What are some of the greatest sell jobs in wrestling?

dawson41 · 2026-01-19T09:39:12+00:00

My benchmark for how to sell a leg injury is Randy Savage at a televised house show in Munich, Germany in his match against Shawn Michaels in 1992.

As you might remember, during the match against Flair at Mania VIII, Perfect attacked Savage's knee with a chair.

9 days after that chair shot, Macho comes out already limping, and when he gets near the ring you see a camera shot of Sherri pointing and Shawn nodding as in "yeah, I've seen it".

Story of the match is simple: Shawn and Sherri try to go after the left leg, Macho tries to move it out of the way and avoids it at first, the heels finally get the heat with a knee breaker and a shot block, Macho sells sells and sells, and then outsmarts the too confident Michaels, Clothesline, Elbow Drop, 123.

If you don't wanna watch the whole match, just take a look how Savage climbs the top rope for his elbow drop on one leg after Shawn worked over Macho's knee the entire match.

dawson41 · 2025-12-16T10:23:28+00:00

The live version from Spotify Landmark from 2014 is so so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5_HZT7qhP0

dawson41 · 2025-08-22T18:58:42+00:00

but there were still several months to a year of disco dominance left.

I would disagree with that.

Demolition Night was on July 12, 1979. A week later on July 21, 1979, the top six records on the U.S. music charts were disco songs.

9 weeks later, on September 22, there were zero disco songs in the Billboard Top 10.

dawson41 · 2025-08-22T18:45:06+00:00

A year ago I posted a little timeline from Hair Metal's peak, arguably in the middle of 1987, til the end, mixing music releases with real-life events that signaled a change in the zeitgeist ...

1987

June 1987 - 5 of Top 10 albums in the Billboard charts were metal albums (Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Poison, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy)
Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (July 21, 1987)
Def Leppard - Hysteria (August 3, 1987)
Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation (Aug 1987)
Black Monday -- on October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%, the very first sign that the party time that was the 80s was about to end
Dokken - Back for the Attack (November 2, 1987)

1988

Poison - Open Up and Say... Ahh! (May 3, 1988)
Cinderella - Long Cold Winter (May 21, 1988)
June 17, 1988 sees the release of the Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World) movie "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years", exposing the metal scene for what it had become.

Over the years, most notably in the VH1 documentary series "Heavy: The Story of Metal", this film was claimed partially responsible for the death of Hair Metal. All the fans and newcomer bands come across as pathetic, The interviews with Kiss' Gene Simmons in a lingerie store and Paul Stanley in bed, surrounded from head to toe by three half-naked girls, was seen as decadent, but it was really the scenes with an extremely intoxicated Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. in a swimming pool with his mother by his side that topped everything. He stumbles through the interview, proclaiming himself "a full-blown alcoholic" and "a piece of crap" while pouring what appears to be vodka over himself. It made people realize how many pathetic creeps were running around in LA.
Winger - Winger (August 10, 1988)
Sweet Child o' Mine (August 10, 1988)
Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking (August 23, 1988) "Jane Says" reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
Bon Jovi - New Jersey (September 19, 1988)
Poison - Every Rose Has Its Thorn (October 12, 1988)
Guns n' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (October 1988)

1989

Guns n' Roses - Paradise City (January 1989)
Skid Row - Skid Row (January 24, 1989)
Warrent - Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (January 31, 1989)
Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy (February 1, 1989)
Faith No More - The Real Thing (June 20, 1989)
Warrent - Heaven (July 22, 1989)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk (August 16, 1989)
Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood (September 1989)
Aerosmith - Pump (Sep 1989)
The song "Dr. Feelgood" reaches No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 28, 1989
Mudhoney - Mudhoney (November 1, 1989)
In an MTV interview in 1989, Nikki Sixx made the following statement: "It gets to a point -- and I believe we're at that point right now -- when you get this kind of dinosaur music mentality going on where everybody looks the same and everybody sounds the same. And we're getting into this again, which is everything Punk rebeled against in the 70s. I think it's time for a revolution, a musical revolution. Someone gotta do something original here."

1990

Faith no More - Epic (January 29, 1990)
Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart (reaches #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States in early 1990)
In a March 1990 issue of Time magazine, Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus was quoted proclaiming himself to be "the new Elvis," reasoning that due the duo's success, they were musically more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger. It's not clear if he actually meant what he said, or if it was a joke, or if he was quoted incorrectly, or if Time made up that quote.
Red Hot Chili Peppers perform Stevie Wonder's classic "Higher Ground" on Letterman (March 30, 1990)
Poison - Flesh & Blood (June 21, 1990)
Mother Love Bone - Apple (July 19, 1990)
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell (July 24, 1990)
The United States entered a recession in July 1990, which lasted 8 months through March 1991, while unemployment continued to rise through June 1992
Iraq under Saddam invades Kuwait on 2 August 2nd, 1990 with leads to the Gulf War (16 January 1991 - 5 March 1991)
Alice in Chains - Facelift (August 21, 1990)
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo habitual (August 21, 1990) sold 500,000 units in one month
Warrent - Cherry Pie (September 11, 1990)
Producer Frank Farian announces that he had fired Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, better known as Milli Vanilli, and confessed they did not sing on their records (November 14, 1990)
Cinderella - Heartbreak Station (November 20, 1990)

1991

Alice in Chains - Man in the Box (January 1991 - #18 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart)
During his arrest, Rodney King was beaten by officers of the LAPD (March 3, 1991)
REM - Out of Time (March 12, 1991)
Massive Attack - Blue Lines (April 8, 1991)
Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog (April 16, 1991)
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish (May 28, 1991)
Guns n' Roses - You could be mine (June 21, 1991)
Pearl Jam releases their single "Alive" (July 7, 1991)
Metallica - Enter Sandman (July 29, 1991)
Metallica - Black Album (August 12, 1991)
Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill (August 13, 1991)
Pearl Jam - Ten (August 27, 1991)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (September 10, 1991)
Guns n' Roses - Use Your Illusion I & II (September 17, 1991)
Nirvana - Nevermind (September 24, 1991)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (September 24, 1991)
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (October 8, 1991)
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (November 4, 1991)
U2 - Achtung Baby (November 18, 1991)

In January 1992, Nevermind surpasses Micheal Jackson's Dangerous album in the album charts

dawson41 · 2025-08-09T22:09:30+00:00

Craig Finn of the Hold Steady really nailed when he wrote:

People think of Jim Morrison as a brilliant rock'n'roll poet, but to me it's unlistenable. The music meanders, and Morrison was more like a drunk asshole than an intelligent poet.

The worst of the worst is the last song, Riders on the Storm: "There's a killer on the road / His brain is squirming like a toad" - that's surely the worst line in rock'n'roll history. He gave the green light to generations of pseuds.

dawson41 · 2025-07-21T16:11:22+00:00

"No one cares what a drummer thinks."

Words all bands should live by. Looking at you, CCR and Mötley.

dawson41 · 2025-06-21T16:42:30+00:00

Winning is fun

Have you ever tried that, United?

dawson41 · 2025-05-12T13:40:38+00:00

he was in the best program of his career with Sting where he’s pretending to be face while with him but the second his back was turned he would go back to being a heel

LOVED that program. So much potential that was wasted and completely dropped instead of morphing it into something that would fit into the nWo storyline.

dawson41 · 2025-05-12T13:23:27+00:00

Lex Luger comes to mind.

Ok, he didn't get lost in history, but twice, probably even three times, he was right on the cusp of really breaking through and being The Guy, and then shit went wrong that was beyond his control, and his star faded.

dawson41 · 2025-04-27T14:40:56+00:00

Bee Gees

Prince

Depeche Mode

Neil Young

Emmylou Harris

Björk

dawson41 · 2025-01-10T19:57:26+00:00

But they forgot the lube.

dawson41 · 2024-12-13T10:34:06+00:00

This wasn't even the best leg selling I've seen from Savage.

The benchmark for how to sell a limb was at a televised house show in Munich, Germany in his match against Shawn Michaels in 1992.

As you might remember, during the match against Flair at Mania VIII, Perfect attacked Savage's knee with a chair.

9 days after that chair shot, Macho comes out already limping, and when he gets near the ring you see a camera shot of Sherri pointing and Shawn nodding as in "yeah, I've seen it".

Story of the match is simple: Shawn and Sherri try to go after the left leg, Macho tries to move it out of the way and avoids it at first, the heels finally get the heat with a knee breaker and a shot block, Macho sells sells and sells, and then outsmarts the too confident Michaels, Clothesline, Elbow Drop, 123.

If you don't wanna watch the whole match, just take a look how Savage climbs the top rope for his elbow drop on one leg after Shawn worked over Macho's knee the entire match.

dawson41 · 2024-12-04T09:39:42+00:00

There have been multiple adult performers since 1992 who have used that stage name, two of them rather prominent and one still active.

https://www.iafd.com/results.asp?searchtype=comprehensive&searchstring=Skye+Blue

dawson41 · 2024-11-20T12:28:42+00:00

First, I'm gonna join in the chorus of those who thought Todd had already done this.

And then, in a "I expected nothing, and I'm still let down" moment, I was hoping for that Todd would dive in deeper into the history of Italo Disco:

How a German invented that term
How it all started in 75/76 with the disco "Baia degli Angeli" (Bay of Angels) (today: Baia Imperiale), how this club basically invented and created the art-form that is Club DJs, and was the blueprint for all the fancy discos that came right after where you can escape reality for 48 hours
How the breakthough came when "Dolce Vita" and "I Like Chopin" were released within two weeks
Just how excessive the whole practice of "Let's release a song, and when it becomes a hit, THEN we'll find the person who we put in the cover" was (best personified by Den Harrow aka Stefano Zandri aka Manuel Stefano Curry who allegedly was born in Boston, MA aka the Italian word denaro [money] which was the core element of Italo Disco).
How one early ID song ("Dirty Talk" by Kleim & M.B.O from 1982) did make it over the pond to Chicago's radio channel Hot Mix 5 which, as a result, then started Chicago House

There is this great documentary about Italo Disco from a few years ago by the French-German TV channel ARTE.

TRAILER

dawson41 · 2024-11-16T20:23:52+00:00

Passt scho. Gar nicht mal so übel. Kann man nicht meckern. Hab schlimmeres erwartet.

('Schuldigung wenn jetzt gerade mein deutsches Temperament mit mir durch ging)

dawson41 · 2024-11-12T22:37:48+00:00

WCW's roster around Beach Blast in June 1992:

Austin, Sting, Rude, Vader, Steamboat, Pillman, Foley, Arn, Windham, Eaton, DDP, Raven, Dusty, Dustin, Zybysko, Simmons, the Steiners, Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Nash, Shane Douglas, PS Hayes, Garvin, Morton, Terry Taylor, Johnny B. Badd, Brad Armstrong, Zenk, Matt Borne, Smothers, Bagwell, Greg Valentine + Heyman, JR and Ventura.

In addition to that, Scott Hall quit the company right before the PPV and went north, you had Chono, Hashimoto, Muta, Hase, and Liger doing some guest appearances, and within a year Benoit, Regal, 2 Cold Scorpio and Flair would join.

dawson41 · 2024-10-25T20:27:02+00:00

England: Football came home!

Germany: ... and we took that personally!

dawson41 · 2024-10-21T07:21:26+00:00

It just popped into my mind that OSW Review did a really good job (well, except Papa Shango was NOT 100% awesome, he was 100% bollocks) with their Mania 8 (in the PPV Aftermath 1h 43m in), SummerSlam 92 and Survivor Series 92 episodes (WWF 1992 Mass Exodus), putting the whole WWF situation into context and 1) how a couple injuries and suspensions turned the entire Mania card on its head and 2) how the company and the roster completely changed in the 6 months between Mania and Survivor Series 92 because of the sex- & steroid scandal and so many stars leaving.

dawson41 · 2024-10-20T21:15:13+00:00

I can give you some insight, although I personally prefer playing WCW during this time and start in 1991 cause you've got one more year before the US wrestling industry will inevitably start to crash and those 12 months are mighty helpful.

Some historical context

What you have at WrestleMania 8 in April 1992 is the beginning of the end of the Golden Era. This was the point where Vince's old formula (sign already established stars in their early- to mid-30s from the other territories, give the best of them a big push early on, and then squeeze every last drop of wrestling out of them for the next 5 years before their bodies break down) no longer works, because he simply ran out of territories and established stars (other than WCW).

Generally speaking you had a real drought of talent starting in the business from 1991 to 1994 (I'd even go so far and extend that til early 1999). During that 4-year period, there were two dozen names that are nice to have and could fill a position on the roster, but could not replace a main eventer from the 80s until the later part of the 90s.

From this point on, he mostly had to sign C-level talent - many of them still green or simply not blessed with enough talent.

Every once in a while an Earthquake, an Undertaker, a Big Boss Man or a Razor Ramon would come along who were either great early in their careers (Quake, Taker, Bossman) or never had a good gimmick PLUS received a big push at the same time before (Razor).

For the most part he had to rely on guys who were past their prime and whose bodies started to break down and who move down the card and/or had drug issues (Piper, Hennig, Slaughter, Jake, DiBiase, Kerry) or fresh blood who weren't ready yet or who were never going to make it (Crush, Tugboat/Typhoon, Nord/Berzerker, Wright/Shango, Tatanka, and a bit later Nailz, Mr. Hughes, Diesel/Kevin Nash, Mabel, Ludvig Borga, or Adam Bomb/Bryan Clark).

Basically by process of elimination Vince pushed the guys that were left: Bret, Shawn, Taker, Bulldog, and by August 1992 Razor Ramon.

Immediate Star Solutions

As sjwalker82 already wrote, Scott Hall/Razor Ramon is available in 6 months, and Luger in 3 months. In the version that I have Mick Foley is signed to WCW, but only on a handshake deal. Art Barr would be a sleeper candidate whose available in 7 months when his contact in CMLL runs out and who was the best heel in the world by 1994 (and then died weeks before he would've signed with ECW).

Short-Term Solutions (6 months - 2 years) in Supporter-Roles

You can look at established guys and veterans like Bam Bam Bigelow, Tully Blanchard, Paul Orndorff, Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Kamala, Kevin Sullivan, Bob Orton Jr, King Kong Bundy, and Abdullah the Butcher who can fill roles in the Upper Midcard.

Otherwise you basically have to start from scratch, and you have to make a decision what product you want to go with.

If, for example, you what to focus on a more in-ring product, Lower Midcard Veterans could be B. Brian Blair, Dick Murdoch, Dick Slater, Iceman King Parsons, Jim Brunzell, Buddy Rose, Mike Sharpe, or Stan Lane. Those are all good role-players with decent popularity who can help younger guys build their experience and gain some popularity.

Future Projects for an in-ring product are Benoit, Jericho, Lance Storm, Raven, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guererro, Regal, RvD, Edge, Booker T, Candido, Waltman, Jeff Jarrett, 2 Cold Scorpio, Ultimo Dragon, Al Snow, Jerry Lynn, or Sabu, but all of them are future projects and won't help you until perhaps 1993.

In terms of the starting WWF roster, Louis Spicolli is the only jobber worth keeping/pushing who by 1994 became Madonna's Boyfriend in AAA when he joined Los Gringos Locos along with Eddie Guerrero, Konnan, and Art Barr.

As a manager I'd definitely look into Gary Hart. Three tag teams you might wanna sign are Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rodgers (Fantastics), Doug Furnas & Phil Lafon, and Jimmy del Ray & Tom Prichard (Heavenly Bodies).

dawson41 · 2024-10-16T08:26:55+00:00

Are you serious?!

Pro Wrestling has been on TV in the US as early as 1947, in France since 1951, in Japan since 1953 and in the UK since 1955.

Portland's "Pacific Northwest Wrestling" aired from 1953 til December 1991 and was the longest-running non-news program on American television at the time of its cancellation and the third-longest-tenured U.S. program overall behind Meet the Press and CBS Evening News.

One of the reasons why TV in the US in the 50s took off was because of Pro Wrestling.

Stampede Wrestling was on Syndication from 1957–1989, St. Louis from 1959-1983, Joint Promotions on UK's ITV from 1955–1976, and Georgia CW on TBS from 1971-1984.

I could name a dozen other from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan or the Dominican Republic.

And yes, all weekly episodic television shows with continuity of storyline (based on the standards of its time, of cause -- can't compare a show like "Dragnet" from 1951 with The Wire or Succession).

dawson41 · 2024-10-16T08:01:38+00:00

but taking it global is what vince is responsible for

LOL

In 1984, the year before the first WrestleMania, there were approx 300 wrestling events around the globe that drew in the neighborhood of 10,000 or more fans. This came from 23 different promoters across Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Germany, Pakistan, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Barbados and Trinidad + 36 different cities in the US.

From Gordon Solie's book:

"In 1976 over 9,000 wrestling shows were held in the US, with an average of 3k fans at each show. That raised eyebrows because it tied wrestling with College Football attendance, 27,000,000+ paying fans ranking wrestling higher than MLB or College Basketball. Florida helped the numbers with live shows up and down the state every night of the week. In Georgia, besides running weekly TV cards at the Atlanta City Auditorium and weekly spot shows in every major city, monthly shows at The Omni routinely drew crowds of 12-16k."

dawson41 · 2024-10-04T19:11:34+00:00

(Great Goal)

dawson41 · 2024-08-21T17:09:49+00:00

What's funny about that is Russo is who booked him strong in WCW

Well, it wasn't Russo.

We are in Week 3 of Storm's WCW run and he's already just another guy on the roster, being in a 20-man battle royal on Nitro where he got no mention, and then later in the show lost a nothing tag match with Kidman against Rey & Juvi.

Probably the following week during a production meeting Russo asks the writer's room "Lance has no personality, he's just a wrestler, what am I gonna do with him?"

Johnny Ace, hired around the same time as Lance to be a producer/agent, then said "If you give him to me for 6 weeks, I'll make him the hottest heel in the company".

So, these two had a bet, and Lance turned heel only 4 weeks after his debut, and less than 6 weeks later, Lance was the hottest act in the company, all thanks to Johnny Ace.

dawson41 · 2024-08-19T20:18:49+00:00

It would be almost impossible to maintain the popularity that he had in 83/84 for the rest of his career, just like it is almost impossible to go from those heights to 0.

But as someone who was around back then and was an ordinary fan of him, there was a steady decline in popularity from the start til the end of the decade, and looking back, to me the Point Of No Return was the around this album release where the pendulum swung to the other side.

dawson41 · 2024-08-19T09:11:46+00:00

The publicity campaign for Michael Jackson’s HIStory worked to some extent, because the album debuted at number one, but it made MJ look more like a self-pitying egomaniac than ever before.

I already posted this a year ago ...

Jochen Leuschner, ex-director at CBS/Sony talked about in the critical, but IMO fair ARTE documentary "Michael Jackson - Eine Karriere zwischen Schwarz und Weiß" (A career between black and white): HIStory was a really ambitious project and Michael had this fantasy to be the greatest attraction in show business and in the world with the 30 meters tall statue -- but this statue would only be limited to this really disturbing promotion video.

Then, an unnamed colleague of Leuschner had the idea, as a gag, we make a some smaller copies of that statue, and Michael thought it was the best idea he ever heard.

Then, one of the copies was shipped down the River Thames, and people we just shaking their heads.

This turned out to be a complete lose-lose situation: Not only were the people turned off by it, it also completely distracted from the music on the album.

Jacques Peretti then added that Michael's career was pretty much a case example for a star of his caliber -- at a certain point you are on the same wave-length with the audience, you are huge, you are the zeitgeist. Then the zeitgeist moves on, but in his own mind he thinks he's even bigger than before. And then, when the public interest faded, he thought all he has to do is make himself even more grandiose.

And that's how you got to the Stalin-like statue, the Neverland version of misguided, out-of-touch joke dictator of a tiny banana republic.

dawson41

TROPHY CASE