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Old School Observations/Questions Thread 2020-21

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
You answered your own question. They compared him to a baby cause he was bald(ing).
I guess I associate balding with middle age.

1tn4h9.jpg
 

HarleyQuinn

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I can't decide if Tenta would have been better served staying "slim" (he's still in offensive lineman shape here) or if the girth helped get him a push.
Tenta is one of the older looking 24 year olds you'll ever see!
For me, Tenta's girth helped make him standout and squashing Damien is an iconic moment in pro wrestling history that I don't know if kid me would've brought if he was the size of a Jim Duggan instead. It kind of reminds me of Yokozuna (or even Rikishi) in that being slimmer would've helped their career longevity but a large part of their on screen presence & aura was just the sheer size and their ability to move around the ring at that size.

It goes back to the superhero/larger than life aspect that wrestling can bring to its fans.
 

Valeyard

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That Tenta would at best wind up being where Darsow wound up going. That Tenta couldn't kill Hogan and snakes and run roughshod for a year or so. Now if he stays in Japan and plateaus at Gary Albright-size, we'd be talking about his classics with Hansen and Kawada to this day.
 

Valeyard

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Getting lighter, I think DDP/Hogan in '98 would've done big money.
 

Laz

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Agreed. They were already headed that way for the summer anyway, after the nWo split and DDP/Raven ended, so a singles program that worked into the Bash at the Beach and Road Wild celebrity tags would've made Page look great by proxy. And, since Page was friends with Nash AND Bischoff, Hogan's political side would've wanted him to look good so that he could hold onto that main spot even longer.

This also allows Page to be a factor in Goldberg's title win, which could've played well into their Havoc ME. Even just coming out to ringside to keep some of the nWo at bay while Goldberg did his thing would've made the crowd go absolutely nuts.
 

King Kamala

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Idk if they ever had a one on one match weirdly enough. Plenty of interaction in ‘98 but also in ‘99 with the roles reversed when Hulk Hogan was doing the stupid red and yellow comeback and DDP was in the Jersey Triad.

Obviously, WCW hot shotting the belt onto Goldberg and their stupid pursuit of Ultimate Warrior probably prevented us from seeing a big PPV one on one Hollywood Hogan Vs DDP match. There is probably an alternate universe where Hollywood Hogan Vs DDP for the WCW World title main events Halloween Havoc ‘98 and DDP gets the feel good win so Hogan can go off and fi—-hey, what WAS Hogan doing during that stretch at tail end of ‘98? I always thought it was weird he was a no factor at Starrcade ‘98.

I know Bischoff has said a gazillion times that “actually, Conrad, fact of the matter is we never considered Starrcade to be our top show. We always considered Halloween Havoc or SuperBrawl to be our WrestleMania. (Launches into tired rant against Dave Meltzer)” but Starrcade was undoubtedly one of the big 3 or 4 WCW PPVs and it is extremely odd that Hulk missed the show as often as he made it during his run there.

although given all of his Starrcade appearances were colossal stinkers for one reason or another, it is probably best he felt the need to hang out with his family during the holidays.
 

Epic Springs

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Hogan "retired" on the Tonight Show shortly after the Warrior rematch. He wouldn't return until the Fingerpoke of Doom in early '99.
 

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
Hogan was always smart to avoid looking like the lesser than product on a card. Otherwise your Drew McIntryre working 6 matches down the card against *checks notes* Jinder Mahal.
In 95, if they didn't do the New Japan angle, then Hogan would have been facing the Giant or the build to Luger/Sting vs MegaPowers would have actually had a conclusion.
In 98, Hogan had lost the political race to beat Goldberg, so he did the Presidential angle to get as much PR as possible and waited for the Finger Poke of Doom compromise angle. IIRC Nash went to Hogan at Road Wild 98 and told him that Hogan needed to let fresh blood on top of the card. Hogan rubbed his chin and said "That's going to cost me a lot of money, brother." (May have been Road Wild 99, but 98 makes more sense).
Looking at the line up it sure looks like a ton of talent was AWOL from that show, but WCW late 98-until the end is a blur in my head.
After having gotten to watch many Nitros from the beginning, I apparently tapped out in 1998. (Reminder I didn't have cable and took over my neighbor/cousin's living room to watch many weeks.) I think I may have watched the later Monday Night Wars by my brother's so hour 1 of Nitro would have been all I watched before RAW came on. By the time the NWO split into colors and B-teams I just found the booking to be a mess.
 

Valeyard

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I think Hogan and DDP had a clusterfuck on Nitro in '97 but that could be totally wrong. The more I think about it the more I think 1997 could've worked better, just because there was more room to just lose to Hogan and get fucked with by the nWo, period. Could even let that be the catalyst for the Savage feud and do a ton at once.

I know the moment was perfect and it was a defining moment of the original nWo era, but I would easily have bought DDP winning the title in Luger's place and dropping it back in Sturgis.
 
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Laz

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DDP beating Hogan and then dropping it back soon after would've only enhanced his arc moving forward and the programs with Savage, Benoit, Raven, etc. He was already called "the People's Champion" well before the Rock did it for heel heat, and his having been robbed of the belt by nWo shenanigans and then having Hogan duck him constantly would've fed even more into Havoc '98. Comparatively, Luger was just always...there, kinda, sorta. I can't remember a single program he worked in WCW between the World title stuff in '97 and the bullshit with Chuck Palumbo in 2000.
 

King Kamala

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You don't remember Lex Luger being the lamest member of nWo Wolfpac, Team Package or Totally Buff?

Rewatching a lot of later WCW cause I'm a masochist in past few years and honestly and this is a hot take but I feel like dorky Wolfpac run aside, I think Luger is one of the only consistently entertaining old dogs after '98. Albeit maybe for unintentional reasons. I'm genuinely moderately amused and entertained by him. Idk if even NASH was in more "I'm just here for the paychecks" mode than Luger in the '99-'01 era. In the last two years of WCW, you take whatever entertainment you can get, even if it's the "so bad it's good" variety.
 

Valeyard

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Luger deserved a thank you run somewhere in there. He was the biggest catalyst to the whole Monday Night War. He could be on cruise control and just get a short run in the darkest of days, but he earned it. Just a quick run during the Summer Of Suck in '99.

I also feel like mentioning DDP and Hogan would've probably clicked really well. Submitting to the rack was huge, but I wonder how big that pop would be with him taking a Diamond Cutter.
 

King Kamala

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Idk if Hogan would have even known how to sell a Diamond Cutter tbh.

Vintage Kamala humblebrag but I interacted with '00s ROH great Erick Stevens on Twitter when he was praising Luger and I basically said that the only reason people really think Luger sucks is based on the mostly crappy WWF run and him being the lamest member of nWo Wolfpac. It's also probably cause Luger was one of the only guys in wrestling history who was transparently not a huge fan before getting into the business.
 

alkeiper

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Crazy little tidbit from the Way of the Blade podcast. The Flair/DiBiase Mid South match (Dibiase’s face turn) ended up being the last match ever between the two.
 

Hawk 34

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Crazy little tidbit from the Way of the Blade podcast. The Flair/DiBiase Mid South match (Dibiase’s face turn) ended up being the last match ever between the two.
Not that I need an excuse to revisit the 93 rumble but I’m certain they didn’t even interact together while they were both entered.
 

King Kamala

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It seemed like there'd have been more Flair/DiBiase interaction in Naitch's WWF run but I think them being on the same team at Survivor Series '91 was it.

In fact, I really think Flair's arrival really correlated with DiBiase being shifted into a tag/undercard role.
 

Valeyard

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tl'dr Flair was better at the gimmick than Dibiase

Dibiase had spent the last couple years with Dusty and Virgil, as midcard as it gets. Flair just comes in and takes over.

My feeling has always been of Dibiase being totally exposed as a character when Flair came in. Dibiase was this evil cartoon character who had millions of dollars, somewhere between Gordon Gekko and Yosemite Sam, the perfect foil for the time. He was fucking awesome but he was very sports entertainment, and had a shelf-life as a top guy.

Flair shows up, and he's literally everything Dibiase wasn't. Private jets, women, having Perfect and Heenan as financial partners/employees, vignettes in bars, his own instantly credible belt vs the Million Dollar vanity belt...Flair was just a more realistic version of Dibiase, someone who lived and acted like a million dollars and had shoes that cost more than Dibiase's house. To me, both as a kid and as an adult, Flair usurped Dibiase almost immediately in every way possible and felt like a real scumbag vs a very entertaining but very goofy character (for the time, at any rate) doing almost the same gimmick.
 

King Kamala

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DiBiase was also going through his substance abuse/personal life issues in early '92 right as Ric Flair was peaking in WWF.

In retrospect, they probably should have either written off DiBiase after the Virgil feud or somehow turned him babyface for the last year or two of his run. After his servant got fed up with his shit and went 50/50 with him in a feud, there's really nowhere you could go but down (or into tag team wrestling) with the MDM character. I always say LOD and Money Inc ruined tag team wrestling. I'm not sure who fills that void in '92 WWF if Money Inc doesn't exist but I do not care.
 

Valeyard

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Money Inc. caused way less harm than the booking of LOD, the Nasties, and the Natural Disasters. LOD were just destroyed personally and professionally despite always being the top team. Nasties are the Nasties, and I think they could've gotten more out of their face run. Disasters should never have turned face or won the belts, just make them fat tweeners.

The Steiners did more harm than good, maybe. No one was on their level when they arrived and everyone knew it. Maybe the Headshrinkers. But you couldn't build up any credible teams, especially face teams, while they were on top. Like the Smoking Gunns got over by sheer force of will and because the Steiners left.
 

snuffbox

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Yeah, Steiners had heel teams to work with (Money Inc, Headshrinkers, Heavenly Bodies, Beverlys) but the face bench was mostly empty behind them. The booking for tag teams was getting dumb in 1990 when they immediately began misusing the Road Warriors. It wasn't so glaring when they still had enough good teams to cover it up. By 92/93 the bad writing was just making a weak division look even worse.
 

strummer

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The heels not being able to take the Steiners offense was also a real problem. The Beverlys could. (Enos and Bloom worked as masked jobbers against them in squashes) Shrinkers could. Ted and IRS really couldn't at this point in their careers.. That's why they had to bring in the Bodies. And PCO could take the bumps for the Quebecers
 
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