is there any wrestler that you did not really care for but over time you became a fan of?

Aug 8, 2022 1:15:57 GMT bodyslam said:

is there any wrestler that you did not really care for but over time you became a fan of?

Probably hundreds. Jacques Rougeau is one. Jacques as one half of the bland boring babyface Rougeau Brothers did nothing for kiddie me. Then he turned heel and became Fabulous. Owen is another with a similar story.

Greg Valentine

Tito Santana

Rick Martel

Irwin R. Schyster

The Berzerker

Randy Orton

(Matt) Riddle

Aug 8, 2022 1:21:10 GMT 🤯 said:

Greg Valentine

Tito Santana

Rick Martel

Irwin R. Schyster

The Berzerker

Randy Orton

(Matt) Riddle

I love that it's mostly old guys that aren't really doing anything new. It's nothing they actively have done, just an appreciation from work that stands the test of time.

Aug 8, 2022 1:21:10 GMT 🤯 said:

Tito Santana

Tito is another one of mine. Thought he was boring as a kid. Grew up to appreciate him as a fiery good wrestler guy babyface. 

Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins) known to most as the other Edge Head or the guy with the losing steak in WWE. A change of scenery did wonders for his character. He's a solid worker but since joining Impact he's shown personality. From the Learning Tree, feud with Morrissey, and now as DMC Champion his matches and segments are fun and entertaining.

As if THE Brian Myers isn't universally over from jump.

Bradshaw is another big one for me. For two years I thought Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw was boring and laughable with his dated 80s cowboy gimmick and lame clothesline finisher. Practically every match I had watched over the previous 9 glorious years featured a clothesline or three! And this bum uses it for a FINISHER! What a jabroni! Then I started coming around on him at Royal Rumble 98, became a full fledged fan a few weeks later, and never looked back. Over time I even grew to love that clothesline finisher.

Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy are like Tito in that I grew to appreciate them over time. HATED the Freebirds as a kid. Then I got a little older and thought they were the worst "legends" this side of Roddy Piper. I didn't get it. The ECW Arena crowd giving Gordy a 1987 Hulk Hogan level pop in that one Raven match was the biggest mind screw this side of discovering Fit Finlay fans existed. Then I watched a bunch of Watts UWF and a famous World Class match in the early 2000s and realized yeah, alright, Hayes & Gordy ruled. Buddy Roberts still sucks tho.

Matt Riddle currently. 

I thought the bro'isms were overdone in NXT to the point of obnoxiousness. I get the man was stoned 3 / 4 of the time, but come on. 

I hope they let him really tee-off on someone in the ring soon, and lay in some heavy potatoes and really show off his legitimacy as a fighter. I think that's the one thing they really haven't done - let him be a savage.  

Bayley before I watched nXt and was only use to main roster Bayley. She was suppose to be a champion of kids. But her initial run on the main roster made it seem like she had the mind of a kid.

Her teaming with Sasha slowly made me like her more. Then even while face and SaSha heel she didn't turn her back on her something most wrestler don't do. Then her finally turning heel was amazing.

Ludvig Borga is another. This surprised 🤯 once upon a time. Borga was more like Boringa for his first few weeks. He debuted cold. His clothesline (not again!) and elbow drop finishers were weak sauce even in 1993. Plus an evil...Finn? What's up with that? Real Team Iceland from Mighty Ducks 2 vibes. Plus plus I thought his name was Ludwig Vargon at first. Irrelevant to the conversation. I just felt like mentioning it.

Then he had that awesome squash of Jannetty at Summerslam 93 with the launch punch followed by major mic time, a serious push, and a finisher upgrade to the Torture Rack to make him a Baker Guy for life.

Tomohiro Ishii is the first name that comes to mind.

Going back a few years, the poster HilaryFan watched NJPW regularly as I did, he was really high on Tomohiro Ishii. Called him a great wrestler, could get a five star match out of anybody. I didn't see it. I just saw a short angry guy who had decent matches but wasn't anything special, just a cog in the machine. I can't pinpoint the exact moment I came around on Ishii but one day something clicked and now I see Ishii exactly how HilaryFan sees him. He is a great wrestler, and he really does bring out the best of his opponents. It's almost impossible to not have a great singles match with the guy. One of the best workers in the company.

Aug 8, 2022 23:30:13 GMT X-zero said:

Bayley before I watched nXt and was only use to main roster Bayley. She was suppose to be a champion of kids. But her initial run on the main roster made it seem like she had the mind of a kid.

Her teaming with Sasha slowly made me like her more. Then even while face and SaSha heel she didn't turn her back on her something most wrestler don't do. Then her finally turning heel was amazing.

I'll second Bayley for the ladies. Her OG act was generally lost on me. But (and @ness can help fact check me on this), but as soon as she started scissoring, I started to really get on board with her.

For other contemporary acts, I have a suspicion that [Insert] Corbin has probably come around for me in a way perhaps approaching The Miz's brilliance. And, as much as it'll break Strobe's heart to hear, I think my anti-Seth stance has been really softening over the past few years... Although I can't put a thumb on the reason besides getting over my jealousy and maybe wishing I could live vicariously through him? I mean, he gets to wrestle Brock in the ring and Becky out of the ring. What's not to be jealous of!?

Rey Mysterio. I couldn't stand him for absolutely years, but then one day I just suddenly started liking him and I don't really know why. It's not like he's any different now to 2002.

Ric Flair, when I started watching heavily he was just this old guy that was still wrestling for some reason (and he has always looked older than he is at any given time) and my dad would always complain about it. He’d put on decent matches but I didn’t get the hype.

Got the ultimate Ric Flair collection DVD as a kid (which my dad of course mocked :lol) and it clicked how legendary he was watching all his old school matches and understanding why he was in evolution as it was just The Four Horseman 2.0 even down to the bounty storyline.

Similar deal with Scott Steiner, I hadn’t seen his stuff in the pre-big poppa pump days so hadn’t seen how influential he was with his moveset.

Aug 9, 2022 13:04:56 GMT 🤯 said:

And, as much as it'll break Strobe 's heart to hear, I think my anti-Seth stance has been really softening over the past few years...

Where's a fucking dislike button when you need one?

Aug 9, 2022 23:26:13 GMT Strobe said:

Aug 9, 2022 13:04:56 GMT 🤯 said:

And, as much as it'll break Strobe 's heart to hear, I think my anti-Seth stance has been really softening over the past few years...

Where's a fucking dislike button when you need one?

If you were around more, maybe this never would've happened! Post an essay on the rolling superplex into a spinning falcon arrow to help bring me back to my senses!

Aug 9, 2022 15:14:29 GMT System said:

Ric Flair

Flair is another one of mine. Since 95-96 I've considered him my all time favorite wrestler and the GOAT, but I didn't really get Flair when I first started watching wrestling as a child. A few years ago I realized it's because he wrestled like Greg Valentine and was booked like Honkytonk Man. Flair was a one man Rhythm & Blues like 3 years before R&B was even a thing. Now kiddie was fine enough with The Hammer, and loved HTM, but you'd never see those guys hanging and banging with Hogan in main events, brother. They were strictly midcarders. Yet here you had the NWA trying to convince kiddie me this Hammer-meets-Honky jabronie was the best wrestler in their company. Get outta town with that nonsense. Flair wouldn't last 5 minutes with The Hulkster! And I didn't even like Hogan! But I could respect him as the biggest thing in wrestling because WWF (and pop culture) pushed him as such. Flair as HTM just made me see the NWA Title on par with the IC strap rather than the WWF Championship. Also thought Flair's rivals/Horsemen buddies Luger and Windham were better and bigger stars than Naitch because they were booked as such. Nowadays I realize Flair making those guys look so good is a sign of his greatness. Anyway, I didn't come around on Flair until the epic feud with Funk in 1989 (2 years after I started watching) turned him babyface, and even then I thought Sting was THE WCW guy for the longest time until finally getting smartened up a little bit in the mid 90s. 

RVD & Sabu are two more. Thought Sabu was the most overhyped wrestler ever and couldn't stand RVD in a "boo the bad guy" mark sort of way because he was SUCH a jerk a la 97-98 Shawn Michaels. Both guys would grow on me within a year to become favorites in the late 90s and beyond. 

Eddie Guerrero was another. I think Eddie may be on everyone's list. When he came over to WWF, I never really saw the big deal. He was good, yeah. But he was good in an era where everyone was great. And Eddie himself probably wasn't in great shape at the time anyway around 2000 and perhaps I remember him as inconsistent. Maybe.

And then he came back in early 2002 looking like a coked up hyena and had this wonderful little back and forth with The Rock one night on RAW and the two followed it up with a great match.

Baker-man, per usual, has been dropping excellent gems in his match reviews and other posts. He just replaced "80s blowjob baby faces" with my new favorite thing...

Ric "One-Man Rhythm & Blues" Flair!!! Wooo, hubba hubba!!!

Aug 10, 2022 11:05:49 GMT NATH45 said:

Eddie Guerrero was another. I think Eddie may be on everyone's list. When he came over to WWF, I never really saw the big deal. He was good, yeah. But he was good in an era where everyone was great. And Eddie himself probably wasn't in great shape at the time anyway around 2000 and perhaps I remember him as inconsistent. Maybe.

And then he came back in early 2002 looking like a coked up hyena and had this wonderful little back and forth with The Rock one night on RAW and the two followed it up with a great match.

I guess maybe I'm the exception then, but I always felt my Eddie fandom peaked with his 2000 run with the whole Mamacita stuff. Great description calling him a coked-up hyena upon his 2002 return, but he didn't register with me the same anymore. It took pulling that No DQ epic out of Edge in September to get me back on board with Eddie, and for about a year I dug him again... But never to those Mamacita era levels. Then it just started to peter out again. I feel so guilty saying this as a wrestling fan, but Eddie for as objectively great as he was... IMO suffered from his own demons and consistency issues. He really was kinda like a Hispanic version of a 1996-1997 Shawn Michaels to me.

Eddie is someone I always went back and forth on. By time he went heel I was all in and honestly felt he was being wasted on Rey. Then he died rofl.

Aug 10, 2022 11:53:48 GMT @ness said:

Eddie is someone I always went back and forth on. By time he went heel I was all in and honestly felt he was being wasted on Rey. Then he died rofl.

Yeah, Rey is another one who reverse grew on me. Peaked also in 2002 when he debuted in WWE and remained at that plateau for maybe a year... Then just gradually faded to a point where it felt like he was a waste of an opponent on other, more important talent (like Eddie).

Aug 10, 2022 11:56:21 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 10, 2022 11:53:48 GMT @ness said:

Eddie is someone I always went back and forth on. By time he went heel I was all in and honestly felt he was being wasted on Rey. Then he died rofl.

Yeah, Rey is another one who reverse grew on me. Peaked also in 2002 when he debuted in WWE and remained at that plateau for maybe a year... Then just gradually faded to a point where it felt like he was a waste of an opponent on other, more important talent (like Eddie).

Hot take... he never topped that match with Kurt.

Aug 10, 2022 11:59:28 GMT @ness said:

Aug 10, 2022 11:56:21 GMT 🤯 said:

Yeah, Rey is another one who reverse grew on me. Peaked also in 2002 when he debuted in WWE and remained at that plateau for maybe a year... Then just gradually faded to a point where it felt like he was a waste of an opponent on other, more important talent (like Eddie).

Hot take... he never topped that match with Kurt.

100% agree. Not a bad thing though. That's the GOAT PPV opener ever.

Aug 10, 2022 12:17:03 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 10, 2022 11:59:28 GMT @ness said:

Hot take... he never topped that match with Kurt.

100% agree. Not a bad thing though. That's the GOAT PPV opener ever.

There's an argument it's both their best. Top 5 Kurt at min.

Aug 10, 2022 15:07:59 GMT @ness said:

Aug 10, 2022 12:17:03 GMT 🤯 said:

100% agree. Not a bad thing though. That's the GOAT PPV opener ever.

There's an argument it's both their best. Top 5 Kurt at min.

As much as I love it, I'm not 100% sure I can agree with this. Need to ponder...

Aug 10, 2022 15:17:46 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 10, 2022 15:07:59 GMT @ness said:

There's an argument it's both their best. Top 5 Kurt at min.

As much as I love it, I'm not 100% sure I can agree with this. Need to ponder...

Kurt top 5 or both their best?

What rey is better? The rapey one with Eddy?

Benoit cage? Taker nwo? Wm21? Rock nwo.

KURT COUNTDOWN!!@@

Angle vs. Undertaker
Angle vs. Benoit
Angle vs. Austin
Angle vs. Undertaker vs. Rock
Angle vs. Michaels
Angle vs. Brock
Angle vs. Shane
Angle & Benoit vs. Edge & Rey
Angle & Ronda vs. HHH & Stephanie

Could have a point on Rey. I really enjoyed his performance at the 2009 Elimination Chamber and the Bash match against Jericho but I'm not sure if he really topped his performance. There was also that Eddie 05 match SM loves.

vs. Eddie - Halloween Havoc '97 will always be Rey's best performance.

Interestingly according to CageMatch.com not only is the SummerSlam 2002 match barely in Rey's Top 30 matches of all-time, it's not even the best Angle vs. Rey match.