Sports Illustrated recently did an interview with the WWE Hall of Famer, Kevin Nash. The former World Champion discussed the top 10 wrestlers he squared off with.
Surprisingly, that list doesn’t include The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin as he rarely shared in-ring time with them. Kevin Nash stated that he enjoyed working with Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Raven, Ric Flair, Jeff Jarrett and Lex Lugar more than he did with his fellow nWo member, Hulk Hogan. He also praised the skills of Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio, who started in WCW as a part of the Cruiserweight division.
Nash was responsible for Mysterio losing his mask as per stipulations of a match. In this interview, he clarified :
“I wanted to take Rey’s mask off, but it was a different time. I wasn’t true wrestling historian with the history of the mask – or, in later years, the merchandising power of that mask – but i saw a pretty, young Latino man. We didn’t have that, and I thought he could be a crossover star for us. If I had to do it over, of course I wouldn’t do it.”
Sean Waltman a.k.a X-Pac ended up in the 4th position in his Top 10 list :
“There’s no way that I become the wrestler I do without the matches I had early on in my career as Diesel with Sean Waltman”
Nash includes WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart in the top 3 :
“I would definitely include Bret Hart in my top three. I probably had a hundred matches with Bret, but we never had one bad match.”
He also applauded the performance of The Undertaker and mentioned him as his second best opponent :
“Taker was the only big guy who, night in and night out, I could have a match worth watching with. That’s hard to say, there aren’t many big guys like that. He could do everything. Storytelling, his ability to always work scripted, work on the fly, casket matches, gimmick matches, everything.”
At #1, the former World Champion chose AJ Styles as the best opponent throughout his wrestling career :
“AJ Styles is special. I’ve worked a lot with AJ, and I never had a bad match with him. He was great in TNA. I was in my mid-fifties when I worked with him, but I could still have a really, really good match with him. He’s that good.”
