Are We Seeing A New Era For Super Heavyweight Wrestling?

There's never been a better time for 305 Live.

Keith Lee
Keith Lee

Keith Lee, Lance Archer, Brian Cage: all super heavyweight performers that have defied expectations over the past few years and changed the game for fellow wrestlers of their weight class. There’s never been a better time to be a big man in pro-wrestling, where before many audience members would assume that when two hosses are booked to face one another that it would result with a sluggish snoozer of a match, now wrestling fans are more than happy to pay attention to see how exactly these giants will break conventions and take the action to a whole new level.

We’re seeing wrestlers weighing in way over 300 pounds putting together crazy spots that even the Cruiserweights would shy away from. Looking back at the series of matches spanning across PWG and NXT between Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic, they were truly the pioneers of a new era for super heavyweight wrestling, showing the world that powerhouse performers can in fact be relied upon to put on a 15+ minute spectacle, packed full of highlights that would often be expected from those who favour a more technical/acrobatic style.

With a lot of wrestling fans considering the likes of Lance Archer, Brodie Lee and Wardlow to be the future of AEW’s mid-card scene, with Archer seemingly poised to face and potentially defeat Cody Rhodes in the finals of the TNT Championship tournament, AEW could establish a successful super heavyweights division that would put a huge, deserving spotlight on the larger than life athletes competing at the top of their game.

With several super heavyweight wrestlers currently working as free agents across the indie scene, there’s no better time to start snapping up some of these stars with a full-time contract. Impact Wrestling’s ‘Machine’ Brian Cage has been seemingly absent since the conclusion to his rivalry with fellow hoss Michael Elgin, with some rumours suggesting that he signed a contract with AEW earlier this year and others claiming that he still has more to accomplish as part of Impact. Whoever ends up with the former Lucha Underground standout will undoubtedly reap the rewards of having a versatile Adonis like Cage on their roster.

Jeff Cobb has also seemingly vanished from the wrestling world since making his Dynamite debut in January. I personally believe that AEW are making a huge mistake by not featuring Cobb on their weekly shows, having already achieved a huge ratings bump after his surprise appearance to side with The Inner Circle and subsequent match with Jon Moxley.

Cobb has proven himself to be one of the best powerhouse wrestlers across the globe, becoming a main-event player in PWG, ROH and now NJPW. Cobb is one of the last few stars remaining on the indie circuit that has yet to fully settle in to one of the more mainstream promotions – perhaps when things return to normality, Cody might bring Jeff Cobb back to Dynamite to help kick-start a new division for giants and monsters, the former Olympian would fit right in, that’s for sure.

The British independent scene is also rife with talent that tip the scales. Dan Moloney, Super Santos Jr and BritWres institution Rampage Brown have all put in the work to break the mould of a typical super heavyweight wrestler. Not only can they branch into comedy wrestling but they can also string together impressive hard-hitting affairs that often steal the show. PROGRESS Wrestling were one of the first promotions to feature a super-heavyweight championship, appropriately named the Atlas Championship; a title that only performers over a certain weight can vie for.

Now defunct, the Atlas Championship was held by some of the best heavyweight wrestlers on the scene, including such headlining attractions as: WALTER, Matt Riddle and Trent Seven. The Atlas title matches made for something fresh on a wrestling show, a spot where larger athletes can be taken more seriously and expectations were much higher than the standard Big Show/Kane encounter.

The Atlas championship brought a lot of momentum to those competing for it and often found itself featured in matches that would go on to be some of the best of the night. A personal favourite, which I’m sure will find itself on many PROGRESS fans ‘best of’ lists, would be the clash between RingKampf members WALTER and Timothy Thatcher at Chapter 62, an absolute barn-burner of a match that once again proved that super heavyweights can be just as fluid and technical as the middleweights.

It’s a shame that the Atlas Championship was such a short-lived part of PROGRESS, having been unified with the PROGRESS World Championship at last year’s Super Strong Style 16 Tournament by WALTER. There’s certainly precedent for a similar sort of title to be introduced in one of the mainstream companies – perhaps even NXT/NXT UK, where there’s a plethora of talented super heavyweights waiting to steal the show.

The aforementioned North American Champion, Keith Lee, has been wowing audiences across the world for years prior to his monumental rise in NXT. Lee has the ability to move like a luchadore yet toss his opponents across the ring with such ease. Lee has been putting on sensational championship matches, most recently with Damien Priest, almost changing the North American Championship into an exclusive title for those of a similar size and look.

Although this hasn’t been the original game-plan for NXT’s mid-card title, there’s definitely room for it to morph into something new, perhaps even spanning across both branches of NXT and allowing the heavy-hitters of NXT UK to get in on the fun. With the likes of Gallus, ‘Bomber’ Dave Mastiff and the currently injured Eddie Dennis all slowly building momentum, a few matches for the North American, or whatever Heavyweight championship is brought in could go a long way in further defining the careers of those involved.

Whichever way you look at it, super heavyweight wrestling has never been more exciting. Long gone are the sluggish efforts of The Great Khali and Rob Terry, now we’ve a new breed of hoss that’s breaking the standards and setting the bar higher than ever before. It’s time to take advantage of this and ring in a new era of the Goliath.

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