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Best Offensive Wrestlers of All Time


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What's most important?

 

Varied offense?

Focused offense?

Offense that fits a character?

Offense that looks believable?

Innovative offense?

 

Is Lawler punching someone for ten minutes better than Nova doing a powerbomb where he elbow drops someone in the groin at the same time? Which guy has better offense?

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What's most important?

 

Varied offense?

Focused offense?

Offense that fits a character?

Offense that looks believable?

Innovative offense?

 

Is Lawler punching someone for ten minutes better than Nova doing a powerbomb where he elbow drops someone in the groin at the same time? Which guy has better offense?

Let's discuss all of it! But that is a great question.
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Stemming from Matt's post. Let's categorize this if we want as well:

 

Best varied offense?

 

Best focused offense?

 

Best offense that fits character?

 

Offense that looks most believable?

 

Most innovative offense?

 

Discuss them all. I'll put up a list a little later.

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Short answer to the categories for me is that all of them are important if they can be intertwined. I would say most believable should be the baseline for me to buy it and then everything funnels up from that.

 

I am very little fans of Nova and the ilk that have a ton of creative moves but I dont find them believable or focused and essentially they only fit his character is if his character is "guy who makes up moves."

 

On the other hand, someone discussed last night was Bobby eaton who had varied offense but could use it in a very focused manner based on the theme of the match.

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For most innovative: this is now something forgotten but there was a stretch in 1993-94 where somebody in AAA, most of the time that somebody being Rey Misterio Jr., would come up with a new crazy "move of the year" that would be topped a week or two later. This was shortly after the days when an Asai Moonsault was a crazy move that some wrestlers in Mexico (like Atlantis) stopped doing because it was TOO RECKLESS. So on that regard it was a really exciting time to be a fan, being pumped up all week until Saturday after lunch you could sit down in front of your TV for hours watching AAA to see the crazy stuff people would come up with. Unfortunately that trend by 98-99 became too stupid and these moves started to look more ridiculous than cool.

 

On the same note, it was great watching All Japan Women to see all kinds of different moves that most men were unable to do as they were not as flexible.

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No one seems as high on peak Yatsu's offense as I am. Why? At his very best I thought his offense was better than anyone else's in All Japan. His double team spots with Choshu would tick all the boxes for "innovative" too. He's more in the "varied" than focused camp though.

 

Bobby Eaton would be making my all-round top 10, he's got about 5 different backbreaker variations, throws an awesome punch, can work a technical match on the mat or a brawl-type match -- impresses me more and more every time I see him. And have very much enjoyed the face MX run in general, where despite playing FIP most of the time, Eaton's offense has still managed to shine through as being great.

 

I always like Benoit's intensity and the way he'd snap off a suplex explosively. He legitimately did about 12 different suplex variations but they were all executed well, all looked like they'd hurt, all fit his character, and you could argue that stuff like the multiple Germans was innovative. He'd be top 10 for me too.

 

Here's one I'm less sure about but thought I'd bring to the table: what about Arn Anderson? Mr. Focused. Awesome spinebuster. Could we say he had the best offense in the Horsemen?

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When I posed the best offense question in the Vader thread, I deliberately left it open-ended to force people to make value judgments about what they considered most important. Splitting the question into a bunch of sub-categories kind of turns it into an exercise in stamp collecting, which is what I was trying to avoid.

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Guys who have not been mentioned yet who I would have very high on such a list...

 

El Hijo Del Santo - For your offensive "formula" type guys I don't know that there is anyone I liked better. He's a guy with a ton of pretty stuff, all of which looks both flashy and painful. All of his stock spots look really good, to the point where he can just roll out those spots and it feels like you aren't being cheated. In many ways I liken him to the offensive version of Flair.

 

2 Cold Scorpio - Possibly my absolute favorite offensive wrestler of all time. Scorp's highspots were more impressive than guys half his size in wrestling at the time. He was innovative in a good way as every time he busted out a new offensive move it was completely insane and done with incredible impact which is a part of "flying" offense that is often lacking. Very good striker too and had a wide variety of base offensive to set up for his bigger spots. Even now I'm not sure there is an active wrestler who is a more complete offensive wrestler.

 

Virus - Excellent on the mat, excellent brawler, very strong highspots and really good about knowing how to mix things up and tailor stuff for certain opponents.

 

Buddy Rose - Maybe the most underrated offensive wrestler ever because he's largely thought of as a bumping heel (which isn't untrue but is myopic). Probably the best I've ever seen at changing up his offense for individual opponents. When he was working Dynamite he could go sprint mode with him, when he was working body part work he had many solid ways to tear that body part apart, he would would surprise you with big spots you weren't expecting, his base offense was outstanding and his two or three "big" moves always looked good.

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2 Cold Scorpio - Possibly my absolute favorite offensive wrestler of all time. Scorp's highspots were more impressive than guys half his size in wrestling at the time. He was innovative in a good way as every time he busted out a new offensive move it was completely insane and done with incredible impact which is a part of "flying" offense that is often lacking. Very good striker too and had a wide variety of base offensive to set up for his bigger spots. Even now I'm not sure there is an active wrestler who is a more complete offensive wrestler.

I would throw the names Misawa and Hokuto around, but Scorp is actually a pretty great answer too. Amazing offensive worker, and none of his big flying spots were awkward looking nor looked cool for the sake of it. It was all about impact indeed.

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