theidealstranger

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters" - One of my favorite sayings by Mark Twain used in my top favorite sport commonly, Boxing.

When Nash called Benoit/Guerrero Vanilla Midgets it irked a lot of people around the wrestling world for both were well respected and renowned performers. My brother who was averse to wrestling world and was a MMA guy suddenly watched Survivor Series while passing and mocked me for believing "puny" CM Punk for a champion when Ryback or Cena could not beat him, looking as pumped as they were, for a year, even in kayfabe.

The question is simple, Does Size of the wrestler matter and why?

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Adyman

Just ask Matt Morgan and Joey Ryan lol

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JLawls91

Size matters, but not to the extent that wrestlers on the juice have made out. It really depends on height and weight as well as muscle in my opinion. Stone Cold, The Rock (attitude), Mankind, Undertaker for instance weren't massive compared to some over the years, yet they sold out arenas seperately.

As long as the wrestlers are portrayed in a certain way I don't think it matters. As a kid watching I was drawn in by the storylines and now I'm most bothered about the wrestler's persona's, matches and the storylines to go with them. For me there are three types

- You need the naturally big guys e.g. Viscera, Big Show, Kane, Undertaker, Rikishi, Mark Henry to give off a monstrous impression.
- You need the superstars on the mic and image that can work a crowd to do most for their popularity - Rock, Triple H, Stone Cold, Mankind, Jeff Jarrett, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn for instance
- The naturally smaller athletic guys as underdogs - X-Pac, Rey Mysterio, Hardys

Do you need massive guys? In my eyes no. The wrestlers should have some definition to show their professionalism compared to amateur shows to go with their talent; however there really isn't any need for wrestlers to get stupidly big. Does Cena's size make a difference on how everyone on here perceives how much they like him? I very much doubt it.

HBK96

I Curry I

In the short-term, yes. Long term, not so much.

I was watching WWE not too long ago when a friend came over, he saw Big Show and his instant reaction was "Holy shit", which is exactly the reaction wrestlers should give you, had he seen Daniel Bryan, he wouldn't have made any comment about how impressive he looks and would have just chuckled at his beard.

Over the years so many people have got over on reactions just like that. While it is not all important, size does matter.

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TehBrain

The average wrestling fan for the last 40 years has watched to see people that are larger than life fight one another. That has sorta given guys who are literally larger than most a "sizable" advantage. But that has never meant that you had to be a giant. Up until the 90's most wrestlers who didn't have that advantage bulked up with tons of exercise, they made their bodies as muscle packed as possible, so they could look larger than life. Around the middle of the 80's it started to shift dramatically toward characters. People would use their character along with their entrance attire and other things to seem important, but they still bulked up a lot. Somewhere in the 90's the mix of character and bulked up began to fade away.. you got guys like Michaels, Bret, Jericho, Benoit. Now to look special you work on your wrestling, there are very few good characters.

wow.. i went ramblin there... anyway, no it doesn't really make a difference except for in how much work you have to put into other aspects of your job.

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SinJackal

First off. . .Nash is retarded. Most of his opinions, while containing a shred of truth, are usually trolling nonsense. Eddie and Chris really weren't that small, they were just short. . .well, normal height, not short.

When I think of "small" guys, I don't just think of dudes who aren't 6'5" and bigger. Height really isn't that huge of a deal unless you're playing a monster character. And as we all know, there's usually not that many of those floating around at once.


That siad, it does matter (in terms of musclular appearance) because it's a scripted show with power fighting in it. The appearance of being a powerful force is more important than being a good fighrer off camera in a dark alley or something. These guys aren't actually fighting, so what possible MMA or boxing skills they may have don't matter. This is why comparisons to MMA and boxing, where a small guy can win at times, don't matter. It's the perception that matters here. And the common perception is that a dude that looks like Ryback would curb stomp a dude that looks like Punk.

Not to pick on Punk, but just because OP used him as an example, let's compare him to other heroes. Does CM Punk look like any of the following kids' heroes?: Superman, Batman, Incredible Hulk, Thor, any combat-oriented GI Joe, Captain America, Wolverine, Cyclops, NFL players, etc etc etc.

The answer is no. Does John Cena look like them? Yes. He looks more like a hero, therefore, despite being corny, is actually far more believable as a long-term champ. So would Lesnar, or Ryback, or Batista, or The Rock, or whoever.

So size does matter in pro wrestling, because perception is most of the deal. Smaller guys can beat bigger guys in actual fighting irl, but it doesn't happen more often than not. Usually the guy who's noticably stronger kicks his ass.


You guys also need to stop lying about people being "juiced" any time they have more than an average-looking build. Try actually doing work in the gym for once. You can gain very noticable muscle mass easily if you just put in a few hours a week for just half a year.

It's as if you guys think you will look normal even if you hit the weights a lot unless you use roids.


I think you're confusing purely just height for muscle mass and power, which is what the OP is speaking about when he's referring to size. Ryback isn't that tall, yet he's considered "big". It's because of his muscles.

Also, you can't seriously be calling Macho Man and Bruno Sammartino "small". Those guys were swoll as hell.





How are those guys small? Macho Man looks buff as hell, and Sammartino was a huge block.

Cactus

Yes, it does. Would Mark Henry's Hall of Pain character would worked on any old vanilla midget? Of course not. I'm not saying it's necessary for everyone on the roster, but you need guys who are huge for diversity on the roster.

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WWCturbo

Bret Hart. 'nuff said.

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