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Jerry Blackwell


Grimmas

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  • 5 months later...

Blackwell was great, kind of like Mark Henry 30 years before there was Mark Henry. Super working fat guy. Unbelievable, ridiculously nutty bumps for his size, the way he would just splat was straight out of like a cartoon or something. Knew how to use his size. Also really good at selling just the right amount. His willingness to show just enough vulnerability was the key to the drama in his matches.

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I am not high on this guy at all unlike many people here but I never thought of it as him getting an easy ride. I just figure well these people don't care as much about cool moves or ability to work long singles matches as I do and also think they think that cage match with Sgt Slaughter against Masked Superstar, Patera and Al-Kaissy was some kind of great match.

There probably is some amount of him not getting as much criticism as someone who has been considered great for a long time going on. The only people who actually care about Crusher Blackwell are people who kinda discovered him, for lack of a better word, and then thought he was awesome and unheralded. People who've seen bits and pieces of him and think he's fine don't have enough of a reason to say here's the list of things wrong with Jerry Blackwell because he's not touted as great by enough people or for a long enough time.

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I am not high on this guy at all unlike many people here but I never thought of it as him getting an easy ride. I just figure well these people don't care as much about cool moves or ability to work long singles matches as I do and also think they think that cage match with Sgt Slaughter against Masked Superstar, Patera and Al-Kaissy was some kind of great match.

 

You're better off trusting your initial instincts.

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Some people, it seems to me, only go on their initial instincts which can lead to a skewed perspective.

 

Blackwell will make my list, but he's just exactly the sort of guy who will fiat straight into many people's top 40s without much thought.

 

And in my view, if there wasn't going to be much thought, we might as well have shipped our Top 100s two years ago.

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Some people, it seems to me, only go on their initial instincts which can lead to a skewed perspective.

 

Blackwell will make my list, but he's just exactly the sort of guy who will fiat straight into many people's top 40s without much thought.

 

And in my view, if there wasn't going to be much thought, we might as well have shipped our Top 100s two years ago.

Sorry, I meant that he should trust his Initial, well-meant instincts about the purity of other people's motives and methods as opposed to the opposing jackass view. Clarity is important in these things.

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I didn't think my second paragraph was really a jackass view or even in opposition to my first paragraph. I was just trying to offer an explanation for why this thread for Crusher Blackwell is very positive for someone who might not make a lot of people's ballots. Why do people like me not post our negative thoughts in the threads for wrestler like Blackwell, y'know.

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I'd be interested in reading JVK's critique of him rather than just "he's getting a pass and that strikes me as unfair." Tell me what you think he's getting a pass, not a single line that does nothing other than antagonize.

 

Have no problem with El's point and think there may even be something to it, though I would note that for me what helps Blackwell most are the random performances I have stumbled upon over the last few years that were outside of the limelight where he is doing fun and creative things.

 

I also think it's a bit rich to fuss about others going on initial instincts when you have proclaimed people like Hase and others as locks for your list off of an admittedly tiny sampling. You can't have it both ways.

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I didn't think my second paragraph was really a jackass view or even in opposition to my first paragraph. I was just trying to offer an explanation for why this thread for Crusher Blackwell is very positive for someone who might not make a lot of people's ballots. Why do people like me not post our negative thoughts in the threads for wrestler like Blackwell, y'know.

 

Your first paragraph was the brunt of what's probably going on. The second paragraph might add some color to it. So long as you go in that way, you're fine. It's people who look to reverse the ratio who are the jackasses, not you.

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I'd be interested in reading JVK's critique of him rather than just "he's getting a pass and that strikes me as unfair." Tell me what you think he's getting a pass, not a single line that does nothing other than antagonize.

 

Have no problem with El's point and think there may even be something to it, though I would note that for me what helps Blackwell most are the random performances I have stumbled upon over the last few years that were outside of the limelight where he is doing fun and creative things.

It's probably more of an output thing. He has a lot of stuff that falls into the "fun" range. I mean I like Blackwell, think he's great etc., but the point is that you don't get the sort of nitpicking that you might get elsewhere. For him, "the case" just seems to be "well, this guy was really good".

 

There are reasons for that. But this is where someone like Blackwell, "rediscovered" in a way in recent years, might get a leg up on much more known quantitites. For some reason I'm a jackass to point that out. There we are.

 

I also think it's a bit rich to fuss about others going on initial instincts when you have proclaimed people like Hase and others as locks for your list off of an admittedly tiny sampling. You can't have it both ways.

 

I think it is only Hase and Breaks who fall into that bracket. Although Orton and Adonis are both carried by at least an impetus that they seem like great workers in everything I've seen.

 

What's a tiny sampling though? 20 matches or 10 minutes?

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If you really want me to be specific and name names, I was talking about Matt D putting Andre 9th on his list on the basis that he thinks he worked very well around his limitations in 1989, which seems to go back to a particular Demolition match. You asked, you got.

 

I might just be moody today, but that's what I had in mind. Matt can do what he wants with his list, and I'm not bothered, but ideally I'd want something a bit more holistic and thoroughgoing when thinking about a workers' placement. I haven't seen every Andre match on tape, but I feel like I've watched my fair share of him. But I haven't really seen much from Matt beyond that late 80s stuff that would suggest a 9th-place rating.

 

I do actually have something interesting to say about Andre and will do that in that thread.

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  • 1 month later...

If you really want me to be specific and name names, I was talking about Matt D putting Andre 9th on his list on the basis that he thinks he worked very well around his limitations in 1989, which seems to go back to a particular Demolition match. You asked, you got.

 

I might just be moody today, but that's what I had in mind. Matt can do what he wants with his list, and I'm not bothered, but ideally I'd want something a bit more holistic and thoroughgoing when thinking about a workers' placement. I haven't seen every Andre match on tape, but I feel like I've watched my fair share of him. But I haven't really seen much from Matt beyond that late 80s stuff that would suggest a 9th-place rating.

 

I do actually have something interesting to say about Andre and will do that in that thread.

Just to close the circle here, in case anyone comes across this later, I made my counters in the Andre note, including writing up the very worst match that could be thrown at me in a manner that is fully consistent with the rest of my list.

 

As for Blackwell, he's currently very close to dead center on my list.

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  • 5 years later...

I ranked Jerry Blackwell 62nd in 2016 and I feel good about that one. Its probably a little high, but Blackwell is my kinda dude. He's way more versatile than you'd guess just by looking at him. And I don't just mean he's in some good tag matches and singles matches. I mean he can work an old style 2/3 falls title match against Butch Reed. He can work a wild brawl with Mad Dog. He can come off like a vicious killer and he can do comedy spots as well. Incredible athlete for his size. Huge bumper and bleeder. Yeah Jerry Blackwell in the mid 60s feels good. Might even be too low now that i think about it. Longevity hurts him but he packs a hell of a lot into that run. 

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I had Blackwell at 83 in 2016 and I feel fine with that, but, like most candidates, if I went and re-watched a handful of the best Jerry Blackwell matches right now I'd feel like an idiot for having him so low. Blackwell was an absolute treasure on the AWA set and one of the biggest discoveries to me personally over the last 10 years. Coming out of the AWA set I would've considered having him higher than Vader as my #1 big portly wrestler ever. With hindsight that's sort of wild (he was not higher than Vader on my 2016 list and I very much doubt he will be in 2026), but I think he did a number of things equally as well as Vader and a couple even better than him. A morbidly obese man should not be able to bump the way he does and I question the sanity of him even doing it despite the fact he could. Blackwell was the absolute god king of lunatic cage match bumps; maybe the god king of cage matches in general because he has like five that are fucking awesome. elliot is also right about his versatility -- worked well as a babyface, as a heel, in singles, in tags, in wild brawls, in lengthy traditional rules matches, cage matches, ladder matches, more cage matches. I think he milked the pop with his seesaw "will he go down here?" selling before taking a bump as well as anyone ever, though I actually do partly agree with the knock that as a babyface his dead-stare comebacks could be a bit iffy. I don't think they were no-selly as such, but it did border on it a little. There are instances of this in early 80s All Japan where it looks like he can't be bothered with the selling at times. It's not a huge issue, nor is it something I'll ding him for particularly, but I can understand that criticism of him. But really, Blackwell ruled. Putting together a recommended match list for him also reinforces how many fucking spelling variations we have for Sheik Adnan Kaissey so that's cool as well.

 

JERRY BLACKWELL YOU SHOULD WATCH:

w/Sheikh Adnan Al-Kaissie v High Flyers (AWA, 4/18/82)

v Butch Reed (St. Louis, 11/28/82)

w/Sheikh Adnan Al-Kaissie v Mad Dog Vachon & Baron Von Raschke (3/13/83)

v Mad Dog Vachon (AWA, 5/22/83)

w/Sheikh Adnan Al-Kaissie v Da Crusher & Greg Gagne (AWA, 3/25/84)

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  • 1 year later...

I forgot how good Blackwell was. He blew me away going through the AWA 80s set, then I never watched him for years, and then over the last few days I've watched a bunch of him and yeah, what an amazing portlyboy. In addition to what I said about him a couple posts up, he has an all-time great elbow drop and his running corner splash is the GOAT of GOATs. I re-watched the Algerian death match against Vachon the other night and jeez louise he about killed the wee fella with those corner splashes. 

What is the Blackjack Mulligan match folks were mentioning earlier in the thread? Because I don't think I've seen that before and a bit of new Blackwell is exciting. 

I may allow him to coast on good will all the way into my top 40. Fire me, I'm already fired. 

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