The Art of Wrestling Thread

[Liquidrob]

Rob, I need to know your thoughts on the idea of jobbers in MMA.

For or Against?

I have said in the past that cans/jobbers are useful in certain instances, depends on the promotion and how you sell it

Pride did it right, you knew it was a squash match, a freak show fight, etc...they didn't promote it as some number 1 contender/title fight, sometimes it had a theme, country vs country, David vs Goliath, Pro Wrestling vs MMA, etc...

Or, if its in a tournament format, that's kind of ok, because the guy has a chance to advance, if the dude wins than he proved himself

 

[Liquidrob]

Man, koko was a douche in that match, lol

The dude got off one chest chop and than took a beating, I always thought Koko was a good guy, what would Frankie think of this match?

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

The art of wrestling..

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Man, koko was a douche in that match, lol

The dude got off one chest chop and than took a beating, I always thought Koko was a good guy, what would Frankie think of this match?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

"Macho King" Randy Savage vs. "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell, WWF Superstars of Wrestling 7/7/90

By 1990, B. Brian Blair was long gone, and Brunzell was into the "...and standing to my left" phase of his career. He was one of those jobbers that always got put over by the announcers and was given offense though, because he was a respected veteran who had a good run in the WWF during the Hogan era, and a really good run in the AWA during...well, the other Hogan era. I always liked Brunzell, and thought he was one of the better workers of that 85-90 WWF period.

Savage, of course, is almost always awesome.

There is a great story behind this match. It contains spoilers, so you may want to watch first. One of the better sub five minute matches you will ever see.

 

Brunzell, known for his awesome dropkick, fucking KILLS Savage with one to the mouth, busting him open. Brunzell would say years later that he thought Savage was going to go mental and kick the shit out of him, so he went to a sleeper to give Randy a breather and to make sure he was ok. Turns out Savage was fine, and told Brunzell later that he really dug the match. Brunzell also claims Vince McMahon told him it was the best enhancement match he had ever seen. On the next loop, Brunzell was spared of jobber duty and was put over Al Perez (another great jobber-to-the-stars who could really go) for the entire tour.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

That match is "The Art of Managing"...first off, a terribly awesome promo by Sherri to kick it off. But when Mach gets busted open, she immediately jumps up on the ring and starts doing the ol redirection just in case it was serious.

Sherri was awesome.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

The Bashams vs Teddy Hart & JD Michaels, WWE Velocity 6/4/05

Velocity was great, because like Superstars about five years later and Main Event today, it was the "workhorse" show popular with hardcores. What was extra cool about Velocity, is they always seemed to feature big name indie dudes in the jobber role. But they weren't really jobbers, they were more like jobbers-to-the-stars & given a decent amount of offense, usually called by their indie names. Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, Alex Shelley, Low Ki, and many others made Velocity appearances. PRINCE NANA, of all people, even had a couple of shots.

In some cases, like this match, the announcers would even put the jobbers over and acknowledge that they weren't the usual "local competitor" type jabroni. Teddy Hart had already burned his ROH bridge by this point, and was about to napalm his WWE bridge. JD Michaels is still kicking around the indies to this day, and also makes & sells ring gear.

The Bashams always worked nice & stiff. Watch closely as Teddy being Teddy no sells a hard chop, and eats about 5 more at full force from a pissed off Doug Basham. Danny kills Michaels with one too, as the poor guy had the misfortune of teaming with the all time heat magnet. Cool little match from the tail end of the glory days of Velocity.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Not sure if theres any real art in this, but was meaning to post it a while back, cool seeing them go at it back then and its a pretty good match for a 4 minute spot. They apparently copied some spots from this match in their Summer Slam match, but this is not something I can confirm. :shifty:

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

"Best of Velocity" is one of the rumored new possibilities for DVD. They'll probably never make it because nobody will buy it, but i'd love to see it happen.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Kazarian works London's head and neck throughout the match, doing so with a couple cool spots to boot. Notice London sells the neck injury after every sequence, offensive or defensive.. nicely sold by both guys. Fun match. Moderately surprising victory for THE FUTURE Frankie Kazarian in the end? #art

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Funny story about "The Future" Frankie Kazarian. He was getting the big Velocity push, and Steph took a liking to him. She pulled him aside one day and asked him to cut his hair. He refused, and got fired.

So he goes back to TNA, and like a month later, he shows up on TV with short hair. Explain that one.

EDIT - Josh Matthews brought up the Super 8 tournament during that match lol. There is no fucking way anybody important was paying attenion to this show, supporting the Larry theory that if Vince doesn't pay attention to it, it's probably pretty good.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Nice little match here... Jamie Nobel always went hard in the ring.. seems to be working pretty stiff here early on. Works Rey Mysterio's arm real good throughout the match.. at around 8:30 Josh Matthews questions the logic of working the arm of a wrestler who uses his legs for offense, and Bill Demott replies with one of the worst answers you'll ever hear. Pretty damn good match none the less. #art

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

They mention the title change from London to Nunzio during that London/Kazarian match. If I recall, this is when London was in the doghouse because Vince was in one of his moods and banned top rope moves because Kidman hurt somebody or himself doing a shooting star press. Anyway, London ignored it and did a bunch of flippy shit anyway, so they jobbed him out until the London/Kendrick team formed a year later.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Speaking of Indy Jobbers to the Stars...one of my favorites was with Roddy Strong in the Kurt Angle Invitational.

Kurt worked Roddy over all stiff like after getting slapped in the face.

 

[FedEx227]

Honestly, don't know why they don't do this more often even on Raw and especially on Smackdown these days. Do we really need the 10,000th Primo/Epic vs. 3MB match on Smackdown or can you try to get someone over by having them beat-down a local indie team (there's a solid guy or two in every town in America). Works two-fold, you get a look at the local indie worker and get an idea if they'll fit into the company and your guys get over by winning... instead we get flip-flop booking with the same 9 matches done 10,000 times a year.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xyptyq"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyptyq_antonio-inoki-tatsumi-fujinami-vs-andre-the-giant-rene-goulet-njpw-12-10-81_sport" target="_blank">Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Andre the...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/SenorLARIATO" target="_blank">SenorLARIATO</a></i>

Andre The Giant & Rene Goulet vs Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami - MSG Tag League Finals, 12/10/81

With the New Japan World Tag League coming up, let's take a look at this match from the second MSG Tag League, which morphed into the G1 Tag League, which morphed into the current World Tag League. I have no idea why this was called the MSG Tag League, but whatever.

Inoki won this the year before teaming with Bob Backlund. This year, he teams with Fujimami, a junior star trying to move up the heavyweight ranks.

Andre teams with Rene Goulet of all people. I was actually impressed with Goulet here, but all I knew of him previously was his awful WWF jobber work from the mid 80's.

 

At first the Japanese have no idea what to do with the giant. He eggs them on. Inoki tries some head scissors, which don't work, until Fujiami helps with a dropkick. Andre is too fresh to keep down. Andre was still moving pretty well at this point, by the way. A few years later, he would be holding himself up on the ropes.

Goulet & Fujinami speed things up. Goulet takes some good bumps, and the Japanese cut off the ring and work the heat spot.

The big spot is Inoki getting the slam on Andre. Look, if Inoki was losing, he was getting his shine. Andre flies up for him. He must have had a ton of respect for Inoki (or the paydays) to go up that easy.

Andre catches Fujinami coming off the top, and wins with a big boot and splash. I love how Fujinami is kicking his legs under the weight of Andre during the count. Its the little things.

I popped for Goulet jumping into Andre's arms for some reason. Cool celebration. Also pay attention, when the teams shake hands, Fujinami sells Andre's handshake like he broke his hand. Nice touch.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Young Bastien...

Red Bastien vs Verne Gagne - AWA, 1950's (date unknown)

...old Bastien.

Red Bastien vs Buddy Rose - Portland Wrestling, 10/12/79


Bastien was known as one of the best workers of his era in the 60's. A well ahead of his time junior heavyweight flyer. What we have here, is two matches, neither from his prime, both about ten minutes long.

First, Gagne eats him up, but gives him just enough to show that he thinks he has potential. I love the way Bastien fights from underneath. Gagne was clearly a big strong man, and also a great athlete. This is worked nice and snug, and the announcer notes that both men end up bloody. Gagne has the kid bumping all over the place.

Flash forward 25 years or so, and Bastien is the wily veteran. Dude uses exactly two moves total and takes one bump. One. Yet the crowd is in the palm of his hands. Simple story being told here, as they set up a future hair vs hair match. Bastien is 50+ and doesn't get paid per bump, but can still pop the crowd with the bare minimum. Worker. This is boring as fuck to me, but they aren't working a match for a puro mark in 2013, they are working a match for Portland fans in 1979.

Have to give credit to Rose as well, who is a bump machine and is a fantastic heel at his peak in his home territory.

I just love the dichotomy here of a wrestler's wrestler on the opposite ends of his career arc. Great stuff.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I guess nobody liked those last few selections, admittedly I dug deep with the old New Japan and RED BASTIEN. Oh well.

Let's try this.

KENTA vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Pro Wresling NOAH, 4/11/11

Even as he was aging and slowing down, old melty face Takayama still had a presence about him. KENTA goes right after the giant, and this thing gets violent pretty quick. Takayama gets busted open hardway, and like a lot of KENTA matches, you can't tell if the opponent is legit annoyed and beating the shit out of him, just working really stiff because KENTA is a masochist, or a little of both.

This is ten minutes of violence. KENTA is the best as the little prick who won't back down. Takayama is great as a I WILL KILL YOU giant with a dangerous aura. So I love this match. This is King's Road violence all the way, and makes some people uncomfortable.