Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Sept 23, 2012 11:33:34 GMT -5
The true greats of this industry have been a combination of circumstances and push.
But if you push someone right, then you can honestly turn shit into gold.
I think that Batista's Douchetista run (still one of my favourite heels ever) showed that he was underrated both in ring and on the mic, but in the ring he definitely wasn't amazing, but then Hogan didn't need to be amazing either. On the mic, if he was a babyface, Batista generally sucked.
But he is a perfect example of how a slow burning push can make a star who was over pretty much from that point onwards.
The seeds were sown for him turning on Triple H very early, but it took months and months of build before he actually turned on Trips and challenged for the belt, and when he did finally win the belt he was a solidified babyface.
He was then over for his entire career. Aside from moments like the Hammerstein Ballroom, Bats was over like rover - and what I've been saying for years now is that if a guy is safe in the ring and over, absolutely nothing else matters, because if he sucks but is still over (see also: Khali) then book them.
Other wrestlers have had similar runs. Guys like Hogan and Rock and Austin moved through midcards (in various promotions in Hogan's case) and then the fans just caught on, and even then they weren't hot-shotted right to the top.
Batista debuted in 2002 with a dumb Deacon gimmick behind Reverend D'Von, and it took him three years before he got the title (which is slow in this day and age).
It meant that when he finally did get the title, he was solidified as a main eventer for the rest of his career.
There's not really been anyone since that has had the same kind of slow, lengthy push that eventually paid off. Sheamus is a solidified main eventer now, but loads of people hated him when he first got the belt, his booking sucked quite often and many people these days still hate him in different cities for the Daniel Bryan thing. Ziggler has been losing main event matches for years now and has one world title run that no one gives a shit about.
No one since has really had the same kind of push and logical character progression, that same one that Austin, Rock and Hogan took, even the lesser 'big' stars like Jericho or Foley.
I suppose you could make an argument for Edge, but his title win was out of nowhere, it wasn't a long, slow-burning telegraphed push in the same way and his main event level of overness mostly sprang from his real-life issues with Matt. To Edge's credit he took the ball and ran with it, but it wasn't really sane booking that got him there.
No one else since Batista has had that kind of booking that slowly took him to where he needed to be, and solidified him there for the rest of his career.
But if you push someone right, then you can honestly turn shit into gold.
I think that Batista's Douchetista run (still one of my favourite heels ever) showed that he was underrated both in ring and on the mic, but in the ring he definitely wasn't amazing, but then Hogan didn't need to be amazing either. On the mic, if he was a babyface, Batista generally sucked.
But he is a perfect example of how a slow burning push can make a star who was over pretty much from that point onwards.
The seeds were sown for him turning on Triple H very early, but it took months and months of build before he actually turned on Trips and challenged for the belt, and when he did finally win the belt he was a solidified babyface.
He was then over for his entire career. Aside from moments like the Hammerstein Ballroom, Bats was over like rover - and what I've been saying for years now is that if a guy is safe in the ring and over, absolutely nothing else matters, because if he sucks but is still over (see also: Khali) then book them.
Other wrestlers have had similar runs. Guys like Hogan and Rock and Austin moved through midcards (in various promotions in Hogan's case) and then the fans just caught on, and even then they weren't hot-shotted right to the top.
Batista debuted in 2002 with a dumb Deacon gimmick behind Reverend D'Von, and it took him three years before he got the title (which is slow in this day and age).
It meant that when he finally did get the title, he was solidified as a main eventer for the rest of his career.
There's not really been anyone since that has had the same kind of slow, lengthy push that eventually paid off. Sheamus is a solidified main eventer now, but loads of people hated him when he first got the belt, his booking sucked quite often and many people these days still hate him in different cities for the Daniel Bryan thing. Ziggler has been losing main event matches for years now and has one world title run that no one gives a shit about.
No one since has really had the same kind of push and logical character progression, that same one that Austin, Rock and Hogan took, even the lesser 'big' stars like Jericho or Foley.
I suppose you could make an argument for Edge, but his title win was out of nowhere, it wasn't a long, slow-burning telegraphed push in the same way and his main event level of overness mostly sprang from his real-life issues with Matt. To Edge's credit he took the ball and ran with it, but it wasn't really sane booking that got him there.
No one else since Batista has had that kind of booking that slowly took him to where he needed to be, and solidified him there for the rest of his career.
