WWE.com: Top 50 Villains In Wrestling History

[LWPD]

WWE.com recently compiled a list of the Top 50 Villains In Wrestling History. No specific criteria was mentioned. After a quick perusal, Howard Finkel is listed on staff, the rest are names I don't recognize. The parent link includes brief bios and reasoning behind the placements.

Courtesy of WWE.com
Top 50 Villains In Wrestling History

"Michael P.S. Hayes tells the story like this in the thick of The Fabulous Freebirds heated rivalry with The Junkyard Dog in Mid-South Wrestling, the fans in Louisiana became so wrapped up in the dispute that the police once apprehended a man in the audience with a Saturday night special in his hand. In the chamber of the gun was a bullet with the word Freebirds engraved on it.

Things have changed since the all-or-nothing days of Southern wrestling, but the intent of a good ring villain remains. If the people buying tickets don't want to see the bad guy get what's coming to him, then the bad guy isn't doing their job. It's a dangerous occupation for the competitors and managers who have been insulted, stabbed and, on more than one occasion, shot at by the fans. But the wicked Superstars and Divas on this list wouldn't have had it any other way."

1. Roddy Piper
2. Ric Flair & Four Horsemen
3. Mr. McMahon
4. "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase
5. "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan
6. Triple H
7. "Superstar" Billy Graham
8. Bobby Heenan
9. Gorgeous George
10. Jake "the Snake" Roberts
11. Rick Rude
12. JBL
13. Fabulous Freebirds
14. Original Sheik
15. Chris Jericho
16. Sherri Martel
17. Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig
18. Killer Kowalski
19. Jim Cornette
20. Edge
21. Freddie Blassie
22. The Undertaker
23. Sgt. Slaughter
24. Harley Race
25. Vader
26. Nick Bockwinkel
27. Paul Orndorff
28. Fabulous Moolah
29. Raven
30. Jerry Lawler
31. Kevin Sullivan
32. Randy Orton
33. Terry Funk
34. Abdullah the Butcher
35. Paul Heyman
36. Ivan Koloff
37. Ernie Ladd
38. C.M. Punk
39. Dudley Boyz
40. Don Muraco
41. Kane
42. Brock Lesnar
43. Eddie Guerrero
44. Eric Bischoff
45. Andre the Giant
46. Iron Sheik
47. Mark Henry
48. Vickie Guerrero
49. Randy Savage
50. Batista

[subvert69]

I won't make too much out of the list as it is a WWE list but I'm shocked to see Randy Savage as 49. Even in death they won't give him credit.

[Deleted]

6. Triple H
29. Raven

The only thing I can say is lolwut

[marktaggart]

Yeah, Triple H and Mr McMahon in the top ten is a kiss-up move by whoever compiled the list. Rick Rude at number 11 is nice, but in my estimation he's top 5 material (greatest ever in my biased opinion). That list is more messed up than their usual fare, which is hard to accomplish.

[wildfire]

Yeah, this one is even weirder than usual. Most of these WWE lists just have a huge bias to current guys. This one is.. weird.

Piper #1 is crazy. He was good, but not better than Flair, Rude, Dibiase, etc.

Undertaker so low is insane... he could be #1 (since this is a WWE list) and definitely should be top 5.

HHH has rarely been a heel, that's just kissing up... but I'm OK with Mr. McMahon being high... he was the main heel of the attitude era, really.

Having Savage so low is crazy, and having the Road Warriors not on there at all is pretty weird, too.... I guess WWE considers them faces? Same with the Rock.. he had a lengthy heel run during the attitude era... where is he?

Diesel really should be there somewhere, too.

Shocking to see Batista on the list, even at the bottom.

Very odd Eddie is on there... he was defnitely barely a star as a heel.

[Phoenix]

HHH's position on the list notwithstanding...to say he's rarely been a Heel...he was a Heel through most of his title runs.

[TDalton]

Hate these lists. No Buddy Rogers...seriously?

[Bazzy]

I reckon
1st) Ric Flair
2nd) Ted The Million Dollar Man Dibiase
3rd) JBL
4th) Big Van Vader
5th) Curt Mr Perfect Hennig

[jmello]

I agree with these lists being completely absurd, but you guys are a little hard on them.

The Road Warriors were never the Road Warriors in WWF, they were the Legion of Doom and were always good guys.

Flair is a great all-time heel, but in WWF he was a heel for a total of what, two to three years.

Piper was a great heel early 80's, see his spats with Snuka, Mr. T, among others.

All these things skew a WWE list every time. I wish it was in "wrestling history", but with a WWE list it never will be.

IMO, #1 should be Gorgeous George. From everything I've read everyone hated that man. I may even put Andy Kaufman on the list somewhere, just because people hated him so much. Hennig, Rude, Heenan should be higher.

[marktaggart]

jmello, you based your criteria against guys like Flair and the Road Warriors on the fact that they either weren't in the WWF long, or weren't heels during that time. Then you wrote that your number one guy would be a man who was a pre-WWF wrestler and flopped when he was tried his act on the east coast. I'm not knocking you, but this is what happens when we try to use logic and rationalization of any kind when dealing with these very illogical lists. I think it's best to kind of shrug at them, say to yourself "(insert favorite heel here) should be number one", and move on about the day.