[1992-10-10-WCW-Saturday Night] Up Close w/Erik Watts

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The Erik Watts push begins. Yes, he wasn't ready for this push, but it's not as annoying in hindsight, considering how much bad stuff we have seen in wrestling since. I wish there was a company now where the worst thing was just that the promoter's son was getting a midcard push.

[Tim Evans]

Well that is going on in CMLL right now with guys like Rush and La Mascara.

 

Good segment with them showing clips of Eric's college career at Louisville.

[shoe]

The actual build here is pretty good.

[El-P]

I never realized how big Eric Watts was before.

[Kevin Ridge]

Watts tries to say that he's following his own path and not trying to be the next Bill Watts. The clip of him in the ring didn't look too good. Weak looking finish to a match. But I guess it was his first match.

[PeteF3]

Erik isn't quite the speaker his father is. As an Ohio State fan, Watts in that Louisville game they showed still haunts me to this day.

[WingedEagle]

Watts looks like a complete stiff. Promo is boring as hell.

[garretta]

Oh, come on, Eagle. This was his first major televised wrestling interview, for heaven's sake. He was trying to play the role of the earnest young white meat professional athlete. Anyone who would expect anything even slightly above average here is kidding themselves.

 

I liked how he said that he wasn't trying to be his dad. Unfortunately, he was apparently judged by who his dad was in the ring and continued to be outside the ring, both good and bad. You can tell right away that he wasn't going to be the presence that Bill was, even as he got more competent in the ring. He simply doesn't jump out of the screen at you. But did Dustin? Did Barry Windham, for that matter? Not when they were rookies like Erik, at least. But they still did more than all right for themselves.

 

Speaking of Dustin and Barry, this was the interview's one misstep. Talking about Erik training with them was one thing; talking abut the dissension between them was something else. Unless they were trying to push him into a program with Barry once he turned back heel, they should have left that aspect of their relationship completely alone. Nice safe non-answer from Erik on the question, by the way.

 

That looked like a modified Samoan drop as Erik's finisher, didn't it? That's a much more ambitious finisher than most debuting wrestlers get, even if they are the boss's son.

[dawho5]

I am not a fan of the whole "promoter pushing his son" deal as a general idea, unless the son is someone as talented as Dustin seems right away.  That being said, it is hard to put any blame on Erik Watts for trying to play the role he has been put into.  If he had seemed big-headed about it I would probably think differently.