Rene knows how to do an actual interview. He listens and doesn't interrupt constantly like so many other wrestling podcast hosts do. This channel has been an excellent find. 👏
I'm glad to hear wrestlers themselves confirm what fans already knew. It was obvious Vince didn't care about Paul or the Cruiserweight belt and it's a damn shame.
That's my main reason of watching the first hour of WCW programs. Great entertaining opening matches while the main event was lukewarm. WWF was the opposite.
Lmfao London would’ve thrived in any era. He failed because he’s clearly a conceited, deluded punk who no one could stand to be around. WWF would’ve given him a huge push if he had one functioning brain cell
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 lol what? He’s 42. He just looks older cause he has grey hair. To put that into context AJ Styles is 44, Orton is 42, Miz is 41, hell Rey Mysterio is 47. All the guys named are still preforming at the top of their game. 42 really isn’t that old in wrestling.
I was in elementary school during his singles run and I remember he was a huge reason why I got into wrestling, loved his care free attitude, loved his move set and his attire was always so unique! Dude was a hidden gem of the Ruthless Aggression era!
The cruiserweight division was fun back then. I'm not a fan of tiny guys beating giants so that division allowed the smaller guys to shine. The likes of Paul London, Gregory Helms & many others added a lot to the product at the time.
While I agree, I think the cruiserweight division was TOO segregated from the others. Rey Mysterio and Tajiri were often used in multi-man matches with bigger guys, but almost no-one else was allowed to cross over.
@@shaquilleburton1611 I like a little realism in my wrestling. A 150lbs guy isn't going to beat a 300+lbs 7ft giant. They're all talented, i never said they weren't.
@Simon Jones if you like realism then smaller guys getting over on big guys shouldn't be a issue because smaller guys can take down bigger guys. Jericho really big up Goldberg and I believe it was Joey Styles knocked out Jbl.
He was injured pretty badly (shoulders I believe it was) and botched a bunch his first showings....it was just bad timing imo. I think he was working luchadore style and not working from the right side and it messed up the matches.
@@joshx022 If I remember correctly (I could be wrong at this point in time) WWE'S rings are bigger than everybody else's. I remember hearing quite a few wrestlers saying the change in size really throws a lot of people off.
That London promo was one of the first videos I've seen on the actual WWE website, I became a fan of him instantly, it's a shame that they never truly did anything with London after his last tag run with Kendrick because he truly had a lot of potential and momentum, the crowd knew who he was and he was well liked, ever since his feud with Kidman actually.
@@wingedhussar1453 Rey was also treated like he was GOD of the cruiserweight division. So of course many other guys looked "vanilla", when they are booked to be nobodies in comparison.
I remember thinking that they didn't do enough with the cruiser weights as far as story lines go. There were a few, like Matt Hardy vs Rey Mysterio (Matt Hardy losing weight so he could qualify for the cruiserweight title was hilarious), London vs Kidman, The Gregory Helms title run was cool. There was so much more they could have done, though.
I was pretty young, but the only story lines I remember was anything involving Jamie Noble. Especially, the stuff with Nidia. I didn't appreciate his wrestling until I was older, but the character work had me rolling me as a kid.
@@Piledriver2006 even if they had good intentions 205 live was doomed for the start. Generally speaking WWE has never really known how to book cruiser/light/junior weight wrestlers. Yeah people will give examples of the Hardys, Rey, Bret, Shawn etc… but they’ve wasted alot of talent over the fact that they were “too small”. I get it that wrestling, especially in America, is based suspending your disbelief and the bigger a guy is the easier it is to do so but how many big men graced the ring were total trash? Think about it… name more than about 5 wrestlers that were over 6’9 that were actually worth anything in the ring? Undertaker, Kane, Andre (in his prime), and Big Show. I know I probably left off 1 or 2 but after that who was there?
@@homedeezyfasheezy5662 and there in lies the problem. Vince never got over his man crush for big muscly men, despite that huge steroid scandal and in the end, the WWE only listens to one fan. You missed T-Bar, but with a name like that you probably know where his career is going
It's too bad WWE has rarely taken cruiser weights, and women's wrestling seriously. Even as a child in the 90's I could see it and resented it. Sure there are exceptions, but they passed over so many people who naturally got themselves over. I've never seen any other company actively try to stop someone from getting over like WWE has. (Oh no. They're getting over on their own. Better ban them from doing their best moves, and book them like losers who can't stand up for themselves.)
I mean the Cruiserweight title wasn't setting the world on fire at the time. WCW in the late 90s was the only time the cruiserweight division ment something but they also had the talent to pull it off. Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, Ultimo Dragon, Psychosis, La Parka were better talent & were allowed to have their style matches..
Really by the late 90's and Russo in WCW they killed it too, at one point they were actually going to put it on the skinnier guy in ICP. Kevin Sullivan was the only one that could book that well.
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 how are they suppose to draw when this was a regular thing at the time. they would have some multi-man match going on. oh here is Great Khali, Mark Henry, Kane, whoever some big guy and by himself beat up three, four, five or six cruiserweights.
Paul got nowhere near enough mic time during his run in WWE. You’d think he was mute or something, then you come on the internet and see the charisma and can’t help but scratch your head at it.
The small things you guys think didnt matter we fans noticed, the only cruiser-weights that made it fun was london, kidman, hardy, rey . Rene we noticed you too la resistance pretty impactful in that small area. I mean the world sees what you see we hated jbl, orton, vince, triple h for their character and now for real
Now about Paul London how in the world did they not do something with this guy? Especially since we all saw how great he is with his tag work with Brian Kendrick?
At the last mania I don't think the US or intercontinental championship was defended. Then sasha and naomi won the tag titles from a zelina and carmella team that lost almost every match, including the go home show.
paul london wass insignificant ,he was just there to fill in the time slot in between the heavyweights etc ,,, becasue nobody wants to watch the same type of match each match.so in a way he was a fill in
I knew they didn’t care about the championship when Gregory Helms was the longest reigning champion and his reign ended in an open challenge at No Way Out to like close to NO fanfare.
I used to hate Vince Russo and was a Cornette guy, but I started listening to Russo and other wrestlers speak about him and changed my mind. Something a lot of Wrestlers speak about and is relevant here as Paul is saying that nobody in WWE cared about him or the Belt, Vince Russo made the wrestlers feel as if they meant something and what they were doing meant something. IMHO the year 2000 WWE seemed to only really care about the top guys with a few others, everyone else was just a contract waiting to not get renewed.
It always sucks how they treated various belts, especially those that have previous lineage of being held by tons of eventual legends of the business. The cruserweight title was held by the likes of Guerrero, Jericho, and Mysterio for example. So when they made it a push aside belt they didn’t care about that sucked to see. It also was actually the storyline that first made me a fan of wrestling. The story where Matt Hardy frantically had to make weight to wrestle for it, won it, and then would cheat to keep it even though he was way bigger than the others was fucking awesome. And I wanted rey to win it so badly and then he finally did in his home town. Without that storyline happening I may never have been a fan in the first place.
Could not agree more with what Paul said. They just don’t care. Personally I never “made it” but I have had a couple of tryouts in UK as well as in Japan. The moment I realised, that even if I did get signed one day, they would have never gave a fu*k about me anyway, I just stopped chasing the dream. They took al the passion away from me, that until that point, I had sacrificed everything just in order to get there…I can say this, although I was never a “big name” in the indies or so
That's sad. I always liked the CW division. It's so dumb how WWE never cared about it (or the Women's division/Tag Team divisions)... WWE should want to have the best divisions in all of wrestling. They very well could but they just don't care (especially historically).
Once saw Paul accidentally eliminate himself from a Cruiserweight battle royal in Cardiff. He was scheduled to win and Chavo and Kidman had to eliminate themselves in order for the match to be 'restarted' with the final 3 competitors. Was so fun to see such a massive fuck up live.
Vince McMahon has proven time and time again that he only cares about the top guys. He couldn't care less about the underneath guys, whether it's the cruiserweights, women or tag teams.
It's true that WWE and most fans didn't care much for London and the Mini's championship, but that's not his fault. He was mediocre talent at time when there were a lot of next-level wrestlers in the fed.
Развлечения
Rene knows how to do an actual interview. He listens and doesn't interrupt constantly like so many other wrestling podcast hosts do. This channel has been an excellent find. 👏
I'm glad to hear wrestlers themselves confirm what fans already knew. It was obvious Vince didn't care about Paul or the Cruiserweight belt and it's a damn shame.
Which sucks because Paul was one of my favorites when he was there.
Hell, they don't even care about the championship belt
Most people don't care about either.
Also wwe never care about the US championship
Vince neither cared about tag-team and women's division.
WCW's cruiserweight division was amazing at it's peak. Stole the show. WWE never learned from that.
That's my main reason of watching the first hour of WCW programs. Great entertaining opening matches while the main event was lukewarm. WWF was the opposite.
Earl Hebner said it, "once WWE went corporate, it stopped treating the boys right."
"So I charge in Vinces office, lay out the whole idea about the Cruserweight and he goes. I hate it" - Paul London
If only Paul had been born a couple of years later, he would have thrived as a main eventer in today's pro wrestling scene.
@Sevside kev Not as a main eventer though and Spanky, a friend of the young bucks, is banned
He probably didn't a good run after that innocent where Vince limousine was getting blown up and you can see Paul London laughing lol
Lmfao London would’ve thrived in any era. He failed because he’s clearly a conceited, deluded punk who no one could stand to be around. WWF would’ve given him a huge push if he had one functioning brain cell
@Sevside kev he’s old as dirt lol
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 lol what? He’s 42. He just looks older cause he has grey hair. To put that into context AJ Styles is 44, Orton is 42, Miz is 41, hell Rey Mysterio is 47. All the guys named are still preforming at the top of their game. 42 really isn’t that old in wrestling.
I was in elementary school during his singles run and I remember he was a huge reason why I got into wrestling, loved his care free attitude, loved his move set and his attire was always so unique! Dude was a hidden gem of the Ruthless Aggression era!
Definitely
Vince McMahon treated the cruiser weights the way he treats his current tv product… like it’s meaningless
especially that he's getting a sh-tload of money from NBC Universal with the Peacock deal
The cruiserweight division was fun back then. I'm not a fan of tiny guys beating giants so that division allowed the smaller guys to shine.
The likes of Paul London, Gregory Helms & many others added a lot to the product at the time.
While I agree, I think the cruiserweight division was TOO segregated from the others. Rey Mysterio and Tajiri were often used in multi-man matches with bigger guys, but almost no-one else was allowed to cross over.
Just because you're big doesn't make you a bad ass or talented.
@@shaquilleburton1611 I like a little realism in my wrestling. A 150lbs guy isn't going to beat a 300+lbs 7ft giant.
They're all talented, i never said they weren't.
@Simon Jones if you like realism then smaller guys getting over on big guys shouldn't be a issue because smaller guys can take down bigger guys. Jericho really big up Goldberg and I believe it was Joey Styles knocked out Jbl.
@@shaquilleburton1611 those are exceptions to the rule brotha, there's a reason there is weight classes in mma/boxing
Ultimo dragon is another cruiserweight that got buried
Dude was a botch machine by the time he got to wwe. He tripped twice during his only wrestlemania entrance lmao
I don't think he was buried. he wasn't jobbed out. but definitely underused in his run.
He was injured pretty badly (shoulders I believe it was) and botched a bunch his first showings....it was just bad timing imo. I think he was working luchadore style and not working from the right side and it messed up the matches.
@@joshx022 If I remember correctly (I could be wrong at this point in time) WWE'S rings are bigger than everybody else's. I remember hearing quite a few wrestlers saying the change in size really throws a lot of people off.
Ultimo dragon was a legend could still go but they jobbed him out sad
That London promo was one of the first videos I've seen on the actual WWE website, I became a fan of him instantly, it's a shame that they never truly did anything with London after his last tag run with Kendrick because he truly had a lot of potential and momentum, the crowd knew who he was and he was well liked, ever since his feud with Kidman actually.
Idk fans nor Vince cared for london.london was vanilla when he was cruiserweight champion.there were better cruiserweight Champs like Rey
@@wingedhussar1453 but he was still a great athlete
@@wingedhussar1453 Rey was also treated like he was GOD of the cruiserweight division. So of course many other guys looked "vanilla", when they are booked to be nobodies in comparison.
@@raveoreynolds6049 rey sold merchandise lik a God for cruiserweight
I remember thinking that they didn't do enough with the cruiser weights as far as story lines go. There were a few, like Matt Hardy vs Rey Mysterio (Matt Hardy losing weight so he could qualify for the cruiserweight title was hilarious), London vs Kidman, The Gregory Helms title run was cool. There was so much more they could have done, though.
I'd say they had good cruiserweight Champs but the storyline were few
I was pretty young, but the only story lines I remember was anything involving Jamie Noble. Especially, the stuff with Nidia. I didn't appreciate his wrestling until I was older, but the character work had me rolling me as a kid.
Vince McMahon had it out for Paul and the cruiserweights
How so...? He pushed hardy, Rey, etc etc etc
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 but look at all the cruiser weights they buried
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 how so? 205 Live that's how so
@@Piledriver2006 even if they had good intentions 205 live was doomed for the start. Generally speaking WWE has never really known how to book cruiser/light/junior weight wrestlers. Yeah people will give examples of the Hardys, Rey, Bret, Shawn etc… but they’ve wasted alot of talent over the fact that they were “too small”. I get it that wrestling, especially in America, is based suspending your disbelief and the bigger a guy is the easier it is to do so but how many big men graced the ring were total trash? Think about it… name more than about 5 wrestlers that were over 6’9 that were actually worth anything in the ring? Undertaker, Kane, Andre (in his prime), and Big Show. I know I probably left off 1 or 2 but after that who was there?
@@homedeezyfasheezy5662 and there in lies the problem. Vince never got over his man crush for big muscly men, despite that huge steroid scandal and in the end, the WWE only listens to one fan. You missed T-Bar, but with a name like that you probably know where his career is going
Kendrick & London was my favorite tag team on smack down
It's too bad WWE has rarely taken cruiser weights, and women's wrestling seriously. Even as a child in the 90's I could see it and resented it. Sure there are exceptions, but they passed over so many people who naturally got themselves over. I've never seen any other company actively try to stop someone from getting over like WWE has. (Oh no. They're getting over on their own. Better ban them from doing their best moves, and book them like losers who can't stand up for themselves.)
Paul twas an entertaining wrestler during his time in WWE.
I mean the Cruiserweight title wasn't setting the world on fire at the time. WCW in the late 90s was the only time the cruiserweight division ment something but they also had the talent to pull it off. Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, Ultimo Dragon, Psychosis, La Parka were better talent & were allowed to have their style matches..
Really by the late 90's and Russo in WCW they killed it too, at one point they were actually going to put it on the skinnier guy in ICP. Kevin Sullivan was the only one that could book that well.
I believe him man, from them giving the belt to Hornsswoggle (no knock on him he is a great guy) and dropping it again when 2.0 started
Did you guys asked about when the time he smiled at Vince backstage before The Limo explosion Vince death angle?
Its most likely in Part 2 next Monday. James does his homework
Love the clips sometimes at night I loop playlist
I love the crowd cheer impersonation
Love his Crowd chant's
Well they've killed the cruiserweight division so many times like the women's division
Cruiserweigjts don’t draw money
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 How much $ did WCW's cruiserweights draw?
@@nadirsanchez1675 Good point
@@MrDp115 not a freaking dime, ever. Duh
@@uncledrosselmeyer6480 how are they suppose to draw when this was a regular thing at the time. they would have some multi-man match going on. oh here is Great Khali, Mark Henry, Kane, whoever some big guy and by himself beat up three, four, five or six cruiserweights.
Damn Paul aged nicely.
Paul got nowhere near enough mic time during his run in WWE. You’d think he was mute or something, then you come on the internet and see the charisma and can’t help but scratch your head at it.
Every he said was true. Because I don't recall London been cruiserweight champion. And I was watching Smackdown religiously at the time.
His crowd cheer impersonation is iconic
I can’t find that match. Was it a smackdown episode?
James really needs to stop talking so much during these interviews
Much sarcasm I sense in you
During the Cruiserweight era, Paul is on my top 5 of the best Cruiserweight wrestlers
The small things you guys think didnt matter we fans noticed, the only cruiser-weights that made it fun was london, kidman, hardy, rey . Rene we noticed you too la resistance pretty impactful in that small area. I mean the world sees what you see we hated jbl, orton, vince, triple h for their character and now for real
Rene needs to invest in some light bulbs.
Now about Paul London how in the world did they not do something with this guy? Especially since we all saw how great he is with his tag work with Brian Kendrick?
The problem with a cruiserweight belt now is everyone does that style now.
Feel like he buried Teddy here while simultaneously explaining why it wasn't Teddy's fault.
At the last mania I don't think the US or intercontinental championship was defended. Then sasha and naomi won the tag titles from a zelina and carmella team that lost almost every match, including the go home show.
I remember that match it was a good one.
paul london wass insignificant ,he was just there to fill in the time slot in between the heavyweights etc ,,, becasue nobody wants to watch the same type of match each match.so in a way he was a fill in
Zero likes kid
I'll never understand why anyone says Wrestlers should be loyal to WWE. WWE will never be loyal to anyone.
I knew they didn’t care about the championship when Gregory Helms was the longest reigning champion and his reign ended in an open challenge at No Way Out to like close to NO fanfare.
I used to hate Vince Russo and was a Cornette guy, but I started listening to Russo and other wrestlers speak about him and changed my mind. Something a lot of Wrestlers speak about and is relevant here as Paul is saying that nobody in WWE cared about him or the Belt, Vince Russo made the wrestlers feel as if they meant something and what they were doing meant something. IMHO the year 2000 WWE seemed to only really care about the top guys with a few others, everyone else was just a contract waiting to not get renewed.
Russo didnt do much for cruiserweights either.
It always sucks how they treated various belts, especially those that have previous lineage of being held by tons of eventual legends of the business. The cruserweight title was held by the likes of Guerrero, Jericho, and Mysterio for example. So when they made it a push aside belt they didn’t care about that sucked to see.
It also was actually the storyline that first made me a fan of wrestling. The story where Matt Hardy frantically had to make weight to wrestle for it, won it, and then would cheat to keep it even though he was way bigger than the others was fucking awesome. And I wanted rey to win it so badly and then he finally did in his home town. Without that storyline happening I may never have been a fan in the first place.
Could not agree more with what Paul said. They just don’t care. Personally I never “made it” but I have had a couple of tryouts in UK as well as in Japan. The moment I realised, that even if I did get signed one day, they would have never gave a fu*k about me anyway, I just stopped chasing the dream. They took al the passion away from me, that until that point, I had sacrificed everything just in order to get there…I can say this, although I was never a “big name” in the indies or so
Rene is a great listener
Paul bled so bad in that Match!!! Pretty gruesome stuff!
Playa playa playa, hola hola hola
Paul haymen was good. Ted long was just about tag team main events.
That's sad. I always liked the CW division.
It's so dumb how WWE never cared about it (or the Women's division/Tag Team divisions)...
WWE should want to have the best divisions in all of wrestling. They very well could but they just don't care (especially historically).
It should be him saying “it should have been me!” Blaming the ref for trying to “fuck on me”
Damn he hit that right on the nail get into the wrestling buisness to highlight your only fans 😂😂😂😂😂
Rene is not hungry anymore and wonders why he got heat
Once saw Paul accidentally eliminate himself from a Cruiserweight battle royal in Cardiff. He was scheduled to win and Chavo and Kidman had to eliminate themselves in order for the match to be 'restarted' with the final 3 competitors. Was so fun to see such a massive fuck up live.
To me the facts that lucha and cruiserweight championship are synonymous , and WWE is racist so they consider it a Mexican wresting belt
Why does this guy have such a hard time looking at the camera?
4:33
I never saw you wrestle and that’s ok, neve rwill
If you didn't care about the belt, what's the point in having it?
I think cruiserweight wrestlers (jobbers) will not make it in the wwe (not including Rey mysterio) unless they go to an independent company.
THE MATCH: ruclips.net/video/yfeQiUYYEx0/видео.html
Double w e
Vince McMahon has proven time and time again that he only cares about the top guys. He couldn't care less about the underneath guys, whether it's the cruiserweights, women or tag teams.
Literally lol'd at 5:10. bahahaha. LIke the video to help the channel grow!
Paul has an only fans page??
5:10 Nikkita Lyons and Mandy Rose.
WWE has never respected cruserweights
Thats what killed WCW.
You know, it could just be that WWE doesn’t appreciate athletes who couldn’t get over with a 10ft ladder.
It's true that WWE and most fans didn't care much for London and the Mini's championship, but that's not his fault. He was mediocre talent at time when there were a lot of next-level wrestlers in the fed.
Why would fans care about something that the guys up top aren't putting any effort into?
Tissues are on aisle 12...get over it
It's an interview about his time at WWE. Fuck else is he gonna talk about?
@@michaelhauser6440 he's just crying the blues...just jealous