Val Venis -The Real Story

[Hollywood Naitch]

Venis was good, noone is disagreeing with that. It's just that there were other mid-card talents around at the end of the 90s/beginning of the 2000s who were better, and while the porn star gimmick was over for a time, it wasn't something that was going to get you a World Title reign.

Look at the other mid-carders around at the time- Guerrero, Jericho, Benoit, Angle, Edge Hardy etc. All better, there was no way that Val Venis was going to get ahead of them in the pecking order.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

While I stand by politics, both locker room and other wise being a major reason if you are looking in ring then the moment that did for Morley was the Radicalz coming in.

Had that not occured then he was in good shape to continue moving up the card, albiet perhaps not as quickly as Edge or The Hardyz did... but once Benoit and Eddie were there, you had 2 guys who were instantly equal if not better in terms of ability, far more experienced and had the "freshness" to get them over quickly. Eddie stalled out far quicker than Val ever did, but ended up with pretty much the "porn star" gimmick with Chyna... while Morley couldn't evolve into the technical bad ass he could have been cos Benoit had that base covered... By the time the Invasion hit there would be too many new talents to push him over them and the stock answer in the E is make them a commentator or make them an administrator/GM... The did it to Regal as well and while he shined in that spot, Morley struggled cos he was about the match, not the setting them up...

But I really do think he was more "held back" than unworthy of being pushed. There was a spell when he really did look ready to move up.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

He, Goldy, and Ken were my favourite in that era other than Rock, HBK, and The Undertaker. I always thought he and Goldy had an amazing feud; I hoped that one would get the main title.

The one crazy thing about this is the fact that Val, Christian, and Edge came in at the same time; Vince gave them choices with one being the porn star. Well Val picked the Porn star and looked what happened. Edge said he was glad that he dodged the bullet.

Edge just picked up the gimmick in real life. The Rated R Superstar was his calling card to super stardom and while not exactly a porno guy, what he was doing on screen were not Hallmark moments either.

The thing is Venis never became the sleazeball. I mean Rude played the ladies' man sleazeball character perfectly, maybe they could've twerked Val's gimmick like that. Then again Rude was amazing.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

That's the misconception... Rude was never a sleazeball... He would make reference to the women who wanted him cos they genuinely did. When he used Cheryl Roberts it was a head game, just like the custom tights... Rude never came close to the sleazy antics that Flair and Shawn did in 92 with Liz and Sherri respectively and Edge later became.

Not sure how Val would have worked with that either, he kinda went there by sleeping with people's wives or sisters in the stories, but he was not a blatant heel doing it to get in their heads like Rude, nor man handling his women in the way Shawn did with Sherri...he was meant to be a porn star, thus any sleaze came from the Money Shot (pun intended_.