Most carry-able wrestlers

[HumanChessgame]

This thread is for talking about wrestlers who tended to have most of the tools necessary for being good (charisma, mic skills, looks, etc) but whose ring work was only so-so unless they were in with the right opponent.  While nothing special on their own, when they were working someone significantly better or someone they had really good chemistry with they could pull out some really great matches.

 

Some people who I think fit this category-

 

The Rock

DDP

Booker T

Sting

[Jenalysis]

I don't think Booker or Sting belong on this list, as they could carry folks themselves.

[RandomAct]

I think in the case of Booker or Sting, they were able to raise their game when they were in there with someone who was significantly better than them.

[Stuttsy]

To me the quintessential carryable opponent was always Lex Luger. Especially late 80's/early 90's Luger, it was like he was specially bred to be carried by Flair, Windham or Steamboat.

[MORELOCK]

Saying Booker, Sting, Rock, and DDP were/are nothing special on their own seems outrageous to me.

 

DDP-Goldberg is right there.

[Brian Fowler]

DDP was a god damn great wrestler.

[Victator]

No such thing as carrying a wrestler.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Big John Studd

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

No such thing as carrying a wrestler.

Agreed

[Big Z]

To me the quintessential carryable opponent was always Lex Luger. Especially late 80's/early 90's Luger, it was like he was specially bred to be carried by Flair, Windham or Steamboat.

 

Luger was pretty good when he gave a damn, and he gave a damn for most of 1988-1991. `Watch his match with Tommy Rich at the Clash 8 for proof of that, as Rich was not that good during his last WCW run.

[SovietShooter]

No such thing as carrying a wrestler.

Definitely not true. Guys carry other guys all the time.

[Hooker]

Yeah, DDP/Goldberg is one of the biggest carry jobs I've ever seen, but man was it ever not Goldberg doing the carrying.  DDP doesn't deserve to be on a list like this at all.

 

I think part of the problem with this is that if a guy continually has great matches with people due to working with great wrestlers, that guy gets called a great worker as well.  So, I'm going to throw out a piece of criteria here: it needs to be a wrestler that never or almost never has/had good matches with similar or worse wrestlers than him/herself.  By that criteria, Undertaker stands out huge.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Sting has WAY too many great matches with a wide variety of opponents to say he was so-so in the ring.

 

I'm thinking Kane is a good answer here. He often has solid-good matches with great wrestlers but whenever he is in there with someone on or below his level... it's a mess.

[Charlie M.]

Kevin Nash was a guy who only really stepped it up in the ring if he had someone pushing him to do so.  I don't know if that's technically carrying but if Nash could get away with mailing it in, he would 9 times out of 10.

[Mick32]

DDP and especially Luger were my first two thoughts when seeing this thread topic. Both of those guys could be really good paired up with the right guy and just be awful with the wrong guy.

[Brian Fowler]

Who was Page awful against between 1995-1999?  He was one of the most guaranteed good match guys in the U.S.  He had good matches against every single guy up and down the card, regardless if they were great or mediocre.  You put Page in there with a bad wrestler, he'd go have a 3 star match.  Put him in there with a great one, and he'd get 4 stars.  Week in and week out his matches were one a highlight of Nitro, and his ppv matches were better.  It was virtually impossible to have a bad match with Page in his prime.

[_MJ_]

I enjoyed The Rock's in-ring work in 2000 too much to allow this topic to go by without a stern post from me.  Yeah, you heard right.  Stern.

 

Shame on you, HumanChess.  Shame.

[Mick32]

Who was Page awful against between 1995-1999?  He was one of the most guaranteed good match guys in the U.S.  He had good matches against every single guy up and down the card, regardless if they were great or mediocre.  You put Page in there with a bad wrestler, he'd go have a 3 star match.  Put him in there with a great one, and he'd get 4 stars.  Week in and week out his matches were one a highlight of Nitro, and his ppv matches were better.  It was virtually impossible to have a bad match with Page in his prime.

It's entirely possible I'm jaded by seeing a lot of early Page after his managing stint with that assessment, to be fair. Between 95-99, the quality of his opponents went up considerably, in my opinion. Any of us could look good working the likes of Benoit, Raven, Bigelow, Kanyon, Hall, etc every night.

[Newb82]

Nash was the first guy that came to mind for me, with his WWF matches against Bret & Shawn being the best examples.

DDP was capable of carrying people himself and thus shouldn't be on the list. Guys like Raven, Bigelow, & Kanyon weren't exactly Flair-esque in their ability to have good matches with anyone.

Raven in particular was a guy whose match quality depended entirely on who he was in the ring with.

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah, Page is pretty easily a better worker than Raven, Kanyon, or late 90's Bam Bam.

[Go2Sleep]

Kurt Angle was the first guy who came to mind for me. He's a tremendous athlete and always gives it 100%, but he does tend to get out of control if he's leading the match. His best matches were all against better wrestlers (Austin, Benoit, Rey, Taker). I guess it depends how highly you rate his work against early Cena and his more recent TNA work. He was clearly carrying the surprisingly good Mr. Anderson feud, so he does that going for him.

 

Vince McMahon is another one who might fit the bill. He definitely understands how to work a match with his character, even though he's very limited athletically. He has more good matches than you'd think, even though the opponent is always doing the heavy lifting. The one good match he had where he might have had a skill advantage was the match with Shane at Mania 17.

 

As for the other guys listed, I agree DDP definitely doesn't belong. The Rock depends on how you rate his skill against peak HHH, since that iron man is the only Rock match I think belongs on the tier of his work with Foley and Austin. I guess you could compare his skill to Jericho too if you think those matches are among Rocky's best, but I don't. Edit: Actually, given that The Rock did most of the work in the Mania 19 match with Austin, I have to exclude him as well. He was tremendous in that.

[Jenalysis]

HHH might qualify here.

 

how about the Patriot?

[Niners Fan in CT]

No, HHH does not qualify here in my view. He's had good matches with everyone from Maven to old Flair to Khali to Rock to Shelton etc.. etc..  He did the bulk of the work in the street fight vs. Shawn at SS 2002 and then the bulk of the work in the Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series despite RVD nearly killing him. HHH is a guy that routinely carried lesser talents to intriguing matches and when he's in there with someone who can work..  it can be brilliant.

[Jiji]

What about Vince?

[Newb82]

HHH is fine when he's interested in having a good match, but not trying to force a match into being "epic". Aside from the inital street fight, his straight matches with Shawn were awesome and the gimmick matches sucked because apparently to them "epic" = "selling by laying around on the mat for half of the match".