Ever since pro wrestling became a thing, there have been hundreds if not thousands of athletes that have tried to make a name for themselves. Many have succeeded; these are those wrestlers whose names you know right now and those whose stories have been told to you time and again.
But there are many more that didn’t succeed, or whose stories aren’t told as often or to as big an audience. Take Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart, for example. He is considered to be one of the best wrestlers of all time, a true master of the mat. Yet Bret was one of twelve children, most of whom were tied to the wrestling business in some way or another.
So while most of us know the stories of Bret Hart and his baby brother Owen, not that many people know the stories of his brothers Bruce, Smith, Keith, or Dean.
It’s because of this that many wrestlers’ stories don’t get told. This is especially true in North America and in WWE, as this promotion holds a virtual monopoly on the sport. Because of that, it’s top decision-makers have something of a stranglehold on wrestling history. To them, if you didn’t make it in WWE, you didn’t make it at all.
In reality, this mentality is a bold-faced lie. There have been countless fantastic wrestlers that never reached the top in WWE or whose legacies rarely get mentioned these days that were, nonetheless, amazing professional wrestlers. Today, we’ll look at the ten best retired wrestlers that you’re likely to have never heard of.
#10 Megumi Kudo
Megumi ‘Evil Princess’ Kudo was the queen of hardcore. Back in the 1990s, when deathmatches were experiencing a surge in popularity in Japan, Kudo was doing something that no woman did: she wrestled in the same kinds of deathmatches as the men. She was completely unafraid of barbed wire, thumbtacks, explosives, or anything else one was expecting to find in these insane matches.
She was so fearless that even the women from other top promotions in Japan at the time were said to be afraid of her. Her willingness to do absolutely crazy things in the ring made many women uncertain about wrestling her. She really was that tough.
Of course, when one of your career accomplishments includes inventing the Vertebreaker – better known as the Gringo/Cop Killa in the United States – you can be sure people will question your sanity.
Also read: 10 WWE Legends who have not had a retirement match yet
#9 The Destroyer
The Destroyer might not be a name that’s familiar to many people; after all, he has been retired since 1993. But he certainly deserves recognition for his accomplishments…one of those being that he took part in one of the most watched wrestling matches ever.
The Masked Destroyer was a major wrestling draw everywhere he went, and this was especially true in Japan. The Destroyer once wrestled a match against Shohei ‘Giant’ Baba that was watched by 70 million TV viewers. By comparison, that’s almost double the current population of all of Canada.
The Destroyer was one of the trendsetters and standard-bearers for masked wrestlers. He was an enormous draw and was critical in helping wrestling become a nation-wide hit in Japan, which is where wrestling is today.
8 Atsushi Onita
While Megumi Kudo was one of the pioneering women of hardcore wrestling in Japan, Atsushi Onita was to deathmatch wrestling in Japan what Paul Heyman was to hardcore wrestling in the United States with ECW.
Onita wrestled for AJPW for many years, but his biggest contribution was his founding and running of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). FMW was Japan’s most prominent deathmatch promotion, and under Onita’s leadership, the promotion flourished for several years.
Onita can thus say that he’s one of the few people in wrestling history that wasn’t just a great and accomplished wrestler, but he was also a successful and influential promoter.
#7 Nobuhiko Takada
Nobuhiko Takada was one of the most innovative and influential wrestlers of both the 1980s and the 1990s. Not only did his wrestling style – which was centred on stiff submission holds and even stiffer strikes – play a big role in the explosion of MMA in Japan, but he was also a creative genius that influenced the ‘invasion’ storyline.
Takada was big on shoot-style wrestling, and his matches and accomplishments helped elevate that ‘realistic style’ that eventually led to MMA becoming such a big phenomenon. Though his own personal MMA record was mixed at best, Takada made it incredibly popular.
But more importantly, Takada was the founder of the Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi), a shoot-style promotion that ‘invaded’ NJPW during the mid-1990s. Takada and NJPW enjoyed a fantastic relationship, and both promotions made tonnes of money on the major storyline of UWFi ‘outsiders’ invading NJPW in the hopes of taking it over and eventually destroying it, though they were unsuccessful in that storyline.
If all of this sounds familiar to you, that’s because this was the exact story idea that Eric Bischoff used as the basis of the Outsiders (which later became the New World Order) in WCW, and to a lesser extent, the Invasion storyline in WWE in 2001.
#6 Bull Nakano
Bull Nakano was one of the most influential women ever to step foot in a WWE ring. During the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, Nakano was a major influence on women’s wrestling.
She was lucky enough to spend several years wrestling for All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW), which was the same promotion that launched the careers of such legendary wrestlers as Kyoko Inoue, Aja Kong and Manami Toyota.
After making a big impression over there – and winning the WWWA World Championship and holding it for three years – Nakano came to the U.S., where she feuded extensively with Alundra Blayze/Madusa in both WWE and WCW.
Their matches together were some of the best women’s matches of the early 1990s and would’ve had a much greater influence had WWE not abandoned that approach to women’s wrestling in favour of the direction they chose in the Attitude Era.
#5 Kensuke Sasaki
Kensuke Sasaki reminds me of a Japanese John Cena. In his prime, Sasaki had a ripped physique, was insanely strong, and could take down the biggest of threats with his signature moves.
He was so good, in fact, that Sasaki became one of only two men in history to hold all three of Japan’s top world championships (AJPW’s Triple Crown Heavyweight title, NJPW’s IWGP Heavyweight title, and NOAH’s GHC Heavyweight title).
Sasaki was one those wrestlers that looked like a true wrestler with his excellent physique, and backed it up with impressive offense. Even though he only stood at 5’11, he was so good at what he did that his lack of impressive height became an afterthought as soon as the bell rang.
#4 Toshiaki Kawada
Toshiaki Kawada was the most dangerous striker of all time. A master of King’s Road wrestling, Kawada knew how to hit hard and how to take a vicious beating.
If you were to watch any of his matches from his glory years in the 1990s, two feelings would come up almost instantly. The first would be awe of his wrestling ability and the sheer quality of his matches. The second would be pity for his opponents for having to deal with such brutal offence.
In a time when wrestling was becoming increasingly phoney in the United States, Kawada was one of the biggest forces in making it look as realistic and as true to its sporting routes as possible, while still maintaining the need for drama and ring psychology.
Kawada will go down in history as one of the best wrestlers to never set foot in WWE, as well as one of the best wrestlers ever…period.
#3 Akira Taue
If AJPW’s Four Pillars of Heaven were akin to the Beatles, Akira Taue was its version of George Harrison: he was good, just less of a star when compared to his more famous co-workers.
But Taue was a great and underrated wrestler nonetheless. The former sumo wrestler was a master of ring psychology and storytelling and acted as the perfect villain in many outstanding matches during the 1990s.
Taue was also a tag team specialist, winning AJPW’s World Tag Team a record 7 times, six of which were with famous partner Toshiaki Kawada. Together, Taue and Kawada (known collectively as the Holy Demon Army), dominated AJPW’s tag team division.
By the time he had retired, Taue had won several championships and 14 5-star matches, 10 of which were in tag matches with Kawada. Talk about a perfect tag team.
#2 Johnny ‘Ace’ Laurinaitis
Yes, most people know that Jon Laurinaitis is one of the ‘yes-men’ that CM Punk despised during his WWE tenure. What most people forget is that Johnny Ace was actually a very good wrestler in Japan.
Johnny Ace succeeded in Japan because that country emphasises workrate and athleticism over gimmick and personality. Therefore, Ace succeeded in AJPW during the 1990s, especially in tag team matches.
Johnny Ace became a tag team specialist in Japan, working particularly well with ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams. In fact, Dr Death & Johnny Ace actually took part in the Wrestling Observer’s Match of the Year in 1996, in a tag team match against the team of AJPW ace Mitsuharu Misawa and rookie Jun Akiyama.
It’s a pity that WWE didn’t let Johnny Ace use even a fraction of his wrestling talent in that dreadful bout with John Cena in 2012. If they did…that match might’ve actually been acceptable.
#1 Kenta Kobashi
According to Tokyo Sports, Kenta Kobashi was ‘the perfect wrestler’. Honestly, given how he looked and what he could do in the ring, I find it difficult to find anyone that could possibly challenge him for that title.
At the peak of his career, Kobashi stood around 6’1 or 6’2 and weighed between 260lbs and 280lbs. But that was only half of it; he was a mountain of muscle and one of the finest wrestlers on the planet.
Kobashi could brawl with the toughest men in the industry, absorb an inhuman level of punishment, execute power moves like Mark Henry or the Big Show, and could pull off a Moonsault with the grace of a cruiserweight. Add to this a versatile wrestler that created many of the craziest wrestling moves ever seen, and you have quite possibly the best wrestler ever.
The fact that he has 23 5-star matches under his belt – which is more than any living wrestler – is also a testament to just how good Kobashi really was.
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