Shane Douglas' career character arc is pathetic

[StraxStrax]

Real talk

His ECW/NWA promo is better than any Flair promo. But it stops there.

 

[Francis White]

Let's follow it from the start:

An old school WWWF mark, he gets trained by long time low carder Dominic Denuci and is really pretty unsuccessful for years, finally getting a big break in WCW in the form of a totally tubular skateboarder dude. That flops and he tries his hand in the WWF, but flops even harder. A return to WCW has him without the gimmick, a pure wrestler, but while successful in a tag team role, he can't get past the mid card.

He then leaves and joins the fledgling ECW, where he can be the big fish he always dreamed to be. He comes to dominate the promotion, which at this point is mostly local talent and old washed up bums from the 70s and 80s. His obsession with Ric Flair begins to manifest. It's clear that he hates Ric Flair so much not because he's mad about Flair "holding him down", but because he's intensely jealous of Ric Flair. He wants to be Ric Flair so bad it defines his life. He brings in Flair's managers (both of which turn on him, naturally), he starts his own version of the Four Horsemen, he has feuds with Flair's friends and rivals. For all intents and purposes, he is the Ric Flair of ECW.

However, Ric Flair never acknowledges him, never responds. Shane isn't even a blip on his radar. He's headlining PPVs with Hulk Hogan and Sting while Shane is defending his title in a bingo hall. Shane eventually wins the NWA Championship, Flair's title, only to throw it down and declare it and its legacy dead. Yet he continues to be obsessed with Flair, despite declaring him and his legacy dead and buried, RIP. He still continues to do everything he can to become the new Ric Flair.

His entire time in ECW, he talks so much shyt about WWF and WCW, how he'd never go back to either of them, how they're full of clowns and entertainers, while he is a wrestler and is bringing wrestling back to its roots as a sport in ECW. Of course, he also spends all of 1993-1995 aligning himself with former WCW and WWF talent (Kevin Sullivan, Sensational Sherri, Woman, Mr. Hughes, Doink The Clown), and as soon as Vince came calling, he left ECW in the cold. And what happens to him? He gets a cartoony gimmick and doesn't even make it 6 months with the company. He returns to ECW where he can once again be the big fish in the small pond and resumes his role as Extreme Ric Flair, but he's been passed by and can't keep up. He's frequently injured, and much of his 400+ day title reign has him being unable to wrestle. His final angle with ECW has him portrayed as a broken down old man past his prime on his last run for glory at the age of 35.

He joins WCW again shortly after, and continues to be frequently injured, essentially becoming the JJ Dillion to his new Four Horsemen knock off of ECW friends as a result. Despite all the years of shyt talking, Shane never confronts Flair despite being in the same locker room with him, and they in fact have a courteous and professional relationship. When The Radicalz jump to WWF, Shane tried to be a part of that group, but WWF didn't want him even to hurt WCW. He was taken off TV then returned at the start of the Bischoff/Russo era to finally get his feud with Ric Flair...which lasted all of 2 matches, and immediately afterwards Ric went back to the main events while Shane again couldn't get out of the mid card and continued to get injured. He was involved in such classics as the Pittsburgh Plunge and Viagra on a pole matches. When WCW gets sold to the WWF, Vince again has zero interest in Shane Douglas. Ric Flair goes on to have a nearly decade long run with the WWF and is inducted into the WWE HOF twice.

The only place left for Shane to go was XPW, the even trashier, even more low budget ECW knock off, and as part of this the company gives him the book, is relocated to Philly and the ECW Arena to relive Shane's 1994 glory, only to almost immediately fold. He then goes to TNA, where he promptly feuds with various ECW guys, and in one of his first appearances is so out of shape he vomits from over exertion. He again can't get out of the mid card and is relegated to passing on The Franchise name and acting mostly as a manager before he's even 40.

When WWE revives the ECW brand, Shane is again not invited to participate, so he produces his own bootleg One Night Stand still trying to relive his old glory. The next decade sees him working in the same role as all those WWWF bums in the early days of ECW for various indies that he complained about in the mid 90s: An old washed up has been piece of trash who wrestles in a shirt for a decade. A lawsuit against WWE is thrown out. He's thrown out of a WWE show for causing a disturbance in the audience.

This guy in and out of character spent his whole career obsessed with being Ric Flair and failed at every turn. The only time he was anything was when he could be a big fish in a small pond, and even then he got swallowed up and spit out. He became everything he railed against: An old timer hanging on to his glory days that are well, well behind him. Flair's career in just his 50s had more success than Shane's entire career. Shane was effectively a hobbled, broken down old man while he was still in his 30s. Flair was 25 years his senior and was still going strong nearly 10 years after Shane had to go into semi-retirement.

Now pay attention, this is how you really shyt on a man.

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

Shame Douglas

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

never liked him

did he throw up on camera?

 

[mrken12]

I mean, you're just some smark CAC who overly analyzes play fighting while he did it for real in all 3 major companies though. You don't have a grasp on reality or self awareness if he's pathetic.

I didn't watch much of his WWF/ECW runs, but he was OK in WCW.

All this anger towards the thread and you still just called Douglas OK.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

5-star thread. I never understood why anybody liked Shane Douglas.

The ether of this thread was so potent that I had to go an double check that you didn’t write it

 

[Jmare007]

this was @TheGreatShowtime level of ether

 

[CrossBones]

Shane was the perfect champ for what ECW was at that time since he was the biggest loud mouth who hated the WWF and WCW proudly.The counter culture was real at the time. He had real gripes with the big two and made sure everyone knew it. Even though most of the audience probably watched all of the promotions as well as ECW, voicing your displeasure of "The Man" whether it was Vince or Eric, was the thing to do. Even today it's the thing to do. He's like the Jim Jones of wrestling in that he kept trying to be mentioned with the greats by dissing them so he could get some heat for himself.While Shane was never going to be Ric Flair or Stone Cold Steve Austin, he was an important mouthpiece for Paul E and the spin off set of fans who wanted to express how upset they were that the other guys were still making shows aimed at little kids. While his main gripe was how they used politics to hold people down, that appealed to smarks who were around back then and knew about the Clique and could understand his character. That's very important in wrestling that you can convey who you are.


There were some legitimate complaints he brought out, but at the same time his bargain basement promotion couldn't afford the talent they wanted and couldn't keep them when they got them. Him as their top guy didn't hurt their image, really. If anything his promos helped identify the company. I never liked Shane as I never saw anything really great from him, but as a figurehead of a ragtag group of wrestlers and brawlers that thrilled the hardcore set, he held up his end. Until he got hurt like he always did.


Low key, he sparked the disgruntled gimmick for wrestlers who got fired. He's the epitome of "I could have been great in that company if they weren't so shyt" that Stone Cold used in ECW before taking off, as well as pretty much everyone who enters the Impact Zone who are coming from the WWE. It's not a great gimmick, but I'll gladly credit Shane for taking that idea and running with it.

 

[Sypress]

Jeez

One of the most cringe moments was when he took his mask off in the crowd at raw expecting a big pop only for no one to recognize him....in philly

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

He's like the Jim Jones of wrestling

Agreed, all his fans should drink poison.

 

[Amor fati]

Agreed, all his fans should drink poison.

I thought he was talking about Jim Jones the rapper.

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

I thought he was talking about Jim Jones the rapper.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Skip to 2:00

Franchise hitting the target

 

[richaveli83]

 

[stro]

I forgot to mention Shane's first ECW exit, when he ranted for what felt like an hour about how shytty the ECW arena and fans were and that's why he was leaving to the WWF, and in stark contrast to pretty much every major "ECW Original" that left over the next year or two, he was met with chants of WE WANT FLAIR, SHANE HAS A p*ssy, fukk YOU SHANE, the Goodbye song, constant WHOOOOS, and so on.

Later in the month when Dean and Eddie got signed to WCW, they got please don't go and thank you chants. Cactus Jack got please don't go and thank you chants when he left for the WWF in 1996. Taz got some shyt when he left for the WWF, but ultimately got an emotional send off from the fans. Same with Scorpio and PE.

Fans were happy that Shane was leaving