[quote author=Herr Onceared link=topic=42302.msg1200917#msg1200917 date=1287501987]
[quote author=LeTallecWiz link=topic=42302.msg1200887#msg1200887 date=1287499775]
For what he did with the crowd, I thought Stone Cold was phenomenal ...
But Oncey's list is rather accurate I think - though I never really liked Eddie Guerrero.
Rey Mesterio was great.
[/quote]Stone Cold, Mankind, Kane etc are a direct decendant of your Tugboat, Ultimate warrior, Hulk Hogan etc Franchise superstars who may not have all the in ring savvy but ship t-shirts. American wrestling has always been more about commercialism than craft and thats why there have always been John Cena's and there always will be, and thats fine but if you go out to mexico or Japan the pro wrestling circuit is a million miles ahead when it comes to actual capabilities. They are still showmen out there but the mastery of the gymnastic and athletic arts are there for all to see. It was in fact the introduction of 4 wrestlers who learned their craft in the far east and Mexico (Benoit, Saturn, Guerrero and Dean Malenko) who finally showed Vince that franchise superstars neednt be huge lumbering giants. The night Guerrero and Benoit won the wwe and world heavyweight titles was the wwe's best ever moment and paved the way for many stars to follow like Mysterio, Kennedy, Punk etc
There will always be a Stone cold but thankfully true wrestlers are now given a chance to showcase their talents and long may it continue.
[/quote]
Was Tugboat ever popular? He is probably better remembered as Typhoon from Natural Disasters.
I think that Vince did see the benefit in good wrestlers of a smaller size before the Radicalz arrived in WWE. At that stage Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart had about ten world title reigns between them before then but he did often favour huge lumbering giants as you put it (Psycho Sid, Deisel, Lex Luger), but he still has done it in the last ten years. The attempts to put Bobby Lashley and Chris Masters on the map failed miserably (mostly because they both sucked in the ring and couldn't get a reaction good or bad out of the crowd). Brock Lesnar was pushed very quickly as well, but obviously it worked in his case.
