The Most Controversial Figure In Professional Wrestling
Posted by Douglas Nunnally
on 02/15/2006
Originally posted on October 2, 2004.
Mystique: Good evening and welcome to another edition of the Wrestling Roundtable. I am Mystique, your moderator. Our normal panel seems to be on vacation so joining us we have Scott Stover of MOP Squad Sports, as well as Anthony Borg and Joe Bachman of TWV. Gentlemen, you know things run so we will begin with tonight's topic. “Who is the most controversial figure in professional wrestling and why?”
Douglas Nunnally: I would have to go with Triple H at this point because of the amount of rumors around him. The backstage politics, the no selling at times, the reduced talent that results in a main event push of epic proportions; all of this works against him. True, we can't prove half of the stuff that makes him controversial, but the outcry from the public alone makes the case for him being the most controversial figure a strong one.
Mystique: Doug, do you think that his marriage to Stephanie helps or hurts his status with the fans and other wrestlers?
Douglas Nunnally: Definitely hurts. People will always try and find fault with anything no matter what it is. Whether or not he truly loves her, it doesn't matter because people will always say he married her for the status, which only backs up my point from before.
Mystique: Do you think he deserves to be World Heavyweight champion, or is he simply holding onto the belt for selfish reasons?
Douglas Nunnally: I can't prove he is or isn't, but I do not think he should be champ. His wrestling is sub-par to what it was in 2000, and to be honest, there are so many more deserving like Benoit, Orton, Jericho, Kane, HBK, and more. All get huge pops and do a hell of a lot better than Triple H. Triple H is stale, and basically, him being champ every other month hurts the brand.
Anthony Borg: I also think Triple H shouldn't hold the world title right now. Orton shouldn’t even be in the main event challenging for it. I think he should feud for the Intercontinental Championship instead. In my opinion, I think Benoit should still be holding that world title because he deserves it for a longer period he is a great athlete. Triple H should take a few months away from wrestling because as Doug said he is getting stale and RAW couldn’t afford having a stale champion.
Joe Bachman: I agree Benoit without a doubt should be holding the world title. Like in my previous column, the WCW title changed hands 63 times in 11 years; the title has no prestige to it. Having a credible champion like Benoit to hold it to possibly even to next Wrestlemania would be a smart thing to do and give the title some image. If not Benoit, at least Chris Jericho who has deserved of at least a world title feud for some time now.
Anthony Borg: I think if Benoit had held the title till Wrestlemania 21, people might have gotten bored of him as champion. Yes, he is one of the greatest stars RAW has to offer, but I think a title reign which is a year long would make people start to get bored with Benoit. So I think his reign at least should have ended at Survivor Series, and then he could enter Wrestlemania as the No. 1 contender for the title or in a high profile feud.
Mystique: I have an answer that might get me in trouble with at least one person on this forum. I choose the infamous man in red and yellow, Hulk Hogan. Yes Hogan did a lot for the business, but he turns his back on a man who helped him get so popular, testifies against him in open court, almost costs the man his livelihood, goes south to WCW trashes the company that put him on the map, and then comes back 9 years later causes more grief then retires? Yes, he's done a lot, but he's also hurt the business and people in it in countless ways for selfish reasons.
Scott Stover: Without a doubt, I am one of Hogan's biggest fans ever. However, I can appreciate what happens behind the scenes. Behind the scenes, Hogan was an opportunist and a fraud, because of his nice little "creative control" clauses. I mean, who can forget the change in the Wrestlemania IX card to make him champion, or the change at Bash at The Beach where Vince Russo chastised him for the creative control. As great of a historical figure he is, he is very controversial.
Douglas Nunnally: Hogan has got to be one of the best wrestlers of all time for the pure reason of his entertainment skill. He got up to the level of icon, and wanted to stay there. With that said, everything he did in the next, oh say, 20 years was controversial. No selling, not jobbing, always leaving Wrestlemania on top, always having the strap, and always in the spotlight. As much as I believe my Triple H point, I am inclined to agree with Hogan on this issue. He is the most controversial character of all time in wrestling, to me, and what frightens me is that he is not officially done yet.
Anthony Borg: Ok, first off I have to give my respect to Hogan because when he comes to the ring and rips off his shirt he gets one of the biggest pops of the night, and that is something hard to do in the wrestling business, in my opinion. But there is something about Hogan that bothers me a lot. Sometimes when I hear rumors about him around the internet, I think he still thinks that he is a wrestler. He still thinks that he is still a big star, but sadly he’s not and I think he should stay away from the wrestling business.
Joe Bachman: In my opinion the most controversial wrestler isn't actually a wrestler, but I feel that he needs to be mentioned. This man is none other than Paul Heyman. I'll explain. Rather you think hardcore started with The Sheik or Japan, Paul Heyman took the ECW product and shoved it's bloody, violent, racy self in everyone's faces. In effect, this basically split the wrestling community into two sides. We always see the wrestling purists yearning for true wrestling, high spots, and respect much like ECW had, they don't care about politics, or backstage shenanigans, and they want Jericho and Benoit as champ and not Triple H or JBL. They split two different approaches to wrestling. You don't have to be WWE-Bred to be a star, you don't have to be 280 pounds and bulked up on steroids, you don’t have to have flashy entrances. Paul Heyman brought ECW into wrestling fans homes and changed the view of wrestling to many, many fans in which the effects are still seen today with heated debates about how much the WWE and Vince and WCW "stole" from ECW. Wrestlers like RVD, Rhyno, Tommy Dreamer were kept down. They split the fans into 2 completely different interests which has sparked more than enough controversy, even when Heyman himself screamed at Vince on SmackDown! a few years about it right to his face. The "ECW fans knew about it," but on the other side the fans really had no clue that what Heyman was saying was correct. Heyman and ECW are responsible for most of the anti-WWE IWC for the past few years from the past effects.
Scott Stover: After a little thinking, I have to consider one of the most controversial figures in pro wrestling to be Vince McMahon. Even though he is considered the greatest wrestling promoter ever (which can be discussed at a later debate at another time), a lot of the decisions and actions of his over the years have been met with great controversy. Wrestlemania was met with great controversy at the beginning but became a great success for wrestling and in pop culture. People said he was crazy for wanting to draw a claimed 93,000 people to the Silverdome for Wrestlemania III, but he "did it". Some decisions did not turn out so well such as his booking of wrestlers to the top who were simply "big", which has met the ire of the internet community on countless occasions. Also in the booking, he booked himself of all people to be WWF Champion and a Royal Rumble winner. Like Joe said, he took the ideas from ECW in order to make his product better and it worked! He hires who he needs to and brings in who he needs to make ratings and draw buzz. He was the brains behind the XFL for crying out loud and we know how that turned out. And he was the brains behind the infamous Montreal Screw job. Needless to say, I do not need to explain that whole story. The key here is that while he is a risk taker, many of his decisions were meant with controversy over the last twenty to twenty five years-good or bad.
Mystique: Scott what do you make of his famous 1990's federal trial? Do you think he was guilty?
Scott Stover: I think he might have been. There was a lot of evidence to prove it, but for whatever reason, he was innocent. I think it is one of those cases that could have gone either way.
Mystique: And the accusations of sexual harassment?
Scott Stover: Again, same thing. Behind the scenes, there is no way to know if he did it or not unless he acknowledged it publicly.
Douglas Nunnally: Well, we have touched on main figure heads. Paul Heyman, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, and Vince McMahon, but to me, there is one that I overlooked who blows all those out of the water: Teddy Hart. About half of the readers probably have never heard of him, but Teddy is a frequent wrestler on the Indy circuit and is always at the center of controversy. He is not like any of the other Harts, is attributed for the "spot fest" craze of the past 2 years, is always saying something disrespectful to veterans or rookies, and basically just making an ass out of him at every chance. Though a lot argue that he is just living his character in an attempt to bring back kayfabe, you can't argue that he is not controversial. Everything he does brings a new reaction. Making comments about Jerry Lynn sucking, no selling at times, opening/closing two different promotions, and more all makes him the most controversial figure at least today, if not of all time.
Anthony Borg: Ok, maybe most of you don’t agree with me, but in my opinion another controversial person in the WWE is John "Bradshaw" Layfield and here are my reasons. In my opinion, JBL is a good WWE Champion, but remember all the controversy he had when he changed his gimmick and became number one contender for WWE Title? I think the IWC wasn’t too happy about seeing him at main event level. And something that brought controversy to his name was that he sent offenses to the IWC too. And I think his main event level think really went to his head because he said some stupid things. But the most controversial thing about JBL was the incident in Germany that is remembered, in my opinion, by everyone around the internet. It brought a lot of controversy to JBL's name people started criticizing him more. But then I think JBL gave a good reason to why he did what he did to Germany. To some people JBL might be controversial because he is not very talented in the ring (even though he has improved greatly) and they want to see a better champion than JBL.
Joe Bachman: I think JBL has done some controversial things, but it seemed to me that JBL was A) A poor man's Ted DiBiase and B) A pathetic attempt at pulling a top heel out of a weak talent pool and trying to make it work. JBL is controversial though within that aspect though, plus the fact that he does go the extra mile in getting heat over his usual racist remarks etc. But I think it's a tribute to the WWE's weak pool of heels and bad writing.
Anthony Borg: I would like to add one other thing; the JBL gimmick also shows that the WWE can’t think of any original gimmicks so they recycle older ones. I don’t like that idea because it shows a lack of creativity from the WWE and it is sometimes disrespectful to the wrestler who used that gimmick first.
Mystique: Okay then, I want to thank our special guests Joe Bachman, Scott Stover, and Anthony Borg for joining us. Hopefully the lads will return from holiday next week in one piece. And thank you to the readers for giving the Roundtable great feedback. With that, say good night to the readers gentlemen.
Douglas Nunnally: Nighty night!
Joe Bachman: Later.
Scott Stover: “Good night to the readers gentlemen.”
Anthony Borg: Good night and beware I might be under your bed. [Laughs]
Scott Stover: Or beware it’s an escapee from the Psych Ward.
Mystique: And until next time, this is Mystique saying be kind to each other, and beware of psycho ex-girlfriends!
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