The Scott Hall story (this time with a source!)

[Guest TheMikeSC]

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Hall is a "wrestler"?

 

Yep and has been for a while now.

 

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Amazing the milage one gets out of having good matches with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

 

Or it could be because his job description is pro wrestler.

 

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Hey, Sid had good matches with them---is Sid a "wrestler"?

 

I would say yes.

 

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Heck, Nash did the same. Is he a "wrestler"?

 

Again I say yes.

 

All of those guys are pro wrestlers, they will never win an Olympic medal but they are wrestlers and your vehement denial is both snide and kinda petty. If you are basing all wrestlers on a technical skill level than 90% of the WWF's roster are not wrestlers and if thats what floats your boat then you shouldn't even be watching the WWF you should instead be watching your local high schools wrestling team. >>

 

Ah, the curse of having taste.

 

It is a weighty cross to bear, but I do so.

                         -=Mike

[Guest The Shockmaster!]

Its not a matter of taste, its a matter of you denying a simple fact: all of those guys are wrestlers. The degrees to which they are good or bad are subjective much like your opinions.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I'm glad someone has finally realized that it is the angle, not just the wrestlers, that draw money.  I see on here that RVD hasn't ever really drawn any money.  Well, when has he been in an angle condusive to drawing money?  During his ECW run from 1999-2000 he wasn't in any particular angle aside from just wrestling Jerry Lynn night and day.  Take a look at the year 1999 for him (when he was actually ranked #2 in the PWI 500):

 

Guilty as Charged:  Beat Lance Storm, his original opponent Masato Tanaka didn't show due to travel problems.

 

Living Dangerously:  Beat Lynn in a goofy match where the ref tried to literally GIVE JL the TV title on a time limit draw!

 

Hardcore Heaven:  Beat Lynn again, one of the few well hyped ECW matches of the period and it wasn't even the main event.  What was?  Taz and Bubba Ray Dudley.  I'm serious.

 

Heat Wave:  He and Lynn now TAGGED to beat the Impact Players.  Sabu/Lynn/RVD get into it at the end setting up a cool 3 way feud that went, you guessed it, nowhere.

 

Anarchy Rulz:  Beat Balls Mahoney when his original opponent Johnny Smith for whatever reason didn't wrestle him.

 

November to Remember:  Beat Taz in the single most botched feud in the past 5 years.  Yes, more botched than even Sting/Hogan.  ECW spent all of 1999 building to a huge RVD/Taz title for title match and it all got screwed up once Taz signed with the WWF and Heyman panicked and put the title on Awesome.

 

My point to all of this is that RVD was probably keeping ECW in business during that time period.  It's no coincidence that ECW went under shortly after RVD kinda quit do to not being paid.  In the last two years he was in ECW he was in 2 angles that could have drawn money but it all got screwed up.  The angle where Sabu turned heel and helped Awesome destroy him was a great angle but was hurt when RVD broke his leg and then Awesome jumped to WCW.  And his potential Rhino feud hinted at on the last PPV showed signs of drawing money but it was too late for ECW.  

 

If you take a look at his WWF tenure thus far the booking is eerily similar (it is Heyman after all):

 

Invasion:  Beat Jeff for hardcore title, RVD was in a great angle in his WWF debut, but this match had no backstory to speak of.  Actually it DID but the WWF didn't explain the original ECW invasion when RVD beat Jeff.

 

Summerslam:  Beat Jeff again for hardcore title in ladder match, no hype for this one either.

 

Unforgiven:  Beat Jericho, another match tossed onto the card to give two popular wrestlers something to do.  No backstory.

 

No Mercy:  Lost in a 3 way with Austin/Angle.  This one had lots of backstory given RVD's trouble with Austin and his matches with Angle where he busted him open.  Unfortunately the whole face/heel ratio here made ZERO sense and couldn't have possibly drawn money.  Austin as heel, Angle as face, RVD the ill defined tweener.  Austin and RVD work better as faces, Angle works better as a heel.

 

Survivor Series:  On the losing Alliance side.  Wasn't doing much of anything at the time otherwise.

 

Armageddon:  lost the hardcore title to UT.  Little backstory other than UT's weird heel turn where he made JR toss Vince's salad and then attacked RVD for no real reason.

 

Royal Rumble:  did nothing of note in the match, though the crowd booed big time when he was quickly eliminated by Booker.

 

In between all this he had semi feuds with Test and Booker and Jericho to some extent but none of them were developed enough to get over.

 

No Way Out:  Beat Goldust in a bizarre unexplained angle where Goldust never said why he targeted him.  RVD was more involved with Regal and Edge at this point than Goldust.

 

Take a look at that booking.  It is horrible!  I'm amazed he is over at all after that.