Best Star Makers

Cactus Colm

This is a thread for those wrestlers who may rise to a certain level, but have to ability to elevate their opponents even higher. Specifically I'm thinking people like Mick Foley.

He was a main event player for sure, but maybe a step behind some of the others on top. In my eyes it was his feuds with people such as The Rock, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Edge that truly established them as main event superstars.

johnnycnandy

Cactus Colm wrote: »

This is a thread for those wrestlers who may rise to a certain level, but have to ability to elevate their opponents even higher. Specifically I'm thinking people like Mick Foley.

He was a main event player for sure, but maybe a step behind some of the others on top. In my eyes it was his feuds with people such as The Rock, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Edge that truly established them as main event superstars.

Rock. Sure the guy was a star, but he could make them too. Jericho, Angle, Brock. Hell, he managed to make Hurricane a star while he was already feuding with Austin and Goldberg.

rossie1977

johnnycnandy wrote: »

Rock. Sure the guy was a star, but he could make them too. Jericho, Angle, Brock. Hell, he managed to make Hurricane a star while he was already feuding with Austin and Goldberg.

what??

jericho was pushed huge the minute he walked in the door at wwe, brock was pushed huge the minute he started, he destroyed hogan before feuding with the rock and was 10 times more over than the rock at summerslam 2002 (i know i was there ringside listening to everyone booing the rock)

anyway correct answer is ric flair, look at the guys that became legit stars because of him, steamboat, luger, sting, windham, the last 3 were nobodies in the business before hooking up with flair in the mid/late 80s

jaykhunter

Jericho's a tremendously giving wrestler but i dunno if he made any stars...He's only ever played/been booked as best supporting actor really.

Flair's probably the most giving main-event wrestler in the ring of all time but his title jobs were mostly when he knew he was getting them back pretty soon.

GTR63

Angle or Hbk.They could make anyone (except Mark Henry) look good.Its not in the Hands of a talent to keep the push going though.WWE is kinda short on guys to do this now the Best they have at the moment would be Christian.

starviewadams

Triple H did well with Orton,Batista and Jeff Hardy
Rocky did a good job of elevating Chris Jericho up to the main event scene in 2001.
Mr.McMahon made Austin a legitimate megastar.

Penn

starviewadams wrote: »

Mr.McMahon made Austin a legitimate megastar.

I'd almost say the other way round, or at least they made each other. The Montreal Screwjob may have been the birth of the Mr.McMahon character, but Austin and McMahon became huge stars because of each other

rossie1977

starviewadams wrote: »

Triple H did well with Orton,Batista and Jeff Hardy
Rocky did a good job of elevating Chris Jericho up to the main event scene in 2001.
Mr.McMahon made Austin a legitimate megastar.

the only one i agree with there is batista, if anything HHH has tried his best to halt the progress of orton

and austin made the mcmahon character not the other way round

Penn

rossie1977 wrote: »

the only one i agree with there is batista, if anything HHH has tried his best to halt the progress of orton

Same with Jeff Hardy. Some great matches, but couldn't beat HHH for the WWE title. Then HHH drops it to a returning Edge, who then drops it to Hardy a month later. If HHH was trying to help Hardy, he should have dropped the title to Hardy.

irish_stevo815

Barrington wrote: »

Same with Jeff Hardy. Some great matches, but couldn't beat HHH for the WWE title. Then HHH drops it to a returning Edge, who then drops it to Hardy a month later. If HHH was trying to help Hardy, he should have dropped the title to Hardy.

I think HHH tried to put Jeff Hardy over as a legitimate singles competitor in like 2000 when they had the feud for the IC Title. I remember the title changed hands a couple of times and made Hardy look absolutley amazing. And theres no denying he pushed both Batista & Orton to the big time in Evolution. Sheamus also to an extent got help from Trips!

Gotta give some credit to Undertaker for trying to put people over and making them stars. His feud with Orton helped put Orton even higher after his time with HHH/Evolution. Then there was Hardy again, that ladder match on Raw for the Undisputed Title was great for Hardy. Look at some of the feuds Taker has had over the years on Smackdown - Mr. Kennedy, Heidenreich, Khali, Mark Henry. Now these might not have went accroding to plan, but their involvment with Taker helped get them noticed.

Finally, I'm gonna say John Cena (cue the haters ). He has helped with the pushes of the likes of The Miz, Umaga (RIP), Sheamus, Wade Barrett. And dare I say he helped to get Edge into the big-time main event scene!!!!

Charisteas

irish_stevo815 wrote: »

Finally, I'm gonna say John Cena (cue the haters ). He has helped with the pushes of the likes of The Miz, Umaga (RIP), Sheamus, Wade Barrett. And dare I say he helped to get Edge into the big-time main event scene!!!!

Yeah that's true. When someone beats John Cena, WWE does a good job of making it seem like a big deal, and he defo helped elevate Wade Barrett and Sheamus to main event status in the last 18 months or so.

Big Daddy Cool

starviewadams wrote: »

Mr.McMahon made Austin a legitimate megastar.

i would say austin made himself a star in the wwe, the story was that vince didnt know what to do with him after the ringmaster gimmick, if austin had'nt come up with the Austin 3:16 part of his speech at king of the ring, well we might not have got the attitude era, everything became edgier on the back of Austin and that night, Hunter hurst helmsley became HHH, Rocky maivia became The Rock and the rest is history

TheEscapist

I'm not a big fan of his but I think Rey has elevated a few people in his time, most recently with Del Rio who really benefitted as a heel and could show his personality in and out of the ring by fueding with Mysterio.

starviewadams

I know Austin came up with the whole 3:16 gimmick and stuff,but without his feud with McMahon(which was pretty groundbreaking at the time) I doubt that he would have become as massive a star as he did.

parker kent

starviewadams wrote: »

I know Austin came up with the whole 3:16 gimmick and stuff,but without his feud with McMahon(which was pretty groundbreaking at the time) I doubt that he would have become as massive a star as he did.

I think Bret Hart would qualify as the star maker for Steve Austin in the WWE. His feud in 1996-97 helped cement Austin in the main event. Their Mania match is the defining Stone Cold moment for me.

Big Daddy Cool

parker kent wrote: »

I think Bret Hart would qualify as the star maker for Steve Austin in the WWE. His feud in 1996-97 helped cement Austin in the main event. Their Mania match is the defining Stone Cold moment for me.

yeah no doubt that match helped Austin tremendously, but my point on why i think Austin made himself the star is that the wwe didnt know what to do with him after the ringmaster, and if he himself had'nt come up with Austin 3:16 gimmick, he may never have got that match with bret. i know his fued with bret and vince helped as well, but the crowd reaction he got on raw the night after the king of the ring, meant they (wwe) had no choice but go with him.

parker kent

Big Daddy Cool wrote: »

yeah no doubt that match helped Austin tremendously, but my point on why i think Austin made himself the star is that the wwe didnt know what to do with him after the ringmaster, and if he himself had'nt come up with Austin 3:16 gimmick, he may never have got that match with bret. i know his fued with bret and vince helped as well, but the crowd reaction he got on raw the night after the king of the ring, meant they (wwe) had no choice but go with him.

But as has been proven many times, a good wrestler with a good gimmick is no guarantee of success. Nor is winning the KOTR or delivering a good speech. Many wrestlers have had similar moments to Austin's at KOTR and they have not been capitalised on. The difference with Austin was that he spent the months after KOTR calling out Bret Hart and then they had a great feud leading to the Mania classic. With the benefit of hindsight we can say KOTR and the Austin 3:16 speech launched Austin, but the Bret Hart feud is what made him a star.

Speaking of KOTR 1996, Mick Foley's performance that night can be considered the rebirth of the Undertaker. Foley saved Taker from having to continue in the slow Deadman style. It is obviously not a typical star maker performance, but it created the modern Undertaker.

flahavaj

parker kent wrote: »

But as has been proven many times, a good wrestler with a good gimmick is no guarantee of success. Nor is winning the KOTR or delivering a good speech. Many wrestlers have had similar moments to Austin's at KOTR and they have not been capitalised on. The difference with Austin was that he spent the months after KOTR calling out Bret Hart and then they had a great feud leading to the Mania classic. With the benefit of hindsight we can say KOTR and the Austin 3:16 speech launched Austin, but the Bret Hart feud is what made him a star.

Speaking of KOTR 1996, Mick Foley's performance that night can be considered the rebirth of the Undertaker. Foley saved Taker from having to continue in the slow Deadman style. It is obviously not a typical star maker performance, but it created the modern Undertaker.

Agreed on Foley. He also did a lot to make Orton look like a star in my eyes in their excellent feud a few years back. It was the first time I looked at Orton and thought he could be a proper main event star. Similarly Foley's feud with HHH did a lot to cement his place as a guy who was at the top to stay back in 2000.

parker kent

flahavaj wrote: »

Agreed on Foley. He also did a lot to make Orton look like a star in my eyes in their excellent feud a few years back. It was the first time I looked at Orton and thought he could be a proper main event star. Similarly Foley's feud with HHH did a lot to cement his place as a guy who was at the top to stay back in 2000.

Yeah the Royal Rumble street fight made HHH look awesome.

Orton could do with a heel Foley at the minute!

2nd Row Donkey

couldn't agree more - Foley did more for Orton then anyone else did.