Battle of the Tough Guys: No Holds Barred II - Austin Aries vs. Low-Ki

[C.S.]

Forget about Rip and Zeus, BRRRRROTHER - Austin Aries vs. Low-Ki is the real Battle of the Tough Guys, and their presence guarantees plenty of DOOKIE!

1 hour ago, Laz said:

LowKi was involved in a few of the hands-down best and most memorable matches of the 00s. Aries was a very good overall worker. Neither man is a legit tough guy, both are fucking idiots, and the pro/con comparisons deserve their own thread. 

Who is the better/worse worker, tough guy, draw, etc.? Basically any metric you can think of is up for discussion here.

Austin Aries is an arrogant asshole has its own thread, so keep those comments there. This is more about the rasslin'. 

 

[joeg]

Low Ki. Walking away. The 2001-2002 run Low Ki had on the East Coast indies was amazing. As I said in the Austin Aries thread, at 5'7" 145 pounds (so not much bigger than Rey Jr.) with no real background in competitive sports at a high level, people bought in to Low Ki being the baddest man in the card. They way he worked, talked, moved and carried himself all got him over as a legit badass. That's a worker. That's having a physical charisma and a presence. I can only think of a handful of guys with very limited legit background that everybody bought into as legit. Taz and Shibata would fit in that category.

Aries could definitely draw heat. I don't know if it was the right type of heat however. It was more the sort of heat where I took a bathroom break, went to the concession stand, or changed the channel. When he was working as a babyface, he was just another small flippy vanilla indie guy. One who messed up less than most of the others but still. 

Does anybody here think Aries could have pulled off Low Ki's BattlArts-esque matches against Dragon? Or the wild crazy brawls with Necro and Sami Callihan? Or the potential match of the decade against Rey Jr? Or the Matrix strike exchange with Red? Or his runs in NOAH and NJPW? I doubt it. If Aries were capable of great matches on that level he would have had them. I think a fairer comparison threat would be Aries and Davey Richards. One or two good matches and the rest were over hyped by the ROH crowd. 

[Alucard]

Off the top of my head, I would say Aries had a ton of great matches:

The Samoa Joe ROH title change in 04.
All of his TNA PPV matches from at least Feb-Aug 2012 (vs. Alex Shelley, Bully Ray, Samoa Joe, and Bobby Roode x2) all different, varied matches and great.
all 3 WWE PPV matches with Neville
And his last IMPACT run matches against Moose, Fallah Bahh, and Johnny Impact.

[funkdoc]

Aries legit helped make the Internet think TNA was a better weekly show than WWE at one point - remember a lot of buzz around the time he was copying the Summer of Punk angle

Gotta be worth something at least

[strobogo]

Low Ki easily

I blame Aries' rise for a lot of the issues that have gone on to plague indie style 

 

I also think Low Ki is cooler and more likely to KO someone with a cool kick or some shit in a real fight than Aries who no doubt fights with no honor 

[Laz]

LowKi.

He's been at the forefront of TWO major developments in US wrestling and helped set the tone for the next decade because of it. His work feels more authentic. He doesn't have fucking T-Rex arms.

Aries' upset over Samoa Joe is legendary, and his run with Generation Next was a highlight of the early 00s. Aries' run in the TNA main event was epic, yes. One of the better main event runs in that company by anybody not named Jarrett, Angle, Styles, or Joe. 

Neither of those happen without LowKi, who was so integral to ROH's early years that he was crowned their first champ and had the show built around him (and his matches with Daniels, Bryan, and Joe); who helped develop the X-Division AND cement the TNA Tag division within months of each other.

Aries did great work on the trails that LowKi helped blaze.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Low-Ki, for sure. As a whole package he was so cool to me when I was first branching out of non-WWE/Wcw/ECW stuff. Aries had that TNA run which was pretty great but I don't think he would have been given the chance if Low-Ki hadn't opened up the indie world like he did (admittedly, with lots of help from people like Dragon, Punk, Joe and Hero.) To this day, if you offered me a comp of either man, I'd choose Low-Ki anytime. 

[Mad Dog]

For my money. Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe Fight Without Honor is still the best match in RoH history and I've never quite seen a match like it since.

[funkdoc]

i wonder if Ki's voice is part of what makes him more believable as a badass.  It's seriously amazing, to the point that i've seen a bunch of people assume he must be a great promo just because of that

[C.S.]

In Gary Hart's book, he said Low Ki and Homicide were credible but short, lol.

[Laz]

That's kind of a good point people are ignoring. They're short PR folk from Brooklyn who came of age in the late 80s/mid 90s. There's no chance in hell that Ki isn't a tough dude, especially with the crowd he used to hang out with (the JAPW boys). He may not be pro MMA tough, but he's definitely "will break your average person" tough. 

[joeg]

Somebody correct me where I'm wrong. I'd been told Homicide went to FSU for a year on a football scholarship before getting kicked out. Short of attempted murder no football player gets kicked out of FSU, especially back then. If there's any truth to this it makes him extremely credible as a legit athlete and an all around dangerous person. Low Ki too by proxy I would suppose.  

[NintendoLogic]

Homicide's Wikipedia page says he was offered a scholarship by the University of Miami and turned it down. According to this interview, it was a baseball scholarship.

https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2020/08/07/catalyst-wrestling-new-home-for-veteran-homicide/

By the way, the Observer noted at the time that when Low Ki was on NXT, most of the other competitors thought he was a total joke.

[joeg]

Just read the article. Ok now I'm calling shenanigans on all claims I've heard of Homicide being a power 5 level athlete. College recruiting just doesn't work like that. Maybe a scout saw him at some point. Maybe he was on a D1 school's list of potential recruits at some point.  But the article, the wikipedia page, yeah it all is starting to sound like stories somebody who never has been around the college recruiting process would make up to explain why they weren't an athlete. 

[strobogo]

Ya boi is back

 

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[Robert S]

I can fully agree with the second tweet, just not the way Aries meant it.