Tommy Rich

[8.0] "Underrated, mostly by people who only saw him when he was past his prime, but his work in the early 80's in GA is amazing stuff. He PROBABLY shouldn't have been made NWA World champion, even for as brief a spell as he actually held the belt for, but he was a solid "territory" top guy before the business went national."

[4.0] "Decent enough as a low card jobber and good at putting the big fish over. What more can you ask of a JTTS?"

[3.0] "Lord he was lousy, looked like hell and sounded horrible. Some of the crappiest looking punches & elbows in the business's history, woeful. Always looked like some form of muppet, especially with age. He was super over in Georgia for 10 minutes and then no one cared for DECADES. But for whatever reason I don't fast forward past everything (he's usually with good company). One of those guys who was employed for so long because he was likable behind the scenes. Outside of being a mouthpiece in ECW: AVOID."

[6.0] "I really don't know why Tommy Rich isn't ranked higher on here. He's a lot better than people give him credit for. He was instrumental in the original ECW for getting the Full-Blooded Italians gimmick over."

[4.0] "I keep seeing praise for Tommy Rich but I don't think I have ever watched a match of his in which I was actually entertained"

[10.0] "I thought he was great! Very skilled in the ring and was very popular babyface in the 80's. Great in the South. WCW he was used fair. He was the youngest NWA champion ever. Also his mic skills are perfect. ECW was not really for him."

[7.0] "Tommy Rich was a great, great old school Southern Wrestler: his matches were pretty much flawless, even surprisingly good considering the style he had to work, he was a natural "pretty boy" babyface, he knew how to connect with the crowd, if necessary by being beaten into a pulp and bleeding profusely. Great worker and his popularity was well deserved. I don't know if his NWA reign was warranted or not but it was a nice tribute to fans in Georgia and the Memphis area who had made Tommy Rich the huge star he was. Unfortunately outside those territories the Wildfire failed to spread, and sadly his "pretty boy" look disappeared pretty soon. To his credit Tommy Rich tried to reinvent himself, first in Japan, where he was mostly used in throwaway tag matches, and then in AWA, where he had decent matches but failed to catch on. Then came WCW where he became a stalwart of the midcard. I think his best moment came when he challenged Lex Luger multiple times for the US Heavyweight Title in 1989, only to be beaten each and every time without mercy. In a way he was the last swan song of the territory system before the business changed forever."

[9.0] "Rich was a tremendous worker, his bouts were entertaining, and his promos were great. He could also gush blood. The only thing about him was the fact that he was seemingly unable to fit in anywhere outside of the deep south."

[7.0] "Tommy Rich was a really good worker in his prime, and, at his peak, one of the hottest babyfaces in the business. That's what got him the NWA title, contrary to popular myth, and it hurt him to only hold the title for five days."

[8.0] "Good 80s babyface. Footage of the Last Battle of Atlanta against Buzz Sawyer was finally released on the WWE Network last year and the match did not disappointment. An amazing performance from Tommy in a sick, violent, feud-ender."

[8.0] "He was a great face in Georgia and was a great heel in Memphis (go watch his work in the Idol/Lawler hair feud). The problem with him was, outside of those two areas he was nothing special. Even so to hold the NWA World HEavyweight Championship even for a few short days means you were the man back when he held it. It would of been interesting to see what could of been if he had a longer run with that title, Rich might of been more than he was."

[5.0] "His nwa title run can be credited to jim barnett his promoter who had political power and a fondness for tommy. His feud with buzz swayer was pretty damn good though. Later he added value to the memphis area working with lawler. He really never was treated like a world champ though, and once his pretty boy looks vanished he was a very average mid card guy in smaller promotions for most his career"