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On 6/20/2021 at 12:04 AM, Gordberg said:

On why Vince McMahon would want to take a known star like Dusty and give him a gimmick like that: “You gotta wonder what the motivation for that was. ‘Well, it was Vince [McMahon].’ OK, we got that folks, we got that. Of course it was Vince. You think it was Howard? Howard Finkel? No, Howard didn’t have anything to do with it. I’m being facetious. But my question, why would Vince want to humiliate Dusty, or was it all about Vince proving that he could change even the biggest of stars into something that was more readily accessible in Vince’s imagination, and he could do it with anybody, anytime. Because why would you change 25 years of heavy duty marketing for a name if you’re buying a product. And that’s what Dusty was, a product. He had great name identity as Dusty Rhodes ‘The American Dream.’ He was everything you wanted this ‘Common Man’ character to be, but just change the name because you can. Bad reason. Bad logic.”

I'm heard it theorized (probably by Meltzer or Alvarez, since those are about the only two wrestling 'journalists' I follow even a little) that Vince really thought that the gimmick needed punched up to work in the WWF.  I can see that.  Almost everyone had over-the-top gimmicks at that time.  Only a few top guys during that time got over just by being a vanilla wrestler.  The pushed guys were guys who take their silly gimmicks, crank them up to 11, and run with it.  The ability to make wacky faces and mug for the camera was as much a useful skill as making your offense look convincing.

Sure, putting Dusty in polka dots was silly, but was it any sillier than putting the monster of WCCW, the One Man Gang, in a robe and having him to pretend to be a fake African?  Or have Jacques Rougeau ham it up as a fake mountie who electrocuted guys with a fake stun gun?  I mean, I went to business school and work in financial services.  I know a lot of current and former IRS employees.  I'm still waiting to meet one who tries to collect on back taxes by trying to wrestle the guy (in a dress shirt, no less).

Probably 2/3 of the guys who got over in that period did so because they could sell their silly gimmick to the crowd.  The guys who flopped were the ones who got a silly gimmick and tried to play it straight, or couldn't turn it up to 11.

Edit: even now, when I think of the Hart Foundation, I don't think about what  a great vanilla wrestler young Bret was back then.  I picture Anvil with his awesome goatee and fabulous heel laugh.

Edited by Eoae
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WWF was always about selling the gimmick not the work.  Especially in the mid 80s and early 90s. Even the attitude era was more about the characters than the in ring.  So turning the fighter for the common man into "the common man" and turning that shit all the way up and letting dusty put his whole ass into getting it over makes all kinds of sense tbh.  The polka dots were probably a rib though

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On 7/4/2021 at 6:39 PM, J.H. said:

I'm late to the thread, but has the Big Hash/Tenryu G1 match made an appearance yet?

James

I probably posted that on page 1 or 2. It apparently isn't online anymore, but THIS is. Never seen it either. Just surfing through some of the file is enough to get it in this thread.

 

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  • 5 months later...

Reviving this thread because HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THIS

Aja Kong vs. Monster Ripper 4/21/91

Can Aja make Ripper bleed? Can Ripper make Aja sell? Can anyone stop these two colliding battleships? Aja clubbers Ripper, Ripper Clubbers Aja, chair clubbers box, table clubbers skull, everything clubbers the ref. No, they don't go twenty minutes - but don't stop watching after the pull-apart, we've got BONUS VIOLENCE. The number of wrestling moves can be counted on one hand, this rules.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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I actually last night discovered the Hansen vs Andre 9/23/81 match from New Japan, which I'm surprised that I've never heard of (to be fair, I haven't watched an insane amount of 80s Puro that wasn't NWA Title defenses). I want to get back into the habit of writing, so I may do some words on it and other things over the weekend, but that match was spectacular. It was just two dudes beating the hell out of each other, and a crowd that was completely unglued. I really should watch more non-broken down Andre. 

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