So Steve Austin recently said on his podcast that Ricochet was the most athletic, most explosive worker he had ever seen in the ring. It must be true because Stone Cold said so! Right?

Anyways since I heard that about a week ago I've been  trying to come up with somebody and I've yet to come up with somebody who is positively more athletic than Ricochet. Surely  shooters like Lesnar and Angle were more FAR more explosive, but they weren't near as acrobatic as Ricochet. I don't think I've seen anybody jump the RVD could, but at times it seemed he lacked coordination and therefor wasn't always the most graceful. Thoughts? 

Low-Ki has body control like nobody else I've ever seen in a ring. John Morrison would also fall into that category. 

I saw Bob Armstrong in the 1970 's   . Bob was always in great shape and just a superior athlete . Another great athlete was Rocky Johnson . Those guys combined speed , strength , conditioning and coordination . Armstrong was a former martial arts instruction in Marines , while Johnson had a strong boxing background . Two of the best .

Brock Lesnar? if we are including all round stats and ability I can't see anyone else would top him. A guy at his peak at 295 who could move like a crusierweight, had tremendous strength and explosive ability and could fly through the air.

Mark Henry, Kurt Angle, and Ronda Rousey were Olympians, so they are probably the answer. I agree that Ricochet is an awesome athlete, but I also think we tend to limit ourselves when we talk about athleticism, since it usually seems to mean the ability to do high-flying moves and flips.

Kota Ibushi is an incredible athlete, no matter  what you think of him as a worker.

If you go old school, Jumbo and Jack Brisco stood out. Buzz Sawyer maybe.

Kiyoshi Tamura was ridiculously fit and coordinated. Minoru Suzuki has aged unusually well as an athlete. 

I'm not ranking these guys, just throwing out some examples that came to mind.

Brock is the most athletic wrestler I've seen. The speed, agility, strength and co-ordination that Brock has for a 290 pound guy has always been impressive to me.

I'll give Shelton Benjamin a shoutout. Nobody has run up a ladder better than him.

I don't know if Ricochet is the most athletic ever, but he is the most graceful flyer I've ever seen, especially live. Some guys who haven't been mentioned are Bob Backlund (college football and wrestling All-American (sure, D2, but in the late 60s the differences weren't as great as they are now), and still looks amazing today) and Tatsumi Fujinami.

Doug Furnas was ridiculous, too. Dude was strong as shit and had incredible leaping skills. Best dropkick in the business.

Just now, KawadaSmile said:

Doug Furnas was ridiculous, too. Dude was strong as shit and had incredible leaping skills. Best dropkick in the business.

Can't believe I forgot him. When he passed, like half of his Observer obituary was Dave geeking out on his powerlifting records.

Surprised no one has mentioned Flair, in his prime he could go hard for an hour and still move like he's ready to go twice as long.

Also worth mentioning: Bianca Belair. Incredible, incredible athlete. Can do 450º splashes and crazy powerlifting moves. Just the bEST.

Let's get some vids in here

 

8 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Doug Furnas was ridiculous, too. Dude was strong as shit and had incredible leaping skills. Best dropkick in the business.

Doug played football at Tennessee . Before he got into wrestling Doug owned a gym in Knoxville. I worked out at his gym and got to meet Doug .  He was a great guy. Worth noting is that arm and legs were like tree trunks yet his waist was slim. Doug must be  one of the strongest men in recent memory. Great guy a shame he passed so young. Very underrated talent.

Prime Alexander Otsuka could do anything. 

Kenny and Okada are probably my easy picks for most athletic right now. Not just the variety of their movesets but how much they've been able to do in matches that have gone 46, 60, and 69 minutes.

Misawa definitely stands out when considering past wrestlers. Guy's movement and execution when doing stuff like the corkscrew lariat and the running plancha were incredible. Even after years of wear and tear on his body he still looked quick and smooth as hell in the 2003 Kobashi match.

Misawa is one of the most elegant pro-wrestler I've ever seen. He was like a cat. Then, like a fat cat, but a cat nonetheless.

Currently, Omega is a freak. 

On 9/13/2018 at 11:42 AM, NickH said:

Brock is the most athletic wrestler I've seen. The speed, agility, strength and co-ordination that Brock has for a 290 pound guy has always been impressive to me.

I'll give Shelton Benjamin a shoutout. Nobody has run up a ladder better than him.

 

The scariest thing I've seen Brock do is run. A dude that big, that strong, and that fast is nightmare fuel. Like, if you pissed him off you didn't even have the option of running away from him unless you were a track star. 

Also Cesaro does things that don't seem like they should be possible, but does so with ease. 

Football players like Simmons, Goldberg, Pillman, Lex, Duggan, Vader and Mongo were all great athletes. As they had to be to make it as far as they did in football. In some cases that athleticism didn’t translate to being great wrestlers. It’s not always about being aerial either. 

I like the posters that mentioned Doug Furnas. He definitely has to be among the top of the list. 

Does Mike Awesome deserve a mention? Well over 250 lbs and could leap around a ring like someone half his size. 

Gotta show some love for Bam Bam Bigelow. For a man of his size doing cartwheels and back flips still amazes me. 

If we are mentioning Bam Bam, we gotta give Bossman a shout-out, too. Dude was busting out picture perfect crescent kicks and was very agile.

Goldberg doing a backflip against Glacier OUT OF NOWHERE will forever be one of my favorite spots, and he also managed to suplex Big Show which ins incredible.

Another dude who I find rather underrated in this aspect is Johnny Stamboli. Dude legit shoulder pressed Umaga, and later on lifted Rikishi, which is legit one of the most absurd spots I've seen in wrestling, taking purely feats of strength into consideration.

Pound for pound, you'd have to rank Tyler Bate up there, too. He is fairly short but not only he does some incredible aerial moves (although not as gracefully as someone like Neville or Ricochet would) and is really strong.

On 9/13/2018 at 10:58 PM, KawadaSmile said:

Also worth mentioning: Bianca Belair. Incredible, incredible athlete. Can do 450º splashes and crazy powerlifting moves. Just the bEST.

NXT's Bianca, Kacy Catanzaro and Stacey Ervin Jr. are definitely a new type of athlete. Beyond college footballers and amateur wrestlers.

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

If we are mentioning Bam Bam, we gotta give Bossman a shout-out, too. Dude was busting out picture perfect crescent kicks and was very agile

The match he had with Tully when he was still a no name jobber was tremendous. He went up for the slingshot suplex like he was Zack Sabre sized. No wonder Dusty saw potential in him. 

The World of Sport guys were ridiculously fluid, particularly Steve Grey and Clive Myers.