Most important Luchadors
 

Now, let's go south of the border and get some heat on this...

No particular order, other than #1.

10. Psicosis
9. Hijo del Santo
8. Negro Casas
7. La Parka/LA PARK
6. Dos Caras
5. Eddie Guerrero
4. Rey Misterio Jr.
3. Blue Demon
2. Mil Mascaras
1. El Santo

Again, rant away. And I'd like to see some other names, as it helps us all learn a bit about Lucha Libre. :)

I honestly don't know that much about lucha, so I'd make a list missing people too, surely, but the notable omission here is Konnan, who was the top draw in the world in 1993 and 1994. Mistico was also a legit draw from about 2005 until the WWE ruined him. But I think this is a list where the US success of Rey Mysterio actually does warrant placement ont he list, and quite high too. It's not like he was just there and is respected -- he had commercial value to the promotions he was involved with. The same goes for Konnan to the extent he was over in WCW.

Perro Aguayo, Jr. is a name that often pops up in these discussions. As does Dr. Wagner, Jr., Cibernetico, Atlantis, Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero, although I'm not sure to what extent being a draw in their eras means.

not easy to say since there is a lot that we don't hear about lucha here, I would put Mysterio at 3 or even 2, put Konnan instead of Negro Casas and Juventud Guererra instead of Psicosis, but it's based on what I had acces to in Canada in the early 90 up to the mid 2000 so I might be way off !!

Should be noted that Ultimo Dragon should be considered a luchador, as he based his whole career and his schools on lucha libre and has spent the bulk of his career in mexico.

Vampiro should be on this list.

10. Villano X
9. Villano IX
8. Villano VIII
7. Villano VII
6. Villano VI
5. Villano IV
4. Villano III
3. Villano II
2. Villano I
1. Villano V

Negro Casas at 60 is still better than half the guys on the list.

I don't know half the guys on the original post list.

Look how cool I am. I'm too awesome to know stuff.

At least in the US, Rey would be #1 considering his impact and managing to become a huge star in both WCW and WWE. Think even Heyman credits him with helping make high flying wrestling popular in ECW back in the day.

Eddie Guerrero is probably more important than Rey in the US, and I think you can probably make a case for Mil Mascaras too.

The Eddie/Rey portion could be debated....

I would put Eddie ahead of Rey.

Fun story: part of the reason why Lesnar left the WWE the first time was because Lesnar was upset they took the title off him and put it on way. Eddie was a WAY bigger draw as champion than Lesnar ever was.

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Do you think Eddie should have been put into position earlier? My brain is tainted by all the ideas of him as a "vanilla midget" and the WWE narrative of his long journey to the top finally paying off, overcoming demons, etc. But the guy was tearing it up in 1994. He was testing well in 1995. He was having classics in 1997 and was super-over. Do you think he had the tools in place to be more earlier, or did he need to starve as an artist (not literally) to get himself to that point?

Eddie wasnt a vanilla midget. Eddie had a grsat gimmick and he had an entire demo cornered. But it wasnt until the lie, cheat and steal run with chavo that he tapped into the persona that catapulted him into superstardom. 3 more years as that guy and he would have been entering a level of stardom that would have been completely unique to him. The Hispanic audience was growing around him and rey in the midcard was a boon too. He peaked at that time for a reason. That was his best work.

Oh, I don't consider him vanilla. I'm just talking about the stigma from the time. It's hard to imagine things going any other way, because...well, they didn't go any other way. Your quote about the level of stardom being completely unique to him is actually something that I think nails it. I get the feeling he was creating his own audience that he was the biggest star in within the WWE world.

Los Federales Santos jr

I think they pulled the trigger at the right time. He had a lot of people to work with and he definitely drew as a champion.

God, I wish there was stuff between Eddie Guerrero and Shawn Michaels.

Lie, cheat, steal stuff was amazing.

To this day I watch Eddie's last match from time to time.