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Best Mediocre Wrestlers


notoriusvig

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I'll throw Bam Bam Bigelow out there.  When I was a kid and he was brought into the WWF, I thought he was the next big thing.  I LOVED him because he came off as something different and new.  And then he just fell off a cliff after WMIV and came off as just another guy for almost a decade before getting a resurgence in ECW.  I'd even say his mediocrity is exactly why he was the one who jobbed to LT at WM.  It didn't hurt him to lose to him but he wasn't really able to benefit from the publicity either.  He was a midcard guy for almost his entire runs in WWF and WCW and that was unfortunately where he probably belonged.

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It's hard to see that written about someone with such a distinctive look and style as Bammer. Bret said in his book that he had a bad attitude backstage and that led to him getting dumped initially, dunno if that was before the LT match or not. But really, a big man with a tattooed head that could do cartwheels and moonsault, that is not the definition of mediocre to me. And I'm sorry but if Vader wasn't around Bam might've had his spot in New Japan instead of being the tag partner (yeah, I know about Warrior; hopefully someone would have given Inoki one of his own slaps before that happened). 

Now I understand why Sid is contested in this thread. Bigelow was as 100% "This Is A Fucking Pro-Wrestler" as Sid is, even if Sid couldn't work. 

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Nothing about Bigelow was mediocre. You want mediocre? Hercules. At a time when WWE was filled with huge guys juiced to the gills, he was just another one of them. Herc wasn't terrible in the ring. It's not like he was Tom Magee or Ted Arcidi levels of bad. His full nelson and torture rack always looked good. He was mighty over during the DiBiase feud. The power-plex was an awesome finisher for he and Roma; and should be dusted off and used today.  

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Bigelow was put in the Lawrence Taylor match because he was the best working big man in the company. As he said in his shoot interview "It kills you, being a good worker in this business. They can beat you and squash you as much as they want, because you can always get yourself back over because of your work. Whereas if your work sucks, they've got to protect you."

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14 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

How about post-coma Terry Gordy? Wasn't as great as he used to be, and had to be helped a lot through his matches, but still had some fun stuff like the death match with Cactus and his underrated ECW run.  

@mattdangerously  somewhere there's a world where the word "mediocre" may be applied to Terry "Bam-Bam" Gordy, but it ain't this one. "Diminished skills after coma", yeah, I'll buy that, but "medicore" not by a long shot, even after the coma he's still in the discussion of "best big man in the world" and that discussion includes guys like Vader, Bigelow, and Ray Traylor and Gordy at way less than 100% is still in the discussion.

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Bam Bam was far from mediocre, in my eyes.  The guy could have a great match with anyone and was pretty believable as a big man heel.  He was certainly never going to be the face of a company though.  Some would say he is one of the best big men in modern history.  Name me 3 guys better than him (try to exclude Vader).

I like Herc but he is definitely on the cusp.  To me, he fits in with guys like Barbarian or Warlord, in that he they look good and are pretty damn solid workers but that's about it.  I think I became a fan of the Barbarian from this board, from one of the topics on him back 05 or so.

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13 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Nothing about Bigelow was mediocre. You want mediocre? Hercules. At a time when WWE was filled with huge guys juiced to the gills, he was just another one of them. Herc wasn't terrible in the ring. It's not like he was Tom Magee or Ted Arcidi levels of bad. His full nelson and torture rack always looked good. He was mighty over during the DiBiase feud. The power-plex was an awesome finisher for he and Roma; and should be dusted off and used today.  

He had a lot of potential in the 84 work I've seen in Mid-South. However, the bloated mess he became at times in the WWF was a mile away from what he could have been.

1 minute ago, hammerva said:

I think the answer is pretty obvious:    Jimmy Valiant.   Always over and popular in Memphis and Mid Atlantic yet probably had 3 or 4 moves top. 

That answer works for me.

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1 hour ago, notoriusvig said:

Bam Bam was far from mediocre, in my eyes.  The guy could have a great match with anyone and was pretty believable as a big man heel.  He was certainly never going to be the face of a company though. 

Bam Bam was equally convincing as a heel and face. Bam Bam was never going to be the face of the company, but at the time of the '87 Survivor Series, I'd say he was the #3 face behind Hogan and Savage. His work against Bundy, the Gang, and Andre is one of the greatest babyface comebacks that just falls short. I would put that up against any other that anyone could think of.

It's ashame he got fucked over by the kliq in his 2nd run, but you can also say that about PCO, Shane Douglas, and Adam Bomb.

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1 hour ago, notoriusvig said:

I like Herc but he is definitely on the cusp.  To me, he fits in with guys like Barbarian or Warlord, in that he they look good and are pretty damn solid workers but that's about it.  I think I became a fan of the Barbarian from this board, from one of the topics on him back 05 or so.

I don't know, I think the look actually solidifies Hercules as a good answer.

For the power guys in the '80s level, when you looked at most of the WWF's crop of good power guys- you did have guys like Barbarian and Warlord, who looked like monsters and were solid...and then you had Hercules, who was a solid worker, decent power guy...but looked like someone's dad got drunk, put a chain around his neck, and headed to the ring and threw some people around. 

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11 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

 

It's ashame he got fucked over by the kliq in his 2nd run, but you can also say that about PCO, Shane Douglas, and Adam Bomb.

FWIW, the Kliq have all (except maybe Shawn who probably legit doesn't remember anyway) flatly denied that. They all openly admit they didn't like Bigelow personally, but they claim in that infamous meeting with Vince where they went through the entire roster with him, they're statement was "Bam Bam can play on our team any day."

They certainly could be bullshitting, but he's the only one they really go out of their way to deny the stories about.

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I'd put Chavo and Randy in the category of "decent wrestlers who stuck around too long."

Both guys had extended runs of solid work and some positive attributes that put them above "mediocre." It's just that it's been at least 10 years since we've seen that from either of them.

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2 hours ago, KidNatural said:

I don't know but does anyone think that Mike Rotundo was anything but kind of bland? He's what the color beige would look like if it wrestled.

He's like the perfect replacement level wrestler.

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