Scott,
Who do you think are some of the best/worst 'casting' decisions in wrestling history? I mean in terms of look and personality matching the character role, nothing to do with strength of booking or push.
Example: Rick Martel as an arrogant 'Model' seemed a natural fit for him; Ric Flair as Joe Namath-type; Ted Dibiase or JBL as the elitist rich guy seemed like the perfect roles to get them over; Steve Austin as defiant redneck troublemaker; or Glenn Jacobs without the mask just LOOKS like a menacing killer. Marcus Bagwell might have initially seemed like a guy who could be the all-American pretty boy, but he didn't find his niche until he became full of himself while running from fights.
Conversely, I look at Jim Duggan's face and see a guy who should have played a Charles Manson-type sadist, not the affable fan-favorite patriot. Alex Wright being used as a babyface early in his WCW run never made sense to me--everything about a disco-dancing euro-trash pretty boy screams 'heel' to me. Do any examples jump out at you of guys whose look/personality were either perfect or seemed better suited for another character?
Interesting you would bring up Steve Austin, because anyone watching from his debut until 1996 would not have pegged him as a hell-raising redneck in any form. In fact, his run as Stunning Steve Austin was just as perfect a bit of casting, as the smart-ass troublemaker. I’d almost say Goldberg would have been better “casting” in Austin’s role in a lot of ways. So it’s a very subjective question.
I would say that one of the cases of the WORST casting was the New Blood during the Russo era of WCW, where Chuck Palumbo was made into the Lex Luger mold and Shawn Stasiak was turned into Mr. Perfect, and clearly they would have been perfect in the reversed roles. Like you’re looking for a narcissistic douchebag and you DON’T make Stasiak into that character? No wonder they went out of business.
Whatever the fuck they made Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom once they got to WWF.... smh...
ReplyDelete/thread
Thankfully WWE seems to be going back to characters with guys like Bray Wyatt and Damien Sandow to name a few.
ReplyDeletePerfect casting? Hard to think of a better fit than the Undertaker
ReplyDeleteI feel like I bring him up in every 'underrated' thread, but Dan Spivey could not have been better in the role of Waylon Mercy.
ReplyDeleteGood casting....
* Owen as the whiny younger brother with a chip on his shoulder about being overlooked
* Bubba Ray as the overbearing, egotistical bully
* William Regal as the purely disdainful and villainous Richard III-type of king/GM on Raw in 2008
Bad casting....
* Sting as a heel
* AJ Styles as either a comedy heel or as "poor man's Ric Flair"
* Brock Lesnar as "guy who can cut a 10-minute promo about contract details"
* Dean Malenko as James Bond
* Ken Anderson as a face
Sorry, what...Bray Wyatt? Is that a character from Game of Thrones or something?
ReplyDeleteThink Waylon Mercy except played by Windham Rotunda. Check out his promos on youtube from FCW tv, they're excellent.
ReplyDeleteBarry Darsow as Smash. Krusher Kruschev or the Blacktop Bully never really did anything for me. Repo Man and "Mr. Hole in One" were just ludicrous. But the same guy in black studded leather and face paint? Fucking BADASS.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of hard to separate gimmicks that simply don't fit the person from Wrestlecrap but here's a few I thought would have been decent on perhaps another person.
ReplyDelete-Turning Mike Awesome into a guy who likes 70s clothes and fat chicks. This would have worked for someone like say, Brodus Clay, not a bad ass monster heel from ECW.
-Turning Doink into a happy, loveable clown. I can't take someone who smiles and laughs and has midgets of himself running to the ring with him. Matt Bourne was SO much better as a smart alecky asshole.
-Randy Orton as a bouncing babyface. Uh, no. He looks like the fratboy douche that picks on you in school and treats his girlfriend like shit. Why would I want to cheer for him?
Some good ones...
-Big Van Vader. Not only were his beatings very convincing he added such a color and personality to his character you couldn't help but like him while he pounded your favorite babyface into goo. WHO'S DA MAN?!?
-Mankind. Only Mick Foley could have pulled that stupid character off. On top of that he managed to reinvent himself and turn the character from a mentally deranged psychopath into a loveable teddy bear babyface. That takes talent.
-Shawn Michaels. Man he did such a great job at playing an arrogant douchebag in the mid 90s. Probably because he WAS one back then.
The WWF bringing in Dick Slater and making him a babyface was just plain stupid. Booking him as a heel is easy as can be.
ReplyDeleteYou are severely missing out if you haven't seen the Bray Wyatt promo. They're FINALLY giving us a redux of the Waylon Mercy character, only with a dash of Boyd Crowder from Justified, IMO. Husky's gonna take this character to the bank if they give it TV time. Here, see for yourself:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/k07XrroeVpM
Bull Buchanan as a rapper is pretty bad. He looked so awkward in hip hop gear. Chuck Palumbo was equally bad going from being a gay stereotype to an Italian mobster to a supposedly badass biker. And I'll respectfully disagree with nppyinzer and say that taking two balding, chubby, mulleted white guys like Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow and outfitting them in leather and spray paint just didn't click for me. Also, you wouldn't know it if you didn't know anything about him, but taking Festus/Luke Gallows and giving him a gimmick where he doesn't talk is just ludicrous, because he's actually extremely charismatic.
ReplyDeleteAgree with all these wholeheartedly, but come on, Malenko the Womanizer is the one out of place on your list. Maybe its just me, my mom always had a huge crush on Dean Malenko.
ReplyDeletebarry darsow as a jobber on wcw saturday night was EPIC. "get those cameras out of my face, hey you shut your mouth" (on his walk to the ring). pure #heel
ReplyDeleteLike Mick Foley wrote in his book, turning Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace into skateboarders when they didn't know how to skateboard and had to carry their boards to the ring was an extremely bad idea!
ReplyDeleteThey did have super awesome Sonic the Hedgehog/porno entrance music though.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDer2pIPBAQ
On a related note I always enjoyed how much Undertaker and Kane actually looked like they could possibly be related.
ReplyDeleteEven thinking about Mike Awesome's WCW run, twelve years on, makes me want to smoke caustic soda.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, anyone who seriously tries to defend Russo, or has at any point in their pathetic existence seriously tried to defend Russo, please have yourself sectioned - but not before being forced to watch a lowlight reel of Awesome's every appearance as 'The Fat Chick Thriller' and/or 'That 70s Guy' on repeat for a fucking week. If you weren't certifiably insane previously, watching one of the best in-ring performers in modern wrestling history cavort and frolic with overweight women in an unbuttoned, floral shirt and get jobbed the fuck out relentlessly week in, week out. I mean, think about it, you snatch the reigning champion of a rival promotion - a guy with a tremendous look, stellar in-ring skills and international prestige - whose intensity shines through both in the ring and on the mic, and...you give him one of the worst gimmicks of all time, for no fucking reason whatsoever. This totally wrecks any credibility he already had and further credibility he could've potentially had, ruins his future career and relegates a potential world champion to the status of jobber to other jobbers.
While I agree with you on his horrid gimmicks, calling Awesome the "best in-ring performer in modern wrestling history" is just a wee bit hyperbole. He was great don't get me wrong but required the right opponent to truly get the best out of him. Even if they used him right and would have eventually faced someone like Goldberg that match would have been horrendous.
ReplyDeleteBlandy Boreton as the Apex Predator.
ReplyDeleteBlandy Boreton as the Viper.
Blandy Boreton as the guy who can't stop himself from kicking people in the head.
Blandy Boreton as the guy with a never-ending feud with Kane.
So I take it you don't like Randy Orton?
ReplyDeleteYears ago there was a guy who always called Randy Orton that horrible name, so I was just using it as an excuse to type that repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteAnd also make fun of the litany of nicknames he has.
ReplyDeleteMy word. That is EXACTLY what WWE needs right now. I am so sick of white bread babyfaces and paint by numbers heels.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose starts showing up. Best promo guy in YEARS.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. He's unbearable.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point...they couldn't fucking learn to skateboard to the ring? I know it's not *that* easy, but these guys are paid athletes. I would hope they have enough balance and coordination to gifure it the eff out.
ReplyDeleteBull's transformation from B-squared to B2 pissed me off. I hated that they couldn't figure out how to call him the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI was STUNNED that they made me interested in Bubba Ray. Didn't think that was possible. Spectacular booking and performance all around.
ReplyDeleteA fat white guy as Akeem the AFrican Dream was pretty fucked. Yes, I know, they technically explained it when he debuted. But still...stupid.
ReplyDeleteD-Von becoming a preacher was TERRIBLE. I don't know if it was too soon after WAZZZZUP or what, but I thought that was painful.
Good casting: The Boogeyman. Don't know if anyone else could have pulled that off.
Also, gotta give credit to Vince for creating and becoming Mr. McMahon.
Best:
ReplyDelete*Bad News Brown as a badass. I would throw in Bam Bam Bigelow too, but I didn't forget about the flamethrower gauntlets he had back in 1995. What a wuss.
*Jacques Rougeau as The Mountie.
*Lanny Poffo as the Genius. In fact, I can't imagine anyone else playing the role so perfectly.
Worst:
*Bobby Eaton as the Earl of Eaton.
*Greg "The Hammer" Valentine in his Rhythm and Blues stint
* Ted Dibiase Jr doing his dad's gimmick
If you're going to mention "perfect casting", than you have to give it Curt Hennig.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if this really counts as a guy not fitting the character, but Nathan Jones debuting as a face (after several weeks of vignettes hyping him as a psychotic ex-con) was just mind-numbingly stupid.
ReplyDeleteI also think that, in some ways, bringing Brock in as a Goldberg-esque smasher was a mistake: for months, the announcers talked about what an incredible amateur wrestler he was and how freakishly athletic he was, but he used a pretty basic "lumbering hoss" offense. It really wasn't until the feud with Angle that he showed he could do more. At the time, I remember wondering why Brock was being positioned as this remorseless killer when Batista was RIGHT THERE! Batista had a much better look and was more explosive in the ring.
How about Show as a heel? He's funny, charismatic, and seems like a hell of a nice guy; I think he's great as a face, but he's not very good at being just some big angry guy.
Oh, I know: How about A-Train as a FUCKING NINJA??? It'd be one thing if he was just portrayed as a guy that appreciated Japanese culture, but what's with the "spinny ninja arms" and stuff? That's right up there with Kwang and Glacier as far as "guys that obviously aren't martial artists being forced to portray martial artists" go.
'At the time, I remember wondering why Brock was being positioned as this
ReplyDeleteremorseless killer when Batista was RIGHT THERE! Batista had a much
better look and was more explosive in the ring.'
You thought Batista was more explosive in the ring...BACK THEN?! Back when he was D-Von's lackey?! He was about as explosive as a dead turtle, and not nearly as athletic. He didn't start showing anything in the ring until mid 2004.
No way, "Deacon Bautista" was hitting Ryback-esque clotheslines and stuff, and had a much scarier appearance than Brock's nerd hair and baby face.
ReplyDeleteWell he said "one of", but I get your point- Awesome was a really good wrestler for a big man, but he was pretty one-note with Flying Moves and Powerbombs making up 70% of his offense.
ReplyDeleteAkeem looks like state-of-the-art parody these days, and I think that's how it was meant then- we were supposed to laugh at a big fat white guy acting black. It was like "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" a decade early. It was also a bit racially-insensitive, which made it funny.
ReplyDeleteD-Von kinda fit a Preacher role in a way, but he had the whole "Testify!" catchprhase early on, and they based a whole gimmick around that. It just SCREAMED "unpopular midcard gimmick".
I think Batista was too green and shitty at the moment- they wanted to slowly-build him, while Brock was a better worker, earlier. I agree that he should've been pushed as an insane amateur as well.
ReplyDeleteOh, absolutely - hindsight being 20/20, it worked out for the best for both Brock and Batista, but at the time, I remember thinking that Brock seemed more like a gentle giant, while Batista seemed more psychotic.
ReplyDeleteI'm right with you there, I wouldn't go as far as you for praise but damn the man was pretty good and doing some impressive shit for a man his since. I like to think they didn't just base the whole "Career Killer And Fat Chick Thriller" around Awesome sporting a mullet, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason.
ReplyDeleteFelt even worse for him when Bret Hart came out after a one of Awesome's Lava Lamp Lounge segments and said on the mic that Awesome was worth less than he did 15 minutes ago.