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Post by The Rick Jericho on Oct 15, 2023 14:17:04 GMT -5
As someone who did not watch the Black and Gold NXT era, I wanted to get an honest review of his work during this time.
First, does it still hold up? I've read a lot of people said his work was either really good back then or ahead of it's time. It had different shades of many characters of past. Then there was also his cos-playing entrances for each takeover.
But as time passes by, is his work really still hold up well or has it aged terribly to the point where it's just cringeworthy?
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Post by Lizuka #BLM on Oct 15, 2023 14:19:17 GMT -5
At a point he was pretty damn good, but he could lean way too hard into aping other people's spots (especially his baffling tendency to keep trying to do Hogan tributes during his big matches) and after he got injured he fell apart badly. Both in the ring and as a character he just flat out sucked when he came back.
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ayumidah
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Post by ayumidah on Oct 15, 2023 14:22:31 GMT -5
I would say probably the feud with Aleister would hold up better than anything, the feud with Ricochet, maybe his early run for the NA title. But between the backstage issues, and his back problems, things went south really badly after the Halftime Heat six man.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2023 14:28:57 GMT -5
He had alot of potential the dude was loaded with charisma and in ring ability
But this was before all THAT happened and he went away and then came back for a speal and pretty much lost alot of his in ring ability.
But before THAT there was not a single person not calling for his main roster call up and continued to keep wondering why the hell he was still stuck in NXT (this was a huge thing about black an gold at the time and their log jam of talent)
He even get a solid match out of EC3
His performances in ladder matches were always pretty stand out
His match with Aleister still stands as his best one with the Richochet match right there with it Prince Puma tights an all which was a great piece to that.
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chazraps
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Post by chazraps on Oct 15, 2023 14:36:19 GMT -5
His first year or so as Velveteen Dream was awful. He clearly wasn't a Prince fan and never actually understood Prince but tried to do what he thought was a Prince impression and it was unwatchable.
Then, when he moved from the Prince stuff into just being an eccentric it was good and he knew how to sports-entertain with high drama around his opponent's strengths. If he had one majority ability where he was "that good," it was him knowing how to work that character into accentuating his opponents' positives.
But holy shit I cannot watch any of his matches or prromos again at this particular moment and haven't been able to since everything came to light.
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A Little Doo Doo
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Post by A Little Doo Doo on Oct 15, 2023 14:38:08 GMT -5
He had all the potential in the world until that back injury. Also, that feud with Roderick Strong where he was supposed to be the face and put Roddy's son on his tights was disgusting.
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Post by koreycaskets on Oct 15, 2023 14:42:57 GMT -5
His entrance at Takeover Toronto was fun
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Post by Feargus McReddit on Oct 15, 2023 14:47:13 GMT -5
He had all the potential in the world until that back injury. Also, that feud with Roderick Strong where he was supposed to be the face and put Roddy's son on his tights was disgusting. And he was the face in that feud! As in, the good guy, the hero of the story, the man people were expected to go “He’s the guy we want to win the match!”
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Oct 15, 2023 14:52:32 GMT -5
There was a period where he was pretty good in the ring and character wise. Then he got hurt and spiraled out of control.
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Post by Hypnosis on Oct 15, 2023 14:52:42 GMT -5
Good up until the back injury, then his work and character suffered.
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A Little Doo Doo
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Post by A Little Doo Doo on Oct 15, 2023 14:53:14 GMT -5
He had all the potential in the world until that back injury. Also, that feud with Roderick Strong where he was supposed to be the face and put Roddy's son on his tights was disgusting. And he was the face in that feud! As in, the good guy, the hero of the story, the man people were expected to go “He’s the guy we want to win the match!” Something, something mindgames
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Chiral
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Post by Chiral on Oct 15, 2023 14:56:26 GMT -5
IMO he was great during the Aleister feud but then shortly after stated making the cosplay and spot homages way too much of his repertoire, and got sloppier and sloppier in ring before his injuries, then by the time he was back it just seemed like all the talent was gone.
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Post by Starshine on Oct 15, 2023 14:56:47 GMT -5
He had all the potential in the world until that back injury. Also, that feud with Roderick Strong where he was supposed to be the face and put Roddy's son on his tights was disgusting. That was also the feud where he was claiming he’d f***ed Roddy’s wife, when it was obvious he was lying which made him look like a total dork. It was pretty obvious that whatever input this guy had in his gimmick, he had some extremely bad ideas.
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A Little Doo Doo
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Post by A Little Doo Doo on Oct 15, 2023 15:00:17 GMT -5
He had all the potential in the world until that back injury. Also, that feud with Roderick Strong where he was supposed to be the face and put Roddy's son on his tights was disgusting. That was also the feud where he was claiming he’d f***ed Roddy’s wife, when it was obvious he was lying which made him look like a total dork. It was pretty obvious that whatever input this guy had in his gimmick, he had some extremely bad ideas. Dude got thrown off a building and he's talking about f***ing the guy's wife.
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Post by Rudy Gobert Fadeaway on Oct 15, 2023 15:06:01 GMT -5
I wanna punch myself in the face for watching the Backlot Brawl
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Post by bearned on Oct 15, 2023 15:20:06 GMT -5
The feud with Black was awesome and it felt like he had all the potential in the world.
Then he got injured, lost all his confidence and all that other unpleasantness happened.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Oct 15, 2023 15:53:46 GMT -5
His first year or so as Velveteen Dream was awful. He clearly wasn't a Prince fan and never actually understood Prince but tried to do what he thought was a Prince impression and it was unwatchable. Then, when he moved from the Prince stuff into just being an eccentric it was good and he knew how to sports-entertain with high drama around his opponent's strengths. If he had one majority ability where he was "that good," it was him knowing how to work that character into accentuating his opponents' positives. But holy shit I cannot watch any of his matches or prromos again at this particular moment and haven't been able to since everything came to light. If I remember correctly, before he made it onto TV he was throwing anything at the wall with characters. A pro-Trump character, tons of wild out there stuff, and it seems like the Prince tribute schtick really wasn't any real love or recognition for Prince, but a random attempt that landed a bit better than his other material, so it stuck. But it is kind of telling that he looked at Prince and saw from all of that little more than 'effeminate sex creep'
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Post by MrElijah on Oct 15, 2023 15:58:13 GMT -5
I wanna punch myself in the face for watching the Backlot Brawl And you'd think about insane brawl with Adam Cole would be at least very good.
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UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm
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Post by UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm on Oct 15, 2023 16:03:03 GMT -5
as others mentioned there is him injuring his back but i swear there are at least two different occasions where you could tell he had completely gotten into his own hype and became worse for it, even before the terrible shit
at one point though he was incredible
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Post by government mule on Oct 15, 2023 16:04:11 GMT -5
Pre-injury, I honestly thought he had all the tools to be the next megastar in the industry. Still obviously green as f*** in some of the really early stuff but the charisma was down from the off.
I personally thought the Rick Rude gimmick of having your rival on the tights as an antagonostic trait was genius and couldn't understand why no one else had really embraced this fully since (Roddy Strong stuff aside of course - that was gross in hindsight). The Aliester Black feud which revolved around getting Black to say his name is one of my favourite storylines of all time, mostly because of the simplicity of it.
His character didn't need a title either - he could have potentially carried so many fueds based purely on his obsession with others without the need for gold, as the Black fued proved.
But yeah, f*** him, he's absolutely a terrible human being. I got it wrong with him. What a f***ing waste.
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