King Mal the Glorious Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 I like Dustin, but I could never believe he'll take the belt off (for example) MJF, so there'd be no emotional investment from me. If you must have him go after a belt, there's the TNT/AA/ROH world/TV etc. Jericho vs Dustin for the ROH title could be decent actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 Sacrificing a few of your heels for a mid carder retiring doesn’t help anyone after he goes. This isn’t Flair retiring, it’s a career mid career. If he wasn’t good enough to be world champion in the 35 years before now why would anyone really believe it now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted December 6, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted December 6, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, Louch said: If he wasn’t good enough to be world champion in the 35 years before now why would anyone really believe it now? Two angles - from a "pretending its a real sport" point of view, amazing things do happen in spite of logic. George Foreman returned after 17 years retired and won the World title in boxing. Leicester City won the Premier League the next season after they were nearly relegated, and having spent the previous couple of decades further away from the pinnacle of their sport than Dustin has from his. And from a "it's a work" angle - it's wrestling. Wrestling loves to tell you the fairytale. We're all in on it being a work, so if Dustin's retiring at the end of 2023 and they write a storyline where everyone can get behind him and want him to win a World title, its completely plausible the company can book him winning it in Q1/Q2 then putting someone over before the end of the year. Why did anyone eventually get onboard with JBL being a World Champion after 8 years as a singles loser or Acolyte? Because wrestling. If JBL or even worse losers can get booked to win a World title like Swagger or Jinder, it's far from implausible that Dustin could get booked to win one before he bows out. and we all know it. Edited December 6, 2022 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 6 minutes ago, air_raid said: Two angles - from a "pretending its a real sport" point of view, amazing things do happen in spite of logic. George Foreman returned after 17 years retired and won the World title in boxing. Leicester City won the Premier League the next season after they were nearly relegated, and having spent the previous couple of decades further away from the pinnacle of their sport than Dustin has from his. And from a "it's a work" angle - it's wrestling. Wrestling loves to tell you the fairytale. We're all in on it being a work, so if Dustin's retiring at the end of 2023 and they write a storyline where everyone can get behind him and want him to win a World title, its completely plausible the company can book him winning it in Q1/Q2 then putting someone over before the end of the year. Why did anyone eventually get onboard with JBL being a World Champion after 8 years as a singles loser or Acolyte? Because wrestling. If JBL or even worse losers can get booked to win a World title like Swagger or Jinder, it's far from implausible that Dustin could get booked to win one before he bows it, and we all know it. Winning the league used to be a thing after teams got promoted, and Foreman was a champion before he retired. There’s no history of guys winning the big title and retiring with then as it makes no sense as no one gets the win back. Bland mid carders winning in their 30s to see if they can grow in the role, and a guy retiring who’s never been a serous challenger aren’t the same thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theringmaster Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 I'm not going to lie but having him have a run at the World Title would be a fairytale ending for me. He is definitely in that bracket of 'Greatest to never have been world champion', he probably is of the mind of 'I dont need/want a world title' though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted December 6, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted December 6, 2022 2 hours ago, Louch said: Winning the league used to be a thing after teams got promoted, and Foreman was a champion before he retired. Leicester won the league after being almost relegated the previous season. That is pretty rare, at the very least. Foreman was 45 when he won the World title, after ten years away from the ring. Nobody does that. From his Wiki: Quote With this historic victory, Foreman broke three records: He became, at age 45, the oldest fighter ever to win a world championship; 20 years after losing his title for the first time, he broke the record for the fighter with the longest interval between his first and second world championships; and the age spread of 19 years between the champion and challenger was the largest of any heavyweight boxing championship fight.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 2 hours ago, Louch said: Winning the league used to be a thing after teams got promoted, No it didn’t. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 3 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said: No it didn’t. Can only really think of Forest doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 1 minute ago, SuperBacon said: Can only really think of Forest doing it. Ipswich and Everton did too back in the 60s and 30s respectively. So yes, if three times in over 130 years makes it a “Thing” then so be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted December 6, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted December 6, 2022 2 hours ago, Louch said: Winning the league used to be a thing after teams got promoted, Are we comparing Forest winning the title in 78 after going up in 77, to Leicester getting promoted in 2014, nearly going down in 2015, then somehow winning the Premier League in 2016 surrounded by the kind of budgets the usual suspects are able to throw around? I'm not sure the two are comparable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted December 6, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted December 6, 2022 Either way, air_raid made the most important point: it's wrestling. With smart and careful enough booking, you can theoretically make anyone plausible for a title shot. Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal were in 3MB, a comedy jobber stable, lumped in with career jobber Heath Slater. JBL was re-packaged from perennial tag-teamer to a year-long title holder. Eddie Guerrero went from midcard cruiserweight to world champion via young monster Brock Lesnar. And whilst this isn't strictly speaking a direct example, because it's the UK indies, one of the most phenomenal pieces of booking I've ever seen was having constant jobber JC Thunder, who had never won a single match in IPW:UK, be so bullied by the promotion's champion, Andy Boy Simmons, that it made complete and total sense when he finally got his first promotion win and the belt in his feud pay-off match. It's difficult to convey in this post, but it was completely plausible to everybody watching it at the time, it was that well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavemanLynn Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 Dustin doesn't need to win the belt, but I trust him to make the journey and his "chance" something really special. I think it was a promo he did during the pandemic, when he got told he'd earned a TNT title shot. Surprised, overwhelmed, humble and grateful, then building into pure, determined babyface fire. Hell, I'd be happy if they did a version of that, having him announce it's his last year then having low key bangers with a variety of opponents, only to be told one day, "Uh, mate, you keep winning, so you're actually number one in the rankings." Give him an Eliminator, in front of a home crowd, and pay whatever it takes to get a hug off Cody as the streamers fall afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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