Well, I got that one wrong

[Lenin]

21 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I’d never considered it before but now that Roman is the mob boss bully heel Samoa Joe coming back and squaring up to him as the smirking badass babyface is dream match stuff.

There's quite a few possibilities/mileage with Samoa Joe involved to be fair so it's a good shout. 

You could have him join as Roman's enforcer, with Roman going down the road of not having faith in Jey/Jimmy as they can't get the job done. This could lead to their face turn.

Joe could play the Batista role and see him slowly questioning what he's doing, how Roman is treating others etc. before turning on Roman. 

This could be played out long enough for The Rock to get involved ahead of their match next year potentially. 

Anyway, there's a reason I don't have the book and it's because of the nonsense I've just typed out. Fun though. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Joe is a good, but for me very temporary, shout. I think when he was in NXT, the expectation (or web-rumour) was that he was staying in NXT Kassius Ohno style with no plans to ever bring him up to mains. When they did, I think it was possibly a year too late and it was the injuries more than anything that stopped him properly taking off. The short period where I thought he was definitely going to be a top guy in WWE was the build-up to the Brock feud. He felt like he was on Brock's level and was his equal. Then they did the match and he was taken down by one F5 and that was that.

 

Similar to my Paul London phase, around the mid-2000s I was fully bought into Paul Heyman's OVW. Used to buy the monthly TV on DVD and everything. I had completely convinced myself that a bunch of the guys Heyman was pushing in developmental were going to be the next big set of stars in WWE, just like when you'd read the Ross Report and hear about Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin from JR and wait for them to break through.

Johnny Jeter was the next Chris Jericho, and his angles after turning on Matt Cappotelli proved he was the next big dickhead heel. Properly hateable. Then they put him in the Spirit Squad, he never recovered and I shut up about him pretty quickly. I think he got quietly released once the Squad were DX-ed back to OVW.

Ken Doane was the next Randy Orton, the guy was a teenager and he had all the skills and Heyman even had Orton come to OVW for a match with him (that Doane might have won). Then they put him in the Spirit Squad too and even though he got repackaged as Dykstra, he never really recovered either. I shut up about him quicker than Jeter.

Brent Albright was the next Chris Benoit, the greatest technical wrestler on the books who was all about the wrestling ability. Then they made him Gunner Scott and I still believed and then Great Khali shoved him in a bodybag or something and once again, I shut up about him.

Thinking back, the only real big stars who came out of Heyman's OVW were CM Punk and Bobby 'Blaster' Lashley, and Punk had his hype from ROH already so that doesn't count, and Lashley didn't come across as a star back then like the guys above. They even did an episode of OVW where the whole show was a Triple Threat of Albright vs. Punk vs. Doane which in my head was "this is a future WrestleMania main event, this". Well, I got that one wrong...

Edited March 1, 2021 by HarmonicGenerator

[TomJones233]

Sandow too. I remember watching a Nova shoot the month that it came out was when Sandow was buried by one armed Cena, where Nova was saying he's gonna be a big star and how he's not shocked he's a main eventer.

 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, theringmaster said:

Well tbf to John Morrison he has had a very successful career; Main titles in AAA, Impact, won everything in WWE except the big one.

You posted this in direct reply to a thought that he’d be the next Shawn Michaels.

[Wrasslin]

25 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Joe is a good, but for me very temporary, shout. I think when he was in NXT, the expectation (or web-rumour) was that he was staying in NXT Kassius Ohno style with no plans to ever bring him up to mains. When they did, I think it was possibly a year too late and it was the injuries more than anything that stopped him properly taking off. The short period where I thought he was definitely going to be a top guy in WWE was the build-up to the Brock feud. He felt like he was on Brock's level and was his equal. Then they did the match and he was taken down by one F5 and that was that.

 

Similar to my Paul London phase, around the mid-2000s I was fully bought into Paul Heyman's OVW. Used to buy the monthly TV on DVD and everything. I had completely convinced myself that a bunch of the guys Heyman was pushing in developmental were going to be the next big set of stars in WWE, just like when you'd read the Ross Report and hear about Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin from JR and wait for them to break through.

Johnny Jeter was the next Chris Jericho, and his angles after turning on Matt Cappotelli proved he was the next big dickhead heel. Properly hateable. Then they put him in the Spirit Squad, he never recovered and I shut up about him pretty quickly. I think he got quietly released once the Squad were DX-ed back to OVW.

Ken Doane was the next Randy Orton, the guy was a teenager and he had all the skills and Heyman even had Orton come to OVW for a match with him (that Doane might have won). Then they put him in the Spirit Squad too and even though he got repackaged as Dykstra, he never really recovered either. I shut up about him quicker than Jeter.

Brent Albright was the next Chris Benoit, the greatest technical wrestler on the books who was all about the wrestling ability. Then they made him Gunner Scott and I still believed and then Great Khali shoved him in a bodybag or something and once again, I shut up about him.

Thinking back, the only real big stars who came out of Heyman's OVW were CM Punk and Bobby 'Blaster' Lashley, and Punk had his hype from ROH already so that doesn't count, and Lashley didn't come across as a star back then like the guys above. They even did an episode of OVW where the whole show was a Triple Threat of Albright vs. Punk vs. Doane which in my head was "this is a future WrestleMania main event, this". Well, I got that one wrong...

Probably speaks once again to how well Heyman knows how to book guys in terms of accentuating their positives. He must have been fuming when they were all made male cheerleaders. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, TomJones233 said:

Sandow too. I remember watching a Nova shoot the month that it came out was when Sandow was buried by one armed Cena, where Nova was saying he's gonna be a big star and how he's not shocked he's a main eventer.

 

He had a really fun ladies' man gimmick in HeymanVW, coming out to "Brick House" with Shelly Martinez on one arm and Beth Phoenix on the other. Very forgettable once the bell rang and I never thought of him as a future big star, but a fun, gimmicky character - which was the other thing the promotion was doing really well at the time. Dean Visk, Osama Rrrrrrrrodriguez Alejandro, and Robbie Dawber all stood out for similar reasons, and they found ways to make the likes of The Highlanders work too.

Edited March 1, 2021 by HarmonicGenerator

[WyattSheepMask]

Wasn’t Dean Visk the guy whose gimmick was that he needed to be loaded with caffeine at all times?

Edited March 1, 2021 by WyattSheepMask