agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,870
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Post by agent817 on Jan 24, 2013 2:08:25 GMT -5
I am actually curious about this. During the first half of 2005, I think Heidenreich turned face and had a funny little angle going on with him finding friends, including kids from the audience. I am sure that the kids were plants but there is one thing I wonder about this little gimmick. Were there people who found the gimmick to be disturbing at all? Most people don't take too kindly to adults interacting with kids a certain way, even if it's totally harmless. I never really saw Heidenreich's gimmick as anything other than entertaining in some areas, so I took it for face value. But I am sure that there were people out there who misconstrued it as pedophilia.
What did you think of the angle? It couldn't have been as bad as implied rape to Michael Cole, right?
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Sparkybob
King Koopa
I have a status?
Posts: 11,001
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Post by Sparkybob on Jan 24, 2013 2:10:36 GMT -5
From what I vaguely remember from when I was watching it live I did not see any issues. I kinda enjoyed the angle and it even gave me reason to want Heidenreich on my tv screen.
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Post by thegame415 on Jan 24, 2013 2:16:02 GMT -5
I remember him reading a poem about farts, and then wandering around eating a chocolate bar, looking for friends.
I'd take this over a lot of the stuff they do today
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Jan 24, 2013 2:18:54 GMT -5
I think he was just supposed to be a manchild, like Eric Young in TNA.
I remember he came out with the giant chocolate bar in Hershey, PA randomly.
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Post by mjolnir on Jan 24, 2013 2:22:18 GMT -5
Before there was Little Jimmy, there was Little Johnny.
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DragonMasterP
King Koopa
I'd change my avatar, but beardless Luke Harper is too funny.
Posts: 12,018
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Post by DragonMasterP on Jan 24, 2013 3:05:25 GMT -5
All I remember was it leading to him teaming up with Road Warrior Animal and winning the tag titles.
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Rave
El Dandy
Perpetually Bored
Posts: 8,372
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Post by Rave on Jan 24, 2013 3:17:39 GMT -5
I could swear they were going to hire someone to play Little Johnny, but it fell through.
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Post by mjolnir on Jan 24, 2013 3:29:08 GMT -5
I could swear they were going to hire someone to play Little Johnny, but it fell through. Doubt it. It was supposed to a reference to his penis.
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Rave
El Dandy
Perpetually Bored
Posts: 8,372
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Post by Rave on Jan 24, 2013 4:11:22 GMT -5
I could swear they were going to hire someone to play Little Johnny, but it fell through. Doubt it. It was supposed to a reference to his penis. Now why would a guy willingly refer to his penis as "little"? I mean, I'm not a guy, but I'm at least somewhat familiar with the concept of male pride...
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,970
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Post by Mozenrath on Jan 24, 2013 4:58:28 GMT -5
I could swear they were going to hire someone to play Little Johnny, but it fell through. Doubt it. It was supposed to a reference to his penis. I think we were supposed to think it was, but if I recall, it was explained that it'd eventually lead to it being he his inner child, I think. It was dropped, at any rate, before anything concrete was said.
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lovingway
El Dandy
Crimson and Clover
Posts: 8,135
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Post by lovingway on Jan 24, 2013 5:10:54 GMT -5
I liked the angle it would have put him in a Santino/Khali/Brodus category which I was okay with.
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Sajoa Moe
Patti Mayonnaise
Did you get that thing I sent ya?
A man without gimmick.
Posts: 39,683
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Post by Sajoa Moe on Jan 24, 2013 7:38:18 GMT -5
The "Little Johnny" angle was way before that, when he was just "Jon Heidenreich on Sunday Night Heat". Even before the insane poet gimmick.
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Post by Hit Girl on Jan 24, 2013 8:44:36 GMT -5
It had a creepy "sorta-paedo" vibe to it.
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Jan 24, 2013 8:49:48 GMT -5
I think the payoff was him teaming up with Animal in the worst version of the Road Warriors ever.
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Jan 24, 2013 8:54:24 GMT -5
Doubt it. It was supposed to a reference to his penis. I think we were supposed to think it was, but if I recall, it was explained that it'd eventually lead to it being he his inner child, I think. It was dropped, at any rate, before anything concrete was said. from what I remember the plan was to introduce "little johnny" as a marionette of some kind, but the whole thing was dropped because everyone assumed he was talking about his penis.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2013 9:13:53 GMT -5
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Post by YeahYeahYeahYeahYeah on Jan 24, 2013 10:23:10 GMT -5
I almost forgot about this, haha! Thanks for posting the link!
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zeez
Patti Mayonnaise
Yeah. That's right.
Posts: 32,702
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Post by zeez on Jan 24, 2013 10:29:56 GMT -5
That's right. The giant chocolate bar with the most intensely constipated look on his face. That was pretty amusing.
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Crappler El 0 M
Dalek
Never Forgets an Octagon
I'm a good R-Truth.
Posts: 58,479
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on Jan 24, 2013 12:07:16 GMT -5
If I recall, Little Johnny was a totally separate thing that was done on Raw. The Heidenreich character the OP is talking about was on SmackDown.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 28,269
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Post by chazraps on Jan 24, 2013 16:47:30 GMT -5
Doubt it. It was supposed to a reference to his penis. I think we were supposed to think it was, but if I recall, it was explained that it'd eventually lead to it being he his inner child, I think. It was dropped, at any rate, before anything concrete was said. The truth is, we were supposed to think it was his penis, but it was in fact planned to be a small doll that represented his inner-child after suffering war trauma from serving in Iraq. It's one of those things that had potential to be genuinely moving if handled correctly, but the WWE scrapped once they lobbed one too many penis jokes at it for it to be taken seriously. I actually loved the "disasterpieces" poems/searching for friends Heidenreich. Not unlike creepy heel Snitsky, Heidenreich threw his all into the character and really made you want to root for him. With how largely brutal the WWE programming was at the time (Cena-JBL, Triple H-Batista, Angle-Booker, Rey-Eddie) it was nice to have some light-hearted midcard fun. I still think they should have had him take the belt from Orlando Jordan.
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