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I tend not to try and chime in about “behind the scenes” situations or really even speak much on many current events in the WWE universe, but this week just begged me to do so. I wasn’t thrilled about last week's WWE releases such as Brad Attitude and Nick Patrick. As a fan I don’t enjoy seeing anyone being let go from any job really. But the following performers got a major RAW deal (and not the type of “RAW” deal they wanted and deserved.). The talents below may never have gotten to be main-eventers, although I’d argue that if used right they could have and WWE dropped that ball. That said, they were excellent as enhancement talent. They could make those performers around them shine and sparkle like no other. Let’s start out with the man who did that best out of this unfortunate bunch, Stevie Richards, and then move on from there.
Stevie Richards.
When you put the words “Good luck on you future endeavors” next to the words, former ECW tag team champion, former 22 time WWE hardcore champion, several former championships in the NWA, HWA, and APWF, and former leader of The Blue World Order, it just doesn’t seem to make sense. After all of those accomplishments you can add on great guy on the stick, excellent in-ring performer, part of a sad Right to Censor angle that he made better, made Victoria the Fabulous Moolah of the 90’s, and just last week completely put over the ever worsening Russian Monster on smackdown and your head just begins to sag over the WWE’s decision to put Richards out to pasture. Stevie had the ability to make anyone in the ring better and there is no reason for WWE’s decision to let him go in my eyes. For me, if I never see Richards on my TV (and that would be very sad indeed) I will remember him from ECW’s first ever PPV in what I consider to be one of the top 10 matches in ECW history where he competed in a 3-way dance for the championship against Terry Funk and The Sandman.
Big Daddy V
For years this was my favorite big man in all WWE and I am really sad to see him go. Rumor has it he was told to lose some weight or he wouldn’t be wrestling. Being that I struggle with that issue daily I can understand how hard that is. I hope, if he wants it, he gets in shape and gets another shot. I thought the BDV character was his best yet and I would have loved a twin towers idea for him with Mark Henry and Tony Atlas playing the role of Slick. Many people forget how young Daddy started out in the WWE. He was born in 1972 according to Wikipedia.org and I can remember people talking about his youth during the old WWF days when he was a part of Men on a Mission. He had more time to put in if you ask me. He has gone by the names Viscera and Mable and he has worked each character he was given. In many ways V reminded me of Yokozuna. He is a very agile big man. He also seems to understand the timing and workings of the in-ring work. He could have been used to elevate HHH, MVP, Kane or Batista. He also would have been great as an enforcer type for someone like “The Brian Kendrick”. It was a mistake to let this guy go.
The Highlanders
Honestly they were swimming in a pond where the sharks are not keen on tag team wrestling. That said, they both have a lot of skill and my guess is they are headed to TNA very soon. They may not have worked as a tag team but again, if they had been repackaged as singles stars they could have been just as good or better than Kenny Dykstra who we saw just last night on our televisions.
Nunzio and Shannon Moore
I am putting these two together because lets just call a spade a spade. These two are small. It is that simple. No one in their right mind can tell me or any other fan that these two guys didn’t have the entire package other than their actual height. No one (and this includes the Hardyz) was better at flying than Shannon. No one was better technically than Nunzio. Both weren’t half bad on the mike. Moore was with Yang all year in what I thought was the best tag team in all of wrestling. This includes ROH, WWE and TNA. They had strong PPV type matches every week with Morrison and the Miz. This is a tremendous loss.
Cherry
Cherry….She was getting better just as Kelly Kelly is and she was even less green. She was good in the talking side of things. She played the character given well and in my opinion she was just about to be the next Molly Holly. She got trounced on and her job was lost and this was just insane. All the big name girls; Lita, Trish, Ashley are gone…Candice is out on injury. That leaves Phoenix, Victoria, Michelle McCool, and Mickie James as the strong one’s…Cherry really could have elevated the division, especially on smackdown. They didn’t not let this Cherry rose blossom. Cherry, if you are listening – go to TNA, get a job, beat the crap out of Kong and the beautiful people and then write a letter with a picture of you and the TNA Knockout title to any of those who doubted you with a big Stone Cold salute!
WWE is not looking at the overall picture in my opinion and it will bite them in the you know where down the line.
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