Eugene news

[humongous2002 0]

After so much spotlight, Eugene has fallen fast...

 

WWE has decided to shift focus away from Eugene following his high profile Summerslam program with Triple H. Eugene is not being blamed for low ratings or declining business, but WWE has opted to lower him and put the spotlight on Randy Orton as the company's top face. Eugene was not mentioned on RAW following Summerslam and last week served only as the valet of sorts for William Regal. WWE does not have plans to bring Eugene back up to the level he was at leading to Summerslam, even though his feud with Triple H has yet to really be resolved.

 

Credit: Torch Newsletter

 

Well since Benoit is not the world champion anymore WWE doesn't need Eugene to be the #1 RAW babyface .

[Guest Fook]

So they're keeping him in the midcard position he never should have been out of?

 

Works for me.

[jester 0]

They should have had Christian be the guy manipulating him, and not HHH.

 

It would have pushed them right to the top of the midcard where this angle would have been more comfortable, plus it would have made stars of them both.

[Guest Loss]

Not only that, but they could have had a George Steele/Elizabeth thing going on with Trish and Eugene. I still hope they do that.

[justcoz 0]

Doing something eventually with Eugene and Trish could be fun. They would perform it much better than Sable and Zach Gowen. Trish is just so freakin' adoreable in a naughty, bitchy, slutty, bad girl kind of way. Much sexier than face Trish.

 

As for Eugene, I say start having him mount some wins against jobbers/indie guys on Raw and Heat. Matches where he demonstrates his wrestling knowledge and mat skills so they can again get the "pro wrestling idiot savant" over with the crowd. Don't over expose him on the mic. If they do backstage interviews or anything, let Regal do the talking with Eugene just throwing out the occassional wrestling history fact. Let Regal take a strong managerial role and promise everyone that he's going to build up Eugene's confidence again after the bloody hell he as put through by HHH/Evolution.

 

I still think it's pretty terrible how HHH sucked away Eugene's heat. It was getting over in the midcard because he played the character in a very likeable way, they were booking him to outsmart everyone instead of looking like an idiot and his in-ring skills.

 

HHH came into the picture and suddenly Eugene was the retard getting outsmarted and looking bad. Plus, they stopped having him mat wrestle and instead had him play the slow guy who didn't know his own strength, essentially making him Mighty Igor or old school Putski rather than pro wrestling's Rainman.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Nice to see HHH is still his same old self. He latches onto a hot gimmick and then discards it after he's done sucking the heat out of it.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Man, I really dig that Trish/Eugene idea.

 

Wait, first Trish could pretend to be Eugene's friend, right?

 

And JR and Lawler will talk about how Trish is using Eugene and she's not his friend, right?

 

And then Trish will turn on Eugene and Eugene will cry, right?

 

SEN-SATIONAL~!

 

And how in God's name is Eugene's feud with HHH yet to be resolved? The retard lost clean in the ring, 1-2-3.

[justcoz 0]

Nice to see HHH is still his same old self. He latches onto a hot gimmick and then discards it after he's done sucking the heat out of it.

 

That's my only problem with HHH. To be honest with you, I think he's going to be awesome at actually running WWE and taking over the family business. I'd really like to see the product he could produce by not booking for himself and instead actually trying to put others over.

 

I'm not talking about jobbing like he did to Benoit and Benjamin. I'm saying that he needs to completely remove himself from the picture. Start thinking for the company instead of HHH. Let the next Mania be his retirment match or something and have him take a GM or announcer role. It's just time to move on.

[Brett Favre 0]

Good to know Benoit was officially the 8th top face of the company while he was champ.

[Guest Dazed]

Well since Benoit is not the world champion anymore WWE doesn't need Eugene to be the #1 RAW babyface .

 

More like WWE capitalising on Eugene getting over insanely fast, and then when people started to get pissed off with it, cutting back on it. Makes a lot of sense to me.

 

Good to know Benoit was officially the 8th top face of the company while he was champ.

 

Don't be stupid.

[Guest Big Daddy V1]

Good to know Benoit was officially the 8th top face of the company while he was champ.

The worst apart about this.....it's true.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Good to know Benoit was officially the 8th top face of the company while he was champ.

The worst apart about this.....it's true.

Uhm, only if you're 'random overreacting Benoit fan #16'.

 

Anyway, on topic. Hopefully this 'demotion', if you can call it that, will prevent them having to go through with any future 'I was recently really a retard, I was just pretending' storylines which seems to be the last resort when he gets stale. That would just be a horrible storyline.

[Guest Big Daddy V1]

Good to know Benoit was officially the 8th top face of the company while he was champ.

The worst apart about this.....it's true.

Uhm, only if you're 'random overreacting Benoit fan #16'.

 

Anyway, on topic. Hopefully this 'demotion', if you can call it that, will prevent them having to go through with any future 'I was recently really a retard, I was just pretending' storylines which seems to be the last resort when he gets stale. That would just be a horrible storyline.

Actually they can work off of pop culture by doing that. I can't remember the name of the movie, but it's stars Johnny Knoxville and it's about him being retarded and pretending he was. When it comes out, pull the trigger and do the same with Eugene.

 

Edit: Actually, I'm not overreacting Benoit Fan #16, I'm #12.

[Brett Favre 0]

People need to work on their sense of humor.

[iliketurtles 0]

So they're keeping him in the midcard position he never should have been out of?

 

Works for me.

Exactly how I feel. I've got no problem with Eugene, but main eventing stuff is stupid as fuck.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Faces promoted more or with more air-time then Benoit during Benoit's title reign...

 

- Eugene

- John Cena

- Eddie Guerrero

- The Undertaker

- Chris Jericho

- Lita

 

If you consider Matt Hardy "active" (he didn't wrestle much, but did have a lot of, but not as MUCH air-time as Lita's story), then Benoit is #8.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

I still think it's pretty terrible how HHH sucked away Eugene's heat.

Oh, please. It couldn't have happened faster enough.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Faces promoted more or with more air-time then Benoit during Benoit's title reign...

 

- Eugene

- John Cena

- Eddie Guerrero

- The Undertaker

- Chris Jericho

- Lita

 

If you consider Matt Hardy "active" (he didn't wrestle much, but did have a lot of, but not as MUCH air-time as Lita's story), then Benoit is #8.

Depends how you look at it I guess. That is a good arguement...but the fact still remains, Benoit is spotty at best when it comes to effective interviews. I do think he's improved slightly, but he's still not on the level that top faces need. That automatically limits his time on screen.

 

However, top faces aren't totally determined by air-time.

 

If you look down that list, Benoit was in main event matches or at least the main event scene. Jericho wasn't...most of his time on screen came as an interviewer. Lita and Matt weren't...they were in a stupid baby storyline. Eddie is kinda an iffy one, because post-JBL he hasn't really done much at all. Taker meanwhile has appeared once every two shows, on average. Benoit may not have got as much coverage as these guys (and gal), but he was held in higher regard than the majority of those.

[justcoz 0]

QUOTE (justcoz @ Aug 28 2004, 10:00 AM)

I still think it's pretty terrible how HHH sucked away Eugene's heat. 

 

 

Oh, please. It couldn't have happened faster enough.

 

Yes, because we wouldn't possibly want a good wrestler to get a midcard gimmick character over to the point where he was getting tremendous pops, high quarter-hour ratings and selling merchandise. The midcard retard character can't be getting more attention than HHH - that's just not right.

[Guest JoeyStyles]

Eugene was nothing more than the flavor of the month and he is back where he belongs, as a comedic midcarder.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Depends how you look at it I guess. That is a good arguement...but the fact still remains, Benoit is spotty at best when it comes to effective interviews. I do think he's improved slightly, but he's still not on the level that top faces need. That automatically limits his time on screen.

 

Orton isn't good on interviews and they have given him TONS of time. Lita isn't good on interviews and they have given her tons of time. Eugene and Takers interviews - by nature of gimmick alone - cannot be "effective", and they got tons of time and focus. Benoit is better on "effective" promos than all of these guys (Taker and Eugene in their current incarnations), yet didn't get nearly the amount of TV time all these "performers" got. How many promos *did* Benoit cut when he was champ? How many times was he alone centre-ring hyping his matches? Once? Twice? In SIX MONTHS? Benoit can cut promos, they just never put him in the position to "shine". They gave him "the ball", and then told him to sit on the sidelines until the end of the game.

 

However, top faces aren't totally determined by air-time.

 

Whom the WWE deems important are. Which is why HHH dominates the shows. Which is why the McMahons, when they were on tv, dominated the shows.

 

If you look down that list, Benoit was in main event matches or at least the main event scene.

 

And those matches were usually against some form of Evolution. And that's _all_ he got. It's not like HHH who started the show, was focused on throughout the show, and then ended the show in the main event. It was just the main event.

 

Jericho wasn't...most of his time on screen came as an interviewer.

 

Jericho was at least relevant in these spots.

 

Lita and Matt weren't...they were in a stupid baby storyline.

 

...Which got more play than the Benoit/Kane feud.

 

Eddie is kinda an iffy one, because post-JBL he hasn't really done much at all. Taker meanwhile has appeared once every two shows, on average.

 

They still talk about Eddie and Taker when they are not on screen. I can't recall Benoit getting that treatment, unless it was something like "Oh, that HHH sure is mad at Benoit. I wonder what the game is going to do?"

 

Benoit may not have got as much coverage as these guys (and gal), but he was held in higher regard than the majority of those.

 

No, he was not held in a higher regard. He was not as important to the show as any of those you mentioned. If you took Lita and Kane off of a show, people would notice because their storyline has been entrenched in RAW. If you took Benoit off, no one would notice. He isn't and wasn't a player.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Yes, because we wouldn't possibly want a good wrestler

?? This is unproven.

 

to get a midcard gimmick character over to the point where he was getting tremendous pops, high quarter-hour ratings and selling merchandise.

Not if it was that insulting. I gave up watching Raw sometime before Vengeance and just started watching again because I was tired of an early 90s gimmick being pushed so hard in the here and now. It was like WrestleCrap come alive. "Everybody look! Evad Sullivan is OVER this time!"

 

The midcard retard character can't be getting more attention than HHH - that's just not right.

Yup, that's about it.

[Guest GreatOne]

Hell HHH/Eugene was Rock/Billy Gunn in reverse.

 

Complete with Rock being forced to put his lips on Billy Gunn's ass on the pre-Summerslam 99 RAW ranking up there with HHH running when Eugene was 'tarding up and sacrificing Orton and Flair to him three weeks ago to complete the mirror image.

[Guest theanswer1824]

they should put chains on him, give him the full nelson as the finsher and call him Eugene, son of Hercules Hernandez. They look alike.

 

Honestly, kill this character already. Let him come back in a year with a completely new looking attire, moveset, orgin, etc.

 

But then again, the crowds are just too smart for that. It's back to the indy scene, Nick.

[Guest Trivia247]

In reality his character had novelity as a midcarder.. the push on Main eventing with HHH was a BAD idea. Not taking away from Nick's ability, but that character would never fly in main event level.

 

 

keep the comedy in the midcard. It makes the story on how Eugene is such a wrestling savant more interesting when he was a mid show phenom. But unless he takes one too many chairshots where his character normalize.... theres no point putting a belt on him or making him main event

[RepoMan 0]

I have a feeling Eugene is going to drop off the face of the Earth for the next few weeks and then show up on will be back in the main event scene (of Heat). Taking Eugene out of the upper mid card was a mistake in the first place, but I think they're just going to stop trying to get him over at all at this point if they don't have any plans.