We had a productive meeting with the Ultimate Dragon in Anaheim Monday afternoon. He was an amazing cruiserweight before he was injured while working for WCW in Atlanta and is just beginning to get back in the ring after several years, while he has attempted to recover from a reported blotched arm surgery. He is several months away from being ready to debut in WWE, but we hope to do business with him in 2003. He was a pleasure to speak with and is a class act.
We had a productive meeting with the Ultimate Dragon in Anaheim Monday afternoon. He was an amazing cruiserweight before he was injured while working for WCW in Atlanta and is just beginning to get back in the ring after several years, while he has attempted to recover from a reported blotched arm surgery. He is several months away from being ready to debut in WWE, but we hope to do business with him in 2003. He was a pleasure to speak with and is a class act.
Translation: He's not a HOSS, so we'll throw him on Smackdown.
Ultimo might teach the others a thing or two about wrestling inbetween the spots. Or maybe he and Tajiri can have a litle "We have the same first name and like to kick, so we much either team or fight each other." thing
We had a productive meeting with the Ultimate Dragon in Anaheim Monday afternoon. He was an amazing cruiserweight before he was injured while working for WCW in Atlanta and is just beginning to get back in the ring after several years, while he has attempted to recover from a reported blotched arm surgery. He is several months away from being ready to debut in WWE, but we hope to do business with him in 2003. He was a pleasure to speak with and is a class act.
Translation: He's not a HOSS, so we'll throw him on Smackdown.
Ultimo might teach the others a thing or two about wrestling inbetween the spots. Or maybe he and Tajiri can have a litle "We have the same first name and like to kick, so we much either team or fight each other." thing
YES! Bring back Ultimo Dragon! I can't wait to see him again, as he was one of my favorite WCW cruiserweights!
Of course, the cynic in me says that this STILL won't mean anything in the long run. WWE still doesn't take their cruiserweights seriously and I seriously doubt this'll jumpstart their division.
"That's right! You suckas better FIND somewhere to run! 'cause it's me - Booker T - not only am I the Scorpion King, but I'm the five-time WCW Champion - and I got a sword, too! Now can U dig THAT - SUCKAAAAAS"
They can't hire Ultimo, as they already have the WWE quota of 2 Japanese wrestlers in Funaki and Tajiri. Now, should Funaki go and join Taka, then there will be a position available. Also, should Ultimo decide to put on 100 lbs, attend an American college, and play football, Jim Ross will personally drive him to the arena and teach him the importance of the word 'hoss' in the English language.
Thank you Mr. Wanz for the check, now you get an AWA World Title Reign. But be careful, my boy Greg is a heat machine.
I dig the whole situation just because of the possibility of a 20-minute HHH promo being interrupted by a 10-minute "Mr. Egoist" Magnum Tokyo dance routine entrance! However, as another loyal Toryumon/T2p fanatic, I don't want Ultimo Dragon's image ruined by the dumbass writers working for WWE. If he joins up, they should let him bring his writers and bookers and let him turn Saturday night into Toryumon USA.
Two hours later they decided to stop at a diner Because they loved the smell of eggs and coffee I just had to smoke a cigarette and wear a hat By the time that they set off again, the sun was starting to set It made the sky look red like a nuclear ray One of them said "what do you want more than anything in this whole wide world Do you want money, do you want sex, or do you want all that success?" I thought about that one myself (Then they came upon the thing)
From, "The Church of Logic, Sin and Love" by The Men
Originally posted by CarlCXTajiri's full name is Yoshihiro Tajiri. Ultimo's full name is Yoshihiro Asai. Who knows.
Meanwhile, this idea intrigues me, and I would like to know more.
Additionally, Yoshihiro is not his first name. In Japanese, family names (last names) come first. It's a fairly common name though so I wouldn't neccessarily assume a family relation.
And count me among those who would love to see him back. The WWE has shown some intelligence having Finlay teaching the ladies to fight, maybe they really are bringing him in to teach some youngsters.
Another Rollback saves the day!
"All right, maybe he can fool the chicken" -Nike Presto #2
Call me a smarky cynic, or a cynical smark, or Cyndi Lauper, but can any of us really see Asai getting cred in WWE? Didn't TAKA have cred in Japan? Didn't Funaki? Hell, Tajiri, at times, was one of the most over people in the ECW roster. All three are now jokes. Tajiri's character, credibility, and aura have been killed by dumbass storylines. Check out some of the stuff from when he first showed up in WWE. He was very very over, and it couldn't have been entirely from ECW nostalgia. TAKA, same thing. The guy was unbelievably popular to the normally bigoted WWF fanbase in 97 and 98, before he nonsensically joined Kaientai, largely due to good booking and awesome ringwork. I have old RAW tapes, and there were freaking TAKA chants. He came out to cool music, was serious, and put people out with a wicked finisher in the Michinoku Driver. He joins Kaientai and becomes a stereotype, people are quickly trained to not care about him because he's a cartoon anyway, and he's a jobber. Tajiri starts nonsensically jobbing to big guys and appearing in dumbass backstage skits (remember the Ricky Martin skit?), we're taught that it would be stupid to care about him because he's just a cartoon anyway.
Can we really see Ultimo getting any better treatment? We've seen what happens to Japanese guys, and what happens to cruisers? Jesus, Rey Rey wasn't even allowed to play on the last PPV, instead having to be on HeAT. Last time I remember watching Smack!Down, he was, along with Edge and John Cena (what the hell happened to his push, by the way?), supposed to be part of the future of the WWE roster. He can't even do a match on PPV? How's the casual fan going to feel about that? It's hard to care about a guy after seeing him on a jobber show, really, especially not too long after a heavily hyped debut.
Will Ultimo be brought in like Jerry Lynn, winning once to gain a meaningless title and quickly jobbed out when he doesn't immediately get Austin-like cheers? Will he be brought in like Jamie Knoble, with a new cartoony gimmick, pushed for a couple of months, and then stuck as the valet of his valet? Or will he get a month of vingettes like Rey Rey, called the future of WWE, and still get stuck on the pre-PPV show?
Because I can't see any options other than that. Ultimo pushed to World title level? Bullshit. Ultimo given the IC belt meaningfully (as in like RVD, not like Albert or Lance Storm)? Bullshit. Ultimo given the Cruiser belt for a month before becoming the new king of Velocity? Sounds about right.
I don't think he'd get much of a push though, other than what Gaylord said. I quite agree... the cruiserweights don't get pushed like they should in WWE, despite JR's bullshit about wanting to push the cruiserweights. I hate to sound like a broken record here, but it's true. Although Rey Mysterio's push is giving me hope that this might change. (Go Rey!!!!)
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that when I first started watching wrestling in early 1997, Ultimo Dragon was one of the first guys I really got into. I can't remember him ever cutting a single promo in WCW (I'm not saying he didn't, but I don't remember him ever doing one) but I was a HUGE Ultimo Dragon mark even before I became a mark for Chris Benoit.
If Ultimo joins WWE, awesome. I just hope they don't shit on his legacy, because I fear that might be what happens.
“Now put that thing back where it came from or so help me-- Oh, hey! We're rehearsing a scene from the upcoming company play called Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me.” --Mike Wazowski, Monsters, Inc.
Two-Time, Two-Time Randomly Selected Weiner of the Day, 5/27/02 and 7/3/02
Originally posted by ILikeJeffGaylordCall me a smarky cynic, or a cynical smark, or Cyndi Lauper, but can any of us really see Asai getting cred in WWE? Didn't TAKA have cred in Japan? Didn't Funaki? Hell, Tajiri, at times, was one of the most over people in the ECW roster. All three are now jokes. Tajiri's character, credibility, and aura have been killed by dumbass storylines. Check out some of the stuff from when he first showed up in WWE. He was very very over, and it couldn't have been entirely from ECW nostalgia. TAKA, same thing. The guy was unbelievably popular to the normally bigoted WWF fanbase in 97 and 98, before he nonsensically joined Kaientai, largely due to good booking and awesome ringwork. I have old RAW tapes, and there were freaking TAKA chants. He came out to cool music, was serious, and put people out with a wicked finisher in the Michinoku Driver. He joins Kaientai and becomes a stereotype, people are quickly trained to not care about him because he's a cartoon anyway, and he's a jobber. Tajiri starts nonsensically jobbing to big guys and appearing in dumbass backstage skits (remember the Ricky Martin skit?), we're taught that it would be stupid to care about him because he's just a cartoon anyway.
Can we really see Ultimo getting any better treatment? We've seen what happens to Japanese guys, and what happens to cruisers? Jesus, Rey Rey wasn't even allowed to play on the last PPV, instead having to be on HeAT. Last time I remember watching Smack!Down, he was, along with Edge and John Cena (what the hell happened to his push, by the way?), supposed to be part of the future of the WWE roster. He can't even do a match on PPV? How's the casual fan going to feel about that? It's hard to care about a guy after seeing him on a jobber show, really, especially not too long after a heavily hyped debut.
Will Ultimo be brought in like Jerry Lynn, winning once to gain a meaningless title and quickly jobbed out when he doesn't immediately get Austin-like cheers? Will he be brought in like Jamie Knoble, with a new cartoony gimmick, pushed for a couple of months, and then stuck as the valet of his valet? Or will he get a month of vingettes like Rey Rey, called the future of WWE, and still get stuck on the pre-PPV show?
Because I can't see any options other than that. Ultimo pushed to World title level? Bullshit. Ultimo given the IC belt meaningfully (as in like RVD, not like Albert or Lance Storm)? Bullshit. Ultimo given the Cruiser belt for a month before becoming the new king of Velocity? Sounds about right.
Or will he be brought in and given clean wins over Benoit and Angle like Mysterio did? Or will he be given the World Championship like Jericho (Cruiser when he came to WWF) did? Or how about that Benoit guy who is pretty small and wrestled as a cruiser in Japan, he hasn't done much either?
Our first act is to legalize marijuana. The tyranny and the bullshit's gone on too long!
Again, the problem isn't getting a push, it's getting a consistent push. Rey won't be seen as completely legit unless he becomes a PPV regular and gets guys like Billy Gunn to sell for him. Otherwise, he'll have the fluke giantkiller gimmick he had for a while in WCW (beating Nash, Norton, etc with fluke rollups and cheating). I think we can all agree that Jericho's title reign wasn't all it could be, and was about a year and a half too late. And Benoit, I'm sorry, still hasn't gotten to consistently look good. Last year, with the Angle fued and the tag team with Jericho, Benoit was finally getting some respect from the casual fans. After the injury, though, he's been largely a jobber. Losing to the Dudleys in his first PPV match back, losing to Rey on the last Smack!Down (and with Rey not appearing on PPV, even; see how it all feeds together?)...I don't think his push is consistent, and I don't think Ultimo's would be, either. A couple of fluke wins over Angle and Benoit, having to struggle to beat Mark Henry, and then straight to Velocity.
Originally posted by TheMarketingMajorAdditionally, Yoshihiro is not his first name. In Japanese, family names (last names) come first. It's a fairly common name though so I wouldn't neccessarily assume a family relation.
I must offer the disclaimer that I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I'm pretty sure Yoshihiro is both of their given (as opposed to first) names. Tajiri and Asai would be the family names. They get flipped when you say them outside of Japan -- if you were at the Tokyo Dome (or wherever Japanese wrestlers wrestle these days), you'd hear them called Asai Yoshihiro and Tajiri Yoshihiro. Didn't ECW, in all its hoity-toity wrestling elitist glory, used to use Tajiri Yoshihiro in ring introductions sometimes?
¡Azúcar, flores y muchos colores! Estos fueron los ingredientes elegidos para crear a la niñita perfecta. Pero el profesor Utonio agrego accidentalmente otro ingrediente a la formula: ¡la sustancia X! Y así nacieron, ¡las Chicas Superpoderosas! ¡Con sus ultra súper poderes, Bombón, Burbuja y Bellota dedican su vida a combatir el crimen y las fuerzas del mal!
I thought Benoit's loss to Rey was great, because it sets up storylines down the road. Angle can continue to claim that he never lost to either Benoit or Rey in the last few weeks, Benoit realizes he made a mistake in overlooking Rey in the match and will make certain that he doesn't ignore the pesky cruiser next time, and Rey is placed right in the middle of a feud between two of Smackdown's top heels, playing the role of the pesky wildcard. Sounds like fun to me, especially if it leads up to a three-man rematch on the next PPV.
Originally posted by ILikeJeffGaylordAgain, the problem isn't getting a push, it's getting a consistent push. Rey won't be seen as completely legit unless he becomes a PPV regular and gets guys like Billy Gunn to sell for him. Otherwise, he'll have the fluke giantkiller gimmick he had for a while in WCW (beating Nash, Norton, etc with fluke rollups and cheating). I think we can all agree that Jericho's title reign wasn't all it could be, and was about a year and a half too late. And Benoit, I'm sorry, still hasn't gotten to consistently look good. Last year, with the Angle fued and the tag team with Jericho, Benoit was finally getting some respect from the casual fans. After the injury, though, he's been largely a jobber. Losing to the Dudleys in his first PPV match back, losing to Rey on the last Smack!Down (and with Rey not appearing on PPV, even; see how it all feeds together?)...I don't think his push is consistent, and I don't think Ultimo's would be, either. A couple of fluke wins over Angle and Benoit, having to struggle to beat Mark Henry, and then straight to Velocity.
Benoit came in with an almost win aganist a hot at the time Triple H. He beat the Rock pretty quickly and won the title, within 5 months of debuting he got his first PPV main event which he nearly won. Since then, he has gotten main events in other PPV's won the IC title numerous times, beating HHH and Austin with Jericho, was above Hulk Hogan in the draft, and recently beat Rock and Edge in a tag team match, and beat Angle at the last PPV. Sure it sucks he jobbed to the Dudlyz 2k2, but one PPV doesn't make him a jobber.
Our first act is to legalize marijuana. The tyranny and the bullshit's gone on too long!
It was $1.32 for me. That's still less than an hour of downtown parking, so I sprung for it. I have no idea when I'll read it. (Probably before I leave work.)