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Often forgotten periods of a wrestlers career...


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Whether that be because it was short, forgettable or ill timed there are many examples of a chapter in a wrestlers career which are often forgotten about.

 

FUNB era Hogan in 2000 WCW for example being referenced as being Terry Bollea on commentary. Wearing a tacky looking shirt and jeans to the ring, the entire episode would have been completely forgettable if it wern't for the fact it was so bad.

 

 

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Christ on crutches. You're right. That was awful. All the stuff with Kidman and Bischoff was terrible, too. I don't care what Hogan said on a radio show. I don't care if he has an ego. I don't care if he legitimately lays claim to being a founding father of Metallica, playing bass at President Reagan's wedding, and body slamming a 900-pound Andre The Giant two and a half hours before his untimely death all in the same breath. I couldn't care less.

 

None of that means he should be doing the job for Billy fucking Kidman. Not in 2000. Not ever. Doing a cool Shooting Star Press and being one of the few "over" acts in the dying days of WCW is something special in itself. I'll give you that. But none of it warrants getting wins over Hogan. The program was atrocious. The premise was awful. And I still find it hard to believe how many people were so vocal about how Hogan should have done more to put Kidman over at the time.

 

Didn't Randy Savage also pop up on a random Thunder around the same time? He was a member of the Millionaire's Club or something. I seem to recall this vision of him hopping out of Mike Awesome's 70's bus out in the parking lot for some reason, and then making a mad dash towards the ring while some funky New Blood vs. Milliionaire's Club main event was going on... to the delight & entertainment of nobody.

 

I might be remembering some of the details wrong, but something like that definitely happened. And then when he pulled the same sort of deal in TNA, I remember being surprised that he actually stuck around to work a tag match at the next big show.

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Well yeah. I get what you're saying. The circumstances and the situation could almost always salvage a program, but that wasn't even close to being the case for Kidman vs. Hogan.

 

The premise of the feud was terrible. Kidman was basically booked to look like the babyface, taking offence to Hogan's comments about him on some radio show that was only ever referenced to & never outright "heard" on any of the shows. Kidman was made heel, basically just by way of being a younger guy. Hogan was babyface, because he was the old guard trying to hold the young guys down. None of it made ANY sense, and the whole deal was ass-backwards.

 

The win didn't mean anything, because it wasn't allowed to mean anything. The match was an afterthought to all the skits and backstage garbage. The pinfall was presented as a fluke, treated like a fluke, and quickly swept aside for the next thing to happen.

 

As far as other "forgotten periods" go, I'd offer up Jeff Jarrett's brief stint as the worked shooter in late '97 WWF. He did his best to channel Shane Douglas and make all these controversial comments, but all it ended up doing was pissing off Steve Austin and leading him back to the country music character anyway. Hell, I didn't really mind. As dated as the gimmick was, at least they brought out Tennessee Lee to spice things up for a second.

 

In truth, they should have just brought in Robert Fuller and let HIM be the straight shooter. Have him talk shit on WCW's treatment of the old guard - Flair, the Horsemen, himself - in favor of the New World Order and guaranteed contracts. He could have been the guy to hook up with Cornette and lead the "NWA" charge in '98 as this kind of band of outlaws that were stuck in the territory days and looking to take the business back to its roots.

 

And unmasked Rey Mysterio Jr. is a period of his career that I'd LIKE to forget, for sure. The tacky coveralls, the lack of any meaningful programs, and the Bronco Buster suddenly becoming a cornerstone of his move set... Yuck.

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Speaking of DiBiase, his face turn as the Steiner's manager before disappearing after Scott's turn.

 

DiBiase's speech for the face turn was amazing, but of course WCW didn't capitalize on it, because WCW was WCW-ing as usual.

 

Another one: Someone else in other thread mentioned "Supersock" Jose Lothario. I had almost forgotten about the period in Michaels' career where he was managed by his trainer. What a complete waste of time that was. No one knew who the hell "Supersock" was, and he wasn't over a lick in the role.

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I don't know that it's forgotten as much as it's just not talked about enough... but I really dug Spike Dudley's stint as "The Boss" of the Dudley clan in 2004. Here was the bullied & ridiculed little runt of the litter, suddenly undergoing an attitude overhaul & taking charge. He'd just boss around his older brothers en route to becoming the top dog of the cruiserweight heap for awhile.

Whether you thought Spike was best suited for the division or not, I thought he did really well with the role. It was fairly refreshing for everyone involved, as the Dudleys were a very tired act by that point. And Spike totally threw himself into it - changing up his look and everything.

 

Also the brief time they had Tajiri busting out the black mist. They treated it like a hugely devastating deal, putting it over big and having it actually "bind" Nidia. I didn't care at all for the direction of THAT angle with Jamie Noble - although Noble could be endlessly entertaining as the trophy boyfriend - but I liked the mist being brought back to relevance as a seriously fearsome secret weapon. I almost wish they would have a heel come along now and use it, as I really think it could hold a place higher up the card.

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- I remember Carlito as Ric Flair's apprentice in 2007 or so seeming like a really... odd choice.

 

- The Redneck Wrecking Crew of Cade & Murdoch had a few fun months pretending to buddy up to the Hardy Bros. so that they'd let their guard down and give them a title match. I think Trevor Murdoch, specifically, is a missed opportunity as a fired up babyface tag worker.

 

- There was this brief, fleeting bit of time where Matt Striker was being set up to lead a Twin Towers like team of Mark Henry and Big Daddy V during the days of the SmackDown & ECW brand exchange. It didn't need to go terribly far, but I think it could've ultimately amounted to a little more.

 

- Jimmy Golden showing up out of obscurity to play Jack Swagger's dad, Jimmy Joe Jack Swagger Classic or whateverthefuck in 2010, was a TRUCKLOAD of temporary fun. It injected some much-needed personality and pizzazz into Swagger's VERY short-lived title tenure. I still feel like there was some untapped potential in having Swagger play the underachieving son in the eyes of his father, with his old man being the washed-up dad trying to coach his son from the stands. Wished it would have went on longer.

 

Err, the Swagger Sr. act, I mean... not the title reign.

 

- 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.

 

- Gonna go ahead and go all "Charlie Haas heavy" to end this post, but yeah. I dug his Outlaw shtick in ROH a couple of years back, too. Haas channeled a little bit of Pillman and Austin to actually create a sense of excitement around ROH during a time when there wasn't a whole heck of a lot to give a shit about in that promotion.

 

Plus, hey. It gave us the rise of Cheeseburger. So there's that.

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Mr. Perfect's 2002 WWE run. He had a memorable Rumble apperance (being one of the last 3 guys in there!), and i was hoping for good things, but there were very few people on the roster he really could have meshed with (Angle, Jericho, and Benoit all come to mind, but they never ended up having matches with Perfect), he was made into a JTTS, and then the plane ride from hell happened and we all know what went on from there.

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Mr. Perfect in 2002 wasn't going to feel like a big deal. They just had too many BIG name stars on the roster at the time.

 

That being said, I still think it would have been fun to put him as Kurt Angle's corner man or something. They could have bonded after Kurt's '02 Rumble performance, with Perfect citing that he was a runner-up one year to Hogan.

 

Kurt could roll his eyes and do the goofy expressions every time Perfect busts out another, "I used to be Perfect, ya know!" tale of the week. Eventually they're reluctant on-again, off-again tag team partners. Angle would remain the pushed, over act. Hennig would be like a corner man that occasionally competes.

 

Could have gone on through Mania X8 and then the Edge feud, where Angle gets his head shaved. "Ya know, Kurt... it's not the WORST look. In fact, as far as close shaves go... I'd say it's ab-so-lute-ly PERFECT." Cue the eye rolling from Kurt.

Instead, he took a Stunner. Then I think they just had him show up and wrestle RVD or something one time.

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Even though the NWO petered out after WMX8, I think they could've gotten more out of Hennig the night he faced Austin on RAW had he joined back up with them. They even had the NWO approach him backstage IIRC, but he declined their help. Instead he got beat by Austin, the NWO still came out and broke the block on Austin's leg, but Hennig was not a part of it. He would've been fine in the post WM group when Big Show and Xpac rejoined when they were dropped to midcard anyway. Wouldn't have needed Booker to join and Booker/Goldust tags matches vs. NWO would've kept them relevant until HHH returned and they could have whatever payoff they wanted there.

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Los Fabulosos seem to fit here. El Dandy and Silver King were cruiserweight jobbers for the vast majority of their WCW tenure, but they got a couple of week-long minipush as Miss Hancock's new clients in a feud with Lenny & Lodi, even getting some lovely looking bodysuits. As I recall, it got dropped the minute Bischoff and Russo rebooted WCW, but it had the makings of a fun lower-card gimmick.

 

Linked to that, Lenny Lane in 2000 WCW was a mixed bag of forgotten personnas. He formed a terrible "standards and practises" stable with Hancock and Lodi. That was dropped and was he renamed Lane, tag-team partner of Rave (Lodi) in "XS", before making an appearance in the crowd following the reboot, won a match to win his job back and was never seen again.

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