Dino Bravo

[Mr. Lacelle]

I guess I should have probably put Dino as my biggest wrestling guilty pleasure but I felt like he deserved his own thread. I loved his team with Martel, especially against the Road Warriors, probably my favourite Roadies tag match ever. I always enjoyed dark haired Dino but even the blonde bloated version could still put in some fun perfomances like in the Rumble 89 6 man tag.

[rzombie1988]

Awful. Legit maybe my least favorite wrestler ever.

[fxnj]

I actually think he's pretty underrated. His work for the first few years he was in WWF was pretty bad but by the late 80s he became a pretty fun heel who took some nice bumps. It doesn't sound like the highest praise but this Brian Blair match is pretty much as good as you could expect a throwaway 80s WWF mid card singles match to be

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaqllj_brian-blair-vs-dino-bravo_sport

[JaymeFuture]

WWF Dino Bravo was awful. I've heard good things about his time in Montreal, but I haven't seen it, so I won't write him off completely, that'd just be ignorant, but I never enjoyed his WWF stuff, and never understood why he was pushed to the point he was.

[Grimmas]

He was certainly good in his few AWA matches I saw, so the good in Montreal thing doesn't seem like a myth.

 

Although his in ring was lacking in the WWE, I did love his character.

[khawk20]

The difference between his AWA time circa 1980 + his Montreal time vs. his WWF stint is night and day. Two completely different wrestlers.

[Matt D]

How much of that do you think is roids, age, stylistic differences, or just him playing a heel instead of a face?

[khawk20]

All were factors but most noticable to me was how the power version in the WWF seemed to have his offense dumbed down accordingly, which was probably a combination of the extra bulk and the determination from above on how he should wrestle (read: You're a power heel, punch, kick, stomp, that's about it).

 

The old Bravo could have played a scientific-styled heel (akin to Hennig or Martel, for example) adequately. He was never as smooth as either of those two examples as a face...which I think was part of the reason for the shift to power heel.

[Matt D]

Neither Martel nor especially Hennig got to play a scientific heel in WWF either.

[khawk20]

I disagree in the sense they were able to perform many of the same moves that they did in their face personas, and have good back-and-forth matches with other wrestlers, like Bret Hart.

 

Bravo could have wrestled more of his Montreal style if allowed, but with the additional bulk and a "World's Strongest Man" gimmick, I don't think it would have translated very well.

[fxnj]

What's wrong with his blond heel work? Sure, his offense was pretty basic (odd complaint for a board that regularly shits on movez stuff) but the match I linked has him doing all kinds of fun expressions to keep things entertaining while getting in just enough offense to keep looking like a threat, similar to what you get in old Destroyer matches.

[khawk20]

There probably isn't anything wrong with it. After watching him for so long in Montreal,

It was probably too much of a change for me to ever like or appreciate.

[theconstipatedsmark]

WAY more familiar with him as the blonde bloated version than ark haired. I waas never big on the guy, but maybe it's because my first impression of him and the one that sticks in my mind the most is when he was way past his prime.

[funkdoc]

we need an Irrational Steroid Transformation Debate Thread for bravo vs. davey boy

[Judy Bagwell]

bloated, painfully slow, terrible hair, no charisma or promo skills and had Frenchy Martin as his manager

he even looked slower than Muraco in their 1988 PPV matches.

hated his finisher as well

[Coffey]

Is Martel/Bravo Vs. Warriors online anywhere?