5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Aug 11)
4. Eurgh, What A Rush Of Bullsh*t
At Combat Zone Wrestling's Once In A Lifetime, on August 5, Lio Rush performed what was possibly the suckiest spot that ever sucked.
Opponent Joey Janela dragged his prone body up the rungs of a ladder and powerbombed him from the top of it and through a table. The WWE-bound Rush no-sold it by getting back to his feet immediately. Janela then drilled him with a package piledriver. It wasn't the finish. CM Punk was laughed into Ohio for "not knowing" how to "work". Times have changed, arduously, since then - but you can't imagine an influential veteran agent being too happy about this. And, since by several accounts WWE is incredibly resistant to altering their first impression, Rush might be f*cked before he even began.
The no-sell spot is inextricably woven into the wrestling fabric.
You could buy it when Hulk Hogan did it. It was a logical part of his act; he drew on the power of his Hulkamaniacs to do something impossible. It made his fans cheer for him all the more. You can buy it when Japanese talents do it because this total denial of pain is ingrained into the psychology over there. In its purest form, puroresu is predicated on the fighting spirit godfather Rikidozan showed to recover from the punishment he received from his much larger American opponents in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
Yes, Rush and Janela closed the final chapter on a bitter and lengthy rivalry. And no, this isn't going to kill the business any more than the Young Bucks did. But still - this was simply impossible to buy, set a stupid and dangerous precedent, and was, more than anything else, the desperate work of two men who couldn't dominate the conversation without creating a one-note controversy.