Steen & Roddy Going To WWE Camp - Possibly Elgin Too

[YimYac]

If he wanted to get to WWE bad enough, he would've gotten the surgery. He didn't make the sacrifice he should've so I don't feel bad about his career path at all.

Nevermind that McGuinness was probably not spilling the whole truth out. Muscle tear history, plus his body mass shrinking incredibly once he stopped working. Yep, I'm sure there was NOTHING else about him that alarmed WWE.

Why are you automatically assuming Nigel was lying about anything?

Considering Nigel was willing to spill the beans about contracting Hep B, I don't see why you'd think he'd be lying about the WWE situation.

[supersonic]

WARNING: VERY TL;DR

Since this has come up in two unrelated threads this week, I might as well devote a topic to it.

While I have plenty of sympathy for him, I've been surprised that the reaction to his documentary and the information he gives therein has been what it is.

I fully believe that WWE told him they weren't clearing him for the reasons he gave in the documentary, that they felt one of his bicep tears hadn't fully healed (his doctor disagreed) and wouldn't clear him to be hired unless he had it repaired surgically at his own expense. But I don't believe that's necessarily why WWE made the call.

We can say what we want about Ryback or The Rock or whoever having artificial looking physiques, or the stories of guys diagnosed with enlarged hearts still wrestling. Still, it's clear from both from anecdotes and the changes in the physiques of guys who are undergoing pre-hiring testing that they take both the drug and overall health aspects of the pre-hiring screening seriously.

On the drug side of the coin...Nigel was a guy coming off of two very obvious steroid injuries (one of which may not have healed completely) and he shrunk dramatically from a thickly built wrestler you could see fitting in as a WWE Superstar to an athletic looking, but very skinny indy tall guy.

As for his general health, Nigel was and is a wreck due to working a recklessly stupid style. I get why he felt the need to work a more "ROH main event" friendly style when he was stuck in the mid card doing the safer British style that got him noticed. Still, he went about it about as stupidly as possible:

- Shoot headbutting the ringpost.
- The "ram" headbutts where he and Danielson ran into each other head first at full force over and over.
- Taking Austin Aries' bullet tope blind, causing him to crash into the guardrail head first at a high speed.
- Throwing a zillion clotheslines in every single match as hard as humanly possibly while juiced to the gills.

And that's just the stuff we all remember.

When it became clear he wasn't acknowledging steroid use or taking any responsibility for the shape he's in, that's when I checked out of the already grating and repetitive (Nigel kvetches about not making big money, Nigel evades talking to a friend about having Hepatitis, insert extended clips of a match on Nigel's retirement tour, repeat cycle for two hours) documentary.

I made time to record a podcast with Nigel a little while back (and for now, let's set aside the jokes about how I haven't posted what I promised). After his last appearance on WOR, where he was eloquent and thoughtful, I was stunned with what I got: A bunch of short, one sentence answers (and he'd brush off follow-up questions) from a guy whose memory is completely shot.

I don't mean wrestlers forgetting small details or mixing a few stories into one. I mean he outright said he doesn't really remember his run in ROH, a several year run that was the creative peak of his career and got him noticed by WWE & TNA. On top of that, he was so outwardly bitter (a huge contrast to the "fans love me and sent me money so now I am happy yay" ending to the doc) that he was really off-putting. The interview was so bad I decided to just delete it. I understand I may have caught him on a bad day, but even if so, geez.

For some reason, aside from some weird anger (I feel bad for him, but if he KNOWS he can't remember stuff, he should tell people), the big takeaway I had was that it really put the documentary in perspective. He takes responsibility for nothing. He won't admit that he used steroids and that it led directly to WWE not hiring him, or that it's possible the whole "can't remember 5 years of his life" thing was a contributing factor. It almost seemed like he feels the injuries are Gabe's fault for only pushing him as a main eventer once he switched from a moderately safe style to a very dangerous one, even though that's not exactly how it happened. To be fair, maybe the memory issues are responsible for that.

More than anything else, he bitches about never making big money in wrestling. I'm sure everyone who deserved a big run but never got one feels that way, but the way he talks about it, it's like he was banking on it. That's the stupidest possible attitude you can have in wrestling. You should be driven. It should be your goal. You can be upset about it for both "dream" and financial reasons, but voicing his issues the way he does, he sounds like every muscle head who goes into wrestling solely because he thinks he can get fast tracked to WWE and become rich and famous.

I have no issue with people disliking the documentary or aspects of it. It would be silly if I did. As a whole I enjoyed the documentary, even with parts I didn't like.

I just don't feel like Nigel "owes" it to fans to say "Hey guys I took steroids, and they may have led to my medical issues." Also being angry at a guy because he can't remember things due to his history of concussions seems a bit odd to me.

Yeah, but isn't it unfair to vilify WWE for being soulless corporate bastards who destroyed his hopes and dreams, when they may have actually been doing the right thing for him (and themselves, obviously).

Right, it's that even taking him and the red flags he officially triggered with WWE at face value, he makes it too black and white that Dr. Samson or Dr. Maroon or whoever it was just screwed him while twirling his mustache, not even allowing for any discussion about how WWE, as a publicly traded company, has to be super careful.

[BTW10]

Yeah because spending thousands of dollars for surgery (thanks American healthcare) and not being able to support yourself for 4+ months makes sense.

Moving to Florida to be paid $500 a week to get your ass kicked everyday by Bill DeMott is sacrifice. Getting unneeded surgery and having no way to work to make money for 4+ months isn't a sacrifice, it's idiotic. WWE fucked him over plain and simple. He had a statement from a doctor with MRI's to prove it stating his arm was perfectly healthy and was just as healthy as if he had gotten surgery in the first place years back.

Risk = reward. I guarantee you he made chump change in TNA when he could've made a VERY good living on the main roster. He played it safe and guess what? In the great scheme of things, he did nothing in TNA. I like Nigel and he was a good guy when I met him, but I'm not gonna feel sorry for him.

[YimYac]

Yeah because spending thousands of dollars for surgery (thanks American healthcare) and not being able to support yourself for 4+ months makes sense.

Moving to Florida to be paid $500 a week to get your ass kicked everyday by Bill DeMott is sacrifice. Getting unneeded surgery and having no way to work to make money for 4+ months isn't a sacrifice, it's idiotic. WWE fucked him over plain and simple. He had a statement from a doctor with MRI's to prove it stating his arm was perfectly healthy and was just as healthy as if he had gotten surgery in the first place years back.

Risk = reward. I guarantee you he made chump change in TNA when he could've made a VERY good living on the main roster. He played it safe and guess what? In the great scheme of things, he did nothing in TNA. I like Nigel and he was a good guy when I met him, but I'm not gonna feel sorry for him.

Or he could've sat in FCW for 3 years making $500 a week.

[YimYac]

WARNING: VERY TL;DR

Since this has come up in two unrelated threads this week, I might as well devote a topic to it.

While I have plenty of sympathy for him, I've been surprised that the reaction to his documentary and the information he gives therein has been what it is.

I fully believe that WWE told him they weren't clearing him for the reasons he gave in the documentary, that they felt one of his bicep tears hadn't fully healed (his doctor disagreed) and wouldn't clear him to be hired unless he had it repaired surgically at his own expense. But I don't believe that's necessarily why WWE made the call.

We can say what we want about Ryback or The Rock or whoever having artificial looking physiques, or the stories of guys diagnosed with enlarged hearts still wrestling. Still, it's clear from both from anecdotes and the changes in the physiques of guys who are undergoing pre-hiring testing that they take both the drug and overall health aspects of the pre-hiring screening seriously.

On the drug side of the coin...Nigel was a guy coming off of two very obvious steroid injuries (one of which may not have healed completely) and he shrunk dramatically from a thickly built wrestler you could see fitting in as a WWE Superstar to an athletic looking, but very skinny indy tall guy.

As for his general health, Nigel was and is a wreck due to working a recklessly stupid style. I get why he felt the need to work a more "ROH main event" friendly style when he was stuck in the mid card doing the safer British style that got him noticed. Still, he went about it about as stupidly as possible:

- Shoot headbutting the ringpost.
- The "ram" headbutts where he and Danielson ran into each other head first at full force over and over.
- Taking Austin Aries' bullet tope blind, causing him to crash into the guardrail head first at a high speed.
- Throwing a zillion clotheslines in every single match as hard as humanly possibly while juiced to the gills.

And that's just the stuff we all remember.

When it became clear he wasn't acknowledging steroid use or taking any responsibility for the shape he's in, that's when I checked out of the already grating and repetitive (Nigel kvetches about not making big money, Nigel evades talking to a friend about having Hepatitis, insert extended clips of a match on Nigel's retirement tour, repeat cycle for two hours) documentary.

I made time to record a podcast with Nigel a little while back (and for now, let's set aside the jokes about how I haven't posted what I promised). After his last appearance on WOR, where he was eloquent and thoughtful, I was stunned with what I got: A bunch of short, one sentence answers (and he'd brush off follow-up questions) from a guy whose memory is completely shot.

I don't mean wrestlers forgetting small details or mixing a few stories into one. I mean he outright said he doesn't really remember his run in ROH, a several year run that was the creative peak of his career and got him noticed by WWE & TNA. On top of that, he was so outwardly bitter (a huge contrast to the "fans love me and sent me money so now I am happy yay" ending to the doc) that he was really off-putting. The interview was so bad I decided to just delete it. I understand I may have caught him on a bad day, but even if so, geez.

For some reason, aside from some weird anger (I feel bad for him, but if he KNOWS he can't remember stuff, he should tell people), the big takeaway I had was that it really put the documentary in perspective. He takes responsibility for nothing. He won't admit that he used steroids and that it led directly to WWE not hiring him, or that it's possible the whole "can't remember 5 years of his life" thing was a contributing factor. It almost seemed like he feels the injuries are Gabe's fault for only pushing him as a main eventer once he switched from a moderately safe style to a very dangerous one, even though that's not exactly how it happened. To be fair, maybe the memory issues are responsible for that.

More than anything else, he bitches about never making big money in wrestling. I'm sure everyone who deserved a big run but never got one feels that way, but the way he talks about it, it's like he was banking on it. That's the stupidest possible attitude you can have in wrestling. You should be driven. It should be your goal. You can be upset about it for both "dream" and financial reasons, but voicing his issues the way he does, he sounds like every muscle head who goes into wrestling solely because he thinks he can get fast tracked to WWE and become rich and famous.

[/quote]

All I see in this post is a bunch of baseless accusations about Nigel. None of which have a source or anything that would force me to provide them with even an ounce of seriousness. Everything said in that seems to be the exact opposite of the Nigel I've seen/heard in multiple interviews and his documentary. I'd love to spend time dissecting why this post is probably one of the most vile and idiotic things I've ever seen posted here but that would be giving it credibility, of which it has none.

[DBSommer]

[/quote]

All I see in this post is a bunch of baseless accusations about Nigel. None of which have a source or anything that would force me to provide them with even an ounce of seriousness. Everything said in that seems to be the exact opposite of the Nigel I've seen/heard in multiple interviews and his documentary. I'd love to spend time dissecting why this post is probably one of the most vile and idiotic things I've ever seen posted here but that would be giving it credibility, of which it has none.[/quote]

I don't understand what you mean. There are no lies on the internet. And all rumors in high school are true.

[BTW10]

Or he could've sat in FCW for 3 years making $500 a week.

LOL yeah, because every developmental guy stays down in Florida for 3 years. Nice try though.

[supersonic]

WARNING: VERY TL;DR

Since this has come up in two unrelated threads this week, I might as well devote a topic to it.

While I have plenty of sympathy for him, I've been surprised that the reaction to his documentary and the information he gives therein has been what it is.

I fully believe that WWE told him they weren't clearing him for the reasons he gave in the documentary, that they felt one of his bicep tears hadn't fully healed (his doctor disagreed) and wouldn't clear him to be hired unless he had it repaired surgically at his own expense. But I don't believe that's necessarily why WWE made the call.

We can say what we want about Ryback or The Rock or whoever having artificial looking physiques, or the stories of guys diagnosed with enlarged hearts still wrestling. Still, it's clear from both from anecdotes and the changes in the physiques of guys who are undergoing pre-hiring testing that they take both the drug and overall health aspects of the pre-hiring screening seriously.

On the drug side of the coin...Nigel was a guy coming off of two very obvious steroid injuries (one of which may not have healed completely) and he shrunk dramatically from a thickly built wrestler you could see fitting in as a WWE Superstar to an athletic looking, but very skinny indy tall guy.

As for his general health, Nigel was and is a wreck due to working a recklessly stupid style. I get why he felt the need to work a more "ROH main event" friendly style when he was stuck in the mid card doing the safer British style that got him noticed. Still, he went about it about as stupidly as possible:

- Shoot headbutting the ringpost.
- The "ram" headbutts where he and Danielson ran into each other head first at full force over and over.
- Taking Austin Aries' bullet tope blind, causing him to crash into the guardrail head first at a high speed.
- Throwing a zillion clotheslines in every single match as hard as humanly possibly while juiced to the gills.

And that's just the stuff we all remember.

When it became clear he wasn't acknowledging steroid use or taking any responsibility for the shape he's in, that's when I checked out of the already grating and repetitive (Nigel kvetches about not making big money, Nigel evades talking to a friend about having Hepatitis, insert extended clips of a match on Nigel's retirement tour, repeat cycle for two hours) documentary.

I made time to record a podcast with Nigel a little while back (and for now, let's set aside the jokes about how I haven't posted what I promised). After his last appearance on WOR, where he was eloquent and thoughtful, I was stunned with what I got: A bunch of short, one sentence answers (and he'd brush off follow-up questions) from a guy whose memory is completely shot.

I don't mean wrestlers forgetting small details or mixing a few stories into one. I mean he outright said he doesn't really remember his run in ROH, a several year run that was the creative peak of his career and got him noticed by WWE & TNA. On top of that, he was so outwardly bitter (a huge contrast to the "fans love me and sent me money so now I am happy yay" ending to the doc) that he was really off-putting. The interview was so bad I decided to just delete it. I understand I may have caught him on a bad day, but even if so, geez.

For some reason, aside from some weird anger (I feel bad for him, but if he KNOWS he can't remember stuff, he should tell people), the big takeaway I had was that it really put the documentary in perspective. He takes responsibility for nothing. He won't admit that he used steroids and that it led directly to WWE not hiring him, or that it's possible the whole "can't remember 5 years of his life" thing was a contributing factor. It almost seemed like he feels the injuries are Gabe's fault for only pushing him as a main eventer once he switched from a moderately safe style to a very dangerous one, even though that's not exactly how it happened. To be fair, maybe the memory issues are responsible for that.

More than anything else, he bitches about never making big money in wrestling. I'm sure everyone who deserved a big run but never got one feels that way, but the way he talks about it, it's like he was banking on it. That's the stupidest possible attitude you can have in wrestling. You should be driven. It should be your goal. You can be upset about it for both "dream" and financial reasons, but voicing his issues the way he does, he sounds like every muscle head who goes into wrestling solely because he thinks he can get fast tracked to WWE and become rich and famous.

All I see in this post is a bunch of baseless accusations about Nigel. None of which have a source or anything that would force me to provide them with even an ounce of seriousness. Everything said in that seems to be the exact opposite of the Nigel I've seen/heard in multiple interviews and his documentary. I'd love to spend time dissecting why this post is probably one of the most vile and idiotic things I've ever seen posted here but that would be giving it credibility, of which it has none.[/quote]

David Bixenspan, an actual reporter for the Observer now. How about you?

[felkerpat]

So...speaking on Elgin, Steen, and Roddy. I hope they get in, they are all awesome and I'm sure could do well in WWE but we shall see.

[ADouble]

You just need to look at this picture of him to see he was obviously on some kind of "help" during his ROH run. No way is a naturally skinny guy like Nigel maintaining that physique without a little something added on top on his diet.


And since we're discussing it, this is one of the reasons for his memory loss. Look at that bump on his head seconds after smashing his forehead into a metal post. What was he thinking?

[DBSommer]

You just need to look at this picture of him to see he was obviously on some kind of "help" during his ROH run. No way is a naturally skinny guy like Nigel maintaining that physique without a little something added on top on his diet.


And since we're discussing it, this is one of the reasons for his memory loss. Look at that bump on his head seconds after smashing his forehead into a metal post. What was he thinking?

Yes, clearly all 'proof' of what was said before. I mean, he's nearly Brian 'Steroids Are a Snack Food' Cage in those. And one blow to the head usually results in, what was it, 5 years in memory loss that no one else noticed. I mean, the reporter is the only one noticed these things, so clearly he's a whistlblower in a massive cover up for Nigel.

Hahahahah. Some comedy just writes itself.

And no, not everyone that puts on, what, 40 pounds of muscle mass, if that, when they aren't that built to begin with, uses roids.

[rohfreak]

WWE will hire Steen give him a bad gimmick.

[Mattxx87]

There's no way that bloody scene was caused from blading either. No way at all.

[JTCole]

Steen might have a shot if he can lose a ton of weight by the try out. Strong's lack of an overall personality and mic skills will probably keep him from being signed. Elgin has a somewhat better chance but is cursed with a bad body type. And like Roddy he doesn't have the charisma to pull off a compelling character like Bray Wyatt to make up for it. Steen can however.

[JSP]

Fuck off with Nigel talk. None of you have an idea of what you're talking about (aside from YimYac) and quit trying to make a glorified opinion stone cold fact.

[BTW10]

None of you have an idea of what you're talking about (aside from YimYac) and quit trying to make a glorified opinion stone cold fact.

AKA I agree with YimYac's OPINION, so everyone else is automatically wrong. Essentially this board in a nutshell.

[supersonic]

Watching a Cabana vs. McGuinness match in which the latter takes chairshot after chairshot to the head. What could have possibly kept the man from passing his WWE physical?

[YimYac]

Watching a Cabana vs. McGuinness match in which the latter takes chairshot after chairshot to the head. What could have possibly kept the man from passing his WWE physical?

Really disappointed you deleted the thing you posted after this right before I could quote it so the entire forum could see how big of a piece of garbage you really are.

For those that missed it, the post was something along the lines of

If you like Nigel so much just admit you want him to give you Hep B/C/X/Y/Z or whatever letter he had

[supersonic]

It was in poor taste, and beneath my methods of engaging in discussions/arguments. I apologize for it.

[Braggis]

How in the fuck did this turn into a discussion about Nigel? Anyway...

Steen has the best shot of everyone in the whole company. Hes been on fire on the Indy scene for a while, made a lot of noise and has talent. His physique is a problem. Hopefully his talent can get him some kind of contract on the stipulation he get in shape, and, hopefully, he does.

Strong and Elgin are just bland. Very dull personalities that will turn WWE off.
Strong is somewhat better personality-wise and definitely talent-wise but not quite enough for the WWE level.

And Elgin relies on his "big man" schtick to compensate for his bad look and shitty promos. The problem is that he looks like a chubby midget compared to even your average WWE guy.

Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin aren't really WWE material.