History Main / SpotMonkey

* A good portion of the RingOfHonor roster in the early days could be accused of this; most notable is the group Special K, who almost served as a {{Lampshading}} of the wrestling style. All of the members were rich kid ravers who were on so much drugs that they could pretty much kill themselves doing ridiculous moves with no rhyme or reason to it (conveniently sidestepping the question of how they actually had the motor coordination to actually pull these spots off in Kayfabe), and they flaunted their lack of storytelling and "respect for the business" for heel heat.

* A particularly infamous example is indy ''primadonna'' Teddy Hart. In addition to being a royal pain backstage and [[SmallNameBigEgo having delusions about his own popularity]], Teddy was well known for no-selling within seconds of a match's finish just so that he could show off with more athletic moves. The height of this was Teddy performing several unplanned spots off the top of a cage following a RingOfHonor cage match. The spots made no sense, diminished the story of the match by having Teddy be energetic enough to perform them, were a blatant attempt at drawing attention to himself, and put the other wrestlers in danger because they had to catch him with no preparation. ROH blackballed him, and future WWE Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/CMPunk [[http://cmpunk.livejournal.com/9301.html publicly lambasted]] Teddy for his actions. This single incident is probably the most extreme example of everything that is wrong with the Spot Monkey style.

** Special K was negatively contrasted with LowKi, a "[[SeriousBusiness shoot-style]]" pro wrestler who relied more on stiff kicks. It didn't help Special K's reputation (or them in kayfabe) that LowKi was one of ROH's top stars and kayfabe threats at the time.

* Some of the members of Wrestling/{{TNA}}'s X Division, including Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal. Others, like Wrestling/AJStyles and Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, employ a wrestling style with just as many impressive spots, but manage to actually chain them together with decent wrestling, and thus avoid being tarred with the Spot Monkey brush.

* Neoclassical[=/=]Jazz Fusion shred guitarists in RockMusic and HeavyMetal often have this reputation. Oftentimes, these musicians, while technically excellent, will merely rely on their ability to play extremely fast[=/=]complicated guitar parts rather than contributing anything of value to the song they are playing. In fact, this was part of the HypeBacklash against HairMetal in [[TheNineties the early 90's]], as many of the genre's bands relied too much on flashy leads rather than musical substance to sustain their songs, which caused listeners to turn against them.

* While most of Essa Rios's spots were both impressive and oddly sensible, some during his WWF run were senseless such as his Jakked match where he dgave Low Ki an arm drag that did not carry any of the momentum from his prior acrobatics, making him look like a showoff. In his better spots, his acrobatics made basic moves seem a lot more painful.

* Jack Evans in a big bad way. Practically every single move he does involves at least one flip. The worst part, he's sloppy as hell and has landed on his head countless times.

** Japanese high-flyers Kota Ibushi and Takuya Sugi are examples of this dissonance, even in their different wrestling styles. They often perform acrobatic versions of routine wrestling spots in place of the actual spots, which leads them to be too spectacular in moments in which it is not needed for the story of the match. Both have improved their wrestling psychology, mainly due to the need to ground their styles because of their recent injuries.

* For a similar reason above, MichaelBay has built a career off of this for his films. He doesn't get the best scripts to work with, and his direction may leave something to be desired, but his films are CGI filled, car chase ridden, explosion fested love letters to the word ''awesome''. He's made a lot of money doing this, so its not like anyone can fault him (and he plots and directing isn't usually all that bad anyhow, just not masterpieces).

* Neoclassical[=/=]JazzFusion shred guitarist in RockMusic and HeavyMetal often have this reputation. Oftentimes, these musicians, while technically excellent, will merely rely on their ability to play extremely fast[=/=]complicated guitar parts rather than contributing anything of value to the song they are playing. In fact, this was part of the HypeBacklash against HairMetal in [[TheNineties the early 90's]], as many of the genre's bands relied too much on flashy leads rather than musical substance to sustain their songs, which caused listeners to turn against them.

** ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' will usually make note of something like this happening. If a book is utter crap, but has great artwork, Linkara will not shy from complimenting the art and making sure the viewers know he likes the artist's work. He will then break apart the story and show us its faults, thus proving that good artwork not a good story make.

** In his autobiography, Wrestling/BretHart accused the younger Japanese wrestlers (and Japanese-trained [[Wrestling/AllenCoage Bad News Allen/Brown]]) of this; the cult-like dojo system that produced them taught them not to "respect" (i.e., sell for) an opponent that wasn't legitimately beating the hell out of them.

* Takuya Sugi in some of his gimmicks. While he reserves his most complicated [[FinishingMove finishers]] for high-profile matches, his wrestling style is mainly based in crazy dives and ninja-style evasions.

** In his autobiography, Wrestling/BretHart accused the younger Japanese wrestlers (and Japanese-trained Bad News Allen/Brown) of this; the cult-like dojo system that produced them taught them not to "respect" (i.e., sell for) an opponent that wasn't legitimately beating the hell out of them.

* Michelle [=McCool=] was a more traditional example, doing handsprings and such for little reason than to show off (they would not even transition into another move or anything). She quickly got better about it but some fans {{never| live it down}} really let it go and insisted she was a mediocre talent who was only being pushed because of her relationship with The Undertaker.

** ''AtopTheFourthWall'' will usually make note of something like this happening. If a book is utter crap, but has great artwork, Linkara will not shy from complimenting the art and making sure the viewers know he likes the artist's work. He will then break apart the story and show us its faults, thus proving that good artwork not a good story make.

* Roller derby used to involves entire teams of spot monkeys back in the 70s, where every score, every block, every fall, and every fight was scripted beforehand, though [[{{Kayfabe}} the players obviously denied this.]] Modern teams occasionally pull some spectacular trick skating out to gain popularity with the audience before the match or during half time, but these days matches are totally unscripted and often about ten times more brutal as a result.[[hottip:*: Modern roller derby matches are regularly promoted and described as "bouts".]]

*** Actually, the church had banned ''creating'' castrati for musical purposes decades before they fell out of use- all later boys had just 'happened' to 'need' their testicles removed or destroyed at about 13 for some 'medical' reason (surgeons in those days not having any sort of regulation, and child abuse only being regarded if it were liable to actually kill the child...) France managed to stop the craze first by banning them ''performing''- everywhere else, the change in fashion came at about the same time as changes in medical practice (with surgery done by doctors) ''and'' a change in social attitudes to children's rights.

* Roller derby used to involves entire teams of spot monkeys back in the 70s, where every score, every block, every fall, and every fight was scripted beforehand, though [[{{Kayfabe}} the players obviously denied this.]] Modern teams occasionally pull some spectacular trick skating out to gain popularity with the audience before the match or during half time, but these days matches are totally unscripted and often about ten times more brutal as a result.

* Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s JeffHardy went through a severe SpotMonkey phase before his departure from the company, but got somewhat better after his return; while he's still known for his tendency to dive off high things, he is at least much better about using such spots as part of a match's story.
* Former {{ECW}} and Wrestling/{{TNA}} (and recent re-signee with {{WWE}}) wrestler RobVanDam often gets accused of being a SpotMonkey, but he shows more awareness of the "story" factor in his matches than most Spot Monkeys do, making him a borderline case at best.

* Some of the members of Wrestling/{{TNA}}'s X Division, including Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal. Others, like Wrestling/AJStyles and Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, employ a wrestling style with just as many impressive spots, but manage to actually chain them together with decent wrestling, and thus avoid being tarred with the SpotMonkey brush.

* Some indy wrestlers could be called "stiffness spotmonkeys". Stiffness is a wrestling term to describe how hard the fake strikes are - the harder they are, the stiffer they are. William Regal and Fit Finlay are two good mainstream examples of stiff workers, and two examples of ''good ones''. But on the indy scene, some guys just whale on each other as hard as they can for no particular reason. Wrestling/{{Raven}} actually ranted about this phenomenon on his blog. This is due to the influence of Japanese wrestling on the indy scene, and the popularity of super-stiff Japanese wrestlers like KentaKobashi. But Kobashi, like Finlay and Regal, can work stiff responsibly, and the Japanese touring schedule is much more relaxed, allowing the wrestlers more time off to recover and thus allowing them to take more punishment in the ring.

* A particularly infamous example is indy ''primadonna'' Teddy Hart. In addition to being a royal pain backstage and [[SmallNameBigEgo having delusions about his own popularity]], Teddy was well known for no-selling within seconds of a match's finish just so that he could show off with more athletic moves. The height of this was Teddy performing several unplanned spots off the top of a cage following a RingOfHonor cage match. The spots made no sense, diminished the story of the match by having Teddy be energetic enough to perform them, were a blatant attempt at drawing attention to himself, and put the other wrestlers in danger because they had to catch him with no preparation. ROH blackballed him, and future WWE Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/CMPunk [[http://cmpunk.livejournal.com/9301.html publicly lambasted]] Teddy for his actions. This single incident is probably the most extreme example of everything that is wrong with the SpotMonkey style.

* Former {{ECW}} and Wrestling/{{WWE}} (and current {{TNA}}) wrestler RobVanDam often gets accused of being a SpotMonkey, but he shows more awareness of the "story" factor in his matches than most Spot Monkeys do, making him a borderline case at best.

* Some indy wrestlers could be called "stiffness spotmonkeys". Stiffness is a wrestling term to describe how hard the fake strikes are - the harder they are, the stiffer they are. William Regal and Fit Finlay are two good mainstream examples of stiff workers, and two examples of ''good ones''. But on the indy scene, some guys just wail on each other as hard as they can for no particular reason. Wrestling/{{Raven}} actually ranted about this phenomenon on his blog. This is due to the influence of Japanese wrestling on the indy scene, and the popularity of super-stiff Japanese wrestlers like KentaKobashi. But Kobashi, like Finlay and Regal, can work stiff responsibly, and the Japanese touring schedule is much more relaxed, allowing the wrestlers more time off to recover and thus allowing them to take more punishment in the ring.

A "spot", in ProfessionalWrestling lingo, is a move as scripted into a match, including the reaction by the opponent. Some (particularly younger) wrestlers know a lot of great spots, which look absolutely brutal and require a great degree of athleticism, and yet they still don't really know how to ''wrestle''; they have no idea how to tell a story in their matches, or even the basics of acting like something really hurt. They're the type of wrestlers who will do a Triple-Tope-Quebradora-Con-Queso through three flaming tables onto a bed of thumbtacks and ground glass wired with explosives, and then get up like nothing happened, only to perform an even ''more'' spectacular spot later in the match. These wrestlers are referred to as Spot Monkeys by fans, and their matches are often Spotfests (in other words, spot after spot with little or no rhyme or reason to them).

* Some ComicBook artists embellish their pages with art which actually detracts from the story, in order to make it more sellable in the Original Art market.