The Hart Foundation never seemed to hurt business in Canada. I'm sure Steven Regal didn't hurt business in England. I think it would be a ball to see the WWE go to France and have La Resistance get a huge pop.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about 'man on dog' with a United States Senator. It's sort of freaking me out."
Associated Press interview with Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), 04-07-2003.
But they weren't promoting anti-Canada or anti-Brit sentiments back then... On RAW you even heard Lawler say he doesn't eat french fries anymore, and Bradshaw's jokes in his column weren't exactly inviting...
This isn't the same as the UnAmericans angle either because there wasn't anything negative promoted against their home countries, but rather them (Lance,Test,Christian,Regal) in particular...
One other problem is that I believe La Resistance aren't even French, they're French Canadian. So not only is there "anti-French" sentiment, there aren't even any real French wrestlers in the WWE
Regal was a stereotypical Englishman, but he still was loved in England because he was actually English
I would definitely be interested in hearing whether La Resistance would get a pop in France or not
Now can u dig that
I have never been wiener of the day; stop holding me down!
The Regal love was always from the fact that he played the US "English" stereotype (well-to-do gent, plummy accent, snob) when he was in fact a Irish man from Blackpool in the North of England, which is about as far away from his character as possible.
I don't know if any Brits remember, but did anyone else hear Michael Cole talk about learning his fighting skills on the "mean docks of Blackpool"? THAT'S funny.
Plus what do you mean they didn't insult us? THEY MOCKED OUR TEETH!!!!! THEY HAD JERICHO BEATING UP ROYALTY!!!!!! THEY DESTROYED A PICTURE OF THE QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...full of energy. Multi-orgasmic, if you will, in a cosmic sort of way."
I don't think this angle will play with the French at all. Even Regal was somewhat of a joke. As said, he is from Blackpool (I don't know if he's Irish), and his accent was definitely not Blackpool. But there was a sense of national pride.
The "La Resistance" guys are not French at all. Worse, they have trouble maintaining their stereotypical accents. Regal, no matter what, kept his accent. These guys bleed all over the place, sometimes dropping the accent, sometimes almost sounding like Cheech and Chong.
I don't think they are going to get much play in France — neither being from there, nor doing a great job of sounding as if they are from there.
In terms of accents it probably doesn`t help that SLY is from Montreal and so has a Joual accent. (Joual is the name for the very Montreal style of French.) Rene on the other hand is from Shediac New Brunswick and has an Acadian accent naturally. The Acadian accent is pretty close to some regional accents in France.
It`s also important to remember that even in France there are divisions. There`s the Parisien accent and then there`s everything else. Les Visiteurs for instance is built on the joke that people from Paris always pretend that they can`t understand what people from outside of Paris are saying because they don`t understand the accent. (And then there`s the slang of the Parisian ghetto which makes no sense at all to anyone.)
My own accent for example is barbarous mangled thing. I usually just tell people that I`m an Acadian which is one of those lies that makes more sense than the truth.
(For the record, I grew up in Quebec and learned French there. My mom is from New Brunswick near where Rene is from. When I was twelve I moved to teh Maritimes with my parents and my Quebecois accent sort-of twisted with exposure to L'Acadie.)
My sense is that Le Resistance would be a big success outside of Paris and a minor success in Paris.
The key question is how will Halifax treat them? I have this sneaking feeling that Rene could drop-kick a baby in Halifax and get cheered.
"i dont know what it is or what it could be but i get a woody when these pussies try to push me thinkin they gonna put me in a position to pickle me y'all tickle me pink i think i'd just rather have Pink Tickle Me" Biggie, 50 Cent, Eminem "The Realest" (RemiX)
When's the last time WWE ran a show in France? I know they're on TV there but if it was any kind of market, I'm sure they would have done a show there.
Originally posted by LlakorThe key question is how will Halifax treat them? I have this sneaking feeling that Rene could drop-kick a baby in Halifax and get cheered.
I was thinking the exact same thing since Monday when they debut. They could always cut a pro Quebec separation promo. That could work in getting them hated north of the border
cause there's limits to our liberties. 'Least I hope and pray that there are, cause those liberal freaks go too far.
I'll crush all opposition to me And I'll make Ted Kennedy pay If he fights back, I'll say that he's gay
fuelinjected just raised the point I was going to make...with all the international tours WWE runs, when was the last time they ran a show in France? Even though some of them have been cancelled, the schedule for the upcoming European swing had them hitting just about everywhere you might think of as big enough markets to warrant an event, yet if I'm not mistaken there was no booking in France. Does anyone even know what kind of following the North American style of wrestling has in France compared to the following it has in other countries in the area?
One of the things that I have wondered is that now that the rosters are split why the WWE hasn't done a Raw or Smackdown exclusive PPV in a European stadium? There would be a good chance of a sell-out in terms of tickets. How it would play in the States as a PPV event is another matter of course. I wonder how Summer Slam out of Wembley did as a PPV in the States? (That would be the last time that they did this right? Aside from all the Rebellion/Insurrection PPVs which aren't broadcast here and as a result everyone knows that the champions will retain.)
This is going back a ways but I have on tape somewhere bits and pieces of a show that the WWF ran in Paris back in the day. The crowd seemed to be very hot. (To put it in perspective, it's the show where Rockin' Robin beat Sherri Martel for the Women's strap in a dynamite match.)
I have a later match from the tape Global Warfare from 94 which has Doink vs. Crush and Duggan vs. Yokozuna from France on it. (and people say that 03 is bad. Oh VEY.)
I'm actually curious now when the last time that the WWE was in France and I am researching the subject.
Originally posted by LlakorOne of the things that I have wondered is that now that the rosters are split why the WWE hasn't done a Raw or Smackdown exclusive PPV in a European stadium? There would be a good chance of a sell-out in terms of tickets. How it would play in the States as a PPV event is another matter of course. I wonder how Summer Slam out of Wembley did as a PPV in the States? (That would be the last time that they did this right? Aside from all the Rebellion/Insurrection PPVs which aren't broadcast here and as a result everyone knows that the champions will retain.)
This is going back a ways but I have on tape somewhere bits and pieces of a show that the WWF ran in Paris back in the day. The crowd seemed to be very hot. (To put it in perspective, it's the show where Rockin' Robin beat Sherri Martel for the Women's strap in a dynamite match.)
I have a later match from the tape Global Warfare from 94 which has Doink vs. Crush and Duggan vs. Yokozuna from France on it. (and people say that 03 is bad. Oh VEY.)
I'm actually curious now when the last time that the WWE was in France and I am researching the subject.
The reason why Vince won't do a European PPV broadcast to the U.S. is the internet. If the fans already know the results of the matches, then why would they pay $34.95 to purchase the product on tape delay. Of course, the flaw in this thinking is they hype the rebroadcast of the PPV for the night after RAW already, so they do depend somewhat on people buying the show off of knowing the results. But, considering the diminished PPV buyrates, anything that could lower the number of buys further probably will be avoided.
I hate Swamprats. Payback for the Celts against the team led by a wifebeater/child abuser (he did break his kids collarbone in public). And 12 wins until Banner #17.
http://www.cbssports.com/general/feature/25122751/being-andre-the-giant It also has an interview with Jake Roberts that plays on the page. Pretty fun read, even if we already knew a lot of this stuff.