Worst Professional Wrestler Ever?

[Scarlet-Left]

 

Two years later, the answer is still Raja Lion.

Eh he doesn't really count as he wasn't a full time wrestler for a long period of time like some of the stinkier names dropped in here like Tiger Ali Singh and Jeff Gaylord. Did he even have any other matches besides the Baba match?

 

Tiger Ali Singh? He always seemed pretty good, to me.

[goc]

I meant Tiger Jeet Singh but I doubt his son was any good either.

[NotJayTabb]

Al Green was worse than the both of them I say.

 

I remember being really disappointed when they repackaged him as the Dog. Partly because I knew it meant he'd be popping on TV with more regularity, which was the last thing anyone wanted, and partly because dogs are awesome and Al Green patently was not.

[ChuckScumm]

Did anyone mention Sgt. Al Tomko from Vancouver All-Star in the early 80's?

 

I can't think of another lead babyface/heel from the territories that seemed so woefully inept in either role, and it was his show so he was mostly the top guy. Just awful.

I wish there was more footage of him around. Master Sgt. Tomko is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine.

[The Thread Killer]

I know this is a massive thread bump, since this topic is from a couple of years ago - but for me it's timely.  Let me explain why.

Lately, I have been listening to/watching Bahu's awesome History of FMW podcast on YouTube.  Like a lot of people, when I first started getting into Puro during the early days of the so-called "Internet Wrestling Community" one of the first wrestlers I was exposed to was Hayabusa and one of the first promotions I started collecting was FMW.  It was so different from what was going on in North America at that time - exploding rings and electrified barbed wire and flaming rings and landmines.  I ate it up. I had a ton of FMW VHS tapes from Highspots.  I even had those terrible Tokyo Pop FMW DVD's with the awful English commentary.  I think back then, if you were an online wrestling geek, you had to have a copy of Super J Cup 94 and a Best of Hayabusa comp, or they wouldn't give you your "IWC" membership card. 

I "outgrew" FMW eventually and moved on to All Japan and the Shoot Style promotions, but I still have a sentimental fondness for FMW. Going through Bahu's excellent history series, it has reminded me how much I loved that stuff at the time.  I don't have a VCR anymore, so I don't watch my old FMW tapes, but thanks to the podcast I have been watching matches as I go along on YouTube.  That brings me to why I am bumping this thread, because I needed somewhere to vent. As we work our way through 1992, we have now reached the point where a certain someone made his appearance in FMW and almost ruined it with his general suckiness.

Yes, Tiger Jeet Singh has arrived, and yes...as many of you stated earlier in this thread - if he isn't the WORST Professional Wrestler of all time, then I don't know who is.  You might be able to name obscure guys who never amounted to much like Al Green or even Al Tomko (who I saw plenty of, since we got the Vancouver All-Star Territory on TV here in Toronto.)  Yes, Tomko was awful. But none of the other people named in this thread were supposed "legends" who had lengthy careers where they were major stars and made a ton of money yet at the same time brought absolutely NOTHING to the table.  Nada, Zip, Zero, Zilch.  I defy you to name one match where the performance of Tiger Jeet Singh impressed you.  Of course you can't, because of course there is no such match in existence. The guy wrestled for 50 years, and had NO GOOD MATCHES.  He wrestled 25 of those years in Japan surrounded by a virtual Who's Who of real legends, and didn't have ONE 5 star match. He sucked in every single damn match I have ever seen him in. 

Wandering around in a nightshirt, with a bowl-legged gait and a grimace on your face reminiscent of a cartoon super-villain, while you repeatedly ram the handle of some stupid looking sword into your opponent's forehead does NOT make you a great wrestler or a legend.  It makes you a hairy git. Maybe I'm extra sensitive because he comes from the Toronto area, and is worshiped in some circles as an all time great around here - so much so that they actually named a damn SCHOOL after him, if you can believe that.  If my child was enrolled at Tiger Jeet Singh Public School, I would take him out of school and home school him. I'd rather the child grow up illiterate before I'd make him go to such a terrible place.

I remember Mick Foley's first book having plenty of less than flattering things to say about Singh, and while I may not agree with a lot of what Mick Foley thinks about a lot of things, he's dead on about this guy.  Singh was reportedly notorious for being extra reluctant to lose a match to anybody.  So when he showed up in FMW in 1992, won the WWA Title and feuded with Onita, it's no surprise that Bahu reports on his podcast that Singh apparently started hemming and hawing about dropping the title back to Onita, so much so that FMW had to start negotiating with Abdullah The Butcher because they were worried Singh was going to bail on them and cost them their Main Event for their first Yokohama stadium show.  It should be classified as a minor miracle that Onita actually got Singh to do the show and drop the belt back to him clean.  I don't even want to guess how much money it cost him. (Then again, Onita got The Sheik to do a job too, so maybe he was one hell of a negotiator.)

I'm done ranting for now, but after spending a couple of afternoons watching Tiger Jeet Singh matches (something I recommend you never, ever do - unless you are a masochist or sinned against our Lord and are serving the most severe form of penance imaginable) I just needed to vent.   Screw that guy.

 

[Mrzfn]

12 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

If my child was enrolled at Tiger Jeet Singh Public School, I would take him out of school and home school him. I'd rather the child grow up illiterate before I'd make him go to such a terrible place. 

I'm dying at this. Amazing.

[El-P]

I've seen exactly *one* match with Tiger Jeet Singh that was kinda worthwhile. It was in NJ against Tatsumi Fujinami. In 1990 mind you, after Fuji's back injury, which says a lot about how great Fuji was.

The Harris twins are up there with Singh.

[sek69]

I'd go with Abdullah myself. Every match was just him waddling around and stabbing people with a fork. 

[Matt D]

Coincidentally, I'm "making" Phil and Eric watch an unearthed Tiger Jeet Singh match for New Footage Fridays this week. 

Watch this space.

[The Thread Killer]

20 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I'd go with Abdullah myself. Every match was just him waddling around and stabbing people with a fork. 

Yeah but sek, Abby had a bunch of fun - and in my opinion entertaining (if not repetitive) brawls with Brody.  Plus, his team with The Sheik in All Japan had a few classics, especially against The Funks.  Don't get me wrong, I can see how some people might not like Abby, but I submit that next to Tiger Jeet Singh, Abby looks like Ric Freaking Flair.  Abdullah The Butcher had glaring physical limitations - like being too big to actually get into the ring during his last few "active" years. Physically, there was no reason for Singh to suck, he just did.

[The Thread Killer]

On 11/1/2018 at 2:25 PM, Mrzfn said:

I'm dying at this. Amazing.

To be fair, I re-read what I wrote and I should amend my statement. 

If my child was enrolled at Tiger Jeet Singh Public School, I would take him or her out of school and home school them. I'd rather he or she grow up illiterate before I'd make the child go to such a terrible place. 

(It dawned on me, the child might be a girl.  No child deserves to go to Tiger Jeet Singh Public School.)

Can you imagine what that school must be like?  Kids wandering aimlessly around the cafeteria, plastic butter knives clenched between their teeth, shouting gibberish, hitting each other in the forehead with weak, unconvincing looking jabs, refusing to follow instructions unless they're grossly over-paid? 

It's terrifying.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

The Harris twins are up there with Singh.

You're not wrong, El-P.  I have never seen a good Harris Brothers match, and Lord knows they got countless chances to have them, ECW, WWF, WCW, TNA...yet not a single good match.

However, people all seem to agree that they suck.  As I said, people (at least in my part of the world) have somehow deluded themselves into believing Tiger Jeet Singh is a "legend." I've yet to see anybody call the Harris Brothers legends. 

Maybe in the White Nationalist community they're considered legends.  I wouldn't know.

[The Thread Killer]

28 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Coincidentally, I'm "making" Phil and Eric watch an unearthed Tiger Jeet Singh match for New Footage Fridays this week. 

Watch this space.

You must really hate those guys.  Have you considered the fact that the reason the match had to be "unearthed" is because somebody probably watched it and buried it so nobody else would have to see it?  If you dug it up, there could well be a curse involved, like this match is an ancient Egyptian artifact with a horrible past.

I always thought you were a good guy Matt, but I'm starting to see a cruel side to you if you make people watch Tiger Jeet Singh matches.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, The Thread Killer said:

As I said, people (at least in my part of the world) have somehow deluded themselves into believing Tiger Jeet Singh is a "legend."

He drew shitloads of money with Inoki. A case of "right place, right time", but he became a big name simply because of this.

[sek69]

2 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Yeah but sek, Abby had a bunch of fun - and in my opinion entertaining (if not repetitive) brawls with Brody.  Plus, his team with The Sheik in All Japan had a few classics, especially against The Funks.  Don't get me wrong, I can see how some people might not like Abby, but I submit that next to Tiger Jeet Singh, Abby looks like Ric Freaking Flair.  Abdullah The Butcher had glaring physical limitations - like being too big to actually get into the ring during his last few "active" years. Physically, there was no reason for Singh to suck, he just did.

 

The first time I saw an Abby-Brody brawl (in World Class) I did in fact think it was pretty cool. However every time I've seen him since it was the exact same match. 

He seemed to draw big in most of the places he went so I can't argue he wasn't any good business wise, but it's not much of an argument one's favor of not sucking when you only have classics with two of the best brawlers and two of the best wrestlers of all time. Most of us could have excellent matches vs the Funks and Brody (probably not Sheik, but then if you're cool with him just stabbing you for 15 minutes maybe).

[Mrzfn]

I can't get on board with Abby bashing. At his worst there's still an element of "holy shit this guy is stabbing people with a fork", which is at the very least a spectacle of sorts.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, Abby was awesome, one of the most real characters in wrestling history. What was he supposed to do, wrestle like Ric Flair? 

[Al]

Abby looked like he was legitimately bludgeoning a guy. Tiger would go into the ring with a sword and beat the guy with the blunt end of it. As the Insane Clown Posse said on Stranglemania, "he doesn't even know how to work the damn thing."

[sek69]

42 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

Yeah, Abby was awesome, one of the most real characters in wrestling history. What was he supposed to do, wrestle like Ric Flair? 

 

Well considering he did basically the same match for 40 years he kinda did wrestle like Ric Flair! (I kid, I kid)

Like I said before, the first time you see an Abby match it is quite an experience. The problem is that it's like a really great magic trick you can only do once. Once you get past the initial shock of "wow he's carving that guy up", it's hard to not notice that there's not much else there.  

[Matt D]

The best Tiger Jeet Singh match ever:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/11/new-footage-friday-billy-black-wahoo.html?m=1

[The Thread Killer]

9 hours ago, Matt D said:

The best Tiger Jeet Singh match ever:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/11/new-footage-friday-billy-black-wahoo.html?m=1

That was a good review, and yes...if anybody could pull a halfway watchable match out of Tiger Jeet Singh, it would be Tenryu.  I do find it amusing that Eric notes that he "likes Singh more than most" yet even he has to admit that Singh "has maybe one bump in him per match." That's one of my (many) issues with Singh.  It's like I said to sek earlier, I don't expect Abdullah The Butcher to bump, it's not in keeping with his entire esthetic but more importantly it's usually not physically feasible.  From where I sit, the only reason Tiger Jeet Singh rarely bumped for anybody is because he was a selfish jerk who just didn't want to.  It didn't seem to matter a tinker's cuss to him that the match quality would suffer as a result 99.9 times out of 100.

For the record, although I love The Sheik, I have the same complaint about him.  In fairness, many of the criticisms I have levied at Tiger Jeet Singh could equally apply to The Sheik.  I just happen to find The Sheik more compelling and entertaining - but there really wasn't any excuse for him to rarely sell, bump or do a job either.  You can make the "that was a different era" argument and there is some merit to it, but in the larger picture there were plenty of heels in that era who didn't mind showing ass when it was called for. Hell, The Sheik pretty much killed Toronto as a territory in the 70's by appearing in one main event after another at Maple Leaf Gardens where he refused to lose or even show any real weakness - ever.  It was the same old formula every time, fight a babyface, stab him with a pencil, allow a brief comeback, get busted oepn, throw a fireball, hit the ref, the match gets thrown out - repeat X 1000. He was so bad that when Andre The Giant got a win over him by DQ it was big news.  Eventually people just stopped showing up for it.  It's selfish and stupid.

I just always came away with the impression that Tiger Jeet Singh wanted to be considered a "monster heel" like The Sheik, Abdullah and Brody and like them he was never willing to let anybody get anything on him.  But the aforementioned guys were a lot better at playing the part and looked a lot more convincing at it, too.

[Viking Hall]

I haven't read through this thread but I will take your Tiger Jeet Singh and I'll raise you Big Daddy. He was the star when wrestling was one of the most viewed things in the UK, counted actual Royalty among his many fans and appeared on some of the biggest mainstream television shows in the country too. He was an absolute phenomenon and yet he was the drizzling shits in just about every attribute you would judge a wrestler on. He couldn't wrestle, he had no look and was notoriously not a particularly charismatic speaker. I would be pretty confident in saying that he has literally never had an even halfway decent match let alone a good one. Of any wrestler that 'made it' he has to be the worst, and by some margin.

[Matt D]

I don't know guys. I found another Singh match that I think is pretty good. Bloody brawl with some in-ring stuff to break it up and Tenryu being awesome both in taking damage and firing back but also Singh really coming off as violent and threatening. The point of comparison really feels like Brody and Brody is rarely as violent and truly menacing (and downright creative: watch for the phone) as Singh is here. Yeah, he doesn't bump a ton, but the match doesn't call for it either and when it does, he bumps. At other points, he takes a beating and responds accordingly. When it comes time for him to do something, he generally delivers here. 

I'm not saying he's great or anything. I just keep bumping into these really solid matches with him on the deep dive where I feel like he actually brings something to the table.

I'm not making Phil and Eric watch this (though I think they'd watch it fine). So you guys watch this one and tell me I'm crazy.

 

[Memphis Mark]

On 4/30/2016 at 4:38 PM, ButchReedMark said:

Al Green was worse than the both of them I say.

 There were two Al Green 's . The Memphis Big  Al Greene  was one half of the Heavenly Bodies with his kayfabe brother, Don and their English butler Sir Clements . . Later , Big Al formed the Sherman Tanks with fellow all time great , Phil Hickerson . The Sherman Tanks were managed by the late , great Sam Bass. If I recall the Al Green is the post is a non-describe WCW jobber , who I don't remember ever seeing wrestle.

 

[ButchReedMark]

Yeah, I'm on about Al Green, not Al Greene. That's why I said Al Green. He was absolutely fucking dire, seriously. Harris Brpther levels bad if not worse.