Pro wrestling has traditionally following a principle that applies in amateur, collegiate, and Olympic wrestling, which is that: “Size is only an asset, up to a particular weight. Once a competitor gets up to 280+ pounds, then their size becomes a liability where stamina is concerned”. For this reason, the heavyweight division in several amateur wrestling organizations is capped at 287 lbs (130 kgs). So, the size differences we observe in pro wrestling somewhat parallel those in other forms of wrestling.
Key word being "wrestling". In any martial art that doesn't involve grappling, you DO NOT want to fight someone who has 4+ inches on you, or 50+ pounds on you. It's why we instinctively keep our distance from strangers who are big and tall, and why women generally feel more fear than men do. Bigger people are intimidating for a reason.
The trick for Gracie was immediately grappling/immobilizing them so they couldn't punch and kick him as effectively. In a standup fight, 90% of the time, the taller and bigger person will win. Because they have a longer reach and their blows have more weight to them.
He was built like a brick back then. He makes a good example of not burning bridges. You can end up making a lot of money doing different things and different opportunities within the company.
Jim is smart as a whip about life & reality in these shoot interviews. He hit the nail on the head with this topic. wcw's "Giant Killer Rey" was a complete farce. So was Shawn beating Sid, Diesel & Taker. Eddie ( R.I.P. ) beating Brock.....Spike Dudley beating ANYBODY, let alone Mike Awesome ( R.I.P. ), were all just complete nonsense. On the street these outcomes would never happen. Bruce Lee is an exception, but his punching & kicking power were on another level. Even still, Bruce vs Haku in their prime- regardless of the Haku stories, it's hard to see Bruce coming out on top in that match up, for obvious weight class reasons, despite extraordinary skill. In film, they call it "the movies" for a reason. John Saxon killing Bolo Yeung in real combat would never happen. Chuck Norris SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAST IN THAT ROLE
WWE was at its best when Vince was pushing the monsters/Super Hero comic book characters. He is right.. There is a REASON why "shoot fighting" has weight classes. LOL If it didn't there would be murders/deaths. . Sure you have your rarity where the small guy wins, but thats all it is.. A rarity. 9 times out of 10 the bigger guy will win. Theres a reason why De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard never fought Tyson. Because there would have been a murder due to the punching power of tyson
No, it's not rare. The small can win in many cases. Size doesn't mean anything because If you are 2 meters tall and someone is 1.7 meters tall was able to throw a strong punch to your face, then all that height you have won't help you.
@@chucky19710Taller = longer reach, and generally superior natural strength (you don't have to slave away in the gym and do roids to the same degree that a smaller person does in order to get strong). More pounds means more mass which gives blows more weight. Size mismatches can lead to severe injuries and even deaths, when you take two fighters of roughly equal conditioning and skill, but one is much smaller than other.... The smaller fighter will get brutalized.
@@ryanjacobson2508 What you are saying is nonsense, height does not mean strength, tall people also need to exercise to become strong, tall people do not have any advantage over short people unless they have stronger muscles, but height alone does not mean anything. It is known that tall people have fragility in the lower part of the body, specifically in the legs, the taller a person is, the weaker his legs become, this a fact.
The UFC, kickboxing and boxing heavyweight champs aren't the biggest guys! Haku was only around 6'3" and guys like Benoit at 5'11" would kill hillbilly Jim in a street fight that's the truth!
@ryanjacobson2508 there tends to be a ceiling for how big the best fighters are. Once they exceed 6'7" and around 290lbs they become too slow and too awkward and their size starts to count against them! I would take a guy around 6'4" and 250lbs over a guy around 7 foot and 350lbs in a fight if both guys are evenly matched and evenly experienced? Hillbilly Jim is implying the guys around 7 foot and over should be the best fighters but they just aren't!
Bruce Lee at 165 lbs once accidentally hit a guy on set it went through another guy then broke the third ones arm. He trained on metal bags and steel parts. Size isn't everything.
When both have similar levels of skill and athleticism the big guy wins. But if the smaller guy has a bigger speed, skill advantage, the odds are skewed the other way. I saw a 180lb guy beat the crap out of a huge bouncer (6'4" and a muscular-ish 375lbs) easily with LIGHTNING quick strikes. It looked like a slaughter. After seeing that, I adjusted my bully view.
A small wrestler that can really shoot or hook can easily stretch and tap out a much bigger guy. I guarantee Adrian Street would have made Jim and a lot of other huge blokes cry 'uncle'. Plenty of other examples, Fit Finlay wasn't huge, I'd back him in against some 6'8" steroid monster However that is in a shoot. The WWF/WWE style was about the most unrealistic, overly dramatic wrestling style ever. There were always exceptions when something resembling actual wrestling did break out, but generally it was cartoonish. With this cartoon style it was certainly unrealistic to have small guys beat way, way bigger guys For it to look realistic the small guy has to have a legit looking way of getting the big guy on the mat and a legit looking way to finish him. The great Australian champ Ron Miller was 5'9", 230lb, could shoot, and realistically took big guys down and finished them with a reverse figure 4 leglock very efficiently applied Also, outside of wrestling, check out some footage of 5'6" boxer Sam Langford, perhaps the hardest left hook of all time, doesn't matter how big they were that left hook was a ko
Sorry Jim, but bigger does not necessarily mean better. Could Ken Shamrock beat the Big Show in a real fight? More than likely. But maybe not. I know who I would put my money on. Would Royce Gracie beat Abdullah? Absolutely!!! So, does Hillbilly think he would whip Haku???? Now, Conor McGregor vs. Brock Lesnar either now or in their prime would be interesting!!!!
@@casiemny1219 Lets make it happen!!! Well, they are both beat up now, but in their primes it would have been interesting. I still lean towards Ken, but Paul is a monster so honestly I could see it going either way.
Depends on the size difference-Rey vs Nash in WCW was ridiculous, but the thumbnail is Shawn vs Sid-where the size difference isn't really that much when you saw them in the ring together & they told the story of Shawn outwrestling & outmoving Sid. Same with Shawn vs Diesel.
Jim is way off in his assessment of fighting.If the bigger person doesn’t know how to fight and the smaller person does the smaller one will win.He talks about the big guy football players and guys teaching martial arts that this ain’t gonna work on significantly bigger guys is ludicrous.Ju jitsu was made for that very purpose,to use someone’s size and strength against them
Weight classes in MMA are there for a reason. Sure some 6'8 guy with zero training could get beat buy a 5'10 guy. But in general the bigger person will win a fight.
@@shawnsdr3406 This is not true, the small wins most of the time because the small has speed and agility. I have never seen a tall person win a street fight in my life. Tall people always get beaten up. When you are tall it is easy for the short to attack your lower body and knock you down. Tall people often have weaker lower bodies, see what happened to Kevin Nash when he tears his quadriceps, or what happened to Sid Vicious when his leg was easily broken.
@@shawnsdr3406there's such a thing as too big! Once you get over 6'9" and 300lbs your too big, slow and awkward to beat guys around 6'5" and 260lbs facts!
@@chucky19710Tall people usually don't get into fights for a couple reasons: 1) They intimidate people to the point that people don't try to fight them and 2) They have slightly lower testosterone levels than short guys.
When talent and skill is even the deciding factor is size. WWE has Rey Mysterio who is 5”3 170 pounds walking around with the HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP belt. Make it make sense.
Shout out to the legendary Hillbilly Jim 🔥
Stream his full shoot interview now (2012)
➡titlematchnetwork.com/wrestling-shoot-interviews-results/
Curt Hennig once said to Scott Hall “you always want to be nice to the new guy’s because you never know who they’re going to end up being later on.”
What a class act. Great man.
Hillbilly Jim was one of my early favorites always enjoyed watching him wrestle or manage the Godwinns. One of my first LJN figures.
Pro wrestling has traditionally following a principle that applies in amateur, collegiate, and Olympic wrestling, which is that: “Size is only an asset, up to a particular weight. Once a competitor gets up to 280+ pounds, then their size becomes a liability where stamina is concerned”. For this reason, the heavyweight division in several amateur wrestling organizations is capped at 287 lbs (130 kgs). So, the size differences we observe in pro wrestling somewhat parallel those in other forms of wrestling.
Key word being "wrestling". In any martial art that doesn't involve grappling, you DO NOT want to fight someone who has 4+ inches on you, or 50+ pounds on you. It's why we instinctively keep our distance from strangers who are big and tall, and why women generally feel more fear than men do. Bigger people are intimidating for a reason.
undertaker looks so much like Jim now in his older age.
I'm surprised Jim never got humbled by a smaller guy at some point in real life.
I'm sure many tried. It's always the small ones that are the loudest.
@@coreysmith8681 😂😂
Jim is right to the point but think Gracie's beating 300+! Pound guys, there's always a little guy who don't know their small
Knowledge, confidence, and skill definitely improve the odds for the little guys
Height means literally nothing when your not a pro fighter 5’5 Willie pep would deck hill billy Jim so this who law of nature theory is bs
Gracie would've pinned himself 😂😂
The trick for Gracie was immediately grappling/immobilizing them so they couldn't punch and kick him as effectively. In a standup fight, 90% of the time, the taller and bigger person will win. Because they have a longer reach and their blows have more weight to them.
King Kong Bundy thought the same thing as hillbilly
He was built like a brick back then. He makes a good example of not burning bridges. You can end up making a lot of money doing different things and different opportunities within the company.
Well Hogan beating Andre at Mania 3 was good for business LOFL
I found great relief once he put sunglasses on.
Me too 😂
Jim is smart as a whip about life & reality in these shoot interviews. He hit the nail on the head with this topic. wcw's "Giant Killer Rey" was a complete farce. So was Shawn beating Sid, Diesel & Taker. Eddie ( R.I.P. ) beating Brock.....Spike Dudley beating ANYBODY, let alone Mike Awesome ( R.I.P. ), were all just complete nonsense. On the street these outcomes would never happen. Bruce Lee is an exception, but his punching & kicking power were on another level. Even still, Bruce vs Haku in their prime- regardless of the Haku stories, it's hard to see Bruce coming out on top in that match up, for obvious weight class reasons, despite extraordinary skill. In film, they call it "the movies" for a reason. John Saxon killing Bolo Yeung in real combat would never happen. Chuck Norris SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAST IN THAT ROLE
WWE was at its best when Vince was pushing the monsters/Super Hero comic book characters. He is right.. There is a REASON why "shoot fighting" has weight classes. LOL If it didn't there would be murders/deaths. . Sure you have your rarity where the small guy wins, but thats all it is.. A rarity. 9 times out of 10 the bigger guy will win. Theres a reason why De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard never fought Tyson. Because there would have been a murder due to the punching power of tyson
No, it's not rare. The small can win in many cases. Size doesn't mean anything because If you are 2 meters tall and someone is 1.7 meters tall was able to throw a strong punch to your face, then all that height you have won't help you.
@@chucky19710Taller = longer reach, and generally superior natural strength (you don't have to slave away in the gym and do roids to the same degree that a smaller person does in order to get strong). More pounds means more mass which gives blows more weight. Size mismatches can lead to severe injuries and even deaths, when you take two fighters of roughly equal conditioning and skill, but one is much smaller than other.... The smaller fighter will get brutalized.
@@ryanjacobson2508 What you are saying is nonsense, height does not mean strength, tall people also need to exercise to become strong, tall people do not have any advantage over short people unless they have stronger muscles, but height alone does not mean anything.
It is known that tall people have fragility in the lower part of the body, specifically in the legs, the taller a person is, the weaker his legs become, this a fact.
The UFC, kickboxing and boxing heavyweight champs aren't the biggest guys! Haku was only around 6'3" and guys like Benoit at 5'11" would kill hillbilly Jim in a street fight that's the truth!
Haku was only 6'3? Bro I'm 6'1, I thought Haku was like 6'6 😂😂
Haku is 6' barefoot and Benoit was at most 5'10 with boots on
They all have weight classes for a reason. And in modern boxing, many of the heavyweight champs have been 6'3"+.
@ryanjacobson2508 there tends to be a ceiling for how big the best fighters are. Once they exceed 6'7" and around 290lbs they become too slow and too awkward and their size starts to count against them! I would take a guy around 6'4" and 250lbs over a guy around 7 foot and 350lbs in a fight if both guys are evenly matched and evenly experienced? Hillbilly Jim is implying the guys around 7 foot and over should be the best fighters but they just aren't!
@@pavlovsdogman Benoit could never beat Hillybilly. You watch too much Dragon Ball Z. Lol
Hillbilly Jim, what a good dude
Thank u Jim
Bruce Lee at 165 lbs once accidentally hit a guy on set it went through another guy then broke the third ones arm. He trained on metal bags and steel parts. Size isn't everything.
Wouldn't compare Bruce Lee to just anyone though
@jokerswank6082 A sensei told me once any white belt can beat a black belt with one well trained move. I'm saying this a a very large man myself.
@@twk8520 I'm not arguing, just saying Bruce Lee isn't like anybody else
@jokerswank6082 Agreed the man was a force of nature. Any guy who plays ping pong with nunchucks and wins is superhuman.
No he didn't and Bruce wasn't no haku !
Wolverines take on bears and moose. And honey badgers will do the same. Lol
What Jim would say in wrestling I would only agree if it was like big show versus rey mysteryo Jr or Andre the giant verses Dean Malinko.
When both have similar levels of skill and athleticism the big guy wins. But if the smaller guy has a bigger speed, skill advantage, the odds are skewed the other way.
I saw a 180lb guy beat the crap out of a huge bouncer (6'4" and a muscular-ish 375lbs) easily with LIGHTNING quick strikes. It looked like a slaughter. After seeing that, I adjusted my bully view.
Wrestling was always entertainment. Maybe Spike Dudley could beat Austin and Rock in a real fight. But Austin was just more Entertaining.
The bigger lion doesn’t always win bc that big lion gets old then the young lion who may be smaller wins
I wouldn't even recognize him if I saw him if it wasn't for these shoot interviews.
A small wrestler that can really shoot or hook can easily stretch and tap out a much bigger guy. I guarantee Adrian Street would have made Jim and a lot of other huge blokes cry 'uncle'. Plenty of other examples, Fit Finlay wasn't huge, I'd back him in against some 6'8" steroid monster
However that is in a shoot. The WWF/WWE style was about the most unrealistic, overly dramatic wrestling style ever. There were always exceptions when something resembling actual wrestling did break out, but generally it was cartoonish. With this cartoon style it was certainly unrealistic to have small guys beat way, way bigger guys
For it to look realistic the small guy has to have a legit looking way of getting the big guy on the mat and a legit looking way to finish him. The great Australian champ Ron Miller was 5'9", 230lb, could shoot, and realistically took big guys down and finished them with a reverse figure 4 leglock very efficiently applied
Also, outside of wrestling, check out some footage of 5'6" boxer Sam Langford, perhaps the hardest left hook of all time, doesn't matter how big they were that left hook was a ko
Squirrel girl beat up the Incredible Hulk.
I would like to seen hillbilly Jim in his prime vs The Rock
Loved the hell out of the hillbilly…
Karate teacher would never say that
Ask him about Haku.
Sorry Jim, but bigger does not necessarily mean better. Could Ken Shamrock beat the Big Show in a real fight? More than likely. But maybe not. I know who I would put my money on. Would Royce Gracie beat Abdullah? Absolutely!!! So, does Hillbilly think he would whip Haku???? Now, Conor McGregor vs. Brock Lesnar either now or in their prime would be interesting!!!!
Royce would pin himself after getting forked 😂
I’d put my money on Big Show lol
Haku would definitely beat Hillbilly Jim.Haku knocked out three men cold in about 40 seconds Rick Steiner witnessed this.
@@casiemny1219 Lets make it happen!!! Well, they are both beat up now, but in their primes it would have been interesting. I still lean towards Ken, but Paul is a monster so honestly I could see it going either way.
@@Darren-r8l Exactly!! Heh heh.
I am pretty sure Bret Hart could fold half the big guys
I think you meant defied not violated lol😂
Depends on the size difference-Rey vs Nash in WCW was ridiculous, but the thumbnail is Shawn vs Sid-where the size difference isn't really that much when you saw them in the ring together & they told the story of Shawn outwrestling & outmoving Sid. Same with Shawn vs Diesel.
Jim is way off in his assessment of fighting.If the bigger person doesn’t know how to fight and the smaller person does the smaller one will win.He talks about the big guy football players and guys teaching martial arts that this ain’t gonna work on significantly bigger guys is ludicrous.Ju jitsu was made for that very purpose,to use someone’s size and strength against them
Jujitsu practitioners pin themselves 😂
Weight classes in MMA are there for a reason. Sure some 6'8 guy with zero training could get beat buy a 5'10 guy. But in general the bigger person will win a fight.
@@shawnsdr3406 This is not true, the small wins most of the time because the small has speed and agility. I have never seen a tall person win a street fight in my life. Tall people always get beaten up.
When you are tall it is easy for the short to attack your lower body and knock you down.
Tall people often have weaker lower bodies, see what happened to Kevin Nash when he tears his quadriceps, or what happened to Sid Vicious when his leg was easily broken.
@@shawnsdr3406there's such a thing as too big! Once you get over 6'9" and 300lbs your too big, slow and awkward to beat guys around 6'5" and 260lbs facts!
@@chucky19710Tall people usually don't get into fights for a couple reasons: 1) They intimidate people to the point that people don't try to fight them and 2) They have slightly lower testosterone levels than short guys.
When talent and skill is even the deciding factor is size. WWE has Rey Mysterio who is 5”3 170 pounds walking around with the HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP belt. Make it make sense.