By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta
8. Lance Storm
7. Christian
6. Chris Benoit
5: Trish Stratus
4. Owen Hart
3. Edge

2: Chris Jericho
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 231 lbs.
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Greatest Match: Chris Jericho/Chris Benoit vs. Triple H/Steve Austin – May 21, 2001

When canadianoftheweek.com approached me about writing a list of the 10 best Canadian wrestlers of the modern era, two questions ran through my mind.

1. Why does a guy from Seattle run a site about Canadians?

2. If Bret Hart is obviously first, who’s second through tenth?

Quick Aside: Yeah, I gave away next week’s entry. Don’t act surprised.

Another Quick Aside: If I can get through next week’s entry without using the word “Montreal,” I’ll receive a special Internet award. Apparently it hasn’t been done since late 1997.

Yet Another Quick Aside: Yes, leaving Roddy Piper off of this list was intentional. The Roddy Piper from 1985 to 1987 belongs high on this list. From 1989 and on the only thing I’ve really enjoyed of his was his brief feud with Bret Hart over the Intercontinental title. From then on he’s been all Hillary Clinton jokes and brutally boring matches. And, as usual, that’s just one guy’s opinion.

It wasn’t until I sat down and hammered out who belonged where that I realized a strong case could be made for Chris Jericho taking over Bret’s top spot…a surprisingly strong case.

I know, blasphemy. But, stick with me.

I tried breaking the two down into parallels. Bret’s pre-WWE stay in Stampede Wrestling was marked by phenomenal matches with a wide variety of performers. Jericho had awesome runs in WAR, SMW, and ECW before finally making the jump to the big leagues in WCW.

Son of Quick Aside: I saw Jericho and some guy named Rob Van Dam square off against the Eliminators in Reading, PA in ECW. One of the best matches I’ve ever seen live.

After being ignored a bit, Bret and his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart (as the Hart Foundation) had a great run on the top of the WWE tag division. It could be argued that the WWE tag ranks were the most entertaining part of the late ’80s WWE. In comparison, Jericho spun his wheels in WCW when he first entered. However, he took off once he created his “Conspiracy Victim” persona, dominating the Cruiserweight title. It could be argued that the WCW Cruiserweight division was the most entertaining part of WCW in the late ’90s.

Bret eventually took off in the singles ranks, proving that smaller, technical wrestlers could get over in McMahon’s land of muscle freaks. This helped pave the way for Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and others. Jericho eventually jumped to WWE and his popularity soared, proving to WCW wrestlers that WWE was the place to be for pushing new talent. This helped pave the way for Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and others.

After a long run at or near the top of the card, Bret Hart went on an extended hiatus after dropping a match to the next big thing Shawn Michaels. When he returned the landscape of the industry had changed and his face character wasn’t getting over like it used to. Bret revitalized his career by becoming the hottest heel the industry had seen in years. And while he was at it he turned in maybe some of the best performances of his career in his white-hot feud with Steve Austin.

After a long run at or near the top of the card, Chris Jericho retired after dropping a match to the next big thing John Cena. When he returned the landscape of the industry had changed and his witty, rock-and-roll character wasn’t getting over like it used to. Jericho revitalized his career by becoming the hottest heel the industry had seen in years. And while he was at it he turned in maybe some of the best performances of his career in his white-hot feud with Shawn Michaels.

With all of that being said, at the end of the day I did choose Bret over Jericho for two reasons. First, Bret was the main focus of the WWE for a time while Jericho’s biggest title reign (his Unified title run) played second fiddle to the nWo and Stephanie McMahon’s dog. And second, Bret’s freakish international popularity (in Germany in particular) is nearly impossible to top.

However, Jericho is still a top-notch performer. And who knows? Jericho’s still young, active and talented. He very well could overtake Bret one day.

And for those of you who think I was stretching with the Bret/Jericho parallels, here’s one more for you; they both won their most recent WWE titles after Shawn Michaels clobbered the Undertaker.

Creepy, I know.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.