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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Nov 13, 2010 20:44:39 GMT -5
They always listed Scott Hall during the Razor Ramon/NWO years around 6-7 or 6-8, 280-290, but during the NWO years there was a mug shot floating around on the net where the police said he was 6-5, 225.
I believed 280-290 during his roided-up looking AWA years, but the listed weight always seemed WAY too high once he trimmed down considerably during the mid 1990s.
Razor Ramon was a monster when he debuted in WWF, but looked more like a basketball player once McMahon started testing everybody for those couple years during/after the Zahorian trial. Always stuck with the listed weight though.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Oct 16, 2010 12:52:34 GMT -5
Always thought Freebird Michael Hayes was pretty great at this.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Oct 13, 2010 13:29:06 GMT -5
I always thought that type of angle would have REALLY worked if they tried it a couple years sooner. Around 1999, if you had a WCW Civil War with...
NEW BLOOD Goldberg Booker T Scott Steiner Chris Jericho Buff Bagwell Chris Benoit Saturn Eddie Guerrero Konnan Rey Misterio
MILLIONAIRES CLUB Hogan Flair Savage Piper Sting Bret Hart Hall & Nash DDP Luger Rick Steiner Curt Hennig
Hell, you could've even had the old guys even win the feud, if you booked the New Blood like the NWO where they just completely dominated the Millionaires Club up until the very end.
The WCW crowds were ready for guys like Scott Steiner, Booker T, Benoit, Jericho, and Eddie to be booked like Main Event talent. It would've been a far more successful angle with the audience than the guys they put in New Blood (Stasiak, Palumbo, Jindrak, O'Haire, Sanders, etc).
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Oct 10, 2010 17:00:23 GMT -5
Grew up watching mostly JCP in that era. What also has to be considered is that Nikita had that HUGE Best of 7 with Magnum TA for the U.S. title not too long before the car wreck. Magnum's wreck left no singles wrestlers on the face side built up strong enough to take on Flair at Starrcade '86, except Dusty, and they probably didn't want to do Dusty-Flair for the NWA Title at the third straight Starrcade.
So it was out of necessity, plus the first big, somewhat friendly Reagan-Gorbachev summit happened in October '86 (around the time of Magnum's car wreck), so it was a play on current events.
Also, in that territory, the heels were generally cheered anyway. With the exception of the Road Warriors on the face side...Dusty booked himself (usually as the #1 face), and then Magnum & Rock & Roll Express on top (cheered by kids, and screeching girls/women), so you had A LOT of older dudes cheering for The Four Horsemen, Midnight Express, and even Nikita Koloff when he was feuding with Magnum. Koloff was SUPER over with that segment of the crowd by the time they turned him face. Especially the smarks who probably knew he was just some dude from Minnesota that was friends with the Road Warriors anyway.
The adults cheering heels was something I couldn't understand as a kid, but I remember being in Greensboro Coliseum and hearing grown-ups cheering for evil Russian Nikita Koloff against Magnum TA, and I was too young to get it.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Oct 10, 2010 13:18:43 GMT -5
Yeah, I think they caught some heat from the Turner/Time Warner higher ups about it being a heart attack, and later changed their tune to food poisoning, even hinting that Bischoff had something to do with what Flair ate at catering that day.
I'll never forget the original angle. Was home from college at my parents during winter break, watching WCW. I grew up in Flair country (NC), watching Mid Atlantic, and my mom used to always say about Flair in the 80s, "That guy's gonna have a heart attack one day, yelling and screaming like that". Needless to say, she happened to walk into the living room to see Flair having a "heart attack" on Nitro, and gave a "told ya so".
She bought it. And so did I at first. That was around the time that WCW was starting to really, really suck.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 29, 2010 22:24:56 GMT -5
Randy Savage's in-ring debut in WWE in 1985 was a good one. It's on his DVD. Dude went from pockets of the audience knowing who he was, probably from magazines, to being way over as a crazy heel.
Goldberg's in-ring debut was pretty awesome, too. And very well done by WCW.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 18, 2010 11:08:42 GMT -5
Um, it was supposed to be a joke. Not everything TNA does is "business suicide" or "seppku".
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 14, 2010 11:33:11 GMT -5
Its been reported though, that whatever this announcement is, its "much bigger than a creative change" True, but if whatever her Twitter said makes any sense, it seemingly has nothing to do with SpikeTV or TV shows. She gave them a heads-up to look out for it, since a wrestling company with a TV show on their network was going to "change forever".
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 14, 2010 11:24:11 GMT -5
Who knows if this is true, but this can't have to do with Dixie's thing that would "change TNA forever".
On her Twitter, she said she called up the head of Spike TV on Friday, told him about the exciting "change" that was gonna happen, and he agreed with her. That doesn't sound like the free PPVs thing.
Unless she just called him on the phone, told him TNA was going to do free PPVs on their network, and they were like "yeah, okay". That would be the kind of thing you'd have to go to NYC and meet with them in person about, and pitch to them.
It's probably Heyman, or a stylistic change in the presentation of the show.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 13, 2010 18:13:49 GMT -5
Beat me to it.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 23, 2010 21:50:39 GMT -5
My favorite stuff of his outside of the Von Erich stuff was his run as UWF champ in 1986. Always felt that Mid-South/UWF/Watts stuff had almost its own unique style of wrestling, and Gordy was a great choice for champ of that promotion.
Had good matches against Ted DiBiase, Duggan (who in his pre-WWF days could really go and have great brawls), Steve Williams. Loved those matches as a kid, and they still hold up.
He also had a surprisingly good brawl with Jerry Blackwell in the AWA. I say surprisingly because Blackwell was pretty good for a really heavy dude, but had put on so much weight by 1985 he was past his prime.
And anytime Gordy and Bruiser Brody were wailing away on each other, it was awesome.
Hate to act like Gordy was just a brawler, 'cause he could wrestle any style out there at the time, but man, he was great brawling with certain opponents because he was so quick for his size, had such great timing, and worked a fast pace with a ton of intensity.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 23, 2010 21:42:22 GMT -5
I thought he was a pretty good heel at times in Memphis during the early '80s.
And Koko didn't have the "B." in his name until he got to WWF, right? Pretty sure that was all Vince.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 23, 2010 21:38:00 GMT -5
I remember that!
It was a long time ago, and I was young when I saw it, but UWF also did a funny angle where I think Bill Watts had Joel re-edit that exact same music video, but add footage of the Freebirds getting their a**es kicked. When they cut back to Hayes and Jim Ross in the commentary booth afterwards, Hayes was flipping out mad about it, it was pretty awesome. Good bit.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 17, 2010 20:04:29 GMT -5
I used to listen to that WCW Live internet radio show during that time (with Borash and Bob Ryder) and before the Hogan/Kidman feud, many people within WCW were all referring to Kidman as "the next Shawn Michaels".
They whiffed on that guess. But it wasn't as bad as when Bob Ryder used to refer to ECW's Danny Doring as "the next Shawn Michaels".
But WCW had high hopes for Kidman. His WWE run washed out his career, but that's mostly because that place didn't mesh with his style. I still believe that if WCW would've never folded, I could've seen him as a guy in around the World and U.S. Title picture. He was one of the few acts they had left that was homegrown and over with the majority of the crowd.
Hogan was just the wrong fit for a feud. A good long feud with DDP would've been better for Kidman around that time.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 8, 2010 13:21:19 GMT -5
"What they call Sports Entertainment is actually Sports Disinformation". Hahahaha
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Mar 23, 2010 2:31:28 GMT -5
I was amazed how "in-shape" he looked when they showed the PPV footage on Impact.
During the Razor/NWO period, after he slimmed down from his roided up AWA days, he always was listed around 6-6 or 6-7, and 270-290 pounds...but, in his late 1990s mugshot/police report thing, it said he was only 6-5 and 220 pounds. So, in his prime, he was around the size of Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers.
Right now, I'd say he's down around 265-270, which is great considering newsletters (and I think he himself) said he was well over 300 a few years ago. He said in that latest YouTube clip that he needed to be 255 to "look good".
At his age (and especially if he drinks every day), it's tough to lose weight, but if you hit the gym, do a bunch of cardio, and cut out the booze for a few weeks, you can drop a ton of water weight that your body's been hoarding (assuming he'd still been drinking quite a bit...which I think is generally the assumption with Hall).
I'd like to see the dude stick around in some capacity. In shoots he's done, I've always thought that he had a great mind for the wrestling business. I've always been a huge fan. It's a shame he can't stay out of trouble.
But, good for Hall that he showed up in shape (and showed up at all). I don't want to see him have one last run on top, but it'd be nice to see him have one last run where he doesn't screw it up, and segue that into becoming an agent, booker, or commentator (all of which he's said interested in doing, but nobody on the business side trusts him except for Bischoff, Hogan, and to a lesser extent, maybe Jeff Jarrett).
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Feb 2, 2010 1:08:44 GMT -5
First off, I'm not a big fan of Kennedy/Anderson. He's okay. But, the whole KENNNNNEEDDDDY (Anderson) mic intro thing isn't "less creative".
It's what he's known for. When Rick Rude left WWF for WCW in the early 1990s, were Rude and WCW "less creative" for doing his pre-match mic schtick? No. It was what he was known for and part of the act.
Was he supposed to show up with a new name, new gimmick, and act completely differently? If you think that, I think you're missing the point as to why you sign a Ken Anderson (with hopes that he can bring some of his old fans from WWE).
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jan 20, 2010 1:17:18 GMT -5
I never was a big fan of Nigel, but that's because I wasn't exposed to some of his best ROH stuff. I'd seen some, and some tag matches from NOAH. Thought he was okay, but thought he was overrated.
I was wrong. I love watching the guy from everything I've seen in TNA. He's incredible in the ring, and far more charismatic than I anticipated. For him to take some of that lame dialogue and all the Wolf(e) puns and make it work is a sign of a talented performer.
Nigel and Burke were two guys that TNA signed and I was like, "that's cool, I guess". They're both bringing it, and two of the best things going in TNA, IMO.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jan 20, 2010 1:11:09 GMT -5
Aren't Hogan and Bischoff playing their EXACT same roles from Celebrity Championship Wrestling?
I've never seen more than small bits and pieces of that show, but Bischoff was a Simon Cowell-esque heel that still gave credit when when credit was due and can recognize talent, and Hogan was a face because he's Hogan, but he's played the character "Mr. 'This is my show brother, I'm gonna be hard on you because I'm Hulk Hogan and I know this business inside and out, brother. You wanna be the best, you learn from the best, brother".
I know because Russo's involved everyone's expecting major swerves (and there probably will be), but so far, I just see Hogan and Bischoff playing those same two characters from CCW (which probably isn't too far from reality).
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jan 18, 2010 15:09:50 GMT -5
For a guy who complained about the in-ring style of WWE, and publicly said things after his WWE release such as "now I can wrestle the way I want"...he sure appeared to have a kinda boring, slow, sometimes sloppy match with Red.
Maybe that's "the way" he wants to wrestle. Kendrick's talented and has a lot of upside, from what little I've seen from him in TNA (and little bit from Dragon Gate USA) he's been underwhelming lately.
I like his TNA entrance music though. Kinda different.
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