|
Post by Defrebel - White Pony on Feb 1, 2023 19:34:36 GMT -5
Chris Sabin's title reign was probably bottom 5 or 10 but I'd feel bad putting it higher cause TNA literally put the belt on the man as bargaining over his medical bills for several serious leg injuries (ACL included) that they were as eager to help with as you're thinking
Like he was never even supposed to be a decent champ they just wanted dude to feel not f***ed over.
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,046
|
Post by Mozenrath on Feb 1, 2023 21:12:48 GMT -5
Chris Sabin's title reign was probably bottom 5 or 10 but I'd feel bad putting it higher cause TNA literally put the belt on the man as bargaining over his medical bills for several serious leg injuries (ACL included) that they were as eager to help with as you're thinking Like he was never even supposed to be a decent champ they just wanted dude to feel not f***ed over. I have never heard about any kind of heat between him and Bully Ray, which is almost miraculous. That whole "feud", Bully dating Sabin's ex, etc, it was almost tailor-made for stupid drama and thankfully, it was I guess just the company that was shit to him.
|
|
|
Post by Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED! on Feb 9, 2023 13:57:40 GMT -5
I think Johnny Gargano's Freedom Gate Title reign needs a special explanation for why it was so awful.
The set up to it was great. Johnny Gargano was promoted as a member of Ronin, a group of homegrown DGUSA talents consisting of himself, Chuck Taylor and Rich Swann desperate to prove that they were on the level of Dragon Gate Japan. As a result Johnny was positioned as their big homegrown success story, as he dethroned YAMATO as he became the first Open the Freedom Gate Champion who didn't call Dragon Gate Japan home. The crowd felt connected to him largely due to the fact that they watched him grow from random Indy dude to genuine star. His babyface cred only increased after he suffered a serious back injury against Ricochet and gutted it out for over 20 minutes to put on a worthy title match for the fans. Unfortunately this injury also put him out for 2 months and slowed his momentum.
When he returns, at Wrestlemania weekend instead of defending the title the first two nights he finds himself in a three way elimination trios match, and a match for the vacant tag titles both of which he lost. Beign in non-title matches and losing would become a recurring theme in his title reign. After the match though Chuck Taylor turns on Johnny Gargano setting up this big feud, making his title defense against Masato Yoshino on the next show a foregone conclusion.
On paper the idea of Taylor Vs. Gargano is a pretty good idea. Taylor and him were former tag partners pulled apart by jealousy. Every time they'd fought Taylor had gotten the win including pinning him in a non title three way elimination match, and a tag match in the lead up to the title match. The problem is that by this point Chuck Taylor was leaning more into the comedy aspect of his character with the Gentlemen's club and running with the Swamp Monster which made it harder to take him seriously as a main eventer. Making matters worse was the fact that Swamp Monster was actually IN HIS CORNER FOR HIS TITLE MATCH! What followed was an oddly heatless championship grudge match where in spite of interference from the Genltemen's club Johnny beat Chuck clean as a sheet via the Gargano escape, seemingly putting an end to their feud with a very decisive win in their championship match. Then out of nowhere they decide to continue the feud in a non-title I Quit match which Johnny wins and effectively ends Chuck's run as a main event talent.
After this Johnny doesn't really find much of a feud that goes beyond a one and done title match until he faces off with Jon Davis for the title and wins by count out. Davis now seems like a plausible contender being a big strong brute and beating Johnny in a non title Anything Goes match in less than a minute following a pre match attack. Johnny closes out his first year as champion with a 4 way elimination match victory and a singles win over Sami Callihan. Ultimately Johnny's first year as champion ends up being a more or less completely nondescript babyface world champion.
In the end his feud with Davis ends like most others with Johnny beating him in a No Ropes Rematch to retain the title and the issue and never brought up again. But now e begin the second phase of Johnny Gargano's title run, which is where people really began to turn on it.
Wrestlemania weekend 2013 Johnny Gargano defends against Shingo and retains via a low blow and choking Shingo out with a rope. The following night Johnny captains a team in a six man tag match Consisting of himself, Rich Swann and Ricochet against CIMA, Tomahawk TT, and Eita, with the winner of the fall getting a title shot at whichever belt they choose, whenever they choose, for up to 1 year (Keep this stipulation in mind this will be important later). In the end Team DGUSA defeats Team Dragon Gate Japan with Ricochet scoring the pin. Post match Johnny expresses his respect for CIMA,but demands that CIMA acknowledge DDGUSA and the Freedom Gate Title on the same level as Dragon Gate Japan and the Dream Gate title. CIMA refuses and Johnny assaults him and when confronted by Rich Swann Johnny lays him out too.
On paper this match sounds like it should be great and set Johnny up for three exciting feuds. First a personal feud with his former friend and tag partner Rich Swann, a long awaited payoff to his history with CIMA and a feud between Dragon Gate Japan and DGUSA and a showdown with Ricochet. Unfortunately none of this came to pass as planned.
During this time, Jon Davis began to conveniently start targeting Johnny Gargano's challengers, but seemingly never appearing in the same place as Johnny.
His feud with Rich ultimately just amounted to a few throwaway matches on various shows with little build and nothing coming out of them.
His Dragon Gate war angle and feud with CIMA died before it started. The Anniversary weekend Johnny was set to defend the title against of the winner of 4 way. Tozawa wins the 4-way and Johnny comes out to mock CIMA for losing the match. This was the last interaction between Johnny and CIMA. Tozawa gets jmped by Davis leaving Gargano to pick up the pieces and retain. DGUSA officials order an immediate rematch for later that night and Johnny wins again, killing the momentum of the masssively over Akira Tozawa. This also doesn't go anywhere because shortly after this Gabe Sapolsky fell out of favor with the Dragon Gate office, Meaning Johnny's last real interaction with Dragon Gate was a clean loss to Masaaki Mochizuki in a non-title match. This meant that effectively his biggest angle was dead in the water before it even went anywhere.
As far as his angle with Ricochet went it really wasn't much of an angle. Ricochet for some reason just kept getting involved with feuds to kill time, with no real rhyme or reason for why he wasn't taking the title shot he'd earned over a year ago. He and Johnny had no real interaction with each other. Not even Jon Davis, who was implicitly Johnny's hired goon, had any interaction with Ricochet to present a plausible obstacle and have an actual lead in to him and Gargano's feud. Just suddenly he approaches Johnny, demands he sign the contract for a title match at Wrestlemania Weekend. Jon Davis suddenly approaches and tells everybody Johnny's been hiring him to take out his opponents, and then stops doing it (with zero build). The match is set, Ricochet wins, and after two and half years Johnny finally drops the title.
In short it was a 2 and 1/2 year run with no memorable feuds and no meaningful payoffs, very similar matches throughout (albeit of decent quality), and ultimately held the company to a stand still, killing Gargano's reputation until WWE picked him up.
|
|
|
Post by nickcave on Feb 9, 2023 14:49:21 GMT -5
Jinder Mahal
|
|
|
Post by Natural Born Farmer on Feb 9, 2023 16:25:46 GMT -5
Jinder winning was at least a "huh, well that's interesting" moment, and I think he did his best to try and make the run memorable. It was just too much, too fast, for a guy who hadn't really done much on screen to justify it.
Tyrus as NWA champ isn't interesting. He's old, he looks like shit, and he's got that kind of anti-charisma where you know he's there but you don't want to watch. Dude also makes Jinder look like Benoit, so can't exactly count on a lot of great title matches. All that aside, also seems like a pretty shit person.
Jinder was more of a black eye because more people actually saw it, but on balance Tyrus is the worst choice.
|
|
Venti
Unicron
Posts: 2,994
Member is Online
|
Post by Venti on Feb 9, 2023 18:05:53 GMT -5
Wasn't Rob Conway NWA Champ for, like, a good chunk of time? How did that go?
Also, I think Jinder Mahal is super underrated.
|
|
|
Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Feb 10, 2023 6:28:25 GMT -5
Tessa Blanchard
Most significant intergender win of all time and she couldn't even be bothered to shoot promos from home, never mind show up to work, meaning an accolade that nobody else will ever be able to get has been completely wasted
Also a racist and a bully
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,046
|
Post by Mozenrath on Feb 10, 2023 8:36:42 GMT -5
Tessa Blanchard Most significant intergender win of all time and she couldn't even be bothered to shoot promos from home, never mind show up to work, meaning an accolade that nobody else will ever be able to get has been completely wasted Also a racist and a bully She isn't my choice for worst, but yeah, she's definitely a contender for how hard she pissed that opportunity away.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2023 8:45:01 GMT -5
Wasn't Rob Conway NWA Champ for, like, a good chunk of time? How did that go? Also, I think Jinder Mahal is super underrated. At the time, Rob Conway was alot better choice then previous champion who gimmick was indy muta and Conway actually defended the title in NJPW of all places too.
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,046
|
Post by Mozenrath on Feb 10, 2023 9:24:51 GMT -5
Wasn't Rob Conway NWA Champ for, like, a good chunk of time? How did that go? Also, I think Jinder Mahal is super underrated. At the time, Rob Conway was alot better choice then previous champion who gimmick was indy muta and Conway actually defended the title in NJPW of all places too. Yeah, he traded the title back and forth with Kojima and Tenzan. Did the same with the tag titles, teaming with Jax Dane. It wasn't like, the highlight of the NWA's history or anything, but it was higher prominence than the title had been having for a while.
|
|