Thoughts about Kozlov (contains SmackDown 20.06. stuff)

I have not quite surveyed yet what the general opinion on Kozlov is, but after watching the last SmackDown it dawned on me that he quite possibly could be awesome.

Comparisons have been drawn between Kozlov's non-gimmick and the classic Rocky IV character Ivan Drago and the WWE plays it out rather nicely by irritating everyone by not letting Kozlov having an entrance theme, the constant flow of jobbers he gets fed and that hilarious "Me Kozlov, me dominate Double Double E" promo.

So, in my opinion Kozlov could be rather entertaining in the future. I am not saying he will or should be in the main event picture, but he could be good in the mid card. And once his hellishness has run its course, let him be a goofy face.

Also, his headbut in the last match was so






I really liked it, and the way Kozlov delivered it made it totally believable that this, in fact, is able to end matches.


Anyway, what do you think about Kozlov?

He is obviously a good wrestler vs smaller guys, but id like to see him move up , which i spose he is doing facing "NAMED" jobbers

i feel they can do anything they want with him really, hes proven he can handle a funnier approach, which could lead him to being a cult favorite.

think his finisher will evolve in time too. and his moveset change for bigger guys. but still use a good core of varying suplexes

I hope they continue building him up for a while. But not too long. WWE has had some odd pacing when it came to build ups for big guys.
Take Snitsky: Destroyed jobbers for what felt like an eternity, and nothing very much was done with him. But then again he is no Kozlov, so maybe that is a bad comparison.

I really do wonder how he will fare against heavier guys. Manhandling the likes of Jamie Noble, I daresay, isn't exactly an awesome display of power.

well kurt angle could suplex people well that are a big bigger than him, obv not the giants, but i think they will be stamped out (ironicly) and hopefully.

could even see him team with regal on his return and therfore burchill in a mini stable.

i hope matches are booked well 2nite. and its not 3 hours of drafting. kovlov could even get a close matchup if they have a 3 way brand supremacy theme running through the night

As grendle said, snitsky used to have matches that were 30seconds long against people like the highlanders and val venis and london and kendrick but when he got to the big stars like triple h and others like him, he got slaughtered i dunno why they will bother with kozlov or what ever, there is no point him going against people i've never even heard of for his first match people like shannon moor is too easy for him

That's because although Snitsky wasn't good enough to face the likes of Kane, he still didn't look believable losing to Brian Kendrick.

Kozlov on the other hand has actual talent (not just size), and should be feuding with people such as Kennedy in the not too distant future.

Kozlov vs Umaga fued!

I cant see that Umagas a GOOD wrestler and should be better if they allow his gimmick to become a little more civalized as this means he could adopt new moves, ones that arent just pure brutal
Maybe a few suplexs and a bulldog and a neckbreaker

A samoan bulldog you mean

huh? umaga has a kick ass move ste

spike
somoan drop
diving headbutt
but face thing
the abyss special thing[wreskcing ball i think]
a reversed sto
running head drop
adn that kick thing

he needs a better finisher thats about it i think.

isnt it the black hole slam another one for my thread

Aye it is

Somoan Drop , Diving headbutt , Butt thing

they would all be decen enough finishers IMO

He seems like a beast but I wonder how he would do against the big guys. He's been wrestling all these small dudes to make him look good.

Yep, that is always a problem with using squash matches to introduce guys: They sure look impressive beating up 100 lb. guys, but go all Snitsky-ish when they go up against people roughly their size and weight.

Yep, same one. Good foreshadowing of some hilarious promos in the future, I think!

now there he is, attacking the #1contender.
Do you think, the longest push in wrestlinghistory finally gets to an aim?
I hope for and do you know what? I like him very much. That USA chants make me sick! The same as with the neareast chars, Yokozuna and finally the great Kahli! I'm sick of the dumb fans, souting everybody, who's not from the continent.
I'll clap hands for everybody, he bashes. Hope,they'll spend him a long heel title run after they build up this immortal-aura around him... Till at least Hogan (I'm a real american) or somebody else comes to save the country from him..

I am worried now that because he attacked Hardy he'll be added into the match to make it a Triple Threat so that Triple H can end his winning streak.

If that's the case; bad booking from WWE.

Ugh, I don't want to see Kozlov involved with Triple H in any way. That would just kill any momentum Kozlov had built, and just for putting Triple H over, which he really doesn't need.

Kozlov has really grown on me, and I like the fact that he now gets involved with main event guys like Jeff Hardy. The thing with Big Show would have been good, too. But alas, a feud with Jeff Hardy could serve to further establish him as a legitimate threat, even if he does not come out on top.

But the thing is how many weeks is it until No Mercy?

3 or 4. Which is why I'm worried he'll be added to the match and he'll be beaten by Triple H.

This will do a world of bad for him. Remember Snitsky? Alright, I am sorry to remind anyone of Snitsky, but the same thing happened to him on his (hopefully) last run:

Squashes a lot of no-names, gets built up as a monster heel in ECW as well as Raw. Then Triple H goes over him, and all monster heel-credibility just vanished, as did Snistky shortly after.

I might have gotten the chronology mixed up a bit with this, but it's only about Snitsky so I don't feel too bad. The point is that a monster was built up in a similar fashion to Kozlov, Hunter went over him, monster disappears. I was not bothered that much about Snitsky, because hey, Snitsky. But I will be bothered when something like this happens to Kozlov.

I have to commend Umaga in this particular context. He has been beaten multiple times by various faces and still holds some credibility as monster heel. That's pretty rare.

Umaga doesn't need to be a monster heel, and I think its only because he's Samoan that he is.

If they let him speak, then you have a large things to do with him, he's got the in-ring talent to be a main eventer its up to booking to get him over. An anti-USA gimmick would be excellent to get him over as a heel and just your average-joe could get him over as a face.

But being Samoan does not automatically make him heel, does it? Rikishi wasn't heel. K, Rikishi was pretty silly, but mostly he was not heel. Except when he did it for the Rock, which was even more silly.

But I get your point, Umaga does not really need this whole savage man-gimmick. But it's been working pretty good so far, so I'd not be in a hurry to change it. Don't fix it if it ain't broken.

Back on the topic, the more I think about it, a scenario like you described it is likelier to happen, leek. Triple H does not have a lot of people to feud with, right now. I am pretty sure WWE wants to keep Jeff in the title picture, while at the same time letting him feud with Kozlov. This would automatically insert Kozlov in any feud Jeff would have with Trips.

Up until when Koslov interfered I was predicting a Jeff win at No Mercy. He has been built up quite strong since being brought over to SD and Triple H has had the title for a while now so I thought maybe this is Jeff's time. But now I can see it as Koslov taking out Jeff only to be squashed by Haitch.

Which would be the final straw with SD for me until Triple H leaves.

They've maneuvered themselves into an unfortunate situation on SD. Edge's parting has left a huge gap that is only marginally filled by Triple H's shenanigans, and now they are straining to infuse some meaning into the title picture by making it a huge clusterfuck.

didn't kozlov used to be in the team called "the comrades" with some guy called boris?