2008 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

It was simply Mr. Raschke for me. Was a nice guy so far as I remember, but scary for a third grader.

 

Did he end his class saying ... Dat is all da students need to know! ?

I grew up in Denver and always looked forward to the AWA coming to town. I met him briefly in the hotel lobby where all the wrestlers walked over to after the matches to crash for the night. He was wearing glasses and it was interesting to hear him talk in a somewhat normal voice instead of his wrestler voice.

 

Col. DeBeers from the UWF is getting a rebirth (thank you ESPN Classic). Surprised no one mentioned Koko B. Ware. He had some main event run in Mid-South, but once he went to McMahon Land, he went to straight jobber status. "Iceman" King Parsons was another of my favorite jobbers in the Von Erich days in Dallas.

Not that this thread isn't waxing nostalgic, but here's one to ponder: Which wrestlers have been the biggest wastes of talent?

 

It's possible he'll turn it around and behave himself at some point, but Teddy Hart is the clubhouse leader at this point. Tom Zenk was apparently an insanely talented performer who never showed interest in getting better. Eddie Gilbert might have made Paul Heyman look like Jim Herd, but he couldn't resist burning bridges at every stop. It's hard to tell how much of Shelton Benjamin's problems are with booking and how much are with himself, but both probably share blame.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting, too.

 

Eddie Gilbert definitely tops my list, along with Gino Hernandez. Hernandez had Ric Flair-like potential in and out of the ring and looked like he was on the verge of a major push, but snorted one time too many. Benjamin certainly is up there. I thought Mark Jindrak had main event potential when he started in the waning days of WCW, but for some reason (VKM) or another (himself) just never put it together.

 

Parsons wasn't really a jobber, at least when he first was in WCCW. I consider jobbers to be guys who you know are going to lose the match. Parsons had NWA title shots, and was an 'associate' of the Freebirds when he turned heel.

Some big wastes of talent: Sean O'Haire never did anything after Piper left. Ricky Morton could have been an all-time great, according to Flair, but he didn't break out of the R & R Express when he was at his most hottest. And any thread about waste of talent could probably start with Sid Vicious.

 

WWE wastes talent all the time: see the lightweight division.

 

Biggest wastes of look:

Lex Luger
The Ultimate Warrior
Scott Hall
Nikita Koloff
The Warlord
The Barbarian
The Berzerker

Biggest waste of actual talent (Not counting those who died too soon:
Teddy Hart

Most underutilized talent:
Shelton Benjamin
Charlie Haas
Rob Van Dam
Sabu
Dean Malenko
Bobby Eaton

 

HH has hit the nail on the head of the biggest wastes of talent, but I'd add Kerry Von Erich to that first list.

 

If it weren't for his most recent run, Jeff Hardy would be on the waste list too.

 

Damn, how could I forget about Kerry Von Erich. So much talent. I almost put Vicious on my last response, but considering he did get some main event run and held multiple belts, he fell into the gray area. Still, you do get the feeling that he could have done so much more with his skills.

 

One was a WWF World Champion and multiple time intercontinental champion. The other was in the NWA and AWA main event scenes for years. How can you consider either a waste?