Hollywood Blondes

[Guest Loss]

I think Shawn was a better seller, used a bigger moveset and played his role better (getting the right kind of heat without exception) during his time in the Rockers than he did as a singles star. He had some great matches once he got on top and I'm not attempting to downplay those. But I see matches like his match with Jannetty against Somers & Rose, and the series with Arn & Tully, and them carrying bad-watchable wrestlers like the Twin Towers or Haku & Barbarian to good matches, and I think he may have been better in this time period.

 

Of course, every time I say that, it gets misunderstood as me saying I think he was a bad worker in singles competition. And I don't think that. At all.

[strummer 0]

I think what hurt Shawn as a worker was that he had to conform to what Vince McMahon saw in a top face wrestler, which was no-selling, posing, and constantly pandering to the crowd. If you watch Shawn as a Rocker in the early 90s he really doesn't show the overt charisma that he would show later on during his singles push. From a pure work standpoint, he was probably a little better as a Rocker. His singles matches were definitely more dramatic and feautured more pure athleticism, but his tag matches were probably better from a technical standpoint. On the From the Vault DVD, his selling in the September 1986 Summers/Rose v Rockers match is tremendous (as was Jannety's)

[Guest Ray]

I think what hurt Shawn as a worker was that he had to conform to what Vince McMahon saw in a top face wrestler, which was no-selling, posing, and constantly pandering to the crowd.

Did Bret Hart no-sell, pose, and constantly pander to the crowd? Steve Austin?

[strummer 0]

I think what hurt Shawn as a worker was that he had to conform to what Vince McMahon saw in a top face wrestler, which was no-selling, posing, and constantly pandering to the crowd.

Did Bret Hart no-sell, pose, and constantly pander to the crowd? Steve Austin?

No, but Austin 99 came very close to. However Hogan did, Warrior did, Shawn did, Nash did,Undertaker did, Rock did to an extent (doing promos mid match, facial expressions to the crowd) Shawn started acting differently in the ring when his singles push started, he started taunting and posing and overtly playing to the crowd, stuff he never did as a Rocker

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Pillman was more over.

 

But Austin had the higher position on the card.

 

Austin played #2 man in the D.A., and had worked matches with them all...Steamboat, Sting, Rhodes, Windham, etc.

 

Pillman had recently turned on the fans and was having problems with the likes of Dustin, Steamboat, and Shane Douglas.

 

Today's comparison would be, on Raw:

 

Batista (Steve Austin) & Christian (Brian Pillman). Christian is a little high up on the card tho, but thats due to Raw being a split roster.