As we see now with Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow, you can't base an entire career off of ripping someone else off. It just doesn't work. If only WWE had studied wrestling history, and maybe watched a few of those older WCW shows they have on their network. In 1995, WCW teased that the new arrivals of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan would have an "ultimate surprise" joining them. Kind of sounds like the Ultimate Warrior right? Wrong! Instead, they got a guy who kind of, sort of, looked like Warrior. But he was a Renegade! Unfortunately, The Renegade had the same wrestling abilities of The Warrior, and none of the charisma. That didn't stop management from trying to make him a star. A couple months into his debut, Renegade defeated the quite talented Arn Anderson (who later called it perhaps the most embarrassing moment of his career) for the TV title and held it for just over three months. During this time, he didn't get over, as fans saw right through the imposter. The rest of his run in WCW was spent working as a jobber. To top things off, he was awarded the 1995 Worst Wrestler of the Year by the Wrestling Observer. Not so Ultimate after all.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
