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Most de-motivated worker and when


JerryvonKramer

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He has some problems with the timelines in the shoot, but what I worked it out to is that he gets injured right around the title switch, has a ghastly knee replacement surgery (he keeps talking about cadaver ligaments or something), and then it doesn't take and at Slamboree 94, within a few minutes of the match starts, it just "disintegrates" and he and Flair have to scramble to work the rest of the match.

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Maybe he's mixxing two things up:

 

Knee replacement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knee_replacement

 

ACL reconstruction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cruc..._reconstruction

 

ACL reconstruction uses cadaver tendon. Knee replacement tends to be plastic/metal, and has been for ages.

 

I wonder if he had ACL reconstruction, after the 1993 injury, then blew it up in the 1994 match.

 

ACL is of course pretty hardcore:

 

http://www.nba.com/features/abdenour_aclessay.html

 

I doubt Barry is the only one to have it in wrestling, but am too lazy to look it up.

 

ACL reconstruction --> knee blowing up when coming back, that sounds odd.

 

Barry did have a track record of short of half assing his way through dealing with injuries. On the ACL, I suspect there were/are a lot of common doctors that the wrestlers use for such stuff. Maybe less common than starting in say the mid-90s when people more regularly went out for surgery, but there were people who had surgery back then.

 

I want to say that the WON had an item after Slambore of Barry re-injuring the knee, and that was the reason the match sucked.

 

In the other direction, Barry did injury the knee prior to dropping the title to Flair in 1993. My recollection is that he went instantly on the shelf until working the match to drop the title, then went back on the shelf.

 

John

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Could be the ACL.

 

At some point, they clearly did get it right. Despite slowing down a ton in his Texas Outlaws run, he wouldn't have been able to be in the ring if he had no ACL. :)

 

Decompsed is strange. Perhaps more likely that he just tore the new one, which is in a sense shredding it. Given Barry's track record, he probably didn't bust his hump rehabbing it and wasn't in prime condition/shape come the 1994 match.

 

It's strange that it took him two years to come back from the second one. I don't even think pros are out for 24 months on a knee. Perhaps he was ready earlier, but he'd burned a few bridges.

 

John

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It depends on the severity of the injury, really. Torn ACL's have ended careers. Plus, as been mentioned already, it depends on the level of rehabilitation done on said injured extremity.

 

Workers to add:

 

Flair before/after WCW died.

Carlito at various times.

Jeff Hardy before his first WWE termination.

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Could be the ACL.

 

At some point, they clearly did get it right. Despite slowing down a ton in his Texas Outlaws run, he wouldn't have been able to be in the ring if he had no ACL. :)

 

Decompsed is strange. Perhaps more likely that he just tore the new one, which is in a sense shredding it. Given Barry's track record, he probably didn't bust his hump rehabbing it and wasn't in prime condition/shape come the 1994 match.

 

It's strange that it took him two years to come back from the second one. I don't even think pros are out for 24 months on a knee. Perhaps he was ready earlier, but he'd burned a few bridges.

 

John

Him talking about getting the Stalker gimmick and summarily blowing it is pretty interesting too.

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How about Hacksaw Jim Duggan for this? Basically for his entire post-Mid South career? Any thoughts?

 

Or was he just playing the character he was supposed to?

 

Also, and this is something no one ever ever says, but how about Regal early in his WCW run? He had a lot of matches against top top talent at that time, including Steamboat and Austin, but none of those matches rise above about the ** mark, despite going more that 15 mins. The ONLY great match of his from this period is against Bulldog in 1993.

 

Not sure if he was de-motivated or just green, but I've been very disappointed with early Lord Steven Regal on the whole.

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How about Hacksaw Jim Duggan for this? Basically for his entire post-Mid South career? Any thoughts?

 

Or was he just playing the character he was supposed to?

Basically. He did just what he had to do to make people happy and stay over. Even after his cancer, Duggan was as energetic and enthousiastic in the ring as he was before. He didn't need to do more and stayed over for his entire with his stuff. He didn't need to work stiff like in Mid South, although on some rare occasions like against Vader or Meng in WCW he could work stiffer again. I can't believe I of all people is defending Duggan.:)

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Duggan in WCW often seemed to have problems selling for younger guys, or doing anything which didn't make them look worthless. I just rewatched the Berlyn match last night, and Hacksaw wasn't giving Wright anything out there, to the point where Wright was trying to shoot-wrestle him into holds at some points. I recall similar things happening in a PPV match with Craig Pittman, and there are probably others I've forgotten about.

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The Berlyn match is infamous for Duggan refusing to put him over. I don't remember what happened exactly. Although he comes off as a real good guy in his shoot interview, Duggan also appears to have a problem grasping the concept of putting over younger guys, to the point of him didn't understanding why Steve Austin was pissed about having to do a job for him.

 

Wright is currently my most underrated talent of WCW in 98. He was so good, he could do comedy, serious matches with stiffness, acrobatics, matwork, chickenshit heel, could work with cruiserweight and heavyweight with no problem whatsoever adapting. I wonder what happened to him after the Berlyn debacle.

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Pillman had his moments in 95 but I think he was less consistent than Wright and Arn

His body was broken down though. Pillman's injury list was a lot bigger than most people can imagine. He was already hurt in Stampede and as insanely athletic as he was in early WCW I think you could tell the injuries were already effecting him if you had seen him work in Stampede.
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Either Wright or Arn was the best guy in the company in 95 as well for whatever that is worth.

Buck, Dick Slater (I like Slater more than Buck but that's just a personal preference) and Austin are definitely up there (and on a slightly lower level would probably be Tim Horner of all people). Austin was AMAZING even in jobber matches that year. If you haven't seen much of his syndi stuff from the end of the Stunning Steve run, let me know and I'll try to find a match or two.

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I thought most of Bunkhouse Buck's best stuff was from the feud with Dustin Rhodes the year before. What did he do in 1995?

 

I tell you who is MASSIVELY underrated from this time period in general: Paul Orndorff. Even right up to the injury, he had real intensity and still had pretty good heat.

WCW's Tag Division in 1995 is actually amazing. The really fun stuff was just relegated to the C shows. Lightning Express, Studd Stable, Bagwell/Patriot, Pillman/Badd, Blue Bloods. Armstrongs.

 

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=54696

 

actually, go there. I want someone to get use out of that.

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How about Hacksaw Jim Duggan for this? Basically for his entire post-Mid South career? Any thoughts?

 

Or was he just playing the character he was supposed to?

Basically. He did just what he had to do to make people happy and stay over. Even after his cancer, Duggan was as energetic and enthousiastic in the ring as he was before. He didn't need to do more and stayed over for his entire with his stuff. He didn't need to work stiff like in Mid South, although on some rare occasions like against Vader or Meng in WCW he could work stiffer again. I can't believe I of all people is defending Duggan.:)

 

I'm just watching the Hacksaw vs. Bubba Rogers match from World War 3 (1995). To be fair, taking his Vader match in view as well, I think this little mid-90s run in WCW was good.

 

Although he's put on a shit ton of weight in the year between Starrcade 94 and this. I mean he's got a proper Dick Murdoch / Harley Race style belly here, whereas against Vader he was looking pretty stacked (for Duggan).

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