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Wrestling unpopular opinions


Jacko

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Rewatching a couple of 97 Raws and it reminded me of my dislike for Pillman as his loose cannon character. 

I loved him beforehand and I when I spell out what he was I should love him as everyone else does but he always got on my tits

Even after reading the great book by our  @Liam O'Rourke in which he came across as incredibly likeable and interesting it just didn't grab me at all.

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Alright, you win the thread.

Loose Cannon was pretty much a gimmick name by that point. He was just an irritating midcard heel. And he was great at it. His best work was in 1996 with Austin and Bret, he was a bit of a bit part player in the Hart Foundation but was always faithful to his role as a Bret lackey and I always find him fascinating anytime he's on screen. He doesn't hog the screen like the nWo guys do falling over each other, but he just has mannerisms, occasional lines and funny faces that always stand out.

His stuff on Shotgun commentary is great. It's a pity he couldn't really go. He'd have been a player coming out of the Hart Foundation angle.

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Brian Pillman nailed every single turn and character trait he took on. From early babyface high-flyer to cocky bastard Hollywood Blonde to Horseman rabble-rouser to loose cannon Hart Foundation antagonist, he was brilliant in all those roles. He made pretty much everything work, even that feud with Goldust.

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I think for me is it never had the great match pay off I always hoped for. Well known reasons why but up until that point he had a a catalogue of great ring work and he just wasn't able to provide that anymore. 

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On 6/13/2020 at 7:41 AM, ElCece said:

Rewatching a couple of 97 Raws and it reminded me of my dislike for Pillman as his loose cannon character. 

I loved him beforehand and I when I spell out what he was I should love him as everyone else does but he always got on my tits

Even after reading the great book by our  @Liam O'Rourke in which he came across as incredibly likeable and interesting it just didn't grab me at all.

He should have been an Austin w his crazy, don't give a shit persona. WWF turned him into a fuck moron. So sad. He never did much cos of the injury too. 

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Yeah its a horrible last year for Pillman. I wrote the book, but there were so many depressing stories I heard that didn't make it in (mostly because it felt it was making the point redundant) about how fucking hard the last year was for him. Outside of a couple of really good promos, the Pillman that arrived in the WWF wasn't the one physically or mentally that had so much promise. 

Edited by Liam O'Rourke
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On 6/13/2020 at 8:09 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Brian Pillman nailed every single turn and character trait he took on. From early babyface high-flyer to cocky bastard Hollywood Blonde to Horseman rabble-rouser to loose cannon Hart Foundation antagonist, he was brilliant in all those roles. He made pretty much everything work, even that feud with Goldust.

To the point that when it was announced he had died on the PPV, I thought it was part of the gimmicks and he was going to appear and say that Terri had bonked him to death or something similar.

 

He didn’t.

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Just now, Thunderplex said:

To the point that when it was announced he had died on the PPV, I thought it was part of the gimmicks and he was going to appear and say that Terri had bonked him to death or something similar.

 

He didn’t.

Or it'll be the most confused pop of all time when he returns.

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  • 1 month later...

The Austin bait and switch for Survivor Series 99 was fine. A bit cynical, but it's not boxing. Back then - much moreso than now - they were promoting angles and storyline development, of which the matches were usually a lacklustre part of. They were in a jam, needed to still promote, so had Austin in a high profile twist live on air. He went out into the ring on Sunday Night Heat to get the glass smash pop. It's a bit unscrupulous but in WWE terms it wasn't the worst thing in the world. 

Putting the belt on Show wasn't the worst move either to try and give it a bit of a surprise ending. The plan didn't call for Rock to get there quite yet, and having Triple H win would have been a downer after the angle they pulled. They also had Show destroy Bossman, Viscera, Mideon and Prince Albert in about four minutes to win an elimination match an hour before hand to pump him up. 

The actual show - and Big Show's angle at the time - was a fucking mess, but I honestly don't think the hit and run with Big Show winning at the end of the night was the worst thing. 

Also if you talk to all the lads I was in school with who used to watch the PPVs live each month, most of them will probably still remember "that mental one where a car ran over Austin". And that's how I measure success in wrestling in my brain. 

Edited by Gay as FOOK
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On 5/18/2020 at 8:54 AM, LaGoosh said:

I find it so weird that Al Snow turned into a jacked, tanned miserable hardass years after his career ended and during his career he was a chubby, pasty goofy comedy guy. 

Sorry to drag this back up but I was always a big Al Snow fan.  He was the smark's choice for years.  He had a great series of indy matches with Sabu, he was great as a snarky, sinister heel in Smoky Mountain, his character in ECW had such great potential.  However, WWF never saw anything in him and he just gave up.  However, after retirement, he seems to aim all his anger and vitriol at the people who wanted to see him given a chance.  The people who hated Lief Cassidy and wanted to see creepy Smoky Mountain Al Snow or who wanted to see crazy Al Snow, the man who takes orders from a mannequin's head.  That's some Son of Sam shit.  Instead, he turned back up on WWF TV with no explanation as a comedy character and they beat him the second week back.   And yet the smarks who loved him and thought he could be an asset as a serious character are the problem.

I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion or not but Al Snow's a fucking prick who aims his hatred at the fans who advocated for him when he should aim it at the visionless promoters who passed over him.

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3 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

Putting the belt on Show wasn't the worst move either to try and give it a bit of a surprise ending.

How’s this for an unpopular opinion - they should have gone with Test. If you want to distract HHH from The Rock for a couple of months, you can have Test avenge the wedding fiasco by taking the belt. Run Armageddon with Test v HHH for the Steph turn, then run 2000 exactly as they did.

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11 hours ago, air_raid said:

How’s this for an unpopular opinion - they should have gone with Test. If you want to distract HHH from The Rock for a couple of months, you can have Test avenge the wedding fiasco by taking the belt. Run Armageddon with Test v HHH for the Steph turn, then run 2000 exactly as they did.

The main person against that would be HHH. Despite it being overshadowed by 03 - 06 he was a really insecure dick in 99, telling everyone who would listen that rock needed to be buried as he had a big head and anyone they liked the look of couldn't work or had a bad attitude. 

HHH had the knives out for him as soon as he caught the whiff of them pushing him much as he did for anyone he saw as a threat.

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3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

11 year old me would have absolutely LOVED that.

Seconded. He was never going to set the world alight, but not having him go for HHH was a massive misfire. They'd already done the angle, he had the badass 90s look, killer gibberish music, plus a really space age moveset (pumphandle powerslam! The best big boot in the world! A gut wrench powerbomb No Mercy had to make a new animation for! Elbow drops from the other side of the ring!). He was Shawn Michaels and Diesel fused together without the cocaine and ring seasoning.

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Every now and again I watch Test vs Shane from SummerSlam 99 and think that while everyone tends to retcon their opinion to “Test was a bit shit wasn’t he” at the time lots of people seemed to love him. I did.

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