WWF New Generation Thread III

[Valeyard]

Money Inc.-era Dibiase was quite good, honestly. Not as good as he was but he definitely seemed motivated to put on good matches over just relying on character work. Busted his ass hard with the Steiners, tried to carry the Disasters and Nasties to better matches. Dude was putting in work near the end.

He jumps to WCW, he can have a year or two of very good stuff. Sting, Steamboat, Pillman, Dustin, etc. Probably gets one last big comeback run when Hogan comes in, too. Also kind of a shame my EWR dream team of Dibiase and Arn never got to happen.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I blamed Money Inc for the deep decline of the tag team division a few years back but re-watching some '92-'93 WWF TV on Peacock, I think I was being a bit harsh and they probably did more to keep it together than tear it apart.

More importantly though, why was The Quebecers run so short? Was Jacques legit banged up and wanted to retire? Was Jacques too much of a pain in the ass that even Vince didn't want to work with him anymore despite Montreal being one of the only towns that drew?

By the time they came back two years later in WCW, I don't remember them being nearly as good but maybe I should rewatch that stuff to see if there's some lost Amazing French Canadians gems.

 

[Valeyard]

I'm guessing Jacques retired briefly because I'm sure he'd have showed up in WCW otherwise.

Amazing French Canadians were a total letdown but I don't think it was necessarily their fault. WCW's tag division was awful and they seemed to have matches solely against Harlem Heat that just never clicked. Highlight was Col. Parker but by then, with the nWo and cruiserweights and the total change in business there was no place for any of them.

 

[snuffbox]

The Money Inc-Steiners cage match is one of the great TV matches of all time.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'm guessing Jacques retired briefly because I'm sure he'd have showed up in WCW otherwise.

I remember either a @BruiserBrody post or the old Wrestling Observer Reddit thread that Jacques Rougeau wanted to run a comeback match in '95 at Olympic Stadium and he wanted to co-promote it with WCW because WWF had no interest in promoting a comeback match so soon after his "retirement". It fell apart because WCW had no presence in Canada and probably realized that they didn't want to eat their dick for a Jacques Rougeau vanity show.

 

[Valeyard]

You know who should've had more to do? The Barrio Brothers.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Hey man! This isn't the WCW thread!

(Although I'm enough of a nerd to know that the Barrio Brothers did jobs as singles in WWF during the New Gen era)

 

[Valeyard]

They were perfect 1995 WWF.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

A thin line between 1995 WWF and 1995 WCW.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Sobs and hugs @BruiserBrody

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1565391919957655556

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I've been using Foley's podcast as background noise and I think I've cycled through all of them at least twice. Notes:

--The Mero bitterness is still real no matter what he says. You can't say in a serious voice "Marc is one of the greatest ex-wrestlers of all time" and not let the mask slip a bit.

Idk why but I find it really amusing that with all of that he's been through and with all of the injuries that he suffered, that the one peer that will get Mick red faced with anger is "Wild Man" Marc Mero. It's weird that Mero making more money than him in 1996-97 would stick with him long after he's out earned him multiple times over. There has to be something he isn't sharing.


I know a lot of wrestlers got really mad at Mero for being VERY available to talk to the media about the horrors of the wrestling industry after the Benoit familicide but that was long after Have a Nice Day!

It's just funny that there's bad blood between the two friendliest guys of 1996 WWF.

 

[Valeyard]

Foley is very likely still pissed that people were more interested in meeting Sable than they were Mankind. He also is probably not comfortable bashing Sable as hard.

Him talking Mero is funny too because he always has to add that it motivated Austin to be better.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Life of a politician is never easy.

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1566822250287964162

LOL

but also.... if WHO got a mask, Tony Anthony could have donned a hood again too and avoided looking so rough. He and Neidhart in a masked tag team isn't the worst idea. Both could work and had size enough to seem credible.

But then Vince doesn't get butt crack jokes or a chance to mock Hogan.

 

[Valeyard]

Tony Anthony is legit one of the ugliest dudes to ever make it on TV. Always gonna vote for a mask.

Stalker bugged me because I never got why he should wear camo when he was clearly visible amidst the WWF blue vibrancy.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

The Stalker was one of the first gimmicks I saw where even as a mark, I was like "This sucks.". Like seriously, why did Vince McMahon think Barry Windham as a hardcore hunter (a survivalist? What the hell exactly was The Stalker supposed to be?) was going to appeal to eight year olds like myself?

 

[Valeyard]

I wanted it to be kind of a Rambo meets Predator thing. I liked the idea of a traumatized guy picking off everyone to get the title he deserved instead of being overlooked for so long (WWF Barry just was a tag champ and fuck that he needed the big gold). Shooting at Shawn with a bow and arrow or hitting Mankind with bear mace or something. Would've all failed once it got totally revealed it was peak dad bod-era Barry but it's 1996 WWF so who cares.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Barry Windham in New Generation then Attitude Era WWF was just horrible, horrible casting.

It's weird it was like "Oh yeah. He's actually still kind of good." when he jumped back to WCW in '99. Although Idk what he would've done in '96-'98 WCW (or ECW) either. Just a bad time to be Barry.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Windham kind of gave up on the gimmick himself after a few months. He didn't have his face paint at Survivor Series '96 and announcers just started casually calling him Barry.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Barry Windham is radiating a visiting star going through the motions at a shindie show energy at Survivor Series '96.

 

[Valeyard]

I had a hope for a while Barry would wander back and make the APA a trio.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Yeah, if Barry stuck around for another year, he could've done fun stuff with the APA or weirdly, I'd be curious to see him in the Hardcore Division. He was just in no man's land between 1995 and 1998. Probably best case scenario would be doing US/TV Title stuff with Booker T? Curt Hennig's role in WCW?

 

[strummer]

Barry said during his shoot with Hannibal that during his meeting with Vince he said he liked to hunt when asked about his hobbies and the Stalker was the gimmick they came up with for him as a result.

 

[Hawk 34]

Barry said during his shoot with Hannibal that during his meeting with Vince he said he liked to hunt when asked about his hobbies and the Stalker was the gimmick they came up with for him as a result.

In hindsight someone really should have just told Vince in response to that ice breaker “my hobby is winning wrestling matches”, Vince can’t turn down a man’s hobby.

 

[BruiserBrody]

The attitude era sort of shields blah gimmicks from harder scrutiny since a rising tide raises all ships. (Except for total trash like Beaver Cleavage, which was a one note joke). Had the Blackjacks formed a year later, its possible they are doing more hard edge angles and/or doing the proto APA ass kicker gimmick.
Windham doing some sort of Stud Stable type group with Jarrett/Southern Justice/Tennessee Lee and maybe a few other rotating southern acts may not have been too bad of a gimmick to give the lower card faces some baddies to brawl with.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

 

[AA484]

I had a hope for a while Barry would wander back and make the APA a trio.

Never thought about this, but he would have been a great fit

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1567586769482260484

This account has several times mentioned things without proper context as he looks back at stuff.

This was Nash replacing Bret in Kayfabe, so it was going to be Chickenwing/Sharpshooter banned.