Just call me The Genius.

Wrestling 101

A while back Fanboy Planet reader John Lantz emailed me and asked me to put together a list of the top wrestlers past and present and give kind of a where are they now. John hasn't watched wrestling since the glory days of The Ultimate Warrior. It being a slow news day, I whipped this up for all you "wanna be in the know" wrestling fans.

First thing that you need to know is that ECW and WCW are gone. The WWF bought the name and right to WCW earlier this year and is leasing the rights to the ECW name currently. However, in storylines WCW has been purchased by Shane McMahon, ECW purchased by Stephanie McMahon and they have joined forces with Paul Heyman to form the Alliance. So when I say that a wrestler is currently on team WCW, make no mistake, WWFE (the parent company of WWF) is writing their checks.

Next, you'll need to know that when the WWF bought WCW, there were several wrestlers that WCW had under contract that the WWF did not want. When Ted Turner and Time Warner owned WCW, Eric Bichoff signed a lot of big names to WCW by offering them very large, long term contracts. These contracts also said that the wrestlers would be paid regardless of whether or not they wrestled. This was part of the downfall in WCW because wrestlers would fake injuries and then just sit at home getting rich. Anyway, the WWF did not want these wrestlers, so as part of the deal, they remain under contract to AOL-Time Warner. Now any of the wrestlers could accept a buy out of their contract, which would mean giving up about 1/2 of the money owed to them, and go work for the WWF. Some have (Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page) and some refuse (Goldberg, Kevin Nash.)

Here now is my primer to today's modern wrestlers. I compiled this list based on current and former champions in WWF, ECW and WCW.

Did I miss anyone?

Michael Goodson