2 Cold Scorpio
Oct 10, 2019 5:39:58 GMT -5
Post by elliott on Oct 10, 2019 5:39:58 GMT -5
I think most people at this point would call Scorpio a great wrestler, or at the worst a very good wrestler. He finished 91st on the Greatest Wrestler Ever Poll ahead of people like Bob Backlund, Nakamura, LA Park, The Destroyer, Chris Hero, Villano III, Shinobu Kandori etc. I know Scorpio pulled a surprise #1 vote that did a lot of heavy lifting, but Scott Steiner for example was another guy with a surprise #1 vote and he didn't crack the top 160 let alone the top 100. So it wasn't all one person's vote swaying it.
I was pretty surprised to see that not only was Scorpio vs Barry Windham from the Clash not nominated for this project, but no 2 Cold Scorpio matches had been. I was wondering, other than the Barry match and Hollywood Blondes vs Scorpio & Bagwell match I nominated, what are people's top Scorpio matches? Off the top of my head matches against Douglas, Eddie, Benoit and Jericho stand out. There's a Sami Callihan match from I wanna say 2008 that I would like to rewatch. Is there anything else that folks love?
When I was watching the Hollywood Blondes vs Scorpio & Bagwell match, I started thinking about that generation of youngish US based wrestlers. Guys 30 & under in the mid 90s. Austin & Pillman had future star written all over both of them in the Blondes tag I watched & Scorpio was right there with them as a worker. The crowd was SUPER into him to as a babyface. He was someone who actually had good size for being one of the most impressive high flyers of the 90s. He was roughly the same size/height as Austin, Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels so its not like he would have looked out of place working against those guys. I don't want to get to much in fantasy booking mode, but I was more thinking along the lines of where Scorpio would rank on a depth chart of that mid 90s almost 30 generation in terms of potential ignoring what we know happened. For example, obviously Rey Misterio Jr became one of the most enduring & successful wrestlers of all time. But in 1994 no one would have predicted that Rey Jr would main event a WWE PPV one day. I'm not saying folks would have called Scorpio a future legend in 1994. But you would've predicted Scorpio would have had a more successful US based career than Rey Jr. I know this is all convoluted, but its a roundabout way of bringing up Scorpio's enormous potential. It sucks he wasn't a bigger star.
In that 1992-1995 era, you would've for sure said Austin, Dustin and Owen Hart had more potential than Scorpio. When I say potential, I don't just mean potential to be a great worker. I mean a long term star type. Maybe not Hulk Hogan but someone who could be in a featured role for the next decade. Pillman in spite of the size was so enormously talented and had the charisma and character work that I think he'd be ahead of Scorpio. Foley is a tougher choice. He actually has the advantage of having a couple of main event programs against Sting & Vader during this time period but has the disadvantage that people were talking openly about him being crippled before he was 30 (which kinda affects the perception of your longterm potential) and his look. Waltman I think folks would say had more potential than Scorpio. Before he died, you'd probably say Art Barr in spite of the size because he had the charisma/character work stuff. Regal is tough. He has the size & skills & character work. But his style made him hard to project long term for the US audience. The Vanilla Midget types are tougher to say yes because Scorpio had the size advantage. I'm trying to think who else would definitely rank higher than Scorpio on the "US based wrestlers under 30 in 1995" mock draft. So far I've got Austin, Dustin, Owen, Pillman, Waltman, Art Barr maybe Foley & maybe Regal. Who are some folks I'm forgetting?
I was pretty surprised to see that not only was Scorpio vs Barry Windham from the Clash not nominated for this project, but no 2 Cold Scorpio matches had been. I was wondering, other than the Barry match and Hollywood Blondes vs Scorpio & Bagwell match I nominated, what are people's top Scorpio matches? Off the top of my head matches against Douglas, Eddie, Benoit and Jericho stand out. There's a Sami Callihan match from I wanna say 2008 that I would like to rewatch. Is there anything else that folks love?
When I was watching the Hollywood Blondes vs Scorpio & Bagwell match, I started thinking about that generation of youngish US based wrestlers. Guys 30 & under in the mid 90s. Austin & Pillman had future star written all over both of them in the Blondes tag I watched & Scorpio was right there with them as a worker. The crowd was SUPER into him to as a babyface. He was someone who actually had good size for being one of the most impressive high flyers of the 90s. He was roughly the same size/height as Austin, Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels so its not like he would have looked out of place working against those guys. I don't want to get to much in fantasy booking mode, but I was more thinking along the lines of where Scorpio would rank on a depth chart of that mid 90s almost 30 generation in terms of potential ignoring what we know happened. For example, obviously Rey Misterio Jr became one of the most enduring & successful wrestlers of all time. But in 1994 no one would have predicted that Rey Jr would main event a WWE PPV one day. I'm not saying folks would have called Scorpio a future legend in 1994. But you would've predicted Scorpio would have had a more successful US based career than Rey Jr. I know this is all convoluted, but its a roundabout way of bringing up Scorpio's enormous potential. It sucks he wasn't a bigger star.
In that 1992-1995 era, you would've for sure said Austin, Dustin and Owen Hart had more potential than Scorpio. When I say potential, I don't just mean potential to be a great worker. I mean a long term star type. Maybe not Hulk Hogan but someone who could be in a featured role for the next decade. Pillman in spite of the size was so enormously talented and had the charisma and character work that I think he'd be ahead of Scorpio. Foley is a tougher choice. He actually has the advantage of having a couple of main event programs against Sting & Vader during this time period but has the disadvantage that people were talking openly about him being crippled before he was 30 (which kinda affects the perception of your longterm potential) and his look. Waltman I think folks would say had more potential than Scorpio. Before he died, you'd probably say Art Barr in spite of the size because he had the charisma/character work stuff. Regal is tough. He has the size & skills & character work. But his style made him hard to project long term for the US audience. The Vanilla Midget types are tougher to say yes because Scorpio had the size advantage. I'm trying to think who else would definitely rank higher than Scorpio on the "US based wrestlers under 30 in 1995" mock draft. So far I've got Austin, Dustin, Owen, Pillman, Waltman, Art Barr maybe Foley & maybe Regal. Who are some folks I'm forgetting?
