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Best Mediocre Wrestlers


notoriusvig

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Chad Collyer...I remember him, John Walters, Matt Stryker, and several other people in that same mold from the early ROH days. Guys with no type of gimmick in plain trunks who were technically proficient and had the charisma of a bran muffin.

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Grado has talked a lot about how he feels Rockstar Spud broke down barriers in British Wrestling, and allowed guys who were characters to start playing a role and being on shows. He referred to the era before that happened, when nobody had a character and everyone was "I'm an intense wrestler who wrestles intensely", as the 'Johnny Kickpads' era.

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1 hour ago, AxB said:

Grado has talked a lot about how he feels Rockstar Spud broke down barriers in British Wrestling, and allowed guys who were characters to start playing a role and being on shows. He referred to the era before that happened, when nobody had a character and everyone was "I'm an intense wrestler who wrestles intensely", as the 'Johnny Kickpads' era.

"Johnny Kickpads" Fire Pro CAW in 5, 4, 3...

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The best bit is, you could get three different people on this board to make their own Johnny Kickpads, and still all three would have the exact same moveset.

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I'd make him and he would do no kicks, like all the best wrestlers who bought some cheap biker shorts, knee pads, kickpads and ASICS in wrestling in the last 15 years who only do like flying moves.

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12 hours ago, HumanChessgame said:

Chad Collyer...I remember him, John Walters, Matt Stryker, and several other people in that same mold from the early ROH days. Guys with no type of gimmick in plain trunks who were technically proficient and had the charisma of a bran muffin.

Out of the three, I liked John Walters best. Fifteen years later, I still love his Fight Without Honor against Xavier at Final Battle 2003.

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On 10/9/2018 at 11:56 AM, HumanChessgame said:

Chad Collyer

I loved watching that guy work but outside of technical proficiency there was just nothing there. He went away for a while and came back with a mohawk like that was going to do anything. Wasn't he trained by Malenko?

Also, 'the johnny kickpads era' is spot on ?

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I propose a spinoff thread: Best/Worst 'Johnny Kickpads' wrestler. This is a subject we can really get our teeth into. Who falls into the category and who escapes it? Do Low Ki and Samoa Joe count, or are they characterful enough to be ruled out? Who were the worst indie generic 2000s guys? This is a debate the DVDVR board was made for.

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Joe and Ki arguably kickstarted it (pun intended) with their genesis coming from UWF and Pancrase. They get a pass from having strike heavy offence.

I suppose the first main offender of the Johnny Kickpads era was CM Punk when he moved away from the baggy shorts gimmick

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13 minutes ago, AxB said:

I propose a spinoff thread: Best/Worst 'Johnny Kickpads' wrestler. This is a subject we can really get our teeth into. Who falls into the category and who escapes it? Do Low Ki and Samoa Joe count, or are they characterful enough to be ruled out? Who were the worst indie generic 2000s guys? This is a debate the DVDVR board was made for.

Finn Balor, who has an entrance but not a character, sometimes, until the bell rings?*

(*I haven't actually seen a 2018 Finn Balor match so he might have gotten better?)

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24 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Finn Balor, who has an entrance but not a character, sometimes, until the bell rings?*

(*I haven't actually seen a 2018 Finn Balor match so he might have gotten better?)

I don't know. To really fall under "Johnny Kickpads" era, I'd consider "they made it to WWE/TNA/New Japan" to be a disqualifier. 

True "Johnny Kickpads" guys seem like "yes, they're technically proficient, but somehow, even considering that, no one wanted them because they had the charisma of lime Jello."

Sometimes that can be fixed with a charisma upgrade (best example there: Bryan Danielson), but usually it works. 

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2 hours ago, CreativeControl said:

I loved watching that guy work but outside of technical proficiency there was just nothing there. He went away for a while and came back with a mohawk like that was going to do anything. Wasn't he trained by Malenko?

Also, 'the johnny kickpads era' is spot on ?

I recall he teamed with Nigel for a minute.

Would the Havana Pittbulls fall into the Johnny Kickpads category? I always found Romero and Reyes totally competent and capable of having good matches when wrestling more interesting people but unimpressive on their own.

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On 10/10/2018 at 10:57 AM, CreativeControl said:

I loved watching that guy work but outside of technical proficiency there was just nothing there. He went away for a while and came back with a mohawk like that was going to do anything. Wasn't he trained by Malenko?

Also, 'the johnny kickpads era' is spot on ?

He was trained by Malenko. I remember he had a mini-feud with Ace Steel, who called him "a half-assed Malenko clone".

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On 10/10/2018 at 1:32 PM, HumanChessgame said:

Would the Havana Pittbulls fall into the Johnny Kickpads category? I always found Romero and Reyes totally competent and capable of having good matches when wrestling more interesting people but unimpressive on their own.

I'd say the Havana Pitbulls would fall into the JKP catagory. I enjoyed Rocky's work without Reyes: Black Tiger IV, No Remorse Corps, Forever Hooligans, and Roppongi Vice.

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On 10/10/2018 at 4:24 AM, Sky Blue Sam said:

I've been watching a chunk of 83 and 86 WWF recently and, whilst I accept it wasn't his prime, nothing about Tony Garea stands out as remotely interesting. He's very much a guy who's just...there

He wasn’t interesting a few years earlier when he teamed with Martel. I get why Strongbow and Putski were over and got pushed for as long as they did but Garea getting tag belts and mid-ish card status for as long as he did was a mystery to me. 

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1 hour ago, Control said:

Would it be heresy to suggest Rick Martel? I’m a fan, but he was missing the star power to really make it at the highest stage.

Martel was damn fine as AWA Champ and he had a certain babyface vibe with Zenk and later Santana but it wasn't until his run as The Model that became interessting beyond being a relatively good looking guy.

James

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