I miss yooouuuuu

[ColinBollocks]

First person I thought of was Vince McMahon. Granted, these days his voice is shot, but with Vince on telly he can create some funny moments by being the massive dork we all know he really is. Dancing Vince being my favourite. He also showed with Punk a few years a go that few are so good at showing arse for a babyface - only highlighted when Nash and Triple H got involved.

 

I have slowly been revisiting mid-90s WWF and what is quite apparent is Sid was the Don. I forgot how great Survivor Series 96 was - seriously holds up. Sid came out that event looking like the baddest man on the planet.

 

Batista needs to stop being a great actor and return too.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Zombie Undertaker mid 1991 to mid 1992 era was the character that got me hooked on wrestling.
I miss Undertaker in general to be honest. 

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Edge and Curt Hennig for me, although I would also love to see an in prime Shawn Michaels again.

[UK Kat Von D]

Got to be CM Punk. He was my favourite wrestler for so long (and the first Indy guy that made me think WWE was shit and Indy wrestling was great as a moody teenager.) I even liked his TNA stuff. I stopped watching every week when he left.

 

I also miss Alex Shelley. I loved him in TNA, but haven't followed him anywhere else. He really should have been a top guy in TNA, they fucked up with him. While I'm at it I also miss TNA

[King Pitcos]

I'll go with Batista and Austin. I preferred Edge and CM Punk to them, but Edge and Punk both easily fall into the Just Another Guy category when they and/or the writers can't be arsed. Compare Edge during the cracking feud with Cena to Edge feuding with Orton or Kane in his last active year. Same with Punk, from his SES days to looking and working like shit in 2013. Mind you, Batista was the same for most of 2006-2009 too.

 

Austin would never just fall into the pack. I hated the bastard during his big babyface run because that was my TOP FACES SUCK, GIVE THE HEELS CLEAN WINS FFS phase. But he'd be guaranteed to do something more interesting than Kane rematches every week.

[Sergio Mendacious]

I'm forever put out that they won't meet Bossman's asking price. I don't begrudge him sunning himself in Acapulco, jamming with the Stones and getting off with playboy bunnies, but he has another run left in him.

 

I miss Bob Holly. I miss that bastard loads.

[HarmonicGenerator]

The Shield, massively. Most invested I've been in an act for at least a decade. Perfect mix of performers delivering quality matches every night, cool as fuck. Their split pretty much killed my interest in WWE.

 

I came in here to post this. I really miss The Shield. They had an intangible 'something' as a unit that none of them have been able to properly recreate by themselves. I don't begrudge Rollins his big heel push, he's been made as a star and that's great, I like the unconventionality of Ambrose, and I'm trying my best to keep liking Reigns at the moment… but oh, how I wish they didn't split them up. It may have sodded up Rollins' push with the Authority, but I maintain they could have had singles careers and still been friends and team up sometimes.

 

- FANTASY BOOKING IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH -

 

You could even get to roughly the same main event picture as now, if they'd been the focus of a baby face feud against The Authority in the summer while Daniel Bryan was injured. Cena and Lesnar do the same thing they actually did in the meantime, Rollins can still win MITB. Have them on Cena's team in the Survivor Series main event, stick Reigns in Ziggler's place (but don't have have him rely on Sting quite as much to finally win). Authority recruits Lesnar, as the upper hand against the Shield. Reigns goes into Mania against the unstoppable force of Lesnar, but he's got the Shield as backup - you can ally them with Bryan as well, why not. Then, if you absolutely have to break them up, have Rollins challenge at Extreme Rules and have him lose but then cash in to win as a second chance.

 

 - FANTASY BOOKING ENDS -

 

So yeah, I miss the Shield and wish they were still together. They were the last act I've been really into in WWE.

 

I miss Undertaker in general to be honest. 

 

Yep, me too. He's got a presence about him, even when he was around every week, that nobody else can quite match. 

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy.

 

When you look at the current roster and realise how long the majority of the dull midcard have been there- Kofi, Swagger, R-Truth, Zack Ryder etc, it's mad to think of how Kurt Angle became so good, so fast. Sure, he was a great athlete, being an Olympic wrestler and all that, but great athletes are really a dime a dozen in today's WWE. But he understood characters, stories and psychology so damn well- within three years he was a main event mainstay having classic matches against the likes of Benoit, Lesnar, Guerrero, Triple H, Michaels- and at the end of his run was fantastic at getting Cena ready for the main event run of dominance to come. It's clear that WWE still hold him in high regard, given how they speak of him and feature him in various retrospective stuff despite being actively contracted to TNA. It's a pity his body is such a wreck, otherwise he'd likely be doing his Legends run at the moment putting over Rusev.

 

And Jeff Hardy- fuck, one of the most exciting wrestlers ever, it's insane the risks he would take and the things he could do. Obviously he was key to the Attitude Era as part of the Hardys, but his 06-09 run was magical, the first bonafide superstar babyface since Cena- everything they would have liked the Edges and the CM Punks to be as far as being that star. It's too bad he couldn't fully shake off his demons and remain committed, but he left WWE when he was at his absolute best. WWE brought out a glowing DVD/doco of him in 2009 after he left WWE (saw it on the Network the other week), and it's so surreal to see WWE verbally fellate an active wrestler not contracted to them. It's clear at the time that WWE thought he was taking a break and then coming back. I'm not sure I've ever liked a wrestler more than 2006-2009 Jeff Hardy.

[IronSheik]

I've just realised Jeff Jarret is no one's favourite wrestler in the universe. (I know he's still working, but no one misses him from US wrestling)

[PowerButchi]

it's mad to think of how Kurt Angle... he understood...psychology so damn well

 

But he didn't. His grasp of ring psychology was his flaw. He's an Olympic Gold Medal Wrestler, so why would he have passages of matwork in which he'd come off second best? Why wouldn't he use his wrestling against larger opponents instead of trying to trade with them? Why would he pick and choose when to sell at times quite frustratingly? Why do a lot of his matches have a "get my stuff in" feel to the detriment of the story otherwise told in the match? If he's such a master of psychology, why'd he completely neuter his signature moves with OTT amounts of  kick outs from finisher trades that people stopped buying his slam finish as a finish, and after a while stopped buying the ankle lock as a finish so he'd have to add the heel hook? Kurt Angle's a damned fine professional wrestler, however he also does a lot of hings that just don't make any sense when you consider his shtick is "Olympic Gold Medallist Freestyle Wrestler", so I wouldn't say he was a master ring psychologist to the point of understanding it "so damn well".

[Undefeated Steak]

Yeah, it shows how athletically talented he is that he can have such great matches despite not having much of grasp on the storytelling side.

[The Invisible Boy]

For me it has to be Eddie Guerrero. I loved his whole style, the fact that he came from a prominent wrestling family, the way he started to cheat, by pulling off stunts like hitting his opponent with a chair and then throwing it on the floor and lying down next to it himself, then shaking the referee to make him get up whilst pretending he'd been hit by the chair. He was able to do these amazing comedy moments but he was also a brilliant wrestler. His win against Brock Lesnar for the Title was amazing too, I was so happy when he'd finally won it. When I found out he'd died I hadn't watched his final match on Smackdown yet so the first time I saw it was a few days after I found out he'd died and it was such an experience watching him in the match thinking this was the last match he'd ever wrestled and after this one I'll never see him on TV again, that made it all sink in that Eddie had actually died and that was it. Yeah I'd definitely have to say Eddie is the one guy I miss overall and if I could have anyone dead or alive come back I would love for it to be him.

 

Other people I miss in the ring would probably be Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, Stone Cold, The Rock, Mick Foley, Undertaker, Trish and Lita.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

 

it's mad to think of how Kurt Angle... he understood...psychology so damn well

 

But he didn't. His grasp of ring psychology was his flaw. He's an Olympic Gold Medal Wrestler, so why would he have passages of matwork in which he'd come off second best?

 

Because he won a gold medal in amateur wrestling, it's a whole different ballgame when you step up to the pros.

 

I see your point though. It's funny, I hesitated when writing that bit about Angle, because I know in recent years he's had a lot of matches that just rely on the dramatic kickouts and finishers etc, but I feel like he had that reigned in more in WWE and had enough great matches with the likes of Michaels, Guerrero and Lesnar to justify the comment.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

And Jeff Hardy- fuck, one of the most exciting wrestlers ever, it's insane the risks he would take and the things he could do. Obviously he was key to the Attitude Era as part of the Hardys, but his 06-09 run was magical, the first bonafide superstar babyface since Cena- everything they would have liked the Edges and the CM Punks to be as far as being that star. It's too bad he couldn't fully shake off his demons and remain committed, but he left WWE when he was at his absolute best. WWE brought out a glowing DVD/doco of him in 2009 after he left WWE (saw it on the Network the other week), and it's so surreal to see WWE verbally fellate an active wrestler not contracted to them. It's clear at the time that WWE thought he was taking a break and then coming back. I'm not sure I've ever liked a wrestler more than 2006-2009 Jeff Hardy.

 

 

Good post, especially this bit.

 

The build up for Orton vs Jeff for the WWE title at Royal Rumble 2008 was first-class. Jeff definitely proved himself to be the best/most popular "white meat babyface" at the top of the card since Cena's emergence around this time in my opinion, he got straight up mad babyface pops even in Madison Smark Garden. The ending of the video package before that match where it zooms in on Hardy's hand flickering into life to do his pose whilst being stretchered out of the ring due to a Swanton off the RAW titantron sends chills down my spine every time I watch it. Superb stuff, only Sami Zayn in this day and age is someone I can see the fans getting behind in a similar way.

[Slapnut]

I was watching Royal Rumble 2003 the other day and it made me realise how much I miss Benoit. He was somebody who didn't need an obvious storyline to be entertaining, and had an aura surrounding him no matter what he did.

 

TNA in 2012 too. Never has it been so entertaining, much better than WWE at the time. Bobby Roode at his absolute best, the rise of Austin Aries, Bully Ray as a total cunt heel, Daniels & Kazarian etc. Just a really good wrestling show each week. It's a massive shame what happened next.