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Tom "Zeaman" Zenk


Dylan Waco

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The Warlord will nominate himself and you will sit there and you will like it.

Can anyone start one of these threads? Because I'd absolutely start one for The Warlord if I could. :D Would he make a list I'm compiling? Hell no, but I have to admit I had a soft spot for him when I was a kid.

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The Warlord will nominate himself and you will sit there and you will like it.

Can anyone start one of these threads? Because I'd absolutely start one for The Warlord if I could. :D Would he make a list I'm compiling? Hell no, but I have to admit I had a soft spot for him when I was a kid.

 

To be nominated you need three matches reviewed. Anyone can start a thread in the microscope section though and talk about him until their heart's are content.

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As the person who nominated Tom Zenk, I feel I should defend my nomination. I'm not nominating him in an attempt to persuade others that he should be on their list, more that he's a lock to place on mine and to do that I needed to nominate him. I understand that a lot of people don't rate the Z-Man, which is why I hesitated to for so long to nominate him, but my list wouldn't be honest if I didn't place him on there.

 

Back in 2010, I was in a bit of limbo regarding my wrestling fandom and decided to start a blog in order to encourage myself to watch more wrestling, to think about it more and, if I wasn't enjoying it, maybe consider knocking wrestling on the head. As might be evident by the fact I joined this site 5 years later, it worked. One of the first things I decided to do was look back at my favourite childhood wrestler Tom Zenk to see if I would still be a fan 18years on. As a kid, Zenk appealed because he was the archetypal mid-card face - he was athletic, he wore very colourful tights, he had high-flying offence and even if he didn't always win, he tried hard (gallant failure is an important factor in my sporting heroes, as evidenced by my supporting Coventry City and the Wales national team).

 

Now obviously "liking him as a kid" isn't a good reason to put Zenk on my list, but the thing I found was that I still thought he was great as an adult. Zenk was a great fired-up babyface, with a good sense of timing. He was agile enough to be a decent high-flyer, but he's also well built enough that he can work big against smaller opponents, changing up his moveset to incorporate more power moves. I also think he's a great tag wrestler - his teams with Martel and Pillman were both fun, even if they had relatively short run. Also, as probably the only man on the planet to buy IVP Videos' Best of Tom Zenk comp, I've seen him be in some really fun tag bouts in Japan. Matt D mentioned the Can-Ams/Funks match, but he's also part of really good matches w/Kroffatt vs Footloose and w/Brunzell vs the Fantastics. The WrestleWar 92 match with Pillman was great, even better than Pillman's match with Liger at Superbrawl in my opinion, and Zenk more than played him part in that.

 

As I said, I don't intend to change anyone's opinion on Zenk, just wanted to clarify that, no, I'm not taking the piss with this nomination and wanting to explain why he will end up being on my list.

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Come on brah, that was the perfect time to plug your blog: http://notjaytabb.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/you-can-only-imagine-my-joy-when-weeks.html

 

NotJayTabb put in the work and reviewed a bunch of Zenk matches, this wasn't one of those "let me name everyone who I watched in WCW growing up" nominations like what's happened with tag teams.

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What's amazing on the list of reviews is to not the 25 guys in the matches:

 

Tom Zenk
Rick Martel
Dory Funk Jr
Terry Funk
Giant Baba
Hiroshi Wajima
The Terminator
Genichiro Tenryu
Ashura Hara
John Tenta
The Great Kabuki
Abdullah The Butcher
TNT
Stan Hansen
Jimmy Snuka
Dan Kroffat
Toshiaki Kawada
Samson Fuyuki
Jim Brunzell
Bobby Fulton
Tommy Rogers
Doug Furnas
Mitsuharu Misawa
Kenta Kobashi
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

 

There are a number of locks to finish in the Top 100 in there, and a number who might be outside but get some good support.

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  • 5 years later...

Finished in my mid-70s last time, almost certainly a lock to rank again this time. Very good tag worker with Martel, Pillman, Johnny Gunn and various others. Smart enough to be able to adjust his style to his opponents, working as an underdog high flyer against larger heels or using his relative size/strength when working smaller opponents. Has the advantage of working TV matches in one of the best years of any North American promotions and he looks good whenever he turns up.

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