3/2 - Thoughts On the Following Wrestlers

[Al]

I'm going to try listing five wrestlers here, since we tend to go in depth, this might make things a little easier.

 

Andre the Giant

Shane Douglas

Wendi Richter

Dustin Rhodes

Bob Sapp

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Andre the Giant: My fairly limited exposure to the man was in a sideshow context, but I'm well aware that there was a time when he wasn't just a marvel in stature, but an agile competitor, too. Seeing the deterioration his body went through in the '80s alone is tragic.

 

Shane Douglas: From what I've seen, a decent wrestler with a huge hard-on for himself. That also seemed to be his roadblock from true superstar status.

 

Wendi Richter: Haven't seen enough of her, and since I hate women's wrestling (American women's wrestling, anyway), I doubt it'd matter, anyway.

 

Dustin Rhodes: A bland individual as himself, but a man with obvious charisma when putting over an oddball gimmick. I remember when the Goldust vignettes began popping up in 1995. The character was so unlike anything the WWF had done in the past (Adonis aside) that most people weren't sure what to make of him his first six months in the promotion. If you needed evidence of Rhodes' charisma, look no further than him making the Goldust character more over and entertaining than it had any right to be.

[Coffey]

[li]Andre "The Giant" ~ Everything that I've seen from him is gold. He seemed like a kind hearted man, and I've heard, pretty much, nothing but praise from the people whom talk about him. Would've loved to have met him when he was still alive. His feud with Hulk hogan WAS my childhood.

 

[/li][li]Shane "The Franchise" Douglas ~ I loved him in ECW. I thought that he made a good ECW Heavyweight Champion. Of course, I thought the same thing about Justin Credible. Douglas was competant enough in the ring, but apparently he burned too many bridges in other companies. Oh well, he entertained me with the Triple Threat in ECW.

 

[/li][li]Wendi Richter ~ I hate all women wrestling. Not just North American. Next.

 

[/li][li]Dustin Rhodes ~ Well, let's see. My fondest memories of him are either comical skits, like his Crocodile Hunter parody, or him getting decimated. I remember when Barry Windham hit him with one of the most vicious DDT's I've ever seen in the early 90's WCW. I marked. He did manage to get Goldust over as a character, so I commend him for that. I don't know a lot of people that could've done so much with so little.

 

[/li][li]Bob Sapp ~ Um. Well, he's big. I'll give him that. I watched him in a couple of fights...but I've never seen him wrestle. I watched him knock out Kimo though. Too bad Sapp was winded about twenty seconds into the fight. Not a lot he can do when his first three haymakers miss.[/li]

 

[Loss]

Andre the Giant - I hate when he's talked about like he was this great person, considering that he used to take a shit (literally) on guys he didn't like and either no-sell or stiff them. I still need to see the Hansen match to see him actually take a bump. I respect the impact he had and the way he drew money wherever he went, but when he gets talked up as this mythical kind and gentle jolly green giant, it's kind of disgusting.

 

Shane Douglas - This is the wrestler I probably dislike more than any other wrestler who ever lived. Blames Ric Flair and the Clique for his lack of success, never realizing that the problem was that he SUCKED. Yeah, he was part of a really great tag team with Ricky Steamboat, and yeah, he was an okay interview, but he has no one to blame but himself for the direction his career has taken, and I wish he'd get out of it and find a new profession.

 

Wendi Richter - She was a big star, but she was practically forgotten as soon as she disappeared. Better worker than any women in WWE are today, but if she was that age with that look now, she wouldn't be an effective character today.

 

Dustin Rhodes - Underrated in every sense of the word. I'm glad to see him recently getting some of the long overdue praise due to him. Goldust was a brilliant character who had good matches, unless you count his slump in 1997-1999 where he packed on a lot of weight and lost motivation. Was kind of a poor man's MVP for the company in 2002. Everyone expected Hennig to have the Comeback of the Year, but Goldust trumped him in a landslide.

 

Bob Sapp - I've never seen any footage of him and can't comment.

[Guest Some Guy]

Andre the Giant - I've only seen the old crippled up so he doesn't really impress me too much, now. But as a kid I was a mark for the Hogan feud and the him beating up Bobby Heenan at WM 6. But by that point he was exposing the business just by hobbling down to the ring.

 

Shane Douglas - I think he has pretty good mic skills, although I've yet to hear him cut a good promo in which he didn't say "fuck" 37 times. I'm not sure I've seen a match of his that I've liked. He got injured so much that he barely wretled when I watched ECW (96-99) and when he was in WCW he didn't fare any better. I liked the neck breaking gimmick in ECW but if he's going to work the neck for the whole match why finish with a belly-to-belly suplex, that's more designed to knock the wind out of your opponent?

 

Wendi Richter - I think I've only seen her WM 1 match, so no comment other than to echo the setiment in the thread of not being a fan of womens wretling in general.

 

Dustin Rhodes - He was nothing special, IMO until his 2002 comeback in WWE. He got over with Booker and the all the skits, he was in the best shape he's ever been in, and he was having pretty good match and busting his ass. I hated him in WCW. He looked like shit, especially in his feud with Rude. Here's Rude who's ripped to shreds and then you Dustin, who's flabby and looks like he hasn't hit the gym in years. He had some good tag matches with Barry Windham and a few decent singles matches with Austin. I don't think he had a single good match in his first WWF run as Goldust, although the originl concept for the gimmick was interesting, if you wish to get the guy playing it killed by some redneck bigot. But I really liked the angle with Razor, as his character was the perfect one for it. The guy who is so manly that he is oozing machismo, getting fucked with by a guy who might be gay was the best way to get that gimmick over. He pretty much sucks in his stupid modern cowboy gimmick or whatever it is in TNA. He really seems to need an over the top gimmick to get his charisma out.

 

Bob Sapp - I really don't know anything about him besides having heard the name.

[Loss]

To those of you that aren't fans of women's wrestling at all, have you seen any Joshi? If so, what did you see and what kept you from liking it?

[Guest Some Guy]

The only Japanese women's wrestling I've seen is some barbedwire death match were one girl had part of her hair burnt off and then took a bump into the barbedwire netting. I thought it was disgusting. I hated it more than I hate seeing men do that type of garbage. I know that this is not a representation of all Japanese women's wrestling.

 

I just don't really like seeing women beat each other up. Maybe I'm sexist. I can sit through some of it, but it's not anything I'd pay for. I think think the angle building up the Trish/Hemme deal has been very well done, I just have no interest in seeing the payoff.

[Marty]

Andre the Giant - I don't know if I'm being naive, but he's probably one of the few guys Loss and I disagree with. I haven't heard any stories of him pulling a "Scott Hall on Sunny's dinner" until Loss just brought it up, so I can't comment. I do know of Vince constantly persuading Andre to stick around rather than retire (as I had heard he wanted to in the mid-late-80s, so I can't fully blame Andre for exposing the business). But really, I'm always gonna be a mark for the guy in some ways, just for being a childhood fan.

 

Shane Douglas - Quite possibly, the wrestler who's the biggest mark for himself, as he saw himself bigger than who he actually was. Didn't like the WWF gimmick myself, but the more I watch his ECW matches, the more I feel he really overrated himself. Steve Austin had worse opponents in ECW than Douglas did, and got more out of them than Douglas got out of his.

 

Wendi Richter - Very popular, but in the end, did that matter as much? I'd rank her up there with, say, Hillbilly Jim. Someone who had their place in the Rock N Wrestling era, but wasn't a top-level star.

 

Dustin Rhodes - Underrated in every sense of the word. Never felt he got a fair run in his original WWF days, but once he hit WCW, the Austin feuds and the tag matches were very fun. He doesn't get enough credit for his act as Goldust, as, if I recall correctly, more people were up in arms over his act than, say, Hassan's act today. I think that's a tribute to Rhodes' acting ability. Jumping to 1998, I would've liked to have seen a 2-3 month Austin-Rhodes feud, once Dustin publically ditched the Goldust gimmick and acted on morals. Given Austin's anti-morality character, it would've made perfect sense, but Austin's Undertaker feud never hurt things either at the time. Never saw his last WCW run to comment enough. Loved his comeback in 2002, and I wished the Bookerdust tag team would've received more airtime and recognition, as they were one of the more over acts in a very down period for the company. I never like the "neurological issue" angle, but somehow, he made some chicken soup out of chicken shit. A guy who never got his due.

 

Bob Sapp - Whoops, forgot him when I originally posted. Can't comment too much, as I've never seen him, but how's he drawing these days, compared to years past?

[Al]

Andre the Giant - I don't know if I'm being naive, but he's probably one of the few guys Loss and I disagree with. I haven't heard any stories of him pulling a "Scott Hall on Sunny's dinner" until Loss just brought it up, so I can't comment. I do know of Vince constantly persuading Andre to stick around rather than retire (as I had heard he wanted to in the mid-late-80s, so I can't fully blame Andre for exposing the business). But really, I'm always gonna be a mark for the guy in some ways, just for being a childhood fan.

I've heard quite a few wrestlers state that he could be quite a prick at times.

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

Andre was a prick to people he didn't like, and a gentleman to those he did like. And Andre shitting on Bad News wasn't intentional, by the way.