Your wrestling HOT TAKES

[SirSmUgly]

Yeah, as for HBK/Undertaker, my counter hot take is that they only had two great matches, one at Badd Blood and the other one at the Royal Rumble '98 in that Casket Match that no one ever talks about, but should. 

[BobbyWhioux]

2 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

My hot take (which crosses over with the "former wrestlers on color" conversation) is that Tony S., Stevie Ray, and Mark Madden are a top three team on WCW television. 

I only have Tony/Heenan/Dusty and Ross/Ventura in front of them. I'll also make the further fiery hot argument that if Tony S., Stevie Ray, and Mark Madden had more time to gel in front of a better television show being produced by a more stable company, they would have been legitimately good enough with time that people would think of them all more fondly in those roles. 

I'm pretty certain this is a take at the sort of level that would get Woody Paige immediately muted on Around the Horn.

Tony S. was always unfairly maligned for being compelled to call everything The Greatest Night In The History Of Our Sport, which I’ve always assumed was a Bischoff directive that may or may not have been screamed in his headset but I’m sure was no less clear a You Better Say This Or You’ll Be Fired scenario. Tony is a great Wrestling PBP man, should absolutely be talked about as an all timer (only Solie and Russel [edit: BEING, damn autocorrect] slam-dunk better) and if AEW accomplishes nothing else it’s allowed Schiavone to rebuild a reputation that never should have been torn down in the first place.

Any team he’s in is at least a good team

Edited March 10 by BobbyWhioux

[SirSmUgly]

My Mt. Rushmore of English language PBP commentators is Ross, Russell, Walton, and yeah, probably Schiavone at this point.

I'm not sure anyone could overcome late-stage WCW's production problems, and if Schiavone was good everywhere else he went, then...

[zendragon]

45 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

My hot take (which crosses over with the "former wrestlers on color" conversation) is that Tony S., Stevie Ray, and Mark Madden are a top three team on WCW television. 

I only have Tony/Heenan/Dusty and Ross/Ventura in front of them. I'll also make the further fiery hot argument that if Tony S., Stevie Ray, and Mark Madden had more time to gel in front of a better television show being produced by a more stable company, they would have been legitimately good enough with time that people would think of them all more fondly in those roles. 

I'm pretty certain this is a take at the sort of level that would get Woody Paige immediately muted on Around the Horn.

Where do you rank the Zbysko/Tony/Teney and Heenan/Tony/Teney teams?

[supremebve]

44 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

Yeah, as for HBK/Undertaker, my counter hot take is that they only had two great matches, one at Badd Blood and the other one at the Royal Rumble '98 in that Casket Match that no one ever talks about, but should. 

This match and the Austin/Owen Hart Summerslam match get forgotten, because of the career altering injuries that take place in them, but are both excellent.

[SirSmUgly]

15 minutes ago, zendragon said:

Where do you rank the Zbysko/Tony/Teney and Heenan/Tony/Teney teams?

Larry Z. is too inconsistent to be good. I am low on Tenay; I think he's best as the fourth man who drops in to educate the fans about lucha and then leaves the desk. If you have him do that and also handle most of the backstage or sit-down interviews, you're probably getting your money's worth out of him in the right way. He's not a great color commentator (though he's better when he's got a color guy opposite him to play off of, which isn't Larry Z. or end-of-career Heenan), and he's a bad PBP guy, IMO. 

[zendragon]

I always liked him as sort of an analyst , but not color or pbp myself

[No Point Stance]

Cody Rhodes has always been every bit as bland and unappealing as Jeff Jarrett.

[Curt McGirt]

He might also be as annoying, just in a different direction. 

Still, he can't generate the same loathing. Maybe it's because I grew up with JJ, but he just can't. 

[SirSmUgly]

Cody sort of had something as a fiery proud millennial babyface. Jarrett sort of had something as an upper-midcard prick.

Neither guy was able to sustain it.

Jarrett is about five billion times better than Cody in the ring, though, so there's that. Jarrett was also a good white meat babyface in Memphis. 

I mean, Cody wishes he was one-one hundredth as good at pro wrestling as Jeff Jarrett is.

[Technico Support]

5 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

Cody Rhodes has always been every bit as bland and unappealing as Jeff Jarrett.

Also, just as carny.

[J.H.]

It boggles me how Cody has his Daddy's lisp but none of his swagger. Dusty had fire in his promos. If The Dream was coming for revenge his passion and delivery were all fire and brimstone to the point that you expected to ride into the arena on a pale horse

Cody just doesn't have that type of fire or he hant shown it to me

James

[odessasteps]

Oddly, too many acting lessons probably. 

[ka-to]

5 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

Cody Rhodes has always been every bit as bland and unappealing as Jeff Jarrett.

I'd say more bland and more unappealing. Actually by a big margin.

[The Natural]

Hangman Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley Texas Death Match at AEW Revolution 2023 is better than Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Adam Page Texas Death Match at AEW Full Gear 2023.

[zendragon]

11 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

Cody Rhodes has always been every bit as bland and unappealing as Jeff Jarrett.

Hey now Cody at least had that fascinating bizarre promo in front of that giant ladder! 

[Technico Support]

10 hours ago, J.H. said:

It boggles me how Cody has his Daddy's lisp but none of his swagger. Dusty had fire in his promos. If The Dream was coming for revenge his passion and delivery were all fire and brimstone to the point that you expected to ride into the arena on a pale horse

Cody just doesn't have that type of fire or he hant shown it to me

James

Dusty's lisp was slight.  Cody's lisp sounds like his whole tongue is coming out of his mouth and moving to a different country on every sibilant.  He's such a phony that I wouldn't be surprised to find out he was exaggerating it, if not outright faking it. 

 

10 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Oddly, too many acting lessons probably. 

Well he failed as an actor, which tells you that he's not very good at it.  So when he's trying to come off as sincere in a wrestling context, it's glaringly obvious he's a bad actor doing bad acting.

Edited March 11 by Technico Support

[BloodyChamp]

Lisps are 1 of those neat things that can make you cool, attractive, tough, or just anything positive if it hits right IMO. Cindy Crawford spot etc. I agree Jeff Jarrett is bland but I’ve done that to death here.

I came here to mention something I absolutely hate. It has little to do with wrestling but here goes. In the shoots, when wrestlers start every sentence with “I think it was” then end it with “or whatever” or some variation of those phrases just to sound like they have or had at the time so much going on in their life besides remembering what they’re about to explain either exactly like it happened or exactly like they wish it happened. And it’s always some big fat useless wrestler too. I want to say yeah I’m sure you forgot all about the 1 time you were relevant in the only business you ever worked in for 30 years. 

[twiztor]

On 3/10/2025 at 3:49 PM, zendragon said:

Where do you rank the Zbysko/Tony/Teney and Heenan/Tony/Teney teams?

i have Larry Z as the worst commentator of the WCW Nitro era. Yes, that means i would rather listen to the interminable Lee Marshall than Larry. His road reports were fucking awful and unfunny, but at least they were short. Better than hearing about Larry's money and golf game every damn match.

[BloodyChamp]

24 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i have Larry Z as the worst commentator of the WCW Nitro era. Yes, that means i would rather listen to the interminable Lee Marshall than Larry. His road reports were fucking awful and unfunny, but at least they were short. Better than hearing about Larry's money and golf game every damn match.

I meant to click the tropes thread dang it.

Larry was terrible. Lee was a good announcer who got stuck with the worst weekly segment of the Monday Night War, and it belongs on any worst segment that lasted ballot. 

[zendragon]

It's been literally decades since I've watched the show but I never had a problem with the Lee Marshall/Scott Hudson WCWSN team

[J.H.]

I have a soft spot for Lee Marshall, but that's due to my love of his AWA run. Hell, I think Rod Trongard and Lord James Blears were a great team, just not properly suited for that era.

James

[clintthecrippler]

Lee Marshall was a perfectly competent play-by-play guy with a great voice, but I will always love the Road Report just because it indulged my soft spot for "weasel" jokes at Bobby Heenan's expense.

Also, its fucking hilarious that in kayfabe, Lee Marshall never got to see the exciting action of WCW Monday Nitro live because they had him advancing towns the week before in storyline. 

[odessasteps]

Would you say he's Greaaaat?

[J.H.]

Do you think he made more working for WCW or as Tony The Tiger?

James