Hey Scott, long-time first time etc,
I was a big fan of the early ECW work of Matt Borne as Borne Again.
The concept of corporate gimmickry breaking a man was fascinating, but
unfortunately Matt Borne was too perfect for the role. Yay substance
abuse.
Anyway, it seems to me WWE are so far dropping the ball on Brodus
Clay. I'm just assuming that they'll continue to do so and think
'ReClay', a disheveled Funkasaurus would be a captivating heel. Give
him some ugly dancing girls, bad pyro effects and a hellacious man
streak and I think he could really do something.
I was a big fan of the early ECW work of Matt Borne as Borne Again.
The concept of corporate gimmickry breaking a man was fascinating, but
unfortunately Matt Borne was too perfect for the role. Yay substance
abuse.
Anyway, it seems to me WWE are so far dropping the ball on Brodus
Clay. I'm just assuming that they'll continue to do so and think
'ReClay', a disheveled Funkasaurus would be a captivating heel. Give
him some ugly dancing girls, bad pyro effects and a hellacious man
streak and I think he could really do something.
I think they've basically given up on Brodus now because they ran out of ideas past "Come out and dance and squash dudes" and couldn't find the ??? to get them to "Profit". It kind of speaks to the danger of relying on a win streak to get someone over and then beating them early on, because once they don't have that streak anymore, creative runs out of ideas. Either you gotta go all the way like Ryback and just bite the bullet with a guy like Clay, or else let him start having normal feuds and see what happens. The weird sideshow thing they chose to do with him instead, before they seemingly got bored with him, helps no one.
I don't think they're in any particular rush with Brodus. He's an over comedy act and they can easily take him off TV for 2 weeks and bring him back as a monster heel and do away with the Funkasaurus thing completely
ReplyDeleteThe sideshow thing is perfect imo. He can do the dance for the crowd/kids, and squash a jobber. And when someone needs a little heat they can beat up the funkasarus during his dance. Yeah rikishi was more over and got angles etc but he was better and creative wasn't a mess back then. Brodus is fine for what he is.
ReplyDeleteIf they turn him heel, I'd pair him with Tensai. With the right manager they could be a monster heel tag team.
ReplyDeleteStill surprised they've never really used one of their "comedy" acts as a heel (or face) turn into a more serious character. Wanted them to salvage Dinsmore like that but could be used for Santino or Clay, or any of the joke characters really. Heel? Have the comedy helping out a face and backing into a title match or whatever. Lose, snap, blame fans, the face, everyone, give a semi-serious push.
ReplyDeleteFace would be similar, for Brodus maybe tie in an agent in the back, Arn would be perfect. "pulled me aside and told me when I was Del Rio's enforcer that being an enforcer has a ceiling, you want to be on top, you need the people to remember you. Well, Arn, the people remember me as a punchline now, I'm done with the funk, now I fight for me" and give a rocky like build up the card.
But hey, I'm sure keeping Cena at the top and everyone else as clear second options forever will work just as well.
I see a lot of people saying that they should just "turn him heel" or "turn him serious", but that seems to be an overly-simplified solution to a greater problem. The booking, more than anything, has hurt Brodus, as he's been given no angles that lasted more than a week or two, and has been punked-out numerous times.
ReplyDeleteThey seemed to miss a hell of an opportunity with him earlier this year when he began feuding with Show - I'm sure I'm not the only one that expected an actual proper feud between them, probably with a big match at "Summerslam". There's no reason that Brodus couldn't still be the "Funkasaurus", but actually back it up in the ring; instead, though, he's just the happy-go-lucky guy that gets his ass kicked in thirty seconds by pretty much everyone. He has the mic-skills, no doubt about it, and his size makes him a no-brainer as a guy that can do some serious damage, so why not run with it?
There's a big difference between a "gentle giant" and a "wimpy giant".
This. The act is over, so if you can do something with him, great, if not, he's good for a crowd pop every week. That's definitely a better position to be on the roster than, say, Curt Hawkins jobbing on Saturday Morning Slam.
ReplyDelete(Also, I don't believe in solving everything by "TURN HIM HEEL GODDAMMIT"; there's a reason they changed him from generic monster heel to this in the first place, he's better in this role even by his own admission.)
Agreed crafting real feuds seem to be a lost art in the WWE these days. Outside of the very top of card nobody is engaged in feuds and even those feuds are not booked well (see Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio). Nowadays a feud consists one guy gets into a conflict with another guy, they have one very short match to resolve the conflict then after the match the issue is forgotten about forever. There are no real rivalries these days. I'm hoping the Miz/Kofi Kingston program turns into a real feud regardless of how many title changes there may or may not be. Hopefully if they do so they would use that program as an example of how to book the rest of the undercard.
ReplyDeleteA Brodus Clay/Big Show feud would have gone a long way towards establishing credibility for Clay. Even if he lost the feud, taking the fight to the Big Show would have established him as someone to take seriously when necessary. There's nothing wrong with the dancing Funkasaurus gimmick and dancing with kids at the end of matches, what is wrong is that they haven't booked him as a credible threat to anybody besides the lowest jobbers. Junkyard Dog was a jovial, happy go lucky guy who likes to dance with the kids but when that bell rings he was taken seriously as a competitor, unfortunately the same can't be said about Brodus Clat
See, the thing is that Brodus is actually a great mic worker, they can keep him on the burner forever basically, and if they ever want to do anything with him, have him cut a fantastic promo then suplex somebody through a wall.
ReplyDeleteTensai/Clay could be awesome.
ReplyDeleteisn't that the same roles that Ryder and Santino play? (and I guess Santino being the one of the three that is the most over?)
ReplyDeleteBrodus toppling over from the WMD in Show's entrance video hurts as well. It's in the first few seconds that are always shown, so it's a weekly reminder that Brodus couldn't take show.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely spot on. Even take a look at all the recent title changes. Christian dropped to Miz, got a rematch at the next televised show, and that was the end of it. Santino dropped to Cesaro, got a rematch at the next televised show, and that was the end of it. Kofi/Truth dropped to Team Hell No, got an immediate rematch, and that was the end of it.
ReplyDeleteThat was part of the reason why people cared so much when Zack Ryder won the US title. It was a storyline that was built up over several months and had a proper climax. I mean, it's a little ridiculous that from pretty much April to August we got some form of Sheamus vs. ADR, yet we couldn't even get a proper Christian vs. Miz feud -- one that would be entertaining behind the mic and in the ring.
THERE'S an idea. Bring back the old 6 man tag team titles from '93 WCW and have them feud with the Band... or expand each group to at least 4 vs 4 for the Survivor Series!
ReplyDelete#baker'd
Just hire 2 Cold Scorpio and have Flush Funk & Brodus Clay be a tag team. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteThe Brodus-Show feud really was a (wrestling) travesty. It was the perfect opportunity to get Brodus over as a legit threat, someone who they could plug into main event matches— and instead they jobbed him out in 2 minutes to Show. That feud really killed all of Brodus' aura, and is the main reason why the crowd response to him these days is so muted. And what did they gain from that? Big Show continues to stay, uhm, NOT OVER? Big Show continues to draw absolutely no viewers to their TV shows? It's completely ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a letter to Scott months ago about how Big Show's booking has been as much of a career killer as Triple H's reign of terror, and I stand by it. The only difference was that Triple H did draw SOME amount of fan interest. WWE will be infinitely better the day after Big Show finally retires.
I think that letter was posted here. And you were right. Big Show sucks and although everyone talks about his natural charisma and humour, who cares? The ship has sailed on the guy. You could see them trying to make him ferocious during his feud with Cena but he's not Mark Henry, who could also have very watchable matches.
ReplyDeleteAt least other big guys give back. Kane jobs all the time and even though he sucks as a wrestler, even Khali jobbed a lot.
Nah, I think it would suck. Tensai...I think he's hopeless. That team would be plodding.
ReplyDeleteWhat would really work for Clay in terms of tag team would be him as the powerhouse and a smaller/faster worker to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Like the Hart Foundation or those tag teams in TNA with Clay taking on the Hernandez role.