PCTI Athletes Alter Ego's Part III

Josh Stephens-Mr. Perfect

Four years ago, the last thing anyone would be doing was extending a compliment to Josh Stephens in any way, shape or form.  However, in the past year, Stephens has gone from heavily criticized and extremely hated to intensely loved and envied by all.  It has been said repeatedly that there is no player in PCTI as talented or as complete as Josh Stephens.  He has been called superhuman at times for his ability to go out all night, perform in a girl, then come out and drop 30 pts on no sleep.  Because of all that, he reminds me of Mr. Perfect, the man who, as the vignettes show, can do it all.  Both are great at delivering promo's, however defer to their better half (Flair for Perfect/Hopkins for Abe) to do the talking for them.  One thing I will say though off the record-For a guy with decent throwing form in football, Mr. Perfect had the most busted shooting/swinging form I have ever seen.  In the wrestling ring, Perfect is even more similar to Stephens in the sense that everytime he stepped in the ring, he was the best in it.  Although he didn't receive the same success levels that Stephen's did (Direct comparison is WWF Championship=PCTI MVP), Perfect was the top talent in any wrestling faction he competed in.  RIP Curt Henning.

"Bad Boy" Brian Eskildsen-Bret "The Hitman" Hart

Two of Hart's three nicknames would be suited for Skilly (The Excellence of Execution and The Hitman).  Both Hart and Skilly pride themselves on knowing all the nuances of their respected sports, and doing the little things to make up for what they lack in natural ability.  Beyond their in ring/on the court similarities, both come from coaching backgrounds-Skilly as a future head basketball coach at Middle Tennessee State University/Hart as the son of ex-wrestler and the legendary wrestling trainer, Stu Hart.  Neither Hart nor Skilly were overwhelmingly successful early on due to lack of physicality and talent, as Hart bounced around the tag team ranks carrying his brother in law, bad boy looking and world renowned scrub Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, while Skilly road the pine in high school.  As time progressed, both matured physically and put a higher emphasis on the little things, leading to more success (Hitman as an Intercontinental Champ and Skilly as captain and starter on a college championship intramural squad).  With success comes more swagger, and both enjoyed and embraced it.  Despite not being a natural behind the mic early on, Hitman eventually wrestled his way into the headliner role and with the increased exposure, improved into a quality quote.  All things included, Hart eventually became a WWF Champion, something that based on natural ability, was one of the most incredible accomplishments I have ever seen a wrestler make.  In Skilly's case, with a vested interest in learning the nuances of the game to become a quality head coach some day, he has groomed his game into one of the most complete in PCTI, and because of that is within striking distance of the ultimate honor, PCTI 3 MVP.  On top of everything else, both are fan favorites with kids (Hitman giving the youngins his shades before the game/Skilly looking out for Pitto).  Lastly, both had short stints as bad guy's, a role both played much better than anyone could have expected.

Michael Beasley-"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels

The obvious comment to this comparison is the ladies man persona that both HBK and Beas have received for good reason over the years.  However, there is much more to this than the sterotype.  When you talk about the sports of professional wrestling and basketball, one would think there would be a ton of athletes involved in each, respectively.  Not so much.  Beas in PCTI sticks out like a sore thumb athetically, a lot like Michaels did while he ran the WWF for much of the late 90's and early 2000's.  Michael's used to run circles around guys like Diesel (Who played college hoops at University of Tennessee by the way), Razor Ramon (One of my all time favorites but a terrible technical wrestler), and Yokozuna, not only bringing athletic credibility to the matches, but carrying his opponent along with it.  Beas is similar.  When watching guy's like Krow, Murray, Hopkins and Orr struggle to dribble and run at the same time, hit wide open layups, and make a conventional inbounds pass, it helps to have a Beasley making circus shots around the goal, grabbing athletic rebounds at it's highest point, dribbling behind his back without it going off his back out of bounds, and most importantly-Showcasing legitimate body control.  Both Michaels and Beasley have gone through phases of being huge heart guy's, shown by Michaels when Jose Lothario trained him to be prepared for his first title shot, which was hyped up as a "Boyhood Dream."  Although a little different than a WWF World Championship, Beas made a living in HS football as a hard hitting, heart guy who left it all on the field.  Different scenerio's, but can't deny the passion.  Now that all that's over, let's be serious... It's really because they are both hearthrobs in their respected industries.