To me, Martel is one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time. His work was so clean. Never too flashy, but he made everything he did in the ring count. It's crazy he had been wrestling for 25 years before this run and still looked like a million bucks here. The fact that he is not in the Hall of Fame baffles me....and it's so interesting he's just left the business all together now and won't do appearances or interviews.
Im very fortunate I have pictures in the back of The Phila. Spectrum with Rick and Tony Garea, Rick and Tom Zenk, and Rick and Tito Santana. The tri fecta in great tag team combinations
Martel remains one of the most underrated of all time. This run is no exception. Armstrong is super underrated too, but his career will never lend to videos like this.
@Carveila that's true there's plenty of others who need to get in before they pass away like demolition axe is older and I don't think is in good condition
@Carveila oh I'm sure that's why new broke their record. But to old school fans 3 reigns with over 900 days combined vs what 10 reigns. Ill take the 3. As for them suing vince. Alot of wrestlers have and they reconciled.
Even before he was in WWF Rick Martel held the AWA title. As well as some other accomplishments. Definitely an underrated worker in ring. Plus he had good character works
That was the WWF at the time and what made them so successful.... they bought all the AWA and NWA champions and put them in their mid card, that was a quality product, the fact they were the only big company for nearly 20 years and their lack of competition was terrible for the business.... TV has changed but the late 90s WWF and WCW were both getting around 4.0 ratings each, over 8% of America watching wrestling.... these days they are lucky to get 1.0.... and AEW seem to be making so many of the same mistakes WCW made towards the end.
Being AWA Champion, he came to Halifax, NS in 1984 and pretty much had an Iron Man match with Leo Burke. I believe it was a 2/3 falls with a 60 min tile limit. Rick won, but oh the memories. I had a poster of Martell with the AWA belt back when I had bought a magazine. He was one of my favorite wrestlers back when I was a kid.
Even though Martel's WCW run was short, he did great for what it was. A short TV title reign. Not only that, his career went for 26 years before retiring in March of 1999.
Martel also had a 595 day run as AWA World Heavyweight Champion, back when that title was still somewhat relevant, defeating the late Japanese legend Jumbo Tsuruta.
AWA didn't seem to have got any penetration into Europe. In the early 90s I was aware of WCW as a little kid and who they had but had never heard of AWA or even when I got into wrestling in the mid 90s. They definitely didn't have a big time reputation. What was it the equivalent to when popular, ROH?
Martel is one of few wrestlers I've seen use so many moves and make them all look good. Many have tried pulling off deep move pools and just end up looking weak.
Aw man, The Model Rick Martel really had s good thing going in 1998 WCW. Still looked great in the ring, had some basic but excellent ring and entrance gear, and was getting a bit over again. Shame about that leg injury
He was always just on the short end of getting through the glass ceiling. He was pretty over in tags as a face, but was hated as The Model, just never had that big feud because the Jake one had that silly blindfold match. He was very solid, had a great look, and his french Quebec accent was great.
I am currently binging all the WCW episodes from '96 onwards and had just recently hit this point in WCW history. Martel was in super good shape and looked awesome in general, for his age!
Martell deserves more respect. Specifically, he had one of the best pro wrestling bodies at a time when everyone had a "body" and he could work and get over multiple gimmicks.
@@markwrenn5965 He looked alright -91 but I could name at least ten wrestlers with better looking bodies during that era. But Rick was very good wrestler and knew how to work the crowd.
I liked this Martel run. He altered his style enough to fit the late 90’s, pulled off some moves he otherwise wouldn’t and he looked good doing it without him looking like a try hard. Good episode.
I remember really liking the Martel Vs Booker T matches. WWE Wrestlers Who are older now than Martel was during this run. Sheamus - 43 Tamina - 43 AJ Styles - 44 Brock Lesnar - 44 Bobby Lashley - 45 Robert Roode - 45 Rey Mysterio - 46 Shelton Benjamin - 46 Edge - 48 MVP - 48 R-Truth - 49 Goldberg - 54
Martel (like most of those people on that list) looked great for 43, it's a shame the leg injury cut his initial run short, seemed like they actually had plans for him.
Steve Austin finished a tour in Japan with a torn tricep (completely off of the bone). Wrestlers are known for this which is sad when you think about it as they risk more injury to themselves by not stopping. Martel is an example of someone who should have stopped and allowed himself to recover. Kurt Angle is another one. His match against Brock Lesnar was finished with a broken neck. Kurt broke his neck more than once while wrestling in WWE and still kept going until he starting losing size and feeling in his arms.
Mainly cause he wasn't part of hogan's people like most of the roster despite being good in the ring and great charisma and was gone during the steroid era
The Hogan era was just plain stacked, the IC champ had to headline the B-Tours and Martel was an iconic tag team guy in Strike Force forever before he got injured for a year and became the Model after Mania 5 by then the IC title was locked to the hips of Warrior and Perfect.
Martel was definitely before my time too and this look at his WCW Run that I clearly missed was very interesting. He seemed super dope for a guy who's doing a return run after say, being prominent back in the day.
+LTrain45 45 Considering Martel was supposed to win the rematch with Booker T in the match where he injured his leg, I theorize they may have given Martel a bigger push and had him feud with Brett, considering Strike Force and The Hart Foundation had some great tag matches back in the '80s. Maybe that was just a way to set up a feud between the two of them.
This was a good run. I remember watching it back in the day and thinking it was good to see him back and having good matches with the younger guys. His matches with Saturn & Booker T was really good.
Martel was always a pro who looked the part and did his job. No matter where he was. No matter which part of his career we're discussing. It just is what it is. The guy isn't remembered as being a big star, but he was an extremely talented worker who did his job everywhere he went.
Rick Martel was in maybe the only good blindfold match ever against Jake the Snake. He played a French model that sprayed cologne on rivals and sprayed Jake the Snake where he was blind. Then chicken heeled Snake for like 6 months leading to the blindfold match. That entire feud may be in your neighborhood as a video to do if you want to look it all up. Pretty entertaining for that time.
I loved that, in the end it's a blindfold match so not too great in general but for its time and for the story it was good. It's one of them things where you had to see it as it happened in the time it was in with the build up in place, watching back from modern times doesn't quite do the whole thing justice
@@JaymzZeppelin it was dumb fun. Crowd was into it and the story was overall great. Even the SS match where Martel was chickenshit great stuff. Jakes promos were gold too. Match was not great if you just watch the match. But listen to how that crowd was.
@@JaymzZeppelin again the character work made the overall feud. That is way more memorable on things. Jake Roberts had a great feud with Macho Man with like no good matches.
In working for The Philadelphia Spectrum for so many years and becoming friends with so.many of the Wrestlers I can actually say Rick Martel was the absolute best and nicest Pro Wrestler I ever met in my 30 years with our company.
If this was '96 WCW and not '98 WCW (and they didn't try to rush through matches), Martel would have been much better. Also, you couldn't really tell Martel was *forty-freaking-two* during this.
@@mariomm9080 but Rick Martel was working twice a week, every week, with the workhorses of WCW and keeping up at 42. Take the example mentioned above, C.M. Punk is 42 but isn't working in the ring, every week, twice a week, at a high level. When the Model is out-working the so-called Best in the World (and Punk even said he couldn't go at a high level every week), it's something to think about.
Rick will always be a legend in my eyes..i seen him in the 80's at his best and he was truly one of the unsung greats. I think he had a killer run here his body just didn't agree with it. It's still real to me damn it.
I could be wrong on this but I feel like Ken Shamrock in his recent impact run must have had less than 30 matches. I'd love to see his chances to do the job
Ring of the Hawk Suggestions: Luther Reigns (WWE) Fenix (Impact) Vickie Guerrero (WWE) Big Swole (AEW) Danhausen (ROH) Jimmy Havoc (AEW) Marcus Cor Von (WWECW) New Jack (XPW) Mad Man Pondo (CZW) Scotty Goldman (WWE) Eddie Kingston (TNA/IMPACT) Eddie Kingston (ROH) MJF (MLW) Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian (AEW) The Headhunters (ECW) Kid Kash (WWE) Rich Swann (GCW) David Arquette (Whole Career) James Ellsworth (WWE) Ricky Ortiz (WWE) Orange Cassidy (ROH) Trinity (TNA) Mercedes Martinez (WWE)
It's sad that Martel isn't in any other WWE games besides 2K19. Also it's weird how Martel still wrestled that Superbrawl match with a injured broken leg instead of just letting Booker roll him up
Sad thing is that Rick and Brett might have put on some amazing matches. Rick deserved this run and props to Eddie for agreeing to put him over in that match. Rick got a huge pop from that win. Probably meant the world to him.
I completely agree that Bret and Rick would have stolen the show. They had worked a bunch of great tag team matches against each other a decade earlier so I could see them tearing the house down in singles competition
Martel was also former AWA heavyweight Champion around the mid 80's times period. From being tag champ on couple occasions, TV champ and other accomplishments, Rick Martel belongs in the hall of fame. The man knew how to operate inside the square circle with ease and not a flashy wrestler, but gets the job done with his mat technical skills.
I got into WWF in the late 80s and early 90s. Rick "The Model" Martel was _the first_ wrestler I ever figured out that he's supposed to be getting the crowd to boo him... and I totally loved it.
Hopefully he does: Ec3 (Ring of honor) Kenny omega (impact wrestling) Cody Rhodes (impact wrestling) Chad gable (205 live) Social outcasts (WWE) Rey mysterio (lucha underground) Mike Bennett (second ring of honor run) Kamala (wcw) Jake the snake Roberts (WCW) Hulk hogan (impact wrestling) Rachel ellering(impact wrestling) No way Jose (impact wrestling) Chris hero (NXT UK) Eva Marie (main roster or NXT) Rhino (NXT) Karrion kross (main roster) Franky Monet (NXT)
Not mentioning Sherri Martel having been the Manager of Harlem Heat after She and Rick divorced during the Booker T Rick Martel segment is a huge missed opportunity. Sherri Martel was awesome.
I’m a big Rick Martel fan and I have so much respect for his career. After he came off steroids in the WWF he lost so much size and seem to age 10 years overnight. He still in great shape here at 42 but his size and mobility days are obviously behind him. I mean, I’m talking about comparing Rick Martel to himself because he still was a better worker than a lot on the roster.
Dude this is crazy.. I remember as a teenager, it had seemed like Rick Martel had been gone forever.. I just kinda figured he was older than he ended up being in real life (ALMOST EVERYONE LOOKED OLDER BACK IN THE DAYS).. So I just thought he may of retired after WWF.. Because I remember seeing him some towards the end, but it was very sporadic towards the end of his WWF tenure, so you would kinda forget about him.. Plus WWF was going in a "NEW GENERATION" after Hogan left.. Cause Martel was ALWAYS on the shows, when I was a kid and just seemed to fizzle out, after he did that little feud with Shawn Michaels, right after he turned heel on Marty and was with Sherri.. But too me at the time, at the end, represented the older dudes, who sat in chin locks for 20 minutes, lol.. (I was a kid, got more respect, nowadays and enjoy the slower build up now, lol).. Plus Martel, like a few others that I go back and watch, he was a lot better in the ring, than I ever game him credit for at the time.. But I remember being super shocked when Martel came to WCW, plus (even though his body had pretty much stayed the same from peak WWF-to WCW, which was ALWAYS in shape) for some reason I thought he looked in better shape than ever.. I also remember thinking, he was an old guy, trying to wear the shiny-black pleather wrestling gear, because it was "the IN thing to do in the late 90s/early 2000s.. And I remember during this time, you would see quite a few older WCW/WWF/ECW guys try to wear some form of black/leather and hair dye to try and stay young and hip, so to speak, because when they were younger in the 80/early 90s they were more of a gimmick/cartoon character.. So in an effort to revitalize themselves, and not look old, they would do the "Black, shiny leather, and hair dye" thing, with a new cut, facial hair, and whatever else cause the business was definitely changed.. And you could tell that the Rick Martel, Big Bossman, even Hulk Hogan, and a lot of others, felt the need to try and drop the cartoon thing, and be more of a biker or some bully tough looking guy.. So that always stood out too me, I remember thinking "Poor Guy is trying to look younger than he is, and he isn't going to be able to hang with these new guys!!" And I remember thinking he was going to be BORING and OLD AS HELL, plus WCW's under card was STACKED with good fast paced matches, and I didn't think he'd be able to keep up, lol!! But, it seemed like he was BETTER THAN EVER in the ring wise.. LOL!! He debuted, then just seemed to be on all the WCW Shows, and wrestling ALL THE TIME.. But after watching this, I guess it wasn't as much as I thought, cause he was gone in NO TIME.. But I guess he was just on there a lot during the short time it was, plus it was early '98 which was PEAK HOTNESS for me!! WCW was killing it but getting predictable after a year and a half with NWO and going from 3 members to what seemed like 103 members.. And WWF is heading into Wrestlemania, with Austin HOTTER THAN EVER, Mike Tyson as the Enforcer, and HBK on a great heel run coming off Montreal, and great matches with Undertaker.. So yea, Wrestling has ALWAYS had my attention (GOOD or BAD)!! Been a student for 33 years, and I am 37.. But during this little quarter of 1998, is probably one of the top "Quarters of a Year" that I'm giving FULL ATTENTION!! Anyways, back to Rick Martel in WCW here.. He was still old (although not as old in real life as I thought he was at the time) cause he was doing the ol' 1980s/early 90s babyface schtick with his comebacks and fire ups.. But it always worked and even though his run wasn't long.. I found myself rooting for ol' Rick Martel, and as a kid, I always found him boring, and never cared.. Except for when he did the feud with Jake Roberts!! THAT SHIT WAS AWESOME!! Roberts vs Martel feud was GREAT SHIT!! And when he walked off on Tito Santana and Strikeforce, and their initial feud after the split.. The feud went on too long, cause you could tell they didn't know what to do with either guy, so they just wrestled each other ALL THE TIME AND FOREVER IT SEEMED LIKE!! But the initial angle/feud was good, I remember being a pissed off like 6-7 year old when he just walked off and quit on ol' Tito!! Sorry so long of a comment, I doubt anyone read all of this, but yeah.. This brought back memories. Fun little run for Martel to end on, I wonder why it didn't last, I heard he got injured, and WCW forgot about him and just kept paying him anyways for a couple years.. If that's the case, I don't blame him for sitting back and collecting, but it would of been cool to see if he could of taken it farther, cause I was low key rooting for him lol.
Back in the day the "Big 3" was Hogan WWF Flair NWA/WCW Martel AWA There was always wrestling magazines predicting who the best world champion was between them
This run was amazing I was so fucking bummed when he fucked his knee up. It was so weird seeing The Model come back and be over as one of WCW solid TV title workers.
I actually didn't know about the vertebrae injury after his comeback... I thought he reinjured his knee. That really sucks, man. I don't think the fans gave him the respect he deserved in that run, but he was a very solid performer. I think perhaps his biggest issue in WCW was that he was random old WWF guy #482 with no gimmick or mic time.
Wow had no idea he could wrestle and move like that, I've only watched 3 or 4 Martel matches before when he was doing the model gimmick and wasn't a big fan. I feel like if he wasn't that old he would've done well during the ruthless agression era as an upper midcarder.
God damn that 3rd match with Eddie Guerrero was hot from the get go. I had a feeling it would be when. I saw Eddie enter. Rick looked great for his age and could still move super well
The main character in Lisa: the painful is named after Brad Armstrong. The creator of that game really liked wrestling. Some is even included in the game.
i genuinely appreciate you remarking about the commentary not being of value when it comes to getting Martel over, they really didn’t know what to do with a lot of the mid-card in WCW
No love for Martel being a former AWA champ in the mid 80s ? He was a way better heel than face and at the time of his wcw run the old school territory face stick was kind of a dead thing to the fans though I think he did that very well also. He is a guy along with Curt Henig and Rick Rude who should have had more in the grand scheme
- Mandy Rose in NXT 2.0 (26 matches) - Solo Sikoa in NXT 2.0 (22 matches) - Grizzled Young Veterans in WWE - Kid Kash in TNA - James Gibson/Jamie Noble in ROH (27 matches) Some that came to mind.
He looked so happy and really seemed to enjoy working again. That’s enough for me. Great guy in general.
To me, Martel is one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time. His work was so clean. Never too flashy, but he made everything he did in the ring count. It's crazy he had been wrestling for 25 years before this run and still looked like a million bucks here. The fact that he is not in the Hall of Fame baffles me....and it's so interesting he's just left the business all together now and won't do appearances or interviews.
Apparently he has turned down the HoF in the past.
Yeah, why the fuck isnt he in the hall of fame...hes gotta be
Do you smell the Arrogance 😆😆🤣🤣👊
Im very fortunate I have pictures in the back of The Phila. Spectrum with Rick and Tony Garea, Rick and Tom Zenk, and Rick and Tito Santana. The tri fecta in great tag team combinations
@@thegreat1007 He has no interest in wrestling anymore.
Martel remains one of the most underrated of all time. This run is no exception. Armstrong is super underrated too, but his career will never lend to videos like this.
Ok,, tonkasaw
Yea its criminal that Martell isn't in the Hall of Fame
@Carveila that's true there's plenty of others who need to get in before they pass away like demolition axe is older and I don't think is in good condition
@Carveila oh I'm sure that's why new broke their record. But to old school fans 3 reigns with over 900 days combined vs what 10 reigns. Ill take the 3. As for them suing vince. Alot of wrestlers have and they reconciled.
Here comes the Axe
And here comes the Smasher
It's Demolition
Walking Disaster
Pain and Destruction! Is our middle name!
_badass riff_
Even before he was in WWF Rick Martel held the AWA title. As well as some other accomplishments. Definitely an underrated worker in ring. Plus he had good character works
That was the WWF at the time and what made them so successful.... they bought all the AWA and NWA champions and put them in their mid card, that was a quality product, the fact they were the only big company for nearly 20 years and their lack of competition was terrible for the business.... TV has changed but the late 90s WWF and WCW were both getting around 4.0 ratings each, over 8% of America watching wrestling.... these days they are lucky to get 1.0.... and AEW seem to be making so many of the same mistakes WCW made towards the end.
Being AWA Champion, he came to Halifax, NS in 1984 and pretty much had an Iron Man match with Leo Burke. I believe it was a 2/3 falls with a 60 min tile limit. Rick won, but oh the memories. I had a poster of Martell with the AWA belt back when I had bought a magazine. He was one of my favorite wrestlers back when I was a kid.
Even though Martel's WCW run was short, he did great for what it was. A short TV title reign. Not only that, his career went for 26 years before retiring in March of 1999.
Martel also had a 595 day run as AWA World Heavyweight Champion, back when that title was still somewhat relevant, defeating the late Japanese legend Jumbo Tsuruta.
It was very relevant
Disrespectful to turn up late to a title match, even if you are booked to lose 😡
AWA didn't seem to have got any penetration into Europe. In the early 90s I was aware of WCW as a little kid and who they had but had never heard of AWA or even when I got into wrestling in the mid 90s. They definitely didn't have a big time reputation. What was it the equivalent to when popular, ROH?
Martel is one of few wrestlers I've seen use so many moves and make them all look good. Many have tried pulling off deep move pools and just end up looking weak.
Ultimo dragon
Aldo Montoya
Aw man, The Model Rick Martel really had s good thing going in 1998 WCW. Still looked great in the ring, had some basic but excellent ring and entrance gear, and was getting a bit over again. Shame about that leg injury
He was always just on the short end of getting through the glass ceiling. He was pretty over in tags as a face, but was hated as The Model, just never had that big feud because the Jake one had that silly blindfold match. He was very solid, had a great look, and his french Quebec accent was great.
Rick Martel is one of the most underappreciated wrestlers of all time. It's a shame how his career finished.
I am currently binging all the WCW episodes from '96 onwards and had just recently hit this point in WCW history.
Martel was in super good shape and looked awesome in general, for his age!
Martell deserves more respect. Specifically, he had one of the best pro wrestling bodies at a time when everyone had a "body" and he could work and get over multiple gimmicks.
I think he always looked a bit too sligthly fat to be considered having one of the best bodies.
@@danfors1333 yeah I mean I'm no body building expert. Not sure how he'd do under expert scrutiny.
You wanna see Martel yoked to the gills check him out in 1991. He got BIG that’s why Vince gave him that huge run in the 91 Rumble
@@cjwhite2631 yeah that's what I mean by he had one of the best bodies during a time when lots of guys had the body
@@markwrenn5965 He looked alright -91 but I could name at least ten wrestlers with better looking bodies during that era. But Rick was very good wrestler and knew how to work the crowd.
I liked this Martel run. He altered his style enough to fit the late 90’s, pulled off some moves he otherwise wouldn’t and he looked good doing it without him looking like a try hard. Good episode.
I remember really liking the Martel Vs Booker T matches.
WWE Wrestlers Who are older now than Martel was during this run.
Sheamus - 43
Tamina - 43
AJ Styles - 44
Brock Lesnar - 44
Bobby Lashley - 45
Robert Roode - 45
Rey Mysterio - 46
Shelton Benjamin - 46
Edge - 48
MVP - 48
R-Truth - 49
Goldberg - 54
Martel (like most of those people on that list) looked great for 43, it's a shame the leg injury cut his initial run short, seemed like they actually had plans for him.
They had a best of seven for the tv title didnt they?
@@mmabuff101 you’re thinking of Benoit & Booker T
Remind me of Elix Skipper who joined in WCW when he's 30+ yrs. old. But he looking very young like he's only 25.
HOW?!?! How could he continue fighting after destroying his leg? Knowing it would only make it worse to continue? Crazy respect to him!
adrenaline prevents pain for some while .show must go on . he wake up in big pain next day thats for sure
Steve Austin finished a tour in Japan with a torn tricep (completely off of the bone). Wrestlers are known for this which is sad when you think about it as they risk more injury to themselves by not stopping. Martel is an example of someone who should have stopped and allowed himself to recover. Kurt Angle is another one. His match against Brock Lesnar was finished with a broken neck. Kurt broke his neck more than once while wrestling in WWE and still kept going until he starting losing size and feeling in his arms.
@@pikkon899 And Bret Hart also have a hardcore match with Terry Funk after got concussion by Goldberg kick in previous match.
Your format is great man, really enjoy the content. Martell was great as a heel, not sure how he never got an IC title run in the WWF.
Mainly cause he wasn't part of hogan's people like most of the roster despite being good in the ring and great charisma and was gone during the steroid era
The Hogan era was just plain stacked, the IC champ had to headline the B-Tours and Martel was an iconic tag team guy in Strike Force forever before he got injured for a year and became the Model after Mania 5 by then the IC title was locked to the hips of Warrior and Perfect.
Well he lost to Razor Ramone in an IC title tournament finals match he had a chance at least
Martel was definitely before my time too and this look at his WCW Run that I clearly missed was very interesting. He seemed super dope for a guy who's doing a return run after say, being prominent back in the day.
Man I forgot how sweet Booker T's ring gear used to be in WCW
I always thought he looked better with the low high top than the dreads. His WCW ring gear was something to behold.
Ring of the Hawk Suggestions:
- Blitzkrieg (WCW)
- Harris Twins (WWF, Blu Twins, Grimm Twins, Skull & 8-Ball)
- Fire Ant/Orange Cassidy (CHIKARA)
- Johnny Gargano (CHIKARA)
- Jim Duggan (WCW)
- Jerry Flynn (WCW)
- Glacier (WCW)
- Kenny Kaos (WCW)
- Crowbar (WCW)
- Tenryu (WWF)
- Berzerker (WWF)
- Damian Demento (WWF)
- Virgil (WWF)
The little smirk Bret Hart gives after the chair shot is hilarious. He knows its crap and probably wants to die
+LTrain45 45
Considering Martel was supposed to win the rematch with Booker T in the match where he injured his leg, I theorize they may have given Martel a bigger push and had him feud with Brett, considering Strike Force and The Hart Foundation had some great tag matches back in the '80s. Maybe that was just a way to set up a feud between the two of them.
This was a good run. I remember watching it back in the day and thinking it was good to see him back and having good matches with the younger guys. His matches with Saturn & Booker T was really good.
Martel was always a pro who looked the part and did his job. No matter where he was. No matter which part of his career we're discussing. It just is what it is. The guy isn't remembered as being a big star, but he was an extremely talented worker who did his job everywhere he went.
Rick Martel was in maybe the only good blindfold match ever against Jake the Snake. He played a French model that sprayed cologne on rivals and sprayed Jake the Snake where he was blind. Then chicken heeled Snake for like 6 months leading to the blindfold match. That entire feud may be in your neighborhood as a video to do if you want to look it all up. Pretty entertaining for that time.
I loved that, in the end it's a blindfold match so not too great in general but for its time and for the story it was good. It's one of them things where you had to see it as it happened in the time it was in with the build up in place, watching back from modern times doesn't quite do the whole thing justice
@@JaymzZeppelin it was dumb fun. Crowd was into it and the story was overall great. Even the SS match where Martel was chickenshit great stuff. Jakes promos were gold too. Match was not great if you just watch the match. But listen to how that crowd was.
@@JaymzZeppelin Jake Roberts was about stories and character work over matches for the most part.
@@JaymzZeppelin again the character work made the overall feud. That is way more memorable on things. Jake Roberts had a great feud with Macho Man with like no good matches.
His spray was called " Arrogance " and the funniest part was he carried it in a huge comical Paint Sprayer ...it smelt like a buffalo's nutsack
In working for The Philadelphia Spectrum for so many years and becoming friends with so.many of the Wrestlers I can actually say Rick Martel was the absolute best and nicest Pro Wrestler I ever met in my 30 years with our company.
Duh. He's Canadian.
If this was '96 WCW and not '98 WCW (and they didn't try to rush through matches), Martel would have been much better.
Also, you couldn't really tell Martel was *forty-freaking-two* during this.
Isn't punk 42 right now?
@@jjayala Punk also isn't working twice a week, in the ring, competing.
42 is not that old to be out of shape
@@jjayala yes, but Punk isn't as good in the ring and doesn't look impressive physically.
@@mariomm9080 but Rick Martel was working twice a week, every week, with the workhorses of WCW and keeping up at 42.
Take the example mentioned above, C.M. Punk is 42 but isn't working in the ring, every week, twice a week, at a high level. When the Model is out-working the so-called Best in the World (and Punk even said he couldn't go at a high level every week), it's something to think about.
Martel has an incredible look even this late in his career
The matches with Booker T were amazing. Really made me buy into both men.
Props too Martel as he had a very fun, although too brief, return. also nice too see under card feuds
Thank you, King Hawk. I love this run.
Rick will always be a legend in my eyes..i seen him in the 80's at his best and he was truly one of the unsung greats. I think he had a killer run here his body just didn't agree with it. It's still real to me damn it.
I could be wrong on this but I feel like Ken Shamrock in his recent impact run must have had less than 30 matches. I'd love to see his chances to do the job
Really great ROH. This is precisely the content I am looking for. Martel went under my radar completely at this time. Appreciate it.
Ring of the Hawk Suggestions:
Luther Reigns (WWE)
Fenix (Impact)
Vickie Guerrero (WWE)
Big Swole (AEW)
Danhausen (ROH)
Jimmy Havoc (AEW)
Marcus Cor Von (WWECW)
New Jack (XPW)
Mad Man Pondo (CZW)
Scotty Goldman (WWE)
Eddie Kingston (TNA/IMPACT)
Eddie Kingston (ROH)
MJF (MLW)
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian (AEW)
The Headhunters (ECW)
Kid Kash (WWE)
Rich Swann (GCW)
David Arquette (Whole Career)
James Ellsworth (WWE)
Ricky Ortiz (WWE)
Orange Cassidy (ROH)
Trinity (TNA)
Mercedes Martinez (WWE)
Idea: Rewatch every Streak bout of The Undertakers career. It's below 30 so it fits
Wouldn't make sense for ROtH, but would be a good series on its own
Atleast fifteen of them would be straight S's, i reckon.
@@vladimirdan1959 fair, fair
@@Bale4Bond tellin' you his early WM matches were not good, as he got older the matches improved
It's sad that Martel isn't in any other WWE games besides 2K19. Also it's weird how Martel still wrestled that Superbrawl match with a injured broken leg instead of just letting Booker roll him up
Sad thing is that Rick and Brett might have put on some amazing matches. Rick deserved this run and props to Eddie for agreeing to put him over in that match. Rick got a huge pop from that win. Probably meant the world to him.
Eddie was just another midcarder back then. It's not like he had a choice.
I completely agree that Bret and Rick would have stolen the show. They had worked a bunch of great tag team matches against each other a decade earlier so I could see them tearing the house down in singles competition
Martel was also former AWA heavyweight Champion around the mid 80's times period. From being tag champ on couple occasions, TV champ and other accomplishments, Rick Martel belongs in the hall of fame. The man knew how to operate inside the square circle with ease and not a flashy wrestler, but gets the job done with his mat technical skills.
Match with Booker T definitely deserved that A. I actually teared up a little watching him work his ass off with that injury.
Rick " The Model " Martel, was one awesome and terrific heel. Good technical wrestler too!
5:43 Shout out to the guy in the crowd that goes crazy when Booker hit the spin-a-roonie haha 🤙🏻
I got into WWF in the late 80s and early 90s.
Rick "The Model" Martel was _the first_ wrestler I ever figured out that he's supposed to be getting the crowd to boo him... and I totally loved it.
I forgot about this run entirely and I loved it at the time, was a big fan of his as the model in the early 90s too
Hopefully he does:
Ec3 (Ring of honor)
Kenny omega (impact wrestling)
Cody Rhodes (impact wrestling)
Chad gable (205 live)
Social outcasts (WWE)
Rey mysterio (lucha underground)
Mike Bennett (second ring of honor run)
Kamala (wcw)
Jake the snake Roberts (WCW)
Hulk hogan (impact wrestling)
Rachel ellering(impact wrestling)
No way Jose (impact wrestling)
Chris hero (NXT UK)
Eva Marie (main roster or NXT)
Rhino (NXT)
Karrion kross (main roster)
Franky Monet (NXT)
I don't remember Rick Martel being in WCW as long as he was. I love these match retrospectives.
I was 11 and discovered wcw
And booker t, martel and saturns feud was furst one i noticed and enjoyed .this was a good run in my opinion
Seeing Saturn with hair is weird.
I was just thinking the same thing
Like seeing Cesaro or Jason Statham with hair 😂
Loved him as the model. Such a good heel. Always worked so great in the ring and was always in insane shape
Wow impressive how much he powered through after tearing his ligament then breaking his leg, total professional and actually still looked great.
I remember this run. It was good,solid professional wrestling.
Not mentioning Sherri Martel having been the Manager of Harlem Heat after She and Rick divorced during the Booker T Rick Martel segment is a huge missed opportunity. Sherri Martel was awesome.
Rick never married Sherri.
@@bobreno2060 "A man and a woman have the same last name. They must be married!" -Idiot Marks
I met Rick Martel a few times. Really good guy!
Bret hart looked like Brendan Walker in that shot😂
You mean the undefeated Brayden Walker
"Bret Hart looks like a thin Braden Walker."
Rick Martel had a decent run in WCW I swore he was in line for a good push.
Martel while never particularly spectacular was always solid, clean, well rounded and technically sound….a sort of midcard Bret Hart. Very underrated.
I’m a big Rick Martel fan and I have so much respect for his career. After he came off steroids in the WWF he lost so much size and seem to age 10 years overnight. He still in great shape here at 42 but his size and mobility days are obviously behind him. I mean, I’m talking about comparing Rick Martel to himself because he still was a better worker than a lot on the roster.
Rick is amazing. He is also the only wrestler to actually stay retired. Lol
Underated performer no doubt one of the most elegant wrestlers of all time.
Dude this is crazy.. I remember as a teenager, it had seemed like Rick Martel had been gone forever.. I just kinda figured he was older than he ended up being in real life (ALMOST EVERYONE LOOKED OLDER BACK IN THE DAYS).. So I just thought he may of retired after WWF.. Because I remember seeing him some towards the end, but it was very sporadic towards the end of his WWF tenure, so you would kinda forget about him.. Plus WWF was going in a "NEW GENERATION" after Hogan left.. Cause Martel was ALWAYS on the shows, when I was a kid and just seemed to fizzle out, after he did that little feud with Shawn Michaels, right after he turned heel on Marty and was with Sherri.. But too me at the time, at the end, represented the older dudes, who sat in chin locks for 20 minutes, lol.. (I was a kid, got more respect, nowadays and enjoy the slower build up now, lol).. Plus Martel, like a few others that I go back and watch, he was a lot better in the ring, than I ever game him credit for at the time..
But I remember being super shocked when Martel came to WCW, plus (even though his body had pretty much stayed the same from peak WWF-to WCW, which was ALWAYS in shape) for some reason I thought he looked in better shape than ever.. I also remember thinking, he was an old guy, trying to wear the shiny-black pleather wrestling gear, because it was "the IN thing to do in the late 90s/early 2000s.. And I remember during this time, you would see quite a few older WCW/WWF/ECW guys try to wear some form of black/leather and hair dye to try and stay young and hip, so to speak, because when they were younger in the 80/early 90s they were more of a gimmick/cartoon character.. So in an effort to revitalize themselves, and not look old, they would do the "Black, shiny leather, and hair dye" thing, with a new cut, facial hair, and whatever else cause the business was definitely changed.. And you could tell that the Rick Martel, Big Bossman, even Hulk Hogan, and a lot of others, felt the need to try and drop the cartoon thing, and be more of a biker or some bully tough looking guy.. So that always stood out too me, I remember thinking "Poor Guy is trying to look younger than he is, and he isn't going to be able to hang with these new guys!!" And I remember thinking he was going to be BORING and OLD AS HELL, plus WCW's under card was STACKED with good fast paced matches, and I didn't think he'd be able to keep up, lol!! But, it seemed like he was BETTER THAN EVER in the ring wise.. LOL!! He debuted, then just seemed to be on all the WCW Shows, and wrestling ALL THE TIME.. But after watching this, I guess it wasn't as much as I thought, cause he was gone in NO TIME.. But I guess he was just on there a lot during the short time it was, plus it was early '98 which was PEAK HOTNESS for me!! WCW was killing it but getting predictable after a year and a half with NWO and going from 3 members to what seemed like 103 members.. And WWF is heading into Wrestlemania, with Austin HOTTER THAN EVER, Mike Tyson as the Enforcer, and HBK on a great heel run coming off Montreal, and great matches with Undertaker.. So yea, Wrestling has ALWAYS had my attention (GOOD or BAD)!! Been a student for 33 years, and I am 37.. But during this little quarter of 1998, is probably one of the top "Quarters of a Year" that I'm giving FULL ATTENTION!!
Anyways, back to Rick Martel in WCW here.. He was still old (although not as old in real life as I thought he was at the time) cause he was doing the ol' 1980s/early 90s babyface schtick with his comebacks and fire ups.. But it always worked and even though his run wasn't long.. I found myself rooting for ol' Rick Martel, and as a kid, I always found him boring, and never cared.. Except for when he did the feud with Jake Roberts!! THAT SHIT WAS AWESOME!! Roberts vs Martel feud was GREAT SHIT!! And when he walked off on Tito Santana and Strikeforce, and their initial feud after the split.. The feud went on too long, cause you could tell they didn't know what to do with either guy, so they just wrestled each other ALL THE TIME AND FOREVER IT SEEMED LIKE!! But the initial angle/feud was good, I remember being a pissed off like 6-7 year old when he just walked off and quit on ol' Tito!!
Sorry so long of a comment, I doubt anyone read all of this, but yeah.. This brought back memories. Fun little run for Martel to end on, I wonder why it didn't last, I heard he got injured, and WCW forgot about him and just kept paying him anyways for a couple years.. If that's the case, I don't blame him for sitting back and collecting, but it would of been cool to see if he could of taken it farther, cause I was low key rooting for him lol.
+PromoteTHis TV
I read your whole essay, and I couldn't agree more! 👍
Back in the day the "Big 3" was Hogan WWF
Flair NWA/WCW
Martel AWA
There was always wrestling magazines predicting who the best world champion was between them
Martel has the looks,build and wrestle clean,when i was a kid during his wcw run I think he was kinda cool,I had no idea he wrestled in wwf then.
Watching Perry Saturn and Booker T. Geesus those guys were smooth as butter
Isn't the reason he's not in the WWE hall of fame because he has completely removed himself from wrestling and wants nothing to do with it anymore?
Yes he has been asked a few times but he just wants to leave the past there
Agreed, I remember enjoying all his matches in the wcw
I thought this was a great run and his matchs with Booker i believe are what really elevated Booker
“…Then there was a ref bump” is the next shirt I expect out Hawk
B is the perfect score Agree! He was still solid and entertaining in the ring not incredible but good.
Rick Martel is underrated, one of my favorite heels in the WWF when I first started watching
Very good analysis Markyd123. I knew Rick got injured and retired around this time but wasn't exactly sure why, now I know.
Damn, what a shame he got hurt.
The guy was really good
martell was also AWA champion, and was wrestling since the 80's
Never knew Rick Martel even had a match with Eddie Guerrero, let alone beat him, damn!
This run was amazing I was so fucking bummed when he fucked his knee up. It was so weird seeing The Model come back and be over as one of WCW solid TV title workers.
I actually didn't know about the vertebrae injury after his comeback... I thought he reinjured his knee. That really sucks, man. I don't think the fans gave him the respect he deserved in that run, but he was a very solid performer. I think perhaps his biggest issue in WCW was that he was random old WWF guy #482 with no gimmick or mic time.
Love your commentary on all your videos the nick names and references you use are hilarious lol
Wes Brisco is coming soon, as in he is A wrestler (apparently). Or Grado
Wow had no idea he could wrestle and move like that, I've only watched 3 or 4 Martel matches before when he was doing the model gimmick and wasn't a big fan. I feel like if he wasn't that old he would've done well during the ruthless agression era as an upper midcarder.
The missed elbow to Spinaroonie was smooth as hell
God damn that 3rd match with Eddie Guerrero was hot from the get go. I had a feeling it would be when. I saw Eddie enter. Rick looked great for his age and could still move super well
I would have never thought Louie Spicoli and RIck Martel had a match
No Slapnuts! 😞
Stevie Ray: Hey, Rick….you ever see that Hunter Hearst Helmsley/Marty Garner match?
The main character in Lisa: the painful is named after Brad Armstrong. The creator of that game really liked wrestling. Some is even included in the game.
Hell yea cheers, just another career to save and enjoy in TEW.
Matches were way to short but that's WCW in 98
Cause of all the nwo stuff, they would have 10-20mins of nwo programs and rush matches
I had vaguely remembered Rick Martel from WWF and I thought he was an entertaining wrestler in his short time in WCW. Definite deserved B.
A RoH on Syxx-Pac in WCW would still be good.
thus guy is so canadian he relied on secondhand heel turns.
with tony garea in the 80s those guys were pros
Loved Rick Martel. Whether with Timo Sanitana or as The Model.
You Sir,are the Man.
Another awesome video
i genuinely appreciate you remarking about the commentary not being of value when it comes to getting Martel over, they really didn’t know what to do with a lot of the mid-card in WCW
2:07 holy hell Louie was only 26 or 27 in this match. (RIP)
He passed about 3 weeks later I think
I didn't know that today is the anniversary of Rick Martel's wrestling return until I saw the description
Rick Martel is look like Eric Bischoff + Buff Bagwell with a Scott Hall physique :)
Two words: Thank You!
No love for Martel being a former AWA champ in the mid 80s ? He was a way better heel than face and at the time of his wcw run the old school territory face stick was kind of a dead thing to the fans though I think he did that very well also. He is a guy along with Curt Henig and Rick Rude who should have had more in the grand scheme
I remember booker vs Martel, great matches that built Booker T as a legit singles competitor. Booker vs Benoit best of 7 really did it though.
The next ROH video should be Killer Kross in either WWE or TNA
Bookers run with Martel really brought out the best in him and kicked off Bookers climb to the top of singles wrestling
- Mandy Rose in NXT 2.0 (26 matches)
- Solo Sikoa in NXT 2.0 (22 matches)
- Grizzled Young Veterans in WWE
- Kid Kash in TNA
- James Gibson/Jamie Noble in ROH (27 matches)
Some that came to mind.
An inspired choice for Ring of the Hawk this week.