JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you haven't heard in the past few months, Jacksonville has found itself at the center of the professional wrestling world.
The Khan family (specifically Shad Khan's son, Tony) has invested heavily in the new All Elite Wrestling (AEW).
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With their financial backing, it may be the biggest American wrestling promotion since the old World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was started up by Ted Turner in Atlanta. That was the only American wrestling company to really challenge the behemoth of the industry: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
So being that the pro-wrestling world is now focused on Florida, I decided to put together a list of the top 100 professional wrestlers of all time.
I think we have compiled the most comprehensive all-time pro-wrestling ranking you will find anywhere. And technically there are 103 wrestlers listed (click through to figure out why).
OUR LIST: Top 100 pro wrestlers of all time
I have no link to the pro-wrestling industry. I've just been a fan of this stuff for 35 years.
When I interviewed Tony Khan at the AEW announcement, he told me that wrestling has a diverse fan base in all demographics around the world. This list is for those fans but also for everyone else who maybe only cheered for Hulk Hogan as a kid or saw the most recent Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movie.
And understand, there may be a lot of wrestlers you haven't heard of on this list because this is an industry that has spanned the globe for more than a century.
I would like to offer some thanks to Wikipedia for help in aggregating a lot of the little details on things like championships held and decades performing for some of the older wrestlers.
There's a lot of ways you could rank pro wrestlers. From in-ring ability to star power. I mostly made this list based on success in the wrestling business and/or their impact on it.
If you feel I'm way off base, feel free to comment and let me know where I got it wrong.
And don't forget AEW's first live Jacksonville show will be July 13 at Daily's Place next to TIAA Bank Field.