Doug Somers

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[JerryvonKramer]

Essentially nominated on the strength of the tagteam with Rose and feud with The Rockers.

 

What confuses me most about Somers is that that run appears to be such a COMPLETE anomoly in his career. I mean what else did he do? What other footage do we have?

 

Without that run, his career would look more like Dennis Stamp's -- random runs in smaller places. And we don't have a huge amount of Stamp of tape to my knowledge.

 

Just a weird guy in the overall scheme of things. You look at him and think "journeyman", but where did he actually work and what did he actually do?

[Dylan Waco]

I absolutely love his run teaming with Buddy, which also includes some really fun trios, a good Doug v. Shawn Michaels match, and an inexplicably great Somers v. Mike Rotundo match which is the best Rotundo match ever and a match where Somers seemingly shit his pants. He is excellent in his role as the fugly, would be stud, who rakes, and punches and cheats non-stop while sauntering around like he's not a disastrously sleazy looking motherfucker. Somers as the Pretty Boy inspiring a late era Montreal rip off in Chuck Simms is one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling ever, and he might have the best standard back body drop bump of all time. The Rockers series is an all time great tag feud, and in at least two of their matches Somers is the best guy in the match (including one that very few people have seen).

 

I honestly have zero doubts that Somers is one of the best 100 wrestlers I've ever seen judging by peak alone, and I also have zero doubts that if he was given chances he would easily make my list. The problem is he really didn't get them. He did some jobs for WCW and WWF. During the fanless era of the AWA he had at least one or two fun t.v. matches, but Doug not being able to antagonize a crowd takes a lot of the act. He was actually a staple of the Georgia/Bama indie scene for a while a few years back, and had a few matches and performances I absolutely loved including this one

 

 

and this one where he takes a lunatic bump off the top of a cage if memory serves

 

 

He's a guy I'd love to include, but I just don't think there is enough.

[Matt D]

There are two Chavo matches that we might get from Houston at some point I'm looking forward to seeing.

[El Dragon]

*blows dust off thread*

No votes in 2016, no discussion at all this cycle. This cannot stand for one of the most interesting anomalies in wrestling history.

Doug Somers journey as a journeyman in the territory does have some minor footage but nothing substantial, and he is an easy wrestler to write off. If it were not for one 9 month or so stretch of time in 86-87 were he got an opportunity to show out while teaming with a legend, and facing one of the best tag teams of the generation, he’d be completely a footnote. But he got that opportunity. And he knocked it completely out of the park. The Rose & Somers feud with the Midnight Rockers was my sure fire, easy pick for best tag team feud in wrestling history before the Briscoes/FTR trilogy had to go and complicate it, and Somers is absolutely not “that random guy” in the series: He’s not the best guy in the feud (I still to this day view it as Shawn’s peak as a babyface worker), but he looks shockingly equal to Buddy throughout. If you had to ask me one image that described my love of tag team wrestling, it’s Doug Somers holding up a battered and bloody Shawn Michaels by the hair and laughing in the face of Marty Jannetty in the bloodbath that was the open match of this series. And then when the feud ends he disappears into job work once again. 
 

How high can you get in a discussion like this about the best wrestlers of all time on 9 months of one tag feud, no matter how great? For me, it gets him to 100. There is no way I’m letting this man’s name not get at least an honorable mention again. 

~~~

So, I’m going to try to do at least a brief write up of everyone I voted for as well as people I strongly considered, working up from 100 feels as good a place to start as any.

[El McKell]

If your case is that Doug Somers is in on the grounds of being involved in that feud, looking good in it and doing nothing else, does that mean you also ranked Marty Janetty, who has that feud, plus has the rest of The Rockers run, plus the 1993 WWF stuff? Does this mean you ranked all the people in The Briscoes/FTR matches that you cite as approximate equals to the Rose/Somers/Rockers stuff?

If some of those people are excluded, I'd like to hear why?

[El Dragon]

11 hours ago, El McKell said:

If your case is that Doug Somers is in on the grounds of being involved in that feud, looking good in it and doing nothing else, does that mean you also ranked Marty Janetty, who has that feud, plus has the rest of The Rockers run, plus the 1993 WWF stuff? Does this mean you ranked all the people in The Briscoes/FTR matches that you cite as approximate equals to the Rose/Somers/Rockers stuff?

If some of those people are excluded, I'd like to hear why?

Yes, I ranked both members of FTR and the Briscoes on my list, all in the top 75 in fact, as well as Shawn and Buddy, both in my top 40. No, I did not rank Janetty, largely due to him being nowhere near as good in those matches as any of the other 3 players. He’s absolutely fine in the series, but those matches to me are dominated by Shawn being absolutely sensational as babyface in peril and Rose and Somers being the best sleazeball heel tag team you’ll ever see in the matches. Marty’s performance in them is good, but not close to the level of the 3 around him for me. (honestly, I’d even argue 4 as Sherri is one of the best heel managers ever in this feud as well)