Pre Debut Vignettes

[Dropkicked]

No contest the best vignettes were from Razor Ramon. He had about 5 of them and they were all hilarious.

The question is, which one was the best of his. I would have to pick the one where he grabs the fruit and spits it in the face of the vendor trying to make him pay for it.

Those were straight classics.

 

[Greydon]

I Honestly have to say Goldust, Mr. Perfect, Taz, Mankind, Ultimo Dragins' Kenzo Suzuki and Sean O'Haire's were all golden.

Just imagine if Sean was still around now doing the devil's advocate gimmick, and could have feuded with Punk, trying to tell people what to do.

Horrible: M.O.M. Men on a mission, Duke Derosie, Isaac Yankem.... (can't believe people haven't mentioned this one yet)....Kerwin white!!!!!!

 

[Chardee Macdennis]

No contest the best vignettes were from Razor Ramon. He had about 5 of them and they were all hilarious.

The question is, which one was the best of his. I would have to pick the one where he grabs the fruit and spits it in the face of the vendor trying to make him pay for it.

Those were straight classics.

I'm surprised Razor doesn't have more posts. His were truely great. The funniest part about it, is that Hall ripped that character straight from the movie "Scarface" and VKM and the higher ups had no clue what he was doing. I remember reading or watching an interview with Hall and he couldn't believe that these guys thought he was pure genious, all the while he was copying Pacino's famous Tony Montana character!

 

[jmyers19]

I liked Kofi Kingston's ones before he debuted, was rewatching an old one the other day with the bully at the beach and Kofi ends up burying the guy. I actually thought he was going to be heel as well for some reason lol back then. CM Punk's were awesome as well, having him run with the Straightedge lifestyle gimmick which he stands by in real life is awesome and helped with the viginettes. I liked the return ones for 'Taker back in 2007 as well for his Unforgiven 2007 return.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

I'd have to go with Razor Ramon as one of my favorites at the time, they were cool and funny, and this was BEFORE i even saw scarface, then again that may be why i liked them so much haha... I still remember laughing our asses off when he pushed that guy in the fountain lol

Another one i really liked was Waylon Mercy. At first I just wanted them to use Dan Spivey and maybe even keep the Skyscrapers thing going since I liked them, but then Waylon was just creepy and it worked. It's just too bad he didn't get more of a run I think he could have been a legendary character.

 

[Tenta]

My personal favorite have always been Razor Ramon's from the WWE.

[YOUTUBE]Cbkth_InQ_o[/YOUTUBE]

At the time, Razor had this kind of charisma to him that just kept me from changing the channel. He just oozed this... Well, machismo, that made him such a damn interesting character. At the time, I hadn't seen Scarface, so I couldn't put the connection together. In hindsight, that makes these vignettes even more brilliant, as Scott Hall knew exactly what he was doing to give this character life. I've said it before, that the only reason that people didn't cry foul over Razor's gimmick was because he was talented enough to pull it off, yet put a different spin on it, to avoid complete plagiarism. These vignettes allowed Hall the ability to define his gimmick, yet gave him some room so that he could have differentiated the gimmick a bit.

What's more, the vignettes also didn't answer every question about Razor Ramon, which I always feel is a positive. There are great mentions in this thread, but I feel as though some of these vignettes left too much exposition, in too much time. I feel as though certain wrestlers tried to cram as much into their vignettes as possible, which is ok, but typically just seems a little forced. As much as I like the character, you could find this in Mr. Perfect. They just tired way too much exposition, and left little to the imagination. That was the intrigue of Razor Ramon... You knew about him, but you didn't know enough to feel that you had the character figured out. You'd have to wait until his debut to see what this guy was about. Razor, to me, was the perfect mixture of character and mystery. So much so, that when the WWE had another Puerto Rican character, they pretty much ripped Razor off....

[YOUTUBE]Jf2XtbQpoH0[/YOUTUBE]

Yeah, won't lie, this vignette did absolutely nothing for me. Nothing at all. Not only was it a blatant rip off of Razor, it wasn't even that good a rip off. Carlito always came across as a guy who seemed forced. Nothing about that vignette made me interested about Carlito, aside from the hair. Carlito's promo itself wasn't all that great, and his attempt to look menacing was humorous at best. With Razor, there just seemed something natural about it. With Carlito... Well, it was anything but.

 

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

Best

Mankind's vignettes were just crazy but so good.

Worst

Brakus vignettes were terrible. It was hard to take a heel serieously when he was greased up way to much and shouting at you in a terrible dutch accent.

Men on a mision vignettes were also terrible. As someone already said it was a terrible rap with terrible dancing and clips of subways going by.

They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken - Bobby Sands MP

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Pre-debut Vignettes are my absolute favorite thing in pro-wrestling, because they often do a fantastic job of hyping a star before he actually debuts, and I wish both companies would actually use them more, because they're one of the easiest ways to help get someone over ahead of time.

The all-time best were obviously the Razor Ramon vignettes, as well as Golddust, and JJ, but I think some of the simpler ones are being overlooked here, like Angle's pre debut vignette in TNA – the birth place of "It's Damn Real!"

[YOUTUBE]lqIB4CWDkiM[/YOUTUBE]

IMO, that one takes the cake, because it was the one I legitimately marked out for most. I was actually standing up celebrating with a friend of mine, because the news was so shocking. Don West even cursed on a live PPV feed because of it when he screamed "HOLY SHIT!" after seeing the promo at the end of the PPV.