestling would become, and here they are.

The Gold Dust Trio:
Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Billy Sandow, and Joseph "Toots" Mondt.

Women's wrestling true trail blazer:
Mildred Burke

These are the folks that had the biggest impact at the root of the i dustry.

 

[BritishSteel]

Stu Hart
Lou Thesz
Nick Bockwinkle
Bruno Sammartino

That’s four off the top of my head.

 

[Greer01]

Great points about the Gold Dust Trio! Their contributions to wrestling in the early days are often overlooked when talking about today’s icons.

 

[Ghostwriter727]

Mount Rushmore lists are tough for me as there are eras from old style wrestling to the territory era to the more modern tv broadcast eras.

Many have contributed to the modern sport, and popularity of the storylines that have been created.

Its certainly an arguable topic as it took far more than just a few talented wrestlers to make wrestling a modern sport for millions to enjoy, but in the name of true pioneers, and torch bearers that were noble enough to pass the sport on to another generation; my list has to be...

Harley Race
Stu Hart
Cowboy Bob Orton
Bruno Sammartino

And many others, but Mount Rushmore lists are pretty constructing so

Honorable mention goes to the Von Erich family, as well as female talents like Sherry Martel,
Luna Vachon, Mildred Burke, and The Great Moolah.

 

[luvgirlsfeet]

Judging from the era where I first started paying attention to it in 1986-87 and lost complete interest in 1990

My choices would be Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Brett Hart and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

 

[P[a]pi]

I do not know the history of wrestling before Hulk Hogan, but I still appreciate those that built it. My top 4 of WCW (my all-time fave company):

Sting
Goldberg
DDP
Kidman