Lance Storm's thoughts on Stiff Workers

[haVoc 0]

This is from his recent commentary "Questions and Answers pt 2."

 

Thoughts on Strong Style Stiff Wrestling?

 

I’ve dealt with this before and I’m pretty much against it. It’s hard enough to keep your body together in this business with out hurting each other intentionally. I don’t mind solid workers but I find in most cases the less skilled workers are the ones who try to work a stiff stronger style to make up for it. That was the origin of a lot of the hard-core style wrestling. It was workers who weren’t good enough to get noticed wrestling so they hit each other with stuff and jumped off of things to grab attention. The same can be said for a lot of the strong stiff style. Guys get pops from the crowd by stiffing the hell out of each other. A lot of people talk about how stiff Fit Finlay was yet as much as I dislike Stiff wrestling he’s my all time favourite guy to work. Fit was snug and very skilled. He laid his stuff in and was so precise I never got hurt. I remember it stinging when he forearmed me but I was never sore after a match. Most stiffer guys today are sloppy and it causes injury. Having to work stiff, to me, says your not good enough to make it look stiff.

 

I know alot of you have a hard on for the indy/hardcore workers so would you agree with what he said?

[NYU 0]

So then I guess this means your punches and chairshots can look like the drizzling shits, huh Lance ?

[Guest MikeSC]

So then I guess this means your punches and chairshots can look like the drizzling shits, huh Lance ?

Storm's style isn't a hardcore style. He doesn't do chairshots well and he has admitted that more than a few times.

 

Storm, when given the chance, can work terrific matches.

 

He has gone this route before, stating that it's real easy to make your stuff look good when you're beating the crap out of somebody legit (I think he was discussing Misawa and Kawada, but I do not claim to know). The skill is making it look good when you're not beating somebody up.

-=Mike

[syxx2001 0]

So I guess American Dragon's mat work means he is a poor wrestler because he is stiff.

[Guest Trivia247]

theirs always a difference between intially stiff and being out there to hurt someone and being stiff with cool moves if both men know its coming. If someone knows ahead of time that someone is gonna hit a Sick spot on them, then you can't really intially fault them if you were in on the process in story telling the match.

[Guest MikeSC]

theirs always a difference between intially stiff and being out there to hurt someone and being stiff with cool moves if both men know its coming. If someone knows ahead of time that someone is gonna hit a Sick spot on them, then you can't really intially fault them if you were in on the process in story telling the match.

Like Lance said, Finlay was a fairly stiff guy (I know everybody I've ever heard and seen reek of stiffness) but he didn't injure anybody.

 

You can be stiff and not injure people.

-=Mike

[Guest Trivia247]

then theres Saturn and Mike Bell..

[Guest The Real Nosferatu]

Mike Bell???

[Guest MikeSC]

Mike Bell???

Jobber that Saturn just annihilated on WWE TV in fairly sick fashion. Made what the Steiners did to Iizuka at WrestleWar 1991 seem tame.

 

The APA then beat the snot out of him in a match (allegedly, for punishment) and I think his "goofy idiot" angle started soon after.

-=Mike

[Guest Loss]

This is all correct. And Storm is right in that a lot of bad workers got over through the hardcore style that was popular for so long. I'm so glad that's phasing out, but what's sad is that good brawls are also almost obsolete because of it, excluding yet another option for blowing off "blood feuds", that is, if there actually were blood feuds anymore.

[Nevermortal 0]

I'm sorry, if I were given the chance between seeing a Lance Storm match, and a Samoa Joe match, well....ITS BOOT SCRAPE TIME, MOTHERFUCKER.

[bob_barron 0]

I'm sorry, if I were given the chance between seeing a Lance Storm match, and a Samoa Joe match, well....ITS BOOT SCRAPE TIME, MOTHERFUCKER.

OLAY OLAY OLAY OLAY OLAY.

 

Lance just doesn't seen to have it anymore- I think it's just wear and tear

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

but have Joe and Dragon ever injured someone? (besides bumps and bruises)

[Guest webmasterofwrestlegame]

What are the advantages of wrestling stiff over 'normal'?

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

What does Strong Style have to do with Hardcore?

[syxx2001 0]

but have Joe and Dragon ever injured someone? (besides bumps and bruises)

They could, look at Low Ki. And he never said anything about hurting someone or not, except for Finlay, he just said "The people who suck resort to working stiff." But is he saying the people who work stiff really suck? Something to think about.

 

Not really, but you can if you want.

[Guest God Junior]

What does Strong Style have to do with Hardcore?

I think he was basically saying that they're both methods of getting over via your in-ring performance despite not being a truely skilled worker.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

Anyone remember Regal on Tough Enough when he said "I hit very hard in safe places". I think Storm is thinking along those same lines. It's ok to be stiff, but also be safe. I'd rather see a wrestler's career go for 10-15 years and not 5 then have to retire because of injuries.

[Guest The Real Nosferatu]

Regal displays his Turtle Power. LoL

 

I miss Regal now. (Cries)

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Well finally someone said it,

 

That Kawada feller just didn't know how to work.

[Tawren 0]

Anyone remember Regal on Tough Enough when he said "I hit very hard in safe places". I think Storm is thinking along those same lines. It's ok to be stiff, but also be safe. I'd rather see a wrestler's career go for 10-15 years and not 5 then have to retire because of injuries.

Exactly. He's saying "don't be stiff just to be stiff", not "stiff workers suck kthxbye".

[Guest Coffey]

Well finally someone said it,

 

That Kawada feller just didn't know how to work.

That's what I was thinking. What the fuck?

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

What are the advantages of wrestling stiff over 'normal'?

In my opinion, it makes any match better.

 

seriously.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Now, were you saying "what the fuck" to Storm saying Kawada was a weak worker cause he worked stiff (as he did back in the Storm vs. DVDVR days) dispite having infinitely better matches than Lance, or are you saying "What the fuck" cause we were thinking the same thing

[Guest Coffey]

Now, were you saying "what the fuck" to Storm saying Kawada was a weak worker cause he worked stiff (as he did back in the Storm vs. DVDVR days) dispite having infinitely better matches than Lance, or are you saying "What the fuck" cause we were thinking the same thing

That one.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Stiffness makes the match look more real and therefore makes it easier to suspend disbelief.

[Guest JMA]

There's a big difference, IMO, between being stiff and being sloppy. For example...

 

Vader=Stiff

Bradshaw=Sloppy

[Invictus 0]

That's the point Lance is trying to make though. Stiffness makes a match more believable because you are actually hitting them hard(er). He's saying a truly good worker could make a match look incredibly stiff and real as hell, and yet his opponent would barely feel it.

[Ultra Violence 0]

That's the point Lance is trying to make though. Stiffness makes a match more believable because you are actually hitting them hard(er). He's saying a truly good worker could make a match look incredibly stiff and real as hell, and yet his opponent would barely feel it.

In my opinion stiff workers are good as they add legitimacy to the matches + the "sport"

[humongous2002 0]

Lance is just bitter, he needs to stop worrying about other wrestlers' styles and start thinking about his career as Goldust's new lil' buddy.