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As someone who was in his teenage years when the Goldberg streak was going on, at least in my circle of friends Nash pretty much seemed to be the right choice.  Was never WCW champion, was big enough and protected enough to seem like a legit threat to him, he fit most of the criteria that made sense to us.

More importantly, and I can't say if this was just us or was something beyond that... but by that point we were rooting for Goldberg to lose.  We still liked him but at some point just before this (it may have been because of the DDP match actually) we shifted on cheering on this conquering indestructible hero to hoping for someone to do the impossible.  That's why I think those saying "he should have just not lost" are a bit mistaken, or blinded by how utterly stupid the aftermath to all this was.  He was only champ for so many months, but the streak had gone on for ages at a time when everything was moving in fast-forward.  I'm not saying he had to drop it on that show, but I wonder if he held it even six more months if we'd be looking back and criticizing them for not taking the belt off him until too late.

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32 minutes ago, username said:

As someone who was in his teenage years when the Goldberg streak was going on, at least in my circle of friends Nash pretty much seemed to be the right choice.  Was never WCW champion, was big enough and protected enough to seem like a legit threat to him, he fit most of the criteria that made sense to us.

More importantly, and I can't say if this was just us or was something beyond that... but by that point we were rooting for Goldberg to lose.  We still liked him but at some point just before this (it may have been because of the DDP match actually) we shifted on cheering on this conquering indestructible hero to hoping for someone to do the impossible.  That's why I think those saying "he should have just not lost" are a bit mistaken, or blinded by how utterly stupid the aftermath to all this was.  He was only champ for so many months, but the streak had gone on for ages at a time when everything was moving in fast-forward.  I'm not saying he had to drop it on that show, but I wonder if he held it even six more months if we'd be looking back and criticizing them for not taking the belt off him until too late.

"How utterly stupid the aftermath to all of this was" lasted for quite a while. The aftermath of course being the trajectory of the World Title for the rest of WCW's existence. Sure, they did the occasional interesting thing like giving Booker T his first reign out of nowhere but mostly it was an endless confusing mess. Man, I liked DDP but I just can't see him being the guy to end the streak. I guess Bret Hart should've been the one to finally end the streak via some form of dickery and then continue outsmarting Goldberg in subsequent rematches.

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I get the talking point that Goldberg was getting booed out the building at the time, so, why not turn him heel with streak in tact, and if there was such investment in Nash being the guy to do it, have him chase him a bit more as the face, rather than bringing back the NWO as a heel unit. 

Konnan was very over at the time, let Goldberg run through him and destroy him too. Maybe put Sting on the shelf so he can go film Shutterspeed. Run through Luger. 

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If WCW stayed dedicated to the nWo Elite it could have worked. They lost focus so fast and most of their energy went into killing Flair off. 

I don't think Bigelow would have been a bad choice with the build up they gave him. Or hell, have Flair do it, he was still the most over act they had. 

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IIRC, Dave Meltzer said the plan was to give Benoit a long run with the belt.  You'd think Punk would have been the one chasing him for the belt.  Not sure what happens to Morrison in that scenario. 

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On 6/29/2017 at 7:37 AM, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

FWIW, losing streaks are also a bad idea, imo.  How many guys have gotten over doing a losing streak gimmick?

Tomoaki Honma and Kenta Kobashi.

 

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27 minutes ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

IIRC, Dave Meltzer said the plan was to give Benoit a long run with the belt.  You'd think Punk would have been the one chasing him for the belt.  Not sure what happens to Morrison in that scenario. 

You're not alone, I'm sure WWE had no idea what happens to Morrison, either.  His gimmick change was so abrupt and out of left field, it's pretty obvious it was unplanned.

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4 hours ago, RolandTHTG said:

Thing that makes me uncertain is that they'd just done a similar scenario with MVP chasing Benoit, and it was booked really well (getting destroyed first match, narrowly coming up on the losing end, and then 2/3 falls countering everything and winning decisively).

 

I think that you may be giving WWE far more credit for originality than they deserve. I think Vince is of the mindset that if an angle works with X & Y, then let's immediately do it over with A & B, then we can switch things up and have C & D do the same thing! It's money in the bank!!!

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Speaking of Benoit, he was going to wrestle Psicosis in a 15 minute match on WCW Thunder in 1998 but Buff Bagwell's neck injury prevented it from happening. How good do you think Benoit/Psicosis that year could have been?

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9 hours ago, Brandon-E said:

Speaking of Benoit, he was going to wrestle Psicosis in a 15 minute match on WCW Thunder in 1998 but Buff Bagwell's neck injury prevented it from happening. How good do you think Benoit/Psicosis that year could have been?

C'mon man, '98 Psic and Benoit for 15 minutes? Anything less than **** would have been a horrible disappointment. Benoit could adapt to the lucha style very easily and Psicosis was far more than just a luchadore in '98, he could go to the ground and be as hard-hitting as Chris. Would have likely been a keeper in my permanent collection.

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14 minutes ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

What did Buff's injury have to do with the match?

I assume the match got cancelled because the EMTs were in the ring with Buff.

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I suppose that rolling Buffy out of the ring and leaving him to flop around on the floor wouldn't have been the most humane of things, but we would have got Benoit/Psicosis... Values, values, it's always values...

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14 hours ago, OSJ said:

I think that you may be giving WWE far more credit for originality than they deserve. I think Vince is of the mindset that if an angle works with X & Y, then let's immediately do it over with A & B, then we can switch things up and have C & D do the same thing! It's money in the bank!!!

This is a company that has not changed its TV format in 20 years. 

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6 hours ago, OSJ said:

I suppose that rolling Buffy out of the ring and leaving him to flop around on the floor wouldn't have been the most humane of things, but we would have got Benoit/Psicosis... Values, values, it's always values...

The ring crew would have packed Buff up with them at the end of the night...maybe.

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DDP should've beaten Goldberg at Havoc. DDP gives Goldberg the cutter from the "jackhammer", Goldberg kicks out at two. DDP goes for another, Goldberg pushes him into the ropes for a spear, DDP gives him a second cutter from an attempted spear. 1-2-3. Goldberg wins the rematch decisively.

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Here's something to chew on: what if Vince had turned Hogan heel?  I'm not really a mark for Hogan, but I love the Hollywood heel turn and give Hogan his props for throwing himself into it so completely.  I think I'd mark for a 90's WWE heel turn, either at WrestleMania IX or slot Hogan into Sgl. Slaughter's heel Iraqi sympathizer character.

Either scenario could have been huge.  I kinda like the visual of Hogan running out during the Yokozuna-Bret match, costing Bret the match (instead of the Fuji interference) them hoisting the Japanese flag.  That could have been huge.

It could also work with Hogan in the Slaughter role aligning with one of his greatest enemies (Iron Sheik) and turning on the USA.  Not really sure I'd like this as much.  Slaughter's over-the-top antics and his great heel sneer are one of my favorite things from early 90's wWF.

If Hogan had turned heel in WWF, does it go over as well as Hollywood Hogan did five years later?  What happens to WCW if he does go heel?  Does he even go to WCW?  Does the nWo angle get over as well or does it seem like a retread of what Vince had done with Hogan?  Is Hogan even the surprise at Bash at the Beach or does that end up being Sting?

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