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Post by The Rick Jericho on Aug 21, 2022 14:03:53 GMT -5
Watching old Yokozuna stuff, sometimes he lands very gently with more pressure on his legs than falling on the wrestler. Other times, he goes full weight on the person landing. Why were the banzai drops so inconsistent? Sometimes it looks like a real easy landing and other times, it looks like he's gonna kill the guy. Safe: Unsafe:
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on Aug 21, 2022 14:08:06 GMT -5
He was more careful with WWF-employed guys and murderized the local enhancement talent. That was pretty much standard operating procedure at the time.
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Aug 21, 2022 14:09:53 GMT -5
I believe it's been said by more than one person who was around during that era that he would go easy on the "name guys" as long as they didn't piss him off, but he would absolutely kill the jobbers. Why would he do that? Because wrestling is a f***ed up business where having a guy practically cave in your chest with his ass is considered "paying your dues".
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Aug 21, 2022 14:12:12 GMT -5
He was more careful with WWF-employed guys and murderized the local enhancement talent. That was pretty much standard operating procedure at the time. Yep. The Steiners, especially, loved to drop the job guys on their heads
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Post by 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger on Aug 21, 2022 14:16:35 GMT -5
Listen man.
Protect your opponent, that kinda thing. But the safe Banzai looks like absolute shit lol
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Post by Honeybear Lyder on Aug 21, 2022 14:16:38 GMT -5
It's a miracle he never injured anyone with it. Looks like he's just crushing the guy's ribcage.
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Post by jason1980s on Aug 21, 2022 14:18:41 GMT -5
I believe it's been said by more than one person who was around during that era that he would go easy on the "name guys" as long as they didn't piss him off, but he would absolutely kill the jobbers. Why would he do that? Because wrestling is a f***ed up business where having a guy practically cave in your chest with his ass is considered "paying your dues". The respect and dues BS must run in the family both Fatu and Samu were beating up Ray Odyssey pretty badly in a match because the rookie Ray was coming off a victory a previous week and wanted to tell the guys how the match would go. Samu wasn't nearly as bad as Fatu. Of course Ray "learned" quickly and thanked both guys after the match. Years later Fatu and Haku were in WWF developmental and Haku's partner was holding Rikishi but didn't let him go and Haku kicked Rikishi hard and Rikishi went nuts on the young guy, hitting him with horrible chair shots. Yokozuna was so big that just one wrong move could be potentially deadly to a guy. That second gif wasn't even his worst one. There's one where it looks like he slipped and lands right on the guy's neck and doesn't get up until the ref keeps tapping him.
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Aug 21, 2022 14:21:08 GMT -5
Jim Cornette has also stated that as Yoko got bigger, he started get sloppier with things like this. He had trouble controlling his drops as he got closer to the end of his run.
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Post by lildude8218 on Aug 21, 2022 14:21:36 GMT -5
Cornette said he had been hit harder by someone in a pillow fight than he was taking the Banzai Drop but when Yoko gained too much weight that the legdrop messed his neck up.
*points up*
Yeah, what he said.
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Aug 21, 2022 14:24:53 GMT -5
Jim Cornette has also stated that as Yoko got bigger, he started get sloppier with things like this. He had trouble controlling his drops as he got closer to the end of his run. Wasn't the reason for the rope break thing at SummerSlam against Austin because they wanted to send him a message that he needed to lose weight? So they booked a finish where his weight caused him to lose?
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Post by XIII on Aug 21, 2022 15:36:36 GMT -5
The ones on the jobbers were definitely way less safe, but he’s still holding the ropes and taking some of the weight on his shoulders. That’s probably the only thing saving those dudes from certain death.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2022 20:54:07 GMT -5
The second one posted in the OP scares the shit out of me everytime I see it.
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Post by moonpies88 on Aug 21, 2022 21:05:15 GMT -5
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Post by Mozenrath on Aug 21, 2022 21:09:21 GMT -5
Listen man. Protect your opponent, that kinda thing. But the safe Banzai looks like absolute shit lol Almost surprised they didn't just have him do his belly to belly as a finisher past a certain point, if only because that had to be easier on Yoko's body.
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on Aug 21, 2022 21:25:12 GMT -5
He was more careful with WWF-employed guys and murderized the local enhancement talent. That was pretty much standard operating procedure at the time. Yep. The Steiners, especially, loved to drop the job guys on their heads Legit was gonna add a video of the Steiners if it wasn't so hard on mobile. Dudes got an extra payday to go above and beyond to put new talent over, if that means getting the shit kicked out of you or your head shaded or having a snake slither around you
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Post by Mozenrath on Aug 21, 2022 21:35:37 GMT -5
Yep. The Steiners, especially, loved to drop the job guys on their heads Legit was gonna add a video of the Steiners if it wasn't so hard on mobile. Dudes got an extra payday to go above and beyond to put new talent over, if that means getting the shit kicked out of you or your head shaded or having a snake slither around you I'm reminded of Cornette saying how the Midnight Express wouldn't murder jobbers or anything, but they'd try to find out what they were able to do, how much experience they had, stuff like that, and work with them, but that at the end of the day, the point of the match was for the name talent to look good. Some guys definitely didn't leave that up to chance. Still, there's a difference between some stiff strikes and dropping people on their head, and the former is leagues more justifiable.
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Post by The Rick Jericho on Aug 21, 2022 22:02:45 GMT -5
Did they get safer as time went on?
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Post by jason1980s on Aug 22, 2022 9:38:25 GMT -5
Poor D'Lo Brown probably lives with feelings of guilt over Droz being paralyzed even though it was a true accident while guys like Yoko, Steiners and Beverly Brothers did their best to be dangerous with jobbers.
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Aug 22, 2022 11:11:11 GMT -5
Did they get safer as time went on? If you watch closely, you'll notice the ones where he stays in a crouched position were to guys like Bret, Hogan, Crush, Duggan, i.e. guys who under contract. I did notice a few safer ones to guys I couldn't recognize, though. So it's possible as he got heavier, he was instructed to be more careful with jobbers. But those ones at the beginning where he sprawled out? Definitely at the start of his run.
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Post by DeeBee on Aug 22, 2022 11:22:14 GMT -5
Yeah, most of these looked brutal. There's absolutely no way I'd take a move like that from him.
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