Who had the biggest impact on wrestling?

Question

Was it Hogan, Austin or McMahon? And for you Austin fans, keep one thing in mind: If it weren't for what Hogan did for wrestling in the 80's, there may never have been an Austin.

We'll add the Rock and Triple H to this list as well.

Answer 1

The Biggest Impact on wrestling is definetely McMahon. People will argue Hogan, but least you forget so fast, McMahon was the idea, the brains behind the Hogan gimmick. True indeed Hogan was a heck of a man, Big Strong with a hercules type body, but in order to know about Hogan, you had to promote Hogan, Sell Hogan, Stuff Hogan down people throats. McMahon took Wrestling to a whole new level, not just by promoting big name players, but music videos, movies, cartoons, t-shirts, posters, etc... all the idea and vision of Vince McMahon, Although I'm not a big fan of him, he is a genius when it comes to big business

Answer 2

To start with it's nobody in the last 10 years like Austin, Rock, Triple H - they just keep it fresh and ongoing. Not one of them elevated anything to a new level. Those three are icons but just the next in a long list of them.
Hogan gets most of the credit cause of Wrestlemania and popularity of it/him at that time.
BUT - Superstar Billy Graham pretty much was Hulk Hogan before Hogan was. And Ric Flair was on his way to legend status way before Hogan pinned the Iron Sheik. And Hogan appearing in the Rocky movie gave him more exposure to people who never watch wrestling than anything else could have.
And McMahon didn't invent pay-per-view or wrestling in general but seems to get credit for everything cause he put a show on pay-per-view first. Hell even the name isn't his own brainstorm - there were plenty of -mania's before, and he had the bright idea to put what they do in front of it, wrestling.
US, he fans, have the biggest impact on wrestling, because we're the ones who cheer for the good guy, chant along with the Rock, bring the signs and buy the tickets. There's a lot more wrestling out there than WWE, ECW & TNA and at some point they might get bigger if we support it.
You have internet, look up wrestling and go see a show. They would have done the same show with or without you there right? But maybe you tell some people how good it was and next time five of you go, and so on. You have now impacted that promotion, and next thing you know you have ECW. I was there in the gymnasiums in Philly handing Tommy Dreamer a baking pan to hit some guy on the head. Now where are they?
See my point?

Answer 3

i guss this is WWF/WWE

The following wrestlers and the people that were ever in a match against them.
Hulk Hogan
Shawn Michaels
Diesal(Kevin Nash)
Razor Ramon
Bret Hart
The Undertaker
Machoman
Austin
Rock- Smackdown! duh! lol
Triple H
Kurt Angle
DX
Nation
.... the list goes on really everybody contributed something back then to make the wrestling show complete, now they only rely on a handful of the same heels and faces with repetitive storylines.

Divas/Managers/Valets/Female Wrestlers
Moolah
Miss Elizabeth
Sunny
Sable
Jacqueline
Luna Vachon
Terri Runnels/Marlena
Debra - probably the most cheered Diva of all time, yes more than Trish
Ivory
The Kat
Chyna -
Tori(Terri Poch)
Molly Holly
Lita
Gail Kim
Jazz
Stephanie McMahon
Stacy Keibler

Best Wrestlers: Male: Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Machoman, Rock, and Triple H; Female: Moolah, Jacqueline, Luna, Ivory, Chyna, Tori, Molly Holly, Gail Kim, Jazz

Marketable Face/Heels: Most of the above(usally doens't work well with the Divas) Hulk Hogan, Diesal, Austin, Sable, Stephanie McMahon

lol moving on those were the positive impacts

Negative Impacts
Vince McMahon and/or his scriptwriters
John Cena - case of bad gimmick and bad wrestling. just bad. Hurting the Legacy of WWE title, and wrestling period, the first match with Kurt Angle was a joke...His career is like one extreme tot he next I'm working at Mc Donalds making mininum wage the next min. i'm a Lawyer getting paid 6 or 7 figures a year...confusing moving on

Trish Stratus - OMG, not Trish, yes Trish, the worst mistake to the womens division and a major part why its in the shape its in Today. She hurt the womens division more than she helped it. i like her but shes not a good wrestler, but the wwe played her out like she was a seasoned veteran. she was just a very good marketable face and heel. scripted 7 title reigns and don't say there weren't any good contenders between 99-06.

theres more... people and events but thats too much to read lol u get the point.

Answer 4

It really depends on the person & what they did for the wrestling buisness:

Hulk Hogan & Mr.McMahon broke Wrestling into the mainstream, and made it a public viewing

The Rock, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin & "Rowdy" Roddy Piper made wrestling entertaing and funny to attract more to the comical side of wrestling

Triple H, Ric Flair, Bret Hart & Chris Benoit made technical & pure wrestling skill a staple to watch and would capture the viewers not by gimmicks but the abilities & moves that they were able to perform in the ring

Mick Foley, The Sheik, Tazz & Terry Funk showed the world that wrestling wasn't all technical, but it had an ugly side... called HARDCORE, they made weapons & blood a modern staple in wrestling

Rey Mysterio showed the world that you didn't have to be big & strong to suceed in the wrestling buisness. The high flying, action packed Cruiserweight Divison has amazed wrestling fanatics for many years due to the high risk moves that they perform

The Fabulos Moolah made the Women's Division of wrestling, if it wasn't for her, you wouldn't have seen Trish Stratus, Lita, Chyna or Sable gracing our screens over the course of the last dcade

These wrestlers & many more made the wrestling world what it is today, & you can't say it was just one or two people

Answer 5

If you're asking who had the biggest impact on what WWE wrestling specifically has become today, I'd pick Hogan. I hate what the company is now. It's got wrestlers who are only out there performing for themselves, trying to get paid the most money. Wrestlers who don't give a sh*t whether or not they've wrestled the best that they could each night or whether they gave the fans a good show or not. They just care if they did what they were told to do and not so much how they did it. Kinda like Hogan.

If I'm to answer who had the biggest impact on the wrestling that I enjoy to watch now, then my answer is none of those guys.

Answer 6

Hogan, hands down. No questions asked. Any other answers are people who haven't watched it that long, and don't remember a time when wrestling was regional shows on small local TV channels you had to wrangle the rabbit ears to pick up.

Hogan vs. Iron Sheik is the birth of the modern wrestling era.

Stone Cold... For a long time, I figure he was just pissed off because someone shaved off all his beautiful blonde hair.

HBK is still the weak half of the Midnight Rockers.

The only other "contenders" is Ric Flair, but only amongst the smarks. NWA didn't get any real attention until it died and became the WCW.

Answer 7

Hogan in his era and the Austin McMahon era is what finished off WCW which had Hogan in it. So really all 3.

Answer 8

1 - Hulk Hogan saved wrestling and elevated it.
2 - Andre the Giant was a world ambassador for wrestling, and brought people out in every venue he appeared in.
3 - Stu Hart trained many of the biggest stars in the business, including several who are still wrestling.
4 - Vince McMahon, while not a wrestler, has been a business genius, turning the wrestling world into a phenomenal juggernaut

Answer 9

Hogan and The Rock had a big impact in the process of turning wrestling mainstreem. Austin turned the business around image wise. Everything became about attitude, he redifined the face. before, a good guy had to be sqeaky clean now he can have that as*hole charm and still be a fan favorite. I wish it was like the early 90's those were the good times.

Answer 10

"Hulk Hogan" saved wrestling and, unfortunately, made it really big. Vince McMahon was huge. "Wrestling" in the sense we're discussing it, is entertainment, and Hogan was an awesome entertainer. Mean Jean was a big part of this. And McMahon was huge. He made "Hulk Hogan" who he is.

probably the correct answer is McMahon, because he had the foresight to make "Hogan" a lead guy.

But....I could be wrong