Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Can be midcarders if you like, or full on curtain jerkers. Who did you like but they never got far up the ladder? What’s inspired this is that for some reason I’ve ended up watching a Gangrel interview. Actually, it was his appearance on X-Pac’s podcast from 2016. Worth a watch/listen if you’re stuck for something to do while locked indoors. The fact that him and X-Pac pretty much started out together adds to it as you can see they’re really enjoying catching up. Anyway, Gangrel was great. I loved everything about him. Apart from the bits bell-to-bell. The look (even with Martin Clunes’ hair from the Men Behaving Badly days), the entrance where he’d rise up through the ramp through fire, that music! Thought he was ace. Not saying he should’ve been further up the card or anything. He was pretty cack in the ring as I recall. But I always liked him anyway. It’s a shame him and Luna never had a run together in the WWF actually. They were never there at the same time, were they? And from the sounds of it, she was a right handful. I’d never really listened to any interviews but he comes off as such a nice bloke as well. And listening to him, it struck me how it’s often the guys lower down the card that I find have the most interesting stories to tell. From this podcast and few other bits and pieces I’ve watched, some highlights I didn’t know about him; • The Blackhearts gimmick with him teaming with a guy called Tom Nash was a Bruce Hart idea. Apparently it was a rib on Stu with the storyline being that Stu had shagged around behind Helen’s back, and these two masked blokes were the bastard sons of Stu. The ‘black’ Harts. Imagine coming up with a storyline like that about your old man? This whole story was pretty nuts. Especially how Luna ended up leaving Tom Nash for Gangrel. • Gangrel did a load of squash matches everywhere from the late 80s onwards. WWF, WCW, the lot. I knew he’d done some jobber matches but no idea he’d been around that long. They even show clips on the podcast of a match he had with 123 Kid on Raw in 1994 or something where he’s in the Blackheart outfit. • He tells a funny story of a rib Vince McMahon pulled which saw Gangrel do his usual pre-match blood spitting schtick and cover Donald Trump in it. • His stepson (Luna’s biological son) was on Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen years ago. I actually vaguely remember him from the show but didn’t realise he was Luna’s son until Gangrel mentioned it on the podcast. He also tells stories of altercations with Marc Mero and Ric Flair, the time he nearly died when the Ministry hung him on Raw and when Victor Quinones wanted to bum him then tried to get him battered by some Karate fella. I’ve gone into way too much detail for fucking Gangrel. But in these uncertain times, you make your own entertainment. Going down the Gangrel rabbit hole has been surprisingly fun and I’m a bigger fan of his now than I was yesterday. And I now wish he’d been a bigger deal during his WWF stint. Or at least got above the Sunday Night Heat and Metal level. I’ll be honest though, I was disappointed he didn’t give his side of the @IANdrewDiceClay now infamous Cheese & Onion Walkers story. But yeah, your favourite Ham & Eggers. Be it in-ring, gimmick or just them seeming like an all around good egg. Edited March 26, 2020 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scott Malbranque Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 I would say my favourite wrestler within that bracket would be Planet Stasiak. He's also - on any given day - my favourite character of all time: I've no idea why that character never took off. I thought it was comedy gold... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M30UZsPfbT8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, Scott Malbranque said: I would say my favourite wrestler within that bracket would be Planet Stasiak. He's also - on any given day - my favourite character of all time: I've no idea why that character never took off. I thought it was comedy gold... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M30UZsPfbT8 It was a burial, which got over, so they thought "oh fuck, hang fire." Same with Perry Saturn and Moppy. They wanted to make fools of them, and they both got the gimmicks over. Gangrel was great. I always thought they really should have had him stay with the Ministry and let Edge and Christian go off on their own, when they did their split from them. Gangrel's face fit with Big Vis and Mideon. To be honest, The Brood should have been far bigger than they were. Imagine the merch you'd sell with an act like that now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 Gangrel should have been brought back in some capacity around the time they were doing the Kevin Thorn gimmick. I know he's hardly a looker, but they had an established vampire gimmick on speed dial right at the height of Twilight-mania and True Blood and all that. He looks in better shape these days than he ever did during any of his WWF runs, too. His music, entrance, and whole act were pretty universally loved, too. If he'd come along a decade later he'd have probably been pushed right to the main event for that alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 Funny you mention that @BomberPat because he actually talks about a proposed comeback when the rebranded ECW show started up on Sci-Fi. He said they wanted to bring him back with Thorn but nothing came of it and next thing he knew, he saw Thorn making his debut with Ariel and he’d heard nothing back about coming in. He said Vince wasn’t ever fully on board with the vampire gimmick though, even when he came in initially in 98 as Gangrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted March 26, 2020 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2020 Jim Powers was the best one. He was my favourite wrestler for a good stretch in 1991. King of the "youngsters" as me and my brother called jobbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted March 26, 2020 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2020 46 minutes ago, Scott Malbranque said: I would say my favourite wrestler within that bracket would be Planet Stasiak. He's also - on any given day - my favourite character of all time: I've no idea why that character never took off. I thought it was comedy gold... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M30UZsPfbT8 No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Asides from his cool entrance, I loved Gangrel's double underhook suplex. Haven't seen anyone else really use it since, but it looked wicked. Was one of my favourite moves on the first Smackdown game besides the big finishers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted March 26, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted March 26, 2020 Great choice with Gangrel. Always loved seeing him when the only WWF I got a chance to watch was Heat or Metal. I remember him being brought back to Smackers in 2004 when JBL was feuding with Undertaker. Him and Viscera returned together - they kept Vis around for the next 5 years but Gangrel was a one and done. One of those guys you hope they do another Gimmick Battle Royal for so he can come back and win it and we hear that music again. My pick for this is Spike Dudley. I loved Spike, thought he was brilliant from the first time I saw him (in WWE - never saw him in ECW at the time). He added wonderfully to the Dudley Boyz act at a time they could have started getting stale - and of course helped add that extra dynamic to TLCII. He had wrestling’s greatest love story angle with Molly Holly - and got a great match with Stone Cold out of it. He took some of the craziest bumps of the time - from being battered by Lesnar around the time Brock debuted to that chokeslam over the top rope from Undertaker when Taker was Hardcore Champion. Spike never got above European Title level. Nor should he have. But he was someone I always liked. Dudley Dog! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 Can you buy ham and egg Walkers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacko Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 I liked spike when he went heel and was the boss of the dudleys in a way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scott Malbranque Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, PowerButchi said: No. Ah, its all personal preference really. I love that character. Always will. He's a beautiful mang. Edited March 26, 2020 by Scott Malbranque Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted March 26, 2020 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2020 In a syrup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Barry Horowitz was always my favourite "ham & egger". As a young lad I was absolutely gobsmacked when he started winning a few matches in 1995, and started to become a big fan of his. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted March 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 26, 2020 I really loved Mr Aguila/Essa Rios. He was spectacular in that dire WWF Cruiserweight "division". I loved his stuff and then they added Lita to the package which was a great move. Unfortunately they didn't do much with him bar token Cruiserweight matches. I was even excited when he won the title despite that but he held it for about five minutes. I'm not sure what I thought he was going to achieve in the WWF at that time, I just thought he was great and should win more. I've just discovered he's only 41 now which has blown my mind. I've also just remembered he was in TNA for a bit. Because everyone was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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