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.
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.
