sek69 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Mike Graham is a tremendous douchebag, as has been stated previously on other boards, but people are totally no-selling the creepy molester uncle vibe he gives off. His little segments completely derail the CWF shows every time. I don't know what made them think "Hey I bet people would love it if we interrupted all the neat classic wrestling to watch some dipshit give himself a verbal beej for 5 minutes". After watching his RAW debut match on the 11/25/96 Monday Night War, I'm convinced there's no way Rocky Miavia would ever survive the initial stages today. Absolutely no hint of the charisma that made him famous, a horrible look/gimmick, and a finisher right from the playbook of an 80s midcarder (a shoulderbreaker? come on...). Something to think about while WWE goes through its annual pre-WM salary purge and dumps 3/4th of the developmental roster. Also, it's kind of jarring to see Sunny and remember there was a time where the top WWF/E female didn't have ridiculously oversized rock hard breast implants. The only bad thing about the Monday Night War series is that it really makes me miss Nitro. Watching Eric join the nWo was an awesome moment to relive. It was great how everyone down to the announcers sold the hell out of that angle. You had Tony snapping from being constantly teased by the Outsiders, Tenay and Heenan sounding like they were becoming physically ill at the sight of Eric switching sides, just great stuff that totally drives home the seriousness of your main storyline. Watching the early lucha stuff is fun too. Juvi and La Parka went out there in front of a crowd that had no idea who they were and were passionate in their not giving a shit, and ended up winning the house over by the end. Speaking of Mexicans, Villano IV wrestled unmasked as "Tony Pena" (oh that wacky WCW), and it occured to me that the Villanos are apparently the Clone Troopers of Mexico. I know they're brothers, but Villano IV looked exactly like Villano III minus the inches-deep forehead scars of course. It's like they have some sort of Villano Factory down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Agreed on the Sunny recognition. I still don't see why they don't have one of the girls go for the Miss Elizabeth role rather than the Sable role. As for Rocky, he probably wouldn't have survived the high-five babyface gimmick but he would have been repackaged today as he was then. As for his finisher, John Cena uses a firemans carry for a finisher so a shoulderbreaker would look absolutely devastating in comparison. In WCW, most of what those guys did wasn't actually lucha, rather a lucha highlight reel. On my El Dandy set, I overload the set with Dandy classics. When I get to the WCW portion, I basically left off all of the 3 minute squashes he was involved in. I included some famous matches but nothing that compares to his work in Mexico. I am sure the same could be said for guys like Parka and Juvi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I learned that Greg Gagne is now Hulk Hogan's fictionalized Terry Funk at the loading docks. Or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Sunny, Elizabeth, Sensational Sherri, Lita and Trish Stratus (and even Stephanie McMahon to a degree) are really exceptions to the rule about how they normally promote women. They are "divas", but they're not really wrestling characters. All the women I listed were successful in the company for varying reasons, but offering something aside from a look was the one thing they all had in common. I think Victoria does the worst acting anywhere in wrestling today and will never get over because she's so ridiculously unbelievable. She screams D-level horror movie. Rock was in the company in a different time. Business was down, and they were pushing new people pretty hard because they needed someone to catch on. He might have been cut in the modern setting, but he might have been kept on for his look as well. It's hard to say, but I think they'd probably see him as more Randy Orton than Mark Jindrak. There's no way he'd reach the level of superstardom he did under the current mindset though, because he would be forced into some horrible interview scripting, and his talking his what got him over. Tony Schiavone was outstanding in getting over the NWO early on, which has unfortunately been forgotten because he was every bit as horrible post-1997 as he was great before that. It hasn't been mentioned specifically in this topic, but I've always wondered why Bobby Heenan doesn't get more criticism from Meltzer types for basically going into business for himself and announcing Hulk Hogan's heel turn in advance at Bash at the Beach in '96. The NWO worked because they took what WCW had established as a norm and turned it upside down. There's no way WWE will ever do an invasion angle successfully, but I think it's more important to be different than good if you want to get over in modern WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I learned that Greg Gagne is now Hulk Hogan's fictionalized Terry Funk at the loading docks. Or something. What happened to the Briscoes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 It hasn't been mentioned specifically in this topic, but I've always wondered why Bobby Heenan doesn't get more criticism from Meltzer types for basically going into business for himself and announcing Hulk Hogan's heel turn in advance at Bash at the Beach in '96. It already seems to be removed by the WWE Revisionist History Machine, but I always thought that line was perfectly in character for a guy who spent his whole career fighting against Hogan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Metal Maniac Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 I had always been under the impression that no one told Bobby Heenan that Hogan was turning, so he was just playing his normal anti-Hogan role. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 Also, on the Crockett Cup 88 show, I'm assuming that was Dick Murdoch under a mask attacking Dusty after the bullrope match with JJ? I mean, despite having what looked like one of the Thunderfoots' masks on with a long john shirt, jeans, and suspenders, he was thoughtful enough to wear chaps that had "DM" stamped on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted January 29, 2007 Report Share Posted January 29, 2007 Rock was in the company in a different time. Business was down, and they were pushing new people pretty hard because they needed someone to catch on. Also because most of their top stars jumped ship to the opposition, so they were forced to push new acts. I'm not sure The Rock would have broken through as much as he did if Hall, Nash and Michaels were still there throwing obstacles in his way to the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Rock was in the company in a different time. Business was down, and they were pushing new people pretty hard because they needed someone to catch on. Also because most of their top stars jumped ship to the opposition, so they were forced to push new acts. I'm not sure The Rock would have broken through as much as he did if Hall, Nash and Michaels were still there throwing obstacles in his way to the top. Certain people in the company went out of their way to handicap Rock during his early years, especially HBK in an attempt to make Trips seem better in comparison. From what I remember, HBK had pulled some strings to get a Bret-Rock match booked then tried to have Bret go over Rock clean, but Bret refused to do so because he knew Rock had potential. That, along with Bret getting the Euro title tournament re-booked for an Owen-Bulldog final instead of a Trips-Bulldog final, were part of Trips' motivation in bringing about the Montreal Screwjob. (Trips had no love for Bret over those incidents, so he played the "Why put over a guy leaving for your competition?" angle to have HBK push the issue with Vince.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuttsy Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Wait, so Triple H is responsible for Montreal now? I missed that in my Cynical Internet Smart Mark Handbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyOwnSummer Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 In Shawn Michaels book, Shawn discusses the whole deal and IIRC correctly HHH at the very least played a big role in the scewjob, he might have been the one to plant the seed in Vince's head also. It's been awhile since I read the transcript of that section of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 What Teke is referring to is what Dave Meltzer mentioned in the HHH bio when he was inducted in the WON HOF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 One also needs to remember Shawn's paranoid, delusional, strung out mindset of the time, along with Trip's always great ability to manipulate those he gets close with. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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