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WWF Ruthless Aggression (2002- 2008)
- Thread starter BruiserBrody
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Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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BruiserBrody
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That is so great I wish I had more wrestling geeks in my circle to share it with.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Rare. Brian Gewirtz wrote about how this weird tag team titles run was one of the highlights of his career with WWE since he was such a Piper mark.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Only real memory of it is Piper, Flair, Dusty and Sgt Slaughter boogying after beating the Spirit Squad at Survivor Series 2006.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Flair still looked pretty damn good in '02 to '03 but he definitely started looking real weathered sometime during that Evolution run. And since his TNA run, he's looked like an elderly Gargamel.
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Kotzenjunge
It was when he went to the wet rat look and I've said it for 20 years now.
Valeyard
Retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
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It's the truth. He stopped looking like Ric Flair right after the HHH match in Charlotte. Then the wet rat really set in, and there's nothing funnier than JR seeing his body and saying he "looks like he had a litter of pups."
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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I’m guessing once he gave up the ghost of singles glory and started being known as a manager and mostly doing tags, he stopped focusing on his legendary cardio fitness and could spend all of his time on reliving his Horsemen days for Evolution’s amusement.
Valeyard
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He's why I never took Evolution seriously, though. As a manager he was perfect, but I did not want to see him working and being considered as a threat in any sense. Him next to the others was ridiculous at that point. 2002-03 Flair still looked like Flair, but he aged rapidly like he drank from the wrong grail or some shit and I don't want that dude getting ring time.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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I think the thing made him so out of place in Evolution is what made his mid ‘00s babyface run so great. Triple H and other heels calling him old and pathetic hurt cause it was true but Ric had just enough left in his tank where if you didn’t take him seriously, he would surprise you.
Valeyard
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That also worked because Flair worked harder post-Evolution than he had in a long time. He really was trying to prove something and while he wasn't ever getting a great match on his own again, he still worked hard to make all kinds of things work. He had no business having great showings in MITB, TLC with Edge, in ECW with the shittiest version of Show, or even some of the Kenny Dykstra stuff. Never should've won any titles but always being lowkey threat because he was Flair and when he got the chance, you always underestimated him.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Well the good news is that in 2005, the Intercontinental Title barely qualified as a title.
No disrespect to Carlito and Shelton Benjamin.
Actually speaking of Carlito and Ric Flair, that brings to mind one of my least favorite angles of this era and an example of when bringing reality into an angle goes wrong. Flair and Carlito feuding after Carlito broke up their forgettable make shift tag team then Flair calling Carlito a lazy POS. Now it might have been justifiable if it lit a fire under Carlito’s ass and he ended up destroying Flair but 58 year old Flair won the feud!
Carlito was never really the same after that. Like his World Title aspirations were already probably dust in the wind but putting off geriatric Flair really swept up whatever was left.
Valeyard
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That was just to bury Carlito, though. Flair was a total analog for HHH watching it now, like I can see HHH saying that word for word.
In fairness, Carlito was never very good and was lazy despite getting a consistent push from day one. He honestly didn't get any good until he and Primo teamed up and then he got released so soon after, which is too bad because they were awesome for a while.
What's funnier is that we were supposed to get Flair/Trevor Murdoch after that because someone (Flair or Vince or both) were high on him for a few weeks.
In fairness, Carlito was never very good and was lazy despite getting a consistent push from day one. He honestly didn't get any good until he and Primo teamed up and then he got released so soon after, which is too bad because they were awesome for a while.
What's funnier is that we were supposed to get Flair/Trevor Murdoch after that because someone (Flair or Vince or both) were high on him for a few weeks.
BruiserBrody
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Uhhhhh.... I thought (at least my memory) that "Team Sasquatch" was a TSM board nickname? I suppose I'm wrong, but whoever is behind the "OTD" account may be a former TSMer?
That promo was amazing and the consensus at the time was that Carlito was lazy. I didn't really have a problem with it, but I was never a Carlito fan to begin with. I could see why people had a problem with it because of it sabotaging a young star, but WWE was kind of dire at that point with their young stars with "potential", because they wouldn't hire any of the small talented indie guys.
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Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Mr. S£im Citrus
Representing Blacks Without Soul since 1975
Wait, when did Danny Trejo work for TNA?
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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BruiserBrody
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I feel like I was already over Test by this point as he had his nuts cut off by HHH and had the run with Albert.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Most people were over Test by ‘02 but that didn’t stop them from trying again in ‘03 with the stupid Testicles gimmick and feud turned tag team with Scott Steiner.
Then they tried again briefly in WWECW.
I maintain if he hadn’t messed up his neck then got released, he definitely would have gotten a main event if not a World Title run during that stretch from ‘04 to ‘06.
Then they tried again briefly in WWECW.
I maintain if he hadn’t messed up his neck then got released, he definitely would have gotten a main event if not a World Title run during that stretch from ‘04 to ‘06.
Ngl when I rewatched the PPV with the second Test vs Steiner match on it, I was surprised at how much heat Test was getting. Like, the fans were genuinely hating how badly he was treating Stacy. I also really like that Test/Brock match and he had a banger with Kane at No Mercy 2001. And the RVD/Test extreme rules match during his ECW run rocked.
#TestWasUnderrated
#TestWasUnderrated
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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I got my Test timeline mixed up (sorry @Brocklock ). I was going to say if Test was an option in the Spring of ‘04, WWE absolutely would have given him the push JBL got. Except Test didn’t have his spinal surgery until July ‘04, the same month that JBL won the World Title.
Looks like he spent most of early-mid ‘04 in the doghouse putting over guys like Maven and Val Venis.
It’s too bad Foley was only working a part time schedule cause we needed a match where Test sought revenge for Foley taking him out of the ‘04 Rumble.
Sorry for discussing a Rumble during Survivor Series season, @BruiserBrody.
Looks like he spent most of early-mid ‘04 in the doghouse putting over guys like Maven and Val Venis.
It’s too bad Foley was only working a part time schedule cause we needed a match where Test sought revenge for Foley taking him out of the ‘04 Rumble.
Sorry for discussing a Rumble during Survivor Series season, @BruiserBrody.