2011's Breakout Stars

[HeavyT]

Bobby Roode is a guy who's been tipped for greatness for a while. If its not this year, surely it'll be next year? Drew McIntyre hopefully does well, being a fellow Scot, not sure about main eventer though.

 

I reckon now it's time for Shark Boy to shine!!

[TheBigBoot]

2010 was a pretty good year for new stars in pro wrestling. We had a whole heap of new faces hitting the top of the TNA roster and some fresh matchups, and in WWE guys like Barrett came from nowhere to headline.

 

So, who's going to explode from the mid-card morass this year?

 

Watching the last Impact, I was struck again about what a fucking dynamite pro wrestler Robert Roode is. He has the look, the swagger, great technique, and is pretty good at promos as well. He was being pushed as a singles star before Beer Money, and if that team runs its course this year I can see him making the leap into the top of the heavyweight division. He's using the spinebuster as a finisher now too, and hits it beautifully.

 

Yeah, I mentioned Roode in the "worst factions" thread (one of a few threads I keep meaning to back to now Christmas is over) in relation to Team Canada and how much Roode stood out at that point as someone I thought would be in line for a big singles push down the road. He was working very much a no-nonsense Arn Anderson 'Enforcer' type role back then and it really suited him. I'm not sure that was exactly a 'controversial' opinion either because I'm sure I remember him getting a lot of praise at the time for the same things. Back when I stopped watching TNA regularly, Team Canada had already disbanded and it looked like he was in for a big push (even bringing in Heenan, Sherri, etc. to get it over). You got the impression he really could have gone to WWE around that time (alongside Monty Brown) and

 

Sure he might not have gotten a push right off the bat. Sure he would have been given a stupid name. Sure he might not have been able to talk/show he could talk at first. But at the very least I think he'd have stood out from a lot of the developmental guys they brought up with similar no-nonsense 'gimmicks' because he had a lot of experience doing it in a way that got his charisma.

 

What surprised me was his last singles push got a bit of a backlash though didn't it? Not going to go back and look through all the TNA threads now but I'm sure in the time I was not watching iMPACT! but was still reading spoilers I remember reading a lot of comments from TNA fans on how boring he was/was one of the guys TNA should let got, etc.? Surprised me a bit because I'm sure a lot of the criticism was about his matches/being able to work whereas I always thought he was regarded as being pretty solid in that regard (at least in the years before that) even if people didn't like his gimmick.

 

Maybe he was just going through a bad patch? The guy seems to be back on form now, based on the little I've seen. Or was it just a case they pushed him too hard? Been trying to see some of the best WWE matches atm and watching the Beer Money/MCMG stuff he's looking good again. He definitely would have been one of my picks for this if this thread was a few years ago so it's good to know if he's in an even better position now - it seems like he's been one of TNA's stars waiting to happen for about half a decade now. The exact same with James Storm who I think everyone actually did pickas a guy who would go on to be a top heel/hold the belt soon back around this time in December 2006/January 2007.

 

WWE wise - I think this year will be make-or-break for John Morrison. I've banged on endlessly before about how much of a star in waiting I've always thought he was, but I reckon this year he'll finally be given the chance to shine and we'll find out for sure whether he's the next Shawn Michaels or the next Shelton Benjamin. Or more likely somewhere in between - but hopefully on the 'HBK' side of the spectrum

 

I think Morrison has already surpassed Benjamin now. The only thing he hasn't done yet that Benji did (albeit in Scramble Match) is wrestle for the WWE Title on PPV and that's going to happen a few times this year I think. I'll agree that their careers are pretty much even in terms of how they've been portrayed as IC/US/ECW Champ type guys who are also a threat to the Big Boys (HHH, Undertaker and HBK in Benjamin's case/Edge, Jericho, DX and Sheamus in Morrison's) but can't quite win the Title but Morrison has been given more time on the stick, arguably more wins over name opponents (Swagger when he was World Champ, Mysterio, etc.), his own internet segment with Miz, his own DVD, and just seems further up the pecking order in terms of merchandising, having his name/image out there as part of the product, etc. in general.

 

TNA will create no new genuine stars. If they were capable of and serious about that The Pope would be utterly massive by now. It's a shame because earlier in the year everyone from Pope and Anderson down to Eric Young seemed to be making major strides under the new regime, but they've all been taken off the boil to a greater or lesser degree. Matt Morgan will possibly get a title run this year, and Mr. Anderson almost certainly will, but neither of them will actually be any better off for it in the great scheme of things.

 

That's a shame to read. When I saw TNA earlier this year, it certainly seemed how you described with Pope and Anderson coming into their own. That's one hell of a condemnation of TNA's booking if they've failed to build on it?

 

I can't see either of Beer Money breaking out from the pack. Much as everyone seems to love them as a team (don't see the appeal personally) tagging up has just set them both back in terms of becoming headliners. I see much more potential in Storm than Roode, and I think he has (or had, before they both pretty much stopped doing their individual gimmicks) a genuinely interesting and entertaining character, which is a great rarity in wrestling these days. I hope one day he gets a proper singles run, but I doubt he'll ever be the star he could be.

 

Yeah that surprised me as well, how seamlessley Storm seemed to transition from half of longterm tag team to interact with the top guys (even carrying himself like a top guy). Easily one of the best success stories to come out of TNA in terms of creating an interesting character that actually got over. It's also interesting how much the right gimmick can switch things around since I remember when AMW were getting their big push that for the bulk of the time a lot of people thought Harris was going to be the one to get a big singles push since TNA didn't have that many big guys in those days. Yet from pretty much that funeral for Kevin Nash skit onwards things flipped the other way and people started saying it was Storm who would go on to become TNA's top guy. One of the better things about watching TNA in those days was watching him develop.

 

He's the opposite of Roode in those spoiler reading days in that (much like Roode) when I stopped watching TNA regularly he had just split from a long-time team, in this case one which had been heavily pushed since pretty much the start of the company. And even though he had a good gimmick at that point, had developed into a good promo pretty much from the second AMW turned heel and had shown a lot of character improvement over the previous year I was expecting him to get lost in the shuffle once the inevitable partner feud died. But as I understand it he went on to pretty high profile feuds with Rhyno and Sting. So it was nice to consistently read how he was the best part of the show, a main eventer waiting to happen, etc. from most of the TNA fans on here. Who at the start of the decade would have possibly thought Jacqueline could be entertaining (and getting praised by the IWC for it) in the late 2000s? Normally when I read that kind of praise you go in and find the stuff overrated if you haven't been following it but the little bits and pieces I've seen with him in (inc. those Beer Money/MCMG matches) seem to back that up. I don't even read about TNA now really (other than checking the results of their PPVs) but based on the little I've seen and the love Beer Money seem to get I see that hasn't changed.

 

That's why this thread is interesting to find out that the same names are still doing well but it does make you wonder when TNA will go all the way with them.

 

Also, I think it could be a big year for Kofi Kingston and I also expect him to go back to Raw at some point. He's having good matches on Smackdown and seems to be improving all the time. He's already very over and is a babyface who isn't difficult to get behind at all. I think he's got the potential to shift some serious merchandise as well, as I'm starting to notice more and more people in the crowds wearing his gear. He's breifly rubbed shoulders with the likes of Orton in the main event scene before, but now with some more experience under his belt I think he's better placed to make more of a name for himself and become a much bigger asset to the company in 2011.

 

You would think so but on the other hand too many false pushes and he could go the way of a Carlito/Shelton Benjamin/what almost happened to Morrison and get 'typecast' in that role. The Orton push was a pretty big deal and when they didn't follow up on it in 2010 it did seem like a demotion whether it actually benefited him or not. Next time they push him I think they have to go all the way with it or else I could see him ending up like Jack Swagger (i.e. winning the World Title but it not really making a big difference to his spot on the card long-term).

[Loki]

I disagree about TNA not creating any new stars. They just don't tend to do the WWE thing of suddenly pushing them from nowhere.

 

Pope and Anderson got loads of momentum in 2010, but right now only one of them can be challenging Hardy for the title, and that's Anderson. Pope's had a title shot already, and will undoubtedly get another in 2011, possibly against Anderson if he turns heel again.

 

Doug Williams is another of TNA's 2010 big pushes, but much as I like Doug I think this is as high as they can reasonably push him considering he's not the most charismatic guy ever.

 

I'm glad other people rate Roode - I think he's all kinds of awesome, and continues to remind me of guys like Arn Anderson and Mr Perfect, which is no bad thing. I don't remember his bad patch that The BigBoot mentions, but I may not have been watching at that time. If they'd genuinely brought in Bobby Heenan as his manager, I can't help but think he'd be a main eventer now.

 

I also think Storm is great, but... well... how far can the good ol' southern boy gimmick take you in this day and age? He's just so great at what he does now - no nonsense tag team brawling. I just remember how horrible Harris became when he was pushed as a singles guy, and also that Storm wasn't setting the world on fire is his last singles run either.

 

If I'm honest, I've always assumed the WWE would pick them up eventually.

[CleetusVanDamme]

I don't remember his bad patch that The BigBoot mentions, but I may not have been watching at that time.

 

 

The feud with Booker T was ringpiece, not that there was anything Roode could do about it mind. To make it even worse, that pretty much killed his singles push (which had been going well) dead. That's probably the only bad Roode stuff in the last 5 years that I can think of.

[Big Rob]

Watching the last Impact, I was struck again about what a fucking dynamite pro wrestler Robert Roode is. He has the look, the swagger, great technique, and is pretty good at promos as well. He was being pushed as a singles star before Beer Money, and if that team runs its course this year I can see him making the leap into the top of the heavyweight division. He's using the spinebuster as a finisher now too, and hits it beautifully.

 

Good call, completely agree. He just seems to "get it", face or heel he has all the mannerisms down perfect, and the timing of his comebacks when Beer Money were faces were a thing of beauty. I'm not sure that they'll split Beer Money this year though.

Roode has looked good since he was a jobber on Sunday Night Heat, and probably before then too. I kind of never want Beer Money to split though, I just don't seem them both getting a fair chance as singles guys, although they're both talented enough to carry it off.

 

Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, John Morrison and Alberto del Rio should all do big things this year. Cody won't get to World Title status, but I could see him having a long IC Title run. Drew and Alberto are both good enough to be World Champion, and I hope both get elevated to the main event. A switch of one of them to Raw would do them good, probably more so for Alberto. John Morrison I can see being the next Jeff Hardy in terms of the high risk, good looking babyface that the girls go mental for. His selling and in-ring facial expressions are much better than they were a few months ago, and if he can become a bit more comfortable on the mic, he'll be there. Hell, even if he doesn't, that didn't do Hardy any harm.

[Fatty Facesitter]

Also, I think it could be a big year for Kofi Kingston and I also expect him to go back to Raw at some point. He's having good matches on Smackdown and seems to be improving all the time. He's already very over and is a babyface who isn't difficult to get behind at all. I think he's got the potential to shift some serious merchandise as well, as I'm starting to notice more and more people in the crowds wearing his gear. He's breifly rubbed shoulders with the likes of Orton in the main event scene before, but now with some more experience under his belt I think he's better placed to make more of a name for himself and become a much bigger asset to the company in 2011.

 

You would think so but on the other hand too many false pushes and he could go the way of a Carlito/Shelton Benjamin/what almost happened to Morrison and get 'typecast' in that role. The Orton push was a pretty big deal and when they didn't follow up on it in 2010 it did seem like a demotion whether it actually benefited him or not. Next time they push him I think they have to go all the way with it or else I could see him ending up like Jack Swagger (i.e. winning the World Title but it not really making a big difference to his spot on the card long-term).

 

True, but I think he's already got more going for him than those names you mentioned, possibly Morrison aside. He's got a stronger work ethic than Carlito for me and is more likely to be given the green light for a push by the company. I'd say he's just as over and just as athletic as Carlito was at Carlito's best (when he was actually motivated). He's already more over than Swagger and has more chance of making a name for himself than Swagger does. He's also got more charisma than Benjamin. Agree they need to go all the way with it, but I'd say with more experience under his belt since that ill-fated run with Orton he's more ready now to be a breakout star than he was back then. Also, lest we forget John Cena had breif flirtations with main event stars before his own mega push. So whilst Benjamin and Carlito for instance are good examples of how it can go wrong, there's also the Cena example of how you can go on to be a success.

[tom]

Watching the last Impact, I was struck again about what a fucking dynamite pro wrestler Robert Roode is. He has the look, the swagger, great technique, and is pretty good at promos as well. He was being pushed as a singles star before Beer Money, and if that team runs its course this year I can see him making the leap into the top of the heavyweight division. He's using the spinebuster as a finisher now too, and hits it beautifully.

 

Good call, completely agree. He just seems to "get it", face or heel he has all the mannerisms down perfect, and the timing of his comebacks when Beer Money were faces were a thing of beauty. I'm not sure that they'll split Beer Money this year though.

Roode has looked good since he was a jobber on Sunday Night Heat, and probably before then too. I kind of never want Beer Money to split though, I just don't seem them both getting a fair chance as singles guys, although they're both talented enough to carry it off.

I've never fully gotten the love for Roode on here. But admittedly I've been a quite casual TNA follower. Are there any particular matches of his, be it singles or tag, that you'd recommend?

[Loki]

I'd check out the recent matches with MMG - particularly the 2 out of 3 Falls match on Aug 12th Impact. The whole feud, from Victory Road on, is one of the best tag team feuds you'll see, with every one of the Best of 5 series being different stories.

 

They've had crackers against 3D too - I think there was a belter at Slammiversary 2009.

 

Thing is - pretty much every match they've had for the last 2 years has been good. His little singles match on this Impact was good as well.

 

Looking back on Roode's singles run, he really was given a hard road. A looong, boring feud with Eric Young, then getting squashed by Rikishi Fatu in his one TNA match, and then the so-bad-I-forgot-it Booker T feud. Booker T was absolutely terrible in TNA, apart from some tagging with Steiner.

[tom]

Looking back on Roode's singles run, he really was given a hard road. A looong, boring feud with Eric Young, then getting squashed by Rikishi Fatu in his one TNA match, and then the so-bad-I-forgot-it Booker T feud. Booker T was absolutely terrible in TNA, apart from some tagging with Steiner.

That's most of what I've seen of him, so that could very well explain it. I can't really re-call any of his Team Canada stuff apart from a cracking match with AMW but I'm not entirely sure if he was even part of the tag team.

[Smegma Cake]

Robert Roode is the only one that really stands out to me. However, to get Roode into the Main Event they'd have to split up Beer Money. I don't see that happening anytime soon. I could see James Storm being the face and Roode the heel if they split up.

 

However I've always said Roode has everything a top main event level star needs, apart from the hair. However if you've ever seen him with short hair you'll know it can't get much better. He's a decent talker, but not one that will light up a crowd. I could still see him getting a good run as TNA World Champ in the future as for the most part, TNA's roster is filled with guys you can expect to beat each other. Anyone can beat anyone. Top to bottom. I quite like that about TNA. They could push anyone from Magnus to Jay Lethal and it wouldn't look that out of place.

 

Dolph Ziggler for me is the one in the WWE that just seems to have everything it takes. The name doesn't seem to be so much of a drawback as it first seemed, the longer he's paired with Vickie the better. I can see Ziggler being a very good babyface once he eventually dumps Vickie.

[TheBigBoot]

Watching the last Impact, I was struck again about what a fucking dynamite pro wrestler Robert Roode is. He has the look, the swagger, great technique, and is pretty good at promos as well. He was being pushed as a singles star before Beer Money, and if that team runs its course this year I can see him making the leap into the top of the heavyweight division. He's using the spinebuster as a finisher now too, and hits it beautifully.

 

Good call, completely agree. He just seems to "get it", face or heel he has all the mannerisms down perfect, and the timing of his comebacks when Beer Money were faces were a thing of beauty. I'm not sure that they'll split Beer Money this year though.

Roode has looked good since he was a jobber on Sunday Night Heat, and probably before then too. I kind of never want Beer Money to split though, I just don't seem them both getting a fair chance as singles guys, although they're both talented enough to carry it off.

 

That's where I first saw him as well, a few times in appearances on Heat and Velocity where he looked like he had a lot of potential. I remember him and Eric Young teamed against The F.B.I. pre-Team Canada days.

 

I'm glad other people rate Roode - I think he's all kinds of awesome, and continues to remind me of guys like Arn Anderson and Mr Perfect, which is no bad thing. I don't remember his bad patch that The BigBoot mentions, but I may not have been watching at that time. If they'd genuinely brought in Bobby Heenan as his manager, I can't help but think he'd be a main eventer now.

 

It was as much a question as anything else since like I said I wasn't watching at the time either, which is why I was asking if he just went through a bad patch as a wrestler or if he was just overpushed or something because there did seem to be a backlash against him not that long back. I remember the name change and him choosing Traci Brooks as his manager but not a lot after that. I wouldn't say it was big as the Matt Hardy backlash, but there did seem to be a 'change of feelings' on him and it was noticeable because he went from one of those names people were hailing as the 'next big things' (2003-2006) from those Velocity days right up to that "free agent" storyline we are talking about with Heenan, etc. (i.e. one of the guys the TNA fans thought was great) to seemingly one of the guys they hated for being overrated/boring within the stretch of a year or less.

 

If you had done this thread in January 2006 or something I think a lot of people would have picked him (there already were a lot who did say a similar thing - that for as big as star as Petey Williams was that it would be Roode who would shine once Team Canada inevitably split) and I think he'd have been one of the names to come up most along with Joe and Storm. If you had done it a couple of years later I don't think there would have been as much support and I actually wouldn't be surprised if his name didn't pop up at all - or at least that's the impression I got from reading the spoilers of the shows (various sites) and also reading the discussions on here people were saying that his feud with Eric Young was the worst thing in TNA. That part probably isn't much of a surprise but people were also saying that Roode himself was "boring".

 

Even after then I remember him getting criticism for some feud he had with Samoa Joe and whatever it was they called Rikishi apparently exposing him as not being able to work with Joe. I do remember him being mentioned as someone TNA should ditch in the weekly who should TNA hire/fire threads that seem to pop up here once a month or if not those threads themselves then the iMPACT! threads seem to turn into them whenever the subject of TNA not creating stars pops up (or at least did I'm now at the stage I don't just watch TNA I don't read the results either) which gave me the impression he had a bit of a backlash. It was around the same time people were saying Storm was the best thing in TNA and should have won the TNA belt in some gauntlet thing that that they put Chris Harris in instead or something, if that helps. Maybe I will check out some of their matches later this week and see for myself. I'm sure he had some good singles matches as well but it didn't sound like he'd set the world on fire.

 

When I dropped out of watching full iMPACT!'s in January '07 after it moved from TWC to Bravo (although in actual time I believe TWC were up to about a month before then?) the last PPV I saw was the second match between Angle and Joe, on the undercard they had an awful, unfunny 'bikini contest' between Brooks and Eric Young (who Roode had already been feuding with for what seemed like months since the Team Canada split) with Roode at ringside. When I finally watched a TNA show again almost a year later I was surprised to see it was still going over a year later (and that was when I still bothered to read TNA spoilers so I should have known but even then I thought they'd blown it off by that point). Since then (right up to now in fact) I only tend to watch the highly pimped TNA matches and up to that point he wasn't in any of them so I hadn't seen anything he'd done since around December 2006 [i'm sure he did have some good matches between then and the people who watch TNA regularly might be able to recommend some but it was strange he seemed to be in the same spot. Even pre-"free agent" angle (where he got a decent amount of TV time)/looked to be getting the big push he got a feud with Rhyno before Team Canada split as well which seemed to bode well for his future since he never looked out of place opposite the bigger guys in a brawling role.]

 

That said, I don't remember him looking that bad in-ring (he did seem to have lost some of the nononsense man brawler he had in Team Canda) but then again but if I'd watched every week maybe I'd have noticed him losing a step (the same as I do with people on SmackDown or something that others who watch the show every few months might not pick up on) to cause the backlash. Never saw him again until he was already half of the current team with Harris. So basically, I never saw anything he did from about Summer 2007 (a year into his singles push) until Beer money but did see bits and pieces in-between and wondered where it all collapsed. Sometimes even unjustified backlashes have some truth to them.

 

So I was throwing it out there to find out if/what went wrong with him to (which Cleetus answered in part) to cause that backlash and whether he actually started to suck as badly as was made out and had gotten back on form in Beer Money (which is 99% or what I've seen of him post-Team Canada) or if he was still having good matches all along and if was just a case that they pushed him too fast/hard/whatever? What went wrong and did he really get that bad to watch?

 

I've never fully gotten the love for Roode on here. But admittedly I've been a quite casual TNA follower. Are there any particular matches of his, be it singles or tag, that you'd recommend?

 

Singles wise then back in his early days (shortly after they were still running Nashville, maybe the same week) he had a match with Styles on Xplosion. The feud with R-Truth was better than you might expect and was around the time the talk peaked about him being a "Breakout star" of the future. I think both those work as examples of him holding his own in singles matches. Tag wise there was the one you mentioned against AMW from Final Resolution 2005. Also had a decent one with Young against Diamond Dallas Page and Monty Brown that is worth watching.

 

In terms of stuff from the last five years, one I mentioned recently that I haven't seen since but really liked at the time was him and Eric Young (Team Canada) vs. Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother DeVon)