WCW - Seven, what could have been

[Kinsey144]

For those of you that dont know, Rhodes returned to World Championship Wrestling in 1999, filming several vignettes for a fantastical, face-painted character named Seven. These vignettes contained ominous footage of Rhodes in full makeup standing outside of a child's bedroom window.

He was built up as a fantasy character, in a similar manner to the undertaker. He was shown in vignettes to be a mystical entity, with supernatural powers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtXAtGJ4JQ

This promo, not only clearly portrays him as a heel, but INSTANTLY intrigues me, as it is so different, and i think everybody is interested in seeing if these dark, mystical characters can be portrayed to a sucess, and not feel to be make believe


Now upon his debut, his entrance was done to perfection. Awesome music, combining that creepy voice with a beat causing suspense and anticipation. There was mystical levitation. There was smoke, there was mist, there were flames and it was sold great by the announcers too. He was given a great outfit, with a huge trench coat, and an undertaker-esque hat, with all white face paint; and i knew for sure that i was loving every second of it. It really gave a feeling of the supernatural, someone or something who wasn't normal, hugely building my intrigue. Then the promo happened, and in a few quick seconds, it was all gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4inIvA8nm8&feature=related

The character was dropped after Turner Standards and Practices expressed concern that this gimmick could be misinterpreted as a child abductor. Upon returning to WCW television, Rhodes removed his costume and delivered a worked shoot in which he mocked unrealistic gimmicks as well as his time as Goldust in the WWF.

After this, he simply became Dustin Rhodes, no Seven, no Goldust, no gimmicks, just Dustin Rhodes. After the vignettes, the smoke, the flames, the costume, the music, the entrance... it was all gone and i was left wondering what could have been.

What are your thoughts?

How would you have booked the character?
Could the character have been a sucess?
Where you interested in the character?
Do you tend to care for these types of character, or would you prefer a more normal "Dustin Rhodes" character instead?
Any other comments you want to add?

 

[Shockwave]

Could it have been a success? Possibly, but only in WCW. Even then though, there is a big risk that people would see it as an undertaker rip-off and completely discard it from wrestling forever. The entrance and everything else was perfect, i agree...but i saw this video 2 years ago when some so-called fan on youtube was ranting about it being the undertaker debuting in WCW. Could definately have been a success but for the reasons given above...i doubt it.

 

[JeffTheRef]

I think it was garbage...but I'm sure some people would have bought into it. Him shunning gimmicks altogether and taking the "Rhodes" name for his father is a MUCH better way to go.

 

[kokoBawesome]

..... that was cheesy.

I give you props on your wrestling knowledge for even remembering it, but its a fail. I already don't really like Goldust, and I never cared for Dustin Runnels wrestling style, this is the final nail in the coffin for me. Next time someone starts a "Bring back Dustin to feud with Cody" Thread, I'm really going to have to lay into them.

 

[GameOver]

Think he was ment to be protraying Hellraiser type character with shades of Freddy Krueger, it was utter garbage even Dustin said so. At the time he was really pissed with life, he was estranged from his family, his wife Terry left him and WWE axed him.

 

[Miro_A12004]

Imo think this would have failed for this reasons: 1) it blatantly ripped off another more famous deadman and 2) it pushed the lines of believability too far. If he floats to the ring each time, why can't he float during the match?

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

At that time I thought WCW solely did this (the shoot promo) to sorta break Taker's aura as the supernatural Deadman. People would start calling him fake or something, anyway, no, don't think it would've worked in that age actually; would've been pelted with garbage and a huge Uncle Fester chant would break out upon his levitation.

 

[red ass skull muhfukkah]

I remember as a little kid being a little afraid of the Seven vignettes lol.

I would have loved for a gimmick like that to work as I'm a big fan of over the top gimmicks but it was destined to fail honestly. Maybe if Undertaker never existed it could have worked but at that time Undertaker had already been around for like 8 years and was extremely popular. Whether it was a completely different gimmick or not, fans most likely perceived it as a Undertaker rip-off and I wouldn't be surprised if that's what WCW actually intended it to be. That was around the time when real characters using their real names started to become more popular with the fans then the gimmicks of the 80's and early to mid 90's. Plus many people thought the character resembled a child molester which is probably the last type of person people want to see wrestle, especially parents with kids.

Even though he didn't do much as "The American Nightmare" Dustin Rhodes, fans probably would have cared less about him if he had the Seven gimmick.

 

[DirtyD79]

It was all it could have been. Nobody in 1999 was gonna take a broke-ass Fester Addams seriously. Undertaker only gets a pass because of Nostalgia, being the Dead Man is his thing. Other than the `Taker you can't play a gimmick like that straight up anymore. Not since sometime when Bush Senior was president

 

[Defekt]

Could the character have been a sucess?
This was WCW, besides a chosen few, no one was allowed to be successful. Gimmick or not, Dustin Rhodes would have had the same run.

Do you tend to care for these types of character, or would you prefer a more normal "Dustin Rhodes" character instead?
It depends. In this case, yes I would be more interested in Seven than plain old Dustin Rhodes. Dustin says in his book it was ultimately his decision to drop the gimmick.

Could the character have been a sucess?
As I said before, WCW would have never let someone like Dustin Rhodes succeed. As for if the character would have been over with the fans, it's hard tell since Seven's appearance was so brief.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

How would you have booked the character?
Could the character have been a sucess?
Where you interested in the character?
Do you tend to care for these types of character, or would you prefer a more normal "Dustin Rhodes" character instead?
Any other comments you want to add?

1. How would I have booked this character? I would have booked it for another person. This child abductor gimmick would have been perfect for a tall, no-charisma, no-talent monster heel. Dustin Rhodes should have came back to WCW and cut the promo that he did without all that crap on. He could have said everything he said without this ridiculous gimmick. He would have been infinitely more successful doing so as well, in my opinion. As far as booking the character, give it a couple squash matches, make it a scary monster, dont let anyone in the locker room break kayfabe on this character. Give him to the person they're most trying to get over (Kidman?) at a PPV. After the first couple of losses, make him an upper midcarder with a scary gimmick.

2. Character would definitely have been a success, and could have drawn money. Just imagine his face on a PPV poster - how many kids would want Sting or DDP to beat him?

3. Lol no.

4. I'm pretty sure I answered this, but I don't oppose the character itself. It's a great idea, just not for the son of a legend. Look how far Bischoff's kid and Flair's kid have gotten and they don't have an ounce of talent that Dustin did.

5. Yes. Kill it with fire... Oh wait, Dustin already did that.

[YOUTUBE]ch2QltZZ7DU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[TheGreatLegend]

How would you have booked the character?
Could the character have been a sucess?
Where you interested in the character?
Do you tend to care for these types of character, or would you prefer a more normal "Dustin Rhodes" character instead?
Any other comments you want to add?

1.) Would have booked him to be undefeated for some months.

2.) Yeah,maybe he could have been a success as Goldust can be considered a success.

3.) Yeah kind of.

4.) Yeah as gimmicks are very rare to see in today's Wrestling.

5.) Dustin Rhodes who was booked by WCW to cut a "Shoot" promo that he hates these gimmick characters played the character of Goldust in WWF before going to WCW,then he became "The Artist formerly known as Goldust" then Goldust again then "Black Reign" in TNA and then he returned to WWE as Goldust. He made his name as "Goldust" which is a character and not Dustin Rhodes.