Hey Scott, I like Puroresu companies (NJPW,AJPW,NOAH,etc) and I have always wondered how the fans keep their shins from being destroyed by the guardrails? Wrestlers are regularly whipped into the steel guardrails at great speeds and smack into them and the rails fly backwards. The fans look like they don't even react to being hit by the rails at all. Am I missing something? Do the rails somehow NOT hit the fans? I know, strange question.
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Thanks and great job on the site!
Of all the questions about the somewhat bizarre quirks of Japanese wrestling fans, that's the one I would have the least information about.
Maybe complaining about shattered ankles goes against the "politely respectful" mantra. Mitsuharu Misawa would have had none of the fans complaining about hurting their feet after getting dropped on his head twelve times in a match.
ReplyDeleteWe have similar set ups in Australian wrestling (for the most part). You move your legs or you get hit. Period. I prefer it when they move their legs because then the guard rail moves more and it doesn't hurt when you get whipped into the damn thing, but that's a personal preference.
ReplyDeleteUnless you're a certain worker from MCW, you'll ignore how close the patrons are to the guardrail, whip your opponent into said railing and hurt the patron, possibly busting an ankle or leg. Backstage heat from said mishap is optional.
ReplyDeleteMy understand was the rookies were put in the spots where the guard railing would come into play.
ReplyDeleteI'll always watch Botchamania and see some indy guy moonsault into the crowd and kick a fan in the face on the way and think "Can the promoter just not afford a lawyer to tell him why those spots are such a bad idea? Probably not."
ReplyDeleteI always wish the fans would sell the move. It's like all the fans are Road Warrior Hawk or something.
ReplyDeleteWhen i went to my one and only wrestling lesson with the Dirt Bike Kid (of very short lived ECW fame) about 15yrs ago he said once at a show in London (FCW, or something) a kid behind the guardrail had been mouthing off at him all through his match. He ended up kicking the guard rail so hard it smashed the kid in the face and left him covered in blood. This is the same Dirt Bike Kid who the next week while my body was still bruised and aching (I was pretty inactive 13yr old) ranted at me over the phone that I should come in despite my pain as after all he often wrestled with broken bones. He changed his tune when he realised my mum was listening in on the other line!
ReplyDeleteMost of the people attending those indy shows aren't smart enough to get a lawyer.
ReplyDeleteBest post
ReplyDeleteYou sound as if you were quite the pussy at age 13...
ReplyDeleteI figured this was the reason WWE switched over to dasherboards, and for the most part, it's been a significant improvement over guardrails. It's safer for the patrons, presumably it's also safer for the workers to be thrown into them, and it's also open up a variety of interesting new spots, such as the spear through the dasherboards, the DDT on top that (I believe) Michelle McCool did (although she only did it once, IIRC), and Jeff Hardy's rail run.
ReplyDeleteThe only negative is that guys like Hardy and Ziggler would get whipped into them, and they would then do a fairly reckless somersault bump into them, which they never would have done if it were just bare rails (okay, Ziggler might have, because I'm pretty sure he's aiming for a wheelchair, although he's getting better about that sort of thing).
I wasn't the toughest kid in Springfield put it that way. How about you mate?
ReplyDeleteI did all right...
ReplyDeleteI'd say you were projecting just a little bit old man ;)
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