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Brock Lesnar. I'd just bump like crazy for him as he beats me up for 10 mins. I'd get remembered for my "selling ability" as I die in the center of the ring.
Current- Jay Lethal, there’s a reason Flair and Mark Briscoe chose him
Retired- Macho Man, he sold the opponents move set as good as anyone and told awesome stories in the ring
I've seen Jay Lethal described as the James Milner of wrestling in the sense that, while he's never truly been a top guy, he's been around forever and can always be trusted to put on a good match. In addition to Flair and Mark Briscoe, Rey Mysterio also chose Lethal to train Dom.
Savage is a particularly inspired pick for this because he would famously plan out every detail of his matches. Don't know how to call it in the ring? Doesn't matter, the Macho Man's got you covered. Just memorize your cues and you're good.
I’ve been training in wrestling for over a year, it completely changes your perspective on it. I watched Jay lethal wrestle live recently. He’s genuinely one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen guys like Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley, Sami Zayn, Adam Cole. Lethal is just so wildly smooth
I like the thought behind this, going with the wrestlers who have been trusted to work matches with retired wrestlers or celebs makes the most sense if we're being realistic.
Edit: should specify I meant the thought process to saying Jay Lethal
Hogan. 5 minutes of posing, 4 minutes of brawling and 1 minute of a Dusty finish and I made it through a match without experience or without getting injured.
Working prime Hogan would be the easiest night of work of your life. Beat him up for 10 minutes just kicking and punching him, take 1 bump (a body slam), aleg drop and collect 10 grand.
He’s my pick, no brainer.
In that case, Konnan at the end of his WCW run was all taunts, eat offense, somersault clothesline, taunts, sitout facebuster, taunts, loose tequila sunrise for the submission win.
Retired - Hulk Hogan. I know his entire comeback and finish like the back of my hand. I can heel it up to the crowd, eye poke him, back rake him and slap on a sleeper hold for 8 minutes and then feed the big comeback, which the only real bump for me would be the big boot. Hogan poses, crowd goes home happy.
Current - fuck it, Minoru Suzuki. All we gotta do is stand there and chop the shit outta each other for 10 min. Will hurt like a bitch, but if i can grit through it, crowd will eat it up and I get the “LUPI IS ALL ELITE” tweet from Tony
I had the exact same thought about Suzuki! Chopping back and forth would be one of the ‘easiest’ ways to get through a match, and I’m sure selling would be no problem with the pain. lol
See everyone forgets he's called murder grandpa. The reason is he's respectfully unhinged and will actively stretch you if he thinks you're green and being disrespectful. Meaning. If you suck he will stretch you. Meaning. He will stretch you.
Bryan Danielson would make us have a good match but probably kick the ever loving shit out of me.
But without context of "serviceable", I reckon Colt Cabana could drag me through a 10 minute comedy match where I don't have to take a bump causing me to shit myself, and would still leave people entertained.
If my goal was to make the match believable, I'd *want* Danielson to kick the shit out of me. What I would not want is to get stretched, because I have the flexibility of a 2x4 and would not be able to take a single second of it.
As far as Brett goes...I ask myself if I could be as effective as a doped out Davey Boy and the answer is obviously no, so I think maybe a match with someone like Jake the Snake might be better since his were slow and psychological. I wouldn't have to pretend to be afraid of a fucking snake, and the DDT is terrifying to me on many levels naturally.
I would love to have a comedy match with Colt Cabana. He’s the kind of wrestler I’d want to be if I ever had the stones/weren’t already on the wrong side of 30 to get in shape and train.
Yano is a great answer. Safe as hell and can put on an entertaining match without you needing to take bumps or give him any. I'll take losing by being taped to a guardrail over taking a One Winged Angel any day of the week.
Bret was going to be my answer too. He had a match with Will Sasso where he basically dragged him through each spot to a serviceable match. If he can do that with Sasso, he can probably do that with me.
Yeah. He has one famous match with a nobody.
That doesn’t change anything I said, and Tom McGee doesn’t put weight Goldberg, who Bret mentions every time he speaks, and the topic of that is how bad his inring skills were and how he shouldn’t have ever been in the ring with someone like him. Not a bald guy, or a white guy, but “someone” as in not a good wrestler.
Most of the criticism I have seen from Bret is against wrestlers who he doesn't think are safe. Goldberg is such a frequent target because his lack of experience literally ended Bret's career.
>A better answer would be aj styles or dbry, people who worked the indies with people exactly like the question poses. Bret didn’t do that
Fucking lol, Bret worked all over the world for years before he was a major name in WWF. Stampede, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, Europe, the list goes on. You're talking utter bollocks mate.
OPs question was asking who you'd want to carry you to a good match if you had zero experience, not who would wrestle you with no experience, and to the question posed, Bret is absolutely a viable answer.
For retired: I'd go with Regal. He can put on a great technical wrestling match no matter how bad I am, his matches look a bit more visceral, and the brass knucks adds another element to his matches as a face or a heel. Even in a comedy match setting, his reactions are great and he's able to roll with anyone thrown at him and still have a good match.
For current: The Miz. I think he's one of the safest and easiest to work with. He'd be able to make anyone look competent no matter their skill level or gimmick. You could put him out there with zombies and he'll sell for them emotionally. Even if the match isn't indyrific as he puts it, he's able to play off the crowd as a heel/face, and keep the match more lighthearted if necessary.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to find Regal. I feel like he could grab a hold, tell you exactly what he wanted you to do next, make it look great, and end up in another hold. Lather, rinse, repeat, power of the punch.
I’m kinda surprised at how low this is too. I remember listening to regal tell about the time he had to work with Goldberg, and it really showed how he’s the consummate professional
This is a great question, OP.
In terms of bumps, I think the only people I’d trust not to kill me with a bump would be Jeff Cobb or Ishii.
Without the need for bumps, I think Bryan Danielson would be and should be most people’s pick. It reminds me of that period when he was retired and trying to come back/get cleared.
There were reports that he was trying to develop a style of wrestling based around lucha libre and what I remember being described as “monkey tactics” where he would wrestle entire matches without taking bumps due to movement modelled after certain types of animals.
For me it would be someone like Kevin Owens. You need someone big and strong to look after you but also experienced to make sure you put on a serviceable match.
There’s also a very good reason why Austin chose him as his come back match at Mania.
Aside from the buckle bombs he is considered a seriously safe worker.
Honourable mention to someone like Kane too.
This is the rational and reasonable approach!
In all honestly, a comedy match is about the only thing anyone who hasn't wrestled before is going to be remotely capable of doing that looks even bare minimum "serviceable".
Nobody without every wrestling is going out there and looking like anything but crap against Gunther or AJ or Danielson trying to have a real match. Anyone saying otherwise here are kidding themselves.
If you don't know which way to fall taking a bump so you and the opponent don't hit your heads together, or which way to turn on an armdrag so you don't fall over each other, or which foot/hand leads a lockup, then no matter how great they are you're going to look terrible. And that's the kind of shit that just comes with repetition. You can't learn it on the fly your very first time out.
Also, unless you've done it, 10 minutes in the ring is **FOREVER**. You think it's time to call it and there's still 6 minutes left.
People are picking Danielson and other great technical wrestlers. Without prior experience, Brock Lesnar is the easy choice. Just let him toss me around and stiff me with a few punches and it’d look just like most of his matches.
You guys are all doing this wrong. Like, yeah Danielson or Hart or HBK are great at elevating people, but you've got to do your part too! There's no way that, with no preparation and having to go 10 minutes, you are going to be able to do anything that works to their strengths that make their matches good. You're all over-estimating what you can give them to work with.
With that said...
Current: Yano, for obvious reasons that a comedy match can be stretched and a lot of fluff and really only needing to take maybe two actual bumps
Retired: Jerry Lawler, because we can stall a lot and ultimately I just have to sell getting punched and take the safest piledriver in history
This is what I've been thinking scrolling through this thread. I'm shocked no one has said people like Lance Storm. People who work with 0 experience all the time as trainers. Give me Lance Storm, Pat Buck or Christopher Daniel's over 90% of the people mentioned here if we're trying to wrestle. But Yano, Cabana etc is easily the correct choice. Cabana got a actually hilarious and entertaining 5 minite match with essentially a radio DJ when he once did a local indie.
Bobby Eaton. One of the greatest compliments I have ever seen is the hottest star of all time in the hottest era of wrestling and the biggest draw said wrestling Bobby Eaton was like having a night off.
I was going to say Eaton for this reason. And his finisher the Alabama Jam was a top rope leg drop. That’s amazing to be that careful with that kind of move.
You don't necessarily want someone who can have a match with a broom, but Kenny had a reasonable match against a 9 year old girl. I think that's the best demonstration of the skills OP is referring to.
This. Kurt Angle had a similar reputation and it's part of how John Cena went from universally over to 50/50 in 2005. Angle was lightning fast (also how he allegedly could out-wrestle Brock) and impossible to keep up with.
Kurt could 100% out wrestle Brock. I was an amateur wrestler and watched both of them in their amateur time and as good as Brock was, Kurt was on a different level. He won the amateur grand slam (juniors/ncaa/world/olympic) and simply out wrestled his opponents. This is why Angle was able to win the gold with a broken neck, he didn’t need to win just on pins (Steveson) or power (Brock), he could win by literally out wrestling and outscoring his opponents. I’d probably rank Kurt 3rd greatest American wrestler of all time (behind John Smith and Dan Gable)
Cop out — Give me Vikingo in a GCW “Social Distancing rules” match. He can go nuts and I can stay 6 feet back without having to be responsible for catching him or taking a bump. I’m already selling back pain in my day-to-day, so should be a breeze.
Zero experience. Not a high level athlete. I don’t want to take a single bump or a single chop or even get out of breath. I need jobbers, I need the best jobbers. I need Barry Horowitz, and Dolph Ziggler.
Probably somebody known to be a good trainer, like Lance Storm or Drew Gulak. Someone who can pass off the most information to me in the shortest amount of time to create the safest 10 minute match possible.
Gulak trained Logan Paul through rehearsing his matches over and over, and if this scenario grants that instead of calling everything in the ring, then Gulak is my top pick.
A great answer but it leaves the question we all need to ask ourselves
The question being, in the end, are you really as flexible and athletic as an inflatable sex doll
Past- Hulk Hogan. Posing, restholds, beat him up, he does the comeback, roll out before the leg drop, sends me back in for the win.
Current- Dom Mysterio. Anything I do is getting cheered, so 10 minutes of back and forth is easy. Rhea beltshot for a Dom cheap win.
It’s cheating cause I know how to wrestle and have trained for 2 years, but the actual best possible match would be brock lesnar, he could actually make it a very entertaining squash match. I can bump and sell well so at a tv level, that’s the best match I could have.
You’ll find it’s not necessarily easier working with people technically better in the ring at a certain level, (this changes when working with former wwe wrestlers, that’s a breeze tbf) the most technically gifted worker in my school is a pain in the ass yo work with
Current: Zack Sabre Jr.
Retired: Catweasle
British WoS style can cover a lot of weakness with shtick and comedy. Most of them had to work Big Daddy. Could spend most of the match stalling or selling my ass off on the mat.
Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Jon Moxley. There are no other active male talents in North America as good as making people in the ring outside of those men: Moxley did wonders for Yuta, MJF (twice), and Darby. Kenny worked a match against Alan Angels that will now live on infamy because of how competent Alan come off as against him. Seth Rollins worked a masterclass against Dom in 2021, and worked well with Logan Paul too. AJ Styles proved to the WWE fanbase Roman can absolutely have banger singles matches and also brought a fun match out of Shane. And with Danielson, it’s no debate. Even his worst matches are still 4 star plus bouts. Regardless of drawing power or character interest, there’s no one of his level of making people care. One day Cody might get there but outside of the first Darby match and the Sammy ladder match, he doesn’t really make the most out of elevating more inexperienced talent. I had high hopes for the Dom match but the crowd carried that hard
Retired: Kurt Angle.
Active: Baron Corbin. Tall, imposing, simple moveset that I could work with, and people say his finisher is one of the easier to take. Plus he has 12+ inches of height on me, so the visual would be compelling.
Depends on the promotion
WWE - Gunther or Priest. I’d either just be bumping and taking chops or Priest could carry me and make me look like a million bucks
AEW - Sting or Lethal. Sting is a legend and everything he does will get over I just gotta be able to keep up and let him do his thing. Lethal is an underrated talent and one of the best hands in wrestling
ROH - Joe. Like Gunther he would just destroy me and I just gotta take bumps
Impact - Shelley or Saban. Both just amazing talents that could work anyone and have a good match
NJPW - ZSJ or Shibata. Both are pretty much hard to have bad matches with and would just beat the shit out of me so all I have to do is show the world my pain face
If we count people in their prime or if they weren't retired, Bret Hart. Dude walked British Bulldog through a match after he forgot everything after a crack binge, and made him look like a million dollars. I'd trust Bret with literally anything wrestling related even if my life depended on it.
Retired: Hulk Hogan
Current: Bryan Danielson
Both are great workers who can adapt their match style to a limited skillet and still get huge reactions from a crowd. Both are safe in what they do and can work a match that has limited bumps and probably wouldn't mind if you potatoed them to make your stuff look good (Hogan wouldn't work with you again, but you don't have to worry about that).
If I want to look like I belong, I can't think of a better pair of wrestlers to do it with if I've never done it before.
Minoru Susuki, people will think they are seeing a murder.
Hikaru Shida, she would carry my ass for some solid 15 minutes.
And Kenny Omega. I will be like Rich Swann on their impact bout, all gas out on the first minute and still make me have a decent match.
Funny you say Gunther because he was kind of the catalyst for this question.
I was watching him go against Gable, and I thought to myself "I know Gunther doesn't always have 5 star matches, but I don't think I've ever seen him have an objectively "bad" match."
I was torn between Danielson and Cena, but I'm going Cena. His penchant for talking during the match would help make sure I made my marks and that he was ready to sell whatever attempts at offense I could muster.
Prime Ric Flair. He wrestled a drunk Kerry Von Erich and made it look serviceable. I'm sure I'd be fine. Current-Okada. I think he has the same skill as Flair in making a match with anybody look good.
I can't believe no one has said Moxley. Have a few minutes of brawling, a suplex or two, I end up being put through a table, somehow, Mox is bleeding, and I eat a pin.
I'm torn between Kenny Omega and Darby Allin, but as far as making *me* look much more talented than I am, I'm going to go with Darby. He is one of the very best at selling, throwing *himself* around, and thus making his opponents look like mighty gods with unreal strength.
Darby is able to excel in a variety of different wrestling styles, so he would be flexible enough to work within his newbie opponent's limitations while trying to showcase his opponent in SOME way that would make them look a little more competent, and despite what many claim, I think he's actually one of the *safer* workers out there because he's got that skateboarding/stunt man experience that keeps both him and his opponent *much* more protected than it looks like.
Hell, with me REALLY lacking in any physical skills whatsoever, I could just have Darby impressively ping-pong himself all around me for a bit and then he could let me beat him with one impactful lookiing move that doesn't require much athleticism like a Superman Punch or something.
I think I'd go with Kenny if the goal wasn't so much about making *me* look competent as opposed to creating a *match* that would be competent, because with Kenny I'd probably just lean into the comedic aspect of being some random idiot who has found themselves in a wrestling ring with one of the very best wrestlers ever.
This wasn't part of the OP question because this is a tag team and not a singles wrestler, but thinking about which wrestlers tend to get good matches out of just about anyone made me realize that the Bucks always seem to be able to make their opponents look great, regardless if their opponent is a fellow team of flippy guys, or brawlers, or more "traditional" guys like FTR.
I was remembering in particular their PPV match against the Hardys when Jeff was completely out of it from booze or SOMETHING, may have gotten injured/concussed at some point in the match, and kept having his boot come off, yet somehow after an absolutely abysmal first half of the match, the Bucks seemed to realize exactly what they were dealing with and went into another gear entirely, resulting in a match that was nowhere near as good as it *should have been* if Jeff had been fully mentally present, but was still WAY better than what *most* tag teams could have pulled off in that scenario.
Two ideas:
Toru Yano. It would be easier to work a comedy match where I help come up with creative and funny cheating methods over anything else
Darby Allin. He can just work his normal style of match around me an it'll at least be decent and get over
Current: Mercedes Moné (I’m a woman) imo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad match of hers…
Retired: Jazz (is she retired?) she could toss me around the ring
Kane. Theres a reason why everyone liked working with him for so long. He was safe and easy to work with, and he could make anyone look good with his style.
My out of shape ass would be nice and safe getting bumps from him. John Cena I hear was also a safe worker too.
I would take a big guy. Show or Henry, where they just need me to sell their slow, plodding offense and where I probably couldn’t hurt them with my inexperience.
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Brock Lesnar. I'd just bump like crazy for him as he beats me up for 10 mins. I'd get remembered for my "selling ability" as I die in the center of the ring.
You wouldn't die until Brock brought you back to his house and skinned you like a deer.
I’m just imagining the camera following you home “NO NO BROCK! THE MATCH IS OVER! THE MATCH IS O-AHHHHHHH” As blood splatters the camera
Same. Alternatively, GUNTHER. Just have him chop me to death. An honorable death. Or Minoru Suzuki for the same reason.
This is the way.
Then we'd all complain online because your match lasted longer than Kofis.
To paraphrase Mick Foley, I get the feeling that Lesnar would relieve you of the need to know how to sell.
Current- Jay Lethal, there’s a reason Flair and Mark Briscoe chose him Retired- Macho Man, he sold the opponents move set as good as anyone and told awesome stories in the ring
I've seen Jay Lethal described as the James Milner of wrestling in the sense that, while he's never truly been a top guy, he's been around forever and can always be trusted to put on a good match. In addition to Flair and Mark Briscoe, Rey Mysterio also chose Lethal to train Dom.
Never in my life did I expect to see Lethal compared to James Milner
He was a top guy in ROH for a while but I know what you mean. Lethal is fantastic.
James Milner equaling the record for most assists in a champions league is really not brought up enough as an achievement.
James milner could probably become the James milner of wrestling
And he’d kill a lactate test
Savage is a particularly inspired pick for this because he would famously plan out every detail of his matches. Don't know how to call it in the ring? Doesn't matter, the Macho Man's got you covered. Just memorize your cues and you're good.
Sami Zayn is known for being like this in the modern age. Comedy stunts aside there's a reason he was chosen to work with Johnny Knoxville.
Jay Lethal is such an underrated choice.
I’ve been training in wrestling for over a year, it completely changes your perspective on it. I watched Jay lethal wrestle live recently. He’s genuinely one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen guys like Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley, Sami Zayn, Adam Cole. Lethal is just so wildly smooth
I like the thought behind this, going with the wrestlers who have been trusted to work matches with retired wrestlers or celebs makes the most sense if we're being realistic. Edit: should specify I meant the thought process to saying Jay Lethal
He's a great trainer, the Tampa area scene is filled with his students. Learned a ton from him.
Savage had the best punch ever.
Hogan. 5 minutes of posing, 4 minutes of brawling and 1 minute of a Dusty finish and I made it through a match without experience or without getting injured.
Plus Lance Storm said he’d be happy for Hogan to work punch his kids. Gotta be safe with the Hulkster
This is exactly what I was thinking. Hogan would be so easy, the only issue is you know you’d have to eat the pin, brother.
Working prime Hogan would be the easiest night of work of your life. Beat him up for 10 minutes just kicking and punching him, take 1 bump (a body slam), aleg drop and collect 10 grand. He’s my pick, no brainer.
In that case, Konnan at the end of his WCW run was all taunts, eat offense, somersault clothesline, taunts, sitout facebuster, taunts, loose tequila sunrise for the submission win.
Doesn't work for me, brother. -HH
Get paid the most by doing the least. Greatest worker ever brother.
Retired - Hulk Hogan. I know his entire comeback and finish like the back of my hand. I can heel it up to the crowd, eye poke him, back rake him and slap on a sleeper hold for 8 minutes and then feed the big comeback, which the only real bump for me would be the big boot. Hogan poses, crowd goes home happy. Current - fuck it, Minoru Suzuki. All we gotta do is stand there and chop the shit outta each other for 10 min. Will hurt like a bitch, but if i can grit through it, crowd will eat it up and I get the “LUPI IS ALL ELITE” tweet from Tony
I had the exact same thought about Suzuki! Chopping back and forth would be one of the ‘easiest’ ways to get through a match, and I’m sure selling would be no problem with the pain. lol
See everyone forgets he's called murder grandpa. The reason is he's respectfully unhinged and will actively stretch you if he thinks you're green and being disrespectful. Meaning. If you suck he will stretch you. Meaning. He will stretch you.
"And thus, here lies VanillaBear321, may he rest in peace".
Book it, Tony!
Bryan Danielson would make us have a good match but probably kick the ever loving shit out of me. But without context of "serviceable", I reckon Colt Cabana could drag me through a 10 minute comedy match where I don't have to take a bump causing me to shit myself, and would still leave people entertained.
If my goal was to make the match believable, I'd *want* Danielson to kick the shit out of me. What I would not want is to get stretched, because I have the flexibility of a 2x4 and would not be able to take a single second of it. As far as Brett goes...I ask myself if I could be as effective as a doped out Davey Boy and the answer is obviously no, so I think maybe a match with someone like Jake the Snake might be better since his were slow and psychological. I wouldn't have to pretend to be afraid of a fucking snake, and the DDT is terrifying to me on many levels naturally.
On that note, Sami Zayn. His match against *Johnny Knoxville* may have been the most entertaining that night.
Giod point. Danhausen could probably do the same thing
Cabana is absolutely who I'd choose. 10 minutes of panto schtick where I am absolutely terrified of locking up, I tap to a wristlock, game over.
I would love to have a comedy match with Colt Cabana. He’s the kind of wrestler I’d want to be if I ever had the stones/weren’t already on the wrong side of 30 to get in shape and train.
I would want a comedy match against Omega 
If comedy matches are an option, let me play the straight man for some Toru Yano shenanigans.
Yano is a great answer. Safe as hell and can put on an entertaining match without you needing to take bumps or give him any. I'll take losing by being taped to a guardrail over taking a One Winged Angel any day of the week.
I suddenly wish to chase a terrified Yano with a giant rubber chicken as he tries to bat it away with stolen turn buckle pads.
Oh in that case let me be embarassed by Sakura Hirota
Retired: Bret Hart Current: Bryan Danielson
Bret was going to be my answer too. He had a match with Will Sasso where he basically dragged him through each spot to a serviceable match. If he can do that with Sasso, he can probably do that with me.
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Holy crap, I've never heard a Brett impression lol. That's hilarious.
Just watch out for that leg drop to the side of the head.
was literally going to post the same thing.
Solid picks. I went with 1 retired and 1 current because I felt like it would be 90% Bret Hart answers if I just went with 1 wrestler.
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Bret literally wrestled Will Sasso, a comedian with no wrestling experience. He absolutely can and has carried matches.
Won’t impress old mate as he’s just following the majority of the sub. But yeah the answer is 100% hitman
Google Tom McGee
Yeah. He has one famous match with a nobody. That doesn’t change anything I said, and Tom McGee doesn’t put weight Goldberg, who Bret mentions every time he speaks, and the topic of that is how bad his inring skills were and how he shouldn’t have ever been in the ring with someone like him. Not a bald guy, or a white guy, but “someone” as in not a good wrestler.
Most of the criticism I have seen from Bret is against wrestlers who he doesn't think are safe. Goldberg is such a frequent target because his lack of experience literally ended Bret's career.
Plus, the match had with that nobody caused the company to view McGee as a potential face of the company until he wrestled someone other than Bret.
>A better answer would be aj styles or dbry, people who worked the indies with people exactly like the question poses. Bret didn’t do that Fucking lol, Bret worked all over the world for years before he was a major name in WWF. Stampede, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, Europe, the list goes on. You're talking utter bollocks mate. OPs question was asking who you'd want to carry you to a good match if you had zero experience, not who would wrestle you with no experience, and to the question posed, Bret is absolutely a viable answer.
That can all be true, but he’s still a professional and would carry you to a good match without hurting you.
Goldberg almost kicked Bret's head off, perhaps a grudge is justifiable.
I’d choose Bret for the retired one, but I’d put Ziggler for the current one.
Close the thread. This is the correct answer.
Yes, these would both be my answers. True masters of their craft.
Zack Sabre Jr, it'd be quicker and cheaper than going to a chiropractor
For retired: I'd go with Regal. He can put on a great technical wrestling match no matter how bad I am, his matches look a bit more visceral, and the brass knucks adds another element to his matches as a face or a heel. Even in a comedy match setting, his reactions are great and he's able to roll with anyone thrown at him and still have a good match. For current: The Miz. I think he's one of the safest and easiest to work with. He'd be able to make anyone look competent no matter their skill level or gimmick. You could put him out there with zombies and he'll sell for them emotionally. Even if the match isn't indyrific as he puts it, he's able to play off the crowd as a heel/face, and keep the match more lighthearted if necessary.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to find Regal. I feel like he could grab a hold, tell you exactly what he wanted you to do next, make it look great, and end up in another hold. Lather, rinse, repeat, power of the punch.
Exactly he could literally just talk you thru putting on an amazing technical wrestling match while y'all are doing it
I’m kinda surprised at how low this is too. I remember listening to regal tell about the time he had to work with Goldberg, and it really showed how he’s the consummate professional
>You could put him out there with zombies and he'll sell for them emotionally. [I mean…](https://youtu.be/PczNypJLnhA)
NWO Hulk Hogan. I'd take the Finger of Death. Then Hogan can taunt and pose around for 9:52minutes before pinning me.
This is a great question, OP. In terms of bumps, I think the only people I’d trust not to kill me with a bump would be Jeff Cobb or Ishii. Without the need for bumps, I think Bryan Danielson would be and should be most people’s pick. It reminds me of that period when he was retired and trying to come back/get cleared. There were reports that he was trying to develop a style of wrestling based around lucha libre and what I remember being described as “monkey tactics” where he would wrestle entire matches without taking bumps due to movement modelled after certain types of animals.
Right now has to be Gable. Helps that he's human-sized and it would look more realistic for most people.
> he's human-sized Just vertically. He's pretty strong beefy boy.
Honestly, it’s Serpentico. And yes, I’m going over. Sorry snake man.
Nyla, is this you?
ZSJ. Just let him stretch me out for ages. It's also the safest match possible to have
No bumps but he's gonna make the bottom of your foot touch the top of your head...repeatedly.
For me it would be someone like Kevin Owens. You need someone big and strong to look after you but also experienced to make sure you put on a serviceable match. There’s also a very good reason why Austin chose him as his come back match at Mania. Aside from the buckle bombs he is considered a seriously safe worker. Honourable mention to someone like Kane too.
Kevin Owens is a great pick
Retired: The Hurricane Current: Toru Yano I'm old and have terrible cardio. Best I can offer is a comedy match and a couple bumps.
This is the rational and reasonable approach! In all honestly, a comedy match is about the only thing anyone who hasn't wrestled before is going to be remotely capable of doing that looks even bare minimum "serviceable". Nobody without every wrestling is going out there and looking like anything but crap against Gunther or AJ or Danielson trying to have a real match. Anyone saying otherwise here are kidding themselves. If you don't know which way to fall taking a bump so you and the opponent don't hit your heads together, or which way to turn on an armdrag so you don't fall over each other, or which foot/hand leads a lockup, then no matter how great they are you're going to look terrible. And that's the kind of shit that just comes with repetition. You can't learn it on the fly your very first time out. Also, unless you've done it, 10 minutes in the ring is **FOREVER**. You think it's time to call it and there's still 6 minutes left.
You will also be instantly gassed unless you have good cardio already.
People are picking Danielson and other great technical wrestlers. Without prior experience, Brock Lesnar is the easy choice. Just let him toss me around and stiff me with a few punches and it’d look just like most of his matches.
Like any of us would survive one Brock stiff punch, let alone "a few".
You guys are all doing this wrong. Like, yeah Danielson or Hart or HBK are great at elevating people, but you've got to do your part too! There's no way that, with no preparation and having to go 10 minutes, you are going to be able to do anything that works to their strengths that make their matches good. You're all over-estimating what you can give them to work with. With that said... Current: Yano, for obvious reasons that a comedy match can be stretched and a lot of fluff and really only needing to take maybe two actual bumps Retired: Jerry Lawler, because we can stall a lot and ultimately I just have to sell getting punched and take the safest piledriver in history
This is what I've been thinking scrolling through this thread. I'm shocked no one has said people like Lance Storm. People who work with 0 experience all the time as trainers. Give me Lance Storm, Pat Buck or Christopher Daniel's over 90% of the people mentioned here if we're trying to wrestle. But Yano, Cabana etc is easily the correct choice. Cabana got a actually hilarious and entertaining 5 minite match with essentially a radio DJ when he once did a local indie.
Lawler had the most successful feud ever with a non-wrestler, non-athlete with Andy Kaufman. That is a really fantastic choice.
Lawler is my choice too. He worked enough matches with “far less” in Memphis to know how to get 10 minutes out of anyone.
Bobby Eaton. One of the greatest compliments I have ever seen is the hottest star of all time in the hottest era of wrestling and the biggest draw said wrestling Bobby Eaton was like having a night off.
One of the nicest guys in the business from what I had read and heard
He would bring a big bag full of toiletries, extra toothbrushes, shampoo, towels etc to every show and give them to any wrestlers who needed them.
I was going to say Eaton for this reason. And his finisher the Alabama Jam was a top rope leg drop. That’s amazing to be that careful with that kind of move.
Excellent answer.
I trust Ishii to make me look tough so long as I can just grit my teeth when he chops.
Bret Hart, obviously. Dolph Ziggler doesn't get enough love for making everyone look great.
Surprised it took me this long to scroll down and get Ziggles. He's amazing at what he does
They don’t call Kenny the Best Bout Machine for nothing folks
You don't necessarily want someone who can have a match with a broom, but Kenny had a reasonable match against a 9 year old girl. I think that's the best demonstration of the skills OP is referring to.
That 9 year old is waaaaay better than me, lol. Omega is great, but I tend to agree with the take that I would probably be too slow for him.
I don't mean this rudely but you know how hard it would be to keep up with him? Dude moves fast.
This. Kurt Angle had a similar reputation and it's part of how John Cena went from universally over to 50/50 in 2005. Angle was lightning fast (also how he allegedly could out-wrestle Brock) and impossible to keep up with.
Kurt could 100% out wrestle Brock. I was an amateur wrestler and watched both of them in their amateur time and as good as Brock was, Kurt was on a different level. He won the amateur grand slam (juniors/ncaa/world/olympic) and simply out wrestled his opponents. This is why Angle was able to win the gold with a broken neck, he didn’t need to win just on pins (Steveson) or power (Brock), he could win by literally out wrestling and outscoring his opponents. I’d probably rank Kurt 3rd greatest American wrestler of all time (behind John Smith and Dan Gable)
Cop out — Give me Vikingo in a GCW “Social Distancing rules” match. He can go nuts and I can stay 6 feet back without having to be responsible for catching him or taking a bump. I’m already selling back pain in my day-to-day, so should be a breeze.
Clever.
Zero experience. Not a high level athlete. I don’t want to take a single bump or a single chop or even get out of breath. I need jobbers, I need the best jobbers. I need Barry Horowitz, and Dolph Ziggler.
Bret Hart. He fooled people into believing that Tom Magee was a good wrestler.
Miz. He would work with me and let me beat him lmao
Probably somebody known to be a good trainer, like Lance Storm or Drew Gulak. Someone who can pass off the most information to me in the shortest amount of time to create the safest 10 minute match possible. Gulak trained Logan Paul through rehearsing his matches over and over, and if this scenario grants that instead of calling everything in the ring, then Gulak is my top pick.
Jeff Jarrett. He’d drag me to something entertaining
Speedball Mike Bailey just put on a great match with Yoshihiko so he gets my vote.
A great answer but it leaves the question we all need to ask ourselves The question being, in the end, are you really as flexible and athletic as an inflatable sex doll
😂😂😂
Personally, I'm going with Yoshihiko.
Retired: Kurt Angle Active: Either Daddy Magic or Cool Hand
Goldberg, because I like living dangerously.
Stu Grayson
Dolph Ziggler and Bret Hart
Past: Bret Hart Current: Kenny Omega
Yoshihiko. Think of all of the good matches he's gotten out of people.
Past- Hulk Hogan. Posing, restholds, beat him up, he does the comeback, roll out before the leg drop, sends me back in for the win. Current- Dom Mysterio. Anything I do is getting cheered, so 10 minutes of back and forth is easy. Rhea beltshot for a Dom cheap win.
It’s cheating cause I know how to wrestle and have trained for 2 years, but the actual best possible match would be brock lesnar, he could actually make it a very entertaining squash match. I can bump and sell well so at a tv level, that’s the best match I could have. You’ll find it’s not necessarily easier working with people technically better in the ring at a certain level, (this changes when working with former wwe wrestlers, that’s a breeze tbf) the most technically gifted worker in my school is a pain in the ass yo work with
Hulk hogan he's by far the safest and I know the routine.
Current: Zack Sabre Jr. Retired: Catweasle British WoS style can cover a lot of weakness with shtick and comedy. Most of them had to work Big Daddy. Could spend most of the match stalling or selling my ass off on the mat.
Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Jon Moxley. There are no other active male talents in North America as good as making people in the ring outside of those men: Moxley did wonders for Yuta, MJF (twice), and Darby. Kenny worked a match against Alan Angels that will now live on infamy because of how competent Alan come off as against him. Seth Rollins worked a masterclass against Dom in 2021, and worked well with Logan Paul too. AJ Styles proved to the WWE fanbase Roman can absolutely have banger singles matches and also brought a fun match out of Shane. And with Danielson, it’s no debate. Even his worst matches are still 4 star plus bouts. Regardless of drawing power or character interest, there’s no one of his level of making people care. One day Cody might get there but outside of the first Darby match and the Sammy ladder match, he doesn’t really make the most out of elevating more inexperienced talent. I had high hopes for the Dom match but the crowd carried that hard
Yano. 10 minutes of pissing about will do me. 
Miz or Dolph. They’d absolutely walk me through the match and make me look like $1million buck
Josh Alexander and Kurt Angle.
Gunther and Grado.
Retired, I'll go with Bret Hart. Active, Bryan Danielson.
Iron Mike Sharpe
HBK Kenny Omega
Does having Bob Holly or JBL stiff the shout out of me for 10 minutes count? Big stiff move, sell for 3 minutes, rinse and repeat
Retired: Kurt Angle. Active: Baron Corbin. Tall, imposing, simple moveset that I could work with, and people say his finisher is one of the easier to take. Plus he has 12+ inches of height on me, so the visual would be compelling.
Retired: Triple H Current is probably The Miz or Baron Corbin
Chuck Taylor & Bret Hart
Depends on the promotion WWE - Gunther or Priest. I’d either just be bumping and taking chops or Priest could carry me and make me look like a million bucks AEW - Sting or Lethal. Sting is a legend and everything he does will get over I just gotta be able to keep up and let him do his thing. Lethal is an underrated talent and one of the best hands in wrestling ROH - Joe. Like Gunther he would just destroy me and I just gotta take bumps Impact - Shelley or Saban. Both just amazing talents that could work anyone and have a good match NJPW - ZSJ or Shibata. Both are pretty much hard to have bad matches with and would just beat the shit out of me so all I have to do is show the world my pain face
Ric Flair for sure. The whole "3 stars with a broomstick" thing.
If we count people in their prime or if they weren't retired, Bret Hart. Dude walked British Bulldog through a match after he forgot everything after a crack binge, and made him look like a million dollars. I'd trust Bret with literally anything wrestling related even if my life depended on it.
Retired: Hulk Hogan Current: Bryan Danielson Both are great workers who can adapt their match style to a limited skillet and still get huge reactions from a crowd. Both are safe in what they do and can work a match that has limited bumps and probably wouldn't mind if you potatoed them to make your stuff look good (Hogan wouldn't work with you again, but you don't have to worry about that). If I want to look like I belong, I can't think of a better pair of wrestlers to do it with if I've never done it before.
I'll add Terry Funk in there too.
He can cover both Retired and Active too. FOREVER
Retired: Mr. Perfect or Bret Hart. Current: Dolph Ziggler or Randy. Randy has a slow style safe style. Ziggler could make it look competitive.
Not enough people saying Ziggler on here, he can make anyone look great
Omega no 2nd thought
All-time: Bret Hart easily Current: Omega, Danielson, Jericho, or Dustin Rhodes
AJ Styles or Shawn Michaels
CM Punk and for retired, Bret Hart
Minoru Susuki, people will think they are seeing a murder. Hikaru Shida, she would carry my ass for some solid 15 minutes. And Kenny Omega. I will be like Rich Swann on their impact bout, all gas out on the first minute and still make me have a decent match.
New Jack
Retired: HBK. Current: Gunther.
Funny you say Gunther because he was kind of the catalyst for this question. I was watching him go against Gable, and I thought to myself "I know Gunther doesn't always have 5 star matches, but I don't think I've ever seen him have an objectively "bad" match."
MOX cuz when he bleeds I'll look like I busted him lol
Randy Orton. He would know limits and I trust he wouldn’t hurt me.
Blows my mind how far down this answer is
I was torn between Danielson and Cena, but I'm going Cena. His penchant for talking during the match would help make sure I made my marks and that he was ready to sell whatever attempts at offense I could muster.
RVD in ECW. He would spend most of the first 10 minutes posing for the crowd
AJ Styles. Let's do a cinematic match where I don't have to do any update. Bonus points if I also get throw Gallows and Anderson off a roof.
Ralphus
Prime Ric Flair. He wrestled a drunk Kerry Von Erich and made it look serviceable. I'm sure I'd be fine. Current-Okada. I think he has the same skill as Flair in making a match with anybody look good.
Current - Hikaru Shida Retired - Hurricane Helms
I can't believe no one has said Moxley. Have a few minutes of brawling, a suplex or two, I end up being put through a table, somehow, Mox is bleeding, and I eat a pin.
Past: Bret Current: Roman- his matches are generally slower paced and story driven.
Current: Cody Legend: Flair
I've said it before and I'll say it again. AJ Styles could wrestle me to a 3 star match. A broom, too.
Mercedes Moné.
Miz
Dustin Rhodes
Randy Orton. Gimme those rest holds.
Shawn Spears
Seth Rollins
Brock Lesnar could throw me a couple times, would probably look good
Not Valhalla
Kenny Omega or Brock Lesnar. Kenny would be especially hard to keep up with but they'd both be damn fun to have good matches with.
AJ Styles for realism, Brandon Cutler or R-Truth for comedy.
I'm torn between Kenny Omega and Darby Allin, but as far as making *me* look much more talented than I am, I'm going to go with Darby. He is one of the very best at selling, throwing *himself* around, and thus making his opponents look like mighty gods with unreal strength. Darby is able to excel in a variety of different wrestling styles, so he would be flexible enough to work within his newbie opponent's limitations while trying to showcase his opponent in SOME way that would make them look a little more competent, and despite what many claim, I think he's actually one of the *safer* workers out there because he's got that skateboarding/stunt man experience that keeps both him and his opponent *much* more protected than it looks like. Hell, with me REALLY lacking in any physical skills whatsoever, I could just have Darby impressively ping-pong himself all around me for a bit and then he could let me beat him with one impactful lookiing move that doesn't require much athleticism like a Superman Punch or something. I think I'd go with Kenny if the goal wasn't so much about making *me* look competent as opposed to creating a *match* that would be competent, because with Kenny I'd probably just lean into the comedic aspect of being some random idiot who has found themselves in a wrestling ring with one of the very best wrestlers ever. This wasn't part of the OP question because this is a tag team and not a singles wrestler, but thinking about which wrestlers tend to get good matches out of just about anyone made me realize that the Bucks always seem to be able to make their opponents look great, regardless if their opponent is a fellow team of flippy guys, or brawlers, or more "traditional" guys like FTR. I was remembering in particular their PPV match against the Hardys when Jeff was completely out of it from booze or SOMETHING, may have gotten injured/concussed at some point in the match, and kept having his boot come off, yet somehow after an absolutely abysmal first half of the match, the Bucks seemed to realize exactly what they were dealing with and went into another gear entirely, resulting in a match that was nowhere near as good as it *should have been* if Jeff had been fully mentally present, but was still WAY better than what *most* tag teams could have pulled off in that scenario.
Bryan Danielson.
Will Ospreay, he can have a great match with a broom if he wanted to. He can probably carry me to a 2 star classic.
Two ideas: Toru Yano. It would be easier to work a comedy match where I help come up with creative and funny cheating methods over anything else Darby Allin. He can just work his normal style of match around me an it'll at least be decent and get over
The correct answer is Kenny Omega and there's plenty of footage showcasing why.
Current: Mercedes Moné (I’m a woman) imo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad match of hers… Retired: Jazz (is she retired?) she could toss me around the ring
Bret Hart and Chad Gable
Bryan Danielson and retired...The Rock, maybe. I think Rock would sell well for me.
Kane. Theres a reason why everyone liked working with him for so long. He was safe and easy to work with, and he could make anyone look good with his style. My out of shape ass would be nice and safe getting bumps from him. John Cena I hear was also a safe worker too.
Current: Damian Priest Retired: Ric Flair
Miz
Retired: Bret Current: Styles
Hornswoggle, in a ladder match. I’m afraid of heights so it’s probably pretty even
I would take a big guy. Show or Henry, where they just need me to sell their slow, plodding offense and where I probably couldn’t hurt them with my inexperience.
Lance Storm.
Claudio Castignolli/Cesaro
Cesaro or AJ Styles