Rusev, Sheamus, Del Rio and Cody Rhodes repackaging

[CCIV]

Rusev is quite simple and more of a direction than a repackaging. Book him as a monster. I feel Ryback will beat Kalisto and go on to face Crews. As they feud Rusev demolishes Big Show, Kane, Henry, Rowan leading to him needing to beat Ryback , the eventual loser of the feud with Crews, for his title shot. Rusev will win and face Crews and win and they can rematch and even triple it up at Mania.

Sheamus: Call up Blake and Murphy. Introduce them as second cousins to Sheamus. Add in Becky not as a love interest but as a friend, if you want to go the love angle you do that as an emergency out years down the line. This group will be the Irish Lass Kickers. Sheamus gets the hardcore title or a US or IT title run. Blake and Murphy get a heel tag title run and Becky gets a face title run. You can turn this group numerous times giving them an 8 month heel run and turn right around and go face for another 8 months. When Sheamus and B&K are champs I'd say they go heel. When Becky is chasing or wins the title they turn face to accompany her as crowd favorites. This simple gathering of talent has these four in each other's storylines and in more than just one segment on tv.

Alberto Del Rio: The most interesting man in the world. Nope you can't use that phrase but it explains what I want from his character. He's Mr. Perfect meets Razor Ramon meets the Rock. Call up 4 ladies. One white, one black, one latino and one oriental. The plethora of races of his ladies shows he can get any and all the woman he wants. He has the best clothes and cars. He's backstage being measured by his tailer in his dressing room instead of preparing for his match. He has a best selling book (not real), he has a clothing line "Del Rio" (not real). He has offers for a self titled cologne. Each of his ladies has 3 or more phones that are constantly ringing. Jennifer Lopez on phone 5 Mr. Del Rio, Pitbull on phone 2 Mr. Del Rio, Quentin Tarantino on phone 1 Mr. Del Rio. He's constantly buying cars, jets, booking vacations and interviews. He wins his matches with his ladies help but he never acknowledges that with their help is why he wins, he doesn't see it that way. He believes he wins because of his own actions. You can be replaced but he can't. "Everything Comes Easy for Del Rio". Yes you emphasis "comes" as a sexual innuendo.


Cody "The Nightmare" Rhodes. This came to me about a month ago. Nick Hausman and I believe Dombrowski (sorry if I have the name wrong) brought the nightmare name up on their own on a WZ daily about a week after it came to me so it must be a good idea . My explanation for why he becomes the nightmare is because a returning Orton tries to release the Cody Rhodes he knows from the Stardust character. Orton starts with words, one man interventions so to speak, pipe bombs and such. Nothing works so he has to resort to physical contact and RKO's Rhodes all over the damn place. He RKO's him one Raw causing Rhodes to miss an IT title match. Orton RKO's him on another Raw in the parking lot after the show causing Rhodes to miss his flight and the next house show. All of this unleashes the wrong Cody. A Cody only Dustin and the Rhodes family has ever seen. The Nightmare Cody Rhodes. The Nightmare is when Cody has a clear path or objective in mind and someone is in his way. He becomes the hunter, the stalker and will make your life a living nightmare. I'd keep the stardust face paint and suit drop the shoulder pads. The Stardust face paint will now seep or run revealing spots of pale skin and the human behind the paint. If he dipped his hand in water and ran his fingers over his face once or twice I think that would give the look I'm talking about.

 

[Un-Bo-Lievable Jeff]

Rusev is quite simple and more of a direction than a repackaging. Book him as a monster. I feel Ryback will beat Kalisto and go on to face Crews. As they feud Rusev demolishes Big Show, Kane, Henry, Rowan leading to him needing to beat Ryback , the eventual loser of the feud with Crews, for his title shot. Rusev will win and face Crews and win and they can rematch and even triple it up at Mania.

Sheamus: Call up Blake and Murphy. Introduce them as second cousins to Sheamus. Add in Becky not as a love interest but as a friend, if you want to go the love angle you do that as an emergency out years down the line. This group will be the Irish Lass Kickers. Sheamus gets the hardcore title or a US or IT title run. Blake and Murphy get a heel tag title run and Becky gets a face title run. You can turn this group numerous times giving them an 8 month heel run and turn right around and go face for another 8 months. When Sheamus and B&K are champs I'd say they go heel. When Becky is chasing or wins the title they turn face to accompany her as crowd favorites. This simple gathering of talent has these four in each other's storylines and in more than just one segment on tv.

Alberto Del Rio: The most interesting man in the world. Nope you can't use that phrase but it explains what I want from his character. He's Mr. Perfect meets Razor Ramon meets the Rock. Call up 4 ladies. One white, one black, one latino and one oriental. The plethora of races of his ladies shows he can get any and all the woman he wants. He has the best clothes and cars. He's backstage being measured by his tailer in his dressing room instead of preparing for his match. He has a best selling book (not real), he has a clothing line "Del Rio" (not real). He has offers for a self titled cologne. Each of his ladies has 3 or more phones that are constantly ringing. Jennifer Lopez on phone 5 Mr. Del Rio, Pitbull on phone 2 Mr. Del Rio, Quentin Tarantino on phone 1 Mr. Del Rio. He's constantly buying cars, jets, booking vacations and interviews. He wins his matches with his ladies help but he never acknowledges that with their help is why he wins, he doesn't see it that way. He believes he wins because of his own actions. You can be replaced but he can't. "Everything Comes Easy for Del Rio". Yes you emphasis "comes" as a sexual innuendo.


Cody "The Nightmare" Rhodes. This came to me about a month ago. Nick Hausman and I believe Dombrowski (sorry if I have the name wrong) brought the nightmare name up on their own on a WZ daily about a week after it came to me so it must be a good idea . My explanation for why he becomes the nightmare is because a returning Orton tries to release the Cody Rhodes he knows from the Stardust character. Orton starts with words, one man interventions so to speak, pipe bombs and such. Nothing works so he has to resort to physical contact and RKO's Rhodes all over the damn place. He RKO's him one Raw causing Rhodes to miss an IT title match. Orton RKO's him on another Raw in the parking lot after the show causing Rhodes to miss his flight and the next house show. All of this unleashes the wrong Cody. A Cody only Dustin and the Rhodes family has ever seen. The Nightmare Cody Rhodes. The Nightmare is when Cody has a clear path or objective in mind and someone is in his way. He becomes the hunter, the stalker and will make your life a living nightmare. I'd keep the stardust face paint and suit drop the shoulder pads. The Stardust face paint will now seep or run revealing spots of pale skin and the human behind the paint. If he dipped his hand in water and ran his fingers over his face once or twice I think that would give the look I'm talking about.

In my opinion you get an 'A' for effort but an 'F' for creativity.

For Rusev you are basically booking him as he was when he made his debut up until he fought Cena. Destroys everybody as a heel, no issues with the big guys, but will then lose the title to someone eventually. Won't be Cena this time and may have a longer run as a heel champion but same story.

Del Rio is also pretty much the same as when he made his debut. He was richer than everyone, better than everyone, came out in the fancy cars, own ring announcer, and instead of these women helping him, it was Rodriguez.

The Cody story seems like a mix of Kane/Cena 'Release the Evil' storyline and Bray Wyatts thing about getting people to be who he believes they are. Different ending with him coming out the dark side but still very similar.

Ok, and now onto the worst part I read. Lynch is the 'Lass Kicker' as a play on words with Ass Kicker, but Lass because it's slang for women in the UK and she wrestles in the women's division. You now want a stable of three guys to be called a name that means beating up women? Do you get that? These three guys would refer to themselves as the Women Beaters? See the issue?

 

[Navi]

Sheamus: Call up Blake and Murphy. Introduce them as second cousins to Sheamus. Add in Becky not as a love interest but as a friend, if you want to go the love angle you do that as an emergency out years down the line. This group will be the Irish Lass Kickers. Sheamus gets the hardcore title or a US or IT title run. Blake and Murphy get a heel tag title run and Becky gets a face title run. You can turn this group numerous times giving them an 8 month heel run and turn right around and go face for another 8 months. When Sheamus and B&K are champs I'd say they go heel. When Becky is chasing or wins the title they turn face to accompany her as crowd favorites. This simple gathering of talent has these four in each other's storylines and in more than just one segment on tv.

So you are suggesting that we put the most boring tag team, with Sheamus. One of the wrestlers that causes paint dry to be more exciting. And what do you have against Becky Lynch, that you want to subject her to those three?

RAW fans don't know who Blake and Murphy are, and judging by the crowd's reaction to him, they don't care much for Sheamus. Poor Becky, keep her away from them at all costs.

Alberto Del Rio: The most interesting man in the world. Nope you can't use that phrase but it explains what I want from his character. He's Mr. Perfect meets Razor Ramon meets the Rock. Call up 4 ladies. One white, one black, one latino and one oriental. The plethora of races of his ladies shows he can get any and all the woman he wants. He has the best clothes and cars. He's backstage being measured by his tailer in his dressing room instead of preparing for his match. He has a best selling book (not real), he has a clothing line "Del Rio" (not real). He has offers for a self titled cologne. Each of his ladies has 3 or more phones that are constantly ringing. Jennifer Lopez on phone 5 Mr. Del Rio, Pitbull on phone 2 Mr. Del Rio, Quentin Tarantino on phone 1 Mr. Del Rio. He's constantly buying cars, jets, booking vacations and interviews. He wins his matches with his ladies help but he never acknowledges that with their help is why he wins, he doesn't see it that way. He believes he wins because of his own actions. You can be replaced but he can't. "Everything Comes Easy for Del Rio". Yes you emphasis "comes" as a sexual innuendo.

That is the worst idea I've ever heard. Del Rio was in a way that entitled rich guy and it still did nothing for him. Don't think it will help him now.

Oh and Hiya Shag. I though you were in the prison section? KB must have gone soft and let you out.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The ideas are far to soap opera-Esque for my tastes, other than Rusev who you are describing as returning to his original character. Also you are advocating rapid-fire turns for Sheamus, Blake and Murphy. All three could be around for a while. One of the running jokes about Big Show and one reason people don't take him seriously is his sheer amount of turns. It has become a running joke. The last thing anyone should want is for newbies or younger wrestlers to turn every 8 months.

And what happens to poor Alexa Bliss?? She is a decent worker (improving all the time) but her queen bee/bitch character is befitting of someone who started as a cheerleader, even if she has abandoned that particular gimmick. She is definitely one with potential but in this storyline she is bombed out in favour of Becky Lynch, who is definitely better as a face in my opinion.

And let's not even get started on the cousins angle. Besides, Sheamus already has a famous cousin: Beaker from the Muppet Show... *face palm*

 

[Jack-Hammer]

What'd I'd do to Sheamus is make him something that he has the potential to be but has never really been portrayed as: a badass tough guy. I'd embrace the "Celtic Warrior" aspect in more than just a name as I'd change his ring gear, for starters, to look like something you'd see out of a ancient Celtic warrior. Get rid of the Mohawk, maybe shave the sideburns of his beard but let the goatee grow longer and thicker, come out in some sort of body paint on his face and torso similar to what Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart wore during battle scenes, maybe incorporate some Celtic symbols into the design, maybe have him wear long trousers in a similar look to what ancient Celts would wear, incorporate armlets to wear around his biceps and a torc, which was an ancient ring of metal worn around the neck, and portray him with a much more serious and vicious nature. The story could be that Sheamus has finally "found" himself by embracing the heritage of his forefathers as a true "Celtic Warrior" in more than just a name created by a corporate hype machine to sell t-shirts. I think he'd work best as a tweener, he shouldn't be a "nice guy" but he should have redeeming qualities. Sheamus has the physical size, look and style to pull off such a character; I think it could be intriguing provided Vince wouldn't turn it into some novelty meant more for gags or humor.

As for the others, I'll have to think on it a bit.

 

[Khalifa]

I don't think you need to repackage Rusev, you only need to get him back to what he was before. I guess he was kind of that in LON but he was losing too regularly to be taken as a threat. Get him a few wins, then get him back to some bigger names before eventually maybe going with another midcard run. I think the key is to not spam Rusev every week if you were to go down this root as you still have Ryback and Crews who are kind of in the same situation. Do it slowly and you should get Rusev back to being respectable again.

I really like Cody Rhodes but I think without the brand split, it's just hard to make him anything with what is a pretty stacked roster at full health. I would like him to ditch the Stardust gimmick as well but he will probably get more time on tv as Stardust. I have no idea why WWE ditched the Cosmic Wastelands stable but have kept the Social Outcasts going. Maybe it's my Cody fanboy mind making me see it in a biased way but there weren't many teams on together at the time and it made sense to me, well apart from the name. As much as Ascension have lost, I still find them more likely to win with Cody tagging or even being at the ring than Curtis Axel accidently landing a move for a pinfall, in a kayfabe way. Could have still kept the comedy there as well. Anyways I'm going to long on about it and the division is too stacked now to throw it in. So keep Cody as stardust and let him do backstage stuff with Titus. It's as good as it's gotten since he's broken up with Goldust, and even probably during then despite the overbooking of that team.

Del Rio and Sheamus are probably in the 'they could be main event but do we want them there' category. I think you could do something reasonable with Del Rio, but I'm not sure what. Sheamus will probably get into the main event at some point again. I think he should keep playing the heel bully role. All he needs to do is speak less. Have him target someone that is making their way up to the title and have Sheamus make a bit of a mess with him with interferences before matches and backstage assaults. Then back it up in the ring for one match. Sami Zayn could of been a perfect option but obviously KO is doing exactly what I'm saying, but someone like that.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Cody doesn't need a repackage... he has a gimmick that can run for years, just as Goldust did. It's why he came up with Stardust. It was clear thay he woulldn't make it as himself, just as Dustin didn't.

As it stands, Cody is on the way to 10 years on the roster... he can be Stardust for another 8-10 years, maybe longer... He won't be the world champ... but he has watched his bro be employed for all but about 3 total of the last 21 years on good WWE money... why not do the same?

Beside's he's already said now his father is gone, he won't use the Rhodes name.