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Guest Macaroni

A Gimmick for Roderick Strong

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Guest Macaroni

Hooray, time for me to get mocked on this board. Anyways, yesterday I came to a weird realization about Roderick Strong's gimmick, and how it could be improved / furthered.

 

First, what is Strong's claim to fame so far? That he can hit backbreakers from anywhere, and busts out new and innovative variations of them. Know someone else who had a gimmick like that? TAZ. Think about it. Taz did for the suplex what Strong is doing for the backbreaker, showing audiences types of suplexes they had never seen before. Now obviously Taz's actual persona was much different - he was the tough street thug who didn't give a shit. As Roderick is not as built as Taz from what I've seen he can't really emulate that, but maybe he can have more of a Dean Malenko role, becoming more of a ground - based wrestler to stand out in the X Division.

 

The other important thing we can take away from the similarities between Taz and Strong's gimmicks is the finisher. Even though Taz was the Human Suplex Machine, his finisher was a submission hold. Granted, the finisher was chosen to highlight his legitimate Judo background, but I think Strong would benefit to have a submission finisher that focused on his opponents' back. This would be not only logical, but also bring in a simple bit of psychology to every Strong match, as he wears down the back in preparation for the brutal submission.

 

Of course there are other things Strong needs to do in order to create a full gimmick, mostly little things. Think about all the little things Taz did, like wearing a towel over his head to the ring, standing in the corner with his arms crossed waiting for his opponent to enter the ring - things like that go a long way in helping develop a character. Anyways, that's my input for Strong. I think his "Messiah of the Backbreaker" gimmick has potential, maybe the above can help.

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I like it. Actually hype up how well he can hit a backbreaker as opposed to just "hey, he knows a lot of 'em."

 

Or, hell...have him "break" some indy guy's back (or choose one of the other X-Division B/C list guys to wear a hood an alternate costume) with his barrage, thus adding "legitimacy" to not only the move, but to him as a wrestler. Hype the balls out of how dangerous his backbreakers are, and have Tenay talk about how he positions his knee (so that the point of it is right into his opponent's back for maximum damage) and such to hype his backbreakers over everybody else's. Also, put out a promotion-wide limit on backbreakers by others. Sure, they can use them from time-to-time, but Strong has the trademark, so all of the uber-innovative forms are his to use.

 

Haha..."The Crippler" Roderick Strong...haha. I dig giving him a back submission, too, as it would make the backbreakers that much more important. Also, put over Strong's backbreakers like they did with DDP's Cutters: he can hit them from ANY position. Have, say, Sabin pick him up for the Cradle Shock, only Strong twists out of it and BAM! Backbreaker. Sonjay goes for a 'rana, but Strong catches it and BAM! Backbreaker. Do this as much as possible.

 

As far as the back-based submission hold...hrmmmm...maybe a simple Bow-and-Arrow with a minor variation would do the trick?

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Strong has a back submission. It's called the Strong-Hold.

 

It's a elevated boston crab with his knee into the other guy's back.

 

Anyone who just watches TNA obviously wouldnt know that because the guy hasent been given the chance to use it.

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Guest Shylock
Strong has a back submission. It's called the Strong-Hold.
The name for it sounds a bit weak. Strongbreaker would be a good deal better.

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Why not go with a DDP/Malenko gimmick instead and have Strong FINISH matches with a different backbreaker every week. Promote him as the man of 1001 backbreakers......just repeat the angle that Jericho and Malenko used in WCW.

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That would entail TNA actually giving a shit about developing X Division guys personalities beyond AJ, Joe, and Daniels. They think they can just throw these guys out there to have blowaway, fast matches, but the audience at home (which is key since the Orlando people are going to pop for just about anything) needs a reason to care about them.

 

Being a Rod Strong mark, I like these ideas.

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Guest Leelee

Sounds good.

 

I'd also think of changing his name, because Roderick Strong sounds like a black porn star who rips apart virgins.

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Guest Leelee

Meh, I'd stay away from doing an injury angle for a while after the Candido thing...

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Aries is pretty good on the mic...if they let him get a backstage segment or two to show his stuff and to declare his goals it would atleast help be more than the winner of the internet poll from three months ago.

 

I was gonna suggest something for Roderick then I remembered the old sit-down interviews Tenay used to do back on the weekly ppvs. Does anyone think that these would help get some personality across for the newer directionless guys.

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I think they only did those sit down interviews because a lot of the roster couldn't really talk at that point.

 

AJ and AMW always did sit downs...and they couldn't cut a promo to save their lives. AJ still can't.

 

The problem with those sitdowns is that there is no way for the wrestler to show any kind of fire when they speak.

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They need to get into the psychological reasons. Why does Strong do the backbreaker? As a young lad, did he watch Bruno Sammartino break his opponents with the very move? Growing up, did he fall out of a window and break his back, paralyzing him from the waist down? Did the other children make fun of him for having to move around in a wheelchair, did society shun him for being a crippple? So now -after the miracle of modern science- he looks to cripple society, one back at a time? Or is he secretly homosexual and gets off on the pelvic thrust other men do when they make the "OW MY BACK!" sell after a backbreaker?

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...why? Why reform a stable based out of RoH when TNA made it clear in the last 3 years that they want to use the shared talent different? That'd be like WWE using the nW...okay, or WCW doing the Flo...okay, fuck it, just reform Generation Next.

 

...or try to build the workers as individuals first instead of throwing a bunch of unover guys who put on good matches but have no characters together in a pathetic attempt to get people to care about them.

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Different audience. RoH is playing to the fans who care most about workrate and how good the matches themselves are. TNA are trying to find the middle-ground between what the RoH fans and the WWE fans want.

 

I'm all for a stable being made out of a handful of the undercard X guys, but it's been proven that outside of Jarrett's lackeys and SEX, TNA has yet to make any good stables.

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Guest [censored]

True but just having some identifiable heels in the X division outside of williams and Daniels would be a big step up for TNA. Atleast all their 6 man tag team matches might get some actual heat and have a bit more meaning.

 

I really think TNA should try and play up the ROH and New Japan connections more like the NWA on TBS used to do with their affiliates in the early 80's. Make it seem like TNA is the place where stars from other places come to wrestle. ROH becoming more popular would help TNA.

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Or less PPV's.

 

*Votes for less PPVs*

quark.jpg

But PPVs is worth alot of gold pressed latinuim......rule #43875 oversaturate the market and rake in all of the profits while its hot.

 

*Votes for 2 hour Impact on Monday and Xplosion on Saturday night*

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Guest [censored]

I'd like to see TNA drop to 8 PPV's per year, dropping their Jan, March, August and Nov shows. Impact moving to 2 hours is the next logical step in their progression and I cant imagine it being too much longer.

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