Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan
Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels





We will have a 3rd place match.

Flair
Austin

Flair
Austin

Flair

Austin/HBK I'm having a long think about. I can make cases for both. Austin for draw and probably for mic work, HBK for his unrivaled (IMO) body of matches, which is so ridiculous that I might pull the trigger.

Flair is easy.

HBK isnt. I just think his impact on the industry will have a longer effect than Austin when the attitude era that has been and gone but pure athletes hold both of the WWE belts right now. His body of work is so much greater than Austin's who was just in the right place at the right time and owes a lot of his career to Vince, Vince and Dwayne.

Which isnt to say i dont like him, he just aint to HBK. Also his second biggest effect on the business is that stupid "what" **** and thats never gonna help his case.

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan I think this should have been the final.
Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

I think Vince/Rock/others get too much credit for Austin's success. People sleep on how damn good Austin really was in all areas. He was a believable badass, and a lot of people say he legit is a badass.

Austin

Hogan

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

Definitely agree that this would have come out better as a Hogan-Flair final...they definitely both have my votes in the first and third place matches.

Much to my surprise, I'm reversing my prior feeling and voting HBK over Austin. The combination of the short longevity of Austin's prime and the fact that he had another bona fide legend in Rocky to help prop up the company...it just works on my mind too much. Since there's no doubt that HBK completely slays Austin in the ring, these mild weaknesses in Austin's advantage do enough to swing my vote.

Will keep thinking on Hogan-Flair.

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan
Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

Neither one was an easy decision.

Flair

HBK

HBK

Overall body of matches is just too much to ignore.

I would vote Austin over Hogan, for what it's worth (tree-fiddy).

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan
Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

After many flip-flops I'll vote Flair.

hogan austin

flair

hbk

probably the easiest round ive seen so far...

i agree with phills post fwiw, except for the bit at the start where he says it isnt easy

In fairness, Phill isn't very good at this tournament. The "right place, right time" stuff is even nuttier for Austin than it was for Hogan.

Flair and I shall wait a few more hours to try to figure out which one edges out the other in the HBK/Austin matchup.

Austin was going to be a main eventer regardless but that feud with Vince was the sole thing that made him part of the greatest of all time conversation. If he were born 5 years earlier or 5 years later he probably misses the boat and has a great but not top 4 OAT career along the lines of Foley or Jericho.

It's hard for me to imagine which wrestlers didn't catch breaks en route to being some of the greatest of all time. Yes Flair and HBK were insane talents, but some amazing talents just never quite catch their break (see: William Regal, who was never going to be GOAT but could have been way way bigger). You can't have a legendary wrestling career without being lucky as well as good.

Austin becoming and remaining as massively over as he did is really not something that happens for a guy who is simply in the right place at the right time. Even Rocky wasn't able to avoid getting stale and having the crowd turn on him within about the same period of time. To hit the "OMG he's massively over to the point of being a legendary rock star" level is something a decent number have done in America. Hogan and Austin were the only ones who were able to keep it up for a good length of time, unless I'm missing someone. And that really does go beyond favorable circumstances.

Flair
Austin

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan
Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

As I've posted before, HBK is my favorite wrestler of all time, but Austin is the greatest. He's had 5 star matches and cut some of the best promos of all time, and that was before he got to the WWF. After he got to the WWF he turned what should have been a career killing gimmick and turned it into the best character and helped usher in the greatest era of wrestling of all time. I pains me to vote agains HBK, but not only does Austin deserve to move on, he deserves to win.

Oh and Flair did this:



so he deserves to beat Hogan.