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-   -   Wrestlers you thought sucked but they were actually pretty good or great (https://www.tpwwforums.com/showthread.php?t=136112)

Ol Dirty Dastard 04-02-2019 04:26 PM

Wrestlers you thought sucked but they were actually pretty good or great
 
The Brutus Beefcake HoF discussion got me thinking. A lot of people tend to take periods of certain wrassler's careers and decide that their entire body of work was the shits.

I was probably guilty for feeling this with Beefcake, but even watching OSW reviews I could see he had some good charisma, a great look, a cool gimmick, and the crowd loved him.

But my most egregious misconception of a wrestler was Sgt. Slaughter. He was so past his prime in 1991 and that was all I saw of him. Then I started watching him from the early 80s and he is legitimately an all-time IN-RING great aside from his cool gimmick. In the past months I've seen him have barnburners with Shiek and Shultz plus there's his epic motherfucker of a streetfight with Pat Patterson.

I also didn't give King Kong Bundy much credit but in the early-mid 80s he was 400 pounds and had the mobility of a 225 pounder. I've seen several of his matches that both had great heat and solid work.


Who were you wrong about?

Bad News Gertner 04-02-2019 05:16 PM

I remember back in the day thinking Backlund was the dirt worst until I started getting into late 70's/early 80's wrestling

Slaughter is the best bumping big man of all time.

Evil Vito 04-02-2019 05:32 PM

Guys like Slaughter, Lawler, and Duggan wrestled a yearly match from like 2002-07 and it was invariably always cringy. Unfortunately when that’s the only exposure you had to someone’s in-ring career it was easy to form unfair biases.

Bad News Gertner 04-02-2019 08:25 PM

Just thought of a great one: Lex Luger.

Between the fall of 95 and Summer 96 he's the best thing on Nitro

Ol Dirty Dastard 04-02-2019 08:27 PM

he was a natural heel.

Bad News Gertner 04-02-2019 08:44 PM

His gimmick of being Sting's best friend but a heel behind his back is so fucking good lol


Mr. Nerfect 04-03-2019 03:21 AM

Lex Luger and Sgt. Slaughter are good shouts. It's a different sort of thing, but I used to think Bret Hart was the shits until my tastes matured.

Emperor Smeat 04-03-2019 03:38 AM

Vader.

Because I only watched WWF stuff at the time, never saw any of his non-WWF work and didn't find him to be that special in the ring or as a character. Wasn't till years later that I found out he was actually really great in both WCW and in Japan.

Mr. Nerfect 04-03-2019 04:07 AM

Ooh, throw Dr. Death into the "check out his Japan stuff" basket.

Sepholio 04-03-2019 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat (Post 5238916)
Vader.

Because I only watched WWF stuff at the time, never saw any of his non-WWF work and didn't find him to be that special in the ring or as a character. Wasn't till years later that I found out he was actually really great in both WCW and in Japan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5238920)
Ooh, throw Dr. Death into the "check out his Japan stuff" basket.

I can cosign both of these. I also completely misjudged Malenko and Jericho during the 90's. I thought Malenko was awful and boring and needed to just piss off, never realizing how great he actually was in the ring. Jericho I found to just be an whiny try hard white guy trying to do flippy shit like all the awesome luchadores WCW had in their cruiserweight division at the time; problem was I thought Jericho was waaaaaay worse at the spots than a BUNCH of other guys lol. Now I'm of the opinion that Jericho is one of the best ever, easily in my top 5.

WinterDecay 04-03-2019 08:56 AM

The Heavenly Bodies .... thought they were awful and now I can truly appreciate how they were bumping machines.

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 09:01 AM

Yeah they were really good.

Fignuts 04-03-2019 09:27 AM

Chris Masters

Fignuts 04-03-2019 09:27 AM

Wait no, I still think he was terrible.

Vastardikai 04-03-2019 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceman King Gertner (Post 5238600)
I remember back in the day thinking Backlund was the dirt worst until I started getting into late 70's/early 80's wrestling

Slaughter is the best bumping big man of all time.

His elimination from the '92 Rumble made Sid look like a beast. Easily one of the most overlooked moments from that match.

And I will say that '70s/'80s era Backlund is bad if you look at him under a modern lens. By which I mean that people today expect a guy to be at least somewhat capable of talking, and during that time Backlund seemed completely incapable of putting together a coherent thought. This is especially bad when put against the likes of Harley Race or Ric Flair, who could talk them into the building. But in the context of that time period, he is damned good. Hell, he'd be a top attraction in the Indies now.

Ol Dirty Dastard 04-03-2019 11:41 AM

Yeah, Gert and me have discussed how fucking paltry he was on the mic. Then you compare it to his heel run and it's like "WHERE THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 01:07 PM

Gert and I

Ol Dirty Dastard 04-03-2019 01:26 PM

I will find you. Then, I will murder you.

RP 04-03-2019 01:50 PM

Adrian Adonis

Ol Dirty Dastard 04-03-2019 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RP (Post 5239015)
Adrian Adonis

Good choice.

Especially before he put on all the weight he was a hard hitter who was super agile. Even after he put on the weight he could still move just not as well as in his prime.

But people probably just equate him to Adorable Adrian and ignore all of his prior awesome work.

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One (Post 5239007)
I will find you. Then, I will murder you.

Hahahaha

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One (Post 5239019)
Good choice.

Especially before he put on all the weight he was a hard hitter who was super agile. Even after he put on the weight he could still move just not as well as in his prime.

But people probably just equate him to Adorable Adrian and ignore all of his prior awesome work.

One of the top 2-3 North American workers in 82-83 and one half of my favourite WWF tag teams of the 80's: Murdoch and Adonis

Mr. Nerfect 04-03-2019 05:22 PM

John Cena is someone I can see myself revisiting without my angry smark glasses on.

xrodmuc316 04-03-2019 06:53 PM

For me it was Bret Hart, not that I ever thought he sucked, but I didn't truly appreciate him until in the middle of his 2nd World Title run. I remember as a kid not liking when he beat Perfect or Piper for the IC titles, and my even younger self thought Anvil was the far more entertaining guy in their tag team.

RP 04-03-2019 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One (Post 5239019)
Good choice.

Especially before he put on all the weight he was a hard hitter who was super agile. Even after he put on the weight he could still move just not as well as in his prime.

But people probably just equate him to Adorable Adrian and ignore all of his prior awesome work.

I was wanting to call you a fgt jew, but you make good points. He's still one of the all time greats. Those pink tights man...

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 09:14 PM

He had got himself in good shape and was planning a comeback to the WWF before he died. Only 34 so he had another 5 years or so in him performing at a high level. Possibly even more if he kept in shape.

Lock Jaw 04-03-2019 09:31 PM

Hulk Hogan

Stone Cold Steve Austin as a face

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 09:36 PM

Until I went back and watched a bunch of 2001 stuff, I didn't realize how great Stone Cold was as a heel. He was amazing.

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 09:37 PM

Throwing this one out there: The Nasty Boys

They were a really good team.

Evil Vito 04-03-2019 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceman King Gertner (Post 5239122)
Until I went back and watched a bunch of 2001 stuff, I didn't realize how great Stone Cold was as a heel. He was amazing.

It’s amazing to me that all these years later Austin absolutely hated that run and wish it never happened.

xrodmuc316 04-03-2019 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito (Post 5239128)
It’s amazing to me that all these years later Austin absolutely hated that run and wish it never happened.

To be fair, what I've always gathered is he hated the stuff from the initial turn. The vicious 2 man power trip crap. Character wise he has said once he shook Vinces hand after the turn, he should have double crossed Vince and stunned him right there.

That said, after King of the Ring when he got hurt all the way through Survivor Series, that 5 months or whatever, he has said that he had a blast. That's when his character shifted, due to the injury, and it was absolutely amazing. I think that 5 month period is right up there with just about any other 5 month period in his whole career. Certainly was the best work of anything he did after Summerslam 99.

RP 04-03-2019 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceman King Gertner (Post 5239114)
He had got himself in good shape and was planning a comeback to the WWF before he died. Only 34 so he had another 5 years or so in him performing at a high level. Possibly even more if he kept in shape.


I was going to sound off until I read this. I honestly did not know that. 34 is so young. What a lost talent.

RP 04-03-2019 10:42 PM

Hope you're talking about Adrian Adonis btw Gertner.

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 10:52 PM

Yup, Adonis. There was talk he was going to return to the WWF as a tag team with Dick Murdoch which would have been amazing. They were an awesome team and would have had killer matches in that era

Bad News Gertner 04-03-2019 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito (Post 5239128)
It’s amazing to me that all these years later Austin absolutely hated that run and wish it never happened.

Like he's the best thing in the company during that run and really carried the Invasion angle. Hands down the best thing.

Evil Vito 04-04-2019 07:44 AM

Yep it was a fantastic run for him. I hated it when I was 12 but appreciate the brilliant heel work now.

I think Austin just hated the run because he feels like him shaking hands with Vince is viewed as the singular moment that signified the end of the Attitude Era. That's why he said if he could do it all over again he'd have played out everything exactly as it happened only for him to call an audible and Stun Vince after the handshake so everyone would know he'd just played Vince like a fiddle.

Mr. Nerfect 04-07-2019 03:14 PM

Heel Austin is a good shout. Because it marked the end of all that is happy it kind of washed over the specifics of the performance which you can watch with distance.

It took me ages to appreciate Rock too, as embarrassing as that is to admit.

Lock Jaw 04-07-2019 03:30 PM

I like how me saying face Austin led to a lengthy discussion about heel Austin, who I actually enjoyed as it was happening.

I can get on board with not appreciating The Rock as well in his face days.

Sixx 04-07-2019 07:58 PM

Hollywood Rock.

Seanny One Ball 04-07-2019 08:43 PM

I didn't think he "sucked" back then but I have watched nothing but old 90-93 WCW PPV's recently and Dustin Runnels/Rhodes was absolutely incredible back then. He is probably the greatest underrated talent of that era. I would need to watch the weekly shows to catch up with the angles but by God does he have great matches in WCW at that time. I think I love WCW from that time more than anything. It was so sincere even with the worst gimmicks in history.


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