Big and Useless

[Big Sexy]

With the recent release of Snitsky, I think that the WWE needs to rethink about pushing these big useless talents just because they look scary. I'm not talking about guys like Big Show and Khali who are freakishly big, I'm talking about the guys who are 6-7 to 6-10 and around 300 pounds. The WWE has consistently taken these guys and have tried to give them a push, most of the time they don't even give them much of a gimmick. Guys like Snitsky, Matt Morgan, Heidenreich, Test, Tomko, Nathan Jones, Luther Reigns, A Train. Some of these guys have had decent careers, but nothing too special. The WWE has hit lightning in a bottle a couple times with Taker, Kane, and even JBL, but it took the right combination of in-ring ability and a good gimmick. Now it looks like Mike Knox is going to be the next big useless talent to get a push without much of a gimmick. The WWE needs to spend more time developing characters for these guys and they also need to make sure they have some kind of in-ring ability before they give them a big push.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

What I think the WWE needs to do in regards to this type of talent is actually put them through a sifter. Just because they're big doesn't mean they're special, as we all have seen it a million times. There is no shock value. Granted, if you met these guys in person, you'd be surprised how big they are, but not on screen. Khali is an exception as he's big enough that he really does look enormous despite how often we've seen it.

But what I mean with the sift concept is to actually study who can do what. Take for example your mentioning of Mike Knox. I don't mind seeing him wrestle. He's more entertaining than the likes of Snitsky and Tomko and whatnot to me. But Knox has nothing to his name right now, and no quick fix is going to solve it. If you just have Knox come out and start a program with Cena, he'll do nothing but job to the main event people from now on. That's not how you use him to his worth. Knox right now could be a legitimate threat to the IC title. Don't rush him into the main event cause it won't work.

Another person is Kozlov. This guy went from squashing local jobbers and Jimmy Wang Yang to having matches with HHH...and it failed miserably. Why? Cause he wasn't ready for it and he doesn't have the look of someone who could be the main event monster guy. But say we had Kennedy as US champion instead of Shelton right now - or if Shelton was a face. Wouldn't Kozlov make sense moving up the ladder and becoming a viable US title contender? Hell it would even make sense for him to win it. Then someone finally ends his undefeated streak (whilst winning his US title) and boom, you've got a face who is being pushed very hard (WHEN HE'S READY, mind you).

The problem with the monster gimmick is that its fireworks. It takes a long, boring time to set it up, you have a few pops here and there, and within a few minutes, its over and nobody cares. The monster always has the same assembly line path. You dominate jobbers, you start to dominate midcarders, you make it to the main event where you either beat the champion and have a successful reign on top (ala Diesel/Yokozuna) or you lose to the main event guy to make him look good (ala Umaga/Khali), and then you flounder around until you turn into a comedic face and lose to the next guy they're building up as a monster. Then you're released. Within a year usually, you've run out of steam, the fireworks are over, and everybody goes home.

So all in all, the only way to avoid that same boring path is to actually keep people at levels where they can be expected to both win and lose. Too many "big and unstoppable" wrestlers make their way to the upper midcard and we see them lose to the likes of your Batistas and HHHs and Undertakers, but then the week afterwards, the WWE has to "remind us" that they're big and bad by having them defeat a no-name in a squash match. Think about how many times that happens. Big Daddy V would lose to the Undertaker on Smackdown Friday night and then next Tuesday, he'd destroy someone like Stevie Richards. Helps his credibility a tad, but nobody forgets that he "will never win the big matches".

Let's take a look at another guy the WWE has right now: Ezekiel Jackson. In my opinion, they're working him well. He's dominated everybody he's been up against, but he hasn't been rushed into losing to Jeff Hardy or CM Punk to make them look good and give them a cheap and quick little pat on the back. Ezekiel could follow the Diesel path of becoming a tag champion, then a midcard champion, and then a main eventer, in logical progression, rather than going straight to the main event, losing, and being forced to drop down to midcard status.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Overall, the WWE needs to be patient with their big guys and utilize some of them specifically as midcard monsters and "the big guy in a tag team" roles, rather than doing what they tend to do and just take all of them and push them into the main event too fast. Knox and Ezekiel shouldn't touch the main event for a good while.

 

[Castleraegh]

I don't take the stance that these big guys are "useless", just that some are not given a use. Snitsky is a perfect example of someone who had a use and was getting heat as the baby-punting foot fetishist, but then they shaved his head and gave him the generic monster push. Paul Burchill would be another, who was getting reasonably over with his comic-relief pirate gimmick, but was turned into an overly-bland big guy.

The current big guys, excluding the aforementioned Paul Burchill, have their use. Vladimir Kozlov is pushed as a legitimate athlete and tough guy, which makes him a threat. Khali was in a similar situation but of course was pushed as a giant monster, and is now treated as comic-relief more than anything to much success. Mike Knox is the old fashioned bully character, which is alright at the moment seeing as no one else is doing that at the moment.

Big Show, JBL, Batista, etc all have established characters now, so it is silly to say they have no use.

 

[OIL]

They just need to slow down the pace that they push the wrestlers. Just because the guy is huge doesn't mean they're going to be a beast, so they need to stop using that factor because it's boring for the fans, we've seen it a million times. Just push them from a newcomer, maybe in a tag team, then proceed into the mid-card status.. eventually going to the main event. It's better than seeing them demolish everyone, go to the main event scene, lose, then go back to mid-card status.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

The way i see it, it is ridiculously difficult to get a super heavyweight (or anyone for that matter) to get over by having squash matches with no development of character or angles as well. Now, heels are the only talent who go through the stupidly tedious process of beating all the jobbers and then moving up, and the best way to get a heel over is to have them get their asses handed to them good and proper and still win.

HHH has been doing this since he left DX in '99. He was essentially just entering the Main Event tier, and got beat down by Austin, Big Show, Rock, Mankind, Kane, Taker ALL the big names on the same level and beat ALL of them. Nearly every PPV he headlined, the last shot you'd see was 99% of the time, HHH with blood pouring down his face, being held up by Chyna or Steph or Flair etc, with barely enough strength to hoist the title above his head.

Orton is another great example. From the moment he started his Legend Killer gimmick, he'd take severe beating from Foley, and yet always get his hand raised at the end. Edge has probably had more gimmick matches in his career than singles matches, and takes life shortening bumps, but is more often than not the winner of such bloodbaths.

Now, Jack Swagger is undefeated in ECW (i think, not sure, don't watch), and the other week i checked out his extreme rules match with Tommy Dreamer and it was a decent match. I assume he's been squashing guys up until now, but this match was very good, and made me want to see more of what Swagger can do.

Squash matches are just Vince's way of saying, 'You WILL pay attention to this guy', and then just as they start to get over, he ditches them and they either get released or end up in mid-card limbo, Umaga and Khali are prime examples of just that.

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

Come come now boys. Everybody knows that Vincent Kennedy McMahon loves big men like Liberace loved cabana boys. It's his "circus side-show" mentality. He doesn't want to believe that two guys under the height of 6'7" can carry a match without looking like ripped gladiators on whatever Roger Clements and Barry Bonds deny that they were on. It's his nature. I mean look at his latest acquisition, Tomko. He brings this guy back and let's him have a dark match and now the internet is buzzing that he might be getting the axe faster than Chris Harris, oops I mean Bradden Walker.

But in order to understand why these guys get built up, you need to understand the mentality. Sure, you know that Snitsky and Mike Knox aren't all of a sudden going to become the second coming of The Undertaker, but they still need credibility before jobbing them out. And it sure as hell is quite the stretch if you want me to believe that guy the size of Evan Bourne is going to be believable beating Taker when guys the sie of Mark Henry, Kamala, Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy, and a host of other freaks of nature could not. It aint gonna happen in the real world and it sure as hell aint gonna happen in WWE. Well not unless the smaller guy is a face. Cuz lords knows small heels never get the nod over big guys, no matter how crafty they are.

 

[NSL]

I'll agree that WWE needs to get over the addiction to big men, but not because they are all big and useless.

Heidenreich had a decent run, but they let it get silly after his feud with the Undertaker. Matt Morgan could have worked, if they didn't go with the stuttering gimmick.

TNA may have entire shows, where every match is a spotfest, but they at least show that 2 smaller guys can put on a good match. I love the big men matches as much as the next guy, but I'd much rather watch a match where there's more athleticism than powerslams.

WWE has the guys for this, and had a title for this. It was called the Cruiserweight Title, and it needs a comeback. If there was TV time given to the smaller, athletic guys, it'd leave less time for the big men, and make WWE spend their money a little more wiser, than just signing a bunch of big guys, and then thinning the herd...