Tenese Sarwieh Posted September 28, 2019 Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 Who's a wrestler that's both a blessing and a curse? I've gotta go with The Rock. Blessing: A once in a lifetime talent that could make anything work based on his charisma and delivery. Curse: Through no fault of his own his greatness set the template that WWE wants all of their babyfaces to go by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted September 28, 2019 Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 Steve Austin. Blessing: Duh. Was the biggest money draw of all time, was the Ace of their biggest boom period. Curse: What chants that haunt wrestling to this day, and considering how painfully scripted WWE is, it's been a hurdle for new talent to get over when the crowd makes them look like geeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted September 28, 2019 Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 Mitsuharu Misawa Blessing: One of the greatest pro-wrestler ever, legit brillant, was responsible for the greatest pro-wrestling ever before the current NJPW era. Curse: Geeks who thought he was great because of lots of elbows and lots of headropping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted October 6, 2019 Report Share Posted October 6, 2019 Daniel Bryan Blessing: All-time great wrestler who could get over and stay over despite whatever booking had been thrown at him. Curse: He basically broke Vince McMahon into thinking all babyfaces should lose matches to gain audience sympathy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted October 6, 2019 Report Share Posted October 6, 2019 Terry Funk Blessing: Legit one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all-time. Good worker, great promo, good NWA run. Curse: his death match shit - although prolonging his career - inspired an entire generation of idiots. The nWo Blessing: Super over stable that helped create the biggest boom the world of wrestling has ever seen. Led to fun matches & storylines & moments. Helped WCW beat WWF in the ratings. Revolutionized the industry forever. Sold a metric fuckton of merch. Made WCW Nitro must-watch television. Curse: Did a ton of long term damage that we're still not recovered from. Heels are cool & get cheered. Babyfaces get booed. Shawn Michaels Blessing: Some great WWF main events & memorable matches. Fun tag worker. Curse: Pretty much responsible for the WWE self-masturbatory, over-indulged style of wrestling. Inspired a plethora of wrestlers to come up thinking they're the next HBK & wrestling a style that had no substance because they just saw Shawn do moves & kip-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted October 8, 2019 Report Share Posted October 8, 2019 On 10/6/2019 at 4:07 AM, Coffey said: Shawn Michaels Blessing: Some great WWF main events & memorable matches. Fun tag worker. Curse: Pretty much responsible for the WWE self-masturbatory, over-indulged style of wrestling. Inspired a plethora of wrestlers to come up thinking they're the next HBK & wrestling a style that had no substance because they just saw Shawn do moves & kip-up. Totally agree. I'd add that he was the first wrestler I can remember that talked about "putting on a great show" for the fans. That's become my least favorite thing in modern wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microstatistics Posted October 8, 2019 Report Share Posted October 8, 2019 On 10/6/2019 at 1:07 AM, Coffey said: Shawn Michaels Blessing: Some great WWF main events & memorable matches. Fun tag worker. Curse: Pretty much responsible for the WWE self-masturbatory, over-indulged style of wrestling. Inspired a plethora of wrestlers to come up thinking they're the next HBK & wrestling a style that had no substance because they just saw Shawn do moves & kip-up. This is well said and I agree with the points made (though I'd change some great to many great). I guess I've become the resident Shawn Michaels defender but I'll say this is hardly his fault. I'm sure the wrestlers who idolized and modelled themselves after him don't remember him almost ripping Randy Orton's head off with a cravat or desperately punching Mr. Kennedy in the knee. He was able to balance that "I'm here to steal the show and entertain" mindset (which I admittedly hate) with a gritty, aggressive, urgent style in his post-comeback so the whole thing worked well usually. Others focus only on the former. Same case with Kobashi, not his fault others built their style around his worst aspects (endless chops, fighting sprit and no selling) rather than the things that arguably make him the GOAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 Also, Michaels' "I love you, I'm sorry" has led to bullshit like Gargano's "acting" and "This isn't who you are!" Not cool, Shawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 Kenta Kobashi Blessing: one of the most emotional wrestlers ever, with tons of charisma, great and important matches, dope moves and dope strikes, just an icon. Also surprisingly giving to other wrestlers like Mike Awesome and Tamon Honda. Curse: More than anything, that damn chop battle against Sasaki really took off, didn't it? It feels like every match nowadays NEEDS to have something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 1 hour ago, Log said: Also, Michaels' "I love you, I'm sorry" has led to bullshit like Gargano's "acting" and "This isn't who you are!" Not cool, Shawn. My big talking point from GWE was that Shawn probably would've been a better director than an actor. Ambitious ideas but lacking the emotive chops to make them work. It was the most positive spin I could put on the back half of his library. I feel like he has spent the last couple of years actively trying to prove me wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 Low Ki Blessing: Hugely innovative, tremendous striker, great mat worker, lots of intensity, worked fast but knew how to make things count. Curse: Wrestlers who watched him decided kicks and working fast was all that was needed to be a good wrestler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 22 hours ago, Microstatistics said: Same case with Kobashi, not his fault others built their style around his worst aspects (endless chops, fighting sprit and no selling) rather than the things that arguably make him the GOAT. That's sort of how I feel at the end of the day. If they weren't going to imitate guys like Kobashi badly, they'd find someone else to imitate badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 From most of the replies here, the only curse is actually shitty workers and shitty bookers who don't understand what made great wrestlers great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 4 minutes ago, El-P said: From most of the replies here, the only curse is actually shitty workers and shitty bookers who don't understand what made great wrestlers great. Oh I mostly feel the same, I'm just having fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 I would argue there's probably a case to be made that Shawn was such an unredeemable shithead from 1996--97 that it made Vince determined to never let a top guy have as much sway as he had during that time. Lest we not forget that the reason the Rock goes by his real name in movies is that Vince was demanding producer credit for the Mummy movies he was in because he owned the "Rock" name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted October 11, 2019 Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 On 10/9/2019 at 6:43 PM, sek69 said: Lest we not forget that the reason the Rock goes by his real name in movies is that Vince was demanding producer credit for the Mummy movies he was in because he owned the "Rock" name. Which was such a stupid, shortsighted, arrogant move in retrospect, because “The Rock” will always be associated with WWE but there are probably people who have no idea Dwayne Johnson used to be a wrestler. The name change might have happened anyway - probably would have - but Vince really shot himself in the foot because he was so desperate for mainstream credibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G. Badger Posted October 17, 2019 Report Share Posted October 17, 2019 On 10/9/2019 at 6:20 PM, Boss Rock said: Low Ki Blessing: Hugely innovative, tremendous striker, great mat worker, lots of intensity, worked fast but knew how to make things count. Curse: Wrestlers who watched him decided kicks and working fast was all that was needed to be a good wrestler. Agree with Low-Ki's blessings but, the real curse was his stubbornness in losing to people he didn't want to lose to. That hard headedness sabotaged a lot of great potential match ups and storylines (I know Gabe had him slated for some dream match but, Ki quit or got let go right before it happened). This is the reason his contemporaries like Bryan, AJ, Joe are future HOFers and he's in MLW. He could have been right there with them either in the WWE or NJPW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyPulis'Cap Posted October 17, 2019 Report Share Posted October 17, 2019 Shawn Spears/Tye Dillinger Blessing: um, led to a good moment one year when he came out as No. 10 one year in the Rumble... Curse: ruined matches for a long time, with fans chanting 10 on the referees's count, thus removing all drama from potential count out teases, dramatic moments when wrestlers are trying to make the count, or last man standing matches, and generally paying no attention to what's going on in the ring (that last point, is not just his fault of course, but this was one that was very annoying. See, also: 1-2-Sweet! for nearfalls) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted October 17, 2019 Report Share Posted October 17, 2019 14 hours ago, G. Badger said: Agree with Low-Ki's blessings but, the real curse was his stubbornness in losing to people he didn't want to lose to. That hard headedness sabotaged a lot of great potential match ups and storylines (I know Gabe had him slated for some dream match but, Ki quit or got let go right before it happened). This is the reason his contemporaries like Bryan, AJ, Joe are future HOFers and he's in MLW. He could have been right there with them either in the WWE or NJPW. I still have no idea how MLW didn't explode from having Low Ki, Teddy, Park, and Corny all at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 17, 2019 Report Share Posted October 17, 2019 58 minutes ago, sek69 said: I still have no idea how MLW didn't explode from having Low Ki, Teddy, Park, and Corny all at the same time. Hey, we're gonna have that Aries vs Teddy match soon. I say make it a three-way with Low-ki, loser walks out no-selling the finish ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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