Your favorite angles that don't get a lot of love

[goc]

So yea like the title says, this topic is about angles that you personally love but are kind of forgotten about or not well liked by other people. For me my favorite angle that really isn't talked about as one of the "great" moments of Memphis wrestling is the deal where Robert Fuller was in an angle where he was claiming that Jerry Jarrett stole the Memphis promotion from his father and grandfather and never paid them any money for it. This led to Nick Gulas actually appearing on Memphis TV talking to Robert Fuller about how Jerry Jarrett was a thief and stole the promotion out from under him and if anyone deserved to have it that it was Robert and his brother.

 

I've seen a shoot interview with Jerry Jarrett where he was asked how he got Nick Gulas to appear on Memphis TV and put over his angle and Jarrett said it was because Nick didn't know it WAS an angle. He just sent Robert over to Nick's house with a camera and got Robert to butter him up and act like the whole thing was real. As Jerry put it "everyone involved was working except for Nick Gulas who was shooting." To me, getting a guy who personally hates you to appear on your TV and unknowingly put over an angle you're working is one of the smartest things (and/or most carny) things I've ever heard. Another thing I love about this angle is you can tell just how tickled Robert Fuller is by getting to work Nick Gulas into shooting on Jerry Jarrett as he looks like he can barely contain himself during the interview with Nick.

 

[khawk20]

Nick Bockwinkel being assigned as the Special Referee for the Larry Zbyszko-Mr. Saito rematch in St. Paul after Saito won the title in Japan a few months previous. Larry went ballistic because he expected Nick to screw him over (since Saito was his long-time tag partner and he and Curt Hennig had hurt and retired Nick from wrestling three years prior).

 

Then, in a classic bely-to-back-suplex-into-a-pin-combo, Nick counts three and everyone assumes Saito has retained the title...but Nick had actually noticed Larry lift his shoulder at the two count and had, in fact, counted out Saito, thereby allowing Larry to regain the title.

 

The look on Larry's face when he figured out that he had won was great, but the post-match interview with Larry is absolutely fantastic.

 

It's a neat little thing from the end days of the AWA so it doesn't get much love, but it followed a regular thing Verne tried to do...remembering past feuds and playing off of them. Bock-Larry started feuding in 1985, and looked to have concluded finally after Nick was hurt in August of 1987 as noted previously by Larry and Curt...but those underlying feelings and the feud itself were brought back, noted, and even celebrated in this bit from 1990, and Nick holding his intergrity and counting out Saito was sort of a swerve (especially if one remembers the Larry-Bock 1987 Vegas match where Nick blasted Larry with a roll of quarters in full view of refere Scott LeDoux...Nick screwing Larry was almost a given, there was so much glee in Bock's face when he did it in 87) pointed towards how the history of a feud indeed mattered in the AWA.

 

FWIW I think Saito and Bockwinkel ahd a match in early 1991 in Japan (possibly on the same card as Thesz-Chono), but I do not know if there was any sort of reference to their bad feelings after Saito was counted out by Nick. I like to think that if the AWA was still remotely viable by that point that they would have noted it and furthered the history of Bock-Larry-Saito even more. It would have been both fitting and consistent.

 

If that bit is on youtube check it out...especially if Larry's post-match promo is attached to it. Great stuff.

[C.S.]

I feel like I'm the only one who loved the J.R. heel turn speech. It led to the horrible fake Razor and Diesel angle, but the speech and turn itself was pure gold.

 

[funkdoc]

everything about jason the terrible & the zodiak in stampede. that whole thing *is* pro wrestling to me

[Magpie]

C.S. I have not watched the JR heel turn in years but am keen to see it again now. Thanks.

[thebrainfollower]

Jericho-Christian-Trish was the last angle I really was interested in, but it fizzled out due to an injury without any finish at all.

 

I love the Heenan-Slick Hercules angle, especially the story at the bank.

[Jingus]

The first thing that immediately comes to mind was the sadly forgotten, insanely violent Rikishi vs Val Venis mini-feud in 2000. Those were two of the most cartoonish gimmicks on the roster, who suddenly ditched their pelvis-based comedy and just started beating the holy hell out of each other. The company barely even seemed to take notice of how hard these guys were working; aside from giving them the steel cage match at Fully Loaded, there was zero effort given to pushing their storyline as anything special. Which was a sad thing for a rivalry which would casually give us moments like this:

 

[Laz]

You can probably make an argument that it was one of the first feuds the company had in a long time that was booked while sleepwalking. I remember their cage match being really good, too.