This week's Are You Serious got me interested in checking out WCW's Seven, as I'd only heard about it from the Interwebs without ever seeing it for myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtXAtGJ4JQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4inIvA8nm8
That...actually had some potential. Especially the entrance...it may not have played well in the late 90's, but had they played this seriously, I think that this could have become WCW's version of The Undertaker.
Do you think that Seven had any more potential than it's use as a throwaway shoot joke?
- Joe
If you could look past the fact that he came across like a child molester, sure, but the gimmick was a bit too oogy for me.
The entrance was cool but everything else had failure written all over it. Plus, a lazy Dustin Rhodes playing the gimmick didn't help either.
ReplyDeleteThe WCW gimmick that I actually liked and could have been cooler - if it were in the WWE - The KISS Demon. Cool gimmick, wrong company.
Seven aka Uncle Fester, Child Molester.
ReplyDeleteI still remember watching those Nitros and seeing Dustin Runnels looking in the window and going What the Fuck is this?
Raven had an idea of the Seven gimmick that sounded cool.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I too assumed Seven would be a catastrophe. But I thought the same thing about Goldust, and that became one of my all-time favorite gimmicks. Dustin could have made it work.
ReplyDeleteStill, seeing how WCW royally screwed up Berlyn I didn't have much faith.
I think that this could have become WCW's version of The Undertaker.
ReplyDeleteC'mmon, are we really going to throw around these typ of comparisons willy-nilly? The UT? Really? lol.
The biggest problem was that the gimmick wasn't given a chance to succeed. It was abandoned in its debut and turned into another Russo worked-shoot nightmare.
ReplyDeleteI think a child abductor/molestor gimmick could be huge. especially if you take an established babyface that goes from interacting with the minor fans to creepily interacting with the minor fans. actually that one of those gimmicks where I really think it could be gaining that much heat that the guy portraying him would always have to have security around him to protect him.
ReplyDeleteYes, but not the Dustin Rhodes/WCW thing. Raven has said before in interviews that when he was in WWF he pitched a storyline to play out on Sunday Night Heat based on the film Se7ens. He never got too in depth about its content but said it involved him enacting the 7 Deadly Sins on his opponents & was supposed to lead to The Hurricane ultimately defeating him.
ReplyDeleteYou just couldn't do it in a wcw or a wwe, even ecw or xpw wouldn't touch something like that... Unless the 'minor' was hornswaggle or something like that, which would take any heat off it and make it stupid un-funny 'comedy'
ReplyDeleteWow. What the fuck? The videos were creepy for all the same reasons stated, but the entrance was fucking awesome and then...they just blew all that build-up in like 4 seconds.
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck?! That's like...the most WCW debuts of all WCW debuts. What a fucking waste of such a talent.
And yeah, I'll go ahead and admit I'm not particularly interested in any child molesting angles, kids get enough of that at church and football practice apparently.
Like saying 'Shark Boy 3:16 could've been the next Eddie Guerrero'
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, the Sandusky case will probably go to the jury today.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I'm excited for that guy to spend the rest of his life in jail, that enabling cunt Dottie needs to be bludgeoned with a bat. Fucking *TWAT* just sat upstairs watching TV while this ghoul was taking kids down to his basement.
ReplyDeleteFucking bitch.
Glad to see someone listened to George Costanza. Maybe WWE should also let George come up with names for their wrestlers. Seven, Soda and Thirteen would certainly be better than Michael McGillicutty.
ReplyDeleteIn Dustin's book he talks about the Seven character a bit.
ReplyDeleteHe said the gimmick was something he, his dad and brother thought up and put together. WCW spent $20,000 shooting the vignettes, and the thing was ready to go.
Then the night of his premiere Russo found him backstage and persuaded him to drop the character in favor of a worked shoot. Dustin said it was left to him as to whether or not to drop the gimmick, and that he regretted doing so at the time, but then puts over Russo and says in retrospect he was right.
Honestly, I don't think it was much of a loss. Dustin Rhodes is a pretty sub par wrestler to being with, and was going through a variety of personal problems at that time. WCW never pushed anyone anyway. Seven would have just been a midcarder in a costume, like Glacier, Wrath, and The Kiss Demon before him.
A few months ago she was on tape with one of the kids (now grown up) talking about knowing what's going on, and this week she's saying nothing happened? WTF is that? They should charge her as a accessory. Wouldn't surprise me if he got off with 9 of the jurors having connections to Penn State and Micheal Jackson setting the precedent that it's OK to molest kids if you're famous. As a sidenote, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me as far as football goes, I'm done with the whole fucking sport.
ReplyDeleteJust now saw on SportsCenter that the case has gone to the jury. Wonder how long it takes, the longer they deliberate, more likely it is that he gets off.
It was fucking Dustin Rhodes in powdered donut.. or cocaine...
ReplyDeleteStop posting these goofs emails.
That was from his shoot interview in 2003. LOVED THAT IDEA. But it would have never worked in any promotion BUT ECW.
ReplyDeleteBigger problem, it was Duh-Stin Rhodes.
ReplyDeleteDo you know any further info on that angle? It could have been cool, especially if it only lived on Sunday Night Heat
ReplyDeleteYeah I gave up on football this year as well for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1) For an "hour long game" we see like...eleven minutes of actual play and,
2) That sports coaching system more than any other breeds this drooling "Do Whatever Coach Tells Me" mentality that leads to shit like the Penn State case. I mean sure, you get that in lots of sports but not nearly like football where players *don't do ANYTHING* that wasn't directed by a coach compared to like Hockey or Basketball where, while you are running plays, there's LOTS of time on the court/ice where you're making your own decisions.
There's no way he gets off. After that Costas interview? No fucking way, they're probably trying to figure out a way to find him guilty without leaving the college open to MOST EPIC CIVIL SUIT EVER.
Ugh, I found this shit disgusting before I had kids but now...I don't understand how there aren't more murder cases in relation to this type of stuff.
I probably wouldn't enjoy football without gambling and playing fantasy football. Football is the most perfect sport to bet on.
ReplyDeleteLast year at the end of the season a buddy and I went through the entire year's schedule and flipped a coin for every game, Coin's average was like 53% correct.
ReplyDeleteNow, this didn't account for home-field advantage or clear picks (like Coin would pick Bengals over the Pats because...I mean...it's a coin lol)
So I'm thinking this next season I'm just going to bet on the entire schedule in one go using coin for everything except easy picks like that and see where it goes, I'm thinking I can get that average up to like 65-70%
It's the only way I figure I'll be assed to watch football next year. I'm basically trying to very subtly get my son to like hockey (we're buying NHL Network FOR THE KIDS...seriously honey!) more than football because a sport based on hitting your head scares the piss out of me.
Totally believe your coin flip story, that sport in particular (and hockey) can be very unpredictible.
ReplyDeleteI guess I just love to gamble and football has a ton of cool prop bets every week.
As for the kids, no sport is better than baseball. It pays the most with the least percentage of permanent injuries. Mind you, don't get hit in the face with a fastball in the battersbox :-)
"no sport is better than baseball"
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a reason I always liked you.
Not really their fault. He debuted around the time of Columbine, so fascists in trench coats were sort of taboo. It also didn't help that both Bagwell and Duggan went into business for themselves and made Alex Wright look bad.
ReplyDeleteDidn't it actually start? Around the time he was doing his "breaking fingers" gimmick? Was it Heat where Cassidy O'Reilly was Raven-lite (or was that in TNA)?
ReplyDeleteI just read a story in the paper about a guy (I think in Texas) hearing his 4 year old daughter scream and finding a 60 year old man in the middle of molesting her. He beat the molester to death with his bare hands. And they announced he wouldn't be charged with anything. As I was reading the story I could picture millions of dads around the country highfiving each other.
ReplyDeleteAnybody know when exactly these vignettes aired? I know Seven/Dustin debuted in November 99, but when were the vignettes shown?
ReplyDeletei should as i listen to the raven shoot about once a week. just find his shoot interview from 2003 and he goes into detail about the angle. it wont be hard to find if you goto the proper sources.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Seven could have been the next Undertaker, but it was a pretty interesting gimmick, and I would take that gimmick over Dustin playing himself. Gimmickless Dustin is always pretty bland.
ReplyDeleteWCW also had a few interesting gimmicks in 1999 that never went anywhere as Alex Wright's Berlyn character had some legs to make him into an upper midcarder, but they chose to give that push to the Wall instead.
The vignettes aired a month prior, pretty much all through October 99.
ReplyDeleteYou're confusing Sandusky's wife with Laurie Fine, Bernie Fine's wife, the old Syracuse basketball assistant.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but they wasted no time stripping Alex of his entourage and focusing on his bodyguard instead. They didn't even give him time to recover from the Bagwell incident. It's a shame because Berlyn drew pretty good heat with his evil interpreter.
ReplyDelete"That sport's coaching system more than any other breeds this drooling "Do Whatever Coach Tells Me" mentality that leads to shit like the Penn State case."
ReplyDeleteThat right there conveys my feelings to a tee. That, and these fully grown men who all have daddy issues (girls get into porn, boys play football) and can't think for themselves. Not all football players, but a pretty healthy amount. The constant hype, especially by ESPN, is a real turnoff too. They do know that it's the offseason and there's sports actually going on right now, right?
As for Sandusky, the courts are so fucked up these days I got it about 50/50 that he gets off, maybe more so with that jury. A guy here in Buffalo hit a girl with his car drunk and killed her, left the scene, later pretty much admitted to it, and got off because he was rich. The dumb-ass jury actually believed that he didn't know he hit her because his BMW is somewhat soundproof. Bullshit, you hit someone with such force that they fly over 200 feet you hear it, unless you're diving a fucking tank, and that still doesn't change the fact that you were driving around shitfaced and killed someone. So lets just say I don't have a lot of confidence in the justice system.
As for Paterno, the only good thing that came out of all of this was seeing that asshole get knocked down a few pegs. Shame he did before he could get bankrupted in civil suits.
Or take a comebacker to the face. They need to something about the aluminum bats before someone gets killed. But yeah, baseball's the shit.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Paul Roma.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you're right.
ReplyDeleteBest part of that gimmick was the "floating" entrance, which Undertaker adopted for his bad-ass entrance at Wrestlemania 21.
ReplyDeleteThere's a certain ring to Soda McGillicutty
ReplyDeleteA child molester gimmick would be in very bad taste and pretty awful but for some reason, seeing a wrestler sexually harass Hornswoggle (who's an adult anyway) would be fucking hilarious.
ReplyDelete"Hey little buddy..."
IN SENIOR CREATIVE MEETING, DIDDLING ON THIS BULLSHIT RAW SCRIPT, BORED. FUCK YOU. http://twitpic.com/9yzmt3
ReplyDeleteGod Bless PremiumVince.
Gotta post something...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought I was remembering it wrong until you said something. They took this time to build it up with creepy but effective vignettes, and then Russo (at least I think it was Russo) does the Mosh/Chaz Beaver Cleavage angle again and craps on the idea/gimmick they just created. It didn't make Dustin look like a rebel. It made him look like an idiot for running with the gimmick to begin with. Those worked shoots were so counter productive, bashing their own product again and again. The lesson at the end of the day is this: Don't make the audience feel like losers for watching your show because you bash your own show so much.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Mickey?
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed that they (Russo) didn't even give it a chance. I mean, who thought Golddust would work? Dustin Rhodes was pretty good at playing these weird, eccentric characters and this was a truly creepy one, possibly the creepiest wrestling character ever. Didn't Russo start booking shows right after Halloween Havoc? I assume Russo had nothing to do with the original conception of the idea.
ReplyDeleteI thought he originally came up with the Sean O'Haire Devil's Advocate gimmick that Stephanie McMahon "didn't get".
ReplyDeleteSmart guy - now I understand why he had the two accounts. Basically he's got a backup account for anytime the "main" one goes away. Thank goodness, because that crrankyvince stuff was poor.
ReplyDeleteI could imagine this having been any worse than "American Nightmare" Dustin Rhodes wearing shirts in the ring with gigantic brass buttons bigger than hockey pucks on it. Either way, it was a Dustin gimmick, it was never gonna end up being anything more relevant than GothDust. Which is pretty much what Black Reign was.
ReplyDeleteThere's already a guy wrestling, in CZW no less, under the name of tHURTeen. So only Soda is left.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who grew up in Penn State country, about two hours away from main campus, I gave up on college football for one reason. I'll give you one guess as to why.
ReplyDeleteNice Gordon Solie Starrcade '83 reference on the #1 reason.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're absolutely spot-on on the #2 reason. I have no respect for Penn State whatsoever after that whole scandal.
That reminds me, boy did TNA really drop the ball in not putting Stone Cold Shark Boy in a program with Kurt Angle. They had comedy gold right there in front of them and they were too stupid to realize it.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, this was the same company that thought it was a good idea to have AJ Styles do a shootfight with Frank Trigg.
Seven's entrance music was weird as well. Sounds like they recycled The Boss' 1993 WCW theme with some spooky sound effects added to it.
ReplyDeleteRight up there with Pat Tanaka using Goldberg's music before Goldberg himself started using it where as soon as you see and hear it, you just think to yourself "WTF?".
"Hey Hornswoggle.. do you like movies about gladiators?"
ReplyDeleteThat's awful, murder is murder and child molesters still have civil rights.
ReplyDeleteI"m waiting for Antonio to toss Hornswoggle.
ReplyDelete