History Main / GarbageWrestler

** Likewise, Wrestling/{{CZW}}.

* JustifiedTrope?: In his autobiography ''Have a Nice Day'', Wrestling/MickFoley (aka "Cactus Jack", "Dude Love" and "Mankind") described his "peanut butter scale"--insisting that while he ''did'' have a reasonable grounding in 'real' wrestling moves (indeed, his first trainer insisted on "no punch-kick"), he'd found that use of "garbage" wrestling meant more money, and fewer meals of peanut butter sandwiches he'd have to live on in the next month.
** It should also be noted that Wrestling/MickFoley differs from many "garbage wrestlers" in that he's one of the best promo men in the business. Foley also demonstrates a more diverse moveset than most of the others on this list. In fact, one of his early signature moves was the "Cactus Jack Crack Smash" which was a run from the apron into a senton splash to a standing opponent.

* Trope Namer (via the Baba quote above) Atsushi Onita, founder of Wrestling/{{FMW}}. Once a promising junior heavyweight in Baba's Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, a potentially career-ending knee injury forced him to take up a heavily brawling and gimmicks-based style in order to continue his career.

*** Though this isn't really true of IWA-MS anymore and hasn't been for a good while; they still do deathmatch stuff, but their list of alumni also boasts the likes of Wrestling/CMPunk, Wrestling/ChrisHero, Wrestling/ColtCabana, Ace Steel, Delirious, and [[Wrestling/EvanBourne Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal]].

* Necro Butcher, who has been a mainstay at the afore mentioned CZW and IWA Midsouth, had the privilege of representing the garbage wrestling style in the movie ''Film/TheWrestler''. His scene was filmed at a CZW event.

* [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] (via the Baba quote above) Atsushi Onita, founder of Wrestling/{{FMW}}. Once a promising junior heavyweight in Baba's Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, a potentially career-ending knee injury forced him to take up a heavily brawling and gimmicks-based style in order to continue his career.

* Wrestling/TheNastyBoys were a stiff, garbage wrestling tag team that hospitalized Ken Shamrock, back in his pre-[[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship UFC]] days in the North Carolina-based South Atlantic Pro Wrestling promotion. They were thought to be genuinely tough but slightly dangerous to work with.

*** Though this isn't really true of IWA-MS anymore and hasn't been for a good while; they still do deathmatch stuff, but their list of alumni also boasts the likes of Wrestling/CMPunk, Chris Hero, Wrestling/ColtCabana, Ace Steel, Delirious, and [[Wrestling/EvanBourne Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal]].

* Opening match in ''Monster Brawl'' is between two fighters of this type: Witch Bitch, who has a hidden cleaver and doesn't shy away from underhanded tactics and Cyclops, who uses his smithing hammer.

** Wrestling/{{Ivory}} and [[Characters/WWEDivas Tori (Terri Poch)]] had the first-ever women's hardcore match in Wrestling/{{WWE}} when Tori challenged Ivory for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Title]] on the September 6, 1999 ''[[Wrestling/{{WWERaw}} Raw]]''. The match started in the bathroom and may have been even stiffer than the hardcore matches the men were having at the time, and featured [[ScreamingWarrior a lot of screaming]] and some creative choices in weapons, such as Ivory using SoapPunishment as they fought through the showers[[note]]passing a naked Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} along the way. This doubles as FridgeBrilliance, since the person using the soap was named ''Ivory''.[[/note]] Ivory won by pulling a mirror off of a wall and smashing it over Tori's head, with Wrestling/JimRoss worrying about the barefoot Tori possibly getting glass in her feet. After the match, Ivory found a [[AxCrazy plugged-in iron and tried burning Tori with it.]] It took several referees to pull Ivory off of her and get her to calm down. On the 2000 VHS release ''WWF Divas: Postcard from the Caribbean'', right before scenes from this match are shown during Ivory's segment[[note]]It featured the Kat, Ivory, Tori, Terri Runnels and Wrestling/TrishStratus.[[/note]], Ivory compares wrestling to a dance and how the guys have all gotten around to each other a few times over their careers and how the women don't "dance very often with the same partners or the same opponents, and I guess that's why the hair-pulling happens."

** Wrestling/{{Ivory}} and [[Characters/WWEDivas Tori (Terri Poch)]] had the first-ever women's hardcore match in Wrestling/{{WWE}} when Tori challenged Ivory for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Title]] on the September 6, 1999 ''[[Wrestling/{{WWERaw}} Raw]]''. The match started in the bathroom and may have been even stiffer than the hardcore matches the men were having at the time, and featured [[ScreamingWarrior a lot of screaming]] and some creative choices in weapons, such as Ivory using SoapPunishment as they fought through the showers[[note]]passing a naked [[Characters/WWEDivas Jacqueline]] along the way. This doubles as FridgeBrilliance, since the person using the soap was named ''Ivory''.[[/note]] Ivory won by pulling a mirror off of a wall and smashing it over Tori's head, with Wrestling/JimRoss worrying about the barefoot Tori possibly getting glass in her feet. After the match, Ivory found a [[AxCrazy plugged-in iron and tried burning Tori with it.]] It took several referees to pull Ivory off of her and get her to calm down. On the 2000 VHS release ''WWF Divas: Postcard from the Caribbean'', right before scenes from this match are shown during Ivory's segment[[note]]It featured the Kat, Ivory, Tori, Terri Runnels and Wrestling/TrishStratus.[[/note]], Ivory compares wrestling to a dance and how the guys have all gotten around to each other a few times over their careers and how the women don't "dance very often with the same partners or the same opponents, and I guess that's why the hair-pulling happens."

** [[Characters/WWEDivas Ivory and Tori]] had the first-ever women's hardcore match in Wrestling/{{WWE}} when Tori challenged Ivory for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Title]] on the September 6, 1999 ''[[Wrestling/{{WWERaw}} Raw]]''. The match started in the bathroom and may have been even stiffer than the hardcore matches the men were having at the time, and featured [[ScreamingWarrior a lot of screaming]] and some creative choices in weapons, such as Ivory using SoapPunishment as they fought through the showers[[note]]passing a naked [[Characters/WWEDivas Jacqueline]] along the way. This doubles as FridgeBrilliance, since the person using the soap was named ''Ivory''.[[/note]] Ivory won by pulling a mirror off of a wall and smashing it over Tori's head, with Wrestling/JimRoss worrying about the barefoot Tori possibly getting glass in her feet. After the match, Ivory found a [[AxCrazy plugged-in iron and tried burning Tori with it.]] It took several referees to pull Ivory off of her and get her to calm down. On the 2000 VHS release ''WWF Divas: Postcard from the Caribbean'', right before scenes from this match are shown during Ivory's segment[[note]]It featured the Kat, Ivory, Tori, Terri Runnels and Wrestling/TrishStratus.[[/note]], Ivory compares wrestling to a dance and how the guys have all gotten around to each other a few times over their careers and how the women don't "dance very often with the same partners or the same opponents, and I guess that's why the hair-pulling happens."

** The Original Sheik was another innovator of this style.

* The [[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Japanese]] promotion Dramatic Dream Team, which, in its sheer wackiness and creativity and originality, is like Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} UpToEleven, created their [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/ddt/ironman-hm.html Ironman Heavymetalweight Title]] as a parody of the WWE Hardcore Title, with the title being defended ANYWHERE, even in non-title or tag matches, under 24/7 rules. Cameramen, people from the audience, the chief chef from the Yakeyama Springs Inn, a female newscaster, "three elementary school girls," "a Bolivian boy" and even a ''miniature dachsund'' have "won" the title. On January 31, 2003, a ladder fell on champion Yoshihiro Sakai during a match with Mikami, and the referee ''counted the fall.'' Sakai promptly pinned the ''ladder'' to regain the title.

** Other early examples were Wrestling/DickTheBruiser and his "cousin", the Crusher, although they could definitely wrestle.

** Other early examples were Dick the Bruiser and his "cousin", the Crusher.

* Nowadays "Innovator of Violence" Tommy Dreamer has this reputation but during his early ECW days he was unpopular with the mutants because they felt he wasn't garbage enough. In WWE he was more famous for being hit with weapons rather than using them.

* [[Characters/{{ECW}} The Sandman]] is a classic example of this trope. For the majority of his career, he used very few wrestling moves, relying on punching his opponent and hitting him with a variety of objects. Only later would he add some actual pro wrestling moves to his arsenal, such as the "Rolling Rock" (a moonsault onto a ladder laid atop a prone opponent), the "White Russian Legsweep" (a russian legsweep using a singapore cane), and the "Heineken-rana" (a hurricanrana).[[note]]Sandman's [[TheGimmick gimmick]] involved drinking beer on his way to the ring and smashing the beer cans against his own head to make himself bleed before the match even started, so many of his big moves had alcohol-related names.[[/note]] And they usually looked like shit. Of note, when Wrestling/{{WCW}} hired The Sandman, they learned from their experiences with The Public Enemy (see below), and kept him exclusively in their hardcore division, so to downplay his weaknesses.

The term Garbage Wrestler was inspired by Giant Baba, Japanese pro wrestler and owner of Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, who once famously referred to rival promotion Wrestling/{{FMW}}, which employed this style with alarming regularity, as "garbage". Despite this, it's not necessarily a derogatory term in today's fanbase. Could also cross with ImprobableWeaponUser.

* One of the luchadores in ''NachoLibre'' has a moveset largely dedicated to hitting opponents with a metal folding chair. As he does so, he shouts "¡Siéntate!", which means "Sit down!", or if you want to get cute, "Have a seat!"

* Cleverly subverted at Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH Navigation with Breeze, Day 4, May 17, 2005, during the Wrestling/GenichiroTenryu[=/=]Go Shiozaki/Jun Akiyama vs. [=KENTA=]/Mohammed Yone/Takeshi Rikio. At one point, the action spilled out to the floor. Tenryu grabbed a table from behind the guard rail and threw it onto [=KENTA=]'s head. After some more action on the floor, Tenryu picked up the table and ''put it back behind the guardrail,'' to ''applause.''

* Frank's wrestling persona in the ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia episode ''The Gang Wrestles for the Troops'' is "The Trashman", invoking this trope in a literal sense (by throwing trash around the ring and then ''eating it''). He fits the trope pretty well besides that, he's certainly not as flashy as the personas of the rest of the guys and he ends up winning the entire bout by throwing a metal trash can at his opponent (the edge of which knicks the other wrestler's jugular and he passes out from blood loss).

The term GarbageWrestler was inspired by Giant Baba, Japanese pro wrestler and owner of Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, who once famously referred to rival promotion Wrestling/{{FMW}}, which employed this style with alarming regularity, as "garbage". Despite this, it's not necessarily a derogatory term in today's fanbase.

* Perennial female heel Kaoru "Dump" Matsumoto. Although she was a straight-up power wrestler early in her career, she only really took off by living up to the name and utilizing various weapons, starting with a pair of scissors that she would often convincingly jam into the arms of her opponents, until she evolved into a full-on GarbageWrestler.

** The [[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Japanese]] promotion Dramatic Dream Team created their [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/ddt/ironman-hm.html Ironman Heavymetalweight Title]] as a parody of the WWE Hardcore Title, with the title being defended ANYWHERE, even in non-title or tag matches, under 24/7 rules. On January 31, 2003, a ladder fell on champion Yoshihiro Sakai during a match with Mikami, and the referee ''counted the fall.'' Sakai promptly pinned the ''ladder'' to regain the title.
*** Later that year, a ladder fell on champion Sanshiro Takagi for the title. The title was declared VACANT on October 15 after the promotion's "president" "''encouraged the ladder to 'forfeit' the title.''"

* New Jack, another wrestler from the old ECW, certainly qualifies here. His primary talents were hitting people with stuff, and diving off of high places. Although he worked a fairly "normal" style of wrestling (by comparison) in his pre-ECW days with promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

* [[Wrestling/{{TPE}} The Public Enemy]] ("Flyboy" Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge), a tag team from ECW, also qualifies. They were famous for their garbage matches and their use of tables in ECW. They became so famous that they were hired by WCW... where the WCW bookers found out that outside of garbage matches they just couldn't wrestle.

** The [[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Japanese]] promotion Dramatic Dream Team, which is like Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} UpToEleven, created their [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/ddt/ironman-hm.html Ironman Heavymetalweight Title]] as a parody of the WWE Hardcore Title, with the title being defended ANYWHERE, even in non-title or tag matches, under 24/7 rules. On January 31, 2003, a ladder fell on champion Yoshihiro Sakai during a match with Mikami, and the referee ''counted the fall.'' Sakai promptly pinned the ''ladder'' to regain the title.