Favorite genre of wrestling?

[Safari.GFX]

Whether it be old school catch wrestling of the 20th century, or death match wrestling, their seems to be a type of wrestling to fit everyone. I personally am entertained by submission wrestlings. Wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, and Bryan Danielson do a great job of incorporating the submission style into their move set. I am also a fan of hardcore wrestling, whether it be a ladder match, or cage match. I think that those types of matches are so fun to watch.

I know a lot of people who would rather watch amateur wrestling then watch professional wrestling. I like certain aspects of amateur wrestling. The throws and hooks are interesting, and that goes back to catch wrestling which you never see anymore. But catch wrestling actually were the roots of the wrestling that we watch now. Although not prominent in todays wresting, there are some wrestlers who use a whole lot of the amateur style in the arsenal.

Hardcore wrestling became popular in the 90's. ECW really picked up on this, and turned there whole program into hardcore. Many think that ECW started the hardcore wrestling style, although that's far from true. Wrestlers like Abdullah the Butcher and Bobo Brazil, The Sheik and of course the funks, all had bloody brawls in the 50's,60's,70's and hell for the Funks they're still going! FMW, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling actually may have the first promotion to be based around the brawling bloody style of wrestling. Of course they were in Japan. This company was for real, they had flaming barbed wire, and Land mines! They had some american wrestlers who went over there, and those wrestlers ended up coming back to the U.S. From what I know, which isn't to much... Those wrestlers started some independent promotions, one I can think of is Tri-State which was in philly. They had a lot of supercards where the Sheik and Butcher would have bloody battles a long with other wrestlers. Eastern Championship Wrestling (yes ECW!) picked up on this. Actually Eddy Gilbert was the booker for Eastern CW and got the boot. Once Paul Heymen replaced him, they split from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling. I bet you know the rest.

So, my favorites... Amateur, Submission, and hardcore. What are yours?

 

[#hamler]

Strong Style
Japanese like pro wrestling made famous by the great Antonio Inoki. Using a combination of stiff, hard hitting and sharp moves and strikes, such as the lariat clothesline, the chest chop, and front kicks in addition of throws and painful submission holds. Ric Flair would also come to mind when thinking of Stong Style wrestling. Nothing more than just hard hitting, ass kicking, brawling here.

Lucha Libre
"Free Fighting" I believe it means. My second favorite style combines a dynamic and acrobatic aerial style with some mat based submission maneuvers. I love when a luchadore puts his life and heritage on the line when he battles in a mask vs hair match or something like that. Guys like Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero incorporated this into their styles of wrestling. Eddie would always use some type of crazy submission in which I wouldn't know the name for. While Rey would always do some kind of flip over the top rope which would leave me in awe. Great style.

Hybrid Style Wrestling
This has gotta be my favorite of any wrestling style type. This style involves just about every other style of wrestling and combines them into one phenomenal Wrestler. Guys like Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, or CM Punk all wrestle in this category. In their matches, they use a combination of strong strikes, technical ability, Lucha Libre, Japanese style and power moves to combine into one awesome superstar. Eddie Guerrero is probably the most notable. Hybrid wrestling is probably my favorite style of wrestling. These guys are high octane, high risk with high reward. These guys can really go.

 

[Disturbed]

Mine is probably a tie between high flying and hardcore.

Highflying
This is pretty much like what Hamler said above on Lucha Libre. I just think it is amazing, some of the arsenal moves these guys can do. I love seeing to small, quick guys go at, running and jumping off the top ropes and doing all kinds of crazy shit. I mark out everytime I see a spring board moonsault to the outside because it just amazes me and keeps me on the edge of my seat. I love watching El Generico wrestle and all the arsenal moves he does, jumping through the ropes landing a ddt, is my favorite move and it makes me think or even sometimes say, "Holy Shit" every time I see it done by him.


Hardcore
Call me sick, but I love watching bloody and brudal match, well as long as the blood isn't over done like TNA tends to do sometimes. All in all, I love watching weapons involved and just like I said above, there are so many amazing stuff done in these matches too. I want chairs in matches. I want tables, ladders, barbed wire, cheese graders, cookie sheets, thumbtacks, I want it all. I mark out every time I see barbed wire or thumbtacks being used in a hardcore match.

 

[Strong Style X]

Strong Style
Hard hitting, stiff, believable submissions. Very intense and fun to watch, minus a lot of the over-the-top theatrics. It's as real as wrestling can get without becoming shooto (which is basically fixed MMA). Realistic but still fun to watch and visually exciting.

King's Road
Fans of Golden Age wrestling such as Lou Thesz, Rikidozan, and Gorgeous George would appreciate this type of wrestling. Slower-paced, technical, tells a story, picks up near the end, restholds, hard-hitting, selling injuries, etc. This is very good ring psychology.

Sports Entertainment, Golden Age, Deathmatch, Comedy, Lucha Libre, Etc.
I can enjoy any type of wrestling as long as it's booked right and isn't stupid. I'm actually able to enjoy Raw for the first time in forever so apparently WWE is starting to do something right with their flagship show. SmackDown and TNA have none of my interest. TNA needs to focus on WRESTLING a bit more (but so does WWE, but at least I'm entertained when I watch WWE regardless). Golden Age is the basics with the most focus on wrestling, just raw story telling via a match. Deathmatch is self explanatory; ECW, FMW, BJPW, etc. It was once big but has fallen off the main radar for the most part. Comedy wrestling such as Osaka Pro, DDT, HUSTLE, and CHIKARA are miles more funny than anything I've ever comedy-wise in WWE and it's still (usually) PG material. Hmmmm. Lucha Libre isn't very hard hitting at all but the theatrics, different then norm rule set (traditional 2/3 falls rules still apply here), and crowd buzz is electric.

 

[Safari.GFX]

King's Road
Fans of Golden Age wrestling such as Lou Thesz, Rikidozan, and Gorgeous George would appreciate this type of wrestling. Slower-paced, technical, tells a story, picks up near the end, restholds, hard-hitting, selling injuries, etc. This is very good ring psychology.

Great description. This is what I was trying to describe when I was saying technical. I love these type of matches, you just don't see them anymore. Now you see midgets wrestling 7 foot tall men. I love this style of wrestling though. Pick a body part, work in it. Then work on it all match long. It really can see a match, and make it that much more enjoyable to watch. Loy Thesz was really notorious for this you know, picking a limb and working on.

 

[Chicago1989]

I'm into technical, lucha libre, and stiff Japanese styles.

Technical Wrestling - Matches such as Kurt Angle Vs. Chris Benoit at the Rumble and Angle Vs. Yugi Nagata are some of the biggest reasons why I'm into technical wrestling. I love seeing guys go hold for hold and show who can outwrestle who. It's all about mastery and talent for this wrestling style.

Lucha Libre - High-Flying wrestling is always amazing to watch. Many unknown wrestlers became legends through this style, which shows how popular it is. Seeing guys pull off death-defying Hurricanranas and moonsaults off the top rope is always exciting. It's all about high-risk and high-flying for this style.

Japanese Style - I'm not the biggest Japanese wrestling fan, but whenever I see a wrestler wrestle in this style, you know it's gonna get very physical. Samoa Joe Vs. Kenta Kobashi displayed this style in their match. Brutal chops and clotheslines are impactful and entertaining to watch. It's all about toughness and endurance for this style.

 

[The_Gizzame]

I like a little bit of everything.

I really enjoy the technical styles of Benoit, Angle, Malenko, etc. But at the same time I also dig nicely executed cruiserweight bouts. WCW really offered some cool stuff at a time when cruiserweights just weren't prominently featured and I really dug the stuff they put out.


I also am a fan of brawling matches if done properly (Austin/Rock pro at these) and matches that I guess you could call spot-fests with plenty of big moves, false finishes, and Holy Crap moments.

 

[The Black Album]

Strong Style: That shit right there is awesome. The stiff shots alone makes it exciting for me. It feels really real to me for some reason. That's gotta be my favorite type of wrestling.

Old School: Arn Anderson, Flair, Harley Race, Sting. That type of wrestling. Storytelling at its finest. When I do CAW e-feds I usually tend to emulate my move-set off of those guys. Old school wrestling could get you attached to a match and never turn you loose. I love it.

So yeah, those two right there are my favorite genres of wrestling.