Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat had the reverse career of many guys on our list who wrestled both in WCW/NWA and WWE. Guys like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Mick Foley and Eddie Guerrero gained more notoriety after leaving WCW for WWE and became bigger stars. Or, guys like Curt Hennig and Ted DiBiase gained great fame in WWE and didn’t have great careers after leaving for WCW. Steamboat was able to have successful careers in both places.

Steamboat wrestled in the NWA before the WrestleMania era started, but left for WWE right before the first WrestleMania. He wrestled Matt Bourne at the WrestleMania I, just before he was given the dragon gimmick yet. After feuding with Don Muraco, Steamboat beat Hercules at WrestleMania 2, before beginning a feud with Jake The Snake Roberts. Roberts DDT’d Steamboat on the concrete floor on one show and it legit knocked Steamboat out. But soon, Steamboat would move into a feud which most would consider his second best work, with Randy Savage.

In late 1986, they wrestled on Superstars of Wrestling and Savage brutalized Steamboat’s throat, injuring his larynx with the ring bell, as well as draping his neck over the guard rail and giving him the double ax handle. Vince McMahon said it looked like Steamboat was trying to “swallow his tongue”. Uh, right Vince. But it worked amazingly well. Savage acted like a lunatic heel, and Steamboat’s overselling made it seem like he was seriously injured.

Other than the piledriver, perhaps no other move during the WrestleMania era has been as feared as the DDT. It’s creator was equally intimidating. Jake “The Snake” Roberts had something. Paul Heyman called it an “intangible”. Jake “The Snake” Roberts completely changed the way that wrestlers did interviews. Rather than scream and holler at the camera and make threats, the way the majority of wrestling promos worked for decades, Jake spoke in a very calm and monotone matter and delivered cerebral and at times, frightening, promos. Backed by a strangely nightmarish, yet invigorating, charisma, Jake put a stranglehold on the audience’s mind like no other. Other than that, Jake will always be remembered for carrying a giant snake to the ring in a sack to intimidate his opponents.

Jake’s promo from Wrestlemania VI to Ted Dibiase, a man he feuded with for nearly a year:

Jake’s WWF run was filled with some of wrestling’s most brutal moments. His first feud with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat took a dangerous turn when Jake DDT’d Ricky on the concrete floor and cracked his head like a coconut. Jake legitimately knocked Ricky out cold. Then a short while later, Honky Tonk Man cracked Jake in the side of the head with a guitar to build up a match for Wrestlemania III. The plan was for Honky to hit Jake with a worked “trick” guitar, but somebody wound up making a mistake and replacing it with a real guitar, causing a concussion in Robert’s head that led to his pain pill addiction. After this, Jake became a wildly popular babyface and began to battle heels such as Ted Dibiase, Bad News Brown, and an awesome feud with “Ravishing” Rick Rude after Rude hit on Jake’s real life wife Cheryl who was in the front row.
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For the longest time, big men in wrestling were of one mould. Slow, lumbering and of course large, not much was ever expected of a 350lbs+ performer from an athletic point of view. Their asset was their size and as long as they maintained that, they would be fine. Leon White changed that. Making his first (and perhaps biggest) impact in New Japan Pro Wrestling in the late 80′s, White was given the gimmick which he would carry with him for his whole career – Big Van Vader. As a former NFL prospect, Vader was blessed with legitimate athleticism for someone his size. Not only was he as strong as an ox but he could move around the ring with a swiftness that defied his size. His agility was equally as impressive, peaking on the occasions where he would pull off a top rope moonsault (never the prettiest moonsault but still absolutely remarkable). These talents gave Vader the ability to have some really great matches throughout his career, and the combination of guaranteed match quality plus his natural monster aura made him a guy much more suited to being a top guy in the main event scene than most of the big men that came before him.
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What can be said about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper that hasn’t been said?

During the 1980s wrestling boom period, Hulk Hogan was the top guy in the business and quickly became a household name. His biggest foil, his arch-rival, his “Lex Luthor”, and an arguable #2 guy, was Rowdy Roddy Piper. When Vince McMahon signed Piper away from Don Owens, he had to have seen stars in his eyes. Piper was one of the wildest and most unpredictable characters to ever step into a ring. Roddy was crazy, and many people in the business and fans to this day believe that it goes beyond a character: he was legitimately nuts. Piper’s insane antics were legendary, inspiring a flock of “sadistic, dick heels” of the future such as Brian Pillman and Edge. Piper’s incredible charisma and ability to improvise quicker than the entire cast of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” put him head and shoulders above anybody else. He was perfect for the role.

Other than what he accomplished in the ring as a worker and personality, the other half of Piper’s legacy is that he was one of the first, perhaps THE FIRST, wrestler to host his very own interview segment, with a custom set and all – Piper’s Pit. Never before did we see a wrestler interview another wrestler, and as expected, it often led to chaos. Some of the WWF’s biggest angles of the 80s took place in Piper’s pit, including Andre the Giant’s historic heel turn, building to his match with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III, the biggest wrestling event of all time. The Piper’s Pit segments were provocative and innovative.
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I admit, I’m a sucker for gimmick Pay Per Views. Royal Rumble, old-school Survivor Series, King of the Ring, and the blood-filled Hell in the Cell.