5 Guys I Loved Late

[Rev Ray]

 

Taker. Sure, the character was cool and all, but it wasn't until his American Badass period that I started to recognize how well the guy can work.

Not true at all. In 96-98 he was pretty consistently good with a handful of classics.

I don't think his ABA run stacks up well to that three year period or the last several years of his full time career.

 

 

I'm now picturing Undertaker with a 1970's Afro and tiny basketball shorts.

[MADCAP]

I guess mine would be:

 

1.  Greg Valentine- grew up watching him vs. Tito Santana and I I didn't fully appreciate his methodical brutality until he was past his prime.   

 

2.  Mr. Olympia/Jerry Stubbs - I'm real late to the party on this one.  I just "discovered" him a couple of months ago and he's just a consummate Southern wrestler and he's fucking awesome.

 

3.  Steven Regal- It took for his match with Larry Zybysko at Slamboree for me to finally 'get' him.  Now I front like a was huge fan from the beginning of his WCW tenure.

 

4.  Daniel Bryan- I don't and didn't watch a lot of ROH, so when I first really started watching him was during the ROH/CZW fued and needless to say that I was blown away.

 

5.  Harley Race-  Just couldn't appreciate him as a kid, and I thought there was no way he could ever beat Backlund(i'm from WWF country).

[Brian Fowler]

I like 90s Taker now, too. If you accept the slower pace as part of the gimmick, you realize how well he's working the crowd, even into the smarmy Attitude era groups who you'd think would shit on it.

EDIT: Brian, you misunderstand. It wasn't until then that I could look back and recognize what he was doing. Dropping the Deadman bit made me realize it was part of the gimmick, and not any lack of ability on his part.

Or I quoted the quoted person.... Dammit.

[Charlie M.]

Tito Santana - I thought he was kinda lame as a kid. I think the Matador gimmick and all the racist jokes really did a number on my perception of him. I never really thought to revisit his matches until the last year or so. He was incredible.

[Phantom Lord]

I don't think I appreciated Harley Race when I was a child. I was about six when he made his debut in the WWF. Looking back at it now, he had some fun stuff with Hogan (especially those Texas Death matches...fans in the first few rows we can not guarentee your safety). He really was great as a manager for Luger and Vader. It gave them both as the world champion some instant credibility that perhaps the greatest world's champion of them all was vouching for them.

 

God bless Harley as a manager always taking that big bump in a match (backdrop on the floor trying for a piledriver or missing the headbutt off the top rope). I wish there was video of his last match with Flair when he subbed for Vader at a WCW event at the Omni. I remember reading about that in one of that Apter mags back then thinking "wow, I want to see this".

[cwoy2j]

 

God bless Harley as a manager always taking that big bump in a match (backdrop on the floor trying for a piledriver or missing the headbutt off the top rope). I wish there was video of his last match with Flair when he subbed for Vader at a WCW event at the Omni. I remember reading about that in one of that Apter mags back then thinking "wow, I want to see this".

 

Harley took some ridiculous bumps as a manager considering the physical shape he was in  Didn't he have to use a colostomy bag at that point?

[Ramsey]

 

 

God bless Harley as a manager always taking that big bump in a match (backdrop on the floor trying for a piledriver or missing the headbutt off the top rope). I wish there was video of his last match with Flair when he subbed for Vader at a WCW event at the Omni. I remember reading about that in one of that Apter mags back then thinking "wow, I want to see this".

 

Harley took some ridiculous bumps as a manager considering the physical shape he was in  Didn't he have to use a colostomy bag at that point?

 

Harley passes no waste. He simply digests everything. Beer, steak, opponents, nails, glue...everything.

[Curt McGirt]

I think he had to have one after he busted his intestines going that table spot with Hogan, but that was well before he was in WCW.

[cwoy2j]

Over the years I've gained an appreciation for Nikita Koloff as a worker. I liked him when I was a kid b/c he was a cool character but a few years ago I actually started paying attention to his work. He was super green when he first came in but he caught on really quickly. When he was matched up against more experienced guys like Flair, Tully, Arn, etc you can tell he was carried but he more than held up his end of the match. They might've been calling the matches but they weren't leading the guy around by the nose. I think he would've blossomed into a great worker if he didn't have to take time off due to his wife's sickness and then just leaving the business altogether due to injury in 92.

[AxB]

That last bump Nikita Koloff took in the Vader match looks all sorts of weird. Vader goes to give him a Chokeslam, and Koloff twirls sideways in the air and lands all wonky and sideways. Don't know if he was already hurt and took a weird bump trying to protect himself, or if it was just that bad landing that ended his career.

[J.H.]

It took me a long time to appreciate Larry Zybysko. I don't think I came around to him until I was in my late 20s. When they put the AWA strap on him all I could think was "Zybysko? Really?". I don't think it was until after he retired and the feud with Regal in WCW that I came around to just how great Larry was.

 

James

[JonnyLaw]

Finley for me. Something about his look in WCW turned me off. It could have been the mullet, the stache, the weird jacket, who knows. I didn't really come around until his WWE run.

[Red is Dead]

Eddie Guerrero (never watched WCW growing up, had heard about him, but his early run WWE stuff was uninspired. He took off for the stratusphere shortly after)

 

Eddie Kingston. (not his wildcards stuff, his lince feud, his hero blood feud)

 

Cesaro. (always thought he was just a jobbing tag team guy in ROH, the grounding to make hero look good. His late chikara and nxt stuff completely turned me around on him.)

 

Regal. (without access to wcw, all i saw was HE'S A MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN - so you can guess how i reacted)

 

X-pac (I was the epitome of Xpac heat in my youth - hated the prick. now looking at the matches again, especially his jericho on off feud, i love that guy. He was the standard for people working a wwe style of match in the 90s.)

[Execproducer]

Barry Windham - Didn't give a shit until he turned and joined the Horsemen.

 

The Rock - I was WCW so I was really late to that party.

 

Bruiser Brody - Didn't appreciate him until he was gone and I saw some of his Japan stuff. 

 

Lex Lugar - Grew to appreciate his work but when he was facing Flair, I laughed every time he was cheated out of the title.

 

Jerry Blackwell - Scary Mother Fucker.   

[Loki]

Finley for me. Something about his look in WCW turned me off. It could have been the mullet, the stache, the weird jacket, who knows. I didn't really come around until his WWE run.

 

I felt the same way at the time about Finley. Looking back, I think it might have been because there were so many other wrestlers that I was into at the time. And the whole stable/team with him, Knobbs and Al Green was just sad.

[EdA]

Oh this will be fun since I am a dumbass and missed a good chunk of the early 90s due to college.

 

Regal was a guy who when I would occasionally catch mid-90's WCW I didn't get.  Then it clicked out of nowhere.  So maybe I was a year behind everyone.  That is better than the rest of my list.

 

Buddy Landell.  This was more because I always missed him wherever he was.  Like always.  Everywhere.  It wasn't until I saw the greatness of Buddy basically having a match with himself in the Global title tourny that I realized he was fantastic.  Now I stop everything if I find a rando Landell match.

 

Jerry Stubbs/Mr Olympia.  Like Madcap said.  The beauty of discovering rando Continental stuff is hoping you get a Stubbs/Mr Olympia match.  Oddly, I don't care for Stubbs' Mid South stuff nearly as much.

 

Bob Armstrong.  Didn't get him but I only knew him from his 86-ish JCP run teaming with Brad.  Rando Continental stuff also brought the Bob Armstrong goodness and I am a convert.  He could go, he could talk.  And I dig his punches.  Is Bob Armstrong essentially the more unknown Jerry Lawler?

 

Rick Martel.  In fairness, I missed his  AWA champ stuff at the time.  Didn't get him as part of Strike Force.  The turn on Santana and the Model work (as goofy as it is) made me reconsider him and in watching older stuff, Martel is a guy I like a lot.

 

There.  I am a fool.