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Post by dxbang on Jul 20, 2022 21:48:17 GMT -5
As a kid, I used to think baby face Smash would’ve been a great singles star. He was a great late 80s wrestler, and I thought he had a great look. Looking back, he was balding and didn’t have a great physique…which was very important at the time.
They booked him (and Axe) pretty strong when they were faces in the Rumble and I always thought they’d do something with him.
Anyone else used to feel the same way?
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Allie Kitsune
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Post by Allie Kitsune on Jul 20, 2022 21:53:26 GMT -5
For whatever reason, Barry was just a career heel.
Blacktop Bully, Repo Man, Hole-in-One...
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Jul 20, 2022 21:54:48 GMT -5
As much as I loved Demolition and Darsow especially, I just don’t know if he had that x-factor (no, not the stupid stable) required to be a breakout star. He may have been saddled with some brutal gimmicks after the Demolition split but he just carried on working for years a as a lower-card guy. And that’s actually a pretty damn good legacy to leave behind.
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Post by Vanilla Gorilla on Jul 21, 2022 0:14:29 GMT -5
His Hasbro action figure was my top baby face and champion back in the day. So he had that going for him.
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tirtefaa
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Post by tirtefaa on Jul 21, 2022 2:40:59 GMT -5
Not really.
I think WWF did the right thing with repacking him, even if it was a silly gimmick. Smash or Demolition without Ax just never worked for me.
Crush also got repacked but kept the name, which was also the right decision....until they put him in that purple and black attire and gave him face paint again. I liked Kona Crush.
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Post by Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 on Jul 21, 2022 7:25:41 GMT -5
Not really. I think WWF did the right thing with repacking him, even if it was a silly gimmick. Smash or Demolition without Ax just never worked for me. Crush also got repacked but kept the name, which was also the right decision....until they put him in that purple and black attire and gave him face paint again. I liked Kona Crush. Kona Crush also had one of the greatest entrance songs ever…🤘
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SmashTV
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Post by SmashTV on Jul 21, 2022 8:18:37 GMT -5
His charisma as Smash was fantastic, but enough to generate into a singles star? I don’t think so - and I say that as a fan. I felt bad for him during his Repo Man run, but with hindsight I can see how much fun he was having getting the most out of a bad gimmick. Rather than take it seriously, he was so OTT it was impossible not to appreciate him.
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Post by buckethead on Jul 21, 2022 11:14:41 GMT -5
If any attempt would have been made to turn him into a singles star, the push should've happened in 1985 as Krusher Kruschev. While he held the Mid Atlantic title and had some singles matches here and there, nothing really came of it.
With Nikita red hot at the time, he was needed in the role of tag partner for Ivan.
He's one of my all time favorites but the only period of his career that interests me is Kruschev-Smash.
I loved his interviews.
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Aceorton
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Post by Aceorton on Jul 21, 2022 13:21:02 GMT -5
Demolition pre-Crush? Yes, I could have bought that version of Smash (three-time champion, one of the most unique talkers on the roster) as a singles babyface after Ax's retirement. He'd be worthy of a short IC title feud with Mr. Perfect, although probably not winning the belt. But, I mean, who knows? Maybe? It felt weird when Bret first entered the IC title picture, too, after we'd been conditioned to see him as mainly a tag guy. One thing is for sure: Smash would need a finisher. "Draping you over my knee while I wait for a non-existent partner to drop an elbow" wouldn't get him very far.
Demolition post-SummerSlam '90? That version of Smash wasn't going anywhere. Those guys were neutered so badly that summer. (Although I would have liked to see Smash fire Crush and try to continue Demolition with increasingly lame replacement partners: Squish, Slash, Slice, Maul, Wham, etc.)
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jul 21, 2022 14:11:02 GMT -5
Probably not just for the reasons the OP mentioned as he would've been held back by his look with him balding and not having a great physique. I guess around 89-90 I would've maybe saw him as a potential singles star at the time. It seemed like he really shined when Demolition turned face and he seemed to become more of the star of the team while before it came off like it was definitely Ax's team when they were heels. While he was never a body guy it looked like he got into better shape (he looks a good bit more svelte at Royal Rumble 90 and Wrestlemania VI) and his in ring work had also improved. They would have to repackage him into a different gimmick as Smash on his own would be weird but if he stayed in shape and his in ring performance stayed at the level it was in 89-90 I think he maybe could've had a shot as a bad ass mid card face. He was always a good promo so that wasn't an issue. Also it was hard to tell because he aged terribly but he was also still a young man as he was only in his late 20's and early 30's during Demolition's run.
However by 1991 he started to get real flabby and his in ring work became real lazy and uninspired. Repackaging him and making him a midcard comedy character was the right decision and was clearly his ceiling by that point. To use an analogy but I think Barry Darsow was one of those guys who was just a really good character actor in that he was someone you could cast in any weird midcard gimmick and chances are it would be really good as he would really put his all into it which was particularly evident when he was Repo Man. However he was never someone you were going give a lead role to or when it comes to wrestling a main event spot to.
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Post by lildude8218 on Jul 21, 2022 14:57:56 GMT -5
A few years ago I watched No Holds Barred for the first time in decades and couldn't believe that I never noticed that Bill Eadie played Jake Bullet in the opening scene. I started wondering how many other people failed to notice this. I came up with a fantasy booking idea where instead of Hogan facing off with Zeus they instead had Eadie play Jake Bullet for a summer run with Hogan. This way instead of having an actor try to get through matches you would at least have another worker in there with Hulk. You could even have Hogan do promos with Tiny Lister with him saying "What happens with me and Hulk on screen, that's just the movies, but this Jake Bullet guy is delusional and wanted a bigger part in the picture."
It made sense to me at the time because you could have had the chairshot that The Brain Busters used to beat Demolition for the titles "knock Ax out of action" for a few months. They let Smash do a run as a single babyface until the program with Hogan was over and then Demolition could reunite to get the titles back.
Would the whole thing have been silly and stupid? Probably. But at least you could book some house shows around it instead of what we got.
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Post by tafkaga on Jul 21, 2022 16:58:43 GMT -5
There was a time around '89-'90 where I thought Smash really surpassed Ax as the star on that team. The spot at Summerslam '89 where he slammed both Bossman and Akeem was a big babyface moment that had me marking out as a kid. He was always a lot of fun to watch.
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Post by Non Banjoble Tokens on Jul 23, 2022 2:09:16 GMT -5
They could have done the same thing they did with Crush. Make him a huge babyface but instead of Kona Crush, he could be Minnesota Smash.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 23, 2022 2:22:49 GMT -5
It's a shame Darsow doesn't have a wrestling offspring, could name them Demolition Pass.
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Post by Citizen Snips Has Left on Jul 23, 2022 6:31:34 GMT -5
It never really worked when the Road Warriors would have solo runs (Hawk in ECW/WCW, Animal in WWE) and I could see the same fate befalling Ax or Smash.
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Post by cassonova on Jul 23, 2022 11:23:47 GMT -5
It's a shame Darsow doesn't have a wrestling offspring, could name them Demolition Pass. No, but we got a Dakota/Maverick Darrow out of the deal.
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repomark
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Post by repomark on Jul 23, 2022 19:43:17 GMT -5
His Hasbro action figure was my top baby face and champion back in the day. So he had that going for him. Me too! His feud with Yokozuna for the title is probably the best feud I ever booked in my Hasbro world. I only had Smash and Crush though, and always wanted Ax so I could have had proper Demolition.
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Post by dangerousdanpotato on Jul 24, 2022 8:13:27 GMT -5
Smash had a brief solo run after WrestleMania VII - mostly house shows, but with two televised matches according to cagematch (vs. Warrior and vs. The Dragon). I think I saw the Dragon match on a Coliseum video. He's basically a heel JTTS, but it's interesting just seeing how he looks/comes off as a singles wrestler.
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Post by johnnyk9 on Jul 24, 2022 14:06:49 GMT -5
Repo Man had some entertaining matches
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jul 24, 2022 14:23:14 GMT -5
Smash had a brief solo run after WrestleMania VII - mostly house shows, but with two televised matches according to cagematch (vs. Warrior and vs. The Dragon). I think I saw the Dragon match on a Coliseum video. He's basically a heel JTTS, but it's interesting just seeing how he looks/comes off as a singles wrestler. There was also matches with him losing to Jake and Duggan. I believe both were on Prime Time and Coliseum Videos. Was it ever confirmed what the deal was with Crush around this time? He just disappeared after Mania with Smash becoming a heel singles through the summer before being repackaged as Repo Man in the fall. Crush meanwhile stopped making apperances around May and was back in Portland for a bit before coming back the following year as babyface Crush. Did they just release him or felt he needed more seasoning or something? It's strange that Smash is the one they decided to keep on as Crush was clearly the one with the more potential at that point.
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