I disagree with Funaki. He was over, and became super beloved. Not to mention he started working as one of their primary Japanese announcers afterward. As well as being one of their translators. I would say that is a pretty great career.
the character failed to save his wrestling career though. And honestly going from one half of a very good but very badly mistreated tag team with Taka Michinoku to jobber with a consolation Cruiserweight Title win, to fucking Kung Fu guy is honestly just a continuous downward spiral. oh and also KUNG FU IS CHINESE FFS WWE.
I found it fascinating that Bastion Booger was originally going to be a Gargoyle type of character, and that's why the grey outfit with the stone pattern. Was going to have an entrance mask too. I wonder how they got from gargoyle to gross guy.
I kinda liked the gimmick because of how corny it was. It was so bad its good kinda thing. His last name is "conway" so we'll make him 'the con man' brilliant. No seriously whoever came up with this should of been fired 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@thebestcentaur Um no it's stupid, geographically inaccurate, culturally inaccurate, and served nothing to get Funaki over. I stop way short at calling it racist.
I never got why they gave up on that Mordecai gimmick. I was watching WWE at the time and really excited to see where they were going with the opposite-Undertaker. And then the answer just failed to exist. Bleh.
He was also woefully underprepared. This was the time of the Johnny Ace special where guys would be brought to the main roster WAY before they were ready just to disappear as soon as they had arrived. Gone were the days of OVW well trained workers like Orton, Cena, Haas & Benjamin, Doug Basham, The Damaja, Nick 'Eugene' Dinsmore, and Rob Conway and in there place came such men as: Keno Suzuki Matt Morgan Nathan Jones Mordecai Mark Jindrak Sylvester Terkai Heidenreich Duece & Domino The Gymini Gunner Scott Palmer Cannon Bam Neely The Great Khali Manu Every now and then somebody that was actually talented would show up (CM Punk, Ken Kennedy, Fit Finlay, Dave Taylor, M&M, London & Kendrick) but most of those guys were good in spite of ol' Clubfoot's direction of development, not because of it.
That's really interesting, both responses. Learned a bunch! Owch, that's gotta suck. You get called up too early, you're not really gonna say no are you? On the one hand job security and getting your name out there, and on the other hand it shouldn't be a wrestler's job to say who's ready, they should be able to trust management to judge that. Obviously there's been a bunch of poor management on a lot of occasions, this being one. Damn, Johnny Ace is bad at his job. Never hear a good thing about that guy. The sueing thing is unfortunate but I can understand WWE can't really do anything else in a situation like that. Hadn't known that until now.
@@Torthrodhel Exactly! In the short term it seems like a good move, financially & exposure wise, but if you look at that list I named it's a group with a bunch of potential that was never really fulfilled due to being called up too early. Matt Morgan for instance should have been a star... dude was a legit 6'8" and a shredded 280 lbs, should haven been a huge star. Remember Mason Ryan from The New Nexus? Same deal. Looked like a million bucks but was called up WAY too early and was spoiled because of it.
@@jamesb1988 I remember at the time I went off WWE and switched to TNA before later going off TNA and going back to WWE (specifically for NXT). It was nice seeing Morgan have a bit more room to grow after he made the move. I don't think it was TNA doing anything particularly different though, I think it was just the simple fact of more time going by. More time to develop, even if it is in the spotlight. One of their trainers came over to our local fed for a guest session once and I remember seeing the unhappy look on his face when he was talking to us about people getting queue-jumped before they were ready. It wasn't a moment to be speaking up in, but inside I was instantly agreeing. He said if I can do a moonsault they'll have me. After my surprise, I remember thinking, do I want that to be all I mean to them? Shouldn't I aim for better? Moot point since I never managed a moonsault (tricky at 330lbs). Not a high flyer. I wouldn't be there long if I did get picked up, anyway. I certainly wouldn't deserve it as much as whoever I'd be put over, damn. Proud of what I've learned and I've paid a bunch of dues but I'm not good! And I know they routinely refuse people who are good. I think that's why I didn't want to just be a move novelty. I'd wanna belong somewhere, not be begrudged somewhere.
Concerning Neidhart: I've heard the story that Stu called Vince and asked him to give Neidhart a job. Vince didn't want really want to but didn't want to say "no" to Stu either. So he came up with a stupid gimmick to entice Neidhart to leave on his own volition.
wasn't their someone in likr between 06-08 who looked like jack sparrow. idk who, but i vaguely remember someone like that edit:oh it was paul burchill. their is another to this list
Dumb and racist as the gimmick was, it had legs for about 3 years... The gimmick didn't fail, just the landscape changed and Gang's plodding style no longer worked with the faster pace that was starting to come into its own
I remember when Rob Conway adopted the new gimmick, people in the internet began comparing him to the gay biker from the Village People or Mr. Slave from South Park.
I'm kinda surpised Stasiak wasn't on here twice, secondly for Meat. I know a lot of men would like and pay money to be surrounded by Jacqueline, Terri and Ryan Shamrock caressing them, but effectively being a boy toy slave jobber called Meat, isn't exactly Rocky Maivia to The Rock in terms of gimmick changes. The ladies were over...he definitely wasn't. XD
Really weird that Rob Conway and Renee didn't pan out. They had the right look and could work in the ring, especially Renee dude had tons of potential only being like 20 when got called up
I think Stasiak acting like a fool during the invasion was less about the recording incident and more about him blowing the WCW guys planned involvement at WM 17 due to his loud mouth.
@@hhtptai And? I was just saying that the reason given in this video (that he got fired for secretly recording people) wasn't the reason he was made to act like a doofus during the Invasion.
A legend like terry gordy as a masked wrestler called the executioner is ridiculous...i mean he was brought in to feud with undertaker...undertaker v terry "bam bam" gordy wouldve drawn attention...terry gordy was a freaking fabulous freebird...i mean they named a tag team rule after them...the freebird rule....
I am genuinely surprised that Chavo Guerrero to Kirwin White isn't even on the list, a Hall of Fame wrestler being made to act like a white friend of Carlton Banks 🤦
It’s because Chavo went straight into main event feud’s after that gimmick. Benjamin for the IC title, Orton, Mysterio, Benoit for the US Title, then he won another Cruiserweight title before getting that big Main Event push and winning a world title, hell dude was in big main event matches multiple times a week against guys like Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and CM Punk If anything he is a prime example of someone who was pushed to the moon after a shit gimmick
god i was so ready for Mordecai to develop in the roster. if they gave him more time to develop and work it would have been a really cool gimmick and opponent for taker in the future. i was prepared for a solid 6 months of shit matches and storylines maybe even a year before he picked up some momentum but it was sad to see the whole thing scrapped. if you look at takers matches around that time a seasoned Mordecai would have been perfect for a taker match in one of the ppvs he is best known to come back for work and would have been another nice cushion to takers already slow decline. wwe was just so quick to change things or completely throw away ideas at that time though which was a huge part to why we dont have that many seasoned wrestlers to put over new talent. even his vampire gimmick was pretty sick but the whole ECW thing was just another bad decision made on his career. typical though. you had to be something really damn special for them to go out of their way for or last through ECW on scifi. shame.
You can't see how stupid it is? It's insanely stereotypical. Not to mention Funaki is Japanese, and Kung Fu is Chinese. It is WWE seeing an Asian superstar and slapping them with THE most stereotypical gimmick possible
Don't do my boy Fu Naki dirty with the thumbnail lmao! Even as a teen watching weekly WWE I knew Kung Fu Naki was an old boomer racist joke, got a Japanese talent? Give him a Chinese martial arts gimmick lol. Back when WWE PPVs would start with a quick introduction of each different language commentary team and I'd always pop for the boy Fu Naki on Japanese commentary
Kevin Fertig would be the best wrestler,but Vince didn't liked Vampires so that's why he burried the gimmick he and Ariel (Shelly Martinez) are the biggest wrestling wasted talents
Honorable mentions: -Prince Albert to Lord Tensai to Sweet T -Heidenreich to one half of L.O.D. 2005 -Brian Kendrick to THE Brian Kendrick -DDP to Stalker to Positively Page -One Man Gang to Akeem the African Dream -Tony Atlas to Saba Simba -Damian Sandow to the Meta Powers
What happened to Kevin Thorn sucked. I actually liked Kevin Thorn. And Fertig himself seems like a very nice person... You bet your ass there's shitloads of indy Kevin Thorn vs Gangrel matches though XD
Excuse me sir!!!! Repo man is a majestic gazelle that should be forever protected in the world of wrestling!!!! He is the light in the dark! Repo man is someone we do not deserve as he is more than perfect! we should be blessed to have ever laid our eyes on him!