Lanny Poffo

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here

[Dylan Waco]

I nominated him based on comments Joe Lanza was making on Twitter the other night, but honestly he's a guy worth talking about in his own right.

 

While I think it is sort of easy to call Poffo underrated, and there are ways in which I think that moniker fits him really well, I also think he's a guy whose rep as a worker is kind of benefited by how he was used. Here I mean that when you go back and watch him now you see him doing stuff that stands out as really unique for the era, and yet getting no traction, so it sort of fits the popular narrative of "undercard workhorse who didn't get the push he deserved."

 

Having said that I do wonder how much of what makes Lanny unique is just fluff. Don't get me wrong, he had matches I really enjoyed against a pretty wide variety of people - Adrian Adonis, Terry Funk, Ron Garvin, Rip Rogers, Eddie Gilbert, Rene Goulet, et. - and some of those matches I think go beyond just being "fun" undercard affairs. That said a lot of his flashy offense was REALLY light looking (as in barely making contact light) and I think that stands out more when you watch him in bulk. I also think while he was quite good at building his matches, he never really put together a match like Barry Horowitz v. Blue Blazer where you came away from it thinking you'd seen something that would be considered a classic if it was in the main event slot. There is also the fact that in his worse moments I think he became a sort of fuck toy for other wrestlers to try out new shit on and abuse in illogical/absurd ways, which may not be his fault, but I don't think it adds to his case. His selling was also a bit goofy, though that is partially just a reflection of the times.

 

I will say that his highspots for his era really were exciting and different and the style he worked made otherwise shit shows enjoyable to watch. While he's probably thought of more as the random jobber in the WWF who did moonsaults, I always enjoyed watching him work the mat as he had a bunch of cool - if not somewhat repetitive - escapes and counters that he would go to that were uncommon for the place and time. At his best he comes across as a modern version of Rikki Starr and I say that as a compliment.

 

I LOVE The Genius as a character, but aside from one SNME tag match, I'm not sure there is anything from that run that really stands out, and while he was good in ICW I'm not sure he was good enough to really merit consideration for something like this. Still he's the sort of guy who I wish had gotten more of a chance on the national stage.

[Tim Cooke]

I'm not voting for him but the two Memphis RnR Express matches are really good and Poffo is a big reason, with his flying that was definitely state of the art in the US at the time and his stooging, When I saw those 15 years ago, I looked for more Poffo footage and his WWF run is just not very good. Still hoping NWAClassics delivers on the MX vs. Poffo/Bracero matches as I think those could be hidden gems, especially from Poffo's end.

[goc]

Poffo/Bracero vs. MX was just uploaded and I thought it was a pretty good match. Not really a great Poffo showcase though with Bracero getting a lot more time in the match. I think Poffo vs. Masao Ito and Poffo vs. Barry Orton are much better looks at Poffo as far as NWAClassics stuff goes. I like Masao Ito a lot but I thought that Lanny really out shined him in that match as was the one responsible for the interesting parts of it and the Barry Orton match was way better than I would have ever expected it to be on paper.

 

I like Poffo and I think he was really good in his role but at the same time I don't see him as a "guy who didn't get the push he deserved." He was a fun undercard worker who could sometimes surprise you with a really good performance. I don't think he was really someone who could have or should have been pushed much higher than that.

 

I definitely think that part of why he didn't get more traction is that his high flying stuff, especially his moonsault looks incredibly light. His moonsault often looks like it couldn't break an egg and if you're the smaller guy using high flying stuff to even the odds it needs to at least look painful especially during that era particularly in a territory like Mid-South.