Tony Khan was asked to pick his Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling on Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze, and he answered with four childhood anchors: Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, and Sting. Asked who would lead the list if he built it today with the people he has worked with, Khan named Kenny Omega.
“To be fair, I did it completely based on childhood,” Khan said. “If I could go in and put together a Mount Rushmore with what I know and the people I’ve worked with, Kenny Omega would be at the top of it. And this is a very childhood influence list, but I think Kenny Omega is the greatest wrestler I’ve ever seen.”
Khan started his childhood Mount Rushmore with Stone Cold.
“The first person I would say is Steve Austin,” Khan said. “Through a number of different iterations. I’ve been a fan of Steve Austin since he first started wrestling on television. I was watching with Steve Austin in the summer of 91, first became the World TV Champion on TBS, and I followed him as a singles wrestler, through tag teams, as Stunning Steve. I always believed Stunning Steve was going to be a top star in wrestling. I just didn’t know that it would be in a different promotion, not as Stunning Steve, and not with his blonde hair. And then he became the greatest star in the history of wrestling. He’s an incredible, incredible wrestler. He’s an incredible person. And I think that Steve Austin would be the very first person I would put on any wrestling Mount Rushmore.”
Ric Flair came next.
“I also think that Steve Austin and I would agree about this, any wrestling Mount Rushmore must include the Nature Boy Ric Flair,” Khan said. “I think the Nature Boy Ric Flair, to me, is the person I grew up on. My first message board name was Tony Flair. And I’m a big Ric Flair believer. And I absolutely think Ric Flair, to me growing up, was the person that I followed for the longest time, who I thought wrestled at the highest level.”
Bret Hart was the third spot.
“I would also say Bret Hart. Bret Hart, the Hitman. What a fantastic wrestler, talking about people that wrestled on American TV at the highest level, and you never saw any inconsistency. You always saw them putting out their very best. And even before I really understood what makes great wrestling matches, or understood really that there’s any cooperation, when I was really watching wrestling as a kid at a very young age, immediately the quality of the Bret Hart matches stood out to me. I first saw him in the tag team of the Hart Foundation when I was a kid. But Bret Hart is somebody that I have a lot of respect for. And I would include Bret Hart on that Mount Rushmore,” Khan said.
The fourth spot went to a wrestler Khan would later work with personally.
“And then when I talk about my childhood idols and somebody that I think has been a huge part of my life, somebody I grew up on and then came to AEW and had his retirement match. And I never imagined that I would get to know him, or let alone work with him someday. And that is Sting,” Khan said. “Sting I was a huge fan of as a kid. I was a little Stinger, and I never imagined when we launched AEW that Sting could become a part of it, or that Sting would have quite possibly the greatest run anyone’s ever had.”
Khan added that Ricky Steamboat would round out a top five.
“Ricky Steamboat in my top five as well,” Khan said.
MVP gave his own Mount Rushmore: The Rock, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, and the Great Muta.
“Wow, I love that list,” Khan said.
MVP also pushed for at least one Japanese wrestler on any Mount Rushmore, with Antonio Inoki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Keiji Mutoh, and Giant Baba all named as candidates depending on personal taste. MVP said the Great Muta was his pick because of how Muta evolved his style over the years.
“His ability and the way he constantly reinvented and changed, but stayed on top, and when his body fell apart, he changed the way he wrestled, but was still dynamic to watch,” MVP said. “When he couldn’t do the physical things that he used to do anymore, the character became bigger.”
MVP also named Toshiaki Kawada as a personal favorite, citing the Kawada versus Misawa Triple Crown matches as the kind of bouts that made him want to wrestle.
Where To Listen
Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze is hosted by Montel Vontavious Porter and Dwayne Swayze. New episodes release every Monday with audio at midnight Central and the video show premiering at noon Central on the Marking Out YouTube channel.
You can click below to watch the full episode.
