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[1993-12-04-WWF-Superstars] Reo's Roundup: Shawn Michaels


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  • 4 months later...

Reo is obviously a Dusty Rhodes impersonation, waving his hands like Dusty and saying "funky like a monkey" and "if you wiiiilll ..."

 

Shawn Michaels, dressed in a suit holding the IC title, is his guest. Shawn makes threats to Razor Ramon walking around with the IC title, which brings out Razor. Razor holds his own and pops Shawn's gum with his toothpick. Between this and Bret/Owen, the seeds for WM are being sewn already.

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  • 2 years later...

The Reo Rodgers gimmick is surreal. I can't believe more people have commented on it. Bruce Prichard is known as Reo Rodgers and is basically a ridiculous Dusty Rhodes parody. This gimmick was dropped after only two or three segments (which was probably a good idea). Shawn Michaels is in a suit and acts all serious. He claims to be the Intercontinental Champion. Razor comes out and he also claims to be the Inctercontinental Champion. This was a great feud that eventually led to their ladder match at WrestleMania X.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Is this the commentary debut of Stan Lane? Sounds like him.

 

I have absolutely NO recollection of Reo Rogers--or of the Wizard, Bruce Prichard's other persona from a few months later. And I was watching '93 WWF fairly religiously. This is the most blatant yet of about 37 WWF potshots at Dusty Rhodes. We would have been better off with Brother Love back. Shawn Michaels declares that he follows no man and no rules. Doesn't ask us, "You think you can tell us what to wear? You think that you're better?" at least not yet. Words for the impostor Intercontinental champion Razor Ramon. Razor's music then kicks up magically--God, this segment is ahead of its time in more ways than one. Effective segment, with Shawn being a class A jerk.

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  • 3 years later...

Shawn comes off as much more serious here than he has before, and I like the change. He looks good in a three-piece suit, and his promos are better without losing their sassy edge. I especially liked the line about Hall combing his hair with a porkchop. He truly seems ready to buckle down to the business of being a champion and a superstar.

 

Hall's slow talking hurts him against someone like Shawn, and I wish they'd found a way to keep the rest of the Razor Ramon gimmick while losing that cadence; he really does ​sound like someone from the ghetto who's too mentally slow to compete in the white man's world. The "sorry to burst your bubble" before he pops Shawn's gum got a mild chuckle from me, though.

 

This is the first time that I can remember a wrestler's music being magically ready when he does a "surprise" run-in. I have no idea why Vince started doing that, except that he thought that music was such an integral part of a wrestler's presentation that fans may have been confused whenever someone appeared without it. It wasn't the first time Vince had ever played wrestling fans for clueless morons, and unfortunately it would be far from the last.

 

As for Reo, they picked the wrong guy for the role, because Reo's accent and Brother Love's sound far too much alike for their own good. It's a wonder Prichard didn't accidentally throw in an "AH LOOOOOOVE YEEEEEEEEWWWWW!" at the start of the segment by mistake. It's obvious from Stanfield's corral jokes and Vince's line about Reo "not sounding that way before the operation" that Vince created this character to be a joke on Bruce as much as on Dusty; at least Brother Love was taken somewhat seriously despite his outlandish look.

 

If Vince had had any real plans for the character; it would have lasted more than a few weeks, and more than two of his segments would have made the set (the other being Reo's visit to "the Hart house" with Shawn before Survivor Series). I'll say it yet again: They couldn't get Piper to take a day or two off from his movie schedule every few weeks to come back and revive Piper's Pit?​ Granted, Rod wouldn't have been quite what he used to be by this time, but he would have been miles ahead of junk like this, just like he was whenever they trotted him out on Raw​ years later.

 

Does anybody know anything about this Wizard character Prichard portrayed? Don't tell me the man did an Ernie Roth impression. Or was it King Curtis Iaukea? Either way, it sounds like an even worse trainwreck than Brother Love and Reo Rodgers put together.

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  • 3 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1993-12-04-WWF-Superstars] Reo's Roundup: Shawn Michaels

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