Wrestlers to watch for people who want to train

[TOK Is the Target Demo]

I have this realistic dream of getting into shape the next year and a half and start training after college, and find that studying tape is the best way to pick up on the nuances of psychology and ring awareness. I've been watching a few Genericho/Zane matches, the man is such a good babyface. Anyone else I should be looking into?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Current or all time? If the former, I'm not sure, since I'm not too up on the scene at the moment. If the latter...

Ricky Morton. THE selling babyface. Steamboat's good for that as well.

Generally speaking, Arn Anderson. The guy was damn good at pretty much everything.

For that matter, Ole Anderson. Rugged, believable style in the ring and on the mic and some neat tricks when it comes to tag matches.

Bobby Heenan. Great bumps and selling, and played the chicken shit as well as anybody.

Nick Bockwinkel, because he's Nick Bockwinkel.

Ernie Ladd, to marvel at an equal opportunity offender when it comes to promos, and see what you will never get away with now.

[britishbulldog]

IF you want to be a old school baby face, Steamboat and Santana. Those two knew how to sell like hell, and always had great comebacks.
Promos Jake, Arn, Superstar Billy Graham, and Hogan or Dusty. They all have completely different styles that drew people in.

[Andrew is Good]

When I went to Lance Storm's school, he had a whole DVD catalogue of people to look at, be they guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, from ROH, to Shimmer DVDs for the women.

One guy I feel who is incredible is Steve Austin. A lot of guys that have been brought up are from the 70s and 80s, but I feel 20 or 30 years from now, his name will be on that list. His Attitude Era stuff may've not been the best technically due to his limitations, but Austin was so intense and physical in his matches.

I listened to Review a Wai and the review of the 1999 King of the Ring. They did the review after the John Cena/Johnny Ace match, and it was compared to Austin vs Vince and Shane, and it's just night and day, where Cena is being goofy and the match stunk up the joint, and Austin is just crazy and the crowd is going wild. Plus, he still adds a lot of psychology in his matches, like his match with Rock at WM 17 where he was doing everything to pin Rock, and he was slowly doing more and more violent things to try and beat Rock until snapping and murdering him with a chair. But yeah, Steve Austin in any era, be it Stunning Steve and his matches again Ricky Steamboat, his matches with Bret Hart pre-neck injury and his post injury Attitude era stuff with Rock and Kurt Angle.

[thetower52]

A lot of who you watch is determined by your style.

I'm a brawler and a giant so naturally my video watching
Has a lot of undertaker Kane terry funk bruiser Brody dusty Rhodes mick foley and guys like that.

So determen the style you wish to perform then try and find the best of those Talants

[Joe Neglia]

When it comes to psychology and ring awareness, my suggestion is...well, watch everything you can. Good, bad, old new, high end, low rent, everything you can get your hands on. Watching a select few guys to learn psychology won't help; all that does it ingratiate you to the possibility of mimicking those guys. Watch the ones considered masters (Jake, Arn) and the ones that couldn't get crowd participation if they were on fire. You'll start to catch what works and what doesn't, for any of them. Knowing what works doesn't help you unless you also know what doesn't work. Don't just pay attention to what a wrestler is doing when he's the focal point, also pay attention to what they're doing when it's time the other guy needs to be the focal point. Watch the guys working a crowd of 50 but have all them going nuts and get a handle on what they're doing to energize the audience. Watch the guys putting on a technical masterpiece snoozefest in front of a PPV crowd and you'll start picking up on why they're not connecting to the crowd. Watch how guys adjust their work and talking for different audiences or situations. Pay special attention to how workers keep the audience behind them when they're getting their ass kicked. If you can't keep a crowd interested when you're getting beat down, you have no business keeping their interest when you're winning.

No two crowds, shows or situations are ever going to be the same. Watch as much as possible to get an idea on how to handle any of them.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Jerry Lawler.

[Emmet Russell]

If you want to learn how to build a character, watch Mick Foley. The man never had the greatest look of body, but he made it for it in every other way possible; you don't have to sacrifice your body though to use Foley's ways successfully. There were very few who could craft a promo like he could; he never failed to entrance me with his words, whether he was playing Mankind, Dude Love, Cactus Jack or just regular Mick Foley; everything had a meaning & a purpose.

His ring style was much the same. He was never a technical guy or anything, but he got crowds into what he did by A) being psychotic or B) being sympathetic, depending on the allegiance he was playing at the time. From squealing (or whatever you want to call that scream he did), to using eye rakes, choke holds or many other dirty tactics, he made them all unique to his character. Another guy who made everything in the ring matter - Jake Roberts. Both of these guys are two of the best to study in my books.