No matter how many times non-fans tell us that its all fake or that they know how to fall, we true fans KNOW that wrestling hurts. In one shoot interview, Chris Jericho remembered that Ricky Steamboat once told him to be prepared to live every day in pain if he wanted to make it as a pro wrestler. He wasnt wrong about that, recalled Jericho. The reality of wrestling is a hard one. In a very real sense, wrestlers place their careers and their bodies in the hands of their opponents, every single night. This is why concepts like the workers handshake evolved in the first place (basically, a working handshake is a soft, light handshake that implies that the person shaking your hand can be trusted not to hurt you too badly in the ring). However, some wrestlers are gentler than others! Others still are well known in the industry for being very rough with their opponents (either on purpose or by accident). In wrestling jargon, this is called being stiff. In case youre wondering, the wrestlers on this list are by no means bad workers, in fact, most of them are genuinely great at what they do, all an inclusion in this list suggests is that someone, somewhere has had a very, very long night after working with them. So, get your painkillers at the ready, because here are 10 of the stiffest wrestlers ever to set foot inside the squared circle!
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
