The Perception of Jobbing (and why It doesn’t matter)
By Scott Keith on August 1, 2018
Hey Scott,
2 related Questions:
The other day I was talking to my brother and his friends — all casual wrestling fans going back to 92. We were talking about Roddy Piper and how he never jobbed and everybody was really surprised. To them, and I think to many even though I'm sure the blog will disagree, Piper was a mid carder. The dude in the kilt. Broad strokes.
Maybe it was his lack of World Title run, but if you look at his run from WM3 until Starrcade 96, it's pretty solidly mid-card, IC title run and all.
Same thing when I mentioned the Road Warriors never jobbing. Or King Kong Bundy.
My questions are:
1. Does it really matter? Like, these guys kill themselves to protect their spots and politic their way for years into NEVER jobbing, but to casual fans, it really doesn't even translate. None of my casual fans thought Piper was unbeatable because he never jobbed.
2. Clean jobs vs. Protected jobs. Same thing. As an Undertaker mark growing up, I thought Taker always lost because he always lost when It COUNTED. 93 Rumble, 94 Rumble Title Match against Yoko, King of the Ring, 96 Rumble Title Match against Bret. Anytime there was something on the line, he managed to lose. Regardless of how protected he was, I think marks really only see that he fell short, unfortunately.
So It surprised me to read on the blogs that Taker never jobbed. True enough but the perception is different for marks, I think.
So why bother protecting them in losses if its not translating?
I don't know what weird cross-section of fans you were basing this survey on, but Piper and the Road Warriors absolutely translated into main eventers for 99% of the fanbase.
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