I Don't Get It

[Carbomb]

Bear in mind that, even if there might have been doubts about Hogan's look, they'd pretty much established a precedent in Billy Graham, so you can see why he became the man from a company perspective at least.

[King Pitcos]

Ric Flair. I hate Ric Flair. Apart from photos where he was young and fat, he's been a hundred years old for his entire career and always looks like granddad trying to reclaim his youth. Stupid speech impediment, cries at everything. More plagued by arrogance, insecurity and cronyism than any old-timer (which is saying a lot). I did get into his feud with Macho Man and a fair bit of his Evolution stuff, so I can appreciate his character work. His matches are phoney as fuck though, no bad thing in itself but I've never seen anything from him that shows what Austin and Michaels etc loved about him or that gets him the Best Ever tags. He's always seemed like a crap throwback compared to the top wrestlers of any era that I've been a fan. I just assume that to be a big fan of Naitch, you either had to be there at the time in his 80s heyday, or have a touch of the "I prefer the sound of vinyl, actually" about you.

 

The last sentence of the previous paragraph also applies to Duthty Rhodeth. Even worse than Flair. At least Flair had the robes. Dusty's a fat white bloke with bleached hair playing a parody of a black man.

 

Bret Hart. Just a boring, robotic performer. The playing possum thing wound me up loads as a kid as well. I'm still upset that Mr Perfect didn't win King of the Ring '93. Shitbag who personifies how dull wrestling got between the booms. There are a bunch of his feuds and matches I liked, but I could never get behind him the way I could with Hogan, Warrior, Michaels etc. "I had a cold that night" is as bad as "I lost my smile" as well.

 

Yokozuna. Nowhere near as revered as the three above, but gets brought up sometimes in "best big man" discussions and I just don't get it. None of his matches hold up for me, and barely did at the time.

 

To throw in a modern one, Cesaro. He's improved loads since his debut, but he's still little more than a good hand. I don't see any huge future in him because he's still failing to get across any personality, though all it'll take is one good angle to change my mind on that I suppose. He's the only one of the five that can change my mind.

[Dirty Eddie]

The last sentence of the previous paragraph also applies to Duthty Rhodeth. Even worse than Flair. At least Flair had the robes. Dusty's a fat white bloke with bleached hair playing a parody of a black woman.

 

 

I've just corrected that little typo at the end there for you. I completely agree, by the way, I never got how Dusty became a real superstar/top guy. I kinda liked him when I was eleven as he seemed like a nice, friendly bloke, but he was about a thousand leagues away from my perception of people Like Hogan and Macho Man. Everything about him was just funny; the hair, the eyes, the silly voice, the dancing and jiving. He just seems like a comedy character. My favourite Dusty time is actually his ridiculous commentary from WCW. That was often genuinely funny and Dusty laughing at his own silliness is utterly contagious.

 

You are still wrong about Cesaro though, but at least you are moving in the right direction.

[tiger_rick]

Yokozuna. Nowhere near as revered as the three above, but gets brought up sometimes in "best big man" discussions and I just don't get it. None of his matches hold up for me, and barely did at the time.

Completely agree.

 

To throw in a modern one, Cesaro. He's improved loads since his debut, but he's still little more than a good hand. I don't see any huge future in him because he's still failing to get across any personality, though all it'll take is one good angle to change my mind on that I suppose. He's the only one of the five that can change my mind.

You're spot on.

 

Bret Hart. Just a boring, robotic performer. The playing possum thing wound me up loads as a kid as well. I'm still upset that Mr Perfect didn't win King of the Ring '93. Shitbag who personifies how dull wrestling got between the booms. There are a bunch of his feuds and matches I liked, but I could never get behind him the way I could with Hogan, Warrior, Michaels etc. "I had a cold that night" is as bad as "I lost my smile" as well.

You massive cunt!

[Astro Hollywood]

When I was a kid I thought Dusty's gimmick was 'super gay black man'.

[ColinBollocks]

I never got the love for The Miz as a main eventer. Even when he was on the rise from the midcard, I always thought he always looked like a wee lad playing a wrestler. Another thing that was puzzling was people on here going on about how great of a babyface he would make, which made no sense to me seeing as he always came across as a berk.

 

The Jerry Lawler feud was about the only time I found his work enjoyable, but I credit that to Lawler bringing some of his prime MemphoPower into the feud and dragging The Miz up several thousand levels. It also helped I could buy The Miz having a competitive match with an old bloke, rather than a young in shape wrestler.

 

I'm glad, in the end, I was proven right and he's floating about doing nowt.

 

His goo bazooka is unloading on Maryse, though. So he wins in the end.

[Ric Flair's Divorce Lawyer]

I think to enjoy Flair and Dusty Rhodes as wrestlers, you needed to be a fan back in the 80s. I imagine at the time people wanted to be like Flair because he seemed cool while Dusty was the common man who people identified with at the time. Whereas now when I look back on them, Flair looks like he wrestled the same type of matches and Dusty was a fat bloke with charisma.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I remember being absolutely enthralled by Dusty's promo at SummerSlam 90 when I was a kid. "I offered her my innocence and she paid me back in scorn". I totally felt for him when his black mate got a fur coat off Ted DiBiase and a WWF bag they used to sell in Woolies with money in it. It was like "Dusty cant afford the bag let alone the fur coat". I always got why he was so popular. He had a way of putting across emotion that you just dont get from someone like Curt Hennig or Rick Rude (as good as they were). He didn't have their body or their ring work, but he was the common man. Just a commoner who happened to do Muhammad Ali impressions with a lisp.

[Undefeated Steak]

Edit - In reply to ColinBollock's post (great username btw):

 

I accepted Miz as champion by virtue of the roster being piss weak at the time and preferring him over the other 'new phase' of wrestlers like Sheamus, Barrett and Ziggler. It's a shame he got to headline a Wrestlemania though and I can see why some of the boys got pissed off with his push. That Lawler feud highlighted the gulf of talent between the likes of Miz and legends like Lawler.

[The Cutting Edge]

Mark Henry - to me he's just Slow and lumbering and boring to watch, I know 'Menry' is a favorite on here but to me he's just awful, Ive seen his 'best' matches so its not a case of Ive missed his 2010-13 run so still remember him as Nation Henry.

 

Great Khali- Just awful, watching guys run into his chop etc is depressing to watch and his body is melting, he's not the least but threatening a crappy mix of Andre The Giant and Gonzalez

[Astro Hollywood]

Don't get Batista. His mid-life crisis douche-wardrobe might work if it was ironic, but it's not. He stinks on the mic, and in the ring. His ring stuff is so awkward and so clearly doesn't look like it hurts, that he seems like a bodybuilder that got cast in wrestling-set episode of Diagnosis Murder. He's action-figure like, in the way his body seems to be fixed in one position all the time, even when selling; that open-thighed half squat. Just terrible. Good in films, mind.

[King Pitcos]

The Miz was really good in the tag team with Morrison, then brilliant from the day he started calling out injured Cena. Best baddie in wrestling, smug and punchable and didn't court cheers. Of course, Cena had the last laugh there in the end, and Miz never recovered from that demotion. Now, he's just another Ziggler/Sheamus/Kofi/Swagger/Sandow and the worst thing is he doesn't even stand out amongst that group.

 

You are still wrong about Cesaro though, but at least you are moving in the right direction.

Well I'm only going by his WWE stuff. Lend me some of your ROH DVDs to show me what all the fuss is about.

[Vamp]

Dusty has some proper cracking promos under his belt, promos that transcend wrestling promos for me. He was really able to touch into something that everyone (or not as it seems) could feel and relate it to wrestling. Very few people know what it's like to face the heavyweight champion of the world when he and his ccronies have shattered your leg, but there's a lot of people in the world who can relate to 'hard Times' and see his struggle as their own. His matches are pretty lousy though. I don't think Dusty is one of the all time greats but I think his highlights, those epic promos, are up there in terms of the best things wrestling has ever produced.

[Dirty Eddie]

The Miz was really good in the tag team with Morrison, then brilliant from the day he started calling out injured Cena. Best baddie in wrestling, smug and punchable and didn't court cheers. Of course, Cena had the last laugh there in the end, and Miz never recovered from that demotion. Now, he's just another Ziggler/Sheamus/Kofi/Swagger/Sandow and the worst thing is he doesn't even stand out amongst that group.

 

You are still wrong about Cesaro though, but at least you are moving in the right direction.

Well I'm only going by his WWE stuff. Lend me some of your ROH DVDs to show me what all the fuss is about.

 

 

I'll have to borrow a large van or truck to fit em all in. I'll see what I can do!

 

--

 

Miz and Morrison were a great double act and Miz was a really fun heel, but he was treated like such an afterthought that he may as well have not even been in that Mania main event. The idea that anyone thought he'd be a great face is mental though. Just a dick-bag in every sense (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). Morrison was only good as a heel too. He was alright as an aloof, poncy heel but had no personality whatsoever as a face.

[Reznor]

The Steiner Brothers. They were ok but nowhere near as great as loads of people rate them imo. With them, it was all about the flash and the cool moves that you never saw in those days.

 

It's one thing remembering them fondly for nostalgia, but as someone who still watches old matches now and again, and thinks that how stuff holds up is important when talking about greatness in the present day, insisting that they're one of the best teams ever is incomprehensible to me.

 

Take away their fancy suplexes and there wasn't much else to them. If they tried to work a basic match of clotheslines and bodyslams, it'd be fast forward material - they'd barely hold your interest, unlike great power teams with a genuine presence and aura, like the LOD.

 

Funnily enough, the only time I did like them was their WWF run where they were clearly forced to rein themselves in, and tone their shit down. The result was a lot of fun matches with better pacing, allowing you to digest the cool moves, and at least remember all the spots when the match was over.

 

That's probably the most glaring one for me, as I think everybody and their dog loves everything about the Steiners, but i've always thought the praise has been exaggerated. Probably partly because It was years afterwards when I saw most of their early 90s WCW stuff, and all their spots and suplexes weren't unique any more.

 

Actually, maybe Kurt Angle tops that, as he's so popular, you hear folks talking about him in terms of best ever, which is utter madness. I did like him to begin with, through 2000 and right up until Edge shaved him bald. After that, I quickly grew to find his whole schtick boring, whether he was trying to be funny or serious. I find most of his matches extremely dull and repetive too, particularly the 'long, 'epic' ones.

 

Others would include Booker T; An extremely dull, unfunny and unengaging man who had no place in main event scenes. Shit matches, shit mannerisms, shit personality, and shit patter. The most interesting thing about him was his fiery tights, but he ditched them in '99 for plainness, which was rather fitting.

 

Kidman also. He was pretty over back in the day and I have no idea what the attraction was. He was well suited as a number in the flock. Once he branched out, however, he was extremely uncompelling and looked like shit with the jorts and vest. His popularity is a headscratcher for me, it's not even like he was positioned as some sort of underdog to draw sympathy or anything - they put him in the cruiserweight division where he towered over most of his opponents. He was really awful by the time he reached the WWF.

 

Not a wrestler, but a move; that convoluted short arm clothesline from some guy in Japan that was causing such a commotion a year or two ago. I checked out what the fuss was all about, even watched a short compilation of it. Anyways, turned out the answer was 'not very much'. It was shit. Looked like it was preceded by some sort of waltzing dance move. If you want to see a good short arm clothesline, look to Vader, Finlay, or Jake with the added (but importantly, not contrived) arm twist. The bloke did generally look quite impressive otherwise to be fair, but that finisher was rank, considering the hype it was getting

 

I'd go on about all the main shitarses I don't like, such as Konnan, Justin Credible etc, but i don't think there's too many folk who do actually like those types. Miz was a good shout earlier too. it's mental that he managed to wangle his way into a 'Mania main event!