Why is Lashley being given such a huge push?

Bounty Hunter · 13-04-2007 5:34pm #1

Seriously i dont see what vince sees. Unless its just that Lashley is really big and was in the Army (its like against the law not to love the troops in America or the WWE) so can anyone explain why Lashley is being pushed to high heaven.

He was given a heavyweight title (although ECW), he was put in one of the most, if not the most promoted match at Wrestlemania. he is being given the him vs the boss angle a la stone cold steve Austin. He main events Raw despite not being a Raw wrestler.

Im not saying hes terrible he does have potential, but he seems to lack any sort of personality and as someone else here said is very bland. he has had no real memorable feuds IMO prior to this yet the push goes on.

Fozzy · 13-04-2007 5:47pm

I don't know at all. I don't see much in him. He's a competent wrestler to an extent, but the crowd is often dead during his matches. They were real quiet on Raw this week at points. He's awful on the mic obviously. No charisma

A lot of the same things could have been said about Batista 3 years ago. He got over in the end though, due to a great angle and an ability to connect to the fans better than before. I don't think Lashley has that connection at all, and like I said, I'd be surprised if he'll be a main-eventer in a few years time

Minto · 13-04-2007 7:06pm

To rob a JR phrase, he is green. I think he has potential, he can wrestle. He is a bit lacking in personality, but I put that down to him being so green. I think he will be around in a few years time, I just hope he doesn't end up as 'enhancement talent' on Heat as I do think he has potential, if tapped correctly.

Tricity Bendix · 13-04-2007 7:52pm

He has a huge amount of talent, but I don't know if he has been wrestling for long enough to develop his own style and personality. The only way to do this is through practice. Once he has an 'in-ring' personality, a 'promo' character should come easier, and some more charisma or ability to communicate with fans along with it.

As he is now, his matches since leaving SD! have all looked awkward, and his promos have been even more so. All he seems to do is use curse words inappropriately.

Mr.Nice Guy · 13-04-2007 8:38pm

I was surprised at the reaction he got when he came out on Raw this past week. He's getting over to an extent but I can see the fans rejecting him real soon. He's not got a lot of charisma.

kentonbomb · 13-04-2007 9:47pm

He Gets A Huge Push Because He Looks Like Tarzan And He Fights Like Jane

Minto · 14-04-2007 1:46am

kentonbomb wrote:

He Looks Like Tarzan And He Fights Like Jane

I'm guessing thats either a JBL, King or Tazz quote. Am I wrong?

Just thinking about it, i'd say one of the main reasons is because he served in Iraq and WWE want to capitalise on that. Didn't they rehire Chuck Palumbo a few years back 'cos his brother was injured or something similar in Iraq?

dlofnep · 14-04-2007 1:55am

I kinda of felt he was a Brock Lesnar replacement. A big muscle guy with good wrestling credentials that was able to throw people around.

fatal · 14-04-2007 11:24am

dlofnep wrote:

I kinda of felt he was a Brock Lesnar replacement. A big muscle guy with good wrestling credentials that was able to throw people around.

only difference was that brock was able to be good at pro wrestling aswell......
He should enjoy his moment in the main event for as long as he can as I dont think that it will happen again when he drops the title....

Vince135792003 · 14-04-2007 4:57pm

Not everyone is a prodigy like Lesnar. He needs more time.

Dickmcsavage · 15-04-2007 11:48am

dlofnep wrote:

I kinda of felt he was a Brock Lesnar replacement.

Yeah they should rename Lasley 'Black Lesnar'. TBH I think Lashley has some good in ring skills and has the potential to be as good as Lesnar in the ring, I really do. I will agree, however, that they are pushing him too fast too soon and in the near future I can picture the fans turning on him big time which will force him to turn heel which in turn could be a blessing in disguise. I mean look at The Rock. He had the same sort of personality as Lashley does now, the fans turned on him, he turned heel and he never looked back. Now he's one the biggest names in WWE history. I'm not saying that thats what is gonna happen to Lasley. All im saying is that if he was to turn heel, it might bring out some hidden charisma that he has lurking inside of him.

Bubs101 · 16-04-2007 12:18pm

I really liked lashley until he got his hands on the mike, that bit from raw or ECW a month or so ago when he managed to **** up No, his only line. I think the fact he's black could also be a reason he's getting a push cos apart from booker T there isn't many others near the top

kentonbomb · 16-04-2007 7:21pm

are u guys kidding me lashley is a terrible wrestler hell the brooklyn brawler is a better wrestler than he is, the only reason he's in the main event is because vince likes big guys with big muscles if that wasn't the case the great khali,hogan,lashley and big show would never be in WWE

Jonny Arson · 16-04-2007 8:10pm

Lashley is crap.

He's crap in the ring

crap on the mic

has no personality

urrrrgggghhh he bores the f**k out of me

The guy is hardly worthy of getting a match on Heat.

Vince has truly lost the plot pushing this waste of space.

Sure, we're already pretty much having Raw Is Lashley every Monday night now aswell :rolleyes:

Vince135792003 · 16-04-2007 8:33pm

Jonny Arson wrote:

Vince has truly lost the plot pushing this waste of space.
:

When he books a blind fold cage match, thats when I'll say he's lost the plot.

5starpool · 17-04-2007 2:33am

Lashley terrible on the mic on Raw again tonight for all 2 of his lines.

Mr.Nice Guy · 17-04-2007 4:51am

5starpool wrote:

Lashley terrible on the mic on Raw again tonight for all 2 of his lines.

Wasn't as bad as his infamous bathturd promo though.

evad_lhorg · 17-04-2007 12:17pm

It makes me wonder how he gets the push but Umaga as well?!?! it is ridiculous. there just isnt any talent coming

MikeHoncho · 17-04-2007 12:49pm

evad_lhorg wrote:

It makes me wonder how he gets the push but Umaga as well?!?! it is ridiculous. there just isnt any talent coming

And here in lies WWE's main problem. Rather than looking to the Indys for experienced wrestlers who have an understanding and a real passion they have tried to create stars completly from scratch. This might work for a small time but eventually the fans will turn on the Cenas, Batistas and Lashleys of the world because they dont respect them. Guys like Punk get over because people can recognise that he has served his dues and deserves his spot.

I think WWE should be looking to bring in some more experienced stars from the Indy scene. I think that the success of CM Punk may actually help them to realise this. That is why they are gonna bring in Colt now because they recognise that these guys already have all the tools and it wont cost them a fortune to get them over.

What about Joe some day?
What about AJ styles?
What about LAX to help your tag division rather than creating artificial teams with no chemistry.

Mr.Nice Guy · 17-04-2007 2:37pm

I don't know how people can say the talent isn't coming. They have guys like Shelton Benjamin, MVP, Elijah Burke, CM Punk, Carlito, Johnny Nitro to name but a few.

The talent is there it's just that most are not being utilised at this point in time.

MikeHoncho · 17-04-2007 5:35pm

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

I don't know how people can say the talent isn't coming. They have guys like Shelton Benjamin, MVP, Elijah Burke, CM Punk, Carlito, Johnny Nitro to name but a few.

The talent is there it's just that most are not being utilised at this point in time.

Actually those guys you listed are all very talented and I would put Chris Masters on that list as well. But do you see any of those guys ever reaching the hights of a Rock or an Austin etc? And for every one of those guys there is at least 2 dead weights who will never make it clogging up the rosters - go over to WWE.com and look at the rosters!!

I watched an old video of RAW last night and it was when Jericho beat HHH for the title when Hebner did the fast count and the pop that it got was immense. It actually took me by surprise because I havent seen anyone get a pop like that in years. The heat that HHH was getting was immense too. Nobody is that hated in WWE these days.

These guys earned there reactions over years and years of in ring time. Jericho got a huge reaction because the fans knew he deserved the title. Lashley will never get that kind of reaction because he got a title without earning it. Its not Lashleys fault its the WWE for being too impatient building its stars.

I suppose he really only got the title by default as Angle whimpred off to TNA and the Big Show was leaving soon after but I think that they should have picked someone else to run with the ECW gold - Matt Hardy in my opinion would have been the man to go for. His style fits ECW and the fans would respect that it is a spot that he earned. If not Matt then Benoit.

Up until Taker got the belt back the 3 WWE champs had a total of 15 years experience between them. Jericho for example had been a pro wrestler 11 years before he got his first recognised title reign. Benoit took nearly 20 years.

Mr.Nice Guy · 17-04-2007 5:52pm

MikeHoncho wrote:

Actually those guys you listed are all very talented and I would put Chris Masters on that list as well. But do you see any of those guys ever reaching the hights of a Rock or an Austin etc? And for every one of those guys there is at least 2 dead weights who will never make it clogging up the rosters - go over to WWE.com and look at the rosters!!

I see what you're saying but I think the real problem is that these days the WWE tells you who to like whereas in the good old days they listened to who the fans got behind.

Take for example Christian in 2005. That guy was way more over than Ken Kennedy is now. Remember when he fought Batista in England and they had to dub in boos because the crowd were rooting for him over Batista? His catchphrases were getting over too - "That's how I roll", "Captain Charisma" etc and he was shifting lots of merchandise. Now in the Attitude era I reckon he would have got a very good push but because these days they go by who they want to be pushed and not who the fans like, Christian actually got shoved into mid-card on Smackdown losing to Booker T in US title matches. They killed his momentum.

It was the same with Carlito in the end of last year. Fans were getting behind him but they buried the guy (although in his case he's meant to have a poor attitude so I can overlook that).

And take CM Punk after Survivor Series - he got more cheers than D-X so what happened to him? Weeks later he loses to Hardcore bleedin' Holly.

My point is, people can bemoan the fact that there's no one along the lines of Austin and Rock but how can there be when the WWE only gets behind guys they feel should be cheered.

MikeHoncho · 17-04-2007 10:15pm

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

I see what you're saying but I think the real problem is that these days the WWE tells you who to like whereas in the good old days they listened to who the fans got behind.

Take for example Christian in 2005. That guy was way more over than Ken Kennedy is now. Remember when he fought Batista in England and they had to dub in boos because the crowd were rooting for him over Batista? His catchphrases were getting over too - "That's how I roll", "Captain Charisma" etc and he was shifting lots of merchandise. Now in the Attitude era I reckon he would have got a very good push but because these days they go by who they want to be pushed and not who the fans like, Christian actually got shoved into mid-card on Smackdown losing to Booker T in US title matches. They killed his momentum.

It was the same with Carlito in the end of last year. Fans were getting behind him but they buried the guy (although in his case he's meant to have a poor attitude so I can overlook that).

And take CM Punk after Survivor Series - he got more cheers than D-X so what happened to him? Weeks later he loses to Hardcore bleedin' Holly.

My point is, people can bemoan the fact that there's no one along the lines of Austin and Rock but how can there be when the WWE only gets behind guys they feel should be cheered.

I agree 100%. Its down to the way wwe are pushing people in our faces. I think im just about done with them TBH. I watch less and less of their product now. I havent seen smackdown in months apart from recap shows.

ec18 · 18-04-2007 12:08pm

The shows have gone downhill since the creation of separate brands imo. After the invasion angle and first NWO invasion in 2001-ish, there hasn't really been the same quality of storylines. They don't have the stars they had back then, rock, austin, jericho, HHH is injured.... HBK is still tryin to keep the DX angle going but its pointless at this stage.

None of the top stars today have the character and charisma that rock, austin and the superstars of the atitude era had. Can anyone honestly say that Cena is as good as Rock, Austin or Jericho with a mic.

The tag team and hardcore divisions really stood out during the atitude era as well. With the hardyz, edge and christian and the dudleyz. Batista is crap all he does is shout about the animal unleahes blah blah blah......Undertaker best active wrestler today IMO.

They seem to be pushing guys in the Goldberg/ Lesner style. Like Lashley and Umaga big "powerhouses". The only real big guys that made it to maineventer status and was undertaker. Kane and Big Show were popular but never has the following rock/austin and other main eventers had.

I think Lashley is being such a big push because they believe he is easily likeable by the fans. Does anyone else think the current "feud" with McMahon is reminiscent of Austin\McMahon?

So WWE if you read this bring back Austin, Rock and Jericho and others like that (e.g.Christian)

Why is Lashley being given such a huge push?

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