The five best wrestling tribute videos

All Elite Wrestling's latest video celebrating Bryan Danielson's career will be remembered as one of the best tribute videos they've ever made. Over the last forty years of wrestling, there have been countless tribute videos that have aired on television, home videos, and social media platforms. However, there is one burning question that must be asked. What are the best wrestling tribute videos ever made?

While that's a great question with an impossible answer, I'm going to do my best and present my picks for the top five wrestling tribute videos of all time. From the videos that made us smile and cheer, to the videos that made us cry and sob like little babies, videos that remind us even in the worst times of our lives that pro wrestling will always put a smile on our faces.

Before I reveal my list, I want to share three rules I followed when creating this list. First, the video must have aired on television. It doesn't matter when it aired on television. Second, the video cannot be for a Hall of Fame induction. While I'm sure there are good videos out there, induction videos don't count. And finally, no fan-made videos. I've seen a lot of great fan-made videos, but for this list, I'm only looking at the wrestling promotions that create the videos.

The only video on this list that features an original song, “Tell Me a Lie” was one of the first tribute videos I remember as a kid being shown and used specifically for a wrestling angle. After Shawn Michaels collapsed during a match on Monday Night Raw in late 1995, the question was, would he ever wrestle again?

A few weeks later, a music video and song emerged that we still remember almost thirty years later. While the song is fantastic, the music video did a great job of showcasing Shawn Michaels as one of the best wrestlers in the WWF in the 1990s. Michaels was a showman every time he stepped into the ring and could take your breath away in a single second. The doubts that were put in our heads about whether Michaels would ever return to the ring make the video that much better.

I'm not sure we'll see as many tribute videos for a wrestler as we did in the 1990s, but this video still impacts those who followed the story. Heartbreaking, captivating, and mesmerizing, “Tell Me a Lie” never lied to us when this video came out. Almost thirty years later, it still holds a place in the hearts of many wrestling fans.

Extreme Championship Wrestling was one of the best wrestling promotions when it came to creating videos. From the annual November to Remember hype packages to the fun and sometimes hilarious “Pulp Fiction”-esque videos, ECW did a fantastic job. But when they made videos for wrestlers, they were great. The best video they ever made, in my opinion, is one I've watched a few times on YouTube, dedicated to one man, a man who helped put ECW on the map: Terry Funk.

Funk had already been in wrestling for over 30 years when he competed for ECW, and fans loved everything he did to entertain us and cheer him on. When ECW released their tribute video to Terry Funk to announce his upcoming match at Barely Legal, they couldn't have chosen a better song than “Desperado” by the Eagles. Funk had done it all in pro wrestling, winning championships all over the world, competing in some of the most outrageous matches of all time, and sometimes making us laugh.

When Terry Funk passed away last year, one video came to mind, this one. It is a perfect description of who this man was and what he meant to many people in pro wrestling. Whether you believe in the myth or the person Terry Funk, no one can ever deny the huge impact he had on pro wrestling and I don't think that impact will ever be felt again.

Surprisingly, when I was working on this list, this tribute video was not on my original list. However, after a friend suggested this video to me and thinking back after all these years, the video still has a huge impact on fans almost 25 years after it first aired. Premiering during the 2001 Invasion series, this brief look into WWF history was not only a tribute to the organization, but to the men and women who wrestled throughout its long and illustrious history.

The song “Lonely Road of Faith” sung by Kid Rock can be viewed in two ways. If you just listen to the song, it's about being helped by God and how you can overcome any situation. If you watch the video that the WWF made, it's not only about the history of the WWF, but also the difficult times they had when World Championship Wrestling defeated them on television. Additionally, given the recent attacks on the United States, this video was an encouraging video that gave us courage during dark, unprecedented times.

While this video is not on the WWE Network or Peacock, it can still be viewed on YouTube. For the WWF in 2001, this music video not only showcased the rich history that the WWF had, but also what it would be like for many years to come.

I remember the day Eddie Guerrero died like it was yesterday. I was in complete shock that Guerrero, who had conquered so many demons to achieve his career goal, was gone in the blink of an eye. The following night, on a taped episode of Raw, we saw the wrestlers on stage at the start of the show as we received a ten bell salute followed by a tribute video. The first image I remember from that episode was a father hugging a small child while they cried in the stands. Then we went to the music video.

The first few strings of the guitar were played and that's when I burst into tears and cried in my basement. Johnny Cash's cover of “Hurt” played as we watched one of the best tribute videos WWE has ever made. The lyrics of the song fit the highs and lows of Eddie Guerrero's career. From his lowest point to the very top while he lived his life to the fullest. This video lives on rent free in my head, a beautiful tribute to a wonderful man who left us far too soon.

Although a second tribute video aired on SmackDown that week, it was this tribute video that most impacted my opinion of Eddie Guerrero as a wrestler and as a person. Someone everyone loved, still loves today, and will never be forgotten.

If someone asked me in about fifteen or twenty years how to describe the year 2020 in a video, my answer would be simple. The December 30, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite contains every single emotion of perhaps the worst year of our lives in two hours. And all for a tribute show to a man who had died just four days earlier, Brodie Lee.

Although it was one of the best episodes of Dynamite to date, what I remember most was the end of the show. Cody Rhodes gave a short speech in the ring before introducing Brodie Lee's family. After Tony Khan declared Brodie Lee the TNT Champion for Life, a tribute video was shown. Just like the Guerrero video, I burst into tears. In the last four days after hearing the news of Lee's unexpected death, and all year, not many wrestling fans cried.

When “Ol' 55” by Tom Waits was played, we saw the wonderful life Lee had lived. It reminds us that we should enjoy everything we have in our lives because we never know when something or someone will be taken from us. Through this video, the song was given a second life for new fans. Many comments on YouTube about the song mention that this video led them to this song and remember a true gentle giant. Brodie Lee is gone, but his spirit will never leave those who were touched by him.

This is by far the hardest list I've had to make. There have been so many great tribute videos made in pro wrestling over the years and I'm sure some of your favorites didn't make the list. But no matter what you think of this list, these videos have made an impression on wrestling fans and will continue to impress fans for years to come. Wrestling-related tribute videos will continue to air and who knows, maybe some will be better than these five, but they will always stay with us as a reminder of what we love and that is pro wrestling.