WON News + Notes, January 22nd Issue

[uhftv 0]

Correct me if I'm wrong:

 

The Rock/Hurricane deal was done because it was announced that the previous week Rock and Booker T would have a match. But during this stint that Rock was there (briefly before the Alliance was killed) he was convinced any attempt to put anyone over, HHH would immediately squash them when Rock left. They did the halfassed Hurricane match and afterwards it seemed like he got pedigreed every week for a month. I remember him running out for no reason other than to get pedigreed outside the ring.

Rock never faced Booker again and Hunter still managed to beat him at WM XIX.

Dont mean to sound like a conspiracy freak, but if you look at anything Rock did in his last few years, Hunter was always there to help the guy pay dues. All of his altercations with Jericho helped put him at a higher level, and somehow he'd always lose to Hunter. But HHH hates Jericho and thinks he cant work so that was just an isolated incident right?

 

Rock's other torch pass was to Brock, and Heyman (thankfully) got him moved permanently to Smackdown the VERY next day. And he STILL got punked out by Taker and Hunter on the way out.

 

Rock's only other matches after that was the tag with Foley, where Mick got pinned by Orton, and the singles matches with Hogan and Austin, who were done actively wrestling anyway. The only other match left was Goldberg, of course, and we all know how well that turned out.

[EricMM 0]

I dunno if you'd say Mick passed the torch to anyone, but he put HHH over huge.

 

He got HHH over...at least as much as anyone.

[Wyld Cannon 0]

Jumbo passing the torch to Misawa is probably the greatest example I can think of, since Jumbo lost to Misawa huge in mid 1990, and was out of the main event scene by 1992.

 

And Dynamite gave Benoit his boots, passing the torch of rampant steroid abuse and wheelchair bound future.

[theintensifier 0]

So when is Misawa going to pass the torch?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I think it's fair to say Foley passed the torch to Triple H. He put him over basically three straight times.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

So when is Misawa going to pass the torch?

He tried with Rikio, but Rikio just didn't have it.

 

I think it's fair to say Foley passed the torch to Triple H. He put him over basically three straight times

 

He put Hunter over for three months straight, getting beaten clean by him, getting laid out by him, getting left a bloody mess, etc. Foley made Hunter a star.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I think it's fair to say Foley passed the torch to Triple H. He put him over basically three straight times

 

He put Hunter over for three months straight, getting beaten clean by him, getting laid out by him, getting left a bloody mess, etc. Foley made Hunter a star.

 

Hunter did the same with Batista... right?

[Black Lushus 0]

HHH gave Batista the torch and said "here, you go over to that other show and carry it"...then he broke out a BIGGER torch to carry.

[The Metal Maniac 0]

No, because HHH beat Foley into retirement, and then when he first un-retired, he beat him again. Batistsa and HHH haven't even seen each other in the ring since their feud, even though they're both still in the main event of their respective shows (at least, when they're not injured). And it wasn't even like he beat HHH so bad HHH left RAW; Batista got moved.

 

Edit: Damn you for getting in between there, BL.

[The Niggardly King 0]

But Bats beat him in his own match... THE HELL IN A CELL!

 

And wasn't Triple H gone for like 6 weeks after that? THAT'S PRETTY HUGE!

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Batista's move was a lateral move rather than an upwards one. If I was a suspicious person, I might think that Hunter did so much to put Batista over because he knew that Batista was moving to Smackdown anyway, and so Batista wouldn't be around to be seen as now being higher than him on the food chain.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

It would've been a bigger deal if Batista wasn't getting sidelined with injuries and stuff all the time.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Perhaps HHH knew Batista wasn't going to be able to carry the "torch".

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

To be fair to Hunter, Batista was put in the spot originally intended for Orton as a contingency plan, right? Batista was getting crowd reactions so they had to go with him for the WM spot, and Orton was generic and boring.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

To be fair to Hunter, Batista was put in the spot originally intended for Orton as a contingency plan, right? Batista was getting crowd reactions so they had to go with him for the WM spot, and Orton was generic and boring.

 

It wasn't necessarily a contingency plan. Batista got really, really over and Orton failed as a face. He got the spot he deserved. It was one of the few times in recent memory that WWE listened to their fans.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

If there was one recent instance of "Passing the torch," I think Trish vs. Mickey James would qualify.

[Taker666 0]

Couldn't agree more. I see Mickie James as the new face of the Woman's Division now just as Trish Stratus was. WWE should start a lengthy program between James and Melina. I would love to see that.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

As I recall, they have sort of "OMG SHE DRESSED LIKE ME ON RAW" woman heat issues. But then again, Matt and Edge worked together.

[Promoter 0]

The whole "passing the torch" thing is way overblown. It's something Hogan and Vince made up after the fact to build that one bodyslam into some epic moment for all time to feed their egos.

 

DING DING DING!!!

 

Just like that crap about Hogan saying he knew Warrior was going to fail and upshowed him at the end of the match. SURE!! Hogan always did that kind of stuff back then, plus it was face vs. face and it was before the days of shock value and Hollywood Hogan.

 

I wonder if the wwe thought of doing Batista/Orton for the title. There is a backstory there, but using Taker's streak as a draw agains the champ is much more appealing to the mainstream I suppose.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Hogan always had a heel edge to his character. Eye rakes, back rakes... that's heelish stuff. Hell, in RR92 he chokes guys out with his shirt. Not exactly very face-like (Duggan, for example, didn't bring his 2x4 into the ring...which is just as much a legal weapon as a shirt used to do chokes)

[Promoter 0]

That's what I was saying. Hogan always acted a bit heelish. Just listen to Ventura's commentary. I guess Hogan learned from SuperStar's mistake. He kept some of his heel antics as a super babyface because the fans liked that. This is what I'm talking about. Look at Hogan after the Mega-Powers exploded on NBC. Does anyone remember Hogan walking backstage looking for Macho and draping up babyfaces onto the wall like The Anvil and Shawn Michaels? I bet Hogan would have revisionist history and say he did that to upstage Macho turning heel that night or some other crap. The fact was Hogan just loved the damn camera as Jesse would say. He was just being Hogan.

 

If Hogan really wanted to sabotage Warrior's reign he could have turned heel right at the moment he handed him the belt, but that idea was years before its time and would not happen in 1990. EVERYBODY would be talking about what Hogan did and it might have got Warrior more over too(doubt it as Hogan would have all the heat) as a face back then(actually I think Hogan was getting stale and "Hollywood" Hogan vs. Warrior might have had a chance to sell out the LA Coliseum). Even as a heel Hogan would act face with those winks and grins as if he was telling his fans you know what's up.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Hogan also basically helped Flair win the title at that RR by pulling Sid out (or trying to anyway). Sid was a face at the time, and Hogan (another face) helped heel Flair win.

[Promoter 0]

Uh oh! If Hogan reads this you know what Hogan will start saying? That he was the precursor to Steve Austin in the 90's Hell, didn't Russo turn Hogan into Steve Austin for a few weeks in wcw Really dumb idea Russo!

[theintensifier 0]

HHH has "passed" the torch twice in recent memory. He passed it to Batista, even though Batista went to SmackDown. If HHH hadn't put him over like that, Batista wouldn't have been seen as a legit main eventer.

 

And the second one, was obviously Cena. Not even Thor HHH could beat ganster Cena.

 

People are always so quick to complain and point at HHH, but be realistic, he's lost clean at three straight WrestleMania's.

 

- Benoit made him submit in 2004 to win the World heavyweight championship.

- Batista pinned him in 2005 to win the World heavyweight championship.

- Cena made him submit in 2006 to win the World heavyweight championship.

 

Three straight clean loses, three straight title loses, he's put all three over huge in those matches and in the respective feuds.

[Mecca 0]

Triple H was a heel........heels never win Mania mainevents...it's happened like 3-4 times in the history of the event and shockingly....Triple H has 1 of those atleast 1 or 2.

[Black Lushus 0]

he walked out of WM16 and WM19 with the title and was a heel on both occassions, so yeah, Mecca is on the money there.

[Vern Gagne 0]

How about a case for Undertaker putting over Mankind.

[Bruce Blank 0]

Putting over isn't the same as passing the torch though, passing the torch generally means scaling back and letting others have the spotlight instead of that person.

[EricMM 0]

Exactly, passing the torch means you don't have the torch anymore.

 

It's losing the big "loser retires / leaves town / whatever" match.

[10 Pounds 0]

There have been some complaints earlier in the thread about the fact that Hogan will get the rub from being the one who'll slam Khali. Why should it surprise anyone ? Hogan's only interests were about him looking better than anyone else. Shortly after Summerslam 2005, where Shawn Michaels complained about the feud, oversold everything in the match and afterwards made remarks about Hogan's quickness and agility, I remember reading an interview with Hogan that basically said that Michaels shouldn't whine about the match because they were spots where Michaels had the upper hand on Hogan. Since in his mind, he's the greatest wrestler of all time, he gave Michaels a rub.

 

 

So since he's the only one alive to ever slammed the 700-pounds Giant over his head, it only seems fitting that he tears up all the muscles on the left side of his body again to slam Khali.