"Nobody's favourite wrestler" - or are they??

[Carbomb]

22 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

And stepsister Mercedes Mone

Was gonna mention Kid Kash and The Young Bucks, but that sounds like a band name

[TheBurningRed]

Rhyno was probably one of my favourites between 2001-2003. I love his match with Raven at Backlash 2001, his mini feud with Jericho. Even in 2006 I enjoyed his feud in TNA with AJ Styles.

But 01 Rhyno was the man to me. 

[Bus Surfer]

During my 'ECW is the best phase', the early 2000's always had some decent tag team matches early on the cards, and I thought Chris Chetty was gonna be a star. This was based solely on his sit-out Death Valley Driver finish, the 'Amityville Horror' which I thought was the coolest thing ever. Does anyone do that now? 

I'll also throw a shout in for Akeem when I wss about 7 in 1991 as it was the first Hasbro I ever got and I fucking loved that thing. He was a cool motherfucker too, mind. 

[air_raid]

11 minutes ago, Bus Surfer said:

This was based solely on his sit-out Death Valley Driver finish, the 'Amityville Horror' which I thought was the coolest thing ever. Does anyone do that now?

Lyra Valkyria.

[JLM]

Santos Escobar as well. 

[wandshogun09]

While we’re on the subject of ECW guys, can’t remember if he’s been mentioned already but I’ve always been a huge fan of Little Guido/Nunzio. He gets some love but I still think he’s underrated. He was absolutely class, I think. Could have a good match with pretty much anyone, could do the fast paced stuff with the likes of Tajiri, Super Crazy and Jerry Lynn, he could do comedy, trained by Billy Robinson so he could do the shooty bollocks (and had a stint in UWFi in the mid 90s) and he was a bumping machine. 

I felt like the only thing that really went against him was his lack of size. Maybe promos to an extent but I quite liked his talk myself whenever he’d actually get some mic time. Might be just the Sopranos fan in me though because he seemed like he was plucked straight from Johnny Sack’s New York crew. But yeah, think he was around the same height as Eddie and Benoit but always had that wiry/skinny build which probably held him back a bit and would’ve made him a tad less believable against bigger opponents. I thought he was fucking great though. Obviously he’ll always be associated with ECW mostly and I loved him in the FBI, the original version with him and Tracy Smothers and the dying days of the company version with Tony Mamaluke. Completely different dynamics to those two teams but both worked a treat and Guido was the common denominator and the glue that made the faction work in my opinion. Wish WWE did a bit more with him but it’s not like I expected them to.

He’s a guy who probably would’ve had quite a stronger run if he’d came along a bit later and was active now. I don’t think he’d ever have been a world champion in a major promotion but I could’ve seen him being a much more prominently featured player these days when size isn’t anywhere near the barrier it used to be. But he was with ECW for most of its life as a promotion and he was quite often a highlight for me.

Took the best ‘Last Ride’ ever as well…

???

Edited January 24, 2025 by wandshogun09

[TheBurningRed]

Took that great spear from Goldberg in the 2004 Rumble as well. 

[Chili]

What made Nunzio/Guido specifically good for me if this makes any sense, is that he knew his character exactly to act and wrestle to that strength, and very well. That Last Ride spot in particular is exactly how Nunzio would sell that spot.

[wandshogun09]

I had no idea he was on NXT as recently as November! This is just the entrance, how did he look in his match? 

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

He did a few brief appearances as a referee in the 2010s as well, didn't he? I wonder why he didn't go into that more permanently.

[Statto]

He did, yeah - believe it started when adverse weather stopped a bunch of people being able to get to a show in the New York area so they called in Guido to ref as he was local, then kept him around a bit. 

[Arch Stanton]

I don't think Nunzio could ever have realistically been a much bigger star than her was, but he was absolutely brilliant and you need guys that can be absolutely brilliant no matter what their place on the card is. In both ECW and WWE he did his job (jobs) perfectly.

[The Reverend]

8 hours ago, Bus Surfer said:

I'll also throw a shout in for Akeem when I wss about 7 in 1991 as it was the first Hasbro I ever got and I fucking loved that thing. He was a cool motherfucker too, mind. 

Got to admit that some of the strange choices I had for favourites at various times im my youth (Sgt. Slaughter, Honky Tonk Man, The Mountie amongst them) was because I'd got the Hasbro figure, pushed them to the top of my figure fed and then been in awe of the real wrestler. Those little pieces of plastic have a lot to answer for! 

[HarmonicGenerator]

8 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

Got to admit that some of the strange choices I had for favourites at various times im my youth (Sgt. Slaughter, Honky Tonk Man, The Mountie amongst them) was because I'd got the Hasbro figure, pushed them to the top of my figure fed and then been in awe of the real wrestler. Those little pieces of plastic have a lot to answer for! 

I was the same for The Bushwhackers!

[wandshogun09]

8 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

I don't think Nunzio could ever have realistically been a much bigger star than her was, but he was absolutely brilliant and you need guys that can be absolutely brilliant no matter what their place on the card is. In both ECW and WWE he did his job (jobs) perfectly.

Yeah I doubt he could’ve ever had a run near the top of the card but he wasn’t even midcard in WWE. You were lucky to see him on Velocity or Heat. And at the time on that 2003/04 roster I totally get why. In a different era though I do think he could’ve been featured a bit more.