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Wrestlers not fitting in an era...


TerjeRUN

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Man, how is John Cena not the obvious answer to this question? Poop jokes aside, Cena's a 80's Hulk Hogan-esque pure babyface in an era when people have become used to tweener, antihero-ish babyfaces and cool heels. Cena would probably be received a lot better in the 198o's, both from a character standpoint and workrate. I wouldn't necessarily want to see him in 1980's WWE - there would be really small pool of good workers to program him with, and you'd still have Warrior & Hogan at the top of the card to make sure no one new got over too much. If I had to pick, I'd put Cena in early 1990's WCW (1991-1993). Program him with the same group Sting worked and you'd get some great matches/feuds. 2007-ish Cena vs. 1992 Rick Rude would be outstanding

To be fair, 1992 Rude would be outstanding against anybody. . . .
To be fair, 2007 Cena would have been equally outstanding against anyone.
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Buddy Landell is probably a guy who would have had a much better career if it had started 10-15 years earlier. He was a territory star coming into his prime during the death of the territories. Plus he would have had more places to bounce around to when he eventually got himself fired.

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Did he really though? I loved Jack Evans in ROH but I think there's a reason he didn't wrestle too many singles matches and was mostly in either tag matches or multi-man matches. He was (is?) great for ridiculous spots and all that but I don't think he was nearly as well-rounded as a lot of WCW's cruiserweights (in the 96-99 years at least). He probably would have been a better fit in ECW working with guys like Super Crazy, Little Guido, Tajiri and all of them where Evans' spots/stunt ability would have been better used.

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How about everyone's bud, Colt Cabana? I've heard him joke several times that if the Monday Night Wars were still going on WCW would've signed CM Punk's real life best friend to a mid-six figure deal.

 

And sadly, because he's CM Punk's best friend. ;(

 

Boom Boom would have been great as a WWF New Generation guy. Comedy character that's still solid in the ring. I'd totally watch a feud between him and Matt Bourne's Doink.

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By the way, I don't think I've seen anyone mention it, but Brian Pillman always seemed 1 step behind or 2 steps ahead of whatever the current movement was. I think he could have been given the push Sting was given and would have captured as much love as Magnum TA, but at that time he was just a step behind. Later on, he could have essentially stolen the spot Steve Austin secured, but that was a bit ahead of where WCW was at and when he solidified things in ECW, it came at a time where he didn't have the sizable audience and he began his downward spiral after the car accident just before he signed with the WWF. Too bad.

Pillman was like a more talented but less loved Von Erich in WCW. He just had it and was probably the premier underdog wrestler. Jim Ross played a big part in it too as he really knew how to get Brian over.

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Since Ryback never wins any feuds or big matches and basically became this post-Goldberg parody of unbeatable muscle monsters like Warrior and Goldberg a long time ago, wouldn't he have been better off as just some big scary placeholder monster for Hogan or Warrior to fend off in the late '80s/early '90s? Which I guess would've made him a more juiced up Warlord who himself started out as a Road Warrior rip-off.

 

Or better yet he could've been a Russian.

 

He'd essentially have the same role only there would be no need to turn him from total monster into a complete joke overnight. 

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One name, Iceman King Parsons.  I think he would have done better in mid to late-90's than he did in World Class.  Always felt a lack of size held him back in the 80s.

 

I'd assume you'd think that since The Rock openly admitted to stealing some of his schtick for his promos.  The 80s were when smaller guys could get more attention because of the abundance of territories and a spread out of talent.  By the late 90s Parsons would have been at absolute best a short term WCW TV champ.  I thought Iceman was pretty damn big for World Class.  He was probably one of the two or three biggest faces who wasn't a Von Erich during their boom period.

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Even oddball Santino/Kozlov pairing was pretty good. He was actually a pretty good babyface tag worker by the time they let him go. Plus, Santino/Kozlov dance off is still one of my favorite WWE bullshit segments of all time. .

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Kozlov no matter his position came across as the real deal. My favorite bit with him was the tea party with Sheamus, Santino is acting scared and Kozlov does not give a fuck. He had no fear of Sheamus and was daring him to do something. Kozlov got this grin on his face and tipped his hat to him. They had a good TV match the next week, because you believed he could take Sheamus. Down the road they started jobbing him to every one. Leading to him losing to Jinder Mahal which looked like some bullshit,

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