Was this Viince Russo's best work?

[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by CSL [COLOR="White"] He's in the Benoit mould, superworker with a black hole when it comes to charisma. (...) I think people remember the Team Canada stuff a bit too fondly for the most part because he was a net darling that was thrust into a prominent position for a while and the whole winning 3 belts in as many appearances schtick. Those are the only things people ever mention: the belts and 'If I could be serious for a minute'. And despite the catchphrase getting over, the promos were nothing special, far from bad but nothing special. It was nice that he had something to do and something he could do well. But notice that his most successful career periods involve other people (ie Team Canada, Impact Players, Unamericans etc)

Originally Posted by Fox I understand your point of view, but I still disagree. Lance Storm and Chris Benoit were not in the same mold. Benoit tried to do the "serious guy" gimmick as a heel, but even then he was uninteresting and unentertaining. Lance Storm pulled it off in spades and was the best thing going in WCW at the time. He was the boring, arrogant, cocky Canadian guy who made people mad because he was actually GOOD in the ring. He talked shit on the US and his opponents, he did it in this super serious manner, and then he made bitches tap out. (...) I disagree that he was only good as a part of a group. Team Canada was just back up; Lance was the focal point. And he had great matches with a few different people - not just General Rection.

@CSL - While I *sort of* agree with the "Benoit mould" comment, the fact that WCW made a star out of Dean Malenko and Bill Goldberg shoots that argument in the foot. Also, think about how long in WWE that Benoit got to come into his own to go from bland to "quiet intensity". Bret Hart was arguably just as bland (hell, Anvil had the charisma of that tag team), he just had the fashion sense to adopt pink to make him memorable. As for the group thing, he got help from Team Canada in the form of help and beatdowns, but rarely tainted victories. That, also, was part of the gimmick. Like Fox said, he was good at what he did, TOLD you he was good at what he did because he was from Calgary... Alberta, Canada, then proceeded to SHOW everyone he was good at what he did. Just because he didn't have the mic swagger and voice inflections of someone like Edge doesn't mean it wasn't working.

More on topic: anybody remember the other "powers to be" promo Piper did? I don't remember what day or show, or who he was even talking to, but it was in that wheelhouse of the topic starter MAC posted with Russo doing the whole off camera gimmick with "Standards & Practices" standing guard in front of his desk. I do remember it was a backstage promo, and I believe it was the last appearance of Piper. Like this one, to me, it was kind of one of those "wow" moments.