Silly Bully Boys: What Shall Happen to Wrestling's Big Men?

For the past 15 years or so, it seems high-flyers have become the hottest act in most (if not all) wrestling promotions, especially those based on American soil.

From Antonio Rocca, Mil Mascaras, and Jimmy Snuka, through the mid-90s cruiserweight invasion and all the way to AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston, and Evan Bourne, wrestling fans always seem to have a thing for high-flying action, big impact moves and “who’s-holding-who” submission wrestling.  And, honestly, who could blame them?

This preference has been putting smaller men in the spotlight of the indie scene and some mainstream promotions all over USA’s pro-wrestling landscape; such phenomenon gained even more prominence (and, seemingly, founded a “new age”) with Rey Misterio’s World Title victory at Wrestlemania XXII and his subsequent positioning as one of WWE’s top performers/personalities.

In spite of some opposition from several fans, WWE’s shutdown of the cruiserweight division eradicated weight limits and size differentiation among competitors inside the company, thus their main event scene was not limited to the over 240-pounders anymore.

A bright day for all wrestling-related individuals indeed….but with the rise of the smaller men comes another problem: a dying breed of giant wrestlers.

Pretty much like theories about species “shrinking” to survive adversities that possibly killed prehistoric giants, pro-wrestling is “going small” to keep things entertaining, and thus, alive.   With this, gargantuan performers become the opposing force, or, in harsher words, the “unwanted product.”

What comes to mind whenever someone mentions The Great Kahli? How about Mark Henry? Big Show? Giant Gonzalez? King Kong Bundy? Viscera?

That’s right, most wrestling fans consider this huge performers horrible talents, with no charisma and/or no wrestling ability whatsoever. In few words, giants in the ring are boring…unless, of course, they can mat wrestle and/or (preferably) fly.

In wrestling, the archetypal big man will use superiority in weight and size to his advantage. This will most probably result in a move set consisting of punches, chops, kicks, power slams, gorilla-presses, splashes, and, their all-time favorite, the choke-slam. Not too many options to choose from, indeed; yet, what are we fans supposed to expect? Top-rope planchas? Moon-saults? Shooting Stars? How about standing crucifixes, camel clutches, triangle holds, or spinning head-scissors-to-Fujiwara armbar combos?

Several giants in the business are extremely agile despite their size; some of them might even perform several of the moves listed above without too much trouble. Then again, wouldn’t it be too dangerous in some cases? Rey Misterio has constantly been busting people’s heads open because an aerial maneuver was incorrectly performed. Rey weighs roughly 180 lbs. Now imagine what could happen if, say, Big Show botched a mid-rope tope.

The Great Kahli has constantly been criticized for having one of the most limited repertoires in all of pro-wrestling. I’ll have to agree, the man is more repetitive than a Mega Man android attack pattern, but what if the monster is limited because management asked him to be?

Cena has been put in a similar situation, and taking Kahli’s flapjack incident into account, I would not mind if the guy stuck only to chopping people unconscious. Wrestling is no stranger to accidents, and with such size, guys like Kahli might be a bit too clumsy to perform complex moves regularly without injuring the opponent.

The Punjabi Giant is a great example of why a wrestler would limit his move set for safety, and I’ll have to add, perhaps he does this to add more credibility to his character. The Great Kahli is a beast (and by beast, I do mean to use the whole weight of the term) from a jungle in India. The guy is huge, barely talks, roars constantly, and was known to fight big wild animals.  Why would this semi-savage man even bother to know about wrestling holds? Wouldn’t that be, you know, not credible at all?

Hugo Savinovich (Spanish announcer) once made a wise, extremely precise comment about Kahli during a match of his:

“He may not have the most varied set of holds; this monster might not be able to perform hurracarranas, drop-kicks or any beautiful wrestling move, but why would he have to? He can easily devastate the opposition with powerful strikes and slams”.

I’ll have to agree, why would Kahli be even interested, as a character, in performing other moves? His tactics might not be flashy but they are damn effective.

As fans, we care about realism in pro-wrestling. Selling a move correctly plays a huge part on wrestling realism. Think about that for a moment: Selling a move correctly.

Now, picture a 400-pounder performing an abdominal stretch on any average-sized (200 lbs or more)  wrestler.  Now imagine a 500-pounder applying a full-Boston crab on that very same wrestler. How is the victim supposed to sell the move correctly? I think the man would have to break in half successfully do so.

What’s my point with all of this exemplification and talk? Well, we can’t expect gigantic wrestlers to perform at a level similar to that of Chris Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, HBK, and others. It happens, of course, sometimes, yet it’s not likely because, most probably, they are held back by the factors described above or simply lack the skills to perform successfully.

Then, why do wrestling promotions insist on hiring giants that occupy space inside the roster and eat away valuable face time from other competitors?

Well, how am I supposed to know? I guess giants were (and are still) a major attraction in the business. In the late 80s, one of WWE’s several claims to fame was being the promotion with the biggest men in the business.

People (especially kids) are amazed by the humongous proportions, barbaric strength, and magnetic body presence of these people. They astonish crowds similar to how some circus performers and zoo creatures do. Andre was known as “The 8th Wonder of the World” for a reason.

Besides, they play a perfect role as major adversaries to overcome. TV and movies use hunky henchmen all the time as an obstacle that the average man has to defeat before moving on. Wrestling promotions need kaiju -performers to put over young wrestlers or establish championship reigns as legitimate.

Fans, in their majority, dislike big men inside the ring, so what’s next for this dedicated breed of performers? Will they be extinguished and considered prehistoric specimens of wrestling? Will they reinvigorate their reputations and dominate wrestling once again?

I think that the time for the smaller men has come, but every protagonist needs an antagonist to attract crowds. Most probably, promotions will keep a reserve of big men to fight their legion of average-sized main event talent. Thus “Power vs. Speed” might become the ultimate cliché for a while.

Will giants in the wrestling business ever again be respected, admired, and praised for doing their job? Do they deserve such praise and admiration? I’m not quite sure about it. What can be said for sure is how sad I feel right now for these big guys.

What do you think about giants in the business?

Thanks for reading.