2008 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

Lots of musclehead types had the look and yet couldn't wrestle. What about Ahmed Johnson or Bobby Lashley?

Bam Bam Bigelow had the look, the agility for a guy his size and yet still was never a true world champion.

A guy who was a great wrestler and should have been a world champion IMO: Ted Dibiase.

 

Maybe he means that they have good looks but can't wrestle for shit? But most supermuscular wrestlers don't have great workrate. Brock Lesnar is the exception, not the rule.

 

Is The Ultimate Warrior the Bo Jackson of pro wrestling? Both burned bright for a relatively short period of time (2-3 years), both were unlike anything anyone had ever seen to that point, and both have a sort of cult icon status.
Of course, Bo is a respected family man and Warrior is batshit crazy. But other than that?

 

Both were draws, but Warrior couldn't wrestle his way out of a paper bag but had the look. Nikita never impressed me and being Russian in the 80s was an instant draw (both when he was a heel and when he teamed with Dusty Rhodes as a face).

With some guys, the gimmick is the only thing they have to get them over ... if you want more proof, see Santino Marella of current WWE fame. With others, like in World Class, the Von Erichs were all awful, but daddy ran the company and shoved them all down our throats.

 

It's not all about workrate. Charisma plays a major role as well. KVE died young but I'd hardly consider him a waste. The Von erichs had a license to print money in that territory.

Koloff had a rather profitable run in the 80s as well.

 

Any discussion of wasted talent is incomplete without a mention of Mike Awesome. Dude was, well, awesome in ECW. No big man should be able to fly like that. Then you could practically hear the flushing sound from his career when he went to WCW.

 

Okay, best wrestler who's never been a world champ? (WWE/F, NWA [pre-WCW], AWA, WCW, TNA, ROH, ECW [first version, not current version])

My list:
1. Ted DiBiase
2. Roddy Piper
3. Magnum TA
4. Owen Hart
5. Bruiser Brody

 

David Von Erich was far from awful. And while Kevin lacked charisma, he was the best worker in the family.

 

If you even think about Ahmed Johnson, he fucks up a spot and injures your brain. The guy was THAT horrible.

HH, good call on RVD, Malenko, etc. Don't know if I'd say Sabu was underutilized, though.

Batman wins with Mike Awesome. I wish I still owned a working VCR. I've got at least two Awesome-Masato Tanaka ECW title matches on tape that still amaze me.

When you can get Joey Styles to utter 'Holy shit!', you've done something right.

 

KVE had the chops to be a legitimate world champ (and not one who got a week-long reign to capitalize on the death of David Von Erich, who also could have been a worldwide star). But he never had the discipline and he couldn't stay clean, which is pretty par for the course in WCCW.

 

I realize it's not all about the workrate, but while KVE was a good athlete, I don't think I've seen one match that makes me think "Wow, he's a really great wrestler" and that includes the Flair-KVE title match for David's memorial show when KVE won the title or the other match people see a lot now - the Lawler-KVE bloody match. You also can't sell me on his work with the Freebirds because those are 6-man tags and as you said in your post, he could do no wrong in World Class as long as his last name was Von Erich (Adkisson).

 

Heatwave '98 had to be the best match I saw in ECW between Mike Awesome and Tanaka. I remember I used to watch that stuff every Saturday night.