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Ray Stevens


Grimmas

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Pretty much every worker who got their start in the 70s seems to name Ray Stevens as the GOAT. Flair does. Kevin Sullivan does. I've heard numerous guys on shoots name Stevens too.

 

Just noticed he wasn't nominated.

 

Even though there is a footage issue, I think Stevens is just an interesting case in general since from the footage we have -- and we have hours of Stevens post-prime on tape -- it's very hard to see where they are coming from.

 

What is interesting though is that a lot of guys in the business also think Shawn Michaels is a contender for GOAT and superficially at least, he had similar skills to Stevens, i.e. he was a huge bumper who made other people look good. I wonder if there's anything to a Stevens vs. HBK comparison in terms of how they are perceived by the workers and how they are perceived by people who post on PWO.

 

Reviews here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/30606-ray-stevens-nick-bockwinkel

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Wrestlers' praise for Michaels and Stevens:

 

"Could do anything in the ring"

"Could go all night"

 

At least part of this community tends to care more about a wrestler doing the right thing in the ring at the right time for the right reason.

 

The difference between Michaels and Stevens is that we have the footage to at least understand the argument with Michaels.

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The bizarre thing is though that his tag partners and contemporaries, Bockwinkel and Patterson could still go in their 40s.

 

In the footage I've been watching, Stevens seems done by 73. Like there's not even the shadow of a guy who could go like we're led to believe. I watched that match from the 1960s vs. Al Fredericks and .... really Stevens didn't look that much different from what he did in the early-mid70s tagging with Bock.

 

He remains the biggest mystery to me.

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The bizarre thing is though that his tag partners and contemporaries, Bockwinkel and Patterson could still go in their 40s.

 

In the footage I've been watching, Stevens seems done by 73. Like there's not even the shadow of a guy who could go like we're led to believe. I watched that match from the 1960s vs. Al Fredericks and .... really Stevens didn't look that much different from what he did in the early-mid70s tagging with Bock.

 

He remains the biggest mystery to me.

Michaels before his comeback was pretty good and then when he returned (got older) he stunk. I think Stevens probably had that. While he was athletic I am sure he was pretty awesome, once he started to lose his athleticism he stunk.

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Partying, hard bumping as well. There's good reason to think/believe he didn't age well. His prime work is barely even documented by San Francisco title histories, let alone videotape. Generally I think there's just not enough evidence to discount the opinions of his peers.

 

Though I'll note that a lot of praise isn't just Stevens. It's Patterson and Stevens. So it's possible that Stevens was this great spot man ala Antonino Rocca (granted a better version) while Pat Patterson played Miguel Perez and kept the match together.

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Knowing what we do about wrestling culture, especially from that time period, is it particularly surprising that Stevens is lauded? I mean, the ability to maintain your athleticism while still drunk/hungover is probably enviable as most who try wrestling can barely figure things out sober. I'm not saying he wasn't a great wrestler, but every generation of workers have traits that are valued highly amongst peers and less so with fans. Flair and others looking at Stevens and seeing a guy who could rock and roll and still make it through the next day six times a week was probably more impressive than another guy with better in ring stuff.

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  • 10 months later...

A couple of things that stand out about Ray is that he was one of the few non wwf guys whose name would be mentioned in the 1980s. So if monsoon thought enough him and wasnt edited out in post production it says a lot. He was still thought high enough by the AWA that they thought by tossing him on misc shows he could pop a gate.

 

That all being said, the fact he never worked out and let his body deteriorated to where he resembled a middle aged appliance repairman is really hard to ignore and separate even in light of all the greats vouching for him.

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  • 1 year later...

Bumping a very old post to report that I just snagged a bunch of Stevens on Ebay (in transit). Here's the rundown on the matches, no idea whether they'd help PWO bridge some footage issues (noting that I see some matches here discussed above):

BEST OF RAY STEVENS VOL. 1
Ray Stevens vs Al Fredricks
Ray Stevens vs Red Bastien
Ray Stevens vs Dr. X (HiLites)
Ray Stevens vs Dick the Brusier
Ray Stevens/Pat Patterson vs Billy Robinson/Frank Hill (aka Jules Strongbow)
Ray Stevens/Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones/Masked Superstar
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Paul Jones/Masked Superstar (Cage Match)
Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Steve O/Brian Blair
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood (HiLites of Stevens & Snuka Winning World Tag Titles)
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood (Rematch for World Tag Titles)

BEST OF RAY STEVENS VOL. 2
Ray Stevens vs "Wild" Bill Irwin
Ray Stevens/Eddie Graham vs Stan Lane/Bryan St.John (Florida Tag Titles)
Ray Stevens/Mike Graham vs The Gestapo/Thor the Viking (aka Super Destroyer/.Scott Irwin)
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Masked Superstar/Blackjack Mulligan (World Tag Titles)
Ray Stevens/Ole Anderson vs Paul Jones/Buddy Landell (Ray & Ole Argue)
Ray Stevens vs Gerald Finley
Ray Stevens/Ole Anderson vs Rick Thor/El Gran Apollo
Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Bob & Brad Armstrong
Ray Stevens vs Billy Robinson
Ray StevensMr. Fuji/ Don Muraco/Buddy Rose/Superstar Graham vs Andre/Rocky Johnson/Salvatore Bellomo/Jimmy Snuka/Pedro Morales in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match

BEST OF RAY STEVENS VOL. 3
Ray Stevens vs Ron Haven
Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Jerry Grey/Charlie Fulton (Dick Slater Attacks Stevens & Kamata)
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Frank Monte/Tony Tusi
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka/Ivan Koloff vs Ron Ritchie/George Wells/Dewey Robertson (aka Missing Link)
Ray Stevens vs Tony Garea
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood (World Tag Titles)
Ray Stevens vs Tony Russo
Ray Stevens vs Rick Bennefield
Ray Stevens vs Ken Hall/Eddie Dean (Handicap Match)
Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Mike Fever/Bobby Ga...(cut off in message)

 

BEST OF RAY STEVENS VOL. 4

Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Don Gilbert/Denny Brown
Ray Stevens/Tor Kamata vs Rick Thor/Abe Jacobs
Ray Stevens vs Mike Jackson
Ray Stevens vs Curt Hennig
Ray Stevens vs Tom Zenk
Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood (HiLites)
Ray Stevens vs Jimmy Snuka
Ray Stevens vs Jay Strongbow
Ray Stevens vs Jay Strongbow (Rematch)

BEST OF RAY STEVENS VOL. 5
Ray Stevens vs Mighty Inoue (Rare Match from Japan)
Ray Stevens vs Jules Strongbow
Ray Stevens vs Sal Bellomo
Ray Stevens vs Crusher Blackwell
Ray Stevens/Spike Huber vs Sheik Adnan ElKasiey/Crusher Blackwell
Ray Stevens vs Larry Zbyszko
Ray Stevens/Blackjack Mulligan/Baron Von Raschke vs Bruiser/Crusher/Sailor Art Thomas
Ray Stevens vs Johnny Kharisma (aka Hans Schroeder)
Ray Stevens/Midnight Rockers vs Buddy Wolfe/Kevin Kelly/Doug Sommers

And yes, I bought these because I too am wondering about his reputation vs. what we can review.

The seller also has a Bockwinkel/Stevens set if anyone wants me to provide the info.



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