Just finished the debut episode of Icons on Yokozuna.
That period where Bret becomes champ, later wins king of the ring and feuds with Lawler, Lex Express, and the Yoko championship run and undertaker feud hits me in a very sentimental way as the beginning of my intense love of wrestling.
I thought the doc was expertly produced and was very high quality. Due to length it took me longer to get though than most wwe network documentaries.
I’m glad they got Vince and Taker as talking heads as both traditionally have been missing from these types of shows.
The highlight for me was Bret. Honest and straightforward as possible. Hulk Hogan looked out of touch and Vince like an idiot in reviewing the events of wrestlemania 9.
Roman was great here too and so modest. They made the link between yoko as the first Samoan world champ to the current universal champ present but not overpowering.
While I love this.type of stuff I wonder how you guys think wwe could better capitalize on work like this. I know this was advertised on the network but how much on raw or smackdown?
With a 3 hour raw they could chop down docs (maybe not one as long as this one) and sprinkle them throughout the show. Raw could definitely use a break from the format.
Your thoughts?
I dont want to see this stuff as part of their Raw or Smackdowns. This is one of my favorite things, they’ve ever done and it deserves to be kept separate.
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I generally don’t think it serves Raw/Smackdown any purpose to air something that doesn’t build on the current product. If those shows had a preshow/halftime show like other sports have, there’d be an appropriate spot for historical pieces, but I don’t think that fits (or would do particularly well) on live TV. This is a draw for the network and something I’d prefer to watch in long form than in pieces anyway.
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I watched it today and I must say overall it was great.
They didn’t cover Lex and the USS intrepid as much as I thought they would as that was huge in Yokos career. I’m glad they stuck with him through the years after he was gone and got that Indy footage. I would have loved to hear from Lex on there and more from Cornette.
It was amazing seeing how loved he was by everyone. Seemed like a very decent human being. He was the first heel champion to have a lengthy run since the WM1 era (and the first heel to ever win in a main event of WM). If I’m correct this didn’t occur again until WM16 and HHH so tells you how rare it was
I think they are doing one of these icons on Lex. So probably holding off for that one.
He seemed like a great man.
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