RIP Kamala

[Cod Eye]

9 hours ago, Michael_3165 said:

Shit worker, fantastic gimmick. I suspect that gimmick isn't likely in 2020 though!! 

Bless him I know his health was shit. Rip

What makes hime a shit worker? He wrestled a style that was believable and fit his gimmick. I can't ever think of reading or hearing about a time he hurt anyone in the ring either. His time in the UK as the Mississippi Mauler and with promotions around the world also show that he could adapt to working different styles too.

His style of work may not be one that appeals to you personally, but "shit worker" is really wide of the mark...

[tiger_rick]

2 hours ago, Michael_3165 said:

The gimmick carried him all the way. 

And worked itself presumably?

[wandshogun09]

What style would someone expect a big monster wild man from Uganda to have? It wouldn’t have fit his gimmick at all if he went out there hitting bridging German suplexes or rolling around like Johnny Saint. Whether he was capable of them or not, the ‘Ugandan Giant’ gimmick didn’t call for Meltzer 5* classics. What he did was perfect for the character he was portraying at the time. 

[CavemanLynn]

Has someone just discovered "work rate"?

[Your Fight Site]

0 dives + 0 superkicks + 0 flips = “shit worker”.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

It's ok Mickey_Numbers, the Young Bucks are super kicking his coffin into the grave and then double shooting star pressing the earth once it's been filled. Da Meltz is giving it 4 stars, Kamala can rest knowing he was a better worker in death than he ever was in life. 

[CavemanLynn]

There's definitely a bell curve to this kind of thinking. As a kid, it was all about characters like Kamala and Taker scaring the shit out of me. Then you get to your teens, get 'smart', learn a couple of insider terms and start spotting spots, and swing wildly toward the technical spectrum. Anyone who can't do solid chain is shit. And then you get to my age (late 30s, GAH!), when you yourself can even think of bumping like the young'uns, and you go back to appreciating all the little details you didn't realise you were loving when you were a kid again. Nostalgia ain't what it seems, but it does put things in perspective. No one's putting Kamala in with the all stars, but he was a great worker.

[CTXRussomark]

I always thought he was the shits, though appreciate my whole exposure to him was from his 90's WWF run onwards.  I was still a believer when he turned up to feud with Taker but even back then I though he was a bit shit and certainly didn't view him as any sort of threat.  I assume his 80s run was a different story but I've never been inclined to seek out any footage. 

[Guest]

In my experience, every Kamala match is guaranteed two stars and one moon.

[CavemanLynn]

 

The big man hanging with the big star.

Goes straight after the big yellow lunk to avenge the cultural appropriation of his tribal face paint, and gets in a couple of good lashings with the belt. Inspires the Young Bucks a decade before they were even born by busting out a super kick at the 5 minute mark, then heads to the top rope presumably for a shooting star press or 450, but lazy bastard Hogan rolls away and buries the spot, forcing Jimbo to cover with a couple of axhandles.

Hogan gets his second wind and the Ugandan giant pays his dues by eating some knife edge chops in the ropes, then displays his incredible grasp of inring psychology and technical prowess by attempting to eat Hogan's chopping arm.

Incidentally, he looked kinda small in the Slick vignettes, but fuck me, he slams the 300 lb Hulkster with ease a couple of times here.

Various shenanigans ensue leading to dastardly heel Hogan hurling cock-scented chalk in Kamala's face, teeing up the inevitable Gooch Drop of Doom.

The Hulkster basks in the inexplicable adoration of white working class American fans, then fatshames the right honourable Mr Harris by slapping his belly, just to goad him into the ring for another cheap shot with the belt.

9 stars.

Edited August 15, 2020 by CavemanLynn

[Guest]

I’d say he’s an excellent worker to work that style and be believably uncoordinated, and as others have said, known to be safe in the ring. Goes against everything wrestlers are taught to be that un slick 

[CavemanLynn]

2 hours ago, Louch said:

Goes against everything wrestlers are taught to be that un slick 

This is a lost art. There's no reason for wrestlers to wrestle the same as each other, beyond inter-school bullshit about the "right way" to work. My favourite example is the wristlock as done by Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat. One technically proficient, high on the chest with tight clean grip, the other just grabbing the wrist with both hands and yanking it. I bet you know who did which.

Taker touched on it in his Stone Cold sit down, about how he had to put his wrestling ego in check, rein himself in and use the techniques that got the Taker gimmick over. I suppose it's harder to do today, where everyone's gimmick is essentially "professional wrestler with catchphrase", everyone wants to get to WWE so works that style, and a lot gets filtered through the PC where technique is drilled before actual marketable character is.

It's another thing that feeds my nostalgic fondness for the cartoonier workers, that sense of variety and unpredictability not in terms of any angle or how two guys movesets are going to mesh, but not knowing what a character is going to do even down to the basics.

It's such a shame that pretty soon, YouTube and the Network will be the last places to find these things, because they don't get taught anymore, as far as I know.

[theironshake]

Kamala knew the art of his character. Amazing at what he did. His facials his confusion it was a totally well rounded character. Work rate wankers would have everyone working the same putting beautiful moves together that is not what I fell in love with back in 1991

[Keith Houchen]

On 8/15/2020 at 5:22 AM, Michael_3165 said:

gimmick carried him all the way.. That's not a knock. 

I’d say that he carried the gimmick all the way, an average worker wouldn’t have been able to do what he did. 

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

I’d say that he carried the gimmick all the way, an average worker wouldn’t have been able to do what he did. 

Absolutely. That's not a gimmick that was easy to pull off and make believable. It could've been absolutely laughable. Yet the man managed to be threatening and lovable at times, all while presenting himself as wild and a little uncontrollable. There's no straight forward easy way of doing what he did. Not like it was a lazy gimmick that just pandered to a crowd or anything.