Chris Hamrick

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Dylan Waco]

For the purposes of projects like this I always try to be objective. By objective I don't mean "find the one truth that governs all wrestling analysis, and apply that standard to all wrestlers," but rather "try to ascertain things that I value in wrestling, and do my best to rank the wrestlers based on how closely they conform to those values." Obviously that is imprecise for a variety of reasons, but I try. That said it's really tough for me to be objective in that sense with certain people. Chris Hamrick is probably the best example of this.

 

Now make no mistake - I think Chris Hamrick is at minimum a very good wrestler. He's one of the craziest bumpers in wrestling history. He has a great command of psychology, very good timing, can throw a punch, works very well at multiple speeds, and is one of the most creative, interesting and varied offensive wrestlers of his era. He's got plenty of good matches, and good performances, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything out of him that I would categorize as less than a good effort. But none of that is the reason I felt compelled to nominate him.

 

I nominated Hamrick because I am a huge fan of independent wrestling, particularly Southern independent wrestling, almost entirely because of him. When I was growing up indies would only come to my town a few times a year. It was usually a PWF show or some card using a similar roster. That generally meant Terry Austin, George South, The Italian Stallion, and a roster of others at about that level who would put on a very by the numbers show, with minimal effort. It wasn't bad really, but the shows were flat, and lacked anything that could really grab your attention. Except for Chris Hamrick.

 

I saw Hamrick work a bunch of shows live as a kid/teenager and it was always the best thing on the card, and always completely amazing. More often than not he was in a tag match, but not always. If he was working heel you'd usually get him at his shit talking best, jawing with the locals, working great heel schtick...and then taking absolutely insane bumps that in some cases literally brought people out of their seats (I saw him take "his" bump through the ropes on a hardwood basketball floor once where he skidded out and took out a few rows of fans). You got all the staples that made Southern heel work effect PLUS the dynamism of a guy who was a great athlete and willing to put his body on the line.

 

If he was a face you usually got great fire, good selling, and offense that was completely unlike anything you would see on these shows at the time. I remember marking out for Scott Steiner as a kid because of his crazy spots, but seeing Hamrick was even nuttier. Here was a redneck dude, with a mullet, doing jump out of the gym top rope legdrops and moonsaults. I never saw him live after he started doing the top rope piledriver as a finish, but it was completely in keeping with the vibe that I got watching Hamrick when I was younger. He was basically the Billy Black of the Carolinas and we loved him (or loved to hate him) for it.

 

That said my all time favorite Hamrick performance was when I got to see him live several years back with my daughter who was probably six or seven at the time. Before his match no one was really coming up to his gimmick table because the show also had Buff Bagwell, The Rock N Roll Express, Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff their signing autographs. Emma and I went up to Hamrick and got a couple of signed 8X10's and a DVD. My daughter was definitely nervous talking to him just because he was a wrestler, and he asked her to cheer extra for him.

 

About an hour later he had his match, and unsurprisingly it was the best on the show. We got crazy bumps, brutally stiff chops, some neat submissions (an underrated aspect of his game), and a couple of awesome highspots including a split legged moonsault to the floor. It got over more than anything on the show, and when he went back to his table afterwards people swarmed it. My daughter asked if she could run over and say hi to him, which I kind of discouraged her from doing figuring he'd want to make as much cash as he could, but she went anyway. Hamrick high-fived her, had her sit next to him for a bit, and introduced her to people as his number one fan in the building.

 

So I think Hamrick is really, really good. Criminally underrated, was wasted in ECW, and had a team with Smothers that was awesome which everyone forgets and where the footage isn't widely circulated. He was ahead of his time in the right ways, while still understanding the importance of working, building heat, and staying logical. Is loved by people throughout the business as a worker, and had runs in places that are generally thought of very highly by those who have seen them in full.

 

But even if those things weren't true about Chris Hamrick, he'd still have an outside shot at making my ballot. I can't be objective about the guy who made both myself and my daughter indie wrestling fans.

[NotJayTabb]

Really great post Dylan, makes me want to go back and revisit some of the Southern Comfort run in 1PW. I remember Steve Corino recalling his time as booker, and talking about how he needed someone to cover for a no-show in a singles match, and Hamrick volunteered despite having already wrestled a tag bout earlier - "I wish I had an entire locker room full of Chris Hamrick's".

 

Also, I'm always a fan of wrestlers who understand how important it is to make time for kids, so I absolutely loved this:

My daughter asked if she could run over and say hi to him, which I kind of discouraged her from doing figuring he'd want to make as much cash as he could, but she went anyway. Hamrick high-fived her, had her sit next to him for a bit, and introduced her to people as his number one fan in the building.

 

 

[JRGoldman]

I've seen Hamrick live at tiny Ohio Indy shows probably about a half dozen times, and he has always worked harder than he needed to and always bumped like an absolute loon. I don't know what that's worth in a project like this, but I do know that he's a wrestler I respect and admire for his efforts in front of 30 people in Dayton or wherever.

[The Man in Blak]

This thread has to have some video of the Hamrick bump:

 

 

I've got Hamrick tabbed as a guy that I want to see more of, especially after Dylan's post, but that bump is just ridiculous (and I mean that in every sense of the word). Owen had the best set-up for it as a tease for a dropkick through the ropes but, without that set-up, it almost looks like a botch. Hamrick's story about working Owen and the reactions that he got from people in the WWF when he did that bump is pretty interesting too, for what it's worth.

[soup23]

Threw on the Hamrick vs. PUnk match from Spirit of 76 and the fake leg injury Hamrick does in that match continues to be the best interpretation of that spot I have ever seen.