The NWO making fun of the Horsemen for about 15 minutes non stop was funny shit because of how serious the Horsemen considered themselves. A week prior they were out eating up about half an hour of airtime just to be honored. Flair, Anderson, Benoit, Malenko, Mongo and whoever were pretty notorious for either being a bit too serious or high on themselves. And the NWO promo was full of inside jabs at the group, it's leader and their legacy. Jabs that were personal that made sense. I remember thinking at the time watching it live that nobody even Bischoff consented to what was being said. Some time after that, maybe a few weeks or months, I figured that the Horsemen must have been ok with it because the angle was so great. Then, I believe after reading Flair's book years later, it turned out I was right in the beginning. I guess my whole thing is that it was a logical direction for the angle between the two super groups. It built heat and was entertaining. Nobody had to fake a heart attack or get racist or give birth to a hand. I remember watching Flair fake a heart attack after getting extremely too riled up at Bischoff a year later and it made sense. I loved it. There was a year worth of hatred between the two from the NWO/Horsemen feud. Every week there was crazy shit happening on Raw and Nitro and very few people believed it was a real heart attack. Flair had riled him up so much throughout his career and at the time his promos were getting more and more hardcore. Flair was aging. I remember maybe a month before one of my friends saying Flair was getting so crazy and old that he was eventually gonna give himself a heart attack. So faking one in the ring made sense as part of an angle. It's not like he or anyone else he was feuding with had just had a heart attack weeks before. If they had, I'm sure WCW in 1997 under the war-like circumstances with WWE could have found a way to make it more entertaining than just plain tasteless. But in PG WWE in 2012? The way Vince wants it done rather than the personalities pulling off the angle. Lame.
The thing that bothers people is that Jerry Lawler could have easily lost his life on TV 9 weeks ago. We all watched and worried we'd get the announcement before Raw ended that Lawler had passed. It was a traumatizing moment for some people, especially kids. So perhaps for those people with the mentality of children or who've had direct experience losing a loved one to a heart attack, this angle gained Punk heat. But for most of us, in this day and age, I think the heats directed at whoever scripted it (Vince/Hunter/Stephanie). So that's why the segment was executed badly, a lot of the heat is getting put on the script writer and not the personality. Go back to 1997 when the NWO roasted the Horsemen. What was said was off the cuff. No one scripted that and read it from a teleprompter. No one knew for sure beforehand what was going to be said and the personalities were given the green light to do whatever without being restrained or having it watered down. Anyway, as much as I love Heyman and Punk, I feel the whole promo didn't come off right because it wasn't the way those involved would do it their own way without the PG restrictions.
Mrmojorasin: I have no problem with what you're saying but I don't think it's about going into business for yourself. Lawler and Kaufman went into business for themselves and I'm sure it was good business. The NWO weren't into business for themselves when they chewed out the Horsemen. It was stuff that came across real, which was somewhat real, that was logical and good for overall business whether Ric Flair and Arn Anderson found it tasteless or not. Segments with Kaufman and Lawler and the NWO mocking the Horsemen were executed the way that shits suppose to be executed. Mocking Lawler's death just wasn't. Had Punk and Heyman did what they did without Vince's knowledge and without the PG rating and Lawler was either insulted or noticeably surprised..and more of us were insulted, then that would be executed well and I'd be on here making fun of those of you who'd hate that. Anyway, the fact that most of you here loved last night is proof that Punk didn't do a good enough job gaining legit heat. End of story.
