Hogan As A Worker | WrestleZone Forums

Posted by Tamela Phillippe on Thursday, June 6, 2024
The notion that the term "workrate" was originally conceived to describe how a wrestler "works" a crowd is complete and utter bunk, and one of the most stubborn misconceptions in wrestling. The word was originally used not in wrestling, but in ball-handling games such as rugby, soccer, etc. It describes the amount of effort a team puts into winning a game. Effort in this connotation relates specifically to athletic ability, with no emphasis in the term placed on how excited a crowd is AT ALL.

Workrate, as a term, was later adapted for use in wrestling by Dave Meltzer when he started the Wrestling Observer Newsletter during the early-80s. Meltzer's star rating system originally defined workrate as the amount of time in a match devoted to action, rather than rest holds. Action, in Meltzer's definition, was the quality of athleticism on display in a match. By that definition, the mark of a good worker is someone who can bring an element of athleticism to a match. Not someone who cups his hand to his ear. Not someone who flexes his muscles ad nauseam. A well-worked match is a match between two great athletes, not a stinker between two main event level wrestlers who can hardly stand upright without falling over.

You Hogan enthusiasts can rant and rail all you want, but I have just outlined the original usage of the term "workrate." It's meaning was only perverted as the internet evolved and you had legions of Sid Vicious fans desperately clutching at straws in an effort to justify his main event tenure.

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