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Post by saneiac on Jan 17, 2023 11:08:10 GMT -5
It seems the more legit you are the more comfortable you feel portraying characters that are way over the top. Adrian Adonis, Adrian Street, Kurt Angle, Dolph was a cheerleader, Gerald Briscoe wrestled in drag. Today the tradition continues with guys like Dalton Castle, Joe Hendry, Chad Gable and Otis. Legit guys with plenty of credentials that are all super entertaining playing outlandish characters, but could easily shove your head up your own ass if they wanted to. Norman Smiley fits that description, too. His most memorable character was a Hardcore Champion that was afraid of weapons, screamed like a little girl when threatened, and eventually didn't even want to be champion any more but was too incompetent to lose it. Give that character to some average dude and they're doing shoot interviews 10 years later complaining about how the company sabotaged their career. Smiley, meanwhile, is 57 years old, is one of the only WWE/NXT trainers that has never been budget cut, and still has a reputation as being a guy you don't want to get on the wrong side of.
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Post by sungod2020 on Jan 17, 2023 13:50:41 GMT -5
I believe I read a story somewhere that Randy "Macho Man" Savage had Rick Rude watch his back just in case things don't go smoothly, which would imply Rick Rude had a tough reputation amongst the boys.
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Post by Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED! on Jan 18, 2023 9:34:44 GMT -5
Bob Backlund. I forget who it was but somebody when talking about his freaky strength said that he called a piledriver and by the time he’d processed what Backlund had said he was pretty much already upside down for the move. That’s right the dude lifted somebody into a piledriver with no assistance.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jan 19, 2023 5:24:46 GMT -5
Bob is still freakishly strong, I can’t imagine him in his prime. The GIF of him deadlifting Ivan Koloff still trips me out. www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hicim24:15 seconds in he does that to 1980 Hulk Hogan. JESUS
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Jan 19, 2023 5:26:25 GMT -5
Bob Backlund. I forget who it was but somebody when talking about his freaky strength said that he called a piledriver and by the time he’d processed what Backlund had said he was pretty much already upside down for the move. That’s right the dude lifted somebody into a piledriver with no assistance. Kevin Nash.
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Mozenrath
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Posts: 121,127
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Post by Mozenrath on Jan 19, 2023 5:27:51 GMT -5
It seems the more legit you are the more comfortable you feel portraying characters that are way over the top. Adrian Adonis, Adrian Street, Kurt Angle, Dolph was a cheerleader, Gerald Briscoe wrestled in drag. Today the tradition continues with guys like Dalton Castle, Joe Hendry, Chad Gable and Otis. Legit guys with plenty of credentials that are all super entertaining playing outlandish characters, but could easily shove your head up your own ass if they wanted to. Norman Smiley fits that description, too. His most memorable character was a Hardcore Champion that was afraid of weapons, screamed like a little girl when threatened, and eventually didn't even want to be champion any more but was too incompetent to lose it. Give that character to some average dude and they're doing shoot interviews 10 years later complaining about how the company sabotaged their career. Smiley, meanwhile, is 57 years old, is one of the only WWE/NXT trainers that has never been budget cut, and still has a reputation as being a guy you don't want to get on the wrong side of. Supposedly, Rick Steiner was drunk and tried to fight him. Smiley decked him and continued on as if nothing had happened.
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Post by yokohamacpfc on Jan 19, 2023 5:42:22 GMT -5
Tough guy more in mind than body (he admitted in one of his books he's no shooter) but Jericho certainly has a form of courage from squaring up to Brock and Sin Cara/Hunicio despite knowing he'd have little to no chance of coming out of the fight with the same number of teeth as he went going into it. As well as his well-documented good showing against the stronger Goldberg.
Being raised in the hockey world or alcoholism (or both they're hardly mutually exclusive) probably gave him the balls/over confidence but there's also something to be said for gaijins who thrived in Japan during the 80s and 90s, they had to learn quickly on a plan B if they had an arsey opponent.
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malloc
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Post by malloc on Jan 19, 2023 11:34:15 GMT -5
Let's not forget Bryan Danielson. This guy chased down two scumbags that broke into his house and apprehended one of them until the cops showed up. Sadly the other one got away. Not sure why WWE never mentioned this on tv to attempt to prove to the crowd how legit and dangerous DB actually is. Instead WWE were too focused on telling their audience DB was worthless because he was short. 🤬🤦♂️ Your achievements outside of WWE don't count.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jan 19, 2023 16:54:01 GMT -5
I don't know if he's been mentioned yet but would Koko B. Ware count? Seems like dude was always getting into fights behind the scenes and always winning them. Steve Keirn, Paul Roma, and Jim Troy all felt the wrath of the Birdman. Then there was also the Masked Patriot incident as well.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Jan 19, 2023 17:02:41 GMT -5
I don't know if he's been mentioned yet but would Koko B. Ware count? Seems like dude was always getting into fights behind the scenes and always winning them. Steve Keirn, Paul Roma, and Jim Troy all felt the wrath of the Birdman. Then there was also the Masked Patriot incident as well. I remember hearing that he took issue with something Undertaker did in his debut match at Survivor Series, and while it didn’t get physical, Koko got in his face (well, probably more like his chest) and let him have it. It wasn’t a fight, but Koko seemed ready for one.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jan 19, 2023 17:14:04 GMT -5
I don't know if he's been mentioned yet but would Koko B. Ware count? Seems like dude was always getting into fights behind the scenes and always winning them. Steve Keirn, Paul Roma, and Jim Troy all felt the wrath of the Birdman. Then there was also the Masked Patriot incident as well. I remember hearing that he took issue with something Undertaker did in his debut match at Survivor Series, and while it didn’t get physical, Koko got in his face (well, probably more like his chest) and let him have it. It wasn’t a fight, but Koko seemed ready for one. According to Prichard he was mad that Taker didn't protect him well enough with the tombstone and to be fair if you watch it did look pretty stiff. Taker was real passive when Koko confronted him as I'm sure he didn't want to be getting into a fight when he was brand new to the company. When Koko kept persisting Prichard said he then just got Taker out of there before anything could escalate. Would've been interesting how a fight would've played out between the two of them. As tough as it seems Koko was I think it would've been tough for him considering he was giving up about a whole foot or possibly even more in height to Taker whom while he doesn't have a big time rep was also pretty tough in his own right I would assume.
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