Ask 411 Wrestling: Is Roman Reigns Among the Most Recognizable WWE Stars Ever?

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Through Hel Stryer and brimstone . . . it’s Ask 411 Wrestling!

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

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Mark reigns on:

I know that Roman Reigns is touted as the biggest box office star that WWE has ever had but how much mainstream popularity do you think he has? I know that the media and pop culture landscape is very different now than what it was in the 80s, 90s and 00s, but I can’t see him being that mainstream famous despite the Hogan-esque push he has had as the main guy.

To be clear, this is not a knock on Roman (who is tremendous as the Tribal Chief and has megastar aura in this role) just trying to work out how high up he would be on a list of wrestlers if you asked non-wrestling fans to name wrestlers. I think the answers would probably be (in no particular order) – Rock, Stone Cold, Cena, Batista, Hogan, Savage, Randy Orton, Cody, Lesnar, and Rousey.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh or is this a fair take?

To be clear: Reigns is not touted as WWE’s biggest box office star because he’s more popular than everyone else in the history of the company. He’s touted as WWE’s biggest box office star because he’s been an important main eventer at a time where tickets and all costs associated with being a wrestling fan have skyrocketed to levels higher than they’ve ever been before, so he has drawn quite a bit of money not adjusted for inflation.

He has had some acting roles and other exposure that would result in a bit more mainstream fame than the average wrestler, but I do not think that he reaches the same iconic level of a Hogan, Austin, or Rock. I’d also put him below the next tier of Savage, Batista, and Cena.

I do think that you would more likely have a non-fan mention Reigns over both Rhodes and Orton because, again, he’s branched out into the mainstream more thanks to his affiliation with the Rock.

On a slightly different note, I also think your list of wrestlers likely to be named by a non-fan is missing an important one:

Andre the Giant

He was a pop culture icon of the sort that I think the world remembers quite well, not just because of how hot wrestling was at his peak but also because of outside projects like The Princess Bride and the entire OBEY line of merch and art.

I will be interested to see whether the WWE roster as a whole has more mainstream recognition than ever in the next couple of years, as the wrestlers are now regularly being featured on ESPN programming next to legitimate sports stars.

William thinks he’s cute:

When Shawn Michaels went on hiatus with his back injury. Was he actually injured enough to not be able to wrestle or was it more because of his drug problem?

It was actually the injury. His return in 2002 was a function of his recovery going much better than anyone would have expected.

Big Al is reaching for the brass ring:

I usually ask this question every year after the Wrestlemania HOF inductions. Demolition should have been the very first tag team inducted but that is another conversation. Other than Chyna by herself and John Cena (who will most certainly get inducted), I am having a hard time thinking of who else from the past should be still be in but hasn’t yet. In your opinion, who should still get in?

First, I want to make it clear that in answering this question, I’m applying the standards that WWE has established for its own Hall of Fame over time as opposed to the standards I would impose on a WWE or wrestling hall of fame, which would be a fair amount higher than the promotion’s.

Based on WWE’s own standards, Bray Wyatt is a likely inductee in the not too distant future.

If you’ve started inducting McMahons this year with Stephanie, you could also do Shane and Linda in separate years. Of course, Vince is a thornier issue as I mentioned in another recent article.

You also have Batista’s induction that was put on hold during the COVID pandemic hanging out there.

Once you get through those, you can start hitting the wrestlers who are currently on the roster but don’t have a ton of time left in their careers, including Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar, as well as Chris Jericho and Paul Wight should their ever let their AEW deals come up.

Oh, and if you’re going to have a celebrity wing, Cyndi Lauper should have been in eons ago.

Davros is positively glowing:

I’ve been watching some OSW on YouTube, specifically the mid 90s stuff and they’re all over IRS for sweating so much.

Honestly, I’d never thought about it till they brought it up bit watching it now he was sweating profusely. I mean to a ridiculous degree.

Was he alright? Did he have a condition? What did his opponents think about it? I know it’s a really random question but damn! He sweated a lot!

I can’t say that I have ever heard Mike Rotunda or another wrestler comment on this, but it is quite obvious and something fans have noticed for years.

I doubt it was a “condition” as much as it was an example of human bodies being different from one another and the man just having more active sweat glands than most.

Tyler from Winnipeg is a bad man:

People often mention Razor Ramon or Mr Perfect as guys who should have won a WWE or WCW world title but do you think Rikishi could be involved in that discussion?

With all due respect to him as a performer, I don’t think that Rikishi “should” have been a WWE Champion. He was a solid midcard to upper midcard wrestler, but every time they tried to push him beyond that – once as a babyface and once as a heel – fans never really took to him in that capacity.

Again, that’s not meant to be a knock on the guy. Not everybody is cut out to be a top line wreslter.

Ignacio is taking it to the extreme:

Twenty-five years ago, ECW ended. This year, Sandman will wrestle his final match. Do you have a list of every ECW wrestler who stills wrestling today? (I mean, every wrestler who had, at least, one match in a ECW ring).

By my count, if we’re counting anybody who ever wrestled in ECW (per prowrestlinghistory.com), we are talking about 427 different people.

Granted, there is a chance that number could be a little bit off. When we’re talking about ECW – and particularly early ECW – we’re talking about a world that was still in the infancy of the internet and was sometimes pulling some pretty obscure independent talent. We’re also talking about some shows for which we only have written results and little to no surviving photo or video. As a result, there’s a chance that, when it comes to some of the lower card talent, I’ve double counted folks who may have had matches under multiple names.

Of those 427 people, by my count 46 of them are active, if we define “active” as having had or being booked to have several matches in 2026. (I made a couple of small exceptions for guys like Rob Van Dam who have been sidelined by injuries.) That means 10.8% of ECW alumni are still competing somewhat regularly.

Additionally, though this was not part of the question, I decided to also take a look at how many ECW alumni have passed away, since it was easy to do while I was going through the list of folks who wrestled there. There are 83 ECDub alums who I was able to confirm are no longer with us, which is 19.4% (again, allowing for the fact that deaths of some more obscure wrestlers may not have been widely reported).

And, to show my work, here is a breakdown of the folks form the all-time ECW roster who are retired, active, and deceased. Feel free to call out anything that you think may be in error.

Retired: 1) Jimmy Jannetty, 2) Marty Jannetty, 3) Stevie Richards, 4) Glen Osbourne, 5) Super Destroyer #1, 6) Super Destroyer #2, 7) Michael Bruno, 8) Tony Stetson, 9) Vladimir Koloff, 10) Max Thrasher, 11) Johnny Hotbody, 12) DC Drake, 13) JT Smith, 14) CN Redd, 15) Mr. Perez, 16) Mr. Anthony, 17) Mike Lozansky, 18) Derrick Domino, 19) Jim Curry, 20) Jeff Royal, 21) Hurricane Curry, 22) The Anchor, 23) Don E. Allen, 24) John Rock, 25) Metal Maniac, 26) HD Ryder, 27) Vladimir Markoff, 28) Samoan Warrior, 29) Sandman, 30) Chris Michaels, 31) Super Ninja (Rick Michaels), 32) Peaches (Lori Fullington), 33) Vivacious Veronica, 34) Don Muraco, 35) Cody Michaels, 36) Steve Wonderful, 37) Scott Summers, 38) Jack Hammer, 39) Tommy Cairo, 40) Gino Caruso, 41) EZ Ryder/Chubby Dudley, 42) Soul Train Phillips, 43) Fatu (Rikishi), 44) Sam Fatu (Tonga Kid), 45) Rip Sawyer, 46) Rasta the Voodoo Man, 47) Kodiak Bear, 48) Terry Taylor, 49) Tigra, 50) Frank Cody, 51) The Canadian Wolfman, 52) Ernesto Benefica/Herve Renesto, 53) Ray Odyssey, 54) Chris Evans, 55) Duane Gill, 56) Barry Hardy, 57) Bill Eadie, 58) Death Rider, 59) Doug Gilbert/Dark Patriot, 60) Headhunter A, 61) Headhunter B, 62) Stan Hansen, 63) Masayoshi Motegi, 64) Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, 65) Tito Santana, 66) Ricky Santana, 67) Jason Knight, 68) Ian Rotten, 69) Abdullah the Butcher, 70) Angel Amoroso, 71) Angel Medina, 72) Angelica/Miss Congeniality (Lita), 73) Jay Sulli, 74) Crash the Terminator (Hugh Morrus), 75) Chad Austin, 76) Todd Shaw, 77) Silver Jet, 78) Malia Hosaka, 79) Molly McShane, 80) Paul Diamond, 81) Pat Tanaka, 82) Simon Diamond, 83) Taz, 84) Mr. Hughes, 85) Johnny Gunn, 86) Warlord, 87) Keith Scherer, 88) Watsumi the Rising Sun, 89) Joe College, 90) American Ninja, 91) Johnny Paradise, 92) The Comet/Corporal Punishment, 93) Jake Roberts, 94) Greg Valentine, 95) Mike Norman, 96) Mike Vee, 97) Bad Crew #1, 98) Bad Crew #2, 99) Colossal Kong, 100) Rich Myers, 101) Trent Young, 102) Mike Khoury, 103) Joe Thunder

104) Tommy Lee Manson, 105) Southern Destruction #1, 106) Southern Destruction #2, 107) Morgus the Maniac, 108) The Lumberjack, 109) Randy Starr, 110) Dr. Disaster, 111) Blue Max, 112) AJ Power, 113) Buck Quartermain, 114) Mikey Whipwreck, 115) 911, 116) Ron Harris, 117) Don Harris, 118) Paul Lauria, 119) Erik Anderson, 120) Judge Dread, 121) Billy Buster, 122) Johnny Blaze, 123) Stan Parsons, 124) Dino Sandoff, 125) Joel Hartgood, 126) Steve Collins, 127) Arn Anderson, 128) Too Cold Scorpio, 129) Dory Funk Jr., 130) Cactus Jack, 131) Bodyguard for Hire, 132) Kyle Shearer, 133) Bruno Sassi, 134) Dan Evans, 135) Jim Lano, 136) Dean Malenko, 137) Joe Malenko, 138) Penny Pulsations, 139) Ron Simmons, 140) Jim Powers, 141) Al Snow, 142) Chaos, 143) Tully Blanchard, 144) Kendall Windham, 145) Joe DeFuria, 146) Death Row 3260, 147) Horace Hogan, 148) Jason the Terrible, 149) Hector Guerrero, 150) Tsubo Genjin, 151) The Evil Snake, 152) Raven, 153) Rick Steiner, 154) Scott Steiner, 155) Alex G, 156) Norman Smiley, 157) D-Day, 158) Miguel San Juan, 159) Hiroyoshi Iekuda, 160) Doug Flex, 161) New Jersey Devil, 162) Jim Steele/Wolf Hawkfield, 163) Beulah McGillicutty, 164) Dudley Dudley, 165) Snot Dudley, 166) Dances with Dudley, 167) Bubba Ray Dudley, 168) D-Von Dudley, 169) Spike Dudley, 170) Demon Hellstorm, 171) Bull Pain, 172) David Sierra/Cuban Assassin, 173) Big Guido, 174) Francine, 175) Psicosis, 176) Perry Saturn, 177) Konnan, 178) Pablo Pena, 179) El Puerto Ricano, 180) Flamingo Kid, 181) Georgie Love, 182) Ranger Seven, 183) Bill Alfonso, 184) Tod Gordon, 185) Steve Austin, 186) Blue Meanie, 187) Tom Prichard, 188) Koji Nakagawa, 189) Dirtbike Kid, 190) Spiros Grekko, 191) Juventud Guerrera, 192) Billy Black, 193) The Stud/The Punisher (Bull Buchanan), 194) Damien Kane, 195) Brian Lee, 196) Super Nova, 197) Jason Helton, 198) Sammy Silk (Samu), 199) Prodigy/Tom Marquez, 200) O-Dogg, 201) Hollywood, 202) LA Smooth, 203) Johnny Smith, 204) Missy Hyatt, 205) Lady Alexandra, 206) Dan Kroffat/Phil Lafon, 207) Chris Chetti, 208) Pat Day, 209) Roadkill, 210) Kid Kash, 211) Rick Rage, 212) John Diamond, 213) Rodney Allen, 214) Tommy Rich, 215) Lenny Lane, 216) Lance Storm, 217) Terry Boy (MEN’S Teioh), 218) Masato Yakushiji, 219) Bill Wiles, 220) Jimmy Shoulders, 221) WING Kanemura, 222) Kevin Quinn, 223) JC Ice, 224) Wolfie D

225) Bud Liscious, 226) The Hellraiser (Bam Neely), 227) Jerry Lawler, 228) Marty Barnett, 229) El Cholo #1, 230) El Cholo #2, 231) Lou Marconi, 232) Justin Credible, 233) Jerry Lynn, 234) Adam Flash, 235) Brakus, 236) Boogaloo Bill, 237) Ulf Hermann, 238) Jack Victory, 239) Luke Williams, 240) Equalizer, 241) Sal E. Graziano, 242) Dr. Luther, 243) Rod Price, 244) One Man Gang, 245) Kevin Northcutt, 246) Tammy Sytch, 247) Dawn Marie, 248) Chris Walker, 249) Sammy Solo, 250) Robert Gibson, 251) Tony DeVito, 252) Antifaz del Note, 253) Reckless Youth, 254) Papi Chulo (Mr. Aguila), 255) Steve Nixon, 256) Christopher Daniels, 257) Danny Daniels, 258) Horace the Psychopath, 259) Jazz, 260) Bubba the Love Sponge, 261) Uganda, 262) PN News, 263) Mad Dog Kimble, 264) Bo Dupp (Otto Schwanz), 265) Puck Dupp (Cham-Pain), 266) The Musketeer, 267) Scott Warton, 268) Big Dick Hertz, 269) Vic Grimes, 270) Super Calo, 271) Joey Saunders, 272) Erik Watts, 273) Josh Wilcox, 274) Chaz Taylor, 275) Julio Dinero, 276) Chilly Willy, 277) Scott D’Amore, 278) Jado, 279) Scott Anton, 280) Bill Irwin, 281) Jorge Estrada, 282) Tom Evans, 283) Chris Hamrick, 284) EZ Money, 285) Tony Mamaluke, 286) Prime Time, 287) Mike Keener, 288) Redd Dogg (Rodney Mack), 289) Christian York, 290) Joey Matthews, 291) Cyrus (Don Callis), 292) Michael Shane, 293) Phoenix, 294) Chris Krueger, 295) Oz, 296) Lou E. Dangerously, 297) Joel Gertner, 298) Johnny Devine

Active: 1) Rhino, 2) King Kaluha, 3) Miguel Perez Jr., 4) Pitbull #1/Gary Wolfe, 5) Tatsumi Fujinami, 6) Little Guido, 7) Spider #1 (Glen Ruth/Headbanger Thrasher), 8) Spider #2 (Chaz/Headbanger Mosh), 9) Shane Douglas, 10) Masato Tanaka, 11) Tommy Dreamer, 12) Bob Starr, 13) Devon Storm, 14) Vampire Warrior (Gangrel), 15) Mustafa Saed, 16) Rey Misterio Jr., 17) La Parka (LA Park), 18) Rob Van Dam, 19) Chris Jericho, 20) Damien 666, 21) Jimmy Cicero, 22) Danny Doring, 23) Ricky Morton, 24) TAKA Michinoku, 25) Scott Taylor (Scotty II Hotty), 26) Dick Togo, 27) Great Sasuke, 28) Tiger Mask IV, 29) Atsushi Onita, 30) Michael Kovac, 31) Jinsei Shinzaki, 32) Big Vito, 33) Steve Corino, 34) Tajiri, 35) Super Crazy, 36) Mosco de la Merced (X-Fly), 37) CW Anderson, 38) Jesus Cristobal (El Zorro), 39) Jack Dupp (Mike Maverick), 40) HC Loc, 41) Ikuto Hidaka, 42) Ricky Banderas, 43) Gedo, 44) Johnny Swinger, 45) Pierre Oulette, 46) Prodigette

Deceased: 1) Crybaby Waldo, 2) Ivan Koloff, 3) Larry Winters, 4) Sal Bellomo, 5) Pitbull #2/Tony Durante, 6) Jimmy Snuka, 7) Jim Neidhart, 8) The Bouncer/Chris Duffy, 9) Nikolai Volkoff, 10) Dave Casanova, 11) Rockin’ Rebel, 12) Davey Boy Smith, 13) Kerry Von Erich, 14) Terry Funk, 15) Eddie Gilbert, 16) Chris Candido, 17) Road Warrior Hawk, 18) Hunter Q. Robbins III, 19) Dick Murdoch, 20) Rocco Rock, 21) Johnny Grunge, 22) Axl Rotten, 23) Balls Mahoney, 24) Kevin Sullivan, 25) Sherri Martel, 26) Sabu, 27) King Kong Bundy, 28) Dusty Rhodes, 29) Hack Meyers, 30) Junkyard Dog, 31) Lucifer, 32) Mike Awesome, 33) The Sheik, 34) Billy Firehawk, 35) Bobby Eaton, 36) Lost Boy Wolf, 37) Lost Boy Yar, 38) Woman, 39) Terry Funk, 40) Chris Benoit, 41 Matt Borne, 42) Osamu Nishimura, 43) Chris Kanyon, 44) Brian Pillman, 45) Eddy Guerrero, 46) Val Puccio, 47) Luna Vachon, 48) Big Dick Dudley, 49) New Jack, 50) John Kronus, 51) Bruiser Mastino (Mantaur), 52) Jimmy Del Ray, 53) Kendo Nagasaki, 54) Bam Bam Bigelow, 55) Big Titan, 56) Beef Wellington, 57) Paul Varelans, 58) Terry Gordy, 59) Mack Daddy Kane (Rosey), 60) Louie Spicolli, 61) Tarzan Goto, 62) Steve Williams, 63) Doug Furnas, 64) Mass Transit, 65) Gary Albright, 66) Tracy Smothers, 67) Gran Naniwa, 68) Bobby Duncum Jr., 69) Gran Hamada, 70) The Hellraiser (The Wall/Malice), 71) Rick Rude, 72) Erin O’Grady (Crash Holly), 73) Tommy Rogers, 74) Darren Drozdov, 75) Butch Miller, 76) Hayabusa, 77) Rex King, 78) Sid Vicious, 79) Super Leather (Corporal Kirchner), 80) Mad Dog Mike (Mike Bell), 81) Todd Wimbleton, 82) Andy Blacksmith, 83) Scott Hall

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.