Prior to the mid-1980s, wrestling was extremely different, not only in showmanship, but in the ring. Sure, being and acting a star took an upswing around that era, but what changed mostly within the ring was the realism, or rather the pace of the realism. Back then, wrestling was about taking your time and working holds. This was a slow process that had mere moments of fast-paced action. Every move was rung out for maximum effect. It’s the biggest difference between in ring action then (with finishing sequences being the second) and now and the major disconnect current fans have watching older matches.
There have always been stars who could work a more fluid, fast-paced style, Terry Funk comes immediately to mind, but during his NWA Title Reign and in the States, he still wrestled far more akin to the plodding (not a bad thing) matches of Harley Race and Ric Flair. That changed slowly, around the territories, in WWF and NWA all around the same general time.
Bruiser Brody was, at this time, taking the territories by storm, as were the Road Warriors. They, along with Dusty Rhodes, became some of the first non-NWA/AWA Champions to be able to travel territories and immediately draw. They did this with a very different style. Instead of working holds, they went for quick transitions and, more, a speed and impact to their moves that were unknown at that time. Sure, all could worker longer, more traditional matches, but that wasn’t their calling card – the high impact stuff was, and stiffness or not, it was the speed that they pulled off these high impact moves that was most impressive.
NWA, meanwhile, got Barry Windham around this time. Not the showman Bruiser or the WWF version of this star was, Barry worked an incredible pace. His length belied his quickness, and his ability to hit a high impact move in the flow of the match was second to none. For a time in the mid-80s he was the best worker on the planet, bar none. He would, through incredible matches with Ric Flair that I still prefer to the Steamboat ones, reinvigorate the NWA Title scene and start the ball rolling towards guys like Sting as Champion. I love Magnum TA- he was a great worker who got the evolving high impact style with better showmanship, but Windham really could have just as easily been the top face.
Randy Savage, straight from Memphis, walked into the WWF with the most advanced version of this style. Savage’s matches at the time were like no other. He was, to my knowledge, the first to mix the extreme fast pace with excessive showboating. What made that so impressive was twofold. First, Savage, for all his size, was incredibly quick. He always took the shortest route to the opponent, got there quickly, and while not excessively stiff, seemed to hit hard. The other reason he was so successful is that his timing was exquisite. A lot of guys posture for the crowd or compete in the match, badly telegraphing everything and only getting a response either for the big moves or the excessive playing to the crowd. Not Savage, though. Savage, like a current wrestler we will later discuss, would get through about half of a taunt, and then hit his big move. I recall halfway through his hands in the air, look at me taunt before turning with a punch. If he was to finish, the big elbow would get his hands raised in the air nary a moment before he sprung from the top rope. This has the effect of getting the fans response to the taunt and the move at the same time and is the difference between getting fans to care about a match and about a wrestler in the match (the former sends the crowd home happy, but the latter gets them to return). Savage’s great ability with this added one more interesting tweak in that it allowed him to lose as a heel due to his hubris. He was always taunting, then quickly attacking, but as his confidence and pride grew, he would take longer and longer to taunt, eventually allowing the time his opponent needed to come back.
I’m unsure entirely from whence this style evolved. Part of it was, no doubt, the changing dynamic television presented, forcing everyone to get over in shorter clips. Another factor was the wild success of fast-paced ECCW, as Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes were basically distinctly the two halves of the taunt and fast attacks dynamic, while fast-paced hard-hitting action might as well have been a Von Erich trademark. Rikki Choshu bringing New Japan sprints to AJPW’s NWA-based style against Jumbo Tsuruta, would further this, as would NJPW’s burgeoning Junior division. But where all of these played their part in the root cause, the result would change the wrestling landscape.
This quickening of pace was the biggest determinant in wrestler success and program direction through the year 2000. The natural progression of this success would lead in America to ECW and Attitude. Wrestling in this frame became all about the fast moments in ring that lead to character development without any of the meat. All Japan would take this increased reliance on the fast, big spot, and while WWE would do a ton of finisher kickouts, All Japan would do a ton of ridiculous head-drops. Sure, they didn’t abandon the in-ring basics like WWE would, but the increased reliance on this type of performance caused one of the biggest boom periods in wrestling history on both sides of the Pacific.
Performers, too, who could work more quickly, integrating character moments and utilizing them to get a match reaction, in turn, making the audience more involved with their character, were placed at a premium. There is a reason that as great as Bret Hart and Chris Benoit were, they were not Shawn Michaels and Eddie Guerrero. The former two were more old-NWA style workers, putting storytelling first and mostly leaving their character out of the ring besides being a tough guy or a good fighter. The latter two were tough guys and good fighters, but they were so much more. It was the little things that set them apart and made the audience care- from Eddie’s raised eyebrow, to the stomping to set up Sweet Chin Music. That stuff lets the audience know when and how to react and, when they react, they come to care.
All of which brings us to the current king of this ability, Randy Orton. A good, but not definitive, way to tell if someone has this ability is to watch their clothesline. If it’s a casual move, they almost surely don’t get it. A short path followed by tossing the arm up at the last second and a quick look of jubilation is the mark of someone who understands the why behind what they’re doing. It’s no accident that Randy Savage, the Rock, and, now, Orton throw it in this manner. Orton is also excellent at making his moves seem sudden. He’s weak at control in a match, but making a comeback? His entire arsenal of attacks is quick moves that he hesitates in for a second so the crowd has time to react, most notably his backbreaker. Finally, Orton has the pounding of the mat pre-RKO. Sure it telegraphs the move, much like Sweet Chin Music was telegraphed, but it also gives the crowd a cue to what’s coming, letting them know when and how to react. If it’s countered, so much the better, it’s just more time for steam to build before the pop. The Stunner was a very quick move, but the “kick-wham†portion was what gave the crowd time enough to react. The mat pounding is Orton’s “kick-wham.†This ability, this psychology and the way Orton utilizes it are what everyone is talking about when they say he is a great worker. The matches might not be the greatest, but the character, timing and interaction are elite, so he is praised, pushed, and draws regardless.
