[OT]Wrestling... how much is fake?

[Black Omega]

Ah, the AWA... beautiful memories.

The Road Warriors have been in a few matches where miscommunication led to both parties ceasing to cooperate. Lex Luger is another one with a similar history.

Heh. I have a tape of the match where Lex Lugar was leaving Florida and in the middle of a Steel Cage match Bruiser Brody quit cooperating with Lex. It's not a real shoot, but you can tell he's not working with Lex anymore and Lex is getting scared.

More recently, Perry Saturn tossed around Mike Bell like a sack of manure after Bell flubbed a spot, at a WWF Jakked (now WWE Velocity) taping. Among Saturn's punishment was having to take some very stiff moves from Bradshaw and Ron Simmons during the WCW mole hunt angle.

And that would hurt. Those two can really put some sting into their moves. A slightly different angle that was interesting at the time was Regal exposing Goldberg during a Nitro match. It wasn't really a shoot, but there were times he put moves on Goldberg and simply didn't let Goldberg escape properly.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Perry Saturn got off easy. The way he knocked Bell out of the ring resulted in Bell landing very badly on his head. He could have easily broke his neck or done other permanent damage.

Getting three powerbombs on the flat of his back by the APA are small punishment in comparison.

More recently, Perry Saturn tossed around Mike Bell like a sack of manure after Bell flubbed a spot, at a WWF Jakked (now WWE Velocity) taping. Among Saturn's punishment was having to take some very stiff moves from Bradshaw and Ron Simmons during the WCW mole hunt angle.

 

[Dahak]

Heh. I have a tape of the match where Lex Lugar was leaving Florida and in the middle of a Steel Cage match Bruiser Brody quit cooperating with Lex. It's not a real shoot, but you can tell he's not working with Lex anymore and Lex is getting scared.

Brody definitely had a habit of screwing with people. I can see why Larry would get legit scared.

On a similar note, one of the dirtsheet sites had a rhetorical question up concerning last night's awarding of the WCW World Title to Triple H. Something along the lines of "Why didn't Eric Biscoff just hire a shooter to take the belt off of Brock Lesnar like Sam Muchnik did in '63?" Buddy Rogers definitely had reason to fear Thesz's ability tho'. With the sole exception of Kurt Angle, I doubt anyone employed in that company will be stretching Lesnar anytime soon.

 

[Black Omega]

Brody definitely had a habit of screwing with people. I can see why Larry would get legit scared.

Agreed. Brody was also notorious for signing in with a territory, being built into the top heel, then suddenly moving on before the other guy got revenge.

On a similar note, one of the dirtsheet sites had a rhetorical question up concerning last night's awarding of the WCW World Title to Triple H. Something along the lines of "Why didn't Eric Biscoff just hire a shooter to take the belt off of Brock Lesnar like Sam Muchnik did in '63?" Buddy Rogers definitely had reason to fear Thesz's ability tho'. With the sole exception of Kurt Angle, I doubt anyone employed in that company will be stretching Lesnar anytime soon.

I'd pay good money to see Kevin Nash try. He and Sid Vicious top the 'all mouth' team in wrestling. Ken Shamrock probably could, if he's kept in sharp. and could avoid injury...that loss to Fujita at Pride was pretty sad. Lou Thesz was in a class of his own in his younger days.

Another wrestler with a rep for shooting was Akira Maeda. I doubt we'll ever know the real details behind that match with Andre the Giant.

 

[Villano]

Agreed. Brody was also notorious for signing in with a territory, being built into the top heel, then suddenly moving on before the other guy got revenge.


I'd pay good money to see Kevin Nash try. He and Sid Vicious top the 'all mouth' team in wrestling. Ken Shamrock probably could, if he's kept in sharp. and could avoid injury...that loss to Fujita at Pride was pretty sad. Lou Thesz was in a class of his own in his younger days.

Another wrestler with a rep for shooting was Akira Maeda. I doubt we'll ever know the real details behind that match with Andre the Giant.

Ah, good ole Kevin Nash. Since signing on with WWE for $700,000 a year he's only wrestled in 2 televised matches.

Well, he actually wrestled in 4, but I don't count the other 2 because he injured himself in them. In the first one, he tore his bicep while kicking someone (a pretty amazing feat if you ask me). When he came back from that (I think it was 6 months later), he was in the ring only 17 seconds before tearing his quad (that's a leg muscle) while walking across the ring. It's expected he'll be out 8 months at least.

$700,000 for less than 1 hours work in a year.

And let's not forget Sid, who jumps off the 2nd rope and shatters his leg.

See, kids, this is what steroids do to you. You literally fall apart before you hit 50.

As for legit wrestlers in the WWE, Angle claims that he actually beat Lesnar in a "friendly" match backstage (or on the road). He also claims that he beat Big Show, who, while not a great, or even good, wrestler, is supposedly one of the strongest guys in the business.

Dean Malenko is also a guy with a lot of technical knowledge. He's one of my absolute favorites.

I don't think he ever faced Angle in a match (I've never seen one, at least). That's a shame because it would have been a great match. The stuff he did with Benoit, Guererro, and Jericho in WCW and ECW was amazing.

Regal and Fit Finlay are both considered to be some of the toughest guys around.

Meng (aka Haku) is a just plain scary guy. He bit a guy's ear or nose off in a barfight. He may not possess a lot of skill, but it's hard to wrestle a guy who's trying to bite your finger off.

And, speaking of Regal, I liked him in WCW, and I loved his WWE role, but ever since I earned why he was canned from WCW, I can't look at him the same.

It seems that he's one of those wrestlers who don't handle plane travel well. On one flight, he got really loaded and when the stewardess refused to give him any more drinks, he knocked her down and, um, urinated on her. Yuck! I'm surprised he even got hired by WWE after that.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Dean Malenko is also a guy with a lot of technical knowledge. He's one of my absolute favorites.

I agree. (I apologize if I have said this before..) The best match I have ever seen is the Benoit/Malenko match in WCW- it was move/counter/counter-counter/crowd goes nuts/repeat.

BTW- malenko may have had a match with Angle in it during the whole (ugh) "radical" storyline.

FD

 

[Villano]

I agree. (I apologize if I have said this before..) The best match I have ever seen is the Benoit/Malenko match in WCW- it was move/counter/counter-counter/crowd goes nuts/repeat.

BTW- malenko may have had a match with Angle in it during the whole (ugh) "radical" storyline.

FD

You can say that Malenko is the best as many times as you want, I won't object.

You're right about the Radicals. If he they did face each other, it was most likely in a tag match (an awful lot of tag matches during that time).

BTW, have you ever seen any of Malenko's matches from his time in Japan. I saw one where he was wrestling either Liger or Ultimo Dragon. The announcers are calling the match in Japanese (naturally), when I suddenly hear them say "Dean Malenko, samurai".

It was pretty cool to hear him getting the respect he never really got here.

 

[Dahak]

Wow... for a few moments, I thought I was reading a thread on Kayfabe Memories rather than EN World.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

It was pretty cool to hear him getting the respect he never really got here.

I always think it is a great shame that the smaller wrestlers must be in the same show as the larger guys.

Most of the larger guys have little ability beyond being.. large.

However- when in matchs against them, the smaller and more technical wrestlers lose prestige in the process.

BTW- since you seem to be in the know. Where is Malenko now? Last I heard he was working backstage to help shapen up the skills of other wrestlers, but that was some time ago.

FD

 

[Villano]

I always think it is a great shame that the smaller wrestlers must be in the same show as the larger guys.

Most of the larger guys have little ability beyond being.. large.

However- when in matchs against them, the smaller and more technical wrestlers lose prestige in the process.

BTW- since you seem to be in the know. Where is Malenko now? Last I heard he was working backstage to help shapen up the skills of other wrestlers, but that was some time ago.

FD

Well, it would help if the big guys actually sold once in a while.

And I agree with you about the big guys having little more than their size. It's rare that you see them do little more than "punch, kick, stomp". Has Big Show ever done an actual wrestling move in his entire career?

And Malenko is supposedly working as a road agent. I hear he's very happy with his new position.

I'm not sure if he's still doing any teaching, though. During his last days with WCW, he closed down his own school, so I don't know if he's just lost the urge to teach.

The thing is that WWE has one of the best technicians on the planet, and they don't use him on Tough Enough. Considering that some of these kids are so green as to be embarrassing *cough*Jackie*cough*, they need someone who can teach them the concept of "hold/counterhold".

And Malenko has a reputation as a nice and funny guy. So much so, in fact, that he almost got an announcing gig on Smackdown or Heat when he first retired from the ring. Considering that he almost got a full-time position on camera behind a mike, I doubt that he doesn't have the personality to be on the show.

Oh, well, like I said, he seems to be happy where he is. He's in his '40's now, so he probably just wants an office job, collecting a good paycheck and spending more time with his family.