El Santo
And finally there’s the man, the legend, the literal saint, El Santo. Some of you reading this grew up with John Cena. Others came of age during Stone Cold’s reign while still others worshipped at the altar of Hulkamania so I say this, in all seriousness and no hyperbole, none of them in the States matched the popularity of El Santo in Mexico. It wasn’t just that he sold out arena after arena from the 40’s through the 80’s or that every masked wrestler owes their career, it’s that Santo developed the template for EVERY wrestler who has reached crossover appeal. Oh, the Rock is a movie star? El Santo did it first. The Undertaker has a comic book? El Santo did it first. Sammartino met the Pope? El Santo did it first. There pretty much isn’t anything that El Santo didn’t do including making other people legends like Gory or Blue Demon or Perro Aguayo or countless others. He is the one man that remade the entire industry in his image and the fact that he is not in the WWE Hall of Fame is more than an omission. It’s a crime.