10 Great Wrestling Moments That Not Enough People Have Seen
1. The Work Of Rollerball Rocco
The wrestling world lost Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco on July 30. That world gained in his lifetime an influence few others have imprinted on the form.
That influence is felt everywhere. The way he manoeuvred himself around the ring, striking his opponents in rapid sequences, is not too dissimilar to Kenny Omega's trademark cloudburst - and Rocco was doing this in the early 1980s.
He was integral to the architecture of the modern wrestling we love, and, it should not go unmentioned, a fantastic sh*thouse. Watch him in his element with the Dynamite Kid; at 2:28, the Kid effectively defends himself on the mat, and, showing a prodigious ring awareness, breaks the hold. This displeases Rocco; when both men are ordered to their feet, Rocco aims an illegal and petulant knee in the Kid's face in passing. The terrific bastard then pulls up his trunks in one swift and "proper" movement, as if that's what he was attempting to do.
He then pies the Kid in the face, and the Kid fires back with a slap. In just seconds, within the body of the match, the story is told: Rocco has been outclassed, he resents this, and his heat-seeking heel work both pisses off the crowd and very subtly puts the Kid over as an emerging threat on the scene.
Entire generations inherited his style, but the substance of his work is all too often lacking.