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He never would have done it, but there would have been good money in old-man Dusty turning heel against new champ Magnum out of jealousy/envy.

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Magnum was still really young when the accident happened. He had only been working three years when the series with Nikita took place. I saw one of those matches and recently and was surprised at how good it was. Considering how little experience him and Nikita had. 

If he did not get hurt, his potential was limitless. 

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23 hours ago, RefMattyD570 said:

I think Magnum and Flair trade the belt a couple times and it eventually settles with Magnum. Flair then takes off for New York with Arn and Tully and they have a Horseman run there. Since Flair was a face for a good portion of 1989 anyway, Magnum easily gets plugged into those spots, like feuding with Funk. The Steamboat series doesn't happen, but maybe they run Magnum/Luger for a little while instead. Flair comes back with Arn and Tully, wins the belt back from Magnum, and then things progress mostly the same as they actually did moving on to Sting. Magnum then does the upper card gatekeeper thing for the majority of the rest of his career.

Also, Flair in 1988-89 WWF would have been fun. Maybe there's no Megapowers split, and they pick up a third guy to work with Flair, Arn and Tully for a while after the Megabucks angle wraps up. The belt winds up on Flair for sure here, which Hogan then wins back in late 1989 before Flair goes back. 

If Flair bails to WWF during this timeframe, Turner doesn't buy the company. Crockett runs out of money and WCW dies.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Victator said:

Magnum was still really young when the accident happened. He had only been working three years when the series with Nikita took place. I saw one of those matches and recently and was surprised at how good it was. Considering how little experience him and Nikita had. 

If he did not get hurt, his potential was limitless. 

That can't be right, 3 years?

I thought he debuted in 1980 or there abouts... still f that's the case 6 years is insaely short either way

James

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50 minutes ago, J.H. said:

That can't be right, 3 years?

I thought he debuted in 1980 or there abouts... still f that's the case 6 years is insaely short either way

James

I know he was in Mid South in 1983 when he did the angle with Mr.Wrestling #2. Saw a longish match he had with Ted Dibiase from this period and he looked really good. 

I know Cornette said he was really young at the time he was working with the Midnights. I was going to say anyone should improve in that environment. But I remember Sting and Warrior being awful every where they went until they were split up. Sting improved with Eddie Gilbert as his mentor and Warrior figured something out by the time he won the Intercontinental Belt.

Someone should look up the story where they had such a bad match that they got Lawler and Dundee booed out of the Louisville Gardens.

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It's a given Magnum would've got the title late 80s and been bonafide come the early 90s, possibly at the expense of Steamboat or Luger, but more interesting to speculate is how well does he transition into the mid-90s boom? To me everything about him screams 'the eighties' and I always thought he would've struggled to stay relevant 

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7 hours ago, CreativeControl said:

It's a given Magnum would've got the title late 80s and been bonafide come the early 90s, possibly at the expense of Steamboat or Luger, but more interesting to speculate is how well does he transition into the mid-90s boom? To me everything about him screams 'the eighties' and I always thought he would've struggled to stay relevant 

From the interviews I've seen of him, he seems like a fairly intelligent guy. I think he could've found a way to reinvent himself to change with the times. Like someone said before, I could totally see him in the DDP "people's champ/common man fighting against the nWo hordes" role. What's crazy is that he's actually younger than DDP.

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16 hours ago, CreativeControl said:

It's a given Magnum would've got the title late 80s and been bonafide come the early 90s, possibly at the expense of Steamboat or Luger, but more interesting to speculate is how well does he transition into the mid-90s boom? To me everything about him screams 'the eighties' and I always thought he would've struggled to stay relevant 

That was another point I was going to bring up.  No way does a guy who looked like Magnum in the 80s stay on top in the 90s without some kind of image upgrade.  Look at how far Scott Hall fell with a similar Magnum look.  He was a decent star in 85 and 86, but the look was outdated by the time he got to WCW in 1989 and pretty much was a nobody until he changed his look to the Diamond Studd/Razor Ramon persona.

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Well, Hall was also coming (back) to the place they knew Magnum already. I don't remember if he still had his mustache in the Gator Scott Hall 007 promo video.

edit Looks like he did

 

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Now, I'm picturing Magnum doing a time warp gimmick. Keep the mustache and mullet. Dress him like Crockett and Tubbs, a walkman with the new Huey Lewis tape, big chunks of blow under his nostrils. "That 80s Guy" Magnum TA.

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1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Now, I'm picturing Magnum doing a time warp gimmick. Keep the mustache and mullet. Dress him like Crockett and Tubbs, a walkman with the new Huey Lewis tape, big chunks of blow under his nostrils. "That 80s Guy" Magnum TA.

I now expect this to be someone's gimmick in Corgan's NWA.

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80s:

Brian_Pillman_-_Brian_Pillman_26.jpg

90s:

brian_pillman_-_brian_pillman_07.jpg

I can totally see Magnum TA going grunge. He could do the "I was grunge before grunge was cool" promo no hassle.

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Magnum isn't getting the NWA belt long term, JCP/NWA was to grounded in the heel champ being chased story line compared to the face champ fending off the monster of the month that was the WWF. Magnum would win it from Flair then lose it back to him within six months, then he'd go back to the chase or feud with Luger which they could have pulled off without a belt in the mix, then maybe he gets another short run with the belt before moving down the card after Dusty gets fired. Going into 90's WCW I could sadly see him in the York Foundation as M. Terrance Allen or something like that.

As stated above a Magnum vs. heel Dusty angle for the belt would have been huge, plus getting Flair out of the title picture for a year would have been helpful.

I don't see Magnum going to the WWF in the 1988 to 1991 time frame, there really isn't a spot for him. He's not going to get the Savage then Warrior babyface slot right below Hogan, the next level down is Duggan, Roberts and Beefcake and who would he replace there? Duggan and Roberts were faces on total opposite sides of the spectrum so cycling heels between them kept things fresh, Beefcake wasn't going anywhere due to Hogan and he'd sell way more merch to kids compared to Mags. Had he come in sometime in late 1986/early 1987 he could have ended up on the Beefcake/Duggan/Roberts level until he decides to leave, if he hit the gas hard before coming in maybe he gets the #2 babyface spot since he'd be more appealing than ex-con trying to go straight Ken Patera who was on track for it until everyone realized he was 1978 Ken Patera anymore.

 

 

 

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I was watching 1999 WCW months back and seeing Barry Windham bummed me out. He was good in the ring and had a good push, but I look at Sting and Luger and Barry should have been a bigger star at that point. In early 89 he was as big as Luger and bigger than Sting. Then he jumped to the WWF to avoid Jim Herd and got caught up in his families legal troubles and went back to WCW. He got on a hot streak in 93 as NWA champion then got injured losing it to Flair and never recovered. 

I blame Turner buying out Crockett. Reading the Midnight Express record book and looking at the houses drawn. By December 88 things seemed better, but there was a cash flow problem. It seemed like WCW just needed a babysitter to keep order and not spend too much money. 

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4 hours ago, Lacelle said:

If they had Money In The Bank in the 80s & 90s, who could you see winning them? In 85 I could see them having Savage win it. In 94 I could see them have Diesel win it. 

Davey Boy Smith in 95 or 96 to give him another blown title shot perhaps.

I'd have had Owen in 94

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Owen didn't need it, he had the KOTR win and the built in feud with Bret, MITB essentially exists to elevate someone into the main event. Diesel getting the superman push out of nowhere would at least have had some reasoning. 

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Owen could have stolen the title from Bret by using MITB, and then maybe he drags out the rematch until the next WrestleMania, in a stipulation match. This way, Diesel gets a massive run as the IC champion, and then steps up into the world title situation at a more natural progression.

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I spose it depends on what story you want to tell better.

Shawn costing Diesel the MITB by accidentally super kicking him instead of Bret works well, but doesn't really change much from what was a perfectly explained story to begin with.

On the other hand, I'm not sure Owen was really ever a threat to Bret, wins KOTR, has the Anvil help him win MITB, narrowly loses the cage match, but takes advantage of Bret's fighting champion persona and constantly making appearances at ringside etc. Survivor Series probably works better if his parents don't give in and throw in the towel, use the '96 Survivor Series finish a few years early, fluke roll up rebounding off the turnbuckle, Bret narrowly wins a miracle against Backlund....Owen cashes in instead. Then Diesel beats him in 30 seconds instead.

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1 hour ago, Victator said:

I was watching 1999 WCW months back and seeing Barry Windham bummed me out. He was good in the ring and had a good push, but I look at Sting and Luger and Barry should have been a bigger star at that point. In early 89 he was as big as Luger and bigger than Sting. Then he jumped to the WWF to avoid Jim Herd and got caught up in his families legal troubles and went back to WCW. He got on a hot streak in 93 as NWA champion then got injured losing it to Flair and never recovered. 

I blame Turner buying out Crockett. Reading the Midnight Express record book and looking at the houses drawn. By December 88 things seemed better, but there was a cash flow problem. It seemed like WCW just needed a babysitter to keep order and not spend too much money. 

It was buying Florida and moving the offices to Dallas that did it as much as anything. . . .

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7 minutes ago, Kuetsar said:

It was buying Florida and moving the offices to Dallas that did it as much as anything. . . .

That was definitely what caused the cash flow issues, Between that and overestimating the syndication money.

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And the many many private jets.

Barry Windham is probably my all-time favourite, or at least in my top 3, but it's hard to assess his career without thinking of him as his own worst enemy. He could've had it all if he'd had the drive and determination but as Arn Anderson said "If Barry had five grand in his back pocket, a good looking woman on his arm and a sports car to drive he was happy" and hell, you can't argue with that. Add into that a perception of unreliability from promoters he'd walked out on and you start to see he got as big as he could.

Injuries pretty much stalled his career to what it ended up being 95-00 and I think that's the real tragedy as he could've still been a top hand in any company if his knee hadn't blown out the way it did in 93

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