QOTD #18: No Gold

It’s Tuesday, BoDers. RAW remained stagnant, but it was the only letdown of my day. I hope you got something positive out of your day as well.

Today’s Question: In your opinion, who was the best wrestler to never hold ANY championship gold in WWE/WCW/ECW?

We’ll check out your answers tomorrow. If you want to head over to the discussion, scroll to the end of this thread or click the comments button at the top.

Yesterday was all about Santino Marella. It looks like a lot of BoDers don’t share the love I have for the Cobra man, but you still managed to conjur up some excellent memories. Here were some of your favorites:

DanimalCrossing: I always got a kick out of the playing of the fake bugle. I never understood it. I don't want it to be explained. It was just plain old fun.

Night81: Santino and Beth winning the IC and women's titles from Kofi and Mickie and Beth carrying Santino out on her shoulders.

Inno: Every mention of "John Chaina"

Chris B: He makes John Cena break character

thatguyJMM: My favorite was him winning the IC title from Umaga on his debut at the height of the Crazy Vince angle

Wow: I loved when he would do a diving headbutt and do a salute as he did it. One tag match he saw the other tag partner try to come in and yelled "don't even think about it!" Little things like that were awesome.

Witlon: The Honk-a-meter. How they screwed that up, I will never know.

Ratboy: "I mean every man to hide behind a mask is either incredibly ugly, incredibly stupid or he's the Batman. And you, Sir, you're not the Batman!"

Jackson Smith: A deathly afraid Santino responding to Kane screaming "Where's Punk?" in his face with "Did you try the Pepsi machine?"

Dirty_Dave_Delaney: There was a tag match from about a year or two ago I think involving Santino where he goes to do the spot of jumping towards your partner to hit the hot tag, only Santino's jump doesn't quite reach his partner causing him to fall face down on the mat. Just a little comedic twist on a classic spot but I do prefer that kind of in-ring comedy as opposed to using gross out humour in wrestling (e.g. Stephanie vomiting over Vickie Guerrero from a few weeks ago).

Crikey Mate Down Under Aussie: Santino landing the first hit against Laurinitus' People Power movement in the Raw after WrestleMania 28, beating Swagger and Ziggler in what was essentially a handicap match for his US title. He was always a great slimeball heel, but man was he a great underdog face when booked correctly.

wnyxmcneal: 

Michael Weyer: He and Koslov in England in full suits, derby hats and umbrellas, talking about how he studied Benny Hill and Austin Powers and "now know all about this culture." They do a "tea party" in the ring with Sheamus with Santino getting great lines. "Your anger is for two reasons. First, you were exposed to gamma rays. Second, you were excluded from activities as a child because you are ginger." Just hysterical how he did it.

ABeyAnce1: I tried to find the video, but I couldn't. My favorite Santino moment has to be a year after he and Beth broke up. They had an argument, and when she walked away, he went, "And Beth, when we were intimate, I faked every organism."

LScisco: No question for me its the 2011 Rumble. They should've put Santino over and had some Rocky-like vignettes for facing Edge at WrestleMania (I've been watching the Rocky films lately so that's why I have this idea). Would've been a cool underdog vs. big dog story. I just do a facepalm when I think back to that match. The WWE walked into a perfect "memorable moment" and then proceeded to ruin it. Perfect example of how this company can't pull off stuff like that anymore because they try too hard to think of memorable things instead of letting them happen. If Santino had won, that'd be a Rumble finish people would be talking about for decades.

F’N Body Slams – Dan Selby: Elimination Chamber and Rumble, hands down. He's a talent to get people invested THAT much. He had me believing, and i'm a 20+ year fan. That was getting some fucking heat, man.

Unquestionably, I have to agree with the last two posters. In particular, the 2012 Elimination Chamber had me on the edge of my seat – I actually thought that they might just do it. I had written at the time: “Santino had the crowd in the palm of his hands. Wonderfully executed underdog story, exceptionally enjoyable ... Very disappointing they didn't pull the trigger. The place would have gone mental. If they can keep from over exposing Santino's act, and just have him squash the undercard with his silly Cobra with matches once every 2-3 weeks on TV, they can probably hold off riding this newfound popularity wave right through to another match down the line.”

The US Title was a nice consolation prize, and truthfully after they went with Sheamus there was nowhere for him to go in the main scene, as both top guys were babyfaces. If I’m unapologetically giving Santino far too much credit, it’s because I genuinely felt like his heart was into what he was doing more than anyone. He never broke character. He could deliver straight lines, goofy lines, whatever he needed to do. And if he was booked in a ridiculous angle, he was going all the way. The unibrow. Santina. The Honky Meter. As an abusive boyfriend. As a clutsy boyfriend. He ran the gamut.

I hope he enjoys retirement. And to take us out, here’s the Dating Game. See you tomorrow.