Why do brawlers get bad rep on being a wrestler.

[Milkyway!]

Look how many people, have chosen a brawler style in the past people call them "bad wrestlers". I'll use JBL as my example. Hes a brawler, and is a dang good wrestler, but, everyone chants "you cant wrestle" during his matches. Sure hes not chain wrestling, pulling high flying moves, hes just beating the hell out of someone, and making it look fun. Whys that considered "bad wrestling?" For real, anyone mind explaining it to me?

(more examples of this, Piper, Cena, Batista (while not really brawler, hes more of a power house, but still), The new, old, Scott Steiner. etc.)

 

[2012isbs]

I agree Brawlers if done right can look good, but Fans think anyone can brawl so people Jbl get you can't wrestle chants.On other hand fans think it is very hard and risky to do a moonsault, swanton so wrestlers like Jeff Hardy get cheered.Powerhouses get cheered sometimes if they have enough skill to make a match look good. like Brock Lesnar Technical wrestlers get cheered becuase they're actually wrestling out there like Benoit.

I like certain brawlers and powerhouses like Cena and Koslov, but not everyone shares my opinion so JBL get "you can't wrestle" chants. Brawlers don't get props unless they're showy (Cena) hardcore (Foley) or gimmicked (Taker). I think brawlers are underrated and Jeff is slightly overrated.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Probably because most of them aren't convincing, I guess it must be harder to do than a lot of other stuff. Cena's brawling is probably a good reason why people still boo him. His punches are weak in general, but in a brawl he resorts to fisted slaps to the back. He looks like a girl who's gitting her boyfriend.

Most brawlers won't be considered great. Trying to make a match look realistic isn't what wrestling is about. It's part of it, but mostly it's over the top entertainment.

The best brawler of all time is easily Jim Duggan. When he looked like a lumberjack, not a bear.

 

[Slyfox696]

I answered this question in a thread about a year ago. Allow me to regurgitate my response.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and have finally decided to create this thread to adjust one of the biggest misconceptions amongst the IWC these days about professional wrestling.

A work in wrestling is an illusion of something that is put on by performers in a wrestling company to make the audience believe is accurate and real.

So, how have you been worked? Well, maybe you haven't been, but we'll see.



Throughout my many months and many arguments debating John Cena and Hulk Hogan, one thing was offered as criticism time and time again. When comparing Cena vs. Bryan Danielson, I heard the same thing over and over. "Danielson is a WRESTLER, and Cena is not". Oh really?

If John Cena is not a wrestler what is he? Just like Randy Savage, and Kamala, and Bryan Danielson, John Cena is a wrestler. So, where does this mistaken notion that Cena is not a "wrestler" come from? And more importantly, where does this thinking that a "wrestler" (meaning: technical wrestler) is more talented and has more in-ring ability than other styles of wrestling?

Well, that's where fans have been worked.

Go back to some old videos where Jesse Ventura is commentating. Numerous times you can hear him say something like "For Rude to win this match, he'll have to out-wrestle The Warrior" or you may hear something like "Hogan is just a puncher, a brawler if you will, while Mr. Perfect is a wrestler and will have to use his abilities as a superior mat technician to take down Hogan". And, it's not just Ventura that says it, as almost all commentators have used some form of this expression. For example, see Wrestlemania 22, HHH vs. Cena and Jim Ross's comparisons.

So, why is this important and why do I bring this up? Well, because Jesse Ventura and Jim Ross both know that wrestling is not a real competition. However, in their broadcasts and through their announcing, they are trying to make you believe that what is going on in the ring is actually a real contest between two men, and are analyzing the strengths of each man and what they have to do to win the match. They are literally trying to work the audience. And, over the years, decades even, as commentator after commentator has said things like this, wrestling fans have bought into this type of thinking and have been worked to believe that those who wrestle a technical style are superior in-ring workers, while those who have big muscles and use power moves are less skilled and get by for reasons other than skill. All the while, wrestling fans lose sight of what REALLY makes a professional wrestler skilled in the ring, and what truly makes a wrestler have good in-ring ability.

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=16445

I really think it says it all. For a quick recap, please read the following:

1. Wrestling business worked people into thinking that technical wrestlers are "WRESTLERS".

2. Wrestling business worked people into thinking that brawlers are not refined.

3. Fans have been completely worked.

4. In a desperate attempt to prove how "smart" they are, wrestling fans take their influenced opinions to try and tell others who is a good wrestler.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

my first thought would be that 'brawlers' are boring as hell. Yeah, ok that's a generalisation, but for the most part, brawlers tend to restrict their moveset to striking moves and little to no grappling. Most of the time, you get a combination of a brawler and a powerhouse and those guys are the better brawlers.

The majority of the time, the brawler will work most of the matches with a few strikes in the corner, a few hard clotheslines here and there, a forearm smash to the back, maybe the shoulder strikes in the corner, with a few power moves like a press slam, or a sidewalk slam or something that shows off their strength, and then a signature move out of nowhere, match over. However, this usually applies to faces.

Heels tend to do little to nothing that isn't a strike. They pound away on their opponents over and over again, and maybe do a grand total of 2 grappling moves, one of which will be a rest hold. It's all to do with the heel psychology etc. If you go back and watch Undertaker matches during his 2002 heel run, you'll notice Taker doing a LOT more punching than grappling, and Kane is exactly the same, but they both still throw in the moves that get the big pops, like the chokeslams and the clothesline off the top or Old School. Then there are guys like Big Show, Lesnar, Umaga and Batista who show off with the big moves, when they're supposed to be heels, but the other side of that coin is the fact that the fans then want to see them wrestle again. Unlike some brawlers who just do the same thing over and over, and then no one wants to watch them wrestle anymore, because they're not gonna do anything different.

Let's take JBL as our main example.

The many incarnations of Bradshaw have had the SAME moveset for the whole 15 odd years he's been in WWE which are:

-Forearm smash
-Boot to the face
-Short Arm Clothesline
-Rear Chinlock (but fuck who doesn't use that these days?)
-Swinging Neckbreaker
-Fallaway Slam (sometimes from the top rope)
-Powerbomb
-Clothesline From Hell

Now, this is JBL's entire moveset, as in, every move i've seen him do in a singles match and not part of the Acolytes or the New Blackjacks. As a face he may frequently bring them all out of the bag. As a heel, you'll get as far as swinging neckbreaker and that's it before you jump straight to Clothelsine From Hell. Two of his best moves, he rarely ever does anymore. The last time i saw him execute a Fallaway Slam was probably against Punk at Summerslam, and nobody does Powerbombs anymore for some reason unless they're Batista/Taker/Swagger.

So basically, he just keeps hitting his opponent, maybe gives them a neckbreaker, stops to slow the match down with a chinlock (god forbid they use a unique submission move) and then finishes off by taking a run up and hitting them. Is that what you would call 'wrestling' in the literal terms of the word? Fuck no. But we're talking about 'wrestling' the business, where there's rules and standards for this that and the other, which are now being strongly enforced, compared to about 9 or 10 years ago where those standards and rules were thrown to the wind, dawning in the Attitude era, where anybody whether heel or face, could do whatever the fuck they wanted in a match as long as the main points of the 'story' were told.

As i say, now we're back in the 80's mentality and the fact is, unless you're Sly, that's not entertaining anymore. It's as if WWE de-evolved back into the entity that stuggled to keep viewers on Monday nights.

Anyway, my whole point is, brawlers who mix things up with their offense every now and then don't get jeered for their wrestling ability. Guys like JBL who do the same thing match in and match out, get heckled to hell and back.

Sly's going to say 'that's the heels job,' and yes it is. It's the heels job to make the fans hate him for who his character is and how he handles things in the ring, not to make them hate him by making them feel like they wasted money to have to sit through the same crap they've seen for over a decade. I don't mean that brawlers should be doing loads of chain wrestling or high flying, but they shouldn't just be hitting each other repeatedly. Otherwise we might as well all turn over and watch boxing instead.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Because, no matter what anybody says, a lot of people watch wrestling hoping for an athletic spectacle. It's why Evan Bourne has a job, because God knows he can do nothing but flips. He's even managed to be popular, despite lacking numerous essential skills that are necessary to succeed in professional wrestling - or are generally considered to be.

Fake punches are not something which satisfy such people; they wish to see grappling, throws, submissions, leaps, tosses, etc. etc. They want to see the things that having a choreographed match allow to look fucking cool and punching and pushing people clumsily over barriers isn't one of those things.

Also, this whole "People tell me what a real WRESTLER is and I'm all, WRESTLER? What WRESTLER!? Wrestle, punch, spot monkeys, storytelling, psychology" thing got old when there was nobody left to disagree with it. So about three months ago.