Ryback Hates Bullies

Delaney put Daddy V over on Colt's podcast as the lightest guy he ever worked against.

Looks to me that pic was taken after he lost to Jericho in the "Loser Wears a Dress" match in 1999 and he started going with the Marilyn Manson look and using a Beautiful People knock-off theme. It was very good of Saturn to insist on losing that match, as apparently the intention was to humiliate Jericho on his way out.

I'm sure Rikishi is the favorite wrestler of someone else's mother's partner who might also be a fan of the forced analingus genre. There's a whole load of comeback there that I'm just too classy to go near. But I would really hope that anyone into that genre would respect teh workratre.

I was always willing to give Koko a pass because he's my Mother's partner's favourite wrestler. Koko was a larger than life character, rather than just being a larger than most most people guy whose signature spot was forcing opponents to give him analingus. I am convinced there is a difference, and I ask WWE to pretty please preserve this difference for a while longer.

We all understand this obviously. Rikishi *could* go in the Hall of Fame, it wouldn't be *illogical* per se - but we also get that the criteria has tightened a little since 2006. I'd be slightly surprised if we see it this year or next, but whatevs.

He's got the kayfabe creds. IC champion, multi-time WWF tag champion with I think three different partners. The memorable hell in the cell bump (and main eventing of that ppv obviously). A few well placed Mania matches. Uh.. World Class tag champion? I guess, but it's a stretch. A big stretch. I mean he had 14 days as IC champion. John Morrison/Nitro has over 200 days as IC champion, more/longer tag title reigns (with Mercury and Miz) and ......look I won't labour the point, Rikishi was the bigger star. But c'mon man, at that point you may as well induct Charles Wright (43 days as IC champion, Voodo'd the Warrior, Melted Taker's urn into a gold chain, got Dean Malenko laid etc) so that Bad News Barrett can do the induction speech from his ridic podium.

I wouldn't be shocked, but Rikishi isn't really HOF-worthy unless the pre-WWF stuff is really good. Did he have a memorable feud/match with anyone? Yoko could be justified because he had a pretty long title run, and did some stuff with Taker. Rikishi has an aborted feud with Austin and little else. I'm not saying never ever, but it's not like the Anoa'i' family is unrepresented and Rikishi's WWE career was 90% Wrestlecrap ('Learning to wear boots', 'making a difference', 'The Sultan', 'The Stinkface', 'Hot Lesbian Action'......)

Indeed. I'm sure Nash could give two shits, but survey says there's way more love out there for Hall than for Nash.

Christ - so he did. D-Lo having both belts was fun.

House of Cards UK is really fun, but ultimately it's 10 hours in total (and the Final Cut is patchy) so it's hard to make serious comparisons. The biggest difference between the two characters is that Urquhart is a man of "the Establishment" - he is guided somewhat by self-interest, but there is a deeper sense that he feels he is the right person for the job of taking the country forward and governing it as it needs to be governed; he's pragmatic but not quite a pure pragmatist. Also, he's born rich and marries richer. In the end, he is essentially executed by the Establishment and this is something he basically accepts as all in the game. Underwood is much more self-made (or military-made perhaps) and clearly believes in very little indeed except his own will-to-power. In a sense, he's less rich a character than the original but

That was the point of the feud with Jericho, too, but this time the fans liked the asshole better. Sort of. It was more the fans rejecting the booking of Jericho. Jericho was even saying at the time that he thought Kevin Nash was sabotaging him through HHH to justify not pushing him in WCW. People are talking about Jarrett winning and losing the WCW Belt all the time. This might be true, but it wasn't like WWE was booked all that differently back then (remember that Jarrett beat The Godfather of all people for his last IC Title). Jarrett didn't come in as the main-event guy in WCW, he was brought in as 'The Ch-ch-chosen One" at US Title level and was later pushed to main-event status. He had a horrible finish (say what you like about the Miz, he just about makes the Skull Crushing Finale work), but as has been said - he got consistent heel heat and played the role of 'talented and crafted wrestler who yet doesn't quite deserve to be champion' fairly well. WCW, and Russo particularly, didn't have any idea how to book PPVs. That wasn't Jarrett's fault.

Jarrett got there first.

You're forgetting the good bit. Kieran Richardson can pull his shirt off with his psalms and his John 3:16. Well Gerrard 3:16 says you playing Championship football next season, while we're winning this motherfucker.

Although clearly some want to cheer Roman Reigns, is he really a long-term babyface? I almost want them to do the Gen Next/NOD thing where they all have their own groups. Roman Reigns can just do SST with the Usos, Ambrose can have Bo Dallas and......I dunno Kruger or whoever. Give Rollins Mason Ryan and Adrian Neville.

He won the IC Title in 1996, won KOTR and formed DX with Shawn in 97, nice face run and another IC Title in 98, main-event push in 99. That's a pretty consistent strong push.

That's the best argument for the booking that there is; I'm not going to pretend that HHH tapping out at WM to Benoit wasn't a huge deal. I think you'll find that a lot of ground was lost in that year and a half though, in terms of ratings/buyrates etc. As people have noted, the whole 'they were bringing in Goldberg' thing was nonsense as he was not put in title feuds right away - there was plenty of time to give Booker a run and cycle the title back on to HHH if really necessary. The real answer is that 'they' were bringing back Kevin Nash, and wanted to have him feud with HHH over the title. Bad Blood 2003 was a decent buyrate for the time (though it had a strong undercard, and Foley as guest ref for the main), but I would question whether the feud needed the title. And one good buyrate doesn't justify a very conservative and complacent booking strategy, and certainly doesn't justify using a race angle when you're not very sure you're putting the black guy over.

Manly beyond my wildest expectations.

Can we have an one-off Crush day for old times?

Kane and RVD were both very over at the time, and somehow, completely accidentally I am sure, you left off Booker T. I mean when the HHH-marks can actually present a straight argument about that period, I might actually buy into it. But they never can. http://youtu.be/h3WHwZVACPM

I've said it before, but I'm not sure that superplex spot is in the Top 5 of things wrong with that match. I also suspect NXT will sharpen him up, but I'm sure we'll at least get some amusing stories if it doesn't.

They seem to have backed away from that, Ryback has stopped doing the Goldberg spots. Axel/Ryback vs Mysterio/Goldberg might be a fun little thing though.

http://www.okwonga.com/?p=869

It's been said before, but Hunico is eleventy million times better pretending to be Eddie Guerrero than he ever has been pretending to be Mistico. Watching Samuray Del Sol in a MOVEZ compilation, it also feels like he'd be wasted on the Sin Cara gimmick.

The bus is a specific contract perk though right?