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Jobbers – The Forgotten Men of Wrestling

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Jobbers – The Forgotten Men of Wrestling Empty Jobbers – The Forgotten Men of Wrestling

Post by TwisT Wed 28 Mar 2012, 9:17 pm

Stoudemiered, (verb); to be destroyed, annihilated, demolished

Everyone knows the term jobber. Some wrestler, in the lower echelon, sacrificed to make the other guy look good. In the modern era, notable names that spring to mind that have been “jobbed out” include Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre. However these wrestlers cannot be classed as jobbers in the classic term of the word.

Drew and Heath, even in the face of all the reasons why they might be jobbed out, have won matches. Beyond this, they have entrances, finishing moves and, for the most part, are allowed a little offence in their squash matches. A proper jobber would get none of these.

Most people remember the ‘Brooklyn Brawler’ Steve Lombardi, one of the most famous jobber names of the late 80’s and early 90’s. He had a win/loss TV record in the WWF of 12 wins and a massive 228 losses (1). Most of these were squash matches against the likes of Earthquake, The Undertaker, Akeem and The Ultimate Warrior. What was telling is that more often than not he would get an entrance and have a few offensive moves.

The proper jobbers were known affectionately by myself and my mates as “dead men (not) walking”. This was because they would never be seen walking into the ring (the matches started with them all ready in it) and, after the inevitable destruction, they would not be seen walking out of it.

Rewind to the middle to late 80's and “The Superstars of Wrestling” era and jobber matches were rife. They would be used to massively get over middle card stars. The upper card did not usually have jobber matches; maybe it was beneath them. But for the likes of Bad News Brown, One Man Gang, Butch Reed and Jake Roberts, it would be par for the course seeing them rub some poor jobbers face into the canvas.

Take for instance the well-known Jim Evans (2). Who I hear you cry? Type in “Jim Evans wrestler” in Google, and his glory is there for all to see. Jim Evans had a total of 59 matches in the WWF. And he lost all of them. He was usually steamrolled by the who’s who of 80’s wrestlers and did it with aplomb. I remember him with his tailor made jacket, with diamond encrusted ‘Evans’ stuck on the back. I also remember him getting Press Slammed on his face by Butch Reed.

You could say that Evans was a master of his job. He was big enough to make it seem that his opponent was not just destroying a weed hand-picked from the crowd. He was athletic enough to sell the power moves bestowed on him to their maximum potential. He was also, unfortunately, dispensable enough to be pinned easily night after night. He never came close to winning, and he was barely even allowed to lock-up with his opponent at the beginning of the match. You could argue he did what he was paid to do…. which was to lose…. horribly. We would often laugh when he was bullied time and again, but in my later years, I can appreciate his role (as depressing as it was).

Jobbers like Evans could expect to maybe make a few hundred dollars, if that, for every match. They were expected to make their own arrangements to get to all the arenas in the country, often having to tape two shows a night, before travelling to the next venue for two more matches the next night. Depending on your viewpoint, you could say it was not much work for a tidy little sum but certainly not enough to live on,

You also have the embarrassment. “Superstars” had a big TV audience in the 80’s. Think about Evans kid, being told the next day in the school playground that his dad got beaten badly again. And this in the kayfabe era when wrestling was still classed as real.

However, for me, there is an appeal to a good jobber. The underdog who, now when I watch the youtube videos, was never destined for anything of greatness. There are hidden jewels to be found on youtube, maybe not the classic encounters of yesteryear, but the 3 minute squashes (that may have included a ring entrance) that can be met with humour or respect (depending on your demanour).

This brings me to Dave Stoudemiere…

Stoudemeire (3), for me, was a legend. He had 27 matches. He lost 27 matches. He showed comparisons to the Ultimate Warrior. Not a huge build, but long hair and coloured tassels on his boots. Stoudemeire had some classic matches, and he must be the only wrestler who never got a shot off at his opponent. Not even a punch. He had the knack of landing on his face look like the most technical of mat moves. More importantly, the term “Stoudemeired” was coined in our house to mean someone or something that had been completely obliterated. The Honky Tonk Man did it in one match against him. In 24 seconds….

His very first match was against Butch Reed in 1987 (2:30 to 5:00)

Spoiler:

If the throw into the turnbuckle didn’t welcome him to the company, then the vicious front face bulldog certainly did. When he was cut in half by a huge clothesline, he was a ready-made jobber to the stars. By the time the Press Slam came, he was ready to be a pro in staring at the lights. The elbow drop was academic.

There are a few more youtube videos of him (there is even a following on there for him). I recommend his match against The One Man Gang, where he received not one, but two inverted suplex slams. As you can imagine, the videos are very short.

Before you laugh too much at him, and believe you me I have, I just want to highlight something I found of importance. And something that made me respect Stoudemiere even more…

On January 26th 1988, Stoudemiere had the equivalent of jobber hell (4). He had four matches in 48 hours in two different locations. His first match was facing Dino Bravo in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Bravo was a muscle-man that would have loved to wipe Dave’s face to the floor. He was then involved in a tag match against Demolition that very same night. Again, Ax and Smash would have made short work of Stoudemiere and his partner.

Stoudemiere then had to travel 200 miles to Salisbury, Maryland for his next two matches on the 27th. Most probably he would have had to drive himself. Once there, he faced two notably stiff opponents in One Man Gang, and then later on that night Butch Reed.

The four matches in total lasted less than 10 minutes. I remember one HHH entrance at WrestleMania lasting longer. Although there are no videos of these performances, I can only imagine that there were fewer than 25 moves made. Stoudemiere would have accounted for none of them.

Stoudemiere left wrestling after his 27 matches in 1989, after being part of the company for 3 years. His last two matches were on the same day; a tag match against the Rougeau brothers and a singles match against Mr Perfect. What became of him then is unknown; I would certainly like to know how he ended up.

Next time you see a wrestler on Smackdown or Raw, getting squashed by the next monster heel, think first before you call them a jobber. Is that wrestler really in Stoudemiere’s class? If we owe anything to Dave, it is the respect that, although his streak was the total opposites of the Undertaker’s, he at least respected the company to take the hits day in and day out. And for very little.

When ‘insert wrestler name here’ complains on Twitter about not getting a push, just #Stoudemiere to them. He deserves that…

Sources

(1) http://www.profightdb.com/winlossrecord/steve-lombardi-381.html
(2) http://www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/jim-evans-7418.html
(3) http://www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/david-stoudemire-7399.html
(4) http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=10833&page=4

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Post by Dr Gregory House MD Wed 28 Mar 2012, 10:50 pm

Phenomonal article TwisT, this your own work?

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Post by Guest Thu 29 Mar 2012, 8:37 am

Great post Twist.

I feel Barry Horrowitz deserves a mention. I remember watching his victory over Skip from the Bodydonnas in 1995 on the Action Zone. Completely knocked me for 6.

Good ole JR is the greatest Jobber ever. He has been set on fire, forced to kiss Mcmahon's ass, was the originator of the single commentary desk ahead of the Cole Mine, beaten up by Austin, HHH, Angle, pinned by Michael Cole, forced to dance for his job, put in matches. This guy has done it all with physical limitations.

I agree that it is unfair to call Slater and McIntyre have been held back and putting over others, but I feel jobbers have been dead for years. Though I wish we could have them back. Bring back Wrestling Challenge and Superstars!!

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Post by TwisT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 9:02 am

Dr Gregory House MD wrote:Phenomonal article TwisT, this your own work?

Yes Dr House. Did it last night after a reminiscing convo with a work mate, who is another fan of the middle/late 80's to early 90's wrestling scene.

Hopefully this can go up on the v2journel if people think it is good enough

Barry Horowitz was in Lombardi mould (he tagged with him on occasion). And I am sure he appeared in one or more PPV's, probably at Rumbles or Survivor Series matches. Just like today, he would have got a nice cut for appearing in those PPV's....some that Jim and Dave would have only dreamt about.

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Post by bretmeharty Thu 29 Mar 2012, 9:19 am

This is a great thought provoking piece.

It's amazing what you could get away with back then in a simpler time, having "jobber" matches to enhance the talent, the audience was not wise to anything back then.

It would never hold anyone's attention today.

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Post by Ritsos Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:23 am

TwisT

Great article- even full of praise from a former WWE superstar MVP- check his Twitter.

Good work!

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Post by sodhat Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:26 am

Jeez Twist, your article just got a retweet to 175k followers from MVP! Well done mate.

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Post by TwisT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:36 am

Can someone post it here, as I am not on Twitter

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Post by sodhat Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:37 am

http://twitter.com/#!/the305mvp

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Post by TwisT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:38 am

Wow Shocked

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Post by Fernando Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:47 am

Excellent read twist, The best thing ive read on here in a long time hopefully we get more people writing things like these thumbsup

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Post by Lee Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:55 am

nice one Twistyyyyyyyyyy

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Post by Beer Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:58 am

Fantastic work, Twist.

It's been retweeted by loads of his fans all praising it.

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Post by bretmeharty Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:00 am

Did someone tweet MVP with it and then he retweeted it or did MVP tweet it himself?

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Post by Guest Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:06 am

Well done Twist. What an endorsement it is to get a former pro with the WWE to tweet this. Fantastic.

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Post by Beer Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:23 am

bretmeharty wrote:Did someone tweet MVP with it and then he retweeted it or did MVP tweet it himself?

I couldn't see that it had, but i would guess if it has that Adam did it!

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Post by sodhat Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:24 am

Hero tweeted it to MVP I believe

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Post by uberkiwi Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:27 am

Excellent article Twist.

Stoudemire, I actually remember him! I agree with including Horowitz too, that guy was a bit of a hero growing up.

Great work on getting the retweet too, thats fantastic.

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Post by bretmeharty Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:30 am

I thought we might of got lucky there for a sec with MVP just casually browsing the site Laugh

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Post by Hero Thu 29 Mar 2012, 11:44 am

Lennox Lewis has in the past, he tweeted an article on here without anyone mentioning it to him.

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Post by VDT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 12:55 pm

Barry Horrowitz, Brooklyn Brawler and Jim Powers all legends of my childhood! I also a rememember a skinny kid called Jack (Mick) Foley, We all how is career turn out! Great post, really enjoyed reading it!
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Post by Adam D Thu 29 Mar 2012, 8:19 pm

A truly brilliant artile and a privilege to post it on the journal:

http://v2journal.com/jobbers.html

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Post by TwisT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 8:39 pm

Thank you OK

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Post by Jammy31 Thu 29 Mar 2012, 8:45 pm

Loved this article twist. Having not really known much about wrestling in that era, I quite enjoyed learning about jobbers back then!

My question is, why don't WWE allow "local talent" a quick match any more like they used to, or have I been watching something completely different to everyone else?!
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Post by TwisT Thu 29 Mar 2012, 8:52 pm

Jammy31 wrote:Loved this article twist. Having not really known much about wrestling in that era, I quite enjoyed learning about jobbers back then!

My question is, why don't WWE allow "local talent" a quick match any more like they used to, or have I been watching something completely different to everyone else?!

I am sure there have been a few FCW wrestlers involved in quick squashes in recent times. One of the reasons that it doesn't happen more often is it doesn't do the job it did years ago - put over the talent. No one is really interested if said wrestler gets squashed by Clay for instance. It means slightly more if someone like Drew gets squashed because he is a wrestler on the roster in his own right. Jobbers back then didn't even feature in the Rumble.

Because of this, I don't think WWE would waste TV time on a jobber squash like in the 80's (not now the mystery of wrestling has died). Maybe in house shows, but certainly never to be shown on the box.

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Post by Jammy31 Thu 29 Mar 2012, 9:07 pm

TwisT wrote:
Jammy31 wrote:Loved this article twist. Having not really known much about wrestling in that era, I quite enjoyed learning about jobbers back then!

My question is, why don't WWE allow "local talent" a quick match any more like they used to, or have I been watching something completely different to everyone else?!

I am sure there have been a few FCW wrestlers involved in quick squashes in recent times. One of the reasons that it doesn't happen more often is it doesn't do the job it did years ago - put over the talent. No one is really interested if said wrestler gets squashed by Clay for instance. It means slightly more if someone like Drew gets squashed because he is a wrestler on the roster in his own right. Jobbers back then didn't even feature in the Rumble.

Because of this, I don't think WWE would waste TV time on a jobber squash like in the 80's (not now the mystery of wrestling has died). Maybe in house shows, but certainly never to be shown on the box.

Ahhh ok. That makes sense! Thanks for your response Smile OK
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Post by Kenny Thu 29 Mar 2012, 10:46 pm

Excellent article great read , more please

there were a couple more jobbers i remember from the 80's George South and The Italian Stallion
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Post by Bnscott78 Sat 03 Dec 2016, 6:43 am

He lives in lexington sc. I work at one of the local bars and he is a regular here. Great guy. I get to talk to him often. He likes to talk about the matches but most of the time he doesn't tell you he wrestled unless he has talked to you a good bit. He is actually sitting across the bar from me right now. He is awesome.

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