Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 28,917
|
Post by Sephiroth on Nov 9, 2022 10:23:28 GMT -5
It’s been said before that Brad Armstrong was one of the most capable hands in the ring but had all the personality of a plank and so he either got lost in the shuffle or got stuck with lame gimmicks. The most obvious answer to that is to pair him with a more charismatic partner who can do the talking while Brad did the lifting in the ring. So that raises the question of who would be a potential candidate? And there arguably wasn’t any lack of potential candidates during Brad’s tenure in WCW; Disco Inferno, Ernest Miller, and Bagwell all leap to mind as talents who had mic skills and charisma but never achieved all of which they could be capable, perhaps he’d aged by Brad’s rung skills they could have gone further?
|
|
|
|
Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 9, 2022 13:37:14 GMT -5
If his brother Brian AKA Road Dogg didn’t go to the WWF then that seems like a team that would’ve broke out eventually.
They teamed together briefly in 1994 and one match in 1995. Brian was always the weakest in-ring performer of the family and didn’t get a chance to show off his personality before going to the WWF. They were very low on the card when they teamed, but I imagine given the talent of the two that would’ve changed in time.
|
|
|
|
Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Nov 9, 2022 14:45:42 GMT -5
It’s been said before that Brad Armstrong was one of the most capable hands in the ring but had all the personality of a plank and so he either got lost in the shuffle or got stuck with lame gimmicks. The most obvious answer to that is to pair him with a more charismatic partner who can do the talking while Brad did the lifting in the ring. So that raises the question of who would be a potential candidate? And there arguably wasn’t any lack of potential candidates during Brad’s tenure in WCW; Disco Inferno, Ernest Miller, and Bagwell all leap to mind as talents who had mic skills and charisma but never achieved all of which they could be capable, perhaps he’d aged by Brad’s rung skills they could have gone further? Funny thing is when you listen to shoot interviews with other wrestlers that often when talking about Brad they would say he was actually a very funny guy with tons of personality backstage. However for whatever reason he could never convey it on camera. As for the question I would team him and Brian up but as heels. Brian had a lot of personality and Brad was really good in the ring and being heel I think would help bring more personality out of him too. I actually always thought Brad's best work was when he was during his short run as the masked Freebird Badstreet. You could tell that working heel brought a lot more confidence out of him that he seemed to lack as a face. |
|
|
|
Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Nov 9, 2022 15:46:00 GMT -5
It’s been said before that Brad Armstrong was one of the most capable hands in the ring but had all the personality of a plank and so he either got lost in the shuffle or got stuck with lame gimmicks. The most obvious answer to that is to pair him with a more charismatic partner who can do the talking while Brad did the lifting in the ring. So that raises the question of who would be a potential candidate? And there arguably wasn’t any lack of potential candidates during Brad’s tenure in WCW; Disco Inferno, Ernest Miller, and Bagwell all leap to mind as talents who had mic skills and charisma but never achieved all of which they could be capable, perhaps he’d aged by Brad’s rung skills they could have gone further? Funny thing is when you listen to shoot interviews with other wrestlers that often when talking about Brad they would say he was actually a very funny guy with tons of personality backstage. I met Brad at a show once and probably spent about 10 minutes or so just shooting the breeze about Bullet and the history of wrestling in Knoxville and I agree with what everyone said in those shoots. Just a natural, captivating talker with a good sense of humor. Why it never carried over to beyond the curtain, I don’t know. It’s unfortunately from RF, but there was a shoot DVD covering Mid-South that featured Brad, Bill Dundee, Skandar Akbar, Tim Horner, and Doctor Death. It was after Doc’s cancer, so he didn’t really say anything, but just having him there and reacting to things brought out more stories. Brad was probably the highlight of the whole thing, and his telling of the time he accidentally split Doc’s eye open was hilarious. To the original point, I’m surprised they never teamed him with Bagwell when he was a young babyface. They teamed Bagwell with Scorpio, Patriot, and Riggs, and always at or near the top of the tag ranks. That being said, that’s probably not my top pick because Bagwell was better as a heel and I’m not sure how Brad would do as one. Also, I’m trying to figure out how to make Brad fit with the Buff persona and it’s not working. I guess it also depends on the timeframe. He and Bobby Eaton could have made a hell of a team but they’d need someone to talk for them and past a certain point, they’d be treated as a jobber team. I may have to give this one some more thought. |
|
tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
Posts: 2,108
|
Post by tafkaga on Nov 9, 2022 16:36:49 GMT -5
You couldn't get more white bread smiling babyface than Brad Armstrong. Everything about his presentation screamed generic. It's hard to know whether he might have done more because they never seemed interested in taking any risks with him. Why did he never get a tag team gig? He just always played JTTS near the bottom of the card. On the few occasions they tried to do anything with him, they put masks on him as if to suggest that he would have a better chance of getting over if we had no idea who he was.
How about a heel tag team with Scotty Flamingo?
Dynamic Dudes II with Shane Douglas?
Bradley Armstrong and Thomas Rich of the York Foundation?
|
|
|
|
Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Nov 9, 2022 16:55:56 GMT -5
Funny thing is when you listen to shoot interviews with other wrestlers that often when talking about Brad they would say he was actually a very funny guy with tons of personality backstage. I met Brad at a show once and probably spent about 10 minutes or so just shooting the breeze about Bullet and the history of wrestling in Knoxville and I agree with what everyone said in those shoots. Just a natural, captivating talker with a good sense of humor. Why it never carried over to beyond the curtain, I don’t know. It’s unfortunately from RF, but there was a shoot DVD covering Mid-South that featured Brad, Bill Dundee, Skandar Akbar, Tim Horner, and Doctor Death. It was after Doc’s cancer, so he didn’t really say anything, but just having him there and reacting to things brought out more stories. Brad was probably the highlight of the whole thing, and his telling of the time he accidentally split Doc’s eye open was hilarious. To the original point, I’m surprised they never teamed him with Bagwell when he was a young babyface. They teamed Bagwell with Scorpio, Patriot, and Riggs, and always at or near the top of the tag ranks. That being said, that’s probably not my top pick because Bagwell was better as a heel and I’m not sure how Brad would do as one. Also, I’m trying to figure out how to make Brad fit with the Buff persona and it’s not working. I guess it also depends on the timeframe. He and Bobby Eaton could have made a hell of a team but they’d need someone to talk for them and past a certain point, they’d be treated as a jobber team. I may have to give this one some more thought. They probably saw more dollar signs with Bagwell teaming with those other guys. With Scorpio WCW had a large African American fanbase especially where they did their Center Stage tapings so they wanted to capitalize on that with a "salt and pepper" tag team. With Patriot it felt like it was just simply a way to give two guys they liked something to do. They didn't know what to do with Patriot as a singles and Bagwell was in limbo after Scorpio was fired. Riggs it was a classic pretty boy tag team likely to draw in female fans. Only problem is most of their fans were men so they weren't over at all and would at times get booed despite being faces. Similar to the Dynamic Dudes years before I think the American Males would've got over really big as heels. Two good looking guys who can take your girl and the annoying clap and entrance song would've been effective in getting heat with how goofy and uncool it was. With Brad they probably just saw him as being expendable. Other then being a really good wrestler there really wasn't much to him. No gimmick. Plain trunks. Handsome but unremarkably so. So when looking at guys for spots such as Marcus Bagwell's tag team partner he probably wasn't going to be someone they considered in that while good in the ring he wasn't going to bring much or if anything to the table from a marketability standpoint. And unfortunately when they would try to give him a gimmick to add some color to him all the gimmicks they chose for him stunk. The Candyman which I don't know why they called him that as was just basically just regular old Brad Armstrong except sometimes he wrestled in Candystriped tights. Arachnaman which was a blatant ripoff of Spiderman that not surprisingly they had to axe after a couple months when Marvel threated legal action. Or Buzzkill which them blatantly ripping off his more popular younger brothers schtick over on the other show. |
|
|
|
Post by jason1980s on Nov 9, 2022 22:46:24 GMT -5
Brad seemed to be like a Bob Holly type-a guy who was never going to go anywhere else and management always kept around and when they needed him they used him but couldn't really build anything around him (until Bob went to Hardcore Holly). As a kid I remember seeing Brad once after a long absence and then would go months without seeing him. I don't recall him being much on TV either but I guess they had so many wrestlers. Like I don't recall him even being around before Slamboree 93 or 96 when he had PPVs matches but the commentators talked him up real good. Normally he would eat the pin, maybe a step above an SD Jones or Leaping Lanny Poffo.
|
|
