Great Wrestlers That Sold Moves Poorly

No matter how good a wrestler may be, some just overdid it (Or poorly) sold move(s).

What great wrestlers do you remember had trouble "selling" certain moves?

I can remember The Rock being really bad at "selling" the Stone Cold Stunner. He used to flop around like a fish on dry land every time he got stunned :shakehead

Lex Luger used to oversell, badly. He'd get punched and he would yell like he was shot.

Classic case of overselling was HBK vs Hogan where HBK decided to act like his old self and threw himself around the ring for every move Hogan did, even irish whips.

Road Warriors were known to not sell enough at times.

Undertaker. :sarcasm:

Classic case of overselling was HBK vs Hogan where HBK decided to act like his old self and threw himself around the ring for every move Hogan did, even irish whips.



Pretty sure that was intentional mocking.

Shawn Michaels, easily.

Mr. Perfect used to do flips when he got chopped. :laugh:

Most cruiserweights are poor at selling because the only way they get over is their high flying ability, so when they have a match, its hard for them to sell because they probably wouldn't be able to do many of the moves they do.

Evan Bourne for example.. He's probably the best in the WWE for selling single moves. But over the course of a lenghty match, the selling doesn't really go anywhere because he needs to pop up for his high spots which, literally, are high spots.

i like this thread

Hogan of course. He actually had his moments where he sold pretty well. The problem was he would always Hulk up and you could try to drive over him with a tank and the tank would just come to a halt.

Ultimate Warrior. He was all over the place.

Jeff Hardy. He really overdid it. He'd come to the ring selling his injuries from the night before. At first I liked this because I thought "Finally! Added believability!" However, he kept doing it every time he came to the ring. Brutal. You were not sure he could even make it in the ring from how he acted, then all of a sudden he'd hit his moves and yadda yadda. Then the match ends and he is back to hobbled.

I loved the Road Warriors as a kid but looking back, they were pretty bad at selling most nights.

R Truth. like Mr. Perfect and some of the smaller wrestlers, the flopping and spinning gets lame. The first time I see it I always think it is cool, but similar to the poster above, over a match and a career it gets old.

Botchtista, nuff said.

Taker

Just as a note, a newer wrestler who I think sells very well most nights is Swagger.

v-4kIpKki3c

Classic case of overselling was HBK vs Hogan where HBK decided to act like his old self and threw himself around the ring for every move Hogan did, even irish whips.

XyN5sAShqOA

Didn't HBK do that on purpose? Something like Hogan refusing to lose.

XyN5sAShqOA

Didn't HBK do that on purpose? Something like Hogan refusing to lose.

HBK mad about somebody refusing to lose? lol

XyN5sAShqOA

Didn't HBK do that on purpose? Something like Hogan refusing to lose.

There's no way that's done naturally. :laugh: He had to be doing it on purpose.

RVD always over-sold his own finisher......every time he hit the frog splash, he'd bounce off and roll around the mat, grimacing and holding his midsection, before crawling over to cover for the win.

Undertaker. :sarcasm:


Ditto

Ill probalby get crap for this but I always thought HBK and Ric Flair were two of the worst oversellers I've ever seen.

Titus O'Neal

The Giant no-selling the fall off the roof at Halloween Havoc '95. :sarcasm:

Top that Cena!

I believe while in a feud with Kane (the Lita pregnancy s/l), Snitsky and Kane went off the stage. While the camera remain panned on their faces Snitsky opens his eyes and can be seen mouthing "are you okay" to Kane. Yes, not a great wrestler, not even a mediocre one, still funny.

Titus O'Neal
Truly a great wrestler.

HBK mad about somebody refusing to lose? lol

To be fair, HBK was really good for putting guys over/boosting their credibility later on in his career. Something that Hogan still can't do, in fact if Hogan had the next Rock/Stone Cold/Etc in the palm of his hands, he make them put him over.

Plus, that was awesome to watch.

Ultimate Warrior was the king of never selling.

Hogan was the same way.

One of the best examples of no selling was Jake the Snake no selling two punches from Ali, those no sells got him fired from the WWE

Rob Van Damme is just horrible at the selling aspect of wrestling.

Andre the Giant didn't sell, not because he wanted to make his opponent look bad, but because he didn't know how.

Kevin Nash was lousy at selling and constantly tried to make his opponents look weak.

XyN5sAShqOA

Didn't HBK do that on purpose? Something like Hogan refusing to lose.

Irish Whip and Big Boot lol

:biglaugh:

Ultimate Warrior was the king of never selling.

Hogan was the same way.

One of the best examples of no selling was Jake the Snake no selling two punches from Ali, those no sells got him fired from the WWE

Rob Van Damme is just horrible at the selling aspect of wrestling.

Andre the Giant didn't sell, not because he wanted to make his opponent look bad, but because he didn't know how.

Kevin Nash was lousy at selling and constantly tried to make his opponents look weak.

Ali? Could you explain further?

I believe while in a feud with Kane (the Lita pregnancy s/l), Snitsky and Kane went off the stage. While the camera remain panned on their faces Snitsky opens his eyes and can be seen mouthing "are you okay" to Kane. Yes, not a great wrestler, not even a mediocre one, still funny.

I remember that. :laugh:

Now here's a word from CM Punk:

Mr. Punk, did that hurt?

uIxuwI1Lxt8

One of the best examples of no selling was Jake the Snake no selling two punches from Ali, those no sells got him fired from the WWE

Pretty sure the Roberts-Ali thing was in Mid-South. I watched Jake's shoot a year or so ago and I think he was pissed off at Watts for something.

To be fair, HBK was really good for putting guys over/boosting their credibility later on in his career. Something that Hogan still can't do, in fact if Hogan had the next Rock/Stone Cold/Etc in the palm of his hands, he make them put him over.

Plus, that was awesome to watch.

Didn't Hogan drop 3 straight matches to Kidman in an effort to make him the next big star?

Pretty sure the Roberts-Ali thing was in Mid-South. I watched Jake's shoot a year or so ago and I think he was pissed off at Watts for something.

You could definately be write, for some reason I thought it was when Ali was a special guest referee in one of his matches in the WWE.

But the memory gets a little fuzzy when you get older you know.

But basically Ali threw 2 big punches at Roberts, after he hit Roberts with the first one, Roberts laughed and did his own version of the rope-a-dope. And the second punch Roberts stood there like it had no effect.

Michaels was hilarious against Hogan. Vince must have been livid. That being said, while he was better after his comeback, it is rather ironic that Shawn would embarrass someone like that for refusing to go over. Oh well, at least he still has his smile.

Didn't Hogan drop 3 straight matches to Kidman in an effort to make him the next big star?

Technically, yes, but in all those matches, he beat up Kidman 90% of the time and Kidman only won by cheating or outside interference. It came across that Hogan got screwed and Kidman couldn't beat him in a fair fight. This was in stark contrast to Ric Flair allowing Sting as a rookie to last 45 minutes with him in 1988, a match that established Sting as a legit main eventer.

I remember that Hogan outright buried Kidman and the other young bloods on the Microphones as well.

His whole they couldn't sell out a flea circus. And nobody wants to watch these guys wrestle promo's destroyed what could have been a promising storyline.

I had hoped that Hogan had learned his lesson when he went over to TNA, but he really hasn't, and he getting ready to throw the final shovel full of dirt on TNA's face.

Technically, yes, but in all those matches, he beat up Kidman 90% of the time and Kidman only won by cheating or outside interference. It came across that Hogan got screwed and Kidman couldn't beat him in a fair fight. This was in stark contrast to Ric Flair allowing Sting as a rookie to last 45 minutes with him in 1988, a match that established Sting as a legit main eventer.

That's just how face/heel relationships work though. In 1988 a heel could win by being a better wrestler and not by cheating, not so in 1998.

There's no way that's done naturally. :laugh: He had to be doing it on purpose.

I know it's not done naturally...he clearly oversold all of Hogan's moves. I was wondering if there was a clear motive behind him making an ass out of Hogan.

Didn't Hogan drop 3 straight matches to Kidman in an effort to make him the next big star?
No. He let Kidman pin him after completely dominating Kidman and making him look like a piece of crap. Then through tons and tons of blantant interference, Kidman would win.

I saw you post further down saying "that's just the way face/heels work" .. which is false, in my opinion. If the face (or the rising star in the match) gets dominated the whole match (and you're trying to put him over), you need to put over his heart. Having him win by interference (and lots of it) is not the way "the next big star" should win.

Example, is Santino really the "next big star" because he luckily pinned Sheamus last night? Was Taka a star after defeating Triple H? Was The Hurricane a World Champion after defeating The Rock? No. They were dominated, got a lucky win that the fans could enjoy, and then went back down the card.

Hogan put himself over as the man who could only get beat by about 280402484502 guys in a 1 on 1 match.

Seriously, it would have been better if Hogan just let Kidman dominate the match, then Hogan come out with a victory in the end. At least Kidman would have been a threat. When it happened, it was just a little punk who couldn't hang with anyone unless he had 5309509359.4 people helping him.

hogan.
anKWu5QW8TE

:laugh:

XyN5sAShqOA

Didn't HBK do that on purpose? Something like Hogan refusing to lose.

I like Mr. Perfect, "It's almost as if Michaels has too much energy tonight." :biglaugh:

H B K.

I remember that Hogan outright buried Kidman and the other young bloods on the Microphones as well.

His whole they couldn't sell out a flea circus. And nobody wants to watch these guys wrestle promo's destroyed what could have been a promising storyline.

I had hoped that Hogan had learned his lesson when he went over to TNA, but he really hasn't, and he getting ready to throw the final shovel full of dirt on TNA's face.

Hogan's a bloody egomaniac, and he's had it pounded into his head for so long that he's God's gift to wrestling, that he believes it.

And as long as he's got Bischoff riding his nuts, and Russo riding Bischoff's nuts, you'll never see one without the other two, and whatever promotion employs them will suffer for it, because from the moment they sign, it's all about Hogan 24/7/365...