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On the subject of Batista: Submission Master, he also started using the Rings of Saturn before his I Quit match with John Cena.

 

Anyone remember Rey's second title reign? He beat Jack Swagger (a "he held the world title?" guy if there ever was one) and lost it about a month later to Kane. Completely non-descript and the ensuing feud between Rey and Kane was if Rey put Undertaker out of action. Also, Rey facing the Undertaker for the title at Royal Rumble 2010. Combination of weird match match-up and both being babyfaces.

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I remember it well, but I am a fan of the Rey/Swagger series. And I was super into watching Smackdown at the time.

 

Speaking of Smackdown, in 2004 Heyman was managing the Dudley Boyz and feuding with Undertaker. This lead to the infamous 'bury Paul Bearer in cement' match stip, but what people may not remember is that before that, Heyman had taken control of The Urn and used to it make Taker do evil deeds and basically play heel for a while. During that time he and Cena had a long TV match where Taker was doing uncharacteristically heelish things, because he was under Heyman's mind control. That match, by the way, was one of Cena's best in his career up until that point.

 

Anyway it was weird.

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Was it really mind control? My memory of that storyline is fuzzy but I thought it was just a blackmail type situation? Heyman was threatening to destroy the urn, so Taker submits to keep the urn intact, I thought? Like how the Big Show had to serve as Stephanie's personal attack dog because she held his house and security over him?

 

Anyways it definitely was weird to see the Dudley Boys order the freaking Undertaker around.

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From my memory it was a mind control thing, where Heyman had control over the urn and thus could get Taker to do his bidding, the same as Bearer and stuff had done in the 90s.

 

But I could well be remembering wrong.

 

EDIT: I looked it up and yeah you're right, the kidnapping of Paul Bearer is what forced Taker to do his bidding. But he was also doing things like bending the knee for the urn as Heyman held it and stuff, which is probably what I'm remembering.

 

Man, reading those Smackdown 2004 results...eek.

 

Keeping to theme, remember the time when Kurt Angle was GM, then Big Show went insane (possibly after losing and being forced to quit), terrorised Torrie Wilson and threw Angle off a balcony, leading to Kurt Angle: GM in a wheelchair.

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Don't remember the ankle lock thing for Batista, but he did have a brief run using the clothesline as a finish.

 

 

https://youtu.be/MqtS1BVUsIQ

 

 

On the subject of Batista: Submission Master, he also started using the Rings of Saturn before his I Quit match with John Cena.

 

My memory had TOTALLY swept that one under the rug, but yeah. You're right.

 

https://youtu.be/DiuWOvusSUs

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The Headhunters example above reminded me of this:

 

The Blackharts (Dave "Gangrel" Heath and Tom Nash) making one appearance on WCW Saturday Night, only to never be seen again after that. I want to say this was early or mid-'90s, maybe '93-'94? Could be as late as '95. I remember thinking they were cool as hell, and I was disappointed that it was a once and done scenario. WCW always felt so weird and disorganized to me as a kid because stuff like this was entirely too commonplace.

 

 

And then there's this - holy shit - from 1997: Dave Heath vs. Rey Mysterio on WCW Worldwide.

 

 

According to Wikipedia, Heath also appeared on Worldwide in 1998, teaming with Michael Nova, against the Faces of Fear (Heath and Nova obviously lost).

 

It turns out Heath was also the masked Black Phantom in the WWF from '93 to '95: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BLACK+PHANTOM+WWF

 

All of this was before his rise to stardom as Gangrel during the Attitude Era in '98. Other than the one Blackharts match on WCW Saturday Night, I don't remember any of it.

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And then there's this - holy shit - from 1997: Dave Heath vs. Rey Mysterio on WCW Worldwide.

I thought Schiavone and Heenan were really good together in that match. Tony has a reputation as a less than ideal partner for Heenan's material, but the bit with Tony's "thumb" felt like an exchange from Heenan's announcing prime.

 

Sorry about going a bit off-topic there, but I kind of always root for those two to have good chemistry when I hear them announce, so I enjoy it when it works out.

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Fatu pre Rikishi's run in Memphis in 1999 as JR. Smooth. He had this stable of guys called the BDK with guys like Ekmo(Umaga), Mattie Smalls(Rosey), Glen Kulka( A former Canadian football player who was signed to WWF but never made it) and he feuded with Post TL Hopper Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony. JR Smooth was a way better gimmick than Rikishi I think.

 

To put a big 2 fed choice, I'll mention British Bulldog's 1999. This was before he became the jeans wearing partner of the Mean Street Posse. Remember when he gave Stephanie amnesia right before her wedding to Test in Britain?

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Hercules in World Class as a face managed by Sunshine was odd.They had these vignettes trying to make him seem like studd or something. He came in as sort of a replacement after Billy Jack Haynes left, which is also strange considering their feud in the WWF years later.

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Colonel Debeers managed by Freddie Blaise as Polish Prince Ed Wiskoski on WWF TV in 1983.

 

Bruce Prichard as "The Wizard" late 1992 WWF weekend show commentator.

 

Big Boss Man as Booker T's bodyguard in early 2002.

 

Bobby Eaton popping up briefly in ECW Summer of 2000.

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- Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I thought Charlie Haas was a hoot with his gimmick impersonations. He genuinely seemed to be having fun out there, and I'd take a handful of THOSE over a lot of the Sandow dogshit any day. None of it got over as much as the Mizdow act, of course. But nothing was ever really intended to either.

 

They always seem to recycle the 'impersonations' gimmick every few years as Big Show briefly did it in the early 2000s as a way to 'show his personality', even defeating Kurt Angle on a PPV imitating Hogan as 'The Showster'.

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- Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I thought Charlie Haas was a hoot with his gimmick impersonations. He genuinely seemed to be having fun out there, and I'd take a handful of THOSE over a lot of the Sandow dogshit any day. None of it got over as much as the Mizdow act, of course. But nothing was ever really intended to either.

 

They always seem to recycle the 'impersonations' gimmick every few years as Big Show briefly did it in the early 2000s as a way to 'show his personality', even defeating Kurt Angle on a PPV imitating Hogan as 'The Showster'.

 

Stevie Richards did it also shortly after he debuted in 1999.

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I always enjoyed Dean Malenko's ridiculous ladies man gimmick. I remember there was one time he was supposed to go out with Lita, and she was backstage telling the Hardys not to worry, and she'd be fine. What she said out loud was "Don't worry, I'll call, I'll explain..", which my girlfriend at the time and I would endlessly quote at each other.

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Has this been mentioned yet?

 

Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, and Super Crazy debuting without masks in the WWE as the Mexicools, complete with an entrance where they rode on lawnmowers. Who thought up this crap? Wasn't Vince Russo, who'd usually get the blame for something like that, but I think even he'd blush at something so awful and offensive.

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Well, the initial idea was that they were trying to parody the stereotypical imagery of Mexicans. Here's their debut promo:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7fl9x_mexicools-debut-23-6-05_sport

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlQtOk7WswQ

They didn't really follow through though and ended up turning face some time later. A shame too, I like the idea in theory. A group of unhinged luchadors going around kicking everyone's ass with their speed and numbers sick of the way America was treating them.

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Has this been mentioned yet?

 

Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, and Super Crazy debuting without masks in the WWE as the Mexicools, complete with an entrance where they rode on lawnmowers. Who thought up this crap? Wasn't Vince Russo, who'd usually get the blame for something like that, but I think even he'd blush at something so awful and offensive.

Vince Russo would usually "get the blame" for booking offensive angles because he was the one who was booking when they happened.

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