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Rick Martel


Grimmas

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I'll have more things to say as we go along with this, but I find Martel's heel work in WWF very frustrating. I think he was handcuffed, be it by the agents or the style or what not, and I do think a lot of his babyface work was still pretty good there. To me, the heel run is going to hurt him and I'll probably have to revisit it and see what I can find.

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Rick Martel's babyface work in the WWF (87-88) is really underrated in my book. The Islanders feud is incredible. I really believe Martel/Islanders (the two singles matches are really good before Tito gets involved) is one of the best feuds of the Hulkamania era. I am pretty down on Demolition overall and thought matches were decent. I liked the Martel/Tito feud, but it could have been so much more. Tito is such a great blood feud worker that this feud could have been an all-time great one if it was booked too have more matches and a proper blowoff.

Here is a ton of Martel in WWF (87-90)

Choice cuts:

Choice Cuts from Strike Force:
AWA World Tag Team Champions High Flyers vs Rick Martel & Tito Santana - 8/29/82 St. Paul
Rick Martel vs Tama - 7/87 MSG
Strike Force vs The Islanders - 9/87 MSG
Strike Force vs The Islanders - 10/87 MSG 2 Out of 3 Falls
WWF World Tag Champs Strike Force vs The Hart Foundation - 11/87 MSG
Survivor Series '87
Rick Martel & Fabulous Rougeaus w/Jimmy Hart & Slick vs Tito Santana & Rockers - Summerslam 89
Rick Martel w/Slick vs Bret Hart - Primetime 10/89
Rick Martel w/Slick vs. Tito Santana - SNME 11/89
Rick Martel vs Tito Santana - Main Event 11/90
Rick Martel vs Haku - 8/87 MSG
WWF World Tag Champs Strike Force vs The Islanders - Philly 12/87
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There is a ton of AWA stuff that should help you, Bill.

 

There are bouts vs. Bockwinkel that range from 1978-85 available. There are two title defenses against King Tonga (Meng) from Montreal and New Jersey worth looking at. There's the brawl at Comiskey Park vs. Hansen, 4 matches against Jumbo between May 84 and Sept 85 (Sept 85 is my personal favourite), Martel vs. Chosu, matches against all three Freebirds, Jim Garvin, Saito, Robinson, Lawler, Kamala, Zbyzsko, A surprisingly good series against Boris Zurkov in Winnipeg, face vs. face bouts against Brunzell and Bravo, tons of tags and 6--man tags...it's a long list.

 

The AWA work is there, and it's good stuff.

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Another great what-if is what would have happened had he not gotten hurt during his WCW run. He was really working hard and putting on some good matches and I would have liked to see what kind of bookend he could have put on his career.

 

Babyface Martel is one of the best baby faces ever in my opinion. I haven't seen any of the Portland stuff but I loved a lot of his AWA stuff. He's gonna be considered.

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As a whole, I go with Martel there, but a big part of that is Martel had already spent many years working on his game by that point and was a more complete wrestler for more of the decade. Hennig debuting a year or so into the 80's meant his development didn't really begin to progress until the decade was half over.

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Martel is a guy who I group in the Santana, Bret Hart, and Steamboat range. I loved his Bock series of matches. I did find the one from the 70's from Hawaii kind of just ok. Actually his AWA run was boss. His matches with Rose were tremendous. I liked his tag matches with Piper and Tito. I think he'll be in my top 1/2.

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If I were looking to make criticisms of Martel, I'd point out that he really lost a ton as a heel and for all the good/really great matches I've seen him in, I can't recall a single really good brawl. The closest is probably the Zhukov cage match, but even that isn't quite what I mean.

 

The flipside of that is you can argue it made no sense to turn a guy who looked like that heel, and I'm not sure you have to have a great brawl under your belt to be an upper half guy as long as your resume is dense in other ways.

 

From 80-86 I don't think there were too many guys in the world better than Martel, and that was a period with a lot of all time great level guys in their prime. Offhand I think you could argue him as high as five in English speaking North America after Buddy Rose, Flair, Lawler and Bockwinkel.

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If I were looking to make criticisms of Martel, I'd point out that he really lost a ton as a heel and for all the good/really great matches I've seen him in, I can't recall a single really good brawl. The closest is probably the Zhukov cage match, but even that isn't quite what I mean.

 

 

I'll throw Martel vs. Hansen at Super Clash I out here as an example, although it was criminally short and you might be leaving it out because of that.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Offhand I think you could argue him as high as five in English speaking North America after Buddy Rose, Flair, Lawler and Bockwinkel.

 

Martel isn't English Speaking.;)

 

And yeah, he was great. The more I watch him, the more I think of him. His comeback in 98 was pretty terrific as he looked like one of the best guys in WCW almost immediately, and it took those sloppy-ass Harlem Heat to cut his career short. Not that he would have hang on for too long though, he was making money in real-estate for a decade already.

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I said this recently in the big summary post:

 

Rick Martel - phenomenal babyface, think he's been great in 80-81 WWF, and a lot of good performances in the AWA. One of the very best comebacks in the business. Great sense of fire and energy in everything he does. Will potentially finish above Ricky Steamboat. The embodiment of everything I think a babyface should be. Jack Brisco will do well to finish above Martel -- even if Brisco fathered the style that Martel mastered. He was pretty sexy too.

Every time I see Martel crop up in whatever I'm watching, he makes me think he's one of the best babyfaces ever to step into the ring. He is almost the perfect embodiment of what I'd look for in a babyface.

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Offhand I think you could argue him as high as five in English speaking North America after Buddy Rose, Flair, Lawler and Bockwinkel.

 

Martel isn't English Speaking. ;)

 

And yeah, he was great. The more I watch him, the more I think of him. His comeback in 98 was pretty terrific as he looked like one of the best guys in WCW almost immediately, and it took those sloppy-ass Harlem Heat to cut his career short. Not that he would have hang on for too long though, he was making money in real-estate for a decade already.

 

 

To be fair it was Perry Saturn throwing him over the top rope that wrecked his knee and ended his career.

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