Kevin Wilson Posted July 21 Posted July 21 TIL that Shane Douglas has had (at least!) 29 matches so far in 2024. I know wrestlers never quit wrestling but I figured he'd be doing spot shows, not being a weekend warrior. 2
SirSmUgly Posted July 21 Posted July 21 2 hours ago, odessasteps said: Bob as Lance Russell. Love this comparison, especially in how they'd sell barely contained irritation with the whackjobs they had to deal with every damn week. 1
tbarrie Posted July 21 Posted July 21 3 hours ago, SovietShooter said: Another pretty successful show built like that was The Andy Griffith Show. Griffith rose to fame as a comedian telling humorous folksy stories, such as "What it was, was Football". When they tried to adapt those types of stories to the show, they realized that for this to work that Andy Taylor had to play it straight, and all the folks around him had to be batshit crazy so he could react to it. I'm told Mary Tyler Moore's character filled a similar role on The Mary Tyler Moore show, though that was before my time. There's also Kermit the Frog on The Muppet Show. Really, focussing on one sane character who reacts to all the nutjobs around them is a perfectly fine, time-tested way to structure a comedy show.
The Comedian Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Hank Hill then Wait, this is a wrestling thread. Say, remember when Mach was on King of the Hill as one of Diedrich Bader's lifting buddies that Bill gets in over his head with, and he says, "NO AGONY, NO BRAGGONY"? That was awesome. 4
Robert S Posted July 21 Posted July 21 11 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said: I just got done recording our wildly kinda sorta popular amongst weirdos YouTube show where we MST3K old wrestling. We did the ECW Belmar, NJ Beach Party show and it occurred to me, why isn't Shane Douglas held up as high as Dreamer, Sandman, and the rest as the foundations of ECW? He fucking named the promotion, but he's now the forgotten guy. Was Douglas ever a face in ECW? From my memory he never even was a tweener. Never being the fan's guy has to be part of it.
SirSmUgly Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Douglas was never the most compelling guy in the company in my watch. The guys who stand out are Sabu, Sandman, Funk, Foley, New Jack, and Raven. Shane's like the glue guy, not the guy who compels me. He's sort of like late-stage WCW Jarrett. Or TNA Jarrett. Useful piece, but doesn't have the star power of the guys who I really want to see. ECW has some huge personalities, almost overwhelming personalities in a lot of cases, and that's not Shane Douglas. And on the flip side, he's a solid, but not great worker, so he's less impressive than Benoit, Guerrero, Rey, Psicosis, etc. when they come through. Nothing about him really stands out. 5
Ziggy Posted July 21 Posted July 21 12 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said: I just got done recording our wildly kinda sorta popular amongst weirdos YouTube show where we MST3K old wrestling. We did the ECW Belmar, NJ Beach Party show and it occurred to me, why isn't Shane Douglas held up as high as Dreamer, Sandman, and the rest as the foundations of ECW? He fucking named the promotion, but he's now the forgotten guy. Because the other guys have been in WWE since ECW closed and been on WWEs ECW reunion shows and Network specials help strengthen their narrative. Even New Jack who was way more outspoken got his flowers and strengthened his legacy by being on Dark Side of the Ring stuff and even Heyman got to Eulogize him on a post Smackdown show a few years ago. I don’t think Shane is the forgotten guy at all just maybe to people who aren’t as familiar with ECW only through WWEs library of content
caley Posted July 21 Posted July 21 I think the biggest thing is you can name quite a few matches/moments/spectacles with the other guys but as much as the show was often built around Douglas, are any of his matches really that highly rated? Any big promos that stand out? Even the big moments usually feature him but don't "star" him. He was, to use a sports metaphor, maybe more of a "glue guy" who kept things together but even when he was the star, he never really "starred". 1
caley Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Just now, caley said: I think the biggest thing is you can name quite a few matches/moments/spectacles with the other guys but as much as the show was often built around Douglas, are any of his matches really that highly rated? Any big promos that stand out? Even the big moments usually feature him but don't "star" him. He was, to use a sports metaphor, maybe more of a "glue guy" who kept things together but even when he was the star, he never really "starred". And after typing that, I see that SirSmUgly used the exact same term above! 1
Technico Support Posted July 21 Posted July 21 1 hour ago, SirSmUgly said: Douglas was never the most compelling guy in the company in my watch. The guys who stand out are Sabu, Sandman, Funk, Foley, New Jack, and Raven. Shane's like the glue guy, not the guy who compels me. He's sort of like late-stage WCW Jarrett. Or TNA Jarrett. Useful piece, but doesn't have the star power of the guys who I really want to see. ECW has some huge personalities, almost overwhelming personalities in a lot of cases, and that's not Shane Douglas. And on the flip side, he's a solid, but not great worker, so he's less impressive than Benoit, Guerrero, Rey, Psicosis, etc. when they come through. Nothing about him really stands out. That’s exactly it. Douglas didn’t fit in either camp in ECW. He didn’t excel at hardcore or technical wrestling. He was neither New Jack nor Benoit. He was boring and beat dudes with a belly to belly. Bleh. 1
SovietShooter Posted July 21 Posted July 21 2 hours ago, Robert S said: Was Douglas ever a face in ECW? From my memory he never even was a tweener. Never being the fan's guy has to be part of it. After he dropped the title to Taz, Douglas was gone for a bit to let his arm injury heal up. He came back and cut a promo that was strongly hinting that he was going to retired (with Francine in tears), when Justin Credible cut him off and said he was going to retire the "old man" and become the new franchise of ECW, and beat Douglas down with his Singapore cane. This led to a pretty damn good but short feud between Douglas & Dreamer vs Impact Players, until Douglas jumped to WCW. This was how Francine ended up with Dreamer, and how Dreamer didn't have a partner to fight the Dudleys, which led to Raven returning from WCW as his partner. 6
zendragon Posted July 21 Posted July 21 For a guy who was cornerstone the only things that spring to mind are throwing down the title and the fourway match for the TV title... that's not a lot to hang your hat on 1
J.H. Posted July 21 Posted July 21 I remember Douglas and Credible having a pretty great singles match on PPV where Douglas busted out the Pitttsburgh Plunge to win a match a lot of people thought Credible was going over James 1
SovietShooter Posted July 21 Posted July 21 2 hours ago, zendragon said: For a guy who was cornerstone the only things that spring to mind are throwing down the title and the fourway match for the TV title... that's not a lot to hang your hat on Honestly, I think Shane Douglas, as a worker, is a lot like Jeff Jarrett. He is a guy that is going to go out there and have a good match with almost anyone, but was missing a certain something to be a bonafide main event guy for a major national touring promotion. Like, go back to his WCW run alongside Steamboat, working teams like the Hollywood Blondes... was he stinking up the joint, or were those matches actually good? Look at his ECW runs, he was actually having solid wrestling matches (often with stiffs) while everything around him was "hardcore" and "extreme". He was a very good worker. 4
odessasteps Posted July 22 Posted July 22 You wonder if most ensemble sitcoms have the straight man/woman at the center, esp workplace comedies Bob, MTM. Barney Miller? Andy on WKRP? Markie Post on Night Court? Sam Malone, even though Diane is the super straight woman.
Cliff Hanger Posted July 22 Posted July 22 22 hours ago, odessasteps said: I had to tell someone today in their 30s that Newhart had a Tv show where he played a comic book artist and it included an episode which included Jack Kirby and Jim Lee, among others. This was a comic book guy who used to own his own store. He was amazed when we watched the opening credits on YouTube. Interestingly, John Cygan (who played the comic EIC who wanted to make Mad Dog grim n gritty) went on to be a go-to voice actor for Iron Man.
Johnny Sorrow Posted July 22 Posted July 22 8 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Douglas was never the most compelling guy in the company in my watch. The guys who stand out are Sabu, Sandman, Funk, Foley, New Jack, and Raven. Shane's like the glue guy, not the guy who compels me. He's sort of like late-stage WCW Jarrett. Or TNA Jarrett. Useful piece, but doesn't have the star power of the guys who I really want to see. ECW has some huge personalities, almost overwhelming personalities in a lot of cases, and that's not Shane Douglas. And on the flip side, he's a solid, but not great worker, so he's less impressive than Benoit, Guerrero, Rey, Psicosis, etc. when they come through. Nothing about him really stands out. Counerpoint: " Perfect Strangers" is one of best entrance songs of all time, and the Triple Threat of Douglas, Bigelow, and Candido w/ Francine were fucking awesome. 9
odessasteps Posted July 22 Posted July 22 Also, Douglas sweary promos, esp about Flair, really did not age well.
J.H. Posted July 22 Posted July 22 (edited) As a promo guy Douglas is one the guys that leaned into being shooty. Towards the end of his 2nd ECW run it seemed he was ending his mic time with " and that's Troy Martin talkin' so you know it's a shoot!" every chance he got Christ I hated that James Edited July 22 by J.H. 2 1
HumanChessgame Posted July 22 Posted July 22 When I was first able to watch ECW on tv, Douglas was beginning his program with The Pitbulls and his promos and over the top heel attitude really made teenage me buy into ECW as an overall product. I remember liking some of his matches, but am sure few of them have aged all that well. The Bigelow match where he regained the world title is highly regarded, but I probably haven't watched it in 20 years. Wasn't he working as a manager at a Target at one point? I respect him for staying alive and relatively healthy while so many of his peers haven't been able to say the same.
blitzkrieg Posted July 22 Posted July 22 10 hours ago, Robert S said: Was Douglas ever a face in ECW? From my memory he never even was a tweener. Never being the fan's guy has to be part of it. He was more or less a face when he returned after his time in the WWF as he was going after Raven and was somewhat allied with Dreamer. He basically went back to being a heel after he took the TV Title off Scorpio.
Hail Sabin Posted July 22 Posted July 22 13 hours ago, The Comedian said: Hank Hill then Wait, this is a wrestling thread. Say, remember when Mach was on King of the Hill as one of Diedrich Bader's lifting buddies that Bill gets in over his head with, and he says, "NO AGONY, NO BRAGGONY"? That was awesome. "I know it's a good workout when the blood vessels in the back of my eyeballs pop!" 1
zendragon Posted July 22 Posted July 22 10 hours ago, odessasteps said: You wonder if most ensemble sitcoms have the straight man/woman at the center, esp workplace comedies Bob, MTM. Barney Miller? Andy on WKRP? Markie Post on Night Court? Sam Malone, even though Diane is the super straight woman. I would say Jerry on Seinfeld was the straight man to Kramer, Newman, George et al. Same with Elaine and Peterman and Lippman 1
The Natural Posted July 22 Posted July 22 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-V-cWwXnjsE McIntyre on the mic comp.
Shartnado Posted July 22 Posted July 22 7 hours ago, blitzkrieg said: He was more or less a face when he returned after his time in the WWF as he was going after Raven and was somewhat allied with Dreamer. He basically went back to being a heel after he took the TV Title off Scorpio. And pretty close to a face just prior to leaving for WCW in '99ish against Impact Players, too!
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