Post by invaderdave on Feb 7, 2007 13:28:06 GMT -5
I can't find the page to update it, and since I was really bored, and had nothing else to do, I figured I'd drag this back to fruition. I'm sure nobody cares anymore, but I want to finish what I started. Even if it takes another half of my life.
THE LIST SO FAR:
47. Blitzkrieg
46. Mr. Aguila
45. Crowbar
44. Sho Funaki
43. Billy Kidman
42. James Gibson
41. Shark Boy
40. Teddy Hart
39. Sonjay Dutt
38. TAKA Michinoku
37. Mike Quackenbush
36. Jeff Hardy
35. Petey Williams
34. The Amazing Red
33. Kaz Hayashi
32. Jody Fleisch
31. Juventud Guerrera
30. Jack Evans
29. Matt Sydal
28. Chris Sabin
27. Jimmy Yang
26. Shane Helms
25. Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
24. Austin Aries
23. Spanky
22. 2 Cold Scorpio
21. Sean Waltman
20. Rob Van Dam
19. El Hijo de El Santo(robbed of an entry btw)
18. Super Crazy
17. Tajiri
16. Dean Malenko
15. Hayabusa
14. AJ Styles
13. Jerry Lynn
So that's twelve wrestlers left. If I can force myself to do two per day, I can finish this in six days. Of course, this will never happen. But it's nice to know that I have options!
I won't pull any punches. This induction is going to end in anger. And you'll know when you find out that...
Number 12...Paul London
Look unto him, for he is our savior...or would be, had things gone right.
Paul London (and that's his real name) was born in 1980, the year of Pat Benatar and Blondie. And Airplane. And Empire. Damn that was a good year...
London did some stuff in his life, such as...I dunno, but he probably did some neat stuff. All I ever did was stay home and eat Doritos. But can you blame me? Who resists the call of Doritos...
London graduates high school, and goes to college, like I should be doing, but am not. I'm so pathetic...DON'T LOOK AT ME! While in college, London began his training as a wrestler in a nearby school. And what school was that? None other than the Texas Wrestling Academy, run by Shawn Michaels.
While we're here, we might as well clear this up; as with most wrestler run training schools, often times the wrestler won't really show up to train you specifically, instead taking on a few "special" students. Paul London did not receive full training from Shawn Michaels, he was trained by Rudy Boy Gonzalez. If he did get training from Michaels, it wasn't for very long. However, TWA IS where Paul met Brian Kendrick. Remember that, that's important later.
Paul's debut was in 1999, and even then, it wasn't in anything important, mainly for shows run by TWA, and in the really unimportant indies. You know the ones. The kind that PWI won't even sneeze at.
Paul's first, uh...exposure, I guess, was as a plant during a Smackdown episode, as a part of Undertaker/Flair's WM 18 angle, playing an audience member that Flair accidentally hit and was arrested for. Whoopdee ding dong do, right?
But here comes the fun stuff. TWA sends a few of their guys to Ring of Honor, one of whom is...anyone? Anyone? Paul London, that's right. Paul debuted in ROH on March 30, 2002, defeating Chris Marvel, apparently only because Marvel was injured during the match. Not a particularly stellar debut, but at least he's there...
So London starts to build a bit of a rep. He had good matches, and that's all fun n' good, but, who cares? Soon enough, we learned to care, because...
September 21, 2002, Paul London faced Michael Shane (Matt Bentley) in a Street Fight, in maybe the first classic of his career. London went all out, strutting his stuff, head-scissoring Shane off the apron through a table, diving off a ladder while Shane tried to make a getaway, and of course, the Shooting Star Press, broken ladder n' all.
So now London's star is on the rise. Good things happen. London is featured in all sorts of matches for the Number 1 Contender's trophy, people are starting to look forward to his matches, he even challenged people for the ROH Title at times, and also he wrestled a 2/3 Falls match with Bryan Danielson that was pretty much the greatest match ever...at that point (and you'll find out why soon).
London also won the Super 8 Tournament, and that's always fun.
London even makes an appearance in NWA TNA (back when it was called that), in a failed attempt at Chris Sabin's X-Division Championship. Hey, remember when Sabin was a GOOD heel? I do!
And this deserves it's own paragraph. June 14, 2003. Night of the Grudges. AJ Styles. Paul London. Also, Alexis Laree was there. BEST. MATCH. IN THE WORLD. EVER. If you've never seen it, see it.
The set up was that the two were battling for the Number One Contender's trophy, and AJ had something to prove as in a previous encounter (that featured Low-Ki, and was also a heart-stopping classic), AJ had fallen to London's Shooting Star Press, however, prone because Ki had stunned him with a Ki Krusher. It was on. Who's the REAL best high flyer in America? London or Styles? London or Styles? Star Pressing London? Or Styles Clashing Styles?
Well the world didn't get to find out then, because the match ended in a draw. I'm still waiting for the rematch...
London was awared a title shot anyway, as the next match in Ring of Honor, his FINAL match in Ring of Honor, was against Samoa Joe, during his long-tights days (I think). And also Joe was champ, that's cool. In a super good, but not as good as his last match match, London fell to Joe's...Joe-ness, and took ten minutes of mic time to say goodbye to the fans and his friends, as the fellow wrestlers sat around him, ready to say goodbye. London was WWE bound...
Unfortunately. Paul debuted wrestling Brock Lesnar in a "tryout" match, losing horribly. Welcome to the WWE, Paul!
That was basically his first six months. Losing. He'd tag with Spanky from time to time, and they'd lose a bit, but when they did, they made it count, with the double team finish I miss the most, the Get Well Soon. Come back! PLEASE COME BACK!
Summer of '04, Spanky is gone, and London is tagging with Billy Kidman. London and Kidman manage to snatch the titles away from The Dudley Boyz, and it looks like things are going good for London maybe!
NAY. For Kidman, whom was never good at the SSP anyway, botched his own finishing move, and almost crushed Chavo Guerrero's head. Afterwards, Kidman's botchery was made into an angle where he was too afraid to hit the move in fear of hurting someone again. So much so to the point that it costs him and London their titles.
No Mercy comes, and London, in his first honest to goodness very good match in WWE, does not get revenge on Kidman, instead missing his own SSP, leaving him prone to Kidman's SSP. Watching the two trade the gainer back to back, you got a handle of who did the move better, big time.
So, London goes back to Velocity duty, and...he meets Akio. For three straight matches, both men pull out the stops, and the two were pretty much my only reasons for watching WWE during '04 and '05. Of course, that couldn't last, as Akio was "let go".
London won the Cruiserweight Title at one point. It was nice, but there wasn't a whole lot to it...he had like one PPV defense against Chavo Guerrero. He then lost it for complaining about the ban on top rope moves. Vince McMahon can be a total douche sometimes.
But things are looking up, cuz Spanky returned! Facing eachother in his first match back, soon after, London and he begin to team up again, and it was good. For a while. Because they jobbed. Like a LOT. I think they just gave them the tag titles because they felt so damn sorry for them. And they let them keep the titles because they don't even have a team they trust enough to put the titles on.
So, Londrick, though a nice thing, have pretty much wrestled the same match for weeks. Months maybe. They start off good, get beat down, FACE COMEBACK. It's all nice n' stuff, but man...lets break up the monotony please. Put some length on those matches! Put 'em in a cage or something! Stop jobbing them out to teams that aren't even going to work out in the long run!
...I guess that's it. So maybe I wasn't angry at the end, but I was pensievely annoyed. Or something...
And that's your London induction.
THE LIST SO FAR:
47. Blitzkrieg
46. Mr. Aguila
45. Crowbar
44. Sho Funaki
43. Billy Kidman
42. James Gibson
41. Shark Boy
40. Teddy Hart
39. Sonjay Dutt
38. TAKA Michinoku
37. Mike Quackenbush
36. Jeff Hardy
35. Petey Williams
34. The Amazing Red
33. Kaz Hayashi
32. Jody Fleisch
31. Juventud Guerrera
30. Jack Evans
29. Matt Sydal
28. Chris Sabin
27. Jimmy Yang
26. Shane Helms
25. Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
24. Austin Aries
23. Spanky
22. 2 Cold Scorpio
21. Sean Waltman
20. Rob Van Dam
19. El Hijo de El Santo(robbed of an entry btw)
18. Super Crazy
17. Tajiri
16. Dean Malenko
15. Hayabusa
14. AJ Styles
13. Jerry Lynn
So that's twelve wrestlers left. If I can force myself to do two per day, I can finish this in six days. Of course, this will never happen. But it's nice to know that I have options!
I won't pull any punches. This induction is going to end in anger. And you'll know when you find out that...
Number 12...Paul London
Look unto him, for he is our savior...or would be, had things gone right.
Paul London (and that's his real name) was born in 1980, the year of Pat Benatar and Blondie. And Airplane. And Empire. Damn that was a good year...
London did some stuff in his life, such as...I dunno, but he probably did some neat stuff. All I ever did was stay home and eat Doritos. But can you blame me? Who resists the call of Doritos...
London graduates high school, and goes to college, like I should be doing, but am not. I'm so pathetic...DON'T LOOK AT ME! While in college, London began his training as a wrestler in a nearby school. And what school was that? None other than the Texas Wrestling Academy, run by Shawn Michaels.
While we're here, we might as well clear this up; as with most wrestler run training schools, often times the wrestler won't really show up to train you specifically, instead taking on a few "special" students. Paul London did not receive full training from Shawn Michaels, he was trained by Rudy Boy Gonzalez. If he did get training from Michaels, it wasn't for very long. However, TWA IS where Paul met Brian Kendrick. Remember that, that's important later.
Paul's debut was in 1999, and even then, it wasn't in anything important, mainly for shows run by TWA, and in the really unimportant indies. You know the ones. The kind that PWI won't even sneeze at.
Paul's first, uh...exposure, I guess, was as a plant during a Smackdown episode, as a part of Undertaker/Flair's WM 18 angle, playing an audience member that Flair accidentally hit and was arrested for. Whoopdee ding dong do, right?
But here comes the fun stuff. TWA sends a few of their guys to Ring of Honor, one of whom is...anyone? Anyone? Paul London, that's right. Paul debuted in ROH on March 30, 2002, defeating Chris Marvel, apparently only because Marvel was injured during the match. Not a particularly stellar debut, but at least he's there...
So London starts to build a bit of a rep. He had good matches, and that's all fun n' good, but, who cares? Soon enough, we learned to care, because...
September 21, 2002, Paul London faced Michael Shane (Matt Bentley) in a Street Fight, in maybe the first classic of his career. London went all out, strutting his stuff, head-scissoring Shane off the apron through a table, diving off a ladder while Shane tried to make a getaway, and of course, the Shooting Star Press, broken ladder n' all.
So now London's star is on the rise. Good things happen. London is featured in all sorts of matches for the Number 1 Contender's trophy, people are starting to look forward to his matches, he even challenged people for the ROH Title at times, and also he wrestled a 2/3 Falls match with Bryan Danielson that was pretty much the greatest match ever...at that point (and you'll find out why soon).
London also won the Super 8 Tournament, and that's always fun.
London even makes an appearance in NWA TNA (back when it was called that), in a failed attempt at Chris Sabin's X-Division Championship. Hey, remember when Sabin was a GOOD heel? I do!
And this deserves it's own paragraph. June 14, 2003. Night of the Grudges. AJ Styles. Paul London. Also, Alexis Laree was there. BEST. MATCH. IN THE WORLD. EVER. If you've never seen it, see it.
The set up was that the two were battling for the Number One Contender's trophy, and AJ had something to prove as in a previous encounter (that featured Low-Ki, and was also a heart-stopping classic), AJ had fallen to London's Shooting Star Press, however, prone because Ki had stunned him with a Ki Krusher. It was on. Who's the REAL best high flyer in America? London or Styles? London or Styles? Star Pressing London? Or Styles Clashing Styles?
Well the world didn't get to find out then, because the match ended in a draw. I'm still waiting for the rematch...
London was awared a title shot anyway, as the next match in Ring of Honor, his FINAL match in Ring of Honor, was against Samoa Joe, during his long-tights days (I think). And also Joe was champ, that's cool. In a super good, but not as good as his last match match, London fell to Joe's...Joe-ness, and took ten minutes of mic time to say goodbye to the fans and his friends, as the fellow wrestlers sat around him, ready to say goodbye. London was WWE bound...
Unfortunately. Paul debuted wrestling Brock Lesnar in a "tryout" match, losing horribly. Welcome to the WWE, Paul!
That was basically his first six months. Losing. He'd tag with Spanky from time to time, and they'd lose a bit, but when they did, they made it count, with the double team finish I miss the most, the Get Well Soon. Come back! PLEASE COME BACK!
Summer of '04, Spanky is gone, and London is tagging with Billy Kidman. London and Kidman manage to snatch the titles away from The Dudley Boyz, and it looks like things are going good for London maybe!
NAY. For Kidman, whom was never good at the SSP anyway, botched his own finishing move, and almost crushed Chavo Guerrero's head. Afterwards, Kidman's botchery was made into an angle where he was too afraid to hit the move in fear of hurting someone again. So much so to the point that it costs him and London their titles.
No Mercy comes, and London, in his first honest to goodness very good match in WWE, does not get revenge on Kidman, instead missing his own SSP, leaving him prone to Kidman's SSP. Watching the two trade the gainer back to back, you got a handle of who did the move better, big time.
So, London goes back to Velocity duty, and...he meets Akio. For three straight matches, both men pull out the stops, and the two were pretty much my only reasons for watching WWE during '04 and '05. Of course, that couldn't last, as Akio was "let go".
London won the Cruiserweight Title at one point. It was nice, but there wasn't a whole lot to it...he had like one PPV defense against Chavo Guerrero. He then lost it for complaining about the ban on top rope moves. Vince McMahon can be a total douche sometimes.
But things are looking up, cuz Spanky returned! Facing eachother in his first match back, soon after, London and he begin to team up again, and it was good. For a while. Because they jobbed. Like a LOT. I think they just gave them the tag titles because they felt so damn sorry for them. And they let them keep the titles because they don't even have a team they trust enough to put the titles on.
So, Londrick, though a nice thing, have pretty much wrestled the same match for weeks. Months maybe. They start off good, get beat down, FACE COMEBACK. It's all nice n' stuff, but man...lets break up the monotony please. Put some length on those matches! Put 'em in a cage or something! Stop jobbing them out to teams that aren't even going to work out in the long run!
...I guess that's it. So maybe I wasn't angry at the end, but I was pensievely annoyed. Or something...
And that's your London induction.
