Thoughts on the following wrestlers:

[Coffey]

We haven't had one of these in quite some time. Here's some links to the older threads first then I'll try to get us five new cats that we haven't discussed yet: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine.

 

Here's the list of everyone that's be talked about so far:

Lance Storm, Nikita Koloff, Scott Norton, Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Benoit, Raven, Ultimo Dragon, Dory Funk Jr, Ricky Steamboat, Davey Boy Smith, Randy Orton, Tazz, Chris Jericho, Shane McMahon, Antonio Inoki, Vader, The Road Warriors, Tito Santana, Jim Cornette, Bob Backlund, Kenta Kobashi, Owen Hart, The Rock, Rey Misterio Jr, Paul Heyman, Harley Race, Konnan, Eddy Guerrero, Barry Windham, Booker T, Bobby Heenan, Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig, Terry Funk, Lex Luger, Dusty Rhodes, Rick Martel, The Great Muta/Keiji Muto, Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid/Syxx/X-Pac), Ric Flair, The Rockers (not as singles wrestlers, but as a tag team), Ted DiBiase, Arn Anderson, Sid, Riki Choshu, Kevin Sullivan, Jushin Liger, Psicosis, Ken Shamrock, Manami Toyota, Andre the Giant, Shane Douglas, Wendi Richter, Dustin Rhodes, Bob Sapp, "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, Mitsuharu Misawa, El Hijo del Santo, Christian, Nick Bockwinkel, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Nobuhiko Takada, Terry Taylor, Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart, Toshiaki Kawada, Demolition, Diamond Dallas Page, Al Snow, Scott Hall, Yuji Nagata, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, The Midnight Express (Eaton and Condrey and Eaton and Lane)

Alright, and here's the five new guys I'd like to converse about:[li] Bobby Lashley[/li][li] Ken Kennedy[/li][li] Carlito[/li][li] John Cena[/li][li] Abyss[/li]

 

[Coffey]

Bobby Lashley ~ I have to admit, Lashley is the reason I wanted to re-spark these discussions. We've already talked about him a lot in other threads. To me, he has yet to show anything. Still, I think WWE dropped the ball by having him be the first person eliminated from the Survivor Series match. He's big but his look isn't anything new. Of course, being his size of big might just be enough. He might become something, he might not but right now, to me, he's nothing special.

 

Ken Kennedy ~ I think Kennedy is similar to Lashley in the sense that he hasn't really done a lot. His entrance gimmick is over but it looks to be as if it could grow stale quickly. His injury might be a blessing in disguise. Orton was more over during the RNN skits than anything else he's ever done. I think Ken's wrestling, at least from what I've seen, is better than Lashley's. That might just have something to do with the fact that Kennedy isn't muscle-bound and has been having matches with Mysterio instead of squashes over Simon Dean.

 

Carlito ~ He's a great talker. We've discussed him a lot too. Mainly in regards to people on-line not giving new talent the time to develop into something. My biggest gripe about that is that OVW is supposed to be where they develop. WWE is supposed to be the "big leagues." The best wrestling company in the world, or at least that's what it was supposed to be at one time. Carlito is the shits in the ring. His selling is passable enough but not great. His bumping is his best attribute. When he's on the offense, the match seems to fall apart. No matter what Konnan says, I'm not seeing Carlito becoming anything in the ring anytime soon. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong.

 

John Cena ~ No matter what WWE try to do, Cena will never become the next Austin or the next Rock. Austin & Rock were both better in the ring and both had more charisma than Cena. Everything Cena seems to do seems forced. He got a monster pop when he came to Raw and that's when WWE should've capitalized on him. Instead, he just kinda played second fiddle to Triple H/Batista for awhile and by the time it was over, the iron was cold. Now WWE are trying everything they can to get the fire back but I think it's a lost cause. I think the best bet is to turn him heel.

 

Abyss ~ I like Abyss a lot. I think he'd make a good TNA World Champion, especially when compared to Jarrett and with Mitchell as a mouthpiece. I don't know if he'll ever get past the stigma that he's a "generic Kane/Mankind" but he's a good worker for his size and he's willing to bump and sell for smaller guys. He needs to get away from being TNA's "hardcore wrestler" before he reaches the point of no return. The last thing he needs is to be known as the thumbtack/barbed wire guy.

[Guest savagerulz]

Carlito does not suck in the ring. He seems to improve a little bit each week. More importantly as the cowardly heel he should not have a ton of unique or innovative offense. I think he is playing the part in much the same way Austin went from the technically sound Ringmaster to kick-kick-punch-kick-finger-stunner as Stone Cold. It would hurt the character if Carlito had Benoit's move set. Mentioning move sets, with the E only allowing each worker 6 moves (at most) to go along with punch, kick, clothesline, bodyslam, and of course the spine buster it really isn't the workers fault when they can't keep up with a Styles v Daniels v Joe three way.

 

Lashley has done nothing to impress me. I did not see Survivor Series so maybe I missed something there. As far as mic skills, he has only three words. So he does have a chance, no matter how small of one, to still correct whatever shortcomings he has in that area.

 

Kennedy works above average in the ring and has been great on the mic. At worst his shtick may be getting a little old, but he has great charisma. So unless they make him continue to only do the ring entrance thing he will be fine. There is a huge difference between someone with good mic skills and someone who is given one good catchphrase. Good mic skills is Jericho, Rocky, Austin, etc. Good catchphrase = Road Dogg and Konnan. I believe Kennedy is part of the first group.

[Loss]

I don't know if I've seen enough of Lashley to have a true opinion on him, but I do know that if he's getting over with the crowds, that alone is enough reason to try a push with him. Michaels beating him at SurSer was dumbass booking at its finest.

 

Ken Kennedy couldn't have gotten injured at a worse time, and I'll be surprised if Creative is still as into him as they have been when he returns. His mic work was all catchphrases and did nothing to sell his feuds, so if anything, he has the WWE-style mic work down pat.

 

Carlito is underrated. Very talented, and good on the mic. He's like Christian in that he's not that great on offense, but his strengths are in bumping, making the other guy look good and pacing and structuring a match. One of the best interviews in the company already, but he does too many jobs to be special.

 

Cena is still the guy they need to run with for the foreseeable future. Kind of a shitty worker, but has a great connection with certain demos of the audience. I think they need to tweak a few things in his presentation before the boos become worse, though, and if anything, they need to tone down some of the other babyfaces on the roster (read: Shawn Michaels) so Cena, as the top draw, isn't constantly being upstaged.

 

I don't know enough about Abyss to fully comment.

[Mad Dog]

Bobby Lashley: Don't like him. He's extremely green and it shows during his matches. He's very careless with guys and I'm surprised he hasn't hurt someone yet. Moves are pretty inconsistent. It'll look like he broke someone in half on one move and follow it up with an akward looking slam. Also not convincing at all. He can't emote intensity so he comes off like he's pretending to be intimidating.

 

Ken Kennedy: Ok in the ring. Limited gimmick. Haven't really gotten to see much of him in the ring but failed to impress me during his match with Eddie Guerrero. I kind of like the gimmick but I doubt it has any kind of staying power.

 

Carlito: Don't like him. Decent charisma but awful in the ring. He's never impressed me.

 

John Cena: Lacks motivation I think. There's so much more the guy could be doing in the ring but the WWF has bred it out of him for whatever reason. I think he could still become that guy that we all saw so much potential in during his early 2002 run.

 

Abyss: Proves himself time and time again and he still gets overlooked by smarks because he's a big guy. He's been a miracle worker all year as he's made Siaki, Sabu, Lance Hoyt and numerous others look like they were worth a damn in the ring. Definate top 10 worker as far as North America goes and I could see him being top 5 in 2006 if he gets some talent to work with.