Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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Big Boss Man
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Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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:wooooooo: To start with Montreal

Brets on his way to WCW, says he will drop the belt on the way out. He's Team WWF all the way so do you take The Hitman for his word or do you do what Vince did?

Personally, I would take Bret for his word. I would have got the title of him beforehand so that situation never happened in the first place. But on that night to screw over The Hitman was a very low blow. Had it been 1997 Shawn Michaels jumping to WCW I wouldn't put it past him doing the DX suck it to the belt and dumping it in the trash just to wind Vince up. If there was any danger of Bret going rogue couldn't he have sent out Shamrock to shoot on him?. Although as he was trained in the Hart dungeon I'd assume he was a shooter too. I'd have booked Bret v Owen for Survivor 1997 in a exhibition style match which ends in a 30 minute draw and the next night have him vacate the title with a title tournament for Mania XIV for Austin to win it.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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Yeah, Bret respected wrestling too much. He bashed Flair in an interview in 1993 for coming to WWF with the WCW title in 1991. So he wasn't going to do anything. But he was being difficult with Vince and Vince was paranoid about Bischoff, so it was just a weird time.

I'd have done a Four Way like they did after the 97 Rumble with Bret, Shawn, Shamrock and Vader or Taker (Austin was still working injured so was too limited to be in the match.) Have Shawn get screwed for his elimination and have Shamrock tap out Bret. Shawn demands a match in December with Shamrock (which they did anyway) and Shawn wins. So Bret is happy jobbing to Ken because they were friends and Shawn is happy because he's champion again.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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I like that idea too. Another one I was thinking of WrestleMania VII. Do you go Hulk vs Naitch or stick with the double main event?. Personally I would have went for Hulkster versus Ric Flair as a big marquee match. A grudge match between Jake and Macho loser leaves the WWF, so Jake can jump to WCW. Taker would get involved to help Macho win. As for his in hindsight 2nd Mania win for Taker I'd have put him over Repo Man. Sid I'd have do a run in during the Flair match so it's a DQ win for Hulk and Sid puts him out of action so he can comeback in early 1993. Although by then isn't Sid in WCW?. If not I'd do Sid vs Hulk where Hogan gets his revenge for being put out of action. In the interim I'd push Shawn and Bret. By late 1992 they were arguably the top guys on the roster outside of Undertaker.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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I would have gone with Hogan/Flair. But they didn't have a choice since Vince promised Sid he'd wrestle Hogan in the Mania main event if he joined WWF. They could have done a 3 way, but that wasn't popularized until ECW had Shane/Sabu/Funk 2 years later. Plus Sid might have been mad he had to share the main event money with Flair, who he didn't like to begin with. I don't know why they don't tell the truth about the promise made to Sid and shit on Flair by saying it didn't draw on house shows so Vince changed his mind.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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It had to be up there with the Invasion fiasco how they wasted a huge Flair/Hogan mega match. The two biggest wrestling stars of the 80s WWF vs WCW had they booked it right would have been major. They wasted it running the match on house shows. IIRC there was minimal interaction between the two and no real build up. They should have had Naitch challenge Hulk at every opportunity and made a big deal about him coming in to face Hulk. The promos alone would have been money.

A three way with Sid could have worked but I think you'd have had Sid balk at it and the dynamic of the match would have been two heels working against Hulk. Could Vince had put Hulk vs Sid for the Rumble instead with the winner facing the Rumble winner?. That might have made sense so you get Hulk vs Ric as the WM main. Then Sid could have cost Hogan the match, Warrior makes the save so you run Sid v Warrior program. Since Hulk was gone after Mania they could have booked a kayfabed loser must retire match. Although Hulk would have had to lose until Jack Tunney brings him back to help out Brutus after Money Inc beat him down. 1992 WWE was a weird year in hindsight. You had Hulk leaving without much fanfare, Warrior coming back then going, LOD went too IIRC and them focusing on Bret, HBK etc.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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They had to do the Hogan/Sid angle at the Rumble for anything to work, so bring Hogan back for Summerslam to wrestle Sid and do Flair/Savage for the title and Davey/Bret for a triple main event show.

But like I said, Vince didn't have a choice in reality. Sid took a lower guaranteed pay deal than he had with WCW for the promise he'd main event against Hogan at Mania 8 and get a good pay day from that. So Sid could have sued him if he didn't make good.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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Yea they could have went for Hulk vs Sid at Summerslam. Naitch was kept off the show because of blading at WM8 as the rumour goes. But a triple main event would have been a very good option. Davey and Warrior were gone by Survivor Series but Bulldog winning the IC belt was a big moment. The title match was a no contest IIRC. Then you had Flair beat Macho and Bret beat Flair. Instead of Taker vs Kamala do you incorporate him into the main event picture or do you stick with Bret v Shawn and the Macho/Mr Perfect v Naitch/Flair tag match. IIRC they had to rearrange the Survivor match ups to 4 on 4 and they only had a handful. Solie.org says there was just 46 wrestlers on the roster so thin on the grounds. In April just 41. What's interesting too is Hulk is still listed on the rosters but he didn't come back til 1993 if I'm correct. So was he on a guaranteed deal back then and paid to sit at home?. Unless he was filming Mr Nanny during this period. Thunder in Paradise was before he went to WCW so it wasn't during that time.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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They didn't think Flair was a draw in England, so they came up with the angle where he wanted Warrior to beat up Savage but cost Warrior the match so Ric could wrestle an injured Savage. The attitude since Flair wasn't a big draw (but nobody was since WWF scandals ruined everything) and was always only going to be a regional guy so he shouldn't be headlining any major show. So Mania had him in the semi-main, Summerslam had him not in any match and Survivor Series was supposed to have Warrior for starpower and Flair and Razor were just going to bump for him with the plan he was going to be the guy chasing Yokozuna instead of Luger, but he was fired.
What's interesting too is Hulk is still listed on the rosters but he didn't come back til 1993 if I'm correct. So was he on a guaranteed deal back then and paid to sit at home?. Unless he was filming Mr Nanny during this period
The plan was Hogan was going to be like Bruno and just show up twice a year. Originally Warrior was going to be the constant headliner, then Luger when Warrior was fired. But Bret was more over than him after they did the dumb Summerslam 93 finish so they went back to him.

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Re: Rebooking important moments in wrestling history

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In theory WCW was available to more households as it was on network TV station called ITV. Albeit late at night at first til they aired it before the UK Gladiators IIRC but I'm guessing Ric would have been known via his appearances on there and through the magazines. WCWs main star though was Sting and he made a few appearances on UK shows. It's weird in hindsight to think that outside of WWF and WCW here they were be all and end all of pro-wrestling. So seeing the whole territory system and Puroresu, Lucha et al was kinda mind blowing.

I think Naitch would have drew if he turned up on something like Parkinson or Wogan and was just himself. With a gimmick like his he's more suited to be outside of the PG constraints and he could have been like how Muhammad Ali was with Frost and Parkinson.

I think whilst the popularity in the US was declining overseas it was going up. I guess because the steroid trial stuff wasn't known here and it was kayfabed to the hilt. The wrestling traditionalists didn't like the WWF as it superseded the wrestling seen on World of Sport.

I think the hype of the WWF was appealing and the colourful characters like Macho, Warrior etc were like night and day compared to what wrestling was before. They had like 20+ million tune in for a Haystacks/Daddy which considering the size of the UK and households with TVs that was a big deal. I think it's comparable to the Rikidozan/Blassie TV audience.

But more back on topic like you say the steroid controversy hit the popularity of wrestling. It's not like it wasn't noticeable these guys were on the gas. Had that news broke here (it may have but I have no recollection of it) then it would have hit the popularity too. It just eventually tailed off shortly after and became uncool.

It was very much a fad here and didn't sustain the longer term popularity it had in the US. WCW surprisingly was on ITV for quite a while til it fizzled out and you could see Nitro on TNT. WWF stayed on Sky so subscription prices going up and such hit the UK fan base too. Had the BBC managed to have got rights to it and showed the WWF I think it would have had a more prolonged success.

Whats interesting too is that unlike with college sports, NFL, baseball steroid usage in sports wasn't really thought about here. Had it been like soccer players juicing it would but even now I think the general public would have a shoulder shrug reaction to steroid usage.

Going more back on topic Hulk being the Bruno making occasional appearances would have worked, but since his popularity was on the wane wouldn't it have been counter productive?. Warrior being the #1 guy kinda makes sense but historically he didn't have the longevity that Hogan had and his reign as WWF champ was relatively short. Flair and Macho were getting older so Vince was smart to focus on Shawn and Bret. I also think Hulk, Warrior, Davey Boy, LOD going hit the WWFs popularity here too since they were draws and much of the WWF merch featured them. I also think the more cartoony WWF backfired when they should have been a bit more edgy but again that in addition to the steroid trial domestically would have been bad for business. Really moving with the times and perhaps having something like gimmicks more in tune with pop culture would have worked. Say a Kurt Cobain/Ravenesque character for example instead of the OTT colours and gimmicks. Although saying that everyone back then was identifiable.

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