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Submitted by Winter on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 at 6:49 PM EST
 Hello everyone, and welcome to the 44th edition of LoP's coldest column, 'Let It Snow', brought to you by myself, Winter, as always. This week I'll be replying to yet more feedback from my readers, then in SNOW I'll take a look at wrestlers that received huge pushes at the wrong times, and I'll be unveiling a new section for ICE to end the column. I was extremely disappointed to hear about Lance Storm's in-ring retirement. Here's a guy who can wrestle circles around just about anyone, was trained by the best there ever was, has proved himself time and time again and at one time was a killer heel in ECW. Then he went to WCW and slowly it all went wrong, as Storm lost motivation and always placed in the wrong situations, something which continued to happen after Storm's move to the WWE. I for one will miss seeing Storm wrestle, but If I'm honest he wasn't doing anything special anyway, and I still have my ECW tapes, where he performed a million times better than he ever did in the WWE. He'll be missed, I hope he enjoys his new job as a road agent, whatever one of those are. Anyway, on with the column... SLEET - I Love Feedback Dear Winter Before I get to the reason for this email, I just thought I would say that I have been reading your articles and coming to Lordsofpain for many a year, and I just want to tell you all what a great site this is. I am almost 40 years old and I have been watching wrestling and been a "fan" for almost 30 of them. In fact I saw all the greats when they first got into the business. I was there when Hulk Hogan, Sgt. Slaughter, superstar Billy gramm, and others had there first match's. Hell, I remember when Tony Garrea and the grand wizard of wrestling were the best and were on top of there game. So as you can tell, I have seen quite a bit of wrestling history. I have seen the WWE (then the WWWF) at it's best and worst. I have seen all the old time greats, and have actually met some of them too. Hell I still have Andre the giants autograph! Bereave me when I say that I could tell you all some GREAT stories about the stars in the early day's of wrestling (like the time I saw Hogan take out the Iron Sheik with the sheik’s own "arm exercise equipment"! God was Hogan strong then, although I believe he was called sterling golden, or some such name, way back then). Any way’s, I just wanted to say that while I have RARELY written anyone about wrestling, I figured it was about time. When I read your article on "Dream Matches That Never Happened", I just new I had to write in. There are many dream match's which we will NEVER see because of some reason or another. Some because the wrestlers might be dead; others because the WWE would NEVER put it together. If I had a time machine, and could pull wrestlers from any point in the WWE's history, I would have loved to have seen these match's......... 1) Andre the giant VS the undertaker! We all saw Andre Vs Hogan. Those were good match's. However, I believe this one would be even better than that match-up. The Undertaker is one of the greatest "big men" in the history of wrestling. In his prime, he was strong, could wrestle better than Hogan (although I think anyone could wrestle better than Hogan), and was the quickest "big man" in the business (Hell, except for his size, in his prime he was a good and fast as some cruiserweights today!). And of course there's Andre, the 8th wonder of the world! In his prime (and even later on in his life), he was fast, could wrestle pretty good, and is probably the only wrestler in history who could NOT be MADE to loose if he didn't want to. The fact that he never really wanted any world title of his own in his career (excluding Hogan's) say's more about the man then a lot of things. While not the most technical match, I believe that if that match were to take place today (with BOTH men in there prime), it would have the potential to be better than ANY match which you have listed except for Austin VS Hogan and Bret VS Angle. I myself would do or pay anything to have seen these two men mix it up. In fact it might have been the best match either wrestler would have in there life, and certainly it might have been the biggest. Imagine the dead man VS the 8th wonder of the world on PPV. Hell, even a toothbrush would mark out big time! Too bad we'll never see it. At least we can dream........... 2) The Samoans (affa/seeka with albano) VS the Hart Foundation. My favorite all time tag team are the wild samoans. In there day, they were indestructible and a force to recon with. When they had the WWWF's tag team title's they were THE dominate team in the history of wrestling. In fact they were so dominate a force when they had the belts, it took the booking and pairing of Bob Backland and Pedro Morallis (the WWWF world champion and Intercontinental champion respectively) to take the belts off of them. I was there in the garden when it happened, and boy what a great match it was! Afterwards, seeing as Backland and Morallis already had the belts, they gave up the tag titles, which sparked a tournament in which the samoans got the titles back! That alone show's how good they were. As far as the Hart Foundation goes, I just loved them. They may not have been the "best" tag team in the world, but they were one of the most popular, and as far as I'm concerned, my favorite tag team next to the samoans. I think this match would be off the hook! However, while I also think that the Samoan’s VS the British bulldogs OR the Dudley’s could also be great match, nothing beats the popularity of Bret Hart (Jim’s along for the ride unfortunately). Imagine a TLC match between these two teams. It give's me goose bumps just thinking about it. Too bad it will never happen.......... 3) Kurt Angle VS William Regal. Yes I said William Regal! I consider Regal to be one of the top five wrestlers of all time, next to the likes of Bret Hart and Kurt Angle. While I agree that Angle VS Hart WOULD be a better match, this "sleeper" match has the potential to be one of the best technical match's in the history of wrestling. I'm sure you remember Davey Boy Smith VS Bret Hart in wembly stadium. It is still one of the best match's I have ever seen. I believe this match up (Regal Vs Hart) could be that good or even better. Some of the reasons the match's between Kurt Angle VS Chris Benwah (god I can't spell) were so good and seemed to get better every time they fought was because A) both men have similar styles B) it was Canada VS USA C) they were fantastic technical match's and D) it was/is the closest we'll ever see to a Angle VS Hart match. I would have this match in wembly stadium in England where Regal is way over. Kurt, despite being from the USA would also be way over as most everyone just love's Angle. Hell, you might also be able to include "Eugene the retard" into the mix. After all, there is the special Olympics, which would Kurt could play off of if done right. Angle could pick on Eugene in some fashion using a special Olympics angle (pun intended), which could make Regal feel sorry for him, which in turn result in Regal standing up to Angle to protect Eugene, which would set up the match. This could be a five star match in the making, but only if the match took place in England. Regal would get a better reaction there............ I'm sure I could go on and on, but you get my point. There are other match's like Bruno Samartino VS HHH in Madison square garden, and Bret Hart VS Sting for the right to use the sharpshooter (or the scorpion death lock for Sting) that would just love to see but never will. Hell, even Andre the giant VS the Big Show has some potential to be a five star match (I know I'm stretching things thin with this match). Any way’s, I think I've taken enough of your time so far, so I'll try to shut up now. Wrestling will be here for a long time to come. HHH can't kill a company which survived the likes of the "gobbly gooker" and tragedies such as Owan's death. It may not be the best it's ever been, but it's a lot better than what it could be, believe you me. It could be a LOT worse than it is. I watch raw and smackdown regularly, and order the better PPV's out there like the royal rumble and wrestlemania. I have been watching wrestling for so long now that I can predict who will win and loose match's with about a 94% chance of getting it right. In fact I new that Benwah and Edge would get the belts on Monday. Just look at the reaction of the fan's when just a few weeks ago Benwah and Michaels almost won the tag titles. They went nuts! Vince probably saw this and said, "whoa look at that. They liked it. Lets do it again, but give it to them this time". Come to think of it, Vince has the potential for a Benwah VS Edge feud here. Just think of it. Benwah could be forced by Vince and/or Bishoff to choose which title to keep and forfeit the other one. We all know he would forfeit the tag team belts if forced to choose between the two titles, which could piss off Edge to no end since he would also have to be striped of the Tag team belts though no fault of his own, which in turn would turn Edge heal and set off a battle between the too. Edge could say "since you forced me to give up my title Benwah, it seems fitting that I TAKE your belt from you in return". It has potential, but only if done right. There is a chance we could see this happen (10% chance), but probably not. It would be good though, as long as Edge gets his "edge" back so to speak. Benwah could certainly carry Edge to a good match even now that's for sure, but it would be better if left till later when Edge looses the cast. Well, I've written enough for one day, so I'll stop for now. Thanks again for the opportunity to write you and voice my opinions. Write back and let me know what you think of my dream match picks. I know that I'm a little late in my comments about something you wrote over a week ago, but I hope you understand. Thanks again, and until I see the match "the gobbly gooker VS the red rooster" make mine Marvel........... Thanks again, Elvencrest.............. Winter: Wow...now that is what I called detailed feedback! Without a doubt, Lordsofpain.net is the greatest wrestling site around, and I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to write for the main page! Woah, you've been a wrestling fan for a while then? You must've seen some huge changes in your time, from the days of smoky bingo halls to sell-out arenas. I'd have loved to seen just a fraction of what you must have. You have Andre's autograph? See, now you're just trying to make me jealous. Seriously, meeting Andre must have been awesome, you're a lucky person. Ha, you seem to have gone into more detail with your dream matches than I did with mine! Andre v Taker? Hmmm. Now, I know this would be something to see, a real battle of the monsters. I suppose with both men in their prime it wouldn't be too bad either, as Andre was pretty decent during his heyday, ditto for Taker. I must say I've always liked Undertaker feuds where he goes up against giants, and who's a better than Andre. I don't think the actual match would be anything for either man to brag about, but sure, it'd be something special, there's no doubt about that. For someone who's never seen The Samoans wrestle, and only saw a tiny fraction of the original Hart Foundation, I can't really comment on that match. What I saw of The Harts I loved, but it's 20 matches tops, so I can't really form on opinion on that match, although I'm sure some people reading this will be able to do so. Angle/Regal is a strange one I must say. I don't think these two have ever fought each other in a match. It's funny, but it seems whenever one of them is a heel so is the other, the same when they're faces. I've got to admit, despite what some people say, Regal was a damn fine wrestler during his prime. And Angle, as we all know, will go down as one of the greatest of all time. There's no doubt that Kurt Angle would be over in England. It's funny, but it seems all wrestling fans outside of the USA seem to be 'smart' fans, and it's no different over here. Casual and internet fans in England adore Kurt Angle, so if the match took place in England he'd still get a decent reaction. And Regal always gets a fairly large pop from the crowd over here, so there'd be nothing to worry about there. Good call on the dream matches, they're some unusual ones I doubt many people would have thought of. You're right, wrestling isn't as bad as some people make it. Sure, it's nowhere the standards of 4 years ago, especially over on Smackdown, but it's still damn good. remember, we had to put up wit Diesel as world champion for a entire year in 1995, nothing could be worse than that. And if TNA get a TV deal and Ted Turner returns with a new promotion as has been reported, things are only going to get better. Benoit v Edge certainly has a lot of potential, but I don't see it happening for a while. Edge hasn't been as over as he should have been following his return, so a heel turn could work for him, but the WWE don't want that to happen, as it'd ruin a future feud with HHH. And turning Benoit heel right now would be a huge mistake, so that's out of the question. I suppose they could go at while both of them are faces, but I always feel that face v face feuds don't draw as well as your traditional face v heel feud. Maybe I'll be proved wrong one day, who knows? Thanks for the excellent feedback Elvencrest, it's truly appreciated. And thanks to everyone who sent feedback. I know I still need to get back to one or two of you, I've just been pretty busy, but I will reply! Thanks SNOW - Too Much, Too Soon We've all seen it happen. A generic rookie debuts on WWE TV, wins his first match, and before the show's over none of us can remember the kid's name. Then, less than 3 months this same kid is being shoved down our throats, winning championships and defeating main event superstars. Of course, us fans don't want this to happen, so we boo the rookie and he's taken off of TV for while. Then he comes back to TV several months later, this time as a heel, and off he's goes to become on of the biggest wrestling stars of all time. Sound familiar? Well it should, as it seems that rookies are being shoved down the throats of wrestling fans more and more with each passing month. At first it was bearable, but c'mon, I think the WWE really needs to calm down when it comes to debuting new talent these days. So join me, as I take a look at what happens when a superstar is pushed too much, too soon! Randy Orton Randy's a tricky one here, as I suppose he wasn't pushed that heavily after his inaugural debut. Can you even remember who he defeated in his first televised WWE match? I believe it was Hardcore Holly, but I'm none too sure about that. Anyway, after debuting in April 2002, Randy quickly disappeared from our TV screens. I don't remember why this was, but the smart guess is that he suffered some sort of injury, and required time off. So then he re-debuted around October 2002, but Randy, a Smackdown! superstar at the time, was then traded to RAW with several other wrestlers in exchange for the Big Show, and once on RAW his push continued. On RAW Randy continued to receive a fairly big push as a babyface, but the fans weren't buying it. They didn't hate Orton, as the WWE would like us to believe, they simply didn't care. But the WWE had us believe Orton was a victim of the 'Rocky Miavia' effect, and turned him heel on just his 2nd week on RAW. Unfortunately for Orton, his big push wouldn't come to be, as he suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to take several months off. So then came all the 'RNN' promos, which while they were entertaining, did little to benefit Orton's career, as fans wanted to see if he could back it up in the ring. So come February, Orton's 100% and ready to go, but not for long, as another injury required him to take several months off yet again. Anyway, after all the injuries had finally stopped, and Orton returned to full-time action, he was given a push only few wrestler can ever dream of having. Why was he given such a huge push? Why was shoved in our faces? The simple answer is that the WWE and Vince McMahon wanted Orton to be pushed, and he was, regardless of whether or not he was actually ready for it, which I don't believe he was. Every time Randy was in the ring or cutting a promo, something went wrong, he'd either botch spots or stumble over his own words Basically, Orton wasn't ready for a huge push, and the fans knew it. So how did the WWE handle this? By giving him the intercontinental title of course. Thus far Orton has been a fairly weak champion, defending the title on a handful of occasions at the most. The only memorable defence was his match against Mick Foley, where the I/C title wasn't even pushed as a factor in Mick and Randy's feud. Still, giving credit where credit's due, Randy has improved significantly over the last 2-3 months, and how seems conformable with his spot on the card. But for almost 1 whole year Randy was shoved in our faces, given victories over guys like HBK and Foley and more TV time than guys 10x more deserving than he was. And all because the WWE was determined to make Orton a success. Well, they may have gone the wrong about doing it, but it seems it's all paid off, as Randy is at last a genuine upper-mid card heel. It just goes to show that when the WWE is more than determined to do something, they'll do it. La Resistance If there were ever a tag teamed given a huge, undeserving push, it's La Resistance. In April 2003, in the midst of all the Iraq controversy, the WWE started airing promos of 2 'French' men, telling the USA not to be afraid. I actually liked these promos, as they had a sort of dark side to them, with the whole 'Do not be afraid' thing, I thought La Resistance were going to be pretty decent characters, but I was wrong. Around May the French men debuted on RAW and took out super-patriotic Scott Steiner with a couple of weak looking moves. Needless to say, fans weren't impressed. At Judgment Day La Resistance went over Steiner and Test in a boring match, that showed us nothing expect that La Resistance were easily the 2 greenest wrestlers on the WWE roster. And it's hardly surprising either. Rene Dupree was only 19 years old at the time, and his partner, Sylvain Grenier, was unheard of until he played the heel referee at No Way Out just 3 months before. Fans around the world were shocked and dismayed when at Bad Blood, La Resistance, just one month after making their in ring debut won the tag team titles from RVD and Kane is a boring match. Even worse for the WWE was the fact that the ancient 'anti-American' gimmick wasn't going over with the fans. In fact, the WWE was pretty ignorant if they expected it to. La Resistance were supposed to be hated because their country opposed the war in Iraq. Sounds like an ok plan, until you discover that around half of the WWE's fans probably felt the same way, and thus had no reason whatsoever to hate La Resistance. Adding Rob Conway to the stable did nothing either. Although slightly impressive on the mic., Conway was just as green as Dupree and Grenier, and if he did anything it was only make things worse. After finally dropping the tag titles to The Dudley Boyz in a pretty good tables match at Unforgiven, the push of La Résistance came to end, and they became Heat regulars. Not only that, but Sylvian suffered a serious neck injury, and disappeared from WWE TV, leaving Dupree and Conway as the 'new' La Resistance. Although a slight improvement, fans didn't care for either man, and they were rarely seen on RAW or PPV. When Grenier recovered from his injury the 3 men were briefly reunited, until Dupree was sent over to SD! where it appears he'll have more success as singles wrestler than he did as a tag wrestler. Grenier and Conway mean while continue to bore fans on RAW, although their current feud with Eugene is quite fun to watch. Dupree, Grenier and Conway were 3 guys who were given a great oppurtunity that didn't work out the way it should have done. Instead of senselessly giving La Resistance wins over established superstars and the tag team titles in the teams 2nd month, the WWE should have had them work their way up the card, and should have actually waited to see how they went over with the fans before pushing them so hard. That's the WWE's main problem. Instead of waiting to see what the fans think, they just do whatever they feel at times, and that isn't the right way to go about business. In the long run all 3 men may end up having great careers, but it'll always be fact that their inaugural push was a huge failure. John Cena Here's one that still has me confused to this day. You have John Cena, a boring babyface rookie, and then you have Chris Jericho, one of the most charismatic wrestlers in the roster who less than 6 months ago was your Undisputed champion. Surely these guys don't even belong in the same ring, and if they do then surely Jericho will be the one going over right? Not quite, in fact, the complete opposite. Long before becoming a rapper, John Cena was a plain, bland, average wrestler who fans could truly care less about. Sure, he came in with a bang, almost defeating Kurt Angle on an episode of Smackdown!, but getting a rub from Angle doesn't mean fans are going to fall in love you, as John Cena found out. At Vengeance, Cena entered to ring to silence and left to a mild pop from the crowd. Despite defeating Chris Jericho, fans didn't care about him. After all, this was during a time when numerous wrestlers were being called up from OVW or returning to the WWE, and Cena was by far the most lifeless of them all. His in-ring skills were ok, but nothing special. His look was generic, and charisma seemed non-existent. It was only 5 months later on an episode of Smackdown, where Cena, dressed as Vanilla Ice, cut a comedy rap backstage. The readtion from the crowd was a positive, so the WWE had Cena rap more and more, only it went from being a joke to turning Cena into the hottest young star wrestling has seen in years. In April 2003 it could be argued that the WWE again pushed Cena way too hard, giving him a title match against Lesnar at Backlash. But the difference this time round was that fans actually cared about Cena. He'd been given time to develop, and fans were ready for him. It took a while but Cena is now a genuine superstar. It may all be down to his gimmick, his wrestling skills might not even come into play, but it doesn't matter. Cena's a star, he's over, and he's getting better and better. Thankfully the WWE's misuse of him during his early days hasn't had a negative effect on his career. In fact, right now I don't think anything could have a negative effect on Cena's career. Anything except a flopped rap album that is... End-O Ok, I think I'll end the main section here. I'd have liked to have gone on and maybe included Batista, but I'm too damn busy with college work to spend anymore time on this. Maybe a sequal will be posted in the future if this one's well recieved, who knows. I hope you all enjoyed it anyway, and thanks to the fan who gave me this idea (I've forgotten the name now, send me an e-mail and I'll give you credit next week). And now onto ICE... ICE - Ask Winter Where is Sid? Last I heard Sid was playing the commissioner role for various indy promotions including the ill-fated WWA. Of course, after suffering that nasty leg injury Sid will never wrestle again, unless some sort of miracle happens. Do you like Tito? Ha, yeah, I like Tito. I disagree with some of his comments on certain superstars at times, but on the whole I agree with most of what he has to say, whether it be on wrestling or other topics. How old are you? 18. Who has held the most number of titles in the WWE? Hmm, I believe there are quite a few wrestlers who are tied for holding the most number of titles. Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Christian, Eddie Guerrero, Triple H have all held 5 different titles, which is the current record. Where is Scott Steiner, I haven't seen him in ages! He's injured (again). It's unknown right now just when he'll be back in action. Who is the oldest wrestler in the WWE? That would have to be Ric Flair, who I believe is around 55 years old. The 2nd oldest wrestler on the roster is probably The Undertaker, who is more than 10 years younger than Flair. What happened to MLW? Well, I don't know all the formalities of it, but let's just say it's went out of business. It's a shame, despite being a slight ECW rip-off, that place had the potential to become something big... MELTED That's all I have for you this weeks folks. Sorry if this wasn't as good as usual, but with college exams coming up I had to rush this little, hopefully things will be better next week. Please send all feedback to jerichoholic113@hotmail.com, and I'll try and reply to each one I receive. If have any questions for 'Ask Winter' send those along too. Sorry for not having any plugs this week, but this column's late as is it. Fear not, they'll return next week. Thanks for reading and take care -Winter *NEW GALLERY* Amazing! The VERY RARE & Revealing Kelly Kelly BEACH PHOTOSHOOT!!!
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