Showing posts with label Eric Young. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eric Young. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... Eric Young

Note: This was written before WWE released Eric Young.

I have to say that I found the Eric Young signing a tad odd when WWE did it, and it still seems odd today. They had a good thing going with him as the mastermind of a group of psychos in Sanity, but The Wyatt Family already had that trademarked, and it was quickly abandoned on the main roster, especially when everyone got called up but their heater, Nikki Cross.

Since then, his highlight has probably been one of the many people sprinting around after the 24/7 title. There’s really just not much to add on his main roster WWE experience.

So this is where it gets tough. Because Eric Young can be entertaining, but what kind of push can you really give Eric Young with the glut of talent that the WWE currently employs? It’s tough for me to get too worked up about Eric Young hanging in the background, because even though I think WWE could better utilize their time each week, Eric Young still wouldn’t be one of my first choices to benefit from other guys getting a chance to shine.

The best I got is to put him in a tag team, because despite all that talent, their tag team depth is fairly atrocious. Put him with (spins a wheel) No Way Jose, and you’ll have the big and little guy dynamic going where they can at least show personality and be fun in the ring as they get dominated by more important teams.

I know it’s not great, but at least it’s something.


Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The WWE Is Ruining... Killian Dain

As a pro wrestling fan, it is a part of our identity to always know how to utilize wrestlers better than the WWE. If WWE would just give me, random WWE fan, a job a the company, ratings would immediately rise to the levels of the Monday Night Wars, despite how television ratings have changed as a whole over the last 20 years. But until that happens, WWE will continue ruining our favorite wrestlers, and that is why it is time to point out the error in their ways. Because of WWE's incompetence, I am literally going to pick a wrestler at random and point out how they could be better utilized, because WWE is ruining everyone in one way or another.

Today, we tackle the big man from Belfast, Killian Dain.

Since getting called up in June with the rest of Sanity, the most memorable thing that they have done is not have Nikki Cross there with them. I remember seeing them, asking, "Where's Nikki?" and never remembering anything they have done again. This may shock you, but I'm not sure if the WWE had an actual plan when they called the group up to the main roster.

In six months, Dain has been involved in seven matches, winning two of them, although they were both on the preshows of pay per views. Once, he teamed with Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young to beat New Day in a tables match before Extreme Rules. And secondly, he teamed with nearly every tag team from Smackdown to defeat ten jobbers from Raw.

It's pretty clear that WWE's plan for Killian Dain has been...(crickets), so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with improvement as long as I can come up with something.

The first thing I would do is get him away from tag matches and make him the clear stud of Sanity. Eric Young remains the leader, but treat Dain as the hoss that he is and let Young and Wolfe take care of the tag matches. Meanwhile, let Dain start putting on fun singles matches. The great thing about him is that he's not just big, but the guy can go. I actually think that he would be good in the spot that Andrade Almas is currently in. Facing off against top talent, having entertaining matches, but not quite having what it takes to come out on top. I know it's tough to break into the WWE Senior Division, but putting him up against Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio could both be awesome feuds for both sides where you can just sit back, relax, and actually be entertained by the WWE product.

Anytime you have a guy with size, it's fine for them to not win a belt, because their presence makes them important. My big solution isn't really all that big; it's basically let the big guy who is good at wrestling have wrestling matches, but in this case, it's quantum physics compared to the plan the WWE has come up with so far.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox

Andrade "Cien" Almas
Bobby Lashley
Charlotte Flair
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon

Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson

Shinsuke Nakamura
Tyler Breeze

Thursday, July 19, 2018

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #22 Terry Adams

22. Terry Adams
Relief pitchers, unless they are closers, are a fairly unexciting lot. They do their jobs, and you only notice them when they screw up. Terry Adams was easily the Cubs third best reliever in 1998 (although he ranks fourth on my list), but it's tough to find that much excitement in that, especially with how awful that bullpen performed that year.

Before we get to 1998, a little bit about Terry's past. He was a fourth round pick in 1991, and he had four unimpressive years in the minors before figuring it out in 1995 and dominating Double-A, continuing that in a short stint in Triple-A before making his Major League debut later that year. He continued the momentum in 1996 where he pitched over 100 innings out of the bullpen with a 2.94 ERA. This was good enough for him to be the closer in 1997. It did not work out as planned as his ERA rose to 4.62 that year.

In 1998, the Cubs brought in an established closer in Rod Beck but expected Adams to be the primary setup guy. The hope was that the lack of pressure would help elevate his numbers back to those 1996 levels. Early on, that plan seemed to be working. He cruised in his new role, with a 2.03 ERA on June 20th, he was one of the best setup men in the game.

A week later, it was over a run higher at 3.06. Just like nearly every one of the Cubs relievers that we have covered, the implosion was only beginning. His ERA went up and up and up to the highest it had been since the second game of the season at 4.33 on September 18. The Cubs had seen enough, and he would not play another game that season.

He stuck around one more year for the Cubs before they sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Eric Young and Ismael Valdes. Adams became a starter and performed about as well as he did in relief but in far more innings. He then finished out his career in relief for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Adams is a tough guy to rate. He gave the Cubs two and a half months of excellent relief work, but he was so bad down the stretch that the Cubs were pitching Matt Karchner instead. Relief pitchers just aren't all that exciting although two did make it in the Top 10. Terry Adams is definitely rated too low, but that's the price of being effective instead of exciting.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves
#45 - Rodney Myers
#44 - Justin Speier
#43 - Tony Fossas
#42 - Kennie Steenstra
#41 - Chris Haney
#40 - Bob Patterson

#39 - Pedro Valdes

#38 - Derrick White
#37 - Ben Van Ryn
#36 - Terrell Lowery
#35 - Don Wengert
#34 - Kurt Miller
#33 - Jason Maxwell
#32 - Kevin Foster
#31 - Mike Morgan
#30 - Felix Heredia 
#29 - Jeff Blauser
#28 - Jason Hardtke
#27 - Dave Stevens
#26 - Manny Alexander
#25 - Marc Pisciotta

#24 - Kevin Orie

#23 - Sandy Martinez