Tuesday, February 26, 2019

WWF In Your House 4 10/22/1995 - Yokozuna vs Mabel

WWF In Your House 4 10/22/1995 - Yokozuna vs Mabel



They cut to a split screen with Yoko's crew, but didn't talk about much except questioning Cornette's loyalties.












The finish


This went to a double countout after 4 minutes. After the match, Cornette and Mo talked and they got the two to hug it out and pose together. I think there was some storyline going on with Cornette/Yoko/Mable, but I'm really not sure. The match started off with a stare down and then them slapping each other. They had a good strike exchange before Mabel went outside and stalled. Back in the ring they fought for a bit. Mabel missed a bulldog, but Yoko bumped to the outside anyway. Mo nailed Mr. Fuji and Yoko fell on Jim Cornette.

I have no idea what the booking was all about here, but the actual match itself wasn't too bad when they were wrestling. I think these two definitely would have had a good one in them if they kept it short and explosive. Yoko threw some good punches here and the crowd popped when they tried to squash the other. I'd be interested in a rematch.

WWF Superstars 2/26/1994 - Bret Hart vs Adam Bomb

WWF Superstars 2/26/1994 - Bret Hart vs Adam Bomb











Bret Hart beat Adam Bomb with the sharpshooter. This really was nothing special at all and only clocked in at around 4 minutes or so. Bomb didn't even get any of the typical monster spots you would expect here as this was pretty much 50/50 all the way through. Owen came out to watch and Harvey Wippleman jumped on the apron near the end before Bret clocked him. A waste of both guys.

Why Bigger Wrestlers Underacheive in Wrestling

Why Bigger Wrestlers Underacheive in Wrestling

I was thinking about this today and wanted to share my thoughts.

While there's been tons of big men over the years, most of them usually aren't that good. Some of the reasons are obvious, while others might be less so.

One of the issues many big men have is that being so big, they tend to be immobile. Sometimes this is due to weight and sometimes this is due to height. Either one leads to balance issues and the wrestlers being physically less able to do various things in ring. Even if they can do a lot of the moves, their opponents also have to be able to lift them, which can be a problem.

Being not able to move however is not necessarily a death sentence. There's plenty of wrestlers over the years who had limited movement, but yet were able to be successful. And this ties into the next issue.

Most bigger wrestlers don't get chances because they are good wrestlers, they get them strictly because they are big. While I've always said that size is important in wrestling, it doesn't matter how big you are if you can't do anything with your size in ring. While most wrestlers have to hone their craft for years to get some rub on the main stage, many bigger wrestlers are given chances without any experience at all. Like in basketball, where bigger people have to prove that they "can't" play, even some of the worst big guys ever got multiple chances to prove their lack of worth while many smaller guys never got their first chance.

Honing your craft in wrestling isn't strictly about having good matches however. Character, charisma and/or personality, depending on how you want to phrase it, is much more important than even having the best matches are. Due to how fast a lot of bigger wrestlers get put on the main stage, they don't get to develop personalities that could make up for their limitations.

One of the reasons I've never seen brought up is that bigger wrestlers get slotted in traditional roles, like they would in movies. Bigger wrestlers are almost always the tough guys, and usually if that fails, become comic relief. While smaller wrestlers get chances to be anything they can imagine and often get more than one shot to try out a different character if need be. People like Brutus Beefcake, Demolition Ax and others as I talked about in a previous post, got tons of chances to explore their personalities, very few big men have.

One final reason a lot of bigger wrestlers fail is that due to their size, they get forced into a limited style of working. Bigger wrestlers spend most of their time squashing smaller wrestlers, no selling or fighting people their size who are also going to be more limited. While many guys spend years having 10+ minute matches with a variety of workers, few bigger wrestlers ever get that chance unless it's a main event, when they are likely to fail.

Overall, bigger wrestlers have a tough time in wrestling. They are often limited by their size, pushed too fast and they get slotted in limited roles while having to live up to high expectations. Then when they fail as it should be expected, they are often they are blamed and punished for things completely out of their control. So the next time you see a bigger wrestler fail, hopefully, this will give you some perspective as to why they often fail.

WCW Monday Nitro 8/4/1997 - Wrath vs The Barbarian

WCW Monday Nitro 8/4/1997 - Wrath vs The Barbarian

This match sounds like a cool kaiju or adventure movie.


















Wrath got the win here with a Death Sentence, which is kind oh like a Rock Bottom only if you hook your arms around the guy. He caught Barbarian off the top with it and it didn't look that great as with taller wrestlers, they have trouble bending down for stuff like that. The match wasn't a classic, but it was a perfectly fine big man throwaway match, though it could have been a lot more. I liked that they remembered the "don't headbutt a Samoan" trope and Wrath's flying clothesline from the top looked good. Meng came down after to stare down Wrath and keep him off Barb.