|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 20, 2008 5:29:42 GMT -5
Hart almost went to WCW in 1991 when Jim Herd was in charge. In the era that Herd was firing Ric Flair...they tried pretty hard to steal WWF mid-to-upper midcarders like Bret Hart, The Rockers (...and supposedly, Janetty gave Vince his notice that they were leaving for WCW, Shawn Michaels balked last second...and that's one of the main reasons Vince broke them up), Curt Hennig, and Ted DiBiase.
Those were the days when Vince worked essentially on handshake contracts, guaranteed very little money (with huge upside as you moved up the card), but you could jump to WCW and be on their TV in a few weeks...and WCW was paying guys like Luger & Sting $700,000 a year, even though their TV ratings and house show gates were in the crapper.
From 1990 all the way to 1997 or whenever Curt Hennig actually left WWF, he was almost seasonally reported to be close to jumping to WCW when he wasn't injured. And right after Herd fired Flair in 1991, WCW offered Randy Savage a guaranteed contract of like $750,000 or something to jump and be the top star...that was in one of Meltzer's latest archived 1991 Observers.
Bret Hart would've been high on the card in 1991 in WCW. At the time, he & Hennig were two dudes who everyone thought would be the stars of the 1990s. If you think Hart wouldn't have been a main eventer during that time in WCW...remember that The British Bulldog was. Davey Boy Smith was good in his prime, but Bret Hart was heads above.
Plus, it would've been neat to see Hart, Hennig, and The Rockers work in WCW with guys like Sting, Vader, Luger, Steamboat, Pillman, Rude, Steve Austin, Windham, Gordy & Dr. Death, and The Steiners during their athletic primes in 1991-93-ish WCW....WCW was SO far behind the WWF juggernaut in those days, but they usually had really cool matches, and Bret Hart obviously would've excelled in that environment.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 19, 2008 4:39:03 GMT -5
Barry Windham (saw him mentioned) is my choice. That guy had it all...and a great worker, very charismatic without being a great talker...he just made very questionable career choices at pivotal moments in the 1980s wrestling business, like...
1. Leaving NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984 shortly after Dusty Rhodes (his practical godfather) got the book...and did a free-agent angle where they signed him to Wrestling's first "$1,000,000 contract"...basically setting him up to take the belt off Flair...but Windham jetted from JCP with Mike Rotunda one month later, hot on the heels of Piper, Valentine, etc...right after StarrCade '83 and Dusty Rhodes taking the JCP book/Vince's "1984 WWF National Expansion!" 2. Leaving WWF after WrestleMania I. Another dumb decision. Was WWF Tag-Team champ immediately with Rotunda, but went splitsky and back to wrestling with his dad, Blackjack Mulligan, against Kevin Sullivan in Florida. 3. Was supposedly given Magnum T.A.'s "spot" (by Dusty, after the T.A.'s car accident) to take the NWA World Title belt off Flair...but THEN, Jim Crockett's NWA bought UWF AND Florida...so the famous and popular Windham was sent on the UWF tours (Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas), and the state of Florida...so Windham wound up with the Florida Tag Titles ("The NWA U.S. Tag Team Titles") and the newly-invented "NWA Western States Heritage Title" (aka: "The Thanks Barry! Sincerely, Dusty & Crockett!" Title) 4. (Not his fault...but booking wise) Turning heel and joining the Four Horsemen at the APEX of his face career in 1988. It made for a good heel run as U.S. Champ w/J.J. Dillon...but BEFORE he turned heel, Windham was bigger/more over than Sting, Luger, Koloff, Dusty, Road Warriors...every single NWA babyface when he turned. 5. Leaving NWA/WCW in 1989 for WWF (RIGHT before a very hot WCW year with Flair/Steamboat/Funk/Muta/Steiners) to become "The Widowmaker", who was barely on WWF TV. 6. Leaving WWF right before he got his first push as "The Widowmaker" at Survivor Series 1989 to go back to WCW...or get the hell out of the business and quit...which I think he did until late-1990 or 1991-ish.
Plus, Windham always had a supposedly, hot & rich girlfriend so he "allegedly" didn't really feel like he ever needed the business, plus had to leave WCW in the early 1990s to bail his brother and dad out of a felony U.S. counterfeiting trial. He still had a decent WCW run in the early-1990s, and a low-card WWF run as "Blackjack" & "NWA Champ", before "Rap is Crap" with Curt Hennig. And he got really, really fat by 1991...but that probably ties in with him not caring too much about wrestling because he always had something going on. Either that, or it was metabolism, because his dad was pretty fat.
Windham was money in his prime. One of the best matches you'll ever see is Barry Windham vs. Ric Flair from 1984-88...any of them. If "1984-88 Barry Windham" could be cloned, Vince McMahon would have 3,000 of them in FCW with different haircuts/dumb fake names. Good thing Windham works for WWE. I always put Barry Windham in the category of Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig...but he was better. Not as good of an interview as DiBiase or Hennig, but just as good of a worker, bumper, and great in-ring charisma. People got behind Windham in a way that they never did with DiBiase or Hennig as babyfaces.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 19, 2008 3:38:48 GMT -5
I used to be a TNA apologist, then got bored and felt like I was wasting my time, and have casually watched/sped through it on TiVo weekly for over a year.
That said, I'm REALLY digging the direction right now. I was very, very weary of this "Cross The Line"/"Choose A Side"/"Respect"/"Old Guys v. Young Guys" angle, because it sounded so much like Russo's WCW "New Blood vs. Millionaire's Club" angle...but this has been done a million times better...almost as if Russo realized how and why that New Blood angle sucked the first time he tried it.
The Russo/Bischoff WCW re-boot edition of Nitro that launched the "New Blood" angle was an entertaining night of TV in retrospect, but ONLY in shock value/SWERVEZ. ECW Champ Mike Awesome shows up and destroys Nash, Shane Douglas shoots on Flair, etc. Later, Kidman would destroy Hogan...but the reason why none of that worked was (to me) because Russo was immediately jumping to the climaxes of the storylines to SHOCK before the angles built logically and organically. In 1999, Billy Kidman and Eric Bischoff could've hit Hogan with a Humvee, or whatever happened, but that didn't need to happen in the first two or three weeks that Kidman & Bischoff all of a sudden hated Hulk Hogan for little-to-no reason. Got the internet talking, but it alienated long-time WCW fans, and elevated NOBODY.
This TNA "Respect" angle has been a slow build, starting with Joe/Nash, and the earliest seeds were planted by accident/panic right after Joe's awesome PPV shoot on Scott Hall for no-showing. TNA's bookers are obviously not geniuses, but Nash has said that his involvement with Joe was the start of a very, long, intricate storyline. Now, I finally buy that, instead of Nash BS.
Since that night, Joe & Nash have been doing their thing, Joe's character evolved (into a frustrated whiny, cry baby), but the whole "respect" thing has built rather organically. Fans still cheer Sting, and are still getting sick of Joe...but by tonight, almost anyone can finally see what Joe's been trying to get at. Plus, over the past couple months, we've seen AJ, MCMGs, etc. all throw in little things to help build towards tonight's TV show, as an official kickoff for the angle. Now people like Jay Lethal are getting involved...Jarrett cut the promo of his career...he pwned Sting & Angle like he called them into the Principal's Office...and I never thought I'd see Jarrett pull off that kind of segment. Then, Foley debuted, and TNA is really INTERESTING (to me).
Nobody in this particular angle got left in a bloody heap on TV last night, nobody got hit with a humvee, no explosions, no hostile takeover. Just good, slow-build storytelling. Russo is capable of this...that 1999 Survivor Series World Title Tournament setting up The Rock as Corporate Champion instead of Foley is a very good example of him doing that thing right. In WCW, he tried to re-do the NWO-style major storyline with New Blood/Millionaires, but the NWO storyline wasn't launched/released in one show...hell, Hall & Nash didn't even have NAMES for the first two months of NWO.
Thumbs way the hell up on this week's show. Can't wait to see where they go. Love the major "Respect" angle that everybody's getting into. Aside from that, there's the Comic Book Supergroup guys that I could take or leave, and "whoissuicide.com/otherthankaz" looks lame. That's whatever, you need variety. Love the Fighting Ref...and I don't know if I'm alone here...but I'm actually kind of digging Abyss doing 1/3 one-liners, 1/3 acting like a psychopath, and 1/3 laughing like Muttley. I don't care...Muttley Abyss is awesome.
Jeff Jarrett had a great line on this show to Sting about how it isn't "WCW...it's TNA!". I thought that was a smart and important thing to say/call out because as #2 they'll always be compared to WCW (which has a really negative stigma)...but that said, tonight's Impact felt like a good, early version of Nitro 1995-96...moreso than 1999-2000 Nitro...and not like WWE, which is the important thing.
PS: Foley with the young guys is logical if they play it that way, he's a guy like Joe & AJ..a "non-traditional" guy who made it as opposed to the Stings & Kurt Angles of the world. Or, Russo can swerve us and have a heel Foley say that Uncle Vince sent him from NY to destroy TNA so he can buy it. Either way, it can work...and guys like Joe/AJ/Machine Guns/Abyss & Morgan/Jay Lethal will become bigger stars by slowly, steadily earning credibility, respect, and stature taking "their" company "back" than if they just started sneak-attacking/jobbing big names for the hell of it like in WCW's Russo "New Blood" angle.
PPS: AJ Styles and Joe have had some "Mike Awesome destroying Kevin Nash" moments...but those were on PPV and in the heat of the moment after matches...and Sting was sticking up for the old guys as a face, building towards tonight's Jarrett promo. I'm 7,000 words past sounding like a nerd about this...but this storyline is surprisingly really well done, IMO.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Sept 15, 2008 2:30:22 GMT -5
When Kerry won the NWA World Title from Ric Flair, that could've or should've been the dawning of a new era. Flair was sort of passing the torch just like Harley Race did for him. Instead, it came off as a token two week title run (since the change occurred at the memorial event in Texas Stadium for David, Kerry's brother) due to the NWA not trusting Kerry's reliability. No. Flair wasn't "passing the torch" in his NWA title reign to Kerry Von Erich. KVE wound up taking David Von Erich's "turn" as NWA World Champ to help satisfy the live "house" at the WCCW "Parade of Champions" show in front of 30,000 at Texas Stadium. NWA gave Kerry the belt as a courtesy, since it was a pretty special scenario (a memorial show, for his recently deceased brother, in front of 30,000 people in a football stadium.) David Von Erich would've been NWA champ if he hadn't died...because he was a better worker than Ted DiBiase & Barry Windham (DVE had less charisma than DiBiase, on par with Windham & DiBiase as a worker, and better in many ways). DVE was maybe a traveling NWA champ (to Mid-Atlantic, WTBS, Florida, Missouri, Mid-South) during the mid-to-late 1980s...but that NWA belt was Flair's for the 1980s, just like it was Race's for the years before that. At the time, the only thing that Kerry Von Erich missed out on was the 1983 urban legend that Vince K. McMahon, Jr. had a few different ideas for the "NEW WWF World Champ" that would lead the WWF into its 1980s National Expansion into MTV, cartoons, and buying up every local promoter's TV time... Those candidates were Jimmy Snuka (Vince's first choice, but he was insane, so he messed that up), AWA's Hulk Hogan, the NWA/JCP's Ric Flair as the "modern day Gorgeous George" heel champ, and Kerry Von Erich (because he was ripped, a wrestling magazine superstar, and could be re-packaged into a future WWF action-figure looking-like superhero to sell toys to kids, which was part of Vince's plan.) Hogan was the only logical choice for that role, as Kerry Von Erich would've been made by Vince into " Sampson Von Winner' or something stupid as a babyface WWF world champ, and when compared to Hulk Hogan, Kerry was a worse worker (although KVE was far more athletic), and KVE's interviews were abysmal...some of the worst you'll ever see.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 11, 2008 7:28:51 GMT -5
TNA is doing better business right now, and making more money than it ever has...to the point where they're actually paying back Panda on the millions of dollars lost. Will they ever be a threat to WWE? Probably not.
But people on the Internet (mainly because of Russo) have always liked to compare TNA to the "Dying Days of WCW" (WCW's early 2000s). It's not. If it's like WCW at all, it's more like WCW circa 1991-94, through right before Hogan came in. Good young workers, old WWE-ish dudes, dumb gimmicks, bad booking...but still amazingly somewhat viable as an alternative to Vince McMahon...because even when wrestling isn't in a "boom", there's always gonna be knuckleheads like us that stop flipping channels when they see a fake fight on TV. Even TNA's house shows and TV ratings are neck-and-neck with early 1990s WCW, except TNA isn't bleeding money by paying guys like Lex Luger $750,000 a year when they can't draw 300 people to see them main event in Columbus, GA.
And TNA's biggest creative influence has always been Jerry Jarrett/Jerry Lawler-style Memphis booking. ECW/Heyman booking was the 1990s/Nirvana version of old-school Memphis, just as Jim Cornette/SMW did backdated 1970s-style/Lynard Skynard cover band version of Memphis in the 1990s.
What's that Memphis, TNA-style mean? Garbage matches, swerves, a cartoonish undercard, men-on-women teased violence, and matches with 10,000 STIPULATIONS. And sorry fellas, all that stuff was NOT invented by Russo. Russo was copying ECW's Paul Heyman (who was copying Memphis, and his pal Eddie Gilbert...a hell of a booker who grew up learning which style? Memphis). Gimmick matches are nothing new. The ladder match was invented in Memphis in the 60s/70s, so was the scaffold match, and the first time almost anybody ever saw someone "put through a table" was by Randy Savage to Ricky Morton, but where? Memphis.
And it's kind of funny, the Memphis territory is the cockroach of the territory era...hard to kill off, no matter how many ebbs and flows it ever had (live crowds ranged from 10,000 to 300 in the same building)...and that's the business model Jeff Jarrett grew up on. Jarrett understands the business, and will probably keep TNA around as long as he wants...even if 20 years from now he's a babyface TNA World Champ, and they're drawing 0.8s on a cable network not even invented yet.
TNA isn't a "TV wrestling company" like they were a couple years ago, drawing 0.2 ratings on FSN affiliates. If SpikeTV canceled IMPACT! tomorrow, TNA would wind up on practically any cable channel they wanted, because they draw 1.0-1.1's (which everybody loves to make fun of), but it's the Cable TV equivalent of handing a network many heavy bags of money every single week.
TNA is doing fine. It could do a lot better. Samoa Joe is world champ, and AJ Styles is back to acting like a world-beater (how he should be booked...instead of like Luther from "Coach", or Curly from The Three Stooges.) That's good. I'm just terribly uninterested in it. They have most of the best young workers, have the opportunity to put on exciting matches, fail at that (yet surprise us sometimes), and piss away opportunities to be a real alternative because they don't know any better...other than a 2008 version of a 1988 Southern Wrestling promotion. It's an early 1990s WCW version of Memphis wrestling, but in 2008. Is that wrong? Maybe. But as long as everybody's getting paid, and they're in no danger of shutting down (they aren't)...it can't be half bad.
It is what it is.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 14, 2008 16:28:36 GMT -5
I don't care what Austin says about tea, the reason why he's called "Stone Cold" is because in 1996, that stupid "Stone Cold" action movie starring ex-NFL LB Brian Bosworth was airing every single night on HBO, Showtime, or Cinemax at like 1:30am, and it was an asskicking, no-nonsense, B-movie that had a weird cult following at the time.
He stole his look from MLB baseball player Jay Buhner, and his name/gimmick from a B-movie...and it was awesome in the pro wrestling environment.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 31, 2008 14:23:37 GMT -5
BTW, Conan (on his own show) also credited Dethklok's Tommy Blacha for penning the old WWF phrase "...a tall glass of shut the hell up", and I think he helped come up with a lot of Stone Cold and The Rock's most famous catchphrases during that time period.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 31, 2008 14:17:07 GMT -5
Even as a kid, I never liked Warrior...but I've found his YouTube "comeback" videos sort-of fascinating. Say what you want about the guy (plus, every time he speaks his mind about real issues, he comes off crazy and ultra-douche-ish), but I'll give him credit, the dude's busting his ass in the gym for a one-off show in front of 5,000 people in Spain. There's easily over 100 1980s/1990s wrestlers over 50 working the indies who don't care what they look like or what shape they're in, but just doing what they used to love and collecting an easy paycheck off their name...but Warrior is treating it like it's SERIOUZ BIUZNESS.
The guy's obviously going through a mid-life crisis, and he's tired of people thinking he sucked...which is kind of unfair, because as awful as he was at the time...in retrospect, he really delivered in-ring when he had to (Hogan at WM, every match against Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, etc.), even while 80% of his offense consisted of throwing the worst looking fake punches ever known to man (aside from Sid). Whatever "IT" is, he had it, that's why we're still talking about him.
Also, now, I'd like to see RVD vs. Old Warrior in a worked match. RVD has his critics too, but I think Van Dam would bounce around enough and miss enough high spots that it'd be a fun match.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 31, 2008 0:19:15 GMT -5
One of the creators/stars of Dethklok is Tommy Blacha, who used to write for Conan, and for WWF during the Attitude Era. And, he's the exact same fella who does the gravely voiced dude on Dethklok.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 29, 2008 5:04:04 GMT -5
Looked like the move at 4:10 was a lazy attempt at Samoa Joe's super-quick powerslam thing, that even Joe's botched terribly in the exact same way vs. Necro Butcher (on concrete).
Either way, with his bad freakin' neck, it was a terrible career move for Angle to give his body for that spot on a Korean spot show vs. "Half-Assed, Not Nearly Vader".
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 27, 2008 10:38:48 GMT -5
Well, I could watch HBK wrestle a match against just about anybody and be entertained...and I can't say that for any other North American wrestler in the past 30 years not named Ric Flair, Steamboat, Steve Austin, Barry Windham, Randy Savage, or Terry Gordy. So, I like him.
As far as the backstage stuff, HBK was a jerk who affected company decisions for what, two years? And he took Bret Hart's title after Vince McMahon lied to Bret. Big deal. Dusty Rhodes played major parts in putting three U.S. companies out of business (Florida, JCP, WCW, and almost 2004 TNA) with his stupid politics and awful decision making...I think whatever HBK did pales in comparison. And at least HBK didn't marry Vince McMahon's daughter and help himself win the world title 37 times, even though he sucks.
Even Bret Hart would probably tell you that HBK is one of the best ever, he just thinks he's a a-hole for stuff that none of us should really even care about.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 27, 2008 9:49:36 GMT -5
That was his father's gimmick too. Ted was a millionaire because he inherited the supposed fortune of Iron Mike Dibiase, who died in the ring. Yeah, I remember when they used to say those things on WWF TV all the time, except for never.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 18, 2008 11:33:31 GMT -5
If judging by his ECW and WWF booking, Heyman would probably book how he's always booked...his amped up, "hip" version of 1970s-1980s Memphis booking that he learned from Jerry Jarrett, Lawler, and Eddie Gilbert. Lots of run-ins, swerves that don't wind up as swerves, comedy, dumb vignettes, people doing impressions of more famous wrestlers, etc.
Problem is, TNA is already booked like that.
EDIT: He would make better use out of the internet favorites such as LAX, MCMG, etc. And he'd probably use Dragon Gate guys sometimes (because he said he wanted to for WWECW), and bring in Morishima.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 27, 2008 7:36:08 GMT -5
This show sucked balls. Seriously. I thought it was one of the best Impacts that TNA ever produced. 70% of it was really, really good "TV wrestling", and aside from Jim Cornette trying to explain stuff, there was little to no bullshit.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 26, 2008 14:06:13 GMT -5
I had to look these up (for the dates), but these were the ones I was at as a little kid...
4/20/86 Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum) Dusty Rhodes & Rock & Roll Express beat Ric Flair & Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson (...the Ric Flair/Ricky Morton WTBS/JCP angle got me into wrestling in NC...pretty sure this was the match where they did the hot TV angle backstage where Flair grinded Morton's face into the concrete in the locker room, destroying Morton's nose and face, because Flair was mad about losing to some upstart pretty boy. Great angle.)
4/30/86 Raleigh, NC (Dorton Arena) NWA Champion Ric Flair beat Ricky Morton
5/3/86 Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum) Ricky Morton drew NWA Champion Ric Flair
6/1/86 Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum) Ric Flair & Tully Blanchard beat Rock & Roll Express
7/26/86 Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum/"Great American Bash" tour) Dusty Rhodes beat Ric Flair to win NWA title (cage match...GREAT CARD...Andersons vs. Rock & Roll Express, Magnum TA over Nikita in match 4 or 5 of the Best of 7 series for the US Title, Tully vs. Ron Garvin in a "taped fists" match, Wahoo vs. Jimmy Garvin, and Paul Jones beating Jimmy Valiant in a Hair vs. Hair. To this day, it's probably the best wrestling show I've ever seen)
1988 Crockett Cup, Final Night, Greensboro, NC Nikita Koloff beat NWA World Champion Ric Flair by DQ. (...finding out in the arena that my favorite wrestler at the time, Barry Windham...had already turned "bad" and joined the Four Horseman before I saw it on TV kind of made me lose interest in the NWA as a kid.)
1990 Wrestle War, Greensboro, NC NWA World Champion Ric Flair beat Lex Luger by countout/Arn & Ole run-in.
^ After that stupid-ass Dusty finish (Ole Anderson was booking) for no reason, my parents told me that they weren't going to pay money to take me to see wrestling. They always told me it was "fake" as a kid, so I knew it was, but that was a shit show...and everybody leaving the arena was pissed off...not because Flair won, but because it sucked. Leaving the arena, it felt like you were trying to find your car in the parking lot with 10,000 other mad people that had all just set $20 of their own money on fire. And apparently, those parent/child discussions and people being pissed off at live shows were happening all over the territory since the NWA/UWF merger in '87 (w/Dusty and/or Ole booking), and that effectively slowly killed wrestling in the Carolinas...which sucked, because that territory was awesome, and I'm glad I grew up there.
And, I was supposed to go to WCW Fall Brawl '97 in Winston-Salem with my high school buddies, but I got hurt playing football the Friday before...and I guess I didn't miss anything, because Curt Hennig joined the NWO by crushing Flair's head in the cage door in War Games. I heard enough complaining from my friends that went (about how shitty that show was), and decided I wasn't going to pay money/parking/concessions for stuff I can see on TV or PPV.
But Flair drew me into wrestling as a heel, and to this day, he's my all-time fave. I'm gonna miss him. There will be another Hogan, but there will never be another Ric Flair.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 24, 2008 5:13:29 GMT -5
He should come back in a suit and tie and cut anti-hardcore promos. Abyss ripping of Mick Foley? Never. Well, on the other hand, if Abyss showed up next month on Smackdown as Festus' stupid-er cousin "Jackie", wore Hillbilly Jim overalls and ate turds...he'd be an instant success and legend amongst 80% of this board. Why? Because it happened in WWE!
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 17, 2008 3:57:10 GMT -5
IMO, Abyss should come back with some sort of Vader ring gear. A semi-mask, but with fighting/pro wrestling gear, with a real singlet/tights, real wrestling boots, maybe MMA fighting gloves, kickpads, etc.
The complicated storylines and tack/gimmick match gimmicks, and the lame leather slacks/leather vest help kill the Abyss the character in 2008 pro wrestling. He's too fake looking, too cartoonish, no matter how many times he carves his arms up and dives face first into thumbtacks. He looks too 1990s FMW/BJW, etc.
When I first saw Abyss, I could buy that he was a killing machine in a wrestling ring, but that was four years ago. Bad booking and bad character development turned him into a bad cartoon character with no realism. He'd be a pretty decent badass if the character was still somewhat menacing, but just focused on winning, and keep the wild hair, because that's pretty timeless in wrestling.
So make him more like Vader. A semi-realistic, non-monster, more athletic-looking threat.
Plus, everytime some casual fan saw this new version of Abyss, they wouldn't think he was ripping off (or actually once was) Mankind or Kane. Maybe they'll think Abyss was ripping off Vader (less doubtful), but I always thought the look of 1993 Vader's character came 15 years too early, and 2008 Abyss's look came 15 years too late.
You have to package Abyss properly, because if you take away all the bells and whistles from Abyss, then you have a far less talented, but more tatted-up version of Terry Gordy, or...Tall Rhino.
PS: I realize that Rellik already has sort of the look that I'm talking about, but this new Abyss wouldn't be booked as a 1980s comic book/cartoon wrestling character wearing a half-dress trying to make Eric Young pee his pants, but as a world-class fighter trying to secure championships and destroy like Vader back in Japan and WCW.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 17, 2008 3:18:32 GMT -5
The head-shaving "Britney Spears Makeover" seems like something that should've been done, dunno, maybe a year and a half ago to be relevant? (if ever)
It's a shame that MCMGs are being so wasted away by TNA. MCMG and LAX should be like Yankees/Red Sox...an easy, money-drawing, awesome rivalry...that you never get sick of seeing, even if you don't have a rooting interest for either team. Both teams are being wasted away.
The saddest part is, both teams would be HUGE with younger demographics; winning over new, younger kid/teen/tween fans for TNA (the area that WWE always dominates, and the area that historically spends the most money on pro wrestling) like crazy if given the chance.
My little brother's that age, and he gets that MCMG is athletic as smurf, and LAX is badass and athletic as smurf...yet TNA weekly trots out a 1991 Hair Band gimmick for giggles and surprise wins over MCMG and LAX (even though most kids don't "get" that stupid, lameass era that Rock 'N Rave are parodying...and if they do, it's been SO played out), and now a Superman/Jimmy Olsen tag team (Eric/Kaz).
TNA doesn't need anymore gimmicks and storylines to add "depth" to the tag division. They don't even have to book LAX vs. MCMG as faces or heels, they have clear demographics that they draw to, and competitive matches between the two teams would get over like wildfire. It'd be like Rock 'N Rolls vs The Midnight Express, with the kids/chicks cheering on Morton/Gibson, while the teens/men eventually siding with MX...leading to 270,000 matches that never got tired, and drew some money everywhere they went.
Not pushing MCMG and LAX to the top is openly throwing money away. But such is TNA.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 17, 2008 2:41:33 GMT -5
I think the match was perfect for TV, and not necessarily for watching live in the arena. I've watched it twice, once when the PPV aired (on TV), and again on DVR...and the second time, I can certainly understand why the live crowd sitting in Lowell, MA may have been bored at first.
Maybe for the live crowd, it was because of how slow Joe/Angle worked during the opening segment of the match. For the TV crowd though, and I hope I'm not nerding off too much here, but I think TNA's video director did the best job he's ever done at "capturing" an event. This match had the big match feel, and for once it came off like that on TNA-produced TV or PPV. Nothing was "missed" on the broadcast of the fight, and it was partly due to TNA's production trying to imitate the rather simple TV presentation of MMA bouts, which are familiar and successful techniques (instead of their own, learned 'rasslin way of presenting things). I don't need to have seen the best of UWFi or any hybrid shoot stuff to know that Kurt Angle and Joe (Angle especially) were putting on one hell of a performance, the cameras captured all of the physicality and all of the emotion...and I was sucked in to the fight.
The hard-hitting, semi-realistic nature of the fight...combined with great TV presentation (very RARE for TNA), and knowing you were seeing Joe's first TNA World Title victory all combined for a perfect storm...which I think is part of the reason why Meltzer, Keller, and seemingly 90% of us who watched it first-run on TV were so impressed.
The takedowns weren't super strong, and some of the MMA action was super sloppy...but the facial expressions for both workers were off the charts, and it seemed like as real of a fight as we've seen in wrestling. It's not five-stars, but if the first Hell in the Cell (Michaels/Taker) was and is considered a five-star classic, then Joe-Angle V was close if for nothing else than similar traits in the presentation, uniqueness of event compared to what the industry has seen, and the individual performances of both workers.
It wasn't the most amazing thing ever, and it wasn't terrible...but it was a home run the first time I saw it on live PPV TV. I don't know if I'd feel the same way watching it on my computer monitor already knowing the results and feedback, but yeah, it was good.
|
|
|
Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 13, 2008 3:42:50 GMT -5
I feel ya, Cornette was the one who brought Morgan in because he liked his work. The job as an assistant was just a launching bad for Morgan, crowd got to know him and his work. But i hope you're wrong about the match though, as i've said before there is nothing to be gained from Team Cage winning. It will only guarantee that Tomko and Styles will be left in the shadows of Christian Cage. The build-up was indicating a dominate Team Tomko at first but they didn't go with it, which was a shame because it had the same vibe as Team Lesnar had. Look how well that turned out. Now the final nail in the coffin, Sting...yeah a guy soon to hit his 50's is the dominating factor. Yeah, I'd rather see Team Tomko win, it'd mean more for Tomko, AJ...even Storm. Clean though. I just have a sneaking suspicion that the outcome will be a Team Tomko win...aided by a pointless Morgan turn/swerve. I don't think TNA's booking team will want to justify four ex-WCW/WWE/ECW "names" losing to Team Tomko without their surprise fifth member (Morgan) turning on them. I'm not usually that critical of TNA booking, because it's just pro wrestling, and I like watching wrestling...but they book these finishes too many times in TNA...and it's never that shocking. Plus, a cheap win for Team Tomko (with a swerve) won't mean anything either. Won't elevate them, and nobody will remember who won the match two months from now. It's a shame if they can't justify having the heels go over clean...it's a freaking cage match with no rules, plus weapons. Anything could literally happen from a logical standpoint, but they'll probably go with their crappy, outdated 1980s Memphis (Jarrett/Mantell)/1990 Monday Night War (Russo) hybrid style of booking, giving the heels a cheap win that nobody remembers, doesn't elevate anybody...and damages a character (Morgan) that they should stop flip-flopping and protect. The only swerve scenario I'd dig for Lethal Lockdown is that as soon as all 10 guys got in the cage, they all beat the living shit out of Christian...because he's been a pretty big jerk to all of them, and has really no redeemable social qualities as a character. I'm a big Christian fan, but I'd mark for that...and it'd be quite an angle if the faces and heels put their differences aside for one night to just beat the hell out of his selfish, sarcastic ass for 10 minutes. I like Christian best when he's a paranoid loner obsessed with being "the champ", and I could buy him digging himself into that hole. I don't know if that idea sucks, and I probably wouldn't do that on a PPV (maybe TV), but it'd be different than the faces getting swerved by their mystery partner.
|
|