Random thoughts thread v2 *NO NEWS ITEMS*

[NEWM]

Was Matt Hardy really any good as a singles guy, or did he just have a good entrance gimmick?

I was trapped in the epicenter of my 'net fan nerdiness in 02/03, but having watched back some of his Smackdown run, it holds up pretty well. He was better as the "star in his own head" goon who ran interference for Brock Lesnar and got decked by The Undertaker without realising he was was just being used by Paul Heyman. That was by far his best chance at being used as a fill-in Main Eventer, and had he injured Rey instead of A-Train that time in late-02, he might have made the gimmick work off a strong feud with Edge. Once his association with the top guys ended, his Crusierweight Champion Dumb and Dumber deal with Shannon Moore was exactly where he belonged.A proper ascension to the Main Event would have required a pretty dramatic shift of in-ring style for him too. He was too much of a Hardy Boy then, but by the time he figured that out, his window was long closed. The closest he got to it was his US Title feud with MVP and ECW Title run. He was pretty handy in ring around that time. Silver-Belt ECW era had some fucking great talent attached actually, that was a brilliant spell for the show.

[Loki]

Virgil wore something just like Ba's there in 92 when Sid fucked his wrestling superstar face up. Mountie even walloped the poor sod with his own mask in that match at Sheffield Arena.

 

Sorry Loki, I know that's not really a proper answer, but I love it when wrestlers are treated so unsympathetically in angles that it just becomes funny at their expense. Zack Ryder's plights this time last year spring to mind.

 

Ron Simons had a mask when he first came to WWF, didn't he, but it was shit.

 

I reckon there's a gap in the market here. Put Big Zeke under a mask with a Mandingo/slave costume and have him brought out by a manager to the ring each time to batter skinny indie kids senseless.

[PowerButchi]

Nah, Ron wore a luminous blue gladiator helmet.

[Sphinx]

Sorry Loki, I know that's not really a proper answer, but I love it when wrestlers are treated so unsympathetically in angles that it just becomes funny at their expense. Zack Ryder's plights this time last year spring to mind.

 

At Extreme Rules, Orton and Kane went backstage in their match and Ryder attacked Kane. Kane barely sold it, shoved him off and Ryder just watched on rather than coming back for more. After that, he tweeted 'Take that, Kane!' That was after the cameraman had fallen over so you saw his blue trainers too. There weren't a dry eye in the house.

 

Was Matt Hardy really any good as a singles guy, or did he just have a good entrance gimmick?

 

Yeah, he was definitely good then. His main event with Rey was lush and the feud was entertaining.

[JLM]

EDIT: Balls, should have put this in the questions thread. Sorry.

Edited February 18, 2013 by JLM

[wandshogun09]

Wasn't ever much into Matt Hardy but around the time of the MVP/US Title stuff, he had some good matches with Finlay, and I vaguely recall a belter he had with Regal on Smackdown in that timeframe as well.

[DCW]

It's a pity he never got that feud with Edge at the end of 02,would've been interesting to see how far he could have went.

 

Wasn't the whole point that Edge needed someone to work around his injured knee and bump for him,but they stuck A-Train with him instead of Matt which only made Edge's gammy knee worse,because Edge had to do most of the work.

 

Vince musn't have been much of a Matitude follower I suppose.

[Forrest]

A legitimate question: What is people's gripe with Brodus Clay? There's a lot of hatred for him on here, and I can't really see what it is that marks him out for special hatred. Is it because he's a children's character who dances for PG amusement?

Edited February 18, 2013 by Forrest

[King Pitcos]

A legitimate question: What is people's gripe with Brodus Clay? There's a lot of hatred for him on here, and I can't really see what it is that marks him out for special hatred. Is it because he's a children's character who dances for PG amusement?

For the people who have hated him since he first redebuted a year ago, yes, that's exactly what it is. They want him to turn heel and do Mark Henry's gimmick. For the people who have got fed up of him since then, it's probably just that his routine has never really developed and it's gone stale. His tag team with Tensai has done wonders for both of them though.

[SpursRiot2012]

For the people who have got fed up of him since then, it's probably just that his routine has never really developed and it's gone stale.

 

This. I quite liked him when he debuted. I haven't watched any WWE since the Rumble so I can't speak about his shit with Tensai.

[Smegma Cake]

I think its mainly the fact that he can't dance. It was funny at first seeing this supposed 'monster' come out and dance, but he's shite. He's lost a ton of weight, looks in better shape and is probably having better matches but the dancing is half arsed.

 

Maybe I'm just used comparing him to Rikishi throwing shapes all those years back

[Pinc]

I think its mainly the fact that he can't dance. It was funny at first seeing this supposed 'monster' come out and dance, but he's shite. He's lost a ton of weight, looks in better shape and is probably having better matches but the dancing is half arsed.

 

Maybe I'm just used comparing him to Rikishi throwing shapes all those years back

Aye. I enjoyed Brodus for a while but the gimmick's so obviously half arsed. He hasn't got better at dancing after a year or more of doing it several times a week.

[NEWM]

He puts significantly less juice into the gimmick from when he first started too. I remember we all threw babies in the air for the "SORRYBOUTTHAT", "SHEYYYYAH!!!!" and the like when he got started. Unusually for a character like this one, the character was actually more fleshed out on night one and has regressed ever since. But yeah, the Tensai team felt like an instant hit. It's been more than seven years since both Too Cool and the Hip Hop Hippo. Let's get a proper Dancing Disasters on the go.

[TheBigBoot]

When Vince removed him from TV because he wasn't happy with him after his strong start towards the beginning of last year I think he lost a bit of momentum.

 

When he came back the character had been tweaked a bit (including a different finisher) and he'd dropped all that stuff NEWM mentioned, presumably under orders from management.

 

Don't think the bad dancing hurt Clay as much as him having what seemed to be the exact same match week. Even Goldberg had to change things up more than that and he had a much more watchable week-to-week act.

 

Essa Rios faced a bunch of folk around that time. I remember Samoa Joe and Low Ki.

Didn't Ki land himself in the weird WWE doghouse because during the match he got himself over?

 

I'm sure I read that somewhere at the time.

 

I've heard that before as well. I think it was that he was seen as getting to much in when he was supposed to be the jobber not the star of the match.

 

Was Matt Hardy really any good as a singles guy, or did he just have a good entrance gimmick?

 

One of the best in the world.

 

He could always work singles but from the time he got fired in 2005 to 2009 Matt was one of the most consistent guys on the planet and probably the best pure babyface worker not named Rey Mysterio. His losing streak (2006)/winning streak (2007) gimmicks after he got moved to SmackDown and his run as ECW's ace in particular are well worth checking out.

 

During that time he also had a really great nostalgia run with Hardy Boyz reunion where they were treated as sort of this dream team (n. Beefcake and Valentine) similar to DX only further down the card, despite them both having strong singles runs at the time. So a lot of the time Matt would be in a really good tag match on Raw and then the best match (vs guys like Booker, Regal, Finlay, MVP) on SmackDown. Sometimes he was in the best and second best match of the week.

[Teedy Kay]

He puts significantly less juice into the gimmick from when he first started too. I remember we all threw babies in the air for the "SORRYBOUTTHAT", "SHEYYYYAH!!!!" and the like when he got started. Unusually for a character like this one, the character was actually more fleshed out on night one and has regressed ever since. But yeah, the Tensai team felt like an instant hit. It's been more than seven years since both Too Cool and the Hip Hop Hippo. Let's get a proper Dancing Disasters on the go.

 

They need to go all Flight of The Conchords and have The Hip-Hop-opotamus and The Rhyming-ocerus, give them Natural Disasters styled outfits, and BAM a monster tag team to beat the fuck out of everyone and hold the belts forever.