For many of you, the gist of this column is already well-known. Look at the title… this is the sixth column in the series, after all.
For anyone that is new to my work, this column series “borrows” from the series of the same name on Complex’s YouTube channel. On their shows, you’ll get a couple celebrities that have some sort of connection to each other… maybe they’re co-starring in an upcoming movie, or they’re married to each other, or they’re in the same line of work, etc… and they’ll have a stack of questions that require them to name their GOAT in the particular category that is mentioned. The categories are usually related to the guests. If the guests are action movie stars, a lot of their questions will involve action movies in some way.
If you’re over the age of 100… first of all, thank you for reading… and you don’t know what GOAT is, it stands for Greatest Of All-Time.
I have a “team” that I’ve put together, and their job is to send me a bunch of topics for this series. Some of the topics are serious, and others are of a more humorous variety, but they’re all about pro wrestling. You know, since this is a pro wrestling website and all.
That’s enough of an explanation. Let’s discuss some GOATs, shall we?
GOAT Surreal Moment: The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin sing together on the November 12th, 2001 episode of Monday Night Raw. It was the “go-home” episode of Raw before the 2001 Survivor Series, which would be headlined by the Winner Takes All Survivor Series Elimination Match between Team WWF and Team Alliance that marked the end of the InVasion angle.
Rock was leading Team WWF, while Austin was leading Team Alliance, and it was yet another major pay-per-view that would see these two legendary rivals squaring off against each other. What would their final interaction before Survivor Series feature? A nasty, dueling promo battle? Perhaps a brawl, eventually involving the other eight members of the Winner Takes All match? Maybe a beatdown by the heel Austin to give him momentum heading to the pay-per-view?
No. They sang… to each other… and with each other.
Yes, this was during the time when the newly-heel Austin was trying some sillier things with his character, but it’s one thing to sing songs to Vince McMahon in a backstage skit, and it’s another thing to sing duets with The Rock in the center of the ring.
It started with Austin singing “Delta Dawn” by Tanya Tucker, a country music hit from 1972. In typical Steve Austin fashion, it was poorly done, as the man couldn’t carry a tune if you superglued handles to his palms. Rock then sang Kenny Rogers’ Grammy-winning 1978 smash hit, “The Gambler.” Although he is never going to be confused for having the singing voice of a Luther Vandross, Steve Perry, or Freddie Mercury, Dwayne Johnson does a pretty decent job with his singing, so it was a better performance than what Austin delivered.
This was already weird enough, but then they decided they should sing “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett, which took everything to the next level. Sure, it eventually led to physicality, with Rock taking Austin down after a Rock Bottom, and even had a run-in by Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, who were also set to be involved in the Survivor Series match, but nobody cares about any of that. The focus was that singing. On commentary, even Paul Heyman called the entire thing surreal.
I agree.
GOAT “Short” Match: KENTA vs Ricky Marvin from Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Autumn Navigation 2009 – Tag 1 event on October 15th, 2009. Folks, the official length of this match is 1:59. That’s it. The average commercial break on television lasts longer than that. Hell, at my age, it takes me longer than that to finish peeing. The amount of brutality that these two dished out in under two minutes was quite impressive, though. They were connecting with home run swing after home run swing after home run swing. It ended up being one of those matches that I’m surprised you don’t see more often in Japan. What’s more “believable” to you? Wrestler A and Wrestler B kicking out of 45 straight minutes of bombs and finishing moves, or Wrestler A and Wrestler B finding the knockout blow in under two minutes? For me, it’s the latter, but you almost always see the long, drawn out matches in Japan. Seriously, if you haven’t checked this out, look it up on YouTube, posted by a user called Kings AARK.
Even though it didn’t get the nod here, I also want to give a shout out to Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino on the June 12th, 2008 episode of TNA Impact. In a match that went about 6:30, these two teams fit AT LEAST 15 minutes worth of spots, if not more. It helps when you have a wrestler involved like Yoshino, who looks like he runs a 4.25 40 in wrestling shoes.
GOAT Celebrity Fan: “Iron” Mike Tyson. There have been a million celebrities from outside the world of pro wrestling who have outed themselves as huge fans of the sport. Many of those celebrities have had an opportunity to make appearances in wrestling, and a lot of them have been able to live out a lifelong dream by stepping foot inside of a ring to participate in a match.
None of them were Mike Tyson, though.
Not only did his appearance for the WWF in 1998 cause a major shift in momentum for the company during the Monday Night War, but he looked like he belonged. He wasn’t just a lifelong fan of pro wrestling. No, he was a MAJOR fan of pro wrestling. He has always been able to name specific shows, matches, moments, and wrestlers that he watched and was a fan of. Whenever he makes appearances on pro wrestling shows, he looks completely over the moon and damn near childlike in his excitement. For someone who spent almost his entire adulthood as one of the scariest, most terrifying human beings on the planet, that’s something you take notice of right away. Even now, at the age of 60, “Iron” Mike would still have a huge smile on his face if he were to walk out on an episode of Raw anywhere in the country.
GOAT Match From The Year You Turned 21: Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit from the 2003 Royal Rumble. Well, I most certainly dated myself there, didn’t I? I’m not sure how many of you knew how old I am, but if you didn’t know… now you know.
This was about as perfect a technical wrestling match as you’re going to witness under the WWE umbrella in any era. Angle was, arguably, the best wrestler on the planet at that point, and Benoit was right there with him in that competition. The match took place a little over a year before Benoit won the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 20, but fans were really starting to come around on seeing him as a legitimate main event guy by January 2003. I don’t think many people were predicting him to take the WWE Title off of Angle here, but this was one of his first real chances to prove he “belonged” in that conversation with WWE. I’d say he succeeded in that regard, and this crowd agreed with me, giving Benoit a lengthy standing ovation after the match.
If there’s a complaint about this one, it’s something that has nothing to do with either Angle or Benoit. For the first handful of minutes of the match, the crowd in Boston was pretty dead. I think it 100% had to do with them just having sat through the Triple H vs Scott Steiner match that many feel was the worst match of 2003. Once the stench of that match wore off, the crowd really started getting behind Angle and Benoit, and that only added to things.
GOAT WWE Hall Of Fame Class: The Class Of 2009. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is the headliner of the class, and that alone is enough to take notice of. There are many wrestling fans who still consider Austin to be the.. well… GOAT of the sport.
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was inducted that year, and he gets a lot of talk as the GOAT Babyface and/or the GOAT In-Ring Performer.
Howard Finkel was inducted, and he is almost universally viewed as the GOAT Ring Announcer.
Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. were inducted as a duo, and both men are viewed as candidates for the GOAT Pro Wrestler.
The Von Erich family were inducted as a group, and they might be the GOAT Family, GOAT Territory Wrestlers, GOAT Babyfaces, and so on.
When you throw in “Cowboy” Bill Watts and Koko B. Ware to round the class out, and you have yourself a gigantic class for a single year.
While this technically doesn’t count for making a class great, you also have to look at the names who made the inductions themselves. Vince McMahon (Steve Austin), Ric Flair (Ricky Steamboat), Dusty Rhodes (The Funks), and Jim Ross (Bill Watts) were just some of the names giving induction speeches that night, and that lineup is also up there for the single greatest group of inductors in WWE Hall Of Fame history.
GOAT Ring Of Honor Match: Bryan Danielson vs KENTA from Glory By Honor 5, Night 2 in 2006. We’e coming up on the 20th anniversary of this match, and we’re also coming up on the 20th anniversary of me saying that this is the greatest match in Ring Of Honor history. With that said, though, you have no idea how badly I wanted to go with FTR vs The Briscoes from Final Battle 2022 here. Ultimately, I had to place that in the #2 spot.
Danielson and KENTA had themselves a 33-minute classic. Counters, reversals, technical wrestling, aerial offense, stiff striking, and a rabid crowd that ate it all up. The fact that Danielson did this wrestling as, essentially, a one-armed man only makes it better. Three weeks earlier, during a match with Colt Cabana, Danielson suffered a separated shoulder, two torn tendons in said shoulder, and another torn tendon in his chest. Now, here he was, working for over half-an-hour and with one of the most ferocious strikers in all of pro wrestling targeting his arm and chest with every possible chance he got.
The more I think about the match, the more I want to do some sort of column on it for the 20th anniversary in September. Now, we’ll see if I remember that thought two months from now.
GOAT Wrestler That Never Worked For WWE: Mitsuharu Misawa. Realistically, if you were to make a long list of the greatest pro wrestlers that never worked for WWE, a HUGE chunk of that list is going to consist of wrestlers from Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. If you’re a good wrestler based out of the United States or Canada, chances are you’ve had at least a cup of coffee in WWE at some point through the years, so you have to look beyond those two countries.
There’s probably about 20 or 30 names based out of Japan, Mexico, or the United Kingdom that you could put in this spot and I wouldn’t argue with you, and maybe another 15 or 20 names that would only draw a small argument out of me.
I had to go with Misawa, though, as I feel he’s the greatest wrestler from any of those countries. He’s an all-time great with an incredible laundry list of fantastic matches, becoming a legend for All Japan Pro Wrestling and then helping to build Pro Wrestling NOAH from the ground up. There isn’t a chance in hell he would’ve been successful working for Vince McMahon, for what should be pretty obvious reasons, but that doesn’t make his inclusion in this debate any different.
GOAT Starrcade Match: Tully Blanchard vs Magnum TA in an “I Quit” Steel Cage Match at Starrcade 1985. There have been a lot of really, really good matches at Starrcade through the years, some of which even crossed over into “great” territory. Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine in a Dog Collar Match from 1983… Harley Race vs Ric Flair from 1983… The Rock N Roll Express vs Ole & Arn Anderson from 1986… Ric Flair vs Nikita Koloff from 1986… Ric Flair vs Lex Luger from 1988… Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs Barry Windham & Brian Pillman from 1992… Sting vs Vader from 1992… Vader vs Ric Flair from 1993… Chris Benoit vs Jushin Liger from 1995… Eddy Guerrero vs Shinjiro Ohtani from 1995… Dean Malenko vs Ultimo Dragon from 1996… all mighty fine choices.
Tully and Magnum changed the game, though. The level of brutality and violence in this match was off the charts, but it wasn’t just blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore. They were actually telling a story with every spot, every strike, and every weapon shot. Their feud was so heated and so personal, and it needed a match like this as a natural progression. My favorite part of the match is actually the immediate aftermath of the match itself. Tully, the cocky heel, was left a bloody mess, damn near in tears after having a massive wooden spike driven into his eye… while Magnum, the “next big thing” babyface, stood victorious, but seemed disgusted in himself that things had to go to the level they did during the match. It was such a great part of the overall story being told, and it really helped propel Magnum to the next level, to the point that he was set to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title at the following year’s Starrcade event, but his career-ending car accident in October 1986 put an end to that in an instant.
GOAT Business Decision: It has to be the decision to make the WWF a publicly traded company in 1999, doesn’t it? There have been a lot of business decisions that have made particular wrestlers and wrestling personalities a lot of money, but Vince McMahon became the sport’s first billionaire because of the decision to take his company public. It’s going to be pretty difficult to top that, even if you debate this topic decades from now.
GOAT Wrestling Magazine Cover: Sports Review Wrestling’s March 1987 issue. If you’re someone that is old enough to remember the days of numerous wrestling magazines being in stores and on newsstands at the same time, you’d remember an era where the covers were completely over-the-top, in an attempt to grab your attention as soon as you see it. Would you like to see a close-up shot of Abdullah The Butcher carving up the forehead of “Raging Bull” Manny Fernandez? A close-up shot of a wild-eyed Killer Kowalski showing off his bloody ear that was bitten and punctured by “Mad Dog” Vachon? An up-close shot of Bobby Heenan in his wrestler days, looking like he’s about to pass out from blood loss as he wears a real “crimson mask?” It was one of the key aspects of the Stanley Weston magazines that dominated the sport at the time (Weston hired photographer Bill Apter to work for him, and it was Apter’s work that helped make the magazines popular, leading to the “Apter Mags” term).
My choice here featured a very little amount of blood, especially in comparison to some of the other covers I mentioned, but it really stood out. At the time this magazine went on sale, Hulk Hogan was in the middle of a feud with Kamala for the WWF Championship. The Weston/Apter magazines were famous for keeping kayfabe alive, and this cover featured a quote from Kamala himself, even though I’m pretty sure he wasn’t exactly speaking at the time, calling for someone to bring him the head of Hogan. The quote accompanied a manipulated photo of Kamala holding a spear with the bloody, severed head of Hulk Hogan stabbed onto it.
Do you realize how terrifying that is for a young Hulkamaniac to see in the store?
GOAT Modern Day Entrance Theme: “The Rising Sun” by CFO$, done for Shinsuke Nakamura. Easily. For the sake of this activity, I decided to exclude “real” songs, so “Cult Of Personality” and things like that don’t count here.
When Nakamura would make his entrances in 2017 and 2018, it was an EVENT, and much of that is due to this entrance music. Now, I’m thinking back to his entrances and the vibes in every arena around the globe, and I get happy… only to think about where it led thanks to Vince McMahon’s CTE, and I get angry.
GOAT Return: A tie between Edge at the 2020 Royal Rumble and CM Punk on the “First Dance” episode of AEW Rampage in August 2021. Before anyone complains… yes, I’m aware that it was Punk’s DEBUT with AEW, but it was his official RETURN to wrestling, so I’m counting it because it’s my column and I make (and break) the rules.
Both returns were something I never thought I would see, for obviously different reasons. We were all led to believe that Adam Copeland was never going to wrestle again after a neck injury forced him into early retirement in 2011. It had been nearly nine years since he retired, and there was absolutely ZERO reason to even think he would ever return. It was an event that even slipped past all of the wrestling news sites, with not even an inkling of a rumor that he was in training for a potential return one day. Every last one of us was floored when Edge’s entrance music played to signal the 21st entrant in the men’s Royal Rumble match. For as long as I live, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on his face when he stepped through the smoke in his entrance, looking like he was damn near on the verge of tears as he gazed out at the crowd and soaked it all in. As a fan, I felt every bit of that emotion as he made his way to the ring.
Punk in AEW was slightly different. About a month before he showed up, Sean Ross Sapp broke the news that Punk was in talks to return to the sport, and that multiple WWE officials were under the impression that Punk’s arrival in AEW was already a done deal. There was a lot of “no way in hell is that true” buzz out there, some based on hate towards SRS, and some based on people just assuming that there really was no chance CM Punk… out of the business for seven-and-a-half years… was actually going to wrestle again. Then, a few days after the initial SRS report came out, AEW officially announced that the August 20th episode of Rampage would be titled “The First Dance” and would be taking place in Chicago, Illinois. I, like many of you, still had a hard time committing 100% to the idea that he was back. As I watched the first few minutes of that Rampage episode, part of me was still in “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode. I remember shaking my head when he first walked out onto that stage, still shocked that it was happening. Once again, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on his face when he walked out, as he looked out on the sea of humanity that never once forgot about him, even after all those years.
Two insane returns that nobody saw coming… and that includes the men making the returns in the first place.
GOAT Face Turn: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. Throughout the history of pro wrestling, there have been a million other face turns that took a much more defined heel, gave them a heroic thing to do, and then made them a much more defined face. This wasn’t one of those instances.
Before WrestleMania 13, Austin was getting lots of face reactions, but he was technically still on the heel side of the fence. Coming out of WrestleMania 13, Austin was getting some of the loudest face pops you’re ever going to witness, but he was technically still the exact same character that he had been for the last several months.
On this night in 1997, though, not only did Steve Austin’s character go through a shift in the eyes of the fans, but it helped to speed along a process that was already in motion to change the entire industry.
This was nine months after Austin won the 1996 King Of The Ring tournament, birthing “Austin 3:16” during a post-tournament promo, but the official (???) face turn at WrestleMania 13 is what really skyrocketed his popularity, and it carried him to the greatest year of his career to that point, ending with him winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania the following year.
You might have other face turns that are your favorite… I do (hello, Jimmy Uso at Night Of Champions 2023, and hello, Jey Uso a couple weeks later on Smackdown)… but when you’re talking about the greatest face turns, you can’t overlook what this one did for the entire wrestling business.
GOAT Amateur-Turned-Pro Wrestler: Kurt Angle. The man is on the short list of the greatest amateur wrestlers of all-time, finding success at every level of the sport, culminating in Olympic gold in 1996 after winning the gold at the World Wrestling Championships the year before.
He took that amateur success, and he parlayed it into becoming a 13-time World Champion in the pro wrestling game. No other wrestler in history has won the WWE Title, WWE World Heavyweight Title, WCW Title, TNA World Heavyweight Title, IWGP Heavyweight Title, NCAA Wrestling Title, and an Olympic gold medal.
There have been a lot of successful amateur wrestlers that would go on to become successful pro wrestlers… Jack Brisco, Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin come to mind… but nobody took THAT level of amateur success and was able to reach THAT level of pro success. Kurt truly was a one-of-a-kind performer with a one-of-a-kind story.
GOAT Top Rope Move: Senton/Swanton Bomb. You could say that other aerial moves are more “difficult” to pull off, but nothing gets the crowd going like this move does.
Japanese legend The Great Sasuke invented the move, and it was called a Senton Atomico at the time, but of course, it was Jeff Hardy that truly popularized it. Not only popularized it, but Jeff renamed the move altogether. Feeling that the visual of him performing the move was as beautiful and majestic as a swan, he went to Jim Ross and asked if they could start referring to the move as a Swanton Bomb instead of a Senton Bomb.
It’s a move that doesn’t always look good, as some wrestlers are more prone to “miss” the landing than others, but when it lands properly, it’s a beautiful, breathtaking maneuver. Sasuke, Jeff Hardy, Sean O’Haire, Human Tornado, Big Damo, Kaz Hayashi, Kevin Owens, Tyson Tomko, and Konosuke Takeshita are some of the wrestlers through the years that have really impressed me with their versions of the move.
Just like that, the sixth edition of my GOAT Talk series has come to an end. What did you think of my choices in volume six? You certainly don’t have to go through every single one, but if you have a different answer for something, I want to know. As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s get to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to when I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Kyle Fletcher vs Komander: The outcome of this one was never once in question. Komander hasn’t won a singles match on AEW television since the December 22nd, 2024 episode of Dynamite, and Fletcher had only been the AEW International Champion for a week. They still had a fun match, though, and isn’t that what matters?
Maxxine Dupri & Austin Theory: I’m still not sure if the Maxxine Dupri addition to The Vision is enough to save the group, but this was a really entertaining start. Otis and Akira Tozawa were great in their roles after Maxxine turned heel and walked away from them, but Maxxine and Theory really shined here. Maxxine was great in pretending to feel bad for Otis and Tozawa, but especially for Otis, who was on the verge of professing his love for her, only to lure him in for a sneak attack by Theory, who was really good in the role of “cocky prick boyfriend.” Good stuff all around.
Cody Rhodes vs Gunther: Yes, the match ended in a disqualification to help set up the following night’s tag match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, but the match was high quality under that disqualification finish.
FrAxiom vs The War Raiders: Hey, remember when the tag team scene on Smackdown was ridiculously deep, when seemingly six-to-eight teams could be in a spotlight on the show during any given week? That seems like so long ago. It was good to see Axiom and Frazer used again, and it was good to see the War Raiders on the main roster for the first time in 2026 after a mini-run in AAA. I don’t think I’m confident that the push for the tag scene will continue, but at least I got to enjoy this match.
CM Punk & Cody Rhodes vs Gunther & Sami Zayn: A fun tag match featuring four of the best wrestlers alive today, held in front of a hot, appreciative crowd. Sometimes, it’s the simple things in life.
Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes vs Sean Legacy & Dorian Van Dux: It wasn’t all that long ago that not a single one of these four men was “known” in the business. Fast forward to the here and now, and not only are they prominent members of the NXT roster, but they’re squaring off for the NXT Tag Team Titles. Wild. All four of them appear to have bright futures.
Hikaru Shida vs Queen Aminata: I continue to be someone who wants to see more of Aminata on AEW television. Even in losing efforts, she keeps impressing me. Shida, of course, is Shida. She’s one of the best women on the AEW roster, and I already know what she’s bringing to the table.
Intercontinental Title #1 Contender Gauntlet: It was a lengthy journey to get Chad Gable to this point, but by golly, here we are… he is the new #1 Contender for the Intercontinental Title, and will be competing for the title at SummerSlam, in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This could be the moment that has been years in the making.
Lola Vice vs Kelani Jordan vs Kali Armstrong: Kali Armstrong is another member of the NXT roster with a very bright future. She’s somewhat unique there right now, because she’s 32 years old, but has only been a pro wrestler for two years now. She has improved so much in such a short period of time, and it has been fun to watch her journey.
Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid: Congratulations to the brand new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Fatal Influence has really made a name for themselves since debuting on the main roster, and this was the latest step in making sure that continues on.
This Week’s Playlist: “Minks In Miami” by Rick Ross, French Montana & Max B… “Maybach Music VII” by Rick Ross, Jeezy & Don Toliver… “Living Large” by Rick Ross & BigXThaPlug… “R.I.P.” by Motionless In White & Skylar Grey… “Playing God” by Motionless In White & Corey Taylor… “Funeral Song” by Theory Of A Deadman… “Get Paid” by Archers… “Treat U Better” by J-Shin… “CRYIN’ OVER CLOSED DOORS” by KILLBOY… “FML (LOL OH WELL)” by KILLBOY… “MEZCAL MINT GUM N COCAINE” by KILLBOY… “TIP TOE 3.5” by KILLBOY & Riff Raff… “U + ME” by KILLBOY… “It’s You (2 Months)” by Bad Wolves & KILLBOY… “Slide” by Goo Goo Dolls… “Name” by Goo Goo Dolls… “Black Balloon” by Goo Goo Dolls… “Sparks” by Coldplay… “Take Me Under” by Amira Elfeky… “Will You Love Me When I’m Dead” by Amira Elfeky… “Forever Overdose” by Amira Elfeky… “Secrets” by Amira Elfeky… “A Dozen Roses” by Amira Elfeky… “Emergence” by Sleep Token… “Caramel” by Sleep Token
