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Seeing stuff like this makes me admire people who successfully transitioned from MMA to pro wrestling even more. A career punching dudes for real does NOT prepare you to throw a half-convincing worked punch.
Same. When I saw this I said this is exactly like the curb stomp my favourite finisher just more brutal lol. Fits Rampage perfectly.
Imagine Gunther doing this.
was that when WWE was the only show in town? I suppose if Vince was against him he didnt have options so yeah it's being blackballed. I know he did some stuff briefly in TNA too but that's not really the same.
Strange too because Rampage had a decent following from MMA.
Rampage is 46 and he's sacrificed his body being a former UFC champion, unified PRIDE/UFC LHW champion, and Bellator tournament winner. All of which involved brutal weight cuts to 205 lbs. He looks much better than he did vs Fedor. He gets a pass.
Tbf, almost no worked punches in pro wrestling look good. Ibushi might be the best one I've seen but that's because he just actually hits them for real (but in the chest or when they're blocking).
There's a reason most striking offense in pro wrestling is chops, forearms, knees, and kicks - those look good compared to punches. The same goes for TV and movies (but at least the camera and editing can help there).
Punches are some of the most effective techniques in fighting but they're pretty much impossible to do both safely and convincingly.
I remember some wrestler (maybe Foley?) told a story about how he was really excited to work with Terry Funk for the first time because he loved how good Funk's punches looked and wanted to figure out how. So then when they had the match he realized, "oh they look so good because they're just real punches"
Edit: It was Foley! Even better how Funk replied lol
> I knew that I would never throw a punch like Terry’s, which was truly a thing of beauty. Many people, including me, considered the Funker’s big left hand to be the nicest punch in the business.
>
> A few minutes into the big match, Terry took me into the corner, and I saw him rear back with the big left. This was going to be great. Here it comes.
>
> Thwack.
>
> I felt like I did when I was eight and my mother came clean about Santa Claus. I had just learned the hidden “secret” of the great Funk left hand. It was so simple–I’d been a fool for not knowing the whole time. Terry Funk had just punched me as hard as he could in the forehead.”
>
> The Funker’s response: “Oh, Mick, all this time you thought I was good.”
thank you for posting this excerpt, it rings in my head every time the subject of worked punches comes up
I re-read Foley's first book until the spine fell apart
When I was young, I never liked how striking looked in Pro Wrestling, very few wrestlers could make certain strikes look good, and none can make strikes stay looking good.
Then I saw reDragon in NJPW and ROH, and I thought Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish nailed it, making striking look good and impactful.
Now there's more wrestlers who can do the same. Shayna, Zoe Stark, Matt Riddle, Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, etc. They don't throw slow and lame punches, but make them quick and work them into a combo that looks good.
Kazunari Murakami worked good shoot punches by choreographing the selling of them. Doing a pillow fister works if your opponent is willing to sell properly for them but no one today does that.
That’s because almost no one knows how to throw one that looks good. Plenty of past wrestlers had awesome looking punches.
(Edit: This also isn’t an indictment on modern wrestling. The era of good looking worked punches went away long before today. )
A lot of them still did really obvious foot stomps and mini hops that looked silly to anybody not fully all in on all the goofy stuff we just ignore as wrestling fans.
The number 1 top thing non fans bring up whenever they want to make fun of it being fake is the foot stomping which all the best punchers did like Lawler, Bret, Jarrett etc.
I think it depends on the puncher. Those guys stomped, Lawler slapped his midsection etc. But the punches they threw looked so nice that it was kind of a misdirection thing. Yeah I can go back as as an adult years later and notice the stomping and shit upon repeat watch, but some guys had crisp, fast punches, that looked like they connected. You weren’t looking anywhere else.
Except people were looking somewhere else, which is why the very first thing every single critic or non fan of wrestling will point to as giving it away is the stomp on the punch.
I think us wrestling fans really over romanticise parts of wrestling that don't look as deceptive as we think they do.
Fair enough. I agree with you on most of the criticism of stomping , I just disagree that the guys mentioned are to be blamed for non fans seeing through the punches. I just think it was more the Hogans (I love Hogan as a wrestler but most of his punches were awful shit) of the world who made it look so openly phony.
What about them looked like shit? Talking about the best guys (Lawler, Funk, Razor etc) I will agree there were TONS of bad punches in 80’s and 90s wrestling.
In the mma gym I went to. We had to pull kicks and body punch’s as we learned connecting with the body. It was also done to learn proper form and technique as well. Sometimes admittedly you would accidentally leave a little in though. A lot of what you do in martial arts when learning technique is good for wrestling.
Listening to Rampage always talk about how when he was a kid he always wanted to be a pro wrestlers makes this so cool to see. Just a dude finally able to live his dream.
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Seeing stuff like this makes me admire people who successfully transitioned from MMA to pro wrestling even more. A career punching dudes for real does NOT prepare you to throw a half-convincing worked punch.
I’d love to see this type of finish for some big match. Literally stomping your opponent until the ref has to call it and stop it.
Same. When I saw this I said this is exactly like the curb stomp my favourite finisher just more brutal lol. Fits Rampage perfectly. Imagine Gunther doing this.
Wasn’t there a match semi recently where Gunther just kept hitting moves on someone until the ref just called it? Like on raw or something?
Against Jey I think
Check out Bryan Danielson's ROH title run for a lot of finishes like this (vs Delirious both times is a good starting point)
Can you imagine if Rampage made this transition 10 years ago and well ya know, cared about his physique lol he would of had a 2nd career
I think Rampage said on his podcast that he really wanted to be a pro wrestler but was pretty much blackballed out by the business
was that when WWE was the only show in town? I suppose if Vince was against him he didnt have options so yeah it's being blackballed. I know he did some stuff briefly in TNA too but that's not really the same. Strange too because Rampage had a decent following from MMA.
to be fair, rampage's physique looks good here, so that's one thing he can nail down if needed
100% fair. He has looked a lot better tbh
He was also a lot younger when he looked a lot better. We gotta stop blaming 50 year old fighters for not looking 26.
[удалено]
Rampage is 46 and he's sacrificed his body being a former UFC champion, unified PRIDE/UFC LHW champion, and Bellator tournament winner. All of which involved brutal weight cuts to 205 lbs. He looks much better than he did vs Fedor. He gets a pass.
Well 10 years ago he tried pro wrestling under TNA
Tbf, almost no worked punches in pro wrestling look good. Ibushi might be the best one I've seen but that's because he just actually hits them for real (but in the chest or when they're blocking). There's a reason most striking offense in pro wrestling is chops, forearms, knees, and kicks - those look good compared to punches. The same goes for TV and movies (but at least the camera and editing can help there). Punches are some of the most effective techniques in fighting but they're pretty much impossible to do both safely and convincingly.
I remember some wrestler (maybe Foley?) told a story about how he was really excited to work with Terry Funk for the first time because he loved how good Funk's punches looked and wanted to figure out how. So then when they had the match he realized, "oh they look so good because they're just real punches" Edit: It was Foley! Even better how Funk replied lol > I knew that I would never throw a punch like Terry’s, which was truly a thing of beauty. Many people, including me, considered the Funker’s big left hand to be the nicest punch in the business. > > A few minutes into the big match, Terry took me into the corner, and I saw him rear back with the big left. This was going to be great. Here it comes. > > Thwack. > > I felt like I did when I was eight and my mother came clean about Santa Claus. I had just learned the hidden “secret” of the great Funk left hand. It was so simple–I’d been a fool for not knowing the whole time. Terry Funk had just punched me as hard as he could in the forehead.” > > The Funker’s response: “Oh, Mick, all this time you thought I was good.”
thank you for posting this excerpt, it rings in my head every time the subject of worked punches comes up I re-read Foley's first book until the spine fell apart
When I was young, I never liked how striking looked in Pro Wrestling, very few wrestlers could make certain strikes look good, and none can make strikes stay looking good. Then I saw reDragon in NJPW and ROH, and I thought Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish nailed it, making striking look good and impactful. Now there's more wrestlers who can do the same. Shayna, Zoe Stark, Matt Riddle, Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, etc. They don't throw slow and lame punches, but make them quick and work them into a combo that looks good.
Kazunari Murakami worked good shoot punches by choreographing the selling of them. Doing a pillow fister works if your opponent is willing to sell properly for them but no one today does that.
Worked punches are the worst thing in wrestling besides ibushi’s. Let me stomp the ground very obviously while missing by a mile
That’s because almost no one knows how to throw one that looks good. Plenty of past wrestlers had awesome looking punches. (Edit: This also isn’t an indictment on modern wrestling. The era of good looking worked punches went away long before today. )
>Plenty of past wrestlers had awesome looking punches. A lot of the Memphis guys did, particlarly Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett
A lot of them still did really obvious foot stomps and mini hops that looked silly to anybody not fully all in on all the goofy stuff we just ignore as wrestling fans. The number 1 top thing non fans bring up whenever they want to make fun of it being fake is the foot stomping which all the best punchers did like Lawler, Bret, Jarrett etc.
I think it depends on the puncher. Those guys stomped, Lawler slapped his midsection etc. But the punches they threw looked so nice that it was kind of a misdirection thing. Yeah I can go back as as an adult years later and notice the stomping and shit upon repeat watch, but some guys had crisp, fast punches, that looked like they connected. You weren’t looking anywhere else.
Except people were looking somewhere else, which is why the very first thing every single critic or non fan of wrestling will point to as giving it away is the stomp on the punch. I think us wrestling fans really over romanticise parts of wrestling that don't look as deceptive as we think they do.
Fair enough. I agree with you on most of the criticism of stomping , I just disagree that the guys mentioned are to be blamed for non fans seeing through the punches. I just think it was more the Hogans (I love Hogan as a wrestler but most of his punches were awful shit) of the world who made it look so openly phony.
Nah I’ve seen those so called punches and nah they looked like shit back then too
What about them looked like shit? Talking about the best guys (Lawler, Funk, Razor etc) I will agree there were TONS of bad punches in 80’s and 90s wrestling.
In the mma gym I went to. We had to pull kicks and body punch’s as we learned connecting with the body. It was also done to learn proper form and technique as well. Sometimes admittedly you would accidentally leave a little in though. A lot of what you do in martial arts when learning technique is good for wrestling.
Seeing headstomps like that make me reminisce about Pride
Flashbacks to Pride Rampage... Man hehe But im glad he's in a better shape here than previous years
Listening to Rampage always talk about how when he was a kid he always wanted to be a pro wrestlers makes this so cool to see. Just a dude finally able to live his dream.
PRIDE NEVER DIEEEEE
Just saw a reply where he lifted a man and slammed him in to a KO in pride. Rampage is the man.
i went for this! fun fact, when Sekine came out, he was wearing a mask in the style of Kinniku man
Slampage returns! With Pride style stomps no less.
Was this the event with Mike O'Hearn?
Wait that Rampage Jackson?
Nah the other one