Never watched you, still think you're cool

[King Mal the Glorious]

Just an idle thought that popped up. Wrestlers that you've never seen in a full match, or even a full promo, that you still like or root for.

Inspired by a post about Chelsea Green I just saw, I realised that she's someone I like and want to do well, despite the fact I have no idea if she's even any good in the ring. The occasional bit of character work or BTS clips I see makes her seem ace so I hope she gets all the success possible, based purely on vibes. Dom Mysterio is another, I've not watched a WWE show in about 6 years but hope he gets the top belt one day.

Going back to the late 90s/early 2000s, I had no way of watching anything outside of WWF/WCW. But I'd see photos and read reports of guys like Hayabusa, Great Sasuke, Misawa etc and push them to the moon in the booking simulators and big them up to my wrestling pals despite never seeing them compete at all.

I suppose it's less of a thing nowadays with everything readily available, but who are your "sight unseen" faves? Old or new, doesn't matter!

Edited February 11 by King Mal the Glorious
Apparently this is the first thread I've ever started here? Only took 23 years

[HarmonicGenerator]

The first bunch that come to mind are “masked high flyers with great looks”. Tiger Mask, Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid, Mistico… all people I decided I liked before I ever saw more than a photo or a slow-loading GIF on WAP.

[Statto]

Dragon Kid (based on a .wmv of the Dragonrana) and The Eliminators (.wmv of Total Elimination) were definitely ones from my early days on the Internet.

Still quite a few lucha acts I feel like I like despite never really having seen them - Rey Bucanero (with mask, because I think the mask is cool) &  Los Perros del Mal (because Dios perdona, Los Perros no is an incredibly cool catchphrase)

As a kid, I was a regular purchaser of Apter mags (usually a couple of years out of date from a stall on the Sunday market) and had that big old George Napolitano coffee table book (just called "Professional Wrestling" IIRC?) so there must have been tonnes of wrestlers from places like World Class or the AWA that I felt some sort of attachment to despite probably only having seen a single photo. Bizarrely, Rasta the Voodoo Mon is the one who leaps to mind right now!

[Lorne Malvo]

Reading about someone in a magazine and telling all my mates that they were the real deal was a common theme here too, although it was much more embarassing than all of the examples mentioned so far; in around 2000/2001, one of the mags (I'm thinking it was World Of Wrestling but can't be sure) had a feature about XPW and how it was way, way better than ECW, along with a profile of some of their wrestlers. Which lead to me telling anybody who would listen that Homeless Jimmy was the future and loads better than Sandman, Raven and all of those losers. I've still never seen a full Homeless Jimmy match but I've seen enough to know he (and the company as a whole) was fucking shit.

In terms of people I've never watched who I still have time for, there's loads of old luchadors I've never seen a full match of that I still think are pretty cool - El Santo, Mil Mascaras & Ray Mendoza just to name a couple.

[tiger_rick]

Agree on Chelsea. She won't make me watch that dogshit but, I really like and support her. Always happy to hear she's doing well. Pleased for all the people who were always baffled by how little they valued her at one point that they're being vindicated.

For as much he was a massively over-pushed nepotism project, I'm happy for Dom Mysterio too. Everything I've ever seen of him has been his own social media, I think but, I really like his character work and his look. I did watch a bit of AAA on YouTube recently but I'd fallen asleep long before his match! 

Historically, I'd say ECW. Reading about it and seeing the pictures in PowerSlam, I thought it was amazing. Did enjoy it when I finally got some tapes. The more I see though, the more I sour. Definitely a "you had to be there" promotion.

[Carbomb]

For me, it was Vampiro, mostly after the fact. You wouldn't think a character like that would have a hokey name like "Vampiro" and facepaint, because it shouldn't really make anyone look cool, but he made it work.

[Arch Stanton]

This applies to WCW guys from that period when Nitro was really hot, whereby I was actually able to watch very little but played the fuck out of the N64 games, so I would make my own mind up as to whether certain guys were cool or not based on how they appeared in the game. Prime example, all of Raven's Flock.

[Chico Torres]

I don’t even know what he looks like but given what I’ve recently read I suppose my answer is some chap called Brody King.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

I remember seeing photo's of Ox Baker in PWI and thinking he looked awesome, he was probably late 50's by that point. Here he is in his pomp.

Now that is a proper 70's heel look.

No idea if he was a decent wrestler, I have seen comments that he was a bit rubbish, which put me off looking up his work.

Same with Jessie Ventura, I love the bloke but have never seen a match of his.

[wordsfromlee]

2 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

This applies to WCW guys from that period when Nitro was really hot, whereby I was actually able to watch very little but played the fuck out of the N64 games, so I would make my own mind up as to whether certain guys were cool or not based on how they appeared in the game. Prime example, all of Raven's Flock.

I was the exact same. I played WCW vs NWO Revenge and loved Ravens Flock because of it. Especially Billy Kidman. 

[BomberPat]

I had a ton of these when I was getting into wrestling. I bought every wrestling book and magazine, and had posters and photos of wrestlers and metal bands all over my walls. You'd wonder where I found the time to even watch wrestling with all the shagging I must have been doing.

I had a photo of Keiji Mutoh doing the Shining Wizard on my wall long before I ever saw him wrestle. I loved Terry Funk and Sabu from the stories in Mick Foley's first book long before I had ever watched them. FMW and early deathmatch stuff I got into through Foley's book, photos in magazines, and later through waiting forever for the grainiest Real Player video of a big gnarly bump or flashy explosion.

ECW, like a lot of people, I knew through reputation before I ever watched it. Kids in the playground insisting that it was definitely real, and just being convinced that everyone who wrestled there was definitely better than anyone in the WWF or WCW. I remember a Portuguese kid on the school bus asking me about it, and I think I mentioned Justin Credible being one of their biggest stars at the time - I had no idea who Justin Credible was, I'd only seen photos. When Credible debuted for the WWF, this kid was really disappointed how small he was, because he'd taken the description "biggest" a lot more literally than I intended it, and assumed he was going to be this seven foot monster.

[Cod Eye]

In this day and age, I think its pretty rare to have one/some of these. It's so easy to just reverse image search or pop their name into Google to bring up their matches if you see someone that piques your interest!

Back in the day though, I had a few.

First was Vader. Before I got a WCW GAB VHS(when he makes his debut), I'd never seen anything other that WWF and the old WoS on TV. I remember seeing a VHS of what i think was the dying days of WoS and European wrestling with Vader on the front, covered in Championship belts(Ultimo Dragon Style), and he just looked like the biggest star in the world. I didnt even know he was Vader either, as he was billed as ""Bull Power" on the VHS, and was apparently facing off against someone called "Monsieur Rambo". 

Another was Lex Luger. I had a WCW annual with a comic story in about a big Battle Royal. At the end of the story, Luger, the big heel champion stormed the ring and gave the winner a piledriver on the belt. Being new to wrestling, and only a fan of WWF' VERY family friendly, no blood and very few weapons style, this blew my mind and I copied it over and over in my Hasbro figure fed!

On the flip side, I had the opposite feelings about Sting. I'd never seen him but took an instant dislike to him when seeing him in that same annual, simple because I thought he was simply a knock of of Th Ultimate Warrior due to the facepaint and physique. Obviously came to love him after finally seeing him. but first impression's werew not good at all!

[The Reverend]

Put me down as another one for Ox Baker. I still don't think I've ever seen one of his matches, but getting into wrestling around 1990, he was always featured in those slightly rubbish wrestling mags like 'Wrestling Eye' he was always featured in them, along with some bloke called D.C. Drake - they always had pics of them in wild chain matches, or having having just bladed so I thought they was cool as f'ck 

[SuperBacon]

Pretty sure I've never seen a Jushin Liger match, but I've always thought he was cool as fuck.

[tiger_rick]

17 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Pretty sure I've never seen a Jushin Liger match, but I've always thought he was cool as fuck.

One for the "Forgotten it happened" thread but, on the New Gen Pod re-listen I was reminded that he popped up in NXT in 2015. 

How on earth have you not seen the first Nitro?