Over and Underachievers

[ColinBollocks]

WWE have it but never let it leave the vault. I remember Colt Cabana saying when he was in FCW, if you gave WWE a list of matches they'd stick them on a DVD for you. Cabana asked for the Hart carry classic repeatedly but they refused to put it on the DVD.

 

Cornette says he has it, but Cornette is a carny.

 

The funny thing about that match is Vince spent months wondering why he was so good against Bret and rubbish against everybody else. He couldn't get his head round the fact little pale Bret Hart was THAT good.

[AceOfWands]

Sabu is a definate underachiever for me. He had it all, pretty much, really hard worker, he went the extra mile, had tons of excellent matches, better than he probably realised himself, but never quite made the big money that he should have done.

[fye]

I dont recall ever seeing him in a decent straight up match, no weapons, no gimmicks

[AceOfWands]

I dont recall ever seeing him in a decent straight up match, no weapons, no gimmicks

 

Same could be said for a lot of good brawlers, for instance Mick Foley. The closest Sabu ever came to that, i'd say, was some of his matches with RVD, where the use of weapons was pretty minimalistic a lot of the time.

[Magnum Milano]

Magee was the pits wasnt he, but why did vince think/want him to be the next hogan, he may have had a decent build but in the 80's heaps of guys we're jacked, Warlord, Barbarian and others were better wrestlers and huge, suddenly Ultimate Warrior doesnt seem so bad now (if you think he was crap which I dont)

It was the combination of everything that Magee possessed; tall, physique as impressive if not more so than Hogan's, a legitimate World's Strongest Man, looks of a model, athletic ability of a gymnast (see the shooting star entrance) and after the Bret match, the belief that he was a great worker. The guy was basically the prototype of McMahon's perfect wrestler.

[Vamp]

Sabu is a definate underachiever for me. He had it all, pretty much, really hard worker, he went the extra mile, had tons of excellent matches, better than he probably realised himself, but never quite made the big money that he should have done.

 

Sabu's aura was that he was a complete fuck up, a lot of that goes if there isn't a chance of him botching something and when you're a big global he's a stupid needless danger. I think he quite well really.

[Fox Piss]

Sabu had his chances to make money in both WCW and WWE didn't work out due to many reasons. I don't think they had what it took to Personally and Professionally make it in the big two.

 

Sabu and Foley are two different animals all together as well.

[Vamp]

That's a good point actually, he did get a bit of a push as something different on early Nitro.

[Devon Malcolm]

Magee was the pits wasnt he, but why did vince think/want him to be the next hogan, he may have had a decent build but in the 80's heaps of guys we're jacked, Warlord, Barbarian and others were better wrestlers and huge, suddenly Ultimate Warrior doesnt seem so bad now (if you think he was crap which I dont)

It was the combination of everything that Magee possessed; tall, physique as impressive if not more so than Hogan's, a legitimate World's Strongest Man, looks of a model, athletic ability of a gymnast (see the shooting star entrance) and after the Bret match, the belief that he was a great worker. The guy was basically the prototype of McMahon's perfect wrestler.

 

Did Magee ever cut any promos? I would imagine those might have been marvellous.

[AceOfWands]

Sabu left WCW because of money issues, I believe, the management was stupid by then. He had a shot in WWE but was disregarded like all the other ECW guys at that time.

 

Check out his match with TV title Scorpio from Cyberslam 96, goes on for about half an hour and there's lots of wrestling in it, and much much hardcore stuff, mainly just a chair, other than that only a table spot and that's it.

 

What was so great about him was that he went the extra mile, did a lot of stuff that a lot of guys wouldn't or couldn't and sacrificed himself for the business. He may not have always utilised wrestling skill, but remember he was trained by The Sheik.

 

He's far superior to his overachieving mate, RVD, in my book. On the Subject of Van Dam, from what I can see, with a handful of exceptions, he's been phoning it in the years and goes through the motions every match these days, it seems. He's done better than he should have done, probably.

[NEWM]

Sabu getting a WWE contract in 2006 is absolutely mental to think about just a few years later. A broken down hardly-ever-was getting PPVs with John Cena and Rey Mysterio, fucking hell. I know it all made sense in context, but that very context was about 5 years late too. And before some smartarse says that Nash was the same last year, he was a multi-time World Champion across both major companies and more than worthy of another quick run. As great an innovative as Sabu was for a very limited period, he was practically taking the cash out of Vince's pocket.

 

Can you imagine TNA folding tomorrow and Elix Skipper getting paydays against Orton and Sheamus whilst WWE show clips of the steel cage hurricanrana?

[AceOfWands]

Are you comparing Elix Skipper to Sabu?

 

Skipper may have had his one moment in time, but Sabu has had plenty. Most of the ECW guys that age are broken down now, although I haven't seen much recent Sabu stuff, not sure how good he is at the moment, although he was injured for a while.

 

It's a bit much to say that Sabu is a "never was", more like a "should have been". He was one of the top in ECW and is still remembered as such. He should have had a lot more work in Japan, but he did that too.

 

Also, as I recall, the PPVs you refer to were the WWECW stuff, so it makes sense that Sabu should have a headline roll in that, given that he played such a pivotal act in the original ECW. Also, i'd say Sabu/Mysterio is pretty logical matchmaking, for obvious reasons.

[Magnum Milano]

Did Magee ever cut any promos? I would imagine those might have been marvellous.

I can't remember ever seeing one. I think the general idea was to keep him off TV and working dark matches and house shows against your Terry Gibbs, Mike Sharpe types until he was ready for the giant push that Vince wanted to give him. Without checking Cawthon's site I don't know if he worked any of the televised MSG, Boston Garden or Philly Spectrum shows, if he did, there is a chance he would have cut a short promo either pre or post match.

[Fox Piss]

I heard Sabu was in a bad way. I think some wrestlers were trying to raise money for him.

 

I know you say he had big moments in ECW which he did no doubt but to make the big money in the WWE or WCW you need to build up to them moments and I'm not sure Sabu could have worked matches ever week to build up to some of the great stuff he could do.

 

I think he could of actually got over in the big two with the whole lights out appear from nowhere shit he used to do as well.

 

Just a bastard to book him the right way to their audience.

[King Pitcos]

Sabu getting a WWE contract in 2006 is absolutely mental to think about just a few years later. A broken down hardly-ever-was getting PPVs with John Cena and Rey Mysterio, fucking hell. I know it all made sense in context, but that very context was about 5 years late too. And before some smartarse says that Nash was the same last year, he was a multi-time World Champion across both major companies and more than worthy of another quick run. As great an innovative as Sabu was for a very limited period, he was practically taking the cash out of Vince's pocket.

 

Can you imagine TNA folding tomorrow and Elix Skipper getting paydays against Orton and Sheamus whilst WWE show clips of the steel cage hurricanrana?

 

I remember being amazed that they kept him on after his SummerSlam match with Big Show. He might as well have been called Sin Cara that night.