The Ring The Damn Bell Olympics: The Best Wrestlers

B. Dangerous, Brian Damage and Lowlife Louie Ramos

With the Summer Olympics now in full swing over in Tokyo, Japan…I thought we would try something a bit different the next couple of weeks.  In place of the usual top Five we do…we will replace it temporarily with the Ring the Damn Bell Olympics. Basically, we will give a subject and the crew must choose our top three (Gold, Silver and Bronze with Gold being the best, silver second best and Bronze the third best) and why we chose each. For instance, This week’s contest is what country produces the best wrestlers? In the history of pro wrestling, which top three countries produced the very best wrestlers overall?

A little Olympics theme music to set the mood.

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B Dangerous

What country produces the best wrestlers?

That’s a very multi-layered question. You have to consider certain things like technical prowess, general toughness, and entertainment value.

The way I approach wrestling is from a very Kayfabe perspective. So my angle is, if put in a legitimate match, what wrestlers would prove themselves the most resilient and present the best fight against their opponents.

My scoring is:

GOLD – The United Kingdom

The UK guys with all of their joint and appendage manipulation are just nasty. Not to mention that every last one of them seems to have a lethal headbutt from all that futbol they play.

SILVER – USA

Just raw-knuckle meanness. While the UK guys have a certain amount of finesse, we Americans just like to get down in the dirt and scrap. Guys like Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, and Harley Race personify this.

BRONZE – Japan

The mix of martial arts along with training from such a young age creates very dangerous competitors. Their striking is unsurpassed.

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Brian

Gold – Japan

While the Japanese wrestlers produce a strong style of wrestling with stiff chops, punches and kicks…they have also produced some of the all time greatest wrestlers in all of professional wrestling. Antonio Inoki, Kenta Kobashi, Keiji Mutoh, Mitsuharu Misawa, Satoru Sayama, Kazuchika Okada are just a few of the legends of Puroresu.

Silver – Canada

As far as great technical wrestlers go, Canada has certainly produced some of the very best. Finesse and precision isn’t the only style of wrestlers that have come from up north, there have also been wild brawlers and aerialists as well. From legends like the Hart family and all the greats they’ve trained throughout the years to Jos Leduc, the Vachons, Edouard Carpentier, The Rougeaus and more recent talents like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn just to name a few.

Bronze – USA

The United States has developed some of the biggest names in all of professional wrestling. Not only great wrestlers, brawlers and high flyers, but also many of the biggest marquee names in the industry’s history! Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock and Sting are just an example of the big names to come from the US of A.

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Louie

Gold – THE USA

How can it not be. The greatest, most famous legends in the game have come from the good old USA. And that can not be argued or denied.
Most notable names
Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair , Stone cold Steve Austin, the Rock, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, Randy Orton, John Cena, C.M.Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dusty Rhodes…
Should I continue lol

Silver – CANADA

Our neighbor to the north, Canada has produced some of the most legendary names in the history of professional wrestling. Fabled stories of vans full of wrestlers traveling through frozen rivers to wrestle in sub zero weather shows how tough and dedicated the Canadians are. Canadian Wrestlers also had an easier time coming into the American territories, blossoming outside their country and taking the world by storm . Their top names 
EDGE, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Bad News Allen( Brown) Abdullah the Butcher, Christian, Bobby Roode, Lance Storm, Stu Hart, Natalya

Bronze – JAPAN

Throughout the years, Japan has produced not only some of the best talent. But some of the best promotions and matches. From the explosion of popularity with Rikidozan, To the All Japan vs New Japan feud in the 70s and 80s. To the exodus and birth of pro wrestling NOAH. To deathmatch promotions such as FMW, W*ING AND BJW..To revolutionizing the light heavyweight style and tournament formats..Japan is a trendsetter.

In my opinion the top names
Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, Tiger Mask, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Great Muta, Jushin Liger, Masa Chono, Atsushi Onita, Mr. Pogo, Jun Kasai, Great Sasuke

Honorable mention: Mexico, England Puerto Rico, Germany, Ireland