Midcarders of yesteryear: Val Venis

[spinningtorturerack]

Welcome fellow midcardigans!

Yes its that time again and this time....Oh is that a sausage in your pocket? Oh wait you must be just excited to see:

Val Venis

Yes this porn star who slept with anyone who happened to be dating or married to someone else. Val Venis is a 2 time intercontinental champion, one time european and one time tag champ with lance storm.

This Mid-carder entered the ring in his signature towel and spawning his catch phrase of "hello ladies!"

Venis has not had many memorable feuds,, however one that will be always remembered is his feud with the Kaientai stable which resulted in the "choppy choppy your pee pee." Thats right people the atittude era is definitely hardcore, especially when they show a supposed castration.

Later on he joined the right to censor where he had a feud with Chyna towards the end of 2000 culminating at Armageddon.

A lot later he returned as chief morley, chief of staff on raw under the tutelage of eric Bischoff, this is where he gained his tag belts with lance storm, when he replaced william regal who was off with illness.

Here is Val Venis' debut match on raw, which I think is a great watch and shows you how athletic he really is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cILlnSmzslI

Val's finisher, the money shot, is such a great finisher because if it misses it looks as if it would hurt, and you can't go wrong with a flying finisher, especially with someone of venis' size.

Overall Venis is a great wrestler who is fast and can be quite technical, but has the build of a powerhouse. I think it is a shame, however, he was given a porn star gimmick as someone with his size and skills I think he could have been a bigger player in the wwe than he was.

What about you? did you giggle with excitement upon seeing val enter the ring and gyrate his hips? or did you recoil in disgust? Should he have had a bigger push?

Opinions and thoughts please!

 

[ErictheEnt]

I really liked Val Venis; he had some memorable moments for me. I remember one completely random segment he had with the Big Show. They were both in the men's bathroom standing at their respected urinals; Val Venis clearly looks down at the Big Show and says, "And they call YOU the 'Big Show?'" Big Show goes nuts and throws Val threw the wall to the stall; pretty funny stuff.

He also did the gutsiest thing I've personally ever seen a wrestler do: He had a cage match with Rikishi and let that tub of lard climb to the top and do a 'Super Fly' off the top of the cage onto him. Seriously, who has the guts to sell that? It's bad enough having ANYONE do that to you but have a 400 pound guy do that from 15 feet up onto you? Balls.

Oh, AND he dropped the IC belt in that match. That's taking a hit for the team; he earned my respect that night.

But yeah, he was a good talent. I was sad when they started jobbing him.

 

[GodCompleX]

He also did the gutsiest thing I've personally ever seen a wrestler do: He had a cage match with Rikishi and let that tub of lard climb to the top and do a 'Super Fly' off the top of the cage onto him. Seriously, who has the guts to sell that? It's bad enough having ANYONE do that to you but have a 400 pound guy do that from 15 feet up onto you? Balls.

Oh, AND he dropped the IC belt in that match. That's taking a hit for the team; he earned my respect that night.

But yeah, he was a good talent. I was sad when they started jobbing him.

I agree, I was a Big Valbowski fan and taking the Superfly Leap from Rikishi off the cage was a big HOLY SHIT moment in my mind. for that alone I feel he deserves a job in the company for life! I liked his Chief Morley role as well and wish they would've used him more as he was good in the ring and on the mic.

 

[ToughGuy]

Definitely a great worker. He had a good build and he was more athletic than many who have been main eventers. He was a great heel and the ring entrance had shades of Rick Rude by getting the ring ladies to remove the towel while he gyrated. The pornstar gimmick was lame but there was no better way to get a feud started than by sleeping with someone's girlfriend, wife, sister, or mother or by questioning the size of their manhood. My favorite era of his though was when he joined The Right To Censor and teamed with The Goodfather. The oft forgotten stable that really had a place during the attitude era. They took two of the lewdest characters, a pimp and a pornstar, and turned them into straight lined badguys who pointed out the wrongs of others.


BTW, I got to see Val Venis put over Kofi Kingston at a house show before Kofi ever made it to TV. He really did well carrying the match and helping to sell Kofi. WWE missed the chance to have a good trainer by letting Venis go.

 

[AJ STYLES I AM]

WWE takes people who were realitivly good during the invasion and now has them job to the midcarders of today or release them. another example of the wwe getting rid of good solid talent

 

[thebigbadfox]

I am a gib Val Venis fan but have to say he was a great mid carder but never would have made it main event... his gimmick wouldnt have let him go higher than mid card... I think the right to censor is one of the most underrated stables of all time because he and the great steven richards where in it... along with goodfather and ivory... Vals career was solid and i wish he was still around today putting solid matches

 

[INDYjon22]

Finally, you have gotten around to Val Venis. He is by far one of my favorite characters to watch. When I first started watching wrestling he had just joined the Right To Censor and I really didn't care for him that much, but when I went back and watched some of his old matches I fell in love with his gimmick. He was the epitome of the Attitude era alongside The Rock and Steve Austin. His angle with Kai-en-tai was hilarious, with them wanting to cut his pee pee off and what not. When he returned as The Big Valbowski at the Royal Rumble in 2002 I popped so loud for him. Even his stuff as Chief Morley was entertaining to me.

Val Venis was a great in ring worker and I enjoyed him on the mic. Regardless of whatever anyone else may say I thought he was pretty damn good. About a year or two ago, the WWE had that poll going on for who should get a title shot and to my amazment Val Venis was actually leading it for quiet awhile. I don't know if he won the poll, obviously he did not get a title shot, and I voted for him, but that should have been a sign to the WWE that the fans liked this guy and wanted to see him as a champion in some capacity. He is another guy that just never reached that brass ring and it is a damn shame because the fans loved him and I for one believe he would have been a good champion.

 

[Doctor Awesome]

All of you guys have touched on really good points about him, but i have to disagree tha his gimmick would not let him rise above the midcard. the gimmick is only as good as the guy who plays it, and sean morley had the physical ability, appearance and charisma to be whatever the wwe wanted him to. for whatever reason they did not see him atop the roster, which is a shame cause in 1998/'99 he showed glimpses of being something really special. that match w/rikishi in the cage was awesome, they were both hot during that time, and the crowd was very much into that match. i have tried to find it several times on youtube and come up short. if anyone has a link to it, i would appreciate it. another good program was the one with D-Lo Brown; the match that opened Summerslam '98 was good and really showed his aggressive nature. it was sad when he became the poster boy for sunday night heat, but in that role he still flourished as he helped alot of young talent in the ring. i remember him going over C.M. Punk in his first televised WWE match on heat well. he truly would make a great trainer/agent, wish they would have done alot more with him during his tenure, though. good thread.

 

[Blue Chipper]

Underneath all of the standard attitude era superstars lies Val Venus. When you think of classic attitude era superstars, you think of Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, Shawn Micheals, etc. If you slither slowly beneath those mainstream stars, a figure chock-full of attitude will arise. Of course, that's Val Venis, the man in your subconscious.

I'm not going to spew typical IWC remarks and say he's immensely underrated because he's not. He was a mid-card jobber, at best. He was nothing more, nothing less. While I was quite keen on his in-ring work, and he was somewhat over, Venis wasn't going anywhere. He is destined to be the guy who can make you look good, and have a few memorable moments. Somehow he got quite a few people to care about him. He knew how to tell a story in-ring, and that was definitely a major pro. However, Venis remained a loyal worker who couldn't surpass the mid-card. In his latter years, he was simply a jobber, though the matches were pretty entertaining. Venis is a hidden attitude era wrestler who's affiliated with his gimmick.

I think Val Venis is a mediocre wrestler, and destined to be a mid-carder.

 

[wrestler36]

Very good talent. He had a good feud with Ken Shamrock and his sister, "Ryan." With a creative push, he could have been a legitimate threat for the world title against guys like Rock, Austin, HHH. Not necessarily as a consistent PPV headliner or a long title reign champion, but a couple of ongoing feuds I could've seen Val in. He was the total package athletically, had good wrestling ability and he was pretty versatile on the mic. When he did a 180 on his gimmick, he was still relevant in the RTC.

I was hoping they would give him one more run, similar to MVP before he went to Raw. He could've been that down on his luck wrestler pushed to the edge with loss after loss. Then he'd get that surprise upset victory and then a string of wins leading to perhaps the US title, or even a decent run on ECW.

On Lance Storm's website, and I think even in Jericho's book, they said that he's a very laid back person and not very outspoken, as far as his wrestling career. That may have been a reason why he wasn't pushed higher. Creative may not have seen more potential in him, or Val himself may have been content in his role. Side note, that was a very good debut match. Both Val and Scorpio ended up looking good. Scorpio pulled out 2 Trouble in Paradise kicks on Val and that rotating splash was impressive. This is my first thread interaction and have found these to be very entertaining

 

[jazzua]

Wow, did Val ever deserve more of a push. The guy was fantastic. A great worker with a great look who was good on the mic. I always thought he could easily make it to main event status. The guy was still getting a huge pop with his most recent return. Too bad to. Not only a good worker, but a great guy outside of the ring as well.

 

[NSL]

I loved Val Venis. as a 13 year old, finding porn for myself around the same time, he was a rather interesting character. He always seemed to "work" in the ring...Not "work" as in a match, but he clicked with whoever he was facing. His mic skills were great for that era, and he never seemed to be at a loss for a feud.

I don't think he ever deserved to go higher than the mid-card though. He was a decent titleholder, but I don't think there was ever a time to make the leap from feuding with Kaientai, to feuding with The Rock and going for gold. I just don't see the connection.

 

[MaciniRocks]

Val Venis... one of my personal favorites. Even before I knew what I was really doing, I was marking out for the guy's skill in the ring. He had IT. He had the charisma of a god.

When he joined RTC I seriously was angry. I loved his gimmick and thought we were creating JOB SQUAD 2.0... which arguably we were but that's for another time.... And his time with Lance storm making him "interesting" were classic.

And oh the cheif morley thing which he discarded after he was "fired" and went back to being val... goodness, pure goodness.

Yes I am a Val Venis mark. He also had one of my favorite shoot interviews of all time. If you haven't seen it, watch it...

But he was used correctly. He was given moments to shine, and very memorable feuds and segments. It does kinda stink he never got the world strap but he did was he was supposed to do. And was great at it.

Though I believe with his friendship with Eric Bischoff we will see him in TNA sooner rather than later...

 

[dave herro is MY HERO]

Former IC champ, Uncle Erics lackey, and a member of Stevie Richards Censorship faction...that sounds like a story book career in my opinion, but the ONLY missing is that Val Venis had one thing that impeded him from climbing out of the Mid-card Sunday night Heat Status was TALENT...

honestly I couldn't remember a Val Venis Match to save my life..maybe the promos leading to his arrival IS THE ONLY reason why this guy drummed up any interest...The only reason why I know he won the IC belt is because in the 90's Attitude Era- every mid carder held that once prestigious belt...

In anycase, Val Venis = Loserweight Champion

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

Val Venis was a great character but never really played out, Morley wouldnt really do much in regards to politicking so that he would move up, and i disagree with alot of the posts here, Morley did deserve his push and could of had a long IC reign if he actually wanted to.

The only person that was stopping venis/Morley from even advancing was him, his character had good solid matches, and managed to keep people interested in the midcard unlike some main eventers of today who claim to want to elevate the midcard but never really do, Venis actually took the intercontinental title and ran with it even though it was short lived.

the wwe could have done more for him in the twighlight of his career though, he could have moved to ECW and helped elevatge the brand just like tommy dreamer is doing at the moment, get a solid run with the title and then elevate other new star to the same fete, as the future goes for morley we may never know, he may just stay independant or go somewhere else like TNA or return to the wwe, who knows

 

[Spillz3000]

I believe eventually a guy like Morley could have been a Main Eventer. You got to think of it this way.....When Hunter Hearst Helmsley first appeared did he scream Main Eventer?, Did Rocky Maivia?, Justin Hawk Bradshaw?, Randy Orton?, etc. My point is yeah maybe when he initially appeared it didn't seem like he was going to be anything more than a gimmick but he had talent and passion behind it. Val Venis showed that for certain instances he could take the ball and run with it if need be.

Some people say the Kaientai angle did no favors in showing he could be a Main Eventer. I beg to differ cause for two of those weeks when Kaientai "cut off" Val's manhood it was actually the main focus of those Raw's. In fact I think the angle closed out one of those Raw's and that next week everybody was wondering what the hell happened to Val Venis until he came out with Mr. Bobbit. So for WWE to put something that would normally be lame as the main focus of they're show especially during the attitude era says a lot.

But back to my point. Every character eventually shows their main event credentials when they are allowed to be an exaggerated version of themselves. I believe once Val started going under his real name he could have had an edge to him that would have put him where he needed to be. He definitely had a decent run though but at the end of the day he didn't really stand up for himself and thus he is where he is.

 

[PEP3]

Having lived through the highlights of Val Venis' career, I have to whole-heartedly disagree with about 90% of what I've read here. Nothing about the guy ever excited me one bit. Maybe it was because I'd already seen this character played much, much more successfully by "Ravishing" Rick Rude?

Val was a decent worker, put on fairly above-average matches, but nothing about him sparked any real interest in me. I think it's because I was aware that his character was 100% fabricated by WWE creative. None of it seemed real in the least. That, at least for me, prevented me from truly connecting to the character more than on a superficial level.

Sometimes the character makes the man. Sometimes the man makes the character. In the case of the Val Venis character, I just felt like it was nothing but a character, something of a throwback to those by-gone days of WWE that I just discussed in another thread [the one about CM Punk/Cena possibly feuding] when everyone was kind of a cardboard cut-out of a stereotypical character.

When I am able to best support a performer, I have to feel some way invested in him as a person. The wrestler has to feel real and legitimate as a person. With Val Venis, he was just a cartoon, not a real person, and I just couldn't get into it.

Glad to see so many others did. I guess that explains how he wound up with two IC, one European and a tag title under his belt. Going on my response to the guy, he'd have been jobbing from the start!

 

[Fallen Angel 21.3]

Val Venis was a hell of a worker, great wrestler and had a good look. He had a great start with his wwe career expect with the ummm shit i forget there name (if anybody could help me out please, thank you) ummm the little asian dudes that chopped his dick. There was the funny Big Show bathroom segment that had me laughing, but sadly when he joined RTC thats when his career went down and he could never get up from that and now i think he is on the Hulk Hogan Tour down in the land down under. Who knows maybe a good company can help his career where the WWE seemed to drop it

 

[legorilla]

I choppy choppy your peepee

Utterly brilliant angle during the attitude era there. Honestly, I really enjoyed Val and would have liked to have seen him have a little more success. His mic skills were impressive, and he was pretty solid in the ring too. Alas now he is condemned to touring on the Hulkamania tour.

 

[hellfirebrian85]

I liked him. I liked the whole gimmick. He was great in the ring, and entertained you outside of it. He knew how to work the crowd. Val could have gone to be a major player. However, Vince never seen that with him. I liked the porn star gimmick. I got into the RTC gimmick as well. I just did't like him as Cheif of Staff. Which wasn't bad, it's I just couldn't get behind it. Hell during that time I hardly watched wrestling so I place blame more with the writers then. I would mark out if Val ever came back. Having him work with guys like Jack Swagger, Miz, Evan Bourne or any of these younger talent would be awesome. Guys like Val, D-Low Brown, Scorpio would help out some of these younger talent. Kind of like the Finlay and McIntyre fued. These guys can build talent and WWE got rid of them all except Regal and Finlay.

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Val Venis even feuded with Mick Foley and fought him at "WWF No Mercy 1999".

He probably was not seeming to be defensive enough nor enduring like Rocky, Steve Austin and Helmsley were to be able to fight through the audience with caring tactics nor in a lot of brawls that involved broken tables and chairs that were swung on the main shows of "Pay-Per-View". A lot of main events also lasted for fifteen or twenty minutes and I don't know if he had practiced with enough stamina to get to a position at where he would be able to regularly headline those types of shows.

As a technical wrestler he was just decent but held on against grapplers like Ken Shamrock, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit so he was more fitting for the Intercontinental Championship as opposed to the WWF Heavyweight Championship. I'm actually happy that he stayed on that level because he just probably would not be able to be as violent and as hardcore with ways that other heavy champions like Mankind and Undertaker were but he was rewarded for athleticism, agility and skills on the mat. He sure was intense enough to contend with the big guys as the cases against Big Show, Mankind and Rikishi showed but he only proved to handle them in a few matches so I think consistency of that level was lacking.

Val Venis and Goodfather even were successive as a tag team at a couple of occasions before "Summerslam 1999" on some episodes of "Sunday Night Heat" and "WWF Raw is War" while battling Prince Albert and Droz during a mini-feud as I remember those matches to be filled with plenty of aerial leaps from the future censorers. "The Money Shot" just was set up so appropriately after a "fisherperson suplex". I didn't watch him after the split of the brands but as a member of Right to Censor he used the similar intense manuevers of whipping opponents into the corners before repeatedly kneeing them and going for the "side Russian leg sweep".

To sum it up I think he was fortunate enough to be able to carry the prestige of the Intercontinental title when several other wrestlers such as D'Lo Brown and Steve Blackman were just as technical for it but he may not have been tough enough as a defensive wrestler with the terms of being able to kick out of many covers during the long brawls for the championship of heavy weights. I mean I just could not imagine him being able to keep Paul Wight or Kane down in a cell or to win against either of them in a match of the last person who was standing.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

True, Val was held down by his character. But we've seen wrestlers come back from horrible gimmicks. Kane is a prime example. As Isaac Yankem, he sucked. However, they revamped him, and now he's set for life.

One thing that Val did was make me love the Side-Russian Leg Sweep. Nobody in the business has done it better than Val, in my opinion. The man was great at working the crowd, as well, and these all are telling of his immense talent.

 

[BBally]

When I first saw Val Venis make his way onto the then WWF program, I expected such big things from him, he was a great worker, good on the mic and go either face or heel (heel preferably) but I guess the creative team and higher heads had other ideas.