Death From Above Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 It's seriously a thousand billion times stupider than "wrestling = MMA". Not even close. People who have never watched hockey in their life know who Gretzky is. When I used to frequent a cricket forum, sports fans from fucking Pakistan knew who he was without me having to explain it. I doubt there's one hockey rink in Pakistan. Anyone that thinks George St. Pierre is on that level of fame has serious problems with reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 That's laugh test material. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Liska Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 How did the Gretzky-GSP thing get started? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJH Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 You're overestimating the popularity of NA sports worldwide. Even Jackie Robinson is a non-entity here from experience. Ruth's about the only baseball player people know. The NFL's popular enough, but I don't think there's a name known in the mainstream. Basketball has Jordan, and I'd say you're more likely to find people who know maybe Kobe, Shaq and LeBron to figures from other sports. Every time I've mentioned hockey I've gotten an "oh, you mean ICE hockey" so I don't think Gretsky's anywhere near as well known as Bret. Bret's hardly a mainstream figure, of course, but just about everyone between 22-27 would know him from the early '90s boom and presumably their parents too. He's behind the various WoS names who people remember (Daddy, Haystacks, McManus, Pallo, Les Kellet etc) and behind Hogan, Rock, Austin... but he'd be significantly more known than Gretsky. But St. Pierre hasn't a hope of a case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricR Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 How did the Gretzky-GSP thing get started? Dana White made a comment around the time of the GSP/Koscheck fight that GSP was the most well known Canadian athlete of all time, "a billion times bigger than Gretsky". But that was like 5 months ago, so not really sure why Dave and Bryan would still be talking about it, let alone debating it. Most dismissed it as crazy Dana hyperbolic hubris months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 I can see Alverez saying that and trying to defend it since he knows nothing about real sports. But Dave must have lost his mind on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 edit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 You're overestimating the popularity of NA sports worldwide. Even Jackie Robinson is a non-entity here from experience. Ruth's about the only baseball player people know. The NFL's popular enough, but I don't think there's a name known in the mainstream. Basketball has Jordan, and I'd say you're more likely to find people who know maybe Kobe, Shaq and LeBron to figures from other sports. I agree with this. Granted, I'm not big into sports either, but still, I have no idea who Wayne Gretsky is. The only name of baseball players I know are the ones who have been mentionned during wrestling programs. Ditto any US football players. When I was in highschool, basketball and the NBA were super over, so I knew the names of the stars. But baseball, US football and ice hockey are pretty much non-entity for the mainstream european audiences. Now, I don't think UFC is big either, but to say Wayne Gretsky is a bigger star in Europe than Bret Hart, who was pretty damn known in the 90's, is probaly a mistake. But St. Pierre hasn't a hope of a case. I guess so too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Dont worry they've moved on to boxing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Now, I don't think UFC is big either, but to say Wayne Gretsky is a bigger star in Europe than Bret Hart, who was pretty damn known in the 90's, is probaly a mistake. Depends on the country. I think you'd be right about Western Europe, but not Eastern Europe, where ice hockey was very popular and the WWF didn't have the same foothold. Gretzky's still featured heavily in Wii videogames. Ten years after he retired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJH Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Basically, if hockey is played/televised prominently in that country, it's Gretzky. He's the best player ever and his stats are so far ahead of everyone else that it's ridiculous (doesn't he even have more assists than the second placed guys have goals and assists combined?). But he wasn't a Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods figure, either, who completely transcended his sport. Not to anywhere near the same degree. People are more likely to know the Mighty Ducks than they are the Oilers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 From the latest Observer: He looked like a great sacrificial lamb to set up Vitor Belfort, the darling of the promotion, in his run for the championship. Belfort, who had just turned 20, was 230 pounds of muscle, with the fastest and most accurate hands anyone had seen in the sport, and was said to throw around big black belts in practice. When Belfort first came into UFC, he was billed as Victor Gracie, the next line of Gracie superstars, with the idea he was the adopted son of Carlson Gracie. Going into his fight with Couture, he was 4-0, knocking out every opponent, all much heavier than he was, and the longest lasting 77 seconds. Couture wasn’t thought to have the overwhelming size and takedowns to get him off his feet quick. Belfort figured to destroy him standing in a minute anyway, and follow it up by getting his shot and winning the heavyweight title and going on to be a legend in the sport. You know, the MMA equivalent of the Tom Magee vs. Bret Hart match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Oh, they're all in the combat entertainment realm anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 We probably are mixing things up with Wayne. No one says that on a global level he is as big as Tiger or MJ. Hockey was/is rather big in eastern and northen Europe. It's not like Northern Europe is massive population base, but the percentage of the population that has some knowledge of hockey is pretty high. The analogy to Jackie Robinson isn't a great one. He played in the 40s and 50s, not in the 80s and 90s. Jackie never was "Baseball"... in the sense that Babe Ruth was Baseball, or Hulk Hogan was/is Wrestling for an era: that singular person that lots of people, including non-fans, think of when the word is thrown out. Wayne was Hockey. Still is to a lot of folks like his direct peer Hogan is still Wrestling to them. Is he becoming something of "yesterday's news" because it was the 80s and 90s not the 00s? Perhaps. But it's a bit like Inoki still being huge in Japan even though his salad days were the 60s and 70s and 80s: there remain a lot of people alive who saw him. I barely follow the Dodgers now, but I know who Garvey-Cey-Lopes-Russell were because they were who I watched when a kid. I'll remember Kirk Gibson's dinger until the brain goes. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dooley Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 When I visited the Czech Republic locals who found out I was Canadian and couldn't speak english would smile and say "Wayne Gretzky, ano?" I doubt such a situation has ever happened with the names GSP or Bret Hart in that spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Awesome. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Same thing happened with me in Nara, Japan. With Zidane. Now try to picture a japanese guy who speaks no french whatsoever trying to utter the very unfamiliar (for a japanese) sounding name "Zidane". I don't care about soccer, but that was still funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 Well, futbol is entirely different from hockey. Just about *every* country has people who follow the big boys on some level. We in the US follow it less than just about everyone. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 But he wasn't a Michael Jordan figure, either, Ahem.. The ProStars say otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Freshman in high school today probably don't know Bo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Freshmen in college don't know Bo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Freshmen in college and high school don't know the Beatles. It means... what? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Freshmen in college and high school don't know the Beatles. Are you comparing a 1991 cartoon that aired for 4 months (from Wiki, I have obviously no idea what ProStars was) to the motherfucking Beatles ? It means... what? That they don't know the Beatles ? They're ignorant young douches. That they don't know ProStars ? hum... probably nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 I don't know if this is some kind of change over the last decade and a half but when I was a HS senior I knew plenty of big Beatles fans. And when I was in 8th grade there were a bunch of Smiths fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Same here. Lots of kids were also into Hendrix, the Stones, Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, etc. People forget that kids have parents, and those parents often times like and play music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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