 What's good, Josh Bo Ross back again with another video. So we're going to check out aerial artists, WWE's greatest high flyers. This should be a great video, man. WWE over the years have had some fantastic high flying wrestlers that, you know, when you're watching, you know, live at the arena or where you, whether you're watching at home and just seeing these guys do these aerial moves has always been fantastic to me, especially growing up as a kid, watching Jeff Hardy literally jump from wherever it didn't matter how hot it was, Jeff was going to jump from it. It was always a sight to see, man. It was always super cool, man. And I give respect to those wrestlers that are willing to put their body on a line to once again entertain us, man, because those moves are definitely dangerous and you shouldn't be trying them at home at all. So we're going to take out some of these great high flyers from the from the past man and current ones. I'm sure you do have on the list. Appreciate all love and support. You guys are so on our channel. Let's get right into the few styles of wrestling. I ain't even got my hands on y'all heard it, but I didn't hear it. There we go. Or exciting to watch the lucha after all with its acrobatic and high flying feel, it makes it hard to turn away from the screen. Of course, this has led to a lot of wrestlers from outside Mexico also picking it up and making it their own. And the stars of WWE have been no exception to this. Yes, for decades now, New York has been home to some of the best athletes in the world. But who are the best of the best? Well, that's exactly what we're going to do at today. So join us as we take a deep dive into aerial assassins. WWE's greatest high flyers will show. And if we want to find one of the earliest examples of this phenomenon in a WWF ring, we have to travel all the way back to the early 80s, the days before Hulkamania existed. But who could have been capable of putting on such an athletic body of work back then? Why none other than Jimmy Snuka, of course. Yes, after spending the decade prior building his name on the territory circuit, Superfly Jimmy Snuka joined Vince McMahon's promotion in 1982 and they're quickly wowed fans with what he was capable of. And this meant filling his matches with lots of high flying action, the likes of which most had never seen. But then why would they have? After all, before Snuka came along, New York was the land of slower, more lumbering big men like Bruno San Martino and Superstar Billy Graham. So when a seemingly gravity defying man from Fiji appeared and showed audiences a whole new world, it quickly turned him into the biggest star the promotion had. Seriously, before Hulk Hogan became the top baby face under Vince McMahon. It was Jimmy Snuka who fans have no one had seen aerial moves like that. No one is seen to my jumping from the top rope. Jumping from the top of the cage. No one's seen that. So it was just like this dude's flying. You know, it was it was surreal back then. This is to their hearts. And this was a love which was only fostered more when he went up against heels like Ray Stevens, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Don Morocco. Hell during a steel cage bout with the ladders back Superfly forever etched his name in history when he performed a big splash off the top of the cage and inspired a young man in the audience named Mick Foley to try out this whole wrestling thing for himself. Sadly though as the mid 80s rolled around Snuka star had fallen somewhat due to the introduction of far more popular figures like the Hulkster and macho man Randy Savage. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the fact he was implicated in the death of his girlfriend Nancy Archantino in 1983 meant management would have to be a lot more careful about pushing him going forward. In case it became apparent he'd murdered her. So with all these factors coming together to make things extra difficult Snuka made the decision to leave WWF in 1985 and while he would return again for a while in the early 90s most notably to be the first victim of the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak. Most now remember him for the pioneering work he did in bringing high flying wrestling to New York. But even if he was arguably the first it doesn't mean he was the best high flyer to ever work for Vince McMahon. No there are plenty of other performers who can hold the claim to that crown. And if we're looking at direct descendants of the lucha style we really don't have to look any further than with a member of the famed Guerrero family themselves Eddie Guerrero recipes Eddie man as the son of the iconic Gori Guerrero creator of the camel clutch Eddie when he started wrestling in the mid 80s. So it's just as well he turned out to be an absolute prodigy then someone who could outshine just about anyone he shared a ring with. This was apparent with WCW ECW AAA and New Japan pro wrestling it all reached another level once he joined WWF in 2000. Why was that well now with a bigger audience than ever watching his matches Latino heat got to turn himself into one of the most beloved fan favorites in modern memory. Hell even when he was supposed to be a sleazy heel one who lied cheated and stole his way to victory. People loved him were so magnetic that audiences couldn't help but falling in love with him. But it wasn't just his charisma which drew them to the Texas native. No they were also wowed by his high flying and why wouldn't they be because they continue to stand out even when Eddie was in the depths of drug addiction. Of course for most men such addiction would have eventually caused their in ring talents to subside but luckily in Eddie's case he was eventually able to get them under control and from there become an arguably even better wrestler and that was how in what probably ranks as his greatest moment he'd use his high flying athletics to get the better of Brock Lesnar at February 15th 2004 such a legendary moment become WWE Champion. Yes, it was a feel good moment which only Mick Foley or Daniel Bryan's big title wins can really compete with facts it's not even it's that it's that moment like that underdog because going against Brock at that time Eddie was still the underdog in the situation but it's just something about those title rings were not towering those moments of those wrestlers winning winning the big prize the WWE Championship someone that you didn't expect to do it but you wanted to believe in actually get a job done such a it's a goose bump inducing moment and as such it's one which will be remembered forever that said it's not the only time an underdog high flyer has had a huge title win in WWE as years later in 2019 Kofi Kingston made his case for being one of the best when he did exactly the same thing but part of the reason this was so powerful was because for over a decade prior Kingston had been one of the most underappreciated wrestlers on the roster for sure who every fan knew was incredibly talented who was never seen by management is any more than midcard still even if he'd never rose above intercontinental title level the Ghana born star continue to put out great matches on a regular basis whether this be in the singles division against the likes of Randy Orton or in tag team action alongside his new day stable mates Big E and Xavier Woods and it was this very consistency which eventually led management to trust him when after he caught fire following a breakout performance of February 2019 elimination chamber fans suddenly started demanding he be in the WrestleMania main event of course you all know what happens next Kofi Mania ran wild in Kingston beat Daniel Bryan at the showcase of the Immortals to be still one of the greatest that's such a good it's so good and poetic because once again the roles had to switch Daniel Bryan was the heel he was now the champion he came off like you know Kofi you're just a B your B plus player that's about it Kofi like and it's funny how the dynamics change and I like I said I upset this before and past videos one of my favorite promos before WrestleMania was Kofi saying you know how this story ends oh that was such a good moment and come WWE Champion but while this was a great moment in a vacuum make no mistake the only reason it ever got to that point was because Kofi had been such a great high-flying wrestler for such a long time everyone believed in him when the time came hell they continue to believe in him today in fact even if he's for the most part returned to the tag team division as he proved to everyone on the roster that with enough persistence and hard work you can get your moment no doubt another incredibly skilled high flyer currently stuck on the SmackDown midcard has been taking careful notes then because when it comes to and he may get a good summer slam moment between him and Logan Paul I am looking forward to that match it's crazy saying that I'm looking forward to another Logan Paul match but this time with Ricochet I think they could potentially have match of the night Logan Paul and Ricochet I think they could potentially have match of the night it's going to be fantastic and I can't wait for it bro Shay all he needs is an opportunity and he'll show everyone exactly how good he is and yes most hardcore fans have long been aware of what Trevor Mann can do as he's already proved himself to be a human highlight reel in the likes of PWG Dragon Gate New Japan pro wrestling and lucha underground dude is fantastic he's had some generational classics against the likes of Will Ospreay and Ray Phoenix bouts which at times appeared to defy the laws of physics facts as far as WWE audiences are concerned though they've only had a taste of what he's capable of thus far and that's what makes his future so potentially right because while he's shown some very impressive acrobatic skills during his time out and so good is North American champion and then on the main roster where he's been both a United States champion and Intercontinental champion the moment he really gets let off the leash it'll be another story altogether why is this well there's quite literally no one else who can do what he can do in the modern day really I think that's what works with him he's the one wrestler some can say he does all the flips and dives but I don't think he over does it I think it fits his character I think it fits him he's the one guy that he does stuff people are going to be in awe of it like he's the only person that can do the moves he does effectively and safely and he's great at selling he can make you look like a billion dollars so I think he's that unique wrestler that WWE has right now there's no ricochet there's no other ricochet in the world but the moves he does the way he's transitions in the moves the way he sells moves for opponents dude he has it is he the best on the microphone no he's definitely not he's definitely not but maybe one day I don't know what is going to take is going to take some type of great feud maybe one day maybe not saying it it couldn't happen because he has to look to be a top champion but maybe one day he could be the WWE champion you know the universal champion on the speedy universal champion who knows he's at his best or a heavyweight champion wrestling on the moon one who's fully aware he's no longer bound by gravity yes it's scary to think that well he's already done enough to earn himself a spot on this list he's still got so much more left yeah and because of that by time he's done he might just end up being the greatest high flyer of all time for sure hell we wouldn't even be surprised to see him eventually become a world champion under Triple H and if we're really lucky we might still get treated to watching him work a program with another of the greatest high flyers in WWE history and that's none other than Ray Mysterio now we don't have to tell you who Ray Mysterio after all not only is he one of the best luchadors of all time he's one of the greatest wrestlers in general back how did he reach this level though well by stealing the show everywhere he went whether that be in the like Triple A CMLL ECW WCW or perhaps most famously WWE that's right while Ray was already well known as being one of the greatest athletes of his generation by the time he made it to New York in 2002 it was the additional exposure here which took him to another level altogether raise that God and this meant the largely Hispanic audience of Smackdown got a new hero to watch every week as they saw the diminutive star prove someone at only five foot six in height could be a top guy of course even with his generation defining high flying skills and display here it still took a while for Mysterio to convince Vince McMahon he could be at that level but over time with an aerial offense which no one could match and a growing fan base of fans both young and old on his side he was able to get the boss on board to the point that in 2005 he'd win the Royal Rumble and then go on to become World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania 22 and sure the title reign which followed turned out to be a bit of a mess but that was no fault of Ray's yeah no it was his booking that was the culprit here of course something he proved by continuing to be excellent for years after the fact in fact when his career appeared to be winding down in the mid 2010s stem cell therapy on his knees reinvigorated the lucha star to the point where he was able to move like a man 20 years his junior and this meant that after a spell working for AAA and lucha underground when he returned to WWE in 2018 he was able to keep up with the current generation of performers like Andrade and AJ Styles the only question is now how much longer can he keep going for yeah will he continue on for a while yet or will he ultimately hand the mantle over to his son Dominic sooner rather than later we guess we'll just have to wait and see but either way he's secured his spot in the history books regardless of course and he's not the only former Extreme Championship wrestling star in this video as it happens because well Ray is no doubt a legend beloved by all even he might argue Rob Van Dam is just as good if not better sure that's certainly a bold statement and one you can all discuss in the comments below there's really no right or wrong answer it's all down RVD man we love you RVD thing we can be sure of though is that even if you don't rank him as the absolute best RVD has to be among the all-time great High Flyers in WWE of course and that's because if nothing else he was an ECW original who managed to make it all the way to the top of the mountain under Vince McMahon yes the Sandman Taz Tommy Dreamer and Raven great as they were certainly weren't breaking through that glass ceiling why was this well in the boss's mind the extreme Philly promotion always had the stink of being something far more low rent than what he pictured the industry as yeah so that's why it's so impressive that after joining WWE in 2001 as part of the invasion angle Van Dam quickly got over with not only fans but with Vince himself yeah don't believe us just take a look at the fact that after only three months on the roster he was main eventing pay-per-views with Kurt Angle and Steve Austin that said this is very true bro they put the rocket ship on RVD and no one could get bad about it it's RVD bro he was so great his moves so fluid bro oh man as much as fans might have wanted it at this point one line McMahon wasn't going to cross was to put the world title on the Michigan native no if he wanted to earn this honor he'd have to fight much harder luckily then RVD was more than up to the task as picking up right where he left off an ECW he changed the game with his innovative in-ring skills which mixed high-flying lucha with martial arts yes anyone who was a fan at the time will no doubt remember being wowed when they first saw him go coast to coast with a van terminator or show us exactly what could be done with the cage during the original elimination chamber match and I think that's when he accidentally crushed triple H his throat and triple H was writhing in pain and eventually this impressive body of work even got the boss on board too as at June 2006 is one night stand pay-per-view Mr. Monday night beat John Cena to become not only the WWE champion but also the new ECW world champion sadly though his penchant for getting high would come back to biting heroes after getting caught driving to a show with a bag of weed in his car not long thereafter Van Damme would be suspended as a result would have to quickly drop both belts but even if this signaled the end of his main event run it didn't damage his reputation and fans eyes at all no all they cared about was watching him continue to pull off athletic feats that few could match of course give it down I mean obviously the company has to do that it's part of their policy and stuff like that fans and give fuck they were still fucking Rob van damn like what are we talking about for as great as he was though there were still a few others on the roster at the same time who could challenge RVD for the title of most innovative high flyer and of those names perhaps not stood out from the pack quite as much as the charismatic enigma himself Jeff Hardy but really what Jeff was doing predated Van Damme's time in WWE because as far back as 1999 he and his brother Matt were reinventing tag team wrestling for a new generation alongside the likes of the Dudley boys and Christian and while Matt has since been considered the better creative mind of the two there remains no doubt who the most influential actual wrestler was because watching Jeff Hardy perform death defying stunts on a regular basis at the turn of the Millennium led to a generation of younger stars taking to the ring for the first time facts seriously without Jeff Hardy we wouldn't have the likes of the Young Bucks or Darby Allen today nope and it wasn't just his tag team wrestling which inspired them either no after realizing how big of a star he had on his hands Vince McMahon broke Jeff away into the singles division in the early 2000s and there pushed him to the moon that was such a great moment when he won the WWE Championship all such a great moment sadly though these pushes often never went as well as they should have on account of the youngest Hardy's continued substance abuse issues but even if this did shackle him down somewhat it was never enough to hold them to the ground fully as whenever a tall structure was nearby he was going to find a way to jump off of it and here's the thing Jeff got plenty plenty plenty plenty plenty of chances not even hold you he got multiple chances as he's been in trouble for substance abuse for quite a while so WWE knew what they had on their hands it's not even a question and I'm talking about in the early years I'm not talking about his last run because I think they didn't really truly appreciate him as they should have but early years you know they knew they had a gym. Hell so crazy was he that audiences couldn't help but be glued to their screens whenever he was on and this at one point even translated to him briefly becoming the number one merch seller in the entire company or so than John Cena in fact it's just a shame he couldn't keep his demons under control then as for as high as he went who knows how much higher he might have gone had things been different maybe we'd even be talking about him on the same level as someone who's widely regarded to be one of the greatest if not the greatest wrestler of all time and that's Sean Michaels here we go the heartbreak kid has rightfully earned his spot on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling as he was someone who in the 90s was able to take his peerless high flying skills and become at times the only person worth talking about and once he was done spending that decade having instant classics against the likes of Bret Hart razor Ramon and the Undertaker he then had an arguably even bigger second run during the two or where he upped the game against Chris Jericho Kurt Angle Triple H and countless others yeah but what was it that made him stand out so much after all there were a lot of great high flyers in WWE by this point well when it came to Sean not only was he incredibly athletically gifted but he also had the ring IQ needed to craft some of the best matches ever with his talents sometimes this was done through means of innovation as was the case with the ground breaking ladder match against razor Ramon or Hell in a Cell match against the Undertaker during his first turn and sometimes it was just done through sheer bare bones storytelling something which can be seen in each of his WrestleMania classics with the dead man in the late 2000s bro of course for anyone else then this would be enough to merit giving them a slot on this video alone but for HPK it's only scratching the surface of his resume yes if we really wanted to we could make mention of the hidden gems he had against folks like mankind and Shelton Benjamin as if that weren't enough there's also the fact that pretty much every high flying young wrestler today was in some way inspired to get into the business by him and one of the people inspired is our next entry as it happens not that this person is defined by being a heartbreak kid clone in any way because when it comes to John Morrison his parkour inflected offense owes a debt to no one still though at least during his early days the man of a thousand names career mirrored his heroes anyway when Morrison started out his run in WWE during the mid 2000s as something of a tag team specialist yes whether that be alongside Joey Mercury as part of M&M or teaming with the Miz after that the Californians first chance to shine on the big stage and those times are beautiful bro but that all changed by the time the late 2000s rolled around as then moving over to singles competition Morrison proved he had what it took when he won the intercontinental title on three separate occasions and with this singles push came an increased awareness of his abilities by management something which led them to trusting him enough to put him in pretty much every ladder match which took place thereafter yeah that's right if you needed a reliable high flyer to get the crowd excited you could always count on John Morrison but it wasn't just ladder matches he excelled at because anything which required a spectacular style of offense was well within his wheelhouse hell even when he left WWE and went on to work for the likes of impact lucha underground and AAA he remained one of the highlights of any card he was on and when in 2019 he made his comeback to the place which in first brought him fame he proved he hadn't lost a step with him still even at that point being able to outshine almost everyone else around him unfortunately though since then Morrison has left WWE again to go play his craft elsewhere thankfully the same can't be said for our next entry today however as when it comes to Shelton Benjamin decides to be honest with you showing everyone why he's one of the best high flyers of his generation but wait we hear you ask surely the gold standard skill lay in his crisp mat work well yeah he has that in spades but what made him stand out so much was that he wasn't just limited to this nope no when called upon Benjamin also take to the air in a way that would have made most high flyers blush and it was this jack of all trade style which allowed him to be slotted into any spot required and excel once there it didn't matter if it was as part of a tag team with Charlie Haas as a singles wrestler fighting over the intercontinental championship or as a member of the hurt business stable few if any we're able to keep up with him when he was at his best of course this should have been evident to anyone who is paying attention as far back as 2000 though because there amongst an Ohio Valley wrestling class which also included John Cena Brock Lesnar Dave Batista and Randy Orton Shelton still managed to make his presence felt that's crazy when he made it up to the roster a couple of years later then he continued to stand out as one of the key mid card acts on both SmackDown and RAW with him becoming a three time intercontinental champion and one time United States champion during this time as well as a two time tag team champion as well in fact his first run with the former belt would go so well that it ended up lasting for 244 days making it the youngest rain of that decade but it's not just his ability to win gold which earns Shelton a spot on this list. No, it's also the way he managed to create some truly magic moments such as his often show stealing goals in the bank ladder matches or the time he took the greatest sweet chin music of all time from Shawn Michaels in 2000 and like Sean said it's really Sheldon Sheldon is really the one making this look as as good as it did because he has to be able to get to that side of the ring. He has to be athletic enough how the balance to get to that side of the ring because all Sean does. He's just waiting for the Q and to hit him with the superkick. It's really Sheldon that makes this move that legendary one of the best super kicks of all time. Fantastic bro for and while many of his peers since then have wound down their careers. He has continued to go on strong proving that the gold standard is more than just a nickname to him. It's a way of life. Hey man, this was a great video. This is fantastic seeing these high flyers and seeing these guys like really go out there and you know really do the you know entertain us like putting their athletic abilities on showcase for us to be entertained. It's fantastic and you know I love to see videos like this showing appreciation love to the legends and the goats of this wrestling industry in this wrestling business. So come down below. Let me know what's your favorite. Well, who's your favorite high flyer of all time for me. I'm always have a special place in my heart for Jeff and you know I want him to you know keep doing this thing and you know stay you know stay away from the substance the different substances and drugs and stuff like that. I want him to be able to focus on his love for wrestling you know I'm saying and I hope he's able to maintain that but Jeff will always have a special place in my heart because when I started watching wrestling seen this guy legitimately jump from whatever it's just surreal to me and it's still surreal to me to this day. So let me know your favorite high flyer of all time but I appreciate all love and support you guys shown on channel road to 150k and I'm still in this beauty YouTube wrestling champion world appreciate your kicking me see our next one. Peace.