Objectively great wrestlers you just... don't get!

[Devon Malcolm]

I mean, it's Eddie Kingston.

I really want to like him because he seems like the nicest guy but he insists on doing this strong style stuff that I absolutely hate and having matches against old men, plus his promos are just incomprehensible rants that go nowhere. I'd love to go and see a film with him though.

[westlondonmist]

57 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

Oh christ, I have so many against the grain opinions!

There are several guys I was just never able to accept as main eventers as they just screamed midcard to me. The ‘Ruthless Aggression’ era was terrible for this as they scrambled to fill the void after the proper stars had retired/gone to Hollywood.

The Guerrero/Benoit Wrestlemania ending made me lose so much interest. What a drop off… I could never buy any as a world title threat, let alone holders. With Guerrero I could at least appreciate that outside of the ropes he had a rounded skillset and was versatile. But fucking Benoit (other than being a scummy piece of shit), a personality vaccum so lacking any mic skills that he had no business being anything other than a solid midcarder.

I’m tempted to say Razor Ramon/Scott Hall as, again, he was a fine IC champion but seems to have been retrospectively given this mythical main event status he never achieved when active.

I’ve never understood why his ‘punches’ are so universally beloved and thought they were just open handed slaps that looked shit. Decent Scarface rip off but was a bit one dimensional for me and his career obviously stuttered due to his substance issues.

But Edge, I mean… solid enough hand and I enjoyed the Brood when he first popped up. A career built on good timing or what?! Decent tag team act but never main even calibre for me, let alone building a cumulative 15 year run on top or thereabouts. Was never sure what he was meant to be good at.

I thought about Edge but I really enjoyed his tag stuff, Edge and Christian were a great team. Christian is better for me. His mic skills are far superior to Edge.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

I've watched AEW since the beginning and I still can't tell why Hangman Page has a job. Dull and uninspiring in pretty much every match. Mainly wrestles top tier guys and to me always looks the inferior part of any match that he is in. Doesn't look threatening, conveys no menace, doesn't make me feel sympathetic towards him. Had he stuck with teaching I would not have missed him. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

It’s an interesting topic. I’m not sure there’s anyone that I think 100% fits the bill for me, but the two that jump out are:

Chris Jericho. That’s not to say I’ve never enjoyed Jericho, I have, but it’s to say I’ve realised over time I was enjoying him ‘wrong’. Or at least different to how everyone else was enjoying him. To me Jericho was always a character act with decent enough cardio that he could hang around in the ring, but I never saw him as a ‘match’ wrestler. I always thought his stuff looked scruffy, flimsy and fake. Over time he seems to have developed a reputation as the super in-ring worker guy, and I don’t see that at all. He’s a terrific talker, brilliant cocky shithouse but his matches for me have never been the selling point. Any matches of his I thought were anywhere close to ‘good’ have usually been because I’m a big fan of the opponent, and the majority have been okay. Nothing more. I don’t see a world of difference between a Jericho and a Miz, only the former has had more ring time and opportunities to mix it with actual super workers.

Chris Benoit is another one. Just boring. I don’t really want to go into detail with him as his life is so depressing, but a boring, frowning middle aged gear head with high blood pressure did nothing for me as a kid.

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I never got Stone Cold as a babyface. He always came across as the opposite of someone I’d want to cheer, so there was definitely something about the act that I didn’t get. I knew what they were doing with the character and it clearly worked… just not for me.

The heel run in ‘01 was the best thing he did in WWE. 

[Devon Malcolm]

30 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

I've watched AEW since the beginning and I still can't tell why Hangman Page has a job. Dull and uninspiring in pretty much every match. Mainly wrestles top tier guys and to me always looks the inferior part of any match that he is in. Doesn't look threatening, conveys no menace, doesn't make me feel sympathetic towards him. Had he stuck with teaching I would not have missed him. 

When I need a good laugh I just bring up that promo segment he did with CM Punk and Tony Schiavone. The most deranged and idiotic ranting I've seen for years in wrestling. What a berk.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

When I need a good laugh I just bring up that promo segment he did with CM Punk and Tony Schiavone. The most deranged and idiotic ranting I've seen for years in wrestling. What a berk.

That had nothing on Marina Shafir’s You Know Me/You don’t know me promo. The most baffling rant since Steiner Maths.

Besides, that promo sent CM Punk off for his first backstage fight with The Elite. Wrestling history right there.

[Loki]

40 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I mean, it's Eddie Kingston.

I really want to like him because he seems like the nicest guy but he insists on doing this strong style stuff that I absolutely hate and having matches against old men, plus his promos are just incomprehensible rants that go nowhere. I'd love to go and see a film with him though.

Completely see this, I also hate the Strong Style nonsense … except with Eddie it looks like some fat bloke down the pub trying to do MMA and I find it fascinating.  Eddie v Old Men is incomprehensibly compelling.

[Michael_3165]

Rock circa 1998 to 2001. I just didn't get it. He was a bully, a clown and arrogant and yet everyone loved him. Similar to Austin back in the day, someone who lacked integrity and was antisocial to the extreme. 

Looking back I can see greatness in Austin and Rock had something extremely special but at the time I found it hard to root for people who were actually rather nasty characters! 

Moxley I just don't get at all. I have no interest in him and don't buy his gimmick either. I don't see how he is a ratings mover in any way and feel WWE didn't use him well because he doesn't bring anything meaningful to the table. Austin was right to grill him in the podcast on the Network. 

Mr Perfect was another who I knew was good but didn't see what all the fuss was about. He has often been cited as a great, but I much preferred Owen Hart. 

I echo Danielson and Punk sentiments, especially Punk. Kingston is a big fat fucker who I can't take seriously. I'm sure Danielson and Kingston are good folk though. Also same for Benoit (I'm not that squeamish about his life and death), I just found him bland as fuck. I never cared if he won.

Edited October 13, 2023 by Michael_3165

[Tommy!]

51 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I never got Stone Cold as a babyface. He always came across as the opposite of someone I’d want to cheer, so there was definitely something about the act that I didn’t get. I knew what they were doing with the character and it clearly worked… just not for me.

The heel run in ‘01 was the best thing he did in WWE. 

I bet this is nearly word for word your response to the SCG podcast on this topic.

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, Tommy! said:

I bet this is nearly word for word your response to the SCG podcast on this topic.

Almost definitely. 

[Jazzy G]

It's got to be Hogan for me. As a kid I never really got to watch him very much as we didn't have Sky and so didn't get to watch much WWF, and the stuff I did get to watch was while he was away making movies, so he wasn't there. Later in the 90s when we did get Sky I'd watch Nitro with my stepdad on a Friday night, and I liked the nWo and Hollywood Hogan, but again was never really a fan of what he did in ring, plus Sting was always my favourite. I remember a couple of my friends getting really excited about the Hogan/Rock match from Mania X8, and me just being bothered about it because I didn't have that same nostalgia. I acknowledge his importance to pro wrestling and putting it on the map, and totally understand how he's so over nowadays, but he just doesn't excite me. I do still get excited when Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix comes on anywhere, though.

[boshealecta]

Bret Hart for me. I got into wrestling because of Hogan, Demolition, Beefcake and they were colourful and larger than life. Bret at the time did nothing for me. I used to love Summerslam 91 and watch it over and over but would often fast forward the Bret vs Perfect match. 
 

As a kid I just found his matches too long and he wasn’t over the top enough for me. I couldn’t sing along to his music and I didn’t feel like he was giving the bad guys their comeuppance as he was the underdog. Loved it when Yoko beat him and Hogan won the belt back! 

[garynysmon]

44 minutes ago, boshealecta said:

Bret Hart for me. I got into wrestling because of Hogan, Demolition, Beefcake and they were colourful and larger than life. Bret at the time did nothing for me. I used to love Summerslam 91 and watch it over and over but would often fast forward the Bret vs Perfect match.

Personally I was a Bret fan from a young age, but I think it was more down to thinking he was cool as fuck rather than buying into the 'excellence of execution' in-ring stuff. But totally get what you mean about the characters.

WWF Superstars/Challenge were the perfect shows for me as a kid really. You got the wrestlers making their entrances, a quick 2 min match and you got to see their usually cool finisher. Rinse and repeat, very little wastage.

I seemed to skip my teenage workrate period altogether. And while pay per views were great as culminations for feuds, truth be told, I usually found a lot of matches to be a bit long for my liking.

There have certainly been periods when I've questioned if I'm a fan of the actual wrestling at all, or simply the characters, pageantry and bollocks surrounding it.

Edited October 13, 2023 by garynysmon

[Lorne Malvo]

Great thread idea!

Jeff Hardy is up there for me. Although more people are finally coming around to the idea that he's a useless liability due to his tragic AEW run, I've never liked the knob. Some of the worst looking offense in wrestling history coming from a lad dressed in a teenage goth girls wardrobe. The idea of him beating a Triple H or Randy Orton was laughable. Makes Darby Allin look like Roddy Piper on the mic. 

Also I'm very much aware there's not many of us banging this drum anymore but John Cena is shite. Everything he does looks uncoordinated and awkward - there was a clip of him and Punk teaming up doing the rounds on Twitter a few months back and they did that spot where they use each others moves, and Cena doing the high knee in the corner was painful. Also see that rotten leg drop he used to do off the top. Beating him didn't mean anything because with the exception of the fantastic Lesnar squash, he never sold the loss - the next night on Raw he'd be out there business as usual, like he wasn't arsed he'd just lost his title. Look at his reaction to LA Knight signing his tag team contract last week - just the most unnatural forced shit like he's doing a Youtube reaction video. Lastly he does that thing where he cuts people to shreds during promos to the point it actually makes me lose interest in the match - his promo to Reigns in 2017 about him not doing Cena's job was a stand out, but more recently that promo where he called out Austin Theory being a failed experiment just made me feel sympathy for the mid-card heel instead of anything else. 

Oh, the Attitude Adjustment is crap too.

(I should point out that I love Cena as an actor too and think he's really gifted comedically - it's just as soon as he puts his jorts on I lose interest.)

Edited October 14, 2023 by Lorne Malvo