What is a good wrestler?

[Safari.GFX]

Someone on another site brought up a great point. He said that everyone says that "dat wrestler sux!" and stuff like that. Well, if that wrestler sucks, then what makes a good wrestler? So my question for you is just that, What makes a good wrestler?

My idea of a good wrestler is an athletic wrestler, and a wrestler who can get the crowd behind him. A good wrestler isn't someone who kisses ass to get to the top of the ladder. A good wrestler is someone who starts out with nothing and ends up with everything he could ask for and more. "Good wrestlers" are wrestlers that tend to have that special trait. Two of the best wrestlers in history, in my opinion are Bruno Sammartino and Ric Flair.

Bruno Sammartino may not be known to many of the younger generation like myself and others on this forum. But this man was one of the smoothest men in the ring. He also was the champion for 11 years in a row, that means he was going out every night defending the title. He headlined something like 300 shows at the garden. With like 200 of them being completely sold out. If you watch some of his matches, as I have done. You can see why he was such a hit. He mat wrestling skills led to long competitive matches that got the crowd behind him. He was a legit tough guy to, always getting in fights with punks back stage. Great Wrestler.

Ric Flair, well not much needs to be explained about this man. Just watch one of his promos from his NWA Championship days, then go and watch one of his matches. You won't have to even question if Flair is one of the best of all time. Flair put on a lot of great matches in his day, and it's a shame that all people do now is make fun of him and talk down on him. But seriously, check out the post I made about Ric Flair Vs. Ricky Steamboat in '89.

That, is what I make of a good wrestler.

 

[Sully]

This is kinda off topic, but since you mentioned Bruno Sammartino, I know his Grandson. He's in my grade, and I'm decently good friends with him I suppose.

 

[Safari.GFX]

Man, that's cool. Have you ever asked for an autograph?

 

[Sully]

Out of respect, No. I never met Bruno in person, but I play football with his grandson Anthony.

I know he's always talking about how Bruno hates the WWE, and what Vince did to it.

 

[UltimateHitman]

It's funny, I just posted on a similar topic a few days ago and got somebody bent out of shape for having the opinion that Hulk Hogan wasn't a good wrestler. But that's a different story.
I agree with both of those individuals. I think they both had great talent inside the ring even if they weren't flying around off the turnbuckles.
That being said, I define a good wrestler as a different animal than a good sports entertainer or showman or "superstar" or what have you. I think a good wrestler is one who has a sound, technical ring method. You have guys that were good showmen, good characters, and good businessmen, which is where I categorized Hogan, but I didn't consider him a good "wrestler" in the basic sense of the word. I mean, you don't have to be as meticulous as, say, a Bret Hart or Dean Malenko, but could be solid such as the above mentioned Sammartino and Flair. To go back to the Hogan thing, I saw him as more of lumbering across the ring and not having much to him except size and his character.
Another good example would be Jerry Lynn. Jerry Lynn is a great wrestler, but he didn't make it as big as a lot of other guys for whatever reasons. Do I say he wasn't a good wrestler because of his lack of time in the "big time" spotlight or his lack of staying power or not quite getting to the main event in the big leagues? Not at all. I think he's 10 times the wrestler Hogan is, and didn't get even a fraction of the popularity. So, again, "good wrestler" to me means a lot more than just financial success and fan popularity. Other good examples of people I enjoyed watching, but didn't consider "good wrestlers" were Sandman and New Jack. I loved seeing the crazy shit they did in ECW and liked the characters they portrayed, but let's face it. They were not "good wrestlers". Good superstars, good entertainers, sure, but not good wrestlers. Meh, maybe I'm just breaking it down too much.
That said, I think that some good wrestlers would be Malenko, Lance Storm, Bret, Curt Hennig, Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, guys along those lines. Flair was definitely good, he could (and still does) flip around the ring like a fish out of water and takes massive back flips even at his age. Don't see many other people doing that. Another guy that impressed me for his age was Steamboat when he came back to wrestle Jericho a few years back at 'Mania. He surprised the hell outta me when I saw that match.

 

[Johnny Scumm]

Well, a good wrestler to me is an amalgam of lots of different things. They could be anyone really, like Husky Harris, he's big, but he's athletic, much like Samoa Joe.
My perfect Wrestler? Well, they'd be something like Joe, but more muscle instead of flab. They'd be athletic, and able to move easily round the ring, like a Goldberg who actually could do some jump moves. They'd need to look the part, whether it be Heel or Face. Heel, I think they could have a smirk on their face, and if they're a face, then smiles all round, High-Fiving the crowd etc.

Also, they'd have to be interesting on the Mic. There's no point in being interested in a Superstar if they're bad on the Mic. It just makes them uninteresting. They must be able to rile up the crowd, get them happy, cheering away. If they were a heel, they would have to be able to get everyone pissed off, look dirty, cheat to win. Also, they would have different finishers if they were heel or face. I don't think that a Heel Character should have the same finisher as your Face Character. An RKO to me, doesn't have the same effect with Face Orton as it did with Heel Orton, where it would shock you and also make him look like he wanted to hurt someone. When he does it as a face you're like "Huh? He wants to kill someone?"

So yeah, that's my kind of Wrestler.

 

[Jackiz Kirey]

This is kinda off topic, but since you mentioned Bruno Sammartino, I know his Grandson. He's in my grade, and I'm decently good friends with him I suppose.

Wow... it wouldn't hurt to take things a little more seriously. A poster is trying to build up good conversation! And you just make jokes about him. You just ignore the topic and post whatever you want. You are obviously lying, he is just trying to be nice and talk to people and you make fun of him in a very rude way. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[The Crock]

A good wrestler would be a guy that can get a reaction out of the crowd, a guy that does what he's told. You don't have to be GREAT in-ring or even on the mic, you just have to work hard. Look at Cena, to be fair, he is excellent on the mic, but he's not great in-ring... he's still a great wrestler.

 

[.]

Wow... it wouldn't hurt to take things a little more seriously. A poster is trying to build up good conversation! And you just make jokes about him. You just ignore the topic and post whatever you want. You are obviously lying, he is just trying to be nice and talk to people and you make fun of him in a very rude way. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Yeah Sully isn't taking this seriously. That's why he is in prison and you aren't.
Seriously dude you are relying on a guy MY AGE to defend you in court to get out of prison which you won't get out of. Get a grip and start more threads and write more response that are more than just one line.