Just been watched Royal Rumble and Raw and it's the first time I've watched WWE for a while. One thing I noticed is just how not-over Alberto Del Rio is as a baby face considering he is the World Heavyweight Champion. It got me wondering if there has ever been a World champ LESS over than ADR is now. So, my question is, who do you think is the least-over world champ in WWE's history?
I'm gonna have to go with Jack Swagger on that one. Usually by the time people get to that kind of level they've done SOMETHING to justify it, but Swagger basically got the briefcase as a swerve for everyone who had already guessed the correct winner that year. Just thank the heavens that Ken Anderson fucked up his push in 2006 because otherwise we'd have to remember "Former World champion Mr. Kennedy", too.
Swagger was on somewhat of a losing streak at that point, too. So when he won the briefcase, it was unbelievable...in the sense that it was literally NOT believable.
ReplyDeleteI'd go with Yokozuna's first reign. He came in, and won the Royal Rumble to a complete shock all of my 12-year-old friends and I. We were like "that fat-ass?" He then won the title over Bret and we just didn't care about him.
ReplyDeleteHe eventually grew on us with the second reign.
I can't agree with that. I was a kid growing up with the Yoko title reign and my friends and I all bought into him after he destroyed Hulk Hogan.
ReplyDeleteah but that was the 2nd reign; I was talking about the first.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot about the stupidity of WM9.
ReplyDeletewho was expected to win MITB at 26?
ReplyDeleteInstead we have to remember "Former 2-time World Champion Mr. Anderson"
ReplyDeleteI'd rather remember 'World Champion Mr Kennedy' than 'World Champion The Great Khali' or 'World Champion Jack Swagger'. Not that being World Champion means anything these days.
ReplyDeleteSheamus's first run was pretty heatless.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is a Randy Orton reign that deserves mention here. The fact that I can't actually remember any of them and they all just sort of blend together probably says something.
Can't speak for how over he actually was, but Backlund '94 was a total mindfuck. Especially with Owen Hart right-fucking-there, who--even if Backlund was over--would have been more over as champ than Backlund.
ReplyDeleteI'm not certain, but I think it was Drew McIntyre.
ReplyDeleteThis. He was getting the MVP gimmick of losing all the time and then won the briefcase/belt out of no where. I groaned when he cashed in.
ReplyDeleteNot even the TNA title wants to remember that.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyone who fucked over his online popularity more quickly than Kennedy? I remember when he was a midcard guy with some cred because he had like one over catchphrase (his name) and was a maybe-above-average worker, and all of a sudden online fans were SPOOGING over him. Then a month later everyone was like "WTF? This guy sucks" and soon he got in shit for roids and injuries despite proclaiming how bad they were, and came across like a moronic hypocrite and got released barely a year in. How did everyone get so blinded to this guy's suckiness in that first year?
ReplyDeleteCharisma can go a long way in masking in-ring deficiencies. Add on short matches on SD and you can coast for a long time.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, my strongest memories of him are when he was a perennial on Velocity. It was such a good show, with no BS around it, and he fit in perfectly. Once he became a regular on the main shows, after a while the shine wore off.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably in the minority, but I felt the SusSer '94 match is very much brought down for how long the whole "Owen pleading to his mom to throw in the towel" bit was. It went on FOREVER.
ReplyDeleteEh...Trips should have just won at Survivor Series, but I see what you guys are saying.
ReplyDeleteAs a 13 year-old watching live I totally bought Owen's sincerity.
ReplyDeleteSuch a mark!
What did he do to ruin his push? I gave zero fucks at that point & don't remember the product at all
ReplyDeleteThe Triple Threat with Kane and Batista at the GAB is actually really fucking good. And the one when Batista wins the title with Rey Jr, but then again those are three-ways. Can't forget the Cena match at ONS, either. All things considered, Khali's run was better than Rey's!
ReplyDeleteI'd disagree. I think the title has had some significance for the most part since Christian held it. It's really only the Swagger/ADR feud where it's been meh.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Yoko did nothing for me, even as a 10-11 yr old Hulkamaniac. I only saw him as a fat boring dude rather than the monster killer I wanted to see get his comeuppance
ReplyDeleteThe Survivor Series one when Backlund wins it? Yeah, a total snooze-fest. The funniest part, mentioned by Bret in one of the documentaries, is when Martha has to walk over an unconscious Davey Boy to throw in the towel for Bret. Always gives me a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteOwen was that good
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure a title reign lasting minutes can really be judged fairly.
ReplyDeleteHow was JBL's lengthy title reign, heat-wise? I paid zero attention to WWE at the time
ReplyDeleteCan't believe RANDY ORTON in 2004 hasn't been brought up. (Maybe it has who knows, I'm drunk 4:20 people!) That guys nearly sunk the entire promotion. He beat fucking CHRIS BENOIT CLEAN AS A SHEET, then promptly turned face and was shoved down everybody's throat, even after he lost the title a month later. They continued to push Orton, even though he wasn't really over, and was really kinda green. The Hardy match at Royal Rumble '08 is when, I think, people's perception of him started to change.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm talking about. Killed the match dead.
ReplyDeleteThat feud made me a fan for life.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Raid of spots.
ReplyDeleteI hated it, not sure why he turned into such an IWC darling, horrible wrestler, horrible person.
ReplyDeleteWho was it that was the obvious winner that WWE swerved us out of?
ReplyDeleteI think he belly to backed Randy Orton on his head, who proceeded to throw a big temper tantrum and punch the mat. Kennedy was the worst. I just turned the channel when he did the dumb boxing intro.
ReplyDeleteLoved heel Backlund, loved the match, wish he would of gotten a longer reign.
ReplyDeleteI was talking about the WMXI match, though I don't have too much love for the SS94 match either.
ReplyDeleteAgree on Credible in ECW. Fans were begging for RVD, and would have settled for basically ANYONE else.
ReplyDeleteProbably. He's become unbearable. Even moreso now that he's part of the Aces & Eights and the only unique part of his whole persona (the entrance) is gone in favor of a fake tough guy persona.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't over and I'm certainly no fan of his, but I think describing him as a guy that "nearly sunk the entire promotion" is a bit much.
ReplyDeleteIt was. McIntyre was getting the push of a lifetime, long before he earned anything.
ReplyDeleteIt killed Smackdown for me and I never did go back to being a regular viewer after that. The show as a whole was pretty much terrible, but it doesn't help when you're sitting through boring shit and the light at the end of the tunnel if JBL in the main event. The shows really felt like they were 4 hours.
ReplyDeleteThe image of Randy Orton that will always be in my mind is when he stared down John Cena at the Royal Rumble a couple years ago and the entire crowd went dead silent.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever watch Drew and Sheamus feuding in IWW you would see that Drew had a lot more charisma as a smug swaggering heel then Sheamus has as a babyface goof. Drew was pushed too fast but WWE basically making him baby Orton didn't help.
ReplyDeleteYeah Credible was terrible. I HATED that guy and not in a good way. I didn't think he was World Champion material at all and he went over damn near EVERYONE in the promotion.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mean the segment where Big Show rode his "dead father's" casket was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteIt's more like the same problem X-Pac had. Was fresh when he first arrived, but eventually grew stale as fuck. I'll be honest I don't hate him AS MUCH as the rest of the internet does, but I don't have any love for the guy either.
ReplyDeleteRon Garvin: NWA Champion
ReplyDeleteHow so? He lost it immediately the same week, the first time he won it, THEN was made to look like a chump the 2nd time he won it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would have preferred Savage winning the 1993 Rumble and putting over Bret at WrestleMania IX in a "veteran's last shot" role. The WWF really didn't use Savage to his full potential in 1993 either. He wanted to work a program with Shawn Michaels and put him over, but the WWF said he was too old.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember Scott explaining that as no one else wanted to win it just to job it back to Flair
ReplyDeleteAdr was over during the big show feud. It's this crappy swagger feud ruining him. I'm sure if he gets a good feud going foward, he will be over again
ReplyDeleteWorld champion David arquette
Cabinet is the worst faction ever as it made no stars.
ReplyDeleteIf someone were to put together a list of worst promotional moves ever made the Credible reign would have to be in the top 3. Hell, I'd say #1.
ReplyDeleteThat face turn almost killed my fandom of his. I became a fan after the Mick Foley feud and then turned on him until he turned heel on Undertaker. I think his run in 2007 was when I really started to buy into him as a top heel. Shame his feud with Cena in 2007 was cut short. They had a great match at Summerslam, a fuck finish at Unforgiven and that was it.
ReplyDeleteYou may not have been a fan of the Cena/Orton feud in 2009 but to put them in a list of Unover champions is ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteAs others have mentioned, he injured Cena a week before a PPV title defense, injured himself at several inopportune moments, and when he returned from injury he dumped Orton on his head which obviously didn't sit well with someone as angry as Orton.
ReplyDeleteOrton's run could have gone places, the problem was the HHH booking that followed his win. He won the title, HHH and Evolution turned on him and he was supposed to be a face for getting his ass kicked. HHH then takes the title from him 4 weeks later so he's left as a lukewarm face, with no angle and no personality.
ReplyDeleteHim having the title wasn't the problem, he was over and putting on good matches frequently (the 2-3 random faces vs. 2-3 members of Evolution string of main events that they were putting on every week was a guaranteed *** or more). It was how they "turned him face" and had HHH stomp him flat right after.
Was Orton over during this time as a heel? I forget, but you're probably right,
ReplyDeleteThe thing with ADR is that after the good feud with Big Show (who did everything possible to get the guy over), they stripped Del Rio of all his cool stuff (the cars, dope suits, attitude) and turned him into another pandering babyface. I think ADR was starting to get over but a few promos of lame one-liners hurt his progress.
ReplyDeleteI look at when Razor Ramon turned face. He was a cool heel and fans loved him as a cool babyface because he was the same guy. He didn't start smiling like a doofus or tell bad jokes.
Seriously, a powerbomb on the concrete floor to all modern-day pandering babyfaces.
Just let Tommy have a little reign! Fans loved him for his sacrifices and loyalty, he wasn't a bad worker and he wasn't a threat to jump to the big two!
ReplyDeleteYeah 2009. Orton was probably their top heel(him or Punk but Orton was treated as more of a top guy than Punk) and Cena was actually getting stronger cheers than usual.
ReplyDeleteOrton's a BUM.
ReplyDeleteDiesel's reign as champion was pretty bad. It could have worked if he was a heel but he was just an absolute horrible babyface during that run.
ReplyDeleteBotch, please! Owen would have been the perfect transitional world champ and he would have had way better matches on the house show circuit with Diesel than Backlund.
ReplyDeleteI agree that babyface Diesel was bad, almost John Cena-like bad, but I think part of that is not Diesel's fault. He had very few quality challengers outside of Shawn Michaels, who turned face post-WrestleMania XI and usurped some of his popularity. The WWF really could have helped him by turning either Razor Ramon or Lex Luger heel.
ReplyDeleteGreat parallel with Razor Ramon. The WWE today wants their top guys to smile a ton and tell stupid jokes and that is not why the fans got behind these characters to begin with. If Steve Austin got over in today's WWE they would have him quit cursing, smile, and call Vince "poopy."
ReplyDeleteWorse than Cena, who can at least back it up in the ring. Nash couldn't hit five stars if someone threw a box of Lucky Charms at him.
ReplyDeletejust spoke abt this goin back n forth with wanker in another thread.
ReplyDeleteits the wwe promotional machine.
they can make anybody with a iota of charisma a star.
He had a good character. Rich Billionaire hero in current day society is tough to screw up as a heel.
ReplyDeleteoh no show was over as early as 02-03
ReplyDeletebut definitely was over at a consistent level during the jerishow tag run. great place for him.
yes.
ReplyDelete07-08 title run "age of orton"
and the 09 title run "beginning of legacy"
he became a great talker in the midst of the run.
ReplyDeletegreat promos, terrible matches
orton was over.. just not ready.
ReplyDeletethat was vinces fault to push rko there... so he could wipe brock from the "record books"
this guy gets it.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the fact you paid zero attention to it kind of answer your own question?
ReplyDeleteBingo.
ReplyDeleteI actually sat through it. Smackdown would have been a decent show if they knew how to book the undercard well a la Nitro, but no. Instead, it was dreck. On the other hand, Raw with Benoit on top was a really fun show, even once Eugene became a main event support player.
But I digress. As soon as JBL lost to Cena (which could be seen from several light years away) he was accepted as a top level heel, and he might have been the ONLY guy to not be cheered against Cena. Their match from Judgment Day is fantastic and they should have built upon that to let Cena be the king of SD for a year rather than being drafted to a show where everybody was loved more than him.
I know some of his reigns were dismal, but Triple H wasn't over? When the threats of Steiner and Goldberg to the title INITIALLY went down, people were going crazy. We know what happened after that, but you know.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I can't disagree. I'm not sure if YouTube has footage of Diesel cutting a taped promo against Bret as part of one of those Todd Pettengill Royal Rumble hype segments, but it was awful with lame jokes and tons of smiling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, not a big Nash fan but he was definitely neutered on the mic and such during his 1995 run. THE WWF IS RUNNING ON DIESEL POWER!
ReplyDeleteI love how he almost snaps at WrestleMania XI when Todd walks off the set for a second time during his interview to get a new mic lol The look he gives there is great.
He sunk a dookie in a diva's duffel bag.
ReplyDeleteThis is true.
ReplyDeleteSTONE COLD WANT HIS SKULL GANG TO GIVE HIM A HECK YES IF THEY WANNA SEE STONE COLD OPEN A MARGARINE DISH OF WHOOP-TUSHIE ON VINCENT POOPEDY MCMAHON'S HAM SANDWICH BUTT!!
ReplyDeleteI was fading in and out of wrestling at the time, I hadn't watched the last couple weeks and when my friend told me that fucking BRADSHAW was WWE Champion I threw in the towel for a while. Still, when I rewatched his promos and a few matches from his reign, it didn't look too bad.
ReplyDeleteWell played.
ReplyDeleteWell, although his reign was awful, I think there were other factors in ECW's demise like the WWF going to TNN and WCW raiding a lot of the company's talent.
ReplyDeleteI love how The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD barely even mentioned him.
ReplyDeleteI'd say ECW going to TNN in the first place was worse than getting kicked off TNN. You're right about WCW stealing all their talent, had that not happened I'm sure Aldo would have never got near the title. Still, that's not an excuse, ANYONE would have been better than Credible. Even New Jack would have been a better option (assuming he wasn't in jail at the time), at least he was over.
ReplyDeleteSignificant? It is treated as very much the second title, it is the IC title of the mid 90's, it hasn't headlined a PPV in YEARS. The fact that it gets thrown around from guy to guy as a test or experiment has devalued it greatly, it's just funny hearing JBL calling everyone a former World Champion like it means something every two minutes.
ReplyDeleteI used to hate JBL on commentary (and in general), but he's won me over lately. Too bad the guys he's with are worse than terrible.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but he's a fucking riot on the alternate commentary for the 1st One Night Stand DVD, he gets so bombed that by the main event he forgets that he's supposed to hate ECW and is actually getting into it. At least until the Blue Meanie shows up. "Go back to your pornstar wife, you fat piece of shit!" Other JBL hilarity from ONS: (these might not be exact qoutes)
(crowd chants "I fucked Lita" at Edge) "No, you didn't fuck Lita," (points at Edge) "HE fucked Lita!"
(shortly after, referring to the crowd) "The level of homosexual testosterone in this room is astounding"
"B double-E double-R-U-N, we need a beer run, I'm for too sober to be watching this shit."
(during the main) "Who are all these fat bastards? I mean, I know Sandman, Tommy, and the Dudleys, but who are the rest of these fat shits?"
Being over really isn't that important anymore. They present the shows they want with the characters they want doing what they want them to do, if the crowd doesn't like it, fuck them - what are they going to do about it?
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is I actually liked Del Rio as a face. I can't recall ever giving a shit about Del Rio at any point and assumed I wouldn't if he was face, but I thought he really worked well as a face. He seemed more natural. I mentioned in another thread, but he played the MITB cash in perfectly - his facial expressions gave a "so that's how it is?" look and he sold the leg injury well. I'd actually like him to get over because he works better as a face.
I think what killed Diesel was that Shawn became the top face almost immediately. Shawn wins the Rumble at #1, has Diesel beat at Wrestlemania, and even to a mark, Shawn out-worked him. Shawn was more popular, we watched the shows for his matches and suffered through the Diesel matches....it didn't help that Diesel's opponents were terrible and they really didn't do anything exciting with him.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about this. It almost makes me wanna buy it.
ReplyDeleteThey went way too over the top with it thought. He turns face and suddenly he's the new Eddie Guerrero. The whole thing is very transparent. Being programmed against Jack Swagger doesn't help matters.
ReplyDeleteUm, I know your bias is no secret, but Shawn was the top face in '95? Regardless of where he was being booked on the card, Bret was still the most over face in '95.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't help that they turned him face, had him run over Santa Claus, and then resume his face run.
ReplyDeleteI loved it. Great parody of rich businessmen/phony politicians, the entrance was hilariously overblown and obnoxious, and he was a natural feud with guys like Eddie and John Cena. He had a lot of really bad PPV matches though.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in Europe, where he has been asked to run for President on numerous occasions.
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside, I'm just going by what the wrestling fans in my class were into at the time. We'd be about 12 or 13 at the time and Shawn Michaels was the guy, his matches were the ones we looked forward to. Bret was just sort of there.
He really did make you forget he was Bradshaw after not too long, he was so great in the role. Though as most people have echoed over the years, they should have eased him into that position instead of sticking the title on him right away.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame him for his bad run I blame the fact that A. They didn't want him to work heel which is what he naturally does best and B. As you said his opponents were terrible.
ReplyDeleteCena/JBL from "Judgment Day, 2005" was fantastic. Just wanted to second that.
ReplyDeleteJBL had some great matches with Eddie, as well.
2nd worst.
ReplyDeleteKurt Angle's unnamed faction consisting of Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak takes the cake.
I remember Orton's nice Intercontinental title reign and people doing the wave and chanting for Randy Savage or something during one of his matches. Between that, I'm drawing a blank. I think he fought John Cena a few times.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah? Tell me how else to get Burger Meister Meister Burger to buy a Del Rio shirt.
ReplyDeleteI will say the I Quit match with Cena was stellar.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in Masters fashion, now that McIntyre has actually improved in the ring, he's been so buried that it would take years of rebuilding to make him credible again.
ReplyDeleteI really think we can thank Benoit for the de-push of the world title. I think it dawned on WWE that Benoit holding the WHC tainted the belt, so they spent the next few years demoting it in stature to the point where it's now essentially what the IC title used to be (and the IC/US titles are basically European/TV championship levels of worthlessness).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad SOMEBODY figured out what the fuck he was saying!
ReplyDeleteThat match should have defined the era.
ReplyDeleteI remember everyone calling him the next Steve Austin... when all I saw was the next Billy Gunn or Bob Holly (when both were past their primes).
ReplyDeleteYou should buy it anyway, it's a great show. Might be my favorite PPV.
ReplyDeleteThat was great. I'm so glad they no sold that. It may have saved us further matches between them.
ReplyDeleteIf any of us ever get ahold of a time machine, I imagine the first thing we'd do is make sure Savage vs. Hart happened at Wrestlemania IX. Then we'd see about that killing Hitler thing. I am also now annoyed that we didn't get a Shawn/Savage feud in '93. Their title match the year before is a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI always assumed they gave Swagger the briefcase because there wasn't a clear favorite in the match, so they just picked someone at random. Drawing names from a hat may have been involved. The fact that they went ahead and ran a Money in the Bank PPV a few months later was bizarre.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? I owned the DVD all those years and didn't realize JBL did alternate commentary. Then sold the damn thing while broke. Time for another Lita fuckign beer run indeed.
ReplyDeleteI really think he could've been over as a face if he hadn't overhauled everything. The peppier music, no more cars, being best buds with Rodriguez.
ReplyDeleteLet's be fair though on the subject of Mr. Kennedy: He did absolutely nothing to deserve getting screwed out of the MITB briefcase. The excuse was that supposedly he got injured and was going to be out for months, but he was back on the horn within a couple of weeks after they jobbed him to Edge in two minutes, which means that there's only one of two explanations: 1) They panicked when Undertaker got hurt because they didn't think Kennedy was ready yet, or 2) Someone had it out for Kennedy backstage (prime suspect: Orton, given what happened later) and finally got Vince's ear. Given the Jack Swagger example as Scott pointed out, it almost has to be 2, and knowing that would've pretty much destroyed Ken's motivation since he would've realized he wasn't going to be moving any further up the card, thus leading to the drug bust and the Orton incident (which I always viewed as Ken deliberately trying to get revenge on Randy) and everything else that got him fired, WELL AFTER his push was killed. (Oh, and this was 2007, not 2006.)
ReplyDeleteGreat Khali
ReplyDeleteDel Rio clearly needed a losing streak to really get that fan base.
ReplyDeleteThey had to get the belt off Taker ASAP and Kennedy's injury was diagnosed as more severe than it ended up being. It was a real bad break for Kennedy, who seemed to have one after the other in WWE
ReplyDeleteYou're right. You can tell I was awake when I typed that list as it goes from 5 to 7.
ReplyDeleteHe's improved in the ring? Could've fooled me.
ReplyDeleteKhali was the death knell of that title for me. No one that untalented should ever be a World champion, especially when that title still had some life to it.
ReplyDeleteBad break for him. Great break for the fans.
ReplyDeleteHow is he at all like Eddie?
ReplyDeleteADR is one of the purer faces they have (in the main-event at least). He's protective of his friends, wrestles really cleanly and doesn't do half of the bullshit face shit that most do.
Nash isn't nearly that bad of a worker.
ReplyDeleteIn WCW, yeah. But he had plenty of good matches when he was a WWF guy.
Probably the biggest real legit LOL I've had from something online in a long time. All the up votes in the world!
ReplyDeleteI think he also did a big diatribe about how roids were bad, then got caught with a Wellness Violation.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Swagger. He came 20 years too late. He has every physical tool, but just needed a mouthpiece. Once he gets an awesome mouthpiece, they're stuck in an already dated racist gimmick.
ReplyDeleteHow did he sink the entire promotion? The turned sucked, but it didn't suck *that* bad. Anyways, assuming that they were actually thinking that far ahead, the Orton title win and turn was just to set up Batista's turn later on. And it got Brock off the books, and the belt off an upper midcard champion that wasn't being given anything to do with the belt.
ReplyDeleteYo, you dealin' with the X Factor.
ReplyDeletewhile we all know Scream and his Bret hating gimmick, Bret was simply not the top face in 95. The guy was working with Backlund, Hakushi, and the Quebecer. Yeah he was over in Europe, but booking counts for something too and the Clique made sure he was booked into oblivion in 95
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I have their I Quit match at 5 stars, and his two matches with Eddie [the gusher and the Bull Rope matches] at around 4 stars each.
ReplyDeleteWho was meant to win the briefcase in 2010?
ReplyDeleteBizarrely, I think Kennedy's standing amongst certain portions of the fanbase stemmed from his constant injuries.
ReplyDeleteHe benefited from getting banged up because it kept him off TV, essentially. He was decent on the mic, so had a certain allure, and was in the odd decentish match. You wondered what mastery he was capable of if he was given a proper opportunity against a whipcrackin' worker, and/or got into a feud with a great talker. But then he'd get injured, and would have to sit on the bench for a few months. You'd be keener than ever to see what he was capable of when he returned, working yourself up a bit at the prospect of a 100% Kennedy returning and setting the ring (and the stick) on fire. But then he'd come back, stink, get injured again, fuck off again, leaving you to ponder 'what if?!?!' again.
I remember being legit pissed when Edge took the briefcase off Kennedy. Time has demonstrated that it was 100% the right decision.
They gave him similar music, he does the dance shake thing when he makes the comeback. That's the problem he had this instant transformation from evil rich aristocrat to dancing smiling babyface.
ReplyDeleteMcintyre
ReplyDeleteNah, he won it on November 14th, and lost it on Jan 3rd.
ReplyDeleteI admit it was an appalling reign, but I think it was just bad booking really. On the plus side, it gave Big Show a tiny bit of credibility.
I hate Kennedy but still don't get Vinces obsession with Orton. When is he going to read his financial statements and finally say "Ah it appears you make my company insignificant money after all" and fire him
ReplyDeletewhat? you don't remember the feud between Cena and Edge?
ReplyDeleteCM Punk may not have been that over. he still got a lot more reactions than other guys mentioned in this topic.
ReplyDeleteWhat, you were pulling for Hornswoggle to be a McMahon?
ReplyDeleteYeah, fair point. lol
ReplyDeleteI recall having a similar reaction. I ALMOST got interested again when I heard that Benoit & Eddie were the two world champs....then I heard Bradshaw of all people took the title off Eddie (and Orton replaced Benoit) that interest was gone just as fast.
ReplyDeleteThat's what kept him from being McMahon!s illegitimate son.
ReplyDeleteThat company was dying before that happened. It would be like blaming WCW's death on world champion Scott Steiner.
ReplyDeleteLiterally something like the last three guys to hold the belt got seriously injured, so they put it on Khali since there was no one else left. I don't really blame them there. The matches become a lot safer (less athletic) and they can push the World Champion as a monster. They've done much, much worse.
ReplyDeleteDo you how they started this "push" for Drew? By making him the IC champion, then having him lose a bunch of "qualifying" matches until McMahon finally gave him a jobber to beat.
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE would have prefered Savage (or Perfect!) winning that Rumble.
ReplyDeleteMy pick as a 14-year old was Perfect.
It wasnt his fault they turned him face. The right booking was probably Evolution turning on HHH, making him babyface while The new blood runs roughshod over Raw?
ReplyDelete2004, 2006 too.
ReplyDeleteBite your tongue, son. Crazy bob was over!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I don't believe it's merely a "bad break" for Kennedy. The fact of the matter is that it wasn't necessary to use the MITB to get the belt off Undertaker (with a big star like Batista right there), or even to get Edge to jump brands (with Kurt Angle having made the same move right before the Rumble the previous year without a storyline prop). The math just doesn't add up. It makes much more sense that Kennedy had an enemy backstage that got in Vince's ear and used Kennedy's injury as an excuse to cancel his push, and given what happened with Orton, THAT adds up.
ReplyDeleteHornswoggle as a McMahon MIGHT have worked out if the endgame had been a lot more meaningful (e.g. elevation to the main event level for Finlay) than what we got (another JBL push, and he didn't even FIGURE into the storyline until the last month). As is, I'd have taken Ken Kennedy McMahon any day over what we got.
ReplyDeleteEverything reported at the time said they were going to use the MITB cash-in on Kennedy but he got hurt and screwed it up.
ReplyDeleteThey're all a buncha marks if that's the case. Winning the NWA title was far and away the best thing to happen to Garvin, as it's probably the only reason Vince bothered to sign him, and he padded his earnings enough to retire comfortably soon after.
ReplyDeleteIt was a shitty time, granted, but they could've stuck it on Umaga and had the same effect with someone who was actually over. Or just shuffled someone over from ECW or Raw that had some luster. I know options were slim but Khali is never the answer unless the question is "who can do a clean job to a heel that will make the heel look a little more credible for beating someone that big?"
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm with you on that. Backlund was a great character but he was basically redundant in all the stuff going on with Bret. Not sure who he would've been better working that with. Luger maybe? Taker? Crazy Bob chicken winging Bearer and seeming like he might be able to outwrestle Taker might have been preferable to anything else Taker had happening.
ReplyDeleteWho can forget the USA chants in his match with Dino Bravo
ReplyDeleteSimilar? As in vaguely Latin sounding?
ReplyDeleteDance shake? He beats his chest and smacks his arm. Where the fuck do you dance?
And yeah, they cut out the more heelish aspects of his character, but fuck...isn't that part of a turn? You change your character around?