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Worst Professional Wrestler Ever?


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Honky may not have been a great in-ring performer in the WWF, but he had the resume before that in Memphis, where he took part in some very good traditional tag matches and wild brawls and held up his end very well. He had it in him, that's just not what he did on the national stage.

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Did he have any other matches in the U.S.? I know there are some semi-legendary stories of guys wrestling him in Nigeria, but this is the only time I know of him traveling here.

 

After viewing the match he's obviously very unpolished but I don't think it's one of the worst performances I've ever seen. He still has those impressive leapfrogs and his botches aren't of the "make you embarrassed to watch wrestling" type I used to see all the time in Divas matches.

 

Revisiting both men's careers isn't something in my "to do" list but wasn't the Honky Tonk Man considerably worse than Beefcake?

I really haven't watched any 80s WWF house shows and it's really not even on the list of things I want to see but I know that Honky's pre-WWF career smokes Beefcake's.

 

I think that the last two decades of Divas matches have redefined what a bad match is. A few months ago (when I got the network) I rewatched Sid vs Nightstaker and I saw for the first time that Steve Austin capture the flag scaffold match from WCW and they were pretty bad but for a long time there was something as bad or worse almost every week on National TV.

 

Is there any good Memphis with pre-HTM Wayne Farris worth watching? Funny that you mention it as after I wrote my post I ended up seeing match lists for that 20 DVD set from a few years ago (the Maclin tapes) and the Blonde Bombers were featured all over a couple of the discs.

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Tugboat had a great big splash, that really cool single underhook headlock suplex thing. and was more than competent showing vulnerability during the 92 Natural Disasters babyface run, and on the flipside pretty good in their squash matches. Not a great wrestler by any means, but I don't think he rates here.

 

 

I think Honky would only count in something like this if someone cared only about workrate.

 

FWIW my point wasn't that Honky is one of the worst ever, just that at least in WWF he was worse than Beefcake.

 

At least until the Divas era WWF was much better than WCW at keeping the embarrassingly bad off TV specials/PPVs.

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Kendo Kashin is not at all the worst wrestler ever, but in terms of a talent gap between a wrestler and virtually everyone around him, the gap is probably bigger than anyone else I can think of.

I think 'guy most out of his depth in a single match' is a fun question. I submit Hansen/RVD vs. Kawada/Kobashi from '93.

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Tugboat had a great big splash, that really cool single underhook headlock suplex thing. and was more than competent showing vulnerability during the 92 Natural Disasters babyface run, and on the flipside pretty good in their squash matches. Not a great wrestler by any means, but I don't think he rates here.

 

 

I think Honky would only count in something like this if someone cared only about workrate.

 

FWIW my point wasn't that Honky is one of the worst ever, just that at least in WWF he was worse than Beefcake.

 

 

I'm still not convinced. Maybe Rhythm and Blues Honky vs Dream Team Beefcake but that's not entirely a fair comparison, and frankly, I'd have to watch footage to decide and i'm not sure I want to do it. I do feel like HTM is someone who hasn't had a proper reevaluation since the metrics shifted a bit over the last few years. Again, I'm not sure I want to do it but I don't think anyone else is going to.

 

To me it feels like the main arguments against HTM are:

 

1.) Conventional Wisdom from an earlier age.

2.) The fact he didn't like to bump.

3.) The fact that he's wasn't Ricky Steamboat/Randy Savage and didn't work their more action-packed style.

 

That's not to say he was good or his matches were good (I don't know), but when I look at someone and see those as the main strikes against him, that raises a red flag to me. They're very much 1998 metrics.

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I don't think Beefcake belongs on the list. Some fun Dream Team matches and I really enjoyed his match vs Savage on SNME in '89. Vs Hennig at WM6 was good too. He could be carried.

 

I wouldn't put Honky anywhere near worst wrestler ever either. That just flat-out ignores the shittiness of say.........Ted Arcidi.

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Well, this exploded...

 

- Dennis Knight/Mideon/Henry O Godwinn

 

Dennis Knight/Mideon was Phineas, not Henry (Mark Canterbury).

 

 

Yup, you're right! My mistake!

 

Thread needs more Billy Gunn.

 

Hell, Bart Gunn, too.

 

Billy was solid in ring when he needed to be. He and Road Dogg were pretty entertaining as a team, they had some good matches together. Yeah, his main event push was absolute piss, and his Intercontinental Championship run in 2000 was garbage, but we can't really judge his entire career on a couple of mismoves, when he could be a dependable tag team wrestler and mid carder when he was needed.

 

Bart Gunn actually had a respectable stint in AJPW after the WWF.

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I have a soft spot for Stan "Plowboy" Frazier but he feels like a guy who might fit this topic. The Batten Twins were pretty bad also and were around for a long time. Haven't seen Jeff Gaylord mentioned yet but The Missouri Tiger wrestled at least a decade and never looked like he got any better.

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