Two thoughts I was interested on everyones opinion after watching the first episode of Monday Night Raw.
1. What's the deal with Rob Bartlett? He keeps calling Yokozuna "Yokozuma" and makes fun of Macho Man's "Ooooh Yeah!" within the first five minutes.
2. Yokozuna is probably my favorite bad "worker" ever. As an adult, his matches are deathly dull, but as a kid he had this mystique which was so unique. This made me think...favorite bad worker?
Bartlett was just one of the things about Raw that didn't go right. Keep in mind they're trying to make this thing as radical, fresh, and new as they could. So, that was Rob's part. He's brought into this world he doesn't know, and was probably just trying too hard to fit in. And while Yokozuma isn't great, it's a hell of a lot better than You-mang-ah. Plus, Rob was cool enough to send in an email to the blog and basically apologize. You can't dislike a guy like that.
Kevin Nash, hands down. While a lot of people think he's a terrible worker, I'll always mark for him, and happen to think he has a vast amount of pretty damn good matches. But if we're talking real, legit, bad-workers, than probably Glacier. I always got a kick out of him having to take his basic, original, idea and be turned into Sub-Zero on live TV, using these God-awful martial-arts moves while Larry would critique and give his approval, since he had a subscription to Black Belt magazine.
They wanted someone funny, so they brought in a guy from the terrible Don Imus show instead of Bobby Heenan, making it a point to announce during the first show that he was replacing Bobby.
ReplyDelete*bangs head against wall.*
To be fair to Bartlett, he knew he was terrible. I remember Scott mentioned him once and then Bartlett emailed him, saying he knew he was awful but it was good money and a chance to be on national TV every week so he couldn't turn it down.
ReplyDeleteBartlett was gone rather quickly. As for favorite bad worker, I gotta go with Sid.
ReplyDeleteDo we consider Big Show a bad worker? I never watched much WCW but I've loved the Big Show character, especially as a face. Many of you kids won't remember he does a great Hulk Hogan impersonation.
ReplyDeleteSecond the vote for Sid.
ReplyDeleteOnly smarks think Yokozuna was a bad worker. You don't hear it from the wrestlers who worked with him, or from Jim Ross.
ReplyDeleteSid in ECW was one of my favorite things ever.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite bad wrestler has to be Viscera. I marked out when I first saw him on an episode of Heat in 2000 and couldn't understand why he wasn't a main eventer. Then I grew smarkier and released he wasn't a great wrestler as well as the whole disastrous Mabel main event push years before. I did enjoy when he came back in 2004 initially as a super heavyweight JTTS and also his later World's Largest Love Machine gimmick, but not so much his Big Daddy V stint.
ReplyDeleteThe Ultimate Warrior and it's no contest.
ReplyDeleteI still crack up at the thought of Sid's appearance at ECW Living Dangerously 1999 where the Dudleys are beating him down and Bubba says to him something along the lines of 'You've gotta mighty purty mouth for a country boy!' Who says that kind of shit to someone who looks like Sid? T
ReplyDeleteI don't, he's solid. Took him a long time but he can work.
ReplyDeleteI thought Kevin Nash around the end of WCW was especially horrible. Take Nash's tendency to be lazy, combine it with him giving a career low of fucks at the time, and the over-all ridiculousness of the last year or so of WCW - blonde and grey hair in a Fubu jersey Nash is a bad era.
ReplyDeleteAside from that I love the guy.
They say Raw is "longest running weekly episodic" show of all time (sorry Michael cole if I didn't they that quite right) , but hasn't the Simpsons, a weekly show, been on since 1989?
ReplyDeleteDoes that record mean shows that come on once a week without breaks? Cause ugh, what other shows even do that. Most shows seem to let their performers have time off...
They're counting episodes, not years. Simpsons only get 22ish original episodes a year; RAW gets 52 of them.
ReplyDeleteI vote for Big Poppa Pump. Dude was blowing spots left and right and could barely move by the end of this TNA run, but the promos, oh man the promos. I wish the E would bring him in to be a heel manager.
ReplyDeleteThat was amazing. If I had the money I would have paid Sid the money WCW gave him just to stay in ECW.
ReplyDeleteHAH?! WHODAMAN?!
ReplyDelete+1 for Kevin Nash
ReplyDeleteInternet wrestling fans just have a different definition of what a good worker is than those in the business. And I would say both definitions are correct.
ReplyDeleteMatch ups like Sid against Sabu or Sandman would have been entertainingly bad.
ReplyDelete+1 on Sid
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqT0quOMMBU
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the real story behind the jobber that Yokozuna almost fucking killed with the Banzai Drop that was part of the Raw opening montage for years was about?
ReplyDeleteYoko crushed that poor bastard and didn't even get up afterword, even an old school bastard like Mr. Fuji was pinching Yoko's leg to get the fuck off of him.
I always wondered how the jobbers did not get hurt. It was always funny to see the difference. He just killed the jobbers but barely sit on the regular wrestlers.
ReplyDeleteI still remember one time when he stacked to jobbers on top of each other and just drilled them with a Banzai Drop. The impact must have been incredible for the guy on the bottom.
Yeah, Sid was great. Shitty in the ring, but still entertaining. And he kind of carried HBK at Royal Rumble '97.
ReplyDeleteI heard he learned that move from Pat Patterson.
ReplyDeleteWas that the only time another wrestler ever made fun of Sid for being a redneck?
ReplyDeleteSID carried someone? Gimme your keys, you're drunk.
ReplyDeleteGotta go with Earthquake on this one. I mean, you want to talk about a guy who got dealt a bad hand. He changed his college tattoo just to get a job. Then he was forced to carry a Cartman doll while his entire history with WWF was ignored. Seemed like a bro too.
ReplyDeleteNo it's true. Shawn was apparently sick as hell that night and Sid had to do most of the work.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but considering Shawn's, shall we say, recreational pharmaceutical adventures, "sick as a dog" probably meant "hungover", "high as RVD on, let's say, any weekend", or both. Plus, it's Sid. Dude couldn't carry an attache.
ReplyDeleteSome of the Buh Buh Ray's ECW promos were insane. Like the one where he tells some kid in the balcony at the Hammerstein "I fucked your mom, D-Von fucked your sister, and Big Dick (Dudley) fucked your dad while they were in jail together!" The kid was so pissed off what he climbed down from the balcony (with fans around him helping him get down safely) and tried to charge the ring.
ReplyDeleteSandman is my favorite bad wrestler. I couldn't tell you why, but I've always loved the guy.
ReplyDeleteSame here.
ReplyDeleteAgreed- wrestlers find guys that are safe and simple to be very good workers, since they can still work the crowd, and you can build your offense around them. Most guys call Kane a good worker for the same reason, while a net fan would be bored to tears by the endless choking and the same three moves.
ReplyDeleteSid was the first name that instantly came to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe moment he grabbed Hogan round the neck and choke/lifted him, while ignoring Bossman basically carving his back up with that chair sized step ladder, cemented Earthquakes image as a tough avatars to my young self.
ReplyDeleteLex Luger. :) At least until he looked and worked even worse in 1999 or so. ;)
ReplyDeleteUltimate Warrior was my favorite bad wrestler. Zeus was my favorite really bad wrestler.
ReplyDeleteI've never really thought of Yoko as a bad worker but a lot of people do and so I'll go with him.
ReplyDelete"We'll see I come from a highly educated university"
ReplyDeleteWhy haven't we had a "favorite Scott Steiner moment" post yet?
He stiffed that guy for the whole match. It seemed like a locker room discipline-thing.
ReplyDeleteFair enough; but Yokozuna was over with mainstream fans.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought of Kane as a decent worker - with impressive agility for his size.
ReplyDeleteDefine bad worker. I mean dude was never be a technical genius, but Nash's matches told a good story and played to his strengths.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with Glacier though. He sucked at what he was supposed to do best.
Bret said good things about him in his book.
ReplyDeleteThey were known for starting riots because they WANTED fans to go at them. Shane Douglas was a similar type of asshole that could get on the mic and hurt peoples feelings until they swung at them.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Sid came right to mind, although I hated his last WCW run.
ReplyDeleteBack when you could talk about wrestling in public, I used to get a lot of shit for being a Scott Norton fan. Dude was just cool.
ReplyDeleteThere was one time Yoko slipped and pancaked a jobber with the Banzai Drop, but you can clearly see him asking the guy if he's okay afterward.
ReplyDeleteSorry bro, its a legit carry job at RR97
ReplyDeleteDid Yoko have tears in his eyes?
ReplyDeleteBack the fuck up for a second....
ReplyDeleteHow did any and everyone miss this?
". And while Yokozuma isn't great, it's a hell of a lot better than You-mang-ah."
Ummmm Regal's call of Umaga was fucking awesome.
Matter of fact everything outside of "Real Man's Man" William Regal is fucking awesome.
Psycho sid!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite bad wrestler is Ernest "The Cat" Miller
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't be more right. The Nash/Hall shoot interview mentions something similar, about how it's not about how much you do, it's about how you get the crowd and make money.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Bret said Yoko turned into a spoiled brat after enjoying the lifestyle of champion for a year.
ReplyDelete"Big Poppa Pump is your hookup and the next heavyweight championship of the world."
ReplyDeleteOnce that post is up, I'll be all over it.
Bartlett was horrible and I loved the change to RAW. Those later Prime Time Wrestlings with the stupid audience were so awful (for me at least)
ReplyDeleteSid. Incredible look and charisma but for the most part a bad wrestler (though there are more Sid matches I like that Yoko matches, always hated Yoko)
Also they obviously play up the weekly part as in a new episode every week
ReplyDeleteKicked tons of ass in Japan and on the N64
ReplyDelete"Episodic also removes non-fiction programming from the criteria"
ReplyDeleteThey have to have some way to eliminate that, because otherwise, "Meet The Press" stomps everything, followed by "Music And The Spoken Word".
-Bartlett was just another radio douche in the vein of Todd Pettengill. He just didn't stick around nearly as long as Pettengill did.
ReplyDelete-People can say what they like about Nash, but as "terrible" as he may have been, he managed to be quite successful at doing what pro wrestling is all about - getting over and making money. He hit up the WCW pay winda™ for nearly five years while most likely being Vince's stooge the entire time.
Just rewatched the match on YouTube......eh. Slow as all hell, Sid restholding every other move, halfass ref bump, Jose Lothario (whatever happened to that old bastard?) and some guy in the same hat as him with a beyond lame runin.....as shitty as this match was, I can believe Sid was carrying it.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that even "Real Man's Man" William Regal is fucking awesome.
ReplyDeleteSunshine.
Please tell me this is on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteIt's in one of the Botchamania videos, I think.
ReplyDelete