Top 30 Moves of RICK MARTEL (AJPW)

Easily one of the most underrated performers, if not THE most underrated performer, of his era. He was great as a babyface, as a heel, in a tag team or as a single; he had it all. You could say that he was a bit bland as the babyface world champion because he was the standard 'white meat' babyface. However, Rick Martel had fire like no other wrestler. The ones I'd compare him to are Ricky Steamboat and Jack Brisco, two excellent babyfaces with so much fire on the comeback. He was technically sound and made everything look good. I would suggest you watch his matches with Bockwinkel and Tsuruta to experience what he was like in that ring. Considering how good he was and the fact he was a world champion, it's still unbelievable that he is only remembered as the Model in WWF. Don't get me wrong, he was great in that role and showed so much depth as a wrestler. To be able to do something like that, something you had never done anything like that before, that's incredible. But.. he was so much more than just a gimmick in WWF. Rick was the type of wrestler you could place in any era and he would just fit right. Which he proved to be true as he returned to wrestling in WCW in 1998. You wouldn't think that someone like Rick could fit well in wrestling of that time, but he did. He had great chemistry with Booker T, which is why it's a shame that his career ended there. Just like that. Two injuries and he was done, his body couldn't take it anymore. Again, it's a shame as there is a rumour that he was supposed to win that match with Booker, beat Saturn in the following match and keep the TV title, but unfortunately that did not end up happening. For how short it was, he still showed he could go and was as great as ever. We will never no what could've been. Maybe he would've become a part of the main event scene and have a lot of success wrestling the likes of Savage and DDP and Goldberg, or maybe he would've just joined NWO and did nothing until his contract ran out. Man, WCW was a mess...anyway.. He had a few tours in All Japan, going back to 1980, but his biggest success there was definitely during his AWA World title reign in 1985. Like I mentioned above, he had great chemistry with Jumbo, but also Riki Choshu and I could not recommend enough the clash with Ric Flair (AWA vs. NWA match). #rickmartel #wrestling #topmoves #ajpw #awa #wcw #wwf