Batista
Jim Cornette described him as a guy with no talent, just a decent look. He said that with Batista it was either push him to the main event or forget it. I honestly do not remember a Batista match that I liked. If there was one, it was probably thanks to the guy he was wrestling, not thanks to him. No way did he earn his shot in the main event. He debuted as Reverend D-Von's collection box man, and that was no less than the level he deserved to stay at for his entire wrestling career. To be honest though, he should not have had a career in wrestling business anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big Show
You bet your ass he deserves to be here. What use would he be if it was not for his size? His size is something he did not have to work at, he is just a huge human being, but he puts very little effort in to anything he does. Big Show has been re-packaged so many times now, that it's hard to think of a gimmick he has not had. He has had a grand total of about 300 World title shots now [with another on the way at the time of writing this], winning only 2 of them properly [not counting the ECW title by the way]. Let us not forget that the 2 world titles that he did win, he lost almost as quickly, losing the 1st one in just over a month on Raw and the 2nd one at the following PPV [Armageddon].
I appreciate that he is a very unique man but just looking the way he does should not be enough for him to be in this company [although most divas now are there for the exact same reason]. He sucks in the ring and his mic skills [and voice] are horrible. He's not entertaining, at least to me, and while I am not trying to call for him to be released from his [very high] contract, I do think he is very overrated. Watch The Undertaker's opinion on The Big Show below [starts at about 9 min 55 sec].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bubba
I didn't know whether to refer to him as Bubba Ray Dudley, Bully Ray or by his real name, Mark LaMonaco, so I just went with Bubba. You know who I mean. Why is he here, in the overrated wrestlers section? That's an easy one. TNA. Yes TNA is the reason he is here. Countless times in the past, WWE has taken a wrestler who felt unappreciated in WCW, and turned them in to 'stars'. The WWE showed that WCW missed a beat with many guys. WWE showed WCW that they had a star and let them slip away. Guys like Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit were not happy with their roles in WCW [Benoit was eventually given the World title in WCW but by then it was too late, he left right after]. In the WWE they felt like they meant something [both going on to win World titles]. Stone Cold Steve Austin is probably the best example of somebody who the WCW had no ideas for and eventually released. He went on to be a headliner in WWE and one of the most known recognizable wrestlers in the world.
So what does this have to do with Bubba in TNA? Well, it seems that TNA have wanted to get their own back [since a lot of the guys in TNA were former WCW employees]. They want to show that WWE had a 'main eventer' in Bubba Ray Dudley, who they let slip through their fingers. Unfortunately they are only fooling themselves [and perhaps some of their fans]. Bubba was not, is not, and will most probably never be, main event material. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, there are 3 important factors to being a champion. Wrestling ability, mic work and superstar look. If you have all 3, you are perfect championship material. If you have 2 out of 3, there is a good chance you will be given the World title eventually. 1 out of 3 is hit and miss, you might be given the belt one day, if the company thinks you can draw and make them money, but the chances are, you won't. Unfortunately Bubba, has none of the 3. His in ring ability is, well, average at best. His mic work is, once again, average. Superstar look. Are you kidding me? At least we know he doesn't do steroids [and if he does, they aint working]. So why he was recently made the TNA World Champion is beyond me. They got it in to their heads at TNA that this man has been overlooked and it was time to give him the belt, but any logical explanation as to why he is the right man to lead the company is hard to find. Bubba would never have made it to the overrated wrestlers section, if TNA had not overrated him and given him the World Heavyweight title belt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kane
Another wrestler that I feel is vastly overrated is the Big Red Machine Kane. It's not that I don't appreciate his gimmick, because I really do, but that's the problem. That is just about the only thing I appreciate about him, his gimmick. Honestly think back in your head to a match involving Kane that you think was great, and it was great thanks to Kane. I know I can't. Any time he is in a match it just sort of plods along. He doesn't do anything amazing or extraordinary. They try to put over his great strength, but even that is not particularly impressive, at least not when compared to guys like Brock Lesnar and yes, even Batista. I have seen him lift guys above his head and unless it was Spike Dudley or someone of a similar weight class, he seemed to have problems on many occasions.
Some might say I am being harsh but trust me, look closely at his matches, they are not that great. His move set consists mainly of right and lefts, then a hard uppercut where he slaps his own chest to omit a sound as if he just thumbed his opponent. He occasionally lifts an opponent above his head or hits a few power moves, but that just does not seem to impress fans anymore, now that he has been doing it over and over again for years. He is one of those wrestlers that was interesting to watch at first, but once his gimmick got stale he had nothing to offer in the ring. The only time he is remotely interesting is when he is in some twisted story line, usually involving fire or death. He's not an awful wrestler [like Batista] but definitely overrated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Henry
Lex Luger
Whenever I'm a little stuck, wondering about who to stick in here, all I need to do is have a look at a list of champions and pick somebody who clearly did not deserve a title reign. That's why this one is easy, and to be honest, it's not just because he is a former champion, it's because he somehow passed for being a wrestler, when he wasn't one.
Luger is one of those bodybuilders who managed to get in to the wrestling business, quite simply, thanks to his physique. This is a 2 time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and a man who headlined multiple WWF PPV's back in the early 90's. Have you ever seen him in the ring? I know I have and I now wish I had spent my time better. It's not that I watched him and thought, he's no Bret Hart and Chris Jericho. It's that I watched him and thought, when is this guy going to actually, you know, wrestle? He spent most of his fairly short matches posing in the ring, taunting [by posing] and trying to lift the crowd [by posing again]. The occasional kick or punch was thrown in, with perhaps a suplex if you were lucky [it didn't always happen]. Then, his traditional submission finisher, and it was over, unless of course he lost, then there was no traditional submission finisher. He and Batista are two absolutely perfect examples of muscle men who have shown that even if you have zero wrestling ability, you can still make it to the top [more or less].
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lita
 |
| Yep it's Lita without all the showbiz make up and razzle dazzle. Suddenly not so appealing is she? |
It gets more and more difficult to find these overrated wrestlers every week. The more I name, the less there are to chose from. Where as at first I had many people in mind, now I am actually having to dig deep and search them out, but I do have one for this week. It's a female and only the second female to make the overrated wrestlers page, but I think she deserves it. It's Lita.
Now immediately I sense an uproar from the wrestling world. Not only did I stick Trish in there some time ago, but not Lita is there too! Admittedly, Lita is not as bad as Trish, or should I say, not as overrated as Trish, at least not by the WWE, since she didn't win anywhere near as many titles as Trish did, but I think she is overrated by fans a little bit. In her case, unlike Trish, I think she was not that bad in the ring, but she was nowhere near being the best female wrestler I have ever seen. Her moves, much like Trish's, were sloppy and awkward.
I remember when the two fought each other in Trish's final match at Unforgiven a few years ago. It went on for nearly 8 minutes, so far surpassed the standard 3 to 4 minutes women seem to get. How was the match? It was, okay. A lot of people might have thought it was an amazing way for Trish to end her career, but I don't think it was that great. I realised after seeing it, that it was probably the best these two women could have done, that's when I realised that the pair of them were overrated.
Lita had some 'neat' athletic moves. Her Hurricanrana [that she called the Litacanrana] was pretty impressive, I'll admit. Her top rope moonsault was not half bad either. A few other moves she did were nice on the eye as well [much like she was]. The problem is, once you get past the few 'wow factors' she had in her moves set, the rest was hard to watch. The standard moves, like a headlock or a DDT, looked terrible. Her version of the twist of fate was terrible too. In my view, she definitely deserves to be here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Henry
Mark Henry is one of those guys who you can just look at and shrug. He's one of those guys who you might look at and wonder who he knows or what he has done to have been in the WWE for so many years. The worst part is, it's quite difficult to criticize him because he really does seem like a nice guy, but I must look at him and his ability for what it is, and that is, not of a particularly high standard. He is another wrestler who has gone quite far on the gimmick given to him. At first he was just a part of a stable. He was also involved in a very odd and disturbing story line involving Mae Young. Later on they started pushing his strongest man gimmick and have never left it alone since.
The problem is that being the world's strongest man does not mean you deserve some major push in the wrestling business. Anyway, he never officially was the strongest man in the world [he has a few records in lifting weights but no official world strongest man titles to his name] and even if he had been, you don't get to be the world's strongest man forever as the official world's strongest man takes place on a yearly basis. The amount of TV time and big story lines or matches that he had was enough to raise eyebrows, but to be a former World and ECW Champion goes to far. Why don't they just hire a Hollywood actor and give him the title for winning an Oscar? No they of course they would not do that because one thing has nothing to do with the other.
A champion needs to have wrestling ability or charisma. Obviously if he has both that is even better. Mark Henry has neither and what's worse, he doesn't look menacing either, he's just fat. It feels like they keep trying to make him meaningful, that's why he is on and off television constantly as they look to bring him back in some fresh way [but yet always as the world's strongest man]. Let's face it, if he did not have this gimmick based on a reality that is heavily skewed by the WWE, there would not be reason for him to be pushed.
I would probably not have put Mark Henry in the overrated wrestler's section if he was not given a World title but that was the decisive 'bad move' that gets him hear.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not because he's a fat sack of shit or has messy hair. I have nothing against him as a person, it's his reputation. It's simple. He does not deserve it!
Look, I enjoyed his leap off the Cell as much as the next fan, but it was one moment that seemed to define his reputation in the WWE. Again, don't get me wrong, he has had many other great bouts in the WWE and many others in ECW, but that 30 or 40 foot fall off the cell was the moment that made people start saying he was an amazing wrestler and he wasn't! He isn't! If you have the VHS tape of King of the Ring 98, watch that match again, from start to finish. If you don't own it, find it online somewhere and watch it. When you do you'll notice that it wasn't that great a match. It was a stop-start with a few incredible moments in it. Ric Flair was probably a little harsh to call Mick a glorified stuntman [there's a place for Flair in the overrated section waiting], but he certainly is a glorified wrestler.
Truth is, Mick Foley was never in shape. He was probably in his best shape during his brief return in 2005. I mean, he was not in shape, but it was the best shape I ever saw him in. Kind of like Bradshaw who said he was in the best shape of his life when he swapped his gimmick for JBL. Again, he was not in great shape, but yeah, it probably was the best shape of his life.
Mick Foley can entertain an arena full of people with his insane backyard wrestling type Hardcore stuff, but [again, to quote Ric Rlair] he could not wrestle a 1 hour Iron Man match with 4 oxygen tanks strapped to his back. A guy who has never got himself in to shape cannot be called a great wrestler. He can be respected for what he has done and for what he has put his own body through. He can be liked for all of his wacky gimmicks, for his persona and for being a nice guy, but there is that line of greatness that I don't think he has crossed or ever will [since he's pretty much retired now, not that he won't ever have a match again].
When I first saw Rob Dam Dam wrestle at the Invasion PPV many years ago [that's right I didn't see him earlier as I didn't watch ECW] I was in awe of his capabilities. I went from 'who is this guy' to basically waiting for his appearance every week during the whole Invasion angle. Stone Cold was great, Kurt Angle was great, but RVD was what it was all about back then. I don't think I was the only one either. After his debut he went on to have more matches on TV and the following PPV's. They were all great to watch. He got so popular that he was made part of a triple threat title match at No Mercy just a few months after he had his first match in the company. He lost that triple threat match but continued to have awe inspiring matches, at least when there were Hardcore stipulations.
The problems started when those Hardcore stipulations were taken away. Suddenly more than half of RVD's move set was out of the picture, since a lot of his jaw dropping moves took place out of the ring, on the barrier or among the fans. Now he had to try and have matches where he stayed in the ring. Suddenly his weaknesses were noticeable. That's not to say he went from being great to being bad, but he wasn't as capable in the ring with no weapons, as he was in and out of the ring with weapons. That's why he makes the overrated wrestlers section, not because he's awful [like some of the wrestlers in this section really are] but because he is not quite as great as his reputation suggests that he should be. Paul Heyman even said that when he was in charge of ECW, he took RVD's weaknesses and hid them, accentuating his strengths [that were clearly Hardcore matches]. This means RVD did have weaknesses [since they had to be hidden] and still has them to this day.
Yeah that's right, it's time to get controversial. It's obvious to me that many people will disagree with me on this one, but hear me out. I am by no means a hater of The Rock. I don't dislike him for going to Hollywood or not following anyone on twitter [even RVD follows people Dwayne, and he has one of the biggest egos in wrestling]. What gets to me about The Rock is his seeming untouchability [I made that word up]. He can be away from wrestling for years, then make one appearance on Raw and get more cheers and screams than Fonzy. Add to that the fact that he 'aint all that' in the ring and the reasons to be frustrated with his popularity start to increase. Even his mic work since he has become 'Hollywood Rock' has gotten worse, yet the fans still go wild when he speaks. All he has to do is run through some of his catchphrases and he has them eating right out of the palm of his hand.
Mick Foley
It's not because he's a fat sack of shit or has messy hair. I have nothing against him as a person, it's his reputation. It's simple. He does not deserve it!
Look, I enjoyed his leap off the Cell as much as the next fan, but it was one moment that seemed to define his reputation in the WWE. Again, don't get me wrong, he has had many other great bouts in the WWE and many others in ECW, but that 30 or 40 foot fall off the cell was the moment that made people start saying he was an amazing wrestler and he wasn't! He isn't! If you have the VHS tape of King of the Ring 98, watch that match again, from start to finish. If you don't own it, find it online somewhere and watch it. When you do you'll notice that it wasn't that great a match. It was a stop-start with a few incredible moments in it. Ric Flair was probably a little harsh to call Mick a glorified stuntman [there's a place for Flair in the overrated section waiting], but he certainly is a glorified wrestler.
Truth is, Mick Foley was never in shape. He was probably in his best shape during his brief return in 2005. I mean, he was not in shape, but it was the best shape I ever saw him in. Kind of like Bradshaw who said he was in the best shape of his life when he swapped his gimmick for JBL. Again, he was not in great shape, but yeah, it probably was the best shape of his life.
Mick Foley can entertain an arena full of people with his insane backyard wrestling type Hardcore stuff, but [again, to quote Ric Rlair] he could not wrestle a 1 hour Iron Man match with 4 oxygen tanks strapped to his back. A guy who has never got himself in to shape cannot be called a great wrestler. He can be respected for what he has done and for what he has put his own body through. He can be liked for all of his wacky gimmicks, for his persona and for being a nice guy, but there is that line of greatness that I don't think he has crossed or ever will [since he's pretty much retired now, not that he won't ever have a match again].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ric Flair
Yeah it's Ric Flair and yeah I do seem to be making mug shots of wrestlers a habit recently but, what you gonna do about it? Let me start by saying, his son, David, is much worse than he ever was. David Flair sucks, he has zero wrestling ability. I would much rather put him here than Ric, but I can't, because he's not overrated. He didn't deserve to be wrestling on television, that's for sure, but I don't remember a single time where I ever heard a comment about how great David Flair. He was never the focal point of any storylines, never in any main events, and never the World Champions, although I do believe he was the Television champion for a brief time, something he did not deserve.
Back to Ric Flair though. Look at that mug shot. Look how old he is now. I think he return to the ring in 2002 played a bit part in him being in the overrated section. He's a guy who, for me, outstayed his welcome. He didn't leave on a high, he hung around, and watching him wrestle in the WWE, he was clearly a shadow of the man he used to be. He always seemed a step behind the younger guys he was wrestling. His matches were poor, but his reputation carried him and meant he continued to be loved by audiences.
Having said all that, his bouts back in the day were not that great either. Most of the matches were made up of chops, kicks, punches, more chops, a few submission holds, begging for his life, thumb to the eyes, skinning the cat and a figure four leg lock. He didn't have an Arsenal of moves to impress, yet somehow managed to put in long matches with many near falls. I'm not saying the man was useless in the ring. There are Ric Flair matches I enjoyed, but he is a 16 time World Champion and referred to as one of the greatest ever. That, in my eyes, is overrated. Many fans love him, that's great, I have nothing against it, but his reputation flatters him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Van Dam
When I first saw Rob Dam Dam wrestle at the Invasion PPV many years ago [that's right I didn't see him earlier as I didn't watch ECW] I was in awe of his capabilities. I went from 'who is this guy' to basically waiting for his appearance every week during the whole Invasion angle. Stone Cold was great, Kurt Angle was great, but RVD was what it was all about back then. I don't think I was the only one either. After his debut he went on to have more matches on TV and the following PPV's. They were all great to watch. He got so popular that he was made part of a triple threat title match at No Mercy just a few months after he had his first match in the company. He lost that triple threat match but continued to have awe inspiring matches, at least when there were Hardcore stipulations.
The problems started when those Hardcore stipulations were taken away. Suddenly more than half of RVD's move set was out of the picture, since a lot of his jaw dropping moves took place out of the ring, on the barrier or among the fans. Now he had to try and have matches where he stayed in the ring. Suddenly his weaknesses were noticeable. That's not to say he went from being great to being bad, but he wasn't as capable in the ring with no weapons, as he was in and out of the ring with weapons. That's why he makes the overrated wrestlers section, not because he's awful [like some of the wrestlers in this section really are] but because he is not quite as great as his reputation suggests that he should be. Paul Heyman even said that when he was in charge of ECW, he took RVD's weaknesses and hid them, accentuating his strengths [that were clearly Hardcore matches]. This means RVD did have weaknesses [since they had to be hidden] and still has them to this day.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rock
Yeah that's right, it's time to get controversial. It's obvious to me that many people will disagree with me on this one, but hear me out. I am by no means a hater of The Rock. I don't dislike him for going to Hollywood or not following anyone on twitter [even RVD follows people Dwayne, and he has one of the biggest egos in wrestling]. What gets to me about The Rock is his seeming untouchability [I made that word up]. He can be away from wrestling for years, then make one appearance on Raw and get more cheers and screams than Fonzy. Add to that the fact that he 'aint all that' in the ring and the reasons to be frustrated with his popularity start to increase. Even his mic work since he has become 'Hollywood Rock' has gotten worse, yet the fans still go wild when he speaks. All he has to do is run through some of his catchphrases and he has them eating right out of the palm of his hand.
When I wind back the years and see him during the Attitude Era, I do find him to be one of the coolest and most electrifying men in sports entertainment, but seeing his very sporadic appearances now and noticing that his popularity has not dropped one bit, despite his presence in the WWE being close to non existent, definitely bring the words 'overrated' to my lips.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawn Michaels
This is one choice I found difficult to make. It's probably one of the only wrestlers that I have put here, thinking back and forward if he deserved it. HBK in the overrated wrestlers section, is he out of his mind? Well it may seem that way, but actually no, I'm most certainly not. Once again, as I have said in previous overrated wrestler write ups, I don't dislike Shawn or think he is [or was] a particularly bad wrestler. I think he's overrated. He's overrated because many people say he is one of the, if not the greatest wrestler ever. Absolutely not. Some also say he is the greatest sports entertainer ever. This might be closer to the truth. If not the greatest sports entertainer, then certainly one of them.
It's really simple. Have a look at some of his more recent bouts, before he retired. Have a look at some of the fights he was involved in even earlier. Have a look at some of his matches with Triple H. He must have gone through most of the match stipulations available at that time, with Triple H, and perhaps only the original match at Summerslam was anywhere near a classic. Some of the other ones, with particular emphasis on the Armageddon 2/3 Falls match, were, to put it lightly, a bit of a snooze-fest. How about his match at Wrestlemania 21? Some call this a candidate for one of the greatest matches of the year, yet the first 15 minutes of that [very long] bout were extremely boring. I think Shawn Michaels matches often end well, but they seem to take a while to get in to full swing. Sometimes you'd be better off skipping past the opening few minutes, just watch the last 5, they're often great. I know, if can be said about a lot of wrestling matches, but I think it applies to his most. Have a look at a lot of the PPV singles bouts he was involved in after returning to the promotion in 2002 and you'll see exactly what I mean.
As far as his entrance with his self made theme, his talking on the mic and his general entertaining of people, it's fantastic. The matches themselves though, not really. Don't get me wrong, he has been involved in many good matches, even great ones, but I would not be shortlisting him for any best wrestler ever awards.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sting
This is another one of those picks that might get a negative reaction. I've thought this for some time now and I have finally decided to put him in here. Let's face it, his in ring work does not merit him being a multiple time World Heavyweight Champion. This guy has had 15 World titles, and this includes 6 in WCW and 4 in TNA! Yes TNA, a company created when Steve Borden, the man behind the face paint, was already well in to his 40's, yet he still managed to not only join the company, but he won [was given] the World title on 4 separate occasions.
I don't remember ever seeing a match with Sting in it and thinking, 'wow, that was a great match.' He's an average wrestler, with an average move set. His 'scorpion death lock' finisher has nothing on Bret Hart, or even The Rock's version of the sharpshooter, and his other moves are bland at best. His most famous move, now sometimes used by others, the Stinger splash, is nothing to get excited about [it's just a running splash in to the turnbuckle], yet somehow this face painted 'Crow' rip off is considered one of the big names of wrestling. I just don't get it. It's not that I don't like him either, but when I heard the rumours of him being considered for Wrestlemania a while back and saw people getting all excited about it, I didn't understand it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trish
 |
| Yes I know she is a brunette now. Who cares? |
Yep this one is about Trish. I might do one about the other sloppy, Sid Vicious, later. Trish is possibly the most overrated women's wrestler I have ever seen on television. I don't dislike her, she seems like a nice girl [and very attractive] but she does not deserve to be a 7x Women's champion, not with those mat skills. Let me repeat that, Trish has won the the title 7 times!!!! That is more than any female wrestler in the WWE. Is that fair? Not when you look at some of the women who have wrestled there.
Let's look back at how she started. She was originally hired by the WWE because they liked a fitness tape she did. She was hired [like many diva's in the WWE] as eye candy. Her on screen debut involved being a manager, then later.... being a manager again, untill she advanced to a story line with the boss himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. She played his slutty girl on the side. A few months after that she vanished from television. I don't know if she asked to learn to wrestle or whether she was told to learn, but after about half a year she returned. She didn't just return, she returned to win the vacated Women's title for the first time in her career, at Survivor Series.
Trish went on to dominate the women's division for the next few years and win the title many more times. Problem is, I still don't remember a Trish match I thought was good. I don't even remember a Trish match I thought was decent. Her moves were sloppy and even her big move, the Stratusphere [her finisher, a bulldog bouncing off the ropes] looked kind of crappy. There is no doubt that this girl got to where she was because she was probably one of the most uniquely attractive women that ever worked in that company. If there was a beauty title, she would deservedly be a record title holder, but not as a wrestler.
No comments:
Post a Comment