Keith's most misunderstood wrestling people part one: Marc Mero 1991-1998

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Keith

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Hope the title doesn't confuse too many.

For those of you who know me on this forum some of these won't shock you, but I hope to include a few suprises and to make strong cases even for the more predictable ones.

Johnny B.Badd/"Wild Man" Marc Mero WCW and WWF (1991-1998)
The former golden gloves boxing champion took to a pro wrestling career late on, and certainly had a roller coaster and add career which maybe was never as long or as successful as it could have been. It seems fair to say for his WCW run Mero gets knocked mostly for his Johnny B. Badd gimmick, and in the case of the WWF stint it is more to do with Mero the wrestler.

First off with Badd, I think it is a misunderstood character because Dusty Rhodes (who invented it) was taping into a ever changing culture where gay and flamboylant characters were becoming more excepted, also it was accepting that many kids still watched wrestling at this point, and it was important to have cartoonish characters to cater to their needs.

The character had mixed results, never really raising much above opening match level, however Mero really put his all into the part, the look of the character was unique, his promos actually entertaing in an odd way, and personally I felt in-ring his mixture of eye catching aerials and brawling made for an interesting, if maybe gimmicky style. When given a serious crusierweight to tackle with Badd actually had some solid parts.

It is worth pointing out that the character became a hit with Africa American audiences (many believed he was actually black) and made him a minor celebrity (see Mero's 2004 shoot for more on this). For my money the Badd character filled a neich and remained pretty solidly over for most of its run. The highlights were his feuds with Flyin' Brian, Arn Anderson and Lord Steven Regal, as well as his priceless performance during the First Woman of WCW contest at Beach Blast 1992.

Clearly his WCW run had fizzled out by the mid-90s, so the jump to WWF made sense. His introduction I quite liked, one because it was at Wrestlemania, two because it actually did something with the whole HHH has a different female valent each night story, and three because it came out of the blue and was a new way to debut a star.

While pretty solid in ring, the Mero/Hunter feud never really got started, a bit like the wild man character. The character seemed to be based more around a flashy, unpredicable ring style, than actually anything to do with the character and unlike with Badd the promos never convinced.

But if you look at his midcard feuds with the likes of Hunter, Stone Cold and Goldust they did deliver some cracking matches (the KOTR 96 semi with Austin the stand out). Don't forget the guy did everything in his power to get (his then wife) Sable over as a character and to draw heat as the bad guy to her face, and at least during the Spring of 98 did so like a pro.

The begining of the end for Mero came later in 98 where management had run out of ideas for him, coming up with a lame fake career ending match with Dwaye Gill, and 1999 was a total dud which included the awful Brawl for All concept. Apart from a forgettable TNA run and indy work that was just about it for Marc Mero the wrestler.

He was never truly accepted in wrestling due his background, and cheesy Johnny B. Badd character, and later on became a easy target for critics due to his outspoken views on the business. However for me the guy had a decent level of charasma, was lively given the right guy to work with, held a number of midcard championships and always comes accross as bold and passionte part of the wrestling community speaking up when others won't.
 

Deezy

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The only thing that was misunderstood about Marc Mero, was people thinking his skin tone was black and has been labelled one everytime someone brings up black athletes who were pushed by WWF, he was jewish.

He was also, someone stuck with a terrible gimmick based off Little Richard and will always be remembered for the big contract he got from WWF and was the first guy to get a guaranteed contract from Vinny Mac. And his hawt wife, and isn't much of anything, but a name on the record sheets of people who became bigger stars than him. He will be remebered by only wrestlecrap subscibers for Jonny B. Badd.
 

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I've been rewatching a lot of Attitude era stuff lately and I forgot how good he was on the mic. Especially when he used to degrade Sable, I've been laughing my ass off all week at that guy.
 

zigglerHEEL

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the one thing that always jumps out when i think of Marc Mero is when he was "feuding" with Salvatore Sincere and he made a comment during a promo about what a lame gimmick Sincere had and JR chimed in with "And I'm a baaaaad man".... Thought it was awesome that JR made mention of Mero's former gimmick.... ok that's my story, Never cared for Mero but I guess he was a decent enough worker
 

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I never got the hate for Mero as a wrestler, don't think he was all that or anything, but people downright hate the guy when he wasn't that bad. I always thought he was a good promo guy, even when he had the shitty Little Richard gimmick, could get some great heat even if it was cheap like when he was degrading Sable.
 

Keith

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I never got the hate for Mero as a wrestler, don't think he was all that or anything, but people downright hate the guy when he wasn't that bad. I always thought he was a good promo guy, even when he had the shitty Little Richard gimmick, could get some great heat even if it was cheap like when he was degrading Sable.

Its along these lines I was thinking. I get the hate for the Badd character, but I do think in the same way as someone like Goldust the early version, it was a character which stood as being quite different at the time, and I think Mero gave everything to the part. Like has been said the heat got during the Sable period maybe showned how he had grown.
 

Kiffy Lube

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I enjoyed his feud with Triple H in 1996 but other than that I don't care about him then maybe being a comedy character.
 

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I never thought Mero was a terrible worker, I never could just get past the personality of the guy. The Wildman gimmick was pure cheese, and the fact that he was paired off against a surging Steve Austin after King of The Ring 96 totally just killed any cool factor he might have garnered in his first year.

He did a Shooting Star Press, and moonsaults, he could've gotten over by that simply, but he couldn't because he was handicapped by something, maybe he was overshadowed by his smoking hot wife, maybe it was the vomit inducing good guy character he played. Who knows, but he was basically a deadfish for along time, even with his heel turnm, it was all based around his jealousy over his wife getting over and him not. After that was over, he had nothing.

And on a personal level, I can't look past the hypicrisy of this guy when he climbed out that rock he was under after the whole Benoit case, and was acting like some crusader against the industry and steroids, when he was taking the shit his whole career.
 

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Three things I remember about Marc Mero;

- busting Austin open hardway at KOTR
- getting completely eclipsed by a big titty'd blonde
- getting pwned by Steve Blackman in various steroid debatez
 

Keith

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1. I agree about the Wildman gimmick being poor, but at least he did have some solid matches in WWF.

2. We will never agree about Mero's claims against the business, I think he has been quite right in his remarks, also why can't he speak out against drugs just because he took them? Surely having the experience places him in a better position to comment.

3. You guys miss the point, Mero playing foil was one of the main reasons Sable got over as big as she did, he truly exceled in that heel role.
 

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He had a couple of good run-ins with Triple H in the earlier days and actually managed to put on a watchable mixed tag feud which elevated his wife Sable to become WWF's first transcendent female star (in most people's opinion). In basketball terms, he was like instant offense, coming off the bench. If you were needing a decent midcard match on Raw and especially if you were trying to put over a newer talent, he could be the go-to guy.