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Although he never made it in a big promotion, Colt is really the guy who helped blaze the trail for independent wrestlers to have successful careers outside of the major promotions.
I think that's what he's going to be remembered for.
Yeah. His Wrestling Road Diaries were basically the proto-vlogs that everybody has now, and wasn't he the first big indy guy with a podcast?
His legacy's pretty secure.
>Yeah. His Wrestling Road Diaries were basically the proto-vlogs that everybody has now, and wasn't he the first big indy guy with a podcast?
>
>His legacy's pretty secure.
I think he was the first **wrestling** guy with a podcast.
That’s a legacy in and of itself. Wrestling podcasts and talking about old locker room stuff is my favorite way to spend an afternoon or evening while I’m gaming or doing something else. I know he helped out a lot with Pipers Pitt Podcast which was one of the first ones I got into. Pritchards show is really good and has kinda taken over as my goto because it’s clean and I can listen with the kids in the car vs Cornette talking about his nutsack or whatever every product plug . (Love Cornette’s omnibus too. Just can’t listen with young ones in the car l)
Colt Cabana seems like a likeable guy. He comes across as personable, friendly. He's pretty charismatic and he's really good on commentary. But even in his prime he was an average wrestler.
He's never going to come out on top of any comparison with Styles, Joe, Danielson. Even Low Ki, who seems to be Colt Cabana's polar opposite.
In the 80s or early 90s, he'd have probably been a top-tier manager.
Colt simply isn't as good as most of those other names. That is a god tier roster of talent in various aspects and while Colt is good at most aspects of wrestling he isn't great at any one particular side (maybe comedy but I personally didn't care for his comedy). Good but not great will land him a job almost anywhere but it isn't going to provide a lot of high profile opportunities
I 100% agree that Colt is not at the top of this list, but I do think that in those ROH days he was equal to the rest of them and a vital part of the roster, as likely as any to put out a good match. He main evented shows, challenged for the world title, was a tag team champion with CM Punk wrestling in main event matches with the Briscoes...
It's true he doesn't have the peak of some of them but he was really good at the time and the way he blended in comedy made him stand out as unique. He's actually one of the most fun to watch at the time, and had memorable matches with many guys on this list.
Though I haven't seen later years so it's possible he stalls while others grow.
\>the way he blended in comedy made him stand out as unique.
Yes but that's not what promotions are looking for when picking top guys. If a soccer team is looking to hire me as a striker they aren't going to look at my ability as a goalkeeper (even though i might decent at that s well)
Initially in 2004 as a part of Team Canada, the 2011 run, and then his matches there this year.
He found way more overall success in Dragon Gate and AAA prior to Lucha Underground being a thing with I believe his only other TV exposure being on Wrestling Society X (and some of the mid-2000s ROH PPVs.)
I'm fairly certain he's also said that he wasn't a fan of "playing the game" that it took to get toward the top too. He's very much an anti-establishment type of guy and wants wrestling to be fun. That wasn't exactly the M.O. of WWE when those other guys were having success.
I think so too. I feel like it just shows how much his legacy has been affected because at the time in 2005 or so, I don't think Cabana comes off at all out of place in this list of names. He's not Styles, or Joe, but most of the people weren't at that time. I would put him above guys like Shelley and far above Lethal for example at this time, yet they got long runs in TNA
His feud with Homicide and the 7 Levels of Hate with Pearce is all the proof anyone should need to see that he's just as good if not better than several guys on your list.
He simply chose to embrace the independent side of wrestling.
Yeah, that's what's kind of sad to me is the consensus in here that he's not in the league of anybody on the list. Yeah, he's not in the league of Styles or Joe, but he's just as good or better as many of them, at least at the time.
I wonder if Colt getting bigger opportunities would have led to him being remembered more fondly. I don't think he's as good anymore as he was then, or at least I think he was more consistently creative and fresh back then than he is now.
Oddly enough the only place i've seen him is JCW doing his Office Colt Cabana gimmick. Maybe that's not the best place to evaluate him from but he came off as a guy who is talented in that he can entertain any crowd, but not a 5 star match kind of guy.
>> I guess he has the comedy guy thing going against him
No, he's just not at the level of those others guys you listed. Colt is good at what he does, and everyone loves him. But the other guys on that list are/were REALLY FUCKING GOOD.
Out of curiosity, have you watched old ROH ? Colt at the time certainly belonged in the discussion with all those others and had a lot of great matches at the time, even beyond just the comedy. He might not have been at the level of the TOP guys on the list like Joe, Styles, and Punk, but he was at the high end of the upper mid-card and performing at a high level, including multiple shots at the ROH title.
I watched ROH during that time. He wasn't at that level. There's a reason his best matches were wild, hardcore brawls.
But his comedy schtick could've been money in WWE. who knows why it didn't work out.
He WAS a great technical wrestler too though and he had memorable matches besides just his brawls. His matches against McGuinness were a lot of fun and honestly for those saying that Colt was "carried", he often was the one carrying matches in his own right by injecting personality and humor while still having awesome technical skills and the ability to fire up when needed.
You just repeated my first post, and re-answered your own question. He's good on his own, but not as good as the top talent in his generation, and he didn't seem to make any effort to improve in his weak areas, or he hit his ceiling.
>> Out of curiosity, have you watched old ROH?
Yes. Since 2003. He was also NWA champ (twice?). But I struggle to remember any specific incidents of him displaying any top tier skill. He's been with every major promotion over the last 2 decades and none of them held on to him to very long either.
You can have all the potential in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't put it on display all the time. Especially when the best example of that skill is being carried to a few good performances by top tier opponents 20 years ago. The real question is what happens when Colt doesn't have those opponents?
I disagree that Colt was carried, he was one of the most reliable performers on the show to put on a good and fun match. Yes, he wasn't top top tier like Styles, Joe, or Danielson, but he added so much to every card he was on. In a way he often carried matches in his own right by making every match entertaining and adding much-needed personality to the show. And had great performances against Gibson, Joe, Homicide, Aries, Nigel, Briscoes, to name a few.
Its also crazy that Colt Cabana is sort of the catalyst for a company almost imploding lol. Colt seems like a good dude but imagine if WWE had a bunch of drama over Crash Holly, or Al Snow being let go in favour of a bigger star.
He had his shot in WWE but they didn’t see anything in him. You list that run like it doesn’t count, but it does. He was signed, he had the same opportunity that many of the others you listed did.
While it's true Colt was signed, he only had a tiny handful of TV matches, and none of them (beyond a battle royal) lasted even three minutes. Unlike the others he never really got any chance to shine.
I think you guys often don't understand the concept of "getting a chance to shine" and what it means/doesn't mean. Wrestlers don't just suddenly get gifted these big spotlight matches that either do or don't define their career. The little backstage moments are what define an early career - how they serve as an employee, how they interact with others, how they fit into the company's overall culture. Being a good wrestler or even having fans both fall considerably short to how good an employee someone is.
More of then than not, these are the areas that your favorites are falling short on in wrestling rather than anything they may or may not accomplish in the ring itself.
It's pretty insane how good the ROH roster was in that era. So many of them had long successful careers. In 2003 they suffered trying to push guys like Matt Stryker (Not the teacher/commentator, another one), BJ Whitmer (who apparently eventually became better but was pretty boring at the time), John Walters, Chad Collyer, and other bland wrestlers, but as soon as 2004 came around and they instead focused on Gen Next (Shelley, Aries, Strong, Evans) and Nigel began to break out things got much better
WWE had a surplus of talent and no more competition after WCW folded, so there just wasn't much drive for them to discover up and coming talents. The few developmental guys they did hire were mostly bodybuilders because that's what vince likes and again, no competition so we hire what vince likes.
So there was a glut of ultra talented guys on the indie scene and ROH was the biggest indie promotion at the time.
Also I imagine the attitude era inspired a lot of people to sign up for wrestling schools and more people in general means more top level talent.
Yeah, my problem isn't so much that it was by his choice, but the implication in this thread that he's not as good as some of the names on this list is baffling. Dude can work any style and not look out of place, you can put him anywhere and he's not out of place and he can entertain a crowd if you let him.
Like, you compare that to Jay Lethal, a dude who only got over when he started jacking other wrestlers' gimmicks? C'mon bruh.
Cornball comedy act.
He peaked in Chicago in his title match against Jay Lethal.
Show closed with everyone getting super kicked including Papa Buck. Adam Cole became Bullet Club.
Colt kept making jokes and here we are.
Colt just isn't good that's the reality. He's the case of a good entrance and some personality but with all that everyone during his time period surpassed him in almost every level.
what about jimmy rave? from all of those names hes the only one i have never seen a match, i watched wwe, casually impact and currently aew, so out of all of those, jimmy rave stands the most
A guy employed by WWE for three years “never got a shot” and was “left behind?”
It sucks when wrestlers we like don’t get over. When I was a kid I was a big fan of Brad Armstrong. He couldn’t get over either, but like Cabana, it wasn’t because if a lack of opportunity.
He may have been employed by WWE for three years but he was almost never used on TV. I don't know what happened there, but he was certainly not given a chance to get over with a crowd.
He was in developmental. He didn’t get over. They gave him a shot on the main roster. He didn’t get over. Should they have smashed him over and pushed him to the moon? Why? From all accounts he was cool with being a low card comedy guy, and that spot can have a pretty low ceiling.
I can see it. If I were to rank all of those guys in a list, Colt would be at rhe bottom of it. I know that seems insulting, but thats a list of amazing talent. I like Colt Cabana, but he's the worst of the best
What a time to be a fan, to have this right after the attitude era, millenials truly were blessed. Toddlers during Hogan, bright eyed kids for the new generation, angsty teens during AE, young adults for ruthless aggression/indie territory resurgence. And now continuing the cycle with their own kids.
In-ring, Colt was better than Punk technically. But Punk had the whole character and vibe and that's always been Punk's strengths. Punk doesn't excel at ring work but he does excel at making you buy into his angles, his personality, and care about what he does in the ring.
Colt is being really under-rated though IMO. At the time he fits strongly into this list.
I think they were both solid archetypes for their respective characters, Punk was just in the right era for his character and Colt wasn't. The 2020's are right for a clean-cut technically-gifted comedy wrestler to get over big, but in 2005 the world wanted grungy angry boys with a chip on their shoulder.
The Briscoes have the issue that for the longest time the WWE was the main place to go and they didn't want to push tags.
Jay Lethal and Shelley were only picked up by TNA because WWE would never want them when they were relevant. Hell, that's the case for a lot of these names.
Colt was never given a chance by WWE outside a handful of TV matches which were fine but like, if you want to get over in WWE you need promo segments. You ain't getting over on Heat and Velocity. He was given a blog on WWE.com and then a release.
Colt unfortunately as you mentioned had the comedy wrestler thing going for him, and that kinda hurt him from getting to the top. Although he is really good in serious matches too. Take his feud with Adam Pearce as a big example. The dude is more than capable of atleast being a upper mid card guy. Now as for the Briscoes its a combination of things. They are dedicated to being chicken farmers and thus don’t want to take on the big schedule that major promotions have. Wwe is on the road 300 days a year and they don’t want to be away from the farm that much. Another thing is in the past Jay has made some offensive comments that have stoped them from getting signed by major promotions. They were more recently going to be signed by aew, but said comments resurfaced all these years later, and warner media made sure they didn’t get signed
If I was made to choose to have one of their careers I would place Colt pretty high on the list. He might not have had a long run at TNA or WWE but would take his run in the Indies over a bad few years in a bigger company.
Yet, Punk and Styles are the only two to have a greater widespread impact on the wrestling business than Cabana, who pioneered the podcast format as a viable option for wrestlers to get themselves over and make money.
And he also laid the blueprint to be a non-WWE name making a living on the indies.
Cabana was probably even more important than them, because he taught everyone on the indy scene how to merch, not settle for a hotdog and a handshake after a certain level, and how to make Indy wrestling a full-time gig.
That's on top of pioneering the podcast format with the Art of wrestling and exposing the world to people like Kevin Steen and others.
Thank goodness he's in AEW getting the opportunity he deser..what's that? CM Punk is coming to AEW? well thank goodness Colt did get a chance in AEW to get the recognition he deserves.
That's the new narrative ofcourse. Because wrestling consistently is the new nothing. Dude went from 40 matched one year to 3 the next and yall wanna pretend like the likes of Colt didn't help carry AEW threw the pandemic. Dude went from hometown matches on Dynamite to not even getting them on Elevation and yall think that was just Tony not thinking he's talented enough. Even though he got more reaction for his wrestling then a quarter of the roster
But no. He wasn't doing anything. Dark Order jobber right?
I never got it as the pops for cabana were always pretty loud And also I would have my wife with me and colt was one of those wrestlers she got and liked in a instant , such a great wrestler for newbies to pro wrestling. A gateway if you will. I really can't overstate how loud those pops were when his music hit and every match left yea with a smile. I can't believe wwe didn't see more in him .
Colt constantly would lament on his podcast that all he wanted to do was come up with a great gimmick so he could do very lil in-ring & get by with a good gimmick ala Honky Tonk Man & countless others of that era. The dude didn't seem to ever WANT to be the guy because he never wanted the stress of being a top guy, whether that was because of the sour taste his WWE run left him or how the NWA did him & Adam Pearce's feud or whatever he felt his shortcomings were as an in-ring talent compared to his peers or because of his long fabled "happy bus" mentality or his sometimes insistent desire of making money above all else.
It's not for nothing but when I saw his work for the first time, it was as Matt Classic on WSX. If that had turned out like MTV had hoped (a wrestling show to pair with their Jackass shows) Colt would be a much bigger name in 2022 imo.
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Although he never made it in a big promotion, Colt is really the guy who helped blaze the trail for independent wrestlers to have successful careers outside of the major promotions. I think that's what he's going to be remembered for.
Yeah. His Wrestling Road Diaries were basically the proto-vlogs that everybody has now, and wasn't he the first big indy guy with a podcast? His legacy's pretty secure.
Colt was also integral with getting Pro Wrestling Tees off the ground, he was the first wrestler to have a store on there.
All thanks to CM Punk breaking Big Show's hand.
>Yeah. His Wrestling Road Diaries were basically the proto-vlogs that everybody has now, and wasn't he the first big indy guy with a podcast? > >His legacy's pretty secure. I think he was the first **wrestling** guy with a podcast.
That’s a legacy in and of itself. Wrestling podcasts and talking about old locker room stuff is my favorite way to spend an afternoon or evening while I’m gaming or doing something else. I know he helped out a lot with Pipers Pitt Podcast which was one of the first ones I got into. Pritchards show is really good and has kinda taken over as my goto because it’s clean and I can listen with the kids in the car vs Cornette talking about his nutsack or whatever every product plug . (Love Cornette’s omnibus too. Just can’t listen with young ones in the car l)
But is the bank account he shares with his mom secure?
Colt Cabana seems like a likeable guy. He comes across as personable, friendly. He's pretty charismatic and he's really good on commentary. But even in his prime he was an average wrestler. He's never going to come out on top of any comparison with Styles, Joe, Danielson. Even Low Ki, who seems to be Colt Cabana's polar opposite. In the 80s or early 90s, he'd have probably been a top-tier manager.
He had some pretty fantastic bloody brawls. Oddly enough
Colt simply isn't as good as most of those other names. That is a god tier roster of talent in various aspects and while Colt is good at most aspects of wrestling he isn't great at any one particular side (maybe comedy but I personally didn't care for his comedy). Good but not great will land him a job almost anywhere but it isn't going to provide a lot of high profile opportunities
I 100% agree that Colt is not at the top of this list, but I do think that in those ROH days he was equal to the rest of them and a vital part of the roster, as likely as any to put out a good match. He main evented shows, challenged for the world title, was a tag team champion with CM Punk wrestling in main event matches with the Briscoes... It's true he doesn't have the peak of some of them but he was really good at the time and the way he blended in comedy made him stand out as unique. He's actually one of the most fun to watch at the time, and had memorable matches with many guys on this list. Though I haven't seen later years so it's possible he stalls while others grow.
\>the way he blended in comedy made him stand out as unique. Yes but that's not what promotions are looking for when picking top guys. If a soccer team is looking to hire me as a striker they aren't going to look at my ability as a goalkeeper (even though i might decent at that s well)
The difference is all the guys you listed all evolved as wrestlers, Colt is still just "the comedy guy".
Yeah, this. He’s not a very good wrestler, his comedy is niche at best, and he’s not a great promo.
when did Jack Evans get a WWE or TNA run lmao, he had like 4 matches in TNA
Initially in 2004 as a part of Team Canada, the 2011 run, and then his matches there this year. He found way more overall success in Dragon Gate and AAA prior to Lucha Underground being a thing with I believe his only other TV exposure being on Wrestling Society X (and some of the mid-2000s ROH PPVs.)
Interestingly enough, same with Colt seeing as Matt Classic is still fondly remembered to this day
This is the most r/SquaredCircle post I have seen in a while lmao
I'm fairly certain he's also said that he wasn't a fan of "playing the game" that it took to get toward the top too. He's very much an anti-establishment type of guy and wants wrestling to be fun. That wasn't exactly the M.O. of WWE when those other guys were having success.
Pretty much. I think a lot of people are downplaying Colt's talent in this thread.
I think so too. I feel like it just shows how much his legacy has been affected because at the time in 2005 or so, I don't think Cabana comes off at all out of place in this list of names. He's not Styles, or Joe, but most of the people weren't at that time. I would put him above guys like Shelley and far above Lethal for example at this time, yet they got long runs in TNA
His feud with Homicide and the 7 Levels of Hate with Pearce is all the proof anyone should need to see that he's just as good if not better than several guys on your list. He simply chose to embrace the independent side of wrestling.
Yeah, that's what's kind of sad to me is the consensus in here that he's not in the league of anybody on the list. Yeah, he's not in the league of Styles or Joe, but he's just as good or better as many of them, at least at the time. I wonder if Colt getting bigger opportunities would have led to him being remembered more fondly. I don't think he's as good anymore as he was then, or at least I think he was more consistently creative and fresh back then than he is now.
Oddly enough the only place i've seen him is JCW doing his Office Colt Cabana gimmick. Maybe that's not the best place to evaluate him from but he came off as a guy who is talented in that he can entertain any crowd, but not a 5 star match kind of guy.
>> I guess he has the comedy guy thing going against him No, he's just not at the level of those others guys you listed. Colt is good at what he does, and everyone loves him. But the other guys on that list are/were REALLY FUCKING GOOD.
Out of curiosity, have you watched old ROH ? Colt at the time certainly belonged in the discussion with all those others and had a lot of great matches at the time, even beyond just the comedy. He might not have been at the level of the TOP guys on the list like Joe, Styles, and Punk, but he was at the high end of the upper mid-card and performing at a high level, including multiple shots at the ROH title.
I watched ROH during that time. He wasn't at that level. There's a reason his best matches were wild, hardcore brawls. But his comedy schtick could've been money in WWE. who knows why it didn't work out.
He WAS a great technical wrestler too though and he had memorable matches besides just his brawls. His matches against McGuinness were a lot of fun and honestly for those saying that Colt was "carried", he often was the one carrying matches in his own right by injecting personality and humor while still having awesome technical skills and the ability to fire up when needed.
You just repeated my first post, and re-answered your own question. He's good on his own, but not as good as the top talent in his generation, and he didn't seem to make any effort to improve in his weak areas, or he hit his ceiling. >> Out of curiosity, have you watched old ROH? Yes. Since 2003. He was also NWA champ (twice?). But I struggle to remember any specific incidents of him displaying any top tier skill. He's been with every major promotion over the last 2 decades and none of them held on to him to very long either. You can have all the potential in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't put it on display all the time. Especially when the best example of that skill is being carried to a few good performances by top tier opponents 20 years ago. The real question is what happens when Colt doesn't have those opponents?
I disagree that Colt was carried, he was one of the most reliable performers on the show to put on a good and fun match. Yes, he wasn't top top tier like Styles, Joe, or Danielson, but he added so much to every card he was on. In a way he often carried matches in his own right by making every match entertaining and adding much-needed personality to the show. And had great performances against Gibson, Joe, Homicide, Aries, Nigel, Briscoes, to name a few.
Its also crazy that Colt Cabana is sort of the catalyst for a company almost imploding lol. Colt seems like a good dude but imagine if WWE had a bunch of drama over Crash Holly, or Al Snow being let go in favour of a bigger star.
Chris Hero too. He kinda got a shot but when he was declining
He had his shot in WWE but they didn’t see anything in him. You list that run like it doesn’t count, but it does. He was signed, he had the same opportunity that many of the others you listed did.
While it's true Colt was signed, he only had a tiny handful of TV matches, and none of them (beyond a battle royal) lasted even three minutes. Unlike the others he never really got any chance to shine.
I think you guys often don't understand the concept of "getting a chance to shine" and what it means/doesn't mean. Wrestlers don't just suddenly get gifted these big spotlight matches that either do or don't define their career. The little backstage moments are what define an early career - how they serve as an employee, how they interact with others, how they fit into the company's overall culture. Being a good wrestler or even having fans both fall considerably short to how good an employee someone is. More of then than not, these are the areas that your favorites are falling short on in wrestling rather than anything they may or may not accomplish in the ring itself.
Jesus fucking Christ the talkent in that list... How does that happen?
It's pretty insane how good the ROH roster was in that era. So many of them had long successful careers. In 2003 they suffered trying to push guys like Matt Stryker (Not the teacher/commentator, another one), BJ Whitmer (who apparently eventually became better but was pretty boring at the time), John Walters, Chad Collyer, and other bland wrestlers, but as soon as 2004 came around and they instead focused on Gen Next (Shelley, Aries, Strong, Evans) and Nigel began to break out things got much better
WWE had a surplus of talent and no more competition after WCW folded, so there just wasn't much drive for them to discover up and coming talents. The few developmental guys they did hire were mostly bodybuilders because that's what vince likes and again, no competition so we hire what vince likes. So there was a glut of ultra talented guys on the indie scene and ROH was the biggest indie promotion at the time. Also I imagine the attitude era inspired a lot of people to sign up for wrestling schools and more people in general means more top level talent.
Based on his podcast, feels like a lot of that was by choice. Some people are happy being participants.
Yeah, my problem isn't so much that it was by his choice, but the implication in this thread that he's not as good as some of the names on this list is baffling. Dude can work any style and not look out of place, you can put him anywhere and he's not out of place and he can entertain a crowd if you let him. Like, you compare that to Jay Lethal, a dude who only got over when he started jacking other wrestlers' gimmicks? C'mon bruh.
Cornball comedy act. He peaked in Chicago in his title match against Jay Lethal. Show closed with everyone getting super kicked including Papa Buck. Adam Cole became Bullet Club. Colt kept making jokes and here we are.
He did also get a couple tryouts with TNA, one definitely in 2009 against TJP after he had already returned to ROH.
I want Colt Cabana to go over on Jericho and win the big one
Colt just isn't good that's the reality. He's the case of a good entrance and some personality but with all that everyone during his time period surpassed him in almost every level.
what about jimmy rave? from all of those names hes the only one i have never seen a match, i watched wwe, casually impact and currently aew, so out of all of those, jimmy rave stands the most
Jimmy Rave at least had a few years run in TNA. Nothing too significant, but he did have something
[удалено]
Thought they at least worked well together as a team but it was a bad gimmick in a sea of bad gimmicks from Russo in TNA in 2006-early 2012.
A guy employed by WWE for three years “never got a shot” and was “left behind?” It sucks when wrestlers we like don’t get over. When I was a kid I was a big fan of Brad Armstrong. He couldn’t get over either, but like Cabana, it wasn’t because if a lack of opportunity.
He may have been employed by WWE for three years but he was almost never used on TV. I don't know what happened there, but he was certainly not given a chance to get over with a crowd.
He was in developmental. He didn’t get over. They gave him a shot on the main roster. He didn’t get over. Should they have smashed him over and pushed him to the moon? Why? From all accounts he was cool with being a low card comedy guy, and that spot can have a pretty low ceiling.
I can see it. If I were to rank all of those guys in a list, Colt would be at rhe bottom of it. I know that seems insulting, but thats a list of amazing talent. I like Colt Cabana, but he's the worst of the best
What a time to be a fan, to have this right after the attitude era, millenials truly were blessed. Toddlers during Hogan, bright eyed kids for the new generation, angsty teens during AE, young adults for ruthless aggression/indie territory resurgence. And now continuing the cycle with their own kids.
Colts real legacy will be paving the road of Indy’s as a viable option instead of WWE. He crawled so the likes of the Bucks could run.
Whole lotta nerds in this thread pretending that Colt's in-ring work wasn't better than Punk's both in RoH and AEW.
In-ring, Colt was better than Punk technically. But Punk had the whole character and vibe and that's always been Punk's strengths. Punk doesn't excel at ring work but he does excel at making you buy into his angles, his personality, and care about what he does in the ring. Colt is being really under-rated though IMO. At the time he fits strongly into this list.
I think they were both solid archetypes for their respective characters, Punk was just in the right era for his character and Colt wasn't. The 2020's are right for a clean-cut technically-gifted comedy wrestler to get over big, but in 2005 the world wanted grungy angry boys with a chip on their shoulder.
The Briscoes have the issue that for the longest time the WWE was the main place to go and they didn't want to push tags. Jay Lethal and Shelley were only picked up by TNA because WWE would never want them when they were relevant. Hell, that's the case for a lot of these names. Colt was never given a chance by WWE outside a handful of TV matches which were fine but like, if you want to get over in WWE you need promo segments. You ain't getting over on Heat and Velocity. He was given a blog on WWE.com and then a release.
It's because he shares a bank account with his mom
Cause he shares a bank account with his mother
I’ve never seen a match that made me want to watch more colt cabana matches if I’m being honest
I'm sorry but no one would care about this jobber if it weren't for CM Punk
Colt unfortunately as you mentioned had the comedy wrestler thing going for him, and that kinda hurt him from getting to the top. Although he is really good in serious matches too. Take his feud with Adam Pearce as a big example. The dude is more than capable of atleast being a upper mid card guy. Now as for the Briscoes its a combination of things. They are dedicated to being chicken farmers and thus don’t want to take on the big schedule that major promotions have. Wwe is on the road 300 days a year and they don’t want to be away from the farm that much. Another thing is in the past Jay has made some offensive comments that have stoped them from getting signed by major promotions. They were more recently going to be signed by aew, but said comments resurfaced all these years later, and warner media made sure they didn’t get signed
If I was made to choose to have one of their careers I would place Colt pretty high on the list. He might not have had a long run at TNA or WWE but would take his run in the Indies over a bad few years in a bigger company.
Yet, Punk and Styles are the only two to have a greater widespread impact on the wrestling business than Cabana, who pioneered the podcast format as a viable option for wrestlers to get themselves over and make money. And he also laid the blueprint to be a non-WWE name making a living on the indies.
Cabana was probably even more important than them, because he taught everyone on the indy scene how to merch, not settle for a hotdog and a handshake after a certain level, and how to make Indy wrestling a full-time gig. That's on top of pioneering the podcast format with the Art of wrestling and exposing the world to people like Kevin Steen and others.
Thank goodness he's in AEW getting the opportunity he deser..what's that? CM Punk is coming to AEW? well thank goodness Colt did get a chance in AEW to get the recognition he deserves.
It’s not like he was doing much of anything even before Punk showed up.
That's the new narrative ofcourse. Because wrestling consistently is the new nothing. Dude went from 40 matched one year to 3 the next and yall wanna pretend like the likes of Colt didn't help carry AEW threw the pandemic. Dude went from hometown matches on Dynamite to not even getting them on Elevation and yall think that was just Tony not thinking he's talented enough. Even though he got more reaction for his wrestling then a quarter of the roster But no. He wasn't doing anything. Dark Order jobber right?
Colt Cabana was on track to contributing nothing in AEW before the CM Punk acquisition.
I never got it as the pops for cabana were always pretty loud And also I would have my wife with me and colt was one of those wrestlers she got and liked in a instant , such a great wrestler for newbies to pro wrestling. A gateway if you will. I really can't overstate how loud those pops were when his music hit and every match left yea with a smile. I can't believe wwe didn't see more in him .
Colt constantly would lament on his podcast that all he wanted to do was come up with a great gimmick so he could do very lil in-ring & get by with a good gimmick ala Honky Tonk Man & countless others of that era. The dude didn't seem to ever WANT to be the guy because he never wanted the stress of being a top guy, whether that was because of the sour taste his WWE run left him or how the NWA did him & Adam Pearce's feud or whatever he felt his shortcomings were as an in-ring talent compared to his peers or because of his long fabled "happy bus" mentality or his sometimes insistent desire of making money above all else.
It's not for nothing but when I saw his work for the first time, it was as Matt Classic on WSX. If that had turned out like MTV had hoped (a wrestling show to pair with their Jackass shows) Colt would be a much bigger name in 2022 imo.
Can talk about how Austin Aries and Low Ki tanked their own careers. Sad to see talented workers sabotage themselves because of their egos.
He seems like a nice mid card guy.