Top 50 Greatest Wrestling Heels of all time

26. Nick Bockwinkel

A properly traditional, old school heel, Bockwinkel is probably the career posterboy for the AWA. The biggest heel of the promotion, Bockwinkel was a top worker having worked high-profile matches with some of the biggest names in the industry whether in the AWA or outside such as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Stan Hansen.

Bockwinkel held the 5 times for 2,990 days in total. He would also be a 3 times tag titleholder with Ray Stevens. As far as it goes for wrestlers who made their mark outside of WWF/E, Bockwinkel is a prime example having only wrestled a handful of matches for the organization in his illustrious career.

A sound worker, Bockwinkel was the most fine-tuned wrestler of his day, drawing heel heat in a way that carried the promotion through good and bad times helping bring them to prominence. Nick to many simply was the AWA and to be able to be one of the biggest stars of one of the big three wrestling companies in the US in the 80s must be some kind of accomplishment if nothing else.