5 Jobbers who defeated Champions
Jobbers are an important part of the wrestling business. Often unappreciated, these unsung heroes have the most important job when it comes to the Superstars. Make them look good, great, even.
A solid jobber can make the greenest of wrestlers look like the next Hulk Hogan or John Cena. Normally all it takes is the ability to sell a move, but the better jobbers add a bit to it, sometimes comically overselling to show how powerful their opponent is.
Most recently, Braun Strowman and Nia Jax have been running through the “hometown heroes” that dare try to challenge them. After the brand split, these two jumped to Raw and demolished their pathetically frail foes in minutes.
However, the art of the jobber was a bit lost on the WWE before this time. There were no hometown boys and girls trying to make a name by getting flattened by an established talent. The talent were the ones jobbing!
Groups like the Three Man Band, The Social Outcasts, Golden Truth and others have taken over the slot of the J.O.B. Squad, putting together great lines of losing streaks only outmatched by men like Barry Horowitz or Johnny Rodz.
Even some of the greatest wrestlers of all time started out jobbing. Daniel Bryan, arguably the greatest Superstar in the past decade, started out in NXT with a 1-10 record. He would later go on to beat the FORMER US champion, the Miz. If it wasn’t for that “former,” Bryan would be Number 1 on this list.
So it’s not uncommon for these wrestlers to at least get an upset victory over their opponents. And my job today is to give you a list of those who were able to grab pinfalls over not only established talent but champions.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
#5 Norman Smiley
We’re starting off the list with a WCW guy. Big Wiggle, Norman Smiley. His tenure with WCW lasted from 1997 until the company shut their doors in 2001, and every bit of that time was spent as a comedy act. The Santino Marella of WCW, Norman Smiley was a veritable goofball.
Doing his big wiggle dance after knocking an opponent down and straddling them for the Smiley Spank, Smiley was clearly only there to make the fans laugh. However, Norman somehow became a hardcore champion.
Screamin’ Norman, as he was dubbed by the WCW announcers, was the epitome of a coward. Often coming to matches dressed in padding and a football helmet, he’d yelp at the thought of being touched by a weapon.
For having such a specific fear, it was odd that Norman was not only involved in the hardcore division but was surprisingly successful. The former 2-time champion has the longest combined reign of WCW hardcore champions, with a record of 93 days.
But don’t let that record distract you from Smiley’s true purpose. He was even seen multiple times attempting to lose on purpose just to get out of the division that he hated so much.
Norman Smiley is one of the more well-known jobbers of the past three decades. As of the writing of this article, he is working with WWE as a trainer for NXT. Hopefully, there aren’t any trash cans or kendo sticks near those rings, for Smiley’s sake.