Thought of the Day: If At First You Don’t Succeed…
It’s one of my thoughts, so you know it’s going to be based in old school stuff.Anymore WWE seems to be afraid to change anything about a character. Look at Del Rio, Brodus, Ryder, Mahal and a large group of others. They’re pretty much the exact same character that they were a year ago, if not even less developed. Let’s take a look at the three biggest stars ever:
Hulk Hogan – Brought in as a generic big heel. he had Freddie Blassie as a manager, was at the semi-main event level, and probably would have won the world title one day. Then he went to the AWA, made Rocky III, left the AWA because Gagne wouldn’t wake up and realize what he had, came back to the WWF as the REAL AMERICAN and became the biggest good guy of all time, completely revolutionizing wrestling.
Steve Austin – Originally Stunning Steve who wore flowery tights, then a Hollywood Blonde who made camera motions, then a tradition hating guy who cursed a lot, then Superstar Steve in ECW, then the Ringmaster…..whatever that was supposed to be, then himself because Ted DiBiase left and they had no idea what to do but let him drink beer, flip people off, curse a lot and be a rebel, relaunching WWF to the top of the business and winning the Monday Night Wars.
The Rock – Brought in as a plucky young guy who was just so happy to be there, gets told to die by most of the fans, comes back as a cocky black power guy in the Nation of Domination, becomes a cocky jock heel, becomes a cocky jock face, becomes the greatest promo man of all time with at least a dozen catchphrases.
Of the three biggest guys, none of these guys were anywhere close to being the guy that they were brought in to be. Rocky at least was supposed to be a guy who was going to be a big deal. Hogan was never going to be the number one guy in the company in his original form. Austin….not as the Ringmaster he wasn’t going to be. Rocky got over huge, but as the polar opposite of what he was brought in as.
Sometimes you have to try a bunch of stuff until you find something that worked. Look at Undertaker and Kane: Undertaker was a natural, Kane took a bunch of tries to get what worked. Try some effort WWE. It’ll do you good.
I would say Cena as well. If he didn’t ever do that rap backstage that got the attention of the Mcmahons (I think that was the story of how the rap gimmick started) who knows who would have been the face of the wwe today.
By any chance do you remember the original nicknames they wanted to give Austin according to Foley in his first book? He listed a couple of them and I remember one to be something along the lines of Ice Dagger Steve Austin.
If I remember right one of them was Chilly McFreeze.
Ha amazing. Curious if Chilly Mcfreeze Steve Austin would have any trouble reaching the same level.