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Best Mediocre Wrestlers


notoriusvig

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Who do you guys think are the best mediocre wrestlers of all-time?  Guys who maybe had the looks and size to be a star but just didn't have much else, and even got big pushes too. 

I have to think that Paul Roma is the bottom of the barrel for mediocrity and the standard bearer.  He was good looking with a good physique who wasn't going to draw for shit.  For the top of the mediocre list, I'd put guys like Lex Luger and Bobby Lashley.  I'm a fan of Luger but he never had the charisma to justify his big pushes.  I loved him as a babyface and wish he'd have gotten more time in a role like that.  Lashley is as dull as you can get, with no major presence or charisma, and the only way he is looking good is through amazing protection/booking.  I'm told his heel run in Impact was decent though but since returning to the WWE, he has kinda floundered.

How about Matt Hardy before his Broken run?  Who else you guys got?

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47 minutes ago, notoriusvig said:

How about Matt Hardy before his Broken run?  Who else you guys got?

Uh, Matt Hardy was really fucking good long before the Broken run. He was the arguably the best worker in the WWE during his singles run in 2007/2008.  

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Just now, mattdangerously said:

Uh, Matt Hardy was really fucking good long before the Broken run. He was the arguably the best worker in the WWE during his singles run in 2007/2008.  

But would he have drawn?  I was thinking more along the lines of who is the total package.  Look at Benoit, who I consider on the cusp of mediocrity.  The guy was extremely dull, could talk just competently, but he was a hell of a worker.  He was never going to draw for a major American company, at least.  IMO, Matt Hardy is a similar guy.  He could work but he was kinda dull even during his Version 1 days.

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Frankie Kazarian is the most average wrestler alive.  I don't think anyone has said anything positive or negative about him in 20 years of working professionally.

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I got two words for ya: Billy Gunn

D-Von Dudley is another guy that could qualify depending on how you interpret the question. Gunn at least had the physical attributes to justify an attempted push. D-Von really had nothing going for him, never had anything resembling a good singles match and very few good non-gimmick tag matches, but undoubtedly had a HoF career. He basically took the formula for Billy Gunn's best 2 years and stretched it out to 20.

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Sid

But Sid rules

I don't know if I can really call him mediocre but he's not great in the ring and everyone would forget he was world champion so many times if you weren't reminded.

But he did stab a coworker and get rehired while the stabbed coworker still worked for the company and was made champion while working with the stabbed coworker.  That's some next level shit.

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Lex is the best and Lashley was my #1 dude in 2016, hate  to see him not reaching that level now.

I was a huge Kazarian fan in the mid 00s, loved his initial TNA run and hoped he'd have success in WWE in 05 (he did go undefeated there!), he was "The Future" after all. He did still have some good-great stuff in his later years in TNA. I'm not a regular ROH viewer so I felt like I hadn't seen him in some time before All In where I was glad to see he was in a real fun match.

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4 hours ago, Ultimo Necro said:

Terry Taylor might also be one for the list, decent look, perfectly serviceable wrestler but just kind of there and mediocre compared to everyone around him.  Like he gets 6/10 in every category.

You just believe everything Heenan says.

Kazarian and Daniels were both pretty dull as dishwater for ages (except when Daniels was Curry Man, when he'd suddenly become far more animated; Curry Man's mask was more expressive than Daniels' actual face). But then when they started teaming with another, suddenly they stopped being Johnny Kickpads #1 & #2, and became entertaining characters. The Clair Lynch angle should have been shit, but it was actually ace because Daniels and Kaz took so much piss out of it.

Lets go Old-School DVDVR Board:

CONTENT~! MEDIOCRE WRESTLERS:

BEST: Kurt Angle. He's had loads of good matches. But really, he's only had two matches, he just had both of them a whole bunch of times. There's his Undertaker match, which he's had with Kane, Big Show, Abyss and basically anyone who's over 6'5". Then there's his Benoit match, which he has with everyone else. So even though he's good, you don't actually need to watch his stuff at all.

WORST: Big Daddy. Two moves of doom. The Belly butt and the Belly Flop. Ever see a guy go a whole match without even using his arms? Now you can.

MOST OVERRATED: Triple H. An extremely pedestrian Wrestler who somehow got given the gimmick of being a really good worker. A man who's talent limits him to ten or fifteen good minutes, but somehow kept get booked in hour-long epics. The 'technical marvel' who only starts comebacks with low blows.

MOST UNDERRATED: Terry Taylor, evidently.

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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I hate to say it, but Davey Boy was a whole lot of serviceable, middle of the road, no mic skills, got by on his looks/partners type of dude. 

and a man that feuded forever with Davey Boy that you could also say the same about, the Warlord

The Warlord is still a guilty pleasure of mine. Most people would probably say his Powers of Pain work is better because he had the Barbarian to cover for him, but I liked his solo run. It had to be the Phantom of the Opera mask, metallic W staff, and going from Mr. Fuji to Slick. When I was a kid, Slick was the epitome of cool. I loved his suits, the way he talked, and especially the Kangol hats, and yes, I do have a few Kangol hats.

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I love the Warlord, Haku, and Barbarian.  All pretty solid guys.

Sid is a great example of a mediocre guy.  He had AMAZING presence at times and when he was protected well, he looked pretty serviceable.  But, when he was unchained, the guy was horrible, case in point his 99-00 stuff.  His entrance was the best thing he had going for him then.  His WWF runs were pretty reeled in and better by default.  He was booked great in ECW too for his short stint.

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

1992 me was totally on board with Crush.

That's almost worthy of another thread idea, best theme songs for bad wrestlers. Because Crush's theme as Kona Crush was amazing.

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I guess it depends on what the criteria is. I don't really like judging by the business side, like who drew money or could be booked as a top guy. To me that would be someone like I dunno, Bob Holly, who had credibility that you could make him an IC champ, but wasn't really that good that you wanted to run with him.

If we're talking workrate-y stuff then I guess Buff Bagwell. He was interesting enough that I'd watch his matches, but I can't remember anything he did in them. 

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1 hour ago, notoriusvig said:

I love the Warlord, Haku, and Barbarian.  All pretty solid guys.

Sid is a great example of a mediocre guy.  He had AMAZING presence at times and when he was protected well, he looked pretty serviceable.  But, when he was unchained, the guy was horrible, case in point his 99-00 stuff.  His entrance was the best thing he had going for him then.  His WWF runs were pretty reeled in and better by default.  He was booked great in ECW too for his short stint.

There was nothing mediocre about Haku and the Barbarian.

For as short as it was, Sid's ECW run as 911 pt 2 was great. A guy like Sid was not meant for long matches. Come out to a huge pop, hit some powerbombs, leave...and he started the fist bump.

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1 minute ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

A fan? I’m convinced at least half of you despise wrestling. 

I can only speak for myself, but I don't watch just to hate watch. I want to see a better product because the pieces are there, but Raw's booking is madddening. I was generally happy with Smackdown and my posts in the SD thread reflect that compared to Raw. Otherwise, I don't have really any complaints about nxt, ALL IN, New Japan, ROH, Impact, and the indies.

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I may not be Victor Quinones but sometimes I feel like I am in spirit. 
Are any of you guys really David Flair?


RE: Buzz Sawyer - I feel like the stories about him behind the scenes set him apart in my head too much.  I just think of him as THAT motherfucker whenever I see him wrestle.  I mean, I have a clear Pro-Taker bias but still

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This isn’t exactly an answer—and honestly I don’t understand the question—but this reminds me of the respective Yoshi Hashi and Goto discussions from the G1 this year. Yoshi might be the worst completely competent wrestler there is, while Goto has always famously lacked “it” or any semblance of next level connection—yet he can plug in to New Japan’s main event formula, and wind up in a lot of good stuff. So... at least for the last decade or so, maybe he’d be my answer. I never really look forward to Goto matches, but I never skip them, and they’re often really good. (I’d say he’s better than mediocre, but relative to his coworkers... maybe not. Doesn’t help that his gimmick is kind of just that he’s Japanese and tries hard, and everyone else can trade forearms, yell, and reverse finishers too. But I like him.)

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Kazunari Murakami sure did a hell of a lot with not a hell of a lot. Dude is like a facial expression and kick pads, and he turned that into being memorable enough that pretty much every promotion took a run at making him one of their big stars. At the same time, I don't think you could ever accuse him at being good at the nuts and bolts of pro wrestling. He was just a totally natural character that could only work inside pro wrestling.

then again, slightly biased: my favorite match is Murakami Vs. Yuki Ishikawa and I went and watched a bunch of him the other night (did you know he wrestled in Georgia in 1999? I didn't)

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