the 25 worst wrestling performers of all time
 

I don't mean a list of bad gimmicks. I mean all round bad big league in-ring performers.

Guys with no redeeming qualities. Poor mic skills, bad matches, lacking in charisma...

And I made it twenty-five so you really gotta think about it (hey, it's something to do if you're bored!). List them in reverse order, least bad to worst, and maybe a brief description of why.

It is all opinion of course and opinion is subjective but don't simply list a guy because you personally don't like him when it is clear that he is possessing of positive attributes (for example, don't just list a guy like Shawn Michaels on here because you personally don't like him, unless you have a reasonable case for the reason he belongs on your list).


25. Greg Valentine
I expect to get a lot of flak for this guy's name showing up on the list (and let's be fair, I have classed him as the least worst!) as he did have some great matches, especially in the NWA, against superior opponents. The guy was not much of a stick man and for the most part was extremely boring. Even the Gorilla incessantly informing us that the reason Valentine was so sluggish and boring was because "he takes at least 15 minutes to warm up" didn't disguise the fact that if the stiff 'Hammer' was in the ring, chances are you were about to be bored to tears.

24. Jim Duggan
Ole 'Hacksaw' would have been further down the list had he not had some spirited brawls earlier in his career, and commanded great long-term popularity through his blue-collar persona and weird charisma. You know that when even the commentators can’t disguise their surprise at Duggan pulling a wrestling move like a sunset slip out of his bag of tricks (“Only at WrestleMania can I be surprised!”) that this guy is no Ric Flair. But following a great run in the ‘Rat Pack’ prior to the WWF, Duggan’s one dimensional kick-punch-stumble style has had a spot in the mainstream wrestling business for over two decades. Spare us!

23. The Warlord
Steroid freak Terry Szopinski was at least bearable as one half of the NWA and WWF’s Powers of Pain tag team. Upon going solo in 1990, he became a bland, immobile solo midcarder, who spent most of his two year run putting Davey Boy Smith over.

22. Jim Neidhart
His weaknesses disguised in his successful and entertaining tag team with Bret Hart, he was fully exposed in singles bouts with the likes of the aforementioned Warlord, the washed up Skinner, and later with the likes of Scott Norton in WCW. Pretty bad.

21. Nailz
Should, by rights, be further down this list. ‘The Magnificent One’ Kevin Kelly, later Nailz, was a truly awful wrestler, but his menacing and memorable portrayal of the ex-con who was beyond rehabilitation was admittedly impressive. Away from the promo studio, this guy was worthless.

20. Jon Heidenreich
Bland, uncharismatic and, worse, the final nail in the coffin of the once great Legion of Doom.

19. Albert
This guy was around for years and contributed literally nothing, with the possible exception of being the inspiration of the comical “shave your back” chants. Never cut a single memorable promo, never had a particularly engrossing match, never got over despite continuous pushes (including a clean IC title victory over Kane!). Not seen any footage of Matt Bloom in Japan, but find it hard to believe he’s made any serious strides.

18. Steve Lombardi
Must have had more chances under more different personas than anybody else in Stamford history, yet failed to get over… ever! A solid hand at putting guys over means that he isn’t further up this list, but other than making others look good, The Brooklyn Brawler was useless.

17. Virgil
Jobber personified. After playing Ted DiBiase’s whipping boy for years, solo stardom got off to a good start with an emotional and exciting match against ‘The Million Dollar Man’ at SummerSlam ’91 to end their series and capture the Million $ Belt. Promptly plummeted down the ranks, became a joke, and ended up as a numbers filler in the nWo and West Texas Rednecks.

16. Brakus
Nothing but a physique. Nothing more to offer.

15. Bill Kazmaier
See Brakus.

14. Yokozuna
The most immobile, boring WWF Champion of all-time. No promo ability to speak of, very few matches worth watching in his back catalogue.

13. Sylvester Terkay
There is a theme emerging here. Chalk up another one for the “Boring List”, but quite frankly, if you don’t even attempt to adapt to the entertainment aspect of the business in the modern era, you have no hope of getting over.

12. Brutus Beefcake
Mediocre tag team with Greg Valentine led to a cheesy but memorable gimmick as the very 80s ‘The Barber’. Was at his most offensive in WCW where he worked some of the worst gimmicks and wrestled some of the worst matches US wrestling has ever witnessed.

11. Tiger Ali Singh
Wooden and unathletic, the second generation of the Singh family crashed and burned as a face, a heel and a manager. Waste of money.

10. Mideon
One of the patchy elements of the New Generation and later Attitude era was having to sit through Dennis Knight matches, be it as Phineas Godwinn, Mideon, Naked Mideon or under his real name as half of Southern Justice. Abysmal.

9. Outback Jack
Did Vince McMahon just pull this guy in off the street or what? Failed attempt to cash in on the success of Crocodile Dundee and the ensuing fascination with Aussies, Jack had a bad gimmick and was a worse wrestler. Waste of space.

8. Dave Sullivan
“The Equaliser” Dave/Evad Sullivan, the dyslexic wrestler. WCW’s precursor to Eugene was a piss poor wrestler, but the kid friendly character may have been bearable if he wasn’t shoved in our faces as a main eventer.

7. Dan Severn
Dreary from head-to-toe, from bell-to-bell. His lengthy NWA title reign could have come straight out of the 1960s, the man in the plain grey T-shirt had one redeeming quality: his WWF entrance theme!

6. Giant Silva
WWE’s second attempt to recreate Andre The Giant and their counter to the WCW success of The Giant (Paul Wight) was a giant turkey. Terrible.

5. Kamala
Questionable gimmick aside, this guy was the pits. Even if he hadn’t wrestled every match in character as a jungle savage, I still imagine he would be the pits, with his jelly belly and weak offence.

4. Brian Adams
When you think of great tag team wrestlers who went onto bigger and better solo things after their run, maybe you think of Bret Hart, or Shawn Michaels, or even Steve Austin. Chances are you don’t think of this man: Brian ‘Crush’ Adams. Repackaged more often than an unwanted Christmas gift, I can think of one solitary good match this guy had in a decade of big time singles matches; the night Randy Savage carried him to a more than passable Falls Count Anywhere match at WrestleMania X.

3. Zeus
I doubt I need to explain this one. Tiny Lister is an actor. Somebody somewhere decided this guy should not only wrestle on a PPV, but in the main event. Twice. The first company to give this a go is still in business. The second is not. Go figure.

2. Giant Gonzalez
Wrestling’s attempt to recreate the enigma and drawing power of Andre The Giant. Although in physically better shape than the broken down Andre that the majority of fans had seen in action, the failed basketball player just wasn’t a wrestling guy; I doubt he’d ever even watched it prior to taking it up as his occupation. His only positive attribute was his size, and he didn’t even know how to accentuate that to his advantage in getting over with the fans. When you stand at nearly 8ft and your debut is beating the Undertaker to within an inch of his life and having him sell for you like he has never sold for anybody, and you still can’t get over, you know you’re the shits. Take note, Khali.

1. Big Daddy V
Prone to injury (and to injuring others), Nelson Frazier has had more chances to be a bonafide main event player than any other wrestler may have ever received; the reason is simple – his massive size. But it is his massive size that makes Frazier probably the worst (certainly long term) wrestler ever to grace a big time promotion. It is now 15 years since Frazier made his WWF debut. Name one great match he has ever had. Name one incredible interview he has ever given. Name one truly impressive persona he has assumed.

The closest he has come, in my view, was as “The World’s Largest Love Machine”, a strictly midcard comedy act from 2006. Other than that, he has been a worthless drain on resources for a decade and a half (barring a few hiatuses). Whether he was stinking up the ring as one half of cringeworthy tag team Men On A Mission, parading around in a crown and seriously injuring the WWF Champion as the regal King Mabel, doing the evil Undertaker's dirty work as the mindless zombie Viscera or provoking images of male bras as the shirtless and gormless Big Duddy V, Frazier has been, in my opinion, the worst of the worst.

To be honest, the fact that Khali isn't on here is an insult. Especially to Yokozuna who was a far better champion, and way more entertaining. Granted they are both slobs who can't talk wrestle or convey any kind of talent or charisma as entertainers. They're both their for their physicality.

But still, Yokozuna>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Khali

Disagree. Viscera entertained me when he was with Taker. He is obviously terrible but not the worst. He can do some stuff okay.

Khali is still active though, and has not been around for as long as the other guys on the list who are still going. When he builds up as (un)impressive a body of work as the other guys, or walks away from the business, there's no doubt he will belong on any worst wrestler list.

no mark henry?

I liked Brian Adams

Big Daddy V is active. Yea he's been around a while, but suck is suck and Khali sucks worse than anyone

Was thinking the exact same thing. I mean, apart from his infatuation with Chyna back in '99 (??) and a couple of funny vignettes associated with that what else has he done that's been note-worthy.

Henry really bores me to tears and is the reason I switch off whenever he comes on.

Oh and I always liked Beefcake so please take him off the list. :yes:

Oooh, Henry is a glaring omission! Man what an oversight.

I'd lose Valentine from the list for Henry. I'm adamant about Khali for now though. It's too soon.

So where on your revised list would you place Henry? 25?

Think he deserves to be much higher.

How bout the Ultimate Warrior. Was paid millions to run down an isle and use steriods. He brought nothing to the table, awfull promos and worse matches.

Brian Adams ruled in WCW with Kronik. I don't know how much it should affect his place, but it should be mentioned.
Heidenreich > Snitsky
Yokozuna >>> Khali
Warrior brought in kids and marks and was funny as hell.

True, he did draw some money, I just was going by NeaderCarl's rules.

I stopped reading when I saw Greg Valentine.

His mic skills were so bad they were good. I at least enjoyed his promos, and that's a redeeming quality. Besides, they had to get someone riled up, the man had monster amounts of charisma.

Various Notes:

25. "The Hammer" is probably one of the best workers of all time. He wasn't flashy, and wasn't meant to be.

19. Albert (aka Giant Bernard) is considered the Second Coming of Vader in Japan. Considering that Vader was one of the top Gaijin draws, that's a pretty big compliment.

18. It takes alot of talent to make other people look good. By this logic, where's Jumping Joey Maggs? or the Italian Stallion? or the State Patrol? or especially Barry Horrowitz?

14. He was a beast. Though completely immobile, he was a great monster heel because of his size and because he was a "Foreigner."

7. My only argument is this: He made wrestling look really good when he was representing the sport in the UFC et al. As a pro wrestler he was bland, no doubt. But his contribution to the sport shouldn't be discounted. Also, I'd argue that the NWA putting the belt on him wasn't that bad of an idea. He had name recognition and Who's gonna shoot on a guy who fucks people up for real?

In other words, I'm scratching those five. Now, for five replacements:

1. Mark Henry. For the hype wasted, money spent, and time invested, I can only think of two bigger flops than Henry: Gobbeldy Gooker and XFL.

2. Great Khali. I hate to say it Carl, he's as good as he's gonna get.

3. Ted Arcidi. Another World's Strongest Man. Another immobile and worthless hoss.

4. Loch Ness. He was huge like Yokozuna, but didn't have the aura. He was a Dungeon of Doom reject.

5. Ron Reis. His career highlights: Butt raping Hulk Hogan as the Yeti. Getting DESTROYED by Chris Be... someone I made up as Ron Studd. Being the shittiest member of Raven's Flock.

I was indifferent to Prince Albert, but absolutely hated him as just Albert... I iterally hated the guy. Once he became A-Train I loved him. He was even my favorite guy to use in Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain.

A-Train works in Japan.

Keep him there, in America he's a small hairy fish in a galaxy-sized pond full of other six foot five power men.

Haystacks Calhoun. I'm told there was a point at which he did not suck.

:foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc::foc:

That is a pretty poor list for the top 25 of all time. Are you telling me you think Skinner was more entertaining than Yokozuna? Not only did he have a bad gimmick but he was boring as hell. What about SD Jones...what did that guy ever bring to the table?

Id rather watch 10 Greg Valentine matches than 5 sec of a Rob Conway match.

Loch Ness was Giant Haystacks, not Haystacks Calhoun.

Giant Haystacks was one of the top draws in the UK, he went to WCW when he was in really bad shape, his feud with Big Daddy was tremendous and sold out the Wembley indoor arena, which was quite an achievement, I did see the big man wrestle once, he was indeed a huge bloke, but in his day he was a decent talent for his size

I'm going to do a list based on from when ive been watching wrestling, in no order.

Khali
BDV
Mark Henry
Kamala
Snitsky
Nathan Jones(i think thats his name)
Mideon
Cade
Murdoch
Heidenreich


Hmm, im struggling to think of others. I would like to think that's cause there weren't many others, but i think its due to them being so bad i've forgotten them.

I can’t believe some of the names on these lists!

Of the top of my head here’s some of the worst performers (for the record I love some of these guys)

New Jack
Anything from Terry Funk after 1997
Sandman
Lex Luger
Dan Severen (sp?)
Bastian Booger
The Renegade
Reese

Just want to comment and say that Albert (Giant Bernard) is a new favorite of mine, and I've only seen one of his recent matches, against Nagata. Holy shit what a match.

Albert did suck, but he's really gotten into a groove in Japan.

Also, with Khali not being on that list it's completely negated anyway. I mean, seriously, I'd accept him not being top five or even ten, but not in the top 25?

That along with some others proves my theories about WWE, they have an outstanding lockeroom, and if they all went out there and tried to have the best matches possible, it would be some of the sickest matches in the world right now, but they hold people back. And thus, everyone thinks they suck.

disagree with a couple up there. Most notably: Kamala, Valentine, Yokozuna and Giant Bernard.

Kamala and Yoko weren't the greatest technically sound wrestlers in the ring, but they didn't need to be. Thier characters greatly overplayed thier workrate. Kamala was a huge draw in the territories and even worked on top with Hogan once in the WWE. Yoko had that very intimidating presence about him that you just feared him as soon as his music hit. Yes, I agree he sucked in the ring, but the character made up for it. I thought he had one of the most impressive heel World Title runs in history.

With Valentine, his NWA days alone give him a pass off that list.

With Bernard, like everyone else mentioned here, he's great over in Japan. I'm glad he found his niche there because the WWE gobbled him up quick.

And to some of the other guys I saw mentioned here:

Luger: Not a chance in hell. One of the greatest draws of all-time. Worked on top for almost all of his career.

Warrior: See Luger

The only guy on the bubble for me is Beefcake. He was over in the late 80's and some of the 90's. Poor worker, but again, he played a great character and got the crowd involved.

I don’t deny that Lex was a Draw, that’s a fact.

But I can’t recall a single match he had that I thought was good, and this promo’s were terrible.

‘I don’t know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

Yoko was pretty agile for man his size and I remember back when I was a mark watching him drop his leg drop thinking how much that must hurt, and the guy got some nice air on the drop. Plus that Banzai drop on some of the jobbers he did in the past were brutal!

How is A-Train on here but Nathan Jones isnt?!

Beefcake deserves to be on the list, all he had was connections to hogan. Other than that he was useless.

Disco inferno? my word

My revised list would lose Valentine to include Mark Henry (who I must have forgotten all about) but I stand by my opinion of 'The Hammer'. I didn't discount some of his better matches (classic feud with Piper, even a good match against Ronnie Garvin in 1990) but never a favourite guy of mine to watch, neither as an uneducated mark nor to this day. Maybe his work just hasn't aged well.

Henry would be top 10. He'd probably even pip Kamala into the top 5.

The following guys mentioned by other posters don't really deserve a mention in a list of worst all round performers ever, in my opinion anyways:
Disco Inferno (comical gimmick, had some good matches in his career)
Lex Luger (quite underrated for his contributions... at points of his career oozed charisma and had some great matches amongst the duds)
The Wall (nondescript but not abysmal)
Tank Abbott (although he would hover close to making the grade)
Nathan Jones (hardly around long enough nor high profile enough to make a worst ever list, although I see your point)
Warrior (had his strong points, and actually had several memorable and good to great matches)
New Jack (I deliberately ommitted ECW)
Snitsky (not a good worker by any stretch but I kinda get a kick out of him, same reason Billy Gunn didn't make the list).

Also, as I mentioned, I haven't seen Albert's work in Japan, but if he has made a huge improvement, I would be shocked.

<div><object width="420" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x29s13&v3=1&related=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x29s13&v3=1&related=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29s13_njpw-giant-bernard-vs-yuji-nagata_sport">NJPW: Giant Bernard vs Yuji Nagata</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/roadwarriormatt">roadwarriormatt</a></i></div>

To me, the years 1993 - 2000 destroyed all goodwill I had towards him for his fun 'Barber' days.

Also, as for Khali (missed the post before), he's been in the WWE as long as Gonzalez was in WCW and WWF combined. If anything, Khali should be there INSTEAD of Gonzalez because he's been in (likely) more matches and much higher-profile matches than Gonzalez ever was.

Wow, your list sucks. Like, seriously, you get an A for effort, but that was an epic failure. Henry should have been in it, Yokozuna should have been taken off, where the hell is Paul Roma, Brian Adams was 10 times the wrestler Randy Ortonis , and if you're going to put The Brawler on that list then you need to include Barry Horowitz.
By biggest problem with The Brawler on your list is he was meant to put people over, and his gimmicks were... Gimmicks. Not meant to be big. That baseball guy (his name escapes me right now) and Doink were never meant to be Hall of Fame worthy.

So yea, epic fail, but a well written epic fail.