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#Post#: 9011--------------------------------------------------
Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: February 10, 2013, 1:36 am
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The discussion here;
HTML http://www.tnafanforum.com/wrestling-chat/yout-top-five-headcases-in-wrestling-history/
HTML http://www.tnafanforum.com/wrestling-chat/yout-top-five-headcases-in-wrestling-history/<br
/>has lead me to believe some people might be interested in some
history to how gimmick matches became popular and their
increased popularity in certain time periods. So here goes.
Wrestling by its nature and roots is violent. The two main
growth areas of the original sport had cultural reasons for
this. In the UK, wrestling was the bastion of northern mining
towns where bets where laid on the outcomes of bouts and
submission was king. Obviously a submission victory was more
decisive than a pin fall and that is why some of the most
prevalent shooters and hookers of the 20th century came from
Wigan and Lancashire. In North America the carnie style
barnstorming nature of the sport led to public challenges where
a given wrestler would throw out an open challenge in a town and
then beat the local champion with some swift hooks taking the
money and running as fast as possible.
This ingrained violence became less prevalent as the evolution
of pro wrestling brought with it a sense of showmanship and of
course pre determined finishes. However, that decisive element
was what drew the crowds and promoters knew that if you had a
series of bouts there needed to be a distinct end to the series,
with a clear winner and loser. This niche is where gimmick
matches fell into place.
Early on matches took on a local flavour, matches such as coal
miners glove on a pole bouts took place in mining towns. Country
whipping matches in farm areas and so on. Each territory brining
a different feel to its own wrestling as it found out what its
audience liked and developed its story lines accordingly. What
was eminently clear to most promoters was that they couldn't run
these sort of matches all the time, for two reasons. One the
talent where obviously more likely to get injured and two
audience expectation had to be kept in check. If violence
becomes the new normal, where do you go from there? Hot shotting
a territory only worked for a certain period of time, and
promoters knew that there would be a subsequent drop off in
ticket sales once those feuds had played out.
As story telling became more sophisticated certain wrestlers
began to find their niche in the TV era and the most violent of
wrestlers began to realize that their act would only swing for a
certain amount of time. They took the lessons of old and became
barnstormers themselves. An attraction if you will. While the
gimmick matches themselves evolved into staples of certain
promotions.
They did not always have to be violent, the key element was
decisive action. So in Mexico Mask versus Mask, Mask versus
Hair, and Hair versus Hair matches became the standard feud
ending match. The cultural identity of the mask in Mexico meant
it was the ultimate humiliation. If you notice most wrestlers
who have had an active period in Mexican wrestling have a Luchas
de Apuestas, or bet match, record on their wikipedia page. What
they wagered and who against. These rules are fiercely enforced
by local athletics boards and a wrestler will be fined if he
appears on a show with a mask once he has lost a bet. Even Rey
Mysterio who lost his mask to Kevin Nash in 1999 still goes
maskless if the WWE runs a show in Mexico out of respect to his
fellow luchadors. Hair versus hair was also popular in southern
promotions such as Memphis and Texas during the 80's, The
Freebird Hair Cream matches where popular draws for the Von
Erich's, Buddy Roberts famously losing his hair and wearing a
wig with a boxers head pad to hold it in place. Hair matches
where also popular in Japanese women's wrestling, the ultimate
feud ender that was initially popularized by Dump Matsumoto, All
Japan Women's biggest heel of the 1990's. Other stipulation
matches where built into the fabric of certain areas.
Loser leave town being a popular way to enable one wrestler to
go from territory to territory, and allowing a big blow off to a
feud.
The key element of decisive action also is a factor in the most
popular of gimmick matches, the cage match. Cage matches began
in the thirties and became popular because there can be no
interference and only the toughest will survive. In theory
anyway. They began in the 1930's and developed differently, as
is the nature of wrestling, in different territories. Up north
in New York, the way to win was to leave the cage, either over
the top or through the door. Down South the way to win was to
pin your opponent or make him or her submit. Either way you knew
there would be a decisive winner. They where also likely to be
bloody battles, the cage encouraging head wounds at an alarming
rate of knots.
Which brings us to, street fights. Blood and gore where the main
elements of these style of matches and became popular through
the idea of them being different to anything else on the card.
Because essentially the rules where thrown out of the window and
the only way to win was by pin or submission they could take
over whole arenas bringing fans very close to the action. In
reality of course these matches where far removed from reality
because most real street fights end very quickly when one
combatant will give in. They where a good excuse to get the
blood flowing though.
Next time I will look at the violence specialists and what they
brought to wrestling.
In the mean time here are some videos that illustrate this
story;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1aNuf2QanY
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1aNuf2QanY
- Jaguar Yokota vs La
Galactica (WWWA Title Match, Hair vs Mask)
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWBchEiZ8QQ
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWBchEiZ8QQ
Coal Miner's Glove
Curt Hennig vs. The Assassin (notice how the announcer mentions
that the coal miners glove has been in the fictitious wrestling
hall of fame)
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv3V1dFTsPs
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv3V1dFTsPs
- A clip from Bruno
Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen - WWE Championship Cage Match
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuh70gVoCg
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuh70gVoCg
- A clip from Ric
Flair vs. Harley Race: NWA World Championship Steel Cage Match
#Post#: 9276--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: February 17, 2013, 4:52 am
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So violence became popular as a way to draw crowds and give that
definitive story telling end to a series. However there where
always some that wanted to do things differently. One of the
earliest proponents of a the brawling style was Bull Curry. A
police man in Hartford Connecticut, he cultivated his hard man
image into a hardcore brutal style that stood out among his
peers. He was a top draw in Detroit, but flourished most
prominently in Texas. The bookers there realised they had a gold
mine in booking potential with a guy who liked to be rough on
opponents and didn't mind getting hurt himself and so created a
title specifically for him, echoed nearly 40 years later when
Mick Foley was presented with the WWE hardcore title, "Wild"
Bull Curry was made the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Heavyweight
Championship.
His formative years in Detroit had a special effect on one
wrestler, Ed Farhat later to be known as simply "The Orginal
Shiek", he used weapons, he talked in Arabic, and looked to be
as crazy as a loon. However he had one thing going for him and
had learned from Bull Curry. Don't out stay your welcome. The
Shiek went everywhere, he was an attraction much like the NWA
Champion, or Andre The Giant and took his monster heel act on
the road and would stay for a short period of time in one
promotion making his draw and then dispersing somewhere else.
This low impact wrestling style ensured him a long career,
wrestling well into his 60's. Another wrestler who cultivated
the monster image was Abdullah the Butcher, the mad man from
Sudan, well actually Windsor Ontario. A genuine Judo player, his
foreign object blood laden matches also became a must see around
the globe enabling him to main event for both All Japan, New
Japan and various other NWA offices. He was so popular, even in
Ontario that when NWA Champ Lou Thesz came to visit Abbi was
told by his peers; "your gonna get your ass kicked tonight son,
Lou hates gimmick wrestlers" but before the match, Lou ever the
gentleman and in the Kayfabe era, climbed into Abbi's dressing
room through the side window and proclaimed "Anything you wanna
do champ is fine by me". High praise indeed from the greatest
NWA champ of all time.
The key thing about these three wrestlers is they knew that
moderation was the key; don't out stay your welcome. However in
the 1990's things would get a lot more hardcore.
HTML http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_Curry
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj4O3HO4wgQ
#Post#: 9651--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: February 24, 2013, 5:27 pm
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So what happened next? Well the 90's grow in the popularity of
gimmick matches and the undertone of violence grew. The two
companies synonymous with the violence where ECW in the States
and FMW in Japan. FMW grew from the reputation of one man,
Atsushi Ohnita. A former stand out All Japan Junior Heavyweight,
Ohnita fell in love with the Memphis style of brawling in his
younger days while on "seasoning" tours. After he retired the
first time due to injury he redefined his style to accompany
more violence, taking the weight of his knees and putting on to
his scar tissue Ohnita was a phenomena. He drew more than any
other single wrestler in Japan at the time and developed
rivalries that would start in street fights and end in something
more spectacular. He innovated the idea of removing the ropes
from barb wire matches, then added other elements such as
explosives, then mines, then glass and onward and more
ridiculous. The annual FMW Anniversary shows started with a no
rope exploding barb wire match with Terry Funk that filled
Kawasaki baseball stadium and set the tone for brutality.
Of course one good idea is going to get copied, the IWA
eventually headed by Catcus Jack and WING led by Wing Kanemura
started into the death match market, they all came together for
FMW's 7th Anniversary show that featured a triple main event of
Kanemura vs Cactus Jack for the undisputed King of The Death
matches title, the retired Ohnita's proxies Hayabusa and Tanaka
against Terry Funk and Mr Pogo of the IWA. The guys were also
not just the only ones who got in on the violence. That card
also featured Combat Toyoda in her retirement bout against her
tag partner Migumi Kido for the independent women's title in a
no rope barbed wire exploding double hell death match.
Meanwhile, the wrestling industry in the states was not anywhere
near as hot as it should have been. Hulkamania was in one of its
momentary lulls, WCW was still an overachieving local promotion,
but they where laking talent. One of whom was a former
photographer turned manager who found work in Philadelphia as
the manager and assistant booker to Eddie Gilbert. Like Ohnita,
Paul heyman had his roots in Memphis wrestling. He took the
booking style he learned from Eddie, Jerry Lawler and Jerry
Jarrett and amplified it for the Philly fans who where renown
for being blood thirsty and violence loving. Taking indie stars
and hiding their short comings became the hallmark of ECW, but
violence became a key element of what was the ECW ladnscape.
Essentially kick started by the break up of The Bad Breed, ultra
violence became part of the main event in the US for the first
time.
What Heyman and Ohnita had done was turn the philosophy of
Abdullah and The Shiek on its head, violence became the key part
of what the wrestling in those promotions where about.
Understandably Abbie and The Shiek also had a resurgence of
their careers through these promotions. The Shiek, well into his
sixties, became a staple of FMW. Abbie the quintessential
monster, was a massive fan favorite in ECW, because only in
Philly could Abdullah The Butcher truly find a home.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5NbbOoFP3A
#Post#: 9672--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: 01332tnafan
Date: February 24, 2013, 7:28 pm
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Very good read
#Post#: 9678--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: February 25, 2013, 1:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Thank you :)
#Post#: 9681--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: tnafanforum
Date: February 25, 2013, 6:04 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Good read mate and some crazy matches their lol
#Post#: 9907--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: February 28, 2013, 5:54 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
So where did the violence go? Well the answer lies in the alumni
of ECW and FMW.
As ECW grew first to PPV and then national TV and FMW grew from
arenas to stadiums, the main stream began to take notice. By the
mid nighties WWE was in severe decline, Hulk Hogan even with a
few one off cheap pops like Wrestlemania VIII was not bringing
them in like they used to. Their content was stymied really by
the steroid scandal that threatened to put Vince in Jail. WCW
was going strong within its market but was still Ted Turner's
magical tax write off. The time was ripe for a change, the
answer lay in who ECW had pushed to the top and in fact who WCW
had let go.
ECW's style was also its downfall, it is virtually impossible to
go into high impact brawling style matches all night every
night, and the wrestlers in those matches where looking for more
job security than Paul Heyman was willing to offer. Taking a
look at the list of wrestlers who left ECW for either WWE or WCW
its hard to imagine how that promotion survived. Steve Austin,
Mick Foley, Perry Saturn, Raven, The Sandman, The Dudleys and
Taz all franchise players (if you will pardon the pun Shane).
They all left for better money and more job security, especially
those who went to WCW who had little to lose by wrestling one
night a month where laying it all on the line happened a lot
less often. The true success stories of the piece though where
Foley and Austin. They took their ECW runs and catapulted
themselves to international stardom. Stone Cold Steve Austin and
Mankind owed a lot to Superstar Steve Austin and the ECW era
Cactus Jack. Most importantly they took what they had learned in
ECW, how to brawl effectively, and played it out on the main
stage of WWE.
WWE really stole ECW's clothes, made it a parody of itself and
gave it the mainstream polish required to make it national
level. ECW in turn took a lot of new wrestlers and started
again, trying to feature more wrestling (to an extent) to
balance out what was fast becoming crash and burn show. Two
stars of FMW's scar tissue factory where going to give Hardcore
its final Hurahh in North America.
Mike Awesome and Tanaka had both been stars for FMW, both been
Independent Brass Knuckles and World Champions (FMW's Top Belt)
and both climbed the ranks of ECW in a stunning series that
matched All Japan style stiffness with FMW style brawling. Their
match at Heat Wave '99 stole the show and gave Paul Heyman the
belief he had found the successor to Taz. Their match at Anarcy
Rules '99 would prove it with Taz being eliminated first to
leave the new stars to settle it for his title.
This was really ECW's dieing throws, WWE was now all about
attitude, and a lot of that was ECW streamlined to attract a
wider audience. FMW meanwhile without its headliner star, took
an even slower decline as Atsushi Ohinta finally passed the
torch (sort of). WCW also had some aborted attempts at violence.
However without the outsiders attitude of ECW, they never hit
the nail on the head artistically speaking.
So violence was to be pushed onto the back burner over a slow
period of time, as new stars wanted to wrestle and not brawl,
and the safe bet of a wrestling champion became the obvious
saving grace of the new style of doing things.
Next; off to the indies.
HTML http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xoqyzg_taz-vs-masato-tanaka-vs-mike-awesome_sport#.US_t1ZYhOrI
#Post#: 11214--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: March 31, 2013, 6:10 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
By the mid 2000's violence was really back where it had began,
being the occasional rather than the norm. With a few exceptions
of course. In the mainstream the ECW revival in 2005 and then
full time in 2006 gave the masters of Extreme one last shot at
glory (and a decent paycheck), but generally speaking as WWE
started to head into the PG publicly owned company territory,
they took hold of their senses and said "what where we
thinking". Of course the key participants of those Attitude
years had either been retired or where doing other things, and
that is where the rub lies with the hardcore style, it shortens
careers. Steve Austin and Mick Foley, probably the two greatest
brawlers of all time, both retired long before forty. FMW began
to wind itself into the ground, ECW folded, WCW was bought out,
W*ING and IWA lost their big stars to safer and more profitable
climbs and retirement. The greatest era in wrestling history
where every office in the world made more money than at any
other time in history, and the violence that fueled that boom,
was over.
So did the violence stop? No. It did not, Big Japan became the
go to gore promotion on the other side of the pacific. CZW (one
of the four promotions that it took to replace ECW in Philly)
was born, IWA Mid South became a staple of hardcore reality. The
audience was smaller, more defined, and much more male if that
was possible) than even ECW. These companies set about making
new stars in the same way ECW did, the match quality often
varied because of their lack of experience and a belief that
high spots and gore make matches (they don't) but it kept their
fans happy. The development of cheaper recording facilities also
meant they had a world wide outlet in DVD that was closed to
their predecessors who could not afford the massive light rigs
and live TV production needed for PPV. they just needed a two
camera digital shoot and they where off to the races.
This did not stop the mainstream dabbling of course, the aborted
ECW was WWE's main effort in trying to make the violence
palatable again, but when Heyman left the ship in late 2006 that
signaled the end of ECW as a viable entity. The only place in
mainstream left open for business was TNA, and TNA was trying to
find its feet, throwing everything at the wall to see what
stuck. Violence was a key part of what was thrown, to a booker
like Jerry Jarret, that was milk and honey.
As most of you know Jerry Jarret was the key booking force
behind Memphis wrestling for many, many years. He was the one
responsible for this piece of hot shotting in the 80's. Notice
Wayne "The Honky Tonk Man" Ferris in his pre Honka Love days as
the erstwhile jobber um, Wayne Ferris. but it got the Bomber's
over and they sold out the next three weeks.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb29hYvAExE
Jarret understood shock and awe better than anyone and it gave
some very interesting concepts to the early NWA:TNA events.
Anyone remember Hard 10?
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkZGmRO4so
Here are The Sandman (about six beers in) and New Jack knocking
the living daylights out of each other for no apparent reason.
it brought us Lethal Lockdown, Full Metal Mayhem and Abyss.
Jarret knew what was happening when it came to brawling and
liked simple clean finishes which was of course really what ECW
was about, and where Paul Heyman had learned his craft.
Of course those smaller promotions also had their say in the way
mainstream wrestling would play out. CZW had an excellent Junior
Heavyweight division that developed and house Mike Quakenbush
and Reckless Youth who went on to found Chikara. IWA Mid South
became home to Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and
CM Punk, who also created their own niche in mainstream. What
they are known for is of course though blood curdling, cringe
worthy violence.
(none of this is for the faint hearted)
There was the Queen of the Deathmatchin IWA Mid South;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Cy7tyuIyo&playnext=1&list=PL443C083251B97947&feature=results_main
Cage of Death in CZW (Jesus)
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euS3JxyPp5A
And Big Japan's Deathmatch Battle Royal
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJo_EVK5B24
#Post#: 11215--------------------------------------------------
Re: Violence; The story of gimmick matches, blood and barbed
wire
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: March 31, 2013, 6:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
That should bring is just about up to date. Unless I missed
anything?
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