Who WWE's young wrestlers should study to improve

Several young WWE wrestlers are in obvious need of improvement and, besides practice, there is one quick, easily accessible way for each and every one of these talents to improve- watch tapes of the territory era.  Most young wrestlers now grew up in, at earliest, the Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels era and became fans around the Attitude Era (which began 12 years ago already).  That means that they missed the mastery of the greats from the era before that, when kayfabe was intact and the little things ruled the day.  WWE owns many of the tape libraries from these departed territories so these wrestlers being able to study the greats would be as simple as asking the office.  Here’s a list of who some of WWE’s newest current should study.

Tyler Reks should study Jerry Lawler – Tyler has all the speed and ability anyone would want, with a good look, but no one cares about him.  That would be remedied by studying the master of pacing and timing, Jerry Lawler.  Never the best wrestler, Lawler knew how to get the most out of every move and could bring the house down with a single punch.

Koslov and Ezekiel Jackson should study Nikita Koloff -  Nikita is one of my favorite big men ever, in that he usually sold like he was hard to hurt, making his opponents chain up moves to really get him down.  This makes the opponent and himself look good.  Then, when he’d strike back, it would always be with a brutally strong move.  If Ezekiel and Koslov manage that, and a bit of Nikita’s underrated mat wrestling skills, they can be breakout stars. 

Shelton Benjamin should Study Bob Orton, Jr. – Often forgotten for his lackey days, but Orton was a brilliant technical wrestler who developed both a face and heel persona around that.  Shelton has never developed a persona around the wrestler and should observe how it’s done from a master.         

Jack Swagger should study “Dr. Death” Steve Williams – No one was ever better at using their wrestling and size in the ring.  Swagger is good, but Williams is excellent and the template for how to be an absolute ass-kicker.

Primo Colon should study Tito Santana – Tito was the filler in a lot of feuds and through consistency and hard work managed to make himself a consistent major player who always had a place. Primo is the height of sloppiness and inconsistency, but seems to be used as filler when a tag partner and such is needed.  Primo needs to work on Tito’s crispness and consistency if he doesn’t want to end up Tom Zenk.

Carlito Colon should study Tully Blanchard – You’d think the son of Carlos Colon would study enough tape to know the little things, but oh well.   Tully is a master sneaky heel- the character Carlito tries to portray.  Tully was not only slimy like Carlito, but he was a master at being creatively sneaky, where Carlito is fine with being cliché.  Tully also had a believability to his movements that Carlito could stand to mimick.

Paul Burchill should study Billy Robinson – When Nigel McGuinness learned American style here, he was told to return to Britain to make sure he could work their style, under the theory that people want British wrestlers to wrestle a British style.  It worked out for Nigel, so Paul should study Robinson, the best at the British style.  If not Billy, Johnny Saint should work well too.

Sheamus should study Bill Watts.  Sheamus is going for the tough face with a temper, but it isn’t coming across in the ring.  It surely did for the Cowboy and he should be studied (he also might be the best booker ever, so, writing team, you study him too!).

Zach Ryder should study Michael Hayes.  Zach is going for a Hayes like character and really needs to learn how to not turn that into X-Pac heat over time.  Hayes was around for decades and kept fresh, so studying him, or just picking his brain since he’s backstage, would be wise. 

Yoshi Tatsu should study Mr. Saito.  Tatsu will be asked to do two roles in WWE- fiery Japanese face and sneaky Japanese heel.  He’s a bit dangerous and sloppy as a face.  As a heel, however, he doesn’t have to be as flashy and can still get away with being stiff, so studying the king of that style, Saito, would be wise.                      

The Miz should study Gino Hernandez.  Gino was a young kid with everything going for him who dabbled in acting and crafted all that talent into a heel persona.  Miz is doing that currently.  What Gino did so well, was be able to turn that persona into a face without losing his edge- something Miz had better study and prepare to do.             

Charlie Haas should study Chris Adams.  Adams is an awesome heel, what Haas should aspire to be should being a jobber get old.  Being a great wrestler and a great heel don’t always go hand-in-hand, so Adams would show Haas how its done.

Jesse should study Koko B. Ware – He’s being typecast as an undercard comedy act, so he might as well learn how to get some job security out of it.

Cryme Tyme should study Scott Hall and Curt Hennig – This AWA team had the big-man little man dynamic down cold.  Cryme Tyme is still working on perfecting that and the nuances of tag formula without losing character, so this would be a great way to go about that.                             

Evan Bourne should study Rick Martel.  A young, face Rick Martel was an awesome worker, while being smaller than everyone around him.  Bourne has that, but Martel added a cocky personality, sort of like Bourne had on WSX but not overbearing to the mix that made him a star.  Bourne needs to try that.

Kofi Kingston should study David Von Erich – Because being a flashy face is all well and good, but getting a crazy response without flipping everywhere is the goal, so the flips really mean more.  The Von Erich boys, for all their personal flaws, were fantastic athletes who would really build to their big moves, but get their biggest pop for the claw, simply grabbing a guys head. Kofi needs to learn to build something like that.                                                                                                  

John Morrison should study Lou Thesz – Seriously, Morrison has the flashy moves and flying down. He knows how to time properly, but he could stand to use some mat wrestling with meaning to build to it and old grainy video of Thesz is the best way to get mat wrestling I can think of.

DH Smith and Tysonn Kidd should study Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton -  DH and Kidd are now just awesome wrestlers.  They need to learn to be an enforcer and beautiful.  Eaton and Arn are nearly perfect tag wrestlers and amazing wrestlers, so adding Arn’s toughness to DH and Eaton’s flashiness to Kidd would make them stars.

Chris Masters should study Butch Reed – Almost forgotten today, Butch was an excellent worker.  His match with Flair is easy to find and shows how to be great without the speed and flashiness of so many stars.  Masters has a great look, but is slow and has no flashy offense- he needs to learn to be like Reed to succeed.

Festus should study Harley Race -  Festus isn’t bad.  He needs to be repackaged into an ass kicking heel immediately.  Harley is the ultimate prototype for what Festus should be.  

Mike Knox should study Bruiser Brody -  Knox has the look and nothing Bruiser did should be that hard to pull off.  Knox just needs to watch the little things Bruiser did to get over as a wild-man and mimic generously.

Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes should study Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis – The ass kicking badass Texan and the tough, great wrestler, these two forgotten legends would fit in with Ted and Cody perfectly.  Adding the personality of Dirty Dick and Adrian would make this vanilla duo into dastardly, dreaded henchmen.

CM Punk should study Nick Bockwinkle – Punk seems to be expected to be the Bret Hart to Morrison’s Shawn Michaels, except as a full-time heel.  Well, a technical heel is Bockwinkle.  No one was a better wrestler and no one had more heel charisma than Bockwinkle, so, while I’m sure Punk has studied numerous tapes, making time for AWA’s best would really help Punk earn his place in history.                      

Randy Orton should study Dory Funk, Jr. – This one is easy.  Orton has serious trouble balancing being a coward and being dangerous, ended up looking like a punk who got lucky often.  No one does dangerous, frightening and crazy, but still cowardly like a Funk!