From the Bowery: WWE Countdown: Biggest Trash Talkers

From the Bowery: WWE Countdown: Biggest Trash Talkers

-You would assume the usual suspects will appear in this one, but again, with fan voting you just never know.

-Lots of CM Punk to start in this as the talking heads discuss what makes a great trash talker. Some great lines from some of the best talkers in the business is shown during the opening montage, and also nice to see some guys get a little shine knowing they won’t be on this list. Everyone talks about you have to believe what you are saying and that you have to say things nobody has the guts to say. Good enough!

10: “Macho Man” Randy Savage

-The rant on Hogan when the Mega Powers exploded was enough to earn him a top 10 spot in my opinion, so good to see him here. CM Punk fawns over Savage, as you would expect, and says he is the total package. Daniel Bryan calls him crazy and I am pretty sure he means that in a good way. He talks about how Savage didn’t have to make sense to be a great trash talker as his craziness and intensity were off the charts. The “more seductive than sex” line and Gene’s reaction kill me every time! Just classic Savage stuff here, as the talking heads seem to be cut back a bit to let the subject do the talking as it were. Christian mentions only meeting Savage once and that he was amazed that he really talked like that in real life. His brother Lanny mentions that the Macho Man character and Randy the person weren’t that different. Punk calls Macho everything that every person who ever steps into a ring should aspire to be. Damn straight!

9: Superstar Billy Graham

-Heyman gushes over Graham and says he is in the business today because of Superstar. The fact that Ventura, Hogan, and Steiner all stole/borrowed from the guy shows how influential he was on guys that followed. Booker T calls him wrestling’s Muhammad Ali and Heyman says he was a better talker than Ali. They discuss the feud with Rhodes and JBL gets in a shot as he mentions Dusty never saw a donut he didn’t like. Nice! Okerlund brings up that Hogan had some Billy Graham in him and Hogan puts over that he looked up to Graham and wanted to be like him. Ambrose covers the fact I mentioned earlier that Ventura, Hogan, and Steiner all copied him. Gene ends it by saying Graham had it all and he had it first.

8: Chris Jericho

-Jericho started hitting his stride when he was turned heel in WCW and he was allowed to just cut loose as nobody cared what he did. They cover the feud with Dean Malenko and that leads to the awesome promo on Nitro where he goes over his 1004 holds with armbar being mentioned just about every 4th hold. Tremendous! Ziggler covers how him screwing up people’s names was great and we get examples of him messing with Schiavone, Goldberg, Cole, and Santino. Greenberg was probably the best, though Kirk Angle is pretty spectacular as well. Naturally they cover all the shit he talked on Steph and just some fantastic stuff including: filthy, disgusting, skanky, brutal, bottom feeding, trash bag ho. Steph pops up and of course she is a good sport about the whole thing. Daniel Bryan mentions that people want to see Jericho because he always evolves and changes when things seem to get stale. Good point!

7: Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

-Boo! Way to low here as even Bryan mentions he can’t think of a better trash talker that people hated. Cena calls him the best and that he never runs out of material. I could watch a DVD of nothing but Heenan talking for hours, and I am sure I’m not the only one. The pairing with Monsoon is touched on next and yeah, they were fantastic together. This is one of the cases where talking heads aren’t needed because I just want to keep hearing Heenan. They discuss how he immediately gave credibility to anyone he managed because of the way he talked about them and talked down about their opponent. Matthews calls him one of the funniest commentators of all time, and really hard to argue that point. Cena calls him a genius at entertaining an audience and easily one of the greatest ever. Again, damn straight!

6: Ric Flair

-Wow! This also seems way low, but guess we will have to see how cracks the Top 5. We don’t even get any talking heads for the first few minutes as it is nothing but Flair and his stuff from the 80s on TBS. Bryan says what made Flair great was that you believed everything he said when he talked about all his money, his clothes, and his women. Next they talk about how Flair always put over how great he was in the ring and we get some examples. Amazing how he not only put himself over, but also put over who he was facing to make things even better. They show footage of the Mania VIII press conference and Flair finishes with “and that’s the bottom line” which instantly makes me think I am watching an Austin promo. Flair hitting on random women at ringside is fantastic and Natalya says that every time she sees Flair he has 10 blondes with him that are her age! Flo Rida is the celebrity talking head this week and even he is a massive Flair fan. Cena finishes by calling him one of the best ever. Truth!

-Recap of what we just saw to this point!

5: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

-Man, this had better be a hell of a Top 4, but it does seem like the Attitude Era and current generation of stars is going to dominate the top of this thing once again. Apparently people in my age group don’t do enough ballot stuffing on these things. Just please don’t be Cena at the top of the list! Sheamus and Bryan both don’t know if Piper even knew what he was going to say. Piper mentions he needed something to put him ahead of everyone and he asked McMahon for 5 weeks to talk about whatever he wanted and he would be out if it didn’t work. The next week we got Piper’s Pit and the rest is history. The cover him interviewing Frankie Williams, and Piper murders the poor guy on the mic and then beats his ass. Back to Punk again and much like Savage, he is a massive fan of Piper. He says Piper stood out because he wasn’t the biggest guy, but he had the loudest bark and backed it up. Sheamus gives his vote for best ever trash talker to Piper and I would bet a lot of other people would do the same.

4: Jake “The Snake” Roberts

-Yes! JBL calls Jake the most evil person walking the planet and jokes he is talking about the man and not the character. He then says Jake had promo skills like nobody else and Christian mentions that Jake never yelled or screamed. They mention how that it was so different than what anyone else was doing at that time, and that phases into the great feud with Savage. That shit was just epic, and sucks they never got a truly great blow-off to that feud. They talk about his piercing eyes and how it seemed he was staring right through you while watching him on TV. Punk again and he calls Jake legit as he marks out for the man. Natalya mentions that the quiet ones are the dangerous ones, and Christian says that made Jake even more terrifying. The newer guys today need to take some notes from Jake on how to cut a promo, but then again, they aren’t given the freedom Jake was.

-We take a break and get a Diva Detour as they discuss Sensational Sherri. Good choice for a female trash talker. Punk mentions he has a soft spot for Sherri because she punched him hard in the groin one time. My guess is Punk probably thought it was one of the best days of his career as really, who wouldn’t be honored to get him in the can by Sherri!

3: The Rock

-How did he drop this low? I figured with fan voting and fact that he is awesome, he was the clear #1 choice, but now I am worried Cena ends up in the top spot. Bryan calls him the best trash talker of all time, and I tend to agree. Chilli of TLC fame actually shows up and she puts over how awesome the Rock is and of course talks about the eyebrow. Here is another case of me being ok with just a DVD of nothing but Rock promos and they did put a crap load of them on one his various releases. Gunn talks about the legendary promo he cut on him, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. He mentions he couldn’t help but laugh because of how good it was. We get the various interactions with Lillian Garcia and again, fantastic. Sadly, they cut out Lillian practically begging for the strudel at one point. Cena says there is no bigger star than The Rock and still to this day, there is no bigger star.

2: CM Punk

-Oh man, Cena is going to win another popularity contest. Punk easily deserves to be on this list and I am ok with fans voting him this high (knowing most of them who voted didn’t grow up with Heenan, Piper, Savage, Roberts, and Flair). Natalya calls him a modern day Roddy Piper, which I’m sure makes each of them happy to be compared to the other. Punk burying Cena and HHH during the Summer (and Fall) of Punk is still fantastic. Punk mentions he speaks from his heart and how it makes people uneasy. They mention the Summer of Punk leading up to Money in the Bank and the legendary promo from RAW in Vegas is discussed. Still one of the greatest moments in RAW history and a promo that had me and my friends losing our minds. My one friend was convinced it was all a shoot because the WWE logo and end credits didn’t show up on screen, but I had to convince him the quietly played them during the match leading to the promo. Punk says he will hold his own in the ring and on the mic with anyone from any era and he name drops Austin, which is a match that I still want to see (knowing I never will).

-Recap of the countdown before revealing #1.

1: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin

-Thank God! Shocked Cena isn’t here and now even more shocked he didn’t get voted in the Top 10. Maybe he wasn’t even on the original list. Anyway, I can easily accept Austin in the top spot, and most of the talking heads seem to agree. They actually make sure to mention the Stone Cold character started in ECW with his bitter and hate filled shoot promos. Heyman mentions it was pretty easy to realize all he needed to do was give Austin a mic and turn on a camera. Miz’s revisionist history is kind of funny as he makes it sound like WWE saw Austin in ECW and wanted that same character. He forgets to mention the Ring Master thing and how Ted Dibiase was his mouth piece. Austin gets his big break when the Klique does the curtain call and that takes HHH out of the King of the Ring. Austin gets the nod instead and Austin 3:16 is born which in turns saves the WWF in the coming years in their war with WCW. The first Stunner of Vince is show and Steph mentions how everyone lived through Austin while he beat up his boss on a weekly basis. Realistically when you think of trash talkers, Stone Cold probably would be the first name that pops in your head. Strong list this week!

The 411: Great list this week and probably my favorite show of the series. The 10 included were all worthy and I really didn't have much of any issue with placement outside of Heenan, though this list was stacked. Great times all around this week!
Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]