Unacceptable Sloppiness

[BillThompson]

I recently started a topic about when sloppiness is welcome or adds to a match. Today I was watching some early 90's Scott Steiner as well as Marc Mero/Leif Cassidy from In Your House 13: Final Four. What I was watching got me thinking of unacceptable sloppiness, but more to the point how much the sloppiness that hurts a match actually bothers us.

 

The Scott Steiner stuff was spurned on by me reading some of Scott Keith's thoughts on early 90s Steiner and realizing he had such a crush on the guy that he would overlook all of his sloppiness. In the infamous Steiners/Iizuka & Fujinami tag the beginning of the match features Steiner badly blowing a couple of Suplexes, and generally looking like a tool. This appears to be a common thread in the majority of early 90s Scott Steiner, where his timing is off and he blows a Suplex spot or two in every other match. Most times it's not a big deal because he blows it in a way where the victim still lands in a position of impact. That would fall under the acceptable sloppiness label. Sometimes though, the guy will land on top of Steiner or fall to the mat with very little force because of how off Steiner is in his timing. This bugs me to no end as I feel its unacceptable sloppiness and exposes the fact that wrestlers need to work together for things to work. It didn't seem to matter to Scott Keith though, as every time Steiner would screw up a move Keith would call him a god and write about the moves as if they had been hit just as intended.

 

The Mero/Cassidy match I bring up because it has a few glaring moments of sloppiness. Mero goes for an Enzuguri where his foot barely connects with Cassidy's shoulder, let alone his head. Cassidy sells it like the move has connected with his head. There are a few other moments, such as both guys being off on an Arm Drag and the end result being that they kind of just tumble to the floor. The Enzuguri is mainly what I'm interested in though.

 

Obviously it's Mero's fault for not hitting the move correctly, but how much blame should be placed on Cassidy for selling it like he had been hit in the head? You combine both men's efforts and you have what I would consider an example of unacceptable sloppiness and an exchange that does shine a bright light on the fake aspect of wrestling. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's a simple reaction time issue where Cassidy was already ready to sell the headshot and didn't have time to react. However, it seemed to me like he did have time to react, and in that moment he should have adjusted and sold the Enzuguri as having hurt his shoulder, not as a head shot. It would have made it a more believable moment for me, and while still sloppy it would have been of the acceptable variety.

 

Sorry for all the rambling, and I'm not sure if I'm getting my point across. But, in the most general terms, how should the wrestlers deal with sloppiness that isn't acceptable and makes the business look bad? How should we deal with it? Does it matter or is it something to be considered on a case by case by case basis?

[dawho5]

I would say anything that adds a lot more risk to the wrestler taking the move is unacceptable. Safety has to come first.

[donsem43]

Any sort of sloppiness or blown spot that hurts the momentum of a match. I can go from being completely into a match until somebody misses something at a key moment, then I just want the match to be over.

[SomethingSavage]

This is what irks me most about Sabu. Some of his sloppiness actually falls under the "acceptable" category for me, which is odd - because A LOT also belongs here. He should be able to botch a spot or a high-risk maneuver and get away with it though. When it comes to that stuff, he's PRECISELY the kind of performer that could be getting away with murder. But, far too often, he tries to cover up the mistake or simply re-do the spot. I hate that stuff. Just go with the error & make it a part of the match.

 

Jeff Hardy springs to mind as a guy that's actually better at this than what he probably gets credit for being. He can botch a spot, sell it like certain death, and make the screw-up look like an organic mishap that occurred during the match. It's win/win, because it puts over the danger of the stuff he tries.

[Mad Dog]

Sabu...

 

just Sabu...

[JerryvonKramer]

Dan Spivey is the guy who springs to mind for me. "Dangerous" is one of the most apt ring-names ever.

[rainmakerrtv]

Dan Spivey is the guy who springs to mind for me. "Dangerous" is one of the most apt ring-names ever.

 

The squash match with Gary Jackson from 7/4/1992 that I saw courtesy of Rob Naylor and Will gives me nightmares to this day. The most horrifically botched power bomb I have ever seen (yes, even more than Sid in the War Games cage).

[concrete1992]

I'm on the, it is unacceptable it disrupts the flow of the match, bandwagon. You can be sloppy and still have it flow well. Trying to re-do a spot is like a comic trying to re-do a joke he flubbed but his ability to improvise can make up for the mistake and sometimes more-so.

[funkdoc]

Dan Spivey is the guy who springs to mind for me. "Dangerous" is one of the most apt ring-names ever.

 

this and the following post are funny, given the big internet myth about this guy - that nash ended his career with a botched powerbomb that messed up his back. complete BS but you'll still see it in youtube comments for waylon mercy matches