My list was made considering wrestlers' overall impact on the show throughout the span of time I've been a viewer. Call the list generic if you want (certainly everyone's opinion will differ), but do understand that the list accounts for more factors than just "current popularity", "current state of character", "pure ring-talent", "who I like", etc. Keep in mind the perspective that viewers don't tune-in to watch a guy like CM Punk nowadays like viewers tuned-in to see a guy like The Rock or Stone Cold during the "Attitude Era". Take WWE's current roster and "PG" state, and put it up against WCW's old roster during the Monday Night Wars, and WWE would get CRUSHED.
To clarify a few points ...
... CM Punk should move higher up my list over time, but as of now, he hasn't done enough yet (over his career) to make the Top 10 (definitely has not topped Edge yet, in an overall sense)
... Randy Orton is where he is at because he is the last top level active roster guy with legitimate "Attitude Era" cred (F*CK JOHN CENA!!!), is PHENOMENALLY great as a heel (which essentially put him on the list), beat John Cena AND HHH in a championship match at Wrestlemania, and might go as high as Top 5 when he finally hangs his boots
... I am a major fan of Chris Jericho, and feel he was STELLAR as a heel (if he had that gimmick running during the Atttitude Era, he might be #6 on my list), but WWE has consistently nerfed his bookings on the show in order to put other guys over, so he has not had the amount of impact on the show over the years that he potentially could have, and I reflected this on my list
Point is, when talking about overall IMPACT in regards to an all-time list, you can't legitimately put someone over a guy like The Rock or Shawn Michaels simply because
you like him better. Rock/StoneCold/HBK/HHH/etc were CENTERPOINTS of their era(s), and NO ONE could STEAL ... THE ... SHOW quite like Shawn Michaels. So far, the best match CM Punk has had (impact/entertainment-wise) was his infamous match against Cena at Money in the Bank 2011, which benefited HEAVY by his AMAZING promos, Vince's involvement to parallel it with the "Montreal Screwjob", and the fact that his win could be seen as a big "F*** YOU!!" to the company. It was a RARE high point for WWE (which they quickly squandered), but it does not push Punk to the top of the list.
Anyway, I reiterate that people's opinions about this will naturally differ, so I care not to drag this on. I just wanted to chime-in on the couple posts I quoted earlier.
ADD:
And since I've mentioned Money in the Bank 2011, I'd like to say that CM Punk has taken a downgrade, SIGNIFICANTLY, since then. Just go back and watch that match, and remind yourself of the level Punk was at at that time. Nowadays, Punk is just the top heel on the show. Back then, he was BEYOND the "face/heel" status, he was BEYOND being just a character on the show, what he was was a giant "F*** YOU!!" to the company and all of its trends, tropes, stereotypes, generic acts, routines, conventions, etc. And all of that "magic", all of that "spark", plain and simply got lost over time, as WWE could not bear to actually center the show around someone not named John Cena. This can also be seen by the fact they had John Cena win over Brock Lesnar for ABSOLUTELY NO RESPECTABLE REASON at Extreme Rules last year.
**** JOHN CENA!!!!