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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW–07.18.94

The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 07.18.94

Taped from Bushkill, PA.

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Randy Savage

Intercontinental title: Diesel v. Lex Luger

One of the advantages of the squash era is that you’d frequently get cool matches like this where they’ve never really interacted before and thus it’s a totally fresh matchup. The backstory with the Luger deal is pretty intriguing, as they’re establishing that he’s so desperate to be the champion that he might have signed with Dibiase to accomplish it. Sadface of the week: Joey Marella referees this match, two weeks after dying in a horrific car accident. I’m guessing that would make this his final appearance. Kind of puts them in a weird position because if they pay tribute to him, they have to admit that this show was taped two weeks before. So how does that work if last week’s show was “live”? Clearly it was taped before Marella died on July 4. Diesel overpowers Luger and pounds away on the back, but Luger comes back with a powerslam for two. Lex slugs him to the floor and Diesel stops for advice from Shawn. That advice? “Find Jesus and marry a hot dancer if you want to revive your career again.” Back in, Diesel puts Lex on the floor via a big boot and slams him out there, and we take a break. Back with Snake Eyes (a rare case where the WCW name for a move carried over and became the “generic” one) and Nash chokes him out on the ropes. That gets two, and we hit the chinlock. Luger fights out, but walks into a big boot, and Diesel drops the elbow for two. Big Kev with the sleeper, but Luger powers out, so Diesel runs him into the corner and goes back to it. Nice little counter there. Shawn goes over to the timekeeper and tells him to RING THE BELL, but obviously you can’t just go over to the timekeeper and tell him to do that! When has THAT ever worked? Luger fights out and makes the comeback with a DDT for two, and goes up with a flying clothesline for two. Blind charge hits boot and the ref gets bumped, so Shawn runs in and superkicks Luger so that Diesel can get two. They slug it out and Razor Ramon joins us to get rid of Shawn, and it’s a donnybrook at 18:09. It wasn’t Hart-Kid or anything, but Nash was working hard and it was a good basic power match that was a nice change of pace from last week. ***1/4 And of course, Luger blows it again in a title match.

Mabel v. Austin Steele

Mabel whips Steele around and he actually does a Flair Flip, but that gets him nowhere. Steele does all the goofy Flair spots (begging off, yelling in pain during the knucklelock) and even a Flair Flop before the Bossman slam finishes at 2:20. Dude, you’re no Flair. You’re barely even Buddy Landell.

Summerslam Report with Todd, as he announces Hart v. Hart in the cage match.

Owen Hart v. Reno Riggins

Reno actually holds his own on the mat as they exchange hammerlocks, so a frustrated Owen stomps him down and sends him into the corner. Reno escapes a chinlock and slugs away, but Owen puts him down with a belly to belly and finishes with the Sharpshooter at 3:00.

Thurman Plugg (His Friends Call Him Sparky) v. George South

It’s the quality Crockett jobbers this week! Sparky with the headlock to control, and he takes South down with a flying headscissors, but South gets some offense in the corner before running into an elbow. Plugg goes up with a bodypress to finish at 3:00.

Todd Pettingill recaps the Undertaker story so far, which still makes no sense.

Bam Bam Bigelow v. Gary Sabbaugh

The Stallion fires away in the corner as JR brings up his World Spaghetti Eating Champion status, but Bigelow is unimpressed by pasta consumption and beats him down. Back elbow gets two. Bammer misses a charge and Sabbaugh throws clotheslines, but walks into a powerslam and Bigelow finishes with a cobra sleeper into a bulldog at 3:00.

Ted Dibiase has a shocking announcement this weekend, which draws out Tatanka to accuse Luger of selling out. Dibiase thinks he’s just jealous, and offers him $10,000 if he can beat Volkoff next week. Hope the Reddit guy doesn’t wreck the odds on that one.

Good squashes this week from a series of professional jobbers, plus the main event was solid. A surprising highlight of the year thus far.

Next week: Adam Bomb v. Yokozuna and Tatanka v. Nikolai Volkoff! Both of those sound awful! Just awful!

Comments

  1. The Luger/DiBiase/Tatanka storyline was pretty cool.

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  2. Had he stayed, Luger would've been a good Jim Cornette management candidate, along with Vader/Owen/Bulldog.

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  3. Honest question: could WWE realistically return to a squash era kind of show?

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  4. Can't happen during this current fancycle. Ratings mean too much to their future revenue (and flat ratings cost them during the negotiations on the current TV deal). They can't risk something that would permanently shrink the TV audience even if they could guarantee that other business metrics (PPV buys, network subscriptions, attendance) stayed static.

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  5. I think squashes could have their place now. This past Monday for example; there's no reason a couple of guys from the local indy couldn't have faced Rose and Dallas instead of wasting the non-botch Sin Cara and Damien Sandow. (Is he working a "Master of Disguise" gimmick?) Lord knows it was working for Ryback.

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  6. No never. Much like ppvs and kayfabe the cat is out of the bag.

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  7. Why does Adam Bomb vs Yokozuna sound awful? Shpuld be a pretty good match!

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  8. They could do it for Superstars or Main Event!

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  9. I've been saying for a while that sq

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  10. I agree that Adam Bomb was an underated worker, but he usually worked better with smaller talented guys not big men.

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  11. Then they wouldn't need guys like Ziggler or Kofi Kingston anymore. ;-)

    The stars would look better, and the special events would be more interesting, BUT they could and they do use guys like Kingston or 3MB for the job job and so... what is better: To sqush Gary Sabbaugh or to squash Kofi Kingston?

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  12. No, nor should they.

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  13. I actually liked it, but in the long run it could have been better if Luger had indeed sold out. Maybe he would have stayed with the WWF instead of going to the WCW.



    If Luger would have sold out, he could have gotten the World Title Match against Bret Hart and maybe he would have been Champion until Wrestlemania for maybe a rematch or Diesel could have won the Rumble building to a Diesel vs HBK Match at Summer Slam with HBK staying heel and winning the KOTR Tournament.



    If if if...;-)

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  14. Yeah the feud started well, but didn't age well because it ended with Tatanka being a jobber and it looked like Luger was being punished by working with him. If the feud had built to something bigger, like Luger winning the title like you said then the feud would have been remembered more fondly.

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  15. "Todd Pettingill recaps the Undertaker story so far, which still makes no sense."

    Ho Ho Dot Pickingnose (as I dubbed you on my VHS tape of this show). Just wait until Lesie Nielsen, shall we say, "closes the case". Heh... heheheheheh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    Ha...

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  16. It made more sense for Luger to turn than it did for Tatanka. It was a nice swerve but once the initial shock wore off it's still Tatanka.

    Luger will always have his epic U.S. title reign from 89-91

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  17. Exactly. It can't be a parade of squashes but there is plenty of time to sneak a few in here and there.

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  18. Has Jobbers ever been kayfabe explained? Why was the WWF employing these guys who could never get a win? why were all these Superstars forced to go out and wrestle people that wouldn't raise their stock if they won but would hurt them greatly if they lost?

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  19. I thought it made less sense from the Jobbers' point of view. why get beaten half to death every single week? YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE A SUPERSTAR. Stop getting beaten up within an inch of your life! At least for the top guys, squashing a jobber meant an easy payday, and a near off night.

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  20. Still no idea why that guy wasn't pushed any harder, either in the WWF or WCW. An agile big man with an impressive look, sounds like Vince's dream.

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  21. Yeah he was one of my favorites as a kid. I can sort of understand why he wasn't pushed in his WWF run because WWF were busy trying to push other guys, but in WCW, at a time when they desperately needed to make new stars and Wrath was getting huge pops, there was absolutely no reason for them to have pushed him to the top.

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  22. Wasn't there some story with him and Nash?

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  23. Yep, I absolutely 100% understand Nash beating him (the whole point of Wrath's streak was to build Nash up as a streak killer), but... they just totally forgot about him after. Does 1 loss really ruin a career? Just give him a few big PPV wins to get his momentum back. but Nope! That was it!

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  24. My all time favorite Tatanka promo

    "I'll take that bet" "Yeah, I'll take that bet" "I'll take that bet"


    That got a lot of mileage with my wrestling friends back in 94.

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  25. Agreed, this is one time they should have went with the obvious.

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  26. That's the thing, unefeated streaks are great but that first lost can really hurt your aura. After the first loss, you really need to cut a great promo or have a great match to get fans on your side again. So long as fans are emotionally invested in the streak, you have to keep the streak going until fans decide they care about someone else more. It wasn't the right time to end Wrath's streak because his popularity was still growing by the week and it's that type of booking that can kill of a small part of your fanbase.

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  27. True...though I guess from the jobber prospective its almost like being a training partner for a mma star or boxer..or being some journeyman who gets paid for making an up and comer or over the hill star look good.

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  28. I kind of find it funny how these days, any time a challenger is built strongly to feed to a top guy, there is now major backlash as to how the challenger gets killed off, and they had a chance to make a star (Wrath was one, Ryback 2 years ago is another example). Think back in the 70's and 80's, the formula was always to build up a super strong heel, to feed to either Bruno/Pedro/Backlund/Hogan. Now, it's always "Had that guy beaten the champ, they could have had a new star"


    Totally different eras, I guess. Just wanted to point it out!

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  29. From a real life perspective, sure. But from a kayfabe perspective, getting splashed by Mabel and Tombstoned by Taker every week can't be good for the body!

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  30. I think the difference is that there was other organizations and going even further back there were territories. You could build a guy up to be fed to Hogan and then he could get some midcard work to ride out his contract and then go to Crockett or AWA or somewhere else to be repackaged. Now whit no where to go and with so little new talent on the top of the card we are always desperate for the new Stone cold or Goldberg or...anything that we hope any guy with a little bit of skill that gets a push will break through.



    Not Ryback though, hated everything about that guy.

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  31. That just makes me think of the Jobber story lines Russo would have come up with if he was around in 94. Jobbers Strike, jobbers demanding health care...

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  32. Scott mentioned this before. The old way of doing things worked better because you could build up a killer heel to feed to Hogan and once Hogan beats them, WWF still protected the guy so he could go on and headline b-shows.

    The problem with the booking in today's WWE is that when they build somebody up, like Ryback as you said and once he suffers that first loss, he pretty much went to Jobbersville afterwards.

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  33. Don't know if anything happened exactly but Clark is pretty vocal about his dislike for the Kliq, much like every other WWF wrestler during the 90s.

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  34. I was just getting back into wrestling at the time so I have to ask, was anyone actually buying into Ryback though or was it more...hey something new? I couldn't stand him because he felt so fake to me. Right or wrong the Goldberg comparison was there and say what you will about Goldberg the guy looked like he could kick your ass and did some moves that look like...they would hurt your ass.

    Ryback was (and I understand a lot of this was surely management but still) to busy getting his catch phrase over and doing his little high step to be bothered with actually beating the shit out of his opponent.

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  35. Maybe they could have formed a squad of some sort!!

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  36. Yep, that's the advantage of the era of Jobbers. That guy who just lost to Hogan can just squash the Duane Gills of the world for 3 months, and still look good. It's simply impossible to do anymore, as they need competitive matches to keep the ratings at bay, and well, someone has to lose.

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  37. ............k you got me I had blocked that out ..though in fairness this would have been done with actual jobbers not...well.. blue meanie and sparky plug...nevermind

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  38. I'd say Ryback was smart in the way he got himself over. All the successful wrestlers have gotten over because they were more interested in getting their character over rather than having a great match so I have to give kudos to the gy in that respect.

    And yeah Ryback was getting over because he looked cool with the RVD singlet and he was booked like a winner. It's hard not to get over when you have that going for you. The only fault I had with it was that they should have built Ryback up more slowly. He basically squashed US champion (or IC I forget) The Miz in 500 non-title matches and out the blue was announced as Punk's next challenger. They could have easily ridden the Ryback train for a year longer, by building him up as a top contender for the US or IC title, have him win that belt in dominant fashion, continue his win streak until he decides he wants to go after the world champion.

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  39. Yep, Cena's injury made him jump to the main event, maybe too quickly. Since Punk was cemented as the champ until Rock came back, so they kind of booked themselves into a corner. Oh well, he still competed in several PPV main events and semi main events, so hopefully he saved his money.

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  40. I think he'll end up going broke spending all of his money on food.

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  41. Ha, just watched the Tatanka v. Nikolai Volkoff match because it sounded too awful not to watch and Tatanka couldn't even beat him convincingly and had to use a small package. It's bad enough we had to have Volkoff on tv, but the fact WWF still tried to protect the guy is ludicrous.

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  42. I saw it a bit more like Tatanka was losing his edge, and that's one of the reasons why he sold out (He also needed help to beat Crush, and lost clean to Owen at the KOTR).

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  43. At least you can make a case that Crush needed protecting because he seemed like a guy that might be a future star and Owen needed building up for his Summerslam match with Bret. I remember Tatanka also got squashed by the Fakertaker on Superstars around this time, which shocked me as a kid, so I guess you're right. Tatanka was losing his edge and his downfall became more swift after the turn.

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  44. True, I forgot about that Taker match. I guess losing that sacred head dress really cursed him. HE SHOULD HAVE PAID THE GIFT TAX!!!!

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  45. Oh yeah, it's surprising announcers didn't use that as a kayfabe excuse as to why Tatanka was losing his edge. When Undertaker's urn got stolen, announcers always used that as an excuse as to why he was selling more than usual.

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  46. The commentary was so atrocious during the summer that getting anything over would've been a miracle. Lex vs. Tatanka came across as a flat nothing match rather than "OMG TATANKA SOLD OUT, THE WORLD IS CRUMBLING!" because of how long they stretched out the build (which consisted of Tatanka showing up, telling everyone Lex sold out, and leaving).

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  47. I've stated how surprised I was by how good Lex/Diesel is, but I can see why people looking at the match, on paper, would be awful. Maybe having to follow the Kid and Bret on the taping gave them motivation not to stink the place up.

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  48. I thought the build up was fine, but I agree the announcers should have sold Tatanka's turn more as it was the first time he was a heel after 3 years of being in the company.

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  49. I'm kind of surprised WCW never really did that match given all the opportunity and that this is mostly forgotten.

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  50. Me before the PPV regarding the build: Eh, don't care.
    Me after the match and Tatanka turned: Eh, don't care.
    They did nothing with Tatanka for most of 1994, and Luger just kept falling down the card. Why bother getting interested in either guy who's spinning their wheels? They milked this for 2 months, and I doubt many smart fans cared, either.

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  51. That's true, plus WCW's big thing was to deliver big name matches, so the fact they never did this match once is baffling. I'm sure if they had a match in WCW it would have sucked, but still surprising they didn't do it.

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  52. Crush was doing top of the card matches with Luger at house shows, so him being in highly competitive matches makes sense. You have to make him look good on TV to try and salvage house show numbers.

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  53. Yokozuna's workrate was drastically slipping with his weight becoming more and more out of hand. He was blowing up like his name was Warrior and doing restholds after maybe a minute of work.

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  54. I was a dumb mark kid at the time and I thought the angle was going to climax with Luger and Tatanka both rejecting DiBiase's offer and then both of them would have knocked DiBiase out to reconcile their friendship.


    And while it was a midcard angle, I thought it was more creative than their usual midcard angles they'd usually think up, I think the main thing that hurt it was the aftermath of the turn because Tatanka and Luger both ended up looking like losers. Tatanka was a loser because he couldn't win a match and Luger was a loser for the fact that he was wasting all of his energy feuding with a jobber.

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  55. Too soon. And too soon.

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  56. I'm not just speaking about that, I know it's silly to say in hindsight because Crush never became that much of a big deal, but the guy had a good look, was charismatic and decent on the mic and I think if he got Tatanka's undefeated streak gimmick instead of Tatanka at the time, Crush would have gotten Goldberg-esque pops.

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  57. Something that bothered me about Tatanka's heel run: Same moveset, same look. Only thing that made him a heel was that he would use more chinlocks to fill time since heels have to carry the match.
    As you mentioned, the lame booking of both after the turn made it such a failure, and probably helps my bias against the angles origins. Luger didn't win a match with Tatanka (1-on-1, he pinned him at Survivor Series) until a Cage Match in March '95. That's 8 months of "Luger loses" or "tatanka runs away for a count out". By that time, Luger was even worse off and Tatanka was just taking up space.

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  58. I would trade out the good on the mic for better than he gets credit for in the ring, at least as a babyface during an era where you had very little quality workers. Babyface Crush could've been used a hell of a lot better, and they kept burying him until the heel turn.

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  59. That's true, their feud ended up being so awful that I prayed it would end, but the initial build-up before the turn was well done I thought and built intrigue.

    And you're right Tatanka playing the exact same character killed any chance of his heel character ever getting over and the fact that Tatanka worked better as a babyface than a heel in matches due to his limited offense.

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  60. I'm too lazy to find it, but someone asked if squash matches could work, and my opinion is that "yes, they could work" and "they should absolutely be used more." It shouldn't be three hours of Kane beating up George South, but there's an entire tier of jobbers: Swagger, Fandango, McIntyre, Slater, Mahal, JTG, Kofi, Sandow, Hawkins, Santino, Ryder, etc. who could get guys over.
    People ragged on the X-Division and cruiserweights for the flippity floppity and the moves not meaning anything, which was a good criticism. However, WWE throws Sheamus vs. Guy He's Wrestled 20 Times in the Raw mid-card, Andy gives it 2 1/2 stars and people applaud it for being a good match even though it's as meaningless as a 450 splash from a cruiserweight. At least separating guys from wrestling the same guys in the same mid-card match would break up the pure monotony. I'd rather see Barrett beat the hell out of Slater for three minutes than lose on a distracted finish to Sheamus.

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  61. They actually kind of did, as he basically lost the feud against Doink, then failed at title matches against HBK and Yoko. Then turned heel and lost to a semi retired Savage, and lost to Luger on the house shows. OUCH!

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  62. Agree with all of this. Yes, the matches are all pretty good, but they don't mean anything and the more they run the same match out there to fill time the less it means when it's supposed to mean something.


    Back in the day people watched Superstars to see the, um, Superstars of the WWF. Those guys were worth watching - it didn't matter if they were in a match with a nobody. I don't entirely know how to get back to that, mind you, but in theory people will still watch to see their favourite wrestlers and would be even more excited to see them wrestle someone else who's established as good. I mean, if you're willing to tune in to see John Cena sign a contract, you wouldn't to see him beat up a jobber for 3 minutes?

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  63. Yeah, I didn't see Tatanka turning coming at all. I turned on Superstars and they showed the still picture results and I was floored.

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  64. it's impossible to get back to that due to 5 hours of free TV every week, not counting PPV's/specials. It's simply over exposure. I have accepted that.

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  65. Ha, it's something I don't like admitting too much on here because everyone that talks about the angle says they saw the turn coming from a mile away and I never did.

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  66. We all seem to wonder why they didn't turn Lex Luger heel after his face push flopped...but he's a muscular man in an American flag speedo. That's about as close to Vince's ideal hero as you can get, he wasn't giving up on that one easily.

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  67. It was one of my 50 or so theories going into Summerslam, so I guess, technically, I was right! YAY ME!!

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  68. Honestly if anyone has ever read Scalped, there's a heel casino owner character just waiting for someone to steal. That should have been Tatanka, taking Dibiase's money and becoming a corrupt casino mobster type.

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  69. He could have dominated for 15 years, until Cena would enter said casino and OVERCOME THE ODDZ, and shut the Casino down. MONEY!!

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  70. We seem to be in this "make everyone a star" era, where the sky's supposed to be the limit for everyone. I mean, maybe dominating a bunch of jobbers and micarders to built himself up to put over the champion was as good as it was going to get for Ryback?

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  71. It's weird because it did seem Vince was stubborn to not turn him heel, but at the same time, he wasn't committed enough to the character to actually push the guy.

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  72. Yep, pretty much. unless they kept him undefeated for 3 years straight, I really didn't see that much more that could be done. He had his main event run, made good money, and is still actively employed now. Anything else could be seen as a bonus now.

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  73. AverageJoeEverymanMay 28, 2014 at 8:24 AM

    "Maybe he would have stayed with the WWF instead of going to the WCW."
    That's true, if he was getting money from both McMahon AND DiBiase then he wouldnt have been offered more down south.

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  74. I don't think Ryback would've been over enough to be a made guy, even with the right push, but he should have been protected as WWE would have been able to plug him into the main event spot during the months where business is slow. Much like how they push Kane.

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  75. AverageJoeEverymanMay 28, 2014 at 8:26 AM

    Loved his little mushroom clouds of smoke that would go off when get came to the ring, but he was better in the ring as Wrath

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  76. Ha, I think Luger actually took a paycut when coming to WCW.

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  77. AverageJoeEverymanMay 28, 2014 at 8:46 AM

    That is what Bischoff says in the dvds isnt it? Well he would have been taking a much bigger pay cut.

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  78. Hey now, he started wearing black tights eventually, and slicked his hair back!

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  79. Was the Tatanka gimmick considered racist at the time? I didn't think of it back then but "Native American" Tatanka would be like a black guy's character being "African American" Tyrone.

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  80. Right. People say they can't have squash matches because no one will watch, but...nobody is watching now. Rather, they aren't growing ratings. They need to make things more special, not continue to dilute the product.

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  81. I can't speak for Native Americans, but I assume not. Watched his shoot interview and don't recall him ever bringing up race as an issue.

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  82. He still wore the tribal loincloth. Instead of brown and blue he wore brown and black.
    They did the same thing with Savio Vega in his big heel turn of 1997, and by big heel turn I mean "freshen him up": trade in colorful tops for black, and use a lot of chinlocks to make up for the fact hat he was a limited worker that now had to carry matches as a heel.

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  83. Ha yeah, Savio was another guy whose offense was better suited as a babyface rather than a heel.

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