Cena Region, Third Round, Street Fight: (3) Lou Thesz vs. (11) Harley Race

[klunderbunker]

This is a third round match in the Cena Region. It is a Street Fight. It will be held at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rules: Anything goes and the match has to be win via pinfall or submission in the ring.

#3. Lou Thesz

Vs.

#11. Harley Race

​

Polls will be open for four days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster. Assume that the wrestlers are coming in fresh after their first round match.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[Bernkastel]

Okay, this is not going to be some CZW-esque bloodbath, so let's not go there. I have seen plenty of street fights that barely leave the ring. It's more of a hardcore match than anything else.

Harley Race was one tough bastard, but Lou was original gangster tough. Harley could shoot if he wanted to, but he wasn't in Lou's class. Even Harley himself knew this. Opponents of both knew this. Karl Gotch referred to Harley Race as a clown. The Sheik, one of the most prolific hardcore wrestlers ever, a man that fought Harley tooth and nail in bloody wars, thought it was best to quit and hide underneath a bus rather than to fight Lou Thesz.

Lou was no stranger to brawlers. He defeated all the great ones of his era: Wild Bill Longson, Hans Schmidt, and Killer Kowalski. Race might have had a slight strength advantage, but Thesz wasn't exactly weak. If he could handle the power of Bruno Sammartino, Don Leo Jonathon, and Big Bill Miller, then he could handle Harley Race. This was the man that once suplexed Antonino Rocca so hard during a match that he legit KO'ed him. This was the man that managed to kick a young Bruiser Brody's ass despite being well over 50.

I have little doubt that Lou would quickly adapt to using weapons. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the finer practices of swinging a chair. And like Race, Lou could fight dirty when he wanted to; in fact, he was a master at it. Hair pulls, sucker punches, eye gouges, biting. Lou has done all of those. Lou has a winning record in Texas Death matches, which is quite similar to a Last Man Standing match; he was no stranger to violence. He was not a one trick pony technician. Harley would throw everything and the kitchen sink at Lou, and he still wouldn't be able to put him away. Lou once had 3 of his ribs broken during a match with Karl Gotch; Lou toughed it out and was still able to win the match.

This is a no brainer. Vote Lou Thesz.

 

[Hyorinmaru]

From what I know of both men both are legitimately tough men who would do well in this kind of match but that people were also legitimately afraid of Thesz at times.

If people are actually afraid of facing you then you get my vote in a Street Fight where anything goes.


A shit reason to vote for someone maybe but that's what I'm going with.

 

[enviousdominous]

For what I can research; these two men fought each other only once in a one-on-one match, and it ended in a draw.

Some people were afraid of Thesz, as they damn well should have been. However; I believe that Harley Race would never have been one of those people.

I'm going with Harley Race, because in the end he managed to surpass Lou's accomplishments. I have to go with such a small effect in my decision because both men are near identical in terms of potential.

I don't see the match stipulation making any difference. Both men can take a mean chair shot and both men can give a mean chair shot.

Both men have beaten a wide range of top names, and both men have lost to a wide range of mid-card names.

In the end, I give my vote to Harley because he earned more than Lou and because Lou wouldn't have any kind of psychological advantage over him.

Vote Harley Race.

 

[Bernkastel]

For what I can research; these two men fought each other only once in a one-on-one match, and it ended in a draw.

Some people were afraid of Thesz, as they damn well should have been. However; I believe that Harley Race would never have been one of those people.

I'm going with Harley Race, because in the end he managed to surpass Lou's accomplishments. I have to go with such a small effect in my decision because both men are near identical in terms of potential.

I don't see the match stipulation making any difference. Both men can take a mean chair shot and both men can give a mean chair shot.

Both men have beaten a wide range of top names, and both men have lost to a wide range of mid-card names.

In the end, I give my vote to Harley because he earned more than Lou and because Lou wouldn't have any kind of psychological advantage over him.

Vote Harley Race.

Harley won the NWA title more times than Lou did, however Thesz reigned for a much, much longer period of time. In fact when you add the duration of all of his recognized world title reigns, it comes out to period close to 18 years. Only Jim Londos, who reigned as world champion for a combined 16, is closest. Lou also has arguably the most impressive run of dominance of any wrestler in history - amassing a winning streak of 936 consecutive victories before taking a decisive loss.

When you say that Harley "earned more," it's really a distinction of being a paper champion. The reality is that Race was never close to being the moneymaker that Thesz was. Ever. And he didn't have anywhere near the profound impact on the industry either.

That draw that they had came from when Lou was in his late 50's, and no longer cared about wins and losses. And yet Harley still couldn't score a decisive victory.

Thesz would have likely bulldozed him in his prime.

 

[Tastycles]

The stipulation isn't particularly favourable to either - street fights are basically just cluster fucks to hide bad workers, and neither of these are that. The fact is, they were both NWA Champions and hugely successful in that capacity. For me, Thesz did it for longer and at a generally more successful time for wrestling. Thesz wins.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I've used this one in past tournaments when talking about Thesz, and I think it applies here nicely.

During World War II, the US Military recruited Lou Thesz to be a hand to hand combat instructor.

Lou Thesz was such a bad ass that the US Army asked him to teach them how to fight. Then after he was done teaching them to fight, they went to Germany and kicked all the Nazi's right in their Nazi dicks and won the war!

A street fight with Harley? That's cute. Is Harley going to bring his gun? Because he'll need it.