Too Many Moves?

[michael]

While on break from WWE, I'm trying to find a positive spin on some things I started to find irksome.

I'm feeling like there are too many moves used in each match and each sequence, which makes each move mean less for lacking time to breathe. I remember a match between Ricochet and Adam Cole (not at Takeover) and there was one sequence of moves back-and-forth; uppercut, forearm, pump kick, enziguiri, pump knee, pump kick, superkick, enziguiri... within 20 seconds, and before either stayed down. The crowd is saying "oh," after each one and it just felt a bit... 'beyond a joke.'

Not to date myself (as I'm not old enough to have seen him at the time), but I think I remember a remark Bret Hart made that there was a bit of an art form in 'less is more,' and that he would rather get that reaction by working a leg.

Does anybody else feel this way?

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Agreed. It's almost as if anything that hits does no damage.

[Fade]

I dunno. Cause I don’t notice this on the main roster too much. If anything it seems like most main roster matches are spaced out for television and aren’t just moves getting spammed.

Sometimes I like less-is-more. Sometimes I like moves getting spammed out.

[Final Countdown Jones]

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz accused Harley Race of doing too much and looking fake. Wrestling evolves. Different styles emerge.

[Mister Pigwell]

There should be a balance. Some guys should put all their effort into a double axehandle that gets sold for a solid minute, others should use their speed and athleticism as their characters strength.

Now I'd agree there's far too many wrestlers with the gimmick of "good wrestler" that leads to this MOVEMOVEMOVEBOOMBOOMBOOM style being too prevalent right now, but I dunno if you want to include that as a factor in your critique or not.

[michael]

Feb 2, 2019 0:45:13 GMT -5 Final Countdown Jones said:

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz accused Harley Race of doing too much and looking fake. Wrestling evolves. Different styles emerge.

That's a fair point, and one that I'm kind of fearing, in as much as... is this inevitable? What does it mean for my fandom? I don't mean to sound melodramatic, and I'm wary that depression and OCD are probably colouring some of these points with which I'm grappling.

[Deleted]

Depends on the match really I recently saw a match with 8 too many moves and it completely took me out of it but on the opposite side of things I also saw a match with 11 too few moves and it totally hindered my enjoyment.The only solution is for them to have a move counter graphic onscreen and each match will have a predetermined move count and you can’t win said match until said move count has been reached and if you go over or under said count you go immediately to jail for an amount of time based on how egregious your offense was.

[Final Countdown Jones]

Feb 2, 2019 2:05:42 GMT -5 michael said:

Feb 2, 2019 0:45:13 GMT -5 Final Countdown Jones said:

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz accused Harley Race of doing too much and looking fake. Wrestling evolves. Different styles emerge.

That's a fair point, and one that I'm kind of fearing, in as much as... is this inevitable? What does it mean for my fandom? I don't mean to sound melodramatic, and I'm wary that depression and OCD are probably colouring some of these points with which I'm grappling.

In that case I think you may want to focus on stepping away from something stressing you out and look at getting help for those things first. If you're in a place where depression is keeping you picking apart things you like until you don't so much like them anymore as they are, you may want to wait and come back to wrestling in better spirits.

[Mozenrath]

Feb 2, 2019 0:48:05 GMT -5 Mister Pigwell said:

There should be a balance. Some guys should put all their effort into a double axehandle that gets sold for a solid minute, others should use their speed and athleticism as their characters strength.

Now I'd agree there's far too many wrestlers with the gimmick of "good wrestler" that leads to this MOVEMOVEMOVEBOOMBOOMBOOM style being too prevalent right now, but I dunno if you want to include that as a factor in your critique or not.

Makes me kinda want someone to just steal Scott Hall's stuff shamelessly, at least in terms of why he picked the moves that he did.

Essentially, he's talked about how he wanted moves that looked good on television, so that's why he'd do the abdominal stretch as a spot, or the fallaway slam/"snap-ab suplex", and the Razor's Edge: all of them were signature moves he could do while playing to the camera.

That's the kind of stuff that I wonder how many of the current roster consider when crafting their movesets.

[The Heartbreak TWERK]

But what about all these limes?

[Rudy Gobert Fingers]

NXT is so bad with this that it's actually hilarious now. Like, I wanna invent a drinking game where you take a shot every time someone no sells something in to a sick MMA knee or a pump kick, but I feel like it'd end up being genocide.

[Deleted]

I think it's just that the average base of athleticsm in modern wrestlers today is so exponentially high that it can feel excessive, but just as in the past there are good workers and not so good workers, and the best of ones have a better sense of balance in their work.

I am an old fashioned guy so I do tend to like the less is more stuff. That's why I really enjoy the WWE/NXT womens matches, because I feel like they wrestle in a more throwback style, and they pick their highspots more sparingly.

[No One]

The Great Khali never had this problem.

[Pushed to the Moon]

NXT is cool and all but there are way too many thigh slap strikes in succession like that. I imagine their legs all look just the like chests after Walter chops.

[Bo Rida]

It's weird. In one match there's a huge move counter fest where nothing seems to phase anybody.

Then there may be a multi-person match where they're all having a lay down on the outside for five minutes after what's normally a 2 count move (side effect, blue thunder etc).

Or a HHH style melodrama with two minute breaks between moves where you're left wondering why the ref has failed to count to ten.

Tbh I'll take the first option every time, if it's going to be unrealistic don't give me time to think about it.
Yet there's room for all three when done well.

[SparkyPlugg]

I hate to admit it, but I’ve started fast forwarding a lot of the main roster matches and just watching the finishes.

[111111]

My favourite ever match is the rock v Hogan and they did hardly anything really.

[Milkman Norm]

I agree with this 100%. Wresting to me is at its best with selling, psychology and heat. A bunch of moves is just a bunch of moves imo unless it is connected in a logical matter to the former.

[Heinz Doofenschmirtz]

Boy, it’s almost like there’s different kinds of wrestling for different types of fans.

[Deleted]

The funny thing is that Brock Lesnar I.e. the guy that a lot of people complain about, sells more than a good portion of the roster.