2 Cold Scorpio: Underrated or Overated?

[T2KFreeker]

Yeah, so I had to pull this one out. The man is so well known in Japan and the ECW circles. His 450 splash is still quite entertaining to see and the guy is just insane in the ring. The biggest question I have always had though is why it is he was never a bigger star than he has been. He's got a good look, he's got serious in ring ability and his Mic Skills aren't bad either. He has that "It" I think, but what went wrong? Seems to me that 2 Cold Scorpio is way Underrated. I also don't think that "Flash Funk" helped things too much either. Wgat do you all think on this?

 

[Doctor Awesome]

2 Cold Scorpio had everything except a great look. He was that much more spectacular because he didn't have the look (that gut and mug of his), but had tremendous workrate and ability. He made his bones coming up through WCW when it was Bill Watts, I believe mostly. It was southern wrestling, very hayseedy and at times backwoods. The fact that Ron Simmons won the WCW Title still amazes me, but I'm glad it happened for him. In ECW he was a top guy in the early years. While there was alot of emphasis drawn on the promotion for the hardcore, it was also capped off by the best WRESTLING in the US at the time. He wrestled and beat everyone there from '94-'96; Shane Douglas, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Taz, and so on. Went to Connetticut and that stupid fucking gimmick. He would have been better off in WCW at the time. He was an awesome wrestler, and as stated in the initial post, can still go. I have seen him a few times here in Philly for PW Unplugged, and he looks to be in better shape now than before. It is a shame, because I think he was underrated. 2 Cold was just never given an opportunity to even see if he could be a top guy in the Big 2. If he hadn't had the gut, and was white he would have been pushed to the moon in either company. He is easily a top 20 worker of the 90's, and it sucks that this was and largely still is too commonplace, that it is rare a person of a different skin color than white can't be a World Champ. There are alot of guys that have suffered through this, and 2 Cold Scorpio is a great example of that.

 

[Stormlor]

To be honest I don't think color or race had anything to do with him. As you said he had great wrestling ability and that is what got him into WCW and ECW. WWE doesn't know how to use wrestlers sometimes. Look at RVD. RVD was not used well in WWE, but in ECW he was the total package.

I think of him as very underrated. Personally one of my favorite wrestlers back in the 90s.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

TOTALLY UNDERRATED if you ask me. The guy was one of the top technical wrestlers in E-C-Dub. It's a shame WWE didn't take him. Like you mentioned the 450 splash was an amazing move and so far I still think he does it best.

WWE probably didn't take him because of his physique, which is a shame I think he could have at least helped along the middle card.

 

[Vintage]

One of the most underrated performers to step into the ring. He was way ahead of his time with his high flying style. He's right up there with Nova when I think of real talented people who never really got over anywhere but the indies. I think he was at his peak during his ECW days, he had a great run there being one of the few on the roster who actually concentrated more on the technical wrestling rather weapons and being a spot monkey. If he still wrestles he'd be a great addition to TNA either as in ring talent or perhaps an agent for the X-Division, he's probably too old for the WWE

 

[X]

I'll always say Scorpio was underrated, simply because most modern wrestling fans would probably look back in history in the WWE and only see him as Flash Funk the jobber, and never truly realize just how good of a wrestler he really was if given the chance to shine and be himself like he was in ECW, where he had a very successful run winning most of the major titles in the promotion and even renaming himself 2 Gold Scorpio. He had one of the best runs with the ECW TV title before Rob Van Dam debuted and took over that belt's run. Scorpio could be a tad bit sloppy at times, yes, but he more than made up for it by more often than not delivering the goods in the ring and showcasing some really innovative moves at that time, he was doing a 450 Splash years before almost anyone else was doing that in a major American promotion, I'll always remember him stealing the show with Benoit in WCW in 1993 at Superbrawl III and his great matches with just about everyone in ECW. Shit I even enjoyed his WWF run, he had an awesome match with Al Snow to open up the December 1996 In Your House PPV (It's Time) and even had some good matches on Raw later in 1998 teaming up with Terry Funk to take on people in just wild hardcore brawls that were a lot of fun.

Definitely an underrated performer.

 

[lmoney33]

I'll always say Scorpio was underrated, simply because most modern wrestling fans would probably look back in history in the WWE and only see him as Flash Funk the jobber, and never truly realize just how good of a wrestler he really was if given the chance to shine and be himself like he was in ECW, where he had a very successful run winning most of the major titles in the promotion and even renaming himself 2 Gold Scorpio. He had one of the best runs with the ECW TV title before Rob Van Dam debuted and took over that belt's run. Scorpio could be a tad bit sloppy at times, yes, but he more than made up for it by more often than not delivering the goods in the ring and showcasing some really innovative moves at that time, he was doing a 450 Splash years before almost anyone else was doing that in a major American promotion, I'll always remember him stealing the show with Benoit in WCW in 1993 at Superbrawl III and his great matches with just about everyone in ECW. Shit I even enjoyed his WWF run, he had an awesome match with Al Snow to open up the December 1996 In Your House PPV (It's Time) and even had some good matches on Raw later in 1998 teaming up with Terry Funk to take on people in just wild hardcore brawls that were a lot of fun.

Definitely an underrated performer.

I have to agree with you about the modern wrestling fans comment.
I am not a "modern" wrestling fan BUT i did not watch much ECW back in the day,and it sounds like I missed out on some good 2 Cold Scorpio matches.

It looks like I am going to have to go back and try to watch some of those matches.

So with only having the knowledge I have (of not watching ECW),I would have originally said that he was a little underrated but not by much. I remember him not being in the greatest shape but being a great worker in the ring. His 450 splash was awesome for a guy his size too.

 

[CraigThe13th]

I would say underrated. He was very ahead of his time. I remember watching wcw worldwide and seeing him for the 1st time. I had never seen anything like him before or his 450 splash. He wasn't in wcw all that long I've not seen much of his ecw work and hiss wwf run as flash funk was not that good. But still, awesome worker!