While Abdulah is no where near the greatest in technical aspects such as being a worker (Abby was a poor worker obviously), playing a face or cutting promos (obviously), Butcher's impact on wrestling is quite profound, as at the time the things that he was pulling with the excessive blading and the violent style of wrestling were quite revolutionary and hadn't been seen yet on the scale abdulah displayed.
The original Sheik is credited with Abby for inventing hardcore wrestling to the mainstream, but the sheik's heel heat derived more from intimidation and playing the part of a pshychopath instead of being bloodlusted. Blood and weapon wrestling was quite uncommon before the Butcher innovated the depths at which you could go to entertain the fans who aren't squemish. A young fan might say "big deal the guy jabbed at people with a fork and made them bleed so what". Well Abdulah's ability to draw as the original hardcore monster layed the foundation for hardcore wrestling to be expanded to what it is today, hence Abby has directly or indrectly influenced such hardcore legends as Terry Funk, Mick Foley, ECW as a whole and CZW to name a few examples.
While Abdulah was not the first big man wrestler to utilize brawling, his slow pacing and heel psychology much like the Original Sheik layed down the blueprint for future brawling big men who would later expand this style like Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen (coincidentally also 2 men who teamed together in Japan finding huge success there and in Brody's case is regarded as an North American legend as well)
Abdulah when working as a face ( a rarity) would also be known for comebacks after absorbing alot of punishmets, which of course is pretty trend setting as this role is ususally reversed, since ususally the biggest threat slowly chases the smaller pray and once fought against loses. While I am unsure if Abby was the first to make comebacks for super heavyweights, I would imagine it would, and if it is then perhaps this little piece of wrestling opened the door for Undertaker and Hulk Hogan to belivably do the same thing despite the fact that like Abby, they have the size advantage in most of their matchups.
Perhaps Abbie's greatest atribute is his longevity in the business, a trait that every IWC critic should hold in mind when evaluating the greatness of a wrestler. As previously mentioned, in an business where 20 years is considered quite a feat, Abdulah had 5 total decades, remaining pretty relevant right up until the mid 90s. Wrestling everyone from Thez to Hogan at some point, Abdulah may not have an GOAT catalogue by any stretch, but he has many matches particularly in Japan that are seen as revolutionary in hardcore wrestling, particularly his feud with Carlos Calon in Puerto Rico.
