braine:
nawtibownie, oh are needed here.

armadeo:
Mighty Igor.
Mill mascara.
Ox baker
Don't know the last dude

hinograce:
I don't know any and I'm among the Nintendo generation of mid 80s this wrestlers must have been in d 70s

armadeo:
Mighty Igor.

Mill mascara.

Ox baker

Don't know the last dude

naptu2:


These are the most famous wrestlers on Nigerian TV in their respective generations. The wrestler at number 1 is in the picture above.

1) ?

2) Hulk Hogan

3) Stone Cold Steve Austin

4) The Rock

5) John Cena


(some will include the Von Erichs between number 1 and number 2)

naptu2:


I deliberately included a wrestler that everybody will know, but most will not immediately remember.

armadeo:


What's his name

naptu2:



He appeared on virtually every edition of International Championship Wrestling (IWA) because he was not only a wrestler, but he was also a colour commentator and co-presenter. It’s Big Tex McKenzie.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7021984_01_jpeg06e80e27b134169ae7332e0f538e0d2e
www.nairaland.com/attachments/7019081_unnamed4_jpege52a80284fdf6b2a714264de4ba59e26


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-cDm7bNBE

armadeo:
Mighty Igor.

Mill mascara.

Ox baker

Don't know the last dude

naptu2:



He appeared on virtually every edition of International Championship Wrestling (IWA) because he was not only a wrestler, but he was also a colour commentator and co-presenter. It’s Big Tex McKenzie.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7021984_01_jpeg06e80e27b134169ae7332e0f538e0d2e
www.nairaland.com/attachments/7019081_unnamed4_jpege52a80284fdf6b2a714264de4ba59e26


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-cDm7bNBE

naptu2:



He appeared on virtually every edition of International Championship Wrestling (IWA) because he was not only a wrestler, but he was also a colour commentator and co-presenter. It’s Big Tex McKenzie.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7021984_01_jpeg06e80e27b134169ae7332e0f538e0d2e

hinograce:
I don't know any and I'm among the Nintendo generation of mid 80s this wrestlers must have been in d 70s

blank:


How about Randy Savage, Macho Man? I believe he deserves a spot on that list.

naptu2:
Ox Baker and Dick The Bulldog Brower were among the most hated wrestlers on Nigerian TV in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ox Baker often wore a plaster of Paris cast on his right hand and he had a very powerful punch (called the Heart Punch). Some speculated that his punch was powerful because of something that was in the POP cast.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7023264_91af8d1d74069201b9b65a23ca2dc605_jpeg307937c7d899d969b53bb4a9fabdf966

He came to Nigeria in the late 1980s (sometime around 1986-1989) and lost to Power Uti of Nigeria at the National Stadium in Lagos.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7019080_images25_jpegfdc0c25cc0e64b891974eb2fdea8615a

There was hype that Ox Baker had killed people with several wrestlers with his Heart Punch and this caused a riot at one of Ox Baker’s matches in 1974. People thought that wrestling was real in the 1970s and early 1980s and Ox Baker was relentless punching this guy to the extent that the fans thought that he was going to kill him. The fans stormed the ring and Ox Baker and the other wrestler had to flee to safety. Watch the video below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRFrOb00xnA

naptu2:


Macho Man Randy Savage was in the Hulk Hogan era.

1) The Mighty Igor era

2) Hulk Hogan era

3) Stone Cold Steve Austin era

4) The Rock era

5) John Cena era


(some will include the Von Erichs between number 1 and number 2)

naptu2:


Mascaras fought in the Lucha Libre style of Mexico and he has influenced a lot of wrestlers, including Rey Mysterio. His wrestling style was very attractive and it involved a lot of diving and high rope manoeuvres. He also had tremendous upper body strength.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/7023227_77d7c40793e683c58b9d56c4d2d87cdewrestlinglegends_jpeg96ca595fa6db3caa51f52d0a90bc9bc1


Mil Mascaras came to Nigeria in 1984, fought in what was probably the biggest wrestling event in Nigeria’s history and defeated Ben Lionheart at the National Stadium in Lagos. Ben Lionheart was a Nigerian wrestler that was based in Britain and this was his first match in Nigeria in ages.

From Mexico City, Mexico, the man of a thousand masks, Mil Mascaras!

Ishilove:

Did he influence Superfly?

Ishilove:

Did he influence Superfly?

naptu2:


Bleacher Report did a ranking of the top 5 high flying wrestlers of all time and according to them:

1) Mil Mascaras

2) Rey Mysterio

3) Jushin Thunder Liger

4) Shawn Michaels

5) Superfly Jimmy Snuka

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/688799-top-five-high-flyers-of-all-time.amp.html

naptu2:


Bleacher Report did a ranking of the top 5 high flying wrestlers of all time and according to them:

1) Mil Mascaras

2) Rey Mysterio

3) Jushin Thunder Liger

4) Shawn Michaels

5) Superfly Jimmy Snuka

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/688799-top-five-high-flyers-of-all-time.amp.html

Proudlyngwa:


No Eddie Gurero,
That's sad.

Ishilove:

I am surprised Shawn Micheals is ranked above Superfly in highflying.

WWE Rankings: Top 5 High Fliers of All-Time

Ryan Chase
May 03, 2011



One of Professional Wrestling’s greatest attractions is the high fliers. Watching Jimmy Snuka leap off the top rope and crush his lame duck opponent with his patented Superfly splash, or Rey Mysterio, Jr. performing a picture-perfect springboard hurricanrana perhaps best exemplifies the nobility of the industry's sometimes mystifying appeal.

It is the astonishment as well as the jubilation of seeing, witnessing, espying something we very well could not have thunk or foreseen, that former impossibility now rendered very much possible, that cross between our imagination and reality that is most exciting about these athletes.

Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Jushin “Thunder” Lyger and Mil Mascaras are just a few of these acrobats who have drawn our awe with their death-defying moves. And since we live in a society that is obsessed with ranking one over another, as if it truly proved something, it was only a matter of time before this confounding impulse swung toward them.

I have ranked the top five best high-flyers of all-time. The five that I have selected as the premiere daredevils of the squared circle were picked based on their supremacy in three crucial categories—innovation, influence and technique.

While this list is restricted to five, it does not diminish the accomplishments or proficiency exhibited by others that were ultimately left off of it for one reason or another.

5. Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka


The infamous "Super Fly" Jimmy Snuka. In the 1970's and 80's, nobody was more synonymous with high-flying than Snuka (except for maybe George Jung). During an era of bruisers and brawlers, Snuka stood out with his array of aerial maneuvers that included such classics as the cross body block and diving head butt. Not to mention, his patented top rope splash.

While his moves are tame to say the least by today's standards, many of the present-day air stylists may never have even thought of jumping off the turnbuckle if it wasn't for Snuka. Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannety, Mick Foley and Ricky Steamboat, among others, were influenced by his innovative performances.

You cannot compile a list of the top high-fliers without Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka.

Proof: Versus Don Muraco—Madison Square Garden Steel Cage Match, 1983


4. Shawn Michaels



Building off what Snuka did the decade before, the Heartbreak Kid took it a step further—standing hurricanranas, diving splashes off ladders and suicide plancha over the top rope.Trained by Jose Lothario, a famous Mexican wrestler, Michaels picked up many of the moves then surfacing in Lucha Libre. He combined that with what he learned from Snuka to buttress the innovative style that would leave its impression on nearly every wrestler to come for the next decade—most notably, Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio.

Proof: Versus Vader SummerSlam 1996


3. Jushin "Thunder" Liger


Perhaps the best junior heavyweight of all-time. Jushin "Thunder" Liger was a hybrid of sorts, combining the disparate skill sets of heavyweights and lightweights, while injecting a shot of his own invention. He is responsible for the shooting star press and the surge of junior heavyweight dominance that started in Japan and migrated, as a result, across the world.

Few wrestlers today are untouched by Liger's greatness.

Proof: Versus the Great Sasuke at the Super J Cup '94



2. Rey Mysterio, Jr.



Known today simply as Rey Mysterio, after he was forced to drop the "jr" to again don the mask he lost to Kevin Nash in 1999 in good conscience. Mysterio's career has spanned nearly two and half decades. During which, he has drawn more "oh's" and "ah's" than perhaps any high-flier professional wrestling has ever seen.

Mysterio was the figurehead of Lucha Libre's hostile takeover of the American professional wrestling scene and not for nothing. His moves were not only breath-taking, they were executed with a flawless technique that has become his trademark and remains largely intact to this day, despite his mounting injuries.

Still going at 36-years-old, the full extent of Mysterio's influence has yet to be seen, but its tract marks are vividly on display in the work of Mistico (Sin Cara), Evan Bourne and the Amazing Red. Chris Jericho himself called Mysterio the best high-flier of all-time.

Proof: Anything before 1997.


1. Mil Mascaras



Kicking off his career in 1965, Mil Mascaras spawned the groundbreaking style that would captivate millions in the years to come through the future generations that picked up the ball he had gotten started rolling.

In Mexico, where his legend rests most comfortably, Mascaras was largely known for his technical prowess. It was the top rope planchas and headscissor takeovers that have earned him the seminal position in this list.

A paltry contingent of his move set, they were nonetheless revolutionary, breathing life into a style that had not really existed until that point and inflating beyond the capacity of what any athlete had done before or since.

His oeuvre casts a tall shadow that swallows up every wrestler that has or will take to the sky, knowingly or not, for their offensive arsenal. Simply put, Mil Mascaras is the best high flyer of all-time.

Proof: Versus Buddy Roberts for the IWA Heavyweight Championship at AWA SuperClash on September 28, 1985. Look it up, if you can.

Ishilove:

Guy you don old o. And I bin tink sey you be indomitable generation