Pro Athletes Name Their All-Time Top 5 WWE Superstars

Since all pro sports have gone dark due to COVID-19, there’s not much for athletes to do than to sit around on social media, just like the rest of us. (It’s a nice reminder that no matter how freakishly talented someone can be, they’re spending most their days getting their thumb-swipe on.)

Over the weekend, the official WWE On Fox Twitter account posed the following question: What are your top 5 WWE Superstars of all time?

Needless to say, this caught on like wildfire, not just with the WWE Universe but with Twitter as a whole — and you better believe plenty of pro athletes from the NFL, NBA and MLB chimed in with their picks. Let’s see who chose what, shall we?

We’ll start with the NBA and 10-year veteran Derrick Favors, who has spent the vast majority of his career playing for the Utah Jazz (a team who has a long history with pro wrestling) and has been seen marking out next to John Cena:

Favors split the difference between retired Attitude Era stalwarts like Steve Austin and the Rock and their WCW counterparts Goldberg and Booker T, with active roster member the Undertaker securing the fifth spot. (What? It’s true.)

Pivoting to Major League Baseball, we find a few different players chiming in with their answers:

San Diego Padres prospect Taylor Trammell gave props to high flyers like Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston and Jeff Hardy before closing with Shawn Michaels and acknowledging he was one of a slew of kids who got in trouble doing D-Generation X crotch-chops in school. His picks even earned praise from Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Cole Tucker:

Relief pitcher Rob Whalen (currently signed with the Mets, and a hell of a smark) provided a list that solidly straddles the line between the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras:

https://twitter.com/RobWhalen38/status/1256663544105512961

The top-five lists really caught on with NFL players, though. Let’s start with NFL rookie Isaiah Wilson, who was just taken in in the first round by the Tennessee Titans:

https://twitter.com/_LayZay_/status/1256636687687483392

Rob Van Dam! Nice choice, sir. Fellow rookie Jonathan Taylor, who was drafted in the second round by Indianapolis Colts, provided his top five, which is a murderer’s row of WrestleMania main eventers:

Moving from rookies to Super Bowl champions, let’s check in with Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman, whose list features the two Superstars who had WWE’s longest-running feud in the 2000s, John Cena and Randy Orton:

Hardman’s choice to include Cena and Orton over Attitude Era legends like Austin and the Rock led him to issue a mea culpa:

Ravens quarterback (and former WWE Champion) Robert Griffin III shared his thoughts on the topic, splitting his picks between big men like Goldberg and underdogs like Rey Mysterio:

Last but not least: While he is no stranger to delivering pick-sixes, Raiders QB Derek Carr limited himself to picking just five this time around, turning in a list that is probably the most well-rounded of the bunch, including legends like Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan:

His choices ruffled the feathers of Bray Wyatt, a current WWE Superstar and a longtime Raiders fan, who simply replied “bruh.” Carr wrote back, channeling his inner John Cena:

Wyatt wouldn’t take the dig lying down, so he shot back with his top five Raiders quarterbacks of all time — and Carr didn’t make the cut:

Carr quickly realized the error of his ways and revised his list accordingly:

Smart move, Derek — stay out of the Firefly Funhouse unless you want to relive that leg injury from 2016.