Did you/When did you become a 'body guy'?

[freeze Austin]

The year was 2001.

14 year old freeze Austin's family had just gotten cable internet. The website was Altavista, and the names Tera Patrick and Briana Banks may or may not have been frequently involved.


Oh, you meant....


As far as wrestlers "looks" go, I notice but as a fan all I care about is that they're athletic, do cool stuff in the ring, and don't suck on the mic. Even with the women I never liked when they put women in matches who only offered good looks and had no business stepping foot in a ring, let alone holding a title. Just because I'd watch you in a porno doesn't mean I want to see your green as grass Barbie Doll looking ass being treated as some world beater.

[mrbananagrabber]

I can accept most things in wrestling, but Mysterio fighting and beating guys like Kane and Mark Henry, guys who could rip his head off in real life but are flopping and flailing into the magical middle rope always killed wrestling for me.

[Macho Pichu]

Rikishi is the reason I'm fat.

[ERON]

Whenever I would watch with my dad, he'd always call guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels "lightweights" and say there was no way they'd really beat guys like Haku and the Warlord.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

I actually legit want someone to do research about potential links between wrestling fans and body dysmorphia / eating disorders.

[brentreznor]

Hulk Hogan being 300 pounds of muscle doesn't matter because bodybuilding doesn't help you in a fight and gives you terrible cardio.

But Lesnar being a 265 pound trained MMA fighter does matter. As skilled as George St Pierre or Conor Macgregor is. Brock would kill them both.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

I notice how small a lot of these guys are today as they lack a lot of qualities, or aren't booked in a way to hide the fact. Bret and Shawn, and later, Jericho, Eddie, etc were smaller than your average wrestler but they made up for it with the character they projected.

That's why a critique from a lot of the fan base is a lack of 'larger than life' characters. Part of that is due to the literal size of the wrestlers, but that's really noticeable when they aren't booked larger than life.

I appreciate the athleticism in modern wrestling, but without good, definable characters I'd rather watch a 'two trucks colliding' hoss match.

[Deleted]

Unless someone is booked as “small” like Mysterio or “big” like any Vince tall monster of the week. Size has never been important to me. You know some guys like Styles, Punk, and Bryan are smaller but they make up for it in technical ability. The way WWE books things size isn’t an issue unless that’s the story they are trying to tell

The same can be said for the women. Unless you’re Jax or Beth Phoenix, you’re pretty much believed to be roughly about the same size. So when WWE has Bliss manhandle Flair, this board freaked the hell out. Should Bliss be able to destroy Flair, probably not. But far as WWE’s concerned Five Feet of Fury is more about the Fury part than them being five feet tall.


When it works best you don’t even notice size differences. I never knew how short Mercury was until he was a lackey for Rollins. Before that I thought him and nitro were normal size WWE guys.

[Venti]

May 20, 2019 18:02:20 GMT -5 krozor said:

HHH calling Punk a "skinny fatass" stands out to me as one of the more tone-deaf, failing to take the pulse of the audience insults of recent wrestling history. Throwing out what was basically a "do you even lift?" betrayed a fundamental misreading of what audiences wanted and were dying for at the time, and it makes HHH's aggressive attempts to rebrand himself as Proud Father Of 1,000 Tiny Indie Worker Children all the funnier in context.

It's a three ring circus, and there should always be room for people of all sizes if they can work. Not "doing a lot of moves" but being able to hook the crowd and tell a story. I'm fine with little flippy dudes, giant monsters, ripped bodybuilders, '70s and '80s style wrestlers who look like your uncle if they can convince me of the role they're playing. Just give them a chance to do what they're good at and don't pull the rug out from under them when they actually succeed at it.

Doesn't surprise me, this is the same dude who gave Chris Masters shit on air for slimming down post Wellness days.

[Pushed to the Moon]

I never really cared/noticed until more recently. I still don't care as far as enjoying the show goes but it's noticeable how tiny so many new guys are. Like when HHH does his NXT point thing next to Adam Cole or Gargano they look like children. I know Trips is a big guy but 20 years ago I thought he was just like "normal" sized for a wrestler. Now he's like a giant.

[stevec484]

Since the I started watching wrestling and action movies. I don't want to see Conrad Thompson as John Matrix in a Commando remake.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

May 20, 2019 19:37:21 GMT -5 Macho Pichu said:

Rikishi is the reason I'm fat.

"You mean my butt could be used as a weapon? Time to cultivate mass!"

[This Player Hating Mothman]

I give a negative f*** about anyone's height or the size of their muscles, I treat wrestling like fiction and consuming fiction through the lens of "the bigger guy will/should win the fight" is a drag.

[eJm]

Any opportunity for me to be a body guy stopped in the mid 2000s when the only real “big men” were people like Snitsky, Heidenreich, Nathan Jones and others.

Like, some were charismatic but were they, like, any good for the most part? Not really. So it wasn’t really making me as a young fan want to be invested in them being “better” then smaller guys.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

I’m 5’6” 145lbs and have been for damn near 20 years, so I’ve always gravitated towards smaller guys.

[Pushed to the Moon]

May 22, 2019 13:38:12 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

I’m 5’6” 145lbs and have been for damn near 20 years, so I’ve always gravitated towards smaller guys.

You'd think that the greater gravitational pull of a bigger guy would actually be more likely to drag you in. Take THAT science!

[The Ichi]

The first time I saw Mick Foley wrestle. A guy who looked to be in only slightly better shape than my Math teacher, but was an amazing character that could tell great stories in and out of the ring.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

May 22, 2019 13:48:13 GMT -5 Pushed to the Moon said:

May 22, 2019 13:38:12 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

I’m 5’6” 145lbs and have been for damn near 20 years, so I’ve always gravitated towards smaller guys.

You'd think that the greater gravitational pull of a bigger guy would actually be more likely to drag you in. Take THAT science!

When I saw someone quoted me, I was so desperately hoping it was a science joke. Thanks for not disappointing!!

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I was a Foley mark growing up, reading his books especially. The 'good body = good wrestler' thing never really washed for me, although I will admit I have been judgemental when guys have got into less athletic shape.

I am definitely a 'body guy' though, I think watching wrestling growing up is a big part of why I'm so attracted to muscular people, especially women.

[Mozenrath]

I think I always thought of body mattering, but given wrestling games were actually what got me into wrestling, I appreciated that wrestlers had different strengths. The big guy or the buff guy wasn't always going to get one over the fast guy or the reckless guy or the technical wrestler, nor should they always win.

It makes me think of NJPW, and how you have Ishii, who is basically built like Etrigan, and how he will beat a flashier guy much of the time. In turn, he will lose to Zack Sabre Jr., who is the paper to his rock, entrapping him in different holds to where his stony resistance won't get him out of it. Then, the flashy guys can sometimes escape ZSJ and his attempts to ground them, overpowering him with their maneuverability. It's certainly not a hard and fast rule, but it does feel like there is a paper-scissors-rock dynamic at times, especially since the tournaments simply do not allow for top guys to never take losses to guys not necessarily on their level in the grand scheme.