Mark Rocco

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[GSR]

Will probably be towards the bottom end of the WOS guys nominated for me and as a result won't be near my 100.

[Childs]

I nominated him, because I really like some of his '70s WOS work, when he brought a unique, aggressive style to match-ups with some really great opponents. I didn't think much of his Black Tiger work in New Japan, but I at least wanted him to be up for discussion.

[ohtani's jacket]

I used to be very negative about Rocco, but his work from '76-79 is excellent. He wasn't the best wrestler in the UK at the time, but he was the complete package when it came to a television personality and heel act. Marty Jones reigned him in well, but even in bouts where he takes center stage, he was an exciting act during that time. He's especially good in catchweight bouts where he wrestles a lot more instead of just pinballing about. His early 80s work isn't quite as good but there's still some highlights. Just avoid the Dynamite Kid stuff for the most part. I still don't like him in All-Star, and especially New Japan where he's pretty terrible. He might make it onto my list for those peak years.

[GSR]

He is one of the guys that I will look at again as I do remember enjoying a match he had with Chris Adams and also Sammy Lee (bar a lousy finish), but I just don't see him in the same bracket as Breaks, Cortez, Haward, Grey and Myers who are likely to be my top ranked WOS guys. That's providing they all make my 100 in the first place and also doesn't take into account someone like a Marty Jones.

[ohtani's jacket]

You need to watch the Jones vs. Rocco bouts from the 70s at the least. I think they will change your opinion on Rocco slightly. Just don't watch that Bobby Bold Eagle match I wrote about a few moments ago. Some pretty dodgy skill levels there from Rocco.

 

 

 

Bobby Bold Eagle vs. Rollerball Rocco (9/3/80)

This was Bobby Bold Eagle's television debut for Joint Promotions. He mostly stuck to Native American shtick while Rocco cheated his arse off. Walton of course went on about Billy Two Rivers, who had been a huge success in Joint rings in the 60s. The bout was a Rocco special, but it was sullied somewhat by the blatant spot calling and an incredibly unsubtle reach for a blade by Rocco. It was cool that he bleed from BBE's tomahawk chops and pretty outrageous considering blood wasn't allowed on television, but for a guy who was supposed to be the pro's pro, this was one of the more business exposing bouts I've seen from a British grappler.

[Jimmy Redman]

So I absolutely love this guy.

 

I take my British wrestling cues from people like OJ, so with his somewhat mixed reputation he wasn't one of my priorities to dive into. But I have stumbled across him and I'm thoroughly hooked.

 

He's a different kind of heel to say, Jim Breaks. There's something very unique about Breaks, something very...British. And you can say the same for heels of his ilk too, like a McManus. They are so very British. Whereas Rocco is a much more recognisable kind of worker, much more like a rudo or an American-style heel who will bump and stooge all over the place.

 

He straddles that line for me between being spectacular (and skillful) and being a snivelling, cheating piece of shit. He can roll and grapple and dive as well as anyone, but when things start to go wrong or he blows a fuse, he will pull out every trick in the book, and in the end there's just really nothing likeable about him at all. He's also just a great bumper, I just watched a Jones/Rocco match and in the space of about 20 seconds Rocco took the Stevens bump on his head, and then took a backdrop from the ring to the floor flat on his back. This guy could kill himself with the best of them.

 

The Rocco vs Jones matches are awesome. That match vs Steve McHoy that OJ recommended in the WoS thread is definitely worth a watch too. Honestly I could watch Rocco vs anyone. At this point he's my favourite WoS guy, behind only Breaks.

[ohtani's jacket]

The thing I love most about that McHoy match was that it was supposed to be Rocco vs. Kung Fu at the Royal Albet Hall, which was pretty much Dale Martin's equivalent of running the Garden. They even ran an angle for it on TV, which they hardly ever did. Then Kung Fu left them high and dry and Rocco has a catch weight with a guy nobody had even heard of and tears the place down. That really changed my opinion of Rocco. The Kung Fu bout that finally came about I'm Reslo is outstanding as well and a bout you should check out. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to rip.

[Matt D]

I watched the Jones tournament final last night and liked it. I'll probably check out the McHoy match this week too. He's more kinetic than Breaks, but I need to see more before I have any real thoughts.

[ohtani's jacket]

He's more kinetic than anyone in the era he worked. He wrestles like he's on speed. The thing is, it's not entirely a work. Apparently, he was a terror to work with. Regal talks about thumbs to the eye and all sorts of accidental injuries from working Rocco's breakneck style.

[MJH]

Hmm... I've only heard glowing praise whenever his name's come up with WoS-era people.

[ohtani's jacket]

Jimmy, you should check out the Orig Williams/Cullen vs. Rocco/Larsen tag from Reslo. Rocco carries Williams to the best bout I've seen from him.

[Dylan Waco]

Of all the World of Sport/Brit guys by far the one I'm most conflicted about is Mark Rocco.

 

I tend to admire the effort of the Dynamite matches even if I don't love them, I agree that he could bump, and also see him as someone with a broader base appeal (at least theoretically) than most other Brit performers. On the other hand I've seen him in Japan and he stinks there. I don't mean by comparison either. He's not any good. So I wonder if the idea of him being a more universally accessible talent really holds up to scrutiny.

 

I do think there is something admirable about Rocco's act in that he was constantly aggressive, a consistent pace pusher, an obvious asshole. There was nothing subtle about him in a national wrestling landscape where subtlety seemed to be the norm at times. That consistency, and commitment to his act are by far his biggest positives, and I do think he deserves at least some credit for being a trend setter when it came to cutting a pace both as a brawler and a grappler.

 

On the other hand I think that a lot of his pace pushing sort of obscured his failings. This will seem an odd comparison to some, but as a brawler I find him remarkably similar to Brody in that his constant moving forward, uniqueness, and vibe seems to overshadow the weakness of his strikes, and a clunkiness of motion. I'm not saying I find him to be as bad as I find Brody, but I do wonder if Rocco's aggressive tone was a deliberate cover for some of his mechanical failings. If it was it would almost enhance the way I view him as a worker, but then if it's not apparent to the viewer how much does it matter?

 

I know OJ really likes him in the late 70's, and I agree that it is his best period, but he really doesn't strike me as an especially skilled wrestler even that era. He's certainly not bad, and would stand out big time in today's world, but in that setting I don't see it. This might come across a wee bit trollish, but I don't think I ever saw him look as smooth as Tony St. Clair did v. Jones, nor am I entirely sure that he was as good a ground worker as peak St. Clair in general. At the very least I think it's close.

 

If aura means a ton to you, I could see rating him really high. He has that in spades. What's funny to me is that watching him in bulk kind of validates the claim often made in WON HOF debates that Rocco was a big star, and possibly even a meaningful drawing card. On the other hand I'm not sure it validates the claim that he's a great worker.

 

Rocco is especially difficult for me to get a real feel for because even within the context of a single match I will often swing from "I've been underrating this guy, he's really great" to "he's fine, but I have no clue how anyone sees him as an all timer." He's certainly great at being a bastardly heel, but something about him is very incomplete.

 

Lots and lots of pretty good to good matches, and even a few great ones. But I don't feel nearly as strongly about his best matches as I do the best matches of guys like Cortez, Breaks, Saint, Grey, or Myers. I wouldn't rate his peak performances at the level of Rudge, Haward, Boscick or Sarjeant either, and I could probably go on from there.

 

And yet I don't feel comfortable completely rejecting him fro consideration. At the end of the day my 100 is going to be very difficult to crack, so Rocco probably gets left out. But he's a curious case of a guy who seems like he should be in a top 100, even though my analysis trends in the other direction.

[ohtani's jacket]

I have a love/hate relationship with Rocco that's really a love/indifference relationship since I can't muster such strong feelings anymore. But take that '76-79 period and isolate it, and I'm as onboard as I am with early Dave Finlay. I like some of his 80s stuff. I think the Steve McHoy match is a great testament to his ability, and the long Kung Fu match from Reslo is one of his better bouts. There's also a catch weight with Pete Roberts (from memory) that's one of the best bouts of 1980. But the free reign he got away from Dale Martin and Joint Promotions was almost too much for a guy who already wrestled like a loose canon. Dylan alludes to him being sloppy or mechanically deficient. The word is that he was just as manic to work with in the ring as he appeared to the viewer. In other words, he was kind of just going berserk.

The one thing I can't ignore about him is that Rocco/Jones is an all-time great in-ring feud. I've seen four of their 70s bouts and not much else compares in British wrestling or anywhere else in terms of a 70s rivalry. And it wasn't just that Jones was s great talent. Rocco was a perfect foil. I don't feel as strong Saint, for example, despite his matches/rivalries with Breaks or Grey. Rocco vs. Jones is a cornerstone for my WoS fandom, and I can't underestimate that when it comes to Rocco.

[Clayton Jones]

I agree completely with OJ's 2016 comments about the Rocco/Jones feud. And a lot of the overall sentiment about Rocco in this post although I tend to be higher on him than most.

Something I'm trying to get a feel for is what did he look like against lesser opponents? Not elevating them to a great match but working against talent that was clearly a tier lower than him. Does anyone have recommendations along these lines? Often I've seen him fall into that same manic pace regardless of the caliber of opposition, I'm curious if he ever varied his tactics based on punching down to who he was working with.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm struggling to recall what we have on tape, but I definitely think the McHoy match is the best carry job I've seen from him. Not that McHoy was bad, it's just that it was a big Royal Albert Show and McHoy was a last minute replacement for Rocco's billed opponent, Kung Fu. IIRC, they'd actually built that match up on television as well. McHoy was such a weird replacement for Kung Fu, but Rocco makes it work. I feel like the Pete Roberts bout was a lot slower as well. I can't remember if there any any other catchweight bouts where Rocco worked a slower pace. My favorite period is his late 70s explosion when he first takes off as a heel. I remember enjoying the matches against Bert Royal. Some of that might be original broadcast stuff, though, and not the Wrestling Channel footage. I think Lister uploaded all that stuff, though. 

[Clayton Jones]

Well that was McHoy match was Rocco punching up (literally based on the size difference) and punching down at the same time to an extent, and it was a really great performance. I love the context knowing about it being such an impromptu match with big shoes to fill. Rocco worked a very different pace and approach and got way more out of McHoy than he had any right to. I'll keep the Roberts and Royal matches in mind the next time I circle back to Rollerball. He's a curious case for sure, someone I could see in my top 50 or not making my list at all. The more I watch the less I think the latter will happen but I didn't have him penciled in on my initial rough draft.