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Wrestlers you like that others don't

Big Pete

Referee
Messages
29,115
Considering his age, Martel really was an impressive performer during his short stint in WCW. It would have been interesting to see what sort of year he would have had if he didn't get injured against Booker T at Superbrawl '98.

Hammer sucked and if he wasn't good pals with DDP he would have been let go way sooner than he was. However from what I understand, he's actually comes off as a pretty decent guy in shoot interviews. He owns up to his short-comings and has some pretty interesting stories during his time with WCW.
 

Big Pete

Referee
Messages
29,115
Kanyon is a good one.

Lance Storm i thought was quite a good worker too.

Here is one for everyone to debate. What about Ernest Miller? He was a gimmick to legitimise wrestling due to his martial arts background and not great in the ring but he seemed to be over throughout his run and was fairly entertaining.

Kanyon aka The Innovator of Violence has always been something of a cult hero among WCW fans. Maybe not as smooth as guys like Benoit or Eddie, but he was willing to take some big bumps and he wasn't afraid to change things up in the ring. I still remember a match he had against Booker sometime in '98 where he nearly killed himself doing a top rope move.

The Cat was one of my favourite performers when I was younger. He was a pretty awful in-ring performer, but in terms of personality, he was one of the better guys WCW had during their waning years.
 
Messages
15,131
The Miz, for a long time.
I have found him to be the most consistent performer who's also incredibly entertaining.

Recently people have started to turn around on him but there was a time when everyone seemed to hate him. I never did

Miz has always been very good. His problem was after he main evented Mania he needed a big story to keep him in the main event scene, which he had with the awesome truth until Truth violated the wellness policy. He kind of got lost in the shuffle after that, was stupidly turned face and never had a whole lot going on. As a heel he is great though and he is currently in excellent form. He made Talking Smack must see TV with some $$$$ promos.

He's certainly come along way from when he started and was brutally hazed by everyone because of his background.
 

Eelementary

Post Whore
Messages
57,211
TJ Perkins

Dude is a solid wrestler, but the crowd is deadset bored when he wrestles.

I like him, though.

Titus O'Neill cracks me up, but seems to struggle to get over.

Darren Young.

Fandango - he was over for a while, but the WWE Universe seems to be over him, which sucks, because he's talented, and charismatic.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
Colonel Robert Parker. He covered that southern gentile or absolute deranged redneck gimmick beautifully. I've watched back on some of his Smoky Mountain promos, absolute gold. He has the crowd in, dare I say it, pandemonium. I liked his slight tweet of gimmick to go from Haarlem Heat to the Amazing French Canadians.

Speaking of the Amazing French Canadians, any shout outs here for the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers? They were a really tidy act. Another one, One Man Gang, but I liked him as Akeem the African Dream. Air Akeem. So stupid looking back now but as I look back, I'm reminded as a kid that I thought it was awesome.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
Given the timing, it seemed like WCW were trying to capitilise on Rocky Maivia's push in the WWF by making their own 'second generation polynesian star'. The difference was, Rocky was obviously an amazing prospect who just needed the right material to get over. On top of that Iaukea wasn't even related to King Curtis Iaukea so the whole thing fell flat.

I know Sullivan has a different take and he could very well be telling the truth. Granted, he maybe talking about his work on the house shows but based on his television appearances, I always felt like Iaukea was one of the weaker workers on the roster. In my view it would have been better to have put the belt on Rey Mysterio Jr and positioned him as a star instead of a niche attraction.

In regards to Alex Wright, he was pretty impressive for somebody so young. However, it was clear that the German Pretty Boy gimmick was not going to work as a babyface and as a worker I don't think he knew how to bring the crowd into his matches. '97 is remembered as this all-time great year for WCW, but there are so many aspects of that year that really turn me off. Alex Wright beating Jericho for the Cruiserweight Championship ranks right up there. Wright offered next to nothing and all that title change achieved was diluting the lineage of the Cruiserweight Championship. In fairness, having Syxx drop the belt to Jericho at a House Show after he'd just defended it wasn't wise either.

WCW everybody.

As for Vampiro, he was one of my favourites when I was younger. Even though I wouldn't get into their music until later, I was a fan of the Misfit persona and thought it worked well in Pro Wrestling. However as I've gotten older and learned more about Vampiro my opinion of him has dimmed. Not necessarily because he can be a dick behind the scenes because really he's in good company, but because he really was one of the worst workers WCW got out of Mexico. Just an incredibly sloppy guy who didn't know the meaning of the word consistensy. A shame, because the guy became a superstar in Mexico, so you'd think he would have been able to get over in the States.

With that said, I did enjoy his interview on Austin's podcast way back in the day. If you haven't listened to it, it's well worth checking out. He's certainly had some life...

With Alex Wright, I think he could have been an important guy to the booker.

Firstly going to two and then three hours, and then introducing Thunder, often in the cruiserweight division they had a title feud and then random spot fests. Alex was a tremendous seller who transitions momentum well. So you could have him in secondary cruiserweight division programs.

I would use him as a jobber to the stars/bridge to the cruisers title. So he gets wins and when a new cruiserweight goes over him, it means something and puts them into the title scene.

The reason he's important is so few of the cruiserweights sold. He does. And through that it means the others offence becomes important and meaningful. Their character is therefore brushed out more.

I think the cruiserweight also needed to get wins against non cruisers. So the title holder should have mini feuds with say Hennig, Morrus, McMichael, and they should get wins. Sometimes the cruiserweight title was booked as an opening match attraction so it did little to elevate them. Holding the title should be prestigious like the old X Division. So someone like Wright can get wins against heavyweight midcarders and then get rolled by cruisers which therefore means the whole vanilla midget theory gets blown away.
 
Messages
2,839
Yeah my boys and I were big Wrath fans too, it was always interesting to us that he was this tacky Toxic Crusader ripoff in the WWF but a f**king killer in WCW...we were all big time Attitude marks but WCW had the guys that captivated our interest the most between 1997 and 1998.

We were big time Mortal Kombat fans, so.him, Mortis and Glacier were awesome to us. Also Muta, who.is universally loved, but we would actively hunt down info online and in PWI about, as well as old WCW tapes at the local video stores.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
Will you stop!

He was good. Played brilliantly with Ventura and Heenan.

Before Bischoff fed Skeeovarnie with lines, I liked Tony. He had a lot of passion for wrestling. Especially when he rocked his 1980s Tom Selleck saviour flavourer soup strainer. That was badass.
 
Messages
2,839
retro Vince

"whaddamanuvahhhh" (was great when CM Punk brought that up in his pipebomb too)
"1, 2 and he got him - no he didn't"
 

Valheru

Coach
Messages
19,205
Speaking of the waning years of WCW, I'll put my hand up and say I enjoyed the Tank Abbott and 3 count stuff.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
Yeah on WWE Network on their list they have both MIA and 3 Count on their worst stables list. 3 Counts gimmick was great for the time. Their only issue again was spot monkeyitis. Tell a story boys! It was also the only time Tank Abbott was interesting.

MIA helped get Hugh Morrus and for a brief period Booker more attention. Again, a good thing.

That list was whack. It should have had No Limit Soldiers, Los Barickas or whatever they were called, maybe OWN, amongst others.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
Have I said Sonny Onoo?

Brilliant comic Foreign heel manager. Sonny is Japanese American and very rarely would break into his American accent. Mean Gene would pick up on it and Onoo would revert to broken English "oh no me how you say Rapanese Businessman".

Best moment. He brings out Masahiro Chono on Nitro. Genes there. Sonny pulls back his jacket to show a New Japan shirt. Chono likewise but he's wearing a nWo shirt. Chono says something in Japanese and Gene asks what did he say, so Onoo repeats it in Japanese... "tell me in English you moron!"
 

Big Pete

Referee
Messages
29,115
Yeah...Sonny Onoo is all yours, Feka.

The only time I enjoyed him was when he was saddled up with Ernest Miller. Their routine where Onoo would give him his 'special shoes' was a crack up and made Miller stand out.

Otherwise, the walking talking stereotype did nothing for me. Especially when they'd saddle him up with some amazing Puro talent who all became dastardly heels under his tutelage. It was such a waste of quality talent.
 
Messages
23,967
I really like Oney Lorcan at the moment, even if he is a jobber to the stars on NXT & 205 Live. I think the fact he's seemingly the only guy on either show not to do some kind of tope helps him stand out, plus his "snug" work looks legit tough.
 

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