New York Region, St. Louis Subregion: First Round:(11)Jake Roberts vs. (22)BB Bigelow

[klunderbunker]

The following contest is a first round match in the New York Region.

This match takes place in the Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

#11 Jake Roberts

Vs.

#22 Bam Bam Bigelow

This contest is one fall with a 20 minute time limit. The match will take place in a 16 x 16 ring with no ramp leading to it. Any traditional managers for either competitor will be allowed at ringside.

As for voting, vote for who you think would win this match based on the criteria you choose. Some suggestions would be (not limited to): in ring ability, overall skill, their level of influence at the highest point in their career, ability to connect with the crowd, experience in major matches or simply personal preference etc.

The most votes in the voting period wins and in the case of a tie, the most written votes wins. There is one written vote per user, meaning if a poster make ten posts saying Bret should win that will count as a single vote. In the event of a second tie, both men are ELIMINATED, no questions asked. Only winners advance.

Voting is open for four days and all posts must be non-spam.​

 

[Bernkastel]

I'm leaning towards Bam Bam on this one...

He's big, powerful, tenacious, stupidedly fast for a man his size, and he also has amazing stamina. I know Jake's supposedly a genius at exploiting not only his opponents weakness and also using the surrounding ring to his advantage, but logically he'd be on defense the entire match against someone like Bigelow. While on defense, the blood's pumping, and the adrenaline's flowing... people tend to lose focus and make mistakes.

I just don't see any weaknesses of Bam Bam's that Jake could exploit efficently. He's too big and powerful to be overcome by just by using conventional strikes and kicks, Jake would have to use high risk offense... another disadvantage. Bam Bam unreal stamina would make it difficult for Jake to wait out the match as Bam Bam;s the type of guy that you just have to fight head on, there's just no other way to effectively wear the man down.

Eventually, either Jake makes a mistake of his own or he gets overwhelmed by Bam Bam's power... either way I see the snake going down first match.

 

[Tech N9ne]

Talk about a match up of Legends. I give my vote to Jake "The Snake" Roberts. But just narrowly. This was one of the harder matches for me to make a decision on. I think Bam Bam was awesome in his own right and would make a solid showing against basically anyone.

That doesn't mean he should win though. I think the match would be rather entertaining with Bigelow controlling most of the match and wearing Jake down. They would trade moves numerous times and Jake would fire many rights and jabs.

I think this match comes down to a missed Moonsault from Bam Bam and Jake getting up and hitting him with DDT. It just sounds exactly right to me.

Jake didn't win a lot of titles and that total was zero in WWF. But, he was about as over as someone could be without holding a Title. I don't think Jake needed to have a Championship to be considered a threat or successful. He will always be a pretty well known name in the business and that must say something about the guy to be that relevant in wrestling history and wasn't a Main Event Title holder. He was a character and whether he was Heel or Face, he brought a certain level of interest into a feud, by his aura alone.

I can hear the chants of "DDT, DDT, DDT, DDT" right now...

 

[JXL]

Jake Roberts as far as I can remember wasn't intimidated by men who has a bigger girth than him. He is evil and heartless in the ring, especially when he brings out his big boa constrictor on his opponent as an intimidation factor. As much as I like Bigelow for his "fuck you, I'll kill you" attitude, its not as scary as facing Jake Roberts in his prime.

Psychology will be Bigelow's downfall, and Jake hits the DDT in a hard-fought victory.

My vote: Jake "The Snake" Roberts

 

[Vash21]

As my sig shows I went with Jake. Decent in ring performer a master of in ring psychology, yea he would outthink BB and outwork him. Don't think it would really be that close. Bam Bam is a pretty agile guy but Jake was just mean in the ring.

Seeing Ricky the Dragon bring out that Komodo Dragon on Saturday Nights Main Event was awesome, and a huge suprise. Ricky vs Jake was a great feud.

 

[JGlass]

I gave it to Bam Bam, I just can't think of a single thing Jake Roberts is better at than Bam Bam except for perhaps technical wrestling, but Bam Bam can over come that easily with his size. I don't think that Roberts would be able to answer to Bam Bam's overwhelming power nor do I think he'd be able to keep up with Bigelow's agility. Bam Bam knock Roberts out with a big slam and then hits a Bambamsault and gets the win.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

Bam Bam deserves a better draw. He was a great worker, the most agile big man ever (even moreso than Vader), but there's no way he could've overcame Jake Roberts in-ring psychology. Jake The Snake would've used Damien to his advantage. Bam Bam never had a chance.

Jake by DDT.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think Bam Bam's combination of size, power and suprising speed would be too much, even for someone as smart and cunning as Jake The Snake.

Roberts would try to out-think Bigelow, but the big man just wouldn't fall for any of Jake's tricks, and when he got his hands on Roberts, he would absolutely crush him.

A Bam Bam win in 11 minutes

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I see no reason why I should not vote for Jake "The Snake" Roberts in this round. Bigelow was an exceptional athlete for a man of his size but the crowd did not care much for him at all. On the other hand, Jake had the crowd eating out of his hand both as a face as well as a heel.

Throughout his career Jake Roberts progressed from one great feud to another. He first feuded with Ricky Steamboat as a heel and that feud was pretty well recieved. This led to an organic face turn and a pretty good feud with the Honky Tonky Man and a great feud with Rick Rude which was believed to be a precursor to the attitude era.

He then went on to have feuds with the likes of Andre The Giant and then turned heel to feud with Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage and The Undertaker. As you can see there are some pretty big names in that list. The best Bam Bam Bigelow could manage was a feud with a great NFL player in which he ended up jobbing. So the best thing that he did was job to a non wrestler.

Niether guy had much success in the WWF but Jake has won more titles on the indy scene. While Bam Bam's moonsault was a pretty great finisher for a guy of his size, Jake's DDT was iconic and in some ways a precursor to other quick finishers like the Stunner, Sweet Chin Music and the RKO. You could hear the people chanting for the DDT in all of Jake's matches.

Vote for Jake "The Snake" Roberts!!

 

[nightmare]

yes jake was demented & had great ring psychology. but unfortunately his use of damien\lucifer was the only interesting thing about him. the ddt was great & took out alot of folks, but does no-one remember in 90% of his feuds HE LOST. HE LOST to alot of people. scared people with a snake. until tenta squashed his ass & made burgers out of him. lol. maybe thats why he turned into a professional crack-head.


bigelow was huge, quick & would have eaten his snake alive. he would have most likely laughed at the ddt. he won a tag belt with vader (that was a great team). was part of the dominant triple-threat in ECW (he won 2 different titles there) as well as 1\3 of the jersey triad in wcw (where he also won 2 different titles). how many titles did roberts have in the big 3?.... oh yea-zero. bigelow's size\strength\agility outweighs roberts psychology\reptiles.

greetings from ashbury park, motherfuckers!

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

yes jake was demented & had great ring psychology. but unfortunately his use of damien\lucifer was the only interesting thing about him. the ddt was great & took out alot of folks, but does no-one remember in 90% of his feuds HE LOST. HE LOST to alot of people. scared people with a snake. until tenta squashed his ass & made burgers out of him. lol. maybe thats why he turned into a professional crack-head.


bigelow was huge, quick & would have eaten his snake alive. he would have most likely laughed at the ddt. he won a tag belt with vader (that was a great team). was part of the dominant triple-threat in ECW (he won 2 different titles there) as well as 1\3 of the jersey triad in wcw (where he also won 2 different titles). how many titles did roberts have in the big 3?.... oh yea-zero. bigelow's size\strength\agility outweighs roberts psychology\reptiles.

greetings from ashbury park, motherfuckers!

Dude, it's asinine to say that the only thing that was interesting about Jake was his snake. Jake was super over both as a face and as a heel. If you even check out the last part of his career in the WWF where he returned to after a gap of four years, people were still cheering rabidly for him and his DDT. Everything about him was interesting right from his promos, to his finisher and as you mentioned his snake.

Like I said earlier Bam Bam had a great finisher but when you compare it to Jake's DDT it is a bit like comparing the RKO to Evan's SSP. Bigelow is a great super heavy weight but the crowd did not give a fuck about him. He has no memorable feuds, certainly nothing that can compare to Jake's feuds with the likes of Rude and Savage.

Also you mentioned that Jake did not win much in the WWF. Niether did Bigelow for that matter. And as for ECW, it is nothing but a glorified indy faction. It did contribute to the business but it was the WWF that presented their ideas in a better manner. And let me give you the list of Jake's achievements on the indy scene as well.

All-Star Wrestling Network (Georgia)
AWN World Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
Americas Wrestling Federation
AWF Puerto Rican Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Television Championship (1 time)
NWA World Television Championship (Georgia version) (2 times)
Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South Louisiana Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Mid-South Television Championship (1 time)
Smoky Mountain Wrestling
SMW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Stampede Wrestling
Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time
World Class Championship Wrestling
NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (1 time) – with Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez
WCCW Television Championship (1 time)


Very frankly, it's not much of a contest.

 

[Chardee Macdennis]

Bam Bam is quit possibly my favorite Big man of all time. While I also liked Jake, I don't think he'd be able to withstand the athleticism of Bigelow. I sang Vader's praises in an earlier thread, but I think Bigelow was more mobile than even Vader. The only thing that ever irritated me about Bam Bam was that whiney bitch, Luna. This is by no means a squash, but Vader inevitably takes the match.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

I would love to see Jake go deep into this thing, so there's no way I could vote Bam Bam. Don't get me wrong, Bam Bam was one hell of an athlete, maybe the quickest for his size I've ever seen. But Jake had something more.

I'm sure I am not the first to say so, but I view Jake as the first tweener on a mainstream-level. He never acted like a babyface, yet was cheered during certain parts of his career. The DDT was the first finisher I can remember a crowd chanting and going nuts for.

Jake is too methodical and intelligent to lose to Bam Bam. I hope Jake goes deep into this thing, and it all starts by hitting Bam Bam with the...
D
D
T!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

This would be a pretty close match up. Bam Bam would probably dominate much of it due to his superior size and strength. For a man of his size, Bam Bam was quite athletic and his overall athletic ability might be on par with Jake's even though Jake was well over 100 pounds lighter.

I just think that Jake would manage to pull out a win here just when it seems Bam Bam has him right where he wants him. I can see Bam Bam going for that big headbutt off the top only for Jake to move at the last moment. Bam Bam is stunned, stumbling around and Jake strikes with the DDT for the win.

 

[Tastycles]

Look, I appreciate how popular Jake Roberts was, and how he changed the promo from a muscle-bound man shouting at Gene Okerlund to something a bit more cerebral, but the fact of the matter is, he lost almost all of his major matches. Austin, Triple H, Sting, Undertaker all beat him.

But it isn't just that upper crust of wrestlers, it was guys like Honky Tonk Man and King Kong Bundy. Bigelow offers everything that Bundy does, plus a great deal more in terms of agility and speed. The fact of the matter is, as popular as the DDT was, it was mostly used against people way down the card, or not even employed by the WWF at all. Bigelow would win here, as would just about anyone else operating at or above the upper midcard level.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

[youtube]K2bOma77-Wo[/youtube]

This, is every bit of why Jake Roberts wins here. Vader was 10x better than Bigelow will ever be. Roberts, then, was past his prime.

[youtube]kCUJ0xq9Mpc[/youtube]

This is every bit of why Bigelow deserves to lose. He couldn't beat a guy who'd never wrestled before in his life.

Yeah, okay, Roberts lost the majority of his feuds - this isn't a feud, it's a tournament. And as the first video shows, Roberts can win in Tournaments in up-setting fashion. I'm not going to tell you Roberts is better inside the ring than Bigelow, because he isn't. But guess what, you don't have to be, to beat Bigelow - as the 2nd video shows you.

Roberts wins after Damon Wayans comes from the crowd and kicks Bigelow in the head, again, after Bigelow refused to do Major Payne 2..

 

[hatehabsforever]

Bam Bam Bigelow was one of my favorite performers back in the day. He was young, he was agile, he was big, he was mean, he was imposing. Whether he had Luna on his arm or whether he did not, he was always a force in the ring. He was on ornery, tough, mean son of a gun who meant business when he competed.

Jake Roberts, on the other hand, was never really one of the guys I particularly liked. Sure, it was cool that he had a snake, but beyond that, he really did very little for me. BB Bigelow would probably squash the snake and eat it for his lunch. I see Bigelow going over Roberts in a high impact fashion, likely much to the chagrin of the audience in attendance who probably would be rooting for Jake the Snake more so. Bam Bam moves on, although I don't see an extended deep run for him.