Who is the Best Pound-for-Pound Pro-Wrestler of All Time? Mysterio vs. Flair vs. Andre the Giant

Previously, on the 411 3-Way Dance Summer BIG 3 Series, we determined which promotion was the best in the world today, but now it’s getting even bigger. We aren’t going to just decide who is the best wrestler in the world right now, oh no, today I’m going to tell you who is the greatest wrestler of all time – pound-for-pound!

Now, we’re talking size here, so that’s where it’s gonna get different than your average best ever list. You see, everyone knows who the best “pure” wrestlers are, especially when you judge then on traditional merits such as moves, personality, draw, or great matches. Everyone’s list is going to feature the same arguments about the same wrestlers again and again.

But what happens when you add the pound-for-pound wrinkle? This handicapping, if you will, should help to even out the playing field for a couple of names who normally get overlooked in the conversation despite their monumental impact, because they don’t fit into the accepted mold of what a great wrestler should look and act like. Well, guess what, we’re talking pro-wrestling here, and if anything, being different SHOULD help you stand out, not hinder your legacy.

So pound-for-pound, what does this mean? As wrestling fans we should be very familiar with the adage “pound-for-pound” as we’ve often heard it used for the British Bulldog or Cesaro to proclaim them “the pound-for-pound strongest men in wrestling” or to dub Shelton Benjamin or Billy Gunn as the best pound-for-pound athletes. What we’re being told here is that, “okay, sure, visually these guys aren’t really the strongest or most athletic based of their size, but they deserve special recognition for going beyond their seeming limitations.” So while Cesaro might not be technically stronger than a John Cena, Big E, or Braun Strowman, if you divide size by strength, he deserves to be considered one of the greats.

I think probably the best pound-for-pound wrestlers who have found just success from size limitations have got to truly be Mascarita Sagrada Jr., Spike Dudley and Yokozuna; however, I want this second entry into the BIG 3 Series go bigger, and I’m making the case here for the actual greatest pro-wrestler of all time, in terms of impact, cultural relevance, and importance in history – with respect to shape and size. And if so, there are clearly three, pound-for-pound wrestlers, one in each of the lightweight, heavyweight and super-heavyweight categories, that can be compared to determine just who exactly is the greatest wrestler ever.

The 411mania Wrestling 3-Way Dance matches up three opponents in an intellectual battle every week. The biggest advantages and disadvantages of each contender will be highlighted before a final ranking will declare the ultimate winner. This week’s 3-Way Dance:

Who is the Best Pound-for-Pound Pro-Wrestler of All Time?

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ric Flair vs. Andre the Giant

Reason why this wrestler is the pound-for-pound best…

Rey Mysterio = Bash at the Beach 1996.

Of course, a lot of people consider the the big Hulk Hogan turn at the end of this PPV to be the most important moment of the night, but the debut of Rey Mysterio in a killer match versus Psychosis on the under card was probably the moment of wider significance when looking back historically. While the resultant nWo faction and feuds lasted a few years in WCW, it led to just some of the worst storylines, matches, droning on waste of TV promos, dead-ends, and eventually possibly even the entire downfall of the company, Rey Mysterio – on the other hand – almost single-handedly popularized a new style of wrestling in America, which lead to hundreds of great matches in WCW, garnered long-lasting mainstream Western popularity of the lucha libre style, and arguably paved the way for the many lightweight wrestlers who compete in main event spots today.

All of this was possible because Rey Mysterio was working so far outside of his lane at the time, going beyond the norm in every measurable, from punishment and selling, high-flying and technical wrestling, to drama and likability.

The match itself features so many moves and moments that look almost tired today, but at the time were so awe-inspiring, including even that beginning sequence of tight, struggling submissions holds. Of course if you were able to follow Mexican or Japanese pro-wrestling at the time, you would have seen matches like this before – even between these two – but to be able in one match to translate an entire unique style of wrestling to the most closed-minded and picky culture fan base ever, it’s an incredible feat and one that wrestlers and promotions have struggled to replicate ever since.

And I think you have to thank Rey Mysterio for all of this. Being Mexican-American, he was influenced by the US pro-wrestlers that meshed with lucha libre, like Scott Steiner, while also knowing the aesthetic of the US audience. Never was there such a confident and polished debut on such a big stage in American wrestling, which is especially significant given that his size and style meant he was likely to never have any success at this level in pro-wrestling.

Ric Flair = The ultimate pro-wrestling quarterback.

There’s little more to be said about the career of Ric Flair in order to make the case for him as the best wrestler of all time. But pound-for-pound, what makes him so great?

Flair was just big enough to make matches against the heavyweights like Hogan, Dusty or Race look legitimate, and yet he was also lean in a Shawn Michaels way, allowing for the legendary stamina and quick moves that made matches with Ricky Steamboat, Sting and Barry Windham so memorable.

Therefore, size-wise, Flair was the ultimate quarterback of pro-wrestling, like Joe Namath who he’d patterned much of his look and behavior around, an athletic prototype who was capable of everything in his field of play. In football, the linesmen are the biggest and the strongest, the running backs and receivers the leaner, most athletic on the field – each playing specific roles – but the quarterback has to mix both body types, and convince their teammates, opponents, and the fans, that they are the smartest, toughest and quickest in the world, able to pretty much do anything that is required to win. And this is what Ric Flair so artfully accomplished during his career.

Andre the Giant = He was big.

Sure, I’m being cute. Obviously Andre was a massive dude, but he was also incredibly well known. If you take into account “social inflation” with the increased penetration of worldwide media and cross-cultural programming, you’d have to say Andre rivaled – if not was bigger than – The Rock today, Hogan in the 80s, El Santo, Rikidozan or Gorgeous George. And unlike all of those other wrestlers, even Andre in his prime wasn’t some kind of athletic wonder. But he was famous for being a professional wrestler.

And this is where it becomes important to remember this is not really a sport. So when you’re ranking the best ever it does become as highly subjective as trying to rank the best of the arts. With competitive athletes, there are clear measurements that can at least be used as a sieve to clearly separates the tiers of greatness. Andre would never need to, be asked to, or try to, do what Flair or Mysterio did in the ring, yet that doesn’t make his ability to keep your eyes glued on the ring with his movements any less spectacular.

While Andre wouldn’t make many people’s best ever list because of his size and apparent lack of “classic matches”, he still wrestled and played the role of a giant so expertly that he became world famous in ways that a Haystacks Calhoun or El Gigante never could. And his career basically culminated in arguably the biggest and best professional wrestling match at all time, the crowning achievement of his fame, drawing power, character, and pro-wrestling in-ring ability: Wrestlemania III.

Reason why this wrestler might NOT be the pound-for-pound best…

Andre the Giant = Still, those matches though.

Aside from that historic match against Hogan, which I still believe is about as perfect in execution you can get for a major pro-wrestling main event, his resume of matches does not an easy “best of” DVD collection make.

Sure, possibly we put way too much emphasis on the 5-star-ness of a pro-wrestling match, but at the same time Andre’s athletic prime in the 70s came at an extraordinarily weak era retrospectively for in-ring action, meaning even the others he was in the ring with weren’t giving much back either. Andre’s bigger, less mobile years are the ones that are easiest to re-watch, and while always effective in feuds with guys like Studd, Jake the Snake, Macho Man, Hacksaw and Demolition, it might be hard to say he’s best-ever quality.

However, if you compare him to other big men from that era, like Bundy, Kamala, the Twin Towers, or Uncle Elmer, you can see how Andre does stand out in the crowd still, and that’s because of his presence, his aura – that face – and his truly awe-inspiring size.

Ric Flair = Too much good stuff.

In contrast to Andre, Flair has such a vault of good matches that you could almost say every match he was ever in was worth watching. That’s an incredibly overwhelming legacy of amazingness, but is it all too much?

For argument’s sake, we’re talking about the all-time greats from probably hundreds of thousands of pro-wrestlers in history, and Flair represents the best-of-the-best for in-ring heavyweight wrestlers, of which let’s say represents possibly 75% of that total historical body of wrestlers. And then let’s say pro-wrestling is kind of a formula that’s not dictated by chance very often. Most of what Flair does in the ring is practiced and repeated for years. And while he’s perfected the best way to perform the match formula that we historically connect to in-ring excellence, he’s doing what so many others have repeatedly attempted to do for better or worse.

So like, when a guy like Kenny Omega, for example, comes along and has a “5-star match” in the same formula, while modified, of course, for time and speed, which a heavyweight Flair did for decades every night, it makes the accomplishment seem a bit more achievable, if not pedestrian, does it not?

And I say this not to take away from the work of Flair, or Omega, etc. (which I love), but that in contrast to other wrestlers pound-for-pound, when a traditional heavyweight achieves excellence it’s just not as impressive as an Andre at Wrestlemania III or Rey at Bash at the Beach 1996.

Rey Mysterio = External factors.

The politics of the WCW/nWo, persistent knee injuries, and the death of Eddie Guerrero, are three very large external factors that potentially negatively altered the career of Rey Mysterio during his prime years.

For sure, the WCW had the foresight to bring in Rey and the TV time to let him do his thing in a way that the WWF probably wouldn’t have in the mid-90s; however, the well-documented nonsensical politics and booking that plagued that place for the years following Rey’s initial hot first run had to have damaged what could have been an even more incredibly era of in-ring work from the guy.

You could also say his style contributed to his constant knee injuries, but that could also be just bad luck too, and one or two different steps or moves and we might have had more Rey in the ring, especially in the WWE. And, of course, Eddie Guerrero dying had nothing to do with Rey, but the after-effect on his career in WWE, including the winning of the World Title, didn’t come across with the same gravitas as it deserved due to much of that period being in tribute to Eddie rather than Rey’s own achievement. Can you imagine had Eddie lived and Rey defeated him instead at Wrestlemania for the title, what that would have meant for both men?

Okay, so these are all reasonable options, but who REALLY is the best pound-for-pound wrestler of all time?

#3 = Andre the Giant

Just based on the re-watchability of the match resumes of the other two, I can’t put Andre any higher, but he does register in this spot over his dance partner at the Pontiac SilverDome that day: Hulk Hogan. Like Andre, Hogan was physically huge and limited in the ring, and also a worldwide cultural phenomenon, unlike Andre, Hulkamania was the the main project of an innovative and unprecedented marketing promotion, the climax of which was having Andre put Hogan over in the biggest match of all time.

Andre never had this global marketing push during the early part of his career. Just old school booking mentality and word of mouth. This puts Andre near the top of the discussion of pound-for-pound best ever, in my opinion, just not the best.

#2 = Ric Flair

Flair is, no doubt, the top spot on most people’s lists, and if not then the familiar names of Hart, Michaels, Savage, Bryan would all be traditional options. The funny thing is, all of these guys are also not near that traditional 300 pound heavyweight size. So Flair was smaller, but not too small to stop him from being able to pull epic matches from guys like Sting and Luger, but did it at the sweet spot physically for a main event level “heel”.

In his “stylin’ and profilin'” persona, Flair looked authentically dapper, realistically intimidating, and marvelously marquee, without being too big or too small. He was the archetypal bad guy that you never would have bought from a Hogan or Cena, let alone an Andre or Rey.

However, Flair might just be too much of a wrestler’s wrestler to be the best ever. That’s because he was going to get every opportunity to succeed. But our pound-for-pound best ever achieved worldwide fame and acclaim against all odds, and that is, of course…

#1 = Rey Mysterio

Mysterio hitting the mainstream US pro-wrestling scene in 1996 was like Dr. J dunking his way through Philly, Tom Brady coming off the bench when Drew Bledsoe got injured, Bob Dylan playing and electric guitar at Newport, Run DMC at Live Aid, Seinfeld Season 4, “Luke, I’m your father”, it was a cultural shift that was only possible from a small wrestler fighting in a bigger world. The expectations of what should be in pro-wrestling changed when people saw what Mysterio could do and was willing to do in the ring with those his size and others way bigger.

And a lot has been made for his appeal to kids, as is for all small athletes from Daniel Bryan to Isiah Thomas, but Rey was probably closer in size to many of the adult teens and men in their early 20s in the audience, those who in the 90s were big fans of the show and were actually the same age as Rey. Add in the mask, and it was so much easier to live vicariously through Rey in the ring than it ever would be for bigger, more muscular stars. And on top of that, his lucha libre appearance made him more like a super-hero, of which comics were also hitting their apex with the same audience demographic at the time. Rey Mysterio was a special effect fantasy come to life, parlayed that into incredible, global, mainstream, main event success, and did so in some of the subjectively best matches in his era.

So for that, Rey Mysterio, you are officially the 411mania 3-Way Dance pound-for-pound best wrestler of all time!

Join me next time when the BIG 3 Series tackles THE biggest pro-wrestling question of them all…