Chess Knight Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 I think there's a big difference between "being a better performer" and "being a consistent performer". I don't think Steamer is a 7/10 guy. Sure, he was more often than not BETTER than that, but there are too many occassions for me when a match of his falls below expectations for him to be classed as "consistent" in my book. I tend to agree with this, but I'm still not seeing any Steamboat that's as bad (maybe "bad" isn't the word) than some of the Tito I remember that came from the 90s. Again though, I haven't watched a single Tito thing in a while, so I have no idea what I'd think of the stuff now. Still, a flat out bad Ricky Steamboat match escapes me and I'm not sure how he isn't at least "consistant." if I listed all the good/even above average stuff he was involved in in a year like 1992, it'd likely be a huge list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Steamboat certainly wasn't great on the All Japan set ,but I didn't think he was horrible either and the only match I outright hated and thought was bad was the Steamboat/ Snuka match where Snuka carries a ton of the blame. The other matches I ranked low on the set involving Steamer were the Steamboar/Shiek match mentioned above (Thought this match had many great scenes and visuals but lacked cohesive structure) and Steamboat/Mascaras (not a bad match, just a really dull one). The Tenryu and Flair matches were both good to very good matches that just get muddled in the middle with the other top notch stuff on the set. I think Steamboat has taken a little dip in popularity lately as far in the DVDVR and here community. I don't think you would hear anyone champion an argument for him being a GOAT contender anymore like might have happened 5 years ago but he was still a great wrestler that had some pretty great matches in 1982 and 1994 and even the stuff that is disappointing ( I aggree the two Regal matches were disappointing) are still good matches featuring Steamboat not doing many things glaringly bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 I think the day you begin to find fault with Ricky Steamboat's in-ring work is the day you've officially watched too much wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Steamboat even cam back as an old man for a gimmick match with Chris Jericho and still looked good. I've seen some sub-par Steamboat matches here and there but I wouldn't say I've seen a bad Steamboat match. I've certainly not seen a match where his work was bad. I can't even come up with many times I've seen him blow a spot. Even his WWF squashes in the 80s had good execution on his part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Steamboat-Snuka was pretty split on how people saw it over on the DVDVR boards. Some people liked it a decent amount, and others thought it was dogshit. I never was much of a fan of it, and think the 12/82 Race-Steamboat from All Japan is a better match. I enjoyed the Mil-Steamer the last time I watched it. Thought it was nice to see Steamer out of his element, and thought his ability to work holds with Mil reflected well on him. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted December 25, 2011 Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 I really wanted to like those Jake/Rude matches because of how memorable the angle was, but that feud was torturous. They may have had a good match at some point, but I couldn't get through the several I tried to watch. Just out of curiosity, I watched a Rude/Tito match from '88, and while you'd be hard pressed to call it a bad match, all it entailed was a lengthy test of strength spot, a chinlock, a bearhug, some stalling, a bit of stooging with the Brain, a drawn out atomic drop spot, a frustrated Santana getting his offence in spurts and a neat hot period before the time limit draw. This is what I imagine a stock 1988 match looked like between a babyface and a heel who could both work. You'd be hard pressed to call it bad, but it wasn't very interesting either and therefore a waste of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted December 25, 2011 Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 It never felt like Rude "got it" until the Warrior feud in 89. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted December 25, 2011 Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 Rude was definitely a lot more enjoyable in '89, but to have a great match you obviously have to rise above a certain level and during that whole period nobody ever really does. It doesn't matter who the workers are, there doesn't appear to be any incentive to have a great match or even a clever one. EDIT: By clever, I mean if Tito and Rude had done a shorter match where they hit all the high points from their brief stretch run to the time limit, it would've been a cool Tito vs. Rude match. But because of the road agent or the booker or whomever else, it was waffle. I dunno why anyone would give pre-IC title Rick Rude more than 10 minutes, though I must admit that he turned the bear hug into a pin attempt which was pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franchise Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 I think this is hard to answer because the surrounding roster can limit a performers ability. I Always enjoyed Rude's work in the NWA / WCW but hated pretty much everything of his from the WWF. He never seemed to mesh well w/ his WWF pool of opposition. to actually answer the question @ hand I'll go Bam Bam Bigelow & Jake Roberts. They always seemed to disappoint me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 Another guy who was pretty consistant was Tully Blanchard. He seemed like he had a good match with a variety of opponents. Another guy who seemed hit or miss was Shane Douglas. He has plenty of good bouts under his belt, but had his share of shitty ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 It never felt like Rude "got it" until the Warrior feud in 89. Tito-Rude from Boston in 2/89 is pre-Warrior... and I thought it was a pretty solid, good match. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted December 29, 2011 Report Share Posted December 29, 2011 It never felt like Rude "got it" until the Warrior feud in 89. If that's the case, he "got it" in a hurry then. The 5/1/89 Copps Coliseum show is basically Rude wrestling himself for 20 minutes or so, and is quite the fun match., Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 For me, a good Mr. Consistancy might be Jushin Thunder Liger. He's a guy where almost every time I watched him wrestle I felt like I knew I was going to get, at the least, a fun match. I haven't kept up with Japanese wrestling for years, but through all of the 1990's (and what I've seen of him pre-mask in the 1980's) and into the early 2000's I loved watching him a ton. Incredible career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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