The Fab Four

[Guest JLAJRC]

Remember when we were cheering when we heard about them coming to the WWF. In hindsight, don't you think it was a waste of money.

 

Saturn is doing Jakked/Metal shows

Malenko is semi-retired.

Guerrero is gone.

 

Only Benoit was becoming popular before his injury.

 

Wasted money, don't you think?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Well...Malenko is a road agent isn't he?  If so...It's not a waste.

 

Had they kept Guerrero...it wouldn't have been...that was the WWF's call.

 

Saturn should find something to do after the split.  Hopefully teaming with Raven.

 

As for Benoit...at least as far as match quality goes...he was worth the price of all 4.

 

Something tells me that HHH made more for his 8 months off then the 4 of them made combined since joining the WWF in 2000...so I doubt they invested much.

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

No, not a waste. Malenko had some good matches before he retired. Eddie was and still could be a great asset.

Saturn at least has decent matches, but he is in desperate need of Raven, as bps said.

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Well...Malenko is a road agent isn't he?  If so...It's not a waste.

 

Had they kept Guerrero...it wouldn't have been...that was the WWF's call.

 

Saturn should find something to do after the split.  Hopefully teaming with Raven.

 

As for Benoit...at least as far as match quality goes...he was worth the price of all 4.

Malenko has stated, I beleive, that he wants his final match to be a 3-way dance between himself, Benoit, and Eddie G. If the WWF hires Eddie back and they promote that match right, it could be a killer and worth the price of the four of them.

 

If Guerrero cleans up his act, he could come back. Just ask Scott Hall.

 

Saturn has become the Jobber Killer, so at least he is entertaining to watch. Put him and Ragal in a match and let them stiff the shit out of each other.

 

And Benoit... What more can you say? He got me interested in the more techincal wrestling style with his matches against Angle and Jericho. He was worth the price of all four.

[Guest Human Fly]

Malenko could have been used a lot better if they actually cared about the Lightweight title. Saturn never really got over, until he had moppy (at least people paid attention) but then they cut that, Guerrero got hurt too many times to really make that much of an impact but sooner or later he'll be back and I think he'll have a good run. Benoit was just starting to hit his stride then he got hurt. I don't think the investment were bad luck just one stroke of bad luck after another. Saturn would be good in the hardcore division or with Raven (as has already been established). Malenko should be in charge of booking the Lightweight division. Benoit will probably go back into main events when he gets back (hopefully). Guerrerro is obviously the wildcard but if he came back I could see him as IC contender right away. He and RVD would have some good matches, and further down the road (after Hall, Nash, Hogan, and SCSA are gone) I could see him move up.

[Guest Risk]

The WWF and Triple-H in particular really dropped the ball on the Radicals.  They could have been the WWF's Four Horsemen, with Benoit as the leader.  It could have been good...

[Guest Army Eye]

Well, the signings weren't a WASTE, but you have to admit that they didn't have nearly as big an impact on the WWF as we thought they would.  In fact, three of the four were better off in WCW, in my opinion, at least in terms of how they were utilized.  Guerrero, Saturn, and Malenko were all more over in WCW and even with Benoit it's debatable, although for Benoit there's no doubt that in the WWF he has deservedly been near the top of the card for almost all of his tenure.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Malenko did a good job with the LHW title, and had a great feud with the Hardys & Lita where he was one of the most over guys in the WWF.  Up until his injury around Royal Rumble time he was doing great.

 

Guerrero had a good first year.  He had a big angle with Chyna, and even got to main event a few tv shows.  Like Malenko, the injury in January really hurt him, although he did have a decent, if short feud with Benoit after coming back.

 

Saturn has done the least out of the four Radicalz.  He is a good wrestler, but doesn't really fit the WWF style all that well.  Raven has exactly the same problem, except Raven doesn't have nearly as much left in the tank as Saturn does.

 

Benoit was worth the price of all four.  He was the WCW World Champion at the time so there is a big plus right there.  He main-evented three PPVs, was announced as WWF Champion at two of them, and lost the third due to a freak injury.  He almost single-handedly saved both the midcard and the IC Title in early 2000, and was so over as a face before the injury that putting the WWF Title on him seemed merely a formality.  Based on the pop when he appeared on Heat in the fall, he is still very over.  Barring further injury, or the NWO putting the WWF out of business, he is a future world champion.

[Guest converge241]

Welcome to The Chris Farley show with our guests:

The Radicalz

Farley:"remeber when you guys walked out on WCW and it was a huge story"

Saturn: "yeah"

Farley: "and then you debuted on Raw and there was a huge buzz, especially with chris never having lost the world title?"

Malenko: "yeah"

Farley: "and then...then you had one of the higest rated matches in wrestling ever in that 10 man match?"

Guerrero: "yeah"

Farley: "or what about when the wwf started aborting storylines for you, jobbing you all out, misused you, had you talking to mops, losing to rikishi in the 1st round of King Of the ring, and just basically killing your drawing power until you were either psuedo-retired, on jakked having to shoot on problem jobbers on jakked, In rehab and then fired, or Pseudo-rebuilt into a credible player and then injured"

Benoit "yeah"

Farley: "that was awesome!!"

 

Smarks nation: No!!! It wasnt!!!"

[Guest CB2M]

When you can get a worker the calibre of Benoit, it's never a waste.  I remember Meltzer saying that he was the only worker in the company that was as good as Michaels was at his peak, which speaks volumes.

 

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Benoit losing to Rikishi in the first round was a storyline thing.  He went nuts and beat the crap out of Rikishi with a chair.  It carried over to the next night when he did the same thing to the Rock, and was in the main event of the next PPV.

[Guest converge241]

Yes i know the DQ loss was apart of building up Benoit's out of control full of rage character. And that he got two ppv matches against Rock. I was just trying to think of a quick "lowpoint" for him for refrence to fit in with the theme.

[Guest Tim Cooke]

"Remember when we were cheering when we heard about them coming to the WWF."

 

I wasn't....I was as disappointed as I have ever been in wrestling, right along with the death of WCW.  But this is coming from a WCW fan so who knows.

 

"In hindsight, don't you think it was a waste of money."

 

Like others have said, any time you can have a guy as talented as Benoit, it is worth it all.  Even if Benoit is severly limited by the WWF style, he is just so great that he can still pull off whatever is necessary to get quality out in his matches.  The only person who comes close to Benoit would be Austin, who beats Benoit in some aspects but that is just a whole nother story.

 

Malenko wasn't "cut" for the WWF because he actually has a no bullshit way of wrestling.  Saturn *should* be over......he got over in WCW on his gimmicks and then added the wrestling to become really good......Eddy was limited in that he couldn't wrestlke a style he was used to.  And that is coming from someone who thinks at various points in his career that Eddy could work a more varied style than Benoit.  

 

For such an open and friendly company such as the WWF, they seem to be out for themselves most of the time.

 

Tim

[Guest Army Eye]

Yeah, I considered the 'Fab Four' jumping to the WWF to be very bad news at the time.

[Guest Just call me Dan]

Hell no, it was definetly worth the price.

 

I enjoyed all four.  I enjoyed Saturn so much because he was struggling and I watched just to see what they did with him.  Yeah I was pissed he didn't really catch on, but that's the same thing with the way WWF portrayed Tazz.  I still watch close every time to see when theyll just let him be Taz.

 

Now Benoit is not my favorite wrestler, and I do get annoyed with him being worshipped ALL the time on this board, but give credit where it's due,

 

BENOIT IS THE MAN.

 

Yes, he was the midcard main attraction and yes he kept me interested all the way through. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE looked pretty good in there with him (except for the returning Gunn).  Benoit deserves a huge push when he comes back, I say make him the "Sting" of this nWo angle.

 

Promos?  Got much better.  His intensity gets him over enough.  He should just be what hes supposed to be: rabid and aggressive.  He can talk some, but I'd rather see him just go off on some people.

 

I can't wait til he comes back.  You won't hear much more praising of Benoit like that from me, but it's true.  That was the best investment the WWF made in a few years.

[Guest JLAJRC]

Well, the signings weren't a WASTE, but you have to admit that they didn't have nearly as big an impact on the WWF as we thought they would.  In fact, three of the four were better off in WCW, in my opinion, at least in terms of how they were utilized.  Guerrero, Saturn, and Malenko were all more over in WCW and even with Benoit it's debatable, although for Benoit there's no doubt that in the WWF he has deservedly been near the top of the card for almost all of his tenure.

I agree with you Army.

 

I'm not debating whether they're good wrestlers or not because I know they are. Anyone with a brain knows that. I'm just saying look what happened to them then to what's happened to them now.

[Guest TheDames7]

"Malenko wasn't "cut" for the WWF because he actually has a no bullshit way of wrestling.  Saturn *should* be over......he got over in WCW on his gimmicks and then added the wrestling to become really good......Eddy was limited in that he couldn't wrestlke a style he was used to.  And that is coming from someone who thinks at various points in his career that Eddy could work a more varied style than Benoit.  

Was it just me, or wasn't Malenko getting heel heat during his Lita storyline?  He also put on some wrestling clinics that, if the WWF had put some storyline angles that were, you know, good, people might have paid attention.  

 

Eddie was CRAZY over as Latino Heat and didn't need Chyna.  That man also drips heelness.  

 

Dames

[Guest Brian]

When they jumped, it was a totally weird situation. Real mixed bag. I was happy for them because I liked the fact that they were getting a chance to push merchandise and gain more attention. I was somewhat mad because I would miss them in WCW and realized that all four would have to change their styles, and tweak their in-ring work. I was happy because I thought Eddie and Benoit would get pushed, and Malenko would heat up the cruiserweight division.

[Guest Tim Cooke]

"Was it just me, or wasn't Malenko getting heel heat during his Lita storyline?  He also put on some wrestling clinics that, if the WWF had put some storyline angles that were, you know, good, people might have paid attention."

 

I didn't hear any significant heel heat and as for the "wrestling clinics" he put on, doing a few chain wrestling moves doesn't constsitue for actually putting a match on.  

 

"Eddie was CRAZY over as Latino Heat and didn't need Chyna.  That man also drips heelness."

 

Once again, I didn't see or hear any of this great so called heel heat that you speak of.  The last day that Eddy was over as a heel in a huge way was Dec 28th, 1998.  He was over as a face when he came back in June of 99, but never regained his heel aura fully.

 

Tim

[Guest JLAJRC]

The reason Chyna was put with Eddie was because Chyna was over, not Eddie.

 

Maybe Staurn with Moppy and Al Snow with Head can become a new tag team called Mophead of Headmop.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

Why god why is Saturn killing jobbers when the flock is right there in front of your damn faces, oh thee that booketh the wwf.

[Guest razazteca]

Forcing Eddie do the Latino Heat gimmick and making Chyna his "woman" killed whatever heat he had in WCW of course LWO did not help much either.  Dean did not do much better with the SNL Ladies Man gimmick nor did Saturn with moppy and the nipple freak Terri, Thank You not.  Chris "the Tooth" Beniot was the only one to get over with his feud against Rock and Jericho.

 

If the Radicals had a manager in the classical sense like maybe Bobby Heenan they could of gotten further in the WWF, with non-comical gimmicks.

 

So is Rey Misterio Jr entering the WWF?  Maybe Dean Malenko can come out of retirement to rekindle the magic they had in WCW during the Cruiserweight division's birth.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Dean's James Bond gimmick was great, and it was getting over too.  But Dean got hurt, and by the time he got back they stuck him the tag ranks with Saturn.

[Guest razazteca]

I just never understood WWF logic:

 

the guy can't talk.......let's give him eye candy that will get him over....it worked for Godfather.