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Post by Trent Valentine on May 18, 2010 23:41:07 GMT -5
This gimmick has been given so much flack..but to be honest, I thought it was pretty cool. Why was it such a lame gimmick?
Douglas at least had some..decent feuds. He would even "Grade" his opponents matches in which he would fail them. He was able to get a victory over Razor Ramon which got him a IC Title match with HBK..which we know the story there..long story short, Douglas was sick of being treated as a joke and left WWF..never coming back.
But why do many view this gimmick as lame? Many forget this was in an era where it was "Cool to stay in School." So they created a character that people would hate..an arrogant know it all nerd who has the smarts to out think opponents such as Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels. Who know what would come if he had stayed.
Why was The Dean so bad?....class dismissed.
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Post by Todd Pettengill on May 18, 2010 23:50:53 GMT -5
awful
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smokinvokoun
Dennis Stamp
Daffy's Gonna Kill You
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Post by smokinvokoun on May 19, 2010 0:11:02 GMT -5
I didn't find it to be that bad. In an era where it's mostly young kids watching, kids that most likely hate school. You would think an evil teacher or principle would have massive heat if it was played right.
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smoot
Trap-Jaw
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Post by smoot on May 19, 2010 0:11:58 GMT -5
I read an interview where someone said Douglas was given permission to do two takes of a taped promo vs. Razor Ramon- one "their way" and one "his way".
The "Dean" promo, he did exactly the way they asked- stilted, overly-loquacious, kind of condescending. He then cut a 'clean' Douglas promo that brought the house down- even the camera crew were reportedly trying to stifle their laughter until the 'cut' was given...
...and they went with the stilted Dean Douglas promo anyway.
That in a nutshell summed up my problem with that. Hell, at that point, I'd never seen Douglas before- never HEARD of him. But you could tell he could be doing a lot more than a sort of Genius knockoff gimmick- but for some reason, this just wasn't allowed to happen.
(It was a while before WCW was a strong enough competitor to make this sort of 'just stick to plan' thing unworkable, too... but they did. )
Then there was the HBK thing, and then "Dean's" rather weird feud with Ahmed Johnson.
And then it was over, which was fine with me.
ETA: I so rarely get to use this, but Piper had a great comment about 'snooty genius' gimmicks: "Nobody ever said 'Come on, let's go watch wrestling, I hear they've got this really smart guy on this week!'."
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Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻
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Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻 on May 19, 2010 0:29:40 GMT -5
I read an interview where someone said Douglas was given permission to do two takes of a taped promo vs. Razor Ramon- one "their way" and one "his way". The "Dean" promo, he did exactly the way they asked- stilted, overly-loquacious, kind of condescending. He then cut a 'clean' Douglas promo that brought the house down- even the camera crew were reportedly trying to stifle their laughter until the 'cut' was given... ...and they went with the stilted Dean Douglas promo anyway. That in a nutshell summed up my problem with that. Hell, at that point, I'd never seen Douglas before- never HEARD of him. But you could tell he could be doing a lot more than a sort of Genius knockoff gimmick- but for some reason, this just wasn't allowed to happen. (It was a while before WCW was a strong enough competitor to make this sort of 'just stick to plan' thing unworkable, too... but they did. ) Then there was the HBK thing, and then "Dean's" rather weird feud with Ahmed Johnson. And then it was over, which was fine with me. ETA: I so rarely get to use this, but Piper had a great comment about 'snooty genius' gimmicks: "Nobody ever said 'Come on, let's go watch wrestling, I hear they've got this really smart guy on this week!'." I think RD said that in his first book, not Piper. Unless RD is ripping Piper off.
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on May 19, 2010 0:48:05 GMT -5
Yes the Dean Douglas gimmick was in fact terrible.
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Post by mongomcmichael on May 19, 2010 7:04:34 GMT -5
It was certainly Wrestlecrap. Think of it this way: it was like trying to make Sandman become an average, mild-mannered neighbor (see: Raven's family angle in WCW). The gimmick didn't match Douglas' persona at all. Just made him come off goofy.
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on May 19, 2010 7:08:34 GMT -5
It could have worked, give it to a technical wrestler, a guy like Curt Hennig, show him using strategy, complicated moves and chain wrestling, things like that, especially since the WWF has never emphasied that stuff, and you have a good, unique character who could be promoted as a threat, if not a headliner, a good upper mid card heel.
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Post by johnnyk9 on May 19, 2010 12:34:31 GMT -5
I thought it was great by WWF 1995 standards, I guess because I hated teachers at the time
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on May 19, 2010 13:24:48 GMT -5
It was a great character, and the only time I've ever come close to giving a hoot about Douglas. Whenever he's not in that character he's just completely trite and stereotypical "edgy" and dull... just grarr grarr swearword grar.
Got no clue on the source for this, but didn't he say once that he started tanking his "dean" promos on purpose because he didn't like the character? Well if so, there's your wrestlecrap: Shane Douglas the unprofessional baby.
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Dean-o
Grimlock
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Post by Dean-o on May 21, 2010 19:33:02 GMT -5
I only liked him because finally there was a wrestler named Dean.
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mrjl
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Posts: 20,319
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Post by mrjl on May 22, 2010 10:12:25 GMT -5
I read an interview where someone said Douglas was given permission to do two takes of a taped promo vs. Razor Ramon- one "their way" and one "his way". The "Dean" promo, he did exactly the way they asked- stilted, overly-loquacious, kind of condescending. He then cut a 'clean' Douglas promo that brought the house down- even the camera crew were reportedly trying to stifle their laughter until the 'cut' was given... ...and they went with the stilted Dean Douglas promo anyway. That in a nutshell summed up my problem with that. Hell, at that point, I'd never seen Douglas before- never HEARD of him. But you could tell he could be doing a lot more than a sort of Genius knockoff gimmick- but for some reason, this just wasn't allowed to happen. (It was a while before WCW was a strong enough competitor to make this sort of 'just stick to plan' thing unworkable, too... but they did. ) Then there was the HBK thing, and then "Dean's" rather weird feud with Ahmed Johnson. And then it was over, which was fine with me. ETA: I so rarely get to use this, but Piper had a great comment about 'snooty genius' gimmicks: "Nobody ever said 'Come on, let's go watch wrestling, I hear they've got this really smart guy on this week!'." Dean Douglas wasn't supposed to be funny. They didn't want kids laughing or anything like that. And part of Bob Backlund's Mr. Backlund character was him being a sart guy. In fact I've always thought part of the Dean Douglas character was based on Mr. Backlund. Certainly moreso than the Genius.
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Post by Aceorton on May 23, 2010 2:52:23 GMT -5
The classroom segments were stupid, but there was potential in the character. There was a Raw in October 1995, before the IYH pay-per-view, where Douglas and some other guys laid out HBK and friends to close the show.
Here you go:
Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart, & Yokozuna (w/ Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) defeated WWF World Champion Diesel, WWF IC Champion Shawn Michaels, & the Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) at 11:46 when Smith pinned Diesel after Diesel sustained a legdrop from Yokozuna behind the referee's back, moments after suffering Smith's running powerslam; after the match, Diesel, Michaels, and Taker were beaten down by their opponents, King Mabel, and Dean Douglas; in the ensuing brawl, the Undertaker sustained a broken eye socket at the hands of King Mabel which took him out of action for two months
It seemed like a huge feud was cooking where Douglas might even be a main-event player. Then the Kliq allegedly thought twice about how this was making them look. At the PPV, HBK (who'd been beaten by the Marines), forfeited the IC title to Douglas, who lost it later in the same show to Razor Ramon. By Survivor Series and the Wild Card match, Douglas had been made totally insignificant. A few weeks later, he was done.
I could be mistaken, but I believe the Raw beatdown where Douglas looked like a serious threat was one of Bill Watts' last booking moves before he left. I think I read that in a Douglas interview.
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