Martial Arts Gimmicks Are Stupid

[squash]

To each his own, obviously, but they've always looked ridiculous to me -- can someone convince me otherwise?

[Evilution E5150]

ummm.... Steve Blackman?

[Judas Heyman]

Great Muta's mysterious asian martial artist gimmick was great...even Tajiri's was awesome.

[El Dandy]

How can you not admire the sheer awesomeness of one Jerry Flynn.

[Real Folk Bruce]

Rob Van Dam (Obviously based on Jean Claude Van Damme, he even uses the trademark splits and some moves from "Bloodsport")

Ultimo Dragon (His original gimmick was that he was the last student of Bruce Lee, regardless of the fact that he would have been 7 years old when Lee died.)

Tajiri

Great Muta

Antonio Inoki (Incorporated a ton of legitimate submissions and martial arts techniques into his wrestling. He even had a series of "Hybrid Martial Arts" matches against fighters from other disciplines)

Shinya Hashimoto (Again like Inoki, used a lot of martial arts moves and also fought against fighters from other disciplines)

Tiger Mask/Satoru Sayama (Used martial arts kicks and legitimate submission holds, especially once he became Super Tiger in UWFi)

Naoya Ogawa (Olympic silver medalist in Judo and fought in Pride FC)

[Deleted]

I think Ken Shamrock technically counts

[boomhauer20055]

Ricky Steamboat as a wrestling version of Bruce Lee was good

[neal]

PY Chu-Hi. Ol' Phil Hickerson was sure good with that there karate. He also liked sake.

[Lance Uppercut]

Well the good ones, didn't really only wrestle like that. The would also go form some mat based moves, cool throws, or ariel assaults.

Guys like Glacier, the Cat, Jerry flyn... yeah they sucked.

I wanted to like Steve Blackman, as I was practicing Tae Kwon do at the time, but damn him just kicking people and lighting fast punches weren't doing it for me. Not until head cheese, and his "bring a random asian weapon to the ring and hit people with them" phase.

[jamielowndes {N}]

I always think of Ken Shamrock with Martial Arts gimmicks. When theyre booked to look like merciless killers, they work.

[Deleted]

May 24, 2010 21:19:58 GMT -5 squash said:

To each his own, obviously, but they've always looked ridiculous to me -- can someone convince me otherwise?

Sure.

[Woooooolhouse!]

My greatest CAW ever... The Narcoleptic Ninja. He has one ninja-taunt, and the other three taunts are Ric Flair's face-flop, so at any random time in the match, he can faint and sleep in the middle of the ring.

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

Kung fu Billy Graham ruled

[default]

I think when done well it works (Steamboat, Blackman, etc.)

As for throws and slams, a lot of martial arts do have throws namely Judo.

Some, usually the demonstration ones that are about perfect landing/beauty of the moves, are used in kicks like Kofi's, Morrison's and others.

I just think more people still tend to think Martial Arts is about karate, kicking and chopping. There are martial arts that have a strong/sole emphasis on boxing, throwing and slamming opponents, etc.

The problem is for basing a gimmick solely off of it is having a style that works well with what others are using. Most styles are more brawling, but the guys are built more like high flyers. Promoters/bookers likely aren't as ready to book these guys against and over traditional brawlers.

It also tends to send the message that their style is superior to the more tradional styles (especially in WWE's instance) which is basically akin to Vince putting WCW guys over WWE guys in any sufficient manner during the Invasion.

[strykerdarksilence]

Chris Adams and Al (Lord Alfred) Hayes both heavily incorporated Judo into their work and were both very successful. Chris in particular was of Olympic standard, and his Brother Neil won a silver at the 84 games.

[Dave at the Movies]

i think it is a combination on how good the gimmick is and how well they actually know martial arts. Guys like Ernest Miller and Glacier were very very skilled in martial arts but their gimmicks weren't all that great.(although I would argue that Miller had a great gimmick going after a while when Sonny Ono started managing him and he got on the mic)

[johnnyk9]

I liked Pat Tanaka

[smoot]

It largely depends.

The thing is- if you know a martial art well and know what it would look like, then you're largely going to be disappointed because it's the rare booker that's going to rearrange "wrestling physics" so everyone sells the stuff they way they should.

That said, I liked how original-flavor ECW used to book Tazz' judo/jujitsu background. He didn't pose "all kung-fu-like", he didn't have a gimmick that centered around him being "Tazz The Ninja", and the gimmick didn't lend him 'the mystical powers of the orient' or a ridiculous "pressure point" finisher.

It was simply put across that he could slam you with an judo-style Uranage 'Tazzplex' at will and then put a Katahajime choke on you- and that those skills were in the hands of someone who worked very hard to get them, and really enjoyed using them.

(I'm assuming the "ninja" or "mystical martial art powerz!" or "poses like it's a kata competition" thing is a 'martial arts gimmick' for these purposes. Ricky Steamboat knowing how to knife-hand-chop or kick better than Flair is one thing. Having him beat up ninjas to earn the right to go to the WWF is another. )

It would be kind of 'cheaty' to list the number of awesome Japanese wrestlers who use worked martial styles, but of course there are a LOT of them.