Wrestlers you've done a 180 on.

[ohtani's jacket]

I do 180s on wrestlers all time. I should probably learn not to be such a judgmental prick in the first place, but it's fun changing your mind.

 

In Euro wrestling, I've done a slight 180 on charisma-less heavyweights like Pete Roberts and Ray Steele who I now enjoy for their wrestling skills and workers like Bobby Ryan and Zoltan Boscik, whom I completely dismissed at first. I've warmed up to Rocco over the years, did a complete 180 on my impression of my first impressions of Brian Maxine and gave Skull Murphy, Bob Anthony and just about everyone else a second chance. All that remains is for me to change my tune on my hated triumvirate of Naylor, Sanders and Collins.

 

In lucha, lately I've changed my mind about foreigners in lucha. I'd still rather watch Mexican workers, but Ultimo had some great stints there and Norman Smiley was a ton of fun. Ultimo is a guy who I think was better in Mexico than he was in Japan though that may have been entirely due to Negro Casas. I used to think he was really weak in his first CMLL stint and didn't look good until 1997, but I've really enjoyed his 1993 run while doing the Vintage Negro Casas of the Day series.

 

Give me some 180s.

[dawho5]

Yoshinari Ogawa after watching his big matches from late 90s All Japan and NOAH in the 2000s was something of a surprise discovery for me. Never thought much of him, but the guy is a really great wrestler when he wrestles heavyweights and has to empty his bag of tricks just to survive.

[Phil Schneider]

My first real Fujiwara experience was that stink bomb with Kawada, so I thought he was a sucky old guy who didn't sell. Now he is my all time favorite wrestler, so that is a big 180

[Lee Casebolt]

Opposite 180 - I left wrestling fandom for a few years, then got back in around '07/'08. I was initially really high on Davey Richards and, to a lesser extent, Eddie Edwards. Now? Not so much.

[Coffey]

Rob Van Dam - Loved him in ECW, especially in 1999. I was a lot younger, wasn't exposed to as much wrestling & never really noticed that he was all garbage spots & stalling/taunting. Fast-forward to today & he's the exact same as 1999 only half speed & with crappy forearms/punches instead of chair spots.

 

Chris Jericho - Loved him in WCW as a Cruiserweight. Have hated his entire WWE run. Jericho never shows up on my TV & I think "awesome, Jericho is here." His matches bore me.

 

Mark Henry - When he first showed up in WWE, he was super green, boring, nothing special. His Nation of Domination run wasn't any good & he was outshined by pretty much everyone else, including D-Lo Brown. He got hurt several times & did nothing for a few years. His Hall of Pain stuff & heel run was really good though & I started to enjoy seeing him. Not just in matches but whenever he was on screen. Great soundbytes, felt like an old school throwback wrestler. His fake retirement with John Cena was money. He's winding down now but he entertained me for a good while when I had initially written him off completely. Pleasant surprise.

[Mr. Lacelle]

I used to think Riki Choshyu was a limited wrestler who was content to pull a Mutoh on the mat (lay there and do nothing) but after watching his stuff in All Japan I've come around and I'd say he's in the top 8 workers in All Japan in the 80s.

[pantherwagner]

I did a 360 on HHH, I used to really hate him during the Attitude era. I didn't want him to die or anything but him breaking his neck and being in a wheelchair would have been cool (hey I was a teenager). By the early 00s I thought he got really good and started really enjoying him for his hard work and his passion and I thought he really was a modern version of Harley Race. Eventually I ended up realising how he's awful at conveying any kind of real emotion but he lays out matches to be LONG AND EPIC with near falls and shit like that so many people think that they are compelling bouts. By then I didn't want him to be in a wheelchair or anything though so it's an improvement... I guess.

 

Also quite a big 180 (positive) on the entire state of Tennessee though I'd say that happened through the years to quite a few of us workrate-ish (lucha, Japan, BENOIT, etc) tards that went through DVDVR and Smarkschoice and ended up here.

[Zenjo]

El Dandy is the biggest one that springs to mind. From C show jobber with a terrible haircut to all time great with an awesome mullet.

 

I used to really dislike Choshu as well before watching his 80's work transformed my opinion of him.

 

My appreciation of RVD peaked after one match and has been on a downward spiral ever since.

 

I used to like the Great Sasuke but he really tilts me these days.

[...TG]

I missed all of the Clash of Champions growing up as my parents didn't have cable. So when WWE network put them up, I decided to re-watch them in order. I never really cared much for Sting, but I have a new appreciation for him now.

[Lee]

HATED Jigsaw, particularly during the ROH days, especially so when he went maskless. Then started watching CHIKARA a lot more regularly and he became one of my favourites. I thought it might have just been to do with the setting he was in, but I really enjoyed him whenever he showed up as Rubix in TNA too.

I've been going the opposite way on Chris Jericho as I was huge fan of his in the mid-90s, ECW, WCW. Was one of the few wrestlers I bothered to follow on my personal Twitter account too, I loved his first book (second was good but I was more interested in the era covered in the first), think his podcast is excellent... And yet, something really irks me the wrong way about him these days. Every once in a while he just comes across as whiny, arrogant and not all that he likes to think he is. Plus, he looks old now but still has a child's haircut.

I think my current overall feelings on the guy have been summed up by his most recent return. His surprise return: "Yay, Jericho's back!"; The setting up of his program with Bray Wyatt: "Holy SHIT! This is so awesome!"; The TV matches with Harper and Rowan: "Zzzzzz"; The matches with Bray: "Okay, go away again now please."; The threat of this next program with Randy Orton: "NO. NO. Oh God, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Don't know why. It doesn't help that I see his WCW stuff on the Network and instantly remember why I loved him so much in the first place. Probably could use a serious character reboot/makeover.

[DR Ackermann]

Rick Rude and Jericho. I thought Rude was boring and Jericho was a great wrestler. After watching a lot of 1992 I learned to appreciate Rude a lot and would even go so far as to say he was the best wrestler in America that year.

 

Chris Jericho on the other hand is someone I bought into as a kid as this great wrestler because he did some cool moves. I always liked the bulldog as a move but even then I felt he did it poorly. Over time I noticed he did a lot of moves poorly and part of that is because he has never known his physical limitations. I stopped watching wrestling for a few years and when I came back I realized Jericho was just this massively overrated worker who didn't even have good execution. I can't even stand him as a promo now either.

[pantherwagner]

Chris Jericho on the other hand is someone I bought into as a kid as this great wrestler because he did some cool moves. I always liked the bulldog as a move but even then I felt he did it poorly. Over time I noticed he did a lot of moves poorly and part of that is because he has never known his physical limitations. I stopped watching wrestling for a few years and when I came back I realized Jericho was just this massively overrated worker who didn't even have good execution. I can't even stand him as a promo now either.

 

This exact same thing happened to me. Jericho is also king of the fake classic match feeling via doing tons of reversals and kicking out of finisher and signature moves. I hate when he pulls that shit five or six minutes into the match.

[DR Ackermann]

That's a great point. One spot that always stands out to me is from one of his matches with Michaels in '08. I think it was the first or second one. At some point Jericho goes for the lionsault and Michaels get his knees up, but Jericho is expecting that and counters it into the Walls of Jericho. He basically just does a lionsault into a Walls of Jericho. Its so stupid.

[KrisZ]

I was a big Jeff Jarrett guy in the Memphis years but as his career went on and he became a bigger star I could've cared less and less about him.

[jdw]

Flair

 

The reason I became a wrestling fan, along with the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette.

 

For the past 15 years, my general thought has been that if I never see another Flair Match, my life would be perfectly fine.

 

Still think he was a great worker, and thank him for making me a wrestling fan. Just don't want to watch his stuff.

[El-P]

Choshu, once I began to watch entire NJ TV seasons (and not even of his prime).

The Rock, during my watch for the GOAT poll at SC.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

John Cena.

 

His white rapper schtick was one of the reasons I gave up on the modern product. Now whenever I pop my head back in for a month or two, I enjoy Cena's work and appreciate what he's been able to accomplish.

[Goodear]

Bunkhouse Buck went from someone I openly despised back when he was actually performing in WCW to a guy I now search out on occasion just to see if there is anything new available to find. The anti-moveset equation, Buck worked the untrained brawler gimmick exceptionally well with kicks, gouges and punches being his only form of offense. He also used a very awkward bumping style that in retrospect, worked with what he was trying to portray. Great facials and physical presence also and who didn't love how he would always shove down a camera man as part of his entrance?

[sek69]

Rick Rude is a weird case for me. I loved him in the NWA teaming with Manny, but his WWF run did nothing for me until he feuded with Warror. He's tops on the "sucks things ended too soon" list for me.

 

Also from rewatching on the network, I realized I was selling short pretty much the whole 1995 WWF roster. Growing up a JCP/WCW fan I just dismissed it all as stupid cartoon crap, and booking/character wise a lot of it was, but damn if these guys didn't try their ass off to make it work.

[Zenjo]

Bunkhouse Buck went from someone I openly despised back when he was actually performing in WCW to a guy I now search out on occasion just to see if there is anything new available to find. The anti-moveset equation, Buck worked the untrained brawler gimmick exceptionally well with kicks, gouges and punches being his only form of offense. He also used a very awkward bumping style that in retrospect, worked with what he was trying to portray. Great facials and physical presence also and who didn't love how he would always shove down a camera man as part of his entrance?

 

Clearly the pride of Bucksnort, Tennessee was an underated character worker of the mid 90's. IWC wisdom needs to be revised once more.

[BillThompson]

Was talking about this on Twitter today; Shinya Hashimoto. Nowadays I think he's one of the best workers pro wrestling has ever seen. But, back in the mid-90s to early 2000s I was under the impression he was terrible. I know I read a few Scott Keith reviews where he called him a fat waste of space, or a terrible worker who dragged every match down. Young, impressionable, and stupid, I let Keith's words guide me and I dismissed Hash all the time. Man, now I don't think I could imagine a wrestling universe where Hash doesn't bring me so much joy.

[Loss]

When did Scott Keith talk about Hashimoto? Great American Bash '92 review? He had that same effect on me with regards to Gedo. While Gedo is hardly a consistently great worker, he's pretty far from the horrible embarrassment of a worker he was made out to be.

[tigerpride]

- The Freebirds v. Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto.

The tape I'm watching cuts out almost the entirety of this match, but it's the Freebirds AND Hashimoto in the same match so it's safe to say it sucked. (Professional wrestling reviewing at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. Although to be fair this was before the days of Youtube where you could just look something up if you tape cut out.)

[BillThompson]

There was that one, and I believe also some comments he made for a Hash tag match at a later WCW PPV.

[PeteF3]

In fairness, Meltzer was down on Hash for quite a while too--most of the first half of the '90s.

 

Keith's hatred for Gedo stemmed from him getting into the finals of the '95 Super J-Cup just because WAR hosted it. And, naturally, because he beat Benoit to get there.