Old School vs New School - How to introduce talent

Once upon a time, when I was a little mark, I'd watch wrestling and think it was all real. A promo for a new wrestler would air and I'd get caught up in the image the he projected and look forward to his arrival.

Weeks would pass and the promos would get more detailed, or sometimes, even more mysterious.

By the time the superstar arrived you were bouncing up and down waiting for his entry. If he was lucky he's get a minute of interview time backstage before his first match.

You'd hear his music for the first time and sit up in anticipation.

And he'd win, normally in grand style.

For a while it became the job of Virgil, Skinner, the Big Boss Man, or sometime even El Matador, to job to the new comer. This gave the new man an instant victory over a credible mid carder.

Take Bam Bam Bigelow and his second run in the WWF. Living in England in the pre-satellite era I missed Bam Bam the first time around. When he returned he was new to me and I hadn't a clue of his history. He arrived and squashed the mid carders (as above) with an array of amazing athletic big-man skills and established himself as a credible heel in short order.

Even though I enjoyed booing him I could, even as a mark, appreciate his skill in the ring and when I discovered his past achievements later on I was very proud to have seen him wrestle.

Now lets fast forward.

Primo Colon joins WWE and is given no promos and no history beyond what the commentators say 30 seconds before he appears.

Week One on Raw

'Hi I'm Primo Colon'

'Sorry kid you're not interesting I'm off to speak to John Cena.'

Hmmm okay, not sure exactly what they want us to think of him. He looks very young, I don't know anything about him (no promos). He doesn't have a gimmic of any sort that leaps off the screen, okay that's still not a big problem if we can hear him talk....oh wait Ademley has just ran away from him. Why should I care about him?

Week 2 on Raw

Primo actually gets in the ring! He looks good, he's fast, still no promo time, but hey he's got the basics. He hits a few nice high flying moves and the rest of the stuff he does is passable.

PROBLEM - his opponent is "Charlito". This undermines the kid from day one as the crowd is too busy laughing at what an arse Charlie Haas is making of himself to care about Primo.

Oh and he hits a cross body block from the top rope as a finisher.

We havn't got to week three of Primo on Raw yet but you can see the differences between his entry into the company and Bam Bam's

Bam Bam is a veteran from wrestling all around the world, Primo is a young kid who is just really starting his career in the spotlight.

Bam Bam is given promos prior to his arrival to wet the appitite of the crowd, Primo has no promo time and is made to look like a nobody on his first appearance.

Bam Bam squahes a crediable mid carder in his first match, Primo is put against a comedy wrestler with a bad gimmic.

Bam Bam hit an impressive 300 hundred pound moonsault finisher to win his debu, Primo hit a cruiserweight cross body block from the top.

Now it may seem like I'm trying to hate on Primo and give sweet lovin to Bigelow but it's not the case. I'm just using these two men to illustrate how times have changed in the WWE.

Once upon a time we'd get a veteran star joining the company who is build to look like a threat.

Now we get a youngster who is made to look like a nobody.

And the only people to blame for this?

The WWE themselves.

I don't get what your saying. You've said Bigelow had already been in WWF and was already a respected performer among the fans. Why would this new comer get the same opportunity? The two people you've picked isn't really a fair comparison. I'm sure Bigelow didn't come in and beat a mid carder when he started out. Mick Foley's first WWE match was as Jack Foley and he was introduced and got kicked in by the Bulldogs and that was it. And to be honest if Primo did squash a respected mid-carder it would look pretty shit for them. He's been given air time on Raw, that's more than a lot of wrestlers ever get.

There's a big difference to a return and a debut, a return is someone who has obviously already proved himself, Primo is debuting and debutuing and the A-Show of the top wrestling company, you can't expect him to be hyped up a lot, I mean the world champion hardly gets hype.

Bigelow was returning, yes, but at no point did the WWF, even for a second, mention his past in the company.

It was only when I saw some old footage of Bigelow in some grey tights fighting Hogan from years ago that I even knew that he had ever been in the WWE prior to his arrival wearing flames and calling himself the Beast from the East.

Take the comparision from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about either guy.

Watch them in the ring for the first time as I did.

Then ask yourself who is the most interesting?

And why the WWE doesn't properly package its new stars.

Or better still, stop giving us bland newbie jobbers who have years to go before they should even be in the WWE and packaging them as the next up and coming superstar.

Primo Colon is there for one reason in my opinion, to show Carlito what he is going to miss when he is eventually shown the door

squig69 wrote:

Bigelow was returning, yes, but at no point did the WWF, even for a second, mention his past in the company.

It was only when I saw some old footage of Bigelow in some grey tights fighting Hogan from years ago that I even knew that he had ever been in the WWE prior to his arrival wearing flames and calling himself the Beast from the East.

Take the comparision from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about either guy.

Watch them in the ring for the first time as I did.

Then ask yourself who is the most interesting?

And why the WWE doesn't properly package its new stars.

Or better still, stop giving us bland newbie jobbers who have years to go before they should even be in the WWE and packaging them as the next up and coming superstar.

That still doesn't take away the fact that WWE had seen and knew what Bigelow could do and what he had to offer on the big stage. I think its good WWE are trying to bring in a 'new era' of performers as the old ones retire, what I think they should have done is have Primo on ECW, its very hard to make an impact on the top show with so much going on.

Okay, I'll conceed the point that WWE knew Bigelo as a performer, which would colour the push he rcvd.

Perhaps my point (and I obviously havn't made it well ) is that a new talent now gets shafted in comparison to say 10-15 years ago.

Replace Bam Bam in my example with Razor Ramon (a complete WWF outsider at the time - pardon the pun) and my arguement perhaps holds more water.

yeah they gave carlito many promos as well with the apple thing so he would be a heel and jessie and festes had many to

If WWE gave promos to every bum and no-name that they had debuting then there would hardly be any room for much else.

I honestly don't get the point of what you're saying.

bazz23-v2 ®™ wrote:

If WWE gave promos to every bum and no-name that they had debuting then there would hardly be any room for much else.

I honestly don't get the point of what you're saying.

You've made my point for me. This is the WWE for Christs sake! They are not supposed to hire bums and no-names. We are supposed to get the very best the world of wrestling, not a mass of rookies who should still be on the indy circuit!

Back in the days of Prime Time you'd have maybe two or three named stars fighting each other a show.

The other matches were no name squashes that highlighted the companies superstars.

Now everyone is a super star and the company keeps on throwing kids who we've never heard of at us and they expect us to care.

I don't care about kids like Primo Colon, not because he's young, but because WWE has given me no reason to care about him.

If they expect me to cheer him just because he's new then they're wrong.

They got Jesse and Festus right, but they've messed up big time with kids like DH Smith, Primo Colon, Hawkins and Ryder, Kenny Dykstra and Elijah Burke.

My point is simple, WWE is just throwing guys at us to see what sticks without thinking about the fan reaction to an unknown star and that doesn't work.

What would you have done with Colon then?

Giving him more interview time would be stupid, why would anyone care? He has to be built up in matches so he can look good and then develop a character and then be given more interview time.

I'm genuinely interested to know exactly how you would introduce him.

squig69 wrote:

You've made my point for me. This is the WWE for Christs sake! They are not supposed to hire bums and no-names. We are supposed to get the very best the world of wrestling, not a mass of rookies who should still be on the indy circuit!

You don't see the floor in that logic??? seriously???

squig69 wrote:

[Now everyone is a super star and the company keeps on throwing kids who we've never heard of at us and they expect us to care.

I don't care about kids like Primo Colon, not because he's young, but because WWE has given me no reason to care about him.

If they expect me to cheer him just because he's new then they're wrong.

They got Jesse and Festus right, but they've messed up big time with kids like DH Smith, Primo Colon, Hawkins and Ryder, Kenny Dykstra and Elijah Burke.

My point is simple, WWE is just throwing guys at us to see what sticks without thinking about the fan reaction to an unknown star and that doesn't work.

Evan Bourne.................

Okay well off the top of my head (and I'm just spit balling here)

1) At least three weeks of pre recorded promo build letting us know who he is and what he's about.

2) A good strong baby face intro moment. I'm thinking something like this:

Kelly Kelly is in the ring shooting t-shirts to the fans. Katie Lee and Paul Burcill enter and bully her and they look they they are really going to hurt her.

Suddenly Primo Colon enters the arena with his music blaring. He hits the ring and Katie Lee bails while Primo lays the smack down on Paul and they have a pull apart brawl ending in Primo getting the better of Paul with a spinning heel kick or something equally fly.

Paul wants revenge and demands a match against the young intruder later that night. They fight (Kelly Kelly is watching from the back perhaps). We give the kid 10 minutes of air time and allow both men to pull out all the stops. Katie Lee tries to interfere but running from the back Kelly Kelly arrives to stop the heels from cheating.

Primo using the heels confusion to hit a series of hard hitting high flying moves and finishes off Burchill with his awesome (and unseen finisher).

Primo and Kelly Kelly celebrate as the heels beat a retreat.

The week after that but Primo in a match against, say Lance Cade. We don't want to weaken Cade or Colon so at about the eight minute mark Burchill (still wanting revenge for last week) interferes and either gets Cade a DQ or Colon gets screwed and loses via pin.

Burchill grabs the mic and starts to mock the fallen Primo when the youngster recovers. Cue another pull apart brawl!

This leads into a nice feud with Burchill in which we can write Katie Lee, Kelly Kelly, Lance Cade and then branch off into other matchs down the line with, say a feud against Cades mentor, Chris Jericho.


Whew, that was fun. There yah go Discopants, that's what I do for the kid.

I know I'd be interested in him after that.[left]

Did HBK come in at the top?
Took him two years as part of the Rockers to get a tag title.

Bret Hart debuted a cowboy and it took him 7 years in WWF before he had even won the Intercontinental belt.

Triple H came as the Connecticut Blueblood, got pushed intially but ended up in rivalries with Duke Droese and Marty Garner for a while.

Some guys get pushes immediately (Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar) some are slow burners, its happened throughout WWE/F's history, nowadays is no different.
CM Punk went undefeated for 6 months upon debuting in ECW
Ted Dibiase Jr won the tag title in his first match
Kofi Kingston debuted this year and beat Jericho for the Intercontinental belt
All these guys were newbies to WWE yet all have held titles in their first year.

squig69 wrote:

Okay well off the top of my head (and I'm just spit balling here)

1) At least three weeks of pre recorded promo build letting us know who he is and what he's about.

2) A good strong baby face intro moment. I'm thinking something like this:

Kelly Kelly is in the ring shooting t-shirts to the fans. Katie Lee and Paul Burcill enter and bully her and they look they they are really going to hurt her.

Suddenly Primo Colon enters the arena with his music blaring. He hits the ring and Katie Lee bails while Primo lays the smack down on Paul and they have a pull apart brawl ending in Primo getting the better of Paul with a spinning heel kick or something equally fly.

Paul wants revenge and demands a match against the young intruder later that night. They fight (Kelly Kelly is watching from the back perhaps). We give the kid 10 minutes of air time and allow both men to pull out all the stops. Katie Lee tries to interfere but running from the back Kelly Kelly arrives to stop the heels from cheating.

Primo using the heels confusion to hit a series of hard hitting high flying moves and finishes off Burchill with his awesome (and unseen finisher).

Primo and Kelly Kelly celebrate as the heels beat a retreat.

The week after that but Primo in a match against, say Lance Cade. We don't want to weaken Cade or Colon so at about the eight minute mark Burchill (still wanting revenge for last week) interferes and either gets Cade a DQ or Colon gets screwed and loses via pin.

Burchill grabs the mic and starts to mock the fallen Primo when the youngster recovers. Cue another pull apart brawl!

This leads into a nice feud with Burchill in which we can write Katie Lee, Kelly Kelly, Lance Cade and then branch off into other matchs down the line with, say a feud against Cades mentor, Chris Jericho.


Whew, that was fun. There yah go Discopants, that's what I do for the kid.

I know I'd be interested in him after that.[left]

Fair enough but there's still a lot more to consider.

a) There are very few rookies (which is what this is about) who is good enough to do all these promos and have a convincing feud like this. It's a very big step up.

b) It's a big risk. If the fans don't like to him then you have wasted all that air time and energy on him and by feeding him directly to the fans like that he won't get a second chance. It's an all or nothing way of dealing with him.

c) It's a lot of air time considering he's competing against a mid card of Kingston, Marella, Jericho, Priceless etc. You really think the fans would want to see him instead of all these other performers?


Another thing is that there are hundreds of performers of equal standards out there. By "throwing and seeing what sticks" as you say you get to separate the good from the bad without having to risk all that time on single competitors. There's no way if you gave every newcomer 3 weeks of promos the crowd would give a shit each time.

I like what WWE do to be honest. Throw him in there with a little bit of background and let him show us what he can do in the ring. Then if he is capable of getting over in the ring he can then work on gradually building up his character with some feuds and whatever.