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Post by noleafclover1980 on Aug 5, 2011 3:44:40 GMT -5
So, I'd been wanting to ask this, and the thread on UK fans not really digging Ric Flair made me think of this. Can someone explain to me the appeal of Big Daddy? From what I've seen, the dude was over like rover there, and was like the Hogan on the UK... but Christ almighty the dude was a beached whale with like, negative work rate. I was just curious why he was so big there, and seems to be still beloved. I recall watching his infamous match vs Giant Haystacks on Youtube and there were tons of comments like "This is REAL wrestling, not that crap today." Help an American understand.
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The Ichi
Patti Mayonnaise
AGGRESSIVE Executive Janitor of the Third Floor Manager's Bathroom
Posts: 37,288 
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Post by The Ichi on Aug 5, 2011 4:06:06 GMT -5
Honestly, it's a British thing. A lot of people over here have the logic that if it came from here, it's good. This is especially true of our wrestlers.
Although the Big Daddy love is really just a running joke mostly (...at least I sure hope so).
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Post by noleafclover1980 on Aug 5, 2011 4:51:26 GMT -5
Honestly, it's a British thing. A lot of people over here have the logic that if it came from here, it's good. This is especially true of our wrestlers. Although the Big Daddy love is really just a running joke mostly (...at least I sure hope so). I think it's kinda funny that way, since sometimes it feels like the opposite here. Like if a wrestler is from Japan or Canada, they get hyped by the IWC. |
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Steveweiser
Dalek
Mickie Mickie You're So Fine... Hey Mickie!
THE GRAPS
Posts: 50,249
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Post by Steveweiser on Aug 5, 2011 5:02:45 GMT -5
Big Daddy ruined British wrestling - he was fat, out of shape, old, but was on top because he and his family were booking by the end of the World of Sport era. At least Giant Haystacks could work a bit.
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Aug 5, 2011 5:12:47 GMT -5
Imagine a time when there were only 3-4 channels on tv and only one of them showed wrestling and gave it a fairly good timeslot. Imagine there was only one big promotion in the country and the head booker decided to push his brother as the centrepiece of the company, booked to defeat all comers, regardless of how old and unfit he was and how bad it was for the company and British wrestling in general in the long term.
Big Daddy was charismatic and larger than life, good with kids and little old ladies, he paraded around with the flag and he was effectively booked as essentially the biggest star of British wrestling, like Hacksaw Jim Duggan crossed with King Kong Bundy, booked like HHH. When you have those sorts of advantages, you need to be a special kind of sucky to fail to garner a fanbase, the problem is that his fanbase wasn't enough to sustain British wrestling in the long term and while some older people still speak fondly of him, a lot of modern British fans remember the guy as an embarrassment who turned away a lot of fans from wrestling toward the end of his run and blame him and his brother for British wrestling never really recovering,
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mrmulluk
Bubba Ho-Tep
I am always funny. I am never joking.
Posts: 545
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Post by mrmulluk on Aug 5, 2011 6:32:26 GMT -5
He was a colourful character, and a charasmatic chap. I think that we also kind of have a love for what he represents in the UK - an era when wrestling was mainstream and popular, and authentically British.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2011 6:39:27 GMT -5
Big Daddy ruined British wrestling - he was fat, out of shape, old, but was on top because he and his family were booking by the end of the World of Sport era. At least Giant Haystacks could work a bit. This, when you've heard every British company say at one time or another to someone "Have you seen any Big Daddy matches? Be glad you haven't." then you know he should have been nowhere near a wrestling ring, if John Cena was awful, couldn't move and used a fat arse rush as his main move then you'd know how it feels to have someone truly untalented pushed down you throats haha. I remember my Dad ranting for hours about how crap he was and then showing me tapes...Christ. |
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CaptainFall
Samurai Cop
'Fascinating is the word of the day'
Posts: 2,151
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Post by CaptainFall on Aug 6, 2011 2:45:22 GMT -5
Moveset wasn't really a big deal, this was the 1970s and wrestling was new to most people so seeing bodyslams and clotheslines was pretty much enough to get people interested.
Why did Big Daddy get over? Part charisma, part he's a big fat bald guy who looks like a wrestler, part his name. And now nostalgia comes into play where men of a certain age get misty eyed thinking about Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus and Kendo Nagasaki which accounts for the comments on YouTube.
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DavidArquette
Don Corleone
The actor formerly known as avanteproject
Posts: 1,542
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Post by DavidArquette on Aug 6, 2011 4:43:47 GMT -5
Ugghh, I'm from the UK and I hate Big Daddy!
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Post by Maffew on Aug 6, 2011 7:43:38 GMT -5
It's weird, I just found my tape with Giant Haystacks vs. Steve Regal on it yesterday! Got to upload that sucker.
YEAHHHH
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Post by happhazzard on Jan 13, 2012 21:39:40 GMT -5
British wrestling at the time it was cancelled on ITV still got about 5 million viewers, despite having its timeslot messed about with. Daddy was excellent at what he did. No British wrestler since then has been as over has he was. Even Davey Boy Smith never had people trying to get in the ring trying to help him when he was being beaten up.
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Post by EP 54 is banned from Collision on Jan 15, 2012 7:16:13 GMT -5
And now nostalgia comes into play where men of a certain age get misty eyed thinking about Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus and Kendo Nagasaki which accounts for the comments on YouTube. You can't lump Kendo and Mick in with (ugh) Big Daddy and Haystacks, they were both great workers. Big Daddy was almost more of a mascot than a wrestler, he was very limited in the ring, and its telling that he tended to wrestle as part of a tag team, his partner playing 'face in peril', until the..um...lukewarm tag? You couldn't call it hot. Then quick pin. His character was beloved, he was like a British Hulk Hogan. He wasn't the 'purists choice' in any way shape or form. Also, you have to remember that British wrestling was presented 100% as a real sport. It made classic-era NWA look like Rock'N'Wrestling-era WWF. Big Daddy was the only guy with any sort of glitz or glamour. This made it seem like he was a huge deal. |
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Post by FunkerCM on Jan 15, 2012 11:17:01 GMT -5
I think its just pure nostalgia.
ITV World of Sport is looked back on more fondly than BBC Grandstand I think (we only had 4 channels here til Sky started in the late-80s) and as part of that Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Mick McManus are up there as British heroes with the stars of snooker and darts who were on television constantly at the same time.
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