over or under sell?

since this has been put in reply to me quite a few times when I talk about dolph other people come back with he over sells too much I don't like him etc.

but I would argue that I would rather watch a guy like dolph who if he was put through a table would stay down for a long time and look like he's in agony as opposed to the cena way of selling and standing straight back up again to hit the aa and win the match.


so here's my question what do you prefer to see? a guy who oversells or a guy who undersells moves?

Depends on the level of it. I'd always go for a bit of an Over sell unless its to the level of michaels vs hogan.

I dont particularly agree with all of the overselling stuff, but the example is misleading. Maybe for extremes of each you'd look at Warrior no selling the pedigree and Shawn Michaels ludicrous overselling against Hogan a few years ago. In those instances id rather watch a no sell as you can put it down to strength rather than a guy who looks like a bouncy ball.

In general I prefer Ziggler, I prefer a slight oversell to an undersell but then it depends on your examples.

I only like under selling if it's for a reason eg. to make someone look like a complete beast...Under selling never fails to make me laugh.

I'm not sure exactly how we are clarifying selling here.

For me the art of selling is 3 fold

1) Bumping, taking the initial impact of a move, trying to make this as eye-catching/devestating or realistic as possible.

2) Facial expressions, showing the pain you have suffered and convaying it to an audience.

3) Hurting, remembering where you have taken punishment and continuing to convay that pain through your movements and through the story of the match.

In terms of bumping I would agree that Ziggler is guilty on occasion of over doing it (though not nearly as bad as some make out), but on the who his facial expressions are pretty good and he convays being hurt pretty well, though as a heel it isn't as important.

Cena on the other hand, I think his bumpings fine and I don't think his facial expressions are too bad (unless he dosn't realise his opponent hasn't actually applied the move yet ala Jericho at the Rumble), in terms of acting hurt I think that's where he falls down, he just brushes off what happened seconds before and even if he does remember he usually drops it for the big finish.

For me selling is a very important part of telling the story in the ring, and everyone from the underdog babyface to the monster heel will tell that story differently so I'm not sure it's easy to pidgeon hole selling as over or under done.

I like the example used, going through a table.... I've no problem with how Dolph sells a big bump, its the little bumps that grind my gears, to the extent his selling in the bigger bumps become diluted, if a punch in the jaw can cause him the same discomfot as putting him through a table then why go to the bother of using a table?

It's the one thing that I think Ambrose needs to tone down is his facial expressions at times when selling, it draws the audience in with the storytelling but like the moment he was dropped onto the ladder by Ryback he looked like he'd shat his pants.

I was tempted to say that Hero,but I didn't want to upset you haha...I'm not a fan of his over the top facial expressions after moves like a suplex.

Hero wrote:It's the one thing that I think Ambrose needs to tone down is his facial expressions at times when selling, it draws the audience in with the storytelling but like the moment he was dropped onto the ladder by Ryback he looked like he'd shat his pants.

Ambrose sells the hell out of Kane's top rope clothesline!

When Kane delivered that move to him at TLC last year, I marked as Ambrose looked liked he had been killed lol!