Version1.0 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 WWE missed making a star out of Kenny Dykstra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 13 Paid Members Share Posted March 13 17 minutes ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said: 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. Ooh, triple jab to @air_raid's face there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 3 hours ago, SuperBacon said: I didn't watch any wrestling around that time so some links or pointers to Nexus related stuff would be very welcome. Here’s their debut, with the added context being that this was the first real appearance of any of these wrestlers on a main WWE show outside of NXT (in its old ‘contest’ format). 3 hours ago, Arch Stanton said: 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. I don’t think they did at all, because that’s not exactly how it played out. They booked Nexus strong heading into Summerslam, then immediately had them lose their first major match. But the story didn’t end there - they ran with Orton/Barrett for the belt several times (a match that would have been far more compelling had Nexus won at Summerslam), and even had Cena join the stable briefly. They eventually developed ‘The New Nexus’ and ‘The Corre’, so presumably recognised that they had been on to something with the initial idea; just not that almost every decision they had made had fucked it up. To be clear, I’m defining ‘missed opportunity’ in this case as ‘maximising the storyline’ and doing something memorable. I don’t think it matters at all if most of the wrestlers involved faded into the background once the storyline wrapped up; or even as it progressed. With better booking they could have got much more out of this stable; even if it transitioned to Barrett being the focal point with the others cast as ‘goons’. Following the debut of Nexus, the champions were Cena, Sheamus, Orton and Miz. It was a bland time to watch WWE, with an injection of interesting in the fresh faces of Nexus that was far less effective than I think it could have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vamp Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 6 hours ago, Version1.0 said: WWE missed making a star out of Kenny Dykstra. I've always seen Dykstra as the poster child for boring mid-00s OVW graduate who was lucky to get the zany gimmick that he did even though everybody at the time was fantasy booking him to drop the gimmick and become a serious wrestler. Why do you think he could have been a star? Genuinely interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 11 hours ago, DCW said: 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. Well, the original plan was to. When they were going to unveil the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw the original idea was for RVD to be the first champion. But HHH stuck his oar in that being just given a title like that suited a heel better, so it should be given to him by Bischoff (yes, I agree with that logic) so Van Dam could beat him for it in the ring. Except on the day of the PPV…. plans changed. 10 hours ago, RedRooster said: 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. That also was on the cards. After they fucked around with that Corre rubbish, reinvigorated “Bull Hammer” era Wade would have got the push. They were so keen on him winning a Money In The Bank briefcase at Mania 28 that when he got injured in the build up, rather than choose a different winner, they cancelled the match entirely. I believe upon his return his card was marked “injury prone” so it never happened for him in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 2 hours ago, Vamp said: I've always seen Dykstra as the poster child for boring mid-00s OVW graduate who was lucky to get the zany gimmick that he did even though everybody at the time was fantasy booking him to drop the gimmick and become a serious wrestler. Why do you think he could have been a star? Genuinely interested. Maybe I misremember Kenny Dykstra, but my recollection is similar, that he was athletically very gifted but perhaps lacking in the stuff that makes you a good pro wrestler - "ring psychology", if you will. I think about this every time he runs out with the other producers to break up a brawl. My perception of that backstage role is that it's about helping people structure their matches well etc. So maybe he did have that in him, but just couldn't bring it out of himself for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 I remember the Dykstra push. It was lazy as you like, they assumed him palling around with Rated-RKO and beating Ric Flair on TV would make him come off a big deal. Unfortunately him standing next to "The Legend Killer" and "The Rated-R Superstar" just made him look like a charisma vacuum in comparison, and by that point every new character from Rico to Shelton to Carlito to Umaga had beaten Flair, so it wasn't a special achievement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Wade Barrett is a good shout. He always felt one major win away from being cemented as a main eventer and it never came. Odd to think of him as a has-been when he's only 43 now and in perfect health. I understand the long-term thinking behind being a commentator but Samoa Joe has made the transition back into being a wrestler and I kind of hope Barrett does too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westlondonmist Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Barrett probably could have been more, he may not have been the next big thing but he could have main evented some of the smaller PPVs and been credible. Him being a commentator is probably quite good for him, he is quite good on the mic and am sure he does well and doesn't have to take bumps. Bet he loves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 Let's not forget, he chose to leave WWE with an offer of a new deal on the table because of how he'd been treated, rather than them letting him go. Predominantly because Vince pulled the plug on "Bad News Barrett" because he was getting a pop and they wanted him to be a heel. What a company it's been over the years, where sometimes the worst thing you could do was get over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 "I'm afraid I've got some BAD NEWS!" used to pop me so much. Terrific catchphrase and delivery. Bad News Barrett was a great name too. Bring it all back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 One of my favourite Bad News Barrett moments was his promo against RVD in London. "There's no way I'm losing my title to a bloody YANK" got a great pop and was funny as fuck. He suffered from having one of the all-time worst WWE finishers though. The Wasteland was absolutely dreadful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 22 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: He suffered from having one of the all-time worst WWE finishers though. The Wasteland was absolutely dreadful. Was the Bull Hammer better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 5 minutes ago, air_raid said: Was the Bull Hammer better? It wasn't great, but it was better than The Wasteland which always looked like the most basic of set-up moves. The Bull Hammer was probably a bit ahead of the times as a finisher. It would fit in now where loads of people used strikes for finishers. At the time it seemed a bit weak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Bad News Barrett getting canned because they gave a heel a catchphrase that in his hilarious delivery was going to obviously get over, so he got punished for it is such a classic bit of WWE just completely fucking about. Like they were the only ones who didn't expect it, or he was doing it 'wrong' somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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