Dooble Dooble Yee: Vladimir Kozlov
 

So . . . has anyone seen this man wrestle? He is on the Smackdown brand so I doubt people have seen him beyond the few vignettes he had about a year ago on Raw. He comes out to no music and no video on the Titantron. I suppose he's being booked as a sort of monster heel, but generally he doesn't look the part. Generally, he's boring and I wonder what sort of positive think the executives thing he has going for him. Any thoughts?

i saw him on a raw house show over a year ago. he was wrestling scotty 2 hotty and botched a few moves and looked terrible in the ring. he had a decent finisher though, torture rack but then would drop to his knees into a backbreaker. i havent followed him on smackdown yet but i am sure he has had to improved since i saw him live.

I hate how everytime someone new comes in they generally have the same finisher. :nono:

I really like Kozlov. Very oldschool style to him.

I dig his in ring style, but it wont get over

Kozlov reeks of 80s mid card. I don't really care for squash matches, but I see why they're important for guys his size during their first few months.

I'll have to wait and see how he is in non squash matches.

I can already tell that he's going to be billed as a monster, take out jobbers at first, move onto mid carders, get put in some feud no one will care about, develop a comedic personality, become a jobber, then get released. It's just the WWE way.

I dig his entrance.

I dig the guy.

Too bad they're not using the theme he got in WWE The Music 7. Then again, the no music/lights thing is kinda cool too. Old school.

Keeping with his old school theme as well as his Russian-ness, I would like to see him use a bear hug, but I don't think that's a flashy enough finish. Or does he already use a bear hug during a match?

I really like how he uses judo takedowns in his matches. Something different than the usual punch-kick crap.

I heard he was absolutely awful, but watching him on SmackDown!, he seemed decent enough. He's actually somewhat crisp. I only saw him against Colin Delaney, though, so who knows. He did this cool spot in the match, where Colin was lying over the top turnbuckle, face-down (think Green Bay Plunge position), and Kozlov came up, kicked him in the gut, Delaney went flying up, Kozlov caught him, then gave him a fallaway slam. It looked even cooler than it sounds.

I like the no frills approach they are taking with him. He needs a program now, though. Personally, I'd like to see him wrestle Matt Hardy once or twice for the United States Championship. No need to put him over as a monster, just put him over as a Russian bad ass. It's a lot more interesting than the boring monster route.

He should also use the Torture Rack Backbreaker again.

I love his current theme. It's damn catchy. It's the Theme of the Week on Xylot Themes.

He looks like he's beating some serious ass in the ring. I enjoy him for now. I just want to see how they handle him against an opponent worth his salt.