The Contentious Ten 09.06.10: Career Midcarders

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 09.06.2010

From Goldust and Arn Anderson to Jake Roberts and Val Venis, 411's Aaron Hubbard counts down the top ten career midcarders in this week's edition of the Contentious 10!



I read a lot of talk from fans, proclaiming that such and such a wrestler will never rise above mid-card despite being an IWC favorite or someone that WWE seems to want to make a star but they never go all the way through with it. Sometimes I look at the mid-card and wonder how WWE is screwing up certain prospects (John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, Christian), and sometimes I look at guys and I completely understand why they stay at the midcard level (MVP, R-Truth, Matt Hardy). Occasionally, there will be a mid-card guy who I think they are handling well (The Miz) and may be able to break out into the main event scene. For me, it's a lot of fun to look at the midcard and wonder where they will be in ten years.

Many people speak of the midcard as if it some terrible thing, but lets face it; most of the wrestlers to pass through major promotions never make it to main event level. Some of them have great talent, some of them have great characters, some are great talkers, yet they never seem to break the glass ceiling. Sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's the fans refusing to support someone, sometimes personal issues get in the way, sometimes a wrestler lacks one skill that really gets him over. However, many midcarders have managed to have great, successful careers and stick in the memories of fans. Occasionally, the midcard will be so good that even the midcard guys are stars (WWF in the 1980s, or the Attitude Era). This column takes a look at some of those great career midcarders.

The somewhat loose criteria is that a wrestler must have been over with fans but never held a World Title or had an extended run in the main event scene. Many of them had brushes with the main event (indeed, most of these matches showcase the wrestlers facing considerably more famous wrestlers), but they were never to be main eventers on a national scale. Obviously, there are too many to name, and I encourage you to list other people who deserve to be here. These are simply ten of my favorites.

X
Val Venis


Sean Morley was a terrific worker, but he didn't really stand out from any other young, talented wrestlers that came into the WWF circa 1998. Except for one thing; his porn star gimmick. The oft-hilarious and always controversial gimmick instantly made Val Venis one of the most memorable stars on the roster during the Attitude Era, which was a good thing for the in-ring product. The gimmick both served and limited Venis; he was always going to be over, but he wasn't going to be a world champion. There were a few attempts to reinvent Venis (Right to Censor, Commissioner Morley), but they never worked; people saw Venis and wanted the adult film star Venis. Val was able to win the European, Tag Team, and Intercontinental Championships in his career, but his star fell far after 2000 when the novelty of the gimmick started to wear off. However, he remained a loyal and valuable addition to the lower midcard, often making Heat must-see TV for fans who wanted good wrestling. I hope that the time from 1998-2000 when he was a featured star will be remembered by fans and the WWE.

IX
The Big Boss Man


Ray Traylor had respectable success in WCW as Big Bubba Rogers, but he really found himself in the WWF as The Big Boss Man. He first showed up in the late 80's as a stooge for Slick, forming an impressive team with Akeem the African Dream known as The Twin Towers. Boss Man would find himself opposite of Hulk Hogan early and often before turning babyface in 1990. During that run, Boss Man become one of the better big man workers in the business and had memorable feuds with Mr. Perfect and The Mountie. The Boss Man character would resurface in the late nineties, serving as a security guard/hired gun for Mr. McMahon's corporation. In this role, Boss Man usually found himself in the ring against Stone Cold Steve Austin, and was even the last man Steve Austin eliminated at the '99 Royal Rumble before the shenanigans kicked in. He may have been a jobber to the stars, but he was a jobber for the two biggest names in wrestling history. Not a bad gig.

VIII
Dean Malenko

Malenko is the polar opposite of Val Venis. Val was an underrated worker with natural charisma and a memorable gimmick. Malenko has never been underrated as a worker, but that was all he was good at and all he was marketed as. ECW and WCW took his in-ring work and his lack of emotion and marketed it well; he was "The Shooter", "The Iceman", and "The Man of 1,000 Holds". Malenko was in this bizarre state of over where every fan respected him as a dangerous talent, but they usually didn't cheer or boo for him. There were exceptions of course; one of the loudest pops in WCW history came when Malenko took off his Ciclope mask when feuding with Chris Jericho. But largely, the fans simply respected Malenko and never had an emotional attachment to him, which is why he stayed in the midcard while peers such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and Chris Benoit were able to reach main event status. However, Malenko was rarely without some kind of gold, and people still talk about what a tremendous in-ring performer he was.

VII
The Honky Tonk Man

Ah yes, Honky's greatest moment. Roy Wayne Ferris is the cousin of Jerry Lawler, and like Lawler, showed an incredible gift for becoming a superstar by being such an irritating character that he could put little effort and his matches, get cheap victories, and still stay over. The clear highlight of Honky's career is his 18-month Intercontinental Title reign. This period did not give us any classic matches, but it gave us a great storyline where Honky would somehow escape with the title in tact each and every night, and each and every night the fans were dying for someone to end his run. This resulted in one of the biggest payoffs in wrestling history when The Ultimate Warrior squashed him. Honkytonk's run set the standard for long cowardly heel runs, which Hollywood Hulk Hogan and JBL would imitate during their runs. So yeah, the "Honky Tonk Run" has worked for main eventers; I just don't think it would have worked with Honky Tonk Man. As a midcard act, he was great and helped make several stars over the course of his run.

VI
William Regal


Whether he was Steven Regal or William Regal, Darren Matthews has spent the better part of twenty years wrestling for the top two promotions in American history, WCW and WWE. An extremely gifted wrestler who showcases both European chain wrestling and stiff European brawling, Regal also has shown that he is excellent on the mic. Usually a heel, but occasionally a fan favorite (especially in Britain), Regal knows how to make people laugh, how to get them to cheer and how to get them to boo. Inside and outside the ring, I've never been bored watching Regal. William came very close to becoming a main event player when he was the King of the Ring in 2008, before a wellness violation killed that push. It's just as well though; the multiple time IC, European, Television and Tag Team champion is so valuable in the midcard as both a character and performer. It would have been nice for him to have an ECW Title Run though.

V
Greg "The Hammer" Valentine

I'm a mark for Greg Valentine. I've always viewed him as Ric Flair with half the pomp and double the toughness. A second generation wrestler, Valentine was a star in several promotions in the seventies and eighties and feuded with many of the top wrestlers of those times; from Hulk Hogan to Ric Flair, from Roddy Piper to Bob Backlund, Valentine battled them all. Because of this, one may tempted to call him a main event player, and he was certainly on the cusp of the main event. However, the '70's and '80's were a different time. Today, the main event scene consists largely of the four or five main eventers, with little rotation or room for another guy to come in. In Valentine's day, almost every heel of any notoriety got a title shot at one point or another, serving as the challenger of the month. He is more comparable to Umaga or the sixth guy in the Elimination Chamber who has no shot at winning.

"The Hammer" was known for being a tough, physical wrestler with a rugged, precise style that would probably more most fans of my generation or younger. But I appreciated his attempts to make his matches look as real as possible, and he has had more than a handful of great, underrated classics, like his Dog Collar match with Piper at the first Starrcade. Unlike a lot of people on this list, I think Greg would have been a viable World Champion if he had stayed in the NWA instead of going to the WWF. You can argue over which decision would have been better; even as a midcard heel, he was able to forge a legacy and gain several singles and tag team championships.

IV
Goldust


I just don't know about Dustin Rhodes. He has always been a criminally underrated in-ring performer, and has shown remarkable longevity as a good worker. This last week we had a good match with Ted DiBiase Jr. on Superstars and he really doesn't seem to have lost a beat. But for some reason, I find him to be bland when he is playing any other character than Goldust. This begs the question; does the Goldust character make Dustin Rhodes, or did Dustin Rhodes make Goldust work? I think it's a little of both, similar to Glen Jacobs and Kane or Mark Calloway and The Undertaker. It's the right performer with the right gimmick.

Over his career, Goldust or otherwise, Dustin has amassed several singles titles (Intercontinental, United States and the Hardcore Championship) as well as three tag team championships (with Barry Windham, Booker T and Ricky Steamboat). As Goldust, he was perhaps the most bizarre character to ever be in the WWF, and because of that he has stood out. From his beginnings as a villain who played sick mind games with foes to more sympathetic roles such as The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust or as the "weak link" in his team with Booker T, he was able to stay over. Even today, when Goldust is mostly an undercard guy losing to the stars of tomorrow, people cheer for him because his character is one of a kind and truly great. However, it is similar to the Val Venis situation; you have a great performer with a character that allows him to stay over, but you can't take him seriously as a potential World Champion.

III
Arn Anderson

Ah yes, The Enforcer. Arn Anderson is an example of an IWC darling before there was even an IWC. He's also proof that sometimes the IWC have no idea how to pick people who should be world champions. Arn Anderson has most of the qualities it takes to be a star in wrestling; he was technically gifted, knew how to tell an in-ring story, cut great promos, and was respected as a tough and believable wrestler by fans. However, he lacked the X-Factor that someone needed to be a World Champion today. He was great in his role as a bodyguard of sorts for the Four Horsemen, playing a vital role that has been imitated in most successful stables. Arn was also one of the best tag team wrestlers of all time, forming great teams with Ole Anderson, Larry Zybysko and Tully Blanchard. Arn and anyone was tag team greatness.

That was where Arn stayed for his entire career, and that's where he belonged. Because great wrestling shows aren't made solely out of main event players; they require a great undercard from talented and over midcarders. There have been many shows that Arn helped to make great. And really, what would War Games have been without Arn Anderson starting out almost every one of them? Anderson is one of the all time in-ring greats, but he was a midcard star. That's not a bad thing. I could certainly go for an Arn Anderson midcard tag team match today.

II
Tito Santana

If there was ever a poster boy for career midcarders, it would be Tito Santana. Santana had a great run with the WWF from 1979 to 1993, where he was prominently featured on all major shows, even wrestling at the first nine Wrestlemanias (the last in a dark match). The only other wrestler who can say that is Hulk Hogan. Over the course of his career, Santana held the Intercontinental Championship twice, the WWF Tag Team Championship twice (with Ivan Putski and Rick Martel), and was the 1989 King of the Ring. He also had many memorable feuds with the likes of Randy Savage, Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, Mr. Perfect and Rick Martel, and was an early rival of Shawn Michaels when the Heartbreak Kid started to break into singles action.

Tito consistently had good matches and was adored by fans, but never become world champion (his ECW Championship run was very early in the promotion's existence; most probably don't even know about it).However, one of the big differences between the WWE today and the WWF in Santana's day is that you could be a midcard, IC title level wrestler and still be a huge star that people loved. Compare Santana's accomplishments with wrestlers today who are in similar positions; not many are stars (Kofi Kingston and John Morrison are possible exceptions). But Tito was a guy who could wrestle any top villain, and while he usually didn't come out on the winning end, would give a spirited performance and always had the fan backing. That's a quality that today's midcarders sadly lack, in large part due to WWE's refusal to book a strong midcard.

I
Jake "The Snake" Roberts


No, this isn't a gut reaction to his retirement, because I don't think he's really retired and Jake's post-96 career doesn't matter to me anyway. I sincerely believe that Jake Roberts was a main event waiting to happen. Roberts was one of the most over performers of the 1980's, and it wasn't because he was the world's greatest technician; he got over because of his psychology and by living up to his nickname of "The Snake". In interviews, he could stare a hole through the television, speaking with a quiet menace that made him seem more threatening than larger, stronger wrestlers. In matches he would slither in and out of the ring. He would bide his time, not striking often but making every attack seem dangerous, especially his DDT finisher. It was just like a venomous snake bite; it only took one attack, and you were finished. By playing his character so perfectly, he was one of the most memorable characters of the Hogan era.

Roberts was able to battle top stars (Hogan, Savage, Sting) and make top stars (Steve Austin, The Undertaker) but never held a single World Championship, nor did he ever have an extended run as a main event player like his contemporaries Ted DiBiase and Roddy Piper. So, why is this? The simple answer is that the prime of Jake's career took place in an era where champions typically had long, extended runs at the top and only a very select few super-over wrestlers held it. Nowadays, the WWE gives World Titles to almost any wrestler on the roster that they think can be a big player, even before they are a big player. That's why wrestlers like Sheamus, Jack Swagger and even IWC darling CM Punk have held world titles even though they have nothing on Jake's legacy. If Jake was in his prime today, he would have held a World Title. Randy Orton, who has borrowed liberally from Jake, is all the proof you need.