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Ref bumps

Scott's inbox is currently sitting at over 200 emails, so he's delegating a few to the team in order to get your question answered.

Long time reader but never really send you questions.

I was watching the Savage-Steamboat match from WM3 (my first time seeing it) and the only thing that hurt the match IMO was the ref bump. Savage had Steamboat beat, but since the ref was down, he didn't get the three count.

In your opinion, do you think the refs bumps are dumb? Why are they even used?

Thanks,

Matt

I think ref bumps are the most ridiculous thing in pro-wrestling. I mean, we're to believe that these guys have the same condition as Sam Jackson from Unbreakable with the way some react to simply being brushed up against. I would always dread a ref bump when watching pro-wrestling with a non-fan, because it's about as hammy & over the top as you can get. A ref takes a chair-shot, or a powerbomb? Sure, they can be out for a minute. But get squished into the turnbuckle? Or trip over a wrestler? Then you have cases like the ref bump from WMX7 in the Triple H/Taker match. I'm pretty sure the ref is still laying Astrodome as we speak.

As to why they're used, well it's just a hacky way for the face to have the bad-guy beat, but not actually give him the 3 count. Or so the dastardly doer can commit many an evil act without interruption or fear of DQ. Or sometimes, such as Jericho/HHH HIAC, you need the ref bump as a plot point, in order to get from A to B.

Comments

  1. Semi-related: the cameraman bump from the UT/HBK HIAC was so well done. Creative, effective, and believable. In other words, the complete opposite of 99% of ref bumps...

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  2. Having actually followed wrestling since well before 1997, I can say that properly employed (and NEVER used more than once during a show), a ref bump is as valid of a spot as any. The referee should always be a "normal" sized individual, and as such, should be a pretty vulnerable presence in the ring. Aside from baseball (where umpires are stereotypically fat guys), officials in major sports are almost always dwarfed by the competitors.

    The problem with today's booking is that the ref bump has been overused to the point of absurdity, usually because of laziness on the part of the workers or the booker not knowing how else to sneak in heel interference, a foreign object, or whatever else will influence the outcome of the match. The classic "sneaky heel" tactics are almost a lost art now.

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  3. Would you alter Shakespeare?


    Would you paint a hat on the Mona Lisa?


    You can't take the ref bump out of Savage-Steamboat!

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  4. A lot of things had more logic put into it back then. It was only 97 but in today's wrestling world (universe... ugh) it could have been 50 years ago.

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  5. The funny thing? I was thinking about Earl Hebner a while ago and he clearly is tough as fuck. Most guys in their 60s aren't in great shape and many couldn't get down to their knees and get back up all that easily.Hebner does all that, plus takes bumps and did for 30 years or more, and travels all the time which is hell on the body. He's hardcore.

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  6. I didn't even read the question. NOTHING HURTS THAT MATCH! FUCK YOU! DIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

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  7. I wish the kids knew who Tommy Young was.

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  8. Your_Favourite_AssholeAugust 11, 2013 at 3:30 PM

    he's still a shitty referee, tho

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  9. I forget if Scott said it or who did, but I remember the joke that when Danny Davis became a wrestler, one should have only needed to collide with him to knock him out and pin him instantly.

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  10. Funny, if anyone had a complaint about that match, I thought it would be the George Steele interference.

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  11. I hated on him for ages when I was younger for screwing up the finish to the awesome Kurt Angle/Rock match from No Way Out 2001.

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  12. Your_Favourite_AssholeAugust 11, 2013 at 3:37 PM

    yeah rock was pretty pissed


    thing with hebner is that he has this hitch in his swing when he's going for a 3 count that's not the finish and it pretty much telegraphs that the match is gonna continue, even during big spots


    his whole 'damn right i did' deal at tna house shows is played out and not even remotely clever anymore

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  13. I could be totally off base, but wasn't the ref bump, and the Savage non-pin calling back to all the times Savage had gotten away with sneaky wins due to ref incompetence? Also, wasn't Steele's interference meant to call back to Savage cheating in their own title matches? If anything I think it adds layers to the match, instead of detracting.

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  14. Every time I heard mention of that 'damn right I did' deal my immediate reaction was 'yeah damn right you actually swore on your kids lives to Bret that you weren't going to double-cross him'. No matter what people say about anyone that was apart of the Montreal Screwjob I've always had a disliking to Hebner for his part just because he would go back on something he swore his kids lives on.

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  15. Tommy Young was badass. Dude was more entertaining than the wrestlers

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  16. There was nothing better than a good Tommy Young shove against Ric Flair - an automatic crowd pop.

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  17. The real irony here is that Tommy Young's in-ring career was ended by - of all things - an accidental ref bump. That alone pretty much negates the stupid, uninformed opinion given in the original post.

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  18. That seems the most logical answer for the bump. Look at the crowd, that bump and Steele's interference caused a massive pop. Not all ref bumps are bad for business. See also mankind's first title win...ref bump, glass breaks, stone cold crazy pop.

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  19. The all time most ridiculous ref bump has to be Jeff Jarrett bumping from a clothesline during the Sting/Kurt Angle match at Destination X 2009.
    It looked so silly to see Jarrett down for five minutes straight from a routine move he has taken several hundred thousand times, nevermind the fact that Mick Foley did a run-in and immediately no-sold a low blow from Angle which only made Jarrett look even stupider.

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  20. The ref bump in that match allowed for Steamboat to get revenge when Savage grabbed the bell, the same on he used to injure Steamboat's throat, and it backfired when Steele pushed him off the top rope and it hit is head and shortly after that, Steamboat got the small package for the win. The ref bump allowed all of that to take place and it made sense as Savage cheated to win the belt then had it backfire against him to lose it

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  21. More ridiculous than the Irish Whip?

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  22. The worst I have ever personally witnessed was HBK refing a match some years ago on Raw and he got squashed in the corner and sold it like he had been given brain trauma. Can't remember the match but it was so hokey that I just turned off the TV.

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  23. I'll never hear a bad word about the ref bump in the Eddie/Brock title match. Seriously, Brian Hebner gets kicked in the head by Eddie's boots when Lesnar swings him around for the F-5.

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  24. Best ref bump ever was Rude - Warrior from Summerslam 89.

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  25. He must have thought he was in Syracuse.

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  26. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryAugust 11, 2013 at 5:26 PM

    Ref bumps are right there with "distracted by music/roll-up" and "walking out" as the worst shit that happens in matches.

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  27. 34:10
    My favorite ref bump ever. He's rendered helplessly unconscious from Hulk slumping over onto his leg.
    http://youtu.be/hiW2U-fT9jw

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  28. Charismatic e-Negro Jef VinsonAugust 11, 2013 at 7:18 PM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhrXNsu_zPY

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  29. The most ridiculous thing in wrestling? When there's an after-match beatdown taking place and the timekeeper KEEPS RINGING THE BLEEPING BELL, as though a heel would think "oooh, he's ringing the bell, I better stop what I'm doing or I'll be in big trouble..."

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  30. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryAugust 11, 2013 at 9:41 PM

    That is so fucking annoying.

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  31. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryAugust 11, 2013 at 9:47 PM

    The lack of managers/valets might have something to do with it. Without someone at ringside to provide a distraction they don't have many other options.

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  32. I think the Irish Whip is going to be my new go-to "more ridiculous than" reference point. "More ridiculous than the Irish whip" already sounds like one of those old timey phrases nobody knows the origin of. But I'll know.

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  33. Caliber_Winfield_The_3rdAugust 12, 2013 at 5:53 AM

    That's the most annoying.

    No joke, one of the Nitro's from WCW I reviewed, there was a match where the ref rang the bell more than 130 times. I think the record so far is 152. I'm not even close to joking, either.

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  34. There was a match on WCW Worldwide or Saturday Night or something, involving Hulk and Savage brawling with Shark and maybe Meng? And the timekeeper literally did not stop ringing the bell. Maybe that's the match you're referring to?

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  35. I can't remember the match, but either this past Raw or the one before, they did a spot where the ref took a slight bump, hit the ground, then shook it off and got back up fairly quickly. I remember thinking it was a nice touch because it was realistic, and the ref wasn't unconscious for 10 minutes off of a shove.

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  36. There was no ref bump in that match. I think the match was no DQ anyway.

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  37. Ref bumps in general are stupid, but Savage/Steamboat was actually a payoff to Savage's entire IC title run; he had cheated to win the title, and pretty much through his whole reign, but when he has his arch-enemy pinned clean at Wrestlemania, there's no ref.

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  38. "Or sometimes, such as Jericho/HHH HIAC, you need the ref bump as a plot point, in order to get from A to B."


    Also to help set up the Tim White suicide angle...

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  39. guess i'm in the minority. i kind of love a good ref bump. not all the time but when it's done right you know all bets are off and anything can happen for the next few minutes. i also find it hilarious they sell every move like death.

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  40. Earl Hebner and his shitting exaggerated counting gets right up my piss hole.

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  41. What's ridiculous is watching wrestlers play the part of refs and then do a ref bump. Like Flair being the special ref between Austin-Undertaker and he had to play off a shoulderblock as keeping him down.


    Ref bumps work if the ref gets hit with a power move like a clothesline or something like that. It stinks when the ref gets sneezed on and he acts like he got a concussion.

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