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View Full Version : Best Rosters in Wrestling History



The Law
July 9th, 2013, 8:15 PM
This current crop of wrestlers is WWE's best roster in years. In my mind, it's their best roster in 2002, when they had the best group of talent ever assembled by a professional wrestling company. By 2002 they had bought out and absorbed WCW and ECW. They had all the top guys from the Attitude Era on top of that, creating a pretty incredible group. Check it out:

Main Event: Austin, Rock, Triple H, Hogan, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Scott Steiner, Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Kane, Jericho

Top Midcarders: Benoit, Guerrero, Booker T, Hall, Nash, Mysterio, Raven, Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz, Edge, Christian, Lance Storm, Tazz, RVD, Billy Gunn, Chuck Palumbo, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Mark Henry, Rikishi, Regal, Diamond Dallas Page, Mr. Perfect

New Guys: Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista

And those are just the top guys. Now, they didn't have them all at the same time, because guys got hurt, or left to make movies, or quit, or signed later in the year. But still, what an amazing collection of guys. Leading to my conclusion that 2002 was the worst booked year in wrestling history, because they didn't do nearly as well as they should have without all those guys.

WCW in 1997-1998 was also a pretty great group. Take a look:

Main Event: Hogan, Nash, Goldberg, Bret Hart, Flair, DDP, Piper, Giant, Lex Luger

Midcard: Mysterio, Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, Jericho, Raven, Steiner Brothers, Jeff Jarrett, Syxx, Ultimo Dragon, Curt Hennig, Booker T, Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Konnan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Masa Chono, Great Muta

Too bad they didn't use those guys well.

WWF in 1992 was a really cool group, as it was at the intersection of the end of the Hogan era and the beginning of the New Generation. I feel like we've got something similar going on right now.

Main Event: Hogan, Savage, Flair, Warrior, Sid, Piper, Bret, Undertaker

Midcard: Shawn Michaels, British Bulldog, Bam Bam Bigelow, Road Warriors, Steiner Brothers, Owen Hart, Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, Sgt. Slaughter, Big Boss Man, Tatanka, Jim Duggan, Koko B. Ware, Nasty Boys, Ted DiBiase, IRS

Andy
July 9th, 2013, 8:24 PM
2002 was so stacked that they just couldn't fit them all into five hours of TV a week or whatever they had. Don't get me wrong, that group of wrestlers is unbelievable but it was just too many to get them all on TV doing something worthwhile.

My favourite roster was the Mania to Mania period between 2000 and 2001. Perfect quality and quantity.

Main eventers: Rock, Austin, Angle, Trips, Undertaker
Upper midcarders: Jericho, Benoit, Kane, Show, Regal
Lower midcarders: Eddie, Rikishi, Malenko, Saturn, Tazz, Blackman, Hardcore Holly, Val
Tag teams: Dudleys, Hardys, E&C, APA, T&A
Plus some excellent guys down the card on SD/Heat: Kai En Tai, Too Cool, Crash, Snow etc

chatty
July 9th, 2013, 8:26 PM
I came to say 2002, they had all the attitude era guys and a lot of the new guys coming in fast and hard. A lot of the mid-carders had stepped up to main event level as well and with the WCW/ECW clan in tow they had a real solid card. Somehow it was all very up and down from there where it looked like they could build but that may just be it being the fall out of the Attitude Era and dawn of the PG era.

85-90ish had some major stars:

Hogan, Andre, Warrior, Jake, Perfect, Flair, Taker, Sid, Piper, Savage, Heart Foundation, Rockers, Bulldogs, Demolition, POP, Snuka, Beefcake, Rude, Honkey, Slaughter, Steamboat, Tito, The Model. I'd have to take a proper look at the PPVs to put a definitive year together but somewhere round there will be a ridiculous roster.