Tully Blanchard - This guy was great on the mic as heel (he never was much of a good guy, didn't have that kind of charisma) and his matches always were top notch, win or lose. Blanchard vs Magnum TA in the 58 minute marathon match where he wins the US Title is fantastic, topped only by Magnum's revenge at Starrcade 85 in the Steel Cage "I Quit" Match, still the standard for all I Quit Matches. Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes was almost as good as Flair vs Rhodes, these two were perfect compliments to each other both on TV and in the ring. Their $100,000 vs TV Title Match was another forgotten classic with a terrific Horseman ending as Arn Anderson attempts to pummel a crippled Magnum TA at ringside to force Dusty to leave the ring and make the save, leading to a count-out and Blanchard winning the money and keeping the title (Dusty got his revenge in the first ladder match I ever saw a few mths later, a barbed wire ladder match no less).
Blanchard had excellent matches with Barry Windham and a young Brad Armstrong, and as a tag team with Arn Anderson delivered 4 star quality bouts against both The Rock & Roll Expresss and the Rockers (a blatant R&R rip off). Blanchard always gave 110% every match, and was far more athletic than generally given credit for.
QUOTE FROM UNDERCURRENT "I realize there are those who dislike Bret such as yourself and those who look up to him as a hero such as myself so clearly our opinions will differ and I respect that, but you never truly explained why you feel Bret isn't the excellence of execution. Your point about Bret only having 7 moves is completely juvenile and I expect a hell of a lot more than that. The greatest wrestlers of all time have a list of dependable moves that they tend to pull off in any given match yet many also have tricks up their sleeves. I would expect you to realize that. He also had several other moves he pulled off on a regular basis which included the figure four around the ring post, the suicide dive, European uppercut, back breaker, the superplex, the piledriver, an inverted atomic drop etc etc. Bret Hart much like every other wrestler had his own personal and dependable moveset but claiming that he only had 7 moves is not very observant."
That is exactly correct - the best wrestlers have a patented finisher and about a half dozen or so standard moves/spots they do, but they also add significantly to that, especially in long matches. Given that Brett wrestled both Flair and HBK in Iron Man Matches he deifinatley needed more than 7 moves. Brett also took mediocre performers like British Bulldog and had excellent matches, another trait of a great performer.
Less talented wrestlers do not have the creativity or athletic ability to pull off many moves outside their standard set (Hulk Hogan comes to mind). Now I never thought Brett was all that great on the mic (if he was a 9.5 in the ring he was 6 on the mic) and that may have contributed to McMahon's decission to push HBK over him, a guy who was extremely creative on the mic and very good in the ring as well. However, of all the wrestler's one could criticize for being repetitive or not being creative, Hart isn't one.
