I was watching some Nigel for the first time on Youtube and I realized there was...
 

something he was missing... not in the "he doesn't have 'it'" or anything that's not my point at all. It goes without saying the guy can work and he seems pretty good on the mic, he definitely comes off well rounded.

However there is something that somewhat bothered me, and it was like the tiniest thing but it could help get him over more. It is so subtle that I'm going to sound stupid.... but here goes...

So since the lariat is a huge part of his arsenal, and his finished, I don't get why he doesn't wear a tensor or an elbow pad/bandaging around his arm. It's really simple but would help people in TNA acknowledge the move a little more. The problem with the lariat is even though it can be a devestating finisher and Nigel does it well, people have seen so many different lariats and they usually don't finish guys, the last guy to use it was JBL and obviously it was an homage to Stan Hansen and both are about 35253x the size of Nigel. Hansen I know for a fact always had the bandaging around the lariat arm and I'm pretty sure JBL was the same though I could be wrong.

If you're hitting someone so fucking hard you're going to call it the jawbreaker lariat, wouldn't it really kill your arm? Wouldn't it makes sense to have the bandaging to really sell the move. He could have the tensor sort of around his forerarm for the majority of the match and then when it was time for the big lariat, pull it up higher and the fans would go nuts cuz they'd know it'd be time for the big jawbreaker lariat. It would draw attention to the move and it would psycologically make sense and give the crowd something to look for etc...

I dunno just something I thought of :o

having his armed bandaged/wrapped/padded would make sense, but we all know that TNA is not always a company that strides itself on its making sense abilities

he didn't have it bandaged in ROH either. This is more of a Nigel thing, if you know what I mean.

Oddly enough, I agree.

Also it is hard to buy a 220 lb guy using a lariat as a finisher.

I liked when Homicide used the lariat in ROH, he'd take his elbow pad off when going for it. Full impact, no pad. Made it look cooler.

Either way the elbow pad is aiding the psycology of the move, it brings notice to the impact.

i agree with GDN. pretty smart idea

Kinda like how Misawa wore an elbow pad on his right arm. Except he actually broke jaws.

Or Hansen, who also broke jaws :p

Those 2 had some bruising affairs against one another... and were both phenomenal workers partially because of their attention to the tiniest thing.

If Hansen ever pulled up the elbow pad the crowd would go apeshit cuz it'd be time for the "LARIOTTTTTO"

hold on, I need to find me some LARIATO

no then he'd be stealing chris hero's gimmick

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It's not a gimmick, it's a subtle nuance to give meaning to a move. LOL yeah, the old "arm bandage" gimmick.

Hansen's Lariat is so much better than Nigel's, Nigel's is great but it's all flash... Stan's just kind of smashes you in the face, no ridiculousness....

lol my favourite thing is before and after or even during matches when Hansen would raise the bullhorns and go "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" like the fucking lunatic that he was, the crowd ate that shit up.

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Doesn't live up to the bad man from Borger :(

I love the look he gets.

Fuck it, you're done. LARIATO

I think more credibility is given to Nigel's lariat in TNA due to the fact that he "knocked Kurt Angle the fuck out" with it. And then destroyed some jobber with it in about a minute.

Of course, they then downplayed his lariat in their PPV match last Sunday by having it play no part in the match besides the fact that Nigel hit it out of nowhere and then Angle kicked out of it. So, guess it doesn't really matter what he has on his arm, if it isn't treated as a KO move all the time.

But it just adds up to the build I guess. It makes more sensed for the arm to be protected. Even if he pulled the bandage down to hit the move it means he's protecting his arm the rest of the match.

The bandage on the arm just subtley draws attention to the move, whether or not anyone kicks out of it.

Should we do a "Who has/had the best lariat?" thread?

i'm pretty sure nigel broke jimmy rave's jaw with his lariat which is why it started getting called a jawbreaker lariat.

What I don't get is how he runs and gets in between the ropes. It looks awkward when the opponent stands there for about 4 seconds knowing it's coming. The match that sticks in my mind was the Nigel v.s. Morishima match

I'm pretty sure that was a work. I think Rave DID break his jaw, but it wasn't actually due to the lariat. They just did that for story line purposes

Yeah, the rebound lariat is badass as a counter in some situations, but when he tries to do it on his own, it looks pretty retarded.

The one thing I've been dying to see is to see him sell a German suplex by rolling all the way through, staggering backwards into the ropes, and blasting the guy as he gets back up.

well that's disappointing

Was thinking the same thing. Haven't seen enough nigel to judge but that struck me as odd.

Not only that, but according to storylines, shelving Kurt Angle with it. I mean JBL's clotheline was much more devastating, but nobody got stretchered off.

hard to choose between JBL and Stan Hansen. I would lean toward Hansen as the one with the best lariat.

One of the best lariat's ever was the one from Halloween Havoc '89, Hansen stopped Luger dead in his tracks, just creamed the shit out of him with it and became the U.S. champion.

Irony is that the match was called by JR and Paul Heyman who would work together many years later.

yeah I've seen that match. And it wasn't some ridiculous over sell where the guy goes flying, it was just a smash to the face and Luger dropped like a sac of shit.

Well, technically, Luger IS a sack of shit...