Underrated wrestlers of the 80's

[Guest Trivia247]

we seen the developments of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels out of the 80's. We seen people like Hogan, Andre, Ultimate Warrior, and Macho man at the top of the mountain, some for good reasons some just for ratings or Popularity.

 

then there are the Hundreds of really unsung Talented wrestlers who didn't rise up as far as their talents could take them.

 

lets name a few... as many as you can think of..

 

Tito Santana He got all the tools plus got a decent popularity. the WWF however never saw fit to Elevate him much, asides being the IC champ in early 80's and Tag champ in mid 80's if you go by his WM track record he was the number one pusher of talent. from Wm2 to his final appearance at Wm8

 

Greg Valentine He is a Work Horse, was put into god awful tag teams where he was the Main Worker. He is also a former IC and World tag team champs, EVEN was Ric Flair's tag team partner in NWA when they won their first NWA tag titles. Greg is a Solid Long term Worker, As thick as he looked he still can go for 25+

 

sure there are more, but those are my selections...more to come.

[Guest alfdogg]

Santana was DOOMED the moment Hulkamania got off the ground, because he didn't have all that much charisma, and the Hulkamania era had guys like Hogan, JYD and the like who good cut good promos and entertain the crowd. Not that Santana didn't entertain me, because he did. Valentine had a little better promos than Tito, but he was basically in the same situation.

 

I think Paul Roma was a guy who could have had some success, he had a good look, could do the high flying style and knew how to work a crowd. He was always a face until Power & Glory formed though, and by then I think it was too late.

 

Orndorff never really got a chance after getting his nerve problems taken care of. He obviously wouldn't have main evented during the midst of the Hogan-Andre program or the emerging Savage and Dibiase into the ME, but he could have been a solid IC-level guy, IMO.

 

Toma of the Islanders was awesome before the Samoan Savage era, but the WWF must have had some kind of thing where if you weren't from North America, you had to use nerveholds for half the match or something. They couldn't have been any worse than the Headshrinkers as tag champs, especially with Heenan as their manager.

 

Hercules could take some good bumps, even if he isn't what most here would call a good worker. Same for Dino Bravo.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Barry Windham. A phenominal worker who's series with Rick Flair, much like the rest of his entire career, is never praised nearly enough.

 

More and more I'm starting to believe the hype around Tommy Rogers as one of the most underrated wrestlers to work in a well-known tag team. The MX/Fantastics fued was super fun, producing lots of kick ass matches with Rogers and Fulton being a perfect team, and Rogers, especially, standing out as a world class worker who could fufil his role in tag matches wonderfully. Great stuff.

[Guest dc_tapes]

I agree about Windham. I think Mike Rotundo was very good (but the fans didn't give a damn about him no what gimmick he had).

Even though Curt Hennig did get some big pushes, I think he could have been a great main eventer but was stuck in the midcard.

[Guest Brian]

Naoki Sano. Whatever style this guy tried he was gold. Wrestling with Yamada (Liger pre-mask), carrying Shamrock in PWFG, whatever.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

The Malenko's and Furnas/Kroffat were extremely good, too. And if you want to go with Japanese workers as well, Hiroshi Hase and Shiro Koshinaka never get enough praise for their NJ juniors work.

[Guest kingkamala]

Tommy Rogers was still pretty good when he appeared on WCW Saturday Night in early 2000. He won one squash match against a power plant jobber and then he beat Kid Romeo in a pretty good match and then he carried Lash LeRoux to a great ten minute match. But all of a sudden he was gone without even appearing on Nitro or even Thunder. More prove WCW were idiots

[Guest Loss4Words]

I'd probably go with Pat Tanaka. The guy is NEVER given credit for a lot of the stuff he did. He did some great work with Paul Diamond in the AWA, lit up Memphis for a spell, was part of an above-average tag team with Akio Sato in the WWF and has had tremendous, overlooked house show matches with guys like Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels.

 

I'm with Ricky Chosyu on Tommy Rogers. Yoshiaki Yatsu was another wrestler who was awesome for a short period of time only to drop off suddenly and unexpectedly and never reclaim his past glory.

 

Terry Taylor should have been the next Ric Flair. He was praised as such in 1987 before the WWF ruined him.

 

Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez were a terrific tag team cut short by the personal problems of both men. They were an integral part of World Class's last big money feud. Chavo & Hector Guerrero were also an awesome and overlooked tag team.

 

Finally, I also have to give props to Johnny Smith, who trained in Stu Hart's Dungeon and had short stints in Stampede, ECW and All Japan before falling off the wrestling map completely. He could have been a strong midcard wrestler in the same vein as Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton.

[Guest Cataclysm911]

Adrian Adonis.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I'd probably go with Pat Tanaka. The guy is NEVER given credit for a lot of the stuff he did. He did some great work with Paul Diamond in the AWA, lit up Memphis for a spell, was part of an above-average tag team with Akio Sato in the WWF and has had tremendous, overlooked house show matches with guys like Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels

 

Tanaka was one of those solid->good roleplayers that every roster needs. A very good tag wrestler as well. Good call.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

I agree with Valentine and Taylor.

 

With Furnas and Kroffat/LaFon i have no idea how the wwf screwed it up. In their debut match at SS96 they went over owen and bulldog and got very over in the process, yet after that they fell into obscurity really. I guess they weren't as a good a choice for tag gold as the godwinns always seemed to be back then. sigh. Mankind and vader should have steamrolled through the tag division as well. Poor vader.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I always thought Foley was really underrated as a tag wrestler. He had some really fun matches with the Nasties in WCW (although overrated by most, IMO) and a lot of similar matchups in ECW.

[Guest Tim Cooke]

GOD DAMN was Tommy Rogers under rated in the 1980's. He could work ANY style, almost a Chris Benoit type wrestler. He could go technical, he could go lucha (relative term for the 80's), he could brawl as good as anyone in the 80's...then in the 90's, he went to AJPW to work a totally different style. I am pretty sure that Rogers could have worked the early UWF style very well as he often used the simple cross armbreakers to set up for tag team moves.

 

Windham is under rated by most but the hardcores know that he was as good if not better than Flair from 1987-1989.

[Guest Trivia247]

2 more choices for Underrated

 

Tom Zenk.... totally misused in the WWF or at least wasn't given much respect...He was solid mat wrestler who could take to the air...Now he is a bitter bitter bitter old wrestler...

 

Jerry Lawler...Ok hear me out... He maybe the GOD of Memphis, but who outside of USWA or Memphis ever heard of him? He was a basic wrestler with great ability to work the crowd. Classically trained heel tactics. his Claim to fame would be Piledriving Andy Kaupman...decade before he Smashed Tiny Tim's little ukulele whom weeks later died...

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Rick Martel. Everyone hated him for being handed the AWA Championship, but he actually wasn't that bad.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I used to mark for Koko B. Ware. He had the best brainbuster too, and he was very short so it's a wonder he could do it on a big dude.

 

How about Billy Travis? There is a VERY obscure name that only Memphis die hards like myself know about. He was crap by the 90s when he was Billy Joe Travis the HTM ripoff, but in the 80s he and Jeff Jarrett were a kick ass tag team. Back then I seem to recall Jarrett and Travis, Stud Stable guys (Foley included even if I can't recall him very well), the Midnight Rockers, and the Southern Boys ALL being in Memphis. Hell of a tag division, not to mention the luminaries like Lawler and Dundee. Makes me miss USWA/Memphis stuff!

 

I'll go even further into NWA tag obscurity than the Fantastics. Most people know them if they have any wrestling knowledge. Anyone remember the Lightning Express? Tim Horner and this other guy, they were jobbers but they always seemed impressive before losing to the Midnights, Horsemen, whoever.

[Guest BaldFish]

Ted DiBiase. Nuff said.

[Guest Your Olympic Hero]

The Blue Blazer

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Ted DiBiase. Nuff said.

Is he really that underrated? Most people consider him one of the top three WWF wrestlers of the late 80s (w/ Savage & Hennig).

[Guest converge241]

Badd Company as a team were very underrated WWF should have signed them and pushed them to the moon

 

(and NO the Orient Express does not count)

[Guest thetrendsetter]

Ted Dibiase...

 

The Forgoten wonder worker of the 80's... The Man Shoulda been World Champion for a long time... But Vince never went the final step with him...

 

Even as top heel in the later part of the 80's, he was still under pushed

 

The man could be considered one of the top workers of the 80;s, but is never mentioned

[Guest converge241]

i think DiBiase gets a lot of respect (from the "smart" community) and is rated right

 

WWF underated him though.

He should have been their Flair

[Guest Celtic Jobber]

Three words: Koko B. Ware

[Guest Your Olympic Hero]

Three words: Koko B. Ware

for some reason I think Koko would have been a good sneaky heel.

[Guest kingkamala]

You must have seen Supertape 91(I think that's the one where Koko plays the heel in a weird face-face match against Tito Santana)

[Guest cabbageboy]

This is really creepy. I tossed out Billy Travis's name on this forum and a few days later I read that the guy dies. :-(

[Paul Stanley]

Lanny Poffo pre-genius

[Guest Respect The 'Taker]

Bulldog Bob Brown baby!