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7 hours ago, Sky Blue Sam said:

Quiet Storm has gone on to have a successful career in Japan, even winning the tag title in NOAH last year, so that should rule him out of Worst Johnny Kickpads. It should, however, move him over to Most Johnny Kickpads, as moving to Japan to work is the JKP dream

He has spent most of his career in Japan.

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I remember on the indies a big division between the old school workers and their trainees, who were not allowed to get into a ring without official rasslin boots, and the "next generation' who were trained by those above trainees. Japan tapes, backyard feds, friends training friends, changing styles of dress and work, all had something to do with it. I remember some folks just plain did not want to buy boots or at least spend money on them, which I found amazing. THE BOOTS ARE ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF BEING A RASSLER - that, and being allowed to refer to oneself in thee third person. The Reverend liked that.

- RAF, K&H customer

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9 hours ago, thee Reverend Axl Future said:

I remember on the indies a big division between the old school workers and their trainees, who were not allowed to get into a ring without official rasslin boots, and the "next generation' who were trained by those above trainees. Japan tapes, backyard feds, friends training friends, changing styles of dress and work, all had something to do with it. I remember some folks just plain did not want to buy boots or at least spend money on them, which I found amazing. THE BOOTS ARE ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF BEING A RASSLER - that, and being allowed to refer to oneself in thee third person. The Reverend liked that.

- RAF, K&H customer

The Reverend & The Ryan would run wild over the territories in the day.

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Does having a legit fighting background inoculate you from being a JKP?  If not then Ken Shamrock definitely has to be in the discussion as the progenitor of the style.

I spent a long time thinking about it and decided Minoru Tanaka is the Japanese Johnny Kickpads.

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9 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

To be fair, that was Asuka's deal when she was Kana.

Didn't really think about it until you brought it up, but Asuka/Kana was totally a JKP. She had that look from her initial return to wrestling but did nothing shoot style wise. Then when she did start doing it she had no fucking clue what she was doing and was mostly just a bitch stiffing people until Yuki Ishikawa taught her how to actually wrestle the damn style properly.

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3 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Does having a legit fighting background inoculate you from being a JKP?  If not then Ken Shamrock definitely has to be in the discussion as the progenitor of the style.

I spent a long time thinking about it and decided Minoru Tanaka is the Japanese Johnny Kickpads.

Wait a second, to really be Johnny Kickpads, you'd also have to wear pleather shorts. Ideally, pleather bermudas. 

All kidding aside, I find kickpads easily justifiable if your offense is including kicks, especially leg kicks. 

I mean, do you really mean to tell me Kawada is a JKP? Or more importantly, do you really want to tell HIM? 

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Wait a sec, doesn't Gargano wear kickpads?  I know he's an amazing wrestler and everything but he doesn't kick that much.  I feel that at some point if somebody made fun of it there could have been a "Johnny Kickpads!" chant.  Now if being a great wrestler who doesn't wear pleather shorts disqualifies him from that then so be it.  But this is just my hopefully-not-half-brained contribution to this.

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41 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Wait a sec, doesn't Gargano wear kickpads?  I know he's an amazing wrestler and everything but he doesn't kick that much.  I feel that at some point if somebody made fun of it there could have been a "Johnny Kickpads!" chant.  Now if being a great wrestler who doesn't wear pleather shorts disqualifies him from that then so be it.  But this is just my hopefully-not-half-brained contribution to this.

That was my first thought as the absolute definition of the thread.

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This thread got me thinking about what the Platonic ideal would look like. To me, the archetypal Johnny Kickpads:

  • Wears kickpads (obviously)
  • Is shorter than the average American male
  • Has a low body fat percentage
  • Works recklessly stiff
  • Has cut at least one "I'm not a sports entertainer" promo
  • Uses 90s All Japan finishers as mid-match transition moves
  • Has wrestled for NOAH
  • Competes in MMA and has a losing record

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who checks all the boxes. I consider kickpads and lack of height to be the only absolutely essential elements.

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8 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

This thread got me thinking about what the Platonic ideal would look like. To me, the archetypal Johnny Kickpads:

  • Wears kickpads (obviously)
  • Is shorter than the average American male
  • Has a low body fat percentage
  • Works recklessly stiff
  • Has cut at least one "I'm not a sports entertainer" promo
  • Uses 90s All Japan finishers as mid-match transition moves
  • Has wrestled for NOAH
  • Competes in MMA and has a losing record

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who checks all the boxes. I consider kickpads and lack of height to be the only absolutely essential elements.

Well, tying into some of the names added to the list, the only essential elements would be:

MUST HAVE: Kickpads.

MUST NOT HAVE: Charisma. 

Too many of the names for JKP given here are 2000s indy wrestlers, but they don't truly have the Johnny Kickpads mentality.  

Heck, I'd posit that the fact this is the 2018 gives a good rule of thumb for Johnny Kickpads people: 

If you're asking if someone is worthy of the discussion from the Johnny Kickpads era of being a JKP,  ask yourself "Did they make it to TNA or WWE?" 

If they got one of the two to come calling, they're probably not Johnny Kickpads.

If they never made it national, then they absolutely are Johnny Kickpads. 

This rule of thumb hurts some people (using the Undisputed Era example- Kyle O'Reilly is not only a JKP person, but the "air guitar with the title" thing is the type of thing only a true JKP would think is this "charisma" thing they heard about- but by and large it seems to separate out the riff-raff from the people who had redeeming qualities, and it's only the riff-raff that'll get you Johnny Kickpads.

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