Rick Martel

[El-P]

 

 

Offhand I think you could argue him as high as five in English speaking North America after Buddy Rose, Flair, Lawler and Bockwinkel.

 

Martel isn't English Speaking.

 

And yeah, he was great. The more I watch him, the more I think of him. His comeback in 98 was pretty terrific as he looked like one of the best guys in WCW almost immediately, and it took those sloppy-ass Harlem Heat to cut his career short. Not that he would have hang on for too long though, he was making money in real-estate for a decade already.

 

 

To be fair it was Perry Saturn throwing him over the top rope that wrecked his knee and ended his career.

 

 

Well, yeah, but if I'm not mistaken, he also got a concussion later on from Booker T. Then fucked his knee again because of Booker's ineptitude. Then as soon as he came back after surgery, was thrown into the hands of Stevie Ray, and as he was trying to protect his newly repaired knee from further damage while having to take the always horribly applied slapjack, he ended up with a neck injury. That makes three injuries on the hand of Booker & Stevie, following the first one on the hand of Saturn. No wonder he quit after that.

[BillThompson]

Interesting, I always thought it was the over the top throw at SuperBrawl that was the career ender.

[JerryvonKramer]

On the last Titans show, which has just dropped, we reviewed a Martel match which I thought demonstrated just how fantastic he was. It's on Youtube:

 

 

Starts about 1:31:20 in, and goes about 15 minutes. It's Martel vs. The Hangman, a lower card opponent. Date is 03/16/80, MSG.

 

We were divided on this. Johnny thought the match was boring and sucks, I thought it was easily the best match on the card and a real showcase for Martel. Kelly and Pete were somewhere in between, with Kelly a bit higher on it than Pete, but not as high as me.

 

I'd really like to know what others make of this. People who are high on Martel, people who aren't etc.

 

I'd say it's about a ***1/2 but an MVP performance from Martel. Let me know what you think.

[ohtani's jacket]

Hmm, just watched a pretty soft Martel/Garea vs. Moondogs match. To be honest, Martel didn't look that flash. Garea I wanted to like such he's a fellow kiwi, but he wrestled like a pansy. It was a shortish title change with pretty awful use of the Southern style tag formula. It seems to me that Martel really grew into a strong wrestler somewhere between here and '84.

[JerryvonKramer]

OJ, did you watch the match I mentioned above from 3/16/81? I think Martel looked great in 1980-1 and I recall someone (Bockwinkel?) saying that he should have been made champ at that point.

 

I will say though that the WWF tag scene at that time sucks ass.

[Matt D]

His English was still pretty rough a few years later when he was AWA champ.

[JerryvonKramer]

I think the guy was so sexy he didn't need to cut many promos. Not that it mattered in WWF where they'd had Pedro as champ who could barely speak English anyway. Maybe Arnold Skaaland could have actually done something for a change and did some interviews for him.

 

Pretty sure Bock (or whoever it was) was talking about AWA though.

[Ricky Jackson]

Hmm, just watched a pretty soft Martel/Garea vs. Moondogs match. To be honest, Martel didn't look that flash. Garea I wanted to like such he's a fellow kiwi, but he wrestled like a pansy. It was a shortish title change with pretty awful use of the Southern style tag formula. It seems to me that Martel really grew into a strong wrestler somewhere between here and '84.

 

Martel/Garea vs Moondogs 12/29/80 MSG is a hot match and well worth a watch if you can track it down.

 

As a whole, tag wrestling from the era is extremely disappointing other than a few rare bright spots like that one

[shoe]

Martel in 1980 in Portland was tearing it up. I don't think it was 1984 a light bulb finally went off OJ. I think that was when he got his big push. In essence he was given opportunites in 1984 that he really didn't get except in 1980 Portland and he delivered in spades in Portland. OJ I think you're wrong in assessing Martel as a wrestler.

 

My main problem with the match Parv mentioned was that it shouldn't have been booked so long with a jobber. That scenario works with underneath face v . a good heel. The other way just weakens the face.

[Matt D]

I will say that Martel looks a hell of a lot better vs Buddy than he does vs Harley that year.

[ohtani's jacket]

Maybe Martel was tearing it up in Portland because he was in a hot feud with Rose? Even in that feud he was still a little rough around the edges.

[shoe]

Maybe Martel was tearing it up in Portland because he was in a hot feud with Rose? Even in that feud he was still a little rough around the edges.

Possible. He also teamed up with Piper and had good matches with the Sheepherders who aren't at the Buddy Rose level when it comes to working.

[ohtani's jacket]

I guess so. Portland was also a better territory for tag wrestling than the WWWF.

[Johnny Sorrow]

My main problem with the match Parv mentioned was that it shouldn't have been booked so long with a jobber. That scenario works with underneath face v . a good heel. The other way just weakens the face.

Or to put it my way, I don't care how awesome Martel's performance was, one half of the tag champs shouldn't have trouble easily beating the fucking Hangman.

But it pretty much shows how the general booking of WWF matches that weren't featured matches, from the time worked. Basically , "Ok Martel. Go out and gimme 15 minutes with Hangman. We got time to fill. You go over."

"What's the finish?"

"I don't care, come up with something".

[JerryvonKramer]

Exactly the sort of match Matt D would want to look at to see what a guy can do in different contexts then.

 

Also way too easy to say "oh it's the Hangman and this isn't a featured match so I don't care about it", which is essentially what you and Pete did. Not having a go, it's not hard to zone out on some of these cards, but give that match another look.

 

Given how many nothing matches we've seen, I think to stand out like he did there says something. And so many guys including Yatsu, Tito, and others with good reps, haven't. Is that the first time we saw Martel in a singles?

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I love Ricky, but I think his selling could get a little goofy at times. I'm thinking specifically about earlier in his career.

[Matt D]

I really want to find a great or at least very good Model match. I watched Martel vs Red Rooster from MSG last night and while I thought he did a great job during the shine, really selling the arm and then the leg and making Taylor look good and his stuff meaningful, I fell asleep once he got on offense. Literally. Monsoon was particularly brutal too and I love Monsoon. Heenan getting exasperated that Hillbilly Jim could identify the patella cracked me up though.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnYsLz2PKAQ

[PhilTLL]

You know what, I'm really bored and don't have a work project today. I shall endeavor to watch as many of the Model matches as I have available to me and let you know if I find anything worthy.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Both of the Tito matches are pretty good with my recollection being the lead-in to Survivor Series '89 being the better of the two, but overall it was a disappointing program because it was booked around the loop as a 4 minute match. You have the best blood feud worker in the company up against a hot new heel that just backstabbed him. Infuriating! My thought process: they wanted to push Martel (he is a top 3 heel WM VII), but the booking mentality was not to have a face lose a feud like that hence 4 minute matches.

 

The best singles Martel match was a Primetime match with Bret Hart in '89 (NOT the MSG house show match from '90 that was a borefest). This was during the year where they were teasing a Bret babyface singles run as he barely tagged with Neidhart all year. You could tell Bret's effort was at all time high in the WWF because he wanted that singles push.

 

If you don't care about just singles matches, the obvious great heel Martel match is Santana/Rockers vs Martel/Rougeaus Summerslam '89. Martel. Bravo, Valentine, Rougeaus would have been an all-time great WWF Jimmy Hart heel stable.

[PhilTLL]

 

The best singles Martel match was a Primetime match with Bret Hart in '89 (NOT the MSG house show match from '90 that was a borefest). This was during the year where they were teasing a Bret babyface singles run as he barely tagged with Neidhart all year. You could tell Bret's effort was at all time high in the WWF because he wanted that singles push.

 

 

 

I thought it was pretty good. For the record, it aired on PTW 10/16/89. It starts with the typical "one-up->brag(repeat x...) one-up->too much bragging->eat a clothesline" routine, then Bret does some entertaining arm work that goes nowhere. Rick does some nice back work that does go somewhere, especially elbow drops and Bret's usual back buckle bump. They get some good heat with repeated struggles over Rick's Boston crab before Bret sits in it for awhile. But he nonchalantly shrugs off the damage with that little spring-up thing of his after an outside-inside double transition. Rick takes a really nice over-the-buckle bump during Bret's comeback and they start rattling off pretty hot nearfalls, but it seems like the draw finish is a misfire, as the bell rings randomly during a dropkick instead of 30 seconds earlier during the small package. Alas. The piledriver Bret was using as a semi-finisher during this time would have been welcome.

 

Earlier, I watched a Martel/Tim Horner match (5/16/89, PTW 5/29/89) that was okay, except Rick finished with a rather weak gutwrench and a top-rope kneedrop that, bless his opponent-protecting heart, was a long way from Killer Kowalski. Scratch that one off the finisher list, ha.

 

ETA: Now I have watched a Martel/Koko match (7/19/89, PTW 8/7/89) that is a really solid 8:00, except that Koko totally weak-lands a splash after his missile dropkick, and Martel wins with that kneedrop again (it's a little bit better). Otherwise a lot to like as Martel amps up the fury with good choking and the tree of woe, and Koko mocks Rick's stooging better than most and sprinkles in really hot hope spots.

 

Martel/Valentine, WrestleFest 91 (3/12/91): Some good work here, mostly Martel getting his legs destroyed, but it ends too soon with a boring DCO. Valentine seemed energized by his face push and was pretty over--the crowd fairly explodes for his hitting the figure four after the match.

[Kil]

The match with Razor Ramon for the vacant IC Title in 93 is a match I love, in no small part due to it being at the first TV taping I ever went to. But when I watched it again not too long ago I thought it was terrific. A fairly basic structure, with Martel working over Razor's back to soften him up for the Boston Crab, but very well executed.

[El-P]

I'll have more things to say as we go along with this, but I find Martel's heel work in WWF very frustrating. I think he was handcuffed, be it by the agents or the style or what not,

 

Martel said it himself in his shoot interview, although he loved the Model gimmick (who wouldn't, it was awesome), his heart wasn't totally into wrestling at this point as he was turning his interests into real-estate at the same time. Which is also why he never got pushed more or got better opportunities than he did.

[El-P]

for all the good/really great matches I've seen him in, I can't recall a single really good brawl. The closest is probably the Zhukov cage match, but even that isn't quite what I mean.

 

Just watched that one. Excellent bloodletting with great selling on both part. If that's not a really good brawl, nothing is. The only thing that sucked in this match was the referee, totally out of position, fucking up the counts by being too slow at first and then doing a fast count at the end. Just horrid. But Martel was terrific in this match, just bleeding, selling and making great comebacks. The spot where he stops himself from bumping into the cage, stays in position and simply turns his head back toward Zhukov is excellent. Loved that stuff. Martel ruled. And I loved the Model gimmick too, no matter if he didn't get to work the super matches, he was too much fun at this time working the gimmick.

[PeteF3]

Short as it is, the Hansen brawl at Comiskey Park into the dugouts was pretty fucking awesome.

[El-P]

Short as it is, the Hansen brawl at Comiskey Park into the dugouts was pretty fucking awesome.

 

Yep. Martel doesn't let Stan eat him alive either, he's just losing it after a while.

 

The title change with Stan wasn't a brawl, although with Hansen it always kinda is, but it's one hell of an intense match. The addition of Stan + fighing babyface never fails to deliver, and Martel was a terrific fighting babyface. The ending is classic too.