Shootin’ Straight
Top 5: Sorely Missed Stars
I was recently viewing some old school WWF clips of The Rock. The guy was the man. His promo work has never been reached by any performer since he left WWE for Hollywood. He was absolutely astounding with the microphone. No one could work the stick quite like the most electrifying man in WWE. He knew how to entertain with his words. He was all around a phenomenal performer when he was in the business and I greatly miss The Great One. Watching these clips and reminiscing about his run in the company made me think about some stars from the past who I miss seeing. Here are my top 5 Sorely Missed Stars.
5: Chris Beniot. His atrocious actions aside, this man could wrestle. He made average to below average wrestlers look good. He got great matches out of below average wrestlers and excellent matches given the right opponent. He did not possess the ability to talk but he didn’t need it. He was a wrestling machine. Technical and intense. His wrestling skills are missed in today’s less-than-spectacular entertainment style product. I hate the fact that he did what he did, but also do not believe his wrestling abilities should be tarnished in lieu of his behaviour. No one can deny that he was an excellent wrestler and his horrendous conduct in June 2007 does not, in any way, change that.
4. Eddie Guerrero. His passing in 2005 was a tragedy. Eddie was a success story in every aspect and was at the top of his game when he passed prematurely. I believe he was also going to receive his 2nd WWE title the night he died. He was funny, entertaining and incredibly talented in he ring. He was able to bring value to everything he did on screen. I miss watching Eddie work his craft. The WWE would benefit by having a performer the caliber of Guerrero on their roster today. Viva La Raza.
3. Shawn Michaels. It has only been 9 months since Shawn Michaels retired, but his magnificant wrestling skills are already noticeably absent from WWE broadcasts. Because he will not be wrestling at WrestleMania 27, a sure fire 4 star classic will be absent from the card. No one in history has performed better at Mania. He has been involved in numerous classic matches with Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Stone Cold and HHH and Chris Beniot. He was almost always in the match of the night at WrestleMania and other events. I disliked his character and became increasingly annoyed with his promos during the end of his career, but I cannot ignore his wrestling talent. In my eyes he is the greatest performer the industry has seen and his 4 star matches are already missed.
2. Kurt Angle. Michaels may be the best big-time performer ever, but Kurt Angle is the greatest wrestler to step inside a WWE ring. He was a complete package. Technical wrestler, brawler, talker, charismatic, entertaining; he did everything exceptionally well. He just is not the same in TNA. He is easily their best worker but not on the level he was in WWE. I hope he decides to end his career with WWE so I can be treated to his masterful wrestling ability once again.
1. The Rock. There is no question in my mind that the Brahma Bulldog, People’s Champion, The Great One, Dwayne Johnson – whatever you call him – is the one person I miss most in today’s era of wrestling. I have never been more entertained by a star than I was with The Rock. I am still holding out hope that he returns for a special appearance in the future, and possibly even one final match with John Cena or Randy Orton. I know he claims he will never wrestle again, but words have been proven to be meaningless in the professional wrestling industry. So the Straight Shooter goes on dreaming. Never say never.
On a side note, I watched TNA Genesis on Sunday evening. Now, I dislike the TNA product and think its writing and booking are aweful. They have no idea how to put on a successful, entertaining Wrestling show. Their matches are overbooked. Wrestlers undergo far too many character changes. Swerves and turns are done just for the sake of doing them. All in all, I think it sucks. But the card going in to Genesis was solid so I decided to give it a shot. I was impressed for the most part.
There were solid matches and in-ring action. Kazarian and Lethal had a decent match. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money was… money. Anderson and Morgan wasn’t terrible. I was disappointed AJ Styles was injured and I wasn’t able to witness a wrestling clinic between him and Williams, but otherwise I was impressed.
Until the main event, nothing was overbooked either. They kept it simple. Everything made sense. TNA’s huge problem is that they rush things and over-convolute simple scenarios. That did not happen at Genesis until after Anderson pinned Morgan. Jeff Hardy came out to make easy work of the new number one contender, but Anderson would not quit. I found it ridiculous they had him kick out of three Twists of Hate and a Swanton bomb before pinning Hardy with ONE Mic Check. It did succeed in making Anderson look incredibly strong but was far too unbelievable for even wrestling’s standards.
I hope TNA continues to follow the keep it simple throughout 2011 and maybe regain some credibility in the eyes of the Straight Shooter.
I have created an email for my Shooters to send me questions, comments, opinions and ideas for top five lists or other columns you may want to read. It is wzstraightshooter@yahoo.ca. Feel free to fire an email my way. I’ll try to respond to as many questions as possible. Thanks for reading Shooters.
Straight Shooter
