Who is the greatest face of the past 30 years?

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Why say ever when most haven't seen many of the great faces form the past(inclduing me).

 

We often see arguments as to whether Flair, DiBiase, Hennig etc. is the greatest heel but who do yuo think is the best face based on popularity, money made, and based on whther the fans have ever turned on them or their act gotten stale?

 

My picks:

 

1. Sting - Yah I know Hogan is the most obvious choice but the fans turned on Hogan more than once and his act gets stale every so often. Sting on the other hand remained the number 1 babyface in WCW from hsi debut at Starcade 87 all the way to his last match on the last Nitro. He's been booked through more shit than anyone(Black Scorpion, Robocop, Shockmaster), he's put over everyone they've asked him too and still never was turned on by the fans. Want proof? Watch 94 WCW and see how, despite the mega-push for Hogan, Hogan never even touched Sting's fanbase and how when turned heel he remained the most popular star in WCW.

 

Next 4 without write-ups:

 

2. Hulk Hogan

3. Ricky Steamboat

4. Steve Austin

5. Bret Hart

 

That's my list and now what are yuors.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Austin. No contest.

[Guest The Old Me]

Austin. The fans loved him to death even when they were supposed to hate him.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Austin. The guy sold so much merchandise and drew so much ratings because the fans loved him more than anyone else. People say that if you ask a person off the street who Hulk Hogan is they'll know. Ask them who Stonecold Steve Austin is and they'll know just as much if not more.

[EL DANDY~! 0]

Austin. Any of his heel turns were met with cheers. WM X-7, Invasion...fuck, they even got his catchphrase over when eh was a heel. Austin all the way...

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

I'd say that Homie G Wolfpac Sting™ wasn't the number one face on the roster since Goldturd was in the midst of his hot streak.

 

As for my choice, I say Austin hands down with Hogan right behind him.

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

I'll say Sting, just cause I have more respect for him than anybody else in the buisness. The guy never sold out, never left WCW, and was about the biggest victim of bad booking that i've ever seen. He did all that he could do with his posistion, and hopefully will never be forgotten.

 

In reality, the only true answer you can give is Hulk Hogan. Say what you want about Austin, but Hogans popularity carried the WWF through the 80's and he really is the most reconizable face in wrestling history.

 

In 10 years, we might say Austin, but for now, I give it to Hogan.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Yes but Hogan didn't save the WWE from near failure. WWE was on it's last legs and Austin kind of swooped in there like this bad ass Angel of Mercy wearing black tights.

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

Ya, but without Bret Hart, where would Austin be today? Hart did the same thing with Austin that Austin thinks he did with Rock. He did save the WWF, but I wouldnt' say he single handedly did it. It was the WWFs overall change to Attitude. It was his feud with Mcmahon, his mini-feud with Tyson, his feuds with Dude Love, DX, and Undertaker. Hogan was loved just as much as Austin, if not more, and the fans watched wrestling just for him, not the overall product.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Yah picture if Bret didn't come back in 1996. No huge Austin 3:16. Bret elevated him more than anyone else ever could have.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Yah picture if Bret didn't come back in 1996. No huge Austin 3:16. Bret elevated him more than anyone else ever could have.

Not neccessarilly true. Austin 3:16 started before Bret returned. It could easily have been Shawn that was Austin's first target, or Vader, Undertaker, Sid, ect.

 

Final results would have been different but either way Austin would have found a way to be put over

 

Steve

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

but look at it this way. No Montreal = no Austin/Vince.

 

Until that he was not more over than the average face.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Did anyone read my TNA preview?

 

I kind of discuss this there.

 

Besides...Dames says it's highly recommended...dammit.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

You are going to convince me that Hogan is a bigger face overall than Austin. I was there in the hey-day of both and more people knew who Austin was and a lot of people did watch wrestling just for Austin. I know a lot of people at my school who always insulted wrestling and then Austin exploded they were all like "Yeah I started watching wrestling. That Austin guy is a badass." but I don't remember anybody going "Yeah I started watching wrestling b/c that guy in Hogan guy is the best!"

The fans got tired of Hogan to. They never got tired of Austin. They got tired of Rock. They never got tired of Austin.

[Guest Nater]

1. Austin

2. Hogan

3. Savage

4. Bret

5. Steamboat

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

Bret made Austin in the same way that Cactus made HHH, cept Bret never had to officially put Austin over.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Oh and let's not forget that anybody could've been Hogan. I'm serious. You could've stuck any big guy with charisma in the position that he's in and they would've taken off the exact same.

There was only one Steve Austin. Austin got over on his own. Hogan was made.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I've always looked at it this way:

 

Hogan was the most popular wrestler when WRESTLING was a dirty word.

 

Austin made the word not so dirty.

 

Everywhere you went...Austin t-shirts and people were talking about what he did on Monday.

 

I'm going to add a new line to my favorite quote:

 

Hogan made wrestling popular, Flair made it an artform...and Austin made everyone watch.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

And like I said. Anyone could've been Hulk Hogan. But there was only one Flair. And only one Austin.

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

Your going to tell me that the fans never got tired of Austin? They never turned on him, yes, but they did get tired of him. Let's not forget how stale Austins character had gotten by 2002.

 

And you can't say that anybody could of been Hogan. Hogan has that charisma about him, he has the over the top voice, he drew people to him.

 

Austin was a product of the times, he came out cussing when it was unheard of, he defied authority before this type of thing had became cool. He came at a time when Vince wanted to take the WWF in the direction of Attitude. Without the overall product of the WWF changing, Austin wouldn't have been anything. Put him in the WWF in 1995..and he's not much. And even when he did become Austin 3.16, he needed a legend like Bret Hart to really put the whole thing over. The final push came at Wrestlemania 14, when HBK put him over and solidified him as the #1 guy in the federation.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Please. There's plenty of big guys with charisma that could've done just what Hogan did. The character they created for Hogan was what was over. And Terry Bollea just played the part. I still say any guy could've played that part.

Steve Austin could've only been done by Steve Austin. The guy came up with the catchphrases and most of the attitude by himself. He created the Steve Austin character. He didn't have it made for him. And he was the only one that could've done it because it was him all the way. And HBK didn't put him over at all. It was a foregone conclusion that Austin was going to whip HBK's ass. It wasn't this big shocking things where the fans said "Man Austin beat the top guy!" it was "Man Austin finally whooped that little pricks ass like I knew he would! Now I can cheer him as champion!"

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

I don't know, Hogans facial expressions, his hulking up, all the little things that he added to the character are also what made him so big. And, he wasn't bad in Mr. Nanny

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

I still say anybody could've been Hogan. Hell I'm not saying they had to have the Hogan name. But anybody could'be been given the same character and gotten over.

But Austin was Austin. Sure somebody could've been able to do the character but Austin was the one who created the character and nobody could've done it like him.

Plus like BPS said. Austin made wrestling "cool". Everyone was wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt. Walk around in the 80's. There weren't very many Hogan shirts. And Austin appealed to a wider audience. Hogan really only appealed to kids. The teens and young male demographic was still into the crazy badasses(hence them liking warrior). And when Austin came along it was what every fan was waiting for. Austin was over with the whole world and made wrestling something again.

[Guest Shanghai Kid 2003]

Alright, if we're talking about who made wrestling the most mainstream and who drew higher ratings, than obviously the answer is Austin.

 

But the best face, the guy who people loved to cheer the most.....theirs on reason to say that the answer is not Bret Hart.

 

Out of Austin, Hogan, and Hart, Bret was probably the most liked and respected by the crowd.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

I still say it was Austin. The guys pops were insane.

[Guest Mole]

I'm going with Hogan.

 

Yes, Austin sold more t-shirts than Hogan did. However, when Hogan was on top, merchandise wasn't as big as it is now. Hogan had like 5 shirts, SCSA had about 50.

 

Yes, Austin had great ratings, and was probably the biggest reason WWF(E) went into the boom period. However, Hogan had bigger ratings then Austin EVER did. I remember how Hogan pulled 11s in his hey-day, while Austin pulled 5-6s.

 

Hogan was the better face than Austin was, IMHO. Don't get me wrong, Austin was a great face, but not better than Hogan.

 

I can't comment on Sting because I didn't get TBS unil 1996, so I never could watch WCW when I was younger.

[Guest Adrian 3:16]

Oh and let's not forget that anybody could've been Hogan. I'm serious. You could've stuck any big guy with charisma in the position that he's in and they would've taken off the exact same.

There was only one Steve Austin. Austin got over on his own. Hogan was made.

I gotta disagree with you on that one. Hogan, say what you will about him, has always had a certain charisma to him. I don't think anyone else could play the character like Terry Bollea. Vince tried to make more Hogans, just push another big guy to the top and hope to create another phenomenon, but it never worked. Lex Luger ring a bell?

 

Other than that though, I agree with basically everything else you and BPS said, shameless Austin mark that I am.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

You are forgetting that WCW started the wrestling boom with the NWO and the WWF rode the wave using SS97 and Tyson and Austin. I give Austin a ton of credit - he is one of the best - but what Hogan did was A LOT more impressive - because he didn't have a Hogan before him to establish wrestling nationally. Plus Hogan stayed on top, as a face, for a solid decade. Austin was a face from WM 1997- SS 1999, Fall 2000-Spring 2001. That's a little over 4 years.

 

To say that "anyone with the Mcmahon push could have done what Hogan done" is one of the biggest misconceptions on the net. People forget that while Hogan did have charisma he also had SIZE. Size *does* matter - when walking through an airport, if you see Ric Flair walking by, and you see Hulk Hogan walking by, which grabs your attention first? Exactly. What is more believable, Hogan scooping Andre, or Flair scooping Andre? Vince's image of Wrestlers is larger-than-life superstars - and Hogan was that.

 

AND lets not forget that Hogan was HUGE in the AWA as well - Hulkamania started there - so lets try to figure out who was made where...

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

I didn't say any guy. I said any big guy.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Please note that I am not saying that Hogan is the greatest face of the past 30 years or that Austin is not. The quality of the fans' love is important as well. Wrestling fans are often connected strongest to their 'first love' (for lack of a better term) - it is something that goes beyond being a '____ mark' and makes it really personal. Hogan and Austin both have effected millions of people that way and the debate could go on forever as to who was the absolute greatest.