Official Professional Wrestling Discussion VI

[D.R.H.]

Originally Posted by mikebourkefan

On a side note - Impact still stuck with their crappy ratings, pulling in yet another 1.1. Good work TNA...Now tell Russo to GTFO so i can start watching your program again.

It won't do any good unless Jarrett goes with him, and that won't happen ever.

[Shining Road]

Originally Posted by flowwiththego

Morishima recap--
-Johnny Ace was the one pulling for him
- NOAH thought he could have a lengthy run in the WWE and then comeback as a megastar in a year or two.
-It started out bad before he got there because people were saying he was Terry Gordy re-incarnate. That led to expectations being to high and a Michael Hayes backlash.
-He showed up his usaual fat and some in the company took it as a sign of him not taking the tryout seriously.
-Vince wasn't impressed as he was watching his match and said to Ace, "This kid can't connect with the audience."
Apparantly though his body was the deciding factor. Thoughts of "if he lost 40 pounds...." and "why didn't he wear a different ring outfit???" were thrown around.

Go figure, with Johnny Ace pulling for him I'd imagine he'd have a spot for him somewhere, maybe a monster heel if anything. Oh well, give Morishima a skateboarder gimmick and he's golden for a mid-card spot.

In all seriousness, a Vladimir Kozlov VS. Takeshi Morishima match would have been awesome, but then again WWE wouldn't have ran with it.

Originally Posted by Enzuguri

WCW was fkt well before he arrived.

This. Not to mention Russo picked up WCW's ratings a bit when he was with them towards the end, granted most of the people tuned in because of the dumb things he was letting happen. So much wasted talent on the WCW roster once Russo was allowed to take most of the control there, such as all of the Luchadors, Great Muta, Sting, Mike Awesome, Shane Douglas, David Flair, Chris Benoit, Bret Hart, etc..etc..bleh.

Russo did a good job when he was with the WWE(F) during the 'Attitude-era', then again, he had a few other writers there with him to more than likely filter all the dumb ideas and granted he was basically just pulling ECW type storylines and making them fit for national TV. Anyway, watch the Vince Russo RF Shoot and listen to the guy lay it out, he pretty much defines what Sports Entertainment is.

YouTube - Mr. Shock TV Rus$o part 1

Originally Posted by mikebourkefan

On a side note - Impact still stuck with their crappy ratings, pulling in yet another 1.1. Good work TNA...Now tell Russo to GTFO so i can start watching your program again.

youd think by now russo would relize he makes tna suck and he'd leave for good

Wrestling-wise, TNA has a much better show, I could do without the storylines and some of the match finishes too, not to mention some of the gimmicks. If you want spectacles, drama, entertainment and even matches with big muscle bound guys, then WWE is the way to go. Hell, RAW usually pulls in a great rating and there's hardly any wrestling on that show, save for a few squash matches, quick ones here and there and then the main event, which is hardly ever a clean finish.

[hawynfreak]

Originally Posted by BasRuttenFan

I think it will likely be 8-10 years away baring an injury that prevents him from playing football as a career. He won the Butkus award last year as the top linebacker in college and likely would have been a top 3-5 pick in last years draft. He came back for his senior year and if he has a year like last year he will be a top 3 pick easily. I'm guessing the $10 million signing bonus is more than Vince is likely to throw at him with no experience. But I did read an interview where he said he basically had an open tryout whenever he wanted to give it a shot, so I'm sure the thoughts may be there eventually, just not when there are millions of dollars guaranteed to play football.

It would be interesting to see. He definitely has the body, being a top collegiate linebacker. He is also very intelligent and articulate in his interviews so I'm sure he could adjust to promos pretty easily. I just wonder if he could make a mark for himself or if he would be like so many other second gens. and always be The Animal's son.

He is in the extras section of the Road Warriors DVD during a WWE Confidential segment on the passing of Hawk. There is no way he would give up a NFL career to wrestle. If he is a bust(which I doubt) he may but he does have an open invitiation to join WWE later in his career.

[hawynfreak]

Originally Posted by Magiblaze

The Road Warriors dvd was with the WWE,it was pretty good though but only animal is there to really talk about the team since it was made after hawk's passing,it talks about hawk's lifestyle of drinking too much and no showing stuff, and even a little about their return match on raw vs RVD and Kane.It has an autobiography deal and some matches and promos.

I'd give it a B,better then picking up some of the backbone dvds they seem to keep releasing these days.

I'd agree with a B. Would have been better had they made it before Hawk's passing. I wonder if they ever took heat in the beginning of their careers for being stiff and not selling. Didnt realize that Cornette shattered his patella after falling from the scaffold during the Express-Road Warrior match.

[White Snake]

New quiz at WO

1. WrestleMania VI was all about passing the torch from Hogan to Warrior. Hogan, not to be outdone, stole the spotlight from Warrior by making the post-match celebration all about himself, taking the attention away from Warrior. You know, just like the Clintons last week. And it worked. To Hogan’s credit, the match was excellent and he carried it all by himself, and it remains his best in-ring performance ever. For whatever reason, business fell during Warrior’s run. Perhaps fans resented Warrior for beating Hogan at a time when wins and losses meant more than they do now. Perhaps Warrior’s shortcomings were more apparent once he became champion. Whatever the case, it failed. In reality, why did Hogan take a sabbatical after WrestleMania VI?

2. After Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff decided to work together in mid 2000, they gave the impression they would push new talent. Hogan volunteered (how nice of him) to work with a certain mid-carder, stemming from comments made on the internet between the two. The idea was to elevate this mid-carder, but in reality, just as Hogan knew it would, it buried him. Name this mid-carder.

3. Here’s a perfect example of the theme of this quiz. In 2004, HHH green-lighted a title run by Chris Benoit. Benoit was a workhorse, giving great matches everywhere and bringing a sense of credibility to the title. An uninformed observer would think the WWE was really putting over Benoit as the next big star, just like an uninformed viewer would think Hillary really wanted her voters to vote for Obama. Did HHH allow this through the goodness of his heart? Hardly. He wanted the belt to be built up so that it would mean more once he eventually got it back, which he did. It was a huge ruse to get himself over more. And after he got the belt back, Benoit returned to mid-card oblivion while HHH has been a consistent main eventer just like he always has and always will. Who was the transition champion between Benoit and HHH?

4. Ahh, Kevin Nash. Remember the night he “put over” Hogan in the infamous fingerpoke title switch? That would set the tone for the entire year of 1999 for WCW, which was miserable. Nash was supposed to wrestle Goldberg that night in a rematch from Starrcade ’98. Why didn’t Goldberg wrestle Nash on Nitro this night?

5. That Hogan, he’s such a nice guy he volunteered to lose the WCW title to Goldberg on free TV in 1998 for the sake of the company and Nitro’s ratings. Goldberg got the pomp and circumstance of the title win and you’d think Hogan was passing the torch to the next big star. The reality was that Hogan saw WCW was about to sell out a huge dome (without his help) and he wanted to be in the main event so that he could take credit for it. And he’s right; years later, when you see the match and the sellout crowd, you wouldn’t have known it was sold out by the Nitro and WCW name and not by Hogan. But Hogan knows how to play the game. What city did this historic match take place in?

6. That Hogan, he can outsmart the best of them. When matched up with the Rock in a dream match at WrestleMania 18, he went in as the heel. But with the match in Canada, and with Hogan back in the WWF after being gone for over 8 years (and with some subtle psychology of his own), the crowd reacted differently and Hogan was the ultimate babyface. The Rock was taught a serious lesson by the true master of politics that night. Too bad Hogan’s fellow NWO member Scott Hall didn’t have the same skill. Whom did Hall wrestle on this show?

7. As he gets older, he gets wiser and even smarter. After written off for good by Vince McMahon, Hogan was back in the thick of things in 2005 after perhaps his finest moment. He totally stole the show at the Hall of Fame show, inventing the “sad” face that elicited the longest, most enthusiastic round of applause you’ll ever see from a crowd of wrestling fans. By “trying” to quiet the crowd, he only prolonged the applause, leading the McMahons to sign him to a new deal shortly thereafter. This man’s brain should be worshipped by all. He also stole the show the next night at WrestleMania, as his enormous pop during a run-in with Mohammed (whatever happened to him) and Daivari brought down the house and deflated the crowd. Because of that, Steve Austin received a very underwhelming response on the same show. What was Austin’s role at WrestleMania that year?

8. This last question is an exception to the rule, and yes, once upon a time HHH really did have every intention of creating a new star. In fact, he wanted to create a new star so badly just so that people could say, “Hey look, HHH cares about making new stars.” He doesn’t, but in this one case, he did. Batista went from nothing to a major star, and I credit HHH completely for that. The feud was so well done and slowly built, that by the time Batista finally did the turn with the powerbomb, the crowd exploded. The only sneaky thing I think HHH did was move Batista to SmackDown so that he would falter once he was on his own. And that did happen, until Batista feuded with the Undertaker, had some great matches that built his self confidence and ring work, and now Batista is a solid headliner on his own. When Batista turned on HHH, what famous gesture did he make with his hands?

1) Linda just gave birth to Nick
2) Billy Kidman
3) Randy Orton
4) He was arrested for stalking Elizabeth
5) Atlanta
6) Stone Cold
7) Cant remember without watching the show again
8) 2 thumbs down

How did I do, Saku?

[Mongol]

Originally Posted by White Snake

New quiz at WO



1) Linda just gave birth to Nick
2) Billy Kidman
3) Randy Orton
4) He was arrested for stalking Elizabeth
5) Atlanta
6) Stone Cold
7) Cant remember without watching the show again
8) 2 thumbs down

How did I do, Saku?

7. He was on Piper's Pit

[Smigg]

1) He was filming "No Holds Barred"
2) Kidman
3) Randy Orton
4)
5) Atlanta
6) Steve Austin (Double Stunner)
7) He was in Piper's pit and kicked Carlito's ass
8) A thumbs up, turning to a thumbs down.

[White Snake]

11 yrs ago today was the NWO's parody of Arn Anderson's retirement, one of the funniest moments ever in wrestling.

[Smigg]

"You don't just get a spot... you get MY spot!"

[D.R.H.]

Liver spot?