Quote:
Originally Posted by #BROKEN Hasney
Nah, I don't buy it. I don't think Kid hanging around the mid-card and when he returned, having the good fortune to be buddy buddy with H had any difference on how Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio would have been perceived. Their own talents would have shined through regardless.
They wasn't even an idea to have a light heavyweight division until WCW's guys were tearing it up on Nitro.
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I hate using him as a source, but when the WWF got their hands on The Radicalz, Bruce Prichard lists their order of perceived importance as 1) Chris Benoit, 2) Perry Saturn, 3) Eddie Guerrero, 4) Dean Malenko. It shouldn't have been that way, and Eddie always tested positive in focus groups and with ratings, but where are you getting this idea that he is solely responsible for little guys breaking through? You're using a false attribution in order to justify your own position.
For the record: This is not me saying that Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio weren't important to cruiserweights getting focus and that their work was not great. They were and it was. But you're argument is "I'm saying A is true, but you're saying B, but that's not A, therefore A."
Sean Waltman didn't
need a light heavyweight scene to get over. He could work with bigger guys. He was
the little guy in WWF, if you don't count Shawn Michaels as "little." If anything, having weight restrictions on guys in the WWF slowed them down, and that has always been the case, as they have never been able to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to make weight divisions an equal thing. I wouldn't
want to be associated with cruiserweight wrestling in the WWF/E, to be honest.
What Waltman provided was proof that one of these guys who could be presented as a little guy could have value outside those divisions. Most little guys had to convince other people that they were big. In WCW and the WWF, Waltman's thing was that he was the little guy, but he was important. When he jumped back, it marked the first time a major talent went the other direction and was a huge symbolic victory for the entire war. He was in extremely popular factions and carried a lot more in the ring than people give him credit for.
And, if nothing else, he surely helped how Vince McMahon perceived little guys. Because in X-Pac he had a little guy he could put out there with Kane, or Shane, or HHH, or anyone and he'd get the job done. What Eddie and Rey meant in WCW and to Nitro or whatever case you want to make there is cute, but when it comes to size in the WWE, Vince McMahon is all that matters. You're seeing that play out with the 205 Live scene now.
To clarify: I'm not even saying that Waltman meant more or less than Eddie and Rey did to WCW/WWF. That's besides the point. The point is just that he meant something and deflecting to Eddie and Rey is a false argument.