Paid Members air_raid Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 44 minutes ago, Merzbow said: It didn't help that the biker gimmick was seen by many as a bad bootleg of 'Taker even though it wasn't. Doesn't he work with bikes in real life? Michelle sure had a type, didn't she? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 55 minutes ago, Merzbow said: It didn't help that the biker gimmick was seen by many as a bad bootleg of 'Taker even though it wasn't. Doesn't he work with bikes in real life? He does, and that’s kind of how I felt about him initially; with the turning point being the turn on Jamie Noble and subsequent beat down. He had what it took, I thought, to be a solid heel. @Chili is spot on about his mic skills, so perhaps a mouthpiece would have benefited him. I do like a big man brawler though, so maybe I’m overestimating his upside based on my own biases! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 He's been forever over with me just for the name Custom Chucky P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vamp Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 It's interesting to think about what would have happened with any of the NBT if WCW had survived. I don't think they're missed opportunities so much as they missed opportunities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 35 minutes ago, Vamp said: It's interesting to think about what would have happened with any of the NBT if WCW had survived. Ah, the complete inverse to “Air Styles” who probably would have been fucking around for the Cruiserweight tag titles forever instead of leading the infancy of the X Division and ending up primed for a main event slot and NWA title reign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCW Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 RVD was a big missed opportunity in 2001. He was the only alliance lad who got properly over and was mixing it with Rock, Austin, Angle and Taker on TV and PPV and rivaling them for crowd reactions. He was the sole breath of fresh air in a room filled with the pungent fart that was the invasion angle. The wheels fell off completely when HHH returned in 2002 and RVD ended up caught in mid-card nothingness for years til his ill-fated ECW/WWE title run in 2006, with a brief reprieve to job to HHH in 2002 in a plodding WHC match at Unforgiven that was all headlocks til RVD was made to look like a fool when Flair screwed him for the finish. Really should have done a whole hell of a lot more with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 A bit of an odd one given that he's gone on to have a perfectly decent career, but Jericho in 2000/2001. Massively over as Y2J/"The Millennium Man", they could've stood to give him a month or two as a main-eventer in the mix. As it was, his long-awaited into the championship scene ended up being a well-documented damp squib. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 I know I’m throwing a lot of names around here, but I’ll add another one to the mix anyway - R-Truth. He eventually settled into a comedy role; presumably because he amused Vince McMahon, but I think he could have been much more than that; demonstrated by his time in TNA, the depth of the vignettes ahead of his debut as ‘R-Truth’ and also his initial heel run in WWE. The guy has a tremendous look, is good on the mic and is good in ring. Importantly, he clearly has an ability to connect with an audience. If a fresh-faced Ron Killings debuted in 2024, I suspect he would be seen has having a very bright future ahead of him. And to add an obvious one - The Nexus Their debut was red-hot, with an angle that got people talking. The follow-up leading to Summerslam was generally very strong. But then they lost, and never recovered. How could anyone take them seriously after that? Still, there was an opportunity to do something with Wade Barrett. All they needed to do was have him win the title in his match against Randy Orton, and they’d have had a fresh new top level heel. And of course, they didn’t do that. Then they moved him to Smackdown where the same opportunity to establish him existed…but they didn’t. I find it pretty mind-blowing that the guy didn’t even have a short stint with one of the two titles. He’s a great commentator, but he could have been so much more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 Looking back, I don't know how much further Nexus could have gone as they were. They were mostly a bunch of lower-carders, some of whom were still very green. This was back when NXT was just a programme, not a whole mini-fed and structure. It could be argued that The Shield were The Nexus done right, so to speak. Three guys who'd been developed and groomed for the main card, then booked as a faction to make an immediate impact on the main event without pushing them too fast beyond what they were capable of at that point. The Nexus really only had Barrett and Bryan, in terms of people you could trust with a push at the time, and even then Barrett was a bit iffy, and Bryan hadn't really "bedded in", as it were. Skip Sheffield needed a ton of seasoning and clever booking before he could get over as Ryback. Husky Harris was a ton of experience short of becoming Bray Wyatt. And the rest were mostly shite or only suited to lower card duties anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 3 minutes ago, Carbomb said: The Nexus really only had Barrett and Bryan, in terms of people you could trust with a push at the time, and even then Barrett was a bit iffy, and Bryan hadn't really "bedded in", as it were. Skip Sheffield needed a ton of seasoning and clever booking before he could get over as Ryback. Husky Harris was a ton of experience short of becoming Bray Wyatt. And the rest were mostly shite or only suited to lower card duties anyway. Husky Harris was the ‘New Nexus’. The originals were Barrett, Bryan (briefly), Otunga, Young, Sheffield, Tarver, Slater and Gabriel. Some of them were green, but after such a hot debut, I find it bizarre that they killed the stable dead in the way that they did. I’m not suggesting you’re saying this, but I don’t believe for a second that they couldn’t have booked around any limitations that existed. Barrett himself was good enough to have enjoyable matches with good opponents even then, and that’s sometimes all you need; particularly given how good he was on the mic. The stable was a missed opportunity in the short term - most of them would have ended up where they eventually did anyway - but Barrett was a longer term missed opportunity, at least in my view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 30 minutes ago, RedRooster said: Husky Harris was the ‘New Nexus’. The originals were Barrett, Bryan (briefly), Otunga, Young, Sheffield, Tarver, Slater and Gabriel. Some of them were green, but after such a hot debut, I find it bizarre that they killed the stable dead in the way that they did. I’m not suggesting you’re saying this, but I don’t believe for a second that they couldn’t have booked around any limitations that existed. Barrett himself was good enough to have enjoyable matches with good opponents even then, and that’s sometimes all you need; particularly given how good he was on the mic. The stable was a missed opportunity in the short term - most of them would have ended up where they eventually did anyway - but Barrett was a longer term missed opportunity, at least in my view. It was certainly a missed opportunity as a vehicle for Barrett and Bryan. Should've been relatively easy to build Barrett up as the stable leader and bully, using the others as his henchmen to get himself to the main event, then have Bryan be the Alliance Tazz who eventually stands up for himself and goes his own way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 I didn't watch any wrestling around that time so some links or pointers to Nexus related stuff would be very welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 I never saw The Nexus as anything like a missed opportunity, if anything they were sort of the opposite of that, if that makes any sense. They were initially pushed way, way too strong for the level of talent they had in that group, there was no way they could have sustained that much longer than they did. I think they realised this and that's why they were disbanded pretty abruptly. I think Barrett and Bryan would both have been much better off without being introduced separately, the association with the group probably stunted their development. Well, it definitely did for Bryan because he was a sacrificial sacking at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Without wanting to go all timey wimey changing history, you have to wonder where Bryan would've ended up if he hadn't been fired at that point. It added a bit extra to his story. I mean obviously he's so fucking good that it probably would've worked out in the end but its an interesting thought anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 59 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: Without wanting to go all timey wimey changing history, you have to wonder where Bryan would've ended up if he hadn't been fired at that point. It added a bit extra to his story. I mean obviously he's so fucking good that it probably would've worked out in the end but its an interesting thought anyway. I doubt it would of been much different, as he was back in time for the Nexus ten man tag at Summerslam. Though saying that, maybe if he stayed he would of remained to be on the heel side so would of been robbed of his rise to US champion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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