411’s WWE This is Awesome Report: Most Awesome Villains

-They never advertise when new episodes of this series drop, and then they just pop up on me as I am finishing watching something else. Oh well, let’s get to it!

-Original Air Date: 11.10.23
-Rum Time: 53:28

-Greg Miller welcomes us the show and is sporting a sweet Razor Ramon shirt. Good stuff!

-Opening video package: The talking heads discuss what makes a good villain. Priest mentions cheats and lies and they show us Eddie Guerrero. Nice! SHAWN MICHAELS SUPERKICKING MARTY ON THE BARBERSHOP! Prison Dom notes that being a villain has been a lot of fun and says he is a dick because he slapped his mom and beat up his dad. Priest loves being a bad guy! Roberts loves Attitude Era Boss Man and yeah, that’s a good call! POOR PEPPER! BIG SHOW’S DAD’S FUNERAL! Graves brings up Bret and his line of Pittsburgh being the place where you would give The US an enema. Nostalgia!

Randy Orton

-Good start! Orton says being a bad guy comes easy and is second nature. “I was born to piss you off.” He had his own episode of the WWE show, Evil. You can find my review of that here. Bronson Reed brings up Cowboy Bob and how he was a great villain. They discuss The Legend Killer gimmick as we see him give Moolah an RKO, and him spit in Mick Foley’s face. He morphed from that into The Viper and everyone talks about how he slithers like a snake. THE PUNT KICK! CM PUNK TAKING THE RKO! HE’S COMING BACK! Or something, like that. Orton using a screwdriver in Jeff Hardy’s ear. Ewww! They also cover him kissing an out cold Stephanie McMahon while HHH is cuffed to the ropes. Man, did they blow that match at WrestleMania XXV with that stupid stipulation. I was in the building and nothing was going to touch Shawn/Taker, but HHH/Orton should have been an epic brawl with weapons all over The Georgia Dome.

Triple H

-Yeah, you had to figure he would be on this list. “I AM THE FUCKING GAME, JR.” Just find JR’s tearing into HHH week after week on RAW to show how much he was hated. Oh, thank you Gargano as he brings that point up and we get a lot of the famous JR commentary! So good! We go back to Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Samantha Irvin compares him to Gaston from Beauty and The Beast. Good call! From there, D-X is born and then Evolution which gave a platform to Orton and Batista. HHH breaking into Orton’s home! HHH MARRYING STEPHANIE AT A DRIVE-THRU CHAPEL! The talking heads bring up the sledgehammer and we get a montage of hammer shots. The way these people are talking about him, you would think he was their boss or something.

Mr. McMahon

-Well, he had to be here as he is the greatest villain in WWE History. It all started with The Montreal Screw Job and “Bret Screwed Bret.” Woods doesn’t think of Vince as a villain. Instead he thinks of him as a super-villain. Truth! They discuss Vince having all the power and abusing it. They mean on screen of course! AUSTIN vs. MCMAHON! They go over the “You’re Fired” catchphrase and Vince challenging God, himself, to a match. KISS MY ASS CLUB! Waller thinks that may be the most villainous thing in WWE history. “Life sucks and then you die.” Dom wants to know what kind of sick man lays a hand on his own son. Obviously, they won’t show footage of his match with Stephanie.

”The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase

-Sam Roberts says no matter how firm you are in your beliefs, in a capitalistic society, everyone has a price.  Dibiase: “I’m rich.  You’re poor, and that makes me better than each and everyone one of you.”  CM PUNK RETURN HIDDEN CLUE!  Woods brings up Dibiase bringing up kids on stage and embarrassing them by kicking a basketball, etc.  Graves brings up Dibiase purchasing the WWF Title from Andre The Giant.  My review of that show (Main Event I) can be found here.  Jack Tunney didn’t let that fly, so Dibiase created his own Title.  Dibiase paying off an owner of a pool to kick kids out or paying off a hotel owner to throw a couple out is fantastic.  

Ric Flair

-It’s that new young, AEW star, Ric Flair that all the cool kids are talking about.  I kid obviously.  “I spent more money on spilt booze than you made in the last six months.”  That is just an awesome line.  We don’t need talking heads for this one.  Just let Flair and his promos cook!  Though it is showing why Flair is so cool more than why he is a villain.  “My shoes cost more than your house.”  Graves notes that all the men wanted to be Ric Flair.  Now we get to what made him a villain and that’s being The Dirtiest Player in The Game.  Roberts brings up that Flair was the coolest dude on television.  Flair with Post Malone as they talk about how generations upon generations know Ric Flair.  

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper

-I mean, yeah this works!  Piper didn’t care what anyone thought and did whatever he wanted to entertain himself and get the crowd to hate him.  Piper was a heat magnet and could get a building to hate him just by talking.  Hulk Hogan was SuperMan and Piper was his Lex Luthor.  Oh man, Roberts just made the same analogy.  PIPER KICKS CYNDI LAUPER!  Piper 100% believed in his actions and that he was right, even if the crowd booed him out of every arena.  PIPER’S PIT!  “Just when they think they have the answers, I change the questions.”  “You do not throw rocks at a man with a machine gun.”  The coconut shot heard around the world with Snuka.  Such good stuff! Ciampa thought he was the coolest and still thinks he is even the coolest today.   

Trish Stratus

-We need a female on the list, and I mean really, EVIL TRISH ruled!  She instantly became a lot hotter (which is saying something) as well for some reason after the heel turn with Christian.  They show the heel turn on Jericho, and yeah, she needed that turn.  “Your head is so hard it broke my darn shoe, girl.”  TRISH IN WHITE AT KANE AND LITA’S WEDDING!  Yep!  They they cover the heel turn on Becky Lynch from earlier in the year and it produced a kick ass steel cage match in Pittsburgh.  Graves brings up that what makes a great villain is there has to be some truth to what they are saying.  Samantha Irvin thanks Trish! 

The Rock

-Damian Priest says he was there when The Rock debuted in MSG.  “Why should I like you?  Just because you smile?”  Man, has a point.  Woods’ favorite Rock was the one in the early days of The Nation.    Woods: “I have Elvis sideburns at times for no reason.”  Survivor Series 98 The Rock wins his first WWF Title and sells out to Vince McMahon and The Corporation.  A Monster was born.  Graves loved Hollywood Rock, and who didn’t?  They better mention Sacramento or what are we even doing here?  Yep, here we go!  Apollo Crews says he is a Kings fan and then Rock nuked the entire city with “I’ll be sure to come back when The Lakers beat The Kings in May.”  That and Elias crushing Seattle about the Sonics are up there on the all time cheap heat mountain.  

The Miz

-Zelina thinks people don’t give Miz enough credit for being a total jerk.  Miz admits that what makes him work is that he has a punchable face and people can’t.  He notes he has always been a button pusher and we see him slap a younger Daniel Bryan in the face during their Mentor/NXT days.  Graves mentions has a knock-out wife, lives in a massive house, does moves, and makes sure everyone knows about it.  They discuss Miz starring on The Real World and how this character has been simmering ever since.  He is one of the best villains because everyone hates him.  Miz cashes in on Randy Orton and we get angry face girl!  TALKING SMACK WITH DANIEL BRYAN.  Oh, that so was awesome and is the greatest promo of Miz’s career.  My review can be found here.  Go watch the promo.  It’s that awesome.  Miz: “I love being a bad guy.” 

Roman Reigns

-They start with him being booed the night after beating Taker at WrestleMania.  “This is my yard now.”  Roman says he is not playing a character and is head and shoulders above everyone else.  Roman uses every resource he can to make sure he stays on top and will step over anyone he has to stay there.  The heel turn that turned the company around and they have been printing money ever since.  They discuss how Roman has become a supreme gaslighter. ROMAN BEATING SAMI’S ASS WITH A CHAIR AT RUMBLE!  Carmelo Hayes: “He really is The Final Boss of the WWE.”  Roman thinks his legacy will be the best of all time and doing things his way.  

Bray Wyatt

-Aww! “I am the color red in the world full of black and white.”  I loved everything about Bray Wyatt but I was also a big fan of The Raven character in ECW and WCW.  “The new face of fear.”  Gargano calls Wyatt once in a generation.  THE CRAB WALK!  Dawkins mentions that Bray was that guy and took things from horror movies.  That leads to The Fiend!  Dom tells us he is a grown ass man, but he was afraid when he saw The Fiend for the first time.  Say it’s not true Prison Dom!  They discuss The Firefly Fun House and Roberts calls it a masterpiece that people are still trying to figure out.  “THIS IS SUCH GOOD SHIT.”  Gargano talks about Bray’s ability to take risks and think outside the box.  He calls him one of the most creative geniuses wrestling has ever seen. RIP! I need to go watch the tribute video again.  

-The Boogeyman pops up on the screen to scare Greg Miller off to end the show.  

-Next time it will be the Most Awesome Wrestling Action Figures in History.  Hell yeah! I have been waiting for The Toys That Built America to do an episode on wrestling figures.   

-They close with the In Memory graphic for Windham in a wonderful touch.  

-As always, I am sucker for a show like this with all the nostalgia. The list was solid if modern as apparently nobody was a villain before the 1980s. The got the main hitters covered and my only complaint is sometimes they didn’t really show why they were villains. Some just came off as really cool. Thanks for reading!