Big Weirdo

AJ Styles isn't ever going to WWE. Vince doesn't think he can sell. And he's right, he can't. Guy can wrestle but he can't cut promos and isn't marketable at all. That's what the WWE is about.

He also would have to go through developmental in WWE because Vince doesn't believe you're trained until you train there. And does anyone think at 34 or whatever he is he's going to go to WWE developmental?

Thats funny. I stopped watching wrestling in 2004, but I was always aware of what guys were coming and going, and making waves (Edge, Orton, Batista, Cena, Punk,etc). Thats my first time hearing about he dude. Just looking at his pics, thats some freaky ****. Dude was eating worms and ****. And that freaky facepaint/attire.

Anyways, I remember reading somewhere that Doink was crazy as **** backstage. Apparently no one wanted to mess with him (or something like that)

Matt Borne is the original Doink. He is a second generation wrestler like Dustin Rhodes. He was very talented but they gave him the Doink gimmick in WWF. Vince has been criticized before for taking him and making him a comic relief character but he played it so well especially as a villain.

The Boogeyman?

Edit, just looked.

Man, wtf... Thats some creepy ass ****. Awesome gimmick though lol.

That guy got into wrestling when he was 40 I think. He lasted a few years but he was pretty good for a period of time.

My favorite weird gimmick will always be Heel Doink. Somewhere on the Web is a gif mashup of him doing his entrance and little kids in the crowd crying. Awesome.

Speaking of Kamala, did anyone hear Jerry Lawler talking about him on the Steve Austin podcast?

"Jerry, why are you painting a banana on me?"

Wrestling is insane.

And I would pay good money to watch a wrestling version of the UN Security Council. Abdullah the Butcher would represent the Sudan and attack anyone who threatened sanctions with a plastic fork.

Vince McMahon is scheduled to be in the podcast soon. That should be good. Wonder if he'll ask the same questions about Stossel.

Cornette is coming on the podcast, too. That's always a fun listen.

I got WWE 2K14 for 360 from a friend for Xmas. 30 Years of Wreatlemania Mode is great. Just body slammed Big John Studd for 15k. Sick.

LKB before your main event I'd like to see a Gobbledy Gooker hatching and somewhere in there a Shockmaster return.

Cena vs Orton was actually the match of the night. It was one of their best ones and runner up was Punk vs the Shield. The ending kind of sets up a slow disbanding of the Shield with Reigns going babyface.

I'd love to see a Goldust heel turn soon and have him and Cody go one on one at Wreatlemania.

Gallen just keeps trucking. He's like the honey badger. He don't give a ****.

If they played it right I actually wouldn't mind seeing it either. Think of how much of a dick Triple H looks like if he does that. His new character really gets some major heat and they for once acknowledge his arrogance about himself.

It could work but I don't have faith they would do it correctly.

Seems crazy, but is the cover of this a little foreshadowing? http://www.uproxx.com/sports/2013/12/scooby-doo-wrestlemania-mystery-trailer-guess-gets-champion/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+uproxx%2Ffeatures+%28Uproxx%29

Look who is in the background holding the belt...

I've been saying this all along. At the tribute for the troops it was reported Cena didn't have either belt and Orton wasn't on the show.

Triple H is going to put himself over. I'm gonna laugh my ass off.

Triple H is the king of making it about himself. Type most overrated wrestler and heel in the last decade or so. I'd love for him to win the unified title at TLC. Have him come in, pin Cena and Orton for ****s and giggles, then climb the ladder and grab the belts.

I'm pretty much caught up on the Austin podcasts now. It's annoying that the Cornette podcast is apparently lost to history along with the Regal one. Two hours of Steve and Cornette talking about punches, tag team psychology, and promos is pretty much my idea of porn.

The most interesting one was actually the Wade Keller one. I've never really read Keller and didn't know that he grew up on old AWA. It's fascinating to me that any wrestling you watched at age 10 is the best wrestling ever. I think the AWA is death, and he thinks that Greg Gagne gave some of the best promos in history.

Anyway, I didn't watch a second of Raw. Did I miss anything?

They had their fake wrestling awards last night. Nothing to see. I think Daniel Bryan won superstar of the year. Not sure about the rest.

I'm stoked. I love the World Cup. And I don't care if the group is hard I believe baby.

Every time they do the Slammys I always think of Owen Hart who I think was more talented than his brother and is one of the under appreciated heels of his day.

BTW Triple H vs Lesnar from Extreme Rules is nominated by Punk vs Lesnar isn't for match of the year. OOOOKAY.

I actually think the Attitude Era was pretty good in terms of what "characters" should be. It was certainly better than TL Hopper or The Goon or whatever the hell was going in the early 90s. All the best wrestling characters tend to be the wrestler with his real personality amplified. Ric Flair really did spend too much money on cars and hotels and really did party with attractive women until 5 in the morning. Steve Austin really was a big ol' redneck from East Texas who didn't like being told what to do. The Rock really was a supremely talented, ****y guy.

I think modern WWE has gotten "gimmicks" confused with "characters." The Undertaker is a gimmick. It's the greatest gimick of all time, but it's a gimmick. Kane is a gimmick. Val Venis was a gimmick. Goldust was a gimmick. Abdullah the Butcher was a gimmick.

I'm probably getting way too analytical for pro freaking wrestling, but bear with me. Here is an easy way to view it: Cactus Jack was a character; Mankind was a gimmick. Foley eventually blended the two of them together, but he was also incredibly talented.

Where I think WWE has gotten confused is that they think gimmicks and characters are the same thing. They think Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were gimmicks. So they try to teach Bryan Daniel how to act like Bryan Daniel. In my opinion, the person that should know what is best for Daniel Bryan to say in any situation is Daniel Bryan.

By the way, I'm not putting down gimmicks. Gimmicks are really important to pro wrestling. But you need both. And in fairness, they sometimes get it right. The Wyatts are gimmicks and from what I can tell, they are doing a good job with them.

I think gimmicks probably need a lot more backstage control, especially at first. Characters should have more freedom almost from the beginning. Eventually, both should really be the complete responsibility of the wrestler.

One other quick thing is this: Gimmicks tend to have a shelf-life unless you evolve them. Or have the ability to move around to different markets. Abdullah the Butcher did the same act for 30 years because he could bail out after 3 months when his act (which had a really short shelf-life) got stale. I can't imagine a character like Abby today; can you imagine some dude showing up on Raw 48 times a year for ten years stabbing dudes in the head with a fork? On the other hand, I would really like to see some dude stabbing John Cena in the head with a fork.

Why has no one stabbed John Cena in the head with a fork?

That's why Punk is so good at what he does. He is straight edge and especially when he is a heel he plays that up to the nth degree. They should have Bryan do that but with Veganism.

All the best wrestlers are themselves turned all the way up. It's always been that way. I remember Ric Flair saying he would buy a new suit every time they did a taping because he didn't want to be seen in the same clothes ever.

Not that it means anything but Stephanie McMahon no longer runs creative and they all report to Triple H now.

(but really everyone reports to Vince)

Also that report sounds meh. This Authority angle sucks. Triple H can only be vicious otherwise he is annoying. Plus you get this sense that everything always has to be about him somehow.

GACOLB and I cut promos on each other all the time. We have both agreed to an I Quit match but no date has been set.

I'm glad you recognize Sinister that Foley made HHH. No one puts a guy over like my man Mick. He made the Rock and HHH into total badasses over night. They will both admit to that too.

I'd like your analysis of Dave Meltzer and his five star system (that was in actuality created by Jim Cornette and some friend of his that he probably hates now)

BTW is there anyone who hates Shawn Michaels more than Jim Cornette? He will go out of his way to take a shot at him. I love it.

LKB is one of like 5 posters on this board I will click a thread just to read what he said. No matter what the topic is either. I'm drawn to you LKB. I can't help it.

I wish he would weigh in on the DMX thread.

Never really saw him on the indies but I heard he was terrific.

I loved him in the shield back when I was watching. Is he still the "leader" ?

I guess he's still the defacto leader mainly because he has that quality about him. He's also the best promo guy of the three.

I love the Austin podcast. He is a really really good interviewer. And his product pitches are more entertaining than the interviews.

I also love his bizarre obsessions. "What did you think of Dr. D hitting John Stossel?" "Who did you ride with?" "Who had the best working punch?"

The Flair interview was good, but Flair sounds like such a shell of a man now. I really liked the Dusty interview and hope he has him back several more times. Dusty is fascinating to listen to when he is not "in character." It really becomes clear how he became so powerful behind the scenes. The Scott Hall podcast was incredible. Scott Hall should be a booker somewhere (as long as he is not high or drunk or dying).

I also love how carnie Austin still is. In some ways, I'm glad he got his money and got out, because he was heading towards an early death. But, it's also sad that he is not more involved because he loves wrestling on a deep level.

"I still get these gimmicks in the mail called bills."

After Kevin Nash told a story about punching his college basketball coach, Austin said, "Did he sell it?"

He's asked the Stossel question to damn near everyone on there. It is hilarious. I think he gets alot of out of his interviews because he can connect with those guys in another level having lived that life and achieving success in the business.

He's another one I don't think is coming back for a match (though people talk about it all the time). He talks about how long it took him to get out the mindset of performing and being on the road all the time. Plus he is someone like Bret Hart who hates putting on even an average match. If he can't do it at a high level he won't do it.

The Scott Hall ones are brilliant. I'm glad he seems to have gotten his life together. I thought for sure he was going to die a few years ago. The guy couldn't stay clean for more than ten minutes.

Where's the star power there tho?

ROH is an unofficial WWE breeding ground. If they joined the mess that is TNA, they would be done in a year.

But I heard the American Wolves ( Davey Richarfs and Eddie Edwards) are coming to WWE.

That would get me watching for a bit

I love watching guys grow in the Indies and finally make it. The reason why I loved the Shield so much is because of how amazing Rollins ( Tyler Black) was in ROH.

His matches with Daniel Bryan, Richards, and Roderick Strong were dope.

On the flip side, watching them screw up Claiudio Castagnoli (Antonio Cesaro) pisses me off. Can't believe they cut Chris Hero and Colt Cabana. They all seemed like Tailor made Vince guys

Colt could be the new Jerry Lawler. He is so good on commentary stuff. His podcasts are hilarious and he loves the business. I wish he would do that for WWE.

My favorite indie to come over was Ambrose. I love his style though I'm a complete mark for Mick Foley and I see alot of similarities between the two so that's why. His Jon Moxley stuff is awesome.

I'm a nerd with a damn near photographic memory. And I started watching wrestling in 1980 when I was 7. I went to my first live wrestling event in 1981. In all honesty, one of the dominant memories of my childhood is watching the Freebirds give Ted DiBiase five piledrivers while Gordon Solie treated it like a live execution. (Seriously, google "Freebirds Dibiase Incident" and that explains my entire worldview).

I loved Georgia Championship Wrestling and saw plenty of Bob Backlund Era WWWF. My dad was a Sammartino fan, but I just missed him. I thought Backlund was the most boring person on the planet, liked Tommy Rich, and loved Dusty Rhodes. I also really liked Freddie Blassie and the Freebirds. That pretty much is the template for everything I like in wrestling now. I like badass heels, underdog babyfaces, and anyone with weird charisma. I am not really all that into workrate (though I appreciate it) and I don't really care for chicken**** heels. I like managers and passionate promos and guys who throw really good punches. Heaven to me is Midnight Express/Rock and Roll Express match followed by a Four Horseman beatdown followed by Nikita Koloff knocking a jobber's head off.

In other words, pretty much nothing in the WWE caters to me right now. And probably never will again. I'm kind of okay with that, but I feel like there are some old elements that really should be revived to at least some degree. I love this Dustin Rhodes stuff not so much because I like Dustin Rhodes but because Dustin is putting on a tag team wrestling clinic every week. And tag team wrestling has been dead for a decade.

That's great. I'm too young for that type of territorial wrestling. That was dying out when I started to get into it. But I own many DVDs (oh who am I kidding Blu Rays) of the older stuff. You should check out the Mid South DVD the WWE released. You might like that. Also if you get a chance you can listen to Stone Cold 's podcast and he has alot of the older guys on for interviews and their stories are great. The Ric Flair episode is a gold mine of good stories.

A Co worker of mine downloaded alot of the Dusty/Ric Flair stuff from NWA and that was such a joy to watch. Both of them could cut promos like you wouldn't believe. SON OF A PLUMBER.

And I love the Dustin stuff too. He can flat out wrestle. And I always thought he had a great mind for the business. The Goldust character was genius, IMO. People hated his guts.

Stone Cold only became goofy after the heel stuff didn't work. Nobody wanted to boo him because, damn it, he's STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD!

Also LKB I enjoyed reading your post on WCW and WWE. You've got a lot of knowledge about wrasslin in you.

And KDawg I'm with you. It's not Bryans fault. I think he is a good example of taking someone who just needs the extra push over the edge and completely burying him. They screwed that up in so many ways. I felt bad for Bryan after that.

He gives people Cena vs Orton because that's what makes money. Are you really going to discredit Vince 's success because you hate the fact that Orton and Cena are so popular? He wouldn't do it if it didn't make him cash. I think people forget he runs a business and the sad fact is while CM Punk and Daniel Bryan are great wrestlers they don't appeal to the most important demographic like Cena and Orton do.

I get it. It sucks they're wrestling for the ten millionth time. But until someone comes along and can be the new poster boy it's something you're going to have to live with.

And Cena isn't turning heel. Vince learned that lesson with Stone Cold. If he ever turns heel it will be when there is someone new who can take his spot.

I used to watch WCW only for the cruiserweight division. WCW catered to the oldhead heavyweights. I don't think it was the roster more than it was roster management. They had the talent to blow the doors off of WWE, but they had too many guys in positions of power who didnt deserve it, and buried the guys who had more to offer.

I remember how bad it got towards '99. That **** was so damn awful, lol. It was around that time when I became full WWE viewer (and even watched some ECW while they had the tv contract). They had a good 2 year run with that nWo storyline though. Completely changed wrestling history.

There would be no Atitude Era without the nWo. Vince would still be bringing out the Body Donnas and the Godwyns with their slop buckets and suspenders if it wasn't for them.

That's what sets Vince apart from every other promoter. He is willing to adapt and evolve and take risks. That's ultimately why WCW failed. They never pushed new talent. Vince gave guys like Stone Cold and Rock a chance to shine.

In all fairness, it is a little weird that Sting has never worked for McMahon. Can any major wrestler active since 1980 say that? I wouldn't hate Sting coming in once for a WrestleMania match against Undertaker.

Having said that, this guy seems to only know three wrestlers and they are all 60.

I don't think the issue with Rock is money. He got injured pretty badly in his last match. He has way too much to lose by getting hurt.

The way I remember it was when WCW was bought out Sting had a chance to come over but he decided to sit out and keep his guaranteed money from Turner. But he said he wasn't sure he would be utilized correctly in WWE and that's why he's never worked for him because then he went onto to TNA.

The ship has sailed on Undertaker/Sting. That match would be stiffer than a morgue. Neither guy can carry a match anymore. The last few years Undertaker has been following the lead in his matches because his health isn't what it used to be.