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"He should have been world champion"


King Pitcos

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I can't fathom why Luger didn't win the title at SummerSlam. With the Lex Express thing, they were obviously pushing the boat out, so why not give him the win?

Totally agree the the build slamming him on the 4th of July on the uss entrepid, the lex expresss, the massive push followed by a countout victory what a waste of effort, to not even to try it. Yoko was alright. but held the title from King of the Ring 93 to Wrestlemania 10 I think thats the longest heel champion since at least the first wrestlemania. Why didn't they trust Luger to give him the ball and see if he could run with it? I think this is the best example.

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With Luger could it be just down to timing?

 

If he wins at Summerslam when would he drop the belt and to who?

 

Don't think they wanted a Heel winning at Wrestlemania 10. They probably didn't want a face V face. So either no title change at W.M or he drops it at the Rumble to Yoko(Was there anybody else?) and then the belt gets changed too quickly at W.M taking prestige away from the belt.

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Yeah, it's a head scratcher all right. Its not as if a major political force like Hogan was standing in his way. Can't imagine Yokozuna causing a fuss if he was asked to drop the strap. Bret Hart was clearly on cool down mode (even though he was still over huge) and feuding with Lawler and then Owen. And if there was any really serious doubts as to if Luger could cope, why push him in the first place? It makes no sense. Unless it was the old WCW resentment raising it's ugly head?

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The story at the time was that they simply got cold feet and decided he wasn't getting over as much as they hoped. Not sure what they based that on as he wasn't working house shows during the Lex Express tour. Maybe he just rolled into too many towns to be greeted by kids calling him a wanker or whatever.

 

In any event, not putting the belt on him because he wasn't over enough sure became a sefl-fulfilling prophecy.

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Was coming in to post the Test one. I thought that at the time and still think now it could have been great. It just seemed to make so much sense I couldn't believe the way the events actually turned out. Test had the perfect sympathy, underdog and revenge angle set up and the crowd firmly behind him. It was all there right in front of you! Such an obvious move! Bah.

 

As we are on the subject of Lugers big push, I've mentioned this a few times on here, if I could jump in Docs Dolorian and change events of the past I'd use the July 4th Bodyslam challenge to separate the Steiners and give Scott the big push Luger had. I think he'd fit the bill nicely and well, he's just fucking better anyway. I think WWF could have made a star out of him in this age. Have Steiner not win at Summerslam, due to shenanigans and build towards Mania with him. I will maybe think of a different singles push for him later but let's just say he just generally replaces Luger here. You can still do the Rumble joint winners angle with Scotty and Bret and also still do the Bret-Owen stuff. Have Steiner awarded the title match at WrestleMania against Yoko in a Summerslam rematch as Bret takes on Owen but with Bret promised a title match against the winner of Scott-Yoko in future. Scotty wins and is crowned new champion and Owen still beats Bret, which throws a spanner into the works over Brets title shot as Owen claims he should have it. So the issue carries on throughout the Summer, you can stil have the cage match to settle the Bret-Owen issue and a number one contender. Or you could gave a different angle and have Rick inserted into the mix and have the novelty of Owen and Rick vs Bret and Scott. Having Scott and Bret having the mutual respect all the while, the common foes to team up but always that underlying element of competition. I'd have that match headline King of the Ring though and have HBK, Razor or Diesel win KOTR. All this eventually building to Bret - Scott at Survivor Series or even hold it off until WrestleMania XI. Obviously this all means The Steiners remain with WWE due to their big pushes.

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With Luger could it be just down to timing?

 

If he wins at Summerslam when would he drop the belt and to who?

 

Don't think they wanted a Heel winning at Wrestlemania 10. They probably didn't want a face V face. So either no title change at W.M or he drops it at the Rumble to Yoko(Was there anybody else?) and then the belt gets changed too quickly at W.M taking prestige away from the belt.

 

Going by Bret's book though, he was only given his first couple of title reigns because people flopped or there was no other choice for champion. So when they started the Lex Express, I don't think they were planning on Bret Hart being the champion come next WrestleMania. Luger was meant to be the new Hogan.

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I think Lex Luger is probably the best example of what this thread is talking about. I mean yeah Mr Perfect should have been Champion in a few years if injuries didn't get to him or whatever, but I feel Lex Luger could have been great. I don't get why Luger couldn't have won it at Summerslam, I can't imagine Yoko was drawing a whole lot of money as Champ. I'm sure it wasn't a prestige thing either. I still think they just had cold feet with him but obviously a victory over Yoko could have done good for him, and maybe they could have ended the feud at Survivor Series where Luger finally wins it there even?

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I'm probably going to get critisised for saying this but Ric Flair should have held the title at some point during his last run in WWE even for a short/transitional period and for nostalgia reasons I think it would have been good to see but then again I'm a big Ric Flair fan so I'm biased.

 

As much as I love Mr Perfect, I never saw him as anything more than a high mid card guy, he was in a prime position with his skills and abilites to elevate the likes of Bret and Shawn and make them look a million dollars with some really brilliant matches and selling like only Mr Perfect could do.

 

I'd like to have seen Mick Foley hold the World title more than he did, I'v never really been a big fan of his in-ring style but he deserved at least one more reign as Champion.

 

Totally agree about Razor Ramon he was brilliant during his first push in WWE and his stuff with Jarrett, the problem with Razor was to me he seemed slightly lacking compared to Shawn and Bret during his run in WWE but I'd like to have seen more of a fued with Bret and Razor at a later date then when it happened instead of or perhaps around the same time as Brets fued again Diesal.

 

Never been a fan of Lex Luger I find him really bland and boring in the ring and the noises he makes when he sells are really off-putting but then again I do agree he should of been World Champion during the Lex Express days, he was billed as the all American hero I think his push would have ended on a better note if he had captured the title.

 

 

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Surely when the WWE hired Vader, the plan was to put the title on him? He was a bone-fide worldwide star, a good worker and the sort of character who sells merchandise.

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They should have given RVD the belt in 2001/2 when he was getting ridiculous reactions. Instead, they spent that time making sure the audience knew RVD was a level below the top guys.

 

His jets had cooled by 2002.

 

His 2001 success has been well documented, and indeed he could have been pushed to the moon, but he wasn't. That being said, he didn't do bad to climb the ranks so fast in WWE that on any given night he could be a main eventer on Raw / SmackDown and taken seriously, and that goes into 2002 also. He kind of found his groove in middle / upper card. When he finally did the win the world title, it was Rob who fucked up his push, and I don't know where he would of went if that didn't happen anyway. THere is no way he would have held the World Title for much longer than he did, it was a device to put the ECW belt in the same "league" as the others, but we would have had RVD wrestling duds like Knox and Big Daddy V on "ECW" regardless.

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Surely when the WWE hired Vader, the plan was to put the title on him? He was a bone-fide worldwide star, a good worker and the sort of character who sells merchandise.

Didn't they only hire him as a fall-back because they couldn't agree terms with the Warrior initially?

 

No one really stands out for me for WWF champion but there's a few who I think should have had a run with the lesser belts.

 

Firstly, Jake the Snake with the IC title. I know everyone says he was over and never needed a belt to improve his stock. But to a fan it's not all about that. You want to see your favourites winning gold. With the Warrior hogging that belt from 88-90, there wouldn't have been many opportunities, but they could have had him take Kerry Von Erichs spot and have him beat Perfect at Summerslam 90. Both their Summerslam matches were atrocious anyway, so we would probably have been better off without those programmes. The Texas Tornado looked tragic in that WWF run, I liked him at the time, but when you're a kid it's all about the characters, you didn't tend to notice so much guys who can't move, trip all over the ring and look out their faces. It wasn't the amputation either, i've saw matches from 88-89 where he looked good and you could barely tell. With Jake/Bad News, if they were going to supposedly blow their shit feud off with a 4 minutes waste of time with no ending and no sight of a single sewer rat never mind a snake eating one, then they could've gave it away on a SNME or something.

 

The other one is the Rockers with the tag titles in 1990 or 1991. Either exactly as they had planned to do it, or if they had to pull the plug with that, Harts v Rockers at WM7 would have been fantastic. I liked their respective matches on the show, but still, that could've been epic. It could also have added another dimension to the Bret/Shawn rivalry with HBK claiming to have killed the Hart Foundation. They could've kept the belts for even a month or two, before dropping them to the Nasties, and it wouldn't have affected any long term plans and they could still have had Nasty Boys/LOD at Summerslam.

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Didn't they only hire him as a fall-back because they couldn't agree terms with the Warrior initially?

 

I'm sure that was in Japan with the whole Vader gimmick unless, he was no2 to Warrior twice.

 

In 93 Vader was a monster. He never really recovered back to that form after he was put on the back burner with Hogan entering WCW. People who only watched him in WWF didn't see how great Vader could be, he could never really pull it off to the same extent on WWF tv in my opinion.Wacthing the Royal Rumble 96 they do build Vader, but only in the same way as they would build Earthquake to be fed to Hogan, in this case being Michaels. And he was 3 time WCW champion so he did have his time.

 

I do find it quite strange that the match that people wanted to see in tag teams at the time was Demolition v LOD for the belts. For whatever reason the WWF never gave us this match on PPV. They already had plans to break up Hart Foundation. Why have the Hart Foundation take the belts at Summerslam 90 with LOD assisting with the win, thats not what people wanted, they wanted to see who really was the best. They could have held on to them and faced LOD at Wrestlemania 7. Instead of the Nasty Boys, which was confusing because LOD were on the scene and these johnny come latelys had won the titles. Then LOD could of at least had a respectable title reign after seeming like such a force it was baffling that they lost the titles so quickly to Money Inc. Why did they not do the direct switch? The matches for Summerslam 91 were far more grand than those of Wrestlemania 7, barring the Warrior, Savage match.

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Didn't they only hire him as a fall-back because they couldn't agree terms with the Warrior initially?

 

I'm sure that was in Japan with the whole Vader gimmick unless, he was no2 to Warrior twice.

Ah, that would make more sense. I always thought I read it somewhere in relation to the 1996 Rumble, but I guess not. I would've loved to see a match between them in 1996, it would've been great.

 

Vader tenure in the the WWF was a bit strange. Some people say he was buried by losing to Michaels at Summerslam, but he was protected somewhat with the booking, and he still came out of it reasonably strong. It should also be remembered that he beat Taker at the following Rumble. It seemed to be somtime in between the Rumble and WM13 when the WWF soured on him as a main event guy. Beating Taker at one PPV only to be involved in a rushed, somewhat-pointless tag match at the next big event was a hell of a drop. (although I guess the same could be said for him from Summerslam to Survivor Series.)

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Didn't they only hire him as a fall-back because they couldn't agree terms with the Warrior initially?

 

I'm sure that was in Japan with the whole Vader gimmick unless, he was no2 to Warrior twice.

Ah, that would make more sense. I always thought I read it somewhere in relation to the 1996 Rumble, but I guess not. I would've loved to see a match between them in 1996, it would've been great.

 

Vader tenure in the the WWF was a bit strange. Some people say he was buried by losing to Michaels at Summerslam, but he was protected somewhat with the booking, and he still came out of it reasonably strong. It should also be remembered that he beat Taker at the following Rumble. It seemed to be somtime in between the Rumble and WM13 when the WWF soured on him as a main event guy. Beating Taker at one PPV only to be involved in a rushed, somewhat-pointless tag match at the next big event was a hell of a drop. (although I guess the same could be said for him from Summerslam to Survivor Series.)

 

Was Vader not teamed with Mankind initially with the intent of having them square off at WM13?

 

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