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A thread in which Dylan compares various wrestlers to HHH


JerryvonKramer

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If one were to make a list of the most charismatic pro wrestlers ever, very few people would be ahead of Cien Caras. Just in terms of charisma, he might be the most under-appreciated star of the last 30 years. Reyes has a star quality that is seldom seen in pro wrestling. He's a great natural performer, he could have been an iconic villain in narco-cinema b-movies.

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WCW really needed young heavyweights that could work in the Nitro era and didn't have too many.

WCW was always going to have a problem bringing in real big heavyweights, due to WWF being very aggressive going after those guys at the time. And it doesn't help when they had the greatest big man of the era, homegrown, (The Giant/Big Show) and screwed around with him until he hated being there and left for WWF. But they also didn't make effective use of the talent they had, Big Show being the worst example, waiting forever to pull the trigger on Scott Steiner, killing Wrath's push, etc.
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I guess I deserved that. :)

 

I have no problem with anyone comparing them. I just hope it's not completely written off that wrestling decent 7-minute undercard matches is very easy compared to trying to work a really good 30-minute main event. As long as that's considered, so be it.

I'm not sure I believe that. I used to. But I think WWE main event style is FAR easier to have good matches in than any other main event style. I am more impressed by a guy who can work ten good tv matches, with ten different guys, none of them getting more than ten minutes than I am by a guy that goes 1/4 or even 2/4 in terms of delivering quality, lengthy, "big show" matches.

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I guess I deserved that. :)

 

I have no problem with anyone comparing them. I just hope it's not completely written off that wrestling decent 7-minute undercard matches is very easy compared to trying to work a really good 30-minute main event. As long as that's considered, so be it.

I'm not sure I believe that. I used to. But I think WWE main event style is FAR easier to have good matches in than any other main event style. I am more impressed by a guy who can work ten good tv matches, with ten different guys, none of them getting more than ten minutes than I am by a guy that goes 1/4 or even 2/4 in terms of delivering quality, lengthy, "big show" matches.

 

Especially if some of those matches have different basic structures?

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I guess I deserved that. :)

 

I have no problem with anyone comparing them. I just hope it's not completely written off that wrestling decent 7-minute undercard matches is very easy compared to trying to work a really good 30-minute main event. As long as that's considered, so be it.

I'm not sure I believe that. I used to. But I think WWE main event style is FAR easier to have good matches in than any other main event style. I am more impressed by a guy who can work ten good tv matches, with ten different guys, none of them getting more than ten minutes than I am by a guy that goes 1/4 or even 2/4 in terms of delivering quality, lengthy, "big show" matches.

 

But is WWE main event style easier to have good matches in than WWE undercard style?

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It's arguable, but I would lean toward yes. WWE undercard style tends to have a lot of guys that are trying hard and work well (or at least has the last few years). But they don't get the benefit of props, booking, pagaentry, et. Yes I realize it takes the right guy to maximize those things, but there have been a lot of guys that have been plugged into the main event World in the last few years and had good matches. Many of those same guys seem badly exposed in tv matches.

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We're evaluating many wrestlers who don't work in modern WWE and don't work undercard or main event matches in today's version of the promotion. So whether it applies to modern WWE or not, it's not a universal truth. It's probably not something that applies to Nord.

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So since most of HHH's peak stuff was years ago, I guess the more accurate question is to ask if it was harder to have a good main event during the Attitude era than it is to have a good undercard match now. I haven't paid enough attention to know if the main event style has really changed all that much since the early 2000s.

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The matches are certainly different from how they were in '99. There's very little floor/crowd brawling now, for one. In the Attitude era, you could inevitably count on the main eventers to do an ECW "wander around the area while punching each other" segment in their match, if not several of them. Now that's pretty rare, it's kept much more in the ring.

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Nord ? I don't think so. It was Brian Clark (Wrath/Adam Bomb) who did. Maybe Nord had a big wining streak on Saturday Night though.

Nord showed up in late 97 and had a sizable winning streak on the B shows. They did a Worldwide match with him vs. Goldberg where they were hyping both guys as having big winning streaks.

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If one were to make a list of the most charismatic pro wrestlers ever, very few people would be ahead of Cien Caras. Just in terms of charisma, he might be the most under-appreciated star of the last 30 years. Reyes has a star quality that is seldom seen in pro wrestling. He's a great natural performer, he could have been an iconic villain in narco-cinema b-movies.

That's fantastic.

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Nightmare Danny Davis

 

I have not seen a ton of prime Danny Davis, but post-prime little engine that could Davis is a lot fun. My question is was Davis good at working little man's syndrome as a sort of ferocious battle against the World? If so I imagine he was better than HHH.

 

Jeff Gaylord

 

HHH isn't that bad.

 

Billy Joe Travis

 

Billy Joe Travis was a fucking awesome Southern heel. Possibly my favorite guy no one remembers. Total lunatic bump freak and theatrical son of a bitch. One of my favorite guys on the Texas Set and he barely appeared on it at all. Really makes me want to go back and watch his entire career which is the exact opposite of what happens when HHH shows up on my tv every week. Definitely Billy Joe.

 

Ian Rotten

 

Ian was easily better. I am not quite as high on Ian as some and he is a scummy piece of shit, but this is wrestling and he's up against HHH so really how much can you hold that against him? Awesome at tricked out mat work when given the chance, very good and intense brawler, a rare guy who could work staple "indy" style if he had to and delve into other shit just as easily without losing anything in translation. I even saw him have a surprisingly good match last year, despite his status as totally broken man dependent on Taco Bill pay check to pay off legal fees.

 

Reggie B Fine

 

Pimp me some Reggie B. Fine

 

Miss Texas

 

Actually this is not an unreasonable comparison, as both (allegedly?) attempted to fuck their way to the top of the wrestling business. Obviously on that metric HHH wins. As a worker? Well Miss Texas worked really stiff and gave off the vibe of a legit asskicker who could maul you. She is one of the few women I legitimately took seriously against men. I seem to remember her having a really great body slam, which is such an odd move to stand out which in a way makes it extra impressive. I would need to go back and watch some matches, but I certainly think she was more authentic than HHH in the ring.

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This is fun. Forgive me if any of the names have been repeated...

 

Buff Bagwell

Nicolai Volkoff

David Flair

Tatanka

Wahoo McDaniel (you clearly hate him since you showed no love towards the Manny strap match so compare that strap match to the Rock strap match)

Rhino

Ultimate Warrior

Charlie Haas

Shelton Benjamin

Leo Burke (for Dave Musgrave)

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Billy Joe Travis

 

Billy Joe Travis was a fucking awesome Southern heel. Possibly my favorite guy no one remembers.

Apparently his career was held back by issues of general professionalism. I remember Bert Prentice once shilling his weekly card, and actually saying on television something to the effect of "and we've also got Billy Joe Travis versus Jamie Dundee, in a 'if one of them shows up he automatically wins' match".
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Nord/Bulldog from one of the 1991 WWF UK shows is WELL worth watching. The thing with Nord is that he had a pretty amazing offense (both in variety and believability) for a WWF heel at the time. I bet there are some really good Nord/Hart matches too.

I've just watched the 1991 Superstars set and in the era where it was pretty much squash followed by squash, Nord was one of the guys who I enjoyed watching the most in this format, and for a big guy he moves really well. Fuji added absolutely nothing to the Berzerker mind.

 

Nord ? I don't think so. It was Brian Clark (Wrath/Adam Bomb) who did. Maybe Nord had a big wining streak on Saturday Night though.

Nord showed up in late 97 and had a sizable winning streak on the B shows. They did a Worldwide match with him vs. Goldberg where they were hyping both guys as having big winning streaks.

 

I'd be surprised if Nord's winning streak actually hit a dozen (and it was solely against your Julio Sanchez, Lizmark Jr. types), and yeah, it ended at the April Orlando Tapings in a match with Goldberg.
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Billy Joe Travis

 

Billy Joe Travis was a fucking awesome Southern heel. Possibly my favorite guy no one remembers.

Apparently his career was held back by issues of general professionalism. I remember Bert Prentice once shilling his weekly card, and actually saying on television something to the effect of "and we've also got Billy Joe Travis versus Jamie Dundee, in a 'if one of them shows up he automatically wins' match".

 

That's fantastic.
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