Jim Duggan

[elliott]

What are the 3 best Duggan matches post-Mid South? He's an absolute world beater in Mid-South did he really go all the way to skippable the moment he started in WWF? Might take a look at some of his early WWF stuff. 

[brockobama]

Duggan has been the big revelation for me so far in this process. Happened upon his SNME match with Rick Rude last year when I was working on the Rude case and was amazed by how much I was enjoying this Cro-Magnon American Monarchist bellowing with board in hand. Had seen some of the DiBiase Mid-South stuff when I was a kid just getting into wrestling and wasn't impressed by it so I thought I had this dopey old legend figured out, a big guy with a big character but short on skills. After the Rude match I vowed to do a deeper dive.

Watched 60 matches or so over the last few weeks, nothing exhaustive, but it's enough to get Duggan on my list.

Before anything else I'll mention that his mechanics are rock solid. He never strays too far from straightforward brawling but within that style he hits all the right notes, with great punches and pinpoint timing. His bumps are in the floaty Buddy Rose mold but I think he brings much more weight to them, resulting in a more natural feel that doesn't feel out of place in a Mid-South bloodbath. Moreover Duggan's deceptively lithe. He spins and twirls well for a guy his size, being more flexible in the middle and lighter on his feet than you'd expect. You watch his stuff with fellow dancer Buzz Sawyer and it's halfway to ballet. (Ballet is an apt comparison because Duggan has a certain girlish playfulness to him, as with the way he swings his hips to set up the three point stance or how he grabs his hair up in a ponytail. He comes across as a big, burly man who's not afraid to play teatime with a young niece and that's very endearing.) He's not often in the position to sell from underneath for an extended period of time but because of this lithesome quality he's always good at it, going weak at the knees after some shot to the head and doing some great "swinging blind" selling second only to Funk. I also love his glassy-eyed expressions when he's down and out, something you see a lot more in his post-WWF career.

This gracefulness contrasts with Duggan's overall appearance and that's another thing I really love about the guy. One of the first thoughts I had, watching his early Watts stuff, was "goddamn I've never noticed how heavy his footfalls are" and it really emphasized how much he does in every match to appeal to the crowd. Whether it's in caveman stomping around the ring or little glances (and sneers as a heel) or barking at them directly or "should I do it?" questioning or the ubiquitous thumbs up and HOOOOOOOO, Duggan is constantly doing something to get the audience to engage with this ludicrous, larger than life character. He has an expert understanding of when to prod the people (and why) and when to return to the ass-kicking. I can't say I ever saw a Duggan match with a dead crowd; even with the motley crew of late 90s WCW being the most indifferent towards him, he was able to work his way into nostalgia pops and good-hearted chuckles in those C-show matches. He was always fairly cartoonish in Mid-South but really reaches another level in WWF, electrifying fans in an undeniably fun way. One of the things that impressed me most in this project was something I saw repeatedly in the Savage feud, where Duggan would jerk his head around to look at the crowd after avoiding a pin, showing that he's still alive, and the place would EXPLODE. Man knew how to connect with people.

Duggan's commitment to being a cartoon wrestler is perhaps his greatest strength. Both in the broader Captain Caveman shtick and the more explicitly patriotic stuff, as well as in specific gimmicks such as the football pads match with Dr. Death or the oft-maligned martial arts match with Meng, the dude is giving himself wholly to the inherent absurdity of pro wrestling in a way that is very charming. Everybody talks about how his WWF run is so much worse than his stuff in Mid-South but I think his performances are much stronger and it results in matches that last with me longer. In WWF Duggan becomes somebody who can out-hulk up the Hulkster, bringing a more overwhelming energy to that comeback than Hogan ever did. In WWF Duggan can play up to Andre's level, being the rare sort of wrestler whose outlandish personality isn't outshone by a literal giant and instead makes them both feel bigger. In WWF Duggan unlocks his ridiculous comic timing, as with the aforementioned Rude and Savage matches. Arguably it all culminates with the Yokozuna feud. The knockdown challenge angle in '93 is an incredible bit of bullshit and the peak of WWF's 90s warbaiting, being fun (and dare I say stirring) in a way I never felt with Hogan's and Luger's patriotic victories.

The man certainly has his downsides. I was always frustrated with how light Duggan's offense was, delivering kicks and stomps and kneedrops that pale in comparison to his punches, with his droopy clothesline being the worst perpetrator of all. It never feels like he uses his size to his advantage; I wouldn't say he's working small necessarily but that he rarely comes across as being as big as he clearly is. In spite of his popularity he can also get lost in a star-studded tag, not just playing second fiddle to the likes of Dusty Rhodes and Butch Reed and Bill Watts and the RNRs but feeling like he's not contributing anything to the match. The one where he's tagging with Jake the Snake against Andre and Rude is maybe the first time I saw him not get shown up in a tag and even then he's firmly behind Roberts in the crowd's eyes. Even more than his in-ring style, Duggan seems like a limited worker in terms of the sorts of matches he can get over in.

While I'm no expert on the era, I find issue with the comment about how bad Duggan was for younger opponents in WCW. The initial angle with Stunning Steve is pretty infamous but I think it's perfectly in line with Austin's other feuds at the time, this young loudmouth heel pinballing around for an energetic babyface. Duggan certainly doesn't no-sell against him (or against Vader in his next feud, nor with regular opponent Steve Regal) and if he does so later on it's in his role as a past-his-prime, over-the-top character wrestler popping the crowd. Hard to judge him for not being more giving in three minute Worldwide matches contractually obligated to contain 90 seconds or more of HOOOOOOOOOO. He also spends way more time wrestling the likes of Mike Rotunda, Bobby Eaton, Curt Hennig, Bubba Rogers, The Barbarian, and Barry Darsow than anyone else, so I find the assertion that he was dragging down a multitude of youngsters pretty silly.

On the contrary, I think his WCW run added a lot to his case. Early on he looks more energetic and spry there than he had in the last few years of WWF, going back to the Savage feud at least. He's clearly feeling the effects of time, being both skinnier and slower, but he makes meaningful adjustments to account for that; he's a lot choosier with his bumping and gives way more wobbly-legged, wide-eyed old man selling performances than ever before, best exemplified with his taped fist match against Big Bubba and the tag against Flair and Arn. I'm not quite as high on his Vader matches as others seem to be but I really like his stuff with Austin and Regal, two feuds full of crowd-pleasers. Beyond that he becomes a great C-show babyface, a guy divorced from anything too serious but who remains a fun presence centering meaningless matches around a little bit of selling and a lot of shtick. You laugh and don't think too hard about it when he says something like "Saturday Night belongs to me!" because ultimately it doesn't matter. It's the perfect role for Duggan, a guy who was rarely ever a title contender despite his popularity over the years, getting to fool around and be charismatic doing nothing of consequence. Then that's all flipped around with that Goldberg match in 2000, an exceptional bit of wrestling TV. Duggan delivers the most moving promos of his life before and after a cancer scare, building up to a bewilderingly great showdown with monster heel Goldberg who works over the man's missing kidney while Duggan throws the heaviest punches of his career and sells his ass off. I watched that early Friday morning and I'm still buzzing about it days later. Twenty years into his career, half a decade past his last meaningful push, the dude still takes my breath away in a three minute squash match.

Don't know where Duggan's gonna end up on my list but there's no way he doesn't make my top 100. He's wacky and weird in all the ways I want out of wrestling.

[elliott]

Amazing post. 

[brockobama]

Just doing my job, ma'am.