#10
THE ONE MAN GANG
The One Man Gang is a cautionary tale in pro wrestling. When you have a big guy who is an awesome wrestler and comes with an awesome built-in gimmick LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE. His gimmick was being a gigantic bad ass from the means streets of Chicago. After cracking skulls in WCCW, Mid-South Wrestling and the UWF he was hired by the WWF in 1987 and soon saw himself feuding with Randy Savage. For some reason, 18 months into his WWF run he was repackaged as Akeem "The African Dream". Yeah. Here's a squash match along with a tribute video of the OMG our very own Victator put together for you to enjoy. Remember the good time :(
#9
BAM BAM BIGELOW
I gotta give the Bammer credit. You never saw him as anything other Bam Bam Bigelow. No silly gimmicks. No signs of weakness (aside from getting destroyed by Kimo in an MMA fight). What you saw was what you got. A big, fat, angry dude dressed in flames with tattoos on his head. Everywhere he worked he made his way to the top of the card. One of the most intimidating men to ever step into the ring, Bam Bam left us far too soon. Here's a fun match between him and Cactus Jack.
#8
GEORGE "THE ANIMAL" STEELE
In many regards George "The Animal" Steele was the blueprint for the modern day monster wrestler. Big, hairy, ugly, green tongued and unorthodox, The Animal enjoyed a 20 year run as an active wrestler and remains a pop culture figure despite never having won a major world title. He is best remembered for his feud with Randy Savage where he took quite the shining to Savage's valet Miss Elizabeth. Here is a tag match with George and a guy who should have made this list, Killer Khan, taking on a really young Curt Hennig and S.D. Jones.
#7
KAMALA
Another guy whose entire mainstream career was spent entirely in the same gimmick, Kamala was a huge dude who was unlike anything I had ever seen. Portraying a wild bushman from the deepest, darkest Africa, Kamala scared the piss out of me as a young kid. Taking orders from his various handlers, he was a remorseless killing machine who made the perfect foil to many top babyfaces. Here is a match between him and Hulk Hogan.
#6
THE UNDERTAKER
What? Only #6? Yeah, The Undertaker, despite being possibly the best big man of all time, despite making a gimmick that is really bad in theory work for a loooooooooong time, only comes in at #6 on MY list of the 31 greatest monsters in the history of pro wrestling. This is mostly due to the humanizing of his character during his biker era. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Big Red Booger quite a bit and it really recharged his career. It's just that it's hard for me to take him seriously as "The Deadman" after using Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit entrance music for a few years. All of that aside, the original Undertaker gimmick was so corny and stupid that even as a kid I felt insulted by it. A dead guy as a wrestler? Really? How lame. It also didn't help that I totally recognized him as Mean Mark Callous from WCW. But once he got in the ring all of the cheese ball things that came with his gimmick went bye-bye. A big guy who flew across the ring like a man half his size and finished his opponents with a brutal tombstone piledriver, he instantly had my attention. The fact that he can still go out and have the best match of the night at his age and with a failing body is a testament to the skill and dedication he's shown the WWF/E in his nearly TWENTY YEARS of service to the company. Amazing. Here's both parts of the infamous THE UNDERTAKER vs THE UNDERTAKER match.