Counting Down 50 Greatest Wrestlers All-Time with WWE'12 & Other Games (50-41)

What makes a great wrestler? There are specific qualities. Conceptually, it's no different than a five-tool baseball player.

There are tools a wrestler must have to be truly great. He may not have all of them, but if he's truly great, he has to have a few.

I decided to put the concept to paper—or keyboard, in this instance. I wanted to give the criteria a name, but instead of borrowing the baseball concept, I decided to make it more wrestling-centric. 

The "total package" came to mind, but that's already been given to one specific wrestler (Lex Luger), and he only embodied one of the characteristics.

Ultimately, I came up with the term: Five-Point Star.

Each point on the star represents a quality associated with being a great professional wrestler. With that criteria, I put together a list of the 50 greatest wrestlers in history.

Here are the qualities, AKA points:

Appearance 

We live in a visual world. If a wrestler looks the part of a tough guy, an outlaw, a hero, a monster or what have you, it instantly makes us pay attention.

The cupboard may be bare for the other four points, but a guy or girl who looks the part is one leg up.

Mic Skills 

This should almost be worth two points. This is the aspect of wrestling that ushers in the theater and sets the storylines that drive the angles.

Being able to deliver an effective promo can hide other inequities and/or captivate an audience.

Gimmick

It takes a while for some, and some never find the right ring identity. Before Kane was the Big Red Machine, he was Sir Isaac Yankem and the fake Diesel. Before the Undertaker was the Phenom, he was Mean Mark—ooh, that's scary.

But when a talented wrestler fines the right gimmick, it will send his or her career skyrocketing.

In-Ring Skills

This is still wrestling, so in-ring ability is a great thing. There have been superstars in the past and present who weren't exactly stellar in the ring.

But when someone can put on as big of a show between the ropes as they can on the mic, it's a special thing.

Flair and Presence

This is pretty broad and intangible, but we know it when we see it. It's the little things like the People's Eyebrow, Ric Flair's Strut and Goldberg's yell. Facial expressions are key; who frowns up like Vince McMahon, even though he technically isn't a wrestler.

From a move standpoint, we've seen thousands of DDTs, but how many people execute it like Jake "The Snake" Roberts used to? We've seen plenty of power bombs, but how many look as cool as Batista's?

It seems small, but those little things are what superstars are made of. 

I could have done a slideshow, but I wanted to involve another of my biggest passions, which is video games. So I created this series of videos counting down the greatest superstars in history with the reveal of each character coming via video game likeness.

The wrestlers hail from the WWE, AWA, NWA, WCW, WCCW and more.

Many of them will be shown using WWE' 12 from THQ, but other games like TNA Wrestling and Legends of WrestleMania were used as well.

This is the first in a five-part series, it will show the wrestlers I've ranked from 50 to 41. Check out the first video, and leave your comments on it and the Five Points.

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