Wrestlers not fitting in an era...

[ebbie]

Also, JBL had that one segment in which he was on border watch; had charisma; and didn't get the "boring as fuck but a good worker!" line.

 

Gawd I wish JBL would stop sucking on commentary. What the fuck happened.

 

Re: Ziggles. A traveling champion? 45 minutes? Ziggles reeks of a guy thinking too hard in his promos while sounding like a little girl and his offense is non-existent. No one would show up to watch an hour of that.

 

 

I am gonna go with AJ. I think if this was 15 years ago when there was really only one or four divas around, it would've helped her at lot better. A lot of people proclaim she is the *only* diva the crowd gives a shit about.. Well, she can't keep them invested into her matches. Some shit. Not even in the usual 2 minute matches on Raw. =/

[JohnnyJ]

You can't really compare the Shield to the Wyatts.

 

The Shield are a group of young hungry wrestlers with great team work and dress in black.

 

The Wyatts are a cult from the backwoods. They enter to a pitched black arena and their leader sits outside the ring in a rocking chair.

 

While the Shield may not be playing fictional versions of themselves, there is a degree of realism to everything they do. That is why they work.

 

Bray has gone all in on the character and he clearly has talent on the stick. I just think he doesn't fit in with today's WWE.

[Craig H]

I had this idea for a topic a couple weeks ago so I'm glad someone started it. I was going to lead off with Bad News Brown. Even today, I think if you repackaged someone with that gimmick, it would make shitloads of money, but you would need to have the right guy for it. As much as I think Titus is going to be awesome as a future main eventer, I don't think that gimmick works for him. You need a dude who looks gruff as fuck and scary as hell, not someone who looks like they'd be in an Old Spice deodorant commercial.

 

Same goes for Butch Reed, Ron Simmons, and/or both as Doom. Doom would have been an awesome tag team in the Attitude era WWF or just as two guys fucking up everyone on the ECW roster. I would have loved to see a feud between Doom and the Dudleyz. Butch Reed was well ahead of his time and I wish someone would have sat down with Shelton Benjamin and showed him a bunch of Butch Reed tapes. As for Ron Simmons, he had such a weird career path. As Faarooq, he would have been a perfect fit in the cartoon 80s era of WWF. Ron Simmons, football standout from Warner Robbins, GA would have fit in better in the pre-attitude era or in the nWo era of WCW. At least he eventually found his way with the APA.

[Pete]

Prince Nana and the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (EC Negro/KC Blade) would've been regional superstars 30 years ago... the DRS in particular were awesome at heeling it up and doing modern moves at the same time, sort of a Boricua Midnight Express. All three of those guys would've made huge money, but OTOH they'd also have to constantly replace their cars after angry fans set them on fire.

[scraylo187]

I find wrestlers with over the top character gimmicks seem out of place in today's WWE.  Most of the major stars are all playing a fictional version of themselves. (Cena, HHH, Bryan, Big Show, etc.) So when an ADR, Sandow, or Wyatt family play up their characters it comes off as a little hokey and out of place and the audience picks up on it.

 

 

 

I've got to disagree, too...We've got a New Generation vibe these days, and if Bret, Perfect, the Steiners, and Jannetty could make it work with Doink, Money Inc, and the Smoking Gunns, then Cena and the Rhodes can can blend well with the Wyatts and Los Matadores.  

[Go2Sleep]

I don't know, over-the-top gimmicks really fell off post MNW/Attitude era. Taker and Kane have been grandfathered in as the only "really out there" gimmicks that have survived the past 10 years. The Wyatts can probably get over today because (a) their over-the-top gimmick is really dark, reminiscent of early Mankind or Kane and (b) they have some decent talent behind the gimmick. The environment's not in their favor though, and it's compounded by the bad break of the unrelentingly talented Shield already having an unstoppable trio gimmick.

 

Also, back to the main topic, I saw Umaga mentioned tangentially during the Sting/Cena discussion, but has anyone mentioned how crazy Umaga would've been in an 80s Wild Samoan gimmick? It's a testament to Eddie Fatu that he got Umaga over as much as he did in the late 2000s, but he would've been a monster in the Rock 'N Wrestling days.

[cool arrow]

One of the numerous reasons why I hate Fandangoo is because he's obviously a guy playing a character.  (And a lame one at that.)

[Justin877]

 

 

Douglas vs. Arn would have probably been great.

 

They wrestled for the TV Title in 1990 and it was great. He actually was in JCP briefly after the UWF buyout. But they did not do much with him, like most of the UWF roster. I'm wondering if any UWF guy was better off post buy out. Even Doc was never used well, until he joined the Varsity Club in late 1988. 

 

 

My knee-jerk reaction is to say Rick Steiner, but I guess he might fall into the same category of not being used well for a period.

 

What about Sting, was he signed by NWA/WC prior to the UWF buyout?

[Ziggy]

Ron Simmons or Mark Henry in the Lex Express role. Wouldve been great for WWF to have a muscled up, but clean Black babyface chancing and eaventually winning the WWF title, wouldve been a bright spot in Vince's time of trouble with the law.

 

WWF shouldve had a Black world champ way sooner than it did.

[odessasteps]

Amazing they had an Hispanic world champ in the 1970s

[Victator]

 

 

 

Douglas vs. Arn would have probably been great.

 

They wrestled for the TV Title in 1990 and it was great. He actually was in JCP briefly after the UWF buyout. But they did not do much with him, like most of the UWF roster. I'm wondering if any UWF guy was better off post buy out. Even Doc was never used well, until he joined the Varsity Club in late 1988. 

 

 

My knee-jerk reaction is to say Rick Steiner, but I guess he might fall into the same category of not being used well for a period.

 

What about Sting, was he signed by NWA/WC prior to the UWF buyout?

 

Sting and Steiner were used well. I just blanked on them because they were not top guys in the UWF. 

[just drew]

Some of you guys hating on Ziggler forget where he was a year ago. It's amazing how much cutting a guy off at the knees will shake his confidence...

[Victator]

Guys on here act like booking has nothing to do with their perception of a wrestler.

[Chorros]

Amazing they had an Hispanic world champ in the 1970s

 Wasn't it a trend of Vince K. to have minority babyfaces? (Bruno, and later on Ivan Putski, Tito, Tony Atlas). Anyway, still pretty amazing and upon watching footage of Pedro Morales in the ring you realize he was beloved in a Sammartino like level.

[Ryan]

In the North East it was an easy and profitable way to appeal to a massively diverse base of people. Puerto Ricans, Italians, Polish, whatever a Backlund is, some kind of mop I guess, etc. It seems to have worked.

[Territorial]

Man, how is John Cena not  the obvious answer to this question?  Poop jokes aside, Cena's a 80's Hulk Hogan-esque pure babyface in an era when people have become used to tweener, antihero-ish babyfaces and cool heels. 

 

Cena would probably be received a lot better in the 198o's, both from a character standpoint and workrate.  I wouldn't necessarily want to see him in 1980's WWE - there would be  really small pool of good workers to program him with, and you'd still have Warrior & Hogan at the top of the card to make sure no one new got over too much.  If I had to pick, I'd put Cena in early 1990's WCW (1991-1993).  Program him with the same group Sting worked and you'd get some great matches/feuds. 

 

2007-ish Cena vs. 1992 Rick Rude would be outstanding.

[Kuetsar]

Man, how is John Cena not  the obvious answer to this question?  Poop jokes aside, Cena's a 80's Hulk Hogan-esque pure babyface in an era when people have become used to tweener, antihero-ish babyfaces and cool heels. 

 

Cena would probably be received a lot better in the 198o's, both from a character standpoint and workrate.  I wouldn't necessarily want to see him in 1980's WWE - there would be  really small pool of good workers to program him with, and you'd still have Warrior & Hogan at the top of the card to make sure no one new got over too much.  If I had to pick, I'd put Cena in early 1990's WCW (1991-1993).  Program him with the same group Sting worked and you'd get some great matches/feuds. 

 

2007-ish Cena vs. 1992 Rick Rude would be outstanding

To be fair, 1992 Rude would be outstanding against anybody. . . .

[Craig H]

Ron Simmons or Mark Henry in the Lex Express role. Wouldve been great for WWF to have a muscled up, but clean Black babyface chancing and eaventually winning the WWF title, wouldve been a bright spot in Vince's time of trouble with the law.

 

WWF shouldve had a Black world champ way sooner than it did.

 

THANK YOU! I was trying to put my finger on how to best capitalize on Ron Simmons and I completely glared over the Lex Express. I'm biased because I'm forever a fan of Ron Simmons, but I would have preferred him in the Lex Express role, than Lex Lugar. Lex was going to eventually be on his way out and I thing Ron was the better worker. The turn to creating the Nation of Domination would have had a greater impact too, although we all know that it would end with The Rock overshadowing Ron.

 

Come to think of it, did we ever get any meaningful matches between Bret and Ron?

[Craig H]

By the way, I don't think I've seen anyone mention it, but Brian Pillman always seemed 1 step behind or 2 steps ahead of whatever the current movement was. I think he could have been given the push Sting was given and would have captured as much love as Magnum TA, but at that time he was just a step behind. Later on, he could have essentially stolen the spot Steve Austin secured, but that was a bit ahead of where WCW was at and when he solidified things in ECW, it came at a time where he didn't have the sizable audience and he began his downward spiral after the car accident just before he signed with the WWF. Too bad.

[ebbie]

I don't know if it was the era or the promotion, but I thought James Storm could've been something big. Great worker that based his comebacks were based on how hard he could hit someone and being fired up. He was a good looking, approachable guy with a great smile. Pretty meshed well with anyone. Had the crowd hate on him, but still won them over at the end years before Cena. (haha) Tho, I've always hated the fat man flippy things he did.

 

You guys can have your triple threats and stuff being the best matches TNA has produced. My favorite TNA matches were: 1) AMW vs Team Canada at Final Resolution 2005, 2) Storm vs Harris in the Texas Deathmatch and 3) AJ Styles vs Abyss at Lockdown 2005.

 

I wonder what he is up to these days. Is he still in TNA?

[JRV]

Oh man, there is a bunch of dudes, even dudes I know personally, who woulda tore shit up in the territories.. Today really is a unique situation. (Uniquely unfair and shitty.)

[Jerry Hattrick]

Ron Simmons or Mark Henry in the Lex Express role. Wouldve been great for WWF to have a muscled up, but clean Black babyface chancing and eaventually winning the WWF title, wouldve been a bright spot in Vince's time of trouble with the law.WWF shouldve had a Black world champ way sooner than it did.

THANK YOU! I was trying to put my finger on how to best capitalize on Ron Simmons and I completely glared over the Lex Express. I'm biased because I'm forever a fan of Ron Simmons, but I would have preferred him in the Lex Express role, than Lex Lugar. Lex was going to eventually be on his way out and I thing Ron was the better worker. The turn to creating the Nation of Domination would have had a greater impact too, although we all know that it would end with The Rock overshadowing Ron.Come to think of it, did we ever get any meaningful matches between Bret and Ron?

Ron's Damn Van?

[mattdangerously]

I wonder what he is up to these days. Is he still in TNA?

 

And that's James Storm's TNA career summed up in two sentences.

[DreamBroken]

I don't know if it was the era or the promotion, but I thought James Storm could've been something big. Great worker that based his comebacks were based on how hard he could hit someone and being fired up. He was a good looking, approachable guy with a great smile. Pretty meshed well with anyone. Had the crowd hate on him, but still won them over at the end years before Cena. (haha) Tho, I've always hated the fat man flippy things he did.

 

You guys can have your triple threats and stuff being the best matches TNA has produced. My favorite TNA matches were: 1) AMW vs Team Canada at Final Resolution 2005, 2) Storm vs Harris in the Texas Deathmatch and 3) AJ Styles vs Abyss at Lockdown 2005.

 

I wonder what he is up to these days. Is he still in TNA?

 

Storm is TNA tag champs with Gunner. There was a period in late 2011-early 2012 where I thought he was the best mic guy in wrestling and was gonna be a top star for TNA for years during the Roode feud. Sucks that he pretty much went back to the midcard and hasn't done anything of note all year. Also agreed on the Storm/Harris Texas Deathmatch being a top 3 TNA match, that ruled.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

In the North East it was an easy and profitable way to appeal to a massively diverse base of people. Puerto Ricans, Italians, Polish, whatever a Backlund is, some kind of mop I guess, etc. It seems to have worked.

I remember an old timer I used to work with telling me about the Garden shows in the 70s.  He said the Garden was basically divided by section and ethnicity.  The italians cheered Bruno, the hispanics cheered Pedro, the Polish cheered Putski, the the jews and blacks filled in the rest of the crowd.  His words...not mine.